Hello Pilgrims, just wanted to say congratulations on your promotion, long time coming and fully justified given the size of the club. I live down here (well Cornwall) nowadays but I've always had a soft spot for Argyle, not least because I've spent 2 decades traversing the length of the country following the O's pretty much every away game so I know the distances you guys cover following the greens, and in great numbers too - a credit to the lower leagues.
I was going to say how miffed I am to be losing the only 'local' away game I had left but of course we'll be in the national league next season, if we still exist at all, which seems unlikely at this moment.
I read this forum sometimes and most on here seem pragmatic about the club given where it was a few years ago, but what i will say is be VERY grateful for what you have in terms of your chairman and the stability he's brought. Our chairman has completely dismantled the club in under 3 years to the point where we don't even have any paid non-playing staff left. No one has been paid in months, the team is full of academy players (which has closed now anyway) and the fans have been going round the big London Prem clubs on matchdays with buckets, trying to collect money to stave off winding up etc. Its a sad, sorry state. In May 2014 I was at Wembley where we were one pen kick away from the Championship, now we'll be non league at best next season. As always its the fans who suffer (and the staff who are now doing it for love) while another lunatic chairman buys a football club as a plaything, runs amok, gets fed up when he cannot buy success, then loses interest and just lets it fall apart....we've watched it happen to to other clubs and now its us!!!
Orient always been in the shadow of Spurs, Arse and Wet Sham etc, and anyone who's chosen to support the O's hasn't done it for the glory. In my 30 odd yeas we've always bumped along the bottom, had the odd cup run and managed just 2 promotions from L2 in that time, hardly the stuff of dreams...and yet the club matters so much to those who follow it - as yours does to you guys. The shared collective experience (often only spoilt by the crap football) means far more to us than what the Prem offers, or of football just being a TV show as it is for many. But now it has crumbled. It took years under the last regime to get the club solvent and fighting to progress upwards and we nearly got there, but the chairman couldn't take us and further and sold us to a loony - a shocking state which sees people in tears on matchdays now. Yes its only a game, but of course its much more than that....
So, enjoy your deserved promotion and be glad you have stability. Having watched the O's stay in L1 for 10 seasons what I will say is there is a big step up, be in no doubt about that. L2 is dreadful but there's real quality in L1, its quicker, the strikers take their chances and the defences are more organised. Argyle will need the players to compete and thrive, but of course your club will hopefully do it the right way and not leave you in the sorry mess that we are currently in.
Anyway thats enough from me, good luck and enjoy your moment.
Cheers
I was going to say how miffed I am to be losing the only 'local' away game I had left but of course we'll be in the national league next season, if we still exist at all, which seems unlikely at this moment.
I read this forum sometimes and most on here seem pragmatic about the club given where it was a few years ago, but what i will say is be VERY grateful for what you have in terms of your chairman and the stability he's brought. Our chairman has completely dismantled the club in under 3 years to the point where we don't even have any paid non-playing staff left. No one has been paid in months, the team is full of academy players (which has closed now anyway) and the fans have been going round the big London Prem clubs on matchdays with buckets, trying to collect money to stave off winding up etc. Its a sad, sorry state. In May 2014 I was at Wembley where we were one pen kick away from the Championship, now we'll be non league at best next season. As always its the fans who suffer (and the staff who are now doing it for love) while another lunatic chairman buys a football club as a plaything, runs amok, gets fed up when he cannot buy success, then loses interest and just lets it fall apart....we've watched it happen to to other clubs and now its us!!!
Orient always been in the shadow of Spurs, Arse and Wet Sham etc, and anyone who's chosen to support the O's hasn't done it for the glory. In my 30 odd yeas we've always bumped along the bottom, had the odd cup run and managed just 2 promotions from L2 in that time, hardly the stuff of dreams...and yet the club matters so much to those who follow it - as yours does to you guys. The shared collective experience (often only spoilt by the crap football) means far more to us than what the Prem offers, or of football just being a TV show as it is for many. But now it has crumbled. It took years under the last regime to get the club solvent and fighting to progress upwards and we nearly got there, but the chairman couldn't take us and further and sold us to a loony - a shocking state which sees people in tears on matchdays now. Yes its only a game, but of course its much more than that....
So, enjoy your deserved promotion and be glad you have stability. Having watched the O's stay in L1 for 10 seasons what I will say is there is a big step up, be in no doubt about that. L2 is dreadful but there's real quality in L1, its quicker, the strikers take their chances and the defences are more organised. Argyle will need the players to compete and thrive, but of course your club will hopefully do it the right way and not leave you in the sorry mess that we are currently in.
Anyway thats enough from me, good luck and enjoy your moment.
Cheers