The beginning of the last 2 seasons have been exciting and full of high hopes but I am struggling to find those feelings for the coming season.
Did you really have high hopes 2 years ago? At that time, we were all just pleased that the club had survived (on and off the pitch), and whilst we all hoped for a good season (doesn't every supporter, every season?), did we really have particularly great expectations?
We had just avoided relegation the previous season, and had new managers had come in who we didn't know and who had only just started out in management. They promptly released virtually the whole squad and assembled a new squad of players we didn't know anything about, other than that a lot of them had Ilkeston and/or Rotherham connections. One of our new signings (Church) was suspended for the first few games of the season, so had we signed someone who would be suspended for half the season? Another new signing was an unproven defender (Pearson) - everyone said good things about him but if he was that good why was he only playing for Stamford? Those two unknowns became our most important players for two years - why shouldn't some of the players we sign in the next few weeks be the same? (and remember Church was a last minute signing right at the start of the season)
Now we have another new management team. They haven't released a load of players because unlike S&H they inherited a decent team - although some important players have left, we still have a good starting point to put a decent squad together. The new managers will sign players they know, so we may see some old players coming back and some players who have maybe not made it at Forest or County but might stand out at this level.
Until we know the full make-up of the squad, it's difficult to know how optimistic to be about this season. At the moment, I'm looking forward to the next few weeks to find out who we will be signing.
I don't worry about pre-season matches, but will be looking forward to the first league game of the season just as much as ever.