Robin wrote:I don't expect to get anything from those away games but no doubt people will want Gary sacked at that point.
What about the home games?? Do you expect to get anything from those? After Port Vale next week we play the top three sides in four games and we haven't won at home for two months.
Our only win in eight games came against a side who self-destructed after having a player sent off and the manager still doesn't have a consistent team or system after bringing loans from here there and everywhere.
So, if you don' expect to get anything from away games and we're not winning home games how can anyone be confident we won't go down??
Changing the manager now would achieve little. But in my opinion it should happen in the summer.
No-one can yet say we're definitely not going down. Only those clubs that are mathematically safe can say that.
But at this point, we're less likely to go down than Barnet, Chesterfield, Fluorescent Green, Crewe and a handful of other clubs. So I'm more confident than not of being in League 2 next season, but that might change. I don't think it will though. I say that because Goal Difference is usually a good indicator of trouble or not. On that basis, I'd say its Barnet, and one from Chesterfield, Crewe and FGR.
We're dreadfully inconsistent, and have a surfeit of centre backs and centre mids. 3-5-2 is about the only way to accommodate our better players. Nige, Winnie and Morrell look our best midfield combination at the moment, and I think some of our troubles stem from trying to shoe-horn Pell in somewhere, usually at the expense of Nige or a striker.
drgm wrote:By their own admission RCS and Ben2 don't go to more than a dozen games all season yet they are more
than ready to lower expectations at the first opportunity
Maybe if they went to more games they might have a different view.
Some even want to give Gary an extended deal 'if he does well next season'!
I will always be grateful for what Gary achieved in getting us back into the league at the first attempt.
I'm sure PB feels the same way and who can blame him. I cant help feeling that Gary has lost his way and I think we
should review the situation at the end of the season. The club is just stagnating
I think it does matter where you finish in the table. It's easier to recruit new players and hang on to your
good ones if you appear to be a club that's going places. It will be interesting to see if Carl Winchester signs
on the dotted line.
Lowering expectations? What are you on about?
My expectations were play offs. Even up to Christmas when people were getting down I was expecting a good run and a play off challenge, and was criticised for having too high expectations!! Now that play offs are out of reach, I have already stated that next season I expect play offs. And in another thread I said Gary has to get play offs next season or has failed and needs to go.
So, please tell me how the heck you think I am lowering expectations if you are going to accuse me of such.
Robin wrote:I'm not happy with 16th in league and our current form is dire but some of the hysteria is ridiculous right now. We aren't going up and we aren't going down, our run of poor form will turn at some point but I doubt it will turn enough for us to sneak in to the top half, in fact if I had to predict we look nailed on to finish 15th-18th right now.
A big improvement needed next season, top half minimum in my view if Gary is to earn an extended deal.
drgm wrote:By their own admission RCS and Ben2 don't go to more than a dozen games all season yet they are more
than ready to lower expectations at the first opportunity
Maybe if they went to more games they might have a different view.
Some even want to give Gary an extended deal 'if he does well next season'!
I will always be grateful for what Gary achieved in getting us back into the league at the first attempt.
I'm sure PB feels the same way and who can blame him. I cant help feeling that Gary has lost his way and I think we
should review the situation at the end of the season. The club is just stagnating
I think it does matter where you finish in the table. It's easier to recruit new players and hang on to your
good ones if you appear to be a club that's going places. It will be interesting to see if Carl Winchester signs
on the dotted line.
Since getting back into the league we have been very poor,how long does it take to adjust to proper full-time football ?
In response to RCS
'Re: ambition. At this stage of a mid table season there is nothing to be ambitious about. Now that play offs are too far away to reach, I personally don’t see any difference between finishing 11th, 16th or 20th. Just waiting for this boring season to end when my ambition will be for promotion next season.
I don’t think getting worked up because the manager isn’t desperate to finish a couple of meaningless places higher is a sign of being ambitious'
I think it really matters about finishing as high as you can. It helps player recruitment and retention. The club looks like it's going somewhere. To me it shows a lack of ambition if you are satisfied with 20th place. How do you sell the club to a potential player when you can't offer megabucks?
I don't want Gary sacked but I think we need to review things at the end of the season. We must all have lowered expectations if we really think we couldn't attract a manager who could do better than Gary!
vickeryc wrote:Anyone who seriously thinks that sacking the manager over the next month will improve things is deluded.
Fully agree but there do seem to be 2-3 people who think it's the right idea, presumably we will bring in Pep or Conte to replace him.
It was Conte who started the trend of playing attackers at wing back (Victor Moses) in Chelsea’s title winning season and Pep doesn’t know is settled best eleven, so no thanks.
Klopp can’t organise a defence, Mourinho plays too boringly to bring value to 92 away fans, Pochettino is under achieving with his squad, and Wenger’s summer transfer policies are poor always leaving the squad unbalanced and need of repair in January. Dyche too one dimensional and long ball and always loses form in the second half of the season.
Maybe Puel is the best option? But then he doesn’t look at the camera and looks shifty in interviews, which we all know is grounds for sacking in the eyes of some.
Alf wrote:A point away from home I’m happy about. What would make me more happy would be three points at home. It was only a few seasons ago we looked safe and people were saying we wouldn’t go down but teams below us got their arses in gear and we didn’t and down we went. We don’t have a divine immunity from relegation. I don’t think we’ll go down and I don’t want a new manager but a bit of an improvement sooner rather than later would be good.
Did we look safe, we were heading for relegation under Yates and I think a lot of people could see it, we then made an atrocious appointment which only compounded things, I don't think there was a single point of that season I thought we would be safe but I always held hope we would get out of it.
In contrast there hasn't been a single point this season where I've felt we could realistically go down. Of course that doesn't mean things are good because we are underachieving, with inconsistent team selection and it's hugely frustrating.
drgm wrote:In response to RCS
'Re: ambition. At this stage of a mid table season there is nothing to be ambitious about. Now that play offs are too far away to reach, I personally don’t see any difference between finishing 11th, 16th or 20th. Just waiting for this boring season to end when my ambition will be for promotion next season.
I don’t think getting worked up because the manager isn’t desperate to finish a couple of meaningless places higher is a sign of being ambitious'
I think it really matters about finishing as high as you can. It helps player recruitment and retention. The club looks like it's going somewhere. To me it shows a lack of ambition if you are satisfied with 20th place. How do you sell the club to a potential player when you can't offer megabucks?
I don't want Gary sacked but I think we need to review things at the end of the season. We must all have lowered expectations if we really think we couldn't attract a manager who could do better than Gary!
GJ has a great track record of getting clubs promoted, I do believe he can get us back into league one even at this point. Both Ward and SC took three seasons to build a team to get us promoted so we should give Gary the same timeframe. If we don't kick on next season then I fully agree we should look elsewhere but 16th in league two should not be a sackable offence mid-way through a season when you have a midtable budget and battled relegation the season before.
Back in the summer the moaners were convinced we would battle relegation now we've been in mid-table most of the season they predict a bad run of form could see us end up in a relegation battle I suspect these posters have a generally positive life away from football.
drgm wrote:In response to RCS
'Re: ambition. At this stage of a mid table season there is nothing to be ambitious about. Now that play offs are too far away to reach, I personally don’t see any difference between finishing 11th, 16th or 20th. Just waiting for this boring season to end when my ambition will be for promotion next season.
I don’t think getting worked up because the manager isn’t desperate to finish a couple of meaningless places higher is a sign of being ambitious'
I think it really matters about finishing as high as you can. It helps player recruitment and retention. The club looks like it's going somewhere. To me it shows a lack of ambition if you are satisfied with 20th place. How do you sell the club to a potential player when you can't offer megabucks?
I don't want Gary sacked but I think we need to review things at the end of the season. We must all have lowered expectations if we really think we couldn't attract a manager who could do better than Gary!
If Gary walks or is sacked we may well get better. You never know who else is better if you never try. So I am not against him going. If he walks then he goes with my backing and if he is sacked then I will support the bored. But for me personally I don’t think there is grounds for sacking yet so I am in favour of him staying in charge.
As mentioned elsewhere, Yates and Ward both got to playoffs in their second full season in League Two after a relegation from L1. Cotterill in his third full season after a promotion. So I personally think next season is the decider for Gary, if he matches Cotterill then great, if not then time for change. We have to be competing for play offs next season.
I don’t think it is simple enough that if we finish 13th we will attract better players than if we come 18th.
Look at Yates: after two seasons coming 22nd and 17th we attracted Pack, Summerfield, Penn, Sido, Garbutt, Butland, Mohammed, and Duffy. Then after two seasons of 5th and 6th we attracted CBB, Richards, Taylor, etc. So the idea that a low finish attracts bad players and a high finish attracts good players is demonstrably flawed and too simplistic of fans too think football is as easy and black and white as that.
Re: looking safe. We never looked safe in the relegation season. Yates was sacked after a run of 12 games with 2 wins, 2 draws and 8 defeats and we were dropping like a stone to inevitable relegation. Completely different to this season where we are consistently picking up enough points to stay in the 13th-17th group and without any such awful runs.
The thing with Yates also was that prior to the season he was sacked didn't we have a season just like this one? We sacked Howarth after that and kept Yates, started with a few fluke results but generally looked terrible, the team had no effort in it unlike this one.
drgm wrote:In response to RCS
'Re: ambition. At this stage of a mid table season there is nothing to be ambitious about. Now that play offs are too far away to reach, I personally don’t see any difference between finishing 11th, 16th or 20th. Just waiting for this boring season to end when my ambition will be for promotion next season.
I don’t think getting worked up because the manager isn’t desperate to finish a couple of meaningless places higher is a sign of being ambitious'
I think it really matters about finishing as high as you can. It helps player recruitment and retention. The club looks like it's going somewhere. To me it shows a lack of ambition if you are satisfied with 20th place. How do you sell the club to a potential player when you can't offer megabucks?
I don't want Gary sacked but I think we need to review things at the end of the season. We must all have lowered expectations if we really think we couldn't attract a manager who could do better than Gary!
GJ has a great track record of getting clubs promoted, I do believe he can get us back into league one even at this point. Both Ward and SC took three seasons to build a team to get us promoted so we should give Gary the same timeframe. If we don't kick on next season then I fully agree we should look elsewhere but 16th in league two should not be a sackable offence mid-way through a season when you have a midtable budget and battled relegation the season before.
Back in the summer the moaners were convinced we would battle relegation now we've been in mid-table most of the season they predict a bad run of form could see us end up in a relegation battle I suspect these posters have a generally positive life away from football.
I'd agree with that. If someone had said before the game, would you take 1-1? Of course you would
drgm wrote:In response to RCS
'Re: ambition. At this stage of a mid table season there is nothing to be ambitious about. Now that play offs are too far away to reach, I personally don’t see any difference between finishing 11th, 16th or 20th. Just waiting for this boring season to end when my ambition will be for promotion next season.
I don’t think getting worked up because the manager isn’t desperate to finish a couple of meaningless places higher is a sign of being ambitious'
I think it really matters about finishing as high as you can. It helps player recruitment and retention. The club looks like it's going somewhere. To me it shows a lack of ambition if you are satisfied with 20th place. How do you sell the club to a potential player when you can't offer megabucks?
I don't want Gary sacked but I think we need to review things at the end of the season. We must all have lowered expectations if we really think we couldn't attract a manager who could do better than Gary!
GJ has a great track record of getting clubs promoted, I do believe he can get us back into league one even at this point. Both Ward and SC took three seasons to build a team to get us promoted so we should give Gary the same timeframe. If we don't kick on next season then I fully agree we should look elsewhere but 16th in league two should not be a sackable offence mid-way through a season when you have a midtable budget and battled relegation the season before.
Back in the summer the moaners were convinced we would battle relegation now we've been in mid-table most of the season they predict a bad run of form could see us end up in a relegation battle I suspect these posters have a generally positive life away from football.
I'd agree with that. If someone had said before the game, would you take 1-1? Of course you would
We've had two matches of a three-game streak against the three teams bottom of the form table. We've yet to win either. If we don't beat Port Vale - given the fixtures coming up - we could easily be in real trouble come the end of March. Forest Green, Chesterfield and Yeovil have all won two of their last four games. That doesn't mean they'll continue on that trend but there's no doubt they are closing on us.
If we're happy taking a point at the struggling teams and don't expect anything against the top sides how are we not in trouble??
Form tables are temporary. Poor form has to end at some point as does good form. Otherwise you might as well end the season after ten games and say the form table shows how the remaining 36 results will go.
Barnet was atrocious. Before the match I said if we lost then Gary must be sacked. I expect and demand home wins against any team, even the top sides like Wycombe. And as we are draw specialists at the moment I am expecting us to compete and get points at the likes of Lincoln.
You can demand all you want RCS but this is football
Unless you know what is going on then dont demand anything
Just support your team
I can demand that you stop posting wind ups on here but it will not stop you
51/84 wrote:You can demand all you want RCS but this is football
Unless you know what is going on then dont demand anything
Just support your team
I can demand that you stop posting wind ups on here but it will not stop you
Can I just say that,but for an error not even a schoolboy would make we would have claimed all three points. No manager can legislate for mistakes like those, but that would not suit the thoughts of a lot of people on here.
Also, had Grimes made that mistake he would have been crucified on here, well it was Graham folks.
51/84 wrote:Try and think a bit more before banding around words like demand! only quoting a regular poster on another thread RCS
Perfect normal behaviour to demand things. Supply and demand underpins our very economy and every business in the country. If I didn’t demand home wins, I would purchase a home ticket.
