Tombwfc

Evatt had the benefit (challenge?) of a low base and a new ownership group in charge. But he also had a promotion and a realistic argument for upwards progression for a few years - the Trafford/Bradley Papa Johns year was a genuinely fun season. Even if you could say we should've been far closer to promotion with £50m worth of talent in the team. As soon as we lost to Oxford that ended and obviously things went sour quickly after that. SS now just has the reality of what it's like managing a L1 club that expects not to be in this division. His treatment is no different to how Parky was viewed and no different to what the managers of Luton and Huddersfield get.

Quite the run of form their on. Lost four of their last six with the only wins being at home against 10 man Wigan and Port Vale. But if they win their games in hand they'll be third. Daft league.

I believe we've now scored 11 after 80mins. Handy trait to have. I don't think we were ever going to look great tonight, missing our two best players. Cracks are obviously enormous, but at least papering over them for the time being gives us a chance at sorting ourselves out. Keeps us a healthy distance from 7th too. Going to need to find some gems in the market this week though.

Probably about time to take Lincoln seriously I reckon.

I'm not against playing three at the back, but I do think there's a bit of correlation not always = causation with the formation talk. I didn't see the Stevenage game, but broadly we've looked the same team to me regardless of formation. We didn't give up (m)any chances yesterday until they scored. The keeper has jumped out of the way of one at Wigan and there was a fairly random handball yesterday, otherwise both of those games were heading towards being draws. We were due some luck after some of the games early in the season, but I'm not sure it was much to do with the formation or anything to rely on moving forward. It's players over system for me and the defence hasn't conceded many goals all season in whatever combination. We need to make sure we have our limited number of goal scorers/creators on the pitch. Parky's team had 15 goals from central defenders which we don't.

It's the total lack of self awareness in appointing yourself the arbiter of what is a 'balanced' viewpoint which is a bit painful. Nobody who's read this board for any length of time would consider that you have a balanced opinion. In the last 12 months, you were pitching us as being there or thereabouts under Evatt until the very end, the team nobody wanted to play in the playoffs until we ended up not being in them at all and now it's much of the same in our current situation. It's not balanced because it's the same thing all the time and it's been wrong more than right (sadly) but that's totally fine. You have an opinion and believe in it and it's no better, worse and certainly not more 'balanced' than anyone elses. I've been on this board for a (frighteningly) long time. It's skewed negative in the last couple of years, but then so have our results vs expectation. Overall I'd be happy enough that none of it is moaning for the sake of it and usually there's a reasonably thought out point in there. Others are free to disagree.

Glad you're back and hope all is well, but starting a new thread to write an essay on your self-proclaimed 'balanced perspective'? It's a bit 'posters absorbed in their own pontificating'.

I think the rest of my post was making a similar point. Good teams finding a way to win is a bit of a football cliche. And any time we win while playing shite someone will compare us to Wrexham/Derby (who I doubt were actually that shit that often to get 92 points) as though that's an inevitable destiny. Realistically, if a team looks like a mediocre mid table/lower playoff type outfit then 99% of the time it's because that's what they are. The only thing you can say for this group is that we do score a lot of late goals though.

There's a real 'what have the Romans ever done for us' about the growing idea that we'd be better off without Duberry (and to a lesser extent, Gale). 10 goals and 10 assists between them, with Gale missing a big chunk through injury. Without them we're one paced and carry literally zero goal threat (outside of corners hitting defenders on the hand).

I know transfers are a mystery box and can go either way, but really we've seen enough with Morley. If he was going to become a serious player for us at this level he'd have done it in his 100+ appearances. We're just cycling around people who haven't been in the team much, expecting them to come back in as difference makers. It was Randall, then McAtee today, now it might move on to Morley. These players are who they are. If shifting them on can bring somebody new in then we shouldn't think twice.

Sign of a good team is to win when not playing well. Wrexham, Derby, whatever (these teams both got 92 points, they're Barcelona '08 compared to the shite in the league this year). Sign of a bad team is to not play well even when you win. My strong guess is that the side as it stands is not a winning machine who are going to grind out results for months on end. I think they're pretty spent and lacking totally in ideas. However, the hope has to be that results like today keep us in touch before the cavalry comes in the next week.

And presumably they all would consider themselves capable of playing higher than L1 at some point in their careers. Not many small clubs with no expectations in the leagues above.

And these are largely all players nobody has seen too much of anyway. I don't think it's idiotic that a fan was excited about signing Kenny when he was highly rated and heavily touted as our top target. If in actual fact he's shite, so what? People are wrong all the time when judging players off what little we know about them. You'd think Xavi Simons would be forcing his way into Tuchel's plans the way folk talked about him early in the season. Similarly, we need a striker and so I'd be excited if we signed Sam Nombe. But I've never watched him play so he could easily be shite.

Of course we would all take having the perfect squad from Feb onwards, if we could guarantee that. I'm just saying there's a balance when 17% of the season is played this month. And so it isn't just a case of if we sign someone on Jan 31st then alls well that ends well. It'll be one of many decisions to look back on as the season goes on.

I'm sure it's not for the want of trying, but It's not quite as simple as 'let's judge the window at the end of it'. The season is still happening around us. We've played five league games in January and won one. There are three more before the window closes which count just as much as the ones in February and beyond.

Looked at one stage like we might make a decent profit off him, so it's a shame we/he have tanked his value again in the past year. Good player for us overall so I wish him well. I also reckon I've seen enough of him to see that he's not going to take us forward, so we might as well try and find someone who can.

Did we really create more chances against Wigan than we have in an average away game this season? Burstow should've scored, but it came from Tickle parrying a fairly tame shot from distance. Dalby did well to get his header on target but it was a half chance at best. Was pretty slow going other than that until Sheehan scored.

I don't think Dan's scored a goal since this thread was created. On the social media thing, if he was searching his own name that's asking for trouble. But anyone directly messaging abuse to our players (or anyone really) on social media is a cunt and wants banning. Etete will be playing non-league next year.

If we're only on 61 points with six games left, given who those six games are, we're heading for midtable. 71 is the lowest number of points to finish 6th in the last 10 years. People have been saying all season that we'll go on a run eventually. These next 12 games are the last chance saloon for that. 10 wins would give us a decent chance of taking second. Orient have lost 9 of 12 away, so we couldn't ask for a better game to start.

The way McAtee veers between being overrated, underrated and then back again should be studied. Although I think he should start on Saturday. Burstow is trying but all confidence seems to have deserted him.

They haven't won a home league game since 4th October and lost 3-0 to Exeter City on Saturday. Not sure Brazil '70 is their level. There's nothing negative about thinking this was an opportunity to win missed and a game gone rather than a point gained. And the fact that we do need to be winning games like this is just reality if top two is still the ambition.

You say 'another way of looking at it' like that paints a brighter picture. To be seven points off second, when they have a game in hand, is loads. They play Burton at home on Thursday. Bradford are also three ahead with two games in hand. It's going to take win after win just to catch up, let alone overtake both. Someone is going to get to 85-92 points and finish second in this league. If that's us, it really doesn't leave a lot of room for taking a point anywhere.

Is it a shit show from the past? We've just played the same team in two consecutive games and it didn't include Christie, Erhahon, Gale or Forss (who wouldn't have played if he'd been fit). Burstow and Simons might be about to lose their places to McAtee and Dempsey. The club's recruitment has been a shit show for a number of years, but that includes this summer.

We'd now need over 2.3ppg from the last 19 games to take us to 88 points, which usually isn't enough for automatic promotion but might be this year. Over the course of a full season that'd be a 108 point season. And that's with the top three to play away. In the hole we've dug for ourselves a point (against a side who've won two games since 4th Oct) does nothing for us. Unless we are just looking at consolidating a playoff position.

They're 8th. Seems as good a chance of any to try and get some of those points back we've let slip at Peterborough, Burton, Northampton and the like. No such thing as a taking point pre-game in our situation.