Surprised it didn’t get picked up earlier in the week that tickets go on sale but it looks as though they’ve sold out in about 2 minutes as expected.

Somehow I managed to be successful in fastest finger first which I’m buzzing about even though it’s a bit of a shit away day all told. 

6 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

He must hate us.

That said it seems harsh to sack him after a defeat to a top team. I understand the Sunderland sacking because we absolutely battered them and their fans have massive expectations, but Fleetwood? They're going to have easier games than us so I'd have thought they'd have given him a bit more time. Presume they want to do it before it gets too late.

Or before the transfer window opens?  I bet there are more sackings around this time of year than most as either clubs don't want a duff manager to bring in players the next manager will need to get shut of, or a manager demands some funds to strengthen, club says no, they have a fall out and part company.

7 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

We've done well enough against top sides so far.

Only pompey have beaten us, and we did well enough at Oxford to have won- just missed chances.

We'll all be nervous and have some doubts when we play these games, but hopefully so will the opposition. The players just need to keep believing in themselves. 

I just feel like we need some more evidence.  We haven't scored away at a current top 10 side yet (I know, we've only played 2 so its not a criticism, just a fact).  At home we've played Derby, Peterboro, Stevenage and there was a sending off in 2 of the 3, its difficult to judge a game when its 10 v 11.

It feels slightly frustrating that none of us really know how we'll go against the better sides, we've hardly played them, and I wish we could fast forward a month with another 12 points or so under our belts (fingers crossed, I don't take any wins for granted, let's keep 11 men on the pitch first).

Charlie Adam to Fleetwood, apparently!

1 minute ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Charlie Adam to Fleetwood, apparently!

Think Pilley has been on the spice in B-wing

15 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

Made me laugh that. Suggesting we" laid a glove on them" in the first half last night is the metaphorical equivalent of calling me out from Australia

Don't be offended as I am only asking. Are you partial to copious amounts of ganja?

You were the one who thought it apt to use the term. The suggestion that one laid on your neghead might be beneficial seems to have been warmly received in the main if not by you.

Despite knobspankers analysing every kick with a critical eye ("he sliced that when it should have been a crisp volley" etc.), most of us can see the general progressive trend and a few ultra optimists (myself included) are very confident that we are going up.

If it transpires, as I feel sure that it will, we will be into a whole different debate - that being 'is the Premier League actually the promised land?'. I think not. I believe that our true level is upper echelons of the Championship. A good cup run here and there; the odd trip to Wembley for a playoff and just missing out; full houses at home and big away followings. This would make me very happy. The PL has its obvious attractions but, for a club like us surrounded by glory hunter attractive options (L/H White and Radcliffe White), I'm not sure that the inevitable fall from grace is worth the emotional roller coaster.

4 hours ago, bolty58 said:

... a few ultra optimists (myself included) are very confident that we are going up.

If it transpires, ... we will be into a whole different debate - that being 'is the Premier League actually the promised land?'.

I think not. I believe that our true level is upper echelons of the Championship. A good cup run here and there; the odd trip to Wembley for a playoff and just missing out; full houses at home and big away followings. This would make me very happy. The PL has its obvious attractions but, for a club like us ... I'm not sure that the inevitable fall from grace is worth the emotional roller coaster.

I agree.

Add the coming of some form of European super-league and how the authorities deal with than, plus the re-energised whinging about the fixture lists by clubs who will happily fill fallow weeks with foreign tours & pointless tournaments. 

What football leagues will look like in a decade is unfathomable.

The real upper echelons are not for us that's for certain &, frankly, I'm not sure I care.

11 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Good analysis, agree with that.  On Peterboro "self-destruct" it was great to see how they conceded their goals v Barnsley, faffing around at the back instead of getting rid.  Definitely makes them beatable.

Those fixtures you mention, they are tough.  Its really hard to judge how we'll do as its so long since we played and scored against a top side, other than the 1-0 v Blackpool if we're counting them as challengers.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how we go on in the "tougher" games, but still another month of bottom half teams to play and we just have to make the most of those fixtures until the bigger challenges come thick and fast.

There are lots of tough games after January. In some way it's a good way for it to pan out because we can beef up our squad in January first. But none of that's any good unless we take care of business against lesser teams.

11 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I just feel like we need some more evidence.  We haven't scored away at a current top 10 side yet (I know, we've only played 2 so its not a criticism, just a fact).  At home we've played Derby, Peterboro, Stevenage and there was a sending off in 2 of the 3, its difficult to judge a game when its 10 v 11.

It feels slightly frustrating that none of us really know how we'll go against the better sides, we've hardly played them, and I wish we could fast forward a month with another 12 points or so under our belts (fingers crossed, I don't take any wins for granted, let's keep 11 men on the pitch first).

As you’d expect I’m more than glass-half-full when it comes to assessing our promotion credentials.

And I think the evidence is in place, even against the “better” sides.

I thought 10 games was a decent early  barometer, which we debated. We then looked at the next 10 with some tricky away games ahead. We’re now at 23, crikey we’ll be in in the last 2 months of the season before committing to an opinion about this sides capabilities 🤣

I get your caution and you make some valid arguments to back it up, but you don’t get to 23 games and be sat in 2nd place without having played and performed against some of the “better” teams.

I think there’s only Portsmouth where we can be critical ,and even then, we stared well and that Charles chance could/should have put a different complexion on that game.

We were miles better than Derby on the day, battled well with 10 and showed lots of character v Peterborough and similarly in our win v Stevenage. Quality performance and result v Blackpool, better than Oxford on the night with an acceptable point.

This doesn’t have the feel of the previous 2 seasons where there’s sides who are clearly better and more consistent than us.

Winning promotion isn’t just about the odd few games against the top teams, or even our local rivals, it’s your overall consistency.

Doing things better than what you have done in the past. And there’s loads of evidence this season that we are yet again making progress, righting some of those wrongs and can put winning runs together to keep us in the promotion race and possibly be a title winning team. 

 

7 hours ago, bolty58 said:

If it transpires, as I feel sure that it will, we will be into a whole different debate - that being 'is the Premier League actually the promised land?'. I think not. I believe that our true level is upper echelons of the Championship. A good cup run here and there; the odd trip to Wembley for a playoff and just missing out; full houses at home and big away followings. This would make me very happy. The PL has its obvious attractions but, for a club like us surrounded by glory hunter attractive options (L/H White and Radcliffe White), I'm not sure that the inevitable fall from grace is worth the emotional roller coaster.

It would be great if we ever get back in the position to have that debate, but that's a bridge we'll have to cross if we get there - and it's a long way from here.

We have a good squad at L1 level and we're in the mix for promotion, but I'm not quite convinced we'll get over the line (as much as I'd like it to happen) if only because we've got a huge challenge in front of us, especially that run of away games against some of the better sides coming up in March. As Johnny says, we haven't seen enough yet in the big games to be certain.

For sure we have to keep churning out wins against the lesser lights and ideally get ahead of the other contenders before we go into that run of games - I think that's a given - and we can't afford any more implosions against the likes of Wigan and Reading. The question is how will we do away at Derby and the Barnsley double header - it'll have to be better than we did at Pompey for sure. The top teams have been playing each other more than we have - and taking points off each other - so we're in a great position currently, but I'm not 100% sure we have enough to sweep the others away in the "six pointers" just yet. Maybe the Luton game will tell us more about where we're really at? - if they put out their first team.

The other area of uncertainty is whether or not the other 6 teams near the top will gamble and spend big in January. I was thinking about where we could strengthen ourselves if we had the money and struggled to find realistic options - better WBs maybe? We have decent players all over so improving on them wouldn't be cheap.

And all this assumes we don't have another spate of injuries to deal with.

What is for sure is that we're in a great position, and if the ambition is to move up to the Championship it would be a shame not to take advantage of the situation and further improve the squad now if we can.

If we do manage to get promoted to the Championship, let alone the Prem, it's a different ball game and we'd need some serious money from somewhere.

I don't think I'm being negative when I say these things - it's just that there are too many unknowns to be putting up the bunting just yet - but obviously I want us to win every game. Forever.

3 hours ago, desperado said:

As you’d expect I’m more than glass-half-full when it comes to assessing our promotion credentials.

And I think the evidence is in place, even against the “better” sides.

I thought 10 games was a decent early  barometer, which we debated. We then looked at the next 10 with some tricky away games ahead. We’re now at 23, crikey we’ll be in in the last 2 months of the season before committing to an opinion about this sides capabilities 🤣

I get your caution and you make some valid arguments to back it up, but you don’t get to 23 games and be sat in 2nd place without having played and performed against some of the “better” teams.

I think there’s only Portsmouth where we can be critical ,and even then, we stared well and that Charles chance could/should have put a different complexion on that game.

We were miles better than Derby on the day, battled well with 10 and showed lots of character v Peterborough and similarly in our win v Stevenage. Quality performance and result v Blackpool, better than Oxford on the night with an acceptable point.

This doesn’t have the feel of the previous 2 seasons where there’s sides who are clearly better and more consistent than us.

Winning promotion isn’t just about the odd few games against the top teams, or even our local rivals, it’s your overall consistency.

Doing things better than what you have done in the past. And there’s loads of evidence this season that we are yet again making progress, righting some of those wrongs and can put winning runs together to keep us in the promotion race and possibly be a title winning team. 

 

Glad you mention this, as with all this "Derby worry me" talk, I was beginning to think I must've imagined they were one of the worst sides I've seen all season.

Remember being quite surprised (and delighted ), with how poor they looked.

We are better than them.

11 minutes ago, Greg_BWFC said:

Glad you mention this, as with all this "Derby worry me" talk, I was beginning to think I must've imagined they were one of the worst sides I've seen all season.

Remember being quite surprised (and delighted ), with how poor they looked.

We are better than them.

I think they're a bigger threat now than they were then

4 hours ago, desperado said:

As you’d expect I’m more than glass-half-full when it comes to assessing our promotion credentials.

And I think the evidence is in place, even against the “better” sides.

I thought 10 games was a decent early  barometer, which we debated. We then looked at the next 10 with some tricky away games ahead. We’re now at 23, crikey we’ll be in in the last 2 months of the season before committing to an opinion about this sides capabilities 🤣

I get your caution and you make some valid arguments to back it up, but you don’t get to 23 games and be sat in 2nd place without having played and performed against some of the “better” teams.

I think there’s only Portsmouth where we can be critical ,and even then, we stared well and that Charles chance could/should have put a different complexion on that game.

We were miles better than Derby on the day, battled well with 10 and showed lots of character v Peterborough and similarly in our win v Stevenage. Quality performance and result v Blackpool, better than Oxford on the night with an acceptable point.

This doesn’t have the feel of the previous 2 seasons where there’s sides who are clearly better and more consistent than us.

Winning promotion isn’t just about the odd few games against the top teams, or even our local rivals, it’s your overall consistency.

Doing things better than what you have done in the past. And there’s loads of evidence this season that we are yet again making progress, righting some of those wrongs and can put winning runs together to keep us in the promotion race and possibly be a title winning team. 

 

Good arguments/points.

Re judging the team after 10, 23 games etc, I get why we try to make those judgements but I think the debate will continue until our fate is decided.  We can be certain that we are good enough for top 6, but at what point do we feel comfortable we are top 2 material?  Surely we either have to play more of the other contenders, or get a decent foothold in the top 2 (hopefully that’s the case in another month).

On being miles better than Derby on the day, my recollection is that was only was against 10 men?  The 1^st half we struggled to stay level, and we laboured to create anything in the 2^nd half, winning it with a deflected cross.  We’ve improved since then, as they have, so I don’t care any more about performances in September, but if we played them tomorrow 11 v 11 it’s a different scenario, just as our game v Peterboro would be (that game was ruined by the sending off, just backs to the wall, which we did well as you say).

I agree winning promotion is about consistency, not necessarily winning 6 pointers.  I think my definition of being the real deal is (ironically) not whether we finish top 2 but if we don’t finish top 2 do we have the quality to play 3 games against a Barnsley/Posh/Pompey and probably win 2 and draw the other?  With 6 of the last 11 games against promotion contenders, if we do end up in the play off (final) that would be 9 of the last 14 against the top 6.

That would be a testing run for any team, to fail in those wouldn’t mean we aren’t good enough, more that the run was really difficult, and any team would need a lot to go right to win more than they lose of those 14.  So I feel like we have to throw all our eggs into the “top 2” basket, we have to go for it, and try not to make things harder than they need to be.

9 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

I think they're a bigger threat now than they were then

They couldn't be much worse tbh.

Still have us better than them, though doubtless they'll be chucking money about next month.

The problem with any such discussion we are basing our opinions on seeing 1 (or 2) performances v us. 
 

Derby were terrible at our place they scored against the run of play and could have been 2-3 down at half time. They are however top of the current form table with 5 wins and 1draw in last 6. 
 

Pompey bossed the last hour at their place but if Dion scores - who knows ? They have drawn v Fleetwood and Exeter last 2 games. Both teams we made look very ordinary. They have been top at Xmas in 3 of last seasons so have a history of fading away ( stat might need checking it was a post from a Pompey on Facebook) 

Peterborough I thought looked good at our place but could not beat 10 men. Although they dropped points this weekend are in good form.

Oxford and Stevenage may struggle to keep run going, with teams above them averaging 2 points a game hard to catch up. Stevenage keeping going, but few cracks at Oxford recently.

Barnsley are a funny one, keep hanging in there and play to a system that works for them and caused us issues in 4 out of 5 games last year. 
 

We have shown a tendency to drop in the odd howler like Carlisle and Reading but can also dominate teams. I think our biggest strength is fact we have had 14 different goal scorers so as vital as Dion is we do spread the goals about. 
 

I think not getting top two would be a disappointment but  same applies I imagine to Pompey , Derby and Peterboro. Bet 365 have the first 2 and us as about the same price to get promoted with Pboro slightly longer which seems pretty fair. 

1 hour ago, Greg_BWFC said:

Glad you mention this, as with all this "Derby worry me" talk, I was beginning to think I must've imagined they were one of the worst sides I've seen all season.

Remember being quite surprised (and delighted ), with how poor they looked.

We are better than them.

Going off one game, Wigan are so far superior to us, it beggars belief, but are 22 points (14 without deductions) behind us.

Over a season (and to a point, a half season) tables don't lie.

 

I'm not so sure that it'll be as straightforward as looking to how we do against the other top 6 sides at the time, more about points we get against teams we find awkward to deal with, some of whom may be some way down the table. 

We've seen that this season with Wigan, Carlisle and Bristol R, there may be the odd other slip up against their like but equally a win or two against higher places sides whose set up might suit us

Edited December 31, 20232 yr by ianofcleveleys

1 hour ago, Greg_BWFC said:

Glad you mention this, as with all this "Derby worry me" talk, I was beginning to think I must've imagined they were one of the worst sides I've seen all season.

Remember being quite surprised (and delighted ), with how poor they looked.

We are better than them.

And it wasn't so long ago Derby fans and players were arguing after a defeat at Shrewsbury 

But they are motoring now and got some momentum 

I doubt Pompey were impressed with us when they beat us and went 9 points ahead of us, yet now we can go top with our game in hand

So I'm not worried about the other teams 

Just us and how many more Wigan/Carlisle performances we might have in us, because I've seen enough to know we can storm this, but know any game now we may wobble, so hope we have a cushion when we do

Haven’t seen much of derby only when the game at ours and they did ok with 10 men, noticed they’re on sky next 2 games so let’s see

51 minutes ago, Zico said:

And it wasn't so long ago Derby fans and players were arguing after a defeat at Shrewsbury 

But they are motoring now and got some momentum 

I doubt Pompey were impressed with us when they beat us and went 9 points ahead of us, yet now we can go top with our game in hand

So I'm not worried about the other teams 

Just us and how many more Wigan/Carlisle performances we might have in us, because I've seen enough to know we can storm this, but know any game now we may wobble, so hope we have a cushion when we do

Tbh, I just have a deep hatred of Derby, so it probably clouds my judgement a bit 😄.

23 minutes ago, Greg_BWFC said:

Tbh, I just have a deep hatred of Derby, so it probably clouds my judgement a bit 😄.

Another factor that makes any prediction bollocks. I also for no obvious reason dislike Derby, Pompey fine, Peterborough annoy me (Ferguson). Barnsley for some reason I quite like, Stevenage never registered but good on train from Leeds. 

On 30/12/2023 at 10:29, MickyD said:

I don’t know about you but I’d rather have got at least three points from those two games by beating Bristol Rovers. Maybe even a draw at Pompey. Both very doable.

It’s ok you questioning the histrionics following the two lost games but we could be 3 or 4 points better off and still with a game in hand. I know which I’d rather have.

Fair enough

We were all disappointed by the Pompey result. I was gutted to be honest, we were looking like the leagues best going into it.

It just surprises me that people come out and say that we won’t get the automatics after each blip. Comments like that just look daft now. Even Bristol Rovers to be fair have been looking good. But we should have done better and should have put Oxford away.

Im delighted with how Evatt gets this team back on track and I’m pleased with where we are. We just need to see a better reaction when we go behind in the big games. 
 

We are more than ready to go up now and the fans are desperate for it. But even with the teams that have gone up last year, it’s still a really tough league to get out of. So many big clubs down here now.

On 29/12/2023 at 22:23, jeep said:

Been a good week...

BWFC & Derby - 9 points

Barnsley - 7 points

Peterborough - 5 points

Blackpool, Oxford Utd & Stevenage (only played 2 games) - 3 points

Pompey - 2 points

If we can get another win on Monday.......

Been a very good 10 days!

BWFC - 12 points

Derby - 9 points

Peterborough & Barnsley - 8 points

Blackpool  & Oxford - 6 points

Pompey - 5 points

Stevenage (only played 3 games) - 3 points

Great response after the Pompey & BR games..... 👍

50 minutes ago, jeep said:

Been a very good 10 days!

BWFC - 12 points

Derby - 9 points

Peterborough & Barnsley - 8 points

Blackpool  & Oxford - 6 points

Pompey - 5 points

Stevenage (only played 3 games) - 3 points

Great response after the Pompey & BR games..... 👍

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