Stockport County (H)

[Hoppy]

55 minutes ago, Ros Coe said:

What colour?

 

[waffer cup 07]

At the end of the day, if that bloody ref hadn't bottled a stonewall penalty on Collins, we should have been winning in the first few minutes, then it would have been a different game.

[ianofcleveleys]

1 hour ago, tomski said:

We are on course to lose a third of our games this season. I’m sure someone will prove me wrong but surely no one goes up with that.

Posh nearly did in 22/23, got in play offs having lost 17, then blew semi v Sheff W in that bonkers second leg

[RONNIE PHILLIPS]

5 hours ago, London Wanderer said:

Nah

Finish outside the playoffs & we might as well of given Evatt until the end of the season.

No excuses with this squad of players & SS will certainly be demanding we make the playoffs. 

Get tae fuck lad!!..... We have just had the new manager bounce, now players are getting tired again after their efforts..... We haven't seen such high intensity pressing in a long time under Evatt. 

    If Schuey gets us into the play offs then great but I'll match any bet you care to wager ( for charity) that we will be up there at the business end next season when he has had the chance to recruit. 

[Matt Lofthouse]

4 hours ago, Rizlar said:

What did Evatt and Markham see in Randall to fork out a million hes weak as piss . 

Loves a tackle that lad. Just not seen one yet in 12 games. 

[tomski]

15 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

Posh nearly did in 22/23, got in play offs having lost 17, then blew semi v Sheff W in that bonkers second leg

I suspect it’s not unusual but, they fell short. I think we will too.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

8 minutes ago, RONNIE PHILLIPS said:

Get tae fuck lad!!..... We have just had the new manager bounce, now players are getting tired again after their efforts..... We haven't seen such high intensity pressing in a long time under Evatt. 

    If Schuey gets us into the play offs then great but I'll match any bet you care to wager ( for charity) that we will be up there at the business end next season when he has had the chance to recruit. 

We may well do, and that should be the minimum. 

I doubt he'd disagree with that. We should be able to qualify this season though.

Not sure about players being tired playing this way though- that requirement won't change next season, so they'll need to do it.

5 changes today too. 

[tomski]

2 minutes ago, Matt Lofthouse said:

Loves a tackle that lad. Just not seen one yet in 12 games. 

Was one. 

[RONNIE PHILLIPS]

7 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

We may well do, and that should be the minimum. 

I doubt he'd disagree with that. We should be able to qualify this season though.

Not sure about players being tired playing this way though- that requirement won't change next season, so they'll need to do it.

5 changes today too. 

They will need to do it, difference is they won't have been allowed to fuck training off when they have felt like it..... And there will be at least 3 or 4 that will have been replaced and a semblance of balance to the team. 

[Johnnyrotten]

6 hours ago, London Wanderer said:

Nah

Finish outside the playoffs & we might as well of given Evatt until the end of the season.

No excuses with this squad of players & SS will certainly be demanding we make the playoffs. 

There is every excuse with this squad of players, proven not to be upto it time after time in bigger games, how much more evidence do you need?

We can only realistically make the play offs if we start to win games we haven't been winning for years.

There is no set of results which would have justified keeping Evatt a day longer, if a new manager had started in the summer he would have to start the process a few months later than it did (eventually) start.

[masi 51]

Big, big Shumacher fan................He fucked up today with his selection as he has the two previous games

Liked the Thomason at left back.......................Say what you want  i said this two seasons back................please look if your Krimson, Casino. ,Ziggy stardust

[RONNIE PHILLIPS]

1 minute ago, masi 51 said:

Big, big Shumacher fan................He fucked up today with his selection as he has the two previous games

Liked the Thomason at left back.......................Say what you want  i said this two seasons back................please look if your Krimson, Casino. ,Ziggy stardust

A blind squirrel will find the occasional nut 😁

[London Wanderer]

23 minutes ago, RONNIE PHILLIPS said:

Get tae fuck lad!!..... We have just had the new manager bounce, now players are getting tired again after their efforts..... We haven't seen such high intensity pressing in a long time under Evatt. 

    If Schuey gets us into the play offs then great but I'll match any bet you care to wager ( for charity) that we will be up there at the business end next season when he has had the chance to recruit. 

😁

See my later post. I don’t doubt we will. We could finish 10th & come May I’ll still be giddy we’ve got him in charge.

But I’ve no doubt he wants the playoffs. As do the players. Anything below & he’ll be disappointed.

We can do it

[Eavesy]

Once mcatee is back from suspension (missing forward syndrome) we’ll be reet

[RONNIE PHILLIPS]

Just now, London Wanderer said:

😁

See my later post. I don’t doubt we will. We could finish 10th & come May I’ll still be giddy we’ve got him in charge.

But I’ve no doubt he wants the playoffs. As do the players. Anything below & he’ll be disappointed.

We can do it

We will all be disappointed but this team isn't consistent enough to get us there imo..... Today was more what we have come to expect than the beating of Brum...... If he can get Santos back in and at his best we have a chance otherwise we will just concede to many to sustain a challenge..... And I'm far from Santos's biggest fan. 

[ianofcleveleys]

24 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

We may well do, and that should be the minimum. 

I doubt he'd disagree with that. We should be able to qualify this season though.

Not sure about players being tired playing this way though- that requirement won't change next season, so they'll need to do it.

5 changes today too. 

One of the challenges these days when changing manager mid season is picking up a squad that's played and trained a certain way then asking them to switch up their levels. If they're asked to do that in a tough run of games in the last third of the season a few will show signs of emptying out. 

Here to be shot at but I don't think our squad was fit enough even to carry on playing the way Evatt wanted, which had long since drifted away from the pressing from the front that was a virtue in his first couple of seasons. 

SS is by no means asking them to become heavy metal football but sustaining even a fairly modest switch up in intensity over the last few weeks has found a few out. The main worry is up front, neither McAtee or Collins are made for a pressing game, have tried to embrace it to be fair, but are showing fatigue (McAtee especially today) and we have nothing else in reserve. 

Morley looked tired second half today, the quandary with him is him having done our pre season, gone to Wycombe and played / trained at their levels, played more games than last season, then to his credit returned to replicate those levels for us in some big performances

All that said, I still think we'll just about stay in the mix for the bottom play off spot till the end. 

Edited March 15, 2025 by ianofcleveleys

[London Wanderer]

3 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

There is every excuse with this squad of players, proven not to be upto it time after time in bigger games, how much more evidence do you need?

We can only realistically make the play offs if we start to win games we haven't been winning for years.

There is no set of results which would have justified keeping Evatt a day longer, if a new manager had started in the summer he would have to start the process a few months later than it did (eventually) start.

I think my post has come across in the wrong way, didn’t mean to suggest we sold have kept Evatt. 
 

I think there’s plenty evidence that they are more up to it in the bigger games. Had some good wins against Huddersfield & Birmingham since Evatt left. 
 

Let’s see how they do against Blackpool & Wigan.

[London Wanderer]

3 minutes ago, RONNIE PHILLIPS said:

We will all be disappointed but this team isn't consistent enough to get us there imo..... Today was more what we have come to expect than the beating of Brum...... If he can get Santos back in and at his best we have a chance otherwise we will just concede to many to sustain a challenge..... And I'm far from Santos's biggest fan. 

We can do it

 More than good enough 

I’m still of the opinion it wasn’t down to lack of quality and was more down to Evatt. 
 

[Johnnyrotten]

5 hours ago, bwfc4ife said:

They looked solid, physical and well organised. That’s it. Didn’t look overly great or anything to be too worried about. 
 

We turn up and play well, we win that game today. 
 💪🏻

Or, when did you last see us play away against a top 6 opponent and play as well as Stockport played today?  ie controlling large parts of the game and looking like the better side for the most part, never under serious pressure (and as enjoyable as Huddersfield was, we were never as dominant as Stockport were in the 2nd half and parts of the 1st half today).

I think you're underestimating how good they were (in a L1 type of way).

And this is their 1st season in this league for donkeys years, we've been here for years and spent millions to try to get to the level of a team that was non league 3 years ago.  

[jayjayoghani]

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

I think it suits him. My issue with GT (Gonzo don’t go compiling my posts on him!)

😆 a few minutes of scrolling there 

[ianofcleveleys]

12 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Or, when did you last see us play away against a top 6 opponent and play as well as Stockport played today?  ie controlling large parts of the game and looking like the better side for the most part, never under serious pressure (and as enjoyable as Huddersfield was, we were never as dominant as Stockport were in the 2nd half and parts of the 1st half today).

I think you're underestimating how good they were (in a L1 type of way).

And this is their 1st season in this league for donkeys years, we've been here for years and spent millions to try to get to the level of a team that was non league 3 years ago.  

I think that assessment @bwfc4ife has given is pretty fair, they had a few tidy lads who could look after and manipulate the ball well too.

The thing is, they didn't need anything more than those attributes to beat us on one of our Spursy days. They have what's required to win more League 1 football matches than us. That's credit to them, the issues are ours. We've made getting out of the league a more expensive, overcomplicated faff than it needs to be. I think SS knows that.

[Johnnyrotten]

5 hours ago, London Wanderer said:

But this squad of players is more than good enough to make the playoffs. They know it & the manager does. It’s the least they’ll expect from themselves.

 Really tough run in now. I reckon we can do it though. 

It looks like it boils down to is our squad better than Huddersfield's (and Reading)?

I'd be lieing if I said I knew the answer to that one, I'd be surprised if anyone could say with certainty we are better than those two?

For now its just about are we good enough to win at one of Blackpool or Wigan, on their iffy pitches, and the last 2.5 games don't fill me with confidence.

[Leyther_Matt]

May sound a little contradictory, but as much as I think Thomason was one of our few better performers, he is in no way any sort of defensive solution and looked quite vulnerable positionally on a few occasions in the first half. In fact it was probably one of the few things that Challinor got wrong that they didn’t really test Thomason too much defensively.

File alongside Morley’s spell at RCB a few weeks back. An option in an emergency but absolutely not something we should be starting with. 

[Johnnyrotten]

6 hours ago, Farnywhite said:

The problem ss will have is moving a lot of the squad on we only have a few out of contract in the summer it’s going to take a couple of windows for him to sort it outand bring is own style in .
Why the board splashed out a million on Randall when evatt was on is last legs fuck knows 

Assuming we're in L1 next season, as you say SS will need to move on at least half a dozen.  If we were to get in the championship with this squad full of L1 players, what happens then?  It would be a problem we'd all settle for but its also a bit scary, we can't just sack players to make room for replacements.

[ZiggyStardust]

1 hour ago, masi 51 said:

Big, big Shumacher fan................He fucked up today with his selection as he has the two previous games

Liked the Thomason at left back.......................Say what you want  i said this two seasons back................please look if your Krimson, Casino. ,Ziggy stardust

Rent free mate.

BTW, I think GT played a strange LCB/CM combo rather than LB. And it weakened both the defense and the midfield. But, yes, Tomo himself played well.