Is this likely to get called off ?

Assume tickets will be on sale this week ? 

21 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

 

At his current EFL scoring rate it'll take him 206 games to score 7 goals. 

I was baffled at people projecting him as Drogba x SKD in the summer, and even less convinced why anyone would still be holding onto that now.

For all our faults, I really don't think we'd be better off if we'd built the attack around Sam Dalby. He looks exactly like what he is - someone who would've been the fourth best target man at Wrexham.

I certainly wasn't in the Prime Drogba camp but thought he was a solid enough signing. We didn't sign Burstow based on his goal record, what we have done is play him in his preferred role after Hull played him out of position all season.

Dalby's never really got going after the pre season injury, but we also haven't given him the service he might have expected when he was signed. 

I know my argument looks flimsy after today, he should have scored them both, but I'm not into writing him off as a cart horse yet

56 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

 

At his current EFL scoring rate it'll take him 206 games to score 7 goals. 

I was baffled at people projecting him as Drogba x SKD in the summer, and even less convinced why anyone would still be holding onto that now.

For all our faults, I really don't think we'd be better off if we'd built the attack around Sam Dalby. He looks exactly like what he is - someone who would've been the fourth best target man at Wrexham.

Sorry folks, double post for some reason

Edited October 11, 2025Oct 11 by ianofcleveleys

For goodness sake let’s just give the guy a chance shall we. Forget last season we know several players downed tools after being given the hard word, he’s had eleven games with an almost completely new squad who are still getting used to each other. I don’t think anyone can argue that player for player we’re better this season but at the moment it’s not working but let’s not get silly let’s just give SS and his coaches a bit of time to get it right. Yet again today if the players had scored the chances they’ve had everything would be different so let’s calm down and stop moaning, it will get better.

Five pints has not made that result any less bleak. 

Bolton fucking Wanderers.

This was always going to be a long term overhaul for any manager after IE. He set us back years and whilst some won’t necessarily agree, I genuinely think SS will need 3/4 windows to sort this out. 

Look at this seasons best performers, none are players that IE brought in. Unfortunately SS is going to make mistakes with recruitment and this is why it will take time. Look at TSL for instance, he has been poor so far. He came in on loan from Chelsea on the back of a promotion season and has been a colossal failure. Look at Dalby, hard to judge him fully on the time he has played but he has been terrible so far. He came in with a reputation as a target man and he struggles to just do the basics.

We all want success but unfortunately this team isn’t good enough and unless we have patience then we will be on the managerial merry go round before we know it and have to start the rebuild all over again. 

Edited October 11, 2025Oct 11 by Under_Score

1 hour ago, CumbrianWhite said:

Forss is comfortably the most technically gifted striker we have. He should be in the starting 11 every week possible, he’d of finished both of the Dalby chances.

Collins was our most gifted forward, but he was weak and couldn't win a header and like Forss had a tendency to disappear for long stretches.  So we brought in someone that could win headers, but we refused to put any crosses in for him.  Forss looks half decent and I'd love him to have the impact Collins had, but the jury's out and he needs to prove himself here, in SS's system.  

Re Dalby's chances, far from certain Forss finishes those, would he even be that far forward?

This team is easily good enough to get out of this division, it's just taking time to gel.

Be reet

13 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I couldn't stress enough how much I don't care what a player has done before they came to the club.  Dalby and Taylor were quality in the Scots Prem last season, it means nothing.  Forss has to do it for us, we don't count what Sissoko has done before, or Gale, we don't really have a clue.  Its 100% about what they are showing for us.

 

That's fine if that's how you want to look at it I guess. But it would seem a nonsensical way to run a football club.

How a footballer has performed playing football isn't the only indicator for how they'll do in future. But it's definitely the best one.

In any case, small sample size but Forss is the only one of the two to play well in a white shirt. Whereas not for a single second with us has Dalby looked like a dominant target man who's about to power in headers left and right. Plus playing him meant Burstow - who's played better than anyone for us this season - had to drop into a different role.

So even trying to follow your logic, I'm not sure how playing Dalby was the right decision.

1 hour ago, Tombwfc said:

 

At his current EFL scoring rate it'll take him 206 games to score 7 goals. 

I was baffled at people projecting him as Drogba x SKD in the summer, and even less convinced why anyone would still be holding onto that now.

For all our faults, I really don't think we'd be better off if we'd built the attack around Sam Dalby. He looks exactly like what he is - someone who would've been the fourth best target man at Wrexham.

Had a mare tonight, time to hit the sack I think 🤦

Edited October 11, 2025Oct 11 by ianofcleveleys

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

There are however parts of it that you can look at and point to as potentially not giving us the best shot. I’m not against Dalby, I think he’ll be useful, but as I said before I just cannot see how you can move the league’s top scorer away from the forward line.

On Burstow, whether he's a "9" or a "10", he can still score the type of goal he scored v Reading, Wimbledon, Wigan, 2nd goal v Posh.  Suggesting he can only score a goal if he plays 10 yards further up underplays his ability to drop deeper in home games and still score, and overplays what he's done away from home, when he's been poor in every game except his finish at Blackpool.  We don't cut any slack for McAtee, not sure why we do for Burstow, if he's had a bad game just say he's had a bad game.

Today's result tops off a shite week.

Couldn't handle their physicality and press.

Questions must be asked of SS

Why the fuck is the league one top goal scorer moved to the shit 10 position. Doesn't make any sense ... especially when after a year of nobody excelling in that position we find the one ... Forss. Who starts on the fucking bench.

Cissoko had to start with Gale out injured. This was his chance and thankfully I can't see many more given to him.

TSL doesn't fill me with any confidence. Don't think SS has the bollocks to drop him. Should have kept Southwood imo.

The defence that conceded 70 goal last season has had little investment. Conway has impressed this season so I'll let him off. Fuck knows what our best back 4 is ... but it ain't Forino paired with Johnston.

Just my take from the game today and in general.

 

 

I didn’t see the game. I was watching LR lose on penalties to Burscough. 
re; Bolton. Embarrassing result really. A team that have not won a home game all season slaughtered us. The joint biggest win in a league game for 3 years apparently. At our expense. 
 

our away performances are pathetic and I’m starting to get a bit pissed off at how shit and predictable we’re becoming on the road. We still cannot play against hard running physical teams 

 

Promotion looks like a fuckin pipe dream now and I hope Schumacher and the players turn it around very quickly before things start getting ugly 

Edited October 11, 2025Oct 11 by boltonboris

And it’s not a bad day at the office. It’s a pattern. A regular occurrence. And something I absolutely expected. Which softens the blow a bit. 
 

What’s Schumacher’s away record! 1 or   2 win’s in 20 or so games? The man needs to start looking in the mirror.  And no I’m not on his base, or calling for his head, but fuck me some introspection is definitely required

7 minutes ago, wanderer1984 said:

Today's result tops off a shite week.

Couldn't handle their physicality and press.

Questions must be asked of SS

Why the fuck is the league one top goal scorer moved to the shit 10 position. Doesn't make any sense ... especially when after a year of nobody excelling in that position we find the one ... Forss. Who starts on the fucking bench.

Cissoko had to start with Gale out injured. This was his chance and thankfully I can't see many more given to him.

TSL doesn't fill me with any confidence. Don't think SS has the bollocks to drop him. Should have kept Southwood imo.

The defence that conceded 70 goal last season has had little investment. Conway has impressed this season so I'll let him off. Fuck knows what our best back 4 is ... but it ain't Forino paired with Johnston.

Just my take from the game today and in general.

 

 

Agree with all that bar the Cissoko bit. He was out of his depth from the moment I saw him.  Hope he doesn’t figure again. We might scrape top 6 yet, but I’ve not got a good feeling about it.

14 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

I didn’t see the game. I was watching LR lose on penalties to Burscough. 
re; Bolton. Embarrassing result really. A team that have not won a home game all season slaughtered us. The joint biggest win in a league game for 3 years apparently. At our expense. 
 

our away performances are pathetic and I’m starting to get a bit pissed odd at how shit and predictable we’re becoming on the road. We still cannot play against hard running physical teams 

 

Promotion looks like a fuckin pipe dream now and I hope Schumacher and the players turn it around very quickly before things start getting ugly 

The problem is that I think our best central two is Forino and Johnston. To be fair Forino was decent again today, Johnno not so much but do we have better than him. Toal isn’t the best on the left side, Taylor is still an unknown and the only other realistic option is Inwood. I think we just have to accept that a few are a bit out of form at the moment which happens. Maybe we have to deal with the defence in January but for now we really should be doing better than we are all round. As somebody said earlier, playing on narrow pitches doesn’t suit having two wingers unless they’re going to be firing crosses in which ours don’t, so maybe just play ACD and an extra mid instead. Sounds like we’re going to be without Gale for a while so there’s an opportunity to do that because Cissoko really is just poor. We can’t ignore the early misses we’re making which would completely change games and I share Schu’s frustration but we had 85 minutes to react to Dabys two misses and didn’t and that’s happening pretty much every week and instead of excuses Schu needs to find a solution and maybe look at himself as well because some of his choices are questionable including both McAtee and Randall on the bench!!

Edited October 11, 2025Oct 11 by Whitesince63
Spelling

1 hour ago, Tombwfc said:

In any case, small sample size but Forss is the only one of the two to play well in a white shirt. Whereas not for a single second with us has Dalby looked like a dominant target man who's about to power in headers left and right. Plus playing him meant Burstow - who's played better than anyone for us this season - had to drop into a different role.

So even trying to follow your logic, I'm not sure how playing Dalby was the right decision.

This is a tallest dwarf situation, but when you say "not for a single second", that's wrong, because he has won headers in attacking positions.  He nearly scored at Blackpool with a header (Collins did score with a header at Blackpool, so I get that it doesn't represent improvement).  But Dalby has won headers, as has Burstow, and I don't think Forss has.  Until we start putting crosses in - in the air - we just can't judge him.  We signed him to be a target man, and the ball is never crossed to heads (certainly not accurately) so he's redundant from that point of view.  I know he needs to show more with his feet, but we don't ask Forss or any other player to do stuff they weren't signed for.

We were awful. I drank too much pre game.

 Not much else to say. 

54 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

his choices are questionable including both McAtee and Randall on the bench!!

I don’t want to see both those anywhere near but  who was left out and available your looking at B team  Charlie Warren then sharples ect so he was limited so he picked the senior players that had millions spunked on them for the bench . 

Edited October 11, 2025Oct 11 by Farnywhite

Thought I’d leave it a few hours. Because my frustration and anger was  the same, no doubt,  as the majority here.

And even now I’m the same.

That was very very poor.

No excuses, no flower coating it. For a team with expectations of promotion, that is simply not good enough.

But it’s not irreversible and its not season over (not that I’m saying that anybody is saying that, because I’ve not read the comments)

Think we can easily get to the route of the issue with the team. 

Today is just a symbol of whats been going wrong all season. 

Lack of flexability and incomprehensible tactics. 

Why if you'd been promoted with Plymouth comprehensively, would you join a team in the same league and then use totally different tactics. 

This is not how you do 4231 or even 442. 

This is how 90% of our attacks go:  Get ball - pass to ACD - cuts inside to shoot - misses/hits first man - registers XG 

We signed two target men and we're not using them, we signed an advanced forward using him as a no 10. Forcing our wingers to play on opposite sides so they can cut in on their stronger foot meaning no crosses. Make it make sense. 

League one is easy, this is all you need. 

A few hard buggers to win and recycle the ball. No 8/10 who can run and pass, pacy wingers who'll  either pass/overlap/shoot or cross. Someone to cross to and people to pick up lose balls in the box....that's it. 

I know this BECAUSE IT'S WHAT SS DID AT PLYMOUTH!

It's what most of the promoted teams have done in the last decade. 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2025Oct 12 by Zog1

6 hours ago, thebells said:

Rioch had 12 points from 12 games and got us promoted 

Evatt had 13 points from 12 games and got us promoted 

Today was poor. But it was far worse under those two managers at this point.   

We might go up, we might not  

But anyone longing for the land of milk and honey that Rioch gave us also has to remember the early pain we went through with him. And the time and patience we gave him. 

It’s very optimistic to think that we might be in for a repeat of those two miracle seasons but of course they are possible if unlikely. Smells of desperation.

But the meltdown on here is equally surprising given that the potential issues I pointed out months ago and got pilloried for are now being used as a stick to beat the manager and players with.

Doesn’t change the fact there is a good team in there if the manager and players can find it,

12 hours ago, L/H White said:

He shouldn't even be at the club 

Correct. And he can take Dalby with him.

7 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

On Burstow, whether he's a "9" or a "10", he can still score the type of goal he scored v Reading, Wimbledon, Wigan, 2nd goal v Posh.  Suggesting he can only score a goal if he plays 10 yards further up underplays his ability to drop deeper in home games and still score, and overplays what he's done away from home, when he's been poor in every game except his finish at Blackpool.  We don't cut any slack for McAtee, not sure why we do for Burstow, if he's had a bad game just say he's had a bad game.

It’s like saying Simons can still score from centre mid. Of course he can, but he’s got less chance than our centre forward has. There’s a reason why pretty much every top scorer in any league each season is a centre forward. He was picking the ball up off TSL FFS!

To write Burstow off as a centre forward away from home already is ridiculous. Before today he had 1 in 5, and if he hadn’t missed a chance he’d score 95/100 he’d have 2 in 5, which is a ratio I’d take away from home to the end of the season.

It was a terrible decision and I doubt it will happen again. The 10 position is our Achilles heel this season but moving Burstow back into it is not the answer. 

8 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

This is a tallest dwarf situation, but when you say "not for a single second", that's wrong, because he has won headers in attacking positions.  He nearly scored at Blackpool with a header (Collins did score with a header at Blackpool, so I get that it doesn't represent improvement).  But Dalby has won headers, as has Burstow, and I don't think Forss has.  Until we start putting crosses in - in the air - we just can't judge him.  We signed him to be a target man, and the ball is never crossed to heads (certainly not accurately) so he's redundant from that point of view.  I know he needs to show more with his feet, but we don't ask Forss or any other player to do stuff they weren't signed for.

 

I said at no point has he looked like a dominant target man or someone likely to start scoring a bunch of headed goals. And he hasn't. Not for us and not for the balance of his entire career playing in England.

Is the idea that he was only signed to stand around and wait for the perfect cross to land on his head? I'm sure most strikers would be happy to only be judged when that happens.

We've scored twice while he's been on the pitch and one of those was an ACD wonder strike. Forss, Burstow and the wingers have all contributed plenty this season. To drop Forss, move Burstow deeper and tell the wingers to play outside their natural game is one thing - but Dalby actually needs to show that his strengths exist before we rework the whole attack around them.

 I would question a couple in the starting 11 yesterday, but, pick who you want where you want from a strong squad, i do feel the players are letting the manager down, big time, away from home.