Matches Top 6 Race 2023/24

[Up The Manor]

Out of interest, are you saying if Manning had stayed we would be in the top six, because his record at Bristol City would suggest otherwise.

If Manning had stayed we would be close to promotion now .He had a defined structured game plan which delivered productive results .
There's zero comparison to Bristol City and Oxford ,the teams are light years apart .
We have been picked of at ease by the top 6 teams under Des and its been painful to watch at times .

 

[werthersoriginal]

If Manning had stayed we would be close to promotion now .He had a defined structured game plan which delivered productive results .
There's zero comparison to Bristol City and Oxford ,the teams are light years apart .
We have been picked of at ease by the top 6 teams under Des and its been painful to watch at times .

Ah well, always next season.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

Let's all just remember the golden rule come April 27th:

A) If we're not in the play-offs, it's because we were rubbish
B) If we are in the play-offs, we're still rubbish but others were rubbisher.

Either way, we're rubbish whatever the outcome.

Really unhelpful.

Maybe 1% take that attitude - but then 1% take the extreme opposite view and sugar-coat everything?

But the 98% are all manner of shades inbetween - and can discuss the nuances of our players, manager, performances and results without being quite so trite.

 

[Big Ron]

To be honest, it's shocking we're even in with a shout.

Since Des came in we've got 28 points from 23 games with a -5 goal difference. For context, during the same time period Cheltenham have played 3 less games and have gained 26 points with a -1 goal difference, and we all saw how poor they are.

Is the league competitive? Definitely. Does that make it a good league in terms of quality of the teams? Absolutely not.

Pompey aren't anything special and have looked like their going to win the league with some breathing room for months.

It's way too easy and lazy to say that 'Pompey aren't anything special' - they might not be playing the most open, attractive football but they have some good players, squad depth, have a distinct system and are incredibly resilient. They accumulated 83 points with 7 games to go, only conceded 31 goals, lost only 4 games and how many times have they come back from a losing position this season? That's a good team.

 

[NorthWestOx]

To be honest, it's shocking we're even in with a shout.

Since Des came in we've got 28 points from 23 games with a -5 goal difference. For context, during the same time period Cheltenham have played 3 less games and have gained 26 points with a -1 goal difference, and we all saw how poor they are.

Is the league competitive? Definitely. Does that make it a good league in terms of quality of the teams? Absolutely not.

Pompey aren't anything special and have looked like their going to win the league with some breathing room for months.

Not strictly true, it's 31pts from 24 games, but the point is valid.
Bolton look to be off auto promotion form too over that period.

2023/24 League One Date Range: 6-NOV-2023 to 1-JUN-2024

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[Swaby39]

It's way too easy and lazy to say that 'Pompey aren't anything special' - they might not be playing the most open, attractive football but they have some good players, squad depth, have a distinct system and are incredibly resilient. They accumulated 83 points with 7 games to go, only conceded 31 goals, lost only 4 games and how many times have they come back from a losing position this season? That's a good team.

Funny how that’s interpreted in comparison to what Manning was doing here. Plenty of comparisons to be drawn but for some reason his pragmatism was perceived as boring/not that good/unsustainable.

 

[NorthWestOx]

I've just carried out some scientific research, and it took me about a dozen goes to get Oxford finishing in 6th on this website: https://thefishy.co.uk/football-calculator.php simulating all of the results.

Going in to the last game, I have it as:

6 Oxford Utd 45 +10 74
7 Lincoln City 45 +23 73
8 Stevenage 45 +11 70
9 Blackpool 45 +15 69
10 Leyton Orient 45 +1 66

 

[BicesterU]

Really unhelpful.

Maybe 1% take that attitude - but then 1% take the extreme opposite view and sugar-coat everything?

But the 98% are all manner of shades inbetween - and can discuss the nuances of our players, manager, performances and results without being quite so trite.

Seems we've got a much larger proportion of the 1% of negative people on here than we do the other groups, and they often tend to be more vocal about the fact.

Can't get my head round people complaining about awful we are, so many points this, so many losses that, rather than look at the fact that we need 12/13 points from seven games - four of which are extremely winnable, and the remaining three of which are against our rivals for that 6th spot.

Once the season's done we can do the post-mortem, talk about what went wrong, how it can be improved for next season, but I can't see how it's helpful to be *so* negative while it's still all to play for.

 

[Common Villager]

Seems we've got a much larger proportion of the 1% of negative people on here than we do the other groups, and they often tend to be more vocal about the fact.

Can't get my head round people complaining about awful we are, so many points this, so many losses that, rather than look at the fact that we need 12/13 points from seven games - four of which are extremely winnable, and the remaining three of which are against our rivals for that 6th spot.

Once the season's done we can do the post-mortem, talk about what went wrong, how it can be improved for next season, but I can't see how it's helpful to be *so* negative while it's still all to play for.

What's the point in the forum? Might as well put it into hibernation throughout the season and only allow posts during the summer.

I occasionally have a gander at other team's fans' forums and I'd say ours is about generally quite fair with healthy debate and a variety of views. I guarantee if you go on to the forums of Derby, Blackpool, Barnsley etc. you won't have to scroll far to find a 'So and So OUT' thread.

I think a lot of the negativity on here at the moment stems from a frustration that we know this team can be good enough, but for getting on for 4 months they simply haven't been.

I agree with you focus needs to be on getting behind the team as much as possible for the next 7 matches, but I don't agree with your suggestion that this forum is excessively or unduly negative.

 

[Scrongo]

How the hell does anyone,know what manning & his boring football,would of done. They don't end of ..... Just because he started well, don't mean it would of been sustained. He goes down in history,as doing nothing. Easily forgotten has been ,who jumped ship to where he's hated as much as here...

 

[Swaby39]

How the hell does anyone,know what manning & his boring football,would have done. They don't end of ..... Just because he started well, don't mean it would have been sustained. He goes down in history,as doing nothing. Easily forgotten has been ,who jumped ship where he's hated as much as here...

Speak for yourself. I don’t hate him. The reason this thread exists is because of him, lest we forget our league one status is too. He made Robinson a distant memory quicker than I could’ve imagined and propelled us on to being competitive again. But hey, he fired a coach so I suppose good riddance, we’re better off without….. oh wait.

 

[Scrongo]

Speak for yourself. I don’t hate him. The reason this thread exists is because of him, lest we forget our league one status is too. He made Robinson a distant memory quicker than I could’ve imagined and propelled us on to being competitive again. But hey, he fired a coach so I suppose good riddance, we’re better off without….. oh wait.

All i know it's been a couple of bizzarre, merry-go-round seasons...

 

[Scotchegg]

But hey, he fired a coach so I suppose good riddance, we’re better off without….. oh wait.

I suggest you have a chat with people at the club to see the real impact of Mannings time here. For all the chat about players not respecting Des it might just be worth asking the same players about their views on Manning too.

The more I've heard, from numerous different sources, the more I'm convinced that we dodged a bullet with Manning going when he did.

 

[Eric Blair]

I suggest you have a chat with people at the club to see the real impact of Mannings time here. For all the chat about players not respecting Des it might just be worth asking the same players about their views on Manning too.

The more I've heard, from numerous different sources, the more I'm convinced that we dodged a bullet with Manning going when he did.

That's interesting @Scotchegg . Can you expand on that or would that be betraying confidences?

 

[Swaby39]

I suggest you have a chat with people at the club to see the real impact of Mannings time here. For all the chat about players not respecting Des it might just be worth asking the same players about their views on Manning too.

The more I've heard, from numerous different sources, the more I'm convinced that we dodged a bullet with Manning going when he did.

Do tell.

 

[Scotchegg]

That's interesting @Scotchegg . Can you expand on that or would that be betraying confidences?

May be best for the close season as I appreciate that there is also stuff being said about Buckingham and a tit-for-tat exchange serves no useful purpose whilst we have so much to still play for.

However, the we already know that Wayne Brown heard that he was being dismissed from a third party outside the club rather than Manning himself. And that Manning didn't speak to the players before leaving and cleared his desk before any staff members arrived at work to avoid them.

Everything else only reinforces the fact that he was not a particularly nice guy.

 

[Up The Manor]

I suggest you have a chat with people at the club to see the real impact of Mannings time here. For all the chat about players not respecting Des it might just be worth asking the same players about their views on Manning too.

The more I've heard, from numerous different sources, the more I'm convinced that we dodged a bullet with Manning going when he did.

Where you hear that in the work canteen ? Or maybe your sisters boyfriends cousin ?
Dodged a bullet while 2nd in the league .
That's the best chuckle I've had for years .

 

[Swaby39]

May be best for the close season as I appreciate that there is also stuff being said about Buckingham and a tit-for-tat exchange serves no useful purpose whilst we have so much to still play for.

However, the we already know that Wayne Brown heard that he was being dismissed from a third party outside the club rather than Manning himself. And that Manning didn't speak to the players before leaving and cleared his desk before any staff members arrived at work to avoid them.

Everything else only reinforces the fact that he was not a particularly nice guy.

Conveniently we’ll have forgotten this conversation by then. I’d have thought you’d be doing Des a favour here in putting some details behind why they were brilliant for Manning and gone missing since… what must they think of Des then?

You keep talking about how he left, I expect that to be bitter and players feeling let down, but that bears no relevance to what he did or how well liked he was while he was here working.

You can continue to recycle the Wayne Brown thing all you like, that’s not news. So what do you actually know that puts weight behind these claims?

PS - didn’t mean to digress from the topic. Happily take this away from here.

 

[Bitter]

If Manning had stayed we would be close to promotion now .He had a defined structured game plan which delivered productive results .
There's zero comparison to Bristol City and Oxford ,the teams are light years apart .
We have been picked of at ease by the top 6 teams under Des and its been painful to watch at times .

Disagree. Manning went to Bristol City with them looking at the play offs, now they are looking over their shoulder at the relegation scrap, which they could still get dragged into, there is every comparison.

 

[Barbadosyellow]

So let's be generous to ourselves and say we have a 50% chance of making the playoffs followed perhaps by a 10% chance of getting to the final and winning that. Those probabilities actually mean we have a 5% chance of going up.

In other words, if we were in the same position as today for the next 20 years, we should expect to be promoted just once.

I'm not checking out the directions to Championship grounds just yet.