Fan's View Fan's View 20/21 - No.53 Play-off SF second leg

Excellent throughout the season Paul. You highlight some very important points and the things I am most concerned about is the (promised /alleged?) incoming of the Indonesians & if we are going to buy the stadium.
I also fear KR may well be a target for clubs higher up the food chain.
 
Thank you for yet another season of Fan's Views Paul.
It is always a good read.
 
Thank you Paul: I always look forward to FV.

I agree with your conclusions. Apart from the obvious physical absence, I enjoyed watching the team this season. For me as a fan, it is better to see 'good football' rather than grim 1 - 0s, although I know there is a balance.
 
Another season over and as I sit down to write this, Sunderland are also out of the play offs. Another 'big' club in this league. Before you know it, they'll be nothing but 'big' clubs in League 1. All the more reason for us to get it right in the coming season - automatic place. Will that happen under KR?
 
Yes, off the pitch what IS going on?
In the East Stand we sat in our nice neat little rows, nobody in front, nobody behind. A large gap between me and the guy to my left. Stared at throughout the entire match by a steward. Everyone had a mask on. (Well i saw three without during the 90 minutes). Lovely well-behaved people. Quietly muffled shouts and occasional applause. No atmosphere at all after 25 minutes. But at Blackpool, at Sunderland, at Brentford and..... I could continue...
What IS going on?
 
Another season over and as I sit down to write this, Sunderland are also out of the play offs. Another 'big' club in this league. Before you know it, they'll be nothing but 'big' clubs in League 1. All the more reason for us to get it right in the coming season - automatic place. Will that happen under KR?
You mention about Bigger clubs but there are already some here with more this coming season and i'd love to know who fans think can take us to the promised land.
Perhaps the last year + has removed my nervousness whenever we play and i've watched in full relaxed mode and actually thoroughly enjoyed yesterdays game and many before it. Knowing some of the clubs that have been in this League and this coming season i can't fathom why fans think this is a big season for Karl and that he must deliver.
Again the past year has seen me lose relative interest in sports that i would normally enjoy and the coverage of Ifollow being able to watch our team has been a saviour and helped focus during a very difficult year.
 
Yes, off the pitch what IS going on?
In the East Stand we sat in our nice neat little rows, nobody in front, nobody behind. A large gap between me and the guy to my left. Stared at throughout the entire match by a steward. Everyone had a mask on. (Well i saw three without during the 90 minutes). Lovely well-behaved people. Quietly muffled shouts and occasional applause. No atmosphere at all after 25 minutes. But at Blackpool, at Sunderland, at Brentford and..... I could continue...
What IS going on?
OUFC supporters are nice, genteel and law abiding citizens of the finest order. Unlike those nasty ruffians at those 'other' places.
 
You mention about Bigger clubs but there are already some here with more this coming season and i'd love to know who fans think can take us to the promised land.
Perhaps the last year + has removed my nervousness whenever we play and i've watched in full relaxed mode and actually thoroughly enjoyed yesterdays game and many before it. Knowing some of the clubs that have been in this League and this coming season i can't fathom why fans think this is a big season for Karl and that he must deliver.
Again the past year has seen me lose relative interest in sports that i would normally enjoy and the coverage of Ifollow being able to watch our team has been a saviour and helped focus during a very difficult year.
I usually enjoy every game, it's the results that sometimes turn out to be unpalatable. As to KR, I'm just not convinced that he will deliver. Yesterday there was talk, from him, about a 'plan' and that the club was in advance of that plan. So, are we to assume that it was planned to have such a poor start, not get the recruitment right and still manage to end up in the final play off spot but lose decisively in the first leg, at home, in front of the fans who hadn't seen a game in months?
 
I usually enjoy every game, it's the results that sometimes turn out to be unpalatable. As to KR, I'm just not convinced that he will deliver. Yesterday there was talk, from him, about a 'plan' and that the club was in advance of that plan. So, are we to assume that it was planned to have such a poor start, not get the recruitment right and still manage to end up in the final play off spot but lose decisively in the first leg, at home, in front of the fans who hadn't seen a game in months?
Come on you're far better than that, a plan can have many filters, it's possible we planned to reach the Championship by season 24/25 and having been in the play offs 2 seasons running we were ahead of that plan (i'm talking solely on field matters)
 
Come on you're far better than that, a plan can have many filters, it's possible we planned to reach the Championship by season 24/25 and having been in the play offs 2 seasons running we were ahead of that plan (i'm talking solely on field matters)
It's the first I'd heard of a plan and came across as just another bit of KR blarney post match. If there is a plan, why are we hearing about it now, via Sky?

I just don't buy into that concept. The team have been good enough but, the squad has been too weak. We string some results together and flatter ourselves that we are good enough only to fail at the final hurdle. If all the hype from the boardroom side is to be believed, the club is set on promotion and not based on any 'plan'. A plan for the club is believable, training ground, stadium, finances, integration into the community, youth set up/academy, women's teams all that is a plan. How can you have a timetable for promotion? We got to the play offs last season and buggered it up, was that so much of a set back that we couldn't go again this season?
 
Note i said by, it's not a timetable as you well know because football doesn't work like that but it's possible the years i mentioned refer to in an ideal world.
Have you not yourself and others put a Timetable on Karl suggesting he must deliver this season?
As i've already pointed out there are some big clubs in League 1 this coming season and i don't get why fans would have such high expectations especially when even on our winning run many were quick to say our players and Manager are shi*e and full of Bottlers and when we won it was largely due to poor opposition.
 
It is often a game of fine margins, on and off the pitch. What if McGuane had not been injured? What if Winnall had stayed fit once he got up to speed? Every club can say something similar. It is perhaps all the more surprising that we were comprehensively beaten over two legs by a team that only achieved a few points more than us in the regular season. However, if Sam Long had been fit?
 
It is often a game of fine margins, on and off the pitch. What if McGuane had not been injured? What if Winnall had stayed fit once he got up to speed? Every club can say something similar. It is perhaps all the more surprising that we were comprehensively beaten over two legs by a team that only achieved a few points more than us in the regular season. However, if Sam Long had been fit?

In the context of a final league table I think six points is quite a margin whether that be a "few" or not. Even when we had a fit Sam Long and Marcus McGuane we never got round to beating the top teams. That 2-1 victory over Lincoln was achieved without either.
 
In the context of a final league table I think six points is quite a margin whether that be a "few" or not. Even when we had a fit Sam Long and Marcus McGuane we never got round to beating the top teams. That 2-1 victory over Lincoln was achieved without either.
To get auto promotion we would have needed five more wins! That’s a lot, even given our bad start. But Peterborough have been looking good and chasing promotion for years.
 
I don’t think we’re that far away from automatic promotion, what I do think though is that our back up players to be of better caliber and fitter, time to get rid of Hanson, Hall, Kelly, Mous (But keep him as a coach) - We need strengthening especially in defence with both full backs and centre half
 
In the context of a final league table I think six points is quite a margin whether that be a "few" or not. Even when we had a fit Sam Long and Marcus McGuane we never got round to beating the top teams. That 2-1 victory over Lincoln was achieved without either.
Yes, of course a gap which would not have existed if we had beaten Blackpool at home, not that we ever looked remotely likely to do so during the game.

For me, another negative factor in our season was some curiously bad performances. I wouldn't cite home to Swindon, which I think was simply the pressure of the occasion, but (from the games I watched online), away at Northampton and home to Crewe. Is this in part a reflection of limited leadership on the pitch? Someone to shake the players and simply say that it's not good enough?
 
Back
Top Bottom