Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

I was really concerned a couple of months ago that Buckingham was a poor appointment. But I’ve seen enough in the last few weeks to show that I was wrong. Even if we make the playoffs, I don’t think we’ll make it. We’re pretty good, but not good enough. We’ll need 5-6 good standard L1 players in this summer. Shame that Goodwin is injured, but it’s not a concern. We had a forward join us in the 80’s who was injured for quite a while. But once he got himself fit, John Aldridge did quite well for us.
 
Northernyellow said:
I was really concerned a couple of months ago that Buckingham was a poor appointment. But I’ve seen enough in the last few weeks to show that I was wrong. Even if we make the playoffs, I don’t think we’ll make it. We’re pretty good, but not good enough. We’ll need 5-6 good standard L1 players in this summer. Shame that Goodwin is injured, but it’s not a concern. We had a forward join us in the 80’s who was injured for quite a while. But once he got himself fit, John Aldridge did quite well for us.
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That’s about where I am too. These late season performances have got some of his detractors - me included - on side but that will only go so far if we make a sluggish start. The autos to 7th argument will soon rear its ugly head if we don’t hit the ground running on the back of the last two or three games of this season (depending what happens at Exeter).
 
I think there has been a pretty remarkable improvement, especially since the Bolton game. Our performances since then have been very good, even if we haven’t always got the result.

Excited to see the team Des can put together next year. Hopefully in the Championship 🤞
 
Last night showed us what we probably already knew, we are a good side but just don’t have that added bit of quality in the squad to bring off the bench to really push for a winning play off campaign.
Browne has lost a bit of his pace and we are bringing Bodin and Henry on when you are trying to win a game.
Performances have shown how Des likes to play and it can be very effective but he needs the summer to get rid of some of these players and bring in younger, fresher faces.
 
werthersoriginal said:
That’s childish though, whether we get top
six now depends on how other teams do.
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Through our own failings, but yeah, our points total and performance is either what the board want, or it isn’t. I hope they are looking at their January outlay very closely indeed.

For me, the fact we are dependent on other teams failing suggests performance hasn’t been where it needs to be.
 
So that's now 1 win from 14 (fourteen) matches against the sides currently occupying the top half of this division?

Or, if you prefer, just 3 wins from 20 games against anyone outside the bottom 6?

Say what you want about individual games -referee decisions, fatigue, xG and the like - but the incredible lack of nous against well-drilled opponents (or, to be honest, those with any sort of backbone) is undeniable.
 
If we do lose Murphy I worry that, unless he’s replaced with someone else who can be the clear MOTM and by far the best player on the pitch every game, Des’ ‘style’ might struggle - he relies on his wingers being on it and beating their man easily. All of our big wins (especially Peterborough) came from Murphy basically scoring and creating goals singlehandedly. Replace him with an average League One winger and we aren’t winning those like that.
 
greatunclekip said:
Through our own failings, but yeah, our points total and performance is either what the board want, or it isn’t. I hope they are looking at their January outlay very closely indeed.

For me, the fact we are dependent on other teams failing suggests performance hasn’t been where it needs to be.
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Yeah of course, I just meant that the judgement needed to be more nuanced than purely league position. Jury is really out for me but I expect he’ll be given the chance to do his thing over the summer
 
SirAndyOfCrosby said:
So that's now 1 win from 14 (fourteen) matches against the sides currently occupying the top half of this division?

Or, if you prefer, just 3 wins from 20 games against anyone outside the bottom 6?

Say what you want about individual games -referee decisions, fatigue, xG and the like - but the incredible lack of nous against well-drilled opponents (or, to be honest, those with any sort of backbone) is undeniable.
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Out of interest, if you were in charge, what would you do with Buckingham? Would you back him, or sack him?
 
IsleofWightYellow said:
If we do lose Murphy I worry that, unless he’s replaced with someone else who can be the clear MOTM and by far the best player on the pitch every game, Des’ ‘style’ might struggle - he relies on his wingers being on it and beating their man easily. All of our big wins (especially Peterborough) came from Murphy basically scoring and creating goals singlehandedly. Replace him with an average League One winger and we aren’t winning those like that.
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I remember thinking exactly the same when we lost Paul Simpson..... then Joey (RIP) came along.
 
I've changed my opinion on the manager .
I hope he gets backed next season he is the right fit for the club and his processes and structure will hopefully be implemented with the right core of people around him .
I dont see any other top 6 club paying 400k for a unfit striker that failed a medical .However you evaluate the decision is wasteful and people should be held accountable .
 
I’m not in the get him out lot, he’s seems to have found his feet a bit recently, and he’s here for a good while yet.
Although the last couple of games have been disappointing result wise.
It was the spell through January and after that done for us.
Makes me wonder if someone like Nigel Pearson. Could have seen us through those weeks and the past couple of games.
in the circumstances.
 
Northernyellow said:
I was really concerned a couple of months ago that Buckingham was a poor appointment. But I’ve seen enough in the last few weeks to show that I was wrong. Even if we make the playoffs, I don’t think we’ll make it. We’re pretty good, but not good enough. We’ll need 5-6 good standard L1 players in this summer. Shame that Goodwin is injured, but it’s not a concern. We had a forward join us in the 80’s who was injured for quite a while. But once he got himself fit, John Aldridge did quite well for us.
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When was Aldridge unfit? Probably never. He was not injured when he joined us and scored in his second appearance, Bolton Good Friday in a five nil victory. As for doing "quite well" for us.... God help me. Ninety odd goals in 130 appearances.
 
windmill said:
When was Aldridge unfit? Probably never. He was not injured when he joined us and scored in his second appearance, Bolton Good Friday in a five nil victory. As for doing "quite well" for us.... God help me. Ninety odd goals in 130 appearances.
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He was injured when he joined. Came on for his debut at Bristol Rovers as a sub.
 
My position is much unchanged, but I might’ve gone a bit early with my gushing compliments after Peterborough which is starting to age worse by the game, the more it looks like Peterborough were allowing us to use them as a rag doll.

For clarity, missing the top 6 is failure, should that be the end result. It would’ve been failure for Manning and it should be seen the same for Des. But a style of play is at least now showing on a consistent basis and we’re having the better of play a lot of the time so I’ve seen enough to think the potential is worth exploring next season. It’s clear that we haven’t got a full compliment of options for this system that might have otherwise allowed us to do better.

Nonetheless, Des seems to be coming up short in the tactical battles and hopefully can reflect in the summer as similar things are tripping him up. He wins on aesthetics quite often and when it happens for us we look a force of nature but has now twice in a week lost on practicality (what some might call boring anti-football) when it mattered most. If he can balance the two things then we’re on to a winner but it looks a big if given it takes him 30+ games to develop us in to what essentially we watched under Robinson for seasons and proved not good enough over and over. It does feel like that level of pragmatism that just gets the job done at times (AKA a real winners mentality, see Portsmouth) instilled by Manning has been kicked out of them and we’re more like a youth team now - ‘play for fun boys’. It needs to get serious sooner or later. He has my full support in to next season but the pressure for a fast start is very much already there.
 
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chromeyellow said:
Port Vale successfully kicked Manning’s team and won. Sparky was sent off.

(Neither Port Vale nor Evans's Stevenage were anywhere near as downright nasty as Lincoln. one of the most cynical and dirty anti-football sides I've seen for many a year)
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Yes I was saying last night that Stevenage did the tough, defensive, slightly shithousy thing but largely within the rules and didn’t P**s me off anything like as much as Lincoln, who basically cheated. Refs need to get more of a grip on teams like that.
 
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