League One survival?

Yellow Hoods

Yellow Hoods

Level: Chris Maguire
(79 Apps, 22 Gls)
The most worrying aspects are 1) our poor form, and 2) the general morale surrounding the club, which must affect our prospects for improving.

Last 6 match form amongst current bottom 10 clubs;

Oldham 11 points
Rochdale 10
Blackpool 9
Bury 9
Wimbledon 7
Doncaster 6
Northampton 6
Oxford 4
MK Dons 2
Fleetwood 2

I wasn't worried until today. I'd thought Rochdale, MK Dons and Bury were doomed (and maybe they still are), so we only had to stay ahead of one of the other six 'relegation contenders'. But the lack of a manager with the required grit to get us to safety, and the fact that our competitors seem to be scrapping more intensely than we are, suggests we could be in trouble.
 
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We are a terrible team at the moment. Shipping goals, unable to score enough, losing against other relegation contenders, with a stand-in manager whose team selections are uninspiring (where was Henry? Obika instead of Thomas? Mousinho?) and whose training is making very little difference to the quality of what's on display. Add in a load of players who will be off (returning loanees, those leaving and Pep's deadwood being culled) who have little motivation and you have a recipe for disaster.

Logically (or at least mathematically) you would say we are still in a better position to avoid the drop than many of those below us. But if you have watched us play recently I think you would have to be a huge optimist to bet against a calamitous ending to a very very disappointing season.
 
I'd love to be able to say I can see 5 wins in there, but at the moment I cant see 5 points.

This has been on the cards for ages and no one seemed worried like I have been, and have been saying on here.

We nèed a new manager NOW to give the players a kick up the a**e and get them fighting for the club....this feels as bad as 2006

Feel sick at the thought of relegation but even sicker at the lack of bottle being shown by this squad..
 
In the words of Yogi Berra, "it feels like deja vu all over again". This is so like 2006 it's spooky.
Results don't lie, and at this moment our last results have been dire. Even Charlton was a smash and grab last minute win.
One side always gets sucked down into the mire, it was us in 2006. I hope (and think) we'll still just about be OK though.
 
bicesterox said:
I'd love to be able to say I can see 5 wins in there, but at the moment I cant see 5 points.

This has been on the cards for ages and no one seemed worried like I have been, and have been saying on here.

We nèed a new manager NOW to give the players a kick up the a**e and get them fighting for the club....this feels as bad as 2006

Feel sick at the thought of relegation but even sicker at the lack of bottle being shown by this squad..
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bicesterox said:
I'd love to be able to say I can see 5 wins in there, but at the moment I cant see 5 points.

This has been on the cards for ages and no one seemed worried like I have been, and have been saying on here.

We nèed a new manager NOW to give the players a kick up the a**e and get them fighting for the club....this feels as bad as 2006

Feel sick at the thought of relegation but even sicker at the lack of bottle being shown by this squad..
Click to expand...
 
I am struggling to see a role for Faz. Clearly cannot motivate the players who are headless chickens, absolutely dire selection - we need some continuity with players playing together in same position - seems all that matters is who looks good in training during the week. Coaching? We are clueless at set pieces, corners and can't even defend a long cross. Epic Fail. Need a new face with an assistant/coach quick but it would be interesting to hear who is on the shortlist since all the usual suspects seemingly havent been called. Phil Brown until the end of the year
 
Another team struggling, leaking goals and apparently now taking short corners is Birmingham. Lost their last 8. Pep magic not working yet but there are a lot of positives to take from their performances.
 
bicesterox said:
I'd love to be able to say I can see 5 wins in there, but at the moment I cant see 5 points.

This has been on the cards for ages and no one seemed worried like I have been, and have been saying on here.

We nèed a new manager NOW to give the players a kick up the a**e and get them fighting for the club....this feels as bad as 2006

Feel sick at the thought of relegation but even sicker at the lack of bottle being shown by this squad..
Click to expand...

Erm.... may I politely contradict your view that you have been the only one worried? There has been a reasonably significant group on here who were saying, even when we were top 10, that we were playing so poorly that anything could happen.
I lost faith in this squad (and Pep) away at Blackpool in September!
But countering those who could judge with their own eyes was the Alice in Wonderland brigade - a toxic mix of a manager trying to spin not improve, a personality cult in place of a chairman, a joke of a Board, and the followers of the personality cult, who had bought wholesale into the Brummie wizard, no matter how blatant his behaviours.
That mix was, and is; one that deserves to fail. Until and unless the club (top to bottom) gets some proper leadership, some humility and, consequently, some guts it will continue to deserve to fail.
 
Wish someone would just step up and take charge of this absolute mess that we're in. If I were a player in this situation I'd use our league position as motivation to train harder. How the hell can we go all season without improving at all? Clearly nobody gives a s**t though.
I fear that should the worst happen we would fester in league 2 or worse for many years to come.
 
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In truth, and with retrospection, the seeds of our decline were sown when Ashton departed.
 
There have been people on here (for a while) who have suggested relegation. As usual though there’s a larger group of people who seemingly ignore (whether purposely or not) what is happening on and off the pitch.

In our best form we’ve been inconsistent at best, however, since before Christmas we’ve been plain crap!!! People have ignored it and what’s going on behind the scenes which must have some impact on performances however small.

There seems to be a complacency on this forum over recent years where there’s no such thing as a must win. Mathematics seems to take over instead of people actually looking at our performances.

I’ll be amazed and very, very happy if we stay up. If we are relegated then some serious questions need to be asked!
 
Anthomic said:
Map could see this coming and jumped ship.
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You may be right that he might have realised that the enthusiasm for the club to push on was waning but I don't think it fair to say he jumped ship. He got the chance to vastly increase his salary at a Premiership club where he is clearly making an impact. Looks like an excellent career move to me.
 
I think many of us do actually look for a performance-winning isn’t always the be all etc.
Recent games (excluding BRovers) have seen an improvement in performance,but with 2 draws and 2 wins from 11 games, this has not been enough.
We are now in the last 11 games and I’m afraid that mathematics do very much come to the fore-if we repeat the above 8 points we are doomed !
So I’m hoping for points well in excess of 8,however they come.
I will (God willing) be at all 11 games, so team, help me out,please ?
 
Pete Burrett said:
I agree that plenty of people on here have always been concerned about Mr Eales' 'slippery' (© Mr Cannell) nature and thus remained sceptical about his longer term aims for the club. Some of the chumminess of the oft-referred to 'hot dog buying man on the terrace' was rather cringeworthy, although you can understand any scepticism of the more optimistic fans being assuaged by Wembley trips and a promotion.

Yet, despite these concerns, there has been no significant ground swell of supporters mentioning the 'R' word until very recently. I'm a recent convert myself - until yesterday's results I simply didn't think the maths could overcome us.

There is no doubt now though, that we are in a dogfight, and enter that fight in poor form and possibly lacking the guts to escape it. Relegation as such wouldn't be so much of a fear if you believed a rapid return to L1 might follow, but with an unknown new man in charge, who's to say whether a suitable investment plan exists? The bizarre delay in appointing a manager hints that no coherent plan is yet in place.Tiger might be new, but we don't have time to mess about.

If we settle into the L2 doldrums I do fear for our immediate future. A decade or more of further under-achievement might loom.
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Odd indeed and tend to agree - the two weeks is up now, there were no signs of anyone watching on from the stands, people who we assumed were on the shortlist of 4 have denied even being called. New names? Ghost managers? I just have a horrible feeling that the board have been waiting for a win to then create a hype and feel-good factor and then we do nothing until the end of the season (Tiger continues to pick the team). The problem is that Clothed and Faz are not motivators. You can hear that in their voices. They couldn't get excited if the next win depended on it and "negative energy" has been building up from all sides. It needs releasing. At the very least Tiger should pull in some sports psychologists and get into the heads of these guys, who aren't the brightest. They may also be so traumered that all of them want offski ASAP. I just don't think they believe in themselves and havent got a clue what they are supposed to be doing (but then that would just show that the caretaker team are on trip ponies and can't manage - if they don't do what you practice on the training ground then I would say they also can't coach!) All of our players are limited - you need to point in one direction, wind up, and then they go.... but no one is giving them direction - at least not effectively anyway. Looks like Faz is using Clothed's "magic box" to pick the starting 11, then spins the wheel to decide on formation. 4-4-2 v something that works. He has a random alarm which goes off between 4 and 4.45 and gets a text advising on substituions - even if it means taking off a forward when we are behind. The most perplexing thing, if I read it right, about what is going on the behind the scenes fiasco is that seemingly we are still owed 4.2m for the "star" players we sold? Who defers payments when there is demand from more than one club and you don't need to sell? C'mon Tiger, pull your finger out. Actions speak louder than words and your new toy is broken
 
You may be right that he might have realised that the enthusiasm for the club to push on was waning but I don't think it fair to say he jumped ship. He got the chance to vastly increase his salary at a Premiership club where he is clearly making an impact. Looks like an excellent career move to me.

But would he have gone if he had be given the money he was promised to get us promoted again? The money was there but it went into DE’s back pocket.
 
This season has been a shambles. The hunt for the new manager still going on. It’s going to be atough ask for us to stay up this season. We need three more wins out of twelve to stay up. Squeaky bum time
 
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