the tie is as good as over. 1-2 and we had a glimmer of hope. 1-3 (and what an awful injury time goal to concede) and that's killed it for us. Even the most eternal of Barnsley optimists can't see anything other than a comprehensive home win. We will concede as we don't have a clean sheet in us. The Neil Collins sacking in hindsight was pointless due to the lack of the Thalhammer due diligence (due diligence? as if we do due diligence). As nice a guy Devaney is he is no head coach and looked out of his depth last night. The out of contract players have been a big let down in recent weeks and whatever happens next Tuesday I doubt they will give a damn. I've tried to keep a positive mindset despite our end of season form collapse but what a farce it's turned in to. Sorry state of affairs.
You are right of course but it’s not unprecedented for teams to come back from 4-0 down in the first leg and go on to be promoted…………….
The play offs have thrown up some mad results over the years mate. Keep the faith. score the first goal and it’s game on.
I'd managed to convince myself that a 2-1 loss wasn't all that bad and the pressure would crank up next Tuesday on Bolton, all we needed was an early goal then to make it interesting. Then the third goal went in and that was the end of that discussion.
Hate to say it but I've seen nothing this year that shows we have the fight in us that Weds had. That is depressing.
I've been as pessimistic as they come, but it's still doable if we score within the first half hour I reckon. We're on a free hit from here and they'll get nervy. I think it's unlikely, but definitely possible.
Agreed, it's done. I have no remaining hope that we can turn it around. I only see a pretty comfortable routine home win. For me, that's the start of the summer. I doubt I will even bother to pay $ky to watch the 2nd leg. It's a bit of a relief. I have reached the stage in life where the summer break comes as a blessed relief, where I can forget it and enjoy other stuff. I know that not getting promoted leaves us in the klag, but for me, its quite a relief that we won't be in the Championship. We would have been as out of our depth as Sheffield United have been in the PL this season and it would have been a horrible 12 months. It probably will be anyway, but at least we won't also be a national laughing stock. Anyway, onto more enjoyable stuff. I have got the Everything Electric North show in Harrogate (what used to be Fully Charged) this month, a trip to see ABBA Voyage with my sister next month, my annual hols coming up, then Rick Astley in Halifax. With weekend coast trips with my wife and dog most other weekends. Bring it on.
I'd point to Sheff Wednesday last year for reference but we simply don't have the bottle or quality to do what they did I fear.
I hope that's not what Devaney and the players believe as if it is, we'll get turned done 3 or 4 nil and the travelling fans deserve much better than that. The very least I want (and think we have a right to expect) is us to have a real good go at them.
I'm going on Tuesday with no expectations and nothing to lose now. We have had some big results in our history and another just may happen again or may not, either way its a night out and hopefully we give it a go with some decent support. I also think Bolton aren't that good and can't see them winning at Wembley.
They will weather a little storm for 10 minutes, score an inevitable goal within half an hour that puts us 3 behind and then play out the remaining hour in 3rd gear. 1-0 Bolton. It genuinely feels as if our being in the play offs at all is a bit of a statistical misnomer. If the season started in February we would be in or around the bottom 4. There can't be too many examples over the years of teams in such bad form competing the play offs. I am not even sure Sheffield Wednesday counts as they got one or two results once they had blown their chances of top 2. I'm glad I didn't buy a ticket for the away leg. Perhaps there is a bit of reverse psychology going on in my mind, so that an unexpected miracle is a delightful shock, but I am treating it as done and dusted.
In all likelihood, we won't recover that deficit, but I'm weirdly looking forward to going on Tuesday now as it's a game with absolutely no downside to attend as a fan. Hopefully the team can play without the burden of expectation too, which might produce a Huddersfield-like outcome. In reality, it will most likely be another comfortable win for Bolton, as the depressing reality is that they are simply a better team than us, currently. The only way I'll come away angry on Tuesday is if there's a lack of effort, desire and application from the team. Devaney looks unwilling/unable to make any meaningful changes to the team, so it seems pointless to adopt the Einstein-quotable approach of expecting a different outcome when the reality is will be trying the same thing once again.
I agree with that, they are competent for L1 at best. I think Oxford would comfortably beat them if that is the final. If they do make it up, they will struggle as badly as we would have.
Our form and play has undoubtedly been better away from home, but there’s absolutely no way we’re overturning the deficit to win the tie. Not with this team.
If we had last season’s 3 centre half’s then we might have a sniff but we haven’t so we’ll concede at least a couple of goals on Tuesday
