All This Progress We're Making

I think I've enjoyed four games this season.

I don't think expecting to lose to Derby County is any worse than fearing losing to Chester.

 

I will give you Treacy who is a very poor signing. Lita looked like one of the few who actually did give a toss on Tuesday. Signing so many players in the summer you would expect about a 50% success rate which is about what we have got.

 

We where always going to struggle with the way we went about doing our business in the summer, it should have all been done and dusted for end of May but we waited until August no ones to blame but the bloke with the check book

 

What improvements have we made in the transfer market?

We are seeing a few youth players coming through which is easier to do at a lower level but we won't find any better than Butterfield or Stones.

 

We should always fear defeat we aren't the Massives of S6. I don't think I've ever been to any match since about 1981 where I didn't fear we would lose.

 

I have said Lita purrit in on Tuesday but he got his place through injury to Winnall not cos he had won it. So much more experience, the pair of em, but were being kept art of the side by young uns.

 

Do you think Flitcroft would have signed Hourihane or Winnall or Berry or Cole or Williams all pretty good signings Davies looks an excellent prospect. Turnbull is a reasonable keeper.

There have been failures. That's natural. Rebuild a team in 3 weeks it's not going to be finished. I would expect a 50% success rate with signings. I give Flitcroft about 10% and Hill a generous 25%. Progress.

Bree looks as good a prospect as I've seen. We don't need our self developed players to be the best young player we have ever seen. We do, however, to have any semblance of success need to have them fill 3/4 positions in our team adequately. We have not had that since the 90s and we will fail if we don't.

 

That's just the cycle of life isn't it? In Lita's mind he's probably the young buck netting for the England under21s with his life in front of him. In reality younger players are now overtaking him.

 

I actually enjoyed both the MK Dons match and the Notts County game which was probably our best performance of the season. I enjoyed 1 home game the whole of last season.

 

If he had been owt like Tuesday earlier int season he would have been a regular starter and then one of the young bucks wouldn`t have had the opportunity to show there worth.

 

You enjoyed being 5-0 down?

 

We are making no progress what so ever. In fact we are sinking like a stone

 

I thought MK Dons were excellent and the 3 goals we scored late on made it an exciting match.

 

Just out of interest Conan, what did you expect from the start of the season? What would have been a realistic position to be in by the start of December?

Danny had to get rid of a load of dead wood from the previous regime, which proved very difficult. Bar O'Grady, we received a fee for nobody, because the players that we had on our books we're a bag of gash and were not attractive to anyone not called Hill, Flitcroft of a side with 5 players. We had to play the waiting game with regards to the departures of COG and Steele (our two biggest earners), and therefore our hands were a little tied with regards to signing new players.

We've signed a lot of players from lower leagues who are in their early twenties. These players will take time to gel and work out what is required at this higher level. Look at Luke Berry - signed from Cambridge and the conference. A jump of two levels. But he's been a big success story I think. Hourihane has double figures in the goals and assists column by the first week in December. I don't give a flying **** if he isn't bothered about defending on getting stuck in. It's the goals and assists that matters.

A month ago we'd been on a pretty good run, good away wins at Sheff Utd and Rochdale, with fantastic performances against Bradford, Burton, Bristol City and Notts County (for 65 minutes). But now we've lost our best striker, which meant that Cole has played far more games than he is probably able to do so. Williams has been halfway round the world and is now injured. You can't have everything. The dip in form has coincided with our top 3 or 4 attacking players either having a bad patch (Cole/Hourihane) or being unavailable (Winnall/Williams). It was a miracle that we got a point on Tuesday with the side we finished the game with.

What I will say is that defensively we still aren't great. With players on paper like Ramage, Nyatanga, Turnbull and Cranie we should be a lot tighter than we are, so that needs sorting. Also, our wingers are too fat, which means we are quite narrow and Hourihane and Berry are having to play out of position.

I'd rather be in the position we are now, with a team of young, hungry players looking to attack teams than in Blackpool's shoes - which is probably what would be happening if we had stayed up.

I'm quite happy at the minute to be fair.

 

I enjoyed struggling in the bottom third of the championship more than struggling in the bottom third of league one.

 

Totally agree


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That's not true because we've only had one game since Winnall has been injured and before that they played alongside eachother. Your statement makes it sound like we've been missing Winnall for ages and that if he was still around Cole would be rested.

 

In my opinion

the ONLY thing keeping Wilson in his job is the fact Patrick has sacked so many managers in the last 8 years. Started with rhetoric about only permanent signings, til we realise most of them are fat, carnt be arsed or ****, then bring in some loans, well a load of strikers but no midfield players, no heart or bottle in the middle, ignoring the basic fundaments of lower league football, trying to play our way of out the league without the ability, I could go on, its a car crash at the moment, lacking any real direction just lurching from one bad performance to another and if we tow against Chester to either a draw or god forbid defeat, lets be reight, no one will be surprised if Patrick says enoughs enough.

Just my opinion of course, and for personal commitment/time reasons Ive been observing from afar, lack any real desire to change that tbf, a new manager might though.

 

What did I expect? Well I didn't expect to be challenging for automatic promotion. At the same time, I didn't expect to be closer to the bottom four than the top six. I didn't expect us to lose half of our home games with the worst home defensive record in the division. I also didn't expect to go into every game thinking a defeat is the most likely outcome by far.

I agree with Dreamboy's point re Winnall.

I wouldn't say we have signed a lot of lower league players. Of all signings, Turnbull, Ramage, Brown, Dudgeon, Treacy, Bailey, Lita, Williams and Cole have all come from the same level or higher. Winnall was one of the top scorers in League Two and Hourihane was supposed to be one of the best midfielders in the division so both should be able to handle the step up. Which they have in most part. The two players who have made the biggest jump are Berry, who needs time, and Hemmings who was a stupid signing and will be back in the Scottish second tier come July.

 

Re: In my opinion

I would also say that his hand has yet to be forced as the fans are not too restless as of yet. Purely based on DW's first spell.