Any better performances than DWs?

No, we're still *****

Hth

Pubteamupdate anyone?

 

^^^Yep.

 

Some good performances yes I agree, vs Bradford, Gillingham we were excellent. Vs Doncaster, Chesterfield, S****horpe, Notts Co we were awful. Personally I enjoyed things better last two months. Maybe the results helped.

 

I'd probably agree we are an average team at the minute. So I thought the games against Preston and Bristol City under Johnson were as good as anything I'd seen this season and likewise the performances against **** Utd and Colchester as bad as anything I've seen. The results helped Johnson settle in but were in all honesty against poor teams. I don't expect miracles from Alan and it's fair to say we haven't seen any.

 

Yeah all true, although we dominated and were fully in control first half at Colchester. All went down hill 2nd half but we still had as many if not more chances than they did

 

All the last 10 games have told me is how much of a quality prospect John O'Sullivan is. Gutted we didn't get him permanently in January.

I think it's way too soon to judge Johnson & I think it'll be hard to ever make a decision on whether it was the right decision to sack Wilson or not as there's no doubt the young players we've got will collectively get better over time but we'll have no idea how much of its down to coaching & how much is down to natural progression

 

its a different question altogether, but let me ask would we have gone on such a winning run under wilson ? (regardless of the performances)
and more importantly, who knows if we were heading down or not under wilson. it sure as hell wasnt working anymore under him was it and something had to be done.

 

Best home performances of the season: Gillingham, Bradford and Bristol City. I also enjoyed Crewe in cup (but we lost that), first half against Notts County (but we lost that and second half was 'orrible), Burton, parts of the Colchester game, last half hour against Walsall after the introduction of Winnall, and parts of the Preston game.

Home victories that have all blended in to one where I'd struggle to even remember the goalscorer: Orient, Yeovil, Port Vale, Oldham, Crewe and Coventry.

I also really enjoyed Rochdale and Sheff Utd away, but I'm sure I would have enjoyed any of the away victories since we sacked Wilson, it's just that I haven't seen them.

I enjoyed more games under Wilson, I saw better performances. I really don't see where the argument is, because other than 30 minutes against Walsall there's been nothing to compare to some of the games in the first half of the season. We've carried on under Johnson where we left off with Wilson: dull matches that we mostly win because we've learnt how to defend but that's been at the expense of entertaining football.

As far as the home results go, we've played 6 since Wilson was sacked, winning 3, drawing 2 and losing 1, which is OK, but not as good as the 6 league games prior to sacking Wilson where we won 4, drew 1 and lost 1. So the home form has actually taken a dip, but we've played tougher teams in the last 3 games. Our home form was good and it's remained so.

No one sacks a manager for a recent home record like that of Wilson's, not even us, so he must have been sacked for our away form. It was poor, no arguments there, but you've got to ask why. We've played 7 games away from home since Wilson was sacked, winning 3, drawing 2 and losing 2 which is substantially better than the lost 6, won 1 from the last 7 league games under Wilson. 5 of the clubs we've played away from home since Wilson's sacking were against clubs who are in the bottom half plus Bristol City and Gillingham in 12th. Under Wilson that 7 games included matches against every team from 2nd down to 6th plus Donny in 13th and Walsall in 15th.

Am I surprised our results improved when we got a run of games away from home against clubs down the bottom of the division compared to Swindon, MK Dons and Preston? No, I'm not.

I very much doubt we'd have gone on a 6 game winning run under Wilson, even though we were playing a number of the poorer teams in the division. Sequences of results like that are few and far between. But I also doubt we'd have gone on a 6 game winless run or got hammered 5-1 at Crawley and lost 3-1 to second from bottom Colchester.

We were 7 points from the play-offs when Wilson was sacked and 7 points from relegation. It's now 7 and 10. That's a bit of an improvement, but the opposition, on the whole, have been poorer. Give or take a couple of points I would have expected us to be in a similar position had we taken no action. So, what was the point?

This is not a dig at Johnson. I like him as a person and we'll get a much better idea of what he's like as a manager next season when he has a chance to bring his own players in. I just hope that, should we be in a similar position in the future, equidistant from the play-offs as we are relegation, we give Johnson a lot more time and patience than we gave Wilson.

We were midtable because of the strength of the squad, not the manager's ability. We remain so and are on a poor run of form because of the strength of the squad, not the manager's ability. Our squad isn't as competitive as we'd like because it was predominantly put together in two weeks. This was due to the fact that Cranie, Nyatanga, M'Voto, Jennings and O'Grady were on such huge wages we couldn't afford anyone else. When we got rid of one we could afford half a dozen new players. Those contracts limiting our recruitment have nothing to do with Johnson or Wilson or even Flitcroft. They were negotiated by the board.

But to end on a positive, despite the fact that we had to rebuild from scratch in the summer and despite the fact that we put the squad together in next to no time, if you put a decent player who can run with the ball in to our team, we actually look pretty good. We showed it with Williams under Wilson and O'Sullivan under Johnson. I don't believe it's either manager's fault that Jennings struggles to get fit or Treacy couldn't be arsed or Williams needed a hernia op or Blackburn recalled O'Sullivan to sit on the bench. With just one of those players remaining fit for the entire season, playing to his potential, I believe we'd be doing better than we are. With two we could well have had a play-off place already secured.

 

Excellent post. There's a tendency to see everything as black and white, we are either brilliant or rubbish.

It's not the case. We've been inconsistent all season. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, mostly indifferent.

However we should have a lot of optimism for next year. We've had a chance of nicking in the playoffs despite large patches of nondescript performances. Danny has left a good core of players and with a few additions we could really challenge next year.

With Cranie's contract up that's another of the large contracts we can be rid of, and early this year.

No matter what anyone says we are in a substantially better place now than we were 12 months ago.

 

Last two posts are pretty on the money. We are consistently inconsistent. Danny has signed the nucleus of a very good squad and I can see the progress in terms of personnel and think that with 4/6 shrewd signings by LJ we should be in a very good position to have a proper go at the division next season. Playing proper vibrant pacey attacking football because has the top 4 have shown that's the way to get out of this division by footballing your way out.

 

Perfectly summed up. I like it when you post on here after having a few drinks.

 

Really ? The nucleus of a very good squad, not from what I see.

 

Come on. We were within touching distance of the playoffs without doing very much at all a couple of weeks ago. A side with a bad nucleus of players doesn't do that.

On their day young players like Davies, Holgate, Hourihane, Berry, Winnall have all proved they can cut it in this league. They will only improve and get more consistent.

We've matched the runaway league leaders twice and were unlucky not to win at least one of those games. At times we've played some decent football (though not often enough I agree)

We will get nowhere by ripping up this squad and starting again. We have to have the bottle to stick with players we've identified as having potential and add to them next year to improve further.

 

No.

 

We're a mid table Division 3 team that looks nowhere near like its going to click into place. For me Danny Wilson didn't sign some very goood players to form the nucleus of a very good squad , he signed maybe 2 decent players , thats all.

 

One man was the catalyst to our good run but it wasnt Johnson imho

John Osullivan

Signed 19th Feb

21st Feb we play Crewe and go on that winning run
Win every game until Preston which was Osullivans last game and he went off early through injury but was having a class game again.

I do also put a lot of praise on Bunny for sorting the defence and organising the team a lot better. Davies also stepped up to the plate. But our attacking intent has withered since Osullivan left.

Johnson walked into a perfect storm imho. Soon as he started tinkering and changed that winning side with Declan John in there we started conceding goals.

Weve not won a game since Osullivan left.

Sheff utd we were gash all over the park.

Yesterday we were on the beach already first half. Second half they added a bit of hard work but there was absolutely no killer instinct or defined routes of attack. We blew hot and cold and pass after pass and opportunities went astray. The formation just wasnt working and as for 'i dont play players out of position' Johnson - he had several all over the shop.

Oh and the pitch and our young players is the root of this.

Got a lot to do yet to prove you are any better than Wilson!!! Wish Danny would have had the chance to have had Osullivan. That move in January that was blocked looks like its cost him his job - along with Winall getting injured.

Jury well and truly still out on LJ - but its early days still.

Now we have blown it for this year i want to see our own players in there and not the likes of Declan chuffing john

 

Apart from when we clicked into place and went 9 unbeaten very very recently. I think that shows that small tweaks can get this team winning games.

Plus, we should have won yesterday. We had by far the better chances.

We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

No. We suffered after Williams (Fulham) left, and it has been exactly the same since we lost O'Sullivan.

 

Top post. Completely agree Jay. Especially about giving LJ time.