To be fair to Keith Hill...

...I actually think he built a pretty good squad, it was just lacking confidence/cutting edge up front.

Still a lot of work to do but if the season had started on 1st January we'd be very near the top now and dreaming of promotion.

This isn't just a new manager effect, if that actually exists it lasts two or three games at the most. If Golbourne hadn't got injured we'd have probably got five or six more points - not really so much because of Golbourne's absense but the fact that Flicker decided he couldn't play the same formation without him and decided to experiment with different, ultimately unsuccessful, tactics.

We've questioned a lot of Keith's signings but I'd say his only questionable one turned out to be Lee Collins who was never going to be good enough, even Etuhu (who looked useless at one point) has turned into a good player. Mido was worth a punt so you can't really blame him too much for how that situation turned out, I think he would have done well if he hadn't got injured.

If you were to fault Keith Hill on anything it's that he had his favourites in the starting eleven who seemed to get picked regardless of their form/ability, he had no plan B and his tactics weren't positive enough.

Flicker has had a bit of luck with the emergence of Dagnall, the signing of Scotland and a risky but successful change of shape - I'd say his faults/mistakes have mainly been related to a formation that was working fine by being too hung up on the loss of a left wing back (surely we have someone else who could have been effective in that role). I'd also question his perseverance with Tunnicliffe in the starting line up, he seems to have finally realised that this lad isn't going to be effective in our team coming from the reserve/U21 football he's been playing and I'd be very surprised if we see much else of him this season, especially with Dawson more or less fit.

Anyway, cheers for getting the ball rolling Keith and keep up the good work Flickibob.

 

The ex-Rochdale contingent seem to have stepped up.
Wiseman, Kennedy, Perkins, O'Grady, Dagnall and Etuhu (4 apps) have all played for Rochdale and all did very well today.

 

No ****!

 

It's surprising that Hill didn't use Kennedy more being one of his Rochdale chums, he hasn't put a foot wrong whilst he's been in the side but seemed to be frozen out by Keith.

Hill and Flitcroft have both seen something in Wiseman that the rest of us haven't (fair enough they saw/see him every day in training) but he isn't a centre-half. I'm more than comfortable with Wiseman at right-back and given that the general consensus was he was excellent in this position today after Delap went off tells me that if Flitcroft insists on playing him then it needs to be at RB/RWB.

 

I appreciate I'm in a minority of about two but I believe its because we weren't far off being a good team under Hill.

But that's in the past now. Onwards and upwards

 

Are you actually serious? He made some great signings, vaz te, drinkwater, Dawson was an inspired piece of management, there's others. But there's no way he made only one questionable signing.

To be fair it won't be long until Rob Edwards is held in as high regard as legends such as glavin and redfearn.

Jim McNulty may well be up there with Gerald Taggart and Michael McCarthy, and, I'll be kind, I'll leave the incredible Ahmed Hossam Hussein Abdelhamid.

I think I get your point but I don't agree Hill started much, I think it's much more a change in ethic under flicker, less tippy tappy, more grit and a sense of togetherness that wasn't there in hill. I don't know that flicker is a better manager than hill, but he's certainly doing a better job at this club with this squad than he was.

I'm not saying hill was completely useless as I've no right to suggest that, but we had 21 points after 26 games. Who thought we'd have 44 points 11 games later, and more importantly who thinks hill would have achieved the same.

I was guilty of believing hills drivel about how as we had no money and lower league players we couldn't expect any better. Flicker has proved that this low quality lower league cheaply assembled squad can more than compete - win our game in hand we'd be top of the 2013 form table. Little short of miraculous IMO and I'm not going to lessen the achievements of flicker, Mellon and co by suggesting the work was started by hill.

 

I have no respect for Keith Hill whatsoever.

 

Make that 3.

Can't argue that the results were terrible under Hill, but there were very few teams that played us off the park. Felt sorry for Hill when he left, there was nowt wrong with the team, just some fine tuning wouldn't have sorted.

If Daggers had found his shooting boots earlier I think he'd still be here. That said Flicker is doing a remarkable job in his place.

 

He had long enough to "fine tune" but only rarely got an almost watchable picture

 

Yeah I know what you mean troff and I missed McNulty - I don't to the criticize our current players too much as it's fair to say people connected with the club, if not the the players themselves, read this board but it hasn't worked for McNulty at Barnsley and I'm always much more nervous when watching us when he is playing.

I'd disagree on Hill not starting much though, when you talk about a good squad it's normally in reference to the players themselves as opposed to the system and style of play. We've now seen that Hill wasn't being stupid with the players he brought in, he just wasn't using them effectively.

 

..........................'seen something in Wiseman that the rest of us haven't'
WRONG !!!.................take a look at my past posts in relation to Wiseman.............even tho i was getting some stick about those views at the time

AND...........I haven't seen Wiseman play under Flicker
It would be great to see Wiseman play along side a tall commanding centre back like Shackel

 

There's some right over the top ***** posted about McNulty on here

 

And why was the confidence low? Because Hill described the players as from Aldi, Lid'l etc, and various other disparaging words.

And he seemed to scare them about how good the opposition were every week, whereas Flicker sends the team out to try and beat everyone. He also describes half the players as the best in their position in the league which must boost their confidence.

 

He's a ****in ledge, still love him to bits, but love Flicker more

#inlovewithhillflicker

 

Completely agree. Knew he was doomed when he was jeered for dummying the ball to keep posession against Huddersfield..