Jourdan

I’ve got a nosebleed coming this far north. Already seen somebody eating a Ginsters ‘pasty’ and another with a scone with the cream on first. I feel sick.

Hectic schedule? Under Warne, didn’t we have six away games in 28 days and 20+ games from October through to the beginning of January?
Injuries? Bird and Chester are currently out with what have been long term injuries. Knight, Sibley and McGoldrick have all had spells out injured under Warne. Forsyth has had to fill in where Davies, Chester and Stearman couldn’t. We’ve been playing midfielders at full back for the majority of the season.
Fitness and familiarity? Warne has had build all of that while having a similarly tough schedule.
No-one has said Warne is the next Clough or Sir Alex and no-one has said he can’t be outsmarted or outmanoeuvred. No-one is holding him to a different standard either.
Just two losses since October and just four in 25 league games overall tends to give you a bit of leeway.

In the league, we’ve won 11 out of 14 under Warne when scoring first.
We lost v Port Vale and drew v Burton and Shrewsbury.
Perhaps it’s less about control and more about teams punishing mistakes?
Shrewsbury did that today. Barnsley did it last week. Wycombe did it a few weeks back.
This group is a good group but it’s a slog of a season and at any level, there is only so much you can get away with.
We’ve been sloppy, but it happens to even the very best over a long season.

Thanks, we are staying with my sister. Just finished 5th in the quiz at the Elburton inn.

I am not saying Wycombe can’t catch us. This is football and anything can happen. All four teams in the play-offs still have work to do. Look at Bolton, for instance. They have 10 games left and they are only two points better off than us.
Wycombe are in a similar position to where we were in relation to Plymouth six games ago. We were already looking at our fixtures and crossing off the routine home wins and anticipating the other team would wobble. That didn’t quite turn out as we expected. Sometimes the old adage one game at a time rings very true.
We are going to lose games and drop points between now and the end of the season but so too will Wycombe and the two or three others queuing up.
I just think it’s no time to panic. I would say there are still 8 very winnable games for us and 4 games that may not be favourable for us but will come down to which team turns up on the day and if that’s us, we stand a good chance.
I wouldn’t write us off yet.

Anyone who is worried by current form, think back to the magic 80.
Wycombe need 26 points, Shrewsbury need 28 points, Peterborough and Portsmouth need 29 points. It’s a minimum of two points per game across 12-13 games and 7-8 wins minimum. If any of the four are to overtake us, it will require something special.
We have to forget about the top two. I can understand the frustration because we have wobbled at a time when we needed to apply some pressure.
If we’re honest, it was never really on. Sheff Wed are breaking records and Plymouth have set the pace since very early on. We had to be absolutely relentless. That was never really likely with a squad of 21-22, the majority of whom have played 30-40 games with a possible 15 more to go.
We’re at a stage now where we need to hold our nerve. It‘s that simple. We have 12 games to go and need six wins to guarantee a play off place, possibly fewer if the chasing pack stutter.
We’re having a wobble. There’s no getting away from that. But prior to that we had won six in a row and had gone 15 games unbeaten. You have to take the rough with the smooth and realise the standard we had set was an unsustainable one. Under normal circumstances, we would have added 3-4 more to the squad and avoided any hiccups.
March going into April will probably be our toughest run of games all season. Three away games in five and Plymouth, Ipswich and Peterborough all to play. Brace yourselves because we have to be prepared for a bit more suffering.
Ultimately though I don’t think now is the time to dig out Warne or the players. Fair enough if we end up in 7th or fair enough if we ship 3 to Ipswich or Barnsley and don’t do ourselves justice in the play-offs.
But as it is, the manager and players are giving everything in difficult circumstances. I wish it was more straightforward but the end goal is still very much in our hands and the team will need our support to get over the line.
 

I don’t get this argument. It’s nothing unusual to have a stronger record v weaker opposition. In fact, it’s what the majority of successful campaigns are built upon. See @Brailsford Ram’s previous post.
Three points are three points. You don’t get any extra for beating the team in 3rd than you do for beating the team in 23rd.
It’s also especially difficult to understand because all of our games against top opposition have been decided by fine margins. One or two mistakes can make the difference. Sometimes we have fallen on the wrong side of it and sometimes on the right side. That’s football.
If we had been routinely well beaten by top sides, fair enough, it may point to an alarming pattern. But across the season, many games we’ve had have been competitive and could have gone either way, with wins you could argue we didn’t deserve and losses we didn’t deserve and so on.
It could be something, it could be nothing. We could lose v Plymouth but then beat Ipswich and Peterborough. That’s been the nature of our season.
Also, when it comes to the play-offs, we all know that what happens previously in the league goes out of the window and has little to no bearing. Everyone describes it as unpredictable and a lottery for that exact reason.
As long as we finish in the top six, we have as good a chance as anyone. Most posters are saying that the time to criticise Warne is when that doesn’t happen.
Given his track record, if it does not happen this year, there is still cause to feel confident we’ll come back and give it a good go next season. 

Today was a must not lose game for Forest, so yes they will be disappointed not to win, but it’s still mission accomplished. A four point gap is a healthy one at this stage.
They have six teams below them and all of them are averaging less than a point per game. 
It would take a collapse for the ages for Forest to go down now. The teams below them are somehow even worse.
They might stay up on 35 points or fewer with the way things are looking.

Today was a must not lose game for Forest, so yes they will be disappointed not to win, but it’s still mission accomplished. A four point gap is a healthy one at this stage.
They have six teams below them and all of them are averaging less than a point per game. 
It would take a collapse for the ages for Forest to go down now. The teams below them are somehow even worse.
They might stay up on 35 points or fewer with the way things are looking.

Four? Those amigos shaking maracas are going to need a spa break in the Cotswolds.

I don’t get this argument. It’s nothing unusual to have a stronger record v weaker opposition. In fact, it’s what the majority of successful campaigns are built upon. See @Brailsford Ram’s previous post.
Three points are three points. You don’t get any extra for beating the team in 3rd than you do for beating the team in 23rd.
It’s also especially difficult to understand because all of our games against top opposition have been decided by fine margins. One or two mistakes can make the difference. Sometimes we have fallen on the wrong side of it and sometimes on the right side. That’s football.
If we had been routinely well beaten by top sides, fair enough, it may point to an alarming pattern. But across the season, many games we’ve had have been competitive and could have gone either way, with wins you could argue we didn’t deserve and losses we didn’t deserve and so on.
It could be something, it could be nothing. We could lose v Plymouth but then beat Ipswich and Peterborough. That’s been the nature of our season.
Also, when it comes to the play-offs, we all know that what happens previously in the league goes out of the window and has little to no bearing. Everyone describes it as unpredictable and a lottery for that exact reason.
As long as we finish in the top six, we have as good a chance as anyone. Most posters are saying that the time to criticise Warne is when that doesn’t happen.
Given his track record, if it does not happen this year, there is still cause to feel confident we’ll come back and give it a good go next season. 

I am not saying Wycombe can’t catch us. This is football and anything can happen. All four teams in the play-offs still have work to do. Look at Bolton, for instance. They have 10 games left and they are only two points better off than us.
Wycombe are in a similar position to where we were in relation to Plymouth six games ago. We were already looking at our fixtures and crossing off the routine home wins and anticipating the other team would wobble. That didn’t quite turn out as we expected. Sometimes the old adage one game at a time rings very true.
We are going to lose games and drop points between now and the end of the season but so too will Wycombe and the two or three others queuing up.
I just think it’s no time to panic. I would say there are still 8 very winnable games for us and 4 games that may not be favourable for us but will come down to which team turns up on the day and if that’s us, we stand a good chance.
I wouldn’t write us off yet.

McGee
Rooney - Cashin - Davies - Roberts
White - Knight - Sibley
Dobbin - Collins - Barkhuizen
Imagine this was the line up today and five or six key players were rested and we drew 0-0 or lost 0-1.
Would the fans be sympathetic? Quite the opposite.
I don’t think Warne can really win in this situation. I certainly don’t blame him for playing as strong a line up as possible.

In the league, we’ve won 11 out of 14 under Warne when scoring first.
We lost v Port Vale and drew v Burton and Shrewsbury.
Perhaps it’s less about control and more about teams punishing mistakes?
Shrewsbury did that today. Barnsley did it last week. Wycombe did it a few weeks back.
This group is a good group but it’s a slog of a season and at any level, there is only so much you can get away with.
We’ve been sloppy, but it happens to even the very best over a long season.

I don’t get this argument. It’s nothing unusual to have a stronger record v weaker opposition. In fact, it’s what the majority of successful campaigns are built upon. See @Brailsford Ram’s previous post.
Three points are three points. You don’t get any extra for beating the team in 3rd than you do for beating the team in 23rd.
It’s also especially difficult to understand because all of our games against top opposition have been decided by fine margins. One or two mistakes can make the difference. Sometimes we have fallen on the wrong side of it and sometimes on the right side. That’s football.
If we had been routinely well beaten by top sides, fair enough, it may point to an alarming pattern. But across the season, many games we’ve had have been competitive and could have gone either way, with wins you could argue we didn’t deserve and losses we didn’t deserve and so on.
It could be something, it could be nothing. We could lose v Plymouth but then beat Ipswich and Peterborough. That’s been the nature of our season.
Also, when it comes to the play-offs, we all know that what happens previously in the league goes out of the window and has little to no bearing. Everyone describes it as unpredictable and a lottery for that exact reason.
As long as we finish in the top six, we have as good a chance as anyone. Most posters are saying that the time to criticise Warne is when that doesn’t happen.
Given his track record, if it does not happen this year, there is still cause to feel confident we’ll come back and give it a good go next season. 

I think some of our fans really don’t appreciate how things work in this division. 
There seems to be this idea that we just play some possession football and we can win and rest a bit, but you’d probably find yesterdays point would turn into zero points.
It really isn’t that simple. Have you seen the way the opposition work, battle, timewaste, even cheat in more extreme cases?
The only way to succeed is to compete, look at the form teams at the moment, Sheff Wed and Barnsley, they are relentless till the final minute, they mix it in with some decent football, but they never stop, or even slowdown.
Its the formula for success in this division and we are/have become fairly good at it, we sadly just don’t have the squad for it at present due to the EFL business plan, the cup run didn’t help either.
Warne has got a tough job on keeping the keeping them fit and keeping the intensity high in a small squad with a big quality drop off outside the main starting eleven. He’s doing a decent job of it all things considered.

Anyone who is worried by current form, think back to the magic 80.
Wycombe need 26 points, Shrewsbury need 28 points, Peterborough and Portsmouth need 29 points. It’s a minimum of two points per game across 12-13 games and 7-8 wins minimum. If any of the four are to overtake us, it will require something special.
We have to forget about the top two. I can understand the frustration because we have wobbled at a time when we needed to apply some pressure.
If we’re honest, it was never really on. Sheff Wed are breaking records and Plymouth have set the pace since very early on. We had to be absolutely relentless. That was never really likely with a squad of 21-22, the majority of whom have played 30-40 games with a possible 15 more to go.
We’re at a stage now where we need to hold our nerve. It‘s that simple. We have 12 games to go and need six wins to guarantee a play off place, possibly fewer if the chasing pack stutter.
We’re having a wobble. There’s no getting away from that. But prior to that we had won six in a row and had gone 15 games unbeaten. You have to take the rough with the smooth and realise the standard we had set was an unsustainable one. Under normal circumstances, we would have added 3-4 more to the squad and avoided any hiccups.
March going into April will probably be our toughest run of games all season. Three away games in five and Plymouth, Ipswich and Peterborough all to play. Brace yourselves because we have to be prepared for a bit more suffering.
Ultimately though I don’t think now is the time to dig out Warne or the players. Fair enough if we end up in 7th or fair enough if we ship 3 to Ipswich or Barnsley and don’t do ourselves justice in the play-offs.
But as it is, the manager and players are giving everything in difficult circumstances. I wish it was more straightforward but the end goal is still very much in our hands and the team will need our support to get over the line.
 

Over the last 12 league games, we have won 8, drawn 2 and lost 2. Yes, 8 points in our last 6 is probably 4-6 points worse than many expected, but hardly troubling.
I think bar probably two positions - left back and left winger - the team is largely set in stone. Bird’s injury has obviously unsettled things mind you. Similarly, we play a version of 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 for the majority of games.
The most games we have gone without a win this season is three and that’s not recent, so I don’t see great cause for concern yet.
Criticism like this seems premature. If we lose v Plymouth and Oxford and don’t beat Fleetwood and put our spot in the top six in danger, then fair enough. It’s a sustained poor run of form and Warne will have to answer for that.
But as it is we’ve lost four times in 25 league games and yet the manager is not convincing you? I wonder if he’s simply fighting a losing battle.

Hull ?

We're going through our bad spell. Every team has it. I think a lot of fans are reading too much into it and are being overly negative. If we finish in the playoffs we've had a really good season and have just as much chance at promotion as the others.

I don’t think the style is the issue. It’s the make up of the squad, the injuries, the restrictions we are under, and the sheer number of games we have played.
We have played 11 cup games this season. That’s almost a quarter of a League One season. It’s bound to take its toll.
We have a group of 13-14 that have been playing game in, game out for 7-8 months. 3-4 of those have been playing exclusively out of position. It’s also bound to take its toll.
The depth and quality of depth hasn’t been there for us to take the burden from the core group.
Imagine if Forsyth and Cashin could have been rotated out for Davies, Chester or Stearman. That hasn’t really been an option for the majority of the season.
If only we could give Wildsmith, Smith, Hourihane, Mendez Laing and McGoldrick a break, you could say. The alternatives are McGee or Loach, Oduroh or Rooney, White or Thompson, Springett, and of course Collins - all of whom are either too inferior or too inexperienced to rely on.
If we finish in the play-offs, we’ll have done very well all things considered.

I don’t think the style is the issue. It’s the make up of the squad, the injuries, the restrictions we are under, and the sheer number of games we have played.
We have played 11 cup games this season. That’s almost a quarter of a League One season. It’s bound to take its toll.
We have a group of 13-14 that have been playing game in, game out for 7-8 months. 3-4 of those have been playing exclusively out of position. It’s also bound to take its toll.
The depth and quality of depth hasn’t been there for us to take the burden from the core group.
Imagine if Forsyth and Cashin could have been rotated out for Davies, Chester or Stearman. That hasn’t really been an option for the majority of the season.
If only we could give Wildsmith, Smith, Hourihane, Mendez Laing and McGoldrick a break, you could say. The alternatives are McGee or Loach, Oduroh or Rooney, White or Thompson, Springett, and of course Collins - all of whom are either too inferior or too inexperienced to rely on.
If we finish in the play-offs, we’ll have done very well all things considered.

Bar a mad 20 mins I thought the control was pretty much there yesterday. 20 mins under the cosh that all started from individual mistakes. 
A call for more possession? 61% is more than enough. Second most in the league yesterday, far more than any of our rivals. Third highest possession in the league overall this year, I don’t think that’s a problem. 
Theres no doubt a few are ball bagged but look at the team for what it is. Old men and inconsistent kids. Mistakes will happen and teams will have a period in the ascendancy, we’ve just got to cut out the lapses at the back.
 
 

Over the last 12 league games, we have won 8, drawn 2 and lost 2. Yes, 8 points in our last 6 is probably 4-6 points worse than many expected, but hardly troubling.
I think bar probably two positions - left back and left winger - the team is largely set in stone. Bird’s injury has obviously unsettled things mind you. Similarly, we play a version of 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 for the majority of games.
The most games we have gone without a win this season is three and that’s not recent, so I don’t see great cause for concern yet.
Criticism like this seems premature. If we lose v Plymouth and Oxford and don’t beat Fleetwood and put our spot in the top six in danger, then fair enough. It’s a sustained poor run of form and Warne will have to answer for that.
But as it is we’ve lost four times in 25 league games and yet the manager is not convincing you? I wonder if he’s simply fighting a losing battle.