inter politics

McGoldrick isn't just goals, although it seemed that way in this side this season and also, it's a real joy to watch him play. We all want results but that joy of a player doing something few others can is pure in-the-moment football delight.

Wayne Madsen. That’s all. 

Easy relaxing win

Easy relaxing win

Easy relaxing win

Easy relaxing win

Firstly let me start off by saying I was an Okolie hater before Okolie hating was a thing. I read a story about him being a school bully and the beef he had with Isaac Chamberlain was the begining. That's before we have his horrible boxing style and him rapping about himself. 
But that was a massive s*** show from the ref and Billam-Smith. 
Okolie was hugging a lot. That's a fact
But he has a right to clinch and tie up. And there was a couple of points where he was clearly hurt and did so to defend himself. The referee, who deserves a job in football, wouldn't let any inside work go without diving in. Like raccoon constantly needing to touch. 
Billam Smith barely threw anything. Nice fella and I don't begrudge him this life changing night. But his tactic since round 2 seemed to be to stand on Okolie's toes and wait for the hug. Then complain about it. He was constantly looking for Okolie to initiate the tie up, which Okolie frequently fell for, and then was desperately looking to the referee. If boxing gaslighting is a thing then that was it. He put together about 11 good shots in 12 rounds
The second "knock down" was laughable. But the ref was convinced the gust of wind generated by Billam-Smith's missed hook was what sent Okolie down. 
The next knock down, Okolie deserved it for leaning in, but again it was very generous refereeing to count the love tap as a punch as Okolie lunged forward. 
It feels horrible saying it because Billam Smith seems likable and I dislike Okolie. But I think Okolie and the ref did more to give that world title to Billiam-Smith than any "coaching genius" of Shane Mcguigan. 
He had a few success with the left hook. Probably not enough to win the fight without the referees point deductions though. 
People will say that it was a good fight. I'm gonna say it was crap. The ref was the star of the show. Other than that it was negative brawl you'd expect to see in sumo wrestling. 
Sam Eggington, not for the first time, the star of the show. (And more bad refereeing imo. The corner recognised the trouble before the referee and they weren't stood staring Pigford in the face)

Wayne Madsen ladies and gentlemen. What a player he is. I swear he’s getting better. Imagine how good he’ll be when he’s 60! 

I downloaded Wyscout for a trial run to see if it’s something that I would find of interest so did a little bit of a deep dive on the players we have been linked with so far. 
Anyone that knows the Wyscout platform will already be aware it’s an absolutely fascinating and groundbreaking tool for scouting players and teams. 
The most notable data point I came away with was that Ruben Rodrigues made the most ‘smart passes’ in the country last season with 131. A smart pass is defined as: A creative and penetrative pass that attempts to break the opposition's defensive lines to gain a significant advantage in attack.
To give you a reference point of just how high that is, not a single player in League Two had more than 40. Chaplin and Bannan ran away with it in League One with 58 each, third had 39. Mendez-Laing had 16 as our best midfielder in that regard, Knight second with just 12. The app also clips videos of several different indicators for each match - 40 minutes dedicated to just Ruben Rodrigues touches, 175 videos. He’s a talented football, a little bit of a grafter and based on what I’ve seen I would be surprised if he didn’t make the step up comfortably. The only reference point that I felt fell short was his impact on the counter attack, but he’s definitely got a bit of physicality. I think with a full, professional pre-season then he genuinely could be a diamond at this level. 

The posts of some people on this board don’t automatically equate to “the majority”. I for one would like to sign Roberts on a free and retain Sibley, Knight and Bird if feasible. I also accept that players will inevitably move on and if one, two or all of those 3 do leave we’ll have new players to support in their stead.
Roberts as a player has attributes we need in the squad, can cover a couple of positions, is young and has potential, signing him on a free would represent sensible business. I also think as it looks to be another summer of high numbers joining the squad, signing Roberts negates some of the settling in period other recruits may need as he’s just spent a year here.

He's been a great servant. Absolutely stellar in so many ways. I felt his time was going to come when Cocu arrived and the Academy was going to be front and centre, but alas that all spiralled out of control. When you look at our return on investment, it's been surprisingly poor, for one reason or another, and that shows the danger of putting too much faith in it.
At the moment we have Sibley, Cashin, Bird and Knight which is incredibly impresive, but given we're a third division team with a Category 1 academy you'd hope we'd have some players to show for it. Maybe Liam Delap and Kaide Gordon were the ones who got away?
We won the English league and competed well in Europe. Timi Elsnik and Jack Stretton came close. Max Lowe, Jayden Bogle, Festy Ebesole, Lee Buchanan, Dylan Williams, Luke Thomas, Farrend Rawson, Morgan Whittaker, Archie Brown, Mason Bennett, Calum Guy and Kelle Roos all hint at us producing good players but not great players. Will Hughes and Jeff Hendrick, from the early days, have reached highest without quite fulfilling their early promise. 
If there had been a better overall plan of academy to first team I think we'd have seen the real benefit and I thought Wass should one day become the first-team coach overseeing his charges, but like it all it's been nearly but not quite. We probably won't know exactly how important and how good he's been until he's gone and we see what changes. A new broom is sweeping through the club and I think that's no bad thing, plus now we're in our second season in the third tier, we really do have to cut our cloth accordingly.
But huge thanks to Darren Wassall for everything.

Thanks for all the service Darren. 

48 hours.

McGoldrick isn't just goals, although it seemed that way in this side this season and also, it's a real joy to watch him play. We all want results but that joy of a player doing something few others can is pure in-the-moment football delight.

Once a Ram, StearGoat! #COYR
 

Crazy game. Embarrassing for P'Boro

McGoldrick isn't just goals, although it seemed that way in this side this season and also, it's a real joy to watch him play. We all want results but that joy of a player doing something few others can is pure in-the-moment football delight.

McGoldrick isn't just goals, although it seemed that way in this side this season and also, it's a real joy to watch him play. We all want results but that joy of a player doing something few others can is pure in-the-moment football delight.

McGoldrick isn't just goals, although it seemed that way in this side this season and also, it's a real joy to watch him play. We all want results but that joy of a player doing something few others can is pure in-the-moment football delight.

McGoldrick isn't just goals, although it seemed that way in this side this season and also, it's a real joy to watch him play. We all want results but that joy of a player doing something few others can is pure in-the-moment football delight.

Warne going to this. Glad he's looking at lower leagues too. For one reason or another, we haven't plucked enough talented young lower league players lately.

Warne going to this. Glad he's looking at lower leagues too. For one reason or another, we haven't plucked enough talented young lower league players lately.

Warne going to this. Glad he's looking at lower leagues too. For one reason or another, we haven't plucked enough talented young lower league players lately.

Good to hear him calling out some of the concerns that arose regarding his approach in certain corners of our fan base as things he’s learned from. Saying he now knows we need a bigger a squad, that he stuck with players out of form and should have been more ruthless, and should have made subs more proactively is quite telling. For those who hold their concerns with Warne hopefully that is him seeing his own faults and next season we’ll see that he’s learned from the experience of this season and improve on those areas.