Tamworthram

What exactly are the "principles of his real estate business"?

Including Cashin?

Good post and I'll be there on Saturday as well (also renewing my ST without hesitation) and I've been banging on for ages that our failings are not ALL down to PW. However, whilst arguably correct to say we only lost due to individual errors, I think this is a tad misleading. We also lost because we failed to control the game enough or create and finish enough opportunities. If you allow the opposition to take control for long periods of the game (as Charlton did for good parts of the second half) then there is a high risk that they will get back into the game either through their pressing or from errors in your own team. I'm not suggesting we should dominate from start to finish (there are bound to be periods when the opposition get the upper hand) but there felt like an inevitability that they would score by one means or another and we did very little to trouble their keeper. COYR

He did well at Bishop's Stortford. 😀 Seriously though, let's not write him off just yet.

I agree with 99% of what you say. The only slight thing I'd question is you're comments about Charlton. Yes, they didn't look great (until we allowed them to) and they are 20th on a long run without a win BUT, they signed a lot of players in January, have a new manager and picked up very creditable draws against Bolton and Portsmouth in their two games previous to last night. Regardless, we should have had enough to see them off and at least not lose at home. No such excuses for Saturday though. Port Vale have only picked up 3 points (out of 30) since the turn of the year.

Technically it isn't of course but this kind of feels like a must win game (and win it reasonably comfortably) in order to restore some degree of confidence for the players and fans that we could continue to challenge for an automatic promotion place or, at least, be competitive in the play offs.

👏 😞 Even the most pro- Warne amongst us will find it difficult to argue with that question. Shame about the smiley face though.

We had more than one shot on target but sadly, they were all pretty easy for the goal keeper to take. My only crumb of comfort is that Barnsley didn’t look a whole lot better last week and whilst Posh looked very good at our place, they have proved that they’re quite capable of having a drop in form. Assuming we’re still in touch, how both we and Bolton perform when we meet in two and a half weeks time could be quite telling. As @angieram rightly pointed out earlier in the week, there is a specific thread to talk about PW (unless it relates specifically to the game in question) so I shan’t comment on his future here.

I guess you could say we had significant issues which made it difficult to expect us to be promotion challengers (no points deduction but a hastily thrown together squad and unable to pay a fee for new players last season and in the summer) but we just missed out last season and should (unless we have a monumental collapse beyond anything we’ve seen before even at Derby) make the play offs this season. I don’t think we’ve improved either, we’re only in the mix for autos because (IMO) the top of the league isn’t as strong as last year. Unless we win every game (that ain’t going to happen), I reckon where we finish is no largely dependent on how many unexpected points the others drop. If we finish below all of Bolton, Barnsley and Posh then it will be a disappointment but will be largely forgotten if by some miracle we won the play offs. The only consolation is that none of those are taking the league by the scruff of the neck and all are probably beatable in the play offs. Sadly though, Derby look the most beatable at the moment. edit: Just realised, we threw away a 7 point lead at this point last season so we’re more than capable of throwing away a 9 point lead.

Unfortunately, we’ve still to play [insert any team] at home.

Perhaps the most worrying for me, because we seem to see it time after time, is the manager’s and player’s inability to step up and/or change things immediately after half time. How many times (at PP in particular) have we seen the opposition come out for the second half and take control for at least 20-25 minutes? We seem to have no answer or desire to reimpose ourselves and are happy to let the visitors take over. Maybe not as often as I think but it does seem like pretty much every game. And why the F do we make attacking substitutions with only a few minutes of normal time remaining? I could understand it if we were maybe three goals up (it’s been a long time since we’ve had that luxury) in order to give a player coming back from injury a bit of run out but not when we need to make things happen (and we’ve been ineffective up until then) and are seriously running out of time.

He said Smith was subbed because he was “chuffin”, or whatever phrase he used, presumably to mean he was exhausted. He didn’t look it but maybe he was. I agree about Bird towards the end because we were throwing everything forward but I don’t think he was great throughout the game. The ref was very weak and should have made the player go off at the shortest point and booked him. I wonder what his answers were to Waggy when he was complaining about it. There should certainly have been several other yellow card. When oh when will they clamp down on this all in wrestling at corners (I’m sure we’re just as guilty from time to time) but it’s becoming a joke now. The only positive thing about the ref (unfortunately) is he got the penalty shout right.

It was a joke (hence the smiley emoji) as technically it was a header not a shot. But, never mind.

My predictor now has us finishing third behind Barnsley and Portsmouth. Based on tonight's performance (not just the result) I reckon even that is looking a tad optimistic. 😒

I real time (from the East Stand mind you) I thought it was outside the box but, if you can bring yourself to watch the highlights you'll see it was clearly inside.

It wasn't a shot. 😀 Seriously though, we did have what could technically be considered as shots/attempts on target but I reckon I could have safely caught most of them.

I agree that on Saturday we were pretty much the equal of Barnsley but I have to disagree about tonight. Yes we were terrible. We may have been the better team (marginally) but that doesn't mean we were any good. I'm not sure I can bring myself to watch the "highlights" but I don't recall "more than enough chances to take 3 points". Even the shots/headers on target were pretty tame affairs (apart from the goal of course) and I don't remember their keeper having to make any serious saves. I certainly don't expect us to win every game but, be honest, how many times have we looked decent this season - even most of the games we have won we have failed to impress? Peterborough away for half an hour, Oxford in the second half, Northampton in the first half. There may be more but I struggling. I'm also not calling for PW to be sacked. I haven't all season but, he really needs to get this group of players performing better. Of course they need to step up their performances as well. You can't blame the manager, his team selection or his tactics entirely for the poor ball control, decision making, passing, errors, ability/desire to win second balls etc.

Yes (he may have said "particularly well").

Agreed. Cashin was very good. Smith was OK. I'll let Gayle off given it was his first start and he didn't get any decent service (sounds familiar) and CBT barely had enough time to get his boots dirty. But the rest?

I never understand the point of making a tactical, attacking, substitution with only 6 minutes remaining. CBT didn't do much but, to fair, he barely had time to get his boots dirty.

If the squad of players is that good then they should be able play better than that. I'm not defending PW, he has to take a very large chunk of the blame for our form all season but, once again, the players have to take their share of the blame. Only Cashin can really hold his head high tonight.

FFS, some people take these pre and post match conferences way too seriously (or maybe just another excuse to have a go at PW?). I’d much rather he said publicly what he did than suggest it should be an easy win because we’re fourth and they’re 20th (ignoring the fact that they’ve recently taken points off Bolton and Portsmouth recently). That’s not a small team mentality it’s showing respect for the opposition (even if only for public consumption), and not showing too much over confidence or arrogance. Maybe, when talking to the team he talks about this being a game we can and should be winning but at the same time being careful to not take it for granted. Being too confident and complacent can be dangerous.

Maybe Labour should have as well but sadly, that’s not quite how the opposition parties seem to work. I’m no particular fan of the SNP but if their only breach of parliamentary convention is to refuse to clap then I’m not sure anyone should be losing too much sleep over the matter. Maybe the relative scale of the breaches aren’t relevant but perhaps the suspected motivation behind them is.

I generally agree but I don’t think no clapping is quite on the same scale. Do you?