Tamworthram

I no particular order but mine might well include: Breaking Bad Gomorrah Subarra Black Mirror Game of Thrones Boardwalk Empire Caliphate Narcos Chernobyl Fargo With honourable mentions for: Killing Eve, Das Boot, Happy Valley, Westworld and House of Cards. I know, I've cheated and listed 15.

A third didn't attend though? I know it was a Tuesday night but that sounds like a staggeringly high number and is almost too insane to believe.

Assuming there were a couple of thousand from Northampton, are you saying the actual crowd was only c16k + freebies? Seriously? I find that very hard to believe unless they give away something like 5000 tickets which sounds like a very high number. Stunning if true. I also thought that it had been determined that the club now only counts actual attendees. To add, if we have sold 20,000 season tickets, are you suggesting more than 6,000 of them didn't attend the Northampton game?

Surely, subject to some anomalies (e.g. Bolton being gifted Wildsmith’s sending off) whoever grabs the automatic play off places truly deserves it? The fact that Bolton’s tough run has come towards the end of the season is kind of irrelevant in terms of who deserves a top two finish.

Oh no. We’ll be back on the blue shorts campaign again before you know it. 😀

I thought the same about their CB. He’s clearly not a gifted ball player and is there primarily to head and clear the ball. We were content to let him have the ball, aware that he wasn’t going to play a dangerous ball forward. But by not pressing him we simply allowed him to play a simple ball to someone else with more ability. Very fine margins. I’m not sure we’d batter them at home but I wouldn’t fear them in the play offs.

Let’s hope we’re not around to witness it.

It’s all about balance I guess. A manager would be negligent if they failed to recognise the strengths of the opposition, and their preferred method of playing, and didn’t take this into account. But, on the other hand, they shouldn’t be obsessed with the opposition and need to think about how they can cause them problems (especially at home). It’s this being a football manager lark. 😀

So the answer is yes then? It is possible to set up being mindful of the opposition but to be brave when you can if he took Hourihane off for not being brave enough.

Is that 100% the fault of the manager though or is it, to an extent, the players not being brave enough. 🤷🏻

Every year, just to pass the time because I really have no idea and this league continues to produce some weird results, I do a spreadsheet predictor in early Feb. This year, I have assumed the top 7 get the same results as the others against teams outside of the top 7 (so, if I have Portsmouth to win away at Charlton, I put everyone else down to win at Charlton by the same margin). So, the only thing I really have to ponder is head to heads amongst the top 7. My predictor has us finishing top on goal difference. By and large, I accept it’s a pointless exercise - I only really do it for fun, but it does satisfy me that there are no stand out favourites in the league. I may have been a tad over confident but I did have us down for losing yesterday and failing to beat either Pompey or Bolton.

Is it not possible to do both? Set the team up to adapt to the other teams strengths but be brave when you’re in possession yourselves?

Absolutely. Some people have talked about yesterday’s defeat as a missed opportunity (because Pompey only drew and Bolton lost but they’re probably thinking the same with us losing) but it was always going to be tough. Not making our home games count would be a missed opportunity. Bolton is obviously the toughest one but we need to be winning the other three (comfortably would be nice, in order to build confidence and protect our goal difference advantage) and at least not losing to Bolton. If you add into the mix winnable games away at Northampton and Bristol Rovers then we have a great chance to set ourselves up nicely for the run in. Just don’t mess it up Derby.

Back on thread. I always look forward to Barnsley away. A chance to spend time with relatives in the morning and always a good following. Shame it’s often spoilt by the result. Too many players were off their game yesterday not all of which can be put down to tactics and formation. As others have said, we weren’t great but there wasn’t a great deal between the two teams. Whilst we wouldn’t go into the games with a great deal of confidence, there’s no reason to fear Barnsley if we happen to come up against them in the play offs. I had this down as a defeat pre game but I also have us down for winning our next two at home. Fingers crossed.

Very good shout. I know I’ve contributed, for which I apologise, but only in response to others.

Don’t stress on my account. I’ve also got better things to do today 😀

Of course the reality is they’ll probably do neither. Getting promotion is only part one of the medium term goal so, it won’t be a case of “job done” so no reason to explode into raptures. Equally, failure to get promoted won’t mean we have failed our medium term goals (unless PW was given a short term goal privately which could result in a sacking or resignation 🤷🏻) so they won’t disintegrate into the abyss. The East Midlands might always be black and white but the boards reaction probably won’t be.

Of course he would consider it a failure, of course he admitted he failed. What do you expect him to feel or say? However, my points are 1) assuming we don’t go up this year then the nature of our “failure” needs to be considered (which chairman in their right mind would sack the manager for finishing 3rd for example?) and 2) I suspect his remit is to get us promoted but not specifically within the first two years (which manager in their right minds, given a four year contract, would resign after two years if they narrowly missed out?). ”Failure” is a powerful word. If we don’t get promoted then PW will have “failed” against his personal hopes and expectations, so he’d obviously be disappointed, but he may not have “failed” against his chairman’s medium term expectations or the expectations laid out to him upon appointment.

Why if his remit is indeed to get us promoted but not necessarily within two years?

I was 100% with you until your final paragraph. Surely the fans acceptance or rejection of “Warneball” will be largely influenced by the results we are achieving. Assuming we’re still in league one, if it ain’t pretty again next season but we’re grinding out the results (meaning we’re very much in the mix) I don’t think the fans complaints will be that vocal (not at the games anyway). Even if we’re doing well (in terms of results) but the fans at the games are vocal in their complaints about the style of football, do you think he’d be sacked?

Is his remit to get us promoted within 2 years? I doubt it. I reckon his remit is aligned to DC’s ambitions - get us promoted and become an established Championship team within 5 years. I doubt there was any deadline on when promotion needs to be achieved but, if there was, I wouldn’t think it was the first two years given we would have restricted by the agreed business plan in all that time. ”Established Championship team” is open to interpretation but I think it probably means, at a minimum, avoid relegation or maybe avoid a serious battle against relegation. So, on that basis, if we were promoted after three seasons and were comfortable in the final season of Warne’s contract, he would have achieved DC’s short term objectives. Personally, I really don’t see it as black and white as no promotion = the sack. It depends entirely on the nature of our failure to go up this year. At one extreme, if we miss out on 2nd place on goal difference and narrowly lose the play off final then there is no way he would be sacked. Even if we finish as low as 6th and fail to make it through the play offs I wouldn’t be sacking him.

So if we lose on penalties in the play off final he should go? Seriously? It feels like Groundhog Day with us repeating the same debate.

Can't you do anything except ask questions? 😀

Some consolation despite a disappointing result and very disappointing performance - when I got home I checked my predictor which has us finishing top on goal difference (I think I may have been a little over optimistic). All the results were as I predicted except 1) I didn't expect Bolton to lose so badly and 2) I had Portsmouth down for a win.