Sliding Doors

[FlyBritishMidland]

It’s been an interesting week.  Our club has had a few sliding doors moments in the past (Sir Brian leaving, Charlie George’s shoulder, Zamora, etc) but looking back how important were the injuries to John Eustace and Chris Martin in 2014/15?  Without those we would arguably have achieved automatic promotion, Mel would have bought a PL team, no FFP issues even if we’d have come down.

Even Thorne’s injury against Ipswich on the last day of the following season.  Again, without that the big spending may have paid off.

Instead we’re staring at League 1 - which could turn out to be a good thing in the long run although it might not feel like it now.

Life’s all about fine margins.  In years to come we’ll have sliding doors moments that go in our favour.

[Ramrob]

I went to the Ipswich game where Martin scored the winner. Thought promotion was pretty much nailed on after that. Turned out to be Eustace’s last game (I think?), and the wheels duly fell off one by one. 
 

I know a lot of our problems have been of our own making but does feel we’re due some luck. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

Sliding doors: Fozzy clears it. Or Bucko clears it. Or Keogh puts it anywhere else.........................................................................

Or sliding doors "no, i don't really want to come with you to see Derby against Fulham, i'm not really that fussed, I don't think i'm a football fan, perhaps I'll go to Tandy and get myself some stuff for a project"

[Pearl Ram]

I just can’t get past the being in England’s third tier being a good thing, thing. ?‍♂️

On the 50th anniversary of the club’s greatest achievement to rub salt into the wound, a sad state of affairs with one thing and another. ☹️

[1967Ram]

38 minutes ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

It’s been an interesting week.  Our club has had a few sliding doors moments in the past (Sir Brian leaving, Charlie George’s shoulder, Zamora, etc) but looking back how important were the injuries to John Eustace and Chris Martin in 2014/15?  Without those we would arguably have achieved automatic promotion, Mel would have bought a PL team, no FFP issues even if we’d have come down.

Even Thorne’s injury against Ipswich on the last day of the following season.  Again, without that the big spending may have paid off.

Instead we’re staring at League 1 - which could turn out to be a good thing in the long run although it might not feel like it now.

Life’s all about fine margins.  In years to come we’ll have sliding doors moments that go in our favour.

One of the clearest red card challenges I've ever seen. Not even given a penalty.

[PistoldPete]

36 minutes ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

It’s been an interesting week.  Our club has had a few sliding doors moments in the past (Sir Brian leaving, Charlie George’s shoulder, Zamora, etc) but looking back how important were the injuries to John Eustace and Chris Martin in 2014/15?  Without those we would arguably have achieved automatic promotion, Mel would have bought a PL team, no FFP issues even if we’d have come down.

Even Thorne’s injury against Ipswich on the last day of the following season.  Again, without that the big spending may have paid off.

Instead we’re staring at League 1 - which could turn out to be a good thing in the long run although it might not feel like it now.

Life’s all about fine margins.  In years to come we’ll have sliding doors moments that go in our favour.

Or if Mel had closed a deal to sell the club in January 2020, wiping out our FFP problems and any risk of liquidity problems due to COVID. 

You can add Hughes and bryson injuries in first game of 2015/16 and we bought Johnson and Butterfield instead at huge cost. neither of them as good as the players they were replacing.

 
Or if Roos hadn't dropped the ball onto John McGinn's head. Or maybe if Lampard hadn't played Mount againt Accrington, his injury in that game  started a bad run of form killing off our chances of automatic.

Oh well.

[24Charlie]

Worst case scenario is that we don’t make a quick return and the EFL fail to stop parachute payments. There’s a rebellion and prem 2 is formed with payments by league position down to 40th. Down side there is no relegation beyond this point and no promotion into this new format. We miss the boat and are left in oblivion to waste away on the vine.

[Rammy03]

11 minutes ago, 24Charlie said:

Worst case scenario is that we don’t make a quick return and the EFL fail to stop parachute payments. There’s a rebellion and prem 2 is formed with payments by league position down to 40th. Down side there is no relegation beyond this point and no promotion into this new format. We miss the boat and are left in oblivion to waste away on the vine.

Promotion and relegation will always be there. We're not American. Football is truly dead if that ever happens. 

[24Charlie]

2 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

Promotion and relegation will always be there. We're not American. Football is truly dead if that ever happens. 

There’ll be promotion and relegation between prem 1 and 2. The rest will be non league. The EFL will have ceased to exist with all football controlled by the FA.

There’ll be a backlash but sustaining 4 competitive professional leagues is proving unsustainable. There’ll still be the FA Cup.

It’s just a scenario I’ve been thinking on. There’ll be two top leagues with fair prizes and competition but clubs in div 3 and 4 with have to go semi pro and challenge for the non league championship and perhaps offer up a couple of European conferences places for the winner of this league and the FA trophy.

Something has to be done about football in our country and the notion that we can get rid of Sky and their money is fanciful.

[Yani P]

If they created a prem 2 they will invite the bigger teams to ensure they are in I reckon..

[Ellafella]

9 hours ago, 24Charlie said:

Worst case scenario is that we don’t make a quick return and the EFL fail to stop parachute payments. There’s a rebellion and prem 2 is formed with payments by league position down to 40th. Down side there is no relegation beyond this point and no promotion into this new format. We miss the boat and are left in oblivion to waste away on the vine.

…then we all die in a major fire. ? 

[LeedsCityRam]

10 hours ago, 24Charlie said:

Worst case scenario is that we don’t make a quick return and the EFL fail to stop parachute payments. There’s a rebellion and prem 2 is formed with payments by league position down to 40th. Down side there is no relegation beyond this point and no promotion into this new format. We miss the boat and are left in oblivion to waste away on the vine.

 

10 hours ago, 24Charlie said:

There’ll be promotion and relegation between prem 1 and 2. The rest will be non league. The EFL will have ceased to exist with all football controlled by the FA.

There’ll be a backlash but sustaining 4 competitive professional leagues is proving unsustainable. There’ll still be the FA Cup.

It’s just a scenario I’ve been thinking on. There’ll be two top leagues with fair prizes and competition but clubs in div 3 and 4 with have to go semi pro and challenge for the non league championship and perhaps offer up a couple of European conferences places for the winner of this league and the FA trophy.

Something has to be done about football in our country and the notion that we can get rid of Sky and their money is fanciful.

Unnecessarily apocalyptic

Do you honestly think a breakaway Prem 2 would want to ringfence clubs like Luton, Reading & Bournemouth?

Breakaway leagues are motivated by a desire to keep small clubs out/minimise their impact & guarantee games between bigger clubs - that was the ethos behind the recent ESL move & the formation of the Premier League back in 1992. Derby (as well Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday & Ipswich in League One) will always be a big club in the second tier and hence would always be part of any breakaway conversations at that level, sporting merit or not.

[Gone]

If Bryson had scored that one against Hull away in the playoff semi…..arise Sir Darren Wassall 

[Crewton]

1 minute ago, TexasRam said:

If Bryson had scored that one against Hull away in the playoff semi…..arise Sir Darren Wassall 

Or if Buttercup, as last defender, had hacked Robertson down when he was breaking away to score Hull's third goal like everyone was screaming at him to do.... 

[PistoldPete]

2 minutes ago, TexasRam said:

If Bryson had scored that one against Hull away in the playoff semi…..arise Sir Darren Wassall 

Or if he had started the home leg with Andi Weimann. And not played Thorne in the last game before the playoffs. For those , he remains just plain Darren Waffle. 

[TigerTedd]

Martin getting unfairly sent off against Burnley. 

That one act not only ruled out a perfectly good Hendricks goal, and gifted Burnley a 6 point swing in our race for second. It also stopped Martin playing in the next game, which we also lost. Suddenly we’re 9 points further behind Burnley than we should’ve been, with no way back from there. 

[TigerTedd]

12 hours ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

Life’s all about fine margins.  In years to come we’ll have sliding doors moments that go in our favour.

How do we know when a moment goes in our favour though? 

Pearson scores and we get promoted. Seems like a good moment. Had he missed, and we had another year to build in the championship, would we have fairer better in the premier league the next season? Would we be building a statue to Billy now?

QPR beat us in the final, but they’ve been pretty mediocre ever since. 

Portsmouth win the FA Cup, seems like the best thing, but end up in the lower leagues. Leicester go into admin, seems like the end of the world, but a few years later they’re winning the prem. draw a long enough timeline and you can trace any good or bad event back to any other good or bad event. 

our time will come, maybe in 5 years, maybe in 50 years. But everything that happened will have happened to get us to that point. Right now we’re in a bad place, so it seems that every event leading uk to this has been bad, and it’s hard to see past that. But when we’re back in a good place, the same events will have had a good conclusion. 

to put it another way:

“it’ll all be alright in the end… and if it’s not alright, it’s not the end”

Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode 

[Gritstone Ram]

9 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

Martin getting unfairly sent off against Burnley. 

That one act not only ruled out a perfectly good Hendricks goal, and gifted Burnley a 6 point swing in our race for second. It also stopped Martin playing in the next game, which we also lost. Suddenly we’re 9 points further behind Burnley than we should’ve been, with no way back from there. 

That’s the one that springs to mind for me. Had we won we would have gone above Burnley and been the first team to beat them at home that season.
Also some one wrote 2-0 Sheepshagger on my car and my son wanted to call the police ?

[Ram-Alf]

24 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

Martin getting unfairly sent off against Burnley. 

That one act not only ruled out a perfectly good Hendricks goal, and gifted Burnley a 6 point swing in our race for second. It also stopped Martin playing in the next game, which we also lost. Suddenly we’re 9 points further behind Burnley than we should’ve been, with no way back from there. 

Bobby Madely...list him with Stuart Attwell as just another ass wipe...imo, Mooched off abroad for personel circumstances, Now back reffing in leagues 1 and 2, Having said that, There's some refs who can't count past 5, Exeter having to replay their FA cup game against Bradford for playing a 6th substitue.

[Ram-Alf]

22 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

How do we know when a moment goes in our favour though? 

 

Look up up and hope it snows.

Cardiff at home, Postponed, Re aranged game we win 3-0