Makes for some interesting reading. Shows how much the form of the team reflecta on our mood. At that point it was desperate. The Bolton game was a shocker for everyone and then we had the two games against the bottom two teams straight after, which we lost. That was down to a lack of leadership on the touchline in my book. Then Alex Neil came in, after folk had their heart set on Keane. A point against 10 man Wimbledon and a loss at home. You can see why people were deflated and had lost hope. I still look back on the two games without a gaffer as a major problem in our season. I think if Neil was in straight away we get more points, and even if Johnson is kept in for the 2 games we get more points. It was a desperate couple of games and the performances were awful, worse than Bolton im my opinion. Mind you there are a few on that thread predicting a long unbeaten run and play off glory. Half way there
100% MKD are a very good side who can score from lots of places. Wycombe are brilliant at what they do, but if Baath and Wright are fit we will have the personnel to deal with the obvious threat at least.
Posts listed here date back to 23rd Feb, 12 days after AN was appointed so I’d say that they were irrelevant. I took the original post to be accusing some members of saying, recently, that we would not go up and I don’t recall reading any such statements regarding the present situation. True, some posters are expressing their concerns based on our history of falling at the last fence (myself included), but this is not saying that we will lose out this time. Having experienced the disappointment of last gasp failure many times, we are expressing our fears of history possibly repeating itself yet again. Fear of, not saying will!
100%. We battered Wycombe at home and really should’ve won away. They’re horrible but we’re a better side than they are. MK Dons have loads of quality. Scott Twine is top class for this level.
If you can't find any statement claiming we won't get past Sheffield Wednesday you should maybes read ALL the comments on this thread
You made the original accusation about posters saying we would fail, so help me out here by listing the people you were referring to. If I’m wrong I’ll apologise, I just don’t remember reading any such statements. I don’t see why I should trawl through every post on this thread to prove or disprove your accusation - you made the accusation so you prove it. I’m not getting at you mate. We all read things wrong sometimes, whether it be you or me it is no big deal and not worth falling out over.
Like you I can't be arsed to trawl back through posts to prove a point, I'm not going to name posters personally but there are definitely some on this thread and even more on previous match threads. Maybes just see things from a different view point, I did say that everyone has their own opinions, just me personally have to have hope otherwise what's the point, I've been travelling home and away for over 30 years and without hope I think I'd give up. I'm not saying we don't have a tenancy to screw things up but if I was of the opinion that we'd screw things up in the semi finals then I wouldn't buy a ticket. A lot of people are sick of what we have been through and are going through but without that hope they wouldn't renew their season tickets. However everyone is different all I was saying was I don't really understand that point of view ( doesn't mean I'm right ) just my view point
To be fair mate I don't think that would be a good thing to do although I'd have to say I've noticed quite a few similar comments myself. I don't bookmark them so I'd have to 'trawl' back myself. I'll be honest I don't appreciate the defeatist comments and claims we'll 'do a Sunderland' and fail. If it's a considered appraisal of a game that's one thing but when it's a glib, almost mocking, dismissal of our prospects I'd say that's poor. If people aren't that interested in the football they should avoid those threads especially the match threads, there are plenty of others.
I view “do a Sunderland” comments as people arming themselves against disappointment but still having hope. As Iain said, what’s the point if you don’t have hope. Some people are super-confident about the play-offs, others moderately optimistic, yet others ŵho have been in a similar position many times before only to have been disappointed reserve judgement. By citing the “do a Sunderland” they aren’t saying we’ll lose, even if it may sound as if they do. They are exercising caution against disappointment. Superstition if you like. A bit like avoiding walking under a ladder.nBut one thing we all have in common is hope, and we will all be equally disappointed if we fail. But we all know that we won’t fail, don’t we? (Unless we do a Sunderland)
ITHICS It's the hope I can't stand A classic SAFC comment, however we can and we do, and we keep coming back for more. We're all masochists really but we love it. Everyone accepts that we can't win everything all the time, but it's the hope that we might win something that keeps us going. If we didn't have the lows we couldn't appreciate the highs. Let's see how things play out, we might just end up having a very happy summer planning for football in the championship at worst we can look forward to a succesful League 1 campaign under AN. There I go again looking through rose tinted spectacles, this club man it just gets under you skin. To borrow another posters regular phrase Onwards and Upwards, let's just enjoy the ride.
I agree Sandy, I read "do a Sunderland" as a tongue in cheek comment or something that sets them up for being able to say "oh well I knew this would happen, it doesnt hurt as much" while being absolutely gutted really! Everyone will be wanting us to win it comes down to if they dare to dream!
Personally we have no one to fear in the play offs, on our day we can and have battered teams with our football. I don't care if MK Dons have a decent player or Wycombe are masters at **** house tactics. Let them worry about us as you can guarentee their managers will be trying to find a way to stop our attacking threats just as much, if not more than we "worry" about them. Everyone at the club knows what this means to us, time to put on the big boy pants and do it. I don't care if that's 3 ****e, nerve jangling 1 nil wins or 3 masterful performances, just win the next 3 games is all that matters
Double like for that post, well said. We're incredibly difficult to play against, never give up and find various ways to win ... ... yes the supporters have taken a few knocks but we need to avoid letting any nerves transmit to the pitch. These players have really dug in and we're all in this together.
Thought this about digging in on Saturday Smug. Morecambe were very physical without being dirty and in the past they could have really bullied us at the back. I gave my motm to BW whilst most went for Evans, I just thought that Wright and Batth stood up to a lot of niggly digs especially from Stockton and with Patterson not having a shot to save speaks volumes to me as to how hard we worked as a team to protect Broadheads goal. I don't fear any of the other three as we have a manager who will have a game plan to suit whoever the opposition is, I'm certainly more confident then we went to play Charlton in the final. Bring it on.HTL
Once we'd scored on Saturday it was containment with the minimum expenditure of effort. I wanted us to entertain the troops but Neil doesn't care for anything but the next game. I think a narrow lead, for the second leg, will be enough ... ... they'll have to attack and I think we'll score down there. If Clarke/Roberts play I'd get them to run at their defence, they're very clumsy and we have a good penalty taker and Pritchard/Embleton/Neil for free kicks. Just keep it simple and avoid long risky punts upfield. We need to keep hold of the ball and make them do all the running around. Load their area for corners and stop Bannan having too much of the ball. Haway, can't wait for Friday.
I have been very impressed at how much homework Alex does on the opposition. A lot of managers these days have staff to do that for them, but he seems to really put his own effort and hours in, on top of what the analysts tell him. I think he is a bit of a control freak, in a positive way, in that he is the top man and trusts only his own judgement on the big decisions. He will know every detail on Sheff Wed, that is for sure. There is a danger he doesnt impose our strengths, rather negates theirs, which is a very fine balance. I though he got it wrong against Rotherham, personally, but he has certainly got the results in the bank to show he is getting it right mostly. I have said before I think Alex Neil, in these playoffs, is worth something, maybe half a player if that makes sense. He is tactically better than the others in my opinion and that will stand us in good stead.
