http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21372441 table from the BBC showing Martin to be the 12 best manager in the country! lets hope he keeps it up and we get promoted for my money, without wishing to get abused, this is just a dip in form where we are playing some teams in very good form despite their position in the table. I have always said that in league 2 anyone can beat anyone on their day, its about being consistant across the season that get you promoted not having the best players if they are hot for 1 game in 10.
jokeykid(606) Here's your 'blip' 1. 10 Nov v Plymouth (2-2) Poor, scrappy game against a 'struggling' team. Gills had to come from behind - twice. 2. 17 Nov v Morecambe. (2-1) Not the best of games.Won with an injury time goal. 3. 20 Nov v Exeter (2-3) Lost the game - despite an early goal. 4. 24 Nov v Accrington (1-1) Gills were comfortable - until goalkeeper was sent off - then hung on for grim death for a point. 5. 8 Dec v Rotherham (2-1) Decent performance - was this because it was a World Cup final ? 6. 15 Dec v Fleetwood (2-2) OK we came back well from 0-2 but in most circumstances you'd expect not to lose from 2-0 up. 7. 26 Dec v Barnet (0-1) Rubbish -against a team in the bottom 3. 8. I Jan v Southend (1-0) A good performance( no hoofball ) 9. 5 Jan v Bristol Rovers (2-0) A good performance - against another team struggling at the bottom 10. 12 Jan v Port Vale (1-2) Went down to 0-2 all too easily. Admittedly I thought we were unlucky in the 2nd half. 11. 26 Jan v York (1-1) A dull performance - had to save a point with a very late equaliser. 12. 29 Jan v Northampton. ( 2-0 ) I think that the weather conditions was the real winner. We got lucky early on. Stayed solid to get 3 points. 13. 4 Feb v Wycombe (0-1) A decent first half - then hoofball in the 2nd. To be honest Wycombe were very wasteful. So if that's what you call a blip - I sincerely hope that we don't have a major drop in our performance.
Its Funny because elsewhere on the BBC site http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21373377 it tells us that changing managers more often than not brings an up turn in results, not saying we should, but a couple more defeats and who knows!!!
It is a league table of points per game not a schedule of who is best manager. The problem is MA is 53rd from Christmas onwards which is pretty disastrous for a club chasing promotion from league 2.
On another thread I posted a list of players who appeared early in the season when we were doing well. Payne, Jackman, Montrose, Davies, Dack, all players from the Hess era, all now seen as surplus to requirements by MA. recent (poor) results are all from MA players.
To get picky Payne made his debut in 2008 under Stimson but was the product of the Millwall youth system, Jackman was resigned under Stimson, Davies and Dack were products of the youth system so the credit shold go to Patterson and Hare... but Hessy did sign Montrose
solid report there Alwaysright but i think respective fans of all clubs could produce a similar negative critique of performances. Rotherham losing 7 at home - look at Port vale at home, look at Exeter at home. however the fans on their forums don't seem to be all doom and gloom which is a credit to them. i take the point that its longer than a blip but lets keep in in context guys oxford and wycombe as amongst pre season favourites but languishing in mid table should be miffed. not us (yet anyway!) you would think we were fighting a relegation battle.
I hope that MA achieves our aim of automatic promotion. I love his character but with that comes criticism. If you put yourself on a podium you have to expect that when things are not going well to take some knocks from the supporters. I rarely criticise outright individual player performances. Maybe Gregory has received a few aired views from me but that is more to do with MA's reasoning behind his introduction and the expectation that MA set himself, rather than anything directly aimed at Gregory. I stand by my views of what I see the youth v experience scenario. I just feel sometimes that MA does not live up to the encouraging views he portrays regarding players, by that I mean praise, goodbyes and fairness around his introduced rotation policy. Would I swap him for another manager or would I want him to depart, NO, the thought has not even crossed my mind. I just want to have more confidence in his methods, including long term achievement via them and better clarity in light of the events involving Essam, Jackman, Montrose to name a few, somehow sadly I do not think he would appease me in that area. Therefore he has sat in himself on a very high podium, where expectation of the manager is now mirrored with exactly the same 100% he expects from his players. I will not boo, I will not jeer, I just want to cheer and MA and no one else has failed us in that department since November. He set out the goal posts not me. He has had the full backing of our Chairman, I cannot fault PS one bit, what would we do without him. However, we need a return on that investment and if MA does not deliver he can expect to be in for a very rough ride. He can still do it and probably will but my eyes are not on the just here and now but the future long after MA has gone. We have fantastic players in Legge, Barratt, Nelson but I just cannot help but think an injustice has been done to the players they replaced, that is not booing or jeering but a showing of loyalty given by this supporter. We can discuss balancing the finances as a manager but as they say don't try and blind me with the science.
You can be as picky as you like but it doesn't answer the point of performances by pre MA players against the performance of MA players, it doesn't answer the point about his claim to only bring in players who are better than we already have. I was one who never wanted Hess replaced but was prepared to give MA a chance, He has had the money, the backing, and I expect nothing less than promotion otherwise what was the point in sacking Hess.
Ahh I misunderstood your point, but I think you are being selective over the players you are looking at. Lets not forget that without the MA players the pre Hessy players were L2 also rans and not promotion contenders
I think you still misunderstand my point, the players I mentioned were all in the team that took us to the top of the league and have now been discarded. I didn't include Whelpdale, lee, Fish all pre MA players, the more MA has got in his own players the worse the form has become.
