So, about a quarter of the season gone already (yes, really)...how's it going ? We appoint a young up-and-coming manager who says: * we'll play attacking and flowing football * I do well in cups * I don't lose games by two goals or more Higgs lets him spend more than the agreed budget. He gets his players in early so has most of the close season to work on them. He presumably chooses them so that they will complement one another. Basically he has a blank canvas upon which to work. So where are we ? If we take the Watford match as 1-1 aet the record for league and cup matches is: P14 W4 D4 L6 GF18 GA24 GD-6 The groundsman has been publicly criticised. The captaincy taken from Campbell (who has also been asked to do very little coaching). There have been spats of different forms with Kuffour, Stanley and Virgo. We have the best home support in the league, and many would say the best away support too. But we must not boo if we see rubbish on the field. I'd say that it's not individual players who are booed, but overall performance. We pay a good amount to attend matches ! We're out of two cups and 15th in the league. In most walks of life he'd be called into the office and told that so far he has disappointed, to pull his socks up and show immediate improvement. Someone who knows far more about football than I do told me that although fans can disagree over detail, they are seldom wrong about the big picture. We see the reality on the pitch, and every fan around me on Saturday was running out of patience with Buckle...it's time he delivered!
Only one comment/correction - I would think Bradford have the best home support i this league - about 10.000+ every home game .... and look where they are! Last week I filled in the poll about how our season is going - I returned that I was satisfied/about as I expected - I would like to change that to bl**dy dissapointing. It's a good job the weather is fine at the moment otherwise I'd be really down! Thank god our near neighbours aint doin any good otherwise we would be havin our faces rubbed in the proverbial! Mr Buckle - you talk the talk - I am beginning to wonder if you walk the walk!
Thanks Rhine....of course you're right. It's just that they never seem to be home when we are. I'm beginning to see Buckle as a smooth operating used car salesman. He sold me a car with a promise of high performance but it turns out to be an old banger which won't get out of third gear!
excuse me intruding on private grief but does your man have questions and answer sessions with the supporters, if he does i suspect pirate49's opening remarks contain many awkward questions that he should answer. let us hope his starting line up at oxford includes matty h, who on the face of it was one of buckles successful signings. if you are going to the match on saturday wrap up, it will only be 9 degrees compared to our indian summer. floreat salopia and aj is off to watch the shrews this saturday
Enjoy the game AJ. A **** weekend for the both of us this time around, but at least you still have a top half standing to gloat about
Pirate, He has basically built our hopes up over the summer, telling us those points you mentioned, and then when our fans boo as we are watching **** football, he has the cheek to tell us to lower our expectations He has told us all we are a big club for this league and should expect big things from this season. He deserves the grief he is getting for that alone. He has put unnecessary stress on his players by saying those things, and now they have to pay the price for his remarks unfortunately. Home game for our players are not advantageous at the moment, but it is their own faults for resorting to hoof ball all game, and not doing the basic's well enough.
I thought that on Saturday we didn't resort to hoof ball as much as against Aldershot and tried to play and pass the ball around - the trouble was it was all sideways and backwards stuff with no incisive passing and runing off the ball to create chances. As soon as they scored that put pressure on us and so the hoof ball came into contention - with Zebbedee unable to leap very high or head the ball the introduction of Matty H. was vital. But who was playing off Matty H? Ala "smash & grab?" I thought that Eliot Richards should have been pushed up front to play off the knock downs etc, but alas it looked like headless chickens again out there with no-one really knowing where and how to play. I have heard that it takes time to gel etc and I could go along with that if I was seeing an improvement on the pitch, unfortunately, unlees my and 6,000 others peoples eyes are decieving them it ain't happening. No cohesion, no game plan, no togetherness - what do they do in training all week?
Well, due to current financial constraints placed upon me by the state of unemployment I find myself in, the last 2 games I've seen us play are Saturday's game against Cheltenham and last season's game home to Swindle when we were managed by Dave Penney. We played better against Swindle - then we had passion and there was movement off the ball with runs into space and commitment. There was nothing like that on Saturday sad to say.
