sadly i fear not, 3 awkward games coming up, and town may lose all 3. we are totally reliant on scunny coming unstuck. and who would bet they will after their performance against walsall. on a different tack, would our reserve team hold their own in league 2? i say this as the reserves have a regular scorer, who does not even feature on the first team bench. where is the encouragement graham? and yes that is criticism. how many more poor games from our marv have we to put up with before our slide is complete. this is a wake up call town. prove aj wrong graham, a major sort out is called for at the end of the season, no lemons left hanging on the tree. this has been a pisspoor season for town. to get promotion and play a weaker side is piss poor management. many in the squad and their manager have 3 games left to save themselves. i am not blaming the squad for yesterday, we knew we were onto a loser. but perhaps somewhere our ***end of this season may have a silver lining. graham put tom bradshaw on the bench, even if you do not have to use him. encouragement is everything. floreat salopia. aj.
I'm pretty confident we'll stay up. While we're definitely capable of losing all three games, we're equally capable of getting 9 points. Our inconsistency has blighted the season, but on the flipside, it's rare that we've put in more than two consecutive dire performances.
Atcham, I agree with much of what you say - this has been a poor season blighted by delaying new contract offers until the close season and then by some disappointing signings and some awful loanees. We will not go down - we only need three points and even if we do not get them I cannot see Scunthorpe getting three wins. However, we do need to get rid of many players who are not going to make it in this league ( I would have to say that Doble, Bradshaw, Wildig, Hall, Wright, Parry, Purdie and even Morgan fall into this category though I do not cast any doubts on any of their efforts when they have been with us). We also need to look carefully at some of our current loanees to see if any of those would be worth a permanent signing (I would think Mambo could be one and Hurst possibly another) and to try and bring in a few QUALITY signings with a winger, two strikers and a central midfield player the priorities. Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results so lets hope we do not repeat the mistakes of last years very disappointing summer recruitment. The players are out there - just look at Walsall's success this season with young Premier League rejects and a policy of sticking by them through thick and thin.
The trouble is that one needs a certain element of luck when signing these talented young players. Wildig and Doble both fall into the category you stipulate at the end, but are also both players who you, quite rightly, identify as not being good enough for this level yet. It's difficult to judge players like this because they will often be unknown quantities - how are the members of staff supposed to make an accurate judgement when there's very little to go on? It's a very fine balance, but I trust Turner to make the right calls this summer.
How do we know Doble is not good enough for this level? He has hardly played and in one of those fleeting appearances did fine. Bradshaw and Wildig, on the other hand, have been given ample opportunity.
i posted this provoking thread to see if it brought forth a response. i am heartened by the responses, but question if there is too much of a gulf between the first team and reserves. yes doble and bradders have had their chances, but it is bradshaw who is towns only regular goal scorer, albeit in the reserves. all i am arguing is to stick him on the bench, as one cameo performance may make a difference to a painfully obvious weak attack. fs,
Failed to make an impact in the reserves when I've seen him play, and struggled against Sheffield United in his only meaningful first team appearance. The lack of trust from Turner would suggest he's not ready yet, especially with the paucity of options we've had up top this season. I do think he has potential and have said so beforehand and elsewhere - he's neat and tidy and pretty good technically. However, his movement is poor and he offers no physical presence or pace. If he bulked up a bit, chased things down and went for headers, as well as working on his finishing, I think he could become a pretty handy player.
Lenny, quite a few of our players need to bulk up on the muscular front. Bradshaw commented last summer that he had spent quite a lot of time in the gym, but obviously still needs to add some strength to his game.
Yes, it's a recurring theme. Along with us not pressing enough/players tiring too quickly and a lot of the squad lacking pace. I wonder what has changed since last season, when the whole squad looked like a bunch of Mo Farahs. Is it just the increase in a division? Maybe another fitness coach to assist Fordy wouldn't go amiss.
Doble has had a sum total of 96 minutes on the pitch this season. It would be unfair to judge him on the Sheffield United game as all the strikers (Parry, Bradshaw and Doble) were bullied by large opponents. By all accounts he did well for 30 minutes at Bury and then was out injured. GT places not enough trust in his local youngsters witness the omission of Goldson on Saturday when he had done little wrong. Where on earth is Woods who has been a standout performer in the Reserves whenever I have watched them?
Maybe Turner's hands got stung by giving Bradshaw so many chances? I don't know, but I agree that the introduction of a few of the more talented youth would help. We desperately need a pacy, direct winger with Wright injured and God knows what's happened with Paul Parry - Woods seems to me like he'd do a decent job. Ideally, Scunny lose tomorrow and we have three games where some of the fringe players/youth get a few games to show what they can do.
That would be nice to see over the last few games, pressure off and play the players who we want to keep or who are on the books already
Well, you can mention players haven't done this or haven't done that, but the list of players that are coming up on threads now who you want to get rid of are the same one's i called useless at the start of the season. Morgan being one of them! and i got berated... look over the length of a season they were very poor and i can only think of maybe 3 of our team (signed players) i would consider taking into next year.and they would be squad players....I very rarely call for manager change but i think we now need a fresh approach, the reasons... 1,no bringing on our youth players 2,far to many loanee's and poor ones at that 3,our sighned players Wildig,Doble,Bradshaw, and co are not even up to blue square north or south standard 4,managerial tactical play and players playing out of position two many times,and has been very poor 5,and like last Saturday they were too idle to get off their asses and play!! 6,no pace in the squad, and frankly a lot, especially the loan signing...look unfit!! Play football with the attitude like we did the other day and its quite conceivable that we could lose all three games, if it wasn't for Eves our only decent loan player we would be as good as down now. why didn't he look to having some "on form strikers" (Green Cunnington and Gash) from lower divisions to come here, just to have a look at?...why keep loaning other clubs cast's off?
As far as loan signings this season go I would put Mambo on an equal footing with Eaves. We should sign him up PDQ if possible.
Tinned Hats......while you were having a short sabbatical I think you may have found more agree with you.......but don't mention fan ownership! Here's my post from Staurday....bet you agree with lots of it (?).......................cut and paste easier than other methods!!!! "Where do we start? Best part of today was barmaid at the pub and a good pint of Three Tuns! Thanks to Mr.Weale for the save that saved more embarrassment! Must be player of season. Let's have a list.... Eaves has lost his great first touch, pity, sure he will get it back. Morgan is a waste of space, has he turned a defender yet this season?.....and he can't 'win' free headers......how many goals has he scored....or made? Liked the look of Asante but think he needs more minutes on the pitch. Even he didn't chase lost balls in the last five minutes! We are not a team! We don't have a captain who gees the team up when losing (we let a good one go didn't we?????). Poor Richards, so much better when near the middle BUT his touch is so bad now (don't say he's out of position....that's bad management....that gripe come later!!). He berated Jacobson today when clearly it was his own fault. We need to spend money on a few good players. It's there for sure, so guess the excuse is that the right players aren't available. We need less loanees (good ones are ok, bad ones to fill a space are useless). Poor Graham T......it worked well for one season at Hereford, then it ruined them...it's not 'the only game in town' in Div 1. To follow this, we need a 'productive' youth policy. The guy who warms up the goalies (forgotten his name) looks like he can cross the ball and hit a hard shot.....maybe he could have a game!!!!!! Poor Grandison, clearly rusty, why not start with strongest or stable team from last week THEN bring him on for the last X minutes (30>X>10) if game is going well. Taylor has Wright's old disease......lacking confidence BUT at least he did some simple stuff well. Substitutions seemed quirky, as usual, some really bad players still on at 90 mins. Why when we have lost 6 points to all the top teams, AND we publicize it, do we play such a gutless game and at home too. We might just as well set our stall out for a 0-0 with a bit of fight......no spirit today at all. No midfield today, so no comments, can't remember any good bits. Hurst had a few ideas but his weight of ball was bad. Remember my post about heading.....well it was even worse today! .....and to top it all two of the three officials were baaaaaad! Gripe over, it's the worst I've felt after a match in ages and I've seen more away matches this year. Was going to get season ticket next year but will wait to see what happens. Maybe better to invest in Otter Ale and The Brunswick's own ale. Black Sabbath. Today's performance was like cold Fosters.....p**s. PS: We all hate Lee Hughes, we aren't too keen on Vale either but he's galvanised them. Rodgers was the best we could do? " PPS: Apologies to those who read this before!
excellent threads above, tinned hats i agree with you on morgan and a few other lemons who should be on the list. i do not agree with a change of manager but i agree our youth players deserve to be brought on, or what is the point of them or their coach. close season signings ----------------- i do not think much money will available and graham will again be invited to run the squad on a shrewstring. a mixture of loanees and free transfers. stand by for another rollercoaster ride next season. i would like us to sign an experienced striker in his mid.late 30's, someone like jamie cureton who has bagged 25 goals for exeter. and/or a similar aged defender or midfielder, all of whom may want to go into coaching or management. they could be employed as player coaches. town would then get a much more experienced squad and may stay clear of the flotsam of the league.
I think that without Morgan this season we would be worse off. He lacks consistency or a clinical edge, but he has been our only striker who's been here for more than 10 games and looked capable of producing the goods at this level. Witness plenty of opposition fans and managers praising him after games. I don't think he's a great player, and I'd rather we have two other strikers - better strikers - starting in his place next season, but he's done alright this year.
I mentioned fan ownership once....but I think I got a way with it!!..... Well at least we are all singing off the same hymn sheet now... Lets see GT nick some hot players from the lower divisions and get our youth policy up and running, Im working at the Airbus plant for a month or two ,just reading the local rag and Wrexham played 8 youth players against Kidderminster who won the Alliance cup, they got a standing ovation when they trooped off even from the Kiddy fans!!, now that's what footballs all about...We should be getting back down to basics and get rid of these cast off mercenaries, sign some half decent players and get some young pacey tearaways in like the old days ...and Lenny, you can say what you like about Morgan, but his job is to score goals....and that is his Achilles heel!!...which is not good for a striker
