Sheff Saint

From that lot Davis, Cork, Perry, Lancshire, Surman BWP, Wotton, Gillette, Skacel Llanna John Not ideal but it's a start. To be fair, get them playing and then add Killer, Euell and Morgan in that team and we've got a half way decent 11 (all things relative of course!) Of course that's assuming that the BWP that turns up isn't the one that turns up 9 times out of ten!

7-1

I'm going. I was hoping United were going to win the derby today and get complacent on Tuesday. Now i geninuly fear it could be double figures! Ahh well, there's something intresting about being this wa*k!

NP made us hard to beat. But that's a silly approach. Rupert know's best. Let's stick a load of 17 year olds that aren't good enough for the football league together with a manager with no knowledge or experience of either English football or managing at any decent level, and see what happens. Oh. This. **** off Rupert NOW. New chairman, get a decent no nonsense manager in NOW. Give all the 12 year old loan signings back to their clubs NOW. Pick Skacel, Perry and John NOW. Replace said loan signings with a couple of cloggers like Luketti. And we might, might just about stop up this season.

what pretty football?!

Umm, we need to remember, if we stop up, this season has been a success. Next year we might be able to afford one or two that can play football. Cos that was rubbish. Just awful. Radio Hampshire on the way home said we played good football in periods, when! The first 10 mins we were ok but that was it, awful at the back, awful in the middle and we'd have played all week and not scored. One of the worst performances in a long line of terrible performances. Not being horrible, but players like Lloyd James (at RB at least) and Lancashire aren;t even good enough to be profesional footballers. If we'd have not signed them they'd have just drifted into the non leagues. Their decision making is awful. And McGoldrick needs a good rest (or shooting). Please bring Perry back, we weren;t too bad when he was in the team. And get John and Skacel on the park, please please please. I know it's a tough season ahead, but we really aren't helping ourselves. And the total football has defo finished. How many hit and hope balls were there today? 100? But, but, if we stay up, we can try again. I'm just not sure i can keep reminding myself of that for the next 7 months!!!

I've not seen JP slated anywhere for not being ambitious enough.

We should be beating Watford. They've played both Sheffield clubs recently up here and i've heard they are dire at the moment. Roll on Saturday to start a revivial for them then!! I agree with Arizona, we've only beaten 3 poor teams this year and yes, Derby did have good chances in the first half. Comfortable as it was in the end the first half was very even. Reckon we'll do well to get 10 points from these games.

No no. I wouldn't pay twice to watch Wednesday! If my father in law wants me to come he can pay for his own ticket! No, it was £28 a ticket for the Forest game, so i didn't go. And that is why Wednesday aren't getting many at Hillsborough. If it had been £15 or less i would have gone, for me £15-20 is the psycological barrier for this division. Everything over £20 and i'm feel someone's got my pants down a little. My point is i wonder how many casual fans aren't attending at the mo because of the price? Don't forget as well it's only a few years ago since we were only getting 15k at the Dell. We're still getting that even though we're proper sh1t. Increasing that core support will take longer than a few years.

Sadly too true! Her 'support' has even forced me to going to games on my own this year. I sometimes pretend to talk on my phone at those games to look like i've got friends.

I don't know the ticket prices for the clubs near the top but i know that if i had gone with my father in law to watch Sheff Wed v Forest a couple of Tuesday's ago i'd be £28 lighter. I know i'm going to SMS on Saturday with my wife and it's costing me £52. Credit crunch hasn't overly affected me, yet, touch wood, but that is an awful lot of money to watch utter tosh. I go as often as i can, i try and find the money but doesn't mean i understand why others can't. It's not brilliant and its ****ing expensive. I find it madness, madness that we let the ground only half fill up and yet charge this stupid price for tickets. It's pathetic.

Exactly, no one is really calling for JPs head. I just think there are a few things he (and Lowe) could and should be doing a bit differently. I have to say though i wonder if i'm watching the same games as some on here. I've seen 3 live on 3 and tele so far and, brilliant as Derby 2nd half was, the others have been average and Rotherham, Blackpool and Coventry were as depressing matches as i've ever seen us play. We weren't even contesting in those games! Still i've seen 2 out of 3 league wins and got two more matches to see next week so fingers crossed i keep that ratio up!

More than this, i think NP would have pushed back a bit on introducing some that clearly are not ready yet. It's great to have a team full of kids. IF they are good enough. It just feels at the moment as if we are doing some of this for the sake of it. The thing that NP is doing at Leicester is ensuring he blends youth with strong people where required. Someone else replied saying JP is doing that with John and Surman, but John's barely started and you can't compare Surmans 'experience' with that of Chris Powell or Matty Oakley.

I suppose it's easy to make this a hypathetical discussion into who is better NP or JP but i was hoping to aviod that. I just thought the team that NP played on Saturday showed he can fashion a good team and are there any things we can do based on what NP is doing to improve our chances of a) staying up this season and b) pushing on. Even with our hands tied behind our back financially.

Indeed, all we can do is get behind JP. NP is yesterday but he clearly is not a boot boy. Getting behind the current set up doesn't mean we can't suggest ways of improving. And sitting in 20th, i reckon there are still one or two things we can improve on!

There seems to be some debate on these pages in recent weeks about whether Nigel Pearson or JP would have been the better choice as manager. I happen to think NP did a great job turning around the car crash that was our season. Results don’t do justice for what he inherited. One of the criticisms laid at his door seems to be that if NP was still in charge we’d have team full of journeymen playing hoof ball. As there's not much brewing on international week I thought I’d have a quick look at the team they put out to beat Huddersfield 3-2 on Saturday. Here is the team that started, ages and nationalities (sorry couldn’t find the keepers details) Martin, Gilbert (21 GB), Tunchev (26 Bulgarian), Hobbs (20 GB), Powell (39 GB), Dyer (26 GB), Oakley (31 GB), Andy King (20 GB), Adams (22 GB), Fryatt (22 GB) , Howard (32 GB) Now i know that this a League 1 team, but for me the balance is perfect in this team and (balance wise) what a successful team in the CCC should look like. It’s full of British players, just like Rupert likes, and it’s a pretty youthful side, complimented with a couple of experienced pros in Powell, Howard and a certain Matthew Oakley (that scares me, that he now an older head!) A lot of people seemed to think that NP wouldn’t be able to cut cloth accordingly and JP was the only option. But it doesn’t seem that this team is full of stars, just good youngsters with a bit of experience BUT with a couple of decent older players. And he’s got them playing. A shame we let him go and an even bigger shame that we continue to cut our noses to spite our faces and play a stupidly young team, some of whom clearly aren’t good enough when the right players at the right prices can be found, even at this level. Even with little money, our way isn’t the only way.

Well, we've lost 2 out of the last 4 and i've seen 3 of them. And i can assure you that in two we were dismal and one we were pretty poor. That's my concern.

One of the most random signings in a long while i reckon. Not complaining, just think it's er, random. Still, at least Jan's got a bit of youth in. I've thought we were lacking something this season...!

I've slated him in the past. And i still don't think he's good enough for a promotion winning team. But he's made the gk spot the least of our problems this year by being head and shoulders better than last year. He seems to enjoy the responsibility of playing with the kids and long may that continue.

Was going anyway but a v nice little bonus!

I don't think this is true. Look at the Germans, thunderbolts in the top corners everytime. No stopping them. Of course pens can be missed but if you have coaching and practice 100 times a day you're going to have more confidence and ability than someone who hasn't practiced 100 times a day. Surman's pen was too weak on Sat but at least he hit the target. (Hark back to kickers in the play off 2nd leg...) I don't remember Surman wrestling the ball from anyone for either pen.

I'd agree with most of them (although take off a mark each, we were'n't as good as 7's!) One thing i reckon you're wrong on though is McGoldick and Lallana. I thought McGoldrick was poor, apart from the run for the cross for the goal i thought he sauntered around like a charlie big potatoes and actually delieverd nothing. On the other hand i thought that everything good about our attacks came through Lallana. It wasn't his best game but he is the one true 'quality' player we've got at the mo. Surman played well i thought and agree that Mills was very good. Plus, Schienderen didn't seem to bring anything to the match, but we do seem to do better as a team when he's in the team. Might still be a coincedence but reckon he could be integral this year. Better performance than Tuesday but still very average. We'd have not beaten many teams on that performance. BUT, it will help the confidence and to have Norwich so soon at home is fab. They've not started to clever so fingers crossed!!

What about someone like Danny Webber? Don't think he's in the blades team at the mo. Can't be on stupid money, not relative to Dyer. And if they wanted Dyer that much (IF!!) then we could have persuaded them to part pay any difference. Ok Webber might end up being no good but at least he's a bit of experience which is something very much lacking. And i'm lead to believe he does actually possess a little bit of quality. Something missing from our squad at the mo. Hopefully this other fella will have some!

Makes you wonder why he was in the squad on Tuesday really doesn't it? Honestly. I think the only saving grace at the moment is that this farce isn't being played out in the media like Newcastle's. I'd love it if they came down!

Oh i agree. I've just resorted to humour to cover my anguish! Seriously, for those saying what can we do about our current situation, we could have got rid of Dyer (surely one of the higher earners) as hes **** and replaced him with someone of actual calibre. A decent, experienced loan signing. But we've not. Instead another untried untested kid. Toss. It really is.