S-Clarke

Why are you always so down on your own club? I don't get it. If this doesn't bring you any enjoyment whatsoever then just find something else to do.

What an effort - they just never stopped going! I thought Wolves had done it, but they were a mess at the end of that game. Amazing.

2-2 now, fair play to them - they won't lay down! They should be way out of sight though.

Was pretty much inventible once Cov missed their chances, that there is the difference between a PL side and a lower league side.

Not sure what else we need to know. The last update was that he's out for the season, so there's nothing more to really update on tbh.

Pretty pessimistic view. But even if we are in this league next season, we wont be in it with Leeds and Leicester. We'd welcome the absolute fodder of Sheffield United, Luton and Burnley - so almost immediately the standard of the league will be much lower. We'd obviously replace who we loose, we'll still have a decent $$$ behind us in comparison with other sides - no reason why we cannot remain seriously competitive in my eyes.

The 3 promoted sides this year are just too weak, I reckon we'd have stayed up if they were in the league last year. Leeds and Leicester too. Burnley have had the interesting approach of doing just what we did - buying a load of highly rated young players from Europe, notably spending £15m on a young keeper from Man City - and they're having the same problems as we did, lack of experience and too soon for some of the young players they bought. Sheffield United went about it all wrong - they sold their best players to start with, and it was curtains at that point. They wouldn't even be in the promotion picture in the Championship with the squad they have this year. Terrible management. Luton haven't really evolved, still playing the plucky card with the same limited players who got them through the leagues. Quality wise they are no where near, but it's their spirit and togetherness which has made them somewhat more competitive than the others. They'll ultimately still go down though. So..if we do fail to go up, Burnley are the only side I think could get their shit together and have a decent year next season. The other two will just be also-rans at best, there won't be 2 or 3 runaways next season.

Yep - this is exactly it. I understand fans saying let's stay here, as it's a fun season, but it won't always be fun if we get stuck down here. We had to endure that miserable season under Wotte/Port. Much better to be at the top table taking in the cash than it is to be lingering around in the lower leagues, without the cash.

Apart from Brooks, Edozie, Fraser, Armstrong?

Imagine if we hadn't had a relegation clause in his deal, he'd have been on around 85-90k in the Champ acting as a training cone for the other 2 GK's.

My feeling from the summer is that there was a selling value for all our players, no one was off limits. KWP, Bednarek, Armstrongs, Adams, Tella, Sulemana etc - as long as a team matched our valuation of them. They matched the valuation for Tella and that was that. I suspect if a club offered us what we wanted for the other guys they'd have gone as well. (Think we were after £40m for KWP). I still believe Tella would have got his head down and done well for us if we didn't get the fee we wanted, but we did and the rest is history.

gaslighting? I don't see where I've done anything like that. There are things to debate and question, and I have done just that - but what I'm taking issue with are the people who are extreme in their views, as soon as we concede a goal, or go behind ''MARTIN OUT'' - it's insufferable. That's not just on here, but even in the stands the amount of people who are throwing abuse at him whenever something goes wrong. I just don't understand it. It's like they're waiting for it to go wrong so they can jump up and down in a rage. Of course we could be doing better, we could be sat on 108 points after winning 36 from 36 - but that's never a realistic thing. Win our game in hand and we are on 76 points. 3 points behind Leeds (still to play), 2 points behind Ipswich (still to play). That's not doing badly in my eyes, I think we're having a cracking season and I'm really enjoying it. I just don't like the entitledness of some fans and how they believe we should be 'walking the league', I'm not sure why those expectations ever existed given the competitiveness this year. It's not just us, Leicester fans wanted their manager out after they lost to Millwall. The black and white facts are that we are on 2pts per game, currently sit on 73 points after 36 games which is top 2 in pretty much every season since time began at this stage. We are ahead of points and GD from our last promotion from this league, so I think we're doing fine and I don't understand the fury that comes from people whenever something goes a little wrong. There was never a situation where we were going to walk the league, but let's not forget we did go 26 without losing and that's a pretty unbelievable effort.

It feels as if there is a collection of supporters (not just on here), who tied their extreme opinion to the mast back in September and even though the run since September has proven them totally and incredibly wrong, they are still desperately trying to play the 'I told you so card' - hence why our little wobble in Feb has brought some mentalists back out. Some people seem to really struggle adapting opinions, and are too quick to judge on either extreme. Season wise we are doing exactly what we should be doing. There was always a possibility that we could bomb, such as the likes of Stoke and Norwich did when they came down (with very good players too) - but we didn't, we've maintained a pretty stable 2pts per game average and in every season since time began that's auto promotion. We have a better points tally at this stage than we did when we got promoted under Adkins. The run in September is being brought up because that's the only real bad spell these supports can zoom in on to justify their rubbish, most of what happened during September is now absolutely irrelevant and things have evolved since then - so it really shouldn't keep being referenced as this isn't the same team.

I can't quite get over how bad those two are this year, they've not even competed or attempted to stay up. The most pathetic relegations ever. Not sure how either will fair next year in the Championship either, cannot see them being as dominant as Leeds and Leicester this year for a start. I'd expect anyone going up this year to give it much more of a shot. Luton are putting them to shame really, they'll most likely get relegated too - but they're giving it a go and are actually trying to compete.

Oh i'm not ITK on it or anything, I just feel he's waiting to up sticks and go. Count me surprised if he's still here in September.

Absolutely the preference, we wanted that - but PNE don't, as they play Plymouth next weekend so they didn't want the extra travel etc etc. Bit shit really, as next week would have been absolutely perfect given that we don't have a game at the weekend and have a prolonged break. I said on another thread, to save PNE shit loads of travel, let them train at our place after the game, then they head off to Plymouth on the Friday. We won't need to train there as we'd be off until the end of the month, so we could provide the space. What would they do if the football fixtures gave them Southampton away on a Wednesday and Plymouth away on a Saturday? Would they refuse that too?

Nah, I think he's off either way. His agent is working over time at the moment I imagine. I always have the feeling with him that he see's himself as better than us, might just be my mind playing tricks on that, but that's how I see him. I've always found it hard to warm to him and feel like we should be prioritising the development of Edozie, SAA, Dibling etc over someone who will be off at the first chance. I know there's talk of him not being an RM style player, but Aribo, Edozie, Fraser, Armstrong, S Armstrong, SAA, Mara have all contributed more than him this year - and if he's not an RM style player he's in the minority. I'm all for wingers who attack with pace, but you need something at the end of it. Our team, given that we play high and exploit spaces out wide, should be absolutely perfect for quick wide players (As shown with Fraser, Edozie and Armstrong when he's played there). But for some reason, Sulemana, as a quick wide player, can't seem to produce the same levels.

It feels like it, and the fact he has a 'voice' - Martin has claimed that the team needs Jack to help lead them at the moment, which I found complete and utter nonsense. They didn't need him during October, November, December or January. I'd say he's been the one thing we 'don't' need at the mo.

In isolation I don't think Jack has played badly - but it's unsettled the team unit and there is more space between the lines than there has been for a while, bigger gaps between the CB's etc. It's not all on him personally, but since he's been back in the team we have been conceding goals at ridiculous levels. I thought we looked much more balanced when he went off yesterday. I think the problem we have is that he's the 'captain', so needs to be shown to be playing etc. I think we went too quickly making him captain, AA was perfectly fine during that run we had - and he merited a place in the side, so you didn't end up shoehorning him just because he's the 'captain'.

You need subs to make an impact and I don't see it. Aribo and Rothwell both impacted the game when they came on, Fraser did when he was used as a sub. Sulemana's impact was getting dispossessed for 2-1 and having Bednarek screaming at him. Sulemana just plays on the periphery of the game, he can beat a man ends up but there's just no product to that - so it's null and void really. I know people say he'll come good, we've got to let him mature etc - but there's no point, because he won't be maturing or coming good with us - he's off in the summer whatever happens with us, guaranteed. So from a here and now point of view I don't see any point in persevering with someone who won't be here after July, it feels like he's just passing through.

This thread is polluted with more nonsense than usual, and that takes some doing. Anyway, weird game - it felt like we never really came out of our shells, went 2-0 up (Deserved) but we were never battering them or creating stacks of opportunities, it felt quite muted and 'easy' - and I think the easy element of it rolled over to the players in the second half, conceding those two goals was out of sheer complacency as we'd dawdled our way into that second half. As soon as we needed to show urgency again, we overpowered them and got two more goals. So we were clearly too good for them, but just a frustrating bit of complacency in the middle part of that game which made it tighter than it should have ever been. We're scoring stacks of goals, so that's a positive - I don't think we're giving up stacks of chances either, they're 'moments' and the teams are punishing them all at the moment (the second goal was a great hit tbf) Good to go into this crazy 3 week break with 6 out of 6, it's frustrating having teams playing again before us (so the table will look odd again for Boro at home) but all we can do is keep plugging away.

If we don't go up we will lose almost our entire best 11, I think we all expecting that tbh. We'll obviously have a lot less to invest to replace those, but you only have to look at the likes of Ipswich to see it can be done. You don't need to spend a fortune, although it ultimately helps. If we don't make it this year, I still expect us to have more than enough about us to sustain a playoff push next season. Failure next year is when it will be game over in terms of competing though, unless Dragan continues to pump money in.

I much prefer having the points on the table than games in hand tbh, it does look very daunting and pretty much done and dusted when you look at the table this morning. 10 adrift at this stage is just too much, game in hand or no games in hand. The fat lady is certainly freshening up her voice.

Preston don't want that because they have Plymouth away the following weekend (we don't play that weekend because of Leicester's FA Cup game). We could just offer staplewood to PNE for a couple of days next week (once we've played them), then they drive on off to Plymouth on Friday. We won't have another game until the 29th so we could be given a day or two off to free up the facilities to PNE.

I don't think there are any real differences finishing 4th or 3rd to be honest. Makes no odds. Both positions still get the second leg at home, which is the only real advantage you get from the 5-6 positions. I don't buy the notion that teams in 5-6 are weaker, they'll be just as hard as the team in 4th or 3rd. Playoffs are a lottery, form, points you've accumulated and where you finished in the league table goes out of the window. The best advantage is the 2nd playoff leg at home, and 4th or 3rd gets us that. I still would like to finish 3rd as it means we've got momentum, but finishing 3rd won't give us any 'tie' advantage.