S-Clarke

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Ralph wants a word.

It's a shame it's gone back to that model, I think having the FA Cup across both ITV and BBC over the last couple of years has re-energised the comp and given it a bit of a boost. Money talks though, and that's all football is about let's be honest. Not about fans or having games to watch, it's about the product and how much the big wigs can make out of it.

It is a bit like that isn't it! Struggle for years, recruit a load of shit you can't get rid of. The moment we become 'OK' again, the vultures circle almost immediately and nab all the good stuff and force us to reset again. I know it's always going to be the case for clubs like us, but it's the frequency it happens which is somewhat concerning. It's hard to get behind a group when you know they're just passing through if they're any good. It's not even a couple of seasons anymore, 6 months to a year tops if we're lucky.

Not sure how Liverpool will be able to cope without the Worlds Best Right Back (TM)

This is the key thing for me, players were made to look worse because Downes wasn't there. I noticed a couple of KWP and THB passes into an area where Downes 'would' have been, but neither Charles or Smallbone had the positional awareness to be available to receive the passes - so it looked like everyone was shit because they were giving the ball away, but a lot of was because the player wasn't where they should be and the automatism's were thrown because of that. It's not just because it's Downes, but any 6 with positional awareness and experience could do that role. Our problem is for us is that it's Downes or no one as neither smallbone or Rothwell are 6's, they're more advanced midfielders. And Charles is an inexperienced kid.

It's impossible to really judge Wilcox yet, as what he's doing is a long-term thing. But there are positives I've seen since he's been here, like our ability to get THB or Brooks etc - would have been heavily down to Wilcox due to his relationship with both. It's ridiculous to put the Charles signing on him and say he's failed. Charles is a young kid in his first year of pro football, way too early to be saying he's a failure at all. The biggest issue with all of this is that it would disrupt the chink of stability and continuity we're starting to build. A DoF, Scouts, Technical directors, managers etc all recruited for the same reason. I wouldn't go as far as saying replacing him will require us to reset, but it will be a disruptive bit of change. 'If' we don't get promoted and we lose him, dally on replacing him, whilst we're losing a good chunk of our team without a DOF in place, then next season could be rocky.

Yep, I totally get where you are coming from. I absolutely despised this league when we were being murdered by Wednesday and Hull back under Wotte and co. That was not fun. It's only fun this year because as you've said, we've been able to retain/build a team to make it fun. It doesn't take much to turn into a Swansea or a Stoke and I bet if we ask them how they feel about the Championship, they'll say it's a cesspit. Being in this league and just winning every week is great, for sure, but you cannot sustain that if you don't take a promotion opportunity within the first 1 or 2 years.

He can buddy up with Viafara.

I know what you mean, but I genuinely believe we're a really good side and full of leaders. They couldn't have gone on the run they'd been on had that not been the case. I reckon by the end of this month after Leicester have beaten Leeds (yes, that's been given up on now) and we've won our game in hand, things will look better than they have at any point this season in terms of a gap to third. Just my positive hunch.

Which it has been for 25 or so games, we just had a slow night last night where we just didn't click. That doesn't equate to our style of football being all wrong and us needing to reinvent the wheel. That's not a dig at you, but I've seen some idiots on social media proclaiming that possession football will not get you results in this league and that we need to reset our approach and bypass the midfield. I must have imagined all the results we've got playing possession football then!

He let in 3 at Gillingham

To be fair we weren't anywhere near as good as the table suggested at that point, that form did roll between two seasons as well (the lockdown games skewed things massively, even Sheffield United finished 9th in that year). We've got better players for this league, whereas under Ralph we were punching during that run in my opinion. That's why I never understood the cries to dump Ralph when we inevitably struggled to maintain that 20 game form.

We beat Leeds at home, Hull away, drew with Coventry away, beat WBA at home. Still to play Leicester away, Cov at home, Hull at home etc. Not particularly fair to say we've not been consistent after we've just gone unbeaten in 25, the clear definition of consistent. That run did include 'top teams' as well, the run seems to have been belittled quite a bit as just us facing relegation teams since September - not the case in any stretch.

We'll find out how good we really are in this one. We can't go 25 unbeaten and straight into 2 defeats on a bounce, it would be ludicrous. Then we'd have Hull at home who will cause us problem's, going into that game in hand with 2 defeats on the bounce would be a disaster. The team can't let that happen. This spell up to the end of this month will define the season more than the 25 unbeaten games did. It's frustrating really, as in any normal season going 25 games without a defeat will give you a bit of breathing space and a nice gap at the top - but we just couldn't ever get that, a really freak season. The top 3 just win every week.

They're all coming out tonight aren't they! Just like they've been waiting....must have been frustrating having to wait as long as they have.

I do, yes. I think we've got a small squad, but if they are all available then we are amongst the best 3 in this league. Going unbeaten for 25 games is as much confirmation as you can get that we're good enough to finish Top 2. What I liked with Adkins side was our midfield, Cork, Chaplow, Morgan, Hammond - lots of bite and aggression there, this year we only really have one player who can provide that role. In attack (wide area's etc), we are stocked and the options we have are a step up on what we had available under Adkins. Defeats will happen, Leicester lost a couple of games, Leeds had a wobble during December - it happens. Just like our unbeaten run wasn't going to go on forever, neither is Leeds winning every week. Lots of twists and turns, but we've pulled ourselves into a position to be in there until the end. My feeling is that there will be a gap between the Top 3 and the rest come the end of the season, just need to make sure it's in the right order for us.

We've just gone 25 games unbeaten though, it wasn't going to last forever. It's a bit daft to assume that Leeds are going to win every single game up until May, they're not - there will be twists and turns all the way. This is just a bump in the road. Success will be born out of how we react to these sort of set backs - we certainly reacted well to the last one.

Not sure how you can say this and give up on this group on the back of one game. They just went 25 games without losing, the way we played got us into that run - so talking about ripping it up and going gung ho (''just kick it long") isn't really going to aid us. Stick with what you believe in, success comes from consistency in everything you do and not blinking and resetting at the slightest set back.

There's a lot of this tonight sadly. As I said above, I hope our players can deal with defeat better than some of our fans.

Yeah that's exactly it - automatically everyone looks bad, you've got THB/KWP giving the ball away because the midfield aren't in the right positions to receive the ball. They've not given the ball away from carelessness as such, it's just that the midfield is full of gaps and structure without Downes. I think that was Charles worst game for us though, whilst he's not set the house on fire since signing, he's never been as bad as that. It's harsh to single out one player, but he was probably the catalyst for how bad we were in that opening period of the game - and it's hard to recover when you start that slow.

What's with these matter of fact ''that's the season done'' posts tonight? Seems that people are not able to deal with a defeat. I hope the players can deal with defeat better than a lot of our fans, if they can't we're fucked.

I think we need to bear in mind that this is Charles first season of professional football, he's not at all the finished product. I felt a bit sorry for him in the first half. Like with all young players, you have to give them time and a platform - but he was a bit out on his own today I felt. We have always needed a bit more cover with him and Downes though in that DM type role imo.

I wouldn't read too much into Leeds beating Swansea, I'm sure a Sunday league team could beat Swansea - they're that bad. They'll have much tougher tests and for sure they will face defeat again at some point.

Yeah those two were decent, but like you say the balls through the middle to find them were too slow/too late. The problem tonight was that central area, just not strong enough. There were a couple of occasions where THB gave the ball away, and ditto KWP - but that was only because Charles wasn't where he was meant to be. He killed us dead in that first half with his on the ball and off the ball work.