The Lower League Thread

Bye Bye Flickers xxx

Billing

I'm more than happy to tip him for great things.

We are poor. Very poor.

Must win v Fulham on Tuesday.

we r so fekkin shit right now and still managed to beat sheff united twice this season. WTF is this shithousery?

We're away at Halifax today. Should be a good turn out from our fans, expecting nearly a 1000 to travel. West Yorkshire Police making it as difficult as possible though, with mandatory no stopping for coaches within a 10 mile radius of the ground before kickoff and escorting to and from the motorway. Ridiculous how over the top and stuck in the 80s that police force is. There was no prospect of any trouble at all but now I can guarantee that there will be as the over zealous fuzz need to hit their arrests target to justify such a large policing cost.

I'll be tuning in from my base in the South West, hoping someone Periscope's it so I can watch!

I follow the FSF's Twitter account and they've been retweeting and being all over that. Madness how even a privately hired coach was told they couldn't go into town.

Total madness. A privately booked coach told they can't go! I read it wasn't under any law but under the threat of reporting the coach company to some governing body or something.

All for a non league football match too. There'll probably be more fuzz there than home fans judging by this...

West Yorkshire Police are genuinely clueless. They faff about with our kick-off times whenever we face anyone who might bring more than a few hundred. They nearly (if the story is to be believed) got us points docked a few seasons back when they refused to let kick-off times change for a TV match before insisting on a bubble trip for a restricted number of Hull fans. Then, when something does happens (such as the idiot Wolves fan today) they're conspicuously absent - a Wolves fan invaded the pitch and no one reacted for a good minute or so. Plod precisely nowhere to be seen.

As for us, we're probably 7 points from being absolutely safe. Today's win was pleasing because we ground it out against a physical, battling Wolves side who looked happy with a point. The game was scrappy, but we found the quality to score a well-worked goal through Wells (13 for the season now) and were defensively strong enough to hold out against a late rally. Wolves looked poor, we weren't great, but we got the points and now have a 12-point cushion over the bottom 3. MK Dons up next - a very interesting test and a potentially defining one.

1787 Town fans at Halifax treated to a total no show from the team. 3-0 down after 28 minutes, finished 4-2 in the end, totally unacceptable. Manager has lost the fans and some of the players by the looks of it. I watched the whole game on Periscope and jeez it was bad, uncharacteristically bad in defence. Huge game at home to Woking on Tuesday night. Title challenge has gone but have to make sure we finish 3rd at least.

Fantastic point last night in the circumstances. We were deservedly a goal down at half-time, but showed fighting spirit after playing the whole second half with 10 to take an equally-deserved point.

The ref won't want to see the red card again, because he had a shocker. It's a bouncing ball in the midfield that one player (who is well and truly on the gallop) gets to a split second before another, who's twisting and trying to poke it away. Foul, free-kick, probably a talking to and at the very worst a booking. We'll all have seen thousands of challenges like it and we'll all say it's just not a red card. The fourth official has apologised to Wagner (showing that at least one official isn't bloody clueless) and we're appealing. If it isn't overturned the FA will also have had a shocker - it's set a precedent in recent times regarding appeals which it should follow, such as the Kyle Naughton red card in the Prem a month or two back.

This was overturned:



This was not:



If someone can please tell the the difference between the two, you're free to enlighten me. They're absolutely identical challenges (and you could perhaps make a case for Billing's being a less dangerous challenge, given that the contact isn't full-on and is actually on the side of his foot, but it's splitting hairs).

People say things even themselves out over a season. I look forward to our final 13 games all being abandoned and awarded as 3-0 wins to Town when the opposition have five players sent off in every game for breathing on Town players.

Shocking from Guiseley yesterday. The lad boots it after receiving the ball to play it back to the Braintree keeper, and scores (and then celebrates). Uproar then starts, obviously and Guiseley come to the decision not to allow Braintree a 'walk in' goal.

After the match, the Guiseley manager then has the audacity to suggest that it's the Braintree keepers fault, as he made no effort to stop it and was 'being clever', although you can quite clearly see the ball flies over his head and lands nearly on the goal line.

Hopefully karma will kick in soon and Guiseley can give their park back to the local kids after they're relegated. Awful.

Should have beaten Ipswich on Saturday, but we shot ourselves in the foot by missing chance after chance. They took their only real chance of the game clinically and defended their lead well, especially in the second half. I won't be too critical, we'd scored in something like 17 consecutive games before then, so the strike force has earned some slack despite missing about five golden chances. More worrying are injuries to Hogg and Lynch - I'd take a 1-0 defeat if we didn't get key players injured, but Hogg will be out for 6-8 weeks with a knee injury and Lynch tweaked his hamstring. Were Billing available and Huws fit, it wouldn't matter so much, but we're going to be light in the middle for a couple of weeks at least.

That said, I fancy us to sneak a win at Derby on Saturday. A scabby 1-0 win we hardly deserve is overdue, and I have a feeling it'll be down at Pride Park. Now watch us go out and get a complete doing over.

Quality performance and result tonight at home to Boro, played really well. Starting to see Lambert's impact now he's had the chance to get some of his own players in. Same again hopefully at Burnley on Saturday lunchtime.

Yeovil won again! Six points clear of the dropZone now! Some good form since January and bringing in Darren way!

Giving rare credit to uncle Flitcroft. After car crashes of performances like at Coventry or Wigan, and with half our squad being injured, he still goes on and gets some decent results like against Posh from somewhere as if he doesn't care.

I get the feeling he genuinely hates us more than we hate him

Away to Village Green Rovers tonight, live on BT Sport if anyone's interested!

Craig Disley, you sexy ginger bastard! Leader, legend. Ft 1-0.

Another three points for Yeovil on the road against Mansfield, smash and grab Victory

Is that now three wins on the bounce, all 1-0? Don't get used to all these victories.

York and Daggers look doomed to me. Can't see them catching anyone. 24 and 26 points from 34/35 games is truly awful!

Mate, I'm a bit worried for you. I think it's the 'sexy' bit. I'd see a doctor if you're under a bit of stress and it's causing problems with perceptions

Lost to Derby. Meh. This is one of those times you come up against someone better than you and you just have to take it. They won. We played all right; they played better. No shame in losing. On to Reading at home on Tuesday - which I may have fun getting to as I'm in London for a thing that starts at 2.30 in the afternoon. Be annoyed if I miss it as I haven't missed a home game in 5 years.

Home to Southport tonight, one of our bogey teams. We need to win as it's one of our games in hand, need to keep the pressure up on the top two.

We won 1-0. Scored inside 45 seconds and then nothing much else happened. Still a lot of catching up to do on top spot but solidly in the playoffs now.

Bognor Regis away in the 1st leg of the FA Trophy semi final on Saturday.

Good win against Reading last night. They're undoubtedly the dirtiest side in this division - three awful lunges should have been punished with red cards but somehow they managed to wangle it so they could bring the ref on their coach again. Half a dozen awful dives in the box, too - one is bad enough, but when the game plan is to dive and hope it's a sad day for football. Didn't try to win the game, just tried to waste time from the very first minute.

We weren't great. Plenty of players missing (note to Reading fans: the difference is you *chose* to play your team; ours was enforced by half a dozen injuries), but still good enough to outclass a very poor Reading outfit even if we did miss another handful of golden opportunities before putting the game to bed. Even Bojaj scored.

Some movement of note in the Championship today, Macheda switching from Cardiff to Forest - most shocking part of this story was to find out he is only 24 years old! I thought he was at least as old as me! Speaking of Forest, good to see that weird looking gnome-esque player David Vaughan has signed a contract extension. I do love that Welshman, as should Charlie Adam who arguably owes his Premier League career to that man tidying up after him.

Odemwingie to Bristol City will be interesting. Will he ever get back to that goalscoring form that saw him drive all over the country for a transfer payout?

First leg of the FA Trophy semi today. Bognor away! They're two steps below us (I think) so expecting a comfortable day and a relatively easy passage through to Wembley (again.. snore).

Bognor Regis! Such wonderous away days you get lol.

Coventry visit us today and I can see them getting a few past us.

Some good news though, we've been given planning permission for a new training ground! Doesn't mean it'll get built any time soon, just another way for the board to show we're making "progress". Drag it out another ten years at the run down portacabin on the dunes...

Shit's going down at Middlesbrough.

One of those where I had to check where the place even was..