The Lower League Thread

I doubt the Premier League will have a financial crash.

Definitely feel as if the lower league sides will be drastically hit within the next 5-10 years.

How?

The Channel 5 football shows appears to have changed its format - 1 hour Championship with analysis, 30 minutes of the goal packages for the rest only.

Seems to work better than the amateur shite it had been.

I think if it was gonna happen, the likeliest point was during the 2007-09 financial crash or in the wake of the Setanta Sports bankruptcy at the end of the 08-09 season. There was a minimal rise in TV money when it was re-negotiated over that period and I guess there may've been some in media who thought it wasn't gonna go anywhere when the re-negotiations were taking place ahead of the current deal, until BT turned up and Sky duly panic-threw a load of cash at it. We're a long way now from 2004, when the TV money agreed with Sky went down.

It does feel though as though the Championship is becoming a division full of teams willing to gamble high volume cash in search of the Premier League dream. Middlesbrough and Derby throwing cash at their promotion bids is one thing, while the fact 4 teams who have spent big in recent seasons now have transfer bans is another. Even with FFP being loosened for 2nd tier clubs, one can't help but wonder if there's going to be a lot of cubs biting off more than they can chew in the second tier in the next few seasons.

Kevin Nolan has been confirmed as player-manager of Leyton Orient. Interesting and bold move.

There's also been about 23 different variants on the joke "In his first act, he'll sign Sam Allardyce", so its now stopped being even vaguely funny.

Well he can take Neil Mugdonald whenever he likes.

5-0 win at home to Altrincham today. Routine, keeps the pressure on at the top. Hoping Dover can grab some points off Cheltenham tomorrow lunchtime.

Anthony Knockaert needs to stop being ludicrously good against us. The difference yesterday. Ripped us apart both times he played against us for Leicester. Tally for him so far against us: 3 games, 4 goals, 2 assists. Two of those goals being utterly unreal strikes, including a truly filthy backheeled volley of a ball drilled in across the box behind him.

Either that, or he needs to sign for us. He'd probably be crap for us, but it'd stop him being way too good for our defence.

Speaking of signings, we seriously need reinforcements, especially at the back. Hudson banned for 2, Smith for 1. We haven't got a right-back as backup, and we haven't got a central defender to cover if anything should happen in the next few weeks. The squad is paper-thin, even with Wagner's use of the likes of Lolley, Holmes and Billing. Once one or two injuries of suspensions happen we're far too light.

Better playoff spots look realistic for us now - automatic promotion possibly a bit too far. I've travelled to every game this season bar two, including Crewe yesterday - triple the shots, double the amount on target, superior possession, 1-1 stalemate. Same result, different team.

Jordan Rhodes finally moving on from Blackburn. It might get his career back on track. Though I still want to know why Premier League clubs aren't interested in a player who can score goals for fun.

Probably doubts about his all-round game I'm guessing, which is fair enough. That's all it can be because if he gets chances, he'll score.

Absolutely gutted though

Know the feeling, mate. If it's any consolation, we haven't done badly without him! I would like to know what scouts look at, though. "Yeah, he scored a hat-trick from three chances, but apart from that... His partner did sod all in front of goal but looked busy. We'll take him! £3m? Bargain! What do you mean, he'll only score five times all season?"

Away at Gateshead today! Up the Mariners!

Worst performance under Wagner, but shouldn't have lost. Cardiff punished our mistakes for the first two and were gifted the third by a very generous free-kick that looked at close quarters suspiciously like* a dive. It was probably the worst 3-2 I've seen. We never got going but scored two lovely goals (one too late to make a difference) while Cardiff produced sod all on their own so we kept giving them the ball in dangerous areas to help them out. Awful officials went against us again, gifting Cardiff the goal that took the game away 10 minutes after one of their had committed a blatant handball as the ball came into the box again at 2-1. That said, a few moments later he let Lynch get away with a very naughty challenge on their keeper which looked for all the world like a second booking (I'd have booked him) - presumably realising his earlier mistake, he didn't dare show a second yellow. Otherwise he'd been in (something resembling) control for the first hour or so, apart from not clamping down on Cardiff's gamesmanship (not retreating at free-kicks, kicking the ball away, time-wasting - the usual litany of an away side who came for a point and were delighted to be gifted with three).

Today did show the weaknesses in the squad. The defence lacked leadership. Dempsey isn't ready to be used as a full-back on a regular basis yet (but give Wagner time with him - there was a full-back in the German World Cup winning squad who was a striker up to Wagner getting hold of him). Davidson isn't good enough (responsible for the first two goals, marking a return to his early-season form). We lacked options off the bench in the absence of players like Lolley and Scannell. Bojaj might have something, but he's not ready for Championship football and needs a loan where he'll get regular football and get goals. Hogg and Whitehead won't work together in the middle. If Wells gets injured we don't have someone who can play as a striker. Hopefully, we'll get a couple of players in before the deadline (Rajiv Van La Parra has been strongly linked) and that should alleviate squad problems, but it's a ticking clock and we're not quite safe yet.

* - fairly bloody obviously to everyone in the ground

Reckon Rhodes would be a better punt than the other options Newcastle are looking at.

We lost 1-0 away, due to a wind assisted shit goal in a shit ground. 1004 Town fans in a crowd of just over 2000. Looking like the playoffs again for us.

They probably have doubts about whether he can put himself in scoring positions at the highest level. Being a great finisher doesn't matter much if you never get into any good opportunities to shoot.

Yeovil have won 3 out of 4 league games in 2016! This is our year!

It's probably more about his general play, I think. He doesn't have any pace or strength so isn't much use outside of the box and in this day and age there isn't much room for traditional poachers unfortunately, especially at the highest level.

I think he'll always put himself in scoring positions whatever level he's playing at. If Boro go up (which I think Rhodes will help them to do, starting with two games against us in the next month ) then it'll be fascinating to see what he does in the Premier League.

Judge for yourself:







A lad who scored 170 goals in 6 1/2 years is not just a finisher. His movement gets him a yard on the defender. Then he scores. Lots.

We've confirmed a striker/winger on loan from Brighton - Elvis Manu. Good record in the Eredivisie, but not made an impact this season. We've also recalled Jordy Hiwula from Wigan. So suddenly we appear to have strikers on the books to support Wells. There were rumours earlier in the day that Miller was off to Portsmouth and also that Emyr Huws might be recalled by Wigan to complete a deal to QPR (which would be very disappointing - particularly as my views on QPR being allowed to sign anyone are very well known). Also rumours of Ben Chilwell returning for the rest of the season, which would be fantastic.

We're light in defensive areas, but we have some pretty decent firepower. Now Wells has some support I'm a bit more content even though I know we need a centre-half and two full-backs. Every team has its holes, and we're no different. Although it's disappointing that we haven't strengthened those areas, it's pleasing that we haven't just gone out and spent for the sake of spending. Now we just need to make sure of Championship status to set us up for strengthening in summer.

So the deal of Rhodes to Boro was off on Sunday, but has now happened.

Nice and straight-forward.

Just seen that Morecambe goalkeeper Roche got the equaliser for them tonight against Portsmouth in the 94th minute! Gotta love that! Unless you're a Pompey fan I s'pose...

Almost speechless. Architects of our own downfall after utterly dominating. Concede two awful goals after going a goal up when we should have been four or five clear. A couple of Preston fans actually apologised after the game (and said they would be buying lottery tickets - their numbers are unknown, but if tonight's jackpot is won in the north-west I could probably pick the winners out of a line-up). Should be our defence apologising, though.

We were unlucky to a point. A foul in the build up to the corner from which they equalised wasn't given, but it doesn't excuse the fact a man was allowed to drift unmarked to the back post to slam it back across the face of goal. Big deflection which could go anywhere. 1-1. I was convinced (but may be wrong) that a late flick from a set-piece crossed the line (one of the Preston fans also thought it had, but I was behind the goal and not in line) and from the very next ball in we should have had a penalty when Wells was held back (the sort of thing that's a penalty every time but never gets given).

We missed chance after chance and they took theirs. We didn't play well but created chances. But we lost to a poor side. That can't be escaped from. Unlucky or not, we need to take the chances we create and we need to defend pressure situations better. We should still be fine, but we need to grind out the results.

We're through to the FA Trophy quarter finals... Yay....! Wembley here we come (again).

Derby have lost their minds and sacked Paul Clement.

That is mental, he'd not had the job 6 months?! Shameful.

I thought Rotherham sacking Neil Redfearn after only four months was insane - this takes an even greater amount of piss.

I also read the statement by Mel Morris about "the Derby way"... the fuck is that about?
In addition, it also makes reference to the previous 2 years without referring to the architect of that... would they like Newcastle to return him?

So Derby actually said that promotion isn't their main goal, it just makes the sacking even more stupid than it already is.

The 'Derby Way' Probably even worse than the 'West Ham way'!

If they were sacking Clement and bringing somebody like Pearson straight away then you could understand it, but I don't understand why they'd sack Clement only to appoint the academy coach or whatever the new guy was.

Derby apparently spent £25m this season. So probably that.

As well as if the higher ups believe they won't get promoted - they might reckon a new guy can give them the jolt to go for it.