The Lower League Thread

It's sad to see Yeovil are (potentially) dropping out of the Football League, it's been a terrible few seasons for the club. They'll probably survive though.

Judging by their performance yesterday, I don't think they will.

Great stat, could be made to sound even more impressive though by replacing 2 seasons ago with 'last year' (2014)

Bet that's never happened before.

Jesus that Lincoln striker looks like he's come straight to the game from the pub

Yep. Horrible bloke, glad we saw them off. Routine win.

https://twitter.com/brandonplumb3/status/682940441898172416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

He's playing well though.

Tried to embed the tweet and it broke everything.

'James Wilson has thrown up more times than Manchester United's strikers have score in 2016'

13 points from Wagner's first 9 games. Good start, playing good football. We're scoring more, defending better, and looking more like a decent football team. We have areas we need to improve, and need more depth in the squad, but good signs.

A criminal report should be filed we played that badly today. Burton absolutely dominated us in the first half, then got a midfielder sent off in the 44th minute and if anything came out playing even better and got their well deserved goal and victory. I knew it was going to be tough today but we got annihilated by a team that played over half the game with less men on the pitch than us.

Martin Samuelsen winning the game for Peterborough with this goal tonight.

After a good start under Lambert (points wise at least if not performances) we've gone awful. Three consecutive 1-0 defeats, no Rovers player has scored in 5 games, in fact we haven't even scored from open play under Lambert yet which is a little concerning when you consider how goal shy Villa were too under him.

Hopefully he can strengthen this month and ship out some of the wasters (most of the team).

How good actually are Blackburn? A quick browse through the squad and aside from Rhodes, Guthrie (who I assume is probably playing awfully), and maybe Marshall, there seems to be an acute lack of talent. Did anything ever come for Henley, Lowe or Hanley?

Is Lee WIlliamson, Chris Brown and the Fonz as bad as it seems?

Probably the only two players we could get a few million for are Hanley and Rhodes. I think our best player though is Craig Conway, but think he's around 30 now so wouldn't command a fee like the other two. Markus Olsson and Shane Duffy are decent as well.

Henley is alright but probably destined for a career in the Championship, Lowe is pretty basic to be honest and you often go the full 90 without noticing him in the middle, not really a fan. Under the right manager Hanley could be a decent Premier League defender at a West Brom or Norwich.

As for the others, Guthrie doesn't really offer anything yeah, Marshall has ability but hasn't shown any of it for over a year now, Delfouneso shows the odd flash but is a bit of a lightweight, Williamson is poor but not a lot worse than our other CM's and Chris Brown is an absolute donkey and probably the worst Rovers player I've ever seen.

So as you can tell Lambert has a job on his hands! Last season was the chance when we had Gestede, King and to a slightlt lesser extent Cairney.

YEOVIL ONLY WENT AND ONE A GAME!

You've got to love winning games

Are you not due to get injured soon fella?

Probably!! I am back playing indoor.... So watch this space

Luton officially appointed Nathan Jones as our new manager, had coaching roles at Charlton & Brighton and also took charge of Brighton for 2 games. Seems like he has a lot of potential so hopefully will be a good appointment, just hope our numpty fans don't get on his back straight away! We need to start picking up points asap this season has been a complete bust so far!

He was one of the two final candidates for our manager's job in the summer. Very highly rated within the game apparently.

Our manager Paul Hurst is odds on favourite now for the Notts County job..

4-0 win for us away at Welling today, hat trick for Podge Amond

807 Town fans in a total crowd of 1300 too, top notch.

Charlton's performance yesterday set a new standard of ineptness. We were at least five goals better without being sparkling, and I don't see them getting out of the situation they're in at the foot of the table. I feel sorry for their fans, who had to put up with a gutless display from players who couldn't even be bothered to applaud the hardy souls who travelled so far on a cold night to watch them. Even worse, the M1 is speed restricted half the way down, so they'll have been seeing 5-0 in every sign.

It really was comedy. In the second-half the Charlton team had a race to see who could get sent off first (won by the bloke with the Scrabble name after two of the daftest challenges you'll see - just watch the highlights to see the completely needless high foot for his second, all of 30 seconds after his first for a needless cynical foul). The goalkeeper went to knock it out of play for an injury and managed to skew it so badly he conceded a corner. We scored twice from corners (we take dreadful corners - to concede to two of them should lead their entire defence to retire out of shame). We didn't even play well and we delivered a thumping.

For our part, we played well at times but lacked a bit of spark going forward. Plenty of possession, but we didn't really cut them open as a result of our good play. All five goals were easy goals to score - anyone would have stuffed Charlton last night, to be honest. First one Paterson beats his man easily before putting it on a plate for Hudson. Second, Smith out-battles their lad at the back stick to set up Wells. Third, Holmes allowed to play in Paterson who's allowed to run into a shooting position. Fourth, everyone stands off Holmes. Fifth, they've given up which allows Bunn to get the ball in and Davidson to get across his man. Their goalkeeper was stood for about two minutes at the end not moving, just shell-shocked at his side's performance. Their manager refused to talk to the press, which is frankly pathetic as he had a lot to apologise for.

I saw Tweets by Johnnie Jackson saying the fans who followed them up will be refunded by the players. Probably the least they deserve tbf - they looked and sounded dreadful.

They really were. They were set up for damage limitation from the start. They were 1-0 down and had 11 men behind the ball for the bulk of the first half. But a look at their Twitter feed says it all - they posted a video before kick-off of their team 'settling in', and it's obvious that there's no spirit or fight there. That's before they've even started! The most fight they showed was when certain players seemed to be engaged in a race to get sent off. I'm convinced the lad who was sent off did it deliberately, too - you just need to watch the footage of his second booking, all of a minute, if that, after the first, as he goes and boots Bunn in the backside while challenging for a ball in the air.

They've sacked their interim manager today. Interim. And they've sacked him. And only just started searching for a new manager. They really are a mess. I think it's 14 defeats in their last 23 games, with only 2 wins in that time. Their owner has admitted to underestimating the Championship and thinks the fans are 'weird' in feeling they have some kind of stake in the club. It's open warfare between the club and the fans. Their goalkeeper pretty much demanded the sacking of the manager on radio. There's probably going to be a protest against Blackburn a week on Saturday. It's an absolute shambles. If Hull turn up on Saturday it could be double figures if Charlton play like they did against us.

Yeah from the outside its looked a fucked up mess in the entire campaign. It never really seemed clear what Duchatelet's motivation was and most of the acquisitions - players, coaching staff - have been rejects from the Belgian leagues, its also not clear how this strategy works, if ever. Fraeye looked out of his depth from the moment he arrived, given his only major experience was the Belgian 3rd division. And yeah, the chief exec describing fans as "customers" and saying only 2% were dissatisfied with the club's running was fucking nuts.

Bolton and Charlton look doomed. Even moreso in the case of the former if they go into administration on Monday.

Bolton might be best served by going into administration. A chance to clear debts and rebuild from scratch from a league below can build momentum. They really have been terribly managed, mind. Mark Davies hasn't gone to Sheffield Wednesday as Wednesday - who are rolling in it - won't match his wages of £40,000 a week. Makes you wonder what other players, like David Wheater and Darren Pratley, are on. I'd happily have the former at Town, especially because we're a centre-back light, but I doubt we could afford him. Which is ridiculous, if you think about it.

I have absolutely no sympathy for clubs that pay these players that much and continually live beyond their means. It shouldn't be allowed to happen. £127 million or whatever it is in debt?! Jesus. And yet they'll just go into administration, have their debts cleared and start again.

Football is broken, mate. Especially at this level. The latest FFP rules actively encourage spending over your means to chase the riches of the Premier League. Average players earn ridiculous money (see above for one example). The emphasis on the instant fix and throwing money at it is ridiculous. Bolton, if truth be told, aren't the worst culprits - they're the ones who Premier League excesses simply caught up with and who had a chairman who had had enough. I can think of quite a few other clubs, even among the ranks of the sensibly-run, who would be even further up the creek if the chairman pulled the plug because they're not sustainable. In fact, I'd argue most of the division falls into that category.

A major financial crash will come somewhere down the line and a lot of clubs will find themselves in bother as they were from about 2001-2003 as revenues from such as TV dry up. That said, I've been predicting that crash for years and it hasn't happened yet and doesn't show any real signs of happening soon.

Saying that yes, if our majority shareholder pulled the plug we'd be screwed as well. On the other hand, it could be argued that if we'd entered administration back when the ITV Digital collapse happened, we could have started afresh and probably still been a Football League side now. Instead, we've carried on, never entered administration and are now languishing in our 6th season in non-league (albeit some terrible mismanagement has contributed). Maybe I'm bitter but hey ho.

I blame the Premier League.

Back to the football anyway, we have a glamour FA Trophy 2nd Round tie at home to Weston Super Mare today.

I've thought a financial crash might have affected the Premier League by now, but no, the TV money orgy is getting bigger and bigger.

Maybe it will some day.