The Lower League Thread

Sad day really. Best Bolton manager ever. Everyone in this area is sad to see him go as Bolton might come good again.

Keith Hill and Flitcroft linked. Really?!?!

Keith Hill

shame really for Dougie at Bolton just never worked out for him

Keith Hill and David Flitcroft really both didn't do anything at Barnsley

Good win for Blackpool.

Well that was annoying. It was a bit of a hoof the ball forward but we deserved to win and created the better chances. I can't believe Rhodes missed a penalty his first for us against Huddersfield as well. Josh King also missed alot of chances ones I think Gestede would have taken if he was fit.On a brighter note Duffy had a very good game in defence and we kept a much needed clean sheet. Just gutted we could not score. To be fair to Huddersfield they did still create chances and could of nicked it but overall I think we deserved it.

Yeah, bit of lazy journalism in my opinion. Purely made up because both of them work in the region and DF has some experience in the Championship, so nothing really behind it.

Anyway, back to football: We beat Tranmere 2-0 and are back in first place! I have to admit they were the best side at Gigg this season. Looked like a side good enough to be competitive in this division. They gave their all and fought until the very end but were just not good enough to match us from a skill point of view. Two good individual strikes from Kelvin Etuhu and Daniel Nardiello were enough to win us the game this time and now we focus on the JPT game against Morecambe on Tuesday

It was frustrating wasn't it. 2 points from Watford, Rotherham and Huddersfield is a major, major disappointment.

What's your opinion on Bowyer? I think most realise now that he's not going to get us promoted. Which is true and I'm of the same view, I respect him for steadying the ship (particularly towards the end of 12/13), getting more of a feel good factor back (no Murphy, Best, Orr, Etuhu etc and bringing in some good players and characters), but yeah.....he's not going to get us promoted so if that's our aim we'd need somebody else!

Yeah not good enough really.

I still back him as he has done a good job for us. But it is starting to look like we will not get promoted under him. I would still back him for a bit longer. But if we continue at this form it may for the best he goes.

Unfortunately I think if we don't go up this season ( which is likely) then we may lose many of our better players particularly Rhodes

McKinlay has apparently been sacked by Watford after eight days.

Fucking crazy to think they'll have had four managers without a quarter of the season having even gone. And given McKinley managed four points in his two games, really bad decision making. What the fuck is going on?

I don't really blame Watford tbf. Sannino resigned and Oscar had health problems. Only thing they've done wrong was McKinlay. As far as I'm aware he was never actually contracted to the club, was asked to be assistant, which he refused and then walked. Looks pretty chaotic from the outside but it's not like Watford chose to be in this position (especially when it comes to Oscar's health).

Another managerial appointment I'd class as 'weird' is Russell Slade going to Cardiff. Given Tan's record of sacking managers, their poor start to the season and Slade managerial skills, I give him two months maximum.

Did he even do a decent job at Leyton Orient?

Tan is quite patient imo. Dave Jones, can have no complaints. Mackay had to go. And he stuck by Solskjaer far too long, he was the wrong appointment and should have went for someone else in the summer imo. Nice to see someone get their chance at a bigger club, rather than just recycling one of the usual names.


Slade seems to have a good record at Leyton Orient. I don't think they were expected to be challenging at the top of L1.

Beat Morecambe 3-1 in the JPT, but made it look like hard work. First half we absolutely battered them and should have been 4 or 5-0 up but only scored two through Danny Nardiello. Second half, the same problem as every time. We lose our focus and allow our opponents to get back into it and Morecambe got their goal and pushed from then on. However, we were lucky they didn't socre any of their chances after they made it 1-2 and we got a third through Ryan Lowe and progressed.

Re Slade: I just find this appointment weird in terms of him being not really qualified for Championship football. When I think of Russell Slade, I think of small clubs with small budget and low expectations and not teams like Cardiff. When we were still up there in League One, Slade played his 4-5-1 hoofball and many Orient fans wanted him to get to boot because he was too stubborn to change anything. However, when he did change his system back to 4-4-2 results unsurprisingly changed for the better. Last season, I believe their season was a bit down to Lisbie and Mooney banging in goals and Baudry keeping it tight at defence and when of them wasn't at their best, they kinda collapsed at times.

Don't get me wrong, he's a good manager at L1 level, who can do brilliantly with small teams and build up a good team spirit if given time, but I'm not quite sure if he is what Cardiff needs

So our star striker has been arrested (temporarily) for an "altercation" outside a nightclub last night.

Great 3-0 win over Portsmouth! Very good on all aspects and a throughoutly enjoyable game

Up to fifth in the table with a 1-0 win over Carlisle. Not exactly world beaters but we're up the table somehow.

Delivered a bit of a dicking to Blackpool. 4-2 doesn't really reflect the game, it could and probably should have been 7 or 8-0. Joe Lewis has played a blinder, we've missed sitters, and Blackpool generally looked a total mess. Of course, we decided to make it interesting and conceded twice in two minutes just before half time (first completely self-inflicted - silly foul and then getting the wall completely wrong on the free-kick - second a pretty blatant foul by Miller on Robinson, who still should have been stronger to be fair) to make the second half fraught until Butterfield twatted in a volley from 25 yards to secure the points.

Sean Scannell managed destroy the left-back who started to the point he went off after 15 minutes suffering from a breakdown and deserved a goal for his brilliant performance. Bunn was impressive again and scored twice (though I suspect his first will be taken from him by the dubious goals panel - it looked suspiciously like the defender got there ahead of him and put it into his own net). Holt is a big, bullying, hard bastard and I love him and he was very unlucky not to get a penalty after he scored after being hauled down on a free-kick after the ref had already had a word with the defender for holding. Defensively we were a bit shaky, but going forward we were exhilarating.

Decent draw away at Ipswich. I was unable to go but it sounds like we edged the first half the second half was marred when Killgallon was sent off for 2 bookable offences and McGoldrick scored from the resulting free kick. Ben Marshall scored a great free kick in added time for us which was excellent it made me jump out of my armchair in celebration now I know what it feels like to be a man united or Liverpool fan
I am going to Birmingham at home on Tuesday night and then Nottingham Forest away on the Saturday.

Great Bournemouth beat Charlton's end of the unbeaten!

I'm just sliming out of the woodwork to post this.

Unbelievable start to the season. Currently 19 unbeaten in the league (if you are allowed to count the previous season).

You are.

But you're still 24 off our record

Lee Clark has been sacked by Brum.

Two seasons too fucking late!

Aye, I know he had his hands tied and the club in general is a mess but not sure how he survived so long. We've got them at home tomorrow night.

I never get why the Football League and Champions League correspond the fixtures.

Hard to judge how Clark has done imo. Birmingham seem like a lesser Blackpool.

Yeah hopefully this doesn't help them but we beat Fulham the game after they sacked there manager. They are without Randolph after his red card against Bolton though. We need to beat them really.

Yeah Shola it's a bit annoying as I always miss a good match on TV. I am going to Blackburn tomorrow night though of course. And at least the Liverpool V Real Madrid game is on Wednesday!

Even so, two home wins in a year is pretty shocking.

Maybe he'll re-surface at a League One club.

I just noticed that their caretaker manager has the same name as me. Always knew they were scum, even stealing peoples names now.