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#332764 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Which begs the question: why do people think Villa stand a cat in hell's chance of being anywhere near the top 6 with that squad?
With investment, they might be half-decent. But as things are, they're more likely to go down than up. That's a squad which needs dismantling and rebuilding. Better sides than Villa have gone down from this division (Wolves a couple of years back spring to mind - straight from the Premier League and not in anything like as much of a mess as Villa are now). Di Matteo hasn't really been given a chance to build his own side in the past, doing well with inherited squads, and this will be an all-new challenge. Not to mention, the atmosphere at the club seems to be pure poison. The first sign of something going wrong will see the fans turn on the players - so when they go a goal down to Ipswich (or whoever) on the opening day the players will be looking around for support and they'll find themselves sold short.
They might prove me wrong, but this is an incredibly tough league. Derby are probably favourites to go up with Pearson in charge, in part because they know the league and also because they will invest (their first priority should be their defence, mind - a progressive side aiming for the top flight should not have Richard Keogh playing week in, week out). Newcastle and Norwich will be tough propositions, the former because they'll keep most of their players (who underachieved badly last season) and will want to make amends in a positive atmosphere and the latter because they have experience in this league. Sheffield Wednesday will be stronger, as will Brighton. Cardiff are rebuilding quietly. Although it's early days this summer, and a lot of business has to be done, Villa have their work cut out if they want to challenge at the right end of the table.
#332680 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#332313 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#331724 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Let's be honest, it's ridiculous. I know the justification, but it's absolute rubbish. Clubs know the threat of relegation exists, so they should write clauses in contracts or run the risk of financial ruin without squillions in handouts for failing at a higher level. Makes a complete mockery of the idea of financial fair play, especially as they're only going to get bigger.
#329748 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Hoping Halifax win the FA Trophy, but really want to see you guys back in the League
#329445 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
I saw them too - they were being sarcastic, thankfully. That said, I don't think anyone's under any illusions about how much work needs doing this summer. I just feel we have the right manager and I've seen so many steps forward. Can't let two shocking results and performances detract from that, without ignoring the reasons for those results.
Seen Reading have let a couple of interesting players go. Cox and Ferdinand are probably past their sell-by date, but Hal Robson-Kanu could do a job, surely? Something odd going on down there.
#329295 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Jason Davidson somehow contrived to directly be at fault for 3 goals despite being a non-playing substitute. If he wasn't such a shit footballer there would have been no need to try a clearly out of position Martin Cranie there.
Felt sorry for young Allinson in goal. Called on after a quarter of an hour after an injury to Jed Steer, he'd already been told he wouldn't have his contract renewed and it was his debut. Left exposed time and again. At fault for the fourth, but to be fair to the lad he'd made a couple of good saves in the first half and won't have done his chances of a contract in League Two or the Conference any harm.
Credit Brentford, a small club who adopted a model five or six years back and can consistently punch above their weight because of it. Showed their quality and attitude yesterday. We're only at the start of our own model, and we'll be a different side next season in terms of both personnel and attitude. It's going to be a massive summer for getting the right players in. I suspect in part that our last two games were down to tiredness, at least in part - we've lost the gegenpressing style in recent weeks, and I think it's down to having a small squad and not being able to rotate and keep players fresh.
On the plus side, we're getting business done early. It looks like we've already got five deals done (with Chris Maxwell looking to be joining on a free from Fleetwood to provide competition to prospective Liverpool loanee Danny Ward in goal). I think we need another central defender, two midfielders and two strikers as well as signing up Jamie Paterson, in addition to holding on to Matmour and Hogg to become competitive nearer the top.
#328497 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Though I will make a sneaky early suggestion that Bristol City might be play-off dark horses. Not just because they walloped us at the weekend (we weren't at the races, they were, and took advantage), but because they've shown fine form at the back end of the season and they've taken some good teams apart. If their owner backs them (especially in defence and midfield, as they already have a formidable forward line), they could be threats.
As for ourselves: can the season end, please? Players are on the beach. We've taken our eye off this season completely. We're signing players (Michael Hefele from Dynamo Dresden, Rajiv Van La Parra from Wolves, Christopher Loewe from Kaiserslauten, linked with Max Grun from Wolfsburg and Danny Ward from Liverpool), which is great, but the last few weeks we've really limped over the line results-wise. It's been a season of progression, but we've just run out of steam a bit. On the plus side, it means weaknesses in the team can be highlighted now rather than cracks being papered over by an unbeaten run like last season. And we've already got a left-back to replace the liability Jason Davidson, which is a bonus.
#326639 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Birmingham today were also not pretty, but they also had a ruthless and unpleasant streak. Three awful tackles on Van La Parra in the first few minutes of the second half summed them up, really. Mind you, VLP was guilty of an awful dive in the first half and should be taken to task by the manager as I hate to see it - it has no place in the game. He should have been booked. Hope he learns to stop doing that bloody soon. Birmingham, to say they had nothing to play for, didn't bother trying to play football. They scored with pretty much their only shot and sat deep, hoofed it, and were generally very ugly. I'd hoped that two teams with nothing to play for would put on an entertaining show, but I was disappointed. Their right-back was probably the most odious player I've seen this season - if Vardy gets a ban for his dissent last week, he did enough today to get about a 6-match man. His abuse of the officials was appalling, and they did nothing about it.
#324552 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Meh. Silly challenge from Lynch on the edge of the box. No complaints there. Had a certain Mr D. Deadman today, though. Think everyone on this board will have winced on seeing that berk's name. As bad as expected. Details on request. He did adversely affect the game, but I'd have taken a point beforehand.
We're limping over the line a bit, but we'll get there. Effectively 10 points clear (with goal difference) with 5 to play - we could yet get bitten on the arse, but I think we'd have to lose all our last 5 for MK to have any chance of catching us at this point and playing like we did today that won't happen. In truth, from about 10th to 21st is unbelievably even in this league and there's nothing between the teams. A bad run sees you plummet (see Nottingham Forest and Brentford up to a couple of weeks back), a couple of good results and you're top half material. QPR are 11th, the same number of points ahead of us as we are ahead of MK. Think that sums this league up.
Positives from today - Van La Parra was superb and looked like the sort of player we'll need to push up into the top half next year. Huws was also superb, and it's a shame we probably can't afford to keep him. The defence looked remarkably solid under pressure (you know, other than the goals...). We got a slightly unexpected point, though the manner of dropping two points after looking like we'd got all three was frustrating. It showed we're not as far off the top sides as some might suggest, and with a few additions we're more than capable of surprising a few next season.
#324188 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Record against the other 15: P25 12-7-6.
I can bleat about individual results all I like: that's pretty damning of our failure against the top sides in this league. Performances have been encouraging, we've just lacked the quality in personnel.
#323629 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Forestieri is the biggest cheat in football. He's an absolute disgrace. And he gets away with murder. Two cynical trips, half a dozen dives, kicking the ball away a few times, feigning injury. Not even booked. It's a shame he is such a pathological cheat, because he can light up a game and was probably the best player on the park this afternoon. Unfortunately his copybook is so blotted by being a committed and unreformable cheat that I feel I can't give him credit. Every time he was tackled (and I'll admit he does draw quite a few fouls with his quick feet, but he also loses out through good defending), he rolled around and acted like a petulant child, waving cards every single time he was given a free-kick before spending half an hour in conference with his mate the ref.
In an incident in the second half, he made a pretty innocuous foul into something much worse with his appalling play-acting. Hudson was on a booking and stretching to put the bouncing ball out of play across Forestieri. He looked to get a toe on it, but might not have done. Either way, at worst a free-kick. Forestieri originally went down clutching his face, rolled around a bit, clutched at his ankle, rolled around a bit more, didn't actually wave an imaginary card at the ref, but when he didn't show a second yellow did spend five minutes asking why there wasn't a card. He then proceeded to hobble around, pretending to be injured.
Then he scored with Wednesday's only clear-cut chance. You know, overcoming the appalling agony to burst into the box to get on the end of a loose ball. Clearly awfully injured. Terribly. Life-threateningly so. Being honest, I would have no sympathy if he suffered a broken leg next week because players like him have no place in the game, and I'm someone who wo
We would have been helped had the ref given a blatant penalty for a handball on the line. I thought it looked suspect from the other end and didn't want to call it, but having seen the evidence, it's incontrovertible.
I know I go on about officials (and it's boring and annoying and oh please fuck off), but we have spent 6 months of decisions going against us. We were knocked out of the Cup as a result of poor officiating in both the first game and the replay (slightly indirect as it was, in the replay, as we were 2-0 up at the time of the very contentious red card), and we can point at half a dozen games where the officials have got things wrong in a manner which swung games against us alongside generally not very good refereeing pretty much every week. The joke has been made that our first signing this summer should be a referee, seeing as everyone else has one, and it does feel like it has the ring of truth this season. We're certainly owed a few in the final weeks of the season. Getting a dodgy offside winning goal given in the 90th minute up at Middlesbrough in the week would be a start.
#322694 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
They've led games just twice this calendar year. Neither resulted in wins. Seven defeats on the spin. 11 defeats in their last 14. No wins. League Two-bound.
#321554 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
And full credit Bradford for keeping their prices cheap for so long. And managing to get up a division and be competitive at the right end of the division above at the same time. They've led the way, ridden a feel-good factor and might add a bit more Yorkshire spice to the Championship next time. A sell-out Valley Parade won't be somewhere teams will want to go if they're on the crest of a wave.
#321170 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Then we just decided that enough was enough and turned it on. Could have been double figures.
Now just to get the 6 points that'll secure Championship football for certain. Next 3 (Sheffield Wednesday, Boro, Hull) are all very tough so anything would be a bonus, but after today we just need to have the belief. We can beat anyone in the division if we're on it, no matter how they play. We need to be more clinical, it's true, but if we stop up don't bet against us being surprise promotion contenders next season. There's something special, something I've never seen before about this Town team. A few more players in key positions and we've every chance of being a real surprise package. For now, a bit more belief against the big guns would get us points. Second half last week we were the better side and had we scored we'd have stood a chance, but we'd stood off Burnley and deserved to be 3-1 down at half-time because we showed too much respect. Today we didn't show respect against a side like ourselves and we took them to pieces.
#320284 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Not assisted by playing 12 men yet again (watch their first goal - if he isn't committing a foul by climbing, I'm a Dutchman), including a comedy decision right at the end when their defender clattered their own keeper. Ball drops to our lad with an open goal... and they get a free-kick. For clattering their own man. Utterly ludicrous.
#319778 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#319301 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#318353 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#317768 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#317618 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#316837 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#315284 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
I'm more than happy to tip him for great things.
#313706 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#312659 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#312157 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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
#312029 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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?"
#311979 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#310670 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
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.
#309512 FA Cup 2015/16
terriersmad
I mean, he's only got two arms around Nahki's leg and nearly snapped his ankle in two, so it's an easy mistake to make. That would have been a red card and a penalty at 1-0 to Town after a dominant display.
Then he went on to gift Reading both their goals through missing fouls on Town players before awarding us a debatable 90th minute penalty to take it to a replay.
You knew this would happen in the replay. Before the red card we're dominant again and 2-0 up. After it - it's so debatable even the BBC says it's harsh (the BBC never ever comments unless it's pretty clear cut), Reading are back in it against 10. Not arguing against the foul, it'd still be 2-1 from the free-kick. I am saying it's a dreadful decision and it happens what feels like every year to knock us out of the cup.
4-2 to them now. Vydra hat-trick. It's hard not to feel that there's some kind of conspiracy sometimes. That's the way it's gone with officials in the cup over the last few years. You may recall the Dale Stephens two-footed shocker on Adam Hammill that went unpunished at 0-0 a couple of years back.
Now 5. Fitness probably a lot to do with that. With 11 we're one of the fittest sides going. With 10 for over an hour after Saturday-Tuesdaying for several weeks it's always a tough ask. Shouldn't have been here to start with. Feel thoroughly cheated.