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#260009 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Strangely enough, same here
More strange goings on at Leeds United yesterday, with 6 players claiming to be injured and refusing to travel. This sort of thing does seem to galvanise them, though, so anyone lumping on Charlton might get a bit of a shock.
#259524 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
26. I got started young because my dad wanted to take me to Leeds Road before the stadium move. Still vaguely remember the game and trying to work out the scoreboard on the Dalton Bank. There would have been about 5,500 there, but I remember it being weirdly empty. My next game was the first game at the new stadium, against Wycombe. Can't remember the game, can remember going to an office down on Leeds Road to collect tickets.
#259324 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Always had a soft spot for Plymouth. The first game I saw was Town v Plymouth in 1994 (we won 1-0 - Andy Booth scored). Haven't seen them in years, though - the last time we played, I was at uni in Newcastle so couldn't get to the Tuesday night home game. Think it's 13 years since I've seen Plymouth.
Oh, and we're safe for another year. 0-0 draw at Brighton has sealed it.
#259110 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#258738 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Cut a long story short: Championship football in 2015/16 has been all but guaranteed with a first win at Nottingham Forest in almost 15 years.
#257923 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#257623 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#257302 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Hoping that Boro will do us a favour and beat Wigan today, and that Millwall don't beat Charlton. We really need three points from somewhere this weekend to just make sure of survival, and we have two tough games at Wednesday and at home against Ipswich. Thankfully, a few players should be back fit, like Bunn.
#255008 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
For a while I thought both had been sent off, the red card had flashed twice and both were walking down the tunnel. I think the right decision was reached, but being down the other end all I saw was a hand come out and divert a goalbound shot, couldn't tell you who it was. Still pissed off that the rules don't give us a penalty goal in those circumstances, because frankly that was the only way we were going to score (and given we missed the first penalty after a four-minute delay we were definitely disadvantaged, and I think most football fans would agree with me that the rules need changing and would have agreed after the Suarez incident at the 2010 World Cup)! All the play, all the shots, basically had an hour and a half of unrelenting pressure and undone by sloppy defending and a breakaway after Fulham somehow didn't concede. On another day - on most other days - we'd have hammered them by five or six. Only ourselves to blame for missing two penalties, hitting the woodwork four times, and the keeper putting in the performance of his career. I counted fourteen saves he made. What makes that last one worse was that half his saves bounced straight out and evaded our players in the box every time. A game to make you feel like you really are jinxed.
#254891 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#254740 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
They've been shite this season. Last season they were actually OK, best I've seen. Not just us, though - seeing as I've been dragged up at 4.45 I've been watching Wolves v Derby. The Derby disallowed goal...
And for Tuesday, I still don't know where he found the 4 added minutes on top of the 5 indicated. 30 seconds, 1 minute, fine, fair enough. 4 minutes? Taking the piss. Don't know why he booked their lad for his celebration either. Course he's going to celebrate, he's scored his first professional goal in the 98th minute to equalise. If he doesn't milk the moment and go bananas he's not a human being.
#254075 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Five minutes were indicated, which was probably a minute too much to start with. There weren't any injuries in injury time. When James Vaughan scored, there were FOUR SECONDS left of the five added on. Allowing for the original Vaughan booking taking 20 seconds, the referee was obliged to blow 24 seconds after kick off.
With Vaughan picking up a second yellow for taking his shirt off, we had Wallace ready to come on. He was stripped and ready, but the referee did not let us make the substitution. More than a minute into the additional 24 seconds, they won a free-kick. Miller again refused to let us make the substitution - under the laws of the game, this is something he is not entitled to do. If there is a stoppage in play, and a substitute is ready, he is obliged to allow it. He doesn't have an option. He refused to let us make the sub.
A few seconds later, he had checked his watch and had his whistle in his mouth. We cleared it. At that point, we were about 90 seconds beyond what should have been given, for no actual reason. They attacked again, and I can only assume that he carried on because he saw a potential goalscoring chance. A mis-hit shot rebounded to theirs three yards out and he scored. The ref promptly booked him for over-celebration (when he didn't take his shirt off - again showing Miller to be an absolute cunt with a penchant for not letting other people enjoy themselves if he can help it). As soon as we kicked off again, he blew the whistle. Nine minutes of stoppage time. The only proper stoppage was our goal, and you can't add the amount of time we took celebrating because the fucking clock had effectively stopped. We all know how it works, so why didn't the ref? The clock had been stopped for a minute, but in terms of time to play there was a matter of a few seconds, not the convenient two minutes he found.
I'm doubly gutted because we deserved to win. We outfought a very good side and showed the desire and heart missing against Rotherham. We created good chances and took two with quality finishes. The first goal we conceded was Carroll's fault for not just getting it wellied, and the second... Fine, we could have defended it better, but we shouldn't have been in that position.
Five minutes. Five. Plays nine. Gives them a goal. Unbelievable. Every time he's here he does something. Every fucking time.
#253393 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#251442 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Right there with you, chaps. The standard has been dreadful this season. Today's was another bad one for us, but he's hardly an excuse for our own incompetence. He might have given us a penalty at 1-0, but to be honest we hardly deserved it. Somehow he thought their captain's second foul of the game was worthy of a second yellow card. Not in my book, I have to say, I thought it was a whole-hearted challenge for a ball being cleared and although it was a foul he was harshly done to. So a bit of balance in the game.
#251362 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#250330 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
That since Christmas we've won as many as we've lost and we're 11 points clear of Millwall seems to have eluded everyone. Christ, we should have done better than we have the last 2 games, but look at the bigger picture. We're going to lose games. We're occasionally going to lose 2 in a row - even 3! We were shite in both those games and got rightfully turned over by sides who put in probably their best performance (Charlton) and one of their best performances (Brentford) of the season. But since August we have made so much progress it's untrue. When Powell came in we'd lost 4 of 7 - then 6 of 9 when we lost the first 2 under him. After 10 games we had 6 points. We've got 36 since then, and we're not doing too badly, when all's said and done, when you take that nightmare start out of it.
Yes, Powell needs to be a bit more attacking at times, and needs to make subs earlier, but when he does play an attacking team and then we lose, fans get straight on his back calling for him to be more defensive. When he tries to tighten the defence up, the same fans moan and say he needs to be more attacking. Powell isn't perfect and he needs to be braver, but for fuck's sake, give him a chance.
We're hamstrung in this division. Unlike certain others (*cough* Bournemouth *cough*) we abide by FFP. I don't like FFP, but we are at least trying to become sustainable in the long term. We're not going to take the division by storm by spending beyond our means. We're reliant on doing a Burnley if we are to get up and more often than not we're going to be mid-table at best in this division. Which means we're going to lose games. There will be times where we don't turn up and lose badly against sides we should do better against.
People who use Brentford as an example for what we want to do need to be reminded of a number of things: 1) bloody marvellous manager; 2) promotion momentum with a side good enough to go up and stay up in the first place. In our promotion season we sacked our manager and needed a massive turnaround of players to be ready for the Championship after being fortunate to go up. I can also guarantee that if Brentford don't go up they'll be in the bottom third of the division next season - they'll have lost their manager and those players on an individual basis can't keep up top-end Championship football, which makes their achievements all the greater. And the very best of luck to them for the rest of the campaign. I've also seen Town do what Brentford are doing in my lifetime, in 1995/96, when we came up and promptly challenged all season at the top of the then-Division One, only fading from the play-offs in April. The next year? 20th.
Football fans annoy me. Bloody idiots, almost to a man.
#249974 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
terriersmad
A very different time. Things have changed massively when it comes to sexual offences against children, even those with ostensible consent.
Remember, guys: he's not been charged, he's not been convicted. He is, so far as anyone is concerned, innocent. One day the tabloids will realise that before going off on one after an arrest.
#249536 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
My moan of the week is at our local paper. Don't know who thought it was a good idea to employ Tom Marshall-Bailey and let him have an opinion on football, but he's utterly clueless. Very good at spotting the fricking obvious but incapable of working out why it happened. His target for the week is David Edgar - who might have had a bad day, but if you can't work out that he was getting targeted because of the lack of cover Scannell provides then you probably shouldn't have an opinion about football.
#248532 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Romance isn't dead. Though our players will need to be careful when sliding into a tackle on Saturday.
#248175 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Reading were crap. Had loads of the ball and did sod all with it.
#247500 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
"Ref, what you going to... Never mind, I'll put my head in my hands and turn away in disgust."
#247219 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
And having seen it again, I'm wrong and the ref was right on all counts. Clever play by Kenwyne Jones, making sure he got something when he wasn't getting to the ball, daft from Smith, who showed inexperience to pull him back when he didn't need to, and good refereeing. Actually, the ref had a good game. I'm the first to criticise a ref for a bad game, so it's only fair that Mr Heywood should take the credit for a good performance.
#246611 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#246210 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#245657 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
You would be correct, 2008/9 when they were deducted 17 points.
#245458 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Football fans are the same the world over. Always want more. Always impatient. Never quite seeing the bigger picture.
#244380 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
OK, I'm not baffled in the sense of 'we gift-wrapped them a two-goal heal start', but in terms of general play and chance creation, etc. I did something I don't normally do, and looked at shot stats - 31 (13 on target, plus 11 blocked) to their 10 in total. Their keeper's played a blinder, quite frankly. It's just really disappointing, because it looks like we've been hammered, and we haven't, despite the scoreline.
That linesman on the far side needs shooting for the good of the game, though. Two of the most mystifying offside decisions I've ever seen, flagging Ishmael Miller (who looked pretty good) offside when he was at least five yards on, and not spotting any of their three who were probably the best part of three or four yards off for their third. They were both those sorts of decisions where you're caught by surprise to the point where you're not actually sure what you've just seen. I'm actually more pissed off about the Miller one, at least he has the excuse of phases of play about their goal, bollocks though they might me (you're six yards out and go for the ball - of course you're offside).
#243622 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
Mike Jones really is hopeless. No way that's any kind of Millwall free-kick, never mind a second yellow card. His decision making for the penalty (their player on a booking) is also interesting. I'm not sure how much contact there is before Bunn goes down. It's certainly soft. But if he's going to give a penalty he's surely got to show their lad a second yellow, given the position of the foul? Personally, I'd be reluctant to give the penalty, I should say.
#243590 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
#243541 The Lower League Thread
terriersmad
And it's everything that shitty club deserves. Cheerio, Holloway. Can't wait for your post-match excuses.
Also, when you see the second yellow for Wells tonight, consider that this 'challenge' by a Millwall man is considered worthy of the same punishment...
This year has been shocking for refereeing.