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Thread | Woolfenden
at 08:28 23 Jan 2022
May have missed it if his performance has already been discussed, but I thought he was excellent yesterday. Won lots of physical battles with Bishop, who is a unit, and swept up well with some crucial blocks and interceptions. He's really growing into that role in the middle of the back three and it's pleasing to see him raising his level now he's finally been given a run of games. Long may it continue. |
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Thread | Ranking Town's worst managers
at 09:42 9 Jan 2022
Thought it was worth doing an updated one of these in light of Cook's demise and departure. Given how his time here went, he has to be seen as a legit contender. I'm sticking to a list of five and I should caveat my list with the fact that I started supporting Town under John Duncan so haven't included anyone prior to his time in charge (or ultimately Duncan himself as it goes).
1. Paul Hurst - whilst Cook styled himself as demolition man, Hurst really did demolish a competent Championship squad and replaced it with dross. We've still not recovered.
2. Paul Cook - perhaps a touch controversial, but the shortness of his tenure speaks to his level of failure. To manage a worse record than Paul Lambert did in the third tier with the players at his disposal takes some doing.
3. Roy Keane - could easily have been a spot higher or indeed a spot lower, swapping with my number 4 on the list. Spunked away the only millions Evans ever really invested in fees on average players and seemed to lack almost every quality you need to be a manager.
4. Paul Lambert - frankly I'm stunned I have him this low but it speaks to the 'quality' of the opposition. After coming in and saying some nice things that led to a short term uplift in performances (though not results) he seemed to lose all desire and any clue. Famously blew an almost open goal shot at promotion off the back of 27 points from our opening 11 games by inexplicably engaging in a season long game of Lambingo.
5. Paul Jewell - what to say really? Inherited a bit of a mess from Keane and then smeared that mess around a bit for just under 2 years. Occasionally 5 game runs of looking great invariably followed by 10 game runs of looking like a pub team. By the end he looked totally lost and should have been put out of his misery much sooner.
That's my list. It's a packed field, despite all of the managers listed having managed Town within the last 12 years. [Post edited 9 Jan 12:36]
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Thread | A tale of two Gillinghams (A)
at 08:44 9 Jan 2022
Around ten and a half months ago, Paul Cook faced an away trip to Gillingham as his first game in charge. We'd just won 3 on the spin to put ourselves back into promotion contention, and Cook himself had been talking about a shot at automatic promotion, let alone the play offs. We limply lost 3-1, looking more disjointed than ever, and it signalled the start of a horrendous end of season run that saw us finish meekly in midtable.
In some ways, that performance and result set the tone for Cook's time here. We only fleetingly ever looked a coherent side benefitting from quality coaching. If you strung together the spells of good performance under Cook you'd probably carve out enough for 2 or 3 full 90 minute games out of 40 odd. He just never got going here if we're honest, we looked as disjointed in some of his latter games here as we did in those early days, whilst never really being able to fall back on at least being defensively sound.
Yesterday was McKenna's second game in charge, so admittedly it's not exactly like for like, but when you compare the two performances against the same opposition right at the start of each manager's tenure it's absolutely night and day. McKenna seems to have got more coaching into the players in 2-3 weeks than Cook managed in 6 months. The shape and the clearly evident style of play were miles away from the mish-mash performances we saw under Cook, which often seemed to be based on nothing more sophisticated than sticking eleven better players out there than the opposition could muster.
It is early days of course and Gillingham were hopeless, but on the evidence of the first two games we look to have a manager who can get these players performing as a cohesive team. You'd think that's a bare minimum requirement for a manager generally, but after our last three incumbents this really feels like a breath of fresh air. |
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Thread | I'm feeling old
at 16:24 20 Dec 2021
This is the first time that Town have had a manager that's younger than I am. Time to start voting Tory and being baffled by youth culture I reckon. |
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Thread | Oh FFS
at 20:14 7 Dec 2021
Poor goal to give away. |
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Thread | Four home wins
at 09:18 29 Nov 2021
To put some context around our home form, our four home wins have come against sides with a combined away record this season of played 40, won 1, drawn 10, lost 29. We've been unconvincing in putting three of those sides away and haven't beaten anyone of note at PR as yet. We really need a big upturn to happen very quickly if this season is going to be salvaged. It's hard to see where that upturn will come from at the moment, our last 2 performances have been about as poor as we've been at any point this season. |
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Thread | Three games without scoring
at 21:45 23 Nov 2021
Piss poor. Hard to see how this season is going to be remotely successful at this point. |
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Thread | Four Hours at the Capitol
at 08:24 21 Oct 2021
Anyone else watch this last night? A very interesting and at times chilling watch. Incredible to witness just how cult-like Trump's following was, and in many case continues to be, and how much white privilege was on display that day. The sense of entitlement of many of the 'protestors' and their genuine surprise when bad stuff happened to any of them was quite striking. |
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Thread | Mo Salah
at 12:40 16 Oct 2021
Really is some player isn't he? Glorious pass with the outside of the foot to set up Mane just now and that goal against City the other week was world class. When he's on song, as he seems to be this season, he's up there amongst the very elite. |
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