 | Forum
Thread | El Miss-you-ni
at 13:06 5 Jul 2024
Shame that things didn't work out for him here. Another one to add to the list of those who promised much but for various reasons didn't go on to make it with Town. He had a great start to his post-Town days at Orient, and I'm sure he'll be a success at whatever his level ends up being. For Orient fans to love him so much at his relatively young age, bossing that position and showing leadership means he's got something.
I think he's another one for whom we've just progressed too quickly. If we hadn't made it out of League One immediately under Kieran, he could have been a fixture in that midfield and then kicked on in the Championship.
A nice problem to have I guess, and Kieran is capable of real difficult, hard-nosed decisions. Sentimentality has its time and place, but for Kieran that time and place is the two hours after we've been promoted!
I wonder what the fee will end up being. I suppose given his age, he didn't want to be loaned out forever, and as he wasn't gonna play in the Prem, we would have to let him go. Being a desperate seller is not going to help the price, but I'm sure having plenty of Champ/League One suitors will have pushed it up a bit.
Loving the look of that Oxford side! (not their kit, mind...) |
| Forum
Thread | Pub to watch the Derby, somewhere near the M4?
at 20:52 5 Apr 2024
Idiot that I am, I am going on holiday with the wife and kids, tomorrow, to Wales. Storm Kathleen has already promised to ruin the week weather-wise, but the fact that we are driving west along the M4 during the most important East Anglian derby in a long time is the bigger problem.
Does anybody by any random chance know of any pubs that are nailed on to be showing the match tomorrow, ideally in the stretch heading west from Reading or thereabouts?
With apologies for taking up a thread on something so dull and involving such serious levels of stupidity.
COYB |
| Forum
Thread | The fate of the promoted teams
at 08:25 2 Apr 2024
Plymouth's sacking of Ian Foster got me thinking about the diverging fates of the promoted clubs.
Last season saw three teams with exceptional records fight it out at the top of League One. Whatever one thinks of Wednesday, they deserved promotion. All three got more than two points per game. One side got more than a hundred points, one got more than a hundred goals, and the third team languished on a mere 96 points, with a goal difference of 44. Each won at least 4 of their last 5 games.
Fast forward 11 months, and two of those sides are in the bottom 4 of the Championship, between them they average one point per game, and between them they have won only one of their last 5 games. Neither still has their promotion-winning manager. These two teams, added together, have fewer points than the other. Added together, they only have two more goals than the other has.
The new teams of the other two promotion winning managers, between them, have fewer points than the promoted team which retained its manager. And remarkably, fewer goals between them.
How very lucky we are to have Kieran McKenna. Yes, Wednesday is a bit of a basket case, and yes Plymouth were very unlucky to lose Schumacher on top of having lost Lowe. But Plymouth and Wednesday were so good in League One - not a simple league to get out of. They have proven that the Championship is a hard place.
And yet look at our incredible record. Just like last year, KMac was able to assess what we needed in January and improve the squad greatly. This time round, his resources did not dwarf the remainder of the division, especially those teams around us. He assesses and answers questions within games too. Other sides call us lucky or cry foul when we come from behind to win games. We have incredible fitness and team spirit, yes, but not all of our goals come in the 97th minute. They are often the result of working out what change needs to be made (when we're already losing) and making that change, be it tactical or personnel-related.
It could still go very wrong or very right, and maybe that's the joy of football. Either way, we're already guaranteed at least 4th place (a position which was my very optimistic prediction for the season).
Our numbers on their own show how incredible the season has been, but Plymouth and Wednesday underline that in a very big way. |
| | HighgateBlue
|
Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 1222 | | Comment Votes: | 547 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 1769 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.