Away v Chesterfield 23rd July

I'm not certain where you're getting this rather unscientific view from.

League 2 is notorious for clubs racing through, getting promotion and often that been their highest position of the season

Bristol Rovers lost 6 out of their first 10 and were 17th at Christmas.

Mansfield, who got to the play-off final lost 5 out of their first 10.

In the 20/21 season, Bolton lost 5 out of their first 10 as well

 

One caveat I'd throw in, Chesterfield (and Wrexham) would be competing in the top half of L2, with their squads

 

Bristol Rovers and Mansfield last season. Even though the latter failed, they made the play-off final

Bolton Wanderers, the season before.

L2 history is littered with clubs making poor starts and getting promoted.

 

Great analysis.

I reckon Chapman will start, if fit enough.

If it's going to be a 4-2-3-1 in midfield, I'm a bit surprised that Songo isn't partnering Smallwood. We need a mean spirited 'enforcer' type of partnership, simply because we are will play four attack minding players in front of them - who have no defensive qualities.

 

Well, maybe, maybe not. They'd have financial fair play to tangle with in league two.

 

That's not relevant if the owner's are happy to put the money in.
Salford have massively over spent for several seasons.

 

Hence the "maybe, maybe not"

 

not having a go but how the hell do Salford continue doing it ????? They should be on the lines with the likes of Harrogate so they must be bending the rules somewhere

 

That’s why they are overspending while they can get away with it

 

Billionaire Pete Lim buys 50 per cent stake in Salford City | Football News | Sky Sports

 

Exactly, Lim is the 9th richest in Singapore, Salford is peanuts.

 

I know that but isn’t there rules on how much you spend regarding the gates you pull in and the revenue fro shirt sales etc ?????

I cannot see Salford coming anywhere near what we pull in on gate receipts and revenue ..........

 

yeah but plenty of owners who have thrown money at it and I’m sure there clubs have been punished for it ................. Sheffield Wednesday for starters

our season ticket sales are over 14k this season cannot see Salford selling over 1500

our shirt sales easily out do them and sales on match days must dwarf there’s so somewhere along the line they must be bending some kind of rules

 

I think @wetherbywhaler has mentioned this in the past, it's all irrelevant if the owner is happy to underwrite the losses.

 

You would think our strength in depth would help us as the season goes along.

 

Hughes knew what the answer was to why we played so badly yesterday but the players obviously didn’t. chesterfield obviously didn’t allow us to play it around at will as we have done so far this pre season so we should have adapted and played more direct. This will happen a lot this season so I hope lessons have been learned.
We have good players and there is every reason to be optimistic as long as we don’t get to dogmatic about how we play our football

 

My issue with yesterday’s defeat is that we have seen this before in games in seasons past where we don’t seem to be able to change tactics mid game. If we are going to challenge for promotion this season we need to be able to do this, this will show us how tactically astute Mark Hughes is. There will be teams that come to VP with spoiling tactics and we need to overcome this.

 

Weve got a great manager, think we have assembled a very good squad for this level and everything off the pitch is ticking over nicely.

I wouldnt be surprised if we had another horror of a season again though. It would just be the Bradford City thing to do.

 

that’s what’s so scary if we don’t get it right this season then I can’t see us getting it right for a long time .............. we just have to keep faith with him he’s putting his reputation on the line he gets it wrong here then I think he will struggle to get another job .......... I just hope if we don’t get off to a good start hope the fans stick with him sadly this over reaction to a loss in a pre season just proves how people can change from game to game .................teams who come here will no doubt come here with negative tactics the last thing City need is for us lot to play into the oppo teams hands and get on the players back ............... this should be a ground that EVERY team should be scared to come not to sadly it ain’t