Away vs Crawley Jan11th

Yep, I made the point about wingers not necessarily being an answer - and largely irrelevant to Doyle - but given that's how we lined up, I think it was a big mistake to play Taylor out wide and rely solely on the attacking threat of Connolly, which is limited to pace alone.

Think it was a pretty dopey team selection, tgo be honest.

 

Well here are the stats, I never bother with them. I certainly don’t believe these!

 

The "solution" is as follows

1. Stop blaming Bowyer for the relegation and realise that we're in a far better position than the likes of you predicted in May last year. Remember, the abuse the likes of myself and Park got when we pointed out that we could turn those failing players around and mount a promotion challenge only to be told we were heading for the conference
2. Understand that frustrating though it is, not having players like Prichard, Cooke and even Ismail (to say nothing about Donaldson) have a big impact on the creativity element of our team. Even Mellor is a miss compared to that wimp of an excuse Henley
3. Going back to the good old fashioned 'Parky' formula, i.e. giving a manager time. At this time in 2012 - the noise about how bad Parky was for the club and how he should be gotten rid of, was so loud you could hear it for it miles. Is Bowyer really doing worse than Parky did in the same period?
4. Realising that sacking Bowyer will do nothing more than make you feel better. Sacking managers every 20 games (as it would be the equivalent for the last three) doesn't work. Go look at Wycombe and the very up and down ride they had in this league for about six seasons, before Ainsworth got it right

Sacking is as easy as it's ridiculous. I continue be amazed that fans think it's always the solution to a problem when the clubs that have managers for the least amount of time, are the ones who nearly always under-achieve

I'll judge Bowyer at the end of the season and not before. He's earned that right. It's a minor miracle, given the toxic nature of the club and been forced to have an unsettled side, that we're firmly in the race

Kick the cat, dust ourselves down, look forward to the Scunny game, when hopefully one of the influential players are back

 

Maybe we do need to adopt a longer term view here but that isn’t great. 3 wins in 14 is it now?
plus do we know our best xi and a style of play? I’d say not yet. At least if we did we could say it’s clear we need this player and that player. At the minute it feels like we fix one problem then realise we have 2 or 3 more.

 

I agree, he's trying to fudge together something by throwing two strikers together whose attributes are the same. He did the same in midfield with Palmer and Reeves. Then he sticks a non assisting winger on the right and and a central midfielder on the left and sounds perplexed on the radio how we can't turn possession into chances.
I'm beginning to ask myself if he's the right man for the job...

 

459 passes.

I would like a breakdown on how many went forward, how many were from Reeves while he stood still moaning at everyone else, and how many were from our sole winger into an attacking area.

 

I don't think Vaughan and Doyle are too similar in the way they play, but other than that, spot on.

I didn't expect us to concede two, but I certainly didn't expect us to score more than one with that side.

 

Disagree, sacking + BIG investment would be our only salvation, let boldness be thy friend.............do it....

 

It's not overdramatic to call for Bowyer's head.

When was the last time you even saw a simple attacking 1-2 movement? A through ball to play a striker through?

We can't even do a simple pass back on throw-ins.

Even with Hopkin we blew out numerous teams 3/4-0 and that was with a relegation side! The sad thing is that was our last convincing win, even though we're 4th now...

 

They've been drilled to play that way all season.

What, are we gonna do a Rahic and completely change the managerial style mid-season?

That has never worked well...

 

Oh dear. Had more than enough time to seethe on the way home. Feel sorry for those poor sods who came down from Bratfud.

Awful half hearted performance where the score line really flattered us. We were torn a new one for most of that by a very limited team who we made look like world beaters.

A O'Connor was the only defender to come out of the game with any credit. BRE was bullied all game by their number 9.

Midfield absolutely gone missing. Not one of them were worthy of a start.

Doyle must be wondering what the hell he has done to deserve to be back at City.

MaCarten at least added some forward direction when he came on and Akpan was better than Reeves when he replaced him.

If Crawley could finish, it would have been a cricket score.

Ironically, as the final seconds ticked away and we were in desperate need of a goal, the final whistle went as we were string passes together along our back line.

 

Look I don't see how any club could sack a manager that's taken a team that was bottom of the L1 to been in the promotion picture of L2 after 26 games of the following season and has done this without a settled side

You say "achieved making us hard to beat " as though that's something that's easy. If it's so easy, how come he's the first since Parky to do this

And results are not "average" they're above that, which is why we're 6th

When rebuilding you make the team strong at the back first and go forward from there, particularly in L2

This "entertainment" request, is just laughable. Most fans who remember L2 of old, accept that the footie will be pretty terrible for 80% of the time. Did you see the Sheff U / West Ham match last night? Neither team could string two passes together for longer than once per 30 minutes and that's The Premier League - but we think, rather arrogantly that we have a divine right to be entertained every match. We had the same complaints under Parky

We're in L2. Do what we need to do to go up, i.e. repeat that Salford game 20 more times but convert our chances.

I get that the lack of entertainment has a limiting effect on patience - but please can we just give the manager at least two windows and a full fit squad and then see how he's done at the end of the season

 

Which makes it even more sad.

 

Sad but true. It's the only way he knows. And it's why it was pointless bringing Doyle back was pointless.

 

Agree with most of what you're saying - but the football IS appalling, and that's purely down to the set up since the start of the season.

It's been very hard to watch our games over the Christmas period, it's not just about being entertained, it's about showing an obvious desire to attack opponents - something we lack.

I'm sure there's a way of retaining our defensive resoluteness while accepting that we should be attacking teams that are happy to park the bus - Bowyer needs to let loose the reins from time to time.

Remember Forest Green? What a joke.

Refusing to allow our forwards to close down their keeper just because his kicking was pap, then the following week, guess what? Opponents close down the keeper and score two goals due to errors.

 

I admire your patience I really do. But I am not so sure we will gain promotion with this side in the format that Boywer wants to play. I also not an advocate of trying to hammer square plugs into round holes. The very thought that we will miss out this season is just too awful to contemplate. I nearly lost the will to live last time. Bowyer has certainly had more money than Party did. I am not usually in favour of sacking the manager half way through the season.

 

He’s a big enough budget for promotion. He wasted money on resigning Devine and Anderson, signing Henley. Four central midfielders on loan. The squad may be horribly lopsided, but it’s more good enough to get promoted from this division.
A failure to get promoted, when it comes, is BowyerS’ and BowyerS’ alone.

 

January 1st. The goal against Morecambe

 

Yep.

Doyle being here is a waste of everyone's time and money.

He isn't nearly good enough at what Bowyer asks a striker to do, and we aren't nearly good enough at doing what Doyle might ask of us.