(h) v Middlesbrough League (Carabao) Cup 3rd Round - Tue 26 September 2023 7.45pm

It was meangingless to me, hence why I didn’t go and went to play 5 a side instead

Just where I’m at with City under Hughes, I suppose.

even at a fiver, just cba going to watch us get schooled. He actually played a stronger side than I imagined though. Surprised Cook and Patto started.

 

Because I have lost faith In Hughes, Idle. Had a few options and decided to play footy instead of being bored to death at home, again, under Hughes - even if it was just a fiver for the pleasure.

I wasn’t saying that in 2013, no. I was in the stands for that run including away at Wigan, for Arsenal, home and away at Villa, in the mixer with Carl McHugh in the tap n spiral after, and of course at Wembley. Fantastic memories.

The difference was the club actually meant something to me then because of the manager. Parkinson gave me belief we could beat ANYBODY. Chelsea away was incredible in the FA Cup later on. Sunderland and Leeds, too. That’s what happens when you have a proper manager. I adored Parkinson and was there stood on the streets like countless others in the promotion trophy parade and at centenary square. I bought into what he was doing. The man is a legend.

Hughes? Well he can only dream of replicating the success Parkinson brought and the pride he instilled in our fans.

Hughes has proven a failure. We can’t even muster more than one shot on target at home to Grimsby, never mind sustain an automatic promotion push (which is what this club should be doing) and are completely reliant on Cook staying fit to finish even in the top half of the table.

Hughes is no better than dour Derek or Gary Boreyer.

I hope Newport is the start of a revival. I hope we go on a run. But I won’t hold my breath. Was done with Hughes after Carlisle and don’t enjoy going anymore. Only a new boss or a massive improvement in our shot-shy home performances will change that this season.

 

You're saying you went to Wigan on the back of a run of 2 wins in 9 because Parkinson made you "believe we could beat anybody"?

I can't say I felt the same.

That was the season Parkinson won me and many others over in a quite incredible way, but it kinda started with Wigan. EFL Cup run aside, we weren't great that season, and needed a remarkable run in our last 10-12 games of the season to even scrape into the play offs.

I'm not accusing you of misremembering, but that certainly wasn't my experience.

 

It was an away day at a Premier League ground and I had full faith in the manager and the players at the time that we could compete or at least have a plan. We got absolutely battered. Didn’t have a kick. Needed an outlet for the balk to stick but the lads were knackered. But the point is, as a fan, I wanted to go, to take the chance we might get a result to progress.

Under Hughes the football is awful. I’ve absolutely no intention of watching us away anywhere under him, save Wembley, if we by some miracle got to PO final.

 

PS we only needed the late run because the cup run negatively effected our league games that followed. We had hangovers, understandably.

York away was a huge win after Swansea annihilated us in the final.

We focussed and then kicked on.

 

That's fair enough, it's not for you, but I remember the same things under Parkinson.

Plonkinson, anyone?

Hoofball, Hanson was awful, etc etc etc

I don't agree with that, I enjoyed that season tremendously - but I'm prepared to enjoy this season tremendously too, maybe it started at Newport, maybe it didn't, we'll have to wait and see.

 

The people that knocked Hanson and Parkinson are completely clueless and their opinions, to me, aren’t worth reading. We got results. Something Hughes doesn’t. He draws far too many.

They epitomised the david v goliath element of supporting a lower league club. Promotion at Wembley, all the great cup results, superb strike partnership with Hanson-wells - the best we’ve had since Mills-Blake in the 90s. Inject it into my veins all day long.

what will hughes’ legacy be? Boring us to death at home and ‘that’ sub vs Carlisle. We properly messed up a glorious chance of promotion last year by being far too cautious. To have the second best keeper in the league and best striker, and loan quality like Banks, Crich, Wright, and still not make the top three in a poor year takes quite some doing.

anything less than a top three finish was a huge failure last year. Time after time we threatened to break into the top three and bottled it. Technically we made progress from the previous year but christ, that wasn’t saying much.

 

Hughes' legacy has not been determined, but it will certainly be determined over the next 9 months.

Come June, we'll know for sure whether Hughes was a bust or not, but for now, I'm not prepared to write us (or him) off either in terms of entertainment or outcomes.

I think it's absolutely crazy to view Hughes as a success/failure based on a three-game mini-tournament like the play offs, and it's even crazier to think Parkinson did better in the league when he provably did slightly worse or (at best) roughly the same.

 

Its about achievement versus expectation though. I felt we punched above our weight, in general, under Parky, given our budget and the strength of those divisions. Under Hughes the club is more stable and we don’t need cup runs to offset the overspend now. We had a squad last year to make the top three so finishing sixth wasn’t good enough IMO. Losing in the PO wasn’t the biggest disappointment. We should have finished higher in the first place had we shown more ambition.

cook carried us and seemingly still does.

 

Last season was exactly as I expected, to be honest, I'm pretty certain I'd said I expected play offs and felt the autos would be out of reach.

I was prepared to be patient as I recognise we signed quite a few players in the 23/24 age bracket and it was clear some of them wouldn't make it, but those that did could form the basis of a sound squad the following season (this season).

Honestly, I think we've been a bit unlucky so far with a few details. We'll see.

The cup seems to be a poisoned chalice for Hughes, as not only are people expecting us to compete with Middlesbrough based on what happened 10 years ago when football was a completely different world (it evolves so fast, especially financially), but if we hadn't just played Middlesbrough, we'd be looking at a plum home tie against Walsall on the back of a 4-1 win and with key players coming back into the fold.

 

I too have lost faith in Hughes. I cannot accept him saying that Tuesday was well down on his priorities and not sending his team out to have a go, hat's disrespecting the fans and not acceptable

 

Thanks. Didn’t realise that.

 

Absolutely superb post and mirrors my feelings completely.

 

Not sure at the time of purchasing our tickets I went thinking we'd get schooled, I went in the hope we'd show more fight than we did, the reason we couldn't/didn't was more to do with the way Boro played we just chased shadows that was more to do with Boro than our ability to alter the game by either fair means or fowl .

 

See this is where I also call bollocks.
If a cup run wasn't a priority why risk playing our strongest line ups in the first 2 rounds, risking injuries and fatigue only for Hughes to say after a crap performance and result that we were never bothered!!??
Can't believe people fell for his comment.

 

Mine too.
I've got absolutely no connection with this squad bar maybe Halliday who I think grafts and plays better than most nearly every match
Watching them on Tuesday I commented to my mates that even had we scored I wouldn't have the energy to jump up and celebrate it as it's been sapped out of me watching the turgid stuff on offer.

 

The Harrogate game showed that feeling very effectively. A lady minute equaliser and barely half of the remaining crowd stood up to cheer and still booed the team off just a few minutes later.

 

In fairness he never said we weren't bothered. He said it wasnt our priority....which is true! I get the disappointment and I wish we'd made a game of it but they were just at a totally different level! Saturday is by far the more important game.

 

I said at the time that even a last minute winner wouldn’t have massively changed my mood at the end of the game.
I can’t remember coming out of a game where we’d scored a last minute equaliser and still feeling so flat at what I’d just witnessed

 

Unbelievable. The man was a legend.