October 2025 Games

Vale were appalling, County just played as they should . Decent side and the team to beat.

Lowe should have walked but it would have made no difference. Vale were that poor.

 

Proves thatvour recruitment has been on another level to theres

 

Just seen the Lowe incident. How is it a yellow card? Surely it's a red or else nothing?

 

So in the EPL, var can upgrade a yellow to red, or downgrade a red to yellow? But the mere low life plebs can’t have anything done if it was “seen”. Makes sense.

 

I don't know why his record as a coach is hardly great, just watching the video @Kevin1954 posted and the Reading owner says he had him as there first choice when Noel Hunt went.

 

Watching any Youtubey folk this season, a uniform thing pretty much everyone has said for a few month is how bad L1 is this season. Not something I've really noticed at games, a few clubs have looked good and a few clubs have looked like Harrogate in disguise. But going a calendar month without a win and still being a point off top is kinda showing maybe this isn't a great L1? There are only 3 teams in the league at the minute with back to back wins in the form table.

Looking at the last 5 seasons, the total Stockport have built after 14 games (28 points) is the lowest total of a league leader in a long time. The only time a team had fewer were Carlisle in 2006/2007 with 27 points on the board. The last time a league leader after 14 games had 28 points, it was Scunthorpe in 16/17 and ironically, we were again 2nd at the time. Most clubs are on around the 32-35 points mark after this many games going through the last 20 seasons.

 

How does someone judge if a league is weaker? I've always thought it was a comment made by fans who know little about the game tbh. The only difference is that it doesn't have two clubs throwing far more money at it than everyone else, the quality of football on display will be no different. All I can see is that the league is more even, I doubt that makes it weaker.

 

Yeah i think it's kinda that. The last few years there's been an obvious one or two off the bat who pretty much every fan who peg in the top few spots, but this year there isn't that clear team or two.

Over the last 20 years of tables, the top teams this year are a good 6 or 7 points off the average set over the last few decades but I'd probably guess (without being arsed to load all the tables back up) that the gap between 1st and 10th in this seasons table is probably also 5 or 6 points closer together than the average too. To me it genuinely feels like there's at least 10 teams this year who could finish anywhere between 1st and 10th with no surprises, it's that wide open. Does it mean it's weaker? Maybe? But it means it's more competitive for sure.

 

It’s like last season.

Everybody said it was the worst league 2 for years.
I know we lost our main striker from New Year’s Day but it still took us until 6 minutes into injury time of the last game to secure promotion.

Like you say,there isn’t a Wrexham or Birmingham this season but it just seems a glib statement that fans make based on this fact alone.

 

I'm not sure the league overall is weaker but it is certainly more open with a lot more of the big/fancied teams struggling like Huddersfield, Luton, Plymouth. I can see it being a bit like league 2 last season with the totals for the top places being below average and because of that it gets very tight with a good run of results sending you up quite a few places and an ok run like we've gone in the last 4 games being enough to keep you around the same position.
I don't think we should ignore though that we are only just under 2 points a game and over the course of a season that will be minimum very close to top 2. For me the next 2 league results determine if the last 3 games in particular are good points or not, if we get 6 points from them and it's 19 points from 9 since the Doncaster game which is a very good return with any set of fixtures.

 

That 11 points from October was always going to be ambitious.

 

It's weird that people see a league full of teams struggling for form as a sign of a weak league. Surely it just means it's more competitive. I agree it's not a reflection of standard.

 

I'd say i'm more surprised that the difference between league 1 and 2 isn't as big as what i'd led myself to believe, last nights game quality wise was like many i saw last season.

 

Tbh I’m not. Some of the worst games I’ve ever been to have been in league 1, don’t get me wrong it’s probably because I’ve seen this league more than any. Worst game quality wise I’ve ever seen was a game against Chesterfield in 2015 which essentially cost us a playoff place. It’s always felt like there are 3 levels in the top 4 tiers, the championship is the first big step up for me.

 

As you allude to the longer you spend out of the division the more you tend to forget. You also tend to remember the sides that drop into league one that shouldn't really be there, Sheffield Utd, Leeds, Sunderland, that season Bristol City were irresistible, Wolves if i remember with over 100 points. Being honest the majority of teams aren't much better if any than the teams in the top 6 of league 2.

 

I think that Stockport will win this division at a canter and that everyone else is playing for second. They seem to have had an issue with polarising halves in matches; as soon as they iron that out, they should pull away IMO.

I think we'll probably fall away a little unless we can sort our injury problems out and keep most of the starting XI fit. It's a little disconcerting that sides like Huddersfield, for all of their woes this season, aren't too far behind the leaders.

 

I think that's one of the things that makes everyone think this years division is poor, the CH relegated sides barring Cardiff have been pretty average to terrible really but even Cardiff aren't setting the world alight. Luton were never going to bounce back after double relegations. Plymouth went for some youth and a pretty novice coach, they were always going to be a gamble. Cardiff have gone the youth route too mixed with good experience and it's showing in their results sometimes.

But look at the teams that come down. Wednesday if they can sort their ownership out in time could build a ridiculous L1 team if they keep hold of some of their current crop too. Norwich, Derby, Portsmouth, Oxford, Blackburn look like they'll probably be the others in the mix and they'd all come down with a better base (maybe not oxford) than the current crop we have. I wouldn't be surprised if Luton, Huddersfield and Bolton are still outside the POs come Jan, if they all try spend a good 7 figures that window to just try get up this year because the 3 that come down could see this league go back to being a bit of a top sided one on paper.

 

Really think top 2 will be Stocky and Bolton tho' if I was Brighton manager, I would be looking at recalling Duberry in January to try him with a championship team.