Most liked posts in thread: Positives of season (23-24’)

Only positive is we have a manager who has proven experience in this division who converted a squad who was averaging 1.25 ppg to one who averaged 1.64 ppg in the 30 games he took charge of.
That would have been 75 points over a season and well inside the top 7.
If he can maintain that standard whilst adding 4 or 5 real quality players and shedding the dross that Hughes/Gent recruited/retained last year, we have a great chance next season.

 

ignore this post if stats aren't for you....... but after looking at the stats for the season against the Who Scored stats site, just because that's the one most shows and podcasts pull from discussing such things i've looked to see where our players ranked against the league. The rankings are done by playing a minimum amount of minutes, to save one lad playing once really well and statistically being the best full back in the league or something like that.

Keepers - Lewis was statistically the worst keeper in L2 when he left. Walker came in and did very well, was the 8th best keeper in L2 overall with the 4th best save percentage in the league. Hopefully there's another good spell for him next season.

Defence - I must admit, I'm not really a huge fan of any of our defenders. They aren't bad players, I just don't think they mesh very well. I think they are all the secondary man, and they need a strong head aside them. They are all McArdles and the back line is missing a Davies if that makes sense? One who organises, sorts the shape, vocal etc. But 3 of our CBs made the top 15 performers with Stubbs (7th), Kelly (13th) & Platt (15th). Stubbs stats are really impressive, but he's another who plays half a season at most. No surprise, Halliday is the best RB in the league this season, he hast the most successful tackles in 82, and most interceptions at 47 in the league, miles ahead of 2nd place in both. Massive drop off on the left side, with Ridehalgh ranking in 28th and Richards in 31st place. Would imagine that's a no brainer area to improve on.

Midfield - No great midfield performers over the season. Smallwood is our highest ranked at 35th which if every team players 2 or 3 CMs means he'd still get in most teams but a massive drop off from him after ranking 3rd last season. Gilliead ranked 63rd, again not a huge surprise as he just doesn't put up the numbers. McDonald didn't play enough minutes to register a rank, if you remove the minutes filter so every player who ever played 1 minute counts, he came in at 115th. Needs improvement and depth adding in the summer.

Attacking mids - Jamie Walker was statistically the 3rd best attacking mid in the league behind Keillor-Dunn and Dan Kemp. Walker played 54% of possible minutes this season and still managed 13 goal involvements. Pattison is another who didn't play enough minutes to rank.

Wingers - With the amount they were chopped and changed, it's not surprising we don't have any ranked highly. Pointon is the best at 28th, just ahead of Odour at 31st. Chapman another who didn't play enough to be listed.

Strikers - Andy Cook finished the 3rd ranked striker in the league, behind two Smiths of Salford and Sutton. Young was 26th, his finishing was really good with just Olafe at Stockport having a better shots to goals ratio in the league, but ranking in the top 30 after only playing half a season is really good. Kavanagh came in at 44th which might seem low but he only had 11 starts for us and his games he's either really good or really forgettable. Smith ranked 88th.

 

No real positives.

These last 6 games don’t mask what was a pretty forgettable previous 40 games.

 

You'd enjoy it if we were relegated to be fair Shoatsy

 

Guilty as charged, I've hardly been this season, only been to 2 away games too ( 1-4 and 0-3 drubbings).
Sorry for attending the last match, as I always will, to pay my respects to all those who died in 1985, and to remember my old man, who started me on my City journey.
The fact there was (almost) something to play for was a bonus.

 

Positives?
- the signings of Kavanagh and S. Walker
- the emergence of Pointon
- Halliday
- 8 goals from J. Walker suggesting 10+ is a reasonable expectation for a fit JW
- scoring a somewhat surprising (to me) amount of late goals to gain points
- a sense that perhaps ownership has {woken up / been woken up} to the fact we have problems that need addressing in terms of club structure / footballing knowledge within the club / attendance / communications
- the good run to close the season

Overall it was a very disappointing, frustrating, exasperating season, but there are still some good elements.

RCB

 

The same Pointon Alexander wouldn't play until it was slapping him in the face.

 

Right, my positive. I only got to see 4 games, including the Mansfield, Notts County and Harrogate drubbings last month. The positive was in the Notts County game when young Oyegoke brought the ball out on a crazy run of about 70 yds up the right wing and put a lovely cross in and Chapman hit the post with a diving header. The only bit of football I saw that got just about everyone up off their seats.

 

It's finished

 

We still have a team to support

 

Sam Walker? A really good singing IMHO.

 

Didn't go bust didn't go down.

Success

 

It's over.

 

Not many positives for the season but a few reasons to be optimistic for next season. As some have noted, the signings in January were all good bits of business and the addition of Sharpe upstairs give me optimism as we move into the summer and hopefully can build on the momentum from these last few weeks.

The other thing is that GA seems to know what he’s doing and has settled on a system that has shown (on the whole) it is able to provide us with a solid defence and enough attacking intent to deliver consistent results. We need to sort the squad out as our two dips in form coincided with injuries in CM and then CB. If we can retain the key squad players we have and add a bit more depth/quality then I’m pretty optimistic.

 

No more Ridehalgh that's a big positive, surely GA isn't stupid enough to offer him another contract

 

Its over, and we haven't gone bust?

 

Least we are sustainable and we dont put up with mediocrity

Pointon and Halliday apart from that its been shockingly bad

 

Exactly.

We made an absolute mess of this season.

However, at least the end of the season can give a bit of confidence that we will be better next season. Took a while but GA got a team playing and winning. A few upgrades should see us being very competitive next season.