Sack the manager

Up until Christmas we were very much in the hunt for automatic promotion. We won twice over the Christmas period and drew at Swindon the terrible performances and results coincided with the return of Doyle and that can not be disputed

 

Dennis was there not dialogue between us both regarding the contract and that it was to be negotiated somehow. ie it was never going to be the same contract after January no matter what. Thats what I took from it.

 

B-but we had good form 4 months ago so our current form doesn't matter

 

the terrible performances were coming to Park. Surely we were scraping by with low shots on targets because we had a tight defense. Are you suggesting doyle return had an impact on our defence? I could believe it if in regards to goals but it was the defence that collapsed in 2020

 

Spot on.

 

Make no bones about it the performances lately have been relegation type efforts, luckily we have enough points in the bag. I've heard various excuses for performances of a few weeks ago, bad pitch, playing form teams injuries etc. The Oldham and Mansfield games had no excuses at all, both were teams in dire form themselves and near the bottom of the table, both should have put 6 past us without reply. That's not bad form, that's a club sinking without trace. It hasnt just been those two games though, Bowyers constant swapping and changing of formation has lead us to this point where even most of the ardent fans can see the inherent problems.

 

If you look back at his career he has been scoring for fun at some teams and not for others. To play to Doyle’s strength means setting up a team around rather than the other way round and he was always on the way out in the summer because of his wages

 

Its easy to forget but before Doyle came back we were actually about 4-5th in the table and deservedly so. Wasteful finishing had held us back so I can fully understand why we wanted to recall Doyle. Everything else collapsed around him once he returned though. The mean defence is leaking for fun, we’ve stopped creating chances (contrary to popular belief the stats showed we were creating them before) and now we have also stopped scoring. A disaster. How is Bowyer still in a job????

 

There'll only you left to turn the lights out Park. We know you tow the positive line but it's gone past that point. Bowyer has to now expect a team shot of confidence because of him to now put in performances that will appease a fan base baying for his blood. He's allowed it to get to this stage, not people like James Vaughan and Eoin Doyle.

 

The stats may somehow point to being deserving but don't kid yourself, this problem was there long before Doyle came back. Why do you think the body language of the likes of James Vaughan showed him up to being unhappy. Stats don't show up warning signs, knowing football does.

 

Eoin Doyle has no blame attached whatsoever to why this club is currently in free fall. Thankfully him coming back has highlighted just how badly run we are off the field never mind on it.

 

Doylems attitude has affected team morale there is very little doubt about it

 

Exactly. We are currently 23rd in the form table, that doesn't just happen on the back of a couple of poor results, it's been coming for weeks. Even the two most recent home wins have hardly been convincing; Morecambe were unlucky not to get something from the game and if we hadn't won the penalties against Mansfield, we'd have never scored from open play in a month of Sundays.

 

Stop trying to deflect blame away from Rupp, Rhodes and Bowyer.

 

Yeah what a waste of time setting up a team around Doyle. There's no benefits in that scenario at all apart from being sat at the top of the division. You get handed strikers the quality of Vaughan and Doyle at League 2 level, you move heaven and earth to make opportunities for them to bring goals to the side. Just like any quality player at this level the team is built around him as the quality is few and far between. The board have backed the wrong horse here.

 

Apparently reading from some on here it was down to Doyle coming back. Sometimes I'm lost for words.

 

Bowyer. It appears for the decision for Doyle to come back was out of his hands, which isn't surprising - Rupp will have seen Doyle scoring for Swindon and demanded that he be given a chance for us

Some of us said at the time, that bringing Doyle back could do more harm than good and we see now that he simply didn't want to be here. I think Bowyer knew that, but had to, i.e. left with no choice, but to give it a go. Hence, marginal sympathy on that score

Just before the vitriol comments start (not from you) I have no sympathy for Bowyer when he decides to play Henley as a wing back!!

 

We could defend before and showed a spirit. Fighting back at Swindon for a point etc. vaughan is a bad egg and has been frustrated, granted, but this disaster could have avoided.

It stems from Bowyers negative mindset. The number of draws we’ve had in the last dozen matches says plenty. Surprisingly, we haven’t lost that many actually, compared to a high flyer like Plymouth, but when the chips are down Plymouth go for it whereas Bowyer folds and plays it cautious.

Such negativity has frustrated fans and players alike. It was ok when we could defend and were getting results, but the defence has gone to pieces and undone everything.