When do we start to question Hopkin?

Still in bottom 4, but not stuck to the bottom like we were, and totally heading in the right direction with a LOT of momentum.

IMHO now that Hopkin has broken free of the shackles that were Rahic he has refloated our sinking ship, turned it around, and is now heading in the right direction.

I think we have a lot to thank Julian Rhodes for as it seems no coincidence that a lot of things started to happen as soon as he returned. One of those things was that Hopkin was allowed to start calling the shots and look at the results ever since.

 

Oh I get it. They're only declared must wins retrospectively when we've won them. No mention of the Plymouth game I notice. Bit strange as it came in the middle of a sequence of must-wins it seems.

 

As I and a few others advocated, maybe we should wait and see what he’s like after having the opportunity to bring his own players in, then we could close the thread.

It just shows the foolishness of not giving a proven (albeit Scottish football) Manager more than 6 weeks to work his methods into the squad and build a backroom staff. We all knew Collins was out of his depth and quite rightly dismissed, but for some to call him out as not being able to work with what he had, must feel pretty stupid about now.

 

OK, I will include Plymouth 17-3.

I think everyone of those games will have had the vast majority of fans stating they were must wins. Even with that, we are still in the bottom four after a great run.

When does it become a must win? When failure relegates us? Guess we can agree to disagree on this concept.

 

I agree with your post @Yorkieman and Julian being asked to return and take the reins was a massive decision by Stefan, but I also believe there have been things said to Stefan with regards our club that obviously convinced him to make the call of bring Julian back.
We know John Dewhirst was one I believe there were others, thank goodness Stefan was prepared to listen and act on what he heard.

 

Funny how when things were going bad it was Hopkin - all his fault. Now things look like things are turning round we have a long list of people to thank. Rahic for leaving, Julian Rhodes, the new super fitness coach, John Dewhirst now getting a mention....

Will all you apologists stop this begrudging nonsense and just recognise we may well have a very good manager on our hands.

 

Well what's your definition of a must win then? A match played with half a season to go that the melodramatic amongst us get in a tizzy about. A match where if we don't win it doesn't really matter - nothing happens we just move on to the next game that if really does become must-win now or we'll get really cross.

I'll let you know when it's a must win but you'll have to wait a bit yet.

 

It's testament to what Hopkin has managed to get out of this team in recent weeks that I don't believe that escaping relegation is unlikely any longer, it's actually very likely IMO. I hope I haven't cursed the rest of the season!

 

Christ sake its just a turn of phrase man. Yesterday was classed as a ‘must win’ because its a team in our half of the table that could be a potential relegation candidate. Had we not won yesterday we would be back on the bottom and running out of games and Rochdale would have been 12 points clear of us. Of course no game is a ‘must win’ but fans see certain games at certain points of the season that could possibly define the rest of the season.

 

I think the point he was trying to make, although a bit angrily, was that we have to include the Plymouth game in the results you quoted to make it fair.

As you rightly point out that still makes it 17-3 and plenty of points in the bag.

Looking at the table we need 10 wins from our remaining 21 games. Certainly doable

 

As it stands i have no doubt whatsoever we will stay up but dependant on two things, the players who come and go in January. Its imperative we have LOB, Payne and Ball on the pitch for as much of whats left of the season. That means keeping them here post January for a start. And i’m sure Hopkin has a number of targets to bring in and players to let go to further strengthen our position.

 

Oh I get it. Stay within 10 points of Rochdale and everything good.

 

Well done for completely missing the point.

 

No the point that I was making is the must-win term is arbitrarily over-used to the point of being meaningless. The must-win at Plymouth that we didn't win doesn't just need including to make it 'fair'. It has rendered the whole concept meaningless.

 

I agree with that and even in defeat with Sunderland and Portsmouth we played well and deserved more

 

Keeping Payne, O'Brien and Ball is more crucial than bringing in new players in my opinion

 

Agreed, if we manage to do that it will have been a good transfer window.

 

A great display yesterday and our two recent home games against Walsall and Scunthorpe and also a good performance at Sunderland where we should have got something out of the game.
The one massive factor in these recent performances have been Payne, Ball and O'Brien they have lifted the bar and the others Doyle Miller, and the likes have done what they do best, this is not knocking the other squad players but if you can't see what those three offer to our team I have to question your football knowledge, trying to keep these three till the end of the season would be a massive plus, signing Ball and Payne would lay down a marker. so I have to agree with @Idlebantam.