When do we start to question Hopkin?

Yes I can read the table. My point is that losing 2 or 3 of those players now would be a big setback. I acknowledge we still need to bring in other players too, but I stand by my point that keeping those 3 is a priority before even signing anybody else

 

We are in the bottom 4 because this team underperformed for nearly half a season.

We need to retain our key loanees and add in certain positions but the current players are transformed since early season and as the current form table shows, they are certainly good enough.

 

Fordy, you seem to be spectacularly missing the point.
Yes we have had a very poor start to the season and are where we deserve to be currently. However there are well documented reasons as to what had happened that have now been largely fixed.
You must surely be able to recognise that we have turned a corner and are now a far different team in this post-Rahic era. We are one of the in-form teams currently and are blitzing most which stand in front of us. If we carry on with the performances we are CURRENTLY producing we will comfortably finish mid-table.
Whilst I do think every team always needs to be looking to improve and strengthen, retaining the aforementioned players will be the most valuable signings any club in this division does in January.

 

No the said players were not given the correct preparation IE a fully programmed pre-season, once the season started properly they were not up for 90 minutes of football, we can go on for ever about the goings on during the closed season but for me that was the crux of the matter very poor preparation pre-season.

With regards your Messi comment O'Brien against Walsall and Payne yesterday against Rochdale were both nearly unplayable on the day, the second half Payne tried to flick the ball over the defender with one foot control and shoot with the other and very nearly achieved it, if he's scored it would have been similar to the one Frank Worthington got for Bolton against Ipswich.

 

Agreed -reflected in that if we had seen the same form shown in December from August then we'd be looking at a 50 point haul. Enough to put us in the mix for automatics

 

Have they shown they can't handle it when the going gets tough? Is being rooted to the foot of the table not tough enough for you?

 

Without doubt between now and the end of the season there will be set backs but I believe come the end of this current season we will be in the top 12, which us fans would have taken several games ago.

 

On the contrary our players are well prepared for when the going gets tough. Been there and done it for half a season.

Is this guy for real? Fordy all i ever read is droaning on doom and gloom. Cheer up

 

You left it late there @Fordy117 but this has to be the dumbest post of the year.

As its been well documented the players were left high and dry by a piss poor pre season.

Look at our form now the players are at or above the required levels of fitness, stamina etc.

December was our best month by far for points tally, goals scored and clean sheets kept. We are bang in form and playing our best football for many a month.

Which players haven't been able to handle it? From where I am looking they are more than handling the pressure.

 

Winning 4-0 every other week not good enough?

 

I think you are away in pantomime land. The role of Snow White getting to you?

 

I respectfully disagree.

The team is in the bottom 4 because we had a megalomaniac chairman who interfered and demotivated everyone at the club.

Even the best players in the world would have struggled to perform at their best with that negativity hanging over them every day.

Is it a mere coincidence that the results changed so dramatically when the megalomaniac left?

 

Jon - look at it this way. Hopkin took a basket case club down, turned them around and got 2 promotions. Fast forward a couple of years, takes over a basket case club, looks like they are beyond help but things turn around. Now I know that the major cause of our ills over the last year has been shown the door, but the transformation the team has made is nothing short of amazing. Still a long way to go but I think everyone is now much more optimistic and I would suggest that the vast majority of us now feel that safety is likely (obviously not all) and I think it is churlish not to credit Hopkin with a major part in this reversal.
Now the bit that seems to have irritated you. Chairman* hires manager with a history of sorting out a basket case club (*I suspect Abbott was the one who pushed Rahic that way). Other chairmen who "know football" - really- will have noticed our turnaround, his achievemt at Livingston and will have taken note. Football doesn't happen in a vacuum. Whether or not he maintains it here is to be seen but if he does, well I think we can see where it might end up.

To be honest Jon, the shocker here is your response above. Uncalled for and seemingly not thought out.

By the way, respect for the work you did with the fly-by but in this case, I think your response above should apply to you.

 

Bearing in mind you have discredited nearly all of the squad of players at Hopkin’s disposal, I’d say he’s doing a miraculous job.

You didn’t rate any of the back 4 (prior to Caddis signing), didn’t rate any of the midfield other than Lewis O’Brien, and only rated Payne in an attacking sense. He’s still having to pick those same players and yet he’s getting results.
I’d suggest that IS “proving himself”. Surely if he’s getting wins from the players you thought weren’t good enough for L2, he must be God?

 

Hopkin is winning games and winning them well.. other than that there ain’t a lot more he can do

 

Okay, I apologise for the language used in that post, it was unfair.

Honestly, though, I sincerely doubt any clubs or chairmen would be sufficiently impressed with a run of six or so games to even consider adding Hopkin to a list of recruitment candidates.

I get that Hopkin deserves a ton of credit for hauling us back into a competitive place, but we are far free safe from relegation, and it seems like people might be getting a tad carried away.

This is a results-based business, and managers don't get hired with a win percentage of under 20 % or whatever it is. 5 wins in 26 according to Wiki - even if I fact-checked that and found it wasn't quite accurate, it's not going to be far off.

You have to read between the lines in pretty intimate details to realise that he's done anything but found a little bit of form in an otherwise horrendous campaign. We know better - but until Hopkin achieves something greater than keeping a quality League One side in League One (to be decided...), we don't need to worry about other clubs sniffing around IMHO.

 

We might be getting a bit carried away Jon, but after the last 12 months, can you blame us?? Oh, thanks for the comments above. Onwards and hopefully upwards.