Putting Nailsworth On The Map: EFL 22/23

Up yours Derby. Exeter are *checks notes* second? Keep it up lads

Often the predictable decline takes months or even years, but this season it just took a few weeks for a Greek oligarch to gut my club and then our shit chairman days to apply the coup de grace by not bothering to appoint a new manager after a woefully inadequate pre-season. I spent most of my life watching third tier football - so fuck it all anyway!

Dare I say it, we looked all right yesterday against one of the pre-season favourites. A thoroughly entertaining 3-3 and if we hadn't had two penalties by the time we got to 3 goals we would surely have had at least two more which were far more blatant.

Should have said 'EFL+' in the title, oops

I assumed we weren't having a specific non league thread. ;-)

it's can also encompass teams which are on their way to the football league

But there’s already a Wolves thread

heh!

Shit noddy teams sandwiched between repeats of minder and episodes of the chase or maybe british touring car championships

welp there's the first KDB -> Haaland -> goal

this is the Brodsworth Colliery won't win the combined unibond div IV thread!

make me a mod, I beg you

What a goal from Sarr. How is he still there?

loves a pedestrian underpass

We are coasting along on the momentum and team spirit of the good-enough-for-League-One first 11 that got us promoted last year, only one major player gone (Cam Dawson back to being Wednesday's second keeper, god knows how good their first choice is because Cam was amazing last year) and one arrived (Jamal Blackman, also a keeper, would be interested in Calzino's view of him but he was very good indeed amd very tall indeed when we demolished Vale on Saturday). Lost seven or eight fringe players, meaning a couple of injuries to the wrong people and we are knackered. We'll see.

Bought a season ticket again, partly because I need to be in Devon more for family reasons (not good ones, sadly), but a moderately successful season would be very welcome.

First league managerial casualty of the season, Blyth have sacked Terry Mitchell for losing to Kiddy on the opening day.

Jamal only started once for Town and I think it was a cup game in which he didn't have much to do and I think wasn't at fault for the goal, Nicholls was in such good form at the time he didn't have a chance of breaking into a side on a long unbeaten league run. He was signed because our 2nd choice goalie at the time, the terrible Ryan Schofield - his confidence was shot/was never any good in the first place. Now we've got a terrible rookie manager called Schofield whose confidence is shot/is way out of his depth, which is a shame because I liked him as a player. Soon we'll be a L1 club without any momentum/team spirit. We've signed a striker who is two inches taller than Jamal, in fact at 6"9 the tallest player in England, but haven't seen anything of him since he went to the Dons on loan.

I don't think it was a case of them letting Jamal go because of him not being good enough, more a case of the club wanting to give current 2nd choice Bilokapic his chance because our tightarsed chairman doesn't even like turning the lights on and wants the club to rely more on players from the development squad.

We put out a team with 5 changes away at Cheltenham in the league cup tonight, but they had the decency to put out a team with 8 changes and we won 0-7, can’t say fairer than that. Told you our squad was paper-thin! (It still is though.)

(There were 8 players who’ve come through our youth system on the pitch by the end, although one of them, Liam Sercombe, must be pushing 30 and plays for Cheltenham, having left us years ago)

I reckon a 7-0 win with weakened squad is a strong case for momentum!

it's a shame all the qpr fans left tbh

rip rtc

Jamalwatch update: started off very nicely thank you. And this was fun:

@Big_Blacks @@OfficialECFC 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/NW3RdoKtOE

— PapiBobito (@bobbymmk) August 16, 2022

An especially good night for Exeter fans thanks to events at The Valley too

I had a feeling Jamal just needed a regular peg to hang his gloves on and be given a decent run of games after a few nomadic and unsettled career years and he might just shine, bless him!

Yep he looks a cut above our level tbh.

Also yep Charlton did very nicely against the snot, vg. They have a much, much more expensive squad than ours so it’s doubly pleasant to be above them in the league. (We started last night with 7 academy products on the pitch, so there can’t be many cheaper).

we're looking to offload a couple of centre mids on the cheap if you want to bolster that! gwan give Gilbey and Forster-Caskey a caring home

All we want is two brilliant strikers with great physical presence who don’t want to be paid much and don’t mind waiting around on the bench on the off-chance that one of our forwards gets injured. Is that so much to ask?

We've got one of those in Chuks Aneke. The catch is that he is literally always injured himself. Stockley meanwhile turns out to be able to actually play it on the deck in a possession system, surprising even me

He can, the problem with him IMO is he’s so good at dealing well with balls pumped up to him early that lots of players (and managers) find it just too tempting.

Yes, a temptation that Bowyer/Adkins/Jackson couldn't resist. Garner is the real deal though - people were taken aback when he made Stockley captain, thinking he couldn't play the system, but it's working.

Speaking of Jackson, Wimbledon appear unable to hold a two-goal lead atm, which is a grim sign

Pat Jones with the goal #htafc pic.twitter.com/2W4bNMNnK0

— Matt Jaggar (@MattJMedia) August 16, 2022

last night our 19 yr old "Welsh wing wizard" Pat Jones did more in 10 minutes on his senior debut from the bench than Sorba Thomas has done in 4 games. One of them great unexpected moments in a dismal away game when they are down to 10 and losing 2-0 and you are thinking about shopping lists and wondering if they can keep it to a respectable 3-0 at least. He almost set up the equaliser at the death as well, impressive debut.

Blimey

Our winner last night was a bit special, only saw it briefly in a now-deleted tweet

if you find it again please do share.

i'm visiting my dad in somewhere-near-Hereford at the end of the month and thinking of taking my football-mad 7-year-old along to the game against Gloucester City on the 29th.

all of your teams' goals are very impressive, yes yes

but

Sean Clare’s goal from Charlton Athletic’s 5-1 win against Plymouth Argyle yesterday.

WHAT A STRIKE.#cafc #pafc #LeagueOne #goal #EFL pic.twitter.com/n5Rss7Q7B0

— The Garnerama (@TheGarnerama) August 17, 2022

Sorry not to be a the Gloucester game, should be a good day though. They've got off to a flyer, and bought half our team from last year.

xp

look at those headless chickens defending tho!

and managed by a former bantam

well yes in mitigation, plymouth had just had a defender sent off. but still. still!

not trying to take anything away from that Clare goal really, beautiful shot!

ty, and likewise, may your wing wizards keep you away from trouble

Not the angle I saw earlier, but...

We haven't stopped watching this strike from @LukeHaines9 😍#COYW | #CHEvHFC pic.twitter.com/oPYsjdffpm

— HerefordFC (@HerefordFC) August 17, 2022

I knew there would eventually be a good Luke Haines!

I keep making this joke on Twitter but I don't think the Venn diagram of Hereford FC and people-who-know-who-the-other-Luke-Haines-is has much overlap. sadly.

goal is a beauty btw

No I suspect it's just a sliver in the middle

Town have just allegedly spent a whole million on the very impressive Polish international CB Michael Helik. I fell asleep before it was announced and assumed this morning it would be another of their long list of transfer fails or they'd get gazumped by Luton or something. Barnsley turned a down a £5m offer for him last season. I'm also very happy with the Tyrone Simpson signing even though he's won't be available for selection for months. He was originally a RU player and was offered a pro deal at Leicester Tigers 4 years ago and is still a work in progress, but it's always worth taking a gamble on raw talent.

I meant Tyreece not Tyrone, always get those two names mixed up.

lol, this is a joke.

we've been robbed, the ball crossed the line and perhaps they forgot to switch Hawkeye on ffs!

at f/t Schofield was asking the ref to test if his GLT watch was working and he wouldn't do it. Fucking coward. All he had to do was a quick buzz check to confirm it was functional.

a picture has confirmed it went a foot past the goal line and touched the inside netting. Lol why do always get crooked or incompetent refs. It was a garbage performance from both sides, but they still deserved a point.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fb0k_yYWYAMTNeW?format=jpg&name=large

Can't get clearer than that. Wow

poor Schofield sounds totally drained and defeated, but it doesn't paper over how badly he is doing tactically and as a motivator. He turned down a nice stress free coaching job in Holland after being offered the Town job. It always was a ridiculous appointment.

We have now received an initial assessment from Hawk-Eye, the providers of the Goal Line Technology service in the Championship, that during a second-half incident with Huddersfield attacking, the match officials did not receive a signal to their watch or earpiece as, due to multiple factors, the ball was no longer being tracked following it entering the Blackpool goal area.

Technology is there to support the decision-making processes of match officials in the Championship and it failing in such a manner on Sunday is a matter of great concern.

For clarity, the referee’s decision is final and the match result stands.

just making the daylight robbery and incompetence official, yeah thanks for nothing lads.

Just have a back-up camera installed inside each post ffs

the ref had a good enough view to see it was over the line if he was switched on and doing his job properly. Every player in the box knew it was a goal. If the technology fails then they should use their eyes and experience to make good decisions, rather than pedantically ruling out a goal just cos the watch doesn't buzz.

God, just catching up on this, looking forward to that ref being demoted to our hellscape league.

*half-heartedly drums up phony war with Tim*

fancy a pint after?

I didn't even take note of his name, but I can only commit to one fatwah at a time and Jon Moss is still top of the list. I won't be happy until he's been arrested on match-fixing charges.

Can't hang around after I'm afraid - got to be back somewhere near town for some family stuff.

Was trying to persuade some of my friends to do a tour of dicey Woolwich boozers pre-game but they've sensibly opted for Greenwich I think. We're all fairly pleased with our start to the season, we seem to be able to compete (at least with the teams you'd imagine by reputation would be middling or towards the bottom). After a decade in the division below, it's hard to know what to expect. That competitiveness was with only one new signing (a great big keeper) over the summer.

Also please to note we've tugged at the nation's heartstrings with the loan of Jay Stansfield, a balm in these terrifying times, not a dry eye etc etc.

Early days and all that but there seem to be a few clubs who are making an early bid for cast-adrift status.

I would love a website that gave a decent brief summary on what's going on at maybe-crisis clubs up and down the land. What's going on at Morecambe (up for sale by the owners who are in trouble at some boring rugby club somewhere?), Coventry (can our resident sky-blue shed some light, perennial stadium nightmares or something worse?), Gillingham, Rochdale, Burton...?

I have an idea Cheltenham might be in trouble - their points haul looks OK but their solitary win was a gross display of shithousery at our place, time wasting from the first minute, one attack one goal, all after we beat them 0-7 in the league cup.

xp Yes, that was a beautiful moment, although if he scores the winner on Saturday I can't promise to feel quite as sentimental as the rest of the nation

Lower-league football is one conjoined crisis zone atm; the only way out of crisis is to incur the sort of losses that would mean crisis to all but the most loaded of owners

As for Greenwich boozers, I'd recommend the River Ale House, not far from the ground - it's a home pub but historical Charlton/Exeter beef is, I am fairly certain, negligible. Failing that, the Prince of Greenwich in proper Greenwich is as good as it gets, probably. They closed the lovely craft-ale pub a few doors down and incorporated it into hideous hellhole Richard I a few years back :(

Ooh, or the Pelton Arms, that's a good one. I'd generally say to avoid the Trafalgar or the Cutty Sark, chintzy tourist traps as they are

We're debt-free but relatively poor, having no rich owners to fall back on, instead relying on transfer income to top up our playing budget. Our promotion last year was based around a team of mostly youth team products, we regularly have five of our own in our starting line up, sometimes as many as seven) topped up with talent funded by our slice of Ollie Watkins's transfer to Villa. Our crowds this year are roughly average for L1.

Still, though, reports are that we were being outbid on player wages all summer by L1 clubs, L2 clubs and even conference clubs - if the lower divisions are a crisis zone it hasn't stopped them collectively spending massive whacks of cash on average players.

I for one would welcome a proper crisis, points deductions flying around like confetti for clubs who've indulged in the miserably small-scale financial doping you see down here. Where's the reward for running a club "sustainably"?

xp thanks, I know all those places! Haven't been boozing in Greenwich in a few years but I hated that craft beer place next to the R1, and rather liked the R1.

i hope stockley scores 5 goals and celebrates them all

j/k i'll accept one, non-celebrated scuff

and look, yeah it was a slick modern gastropub, but it had a goddamn gueuze fridge. an entire fridge

as for lower-league finances, clearly there are quite a lot of loaded chancers knocking about. for a 'rockstar owner', our own T Sandgaard is running a very tight ship indeed. not much at all in the way of coked-up splurging. consequently our natives are restless. L1 will be so much nicer and easier to make waves in once Wednesday and Ipswich have finally gone up

My default position is that I'd generally take a draw away from home; we're not too bad so far this year though, so hopefully we can come away with more and leave you disappointed.

I hope Stockers scores an own goal and celebrates it.

I note that FGR attracted a crowd of 2007 for their tie against Accrington last night, 64 away fans.

we have that away game on valentine's day evening. i shall not be stopped

I hope you can find Nailsworth on the map

just a short 2-hour stroll from Stroud station right

Ex players should be obliged to celebrate by doing the ears in front of the disappointed fans, yellow card if insufficient gusto shown

OTM. Love a wind-up merchant.

coventry have had a rough start but we have 3 games in hand (all at home) as the commonwealth rugby 7s messed up the pitch

we've kept hold of our two best players ohare and hamer, but just sold our only quick centre back

obvs losing to preston at home is worrying but might not be as bad as it looks basically

Ah OK - fingers crossed then.

Rugby eh? Shouldn't be allowed.

rugby's a near enough town for a local derby soon I guess

but yeh fingers crossed, cheers
good luck to Exeter 👍

oh so it's like that is it

the nation's darlings

ha, and to Charlton obvs too x

I got nothing but hatred and ill will for at least 91 clubs in the pyramid. But Exeter and Charlton, well they can especially go fuck themselves. joeks obv!

aw I'm very sad to read about Marcus Stewart's MND diagnosis. I hero worshipped him when he was at Town and was in a complete rage when our dickhead chairman flogged him to Ipswich. This is the real sad news today :(

I used to have this friend known as Rocky who we called "the football groupie" because he always seemed to hang with shit Town players like Simon Baldry. But when I found out he was drinking with Marcus Stewart I was massively impressed and was all wide-eyed and saying wow you were drinking with Marcus fucking Stewart... what's that like!

Agh these bastards are gonna call off all the games aren't they

there could be a compromise, perhaps an hour's silence before KO?

wrongheaded morons

absolutely ridiculous decision. The government have released a statement which included that there is no obligation to postpone fixtures in the mourning period. Only the day the parasite get's planted.

the rugby going ahead of course. only the lower orders must be made to bend the forelock

Welsh rugby is cancelled though, which makes it even more obvious lol

Next week's Brighton v Palace was already postponed because of the planned rail strike. Now that that's not happening (terrible decision by rmt btw), I wonder if it'll get reinstated. If not, both teams next game will be on 1st October lol

What's going on at Preston? Somehow they've scored 2 and conceded 1 total in 8 games!

the return of Wagner could be on once his young boys issue is resolved. I'm not even sure if it is a good idea but he's such a vibe and despite it going very wrong he left a positive legacy at the club and wasn't responsible for some of the garbage we signed. Actually I'll be very happy if this happens.

erm couldn't find a European football thread, but Corbaren has just been sacked by Olympiacos after 8 games.

lol that is fucked

same guy is probably about to pull the trigger on Cooper and I don't care!

"losing to Alan Pardew’s Aris on Sunday cost the former Huddersfield Town boss his job"

it seems losing to Pards' Aris was the last straw. I still think my club should pursue a compensation package from Olympiacos. They tapped him up and he lied to the chairman about not having another job lined up. They severed his contract in a good faith gesture for the good work he'd done.

Wagner now 1/10 for a return. The wife of his no.2 Bhuler has practically confirmed it on instagram. This is happening!

my dream Wagner return is now in tatters ;; Some Scottish guy called Mark Fotheringham (assistant manager at Hertha BSC) is getting absolutely wellied on the betting sites.

One of the various Rob Edwardses knocking around (this being the one who fairly acrimoniously walked out on FGR at the end of last season) has been sacked by Watford after 10 games, never mind eh? I'm sure Slaven Bilic will do an excellent job.

Mark Fotheringham took his first training session today and people have took photos of it. Yet the club haven't announced him and you could still get 1/20 on him at skybet a few hours ago. Maybe taking training is part of the interview process and he's already been let go, beat that Watford. The Wagner deal fell through because Young Boys are still paying his and Bhuler's contract for the rest of the season, unless he finds another job. Tuesday night at Stoke vs chilling at his Majorca holiday home with what might be his last big-club salary still coming in was a tough choice.

How are you feeling about Fotheringham?

he doesn't seem the worst option tbh. He's what some might call a bit of a character. He's obsessed with the Bundesliga style of coaching and can speak a bit of German from his time there. I listened to a podcast interview and he comes across more like an obsessive student of the game rather than another pretender.

Even if he isn't any good, it wouldn't take that much to be an improvement on Danny Schofield. And I survived managers like Mick Wadsworth and Andy Ritchie in the past. The Schofield appointment was the worst decision my club made since selling Marcus Stewart to Ipswich.

As for Greenwich boozers, I'd recommend the River Ale House, not far from the ground - it's a home pub but historical Charlton/Exeter beef is, I am fairly certain, negligible. Failing that, the Prince of Greenwich in proper Greenwich is as good as it gets, probably. They closed the lovely craft-ale pub a few doors down and incorporated it into hideous hellhole Richard I a few years back :(

― imago, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 09:24 (three weeks ago)

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/30/near-the-greenwich-pub-where-the-mini-budget-was-born-londoners-share-their-fears

I hadn't realised it was quite this much of a hellhole these days

this is the most i have ever been vindicated

That is correct.

I was planning a day trip to Exeter tomorrow to see us play the gas but the rail strikes have put paid to that. Critical support to my striking comrades for helping me avoid looking at Joey Barton's face. (Also just general support too obv.)

the same critical support from me after the 8th oct strikes were announced the day after i bought lincoln match + rail tickets. the most critical support ever. the hardest-won solidarity

Ah, Lincoln's a bad miss, a fantastic away trip IMO.

did it last year, testament to how much I enjoyed it that I'm returning. well, if i can. got the match tickets as i say, so i'm gonna have to find a way

On Saturday our manager was asked by the BBC if there was any truth in the rumour that he'd been approached by Rotherham to go and manage them - I'm sure everyone expected him to make the usual "it's flattering but for now I am the manager of ECFC" noises. Matt Taylor's truthful to a fault, though and he answered honestly: "yes, they've offered me the job and I have to make a decision in the next 24 hours". Obviously everyone took this to mean he was off, because if he wasn't going why would he even mention it?

No news on Sunday, then on Monday morning our supporters trust tweeted and immediately deleted a link to a joint / club-trust statement announcing Taylor's departure; a press conference was scheduled for midday. Then the presser was put back to 4pm and cancelled. People confidently saying that there were "a few legalities to sort out", others saying just as confidently that Rotherham had withdrawn their offer and are in fact going to appoint the freshly-sacked Chris Wilder instead.

It's all very exciting.

and here I was looking forward to a 1-1 struggle sesh vs Managerless Exeter next week

The allure of managing at that world famous New York stadium will turn the head of many a manager. I was getting Exeter Matt Taylor mixed up with other Matthew Taylor who are both roughly the same age noughties footballers and pursuing coaching careers, other one not doing as well.

Not to be confused with DJ Martian’s eternal favourite, England’s Matty Taylor of Portsmouth / Bolton fame.

There’s a good 50/50 chance we’ll still be managerless on the 11th, LJ. Taylor was appointed within 10 minutes of Tisdale’s sour defection to Franchise but we usually take a bit of time and see who applies.

oh to be managerless again, miss those days

it makes a nice change sometimes

Such a sense of possibility! In our case a possibility made all the more exquisite by the appointment of ex-Torquay boss Kevin Nicholson as caretaker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHX965ejq_k

Foghorn Leghorn gets a revamp. The badge is not the worst but the manner in which they have unveiled it is quite amusing.

New chicken! Fancy!

in todays YP some hack writes that Matt Taylor + Fotheringham represent a trend amongst the poorer EFL clubs of appointing coaches who are driven to improve what they've got rather than giving the club owners a headache and undermining the players confidence by moaning about the lack of quality in the squad after bad results. There probably is something in that. But Fotheringham dropped our Japanese international leftback out of the squad because he didn't have "fire in his belly/the eye of the tiger" on the training ground. He picked Mbete instead who had just put in one of the worst defensive performances seen in decades in the previous game, and he did the same again and had to be taken off at h/t, his confidence completely broken because he seemingly looked scared of even putting in a tackle and was 100% responsible for 2 goals. He seems useful on the training ground but I think his tombola team selections could be his undoing. Even though we got away with an away 3-3 at a difficult place to go and caused Nathan Jones to have another hilarious meltdown.

Matt Taylor is a fairly intense character but came through the Tisdale school of prizing intelligence more than blood and thunder.

In a world where league position correlates very closely to expenditure on playing staff, it makes sense to try to find someone who’ll squeeze more out of cheaper players. It can only last so long, though, no-one has a magic formula.

I'm going to Lincoln so I'll be able to let you know just how ready to be rolled over we'll be on Tuesday

(it turns out LNER are running a single morning service, and am staying overnight)

(does that make me a scab?)

The main problem is when you get the magic formula right they get tapped up! Although our last good manager, Corbaran went through a period of 3 wins in 27 games in his first season - I think about 90% of EFL clubs would have sacked him before his methods and game plan started getting through to the players. But in his case it was clear to see he was doing it properly despite results, or perhaps we couldn't afford to sack him at the time.

I like Lincoln, wouldn't want to live there but it's a nice place to visit.

Wonder if this is directed to anyone 🤔 #htafc pic.twitter.com/U1pBiqe3ZE

— Nathan (@nthnl04) October 9, 2022

it seems games are won and lost on the training ground to Fotheringham and when he drops players out of the squad he likes to talk to them about it at the press conference.

“ These players are getting paid great money to do the best job in the world so they need to come in with focus and determination, otherwise they can go and work like my dad as a scaffolder or like my mum folding laundry in a hospital."

^ pass-agging the players in public well-known to be a 100% successful method for team building and motivation.

it never ends well but a lot of our lot think this is what the players need. Nobody wants to work with a tyrannical bully and it makes no difference that they are on relatively good money, eventually a majority consensus in the squad will form that he's a wanker and it could start going very wrong imo

Time for this season's ILX EFL derby then. God

The most embarrassing scoreline in football it is

Match report: Charlton deserved a win on balance, looked more dangerous than we did going forward against our makeshift defence, and did well in restricting the chances our lot made in the several periods when we were on top. There wasn't a great deal between the two teams though, IMO and I don't think a draw would have been unfair either.

I don't much like it when players refuse to celebrate goals against their former clubs, so found Jayden enthusiastically claiming / celebrating a blatant own goal by one of ours to be highly amusing - he got a nice round of (mostly) applause at the end.

Tell you what though - what the hell has happened to the atmosphere at Charlton? I understand that Exeter on a Tuesday is not a fixture to get the blood pumping but when we've been before there seemed to be a bit of life to the place - last night was a distinctly sombre affair, no spark about the place at all even when Charlton were 3 up. I hope for their / your sakes it's not like that every week, it was a bit grim.

Our ownership is definitely entering its death-spiral in the finest Charlton tradition and it'll take a prolonged period of on-field success to dispel that perception. The natives are EXTREMELY restless - those who remain; there's also a lot of apathy. Hard to resist the thought that running a football club is a mug's game at the best of times, but the sort of outlay required even to get to the Championship these days is outrageous. The slow-dawning realisation that we are stuck here has entered our soul like poison. Could be worse - I rate our manager and some of our players - but with staff cuts, rumours of the owner's partner and son running the show, and zero transfer fees paid, it is all looking ropey at best. We've done transfer business about as well as possible without spending, save for securing an extra forward - you were unlucky to be on the wrong end of sicknote's sicknote Chuks Aneke's first appearance of the season, helping settle the game decisively while Exeter looked likely to equalise. If he sticks around (and if young Leaburn isn't badly injured) then things will be much, much rosier on the playing front, and we can beat anyone in this division (which will be tested against Portsmouth next Monday)

We've not really had the bounce of the ball go our way this season, so your one that hit the bar felt like a bit of justice - nothing personal ofc.

We're renowned for keepball but we've gone a bit more direct in recent games - Exeter's passing and movement felt maybe a little better than ours for the middle half of the game especially. Played some lovely stuff and that Caprice is a gun wing-back. Can see why you've been troubling a lot of teams this season, although with a defence that let the smallest man on the field score a header, you'll need to score a few. Our lopsided 4-4-2/4-3-3 hybrid was a good match for Exeter, I felt - our midfield duo of Dobson and Fraser were able to focus on the essentials, and both had great games I thought, plus our right-back Egbo had a superb game, absolute baller for a free signing.

Stockley celebrating the goal like it was his was some incredible heel material, yep

Plus, I can sort of admire what your keeper's doing with the sea cucumber on his bonce

Fotheringham is such a comically inept manager it's almost hard to believe at times and quite predictably after the way he publicly scapegoats them after games, one or two at a time, you can see the players all hate his guts already.

Quite bizarrely for the last 2 games he's started spending half time remaining on the pitch, chatting with the subs while they warm up instead of going down the tunnel with the players "because I want to see who is looking hungry and might be able to influence the game - it's what I like to do" and after this malarkey he only made one zero impact substitution in the last 15+ mins of a dire game. Everyone takes the piss out of Watford but I would be quite happy right now for Town to be on their 3rd manager of the season by November, the longer he's there - the harder it will be to fix the damage.

Many more games like last night's and the Cowleys might be available!

*hides from calzino*

the Cowley's were horrible, but at least you could see what they were attempting to achieve, as ugly as it was and they could draw on their experience of some promotion seasons from their thugball methods. And their methods got us out of relegation trouble. All Fotheringham has done has learned German and hung out with some big name managers, he might even be a good coach but he's too brainless to be a manager, he makes Steve Bruce look like a progressive scholar of the game.

oh how we laughed when Leeds employed Dave Hockaday

sometimes your cheap punt turns out to be a gun manager tbf! see: ben garner

there are a few managers in L1 you lot could stand to look at tbh, who even is this 'fotheringham'

so so playing career - Celtic reject to Norwich, was an assistant at Hertha Berlin and some other Bundesliga clubs and gave such a good interview our clueless DoF guy and chairman went all out for him and gave him a 3 year contract when the Wagner deal hit some major snags. He can talk up a storm but he was just as inexperienced as Danny Schofield was.

I think they thought he might be able to get them playing and stamp his authority on the squad through the blunt force of his very unlikable, bullyboy personality.

“For me Matty Pearson goes and heads that ball for the second goal that our Japanese international doesn't win”

he's so bad he's saying a player who is currently injured and was out of form before he got injured would have hypothetically done better than "our Japanese international" whose name is Yuta Nakayama, Yuta is easy enough to remember. God I really hate this guy.

urgh, he's like Bowyer without the charm, lol

ngl I hate the bullyboy method as well, just so counterproductive and unseemly. so glad we have a manager who isn't like that at all

our two most successful managers in recent times both always made an effort to give some encouragement and lip service to players who weren't getting in the XI and were likable personalities, to a massive degree in Wagner's case - who was the most good vibes manager we've ever had. It was my happiest football day in years when it seemed pretty certain he was returning a few weeks back. Then this grim troglodyte rocks up, publicly throwing different players under a bus on the game by game. Tactically clueless. Some older heads are saying they haven't seen such a shapeless disorganised Town side since the late 80's Supermac days, and he had the excuse that he was pissed 90% of the time and was self-medicating with alcohol and had serious unresolved injury issues.

having quit Twitter last week I'm going to take your word for it lol, no searching 'fotheringham' for me! your word is now the terriers law

Was that Supermac side the last professional team in England to concede 10 in a game?

the Supermac complained afterwards that two of them were offside! You might be right, I think there are some 8 or 9 nil losses in the last 40 years but you have to go back to the pathe era for double figures.

christ that red + pen for qpr vs cardiff decision might be the worst of the entire season

ah, james linington. that would explain it

Our FA Cup game is live on the BBC on the Friday night, for any masochists out there.

Well now

Hey dogg, I heard you liked goals in stoppage time...

we're winning!

oh we're not any more

Match was a fair result I thought, they changed formation slightly at half time and got much closer so we were on the back foot all the time, then fitness levels showed and we were never in the second half at all if I'm honest.

Still, Miles Storey scored in a one on one with the keeper. Considering he's bottled about 30 I was beginning to think I'd never see one.

christ, our back line today is probably the weakest since we were in L1. They are going to get humiliated. Boyle marking Brereton Diaz is going to be pure comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A397aIBIgA

when you are in an official relegation battle with a huge injury crisis and some donkey you saved from Blackpool does this!

I've checked and it seems that this is a real thing and nothing to do with the TBEU

Basildon United FC have confirmed they will adopt a new badge next season.

The current crest will remain in place for the remainder of the 2022/23 season, with the new crest officially replacing it for the 2023/24 season.

Thank you @TweetGraystone for the design work. pic.twitter.com/PMoHF44EWh

— Basildon United 🐝 (@BasUtdFC) November 30, 2022

It's just a different version of the current badge which is arguably worse as it looks like a reclining woman with giant hammers for breasts

coventry unevicted

not sure for how long but we have the stadium for the forseeable future by the looks of it

Glad to hear it - but what else could Ashley have done with the stadium?

not sure tbh, gigs and the casino aside (don't know if his deal includes the casino actually)

Neil Warnock but as you scroll down he’s gets angrier.

(THREAD 🧵) pic.twitter.com/B0DYeGNJt6

— The Second Tier (@secondtierpod) December 12, 2022

oh god I'm blanking out football today. We've got an idiot manager who is hated by the players and the club owner, but because of the paralysis caused by various other things (stadium company on the verge of administration/legal wrangles with previous owner) they still haven't managed to sack the useless cunt. Going to Deepdale where they haven't won in decades. Apparently one of the players has said Fotheringham is tactically clueless and his primitive training drills would embarrass an under-8s set-up. How this idiot managed to ace a job interview should give hope to useless, underqualified idiots everywhere. It's such a crushingly disappointing fall - going from having one of the best young football managers in the UK to this grim bastard in one season.

sorry for your manager troubles. today we road-test our newest managerial toy, an Allardyce devotee apparently. shall report. although not from The Valley as I've been sick throughout Xmas, gonna have to buy the stream ffs

We're going to turn a corner today apparently. Again. I think we've completed the square now.

bloody typical, the day I make Preston my banker as well.. ha ha

lol, worth it

it's actually quite a historic win, we haven't won there in 50 years. But imo the best time to sack a dud manager is straight after a historic win!

The yank crypto bros at Crawley are now looking at their 5th managerial appointment since they bought the club in April. They’ve just sold their ‘star’ striker to their relegation rivals, Gillingham. They ‘collaborated’ with a YouTube group, ‘the Sidemen’, who apparently make content videos, and put three contributors on the bench, for an actual EFL game, having undertaken a trial. And the latest is that one of the leading shareholders sat on the bench for the last game, taking a more ‘hands-on’ role though he refused to confirm he has a hand in selecting the squad.

Bradford City had a very lucky escape

oh yeah they are also apparently launching the first NFT kit in the league, whatever the fuck that means

i think there was a Hans Christian Andersen story about that

about the grimm crypto bros?

Just as we were all really pleased that we didn’t sell our best player (Jevani Brown) to Pompey in this window…

📝 Club Statement:

Jevani Brown did not train with the team today and will not play in tomorrow's game against Charlton Athletic due to a club disciplinary matter. pic.twitter.com/eanA4GGlIq

— Exeter City FC (@OfficialECFC) February 3, 2023

ooh result

:(

I'm off to the game on Saturday anyway, I'll pretend you're there and flick some vs especially for you.

sadly i am saving myself for Derby away, half term and all that

NEXT SEASON

You're assuming Charlton won't get relegated?

I'm just heartily enjoying the schadenfreude of LoB/ToF having a mare at Forest. LoB is out of the squad and a loan move to Blackburn fell through in the dying minutes of the window on some stupid legal technicality. ToF's move to Anderlecht was kyboshed by Forest, also in the last minutes, because their 1st choice lb is weeks away from fitness. It's a better feeling than getting to autoglass trophy final at old Wembley!

get it where you can!

also u cheeky sod tim lol

seems we didn't forget to pack a gun keeper

Liverpool lose to Wolves and Hereford lose to Farsley Celtic, yet Everton manage to beat Arsenal. Only way this day could have gone worse would be someone picking up an injury.

Hwang did his hamstring tbf

I mean a Liverpool or Hereford player, sorry about Hwang

lol i know i was just revelling, soz

also sad about Dyche tho tbf

Farsley went down to 10 with about 15 minutes to go, Gowling responded by bringing on two unfit 36 year olds. His time's up.

I'm praying that Fotheringham gets pumped tonight. He would have been gone months ago, but there is an empty chair running the club.

Went to the stadium formally known as the ricoh for the Huddersfield game,both teams looked a bit lost but gyokeres was the difference
As has been p much every win for us this season
Hamer goal was beautiful, he'll probs go epl next year

Pleased to report that Hereford United just beat Birmingham City 3-1 in the League Cup (in Fifa 2009 on the Wii)

xp

Robins made a comment after that match that he'd watched them training when they were both in Spain during int break and they seemed to do "a lot of running". This amused the Town fans because an insider has suggested running is about all there is to the Fotheringham training regime!

lol perfect for the manager garbage talk thread

and even though Waghorn scored today, it masked a piss poor performance and he looks slow and shite. I can see why Robins was happy to farm him out!

I'm having one of them days where I'm driving myself nuts constantly refreshing news sources to check if Fotheringham has been sacked yet. I've never disliked a manager as much as him, right from the day he was unveiled and his first declaration was that he wasn't interested in tactics!

One of the QPR commentary team yesterday noted that although their injury depleted lot are quite shit and on a terrible run of form, Hudds he said looked like a team that hasn't had any coaching at all. Just a bunch of strangers who met in the car park for the first time half an hour before KO.

Gowling mutually consented. Just as well as we couldn't afford to sack him.

that's precisely our problem, the club is up for sale and the pot of money left to keep it out of administration until a new owner is found won't be enough to pay him off, and our idiot DoF was so bowled over by his interview he gave him a 3 year contract.

Thoroughly unproven rumours but a genuine source says his deal was two separate ones as player and manager, having refused to sign himself on as the former in his capacity as the latter but drawing the wage as the former because it wasn't his fault he wasn't getting picked.

Sounds ludicrous but stranger things must have happened in football.

heh!

one of the previous holders of "most deranged idiotic EFL manager" Nathan Jones. Apparently he had a fist fight with some Southampton players earlier today.

THERE IS LIGHT

congrats

I'm not joking he was so bad, just any manager with the lowest base level of a football brain (or even just a brain) will be enough to get us out of trouble. No hyperbole here, he was the worst I have ever seen in my life. Not just for trying to cram 8 defensive midfielders in one starting XI but also for the corrosive effect his horrible various negative personality traits were having on the team: He drove out our most creative attacking player on loan to a rival. And destroying the confidence of a few of the highly rated young players we have. Just an all round shite sandwich without the bread.

cowleys are available! j/k, grats!

rumour is it's an out of work manager with a lot of Championship exp coming in ... gulp!

lol uh oh

enjoy Lampard

probably more chance of 74 yr old Warnock coming out of retirement .... shit, I'm probably best off not even joking about that!

every couple of years i end up googling to see if Dave Bassett's still alive

Alan Pardew has just been sacked by Aris Thessaloniki, just putting it out there.

xp

bloody hell, he's only 4 years older than Colin!

the new manager was interviewed this afternoon, gut feeling tells me it's Wilder

Our top candidates seem to be Ian Long (who I was quite vocally in favour of to replace Beadle but his total failure since - apart from the FA cup run - should rule him out) and John Askey (although York sacked David Webb today and the clamour for Askey back has brought insiders out of the woodwork saying there were non-football issues behind his sacking, which makes me cautious).

Still missing Graham Turner after 13 years.

David Webb didn't last very long at York! It didn't seem that far back since he was a "technical director" at town - what the devil that means is beyond me. Some chancer who gives good interviews and talks a load of shite is my best analysis.

Designs next generation of footballing cyborgs, at a guess

GT assisting with the new search apparently

75 years old is too old to come back isn't it? But hope he can at least find someone less mediocre.

Seen him in the ground the last couple of home matches, seems in good form.

In a similar vein, it still baffles me that Colin Addison doesn't look all that old. Only Dudley Tyler looks as young from the 72 squad.

"shit, I'm probably best off not even joking about that!"

74 yr old Warnock is currently the 1/2 fav, with all the usual caveats about next manager betting markets considered. See youse all in L1 next season

lol

welcome back Uncle Neil! It's only until the end of the season + tbf his record of pulling relegation threatened clubs out of the mire with a third of the season to go is pretty much one of 100% success. Still funny tho!

ONE LAST JOB

Reckon they had to send Ben Kingsley to yell No at him repeatedly

There is a lot of Warnock nostalgia amongst supporters of my generation. It's like the second coming of Christ to some of them. Honest, you wouldn't believe how happy some people are about this, lol. Full disclosure: I am happy as well.

If he keeps us in the Championship the man will go beyong H.T.A.F.C legend, he will acheive messiah status.

hopefully the Lecter mask and sack barrow are still there

I'd have been absolutely aghast if this would have happened straight after our smart and highly impressive, detail obsessed Spanish head coach resigned, but the last 6 months have totally obliterated previous expectation levels. Lol, I'm back to the paleolithic era of football again.

ONE OF US, ONE OF US

(Hope this works out for your sake, but Colin has continually sniped at us since he was king of the slime and I always enjoy seeing him fail.)

Sorry calz but this is hilarious.

I'll have you know the Cardiff fans are extremely jealous of this appointment, they see it as a relegation rival getting a huge boost! After having a deeply unpleasant clueless cunt managing for most of the season, who was doing highly embarrassing Comical Ali press conferences every week. It's impossible to feel any more embarrassed for the state of the club. But I can imagine how funny it is from outside of the HTAFC bubble!

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/2T5X2t2bcZ

— Neil Warnock (@warnockofficial) February 17, 2023

one to brighten up Tim's morning. It was amusing that he revealed he was still sore about the Town chairman lying to him in the 90's. He reneged on an agreement that Col could have his own shop in the Town centre flogging Town merch. Such a ridiculous request to agree to in the first place perhaps, but I suppose in context of what a shabby underfunded state the club was in at the time, not so ridiculous.

and lo!

from now on I don't want read any more "Colin" on here - his name is God!

Today was the first day I have left before the final whistle. Abject.

What do we know about Chris Hargreaves then?

feels like you could have done better, looking at his resume

feels like you could have done better, looking at his resume

it still freaks my nut out that once upon a time i had a match ticket to a league fixture between hereford and leeds. the game was snowed off, i never went

Not sure it's true but final interviews are today and he's the name floating round.

Apparently John Askey is out because of lack of full time ambition.

Despite being ex-Argyle Hargreaves is fairly well thought of at ours I think, he was a part of our coaching set-up and it looked to me as though he would progress inside the club. Wouldn’t seem like a terrible appointment on the face of it. (FWIW it’s my opinion that managerial appointments are less important than we mostly like to think)

My friend Gavin gave him a proper kick when playing youth football in the 80s apparently.

I can vaguely remember Hargreaves when he was that malingering long-haired fucker (I think) who played for the Cobblers when they were one of our hated rivals. He was possibly on the pitch for the game at Sixfields that was abandoned when a falling advertising hoarding almost killed somebody. A detail much more memorable than any of the football being played on the day.

"managerial appointments are less important than we mostly like to think"

As long as there is a reasonable level of organisational competence and the candidate isn't an insecure and vindictive idiot, then there could be some truth in this.

sooooome truth yes, but there's definitely a balance to be made between letting players express themselves without fear and second-guessing, and the instilling of tactical rigour and organisation, which can be surprisingly difficult to find

quite happy with our current manager, even if he doesn't have the gravitas, bloody-mindedness or uncompromising sheer energy of a Warnock quite yet. alas, given he appears to have been Hudds' second choice, he probably isn't far off a move upward

yeah he was allegedly on our radar because his contract situation at Charlton isn't very solid apparently?

he joined on the understanding that there'd be a takeover. the takeover fell apart. his contract is up in the summer. on we lurch

yeah we are in takeover deadlock as well. Lots of issues like a legal wrangle between previous and current chairman, stadium company issues as well - it's falling apart! It's rumoured there is an American consortium interested 🤮

of course there's American interest. UK assets post-Brexit might as well paint a stars and stripes on now

(our current owner is US based and both the consortium he failed to sell to and the one it's rumoured he's still dealing with are US money)

thing is the leveraged debt/parasite it dry/sell at a profit model of ownership might work well at Man Utd, but I don't how it works with EFL clubs.

let's see how it works with a whole country!!1!!!!!

alas, given he appears to have been Hudds' second choice, he probably isn't far off a move upward

― imago, Monday, 20 February 2023 09:27 (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

in talks with qpr apparently, lol

far off a move upward indeed! It wouldn't be too fantastical to imagine Town finishing above QPR and still going down. They are sat on the cushion of a good start to the season making the table look more respectable for them, but it's 1 win since October.

ofc the main link for them is ainsworth. could it finally be time

oh man, our away win against QPR was so hilarious: A freak double from at least one of the top 5 worst players on the pitch, Ruffles. First he crossed the ball into the back of the net and then scored an outrageous overhead kick that must have been some kind of mistake. And lol, Foth did his best to set them up to lose the game.

What the actual fucking fuck

After Saturday's shitshow we go away to top of the league Fylde and are 3 up after an hour.

I can only assume the new manager is common knowledge behind closed doors.

Askey goes to Hartlepool

Big Ron Atkinson had lunch with Colin Addison today. Someone reassure me it's just a coincidence.

people who you thought ....

i could've sworn

Rumours that have been ruled out now are Chris Hargreaves and a start in management to Stuart Fleetwood.

Having been told Monday was final interviews, today's noises are about taking time to find the right candidate. Who has both a smaller wage and a smaller budget than Josh did.

If this is softening us up to Hodgkiss and Klukowski on a permanent basis then I'm going to have to consider whether I renew.

Darren Kelly resigns from Newport yesterday. Hmm.

thank u 4 ur service huddersfield

lost 3-0 to darlington today, wonder if many fans made the journey from hereford, hope not.

I've not looked at the league table for weeks, filled with that same sense of dread that logging into my bank account gives me. gulp.. it still looks bad, but a respectable draw against Norwich and a shithouse away victory against the Wall is a good way to go into the international break. Rowett is still a total arsehoil.

wonder if many fans made the journey from hereford

About 50 I think.

The past few weeks have been horrendous, I walked out of a match before the end for the first time in 40+ years of attending matches. Last week neither side attacked enough to deserve nil.

Only Holloway is really good enough for next season, Evans when back from injury. There are another few worth being given a go in a different role or a settled (and different) formation but it really is wholesale clear out territory.

and our new evil American billionaire owner is called Kevin M Nagle (need that emoji combining account to do a lol/vomit combo)

Battle for 11th place hotting up. Tim's lot making a big move last night. We see you

Kevin NAGL. (This is a cheap crack, I know nothing about him.)

All of a sudden we seem to be playing well. Not quite mathematically safe yet, but it’s good to be where we are- last nights Barnsley game was the first in a brutal run-in that includes all 7 of the top 7 in our last 9 games.

The main thing now is Argyle not going up, the derby will be a very big lunchtime in a few weeks.

I feel quite sick about it tbh, but our last owner was a scumbag so quelle difference? It's quite easy to envisage a not too distant future in which the club is where it was last week i.e. a complete mess on the verge of administration but this time also in massive debt thanks to Mr Nagl. And tbf on our last rich scumbag custodian, he apparently wrote off £40m to enable this deal. But god knows where that debt came from, our player budget is bottom 3 of the champo level and has been for years now.

A Yank, of course

Warnock is gonna do it, the madman!

I've always secretly considered him to be god, an unpopular opinion on here for sure - but you people can't handle the truth! Even when he wasn't getting results or writing off the game against Burnley as a "free hit" before a complete arseholing - his calmness has been impressive. After the team suffering the psyche damage of a useless quiet guy manager followed by a useless braying nasty fucker. Neil realised he needed to be kind, benevolent old Uncle Neil with these players to heal them.

and we are above QPR now - that was entirely predictable!

I was on course to win £500 if Swansea scored. I checked out a stream and they didn't look like they were going to score and I cashed out the bet for £47. Thank fuck they didn't win - that would have made it bad friday.

Old Testament God = violent, arbitrary, vengeful, a complete dick

but he gets results, dammit

what makes his success so far - fingers crossed and all that - quite amusing is that he doesn't even seem committed enough to get violent or vengeful about anything, including some of the shit results. His jovial chuntering about his upcoming holiday and book tour after bad results had some people worrying. As well as him turning up on next opposition podcasts talking in a friendly manner about how much he rates their squad and great fans blah blah blah. He hasn't even signed a contract. His casual approach is probably just what was needed imo.

happy he's having fun and doing a job, i'm lousy at holding grudges anyway

He has pissed off a lot of people over the years tbf! Including the Town fans when he turned down a million quid our ex-chairman offered him and went to the vile revenant instead. Although he has since confessed regret on that decision where he badly miscalculated how much of a festering arsehole Ken Bates was.

What’s his quarrel with Chris Wilder? Radio 5 kept going on about them not even looking at each other (which would hardly be an odd choice for either).

no idea about that, perhaps it's a Blades related thing from Wilder's time there?

they seem cut from similarish cloth, except Wilder lacks a bit of Warnock's charm, probably a 'room in this town for two of us' thing

seems a shame that all the QPR fans quit ILX tbh, this would be a great time to hear from them

RTC to thread!

can't imagine Wilder being able to work a crowd like Uncle Neil does! Years ago a work colleague who was coaching the Brighouse Town girls team used to see Wilder at some of their games. Possibly in the period after he'd lost his job due to Halifax going bust. Said he was a nice guy, but this guy would say that about anybody!

Wednesday bottling League One btw. Keep it up lads

the beef between Warnock and Wilder might go deeper, but in more recent history he replaced Warnock at Middlesbrough and he wasn't happy about the manner in which they sacked him. As in not letting him in and telling him the press conference with Wilder is commencing soon.

QPR is an absolute shitshow.

Look at their faces! 😂pic.twitter.com/3ukUfGjebc

— The Football Hub (@TheFootbaIlHub) March 16, 2023

shit twitter account but the vid is quite revealing. I'm not saying it is completely related but we are now above QPR and the HTAFC squad had Patrick Stewart in the dressing room yesterday, rather than anything like this..

oh no

oh nooo

non-league but what a game wrexham notts county was. atmosphere better than most prem grounds as well

Six from safety (five if Blyth win their game in hand) with 3 to play.

Stone me, some people were talking about the playoffs at the beginning of March.

it's all about how rapidly your expectations are annihilated during a season. Like when you give up all hope after having one of the worst managers of your history following the 5th worst manager in your history in succession! I'm over the moon to see my club 2 pts above the trapdoor and that is an achievement from where they were at.

Safe with two to go. I'm almost tempted to say let BPA win on Saturday because they're the one of the relegation candidates I think I'd want to go down least.

Michael Flynn has left Walsall. Their Div 4 results have been shite but he'd be good enough for us. Can't imagine he applied though and interviews this week (hoping for an announcement before the match).

Have to say I enjoyed the two results I cared about on Saturday being

Cambridge Utd 2 - 0 Peterborough
Peterborough Sports 0 - 2 Hereford

Nice symmetry there

Paul Caddis then. First real managerial job, stepping up from being Fleetwood's academy manager.

I'm underwhelmed but I don't know what I actually expected. At least it's trying something different and not just continuity.

He's the one who kept Birmingham up that one time isn't he lol. An enemy of football

35 years old! maybe that's a good thing, idk

Birmingham and Swindon fans have nothing but good to say about him, but that's as a player.

We've tried people coming straight out of playing, people who have only managed and never played, and relics of a bygone footballing age. I'd kind of liked us to have tried a current manager.

Amazing last few months for us
Still Blackburn and West Brom with games in hand but hopefully this season is groundwork to build on next year
We'll deffo lose gyokeres and Hamer this summer so next season could be very different

Not a great start for Paul Caddis, a 5-0 defeat to Blythe Spartans.

Technically doesn't start until Monday.

Although he has met the players and allegedly only Pinchard and Evans are being offered anything for next season, which might explain today's performance.(Holloway of course is already signed up for next year under his current deal).

Ok, that's much better. Gives more of a reason for the clearout. Though of course the rebuild could go either way.

Club have confirmed as much, a very short list of players they are talking to and everyone else released.

Evans, Pinchard, McLean, Hodgkiss as senior players and Derricot and Osment of the kids. He hasn't watched enough of he's talking to Hodgkiss', his legs are gone. Similarly, *maybe* there's something there with Pinchard but McLean has had his chances.

probably inching further towards relegation tomorrow. It's going deep into my psyche is this because I had a dream they were playing on a moss covered concrete pitch and everything looked bad and wrong and the ball kept rolling into potholes and someone was telling me about how they looked doomed from the start.

it's not shit or bust time yet, that's the next two games. But I haven't felt such pre-match dread for years. Cardiff are safe now, but sometimes having no pressure can be a massive advantage.

Good luck buddy x

I think we might need some, lol. There was a lot of luck in our winning mini-run, 11 out of 12 consecutive shots on target were goals in that period. That was never going to be sustainable with these shower of shite players!

Nicholls starting in goal is quite the surprise. I hope Warnock hasn't rushed him back too soon, it's not a time for any 80% fit players,

never in doubt

nerves not shredded at all

alas, MK, we hardly knew ye

Amazing final day escape for Cambridge, we live close enough to the stadium that the fans park outside my house, going to pop outside and see what the mood is like

It wasn’t the fact that Morecambe once beat us in a conference play-off that made relegating them such a pleasure, it was the fact that they are managed by Derek Adams, never short of an insult towards Exeter. Pleased Cambridge stayed up, delighted Franchise tanked.

Ignoring the other end of the table.

(Also finishing the season with eight consecutive league defeats would’ve sucked)

Last season Notts County went out of the playoffs after conceding an equaliser in the 7th minute of time added on after the 90 and a winner with less than a minute to play in extra time.

This season Notts County remain in the playoffs after scoring an equaliser in the 7th minute of time added on after the 90 and a winner with less than a minute to play in extra time.

Kiddy thumped Kings Lynn today, I suppose that makes them pretty clear favourites for the final.

Haha fuck you Chester

thank u blackburn

3-1 up and they ducked it up + Blackburn miss out on the playoffs on gd, lols

excited!
don't rate our chances but that's been the story all season

I genuinely rate Coventry's chances, much better organised side than Middlesbrough who seem to crumble under pressure and you seem defensively solid enough to see off Luton who are an awfully difficult side to play but there for taking really. Anyway gl and at least you have Waghorn back and available for selection now, lol

https://i2-prod.examinerlive.co.uk/incoming/article26583057.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/2_Kevin-M-Nagle.jpg

our new club owner, nagl Kevin is an American... so very American.

start with football, proceed directly to the nhs, legalise guns etc

he is also the co-founder of a private healthcare company!

they all are, ours is too

the friends of Wes Streeting

these people are incredibly rapacious and will stop at nothing

Anyone have any idea if anything worrying is going on at AFC Wimbledon? The second half of this season looks to have been a nightmare.

huge lols. huge

more like Sunderland 'Til I Fail

I'm supporting Coventry because I quite like Robins, so apologies - you are probably fucked now.

:)

Excited, will have little to complain about if we lose tomorrow, incredible season

nothing against Coventry and respect for their struggle over the last 20 years, but Luton in the Premiership would be very funny

Haha no offence taken!
Do people have to still go through some guys garden to get to one section of Kenilworth Road?

yes!

They've recently switched the side that the camera gantry is on at k'wth road- in fact you can see the old one still there- something which always faintly annoys me when it happens

omg

after witnessing the soft underbelly of Middlesbrough quite recently, it was never in doubt for me

Have a friend who supports Coventry so would be nice to see them do it but has a side ever gone from non league to the top league in just 10 seasons before?

Wimbledon did, I think, mid 70s - mid 80s.

They did

What a great week for the northeast

lol

looooooool

ref just refusing to blow up until they scored

this is absolutely nuts

Will be 20-19 on penalties at this rate

Wednesday definitely going to lose on pens

Lol no, perfect 5/5

ref did bottle a stonewall red for wednesday

to be fair if I were a posh player I would have been unable to score a penalty out of sheer shame

So excited

gl to Coventry. They didn't want a repeat of last year's reffing fiasco - so they've brought in Michael fucking Oliver today, clowns

a ref who bottles penalty decisions is ideal for a playoff final obv

I remember that wanker giving a straight red to Mounie for an ankle tickle in a 50/50 - an absolute cunt of a ref

gwarn Hamer!

Fuck them plastic pitch edl bastards imo

i have warm wishes for Rob Edwards but yeah basically that

I'm still sore that we almost signed Elijah Adebayo for a modest fee and these fuckers snatched him up while my club were being a tinpot joke operation and haggling over pennies. too good a player for such a shite club. lol that applies to both clubs really!

booo!

thank god for VAR

Glad we've got var to prevent any terrible refereeing errors in huge games like this

the main fault of VAR is that it doesn't execute corrupt referees

Commiserations nxd

After that first half great to see us play like that in the second
Awesome game, and fair fucks Luton

I never felt a fraction of that magnanimity in last year's PO final. Because it was either ref crookedness or incompetence that dominated the outcome. But at least this was a good game.

Looks like the VAR bunch who got Forest up last season are under strict instructions again

yep, the outcome of a playoff final has been decided in advance again. It sounds Barnsley are still going for it though

Windass (120'+3minutes)

oh dear!

Proof of proof be need be that Dale Vince is an attention seeking egotist prick of the highest order.

Oh god.

A fitting way to close out this thread, mind. What's this season's title going to be? Not long left for someone to pounce

"why isn't Colin Murray on my telly when I get back from the pub"

Probably too long and probably should have been last year.

"Duncan Ferguson reads this thread for job advice"?

I think I have it, now they are relegated to our level:

Swann puts the Thorpe in Scunthorpe

Automatically leading the running thus far

We can't have two FGR titles in a row. They've had their little moment!

heh! talking of thread titles or former ones, Ross McCormack has signed for Liversedge

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F2NzAJjWYAA1X8A?format=jpg&name=small

was just looking as to why Ainsworth is trending before the new season has even begun .... he's ready

omg