The Cunt With The Bell: Resurrection - EFL+ 24/25

I guess we're all ready right? Okay cool

Looking forward to tomorrow. We have a big enough squad and a short term loan to cover the injury from pre-season, plus an announcement today that Ceesay has signed back on after his move to the French league fell through.

How are Coventrys chances of promotion this year?

Fans broadly upbeat for a playoffs place but likely formation is Simms on his own up top and the rumours of him to Bournemouth won't go away which will knacker their season - either they'll have to try and play without him which could well result in next to no goals, or they will have to overspend late to replace him which would be a disaster given their already precarious finances.

we held and contained top of the championship table Blades last week to a 1-1 (which sent their manager into a deep gloom) during a solid pre-season in which we also beat US Lecce and Hertha Berlin. so we're going down, obv. Got one great striker with injury doubts, the rest aren't worth talking about. Can't speak for the Irish kid we just got from West Ham, but he has been scoring and creating against L1 opposition in the Trill budgie-food cup or whatever the fuck its called these days.

"How are Coventrys chances of promotion this year?"

they signed one of the problem players off us, Rudoni to replace O Hare, for a fee which I thought was at least double his true value. Should have realised what a wanker he was when he first signed and was asked: it must been tough getting relegated last game with Wimbledon and he replied not so bad, because at least I scored a goal in that game. And then he developed a knack for missing gilt edged sitters in pivotal 6-pointer games for us... again and again and again.

The BBC website said Blackburn had recorded a thumping win over Derby and I was like ah "thumping" means 4-0, then I click through and see that, well

Good finishing from Blackburn tho, last one was super classy

Leeds have hit the crossbar 3 times in the first 6 minutes, and now they've scored a pen. the cunt with the bell not clanging anymore.

probably is now tho

really enjoying the Radio Leeds commentary team's despondent mood change after seemingly thinking this was going to be a stroll in the park because they are class above Pompey for the first 15.

oh ffs, I cursed it

Barry Fry is still the DoF at posh and despite this they always seem to pick up shit-hot non-league prospects that progress to the bigtime. I'm slightly nervous really, need to dig out my Believe shirt.

omg Fergie jr is still there, talk about scraping the barrel

embryonic L1 table otm imo

hmm

the highest goal bonus in L1 history was activated, yet Brum just about scraped a point at home. More of this please. Wednesday managed to spend their way out of this league with a terrible manager, don't know if Davies is that bad, but he's a rookie who probably knows little about this league, as a former big club cone organiser who has never achieved shit as a head coach.

oh yeah them failing would be incredible

passing it to nowhere while others shithouse to glory (hi)

Steve Evans typically gracious in defeat.

them failing too would be excellent, ty for your service

Talking of Wednesday, they seem to have done a pretty comprehensive job on the greenies in poor old Wayne’s first game.

those match stats are brutal and reports say it easily could have been much worse.

Xps about coventry, a few bookies have us around playoffs again, I'm not so confident but looks like we have a decent your gk this season at least

*young

Overall I think our team is slightly weaker than last two seasons, but the league might be a little easier

Coventry have started badly the last two seasons iirc

Yes we were relegation zone end of November when we eventually made play off final

Couple of attacking signings in Mason-Clark and Thomas-Asante tho I'm not too familiar with their game to have an opinion

there was a great keeper moment for us yesterday with Nicholls, not a miraculous save or anything but just a supremely confident feint that sent the Posh striker sliding past him as he was kicking the ball out, without breaking a bead of sweat. A tiny moment in the game, but I loved the swashbuckling arrogance of it.

Nice result for Hereford yesterday.

Great game, first half was pretty even but they might as well have not come out for the second half. Could and should have been 5 or 6.

They're a good footballing side and Bartlett looked just as sharp as last year. If we get the same outcome against all the other playoff candidates then it's going to be a great season.

Mason-Clark was quite possibly the best player I saw in L1 last season

yikes! just saw the Wednesday/Plymouth highlights. Can see why Miller turned down a contract extension there, shambolic defending. Rooney, why do you keep doing this to yourself. Well because clueless fuckers keep offering him jobs of course. He needs to try something new, maybe enrol on a b-tec photography course or something!

One game into the season

Preston North End have confirmed Ryan Lowe has left the club by mutual consent

they got beaten by a parachute money side that played in the prem last season, so hardly a disgraceful result. They have been the second most boring opposition side to watch, next to Swansea for me in the last couple of years, so I don't think their fans will be crying.

Didn't score in their last five games last season with five losses
No idea why they didn't do it in the summer

I wonder how long till Wazza gets put out of his misery, it was 2 wins in 18 that finished him at Brum.

embryonic L1 table otm imo :p

looking pretty grim here - fourth loss on the trot for Cambridge this month (Stockport and Crawley, QPR in the league cup and a 6-0 pre-season drubbing from Colchester) - everyone looked miserable trudging out of the abbey stadium.

we conceded a penalty in the last 40 seconds of play with a combined keeper going through the player + Spencer dragging the fucker down at the same time. Same kind of shit they were dishing out to us for 90 mons, but never mind!

got a strong feeling that Hull City's flirtation with the play-offs last season was a one off

league 1 will be very tight this season, especially considering rotherham's inevitable promotion

good luck huddersfield and charlton x

we've got the first manager since the 1970's who has won their first 3 games in charge, and still he's moaning about how shit they were in the 2nd half today. He's won me over.

a Hull City fan I heard was saying they fear Medya is getting bored with the project and the common theme in this summer's pre-season prep was top-down inertia.

yeah that seems very plausible, it's felt like a vanity project from day one

embryonic L1 table otm imo :p

― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Saturday, 17 August 2024 20:11 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

okay I'm listening

good luck huddersfield and charlton x

― nxd, Saturday, 17 August 2024 20:31 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

churlish to omit Devon's bastion of pure-hearted working-wonders-on-a-tight-budget goodness imo

(but ty lol)

oh of course my apologies - good luck exeter too!

What on earth has happened to Sheff Wed since last week

diagnosed with a severe case of not playing a team managed by wayne rooney

Okay calz you can almost say the line now

I think we'd be each other's biggest threat of the current 2-6. Stockport are very very similar to us tbf and have a cracking manager but we have more squad depth. Wrexham cannot fucking prevail

When we played Stockport the other week it was like Superman fighting himself, he knew all the moves, it was one of the worst 0-0s of all time

"I don't want Bolton sneaking in"

not happening on my watch

I Love The Labour Party And The Financial Sector

(I don't, but we need to stoke SOME tension before tomorrow lol)

I mean, you know what we Londoners are like :D

4 - 7 classic owing up imo

it could never be dull, that's for suah

Almost want a 0-0 now

0-0 would have been a near certainty under Duff's tedious brand of inflexible, whingeing dourness. Last time Worthy was in charge, like this time, his 2nd game in charge was a tough away fixture (Southampton). He said we weren't going to park the bus and were going to have a go. It finished 5-3!

one of our lot was describing your manager's style as basically a pretty good kind of "adaptive pragmatism" that our last stubborn manager sorely lacked, and had we had someone like that from the off this season then the squad was basically, even with the plague of injuries - good enough for the 2nd spot. With the caveat that it's a shame that your manager is such an annoying, childish, psycho-dickhead on the touchline every game!

All part of the marvellous theatre of League One football. Preferable to Michael Appleton's hands in pockets nothingness. I see he's back in work now somehow

Shrewsbury is seeing if working their way through all the dud managers in alphabetical order this time will make any difference.

They skipped Adkins!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cx29x6kwyn7o

"My accent and my Scottishness is aggressive" says the purveyor of the world's most passive tactics.

I don't think I've ever seen you this trigger-happy on here before, Tim.

I think I've had the wind put up me by scary Scottish accents.

"Jen (Caldwell's wife) complains all the time how aggressive I am to her, to the kids, to the dog - I think it's the Scottish accent." Reckon perhaps Gary needs to think harder about this one.

"I do have to probably look at it have to change, and probably try and change my accent and be a little bit more 'Englified'."

Ivor Cutler rolling blithely in his grave

jesus!

also yeah, bloody hell

the Darren Ferguson defence

The charitable reading is that this is no more than a dumb joke to make the point that he's being picked on because of his accent but good god that's a dumb joke.

He spends a lot of the time shouting at the officials, its has to be said, but he does seem to get booked and sent off more than other similar ranters like out chums the Cowley boys, so I dunno.

He should make like Nathan Jones and yell incessantly at his players instead!

Weirdly, they seem to really like him. I think he's quite supportive off the pitch?

Caddis definitely gets treated differently to Rooney on our bench by the officials when they're shouting the same things so maybe there's something in it but in Caldwell's example they might just be biased against HEID because of his MASSIVE HEID so I dunno.

Let your consolation be that I entered the ground after 3 minutes

lol, blatant timewasting 11 mins into a game

Didn't miss that one ;)

here we go.. again. pisspoor defending for both

good grief, and we'd be 5-0 down if not for Nicholls. Not postponing any more of my afternoon walk for this shite

:x

I didn’t make it to yesterday’s game, apparently we played better than we have all season. Whether that was due to our manager seeing no reason to persist with his unjustifiably cautious approach given we’re safe, or Hudds being on Exmouth beach, or our feckless bunch only playing well with the din in their backs, who knows?

I am looking forward to rounding off a nothingy season with a trip to Mansfield, mostly because it will be good to savour Argyle’s relegation (the Feast of Snottaredown) with like-minded cider soaked souls.

I didn’t make it to yesterday’s game, apparently we played better than we have all season. Whether that was due to our manager seeing no reason to persist with his unjustifiably cautious approach given we’re safe, or Hudds being on Exmouth beach, or our feckless bunch only playing well with the din in their backs, who knows?

I am looking forward to rounding off a nothingy season with a trip to Mansfield, mostly because it will be good to savour Argyle’s relegation (the Feast of Snottaredown) with like-minded cider soaked souls.

The sun on their backs, that should say. God knows our tactics have put paid to any din.

not to take any shine off your fine home win, Tim. But much more than half of players, especially the ones who must have found out they won't be getting a new contract offer and are leaving this summer. These set of duds gave up months ago. Biggest bunch of wankers I've ever seen in the blue and white. Also kudos to our American owner, who has apparently burnt through £40m to create a side, who in their current state of decline would be certainties for relegation from L1 without that cushion of a decent start they had.

there are pint dispensing machines at the stadium now. A lot of people are waxing nostalgic about the days of long queueing. I just wish this cursed yank billionaire had never turned up.

he hired the DoF guy who turned Stoke into a basketcase, with his brainless, scattershot approach to transfer policy. He'd sign two small strikers, strengthen areas that didn't need strengthening. Just no squad-building thought at all. Just an utter moron who talks his way into top jobs. Spunking a fortune on glass boned wasters over and over again.

Haha I’ll take any win but there’s not much shine at the moment. It’s weird because we know what we are and we know that survival in L1 is quite an achievement for our club BUT the refusal on the part of our team or their management to give it any sort of go against the clubs at the top end has left an oddly sour feeling. And the football, especially at home, has been painfully boring.

Consensus among my friends is that the manager definitely doesn’t deserve to be sacked but we’d be very pleased if he got a different job.

cheer up, at least you'll the Argyle trips next season. I will very likely have to deal with the ignominy of my lot being in the same league as the lowly chickens, although they fucked up their chance of making it a certainty yesterday.

Thinking of going to the Charlton game next Saturday. Kind of ridiculous I've lived in London so long and, apart from a brief period of going to see Brentford when they were shite, I've never bothered going to any football games.

I lived in the Woolwich/Plumstead area for 2 years, but still never been to the Valley. Fuck 'em!

xp I’m not really complaining (much) and some Devon derbies will be v welcome, I’m just noting how weird it is to have a season which would be in our top 5% finishes historically but still feels so flat.

Oh, I understand. Even though we've achieved the same as Exeter this season i.e. not much at all but not going down. But even when we looked a lock for the playoffs the performances were garbage. Sometimes there is just an unpleasant smell around a group of players and a manager, where it's hard to to put finger on it, but nothing is right. Nothing feels good.

Sonny Cox seems like a good acquisition though. Need to check out his hard bop period!

Even I'm probably not going to the Charlton game next weekend due to playing cricket, but if you do attend Tom I hope it's a humdinger. We're not a terrible watch tbf, yesterday excepted. Oh right we're not going to talk about that

Keep my powder dry for Wemberley

Season just petered out despite technically being in the mix until the end. Even with other results going our way we never looked like beating either Kiddy or Scunthorpe, and if we believed we were going to get through the playoffs we would have faced one of them again for sure.

All those dropped points against sides down the bottom we hadn't played before - Needham Market probably being the lowest point - and shockingly bad refereeing decisions - the goal that never was against Kings Lynn, the offside decision at Alfreton - could have seen us go up automatically, never mind the playoffs, but ultimately we're still not good enough. Again.

Even I'm probably not going to the Charlton game next weekend due to playing cricket, but if you do attend Tom I hope it's a humdinger. We're not a terrible watch tbf, yesterday excepted. Oh right we're not going to talk about that

Changed my mind, there's nothing to play for in the game, Charlton are in the play-offs and Burton are safe from relegation. Now, if Orient had been playing at home I'd have gone to that game but they're away to Huddersfield and obviously no way on God's green earth I'd go to Huddersfield (sorry calz). Oh well, next season I suppose.

Excuse me, we're playing for a home semi-final in the second leg!!!

Yeah, I'll play cricket

Tom, you don't want to visit the retail park built on the site of the Leeds Rd cafe where Shanks used to take young Denis Law to, to fatten him up on steak and milk? There is an incredible aura of lost football history in the car park between the Staples and the B+Q.

I've never seen a more gift-wrapped, signed and sealed "L" in my life. Just put a grand on Orient and use the guaranteed payout to fund the beer, food and train tickets for a jolly good daytrip to sunny Hudds!

I see Truro City went up to the National League, meaning they have trips to Carlisle (439 miles) and Gateshead (458 miles) to look forward to, assuming Gateshead don't' squeak through the play-offs into the league.