League 1, League 2, National League and beyond 2021/22

[gingerling]

10 hours ago, neoELITE said:

McFazdean is a terrific wing back and if Wrexham play 3-5-2, he'll be an asset. He's not a defender though. He got a lot of assists for us.

I was really annoyed when he left but it seems he struggled in League 1 with Sunderland. The Sunderland fans seem to hate everyone.

You can't tar us all with the same brush. I thought he was a lot better than he got credit for. He's a very committed player but when he made mistakes the majority of Sunderland supporters got right on his back. Yes, the SoL can be toxic at times. 

[Fatsam]

Good to hear.

 

Fans feeling the need to get on the back of one or two, exaggerating inadequacies and failing to see any good they offer is just universal isn't it.

 

Amplified at Sunderland, but at times I don't think The Racecourse has been a ground conducive to getting the best out of players since we dropped to a level where we became one of the bigger clubs in a league with raised expectations. Even with similar sized clubs around us and our playing budget not being massive. 

[Fatsam]

We wanted a defensive midfielder and the cash was splashed.

 

Tom O'Connor sounds ace. Played loads of league one games for a 22 year old and has done really well for Burton according to their fans. That dream combination of defensively solid but also creative by the sounds of it. And can take a good corner. Apparently it was not half a million as rumoured though. A little bit less than 300,000 has been mentioned. Bargain!

 

A good transfer window then. Three areas strengthened, and Jordan Davies who was out of contract at the end of the season has signed a new deal. We've also managed to keep a promising youth left back who a load of big clubs were sniffing around and in previous times would have been off. Feels ace to see us actually keeping hold of our better young players.

 

Thank you very much TikTok kids and Disney plus subscribers.

[Angles Morts]

We had a massive target-man sized hole in our squad after selling Palmer for £300k, but we've managed to replace him with Sam Cosgrove, a loaner from Birmingham City who bought him for £1.5M! He was at Shrews for the first half of the season, seemed to fall out with everyone there and their fans seem to hate him. A massive shame we didn't get him before we played them in our last match as it would have been a great chance to prove a point!

 

Permanent signings are experienced right back Lee Brown from Pompey, and Nathan Broome, a young (sweeper?) keeper from Stoke.
Brown will help rid the squad of our U23-style naivaty and hopefully tighten us up at the back.
Broome will be backup keeper but we'll need him in March as Tzanev will be away playing for the Kiwis (also he's done well so might get bids for him this summer).

 

Earlier in the window we got Terry Ablade on loan, 20 year old striker. Promising but a bit easily knocked off the ball (like most of our team) at the moment to be the sole man up front. He'll be great in a couple of years though.
Also on loan Tomas Kalinauskas, 21, a tricky winger but this is the one area where we have a surfeit, so a bit of a mystery.

 

Not a bad window all in all, 1 out, 5 in (2 permanent), I think we've made a profit and strengthened some areas. The big question is whether Cosgrove will bring his Aberdeen or Shrewsbury form. That might determine our fate this season and whether we finally succumb to the financial gravity of the stadium debt.

[gingerling]

Defoe and now there is talk of Roy Keane 😲

[Cosmic_Guru]

Frustrating 1 all draw with Bristol Rovers  gifting them the stupidest possible penalty right under my nose.  We still could have won the game hitting the post very late, but not to be.  We go again against Salford Tuesday.

[neoELITE]

What a fantastic four days. Taking Chelsea to extra time was extraordinary. Given the opposition was virtually full strength, that has to be the best performance I've seen from my club since my first game in 1986. We scored at Stamford Bridge and that was all I really hoped for. Missing a penalty with minutes to go in extra time to take it to penalties was actually disappointing. I can't believe I've said that but I just did. Incredible result. 

 

Yesterday a 1-4 at Crewe and our penalty taker at Chelsea bagged a hattrick. 

Crewe's keeper was at fault for our first 3 goals. Terrible handling and decision making.

 

 

[Angles Morts]

Another loss, this time against leaders Rotherham. Leaves us one point above Morecambe plus goal difference and a game in hand (which wouldn't seem to be worth much). We've been in this position for weeks and it's nerve racking knowing that we could be leapfrogged at any point.

 

It's frustrating seeing how we started the season so well but turned awful after the cancellations before Christmas.

 

[neoELITE]

1 hour ago, Angles Morts said:

Another loss, this time against leaders Rotherham. Leaves us one point above Morecambe plus goal difference and a game in hand (which wouldn't seem to be worth much). We've been in this position for weeks and it's nerve racking knowing that we could be leapfrogged at any point.

 

It's frustrating seeing how we started the season so well but turned awful after the cancellations before Christmas.

 

 

You've never been relegated. Hold on to that. 

You've got Gillingham and Doncaster this month and Fleetwood and Crewe left. That's four six pointers. 

Another team is bound to be sucked in. 

[Angles Morts]

2 hours ago, neoELITE said:

 

You've never been relegated. Hold on to that. 

You've got Gillingham and Doncaster this month and Fleetwood and Crewe left. That's four six pointers. 

Another team is bound to be sucked in. 

On the other hand we've recently spunked matches against Morecambe, Shrewsbury and Cheltenham.

 

We've gone from 10% to 24% in a few months on the predictor https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/league-one/. Better 24% than 76% I suppose.

[grounded_dreams]

Really encouraged how Kevin Maher how slowly turned things around for us (Southend United), we are unbeaten since the New Year in the league and our form is currently second for the Vanarama National League.

Things are looking up

 

 

[neoELITE]

11 hours ago, grounded_dreams said:

Really encouraged how Kevin Maher how slowly turned things around for us (Southend United), we are unbeaten since the New Year in the league and our form is currently second for the Vanarama National League.

Things are looking up

 

 

 

I like Southend's away end.

 

QPR is the only away end that I prefer more.

 

Exeter City is the worst as I've only been in their home end as an away fan.

[Angles Morts]

11 yellow cards today at home to the mackems (& @gingerling). 1-1 is a good result considering the standard of opposition (Jermain Defoe!) and new manager bounce (Alex Neil!), but we're still only 1 point clear of the zone of death.

 

Another decent performance, but one bad day and we'll be leapfrogged by Morcambe who do not seem to be losing much.

 

 

[Cosmic_Guru]

Another day another draw for Sutton.  Can't argue about this one although we had a chance cleared off the line late on.  Very strong wind didn't help.  It brings up the 50 points, target achieved.  I expect us to gradually fall away from the playoff zone as others benefit from new signings etc.  At least we have Harry Beautyman back in the squad. 

[neoELITE]

The referee and linesman today were awful. We had a definite red card in the first half. Everyone in the ground thought our player would be off apart from the ref. An off the floor lunge that could've resulted in a broken leg. 14,000 people all saying "ooooh dear" in unison but ref thought otherwise. He compensated in the second half when the Shrewsbury centre half took out our striker who was clear on goal. 

 

We won 1-0 but it was really dull. Our winner was goal of the week. An absolute cracker in a dire game.

 

 

[filecore]

Would have taken a point against Wycombe before the game, but always annoying when they equalise late. (We aren't in the mood this season to keep clean sheets!)  Brooke Norton Cluffy, a loanee from Arsenal made his first professional start (he's come on a few times recently), and was MOTM for me and obviously had his readdy brek this morning. 

[gingerling]

22 hours ago, Angles Morts said:

11 yellow cards today at home to the mackems (& @gingerling). 1-1 is a good result considering the standard of opposition (Jermain Defoe!) and new manager bounce (Alex Neil!), but we're still only 1 point clear of the zone of death.

 

Another decent performance, but one bad day and we'll be leapfrogged by Morcambe who do not seem to be losing much.

 

 

A well deserved point I would say too! 

[Fatsam]

I went to watch Wrexham waste our best home result of the season yesterday.

3-0 in the FA Trophy against unbeaten in 17 FA Cup upsetting Boreham Wood who put out a full strength side.

Not that I don't like the competition, I do, I just can't make the final if we get there.

 

On 30/01/2022 at 14:19, neoELITE said:

McFazdean is a terrific wing back and if Wrexham play 3-5-2, he'll be an asset. He's not a defender though. He got a lot of assists for us.

 

Played his first 60 minutes of football for us and got two assists! 

[neoELITE]

1 hour ago, Fatsam said:

I went to watch Wrexham waste our best home result of the season yesterday.

3-0 in the FA Trophy against unbeaten in 17 FA Cup upsetting Boreham Wood who put out a full strength side.

Not that I don't like the competition, I do, I just can't make the final if we get there.

 

 

Played his first 60 minutes of football for us and got two assists! 

 

I fucking told you 💪

[El Pibe]

On 10/02/2022 at 22:24, neoELITE said:

 

I like Southend's away end.

 

QPR is the only away end that I prefer more.

 

Exeter City is the worst as I've only been in their home end as an away fan.

 

Have you been since the shed has been put in place?

 

So much better than it was and much easier to get an atmosphere going now if there's a decent away following.

[El Pibe]

Exeter are on a good run with 5 wins and a draw in the last 6. That's pulled us right back into the mix for automatic promotion.

[AfromB]

The last time that we went to Exeter these were the facilities in the away end. 

[El Pibe]

😄

 

Just remembered that I was in the away end to help with social distancing back in 2020 when football returned briefly.

 

I can confirm that the toilets are much better now!

 

 

[El Pibe]

Amazing game at SJP last night with Exeter 2-0 and 3-1 down before winning 4-3 in the 95th minute. Back into the top 3.

 

I had the choice of going last night or on Saturday. I chose Saturday. 0-0 nailed on 😆

[neoELITE]

Away at Gillingham today. We've not won there in the league for 41 years.

 

[MikeBeaver]

Ipswich had a convincing display today, it’s taken a while, and a new manager…. But they might “just” be heading in the right direction 👍

[Fatsam]

An unusual and lovely goal from our Jordan yesterday. It should't have been allowed because nobody else touched the ball, VAR would have ruled it out, but I don't think the rules were invented for such scenarios, and thankfully we play football in the outer rim where there are no rules.

 

 

[Angles Morts]

Properly fucked by Notlob yesterday. Having 5 starters suspended or injured didn't help, but that was still worse than expected.

 

Two vital six-pointers next week against Gills and then Doncaster which probably make it the most important of the season, but it's come at a really, really bad time for us.

 

I've booked hospitality seats for my Dad's birthday for Donny

[merman]

21 hours ago, MikeBeaver said:

Ipswich had a convincing display today, it’s taken a while, and a new manager…. But they might “just” be heading in the right direction 👍

 

Looks like it was a dream 100th appearance for Kayden Jackson, from the highlights he took that early chance so cleanly and then got assists on the other two goals.

[neoELITE]

21 hours ago, Angles Morts said:

Properly fucked by Notlob yesterday. Having 5 starters suspended or injured didn't help, but that was still worse than expected.

 

Two vital six-pointers next week against Gills and then Doncaster which probably make it the most important of the season, but it's come at a really, really bad time for us.

 

I've booked hospitality seats for my Dad's birthday for Donny

 

Gillingham are atrocious. We beat them 0-2 but it could have been a lot more watching the highlights. You should beat them.

Doncaster are weird. Really good going forward but they leak goals. You need six points from those games.

 

We're 5th with games in hand. April is going to be interesting. We play 5 of the current top seven.