Championship 2022/23

[Plissken]

Looks like Ainsworth is bringing his particular brand of football terrorism to the Championship.

[Plissken]

Clarets have played 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th in five of their their last six games and got 13 out of a possible 15 points. And *still* some people are moaning that tonight was “two points thrown away”.

 

Honestly, some people don’t deserve nice things.

[Ork1927]

2 minutes ago, Plissken said:

Clarets have played 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th in five of their their last six games and got 13 out of a possible 15 points. And *still* some people are moaning that tonight was “two points thrown away”.

 

Honestly, some people don’t deserve nice things.

Maybe they are going on an 8 week cruise at the start of April so wanted promotion confirmed before then so they didn’t miss the deciding game?

 

Or have bet heavily on a 100+ season?

 

Or aren’t going to be happy unless you do the quadruple next year?

[Plissken]

28 minutes ago, Ork1927 said:

Or aren’t going to be happy unless you do the quadruple next year?

This.

 

It’s notable that one of our newsletter writers, who got the reputation for “No Nay Negative“ has stopped doing the weekly mail out.

 

”Busy life”, he says. Aye, right.

[wullie]

When Burnley go up and enjoy all the immediate riches that come with, if they would just let Luke McNally's loan spell with us become a permanent deal I wouldn't be too upset. Proper defender, that boy

[Shimmyhill]

Ive been to the last two Norwich home games and both 3-1 home wins, I even had the same ‘bloody hell its cold in the stands’ clobber on and everything - no footy shirt, a new curse has started!

 

Last nights game was odd, Norwich battered Birmingham in the first half and Nunez scored a worldie - Birmingham were terrible, possibly the worst side ive seen live  Second half and Norwich just forgot how to play for a bit, as soon as they remembered they scored but had made it nervy with an undeserved goal for Birmingham from another Norwich defensive mistake.

 

 

 

[Ork1927]

24 minutes ago, Shimmyhill said:

Ive been to the last two Norwich home games and both 3-1 home wins, I even had the same ‘bloody hell its cold in the stands’ clobber on and everything - no footy shirt, a new curse has started!

 

Last nights game was odd, Norwich battered Birmingham in the first half and Nunez scored a worldie - Birmingham were terrible, possibly the worst side ive seen live  Second half and Norwich just forgot how to play for a bit, as soon as they remembered they scored but had made it nervy with an undeserved goal for Birmingham from another Norwich defensive mistake.

 

 

 

Hopefully he won’t do that again Saturday.

 

We need to keep going after our back to back wins as while we’ve put a bit of day light between us and the bottom 3 - Rotherham have done the same with last night’s win and while our win Friday night against Reading was well deserved we really need to score more often and earlier.

 

5 home wins for us now this season - all 1-0.  The only league game we’ve scored 2 in at home we lost 3-2 to Hull having gone 2-1 up.

[Plissken]

1 hour ago, wullie said:

When Burnley go up and enjoy all the immediate riches that come with, if they would just let Luke McNally's loan spell with us become a permanent deal I wouldn't be too upset. Proper defender, that boy

 

We'll straight swap you for Ca...don't go there!

 

Glad he's doing well there.  He looked pretty good in the time he was with us and I don't see why he couldn't have stepped up to the first team.  Having said that, whoever is recruiting our central defence has hit the jackpot five times in a row now.  McNally, Harwood-Bellis, Beyer, Ekdal and Al Dakhil are all absolute quality.  I half suspect that McNally has become a player bought to be sold for a profit in a season or so.

[Shimmyhill]

On 22/02/2023 at 12:27, Ork1927 said:

Hopefully he won’t do that again Saturday.

 

We need to keep going after our back to back wins as while we’ve put a bit of day light between us and the bottom 3 - Rotherham have done the same with last night’s win and while our win Friday night against Reading was well deserved we really need to score more often and earlier.

 

5 home wins for us now this season - all 1-0.  The only league game we’ve scored 2 in at home we lost 3-2 to Hull having gone 2-1 up.

 

Just back, I thought your lot looked solid if not exciting but much better than Birmingham - Norwich should have made it more comfortable but it wa s a decent win and performance.

[Ork1927]

3 hours ago, Shimmyhill said:

 

Just back, I thought your lot looked solid if not exciting but much better than Birmingham - Norwich should have made it more comfortable but it wa s a decent win and performance.

Everyone else Dow the bottom lost bar Rotherham who play the Jacks Monday so hopefully they do us a favour and the we beat Bristol in the early game Saturday and put pressure on everyone else.

 

 

[Plissken]

I’ll probably write more tomorrow but Burnley finished the first half at home to Huddersfield 3-0 up and with 82% possession and the overriding feeling was “they had as much as 18%?”

[Rsdio]

Warnock sensibly rested a few who'd been playing with knocks, it was pretty funny seeing us turn up to the team running away with it with defensive midfielder at right-back and no actual defensive midfielder in the middle.

 

Basically what I'm saying is, if we'd played the best available team you might only have had 75% in the first half.

 

I think this is about the first weekend ever where we lost 4-0 and I came out of it happy, all the other results went for us so we didn't lose any more ground and I think most of the other teams down there still have Burnley to play. Our run-in is still pretty rough but if anyone can drag us through it it's Colin and Jeppo.

[Plissken]

Yeah, I can't fault the commitment of the Huddersfield players - it pisses me off when I see people talking a lack of fight and passion.  It's bullshit.  They couldn't get near the ball and Clarets were passing it around them at will.  If a player in black had made any kind of tackle, he would have been off, because the ball would have been ten yards away by the time he got there. One Hudds player did get a yellow through a tackle made out of frustration rather than malice and the feeling from the seats was less one of anger at it as "bit naughty, but can't really blame you, lad".

 

I was going to write a match report but it would be less words and more a series of appreciative noises.

 

Warnock was very complimentary and I didn't get the impression that he was going to rip into his players for being outplayed.  STOP BEING LIKABLE, COLIN!

[Ork1927]

Bottom 9 teams managed a whole point between them in this round of games (which was Rotherham last night against Swansea 10th from bottom who are in terrible form themselves).

 

Be interesting what things look like at the International break - if the bottom 3 can clock up some wins before then it could be very tight.

[OneDvBmbr]

Feel pretty confident in saying we’ve had it. Can’t see us getting more than one or two wins under McCarthy. It’s just dire. 
 

Burnley this weekend would be a bit of a free-hit normally given how good they are, but games are running out and if other results go against us then a defeat could put us so far behind it’s even more insurmountable. 
 

Us and two others for the drop. 

[Plissken]

Well, you got a point having stopped us scoring for the first time in 31 League games.  Didn't sound undeserved, either.  However, results around you didn't help.

[Ork1927]

Excellent performance for us today in the Severnside derby.

 

God forbid we actually get to enjoy the end of the game though - last home game and we use up our subs and have two players hobbling about at 1-0.  
 

Today we have outer goalie sent off and used up all our subs at 2-0 for a very very long 6/7 minutes of injury time.  But all good in the end.

 

Still 4th from bottom, but looking more like we can overtake teams on a downward trend at the moment rather than worrying about the ones below us as much.

 

Still a lot to do, but 3 wins in 4 for us now - Lamouchi and Bamba seem to have got the players performing and motivated and enjoying themselves.

 

Would like some more points before the international break though.

 

 

[Plissken]

Burnley 3 Wigan Athletic 0

From the moment Nathan Tella was given the freedom of Turf Moor to nod in the opener, this was business as usual. He'd already beaten Arsenal-loanee Rekik for speed, forcing a late lunge which took him down and got him a yellow. Then, just before the half hour, Tella gave him four yards head start and forced him to do it again and a second yellow was shown. A striker was withdrawn for OIHSP? candidate, Steven Caulker.

Despite being down to 10, Wigan almost equalised from a close range header and a poor backpass as Clarets got a bit sloppy at the back. However, clearly Words Were Exchanged in the home dressing room, as after half time the home side came out and Tella got his second from a corner inside the first couple of minutes of the half. From there it was one way traffic, 78-22 on the possession stats, 16-0 on the shots and another 1 one the scoresheet, Lyle Foster finally opening his Burnley account after a lovely chip from Zaroury and knockback from Obafemi. Burnley ended the game with three strikers on the pitch because, well, that's what we do.

Had some sympathy for Wigan, who have looked better than a number of sides who have come to the Turf. They certainly tried to play good football, put up more resistance than Huddersfield and strangely enough, Boro and could have actually troubled the scorers. The red was justified, but they were definitely on the wrong side of a referee who seemed to decide from minute to minute how picky he was going to be.

13 clear of second place, 17 clear of third, 10 games to go. Promotion could be sealed away to Boro on 7th April and the title at home to Sheff Utd on the 10th.

It seems we may have imminent investment from an American Football player, too. Strange, strange days.

[Ork1927]

Bottom 3 all lost but so did we and Rotherham also lost, but teams slightly above won.

 

I’d like to improve in a six point cushion before the International Break as one of the bottom 3 is going to pick up points at some point.

West Brom at Home and Rotherham away for us this week. Need something against the Baggies and then can’t lose against Rotherham.

 

4 points will be tricky, but very welcome.

[Plissken]

Burnley under a transfer embargo due to late filing of draft accounts with the EFL.  The club have put out a statement saying it is a delay due to a switch of auditors. 

[Ork1927]

Looks like Reading may lose 6 points this week, Wigan haven’t been paying their players and may lose 3 and some talk of Huddersfield going into admin.

 

So the relegation battle could turn into a bit of a farce quite quickly.

[Rsdio]

Yeah, as if our opinions of the pair of twats who've been 'running the club' the past few years couldn't sink any lower there's now talk of a grubby tactical administration to force a sale through.

 

Warnock seeming to be happy with draws when only wins will now do doesn't make this any more likely, but taking a 'clever' points deduction only to go on a winning streak and only be relegated by said points deduction would be about the most Huddersfield Town thing possible.

[OneDvBmbr]

2 hours ago, Ork1927 said:

Looks like Reading may lose 6 points this week, Wigan haven’t been paying their players and may lose 3 and some talk of Huddersfield going into admin.

 

So the relegation battle could turn into a bit of a farce quite quickly.

Would be truly embarrassing if we managed to get relegated despite 3 or 4 other teams having these types of issues. 
 

But there’s no way we are staying up under McCarthy. 

[Shimmyhill]

10 hours ago, Plissken said:

Burnley under a transfer embargo due to late filing of draft accounts with the EFL.  The club have put out a statement saying it is a delay due to a switch of auditors. 

Was that a switch to the same accounting firm Redbull employed……..

[Plissken]

No idea but they’ve clearly also got Huddersfield as a client.  Same embargo, same reasons.

[Ork1927]

Didn't think we'd get it - but a very valuable point at home last night against West Brom with some key players missing for us.

 

That was only our second point all season when we've gone 1-0 down!  All the bottom 4 picked up at least a point (with Blackpool getting 3 in their surprising massacre of QPR).  Combined points of the teams 13th to 20th above the bottom 4 this mid week was 1.

 

Our next three games are nuts

 

Rotherham (a)

Swansea (h)

Blackpool (a)

 

Two mega six pointers on the road and the derby in the middle.

 

Can't lose any of them and need to probably win at least two of them.  Big ask and I'd really like to win Saturday and other results go our way to take a little bit of pressure off before the derby.

[Rsdio]

God knows where winning away at Millwall came from, we don't normally do that on a good year.

 

I'd like to think Warnock waited by the touchline to shake the hand of every Millwall player and inform them "That was for fuckin' Muscat, that."

[Ork1927]

Nightmare for us today. 
 

Apparently well on top against Rotherham and at half time results going our way where we’d have been well clear of the bottom 3 and moved above Rotherham and QPR.

 

Now we have to fit in a rearranged away game and are currently only 3 points from safety.

[Plissken]

Have to laugh. For stupid petty reasons Rovers have only given us 2,000 tickets for the game next month instead of the usual 5,000.

 

It’s a rivalry thing and I don’t mind because rivalries are supposed to be stupid and petty.

 

Because of this, Clarets had to run a ballot for loyalty points holders above a certain amount.

 

The winners have been informed and the editor of one of the main message boards missed out.

 

And he’s launched his toys into space.

 

Edit: Helps if I put the link in.   https://www.uptheclarets.com/clubs-should-hang-their-heads-in-shame-over-derby-tickets

[Ork1927]

Derby day on Saturday and for us the most important for many, many years as we desperately need all 3 points regardless of the opponent.

 

But, given the Jacks are looking for the double double and them whacking us 4-0 at home last year and the fact that if we don’t score then it’s potentially going to be that we’ve scored just 1 goal against them in ten years (and that was away during Covid so nobody saw it), we really really really need to win.

 

Obviously I’ll take a God awful 1-0 with a first minute tap in and us riding our luck for 89 minutes, but an actual proper semi enjoyable crucial win would be quite nice.

 

Win and then beat Blackpool away on Friday and we set ourselves on course for survival. Lose and I think we are back in deep deep shit after some promising results recently.