we should have a large turn out by the loyal travelling fans for this one , the star said over 2,500 tickets had been sold . we face a Blackpool team who are safe they have a comfortable mid table place and have had a good run of four consecutive wins , there top scorers are Nathan Delfouneso with eight goals and Kyle Vassell with eleven goals we know Hurst has been resting and rotating players and trying new players and formations .i hope we field a full strength team if not for this game then we need to field our best team for the MKDons before the play offs. whilst we won the last game towns midfield was to easily brushed aside and our defence was all over the place. Eisa and low seem to have formed a good partnership but we now need the last part of the jigsaw either Morris or Payne to be on the same wavelength as Eisa. personally i hope Hurst puts Godfrey back in a defensive midfield role and if Nolan is still rested put Bryn Morris as the attacking midfielder, i dont know if saddler was injured or rested but the defence missed his calming influence .i hope Bolton is back at right back. as Hendry has been used as an utility player and looked out of sorts , i think he needs time to click with the squad and it must be hard to have bit parts and just get thrown in. this will be a tough game a win would be nice but i think we will do well to get a draw. as Blackpool have scored Thirteen goals whilst only conceding one in there last Four games
Hurst is more likely to field a full strength team in this than against MK Dons as the play-offs come up quite quickly after that. I am not going but hope we put in a good performance as we need to keep the confidence levels up after the last game. Some interesting comments from Beckles in the Star today - he has been great for us this season and has the class to play at a higher level.
Guess it'll be 451 or a variety of that. We really need a player that can come on and alter the setup. I'd love to see John Lewis and Gnuhoua get a start. If you look at the third goal for Town from the week you'll barely be able to spot the quickness between the two in passing a ball around an opposition player.
i feel sorry for Lewis he has spent most of the season the bench and when he has come,it has mainly been to get the ball go to a corner flag and run the clock down, so the Peterborough game was a rare chance for him to express himself .
amazing following from a very colourful and vocal town's travelling fans nearly half the crowd were town fans! with 6 changes as Hurst try Gnahoua on the right wing and Rodman on the left . Blackpool made the brighter start ,when against the Run of play Jones gets his first town goal after some feeble keeping from Blackpools number two keeper ,considering how wobbly he looked it was a surprise that town did not test him more ,based on the commentary Rodman seem to drift in and out of the game and faded in the second half . Town failed to capitalise on the lead, Towns midfield were too easily beaten down the right side, whilst Riley is going to be a bit rusty he struggled for pace, Town gave far too many corners and free kicks and alarmingly Blackpool had a number of free headers, We all know how good Ryan is from set pieces so too give him so many free kicks was silly. the only reason town took a point from this game was Saddler ,Beckles and an amazing number of saves from MacGillivary., i thought bryn morris had a good game. Blackpool appeared to have score town appealed for off side after a delay the linesman signalled off side ,the ref had a discussion with him and the goal was awarded (we just dont seem to have many breaks with officials) Blackpool looked the better side in the second half and town had to cope with sustained pressure ,they must be wondering how they did not score four goals in the second half town had two shoots and a header on target and we looked rather toothless . i really hope Hurst plays a full strength team against the MKDons ,we badly need to recapture the intensity of our high tempo pressing game
I couldn't make it so I had to listen to the radio. We did seem to lose control of midfield in the second half and Blackpool were given too many opportunities to progress towards our goal. This needs to be nipped out in training as that has been a weakness since Ogogo has stopped playing. I think we will see a strongish squad starting against MK that will more than likely be what we will see in the playoffs.
Certainly at home recently Blackpool were the form team of the division so a draw away is not too bad (we would surely take that in the first play-off game).Their goal did look clearly offside from the highlights and our keeper made some good reaction saves and will surely start as number one next season.
How safe do you think your managers job is? I'd love him as the next Sunderland manager and we have been linked.
he is very popular with the fans and the chairman does not have a revolving door approach to managers so from that perspective very safe but he is young and ambitious. he is from the north and his wife has stayed up there but does come down and visit however that is not sustainable for the long term. This season has raised his profile ,he has been linked to a number of clubs , personally i hope we can keep him but i think how we do in the play offs may be a factor , get promoted and given the funds to strengthen the squad he may stay. if we dont he may go but only he can really answer the question .
He's worked by finding potential in players who have dropped out of the football league or are out of favour at other clubs. He might not be as good when given a big budget and having to shop in a bigger shop.
Thing is Matster what kind of bigger budget are you talking about? There is no way you will compete in the Championship with a number of other clubs budgets so to be honest how well he does in that respect might not even be a factor. There are players in that league on £20k a week and clubs that actually buy players for hard cash. How much did Wolves pay for a player this season? More millions than your team could muster on a squad. Simply there is no even playing field in the Championship as there isn't in most leagues if we are honest. I'm not saying you can't compete in football terms it's financially that you probably won't unless your owner has very deep full pockets. If you overstretch the budget too far then that can easily be a recipe for disaster. We learned that to our almost oblivion. It is very unfair financially these days in football and it is also a fact that some clubs can take your man, manager or player, at their whim. The lure of the dollar is great sadly but you can't blame the people for taking the shilling when offered. We would all jump ship for a massive pay rise wouldn't we. Sunderland will have the biggest budget in league one next season by a million miles. They still have parachute money which is more than anyone else before the rest of their income is considered. Unless they are bankrupt, which does not appear to be the case then they should walk league one at the first attempt. The lure of that will be hard for any manager to ignore.
I'm just saying he might not become a greater manager by being at a "big" club with loads of cash to splash. It might well end up being a wrong move for him if he did go. Obviously I hope he stays on next season at least.
I really do take your point Matster and get exactly what you are saying. Sadly though if he isn't ambitious then he shouldn't be in the job so him thinking he can't cut it at the top of the tree is a non starter. I don't think having money to spend makes a good manager either. For me the manager of the decade must be Accrington's. His budget is pitiful compared to some and yet there they are at the top of their league and have had a tremendous season. I think it's easy to manage a Man City for example and probably even you or me could do it. Buying success isn't exactly taxing is it. The players could probably train themselves at that level. I would have respect for their manager if he could replicate his success at Accrington without the benefit of the cash. He will of course never have to try.
I think you are right Greeny that if we did go up we would probably struggle to establish ourselves like Burton have. Our current chairman will never pay out beyond our means and is popular among the fans because he brought the club back from near oblivion and he is local and a real fan. I do not think Hurst will be offered the Sunderland job - they have new owners who will go for a big name as a a manager. I think Ipswich is a more likely destination for him. If he does go I suspect his assistant Doig (who is highly thought of) would be offered our job if he did not go with Hurst. I am not convinced Sunderland will walk League 1 as their problem is they have many underperforming former Premier League players on long contracts and big wages and they will be a real scalp for the other teams in the league. Sorry you will probably not make the play-offs. I thought Plymouth really missed Ness and Taylor at Scunthorpe and the odds are that we will still be playing each other next season.
