Remember after the August 'window', Keillor Dunn made his debut and we beat Bristol Rovs, and I think we were 3rd or 4th on the day. And the Christmas/New year time was our best form, putting us in 5th. What Id like to ask though is who really believed in the team, even then. Who thought we were genuinely doing well and deserving it, or who thought we were just over achieving and were set for only mid table after all!.
I thought we were turning a corner and genuinely believed we would be there or there abouts come season end.
Yeah I thought that as well DS, I thought maybe that the potential in this squad was really working out. And I genuinely thought it was going to be the Play offs for us, yet again!.
I wasn't convinced with the summer recruitment nor the head coach though I did think we'd kick on after seeing the Bolton away game. We did, but all too briefly and it wasn't sustained.
I can't remember us putting on a performance where we have totally dominated from start to finish, including when we've won. I don't think we've put a settled side out for more than 3 games, I get that everyone gets injuries and suspensions but it seemed we didn't change like for like, an injury to key players would see us change 2/3 starting positions RWB playing LWB crazy things like Cotter and farrugia playing across the front line somewhere. Funnily enough one of our best spells was when Roberts was out injured and we were playing McCarthy and Pines, bizzare. Very soft underbelly, ridiculously easy to get at, seen teams make 3 passes and it's in the back of our net. Priorities should be some proper full backs, Striker, keeper, centre back ...practically a new team.
Yeah Ronnie I know it was frustrating as we didn't follow on from that, into the new year. Instead actually, during the January 'window', we followed it up with six straight defeats (0-0 against Burton by the way, felt like a defeat).
Haha! No point in lying about it mate, for large part of season I always maintained i thought we'd finish top 6. I could pretend I never said it like a lot on here do when they were wrong about something (especially as wrong as I've been here! ). We weren't particularly good performance wise, but we weren't with Collins either, and we still managed play offs. I thought Clarke, with him having much more management experience than Collins with plenty of promotions, would get us over the line. I also expected wed get a couple more signings in in the Jan window. But incompetence has flourished and its been an abysmal season mate.
Yeah Rocket, it makes me think of those three wins in a row, which included the win at Rotherham. Our Play off hopes should have been resurrected then, but most fans were still saying it was unconvincing, and that the season was over!.
I'm glad you've said that Frog mate, because I know we've thought the same things about Collins and Clarke etc, haven't we. Yeah I've said I thought we were genuinely up there this season, on merit. But look at how we've blown it ehh, in both seasons, and yet I still don't think it's all down to Clarke or Collins.
There was that brief spell of victories post-Christmas, and whilst it wasn’t completely convincing, it looked like we’d perhaps make the playoffs with some tidy work in the transfer market. Sadly, we know how that went. And then we lost five of the next six with a 0-0 home draw against Burton the highlight.
Aye mate we have. I wasn't convinced we'd get promotion mind, depending on who finished in playoffs, but I expected us to be in there. Certainly fighting until last day anyway. But drop off has been shocking!
What hurt/annoyed me the most, was after our run of good results at that time. We then went to a fellow Play off team Charlton, and apparently the attitude was terrible that night, like the season was over etc!.
The only time I felt that "shine" was when we were in touching distance of 2nd, around NY. We quickly dampened that flame, after winning 3 on the trot, we proceeded to not win again in about 5 and that was it