Best Of

today proved that we really need more creativity in the middle of the park, really hope Westergaard is the answer as Leahy most definitely is not, much prefer him as LB to CM...however Dan Harvie is 100 x better

Can we just have a little context here? Every point is vital, we didn’t play well but we didn’t lose and kept a clean sheet against a team who have improved under a new manager with a recent record of W1 D3 L1. Stockport were the only team in the top 6 to win and we are still second in the table despite a dip in form. No need to panic.

Yes I’m sure the players were really impacted by Mitchell’s departure 🙄 DOFL

A good point. Since the winning run ended at the start of December our record in the league is played 11, won 4, drawn 5, lost 2, scored 16, conceded 10. Could be better, could be worse, but I still think we need to turn some of those draws back to wins if we're going to hold off Wrexham / Huddersfield until the end.

Leahy isn't as good as Morley and doesn't allow us to play the same way, you can tell that by the way Morely and Cam Humphreys pretty quickly rocket fueled our season minutes after their introduction, that's neither his fault or a big problem unless you don't have anyone else and are chasing automatic promotion which we are now... but he's a decent honest player covering multiple positions and none of this is his fault, certain posters get very defensive if they are called out or disagreed with but have no problems slagging him off repeatedly seconds into a game. People still have different opinions on Hayes, Gregory and probably players from the conference era there's just no need to call them fkng useless every 30 seconds.

We have players to come in, hopefully they can contribute soon otherwise we've signed the wrong ones.

It's a year this weekend since we only just scrambled a draw at home to Fleetwood thanks to them getting a player sent off, with much of the Gasroom howling for Bloomfield to be replaced as he was out of his depth, and were contemplating relegation.

Proportionality has never been strong round here.

Leahy is a very good left back, and I think the issues have come from him not being as effective in midfield. I would actually prefer Butcher in the role he has been playing.

News Broke that Mitchell was sacked on Nov 2nd/3rd

November form:

played 7

Won 7

5th Nov, players so negatively affected in the immediate aftermath of Scott leaving we smacked Stockport 5 nil away.

December form:

played 7 won 3

lost 2 (Swindon EFL trophy and Charlton)

drew 3 (Bolton, Exeter, Reading)

January Form

Played 6

won 3

lost 1 (Huddersfield)

Drew 2 (Blackpool and Northampton)

Those November stats don’t really bear out us being on the slide “since he left” - not results wise maybe.

What did happen was all the articles and records the team were setting might just have caught the attention of other teams that we needed to be taken more seriously, were a serious threat and that we were up there on merit and teams needed to stop us playing.

You know, like we used to do very well under Ainsworth.

Incidentally , the months before November we played 7, 5 and 5 games a month respectfully. There’s been more football played post Mitchell leaving than pre.

I’d say the sports science fires might have had more effect on player turn around than is given credit.

That December/Jan run also had 6 games in 15 days with players looking very leggy near the end of it.

But sure, since Matt’s hire was sacked it all went down hill.

This guy belongs on Facebook. Maybe come back to the gasroom when you are a bit older

It’s amazing how expectations change a few seasons ago I’d have been totally happy with a win and a draw in our last two games now there’s near civil war on here because we didn’t go top.

On reflection although I think we should have started Kone and Grimmer and tried to blow Northampton away early we’re still in a good position and the one person that needs our support is Sam Grace.