Saturday 28th October Fixtures

[kieran_vale]

I get the feeling Gareth Ainsworth getting one of the more predictable dismissals this season will increase some pressure on Crosby especially after todays loss unfortunately for him. Not that a) I think it would happen due to him being settled in the south and b) neither do I think it should. I hate the immediate response of sack the manager when you hit a bit of a dry run and quite frankly changing the manager isn’t the silver bullet some think it is. Bottom line just find a way to win starting with seeing if we can make the quarters of the Carabao in midweek.

 

[valefan16]

I get the feeling Gareth Ainsworth getting one of the more predictable dismissals this season will increase some pressure on Crosby especially after today’s loss unfortunately for him. Not that a) I think it would happen due to him being settled in the south and b) neither do I think it should. I hate the immediate response of sack the manager when you hit a bit of a dry run and quite frankly changing the manager isn’t the silver bullet some think it is. Bottom line just find a way to win starting with seeing if we can make the quarters of the Carabao in midweek.

Ainsworth would be a disaster with this squad, belting long balls etc we don’t have the physicality to play his style. Leave him a legend don’t tar him like Glover, Aspin and Foyle.

 

[Marked Ox]

Ainsworth would be a disaster with this squad, belting long balls etc we don’t have the physicality to play his style. Leave him a legend don’t tar him like Glover, Aspin and Foyle.

Bristol Rovers must be tempted with his record.

 

[K-Win]

Even Portsmouth on Tuesday were bang average, they’d have been torn apart by any of the three sides promoted last season.

My my, you're hard to please. Unbeaten since early March and we're "bang average". Watching us once isn't really a good sample size. That's why there's a league table to show how good teams are.

We didn't play well on Tuesday, granted, but it's great when that happens and you still comfortably get a point away from home with no alarms.

 

[Laker]

My my, you're hard to please. Unbeaten since early March and we're "bang average". Watching us once isn't really a good sample size. That's why there's a league table to show how good teams are.

We didn't play well on Tuesday, granted, but it's great when that happens and you still comfortably get a point away from home with no alarms.

This is all true but the difference is the sides I quoted didn’t have many poor or average performances. Your run is incredible as deserves alot of credit but you’re grinding out wins rather than wiping the floor with sides as those three were doing.

I think you’ll be promoted as you’re incredibly efficient and clearly have a great team spirit to keep going. You’re top and unbeaten because you deserve it. But I don’t see you staying up next season unless you make a number of big signings.

 

[Don Tonberry]

That was a very strange game. 2-0 down due to some awful clearances being punished by good finishes, but I don't know if it's just the confidence I have in this team but as soon as Anjorin volleyed one back I was always confident we'd go on to win.

That honking miss by Smith was the turning point, though. It's one of the worst misses I've ever seen at a live football match. We're talking Rosenthal levels of embarrassing there. We had to hold on at the end and I don't know why we keep doing this to ourselves but Norris made two great saves to preserve a very important three points for us.

The Cambridge fan kind of makes a good point, but those three sides he mentions from last season weren't that great when we played them, our loss to Ipswich was our own doing and Plymouth and Wednesday won their games against us by being efficient, which is exactly what we've been doing so far this season.

On a side note, I think Reading are nailed on for the drop. We gave them a two goal head start and still beat them. Their defence was all over the place and they squandered some chances that any capable League One side takes. As happy as I am that we won today, I'm still not 100% convinced by our performances yet.

Roll on Charlton and the inevitable home defeat...

 

[hellogregory]

I don't care about them, nothing we can do until January anyway and that's if we do do something.

Just got to accept that we were lucky to come up last season which was obviously too soon.

It wasn’t lucky.

And it wasn’t too soon.

I expected us to survive at this level and I think we could have done had we got our summer recruitment right. But on the whole other than Lavelle the players we’ve brought in haven’t really added anything.

Questions need to be asked of head of recruitment and what the fuck he actually does. He was fired once from this club, maybe we should do it again.

 

[Brox]

3-1 win over Derby today. Solid performance and deserved win. Two free kicks gave us the advantage at the break and Hemmings wrapped it up with a third goal late on, he missed an even easier chance minutes earlier so pleased for him to get his first goal for the club.

Credit to Evans today, was a little surprised with the starting 11 but it worked as we managed to establish a lead and the second half changes gave us a real strangle hold on the game.

 

[Pompeyblueboy]

This is all true but the difference is the sides I quoted didn’t have many poor or average performances. Your run is incredible as deserves alot of credit but you’re grinding out wins rather than wiping the floor with sides as those three were doing.

I think you’ll be promoted as you’re incredibly efficient and clearly have a great team spirit to keep going. You’re top and unbeaten because you deserve it. But I don’t see you staying up next season unless you make a number of big signings.

Stop winding up. Did you watch every one of those 3 promoted teams games then?How can you say they didn't have many poor or average games?

If we get promoted we won't stay up what absolute rubbish. How many times have you seen us play this season? Just that once the other night.

Its still early days but we've had a great start and long may it continue.

 

[GEORGE]

A few points from todays game :-

1. Rovers were poor first half and even worse second half.
2. How did the Northampton players miss those two early chances.
3. Rovers should have still scored about 5 today
4. Northampton passed it around a lot but got nowhere really
5. Think we will finish in the top half this season and Northampton just above the relegation places.
6. I got soaked.

 

[The Terminator]

A draw a fair result at the Pirelli, amazed it was 0-0 though both sides missing some golden chances to take lead in the game.

Ruel Sotiriou has to do better in the 1v1 he got at the end of the first half, but thats typical of him, far too inconsistent in his final moments with a chance.

Oshilaja should've scored I thought at the end for Burton but blazed over.

Our centre halfs I thought played well and so did our keeper.

Awful to lose Jordan Graham to an ACL injury which will mean the end of his season, second serious injury an attacking player of ours has picked up now after Dan Agyei. Three league games in a week can sometimes take its toll and today it did a bit for us, only 6 subs named with players banned and injured. Wellens hinted one or two changes will likely happen in the cup next week.

George Moncur sub subbed for the second time this season, Wellens sending out a clear message he ain't happy with him. He's becoming poor value for money for us in this league, he has no pace/mobility and struggles to get back. Its hard to see a way back for him, I know he has asthma but he is looking more and more liability as each week passes when he plays.

Burton were like us, very average and both sides will likely go no higher than midtable.

 

[thewwfc]

I get the feeling Gareth Ainsworth getting one of the more predictable dismissals this season will increase some pressure on Crosby especially after todays loss unfortunately for him.

I would think it more likely that he holds fire until Reading shitcans yet another manager - as you mention he’s settled darn Sarf with a young family.

He’s presumably just got a chunky payoff and is OK financially for now.

That said he may be wary of walking from one basket case of a club straight into another one (i.e. Reading).

I think there are actually surprisingly few other jobs that would fit within his scope though (Southern, a step up from us, decently resourced, but bottom 2 divisions).

His ability to attract another Championship-level job for now may have taken a knock, so I feel that something has to give in terms of the regional thing.

 

[Carver]

It wasn’t lucky.

And it wasn’t too soon.

I expected us to survive at this level and I think we could have done had we got our summer recruitment right. But on the whole other than Lavelle the players we’ve brought in haven’t really added anything.

Questions need to be asked of head of recruitment and what the fuck he actually does. He was fired once from this club, maybe we should do it again.

We did try to bring quite a few better players in who were targeted but we either couldn't afford their wage demands or they were not willing to move this far north when there were closer options to home and also they were probably were not impressed with our shitty training facilities.

Really it all comes down to what budget we have and let's be honest we've always had a poor budget under this ownership so our manager and head of recruitment can only work with what they've got. Don't forget that we had one of the lowest budgets in L2 last season. So this is why we desperately need this takeover to go through to give us hope.

 

[masi51]

I'm not shy - it was Bolton. They tore us apart.

The other hammerings (Peterborough and Stevenage) came because we fell to bits once conceding a goal and not really because of how they played. Bolton were on another level though.

It's a poor division this season and we have very much been the poorest team to date, but the fact we're not rooted to the bottom says so much about how poor the division is.

You caught us early before injuries etc kicked in. We then went through a patch were we grinded out results despite not playing well. And had a couple of freak results at home to Wigan, Carlisle and the second half away to Reading where we was as bad as the lge2 days.

Injuries are starting to clear now and i think we will go on a decent run.

I also think the league is a lot poorer this season.

Think the top 6 is starting to take shape and the bottom will be a minefield until the last game of the season.
All to play for at both ends of the league

 

[Moonie]

The takeover will be complete before the Charlton game at Brunton Park, but it's a long time till January.

We've seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly from Carlisle of late. Dominated against Burton, and deservedly took all 3 points. Played so well at Portsmouth only to switch off at the death and come away empty handed. And then, there was yesterday.

First 10-15 minutes we looked bright, and had a few chances to go ahead. However, we didn't convert - and over the 90 minutes we didn't have a single shot on target. As the game went on, we went to pieces. No disrespect to Cambridge, but they looked a very poor side themselves (albeit fully deserving the 3 points on the strength of the second half), and gifting them a winner was absolutely inexcusable.

Such a poor performance, just when it looked like we were getting to grips with league 1.

It's a long way back from this. For the first time this season, I do not believe that this squad has the quality to avoid the drop. Over to you, Mr Piatak.

 

[huddsmoose]

No need to worry about disrespect - we've been very poor the last few weeks, which is frustrating as we looked a genuinely capable league one side for the first half a dozen games.

I firmly believe this is the strongest squad we've had since being back in league one but we've been strangely lacklustre and sloppy of late.

 

[AmberRich]

I firmly believe this is the strongest squad we've had since being back in league one but we've been strangely lacklustre and sloppy of late.

Time will tell with that. The squad we had in our first season back at this level, collectively, as a team was a strong and capable side in this league.

Perhaps this season we have individuals with better pedigree and greater experience at higher levels, however apart from this week they have been largely atrocious the last two months.

If they're even half as good as their form from August then perhaps you'll be proven right. But another two months of form we've just been through and the current team will be closer to being the shite we had for much of last season.

 

[valefan16]

Interestingly since us and Exeter were 1-2 in September we’ve picked up 3 points between us!

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Bristol Rovers must be tempted with his record.

Bloody hope not!

 

[Carver]

The takeover will be complete before the Charlton game at Brunton Park, but it's a long time till January.

Really? Who told you that?

I've heard that it is likely going to be completed sometime next week.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Since January 1st, we have the poorest record amongst all the teams that are in league one. Yes, we have an horrendous amount of injuries but that is pretty damning considering the other shit shows that have been in this league this year.

I'm starting to think we just don’t have the financial capacity to sustain league one football. I'm unsure why though....we're probably mid table in terms of support and have a very busy corporate side along with record shirt sales and generally very busy commercial department. Yet someone told me yesterday that our budget is 15th in the league, with much smaller clubs above us. It begs the question...why? Are we spending our income on infrastructure and vanity projects rather than the team?

The only way we will ever get average crowds of 10k is by winning football matches. Full stop. We seem to be on an endless cycle of relegation to league two, promotion again after 3 or 4 years and then treading water in league one for a few years before eventually being relegated. Surely we have to have more ambition. I thought we'd signed some really good players this close season but once a few are out injured we've got a league two team in league one.

 

[valefan16]

Since January 1st, we have the poorest record amongst all the teams that are in league one. Yes, we have an horrendous amount of injuries but that is pretty damning considering the other shit shows that have been in this league this year.

I'm starting to think we just don’t have the financial capacity to sustain league one football. I'm unsure why though....we're probably mid table in terms of support and have a very busy corporate side along with record shirt sales and generally very busy commercial department. Yet someone told me yesterday that our budget is 15th in the league, with much smaller clubs above us. It begs the question...why? Are we spending our income on infrastructure and vanity projects rather than the team?

The only way we will ever get average crowds of 10k is by winning football matches. Full stop. We seem to be on an endless cycle of relegation to league two, promotion again after 3 or 4 years and then treading water in league one for a few years before eventually being relegated. Surely we have to have more ambition. I thought we'd signed some really good players this close season but once a few are out injured we've got a league two team in league one.

Much of the finance is being spent on the ground and infrastructure I.e long term however that’s pointless if we end up further down than where we started.

Tell you what though, we are massively missing Iacovitti! That defence just isn’t the same without him.

Hopefully assuming/when Orient is postponed we will have only one more league game without him and he will be back for Shrewsbury as that’s the fabled 8 weeks which all our players seem to be out for!

 

[hellogregory]

The takeover will be complete before the Charlton game at Brunton Park, but it's a long time till January.

We've seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly from Carlisle of late. Dominated against Burton, and deservedly took all 3 points. Played so well at Portsmouth only to switch off at the death and come away empty handed. And then, there was yesterday.

First 10-15 minutes we looked bright, and had a few chances to go ahead. However, we didn't convert - and over the 90 minutes we didn't have a single shot on target. As the game went on, we went to pieces. No disrespect to Cambridge, but they looked a very poor side themselves (albeit fully deserving the 3 points on the strength of the second half), and gifting them a winner was absolutely inexcusable.

Such a poor performance, just when it looked like we were getting to grips with league 1.

It's a long way back from this. For the first time this season, I do not believe that this squad has the quality to avoid the drop. Over to you, Mr Piatak.

It’s been a horrendous start to the season, but we just got to try and get ourselves in a position where we’re not too far adrift by jan.

Hopefully teams above us won’t win their games in hand, otherwise it’s trouble, big trouble.

I’m gutted with our awful start to the season. I wasn’t expecting it at all. Such a let down.

 

[codaplenty]

Stop winding up. Did you watch every one of those 3 promoted teams games then?How can you say they didn't have many poor or average games?

If we get promoted we won't stay up what absolute rubbish. How many times have you seen us play this season? Just that once the other night.

Its still early days but we've had a great start and long may it continue.

There's a lot of sour grapes out there. Take it as a compliment when other fans say your team's just average, mediocre or poor. Every year you hear the same old moaning and whining about how poor this league is. It's tough, the reason is because we can all beat each other on the day and that's what makes it a competitive league
Oh yes, remember Sheff Wednesday, runaway leaders at one time last year in this league. Now shite and rock bottom in the Championship, quite a contrast ( at the moment ) with Ipswich....

 

[Moonie]

Really? Who told you that?

I've heard that it is likely going to be completed sometime next week.

All sorts of stories flying around, some saying that it's already done and just waiting for confirmation from the EFL. But CSG's latest tweet hints strongly at the Charlton home game being the first one of the new era. We play Bristol Rovers before then, so I can't see it being done until after that.

I hope it is though - the sooner we get this done, the better.

 

[Moonie]

It’s been a horrendous start to the season, but we just got to try and get ourselves in a position where we’re not too far adrift by jan.

Hopefully teams above us won’t win their games in hand, otherwise it’s trouble, big trouble.

I’m gutted with our awful start to the season. I wasn’t expecting it at all. Such a let down.

Derby may do us a favour on Tuesday night - a 5-0 romp against Northampton would move us out of the drop zone

 

[denzel ecfc]

I was over the other side from this incident, but wow.

♂️ | By Exeter City Football ClubFacebook

♂️

fb.watch

 

[GEORGE]

I was over the other side from this incident, but wow.

♂️ | By Exeter City Football ClubFacebook

♂️

fb.watch

100% straight red

 

[GEORGE]

Since January 1st, we have the poorest record amongst all the teams that are in league one. Yes, we have an horrendous amount of injuries but that is pretty damning considering the other shit shows that have been in this league this year.

I'm starting to think we just don’t have the financial capacity to sustain league one football. I'm unsure why though....we're probably mid table in terms of support and have a very busy corporate side along with record shirt sales and generally very busy commercial department. Yet someone told me yesterday that our budget is 15th in the league, with much smaller clubs above us. It begs the question...why? Are we spending our income on infrastructure and vanity projects rather than the team?

The only way we will ever get average crowds of 10k is by winning football matches. Full stop. We seem to be on an endless cycle of relegation to league two, promotion again after 3 or 4 years and then treading water in league one for a few years before eventually being relegated. Surely we have to have more ambition. I thought we'd signed some really good players this close season but once a few are out injured we've got a league two team in league one.

Well if signing Ryan Loft is anything to go by . Either your club has no money or ambition or both.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Well if signing Ryan Loft is anything to go by . Either your club has no money or ambition or both.

I must admit he looks dreadful from what I've seen. A real donkey. It was a signing that was exactly as I thought it was....a panic buy. We've spent a bit on him and Uche, so there is money there but the owners want to leave a legacy as this community club that helps the world. They also want the infrastructure to be Championship standard.

That's all very admirable, but it's ultimately still a football club that needs to sustain itself in league one. The entire management team will rightly be judged by things on the pitch, not a fancy new screen or feeding the local community.

We've clearly skimped on strikers and it's showing. I'm at a loss as to how teams such as Peterborough, Oxford etc. , who have all been a similar size to Vale over the years, can be ultra competitive in this league and we can't. Ffs, even teams like Stevenage and Burton are more competitive at the moment and they're essentially non league sides punching above their weight.