The League 1 and 2 Thread

[Boydie88]

Smart Mart said:

I'd agree with that, thanks for your kind words. I'm glad we "escaped" with a 1-3 defeat after last season's thumping!!

Don't mind Stevenage nowadays since Graham Westley's gone. Never really liked him... had the misfortune to meet him at a behind-closed-doors friendly a couple of summers ago, tried doing him a favour and was met by a rather rude comment in return.

Therefore I delight in Preston's recent run of form and can only hope he's still in place on Tuesday week when they come to Huish Park.

Doesn't surprise me. He was a hero for us but he is an incredibly stubborn individual. In his first reign with us he came over to our 'barmy' army to have a full on argument with our fans following a 3-1 loss to Canvey Island - oh how times have changed.

I was one that took an offence to his decision to leave.

Preston were (and still) up st creek financially and don't look like they'll get out of it. I'm pretty sure he'd have taken us up had he remained in charge and would have then had the choice of no end of jobs in the Championship - but to move to a club, albeit a lot bigger, but being run by clowns still baffles me.

There is massive pressure on him from the PNE fans atm - again, like ours, I don't really know what they expect will happen if they do sack him - but a defeat to you could spell the end. With no disrespect to you (we often find ourselves in similar situations), a loss to a team the size of Stevenage or Yeovil often proves to be the final nail in the coffin. I think there's been 4 or 5 managers over the last 3 or so years that have been sacked following a disappointing result against us... Ironically Preston were one them when they sacked Phil Brown following a 0-0 at home to Westley's Stevenage :P

[Boydie88]

Stevenage are well and truly in deep st now.

5 losses in a row. Something like 8 points from a possible 45. Complete freefall.

A few weeks ago we were 125/1 to get relegated, I;d be surprised if we're over 20/1 now - and even that is fantastic value and if I can find it, I'll be having a few quid on it to soften the blow.

[Boydie88]

To my and the few other remaining Boro fans (nearly outnumbered by Brentford last night) but we only went and made them look pretty ordinary and came away with a very deserved 1-0 win. Certainly not problem over, but tonight is the first time in a while we saw 11 players put a shift in and certainly gives us hope we wont be pulled into the relegation scrap.

[Boydie88]

Just noticed the above message is so badly worded as a result of composing it during breaks in work. But yeah, the main stuff is there. Attendance was 2700 with 900 Brenford fans - so just 2:1 ratio of home fans to away! Ouch. The last time we had under 2000 home fans must have been back in our non league days!

[Boydie88]

Well, Stevenage were sensational. Using some sort of unbalanced 4132 formation we managed to rip Shef United (who I'd forgotten how much I disliked - what a horrible bunch of fans they are) apart. Helped by giving Dani Lopez (been on loan to Aldershot and Barnet) being given his first start in a Boro shirt. He only went and scored a hat trick and got the assist for the 4th. Just 7 days after scoring a hat trick for Barnet. Incredible viewing.

[Boydie88]

BraveSirRobin said:

Horrible bunch - how very dare you! We liked Stevenage so much we'll be back next season....

Who are the 'Shoreham boys'? I'm sure the majority, like most clubs, are perfectly fine and I guess being a bigger club means your minority group of fans is larger - but these 'shoreham boys' really were a sad bunch.

Oh and normality has been restored after what sounded like a pathetic attempt to gain just a point from Bury last night.

[Boydie88]

Stevenage manager gone. I wouldn't be surprised if Graham Westley ends up back in charge. A little surprised.

Chairman Phil Wallace today said, "it's always difficult when you have to replace the man in charge. Gary has done his best but the performances and results over the past few months have been worrying in the extreme.

"After a very promising start with a new squad, we have slipped alarmingly and the Board are concerned that the present management team may be unable to deliver the clubs vision of increasing attendances and developing players in a winning environment. We have waited longer than most others in similar circumstances, but we cannot in all good conscience continue to watch this downward spiral and do nothing.

"It's time for a change and we'll see who applies for the position. Meanwhile I'm indebted to skipper Mark Roberts who will, once again, step up and take charge whilst our search takes place."

[Boydie88]

And I imagine the lowest ever League 1 attendance... certainly not helped by the 44 dedicated Boro fans that went up!

As for Westley, I think he and Dino Maamria (his assistant) still live down south. I've seen Dino at a few Boro games when Preston weren;t playing and apparently they were both there for the Sheffield United destruction.

Don't see why he should be in the away end, he's essentially there as a neutral. There's a lot of our fans that wouldn't take to kindly to him either but I'm sure they'd all change their minds if he started winning (like they did when he came to the club for his second spell).

Tranmere fans on here, I imagine our televised fixture on Sunday (which, when chosen, looked like a promotion match!) is unliekly to go ahead because of this ing snow.

[Boydie88]

BraveSirRobin said:

The Kop End at Bramall Lane runs along Shoreham Street - back in the days of terracing the "Shoreham Boys" were the ones stood in the middle who did the most fighting/singing/drinking.

Ah, ok. Makes sense. At a guess, I;d say the group calling them selves that would have had an average age of 17 - so I doubt they even saw the terracing! Just watched football factory a few too many times.

GloverMart said:

It's certainly worked for Gary Johnson at Yeovil, Eddie Howe at AFC Bournemouth and John Ward at Bristol Rovers, not to mention Billy Davies at Nottingham Forest.

This will be Westely's third spell! Like the above, his second spell was full of success including a double promotion, two Wembley finals and dismantling Newcastle in the FA Cup.

Not quite sure he'd be able to get the momentum going again he had installed before buggering off to the sinking ship of PNE.

[Boydie88]

Really hope Yeovil make it and give the play off matches a better go than we managed last season. Wouldn't mind seeing you drop some points on Saturday though

[Boydie88]

GloverMart said:

Oy, you'e had points off us already this season, don't be greedy...

The dreamer in me is beginning to believe this really might be our year. Donny lose at home to Carlisle, Sheff United fail at home to Crawley and Swindon trip up at MK Dons were the best results we could have wished for at 7.45pm this evening.

Four games left, win them all and we won't be far away. One team holds the key though and that is Crewe. They have six games left and all six are against top eight sides.

If it was to be the difference between you making the autos, I'd happily see you guys win. But as it looks like it will be Bournemouth, I'd like to see Westley show the home crowd some of what we can expect next season to reinstall the belief back into our fans.

[Boydie88]

That does seem pretty bizarre. A few criticised the timing of us sacking our boss but we were playing for nothing and these last few games have given the new manager a chance to look at the existing squad in a match situation which can only be good imo.

But Shef are surely going to finish in the playoffs. Even if a new guy did steer them to promotion, I'm sure he would want his own players which rarely works out in the first season so I'd expect them to be dropping straight back down given the standard of the Championship.

[Boydie88]

Tyre Smoke said:

Due to a very generous donation from a local businessman, we are taking at least twelve coaches from Plymouth to Burton on Saturday.

Considering there were 671 of us at an awful Bootham Crescent in York on Easter Monday, we are going to drown out the Brewers in their own ground. Let's hope this is one of the rare occasions when Burton drop points at home.

Never ceases to amaze me how much away support the 'far out' teams take. Great stuff. I think the last time we managed to get free travel we took half of our average home gate at the time to Mansfield (but still lost).

[Boydie88]

Highway Star said:

Thanks.

Would love it if Yeovil won the play offs, all the very best of luck for them.

Although I despise Gary Johnson, I've got to agree with that. One of the few clubs I don't mind in this league and it's great to see a fellow small club competing without overspending. You were very impressive against Stevenage last week. 11 players willing to put everything on the line for each other - very similar to the squad that took us to where we are now and hopefully Westley can recreate that over the summer.

[Boydie88]

garycab said:

Come on you Glovers !!
Just the matter of a small trip to Sheffield stands in our way.....David v Goliath springs to mind
And those that say 'if you go up you'll be straight back down'....great, yea probably will, but will enjoy every game while we're there...hopefully

That was the situation we found ourselves in. Sadly we only really put in an attempt to win the home leg and ended up going out to an 88th minute United goal. you've earned the right to host the second leg though which is what the difference was between us and United last year. Although I despise Gary Johnson (just for how he was in a game against Northampton a couple years ago), good luck! It is great to see the smaller clubs competing and spending within their means.

[Boydie88]

Superb Yeovil. So glad to see Shef lose in the playoffs again for the way they went about a pitch invasion to celebrate us losing rather than celebrating their win. Hoping either Yeovil or Brentford go up personally. Enjoy Wembley Mart.

[Boydie88]

GloverMart said:

Four adults plus two concessions. £52 each for adults, half that for the kids and the rest went on booking and transaction fees...

£52?! What the actual fk. I could understand pricing like this if the game would be a sell out what ever the price - but £52 for a League 1 play off final is just criminal.

Half the price of a season ticket at Bayern Munich.

[Boydie88]

Tyre Smoke said:

That looks so wrong! Surely it should be Come On You Hoops?

Argyle play in green, 'little' Yeovil play in hoops.

Absolutely amazing effort yesterday. Even if you come straight back down, look at the teams you will be playing all season long!

It stands for Glovers, doesn't it? Am I getting the parrot?

More congrats to Yeovil. Held on very well. A squad full of players willing to give their all for each other in every minute. It's what we had under Westley when we got into the league and hopefully what we can build again now he has returned. Delighted to see a smaller club run within it's means and competing above so many big spenders.

Good luck in the Championship, I'm sure you'll enjoy every trip even if you don't win a game - if the work rate of that team can remain the same even through the tough times next season, I think you'll have a good chance.

20,000 tickets sold for Wembley is just incredible too for such a small town and the price the FA wanted. I don't even think Stevenage would take that and it's only down the road for us.

[Boydie88]

GloverMart said:

First to be moved will be Wigan at home on November 9th; they have a Europa League tie 48 hours before so it will be moved to the Sunday.

I bet you never imagined Yeovil would have a fixture rearranged due to European competition.

Have to say I am rather envious of you guys. In your position I wouldn't care if we went down with the lowest points haul ever, every game would have the FA Cup third round feeling - which also reminds me you now enter the FA Cup at the same time as the Prem teams, no potential banana skins!

[Boydie88]

GloverMart said:

Re the FA Cup, here's two slightly interesting facts. This season (2013/14) will be the first season in ten years that we've made the third round of the FA Cup and 2013 will be the first calendar year in our history (not including the two World Wars) that we will not play an FA Cup game. We were knocked out early last season and won't play in this year's until 2014.

So that means in all your years in the football league you never managed to win 2 successive games in the cup!? We've certainly been spoilt in recent years in the cup with victories over Newcastle and Reading away and taking Spurs to a replay (and taking the lead) at WHL, it's the highlight of the season for me - although the chance of being drawn to a village team is part of the big appeal and has provided some of the most memorable away days to date.

Your result will be the first I look out for this season - even more so if you take Marcus Haber off of us as is rumoured. I rate him but he was just left isolated up front in 80% (probably more) of our games so he will look a poor signing on paper.

After seeing your lot comfortably see us off towards the end of this season, your squad reminded me of how ours looked last season when we made the playoffs. A squad not necessarily full of talent, but full of very determined individuals willing to give everything for each other member of the squad. Had we gone into the playoffs with the same mentality you did, I believe we'd have gone up playing in a very similar way to yourselves so I'm keen to see how it might have panned out/will pan out in the future if Graham Westley can recreate another determined team.

Edited by Boydie88 on Monday 24th June 16:52