A look ahead - February 2015

Derby (+25 GD) - Away
Fulham (-7) - Home
Watford (+25) - Home
This is one long week, Feb 7 - 14th

Nottingham Forest (-2) - Away
Middlesbrough (+24) - Away
Brighton (-5) - Home
This is another long week, Feb 21-28)

This does not look at first glance as a very fruitful month.  With all the injuries, playing 3 in 8 days does not bode well.  We know our 36 and 37 year old's cannot hold up playing 90 two games in a row.  Heskey may not be back until mid-February. 

How many points can we collect this month?  6, 9, 10, 11?  We may find ourselves closer to the bottom three rather than moving up on the top six.  Let's hope the new loanees have some legs that don't get injured and let's hope some of our injured get back to action soon.

I also question (like others) why we keep getting pulled hamstrings on our players.  Is it possible it is our pitch or the training grounds?  Has anyone at the club done some research to prevent these injuries and see if it is something wrong with our pitch? 

We can't be slamming NL for mistakes made when the bench has been emptied.  Next month will be a challenge and we can't afford any additional injuries or bringing players back too soon.  I only hope we keep NL for the push next season, and hope there are some new players who actually want to play for us and for NL.  I can only imagine how frustrated NL must be with all the players he wanted and what he ended up settling for.  In the meantime, I applaud him for inspiring the lads to play up to their abilities (save this past week). 

We still have the Wolves to get past in January and the replay with Liverpool.  I'm tired just thinking about all the fixtures coming up and the lack of a bench NL has to work with.

Daunting task, indeed.

The play-offs are long gone, as long as we pick up enough points to stay out of a relegation battle then we'll all be reasonably happy.

Next season I expect a promotion campaign, no excuses.

The best we can hope for there is to take points from the home games because the away games are very tough, if we can scrape a few draws from them with the players we currently have that will do me. Nat's got it pretty much bang on there I think. I'll be happy with mid table this season but next season we should be looking at automatically going up, playoffs are an absolute minimum.

I would be very happy with 14 points from the next six games.

Derby  - Away  1-1 Draw.
Fulham  - Home  Win
Watford (+25) - Home  Win
Nottingham Forest  - Away  Win
Middlesbrough  - Away  Draw
Brighton (-5) - Home  Win.


Wishful thinking but then again.........stranger things have happened.

Reebok Trotter wrote:I would be very happy with 14 points from the next six games.

Derby  - Away  1-1 Draw.
Fulham  - Home  Win
Watford (+25) - Home  Win
Nottingham Forest  - Away  Win
Middlesbrough  - Away  Draw
Brighton (-5) - Home  Win.


Wishful thinking but then again.........stranger things have happened.

I like your optimism RT. I think those results would be absolute best case scenarios. I would be well happy if it all turned out that way.

Be more than happy with winning all home games and maybe Taking a point at forest away. Cant see us getting owt at boro Or derby.

Bwfc1958 wrote: I'll be happy with mid table this season but next season we should be looking at automatically going up, playoffs are an absolute minimum.

I'm struggling to see how it would be possible to change our very average mid-table squad into a team capable of challenging for promotion, especially considering how many teams are already ahead of us and our financial position.

Put another way, how can we expect to bridge the gulf in class if we haven't got a pot to p*** in and a newly dismantled youth system?

Something seismic would have to happen in the summer.

newly dismantled youth team? Not sure i follow that one Lusty. We have introduced a lot of young players into the first team squad, which can only be good in the longterm surely?

If lennon had been picking up points for us from the start of the season we would be bang on target by now, that's with the players he inherited. Bring a few more of his own in over the summer, even if they are loans, I think we can have a real push. You know me though lusty, ever the optimist. 

Norpig wrote:newly dismantled youth team? Not sure i follow that one Lusty. We have introduced a lot of young players into the first team squad, which can only be good in the longterm surely?

Youth team looks nothing like the one Freedman built TBH.

Lennon promoted the ones that Freedman had been preparing/had already trialled plus he's added Clayton however he has sacked or sold more and replaced them with foreign loanees on a temporary basis.

If his judgement about youngsters like Youngs and older ones like Riley is correct then he is doing the right thing. But he does tend to keep faith with Eaves so I'm not totally confident he knows what he is doing and if we haven't got the quality of kids coming through and we haven't got money to throw at the problem, how do we improve the squad so we can challenge?

Until I can see the solution to this problem I'm going to try to ignore all this optimistic talk about pushing for promotion this year, next year or the year after that.

Do you mean Wilkinson instead of Eaves Wanderlust?

I think you keep confusing Eaves with Wilkinson Lusty

wanderlust wrote:

I'm struggling to see how it would be possible to change our very average mid-table squad into a team capable of challenging for promotion, especially considering how many teams are already ahead of us and our financial position.

Put another way,  how can we expect to bridge the gulf in class if we haven't got a pot to p*** in and a newly dismantled youth system?

Something seismic would have to happen in the summer.

I think you're a bit weird. Under Freedman everything was positive and we were only a game away from turning the corner despite being bottom of the league and shite. Now we've won a few games under a manager with a bit of passion and you're all negative about the future. It doesn't add up.

If everyone is fit come August, and with a couple of astute signings, this team can definitely push for promotion under Lennon.

Since Lennon took over we've taken more points than the majority of the teams above us - and that's with half the team injured and some being pensioners.

Get a grip you bellend.

Norpig wrote:I think you keep confusing Eaves with Wilkinson Lusty

Senior moment chaps

Natasha Whittam wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

I'm struggling to see how it would be possible to change our very average mid-table squad into a team capable of challenging for promotion, especially considering how many teams are already ahead of us and our financial position.

Put another way,  how can we expect to bridge the gulf in class if we haven't got a pot to p*** in and a newly dismantled youth system?

Something seismic would have to happen in the summer.

I think you're a bit weird. Under Freedman everything was positive and we were only a game away from turning the corner despite being bottom of the league and shite. Now we've won a few games under a manager with a bit of passion and you're all negative about the future. It doesn't add up.

If everyone is fit come August, and with a couple of astute signings, this team can definitely push for promotion under Lennon.

Since Lennon took over we've taken more points than the majority of the teams above us - and that's with half the team injured and some being pensioners.

Get a grip you bellend.

I appreciate it's a bit complicated for you so I'll try to explain.



Freedman did lots of work to turn round the finances and put some structural foundations in place including strengthening the youth team so we could improve without breaking the bank - however the first team took the piss out of him and consequently we were shit on the pitch.

It was inevitable that we would improve sooner or later as the players were really underperforming. That's why I was positive re Freedman - it was always going to improve regardless of whether he stayed or someone else came in - although it may have taken a while.

Then Lennon came in, confronted the prima donnas and got a response out of the first team so we started to win - or more accurately draw a lot with a few wins thrown in - much better than losing.

In order to capitalise on his initial success Lennon gambled on getting experienced (old) players in and to pay their wages, let some of Freedman's youth team go.

TBF to Lennon (and his predecessors) we've had loads of injuries so a full strength first team has been a rarity, but even with a full first X1 we are no better than average in this league.

But he's no miracle worker despite his extensive media skills so I think it's perfectly fair to ask how we get from here (mid table at best) to a team that can compete. I'm not being negative - it's a genuine question.

I would love it if we can get a full team and some quality signings but Lennon's moves on the transfer market so far have hardly been inspiring.

I had good reason to have confidence we could improve when Freedman was in charge and equally I have good reason to question this promotion nonsense now - unless there's a seismic change in our fortunes as mentioned.

If anyone is being "weird" and needs to get a grip it's the people who vacillate between extreme doom under Freedman and winning the champions league under Lennon - a bit of balance is needed.

i think you may be alone in your views on Freedman Lusty, as for Lennon and his transfer dealings what else could he have pulled out of the hat? For me he has actually given youth a chance under Dougie who just gave it lip service. Even when we had injuries Freedman was very loath to put any of the kids in.