Worcester Owl

You/BBC Surrey highlighted something there that's been bugging me for a while. I think the two players mentioned were Hogan (1 goal all season) and Garner. I know the main responsibility lies with the strikers, but our defenders have contributed that 1 league goal all season and the midfield have come up with about 13 I think, but 11 of those are from Sheron (6) and Dickenson (5, now out on loan). I don't know if that's down to tactics, playing style or ability (lack of) but it's a poor return and surely more players should be contributing.

That is genuinely quite funny, I’ll give you that one

Nooooo, you're getting deeper into @deyres42 territory!! Don't go there! Come back!

Well, all except @deyres42maybe. Though on second thoughts he'll probably tell us he always knew we'd go up.

You say "fucking Bromley" as if we are still a league team and should thrash them, but we're not - like it or not we're non league just like them. They finished 7th last season and got to the play-off semi-finals, only losing 3-2 in extra time to Chesterfield. This season they've been top 3 for quite a while. Maybe the performance was disappointing last night, but a 0-0 against a promotion contender isn't the end of the world.

No, preposterous observation. Your earlier post indicates that we are going nowhere. MM out. He's had "plenty of time" to sort this, we should be on our 3rd or 4th manager of the season by now.

10th in the table on New Year's Eve, 5th in the table now. Keep digging.

Bear with it.

I think what we really need ahead of kick-off tonight is for @Lee Sinnott to come on and predict a heavy home defeat against a Bromley team that reminds him of Barcelona in their tiki taka heyday.

Maybe good owners looking for long-term stability?!

Anyone know what the attendance was today?

A sobering thought. Re your earlier post, your opinion counts for rather more than bugger all. It's a much needed objective view, especially as regards this particular thread!!!

4-1 now, remarkable. Chesterfield are comeback experts but this will take some rescuing.

How much of transfer fees do agents swallow up? I'd also like to see the typical average transfer fees paid by PL and Championship clubs to L1/L2/NL clubs - when they are not poaching the latter's youth players, that is.

I'm not sure geography is ultimately all that relevant except in the inescapable fact that professional football clubs are clustered in some parts of the country, like the north west obviously, and less so in others like Devon and Cornwall, East Anglia, Hereford and Worcs for example. My point was rather that the dice are more stacked than ever against lower league and non league clubs when compared to the wealthy elite. When a Bury FC or (hopefully not) Rochdale FC bites the dust while PL clubs pay vastly inflated transfer fees for one footed players, the game is not in a good place.

Amazing story, you couldn't make it up, could you. I know there has always been a big financial gap between the clubs at the top of the pyramid and those at the bottom, but when you read about things like this, regardless of blame, and then think about the budgets of PL clubs it really is a bit sad.

You're digging a hole, @mcfluff1985. As others have said, just ignore @BP1960 if he's annoying you that much. He's fully entitled to give his views on Latics/football in general, he's blocked you, so I really don't see the point in continually having a go at him as you keep doing. Life's too short.

I upvoted that with sincere thanks - on my one and only appearance I got a big fat zero!!!

I take nothing away from what Sinfield has been doing, a magnificent series of achievements. Two wrongs don't make a right.

I assume you mean how bad football could be. Players are human and so can make mistakes. Let's face it, how that guy called Pele could have missed with his shot from inside his own half in the 1970 World Cup beggars belief, what was wrong with him? Clearly Beckham was a far better player . As for George Best, I doubt he would have made the current Latics squad.

I guess I and all of us can't help being biased given what Frank and his family have done for our club, but surely if gongs mean anything in this day and age he deserves a knighthood for what he's done for Alzheimer's fundraising.

Thinking about it, this could be the answer - time travel. I wonder if we could get some links back to fixtures for the 1990/91 season......

Yes! Essential. In tribute to the Great Red Fleece himself

Come on L1F, that's a worryingly sensible, calm and rational post for this thread. What on earth are you thinking?!

Good posts above and good analysis by @nzlatic. I still think we’ll make the play-offs and then I’m pinning my hopes on the fact that our results against teams at/near the top are generally better than against teams down at the bottom (I think - someone will correct me if that’s wrong). I’m half joking when I say that maybe we do need to finish 6th/7th and get away play-off matches as there is clearly some kind of collective psychological barrier for the team at Boundary Park. I’m even starting to wonder if we need to hire a shrink, though they seem more common in individual sports like tennis and golf. At the moment, I’d say, sticking my neck out, we will stuff up the play-offs this season and have a better chance of promotion next season, with some of the dead wood cleared out and hopefully better recruitment over the summer. I firmly believe we should stick with MM.