nzlatic

The Evans situation was shocking for fan relations I agree. But the rest is very subjective.

Talks of the team having a good shape and players knowing what they're doing. I normally don't like to read too much into what people have said in interviews but that was quite interesting. Also steered clear of the attacking football promise minefield by saying he'd like us to be creative but the starting point is getting good results.

With a "name" now in charge is there a chance of getting one of our league games on sky? How long since that last happened?

Instead of meet the manager , can we just have a meet the board night? With everything that's happened I think it's necessary to start building bridges.

Summed up quite succintly by a mate of mine... "Very sad experiment "

"All current coaching staff will remain in their respective roles" Doesn't sound like Holden moving into the hotseat.

Latics 1-1 Peterborough (HT 1-0) Stan 3768

Is the management duo being lined up Sven Goran Eriksson and Sol Campbell?

We've been defensively quite solid mainly. Only 1 defeat in the league. We've had good spells of attacking football (eg Walsall away, Bury away) We're missing key striker and Liam Kelly (we saw what him being out did to last season) - granted these are excuses more than positives but I believe they're worth taking into consideration. The signings under his management have been good mainly. Whether people want to give him credit for that or not, it's happened. Kept all our best players this summer (if he was terrible to work for then someone's agent would have engineered something) I honestly think that because of who he is (or isn't) he's been given no time and no opportunity to learn on the job. And that a bigger 'name' would have been even if we played the same way and were in exactly the same position as we are now.

Ha, probably not the best choice of word! I'll go for orchestrating instead.

Really like this. When Liam Kelly is back, having him winning the ball and Dunn picking it up and running the attacks could work great.

What are the rules on this? I thought it was 30 secs per sub and per card. 5 subs and 2 yellows. Plus the constant time wasting. How he let them get away with some of their tactics too was baffling. A lot of them play football more with their arms than their feet.

My beef isn't with the fans directly, it's with the board. Kelly was never going to be given the time a more recognised appointment would have had and they should have known that. I wouldn't have gone with scholes either by the way, I wanted an experienced motivator (Dowie) in as soon as Johnson went. I was very uneasy about the Kelly appointment. I was nervous about his ability to do the job, but more than that the mood among the fans was pretty delicate, patience was being tested, and it wouldn't take much for things to turn sour. 1 league defeat and that's pretty much happened.

They've supposedly been actively looking to sell for years. There's a sales video in production too isn't there?

My point was that you can make stats fit any agenda. It's not fair to tar Kelly with last season's brush. It has absolutely nothing to do with him. If Paul Scholes was the manager and we had exactly the same record, teams, tactics etc then there would definitely not be a 10 page thread about getting rid of him after 6 games. That's why for me, as I've said before, we may as well let him go. 6 games in, 1 defeat, and a clamour for his sacking. It's basically promotion this season for him or bust as far as a lot of fans are concerned.

That's not true though is it? A true stat is its been 6 league games, 1 defeat and only 5 goals conceded. Stats don't tell the full story.

I think Corney really misjudged the situation when Johnson left. A roll of the dice on someone more established who might have developed a bit of a siege mentality was the way to go. Link their salary to points/wins/goals, anything like that really to minimise exposure. We weren't going to get relegated but we might have stayed around the play offs. If it didn't work then go long term with a Kelly-type appointment in the summer. With the stand progressing too that probably would have galvanised the fans as well.

I think we're best off letting him go. Solely because the guy never stood a chance. He's neither a salesman or a "name" so he was never going to be allowed time or mistakes. Unless he gets us into the top 6 immediately and keeps us there scoring 2/3 goals a game I can't see how he'd ever be accepted. Went today and yes that first half was dreadful and there are a few things I'd question, but the fact that we played 2/3rds of the game a man down (and drew that hour) doesn't seem to count for much. I feel for him as he was clearly gutted in his post match interview and seems like a good bloke. He may even go on to have a good managerial career, but he's not the right fit for us now. Through little fault of his own really.

Oldham 1-2 (HT 0-1) Forte 6205

They may have just been told that they aren't starting at the moment so why not go out on loan and get some game time, play well, prove us wrong. Worked out pretty well for Connor Brown.

If you're only going to get excited about winning trophies at that level then you're probably following the wrong team!

But the point I was making was that the chances were created and missed. Good chances too. So the lack of goals in that game weren't due to defensive tactics, just bad finishing.

I want us to win every game. I hate losing. And a by product of that is wanting us to win the JPT. The way you've phrased that suggests anyone happy about winning the JPT would have fulfilled their life goals. I'd be happy about it as it might generate a winning atmosphere around the place and lead to us finally getting out of this division. Plus I'd have a great day on the piss watching it. But no, we were once founding members of the premier league don't you know, this sort of thing is beneath us.

Totally agree. It's almost as if the knives were being sharpened just waiting for an excuse to stick them in. One bad JPT game and all the positives from the league games are forgotten.

Did you go to Bury? I didn't personally, but what you (and others to be fair) are saying there contradicts the reports of the Bury game where by all accounts (and off the highlights) with better finishing we could have scored 4 or 5.