nzlatic

I don't normally go in for conspiracy theories, but here's one... Corney was perfectly happy to not get promoted this year, hence the Holden til the end of the season option and despite all the talk otherwise, too many of the players looking pretty disinterested. If the income for the new stand doesn't kick in til 2016/17 then we'd almost certainly come straight back down if we went up this season. Maybe the ideal situation is to consolidate this season, then get a new manager in the summer, have a promotion push in a still average looking league, steady crowd increases and then Championship in 2016/17 when we might have a fighting chance with increased income? That's probably much more in hope than expectation though!

We controlled the game in the middle 3rd of the pitch. We were totally ineffective in the final 3rd and didn't really look like scoring. And we were very shaky in our defensive 3rd, they could have scored more. We tried to pass it through the middle when they had 9 behind the ball and got nowhere. Brown saw a lot of the ball in space on the right but almost always came back inside with a short pass. Not blaming the lad - he had no options outside. There was little movement up front. I hope the subs were precautionary for injury reasons because I've no idea how Wilkinson stayed on. He looked totally disinterested, every run or challenge just looked like he was going through the motions. He may play well in the big games but in the 2 I've seen (Yeovil and Crawley) he's been pretty poor. He was very lucky to get away with giving the ref the :censored: sign at Yeovil. Positives - Jones always wanted to get involved, so did Winchester, and Kelly did well to say he's been out for a while. But most of the others played like they had one eye on Ibiza. Wishlist - McLeod. Would love a striker like that. Dominated our defence, always looking to get involved, constant threat.

Crawley 1-1 Latics (HT 0-0) Jones 2680

It feels like 1994 all over again. Devastated. Well played and good luck to the finalists.

Latics 1-2 bristol City (HT 0-1) Jones 4308

Yep, I fled that remote paradise a few years ago. I don't fancy changing my username though, as much as I like the lad I don't want to people to think I'm committing myself to Barnsley's player of the year 2016.

I was hoping reading this thread would help me decide where to send my vote. Not been much help, but interesting reading! It'd be nice if politics was about confident leaders with solid policies and clear explanation about how the country would benefit, rather than seemingly being about trying to be the least :censored: option to the highest number of people. A comical spoil is looking the most appealing option by far.

This is the key for me. Percentage of black players is irrelevant when comparing to number of managers. The percentage of qualified black coaches is the important stat. Why this rarely gets talked about when the racism card is played is beyond me.

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the favourites tag. It's my first season and I'm spreading myself thin battling on 2 fronts.

Money? Bigger crowds?

Bradford 1-1 (ht 0-1) Wilkinson 14088

Skilfully avoided the valid point Clifford made there about the defender's body weight in your picture and the next frame on the video.

I think you're wrong but I admire your persistence! From Turner in the Chron... “Winch (Carl Winchester) ran on the outside, which made the defender’s mind up. He gave me a yard and I went for it,” I think that's fair enough.

Didn't he have some barnstorming loan games? Was dead excited when we signed him then he was garbage.

By that score Maradona wouldn't have scored THAT goal against us in 86 (or the majority of his goals) as the statistically correct thing to do would probably be a pass at some point. If it was a CB dribbling out of our area at 0-0 that eventually lead to us scoring then you might have a point, but a young striker in the box when we're 2-0 up having a dribble himself is fair enough. If every footballer based their choices on statistical probability it'd be a fooking boring game to watch. And besides, it does look on the vid like the defender shapes to block the pass to Winchester which could have made it not as easy as you're making out to pass to him.

I'd much rather watch players that use instinct and individual skill rather than ones that play the percentages. If you've got the ability and the confidence then go for it. Which he did. And scored. Let players with less ability have the instinct coached out of them.

What about if any of the teams that finished 7th had 51 points after 38 games? I'm determined to seed a stat that keeps the dream alive!! Actually, just looked myself and last year Sheffield Utd were on 51 points after 38 games and finished 7th with 67 points and a +2 goal difference. It's on!

Totally agree. But looking at the table from this day last year it's quite similar. Top 5 look sorted, lot of congestion down to 11th. If we needed 68 points for the playoffs like last year that makes it a little bit more achievable... 1 Wolves 38 83 2 Brentford 37 79 3 Leyton O 39 76 4 Rotherham 38 72 5 Preston 39 72 6 Peterboro 38 58 7 MK Dons 39 55 8 Swindon 39 54 9 Walsall 39 53 10 Sheff Utd 37 51 11 Port Vale 38 50 Got that info from here... http://www.footstats.co.uk/index.cfm?task=Leagues

6 times in this list 71 points has been good enough to get you in the play offs. Tough ask but not impossible if that was the case this year. Which, given the number of teams still in with a chance, could happen.

Last year: 6th Peterborough: 74pts +14 7th Sheff United: 67pts +2

It's hard to tell, he must have had an impact but then there's also Gerrard coming in to the defence and a more settled side in general, plus Sadler, Woodland getting more game time under their belts. If he goes unbeaten til the end of the season playing a decent standard of football then I think he'd have earned a proper crack at it. I'm not sure what his contacts are mind, but with the right experienced assistant it could work. Presuming TP goes back to the youths as he normally does.

Looking at their run in I'd say Peterborough should get the last spot. We'll struggle to pick up 2 more points than them before the last day. Still think we're in with a good shout of 7th/8th but would take a very impressive run in.

From this point on last year we got 14 points. Same again might get us close if other teams keep dropping points like has been happening all season. I'm not dreaming yet, but a win at Bradford would raise hopes again!

Latics 1-1 Rochdale (HT 1-1) Turner 4581

Largely the same set of players? I'd guess our back 4 when we were doing well rarely changed from Wilson, Elokobi, Wilson and Mills with Kelly in front of them. How many other teams around us could maintain a play off push after losing most of their back 5 outfield players for large parts of the season? And then there's the manager :censored:ing off.