nzlatic

My take is that Tarky wanted to go and we accepted the highest bid for him. None of us know what that bid was. What other option was there really? Force him to stay on less money than he can get elsewhere? Everyone on that pitch needs to want to be here. The way some people are talking Tarky was clinging on to the front door by his fingertips whilst Corney forced him out, simultaneously refusing to take phone calls from Championship sides offering a million quid.

4 goals from midfield today.

There are probably a few pre-written posts being deleted right about now. Amazing result and good to see subs, formation changes and half time team talks making a difference. Hopefully we can take that belief on to the next game.

Each to their own. I still get a pre kick off buzz whenever I go (which isn't all that often). That usually gets replaced by icey-toed depression by 4.45 though. Then every now and then you get a moment that makes it all worth while.

Dickov?!

I would say there is something wrong with that. Being an Oldham supporter does feel like more of a punishment at times and there are many reasons people have for not going - but "because it's not entertaining enough" isn't a valid one in my opinion.

Do we need to sell? The club should be run within its means so don't need to sell to pay the bills. 18 months left on the contract. He won't have a min fee clause. And corney is within his rights to tell LJ he's got a good and big enough squad to work with already. So we should be in a position of power for a change. unless we get an offer we can't refuse let's hang on to him.

Never really understood that about non leaguers. You can only be a pro at a young age, and you've got the rest of your life to do a normal day job. I suppose if they have young families they need every penny they can get, but pro footballers wages are still pretty decent even at our level.

Seem to remember david eyres being pretty solid

There are a lot of spleens getting vented on here but with little in the way of solutions to end the current slump being put forward. So my question is, what specifically would you change if you could? New player? Who? New manager? Who? New experienced assistant? Who? New tactics? What? I'll kick off by saying I'd get a new striker in and it'd be Lee Gregory. It's a gamble going non league but to get a good goals/game ratio from any higher would probably be out of our range. I'm sure we could do some wheeling and dealing to get the fee together.

I guess you'd have Wes in the holding role and Smith, Harkins, Dayton/Petrasso/Worral across the midfield 3. Philliskirk up front with Rooney or MacDonald. Would be a lot of covering work for Smith and the other midfielder if Harkins has free licence though. Worth a try at home I reckon.

Agree. Wouldn't have thought anyone was positive about that.

I agree about expectations of fans. That pen was well struck and he could probably hit it exactly the same 9 more times and score each time irrespective of which way the keeper goes. Saying that, I'm sure he has the ability to put a pen wherever he wants. He may have well done in the past, but form and pressure probably made him revert to default.

What I don't get about posts such as these is what are you wanting to happen? Other than the obvious - scoring/winning more. I can see why articles pop up hinting that some fans want Johnson out because although unhappy with results in general they put forward the view that there are enough positives to not worry too much and be optimistic it'll turn around soon enough. What's the other side of the argument? Presumably that there aren't enough positives to suggest a turnaround? If that's the case it's not unreasonable for people to conclude that those who think that way want a change of manager. Or a change of something anyway.

Putting my pedantic hat on, he still guessed. An educated guess, but still a guess! Saying that, any penalty taker worth their salt should be able to put a pen wherever they want. Always remember Shearer being good at that, a pen of his could have gone in any of the 4 corners or smashed down the middle. Lampard gives me the :censored:s when he takes a pen for England - Classic penno one trick pony.

They all did one or the other. Didn't work, they left. Not sure what point you're making, all I'm saying is although I'm not happy with our current position, we're about where I expected us to be in his first season. Loads of money is the only short term way to promotion. We don't have that and we won't get it from attendances. So for me we have to build over a few seasons. I'm willing to accept that as long as we do improve each season. I reckon (hope) this is the start of something. It feels a bit different somehow to Shez and Dickov.

That's the only thing you said there that makes sense. I'd be surprised if anyone disagreed with you - if we're still in this position in 3 years he probably will go. Fair enough. The only way to get out of this league is either with a :censored: load of money or by building a solid foundation and sticking to a long term plan. And only one of those is possible for us. Unless you have another masterplan?

The question was about expectations. I'm not happy where we are. I preferred it when we were winning promotions and getting to cup finals. But we have the 19th biggest attendance in league one so expectations are a bit more realistic.

When we appointed him, not a clue where we'd be by now! But by the end of last season I expected us to be hovering around middle of the bottom half of the league at this point, with a run to a top 12 finish by the end of the season. Still stick by that. Next year - a solid season in the top 10, play off challengers by end.

Would be good to have a settled back 4 playing every week.

Where I see a difference, although I could be massively wrong about Dickov, is that Dickov seemed to come in, get them playing good football with confidence which worked for a few months. Then things got tougher, injuries suspensions etc and the back up players weren't up to it. It was almost like his skills were in finding an attractive style but mainly motivating the players in a more superficial way. The way LJ talks about stats, analysis, pyscology, getting all teams to play the same way and all the other details that have been raised suggests he's more about a long term strategy so that when we do get injuries/suspensions we have reserve/youth team players who can step in and know the roles required. This doesn't lend itself to a short term spike in performance (like we had with Dickov), but we should hopefully start seeing the benefit next season if not sooner. That's my hope anyway! Always the optimist.

Fair play to the lad. Shame for him he came up against a colossus of a keeper!

I wouldn't have been arsed if it was sang after the game. I wouldn't have joined in but there's no harm in it. Clap him off the pitch too if subbed but no need to cheer him while the game is going on. What's that watmore doing now? I know Sunderland signed him for their academy but is he out on loan anywhere?

Thanks for taking the time to write up. Some very interesting things there, such as how we tried to sign both Gardner and Whatmore - there must be plenty of others we go for too that we as fans never hear about. Also interesting was the Baxter chant thing. I wasn't that impressed with it at the time, wondering what players/management would feel about fans signing the song for an opposition player? Much like clapping Gerrard taking a corner in a way. It's a possible tiny negative thought in our players' heads that isn't needed. And it sounds like a lot of effort goes in to stats and stat analysis - by simply flagging up how many goals players are responsible for could lead to competition and extra desire to not be top of that list!

I'd say you've nailed it barring injuries. Looks a good side too.