JoeLatics

 

 

 

1) There is no way there were 7,409 in that ground yesterday. I'd be surprised if there were 5,500. We should add our nn attending season ticket holders on to our attndeances. Would add upto 500 a game. Huddersfield did it a couple of years ago and at times it added something like 2,000 on to the actual figure.

 

2) Called the offside straightaway yesterday simply because of the keepers position. The only question is did the ball go sideways or backwards. If it did then the goal should have stood. From behind the goal my initial take was that it went forward. Will be interesting to see the highlights on player later this afternoon.

Direction of the ball is Irrelevent, only the position of the receiving player in relation to it when kicked.

Crazy to try to say from that angle. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the guy who is literally paid to be able to see close offsides, and who was in the best position in the entire stadium to see it from was probably right ;-)

Just me who reckons Greg Rutherford could win gold at Rick Astley lookalike contests as well, then? ;)

Why did Vernon celebrate by running over to the car park?

What do I expect? If you're asking do I expect us to be challenging for promotion then no, do I hell as like. We hardly climbed Everest to get to Anfield, did we? What centre-half are we talking about? Diamond? Tarky kept him out of the side. M'voto? He's had a distinctly average season. Most would agree. Look at our brightest spell of this season, and think back to Preston and Carlisle.

 

At the moment we're missing Wesowlowski and he is the only other I'd consider key, maybe (maybe) barring Reid. Dickov has still been unable to do anything beyond his tired excuses.

 

I like the man, but some seem to think he's the Messiah, working wonders and turning whatever he touches to gold. My gripe is the performances and the fight. Look at Chesterfield - scrapping. Are we showing fight, spirit? I'd say no to be honest. That's nowt to do with squad health, that's about attitude.

Sorry, I meant centre mids, but the point stands. You say you didn't expect promotion, so what did you expect? Except for the last few weeks, we've been solidly mid table. If you've actually had a glance at the table recently, you'll notice that there's only 3 points between us and 13th, and only 6 between us and a top 10 finish. The league is congested as hell, and there's no meaningful difference between us and that expected mid table finish. If at the start of the season you'd offered a trip to Anfield, getting through to the regional final of the JPT, and being 2 wins from top 10, I'd have bitten your hand off.

I'd never sing or shout some of the abuse that some of our supporters have done in the past, but frustrations boil over and if it doesn't suit those post on here they look down on others for voicing their opinion. It's best coming from those who moan about this and that yet would never say anything to the players' or Dickov's face.

 

Anyway, the result. Not good enough and if we're dancing with joy about a last-minute equaliser coming from the penalty spot against a side who were battered 4-0 (and I listened to the match after we lost to Wednesday and I've never heard commentators sound so depressed) then we really have become a nothing club.

 

Look at the bottom ten sides, nine excluding us. Who have we lost to? Six of them. We've drawn two and got so lucky when Walsall missed a penalty.

 

Now I'll buy our injury crisis because, yes it's been cruel, it's been horrible, but for me it has rendered us incapable of matching those in the top eight. It hasn't crippled us to the point where we put in the sort of performances that has actually embarrassed me. Look at Orient - they're incredibly poor, yet amongst their recent losses, some of them heavy, they took an easy 1-0 at Boundary Park.

 

Is that acceptable? Can we blame the injuries? Can we blame cruel luck for the losses of late? I don't mean losing to Charlton and Wednesday, but Orient, Yeovil, Scunthorpe, and so nearly this afternoon?

 

I don't condone barracking players in the manner some fans do, but when will some take of the blinders? Paul Dickov has damaged his reputation, and for me this season has been a total flop. Cup runs aside, what has been achieved? Blame injuries all we like, but I saw us lose to the likes of Colchester and Tranmere at the beginning of the season and we were woeful. We were as bad at Brentford as we were then, and if Dickov is a man who can only work with his four or five best players I worry.

 

Alas, no doubt I'm a miserable fan who doesn't understand our position, both short-term and long-term.

What do you actually expect? What on earth could we have achieved? Dickov is a miracle worker, some of the players he's signed on his budget are incredible - Simpson, Kuqi etc. The bloke's got us to Anfield, and to within a defensive cock up and a missed penalty of Wembley, on top of which we've survived without even worrying about it (excluding the last few games).

I don't care how good a manager you are, without key players you're gonna struggle - that's why they're called key players! We went several weeks without any first choice centre halfs, the best keeper I've seen in a Latics shirt since Pogs has been out for a few weeks now, without having such bad luck with injuries and suspensions we'd be top half without a shadow of a doubt.

A few years ago we were away at Doncaster at Belle Vue and their player's shot was going in when another attacker decided to get the goal himself by tapping it on the goalline with no one around him. Needless to say, offside and no goal.

 

The offside today was bloody schoolboy though!

And not even in the Alan Hansen sense of the word, I referee youth football and had one like that a few weeks ago... even at U14 manager was livid!!

They can hardly blame officials when they were being so stupid themselves; the offside off the corner (the corner taker passed it to a teammate, who promptly passed it back to him whilst he was still on the goal line... offside!) was the stupidest bit of play I think I've ever seen in the professional game!

We're 3 points off 10th... We are capable of achieving top half at least.

Massive shame about injuries and so on, we could have got at least 9 or 10 points out of the last 4 games at full strength IMHO, which would have put us right in contention for play-offs.

i prefer the one on a monday night late kick off? concentrates on teams in your area but it will be about how utd let themselves down rather than how well we played bloody annoying

May be wrong, but I think there's a separate show for Yorksher, so should be focused on us!

Surely Tarkys long range effort was one of the highlights in a turgid game?

Just saw that on LP, don't understand why M'Voto's 'shot' was on the Beeb but that wasn't!

Mike Keegan @mikekeeganmen

Last thing I'll say pre-announcement is that 'dramatic' might be over-egging the pudding somewhat. But it's good news #oafc

Games against Walsall, Huddersfield and Oldham (sure its the same with yous with Tranmere) just dont appeal to me as much anymore. I even think a relegation to league 2 wouldnt be that bad just so that i ca visit a few new grounds and play new teams. Oh an we have the same problems, maybe not on the same scale as Boundary Park but out main stand costs £500,000 a year just to keep safe and renevated. Bad times for both.

Sorry, accidentally hit the little red button on your post! I think being relegated and then promoted again would be good for us... just depends on if we could actually get the promotion from L2!

Attendance on Saturday was 3 times bigger than this one. How are we supposed to compete?!

A shoulder charge is fair unless it is done in a careless, reckless or excessively forceful manner. The referee may blow for a foul if the arms are out, use of elbow becomes a push or a hold and both feet are off the ground. A shoulder charge should not be committed in such a way that there is an unnatural step towards the opponent, and no intention to win the ball.

Sounds about right, but where's that from? There's no specific reference to the 'shoulder charge' in the LotG (not this year's at least).

Depends whether you think the shoulder charge was careless or not. It's an offence to charge an opponent carelessly, recklessly or with excessive force.

Can see why the pen was given, although it was a little soft. 2 great goals for us, Shefki's miss not half as bad as I'd thought to be honest!

The team has gone into a serious decline since Liverpool.

The loss to chesterfield was a massive kick in the teeth,corney probably is still having nightmares about the revenue that went down the bog after that loss.

The team is carrying individuals going thru the motions,the team is containing platers like mvoto who should have a red cross instead of a number,an accident waiting to happen everytime he touches the ball.

The manager is tactically disasterous.

I could go on,however...

We are going to be in a fight for survival this season,that much is obvious.

At the end of the season id get rid of PD,sorry,ive seen enough to realise we are going to nowhere under him.

His tactics,and substituions a times are shocking.

We are 9 points clear of 21st with 4 games in hand.

We are 14 points away from 5th with 2 in hand.

We have a budget of pretty much nil.

Dickov could well turn out to be the best manager since Royle.

80 minutes of non stop singing today - best atmosphere at BP I can remember for ages! Don't let the disappointing result kill this idea - it worked if the plan was to stop the place sounding like a library.

Gutted! Gotta say, Shez played it brilliantly - every time Simpson was within 30 yards, they'd foul him! (Actually, whenever anyone was within 30 yards!) Just played a very niggly game - clearly came set up for the 0-0, and pure chance gave them the goal to settle it!

They're a poor team with a manager who is getting very good! He never had a Plan B when he was with us,clearly got a few tricks up his sleeve now!

If we win it, it'll be the only piece of silverware that I've ever seen in the hands of a Latics captain. Mock it all you want, it'll be the best some of us have ever had as Latics fans!

I agree it wasn't a red card but if you're going to criticise Lester for going down cheaply, then take a look at how easily 'strong as an ox' Shefki gets spun around when his arm is grabbed. This has always been part of the game and we're not likely see any change in the future.

 

I also believe that their penalty was the correct decision. Although Tarkowski gets a decent toe on the ball, as it ricochets back off the on running Lester he inexplicably raises his foot, clipping Lester's leg in the process. I'm sure that on reflection, Tarkowski will wish that he'd put the same tackle in 10 yards further up the pitch, rather than backing off into the penalty area.

 

Simmo can really :censored: 'em though can't he?!

There's a difference between going down from a foul and going down under a nothing challenge!

Pen would have had to have been a 'careless' tackle - that is that he 'showed a lack of attention or consideration when making the challenge'. Never in a million years was that a pen, for me.

Barry i would seriously have a word with yourself, you should have been down there with a gas heater and covered every blade of grass, otherwise you personally have put a lot of people out if it moves to wednesday and i hope you are proud?

Got to be the £34 seats behind the goal, for me! Can't beat those seats IMHO!

If we did finish 5th you would never have to work again with the odds we probably have

Sorry, I meant to +1 that, but my finger slipped!

Don't know if a mod can fix it?