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I said something similar at the the time the takeover was officially announced as completed. I said it’d be nice to hear what his plans or vision was but was told by a ?trust rep that I should be happy that the club has been taken over and there is a bright new future etc. Without any details.

It was just a genuine question. Obviously it was a different technological world in the early 80s but I wondered if fans at the time were happy/unhappy with Joe but it wasn’t as well documented or were people more patient and willing to give him a chance bearing in mind Jimmy Frizzell had just been in charge for 12 years.

I was born not long before Big Joe was appointed so I’m not old enough to appreciate what the fans’ feelings were towards him in the early days. Obviously this predated Internet forums. I guess the only platforms for debate were the pub, work or letters to the chron. I wonder if people genuinely questioned Big Joe in the early years but it wasn’t as well publicised?

Not wanting to divert the thread but Hurst has done well at Shrewsbury with his recruitment, he’s signed a lot of players from league two and conference level that have slotted in and done a job. He’s also down well in th loan market. I don’t know what sort of budget we are likely to have under AL as only a handful of people know what his plans are. But it’s worth considering that Shrewsbury did have a top ten budget until recently, certainly before Hurst took over hence why their fans were underwhelmed with the annual relegation battles. Hopefully Richie will get a chance in pre-season (after keeping us in league one) but I remain to be convinced that he’ll take us forward despite wanting him to be a success.

I’m in the willing to give him a go next season but wouldn’t be sad to see him go either camp. He had a good honeymoon period and a good run up until November. Nine games ago, Plymouth game? I thought we were in deep shit but he’s managed to grind out a few results since then. The injuries, poor training facilities, shit storms, issues recruiting players and poor playing surface are all something his predecessors have had to contend with. They’re an occupational hazard at BP.

Oxford still have a couple of wins to grind out from a tricky sequence of games. The Peterborough victory apart, they’ve been on an awful run. Walsall too have been on an awful run.

I must admit that Dale were one of the teams I predicted to drop alongside Northampton, the franchise and Bury. They’ve given themselves a very good shot at survival considering they’d only won 4 of their first 30 fixtures. Let’s not forget we’ve picked up 14 from our last 8 compared to their 15 from 8. So we’re in decent form ourselves despite the 3 poor performances in that run. It makes a change going to dale with something at stake.

Thought it was. We haven’t won there since 2001, a last gasp David Eyres freekick clinched a 1-0 win at the Manor Ground. Although last season was the first time we’ve played them in the league for 15 years.

Was that the game that we took an early lead in and then proceeded to park the bus? Although Robinson was in charge so I think we parked the bus at kickoff. Oxford battered us from then onwards IIRC. We beat them at BP at this point last season though.

Absolutely, he’s becoming a bit of a relegation escape guru. Yet give him a budget and a pre-season and he struggles.

Looks like Fleetwood are safe now, had a feeling Shez would galvanize them and keep them up. Fair play to him.

Disappointing result but the franchise have got Blackburn and Wigan next. We desperately need a win against Blackpool on Monday. Anything at Wigan is a bonus.

You’re entering mickjagger territory here lol

Wasn’t LJ handed Dickov’s old Latics jacket upon appointment? They put a piece of gaffer tape over Dickov’s initials if I remember correctly.

I’d say out of that list Talbot definitely had at least the second highest budget, although as I’ve said it was tied up on overpaid deadwood. We were told at the hugely attended fans meeting in summer 2005 (when they opened up the rocky road end and had a stage on the pitch) that Ronnie would be given a larger budget if we were prepared to pay more for season tickets. I remember having a bit of a buzz after that forum as I thought we’d have another genuine crack at promotion (I know we did under shez the season after) but we gave up after that. Didn’t think 13yrs later we’d still be limping along in league one.

I’d forgotten about that midweek thumping but yes he was sacked, left by mutual consent whatever after that shambles. We lost against a Delroy Facey inspired Huddersfield in the next game under TP as caretaker with Ronnie watching from the stands. I remember Talbot coming out with some bizarre comments near the end of his reign like maybe it’d have better if we’d have been relegated as he’d have had a clean slate to work with. But we would still have been saddled with high earning deadwood from the Moore era.

Talbot did have a decent budget, admittedly a lot of it was tied up on flops from the Moore era, Killen, Appleby etc. I’m pretty sure Corney said we had a large wage bill at the time when Talbot walked having said he couldn’t turn it around.

Seven of their ten remaining games are at home too. Not that it means much at the moment as their home form has been dire cup games aside.

Good set of results for us today. Northampton have a double header against playoff contenders Charlton and Peterborough over Easter. The franchise have got a trip to Gillingham followed by Wigan at home.

I expected him to turn it around to be honest. The current bottom four are who I predicted to drop a few weeks back.

I wonder if DK was aware of his budget before he drew up that target list. As has been mentioned above, many of those players went on to feature for their parent clubs or moved on to bigger clubs so we didn’t really have much of a chance of signing them for the peanuts we were probably offering. It’s at odds with what we’ve been told as it was rumoured that the board had to step in and sign players as the new season was nearing as DK didn’t have the contacts in the game that he led the club to believe. He should never have been put in that position in the first place and it’s a shame that the doubters in the club hierarchy didn’t speak up loudly at the time before he was offered the job.

Looks like it’s curtains for Bury now, if it wasn’t already. They’re away at the franchise on Saturday so I hope they keep battling on. Never had the lashers down as relegation fodder, I think it’s Oxford who look in trouble.

Hopefully Abdallah won’t be as naive, misguided or as desperate to cash in on sell on clauses as his predecessor. The club have missed out big time so far on Tarky.

Think he’s out of contract in the summer too.

Don’t think electronic perimeter advertising hoardings will be appearing at Seel Park anytime soon.