GlossopLatic

Whether we are sick of hearing the injury excuse or not how many other squads could cope with an injury list like ours.

True but the anti Ronnie feeling was much higher than the anti shez feeling more people blamed moore than have done for shez. 2 reasons for this firstly shez has given loyal service to OAFC down the years as a player a coach and now a manager. Secondly we have a the worst casualty list since the Black Death so shez has had to chop and change his side and has had to change his plans time and time again this season and most fans can appreciate this to extent.

He does have pretty decent movement and does get into some good positions hence his goal at Port Vale which was sublime but if we are trying to get into the championship we need a player with a bit more to his game. Should be given a start on monday though IMO as we play better with 2 wingers and 2 strikers. We looked dreadful up until we started playing with a proper 4-4-2 in fact that first hour was as bad a game of football as you are likely to see from 2 professional sides.

Definately not a sending off too many men back if wolfy had rounded the keeper he would still have had alot to do as he was a good 30 yards from goal and would have had to beat atleast 3 Millwall players. Ref got it spot on

Spot on its a nice idea of the premier league sharing out right across the board but it would never happen. The whole reason why the premier league was formed was because the big 5 which at the time was Arsenal Man Utd, Liverpool Tottenham and Everton wanted a larger share of the tv revenue which was at the time shared right through all 4 divisions despite the fact that only a handful of games were shown on tv and these involved the bigger teams. The only way that this could happen was to breakaway from the Football League so they did along with 22 other clubs we were one of them.

Good to see the attitides of many on this thread lets keep going if we don't make it it won't be the end of the world but lets give the play offs a damn good go If we have given it a damn good go and have missed out narrowly I won't be hugely disappointed If we can give the excuse of injuries and inexperience then fair enough atleast it won't be through a lack of effort.

To be fair OAFC0000 he is someone who turns up pretty regularly by all accounts having a pop at people on here is the wrong place as the people that use this site are the ones who go regularly and as often as possible. While I appreciate that like you I look around BP and feel a little miffed at the empty seats, what do we do when the good times roll around again (and despite what a few say on here they will at some point) and we are in the championship in a nice new stadium with a 10000 average. Do we turn the thousands of extra people away on the grounds that they weren't their to see us get beat 1-0 against Hartlepool back on 04/03/08. Sadly the reality is that these are the market forces that a football club has to deal with the better we are doing the more fans we attract the worse we do the less we attract its always been like that for every football club in the world and always will be whether we like it or not am sure TTA as shrewd business people are well aware of this before they took on the mantle of being Gaurdians of OAFC.

While I can step back and look at the bigger picture and see that overall this is a young team and things I think are going in the right direction. You cannot slag people off for giving up a day spending a fair wedge of the wages going to watch their team aiming at the play offs and get tonked by a team who are already doomed to relegation in march and have not won in 15 and then being a little off about it. If you are honestly expecting people not to moan about that it must be you with the low IQ.

To an extent though all faith is blind I suppose I come under the blind optimist/Happy Clapper tag, thats just who I am. Its not the same as naive I just try and take the positives out of every situation. I agree with alot of what you say in your original post 2 more questions need to be asked IMO Do we need to expand our scouting and secondly can any player that we sign play for 40-50 games no use having a football genius who will be sat in the stands for 30+ games at a time they can't affect the game from there.

30! wow wow to big am afraid not on the crowds we are getting. We had 38 players on the staff being paid top dollar during the Dowie season thats why we got into such problems. So if we had a squad that big the quality of the team would not be of sufficent standard to get us out of this divison. What we have to ask ourselves for next season is how many are going to be fit and be available to play 40-50 games for us. The big problem for Greegs and Liddell is staying fit for the whole of next season as they are at the age where playing pro football for 15+ years may have taken its toll and they will pick up niggles more often than they did 5-10 years ago.

You are joking aren't you! Yeah I gave him a chance when he was here but looking back now that was one of the best decisions shez made this season was getting rid of him. I remember seeing the guy play for Bolton and an excellent player he was then too But it all went to his head, the guy is a waster. A classic example of why you need good people around you because if you have the wrong people around you like Ricketts (and when I say wrong people I mean his agent) they will lead you astray and make you forget why you got to where you were. He could be a great success at southampton trouble is he won't be because he won't want it enough.

Now I'm sure you ain't aiming this at me personally as I sit in the Lookers Upper and try and get behind the lads as much as possible but can you honestly say that our own fans prevent players from coming to the club. Neil kilkenny was liked here alot people didn't get on his back but he still left to leeds because they offered him better money. I don't like being sat next to a moaner either but last night it was understandable and justifiable am sorry. Footballers have to be thick skinned and the ones that have the thickest skin and make millions out of the sport. Any players reading this not liking that miserable git who sits their and moans at you all game from the safety of the stand, just go and prove the git wrong you never know you might be a millionaire one day.

Myself am someone who has rated Liddels contribution certainly did last year I would keep him but it would be on a 1 year deal and would hope he wouldn't be a top earner as I would like to see him being used from the bench only. It was about this time last year that not just the fact our legs seemed to go but teams started to figure us out tactically where I sit in the lookers upper it does give me a good vantage point into how teams set out. Last season when Millwall came to us they tactically out manouvered us and one thing teams did time and time again was to get tight to Liddell and teams would often double up on him as teams looked to stop us crossing the ball for Porter as scoring from crosses was his strength. What sets David Eyres and Rick Holden apart from Liddel is that Holden and Eyres could beat a man without necessarily having pace they could just twist and turn to create a yard of space for the cross this is something Liddel sadly doesn't posses as its very rare he beats a man. However he does have a good football brain and could still do a job from the bench as he did in the first game of the season against Swansea. Not only that but if he's interested in coaching it might be worth keeping him for that reason as I'm sure he could teach players in the youth team and junior levels alot about the game.

Yeah I did am guessing your lot aren't trouble causers because you didn't look partciularly intimidating was surprised you all got kept together by the police seemed very mobb handed. Their did seem to be a few Danny Dyer wannabes there on day release aswell.

Why is it a joke to talk about the playoffs? at the end of the day this is a message board. Yeah I know its important to keep feet on the ground and thats where mine are but aslong as we can atleast mathmatically achieve it then we should aim for it. We were lucky yesterday on another day it would have been us on the end of a 3-0 defeat but if you can't be good be lucky. This season so far we have not looked like a play off team but if we get there we get promotion we will deserve it. Our second goal yesterday was down to a very lucky decsion and then eardleys effort took a deflection but lets take it hey how much bad luck have we had in the past and particularly at Vale Park. If we get promotion by a similar way I for one won't complain.

Its boring because A) we have been in this division for so long and look like we are going to be here next year. The season is petering out somewhat which seems to be reflected in the declining attendences all reminicent of 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 when again we just floated into midtable after a bad start. Still hopeful for next season though if nothingelse I will be watching it all from another angle

Agree with all of that keep keep the majority. I honestly think just a few players will be the difference between what we have now and promotion its not just the effect players have as individuals performance wise its what effect they have on the rest of the team. Last season Eardley had Liddell in front of him offering that experience this season he hasn't had that and he looks lost and because he hasn't got a natrual right winger infront he never plays a pass less than 20 yards long and because of that he either plays a hollywood ball or something out of the Ronnie Moore book of Hoofs.

I think it will be alot more convincing than this years effort we will keep our best players this time round and if we add a few more quality additions we will be right up there. This is whats keeping me going to BP every week because I can see the pieces in the jigsaw coming together all be it abit slowly. Can I just ask what does keep you going to BP because your posts are very despondent and somewhat disillusioned their must be something that keeps you interested in Latics, for me while things haven't been great this season although they have been worse their is hope for the future, next season I believe will be better.

The difference between Pogs, Liddel, and Macca being out of contract as opposed to Wellens and Porter being out of contract at the end of last season is that Pogs macca and liddel will find it difficult to get better than OAFC where as last year Porter and Wellens could and in the end did go on for better money. They both knew that if they waited this would happen which is why they refused to sign deals straight away knowing that they could potentially get better offers in the summer. The stadium is a massive necessity this has to go through and as quickly and efficently as possible. I do not want to be able my season ticket next year for the lookers at all I hope I'm forced to choose a new seat in a new stand, otherwise we will have to hope and pray that someone is prepared to bank role our losses and TTA won't do that forever. On the football side alone we will not make enough money to survive we had a very good product on the pitch in 2002-03 yet how much did that nearly cost us off it. This season we are no better on the pitch than we were under Ritchie you are sadly right there however and while we still threaten to play some good football here and there and could still make the play offs mid table mediocrity looks on the cards. However I like most will give shez the benefit of the doubt this year aslong as proper challenge is mounted next year. I can see the potential in this team and its manager. However I don't want to be sat here in 12 months watching a team which has some potential but is inconsistent and has no depth to it still sat in the lookers upper waiting for it to fall down.

What we really miss on this board and its something that kept rivals interesting is supporters of other teams we ain't gepgraphically that close to Wigan, Tranmere, and Blackpool but through JKL we were able to develop abit of a rivalry with supporters of these teams. Alright you would get the odd chav popping up giving it the big one, but you could get some decent banter and a decent discussion about football with some of them and because they supported a different team they would often see things from a different angle. Oh and I definately miss Walsh111's drunken ramblings they were great fun.

I think with regards to the problem of the "promotion is a must attitude" is the potential fallout if we don't get there and some will see that as a failure. I do think we can do it if we really apply ourselves but it will take a massive effort. All that Eddie is trying to say is for everyone to keep level headed about it as some fans only a minority have this attitude of we're we're amazing which changes from game to game depending if we win or not.

Think its a tad cynical to say its a PR move to get bums on seats think he has has got to give the players something to aim at as a group for the rest of this season. The chances are that in my opinion we won't make the play offs but while its still to play for we may aswell give it a damn good go how is shez supposed to answer the question What are the aims for the rest of this season?

So thats pretty much decided then he will get a good reception then. He is what I like to call a fans player in the sense that fans look at him on the pitch and think thats the type of player they would be if they were out there on the pitch, not gifted necessarily but his enthusiasm for the cause was there for all to see. I do sometimes think that in this country we tend to put an over emphasise on players like that we seem to teach players to be physically fit as opposed to being technically good on the ball and I do think it has cost England at international level some times. But their is a place for those type of players, the likes of Wellens Porter, Liddel and Taylor benefited from his unselfish work and as much as I rate Hughes and Davies I do think they would benefit from a warnesque player playing alonside them doing the nitty gritty stuff and getting in defenders faces while they can grab the glory if you like.

Bravo FMS thats quality

PS This is the best thread ever