whitey1980

Great list with some talented players on it. Playing devils advocate however, I would venture the majority of those players were older and a contract or 2 further down the line. Whilst understandable, it is a risk for Wes if he does have pretensions of furthering his career past league one level. That said, Grant Holt made the drop to the Shrews from Forest at a similar stage of his career - and that didn't turn out too badly!! He is the exception rather than the rule however and at 27 I would hope he is also still keen on becoming the best footballer he can be, at the highest level he can play at!

This is a frankly ridiculous debate! Wes has been a wholehearted and effective player for us over 3 years where he has clearly given his professional best for the club. I feel he is a better player than he is being given credit for by some, but I agree that he is replaceable. As with any player, we cannot pay more for a player than our manager feels he is worth. For those who dismiss him - remember the first half hour at Rotherham after the Preston performance. LJ wanted a more progressive presence in the midfield and picked Mellor above Wes, Smith became the base of the midfield and Rotherham flooded forward as it was painfully obvious we had only one option to play out with from the back and we were constantly under pressure. It was only when Mellor was sent off and Wes returned that we again had options to retain possession and improved markedly. He can play. However why anybody would pile into Korey Smith - our young captain who frequently played through injuries for the cause last year and who also never (to my eyes at least) gives less than his best to prove a point about Wes is beyond me. Smith is a technically gifted ball player who is a disciplined pivot for the team. I would like to see him make more forward runs and pull the trigger more readily, but as he matures I am sure that this will improve. The truth is we would miss both, as last season they were equally reliant on each other to balance their partners weaknesses. However given his age and technical ability, Smith would be undoubtedly the more difficult of the pair to replace. I feel he needs another ball player alongside him to ensure that teams cannot close him down and stop the team playing - but whoever it is needs experience and cannot be a lightweight option. That is not an easy player to find - which suggests an upgrade on Wes will not be easy either!! However LJ as our manager believes he can find that player and as such we have to have faith that he can. It is his budget, and his responsibility to best prepare the squad from it. The success of the decision will be judged by the quality of replacement.

Mettam was on £450 a week and was the highest paid player at the club (according to their now ex-assistant manager Pete Shuttleworth who is a good friend of mine). Interesting signing Muldoon, very direct in the games I have watched them but without much of a trick. Played wide right in an attacking 3 at Worksop - not sure where Dale will play him if they don't play that formation!! Worksop have withdrawn there resignation as well I believe?

Everything detestable that I think about this idea has been very succinctly put elsewhere! However for all that Greg Dyke wants castrating i'm almost more pissed off by some of the clubs involved in this. Stoke, :censored:ing Stoke!!!! Who have played anti-football for the past 5 years...had bummed about in the lower leagues for decades and can't produce a player with more technical abilty than Andy 'chopper' Wilkinson are moralising about the technical wizards they will produce with a B team. Outrageous in every way. Swansea, Hull, West Ham (who's 'A' team we once had the temerity to beat 6-0 in a major semi final you know!!!) and all those who have been in the lower leagues in recent memory - shame on you and your managers!! The other self interested tossers at the top end of the table - I wouldn't have expected anything less!!

We're slightly goalshy for the number of shots taken..... I think!!

Apologies if so, it was certainly one of his earliest games!

Can clearly play, but I would question how much he really wants to be a footballer - or whether he simply enjoys the kudos that being a professional footballer brings. He just does not strike me as the type of lad who is demanding of his manager - either for a place in the team or to improve his game. I'm not convinced he has ever fully progressed past the torrid 10 minutes that finished his otherwise excellent debut against Exeter. He remains the same player, with the same strengths and weaknesses that he had then. Its a shame as like many - I'm sure that he is capable of more. Absolutely last chance saloon for me!

Hopefully not for too much longer!! I'm not sure any club at our level should be too proud of stagnating for a footballing generation in the third tier!!

Fair point..... but its also worth balancing that by saying there have been games (particularly recently if you look at it statistically) where we have stolen points. In both the Carlisle and Colchester games we scored and won games with our only shots on target! That said, a solid 7 for me. He has established a base and platform to progress into next season from. That is huge progress in itself.

I don't understand the downer that some have on Grounds. He has proved himself to be versatile, durable and highly effective wherever he has played across the back 4. He consistently offers an outlet when in possession and can genuinely shut down his flank when playing as a full back. As with any player he is clearly replaceable, but he has offered nothing but professional service and a professional attitude towards his employer. Fair play to him, and our squad is weaker for his absence.

I remember running out towards the car at Shrewsbury away on a Tuesday night this season with that rarest of feelings - belief!! Belief that we were going to progress up the table given the quality I felt we possessed at that stage of the season. Belief that in this god-awful division we were going in the right direction. I'll settle for that feeling in March 2015.

These are exactly my thoughts. I wasn't there yesterday and so can't comment on the game - but am mightily impressed by the resolute and solid way we have finished the season. BUT..... I do think there is a ceiling on how far that style of football will take us, and the progression into next season will be very interesting. Particularly at home, we have to become more aggressive in our attacking play. All credit to the staff though for managing to steady the ship at the business end of the season and get us to 54 points with 2 to play!

Frustrating at times, but we still had more than enough opportunities to win the game. Both teams were very satisfied with a point, and were from very early on in the piece. We passed the ball well at times, far too laterally at others. Where we go next season will be very interesting indeed.

Its far too easy to dismiss elements of Liverpools support as 'idiot kids', 'scallies' or any other label you may choose to give. There have been many incidents (a large number that dont even make it to press) associated with Liverpool, that the wider club refuse to take responsibility for. We as a club are responsible for all the different strands of our support, and yes, our supporters who bricked Crawleys coach are 'scum'. I don't think anybody doubts the events of Hillsborough, but people do resent being told to feel inherently sympathetic towards Liverpool football club. Given the current climate, given the hearings, it can be argued that the weekends actions by the FA were justified. I just hope that when the dust has settled, and the 'truth' (as much as that can be established 25 years on) is laid down for all to see, then we can all move on and the families can finally grieve out of the national media gaze.

All of the sentiments made about Hillsborough are justified and Liverpool were plainly blameless. However there is still massive ill feeling towards Liverpool in Turin, and to claim otherwise is disingenuous. The reaction of their ultras in the Champions League game chronicled earlier in the thread is proof plenty of this. Also the actions of Liverpool (and many other clubs in fairness) fans in the 80's generally, were partly responsible for the justification of policing games as scandalously as they clearly were, and sometimes still are! There were also STILL Liverpool fans hurdling barriers leading to dangerous overcrowding in the Champions League final in Athens. Given the history of the club, that is truly unbelievable. I realise that none of that is politically correct, but whilst Liverpool football club is a magnificent institution, it has been let down by its supporters on many occasions. Thankfully for the blameless families of the victims, Hillsborough was not one of those.

Totally agree with this. I don't have a problem with the weekends focus, and Hillsborough was a watershed disaster for English football that we have yet to fully emerge from..... But I can't help but sympathise with those Juve fans in their attitudes towards Liverpool.

Totally agree, genuinely a bit ashamed - don't know what came over me!

I'm ashamed to say that I had been lulled into hoping that they might win last night - UEFA co-efficients, sympathy for Moyes etc. This thread has reminded me why I won't make that mistake again. Absolutely heartbreaking goal, that I still bizarrely remember going in almost in slow motion from the other end. Time to forget it ever happened.

Fair point, ha ha!!

Totally agree with this. Games at all levels in this and many countries in Europe have been affected by match and spot fixing scandals. It is plainly a massive threat to the integrity of the game and players should be nowhere near it. Players and management gambling on other teams is dangerous as it is clearly often done on privileged information that is not in the public domain. If people in the game are so readily passing information about their club and teams - what else will they do? Their integrity is questionable - and that just might kill football at this level. Sounds dramatic, but we all attend games in the hope we are watching a sporting contest. If we are not, why bother?

7 million according to the Guardian!

I remember posting on this site pre-season about Bradfords support in the JPT a few seasons back. They were, and remain, the most impressive support to arrive at BP in a good few years - doubly so given the state of their club at that time. Good luck to them. To echo what's been said previously, the video of the fire (and in particular the speed of its spreading) is terrifying, and the casualty list heartbreaking. As the current hearings about Hillsborough show - the scars of the succession of disasters in the mid 80's exist to this day.

I think that there is a fair amount of truth in this, particularly with regards to the points about Wilson. If you think back to the games against Rotherham and Preston though, where they pressed us high in midfield, Smith and to a lesser extent Harkins were forced to drop on top of the back 4 to receive the ball as we were incapable of passing it into midfield. As such our forward players were completely isolated. Granted in these games (bar 10mins against Preston) we didn't have JCH as an alternative option to hit longer, but we are set up with smaller mobile midfielders to pass the ball through the midfield. I feel we will always struggle to do that with a central defender of Lockwoods type in the team. I suppose it depends on expectations - I see so few teams at BP who impress, that I always live in hope that we can get it right and progress.

I agree with the sentiments echoed by Lee Sinnot. Whilst paying tribute to the excellent job he has done of late - he is a very limited footballer. Against the better sides in the division, with the pace and movement to pull him into the channels, he has struggled - and always will struggle. When teams play in straight lines, directly, and give him somebody to mark, he is more effective. His distribution will always place a caveat on how far we can go at this level - and I would be mightily worried were he first choice next season. We will fail to trouble the stronger sides in the division unless we can utilise the ball playing strengths in the midfield (Smith and Harkins in particular) which we won't with him in the team. Wilson on the other hand has improved, and I suspect will continue to do so with regular first team football. None of which diminishes Lockwoods impact of late however.....

Totally agree with the Korey Smith love in on here. He's a young lad and has suffered of late, but he would improve all but a couple of teams at this level. As such he's indispensable to us!