SSH

He's not as good as Holdsworth. Most of the good feeling towards him is because he's been a great servant for us. He's not abysmal, but he's certainly not great... basically a League One centre half! Think he'll do a decent job for you, and as you've seen from DATM, he's left with all of our blessing.

If this was on DATM and one of your fans had seen it, we would be getting slated on here!

There's absolutely no logical reason why we shouldn't do it this season; it's going to take something even more spectacular than going 27 games unbeaten and throwing it all away in a mad 7 minutes! I'm sure you're all as excited as us to see how we manage to blow it this time!

I wouldn't be too concerned if we did have another season of failure like the last two... they've been bloody brilliant. It would be great to get back to the Championship, but given that there are a lot of northern teams new to the division, another season in League One leaves a lot to look forward to. Doubt it. He's currently in talks over an extension. The majority still have him down as the right man for the job. Simpson was a mistake, but we've just made more than £3M profit from letting two of Clark's successful signings leave; that profit may cover all of Clark's spending since he got here. Not sure where you've got McDonald and Le Fondre from, but I've seen nothing to suggest that we're after either. There are a few posts on DATM saying that we should sign them, but don't think they've ever been on Clark's radar. As for the wage bill, Roberts rejected a new contract as we wanted a clause in that his wages would be cut if we didn't go up this season. We probably would have to balance the books a bit, but as far as I know, the salary cap only takes into account income, not overheads. Because of this, we will be able to balance our wage bill against our gate receipts without having the stadium rent that we have to pay to deal with, so reckon we'd come out of it quite well... if not we'll just get Deano to sponsor our ground! He's been unlucky with injuries. EDIT - Missed out a point.

Where on that thread is anyone harping on about how much of a big club we are?

Amazed he made 14 appearances for us; I think I saw him play once. I don't think he's had a fair crack of the whip with us, but then again, we can't rely on players with such abysmal injury records. He seems a decent guy based on Twitter, would like to see him do well.

Agree with that, good post. No, try reading it again. But yes, I'm the one that hasn't got a clue what I'm talking about.

But why are you laughing at our expense? We've had a better season than you; in 30/40 years time, I'll still remember certain moments from this season, and of those there will be a few fond memories and one bad memory... what will you be remembering from your season? As I said in my earlier post, there is a significant chance that those instigating the fighting weren't proper Town fans. Even if they were, it's half a dozen scumbags, not even a small proportion of our support. A lot of Town fans tried to break up the fight, but were held back and attacked themselves, the rest of the crowd that couldn't access the upper tier booed and chanted at the attackers and the main perpetrator had to be protected by police after he'd been arrested as he was being attacked by Town fans, whilst violence isn't the answer, at least that displays the how widely he was condemned by our support. The guy also wasn't unconscious, he stood up after the attack and tried to get back at his attackers as they were dragged away. Not in the best taste to fabricate rumours about such an awful incident.

True, but a little chuckle is a long way from what you had at our expense. When I got in yesterday I mentioned that I'd made a mistake in popping onto DATM, a couple of mates must have checked what I was talking about as I was asked a couple of times later in the evening what your problem was, and why you hated us. I was ashamed, though the fighting didn't really have anything to do with the football as far as I'm concerned. The individuals responsible will be in prison before long, a lot of people saw the fight live and apparently someone filmed it and put it on facebook to help identify the culprits... I haven't read anyone who's recognised them yet, which suggests that they're not regulars, as usually at least someone drinks in the same pub before home matches as them/sits near them at home matches/has been with them in a low away following. Add to that the posts on DATM from people saying that they'd been sat further around the tier and had been trying to provoke people earlier in the day, I would speculate (and this is pure speculation) that they were a group of chavs that were on the look out for some trouble, and when we were 3-0 down someone had a bit of a nibble at their provokation and had their head kicked in. The t-shirts really annoyed me, the team didn't deserve to have fans turn on them like that, they've been excellent for the second half of the season, and although the performance wasn't faultless yesterday we could easily have won. That said, it's a bit different for someone who's just seen their season go from success to disaster to overreact and throw their t-shirt away than it is for someone to actively spent 5 minutes or so signing up on a website purely to kick people when they're down. That said, I do accept that we'd have some dickheads who would do the same. To be fair, I remember being on here after that game and being told how we'd be seeing you in the Play Offs. We may be gutted right now, but in a week or so we can look back at the highlights of the season and be proud. You may be happy that we haven't managed promotion, but we've had a much richer season than you. At the end of the day, you go to football to enjoy yourself, and I've enjoyed this season massively... by the time I refound myself at Arsenal when we scored, I was panting like a marathon runner, when our fans sang Smile Awhile before extra time of the Bournemouth match it gave me goosebumps, when Kay's penalty hit the roof of the net 40 minutes later I've never seen jubilation like it at a home match, when we outclassed Wednesday at Hillsborough, the recording of the commentator on Radio Leeds when we scored a last minute winner at Brentford. I think of you as a more extreme version of us when Davy was at the helm and I have more highlights from this Play Off campaign than I do of our entire spell in League One under his ownership.

Barnsley?! I just came on here to try and convince myself that all of your supporters weren't like the cretins that have popped onto our board. A couple of responses have been magnanimous, which I respect, I hope the rest of you are enjoying your best day of the season. I'm not as gutted as I would have been a couple of years ago, kind of similar to how I was after Millwall last season... under Hoyle we're going to get there eventually, so I'll cling onto that for the time being.

Town fan here - as much as I'd rather already be in the Championship, the Play Offs are good for football. Think of how many teams in this division would have been playing meaningless matches from January if they didn't exist... they haven't gone for us this season, but they went for us last season, when we scraped into them in the last few weeks. If we go up on Sunday, I'll be glad that we went through the Play Offs; last Wednesday was probably my greatest moment watching Town.

I don't think many fans of other clubs are as confident of us not finishing in the top 2. I've got the general impression that people seem to think that Bournemouth will fade away, and two of us, Southampton and Brighton are favourites to get those two places. Of course, they're still up for grabs for about 8 or 9 clubs in the division, so it's just guesswork. Clubs like Yeovil, Hartlepool, and most recently, Swindon have enjoyed short-term success on a small budget. Splashing the cash doesn't guarantee success, we know that, but we need to compare ourselves to the bulk of clubs that haven't spent much money, rather than the exception that is performing well. You're doing a great job on a small budget at the minute, but there's only you and Bournemouth in the top 6 that I would consider are working on a small budget... the majority of the clubs working with a small budget are lower midtable. Likewise, when you compare us to the bigger budgets of Brighton, Charlton, Southampton, Wednesday, Peterborough (maybe also including the likes of Notts County and Franchise), we're doing alright. You didn't actually say anything incorrect about our budget, but fans often claim that we've spent a lot more than we have. Compared to you we've spent an astronomical amount, but last season, for example, we're told we had the sixth largest wage budget in the division... yet we were getting told that we'd underachieved by finishing sixth? I think that's a fair summary. I'd once again, disagree about Lee, but that's been done to death now! I think you've got a side capable of doing well. The only thing I'd be cautious of as a supporter of you, is that it's your first season challenging... this season I think we've benefitted from last season. We're effectively building on our sixth place finish from last season, and noone seems to have considered the possibility of us finishing outside the Play Off places! Last season there were periods where we seemed to buckle, which may happen to you. Aside from that, I think you'll certainly make the Play Off's convincingly. If we do meet in the Play Off's it would be a great tie, considering how many ties down South we could both get! Either in the Semi Finals, or at Old Trafford would be a great day. Good luck for the season.

I didn't notice us mobbing the ref. Maybe I'm biased on that point. I wish the BBC had put the incident at the end of the first half on the replay. Your defender put two hands on Lee's shoulders and hauled him to the ground. I couldn't disagree more with the accusation that Lee was cheating; as I said before, all I can assume is that because it happened so often, you guys started to assume that he was diving. Lee is an intelligent player, why would he continue to go to the floor when he's only getting a token decision here and there, if he could stay on his feet? For the middle of February after a harsh winter, it looked good. Yes you caused us to resort to hoof-ball? Why do you lot get so offended by this? It's not an accusation that you can't play football, or a criticism of your side. This is why I'm so frustrated on here, every comment made is interpreted as an attack on you. At BP you took our wingers out of the game; this led to us repeatedly hoofing the ball forwards, which your defence soaked up. Saturday was quite similar, except that we had a bit of luck with the long ball over your full backs head, which should have helped us to get a goal. Don't think you'll find anyone agreeing with you from HTFC. People are currently debating whether he was the worst ref we've ever come across. I expect a bit of bias, but this place is ridiculous. As for your assessment of us, it's fair on the basis of the two games we've played against each other, but if we are playing you in May it will be a massive disappointment for us.

Fantastic. I'll log back on when I get back from Uni, in the hope that one of your fellow fans expresses his embarrassment at you.

Sorry, clearly my mind reading skills aren't up to your standard.

This place is pathetic, and it's getting boring. Where did I say you weren't allowed to play it through the middle? You beat us fair and square at BP by stemming our biggest threat, which are our wingers.

Yes. As you had players doubling up on our wingers. Which meant we resorted to hoofing it long, and your defence swallowed up every hoof. When you attacked, you directed it straight down our centre, which was too much for us to handle.

Peltier didn't deliberately take him out. He won the ball. Karma's a bitch; if you're going to pretend to be injured to try and get players booked all afternoon, don't expect people not to see the irony when you genuinely do get injured.

You did rip us apart, but taking our wingers out of the gane and making us play you at your game, which you beat us at.

Which Town players were mobbing the ref? The 'poor Alan Lee' crap, comes from him being fouled more often than not... all I can assume is that because you saw it happening repeatedly and no punishment being issued, you assumed that he was diving. The playing surface was excellent... it's February and it's entirely playable, we're also one of the few clubs that haven't postponed a home match yet. You turned us into hoof merchants; you've set your stall out to stop us playing twice. It worked at BP, and with help from the officials, it worked on Saturday. We were booing the ref at half time as to put a cherry on top of all the ridiculous decisions through the half. He missed Lee being dragged down by your defender whilst Pilkington was taking the ball down the wing and we were two on two. I'm sure in your blinkered view that Lee dived to try and get your player sent off... who would want to score anyway?! This forum has some good posters on it, but some absolute dross written. Particularly in the other thread about us being better off the field than you, in which there are so many untrue statements about Town.

The Giants only own more than Town do because the shares were stolen from us when we went bust. Personally, I'd like to see us move away from the ground until the Giants go bust; then they can play there on our terms, or find elsehwere. As for the council, we would own the majority of shares in our ground (at great expense to our chairman) again, if our council hadn't moved the goalposts on a deal stemming back to the opening of the ground. As said before, Jarvis is the key. It's not about matching us; I'd struggle to think of any club that has been starved of success for so long that can match our crowds; it's about dragging everyone in that you can... weren't you scraping the odd >10,000 attendance a couple of seasons ago?

1. We didn't really. We have Peltier covering the defence, Kilbane and Gudjonnson (today Arfield) just ahead, and Pilkington and Roberts behind Lee in attack. It's working okay so far since we're unbeaten since we started with this system. (As soon as we lose we'll switch it all around again and wonder why we're so inconsistent). 2. Is a fair point. Thought we had more of it in the centre, but that's meaningless if we don't create anything. 3. Without being patronising, 1900 is a great following; it's akin to us taking 6-7,000 away, which we haven't done in the league for years. 4. Lee was through on goal until your defender dragged him down. I think if we'd had Rhodes to bring on with 30-40 mins to go, we would have won today, but who knows. If the ref had done his job properly, or Lee hadn't been fouled, I'm fairly sure we would have won anyway. 5. On the balance of chances a draw was fair. We should have made more from our possession. A- Our council are as useless as yours, we just have enough fans to sustain it (which is good in the short term, but I wouldn't be surprised if you end up in a better position than us in the long term). B- You bring a good few and make decent noise. Would be better if anyone other than the nearest block to the Kilner Bank joined in, and you sang anything other than cringey anti-Yorkshire chants.

This thread's pretty funny. Not having a go, as you can go on our messageboard and see exactly the same, but the opposite way around. We were average, but you played well? - We played well, aside from not creating many clear chances. You reduced our threat greatly; the ref reduced it more. Lee throwing himself to the ground? - Some of the decisions that he didn't get were ridiculous. As he wasn't getting anything he tried to fight back, but was penalised every time he did... if it's a foul on the defender, it's a foul on the attacker. Would he have given a penalty for that shirt pull in the first half?! Either way, you can't criticise Lee and ignore Taylor. The refs decisions didn't change the match? - you would have had a man sent off for a professional foul had he done his job properly when Lee was dragged down. Hazell didn't deserve to be booked? - Can't respond. Can only laugh! We could have had players sent off? - Who?! When?! You had more than 1900 there? - the two end blocks were cordoned off and the back few rows, that probably accounts for at least 1,000. I was surprised the other areas were 2/3rds full, I estimated you had about 1500 there. You may disagree, I just find it funny how there are two messageboards being so one sided tonight. I thought we were the better side, generally, but neither side played to their full capabilities, and neither made more than the occassional chance. Overall, it was quite enjoyable, and it's good to actually have some fans in that end... it's bloody grim when Franchise bring their <100.

We don't own any shares in our ground as they were stolen by the Super League club, and the council won't agree to let us pay an inflated price to get them back unless we take some of the stadium costs, that they agreed to when it was built, off their hands. Sean Jarvis is the major factor IMO.

He constantly complains about the categorisation of matches. I don't see what is wrong with it personally. He hasn't been on DATM for a long time, and I haven't heard about him for a long time.