SSH

Someone did try that, and it was played after he scored last season, but it sounded a bit wrong singing about a guy taking you home...

Potentially for a big match, but not as a regular thing. Your club could do worse than trying it though, there's 70,000 students at Manchester and probably getting towards that at Man Met, if there are 150,000 students in Manchester, you have enough to market towards.

Just checked my Notts ticket and you're right, that's the only student ticket I've managed to get this season though. Wednesday charged me full price, Leeds charged me full price. I'm at Uni in Manchester, and have had a couple of flyers from City offering cheap tickets for UEFA Cup matches/televised Premier League games, but clubs only seem to do it for odd matches in the home ends, rather than offering a concession for students across the board. That said, I haven't chosen not to go to an away match because I've had to pay full whack, so maybe they've done their homework.

I honestly haven't heard, or seen any complaints about the booing of Alan Lee. I believe you though, and thanks for sharing the story. Been trying to work out who the coach is, but can't think of a Scottish coach we have. I've always though that he was quite a popular squad member; we have a few players on Twitter, and though he isn't on, there are often tweets from players "sat in Costa with big Alan Lee..." and that sort of thing.

We haven't had a Category A game all season! £23 is a ridiculous amount of money to pay for a football match, but sadly that's the way football is as the high wages filter down from the Greedy League. Can anyone tell me if Town offer away fans a student rate, as I haven't come across a club that do so far this season?

Last night is the first instance of trouble in the Gas Club that I can remember hearing of, I'm sure you'll be fine in there. Looking through the thread on DATM, it seems to me that a few Carlisle idiots were taking chanting too far, some Town idiots took this to heart and tarred all Carlisle fans with the same brush, so started on some that weren't involved with the chanting at all. Could be completely wrong, but I've looked at the two extreme views, and the truth normally lies in the middle.

That was Pawel Abbott, then Keigan Parker ( ), then Cadamarteri and now Lee Novak. Although we've got Cads back until the end of the season so we'll probably be singing it for him too... who says football fans aren't as creative as they used to be?!

You bring decent followings for the size of your home attendances, generally. Last season wasn't great, but I remember we brought a crap following to your place when we in the dark days of Ritchie... last season was probably your equivalent. We'll always be one of the better supported teams in this division, but at the minute our away followings are inflated by us having a decent side... it's a shame that this has led to some of our fans getting a bit arrogant about our support. It's something to be proud of though, the last figures I saw had us as having the second best average away attendances in the division... not bad to say how southern dominated the division is. You played well at your place, but you seem to be assuming that we play as badly as we did at your place every week. We finally seem to be playing somewhere near our ability. . Don't have a clue what you're talking about there. I'm pretty confident that Lee would praise our support for the treatment he's received, whilst he's got a bit of stick when fans have been frustrated, he's got nothing like the amount you would expect and turned into a slight cult hero amongst some fans. He gets his name sung at games whilst we don't have a song for Rhodes... we're a strange lot!

You were very effective; doubled up on our wingers every time which meant that we resorted to hoofing it upfield. Once Lee came on we looked slightly more effective, but noone capitalised on the space that he created. Overall it was pretty even until you scored, although you probably had the better chances even then. Once you scored you dominated the first half and in the second half for all the ball that we had, you still looked most likely to score. Slightly worrying as your gameplan worked wonders against us... last season once teams worked out how to play away at the Galpharm, we were constantly dropping points.

You haven't filled it since we got promoted from Division 2. You may have done the season we were relegated, but wasn't it the last day of the season and you needed a result to make the Play Offs? (Hazy memory). We might have bought a few poor attendances but we did so when we were managerless, or under Ritchie and Ternent... pretty similar situation to you last season. Noone wants to spend their weekend/evening watching a club that has no prospect of getting anywhere at a ground that they've visited numerous times.

Where did you get that number from? I was under the impression that we'd sold 1300 with a couple of days to go, haven't seen the actual away attendance published though. The reason we didn't sell out was because of scare mongering by the Met; they told us that we weren't allowed to use the train station, which was true. When fans/the club asked what we were supposed to do, they said we had to get official club coaches; fine for fans living in Hudds, or nearby, what about London based Town fans and those that live miles away from Hudds? All they said for fans that couldn't get coaches is that we'd have to walk to a tube station... would you want to walk around Millwall if we'd won?! Eventually our Supporters Association became aware that we were getting bussed out of the ground, but the police wouldn't let the club publish the information, because it would have resulted in us shifting loads more tickets and making their job harder. As for the criticism of Clark, it mainly came from Leeds/Bradford/Millwall fans who thought it would be hilarious to hijack our messageboard. There is some criticism of Clark, but it's mainly for individual decisions, the vast majority of our support is heavily behind him. And this season has been superb; perhaps my favourite following Town. I know we haven't actually won anything, but we've been playing some quality attacking football. I know a lot of you might laugh as we didn't really show it in the home match against you, and in the away match the conditions were awful so we couldn't really play football. In order to move forward we need a couple of bruisers who are capable of holding the ball up and bringing our attacking players into the game, as you might have seen on Tuesday night, that we can get bullied out of games.

I thought we played well on Friday night, if either side deserved the victory it was us, but it was tight. As for Millwall being off colour, it could be argued that we made them look average. We carved them open for about 20 minutes at the end of the first half, in the second half they came at us but only made one real chance and thankfully it came back off the bar. Our atmosphere is normally pretty crap, but there was a big fight outside before kick off, which seemed to have got a few of our rougher element up for it, it was a Friday night match which I always find are much more atmospheric and the team needed some helping across the finish line. Anyway, just popped on to wish you the best of luck tomorrow. If you get a point then I think we've wrapped it up (famous last words!). Be interested to hear who you think will succeed in the Play Off's, as you don't seem to rate us, which I can't blame you for after we played you at your place in awful conditions and were awful at the Mac. But you're also not being complimentary about Millwall. Most of our fans seem to want Charlton or Swindon if we make it.

I'm a Town fan!

Can't agree with what Town fans have posted on here, just because we were crap doesn't mean that you played well. You had a great spell for the first 15-20 minutes, then did you have a shot after? I also don't see what you did to warrant winning the game; I don't think that we deserved to win the game, and I think the fair outcome would have been an underwhelming 0-0 draw. Thought the ref was appauling for both sides, a fantastic display of jobsworthing.

Sorry to hear a few of you aren't making the trip, you normally bring a decent following, and anyone that brings a decent following can create a good atmosphere. We haven't ridiculously overspent as a couple on this thread have stated, according to Clark and Hoyle (our Chairman) in seperate interviews/meetings, we have one of the smaller wage bills in the Play Off race. We've spent on transfer fee's, but only on players who are likely to increase in value; we refused to sign Ricky Lambert for the price we were asked for as in a couple of season's time we wouldn't get anything for him. We made a multi-million pound loss last season, due to our £100 season ticket offer and Ternent's disasterous spell, our chairman's said he'll cover this, but even if he hadn't we could have sold Smithies/Pilkington/Rhodes and covered the loss. As for categorising matches, it does always seem as though you're just having as much money as possible squeezed out of you, but so far we must have made a lot of additional income from doing it. Our season ticket offers have been fair, so the majority of fans have a season ticket, those that don't benefit from quite a few offers on the less desirable matches, so it doesn't really negatively impact on home support. For away support, until this match, I don't think it's negatively impacted on away support, but you're probably the only fans to have been charged £24 who aren't around us in the table. Anyway, all the best. We could really do with a win; despite only losing once all season, we've had a crap home run. Colchester are playing Swindon and Millwall this week, meanwhile we're playing you and Brentford, so it's up to us to open up a gap! I'm predicting a tough, frustrating match. Forgot to add - Polish Hippy has been speaking out against categorising matches, for those that were making sarcastic comments!

Upto now I've always found this a good place to have an actual discussion, not have semi-literate's trading insults. I don't think we'll go up this season, I think we have an outside chance of the Play Off's and I think Clark will get us promoted from this division, but I think this season may have come too soon for us. We didn't look anything special, which I'd put down to the weather. I'm pleased that we played functionally (getting it away from danger even if it takes a long ball) and then trying to string a few passes together once we're in the final third, as trying to play open, attacking football in conditions such as today would have been naive to say the least. I think it's fair enough to say that we can't comment on how good each others side is, as we've only seen us play in horrific conditions, I think you were poor attack wise today, and I think we deserved our win. And this guy above doesn't represent me.

You were very poor. Defensively you don't seem too bad (aside from the persistant fouling), but you have no attacking threat whatsoever based on that evidence. I don't see how you matched us; we had most of the play in the first half and were very unlucky to still be level at half time, Rhodes' header hit the bar, we were denied the most ridiculously blatant penalty, Kay's shot flashed wide and had the ball in the box quite a few times. Meanwhile, you had one real chance resulting from a mistake on our part from which you didn't even get a shot away (typical Parker!). Going in at half time level I thought that we'd left ourselves with an uphill battle; wasting our upper hand, especially when you benefitted from the weather conditions in the second half, but no attacking threat came! We scored from a free kick and then created a couple of good chances and 3 or 4 half chances. Meanwhile you only ever threatened from set pieces, aside from that chance where Smithies was called into action (which again resulted from a Town mistake). I'm under no illusions that you'll regard us as inept after today's display, but I'm over the moon. We couldn't play our natural game due to the weather conditions, so we had to resort to a lot more long ball play than we would have liked, but once we had the ball away from danger we had the confidence to pass it around, which set us aside from your one dimensional play entirely through Abbott (who I thought looked decent). Games like today are the ones from which we need to learn to take points, and we've taken all 3 today, we would probably have dropped points from that last season.

He was a bit dodgy on crosses last season, but I haven't felt at all anxious about him collecting them this season. He's so highly rated because his shot stopping is first class, his reactions are ridiculously good, he commands his area, he thinks about his distribution (throwing to feet, long balls for our pacier players to run onto...) and, overall, he's 19 years old. He's the best 'keeper I've seen play for Town since Steve Harper and in a few years he'll have surpassed him if he continues to develop the way he is doing. I'm quite aware that he'll probably gift you the winning goal tomorrow now that I've built him up like that!

Wish we would. We're never going to given our away form. We had just under 1400 at Charlton last week, I'd be disappointed with less than double that.

Is Parker not doing any better for you than he was for us then? I couldn't believe that you took him off our hands, and playing him as the main striker seems a bit strange, but maybe it will click. Good on you for regarding this as a transition season; I'm doing the same, but not many of our fans are in the same boat, which is frustrating at times. I said when Clark was appointed that he could have the end of last season and all of this to sort everything out, and I'd judge him on next season. Obviously I'd not keep him if we were in danger of going down and he was doing nothing to stop us, for example, but we've underachieved so badly for ages that he needs time to sort the whole club out. If we sneak into the Play Off's this season then fantastic, if not then it's not disaster. We've had two matches like the Stockport match; we drew 0-0 at home to Brentford also. At home, we've struggled to break down teams that come and play for a point, anyone that has come and tried to win we've pretty much torn apart. We need to learn how to break more defensive minded teams down though, as eventually teams are going to catch on to how they can play against us and come for a point; and like you say Stockport could have left with all 3 that day! It's a bit of a mystery as to why we've been poor away as generally teams are more attack minded at home, which should suit us, but it hasn't for some reason. Cheers to Simpo for that response; very comprehensive! How many are you expecting on Sat? We've sold "just over half" our 2,700 allocation as of yesterday, so hopefully we should have at least 2,000. I still need to get my ticket; only my second visit to Boundary Park, the first being that cup tie a couple of seasons ago.

I was going to come on and start a topic along these lines, as I said I would pre-season. Wozz_oafc's comments on Worthy are absolutely exactly the same as what I think of him. Interesting to hear that you rate Pav's hold up play, as he didn't really hold it up for us, although he was playing alongside Boothy so perhaps it wasn't necessary. How are you lot playing on the whole? Any particular style of play? We've been fantastic at home, but our away record is dire; 4 points all season. Although how we lost at Charlton is anyone's guess; if we play like we did there I would back us to take at least a point on Sunday.

The other Town fan might be right but it's not written anywhere is it. All I said was that I hadn't read it anywhere, which I still haven't from an official source. The other Town fan might be right, but you were the first person that I'd heard suggest he'd got 3 seperate offers, hence why I was sceptical as to why you might know more than any Town fan I've spoken to/read the opinion of on downatthemac. And I have said good things about your new players when they've deserved it. I think Holdsworth is a decent signing for you, I think Abbott could be a great signing for you and I think Worthington could be quite good. Think Parker's a waste of a wage, however. Fact remains though, is that I wanted Worthington and Parker to leave this Summer, I even wanted Worthington to go last summer, as I thought it was in his and our best interests if he seeked a new challenge. If you manage to find a midfielder to compliment Worthington then you've got a good partnership, but if you've told Holdsworth you're signing him to be a midfielder then that partnership didn't work for us. If Penney knows how to handle Abbott, which is quite plausible given that he's signed him after working with him before then you could have a lethal striker, but it could as easily go the other way and he'll be useful; there's no middle ground with Pav. Overall, Holdsworth will be a steady player for you, by steady I mean a player that doesn't stand out positively or negatively in a decent side, so don't see how that's negative; he's a right back, right back's don't win matches. If you play him in midfield he'll need a tough partner, not sure how effective he'll be in midfield as he's only played there for 2/3's a season in a crap team. Abbott, I'd say 50:50 as to whether he'll be a success or a failure. Worthington, probably more likely to be a success, but will be a less spectacular success. If you want encouragement for him look at Mirfin for Scunthorpe last season, Worthy's in a similar position, not a bad player but been at Town for too long and needs a fresh start elsewhere. Parker, if he proves me wrong I'll happily come on here and let you gloat at me, but can't see it happening. You could have 3 good signings out of 4, I'm pretty sure that would see you challenge for the Play Off's if it happens, hopefully we'll actually manage to challenge alongside you this season. Thanks for your hospitality, folks. See you around the time we give you a hammering ;).

I only came on to check how much abuse I'd got! I thought after being told where to go when I was attempting to be honest I'd have been slagged off to the extreme after that arsey message! I'll respond in backwards chronological order, cause it's easier. LeylandLatic, Roberts scored as many goals as Taylor last season, and Pilkington is probably a better player than both of them. I'll admit that I'd probably prefer Taylor and Pilkington, as Taylor's a bit more of a team player and a bit less erratic than Roberts. thelaticsfan, our games will probably be a good decider as to who's better, obviously. But I'd sacrifice those 6 points now if it meant we won promotion, as I'm sure you would. MaskedOwl, my opinions are probably biased, but that's always going to be the case. I'd say that Holdsworth is a decent enough signing, especially on a free. Worthington could go either way, he'll either flourish at a new club or he'll do nothing whatsoever. Probably similar for Pav, if he clicks he's got a great knack of goalscoring. But I think Parker's a waste of a wage, and can't see anything other than you agreeing in 6 months time. HallamBlue, the general feeling is that Clark wasn't sure about whether to offer Holdsworth a contract, so he didn't make him an offer until later on. Clark said that he got sick of waiting around for Holdsworth to respond to the offer, so cut off negotiations and began to explore other avenues. Clark was very keen for us to finish all of our transfer dealings by the time pre-season training started, hence why he cut off negotiations. I haven't read anywhere that he was offered 3 contracts by us, he was apparantly offered a contract by Millwall so maybe you read that he got 3 offers; from us, Millwall and you? I don't know as I haven't read it. He won POTS in the season under Ritchie, in which we were in danger of heading towards a relegation battle before Ritchie was fired and we had a good end to the season, so although he won it he wasn't facing much competition.

Am I allowed to stay if I say things you want to hear? Parker is an excellent striker, he's prolific. He once scored 15 League Goals in just one season! That's phenomenal by anyones standards. Worthington is a fantastic midfielder, if you want someone to stamp authority on a game then look no further. Captain marvel for two seasons which both resulted in unbelievable midtable finishes. His trademark bursts from midfield are something to behold, and his shooting is world class. Holdsworth is a superlative full back. He's also a box to box midfielder. And a 40 goal a season striker. If you played him in net I doubt you'd ever concede. And last but not least, Pawel Abbott. He once had a great season, I'm sure next season he'll do it again. He's got no criminal convictions and I'm sure you won't lose him to Notts County. What more could you want?! Oh, and I live in County Durham, wogghead1 (that's in the North East of England). Would take a bit more than a strained neck...

Not calling you a liar, but funny how you know more than any Town fan does. Haven't heard anywhere that he got offered 3 contracts, I doubt it since he wasn't even in the first team at the end of the season. He won POTS playing in midfield, I said he didn't stand out playing at right back. And fair enough, I wouldn't have any of your players, except Holdsworth as back up for Peltier and Taylor (if he's still there) as back up for Roberts and Pilkington.