stargazer

Throughout the first part of the 1980's , we were clearly punching above our weight. Under Jimmy Frizzell and Joe Royle the club was being run so much better than so called big clubs. We bought well and sold even better. The loss of quality players to balance the books was frequent and necessary , but the squad was good enough to handle this. The next few years were as we now more and more surreal. Again this has to be put down to superb scouting and buying off player. Ritchie , Linighan , Irwin & Wright ludicrous bargains from Leeds. Barrett and Warhurst for pennies off City. Marshall from Everton . The rot started for me when we did not buy and sell well enough . Out when Irwin , Warhurst , Redfearn ,Holden , Marshall .....in came McDonald , Kane , Kilcline , Olney , Brennan etc. Then we hit the skids like so many teams relegated from the top flight , unable to put the brakes on and stabilise. Now we live in this ludicrous era of literally dozens of players coming and going constantly ,with not a cat in hell's chance of building a team. On the positive we have not been relegated since 1997. Many others have had more highs and lows , promotions . even losing football league status. I can't see this carrying on for too many more years , I am not at all optimistic. It would help if this new stand appeared , but it seems to be moving forward at a desperately slow pace.

The lad has gone to a club on the up , no doubt for a much better package , good luck to him. But the loaning him back has so many pitfalls .......and can we stop hearing the club talking drivel about building for the future ......Baxter , Lanzoni , Tarkowski ........

Put the money in the bucket after the game , performance related pay .......now that would be interesting.

I can only imagine the crowd response if Tarks makes any blunders or has a bad game......... This looks like a very poor management decision imo. The deals so far are dreadfully disappointing .........I imagine it is to finance a top notch goalscorer who will sign just before the deadilne .........

Peterborough were 2 nil down at home to Notts County after 5 minutes midweek , only got back in the game after sending off (Notts County 3-0 down at home today). Pathetic , clueless ,gutless , losers ......and how many of these guys will sleep badly tonight ????

Lack of goals the problem.

Who could it be apart fro Neil Redfearn. Never missed one for Latics I seem to recall. Most of them drilled hard and low to the keepers right. Do I remember him scoring one in a 3-2 win against Swindon and it being ruled out for infrigement , with him then hammering the second one just as easily ? You could argue that we were still promoted if he missed 'that penalty'. But ....it is the greatest single moment in the clubs history since before WWI. The place was heaving .....and he buried it just like all the others. Our greatest ever midfield player , not just penalty taker ..........no wonder things started going pear shaped after he was allowed to leave.

In no way can the sale of the best footballer the club has had in eons be regarded as positive measure. I for one thought it was a disastrous mistake , and still do. How on earth could we not build a team around a player with his ability. The lose of his ability & the speed of the two wingers no longer in the team are the main difference between the start of the season and now. We are slow and predictable. Every goal we score now is like trying to crack the Da Vinci Code and the back four are totally unable to stop defending well for most of the game but with the lmsot mandatory switching off moment to allow a soft goal.

Best not to say anything too critical and be labelled a doomsayer , no doubt the regular comments of it will click shortly etc will appear shortly. FIVE points off the bottom of the table after 26 games. Goals becoming as rare as goal dust. First choice striker at the start of the season , not even getting off the bench today. Can't keep clean sheets. The previous manager would have been torn to pieces for this scenario. Never mind Hull City's name change ......Soft Touch Athletic suits us right now .... We await the latest positive words from the club to the media ......yawn

No goals again (so far no shots on target according to the Beeb) . I think this lack of action says a million words ..............

Good luck to Cliff. A true professional .....and I doubt he and few others will forget (with the one exception for his goal), the outstanding performance he put up against Luis Suarez last January.

The team have been playing football that is easy on the eye for months , but also for months , failing miserably to increase the goals scored ratio. We are in the umpteenth season of struggle and are in no different a position to the previous manager ...... And as for building a team , for next season , how often does that happen with the ship them in / ship them out world we now live in. The strikers are not delivering the goals ,this is their primary task . So much was expected from our biggest name striker when he signed and very few can be happy with what he has achieved so far. Eleven goals in eleven home games is a shambles .....sort that out first and then worry about social media.

2-1 defeat

I would have thought the penalty taker was decided by the manager ....sometimes with the view that the fouled player should not take it. But as pointed out , the misses today are just the straw that broke the camels back . Going all the way back to the 2-0 defeat at Preston , the build up play was dynamic , the finishing or lack of was hopeless ........it has not got any better.

Seems a lifetime ago (start of the season) when it appeared we were in for a rollercoaster of 2-2 , 2-3 ,3-2 games. We are almost back in the era of if they score first it is game over ....... Can we please score some ^&*(%$%^ goals !!!!!!

A goal difference of -6 looks terrific on paper. We don't get thrashed , we don't let lots of goals in .....but we score so very few that one is often enough and two is plenty to beat us. Watched our guys in pre match warm up and they all bury shot after shot giving the keeper no chance ......yet composure and calmness vanishes come kick off.

The lack of goals in the league just goes on and on. I think we have scored more than 1 league goal only once since the beginning of November. Rooney in penalty miss .....well I never.

Well it's not Seedorf , he's gone and retired to manage AC Milan...... I just hope that he is 'major' enough for most of us to have heard of .......

With regards to Baxter's fitness. I did hope that the new manager would have had this dealt with this in pre-season , he really would have been sensational at this level if this had been sorted out.

West Ham currently 9-0 down in two cup matches in a few days......

We were 4 nil up quicker than City. Would have thought the TV company would be asking them to go easy on them .....will they still televise the second leg of this mismatch ?

And so begins the latest round of the never ending loanees , short term contracts , released players ......... The fact that we need to get involved in this madness every January ,is due to in small part to the failure of the manager and squad to deliver .

Redfearn was a Rolls Royce compared to the midfield players of this era at the club ........

Get's to play at a higher level ......not for very long mind.

The performance at Preston (despite the ludicrous 2-0 final score) seems a million miles away. We tore them to pieces with accurate , fast flowing football and movement. If this type of football ended up with more 2-1 and 1-0 scorelines rather than the reverse ,the chosen formation and style would be justified .....but we are far more like to finish 0-1 or 1-2 unfortunately. Looking on the bright side , if we are in a relegation dog fight as we don't get thrashed our goal difference is worth a point.