the_mighty_bosh

The question should be asked in every thread for me, it's overdue that Mellon should be sacked. Personally I'd have sacked him after the 3-0 defeat to Fylde.

This whole thread is a joke, it's nonsense that you're actually being serious. If Mellon doesn't get a summer transfer window then we're a knee-jerk club that listens to the idiot part of our fanbase way too much. Luckily Frank and the board are better than that.

Sums up GKing's posts well.

I'd love to say that we'll win this and win on Tuesday and we'll cement our playoff place, but I absolutely don't trust this squad to put in back-to-back good performances so one narrow win and one turgid draw is probably the best we can realistically expect. Still it's nice for the first time since maybe 2019 (and before that 2007) that we're playing playoff 6-pointers rather than relegation ones, so I suppose that's progress. Fair play to Aldershot because when we smashed them 5-1 at the start of the season it looked like they would be nowhere near the top, so credit to them still being in the mix.

Four strikers, three of which are proven at this level or above and the other (Fondop) who's mercurial enough to cause opposition defences panic. We didn't give any of them a proper opportunity to score with the way we set up tonight, aside from maybe Garner in the early stages. Mellon has got enough points so far to justify that he's doing the job that needs doing, but surely he could be setting the team up in a more effective way than he currently is? We made enough mistakes tonight that very nearly led to goals to say that the clean sheet was more down to luck rather than a particularly skilled defence. Playoffs will be progress this season, but it clearly could be so much better than this.

...feet and ankles?

At time of writing Truro doesn't have a football ground in Truro that they can use, as Treyew Road got sold off to a supermarket a couple of years ago and there's been loads of false dawns with stadiums. Although they are due to be moving back there for next season. In the meantime they groundshared with Torquay for about half a season, before groundsharing with Plymouth Parkway for a year and a half. But this year's rush to get fixtures played due to constant postponements has led to where they are currently. Gloucester has an artificial pitch which at least gives them a better chance of getting the game on.

Stretching this thread title a little as it's National League South (and a Latics forum of course) but... Truro City's nomadic existence reached a whole new level of farce today. Starting the season playing in Plymouth (2h30 round trip from Truro) they agreed to groundshare with Taunton (near 5 hour round trip) out of fear of not completing their "home" fixtures due to so many postponements. Of course Taunton are struggling to complete their own home fixtures with their already boggy pitch and, since this agreement, Truro haven't managed to play a "home" game in Taunton. So when Truro play at "home" to Taunton on Saturday, naturally the match is taking place at National League North side Gloucester City's ground. A 400-mile, 7 hour round trip for a home game! It would actually be 2 hours and 100 miles (round trip) closer for Latics to play a home game there. Add that to Torquay's financial problems and it's fair to say that non-league football down here in the South West isn't looking in great shape at present.

If we fail to go up this season and are pottering around mid-table playing poor football going into January 2025 then this thread will have some merit. Until then I can't think of anyone who would be a realistic upgrade on Mellon at this level. Our record is W11 D4 L5 in the 20 league games with him at the helm. Who was our last Latics manager with a better record of results over their first 20 matches?

9 games unbeaten is the least that the fanbase deserved after the 3-0 horror show at Fylde.

They're on the Mellon Sack Watch thread. Quite frankly it's a disgrace that Mellon is still here.

Done us a big favour this week by beating those two teams. One more favour by giving us a rare home win would be much apppreciated!

I rate each of Hobson, Raglan and Hogan individually at this level, but as a unit they've just conceded 2 poor goals from corners in the last 2 games that have directly lost us points. Add to that they don't look like an attacking threat from set pieces either despite their height, physicality and nous (admittedly Conlon and Gardner's slow drifted balls don't help) and there has to be questions asked about them.

In the Lemsagam era, it wouldn't actually surprise me if a Club Statement relating to this was produced.

A fair post, more of this please.

Let's just hope he adapts the way he sets us up then, which he has apparently done at the three other clubs he won promotion with (can't remember a Latics manager I've been able to say that about).

In the same way that current poor performances don't equate to guaranteed poor football in the future.

That is poor from Mellon and as bad as the team performance. And there's still no way that we should even consider sacking him.

Yeah that's true, although sometimes amongst it I think he actually believes that he's the only fan who is correct.

A very creative way of saying none.

Again adding to your track record of being proven wrong. What "big calls" have you gotten right?

It's just lucky that you've got a track record of being wrong a lot more about these things than being right.

I'm not desperate for an attacking brand of football, but I do want a clear and effective strategy of how we're going to win matches. It's not happened enough so far. That said, the idea of sacking a manager who has a league record of W10 D4 L5 is laughably stupid.

It really isn't.

Have to agree, can't believe how aimless our play was. Also with the back 3 we have, it's a disgrace that we've conceded in back-to-back games from corners. There's been just about enough games under Mellon where we've shown that there's something to work with, but far too many already where there has been so much room for improvement in each performance. Fylde, Ebbsfleet (x2), Gateshead, Dorking, Woking, York on Tuesday and today, regardless of how many points we picked up in each match we deserved nothing from them based on the way we played. It's infuriating how we couldn't turn up on a game like today.