yarddog73

11 hours ago, disjointed said:

I'd say that the majority recognised that the squad had major deficiencies, albeit we haven't really addressed some of them (a right back foremost). For me Mellon has tailed off but deserves next season to see where he can get us, I would wager that 10 games into a new season we won't be sitting just outside the relegation places. 

I'm not debating whether Mellon gets next season or not because that's a given and rightly so but what alarms me is the frequency in which his teams get absolutely drubbed and played off the park, it's almost like every other game now and that's after we supposedly strengthened in January to help us at the business end of the season.

Say what you want about Unsworth but his teams didn't roll over and have their bellies tickled at the same frequency as Mellons lot. 

This for me is the biggest worry next season alongside him failing to spot where we are desperately short and him being a tactical dinosaur, it's 2024 and we still play seven at the back out of possession which is just soul destroying particularly as we keep very few clean sheets. 

8 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Won't be winning promotion with a 34yo and 36yo leading the line.

We would if the other nine were up to it.

59 minutes ago, oafc1955 said:

Mellon included? Would you trust him to start from scratch?

It's a tough one given his style of play, if he were allowed to keep who he wanted and sign another dozen I think he'd have us playing, he certainly wouldn't have such an imbalanced lopsided squad.

For what it's worth I think he will start next season (that's if he wants to), what he's allowed to do in the transfer market and the amount he can shift out will probably dictate how next season goes for us, hopefully the Rothwells still have some money left in the pot because there is no point getting the sticking plasters out with this squad.

Just now, League one forever said:

I don’t think he ‘has to’ change or rotate- it’s a choice. 
 

A great example is Garner and Fondop - they come into the side because of injury and score goals together. As soon as Norwood is fit he’s straight back in. . they hadn’t done anything wrong to warrant dropping. It might also of given Nors a kick up the arsed to see he’s not a guaranteed starter. 

10 without a win with Norwood, he has no favourites but the only partnership that's really clicked Garner/Fondop was binned off at the first opportunity. 

Piss poor management that.

I'm getting to the stage where I feel this group and the club have given up on this season.

14 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

We need a squad. We can't just have starters and youths. What is better - having a back up that is experienced, versatile and knows the club and the squad or getting rid of them and signing someone new as a back up? Or, a 3rd option, signing someone who is a starter then you have potentially 3 CBS fighting over 2 spaces (or 3 starters in a back 3 with little or no back up) so you're paying starter wages for someone who won't be playing regularly?

Keeping this seasons Captain as a squad player just wouldn't work, he's limited at the best of times and he's done little through this latest spell to lift the squad, we need a new Captain who doesn't feel undermined by the previous one hanging around.

My view is any player out of contract should be binned off and probably about a dozen others told they can leave if they can fix themselves up, we need a massive overhaul and I honestly wouldn't be bothered if we payed the lot off and started again from scratch.

3 hours ago, nzlatic said:

I wouldn't start him next season either. But he's an experienced pro who can at a push play anywhere across the back 4. He's an ideal back up/sub.

This is how we are lumbered with the likes of Gardner, Hope, Mcghahey. When we stop being so charitable to players on a downward trajectory is probably the day we start to improve. Saying that with Mellon' penchant for a 30 odd year old all will probably be offered new deals.

Hogan needs to go for me, he's just not at the level we need if we are serious about mounting a promotion push and he's largely failed as Captain to maintain any level of performance from his team and at times is the weakest link.

Currently on a run of no win in ten with Norwood in the team.

Let's go win the League

Just now, Dave_Og said:

It's not an either or, is it?  Looks like a both

Probably, what I'm saying is the two can't work together. These players have effectively downed tools since Frank came back from rowing the Atlantic, not sure why but for me we need to rip it up and start again. 

Another embarrassing half of football from our leaderless overpaid frauds.

Either 80% of these players or the management team need replacing, take your pick Frank. 

3 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

Give the captaincy to Dan Garder played his heart out again.

Shame he's not three years younger, must be frustrating for him as there's no doubt it's a struggle for him physically at times, he cares though which is more than can be said for some.

2 minutes ago, True Tic said:

if we’d gone for youth and innovation and it had backfired then we’d be saying should have gone for the tried and tested Mellon. Damned if you do etc .  I do think there is a real mentality issue which had dogged us for a while now. Their resilience when under pressure or conceding is atrocious, the slightest disgruntled reaction from the fans and the heads drop. The ability is surely there, it’s the collective mentality

Need some leaders, starting with a Captain who can drag the team up when required. Shocking lack of communication on the pitch at times and I don't count Norwood having a bitch about everything in that.

Give him ten games, we will be mid table, fans not happy and the same players will be letting him down week after week, get rid, replace with some 87 year old dinosaur....

Rinse and repeat. 

1 hour ago, GlossopLatic said:

 

You mean like the lie your mate told us for years that the North Stand was unsafe.

Or the one he told us that it would be ready for the season start despite not having an electricity supply.

3 hours ago, LightDN123 said:

But what came before it was far better than anything Unsy ever produced. 

Not defending him but I seem to remember we were third to Wrexham and County after Christmas in the form table through to the end of the season. Be interesting to see where Mellon sits over the same period.

When Fondop went off and Garner we no longer had the target man to pump it up to so had to look for an alternative, whether that was just coincidence who knows but we certainly played more football with 10 men than we did before.

Another telling factor was the players then took it upon themselves to find space and make themselves available and upped their work rate. It could be argued that Fylde allowed that but who knows. It was certainly better on the eye and looked like the way we played against Chesterfield for large parts.

Most worrying for me is how teams just break on us it's been a feature all season when teams are happy to pour forward because they know we have the slowest goalkeeper bar none when an attack breaks down. Yesterday Norwood was screaming at times one on one or we had an overload but Hudson just lacks the awareness to see it, he's never played out his whole life because he doesn't understand the game of football at all.

1 minute ago, nzlatic said:

We need players who can handle the pressure and expectation. We don’t have enough of them now and it’s costing us. It’s no coincidence that our better performances are in games where the pressure is reduced - Chesterfield, Barnet at home, our better away form in general. Out of the play offs (reduced pressure) and we steadily picked up points. Get in the play offs (pressure increases) and suddenly they can’t win a game. 
 

Until we do that then it won’t matter what manager we have or what style we play, ultimately too many of them will crack as soon as the heat gets turned up. 

Whilst everyone (including Mellon) make excuses for them they will continue to play like a bunch of fancies. Some of our players are amongst the best paid at the level we are at and I'll put the manager in that bracket also so what are we actually paying for? 

24 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

People are entitled to question Mellon, though I don’t agree. 
 

But let’s not start saying it’s got worse than Unsworth and start to retrospectively improve his spell here. Unsworth was an absolute incompetent manager and an unlikable character. In 9 games he won 1 game of football after assembling his squad. He’s dog shit and Mellon should not be compared to him. 
 

Crack on with the Mellon debate, but please don’t give that fraud any credit for anything. 

I don't think anyone is giving anyone any credit in this, comparisons will be made because we are as dysfunctional as we've ever been right now and Mellon has had opportunity to correct some of that and hasn't. 

Just now, BradKnowles1 said:

Won’t Fondop be on a 4 game ban anyway due to a second violent conduct red card? 

He would be but I wouldn't describe having your shin raked by an opponents studs as violent, saying that they'll protect the referee despite him having an absolute mare yesterday, he got so much wrong and missed so many fouls it was actually untrue.

On that note though I think we are now suffering as a result of Garner continuously playing up and tying himself up with the centrehalfs, it's becoming almost tedious now that he wants to play so little football in favour of his own brand of shithousery which is boring now and not helping us one bit.

On a serious note what player is going to want to come here and play hoofball every week, we already know there are players who have signed and are shocked at our style of play, it's not an attractive prospect for any player, most of them want to play football not the turgid shite Mellon and Brabin churn out.

It's a huge mess one that can be blamed in part on Royle's vanity project when he employed his mate Unsworth in place of a club legend Shez who let's face it was treated shockingly and effectively forced out.

I suppose again we are reaping what we sow from having people on the board who put personal interest before the clubs. Thomson wasn't the man long term but had probably done enough to earn a short term contract with the incentive of a new one based on League position. He did go unbeaten so again what was it that we actually wanted? Did anybody sit down and come up with a plan?.

We are told the Rothwells don't get involved in the football side of it so whose making all these shit calls?. Is it a one man band with DR calling all the shots or do we have a more pragmatic approach?. Whose sanctioning transfers because that is one part of the operation that needs addressing as a matter of concern. Mellon is currently shoehorning players in to different systems despite us having around 35 paid professionals on the books, criminal really

Just yesterday we had;

McGahey at RB there he just looks exposed

Hogan at left CB when his preffered position is on the right

Gardner LM when his strength is on the ball in the middle

Hammond RM where he's looked less effective every time he's played

Norwood shifted to RF which is criminal really, he should be in a two and preferably with Dallas

Dallas who came on as a LF and the same applies as did to Norwood

You could go on and on, add to that Mellon has a penchant for dropping his inform players, Dallas the latest yesterday yet he'd arguably been our best player before yesterday, Fondop is dropped on a whim regardless of what he does, Sachdev MOM - not seen since. Walker played well and frozen out, Sutton blamed for everything and the defensive scapegoat yet we have some absolute raffle winners keeping their places week after week despite conceding soft goal after soft goal, keeper keeps his place regardless of what he does, kills us in an attacking sense and plays with no hands some weeks, about eight strikers but one of the lowest scorers in the division over the past couple of months.

It's not like this group is lacking in experience, all these older players Mellon seems to rely on know the time of day, every kid in the squad has been binned off or blamed for our fortunes, latest being Hammond yesterday who was pulled for doing fuck all wrong but he's young and an easy target, weak as piss manager in my opinion who doesn't have the balls to pull Norwood or Hogan which would have been my call after the second goal went in yesterday, both were culpable for our dogshit start and these are the pro's the rest are supposed to 'look up to', not a fucking chance you'll create anything if them two are your lieutenants on the pitch.

I'm sacking it off this season and will watch from the comfort of my sofa, Fylde the latest group of fans to ridicule us for our shower of shit team, it's thoroughly depressing attending games at the minute, becoming more of a piss boil week on week and something drastic needs to change before the fans decide to leave in their droves which is inevitable if this continues. As for next season I'm undecided on renewing and will see how things pan out post season but I'm not confident of anything improving particularly with the players we've somehow managed to 'retain' and a manager and sidekick who are tactically inept and unable to improve a single player on the training ground, I'm getting to the stage where I don't give a fuck what Mellons done before, he's had an easy ride for me after some of the worst performances I've ever witnessed at BP and going forward I'll judge him on what he does for us. So far he's took us backwards which is hard to comprehend given how it felt under Unsworth but that's the sad reality at the minute. If he didn't have those promotions on his CV the fans would be baying for his blood and rightly so because he's failing miserably at the minute.

18 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

So Mellon instructed them to play football against Chesterfield, saw they did it reasonably well, saw us go 2 up, saw the crowd respond to the effort even though we drew and then since then has deliberately sent them out to not play that way at all? Despite our form being shit for a month.
 

That makes no sense whatsoever. 
 

The pressure/expectation was off them in that game so they played with a bit of freedom. Simple. 
 

That pressure will be there in the majority of the games we play in this league. It’s up to Mellon to put a team out capable of dealing with it. This hoofball stuff is a red herring. 

From the kick off today we had possession it was passed backed to Hudson who promptly hoofed it up towards Garner to try and win (he didn't), that was a pre planned move and set the tone, Garner won nothing all day and neither did Norwood, it was pointless.

Has he gone yet?

Nobodies been involved in as many games as Mellon, after that hand on heart I bet he can't say he's seen or been involved with a bigger shower of shit in his whole life and it's his fucking tactics causing it the clown.

We know there's work to do and we know we won't win every game but I'm sorry it's just fucking stupidity to crack on with those tactics, we did away with it against Chesterfield and guess what we played some fucking football but that wasn't enough to convince Pep Mellon that there is more than one way to play a game of FOOTball.

8 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

Considering it’s 2 years since having a proper right back at the club, I wouldn’t trust our recruitment strategy to start finding young talented players to sell on. 
 

Something is fundamentally wrong with our recruitment. 
 

I think a DOF is needed. 

Not another wage