Scapegoat Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 (edited) It seems hard to muster much positivity at the moment about the prospects of this team. I am not normally a doom and gloom merchant, nor a happy (edited) clapper, but this currently ranks as possibly the worst season to date for me in terms of both engagement with the club and in terms of the entertainment that has been delivered. I have a season ticket, and have had one for 25 years - with a few seasons before that of regular pay on the day attendance. My away trip numbers vary depending on how well we are doing and social plans - this season I have not yet ventured away. I have yet to enjoy any game this season - highlights are currently 2 15 minute spells in the second half against Barnsley and Millwall. It feels like a new low has been reached. Not aided by the fact that the team doesn't have any players that I like or would be genuinely bothered if they left. I am hopeful, though not expectant, that the appointment of Sheridan can do something to inject life into the team - he seemed to want teams to play with an entertaining style for the most part last time round. But it feels as though the size of the job at hand, and the perilous position we find ourselves in may well be too much to recover. During the last quarter of a century, I have watched poor teams scrap for survival in this league before, but I don't seem to remember us ever being this far off the pace and having such a poor W record by mid January. Can anyone remember those previous relegation battles and point out that we have been this bad before and got out of it? Or is this really the lowest ebb of our club for getting on 50 years (we had a long period of stability in the old Division Two before I started watching). Edited January 18, 2016 by Scapegoat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I am not normally a doom and gloom merchant, nor a rapper clapper, Are these an Athletico's splinter group? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapegoat Posted January 18, 2016 Author Share Posted January 18, 2016 Are these an Athletico's splinter group? Happy Clapper was the intention - either poor typing or auto-correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfatjoe1 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 As bad as i can remember. The quality isn't there. Shez will have to hit the ground running with his signings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latics and England Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I think this is more desperate on the pitch than it has been during my lifetime. A Fleetwood win tomorrow night would leave us 7 points adrift of safety when we have only won 3 games in our first 25 games of the season. That would take a hell of a turn-around. Whilst it is far from hopeless, I don't think we have been as close to relegation to the 4th tier since we were promoted in 1971 although things didn't look good for a while in 2005. If you look a bit wider, the summer of 2003 was more desperate than this as we were close to losing the club completely. The big bonus we had at the time was that we had people at the club, both officials and players, who pulled together and fought. I'm not sure we've got enough people like that now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losesome Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 (edited) Biggest problem we have this season is that for the first time i can remember there are so few sides that look in trouble. Normally at this stage of the season any of the bottom half could really go down , get dragged into a relegation battle etc because normally only a few points would separate say the bottom 4 from the ones half way. This season even now in January it is becoming clearer each week that already the relegation issue appears to be 4 of the bottom 5 . 2 or 3 wins at this stage would normally propel you up several place in the league , now even 3 wins on the spin would probably keep us in the bottom 5. I think for the first time in a long time you will need 52/53 pts to stay up which means Latics still need 32pts to stay up. where on earth are we going to get them from !!!!! Shez has got an absolute massive task to keep us up even signing 3 or 4 decent players (if he can). In answer to your question - No i don't think we are playing any worse than other seasons we have struggled at the bottom, the big difference this season is as i said , the other teams in the bottom half are better than usual which makes our situation so much worse, hence the general feeling of doom and gloom about the place and with the supporters. Edited January 18, 2016 by losesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddogs Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 (edited) Fleetwood playing Colchester win for either side is :censored:e for us a draw best result me thinks.Fleetwood win puts them on 29 points us on 21 points. Edited January 18, 2016 by yarddogs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L1onheartNew Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Are these an Athletico's splinter group? No, you are confusing them with people's front of Athletico Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petelatics Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 We've had some narrow squeaks over the years. The last three wins that kept us in the Premiership show what can happen and no one expected that. For me the key is to get players who can create chances and score goals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 This is the worst position the club has been in while I've been supporting us. I was convinced we were doomed when we lost at Preston when Johnson first took over, but I'm not there yet this time.. There's plenty of time left & we've got an experienced manager who's got teams out of this position before. I'm convinced the players have been underperforming under Dunn & Kelly, and Holden, and if Sheridan can get a few of them back at it, which he should and add a couple of quality signings I think we'll be fine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OAFCinWolves Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 We need 3 wins just to be back amongst it which at the moment is a big ask Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmer1 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 (edited) its still early really & we could stay up with plenty of games to spare but im looking at the next home game as a massive must win! Shez will have had a them for over a weeks training and I expect to see an impact. We are at home and Bury are out of form and if you dont win your home games then you get relegated. Saturday will tell us a lot I think and if we dont see improvements then we have problems. In no way is that Shez's fault but it could confirm that whoever is in charge the current squad is just relegation fodder Edited January 18, 2016 by palmer1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 its still early really & we could stay up with plenty of games to spare but im looking at the next home game as a massive must win! Shez will have had a them for over a weeks training and I expect to see an impact. We are at home and Bury are out of form and if you dont win your home games then you get relegated. Saturday will tell us a lot I think and if we dont see improvements then we have problems. In no way is that Shez's fault but it could confirm that whoever is in charge the current squad is just relegation fodder We need to start scoring and to have one decent run between now and the end of the season. Sheridan can deliver both of those things and, although it would be nice, it doesn't have to start on Saturday.... It might take him a few weeks to get us firing. If it takes him until this time next month we'll still have 15 games left and we won't lose them all between now and then. We'll be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapegoat Posted January 18, 2016 Author Share Posted January 18, 2016 Premiership struggles were expected though - we were always going to be a team that was going to be at the bottom end, and still we produced some entertainment and good results. This season we have won one home league game, against a team we are desperately trying to catch now and were very fortunate. Back to 2004/5....that had some pretty dire games in the league, but it also by this stage had a few games that we had scored 3 goals, and a couple with more than that. There were always fleeting glimpses of what the squad could achieve on their day - and we had the wonderful FA Cup run that got to the fourth round and saw us beat City on the way! If there was a game this season that people look at and think, yep that was a good game and 'if we can play like that' we'll get the points we need, well I have yet to see it. My highlights are still Yeates having a good 15 minutes against Barnsley, and Forte having a good 15 minutes against Millwall. I really hope that Shez can get a few new faces in, and somehow get the squad to gel. There is enough time to get out of this technically, but bot sure in reality its that realistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 People keep using these 3 wins in 25 as some kind of benchmark that we'll need a miracle to improve upon but, conversely, surely the reality is that it should be highly unlikely that we won't better our worst form in living memory in the next 25 games.....? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmer1 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 We need to start scoring and to have one decent run between now and the end of the season. Sheridan can deliver both of those things and, although it would be nice, it doesn't have to start on Saturday.... It might take him a few weeks to get us firing. If it takes him until this time next month we'll still have 15 games left and we won't lose them all between now and then. We'll be fine. yeah but I cant see us going on a long run of form, maye 2 wins or 3 on the bounce folowed by losses. if teams around us match it we are done. we need to pick up points now imo. a month from now could be too late, we could just run out of games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magister Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Burton sheffield wigan posh millwall barnsley away will yield very few points as will Walsall Gills and Coventry at home. That leaves 12 games to get 29 points less whatever we get from those 9 games. Unfortunately I have to believe we are going to come up short Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 (edited) yeah but I cant see us going on a long run of form, maye 2 wins or 3 on the bounce folowed by losses. if teams around us match it we are done. we need to pick up points now imo. a month from now could be too late, we could just run out of games. Most teams around us won't match it though, that's why they'll go down. Also, 1 or 2 always tend to plummet from mid table during the second half of the season. Pick up a few draws and win 6 in 10 at some point and we'll be fine Edited January 18, 2016 by HarryBosch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Burton sheffield wigan posh millwall barnsley away will yield very few points as will Walsall Gills and Coventry at home. That leaves 12 games to get 29 points less whatever we get from those 9 games. It doesn't work like that. Especially not with (typical) Latics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flemboy Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Most people I speak to fear the worse .It will take a minor miracle to avoid the drop .I have half resigned myself to that .I first started watching them in that division so will do so again if we do Still along way to go yet though so who knows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Most people I speak to fear the worse .It will take a minor miracle to avoid the drop . It won't though, just mid table form... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankly Mr Shankly Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 For me the next three matches are absolutely critical to being able to answer this question positively. Bury at home, Shrews away and Blackpool at home. I think 6-7 points minimum from these matches to make some early ground and actually inject some confidence into the squad. Less than that gives us a lot to do with some tough fixtures that we expect little from. Even with Shez at the helm, I expect us to go down this season. I'm glad he'll be in charge next season because I think he's the best man for that particular task with a fresh squad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scapegoat Posted January 18, 2016 Author Share Posted January 18, 2016 We need to start scoring and to have one decent run between now and the end of the season. Sheridan can deliver both of those things and, although it would be nice, it doesn't have to start on Saturday.... It might take him a few weeks to get us firing. If it takes him until this time next month we'll still have 15 games left and we won't lose them all between now and then. We'll be fine. Always good to see optimism, and that there always different opinions. If we won every remaining league game it probably would only get us a play-off spot. At this stage of the season that sort of highlights how far off we are at the moment. As a minimum we probably need 51 points (it will probably be in the window of 48-54). So another 30 points to go from our remaining 21 games. Around 1.5 points per game on average, which is sort of the form of a team fighting for the bottom end of the play-offs. We probably need 8 wins and 5 draws, leaving 8 defeats to even be with a chance of staying up. The next 3 games are all against teams that are nearer the bottom than the top - and then we follow that with two games against current Play-off contenders - before facing Blackpool for the second time. I think it is fair to say that given that 4 of the next 6 are against teams in and around us - if we have not got a minimum of 9 points from those games we are probably done for. Which given that we are away for 4 of those games, then the pressure on the home games (Bury and Blackpool) to produce 3 points each is huge. Season defining game on Saturday I feel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlossopLatic Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 The worst team in my lifetime in terms of talent was the 98-99 team. John Sheridan pulled us over the line that season with the help of a couple battle hardened warriors in Duxbury Gary Kelly and Shaun Garnett, I actually believe collectively this team has more natrual talent than that one but we did start to pick up a few wins in the second half of the season and it went down to the last game of the season and we only stay up due to York City being comfortably beaten at Maine Road. Right now I would take it going down to the last day of the season as it means we are still within a shout of staying up. We've got a mountain to climb but as a happy clapper and eternal optimist I believe its possible. If he keeps us up I believe this will be Sheridans biggest achievement at our club as either a player, coach or manager and quite frankly we should build him a statue if he does it. But he can't do it on his own we need people to stand up and be counted both on the pitch within the current squad and off the pitch as the board need to find a way to bring in a few new players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 If we won every remaining league game it probably would only get us a play-off spot. At this stage of the season that sort of highlights how far off we are at the moment. As a minimum we probably need 51 points (it will probably be in the window of 48-54). So another 30 points to go from our remaining 21 games. 13th place last season finished with 61 points, 13th placed Rochdale at the moment have 34 from 25 games. So as it stands Shez only needs to take us from relegation form to mid table form.. We've produced promotion form to get out of the :censored: in the past..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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