League 2 relegation thread 14/15

[Murphy]

I'm trying to think if we've ever beaten Dagenham?

I know you done us twice in league one.

I think you may have beaten us in the Conference? In the league I think we've won all three so far, which is nice.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

Whoever escapes relegation have to accept it is one of the worst league 2 that there has ever been and ought to be considering major squad changes, I know a lot of Pools fans will be upset if certain players are offered new deals

 

[shoddycollins]

Whoever escapes relegation have to accept it is one of the worst league 2 that there has ever been and ought to be considering major squad changes, I know a lot of Pools fans will be upset if certain players are offered new deals

True. Two from Carlisle, Tranmere, Hartlepool and Cheltenham will become probably the worst teams ever to avoid relegation from the league... and I include the days when the bottom team frequently avoided relegation in that.

 

[hellogregory]

I think you may have beaten us in the Conference? In the league I think we've won all three so far, which is nice.

Yeah possibly. To be honest that season is a blur, it was so bad that not many of the wins were memorable at all.

Oh next season is going to be a barrel of laughs down in that hell hole of a division again :|

 

[Boz]

Whoever escapes relegation have to accept it is one of the worst league 2 that there has ever been and ought to be considering major squad changes, I know a lot of Pools fans will be upset if certain players are offered new deals

I agree about the quality of L2. Rovers don't have that bad a squad, it's just that Adams doesn't pick players in their best position and has frozen out some who could do a job for us. If we had Ronnie Moore in charge for the last 5 games, reckon we'd stay up.

 

[Duffy]

Yes it's a terrible standard this season, not been that impressed with anyone. Christ we could still finish close to mid table with one of the worst squads I've ever seen at the club.

 

[Gladders]

Between the bottom 4 for me as well but those who say Mansfield/York should be safe only have to look at when Lincoln went down they were 5 or 6 points clear at this stage and went, they only had one spot to avoid too as Stockport were already well adrift.

Even last season Tranmere were about 4 points clear with only one spot to avoid. Its unlikely they will go down but Mansfield in particular need a win soon like Cambridge got yesterday.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

The danger for anyone finishing mid table is thinking you'll be ok for next, I can't see any of the bottom 6 that escape not having a clear out

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Well firstly I don't think this is the worst ever, that was in 1999/2000, 3 teams only had 38 points on the last day of season, us Chester and Shrewsbury were absolutely f*cking dreadful that season, all 3 deserved non-league, thankfully for us and Shrews only one went down that year and Chester's American owner and his 'adopt American football tactics into football management' approach somehow helped keep us and shrews up.

Secondly I don't think it always needs a lot to be at top from the bottom, Wycombe have shown that, just some shrewd signings in summer and a good start and kick you on, is not masses of difference between top and bottom.

Thirdly in another response to Lee Wilson about our squad, while I do think our Carlisle side if relegated may be the most expensive, best quality squad on paper to ever be relegated out of L2, I think a lot of the base problems have lied at the door of Kavanagh's horrendous short-term management approach.

a lot of the damage that has taken Carlisle from 8th in L1 to nearly non-league has been caused over 3-4 years of managers constantly trying to swap-change, mix it up, add loaness etc, etc on a weekly basis always trying another trick to somehow stop the rot.

we'll be lucky if we've played the same style, formation or team 2 games in a row for the last 3-4 years and its meant zero consistency, no planning, no forward thinking, no gameplan or approach. I personally think Kavanagh wasted last season, instead of spending that L1 season trying to work out our weak areas and addressing them step by step he on weekly basis changed every single thing, formation, team, style, players, training etc, etc we probably played 20 different formations in his time maybe more.......all in desperation.

My firm belief is that when the summer came around and we had unlike most L2 sides a good budget and a lot of free spaces to fill, Mr Kavanagh did not have one idea at all of what type of player he wanted, or what we needed or how he actually wanted us to play because he'd spent so long messing about, fiddling with formations and style and never actually tried to find out where we looked strong or weak. So with no clue at all of what to do he just went out and chucked the money at afew names who 'should have done the job' but this clump of names and decent experienced players came into the group with no direction, no plans, no set-up, I still do not think we know where they fit in or if we ever needed them....................that is what caused the mess.

My reason I want Curle sacked today or removed is because he's making the exact same problems, we sit here 10 months later and he meddles and messes about, never has ideas of what he wants to do just gambles on lots of short-term hopes, that is not how it'll turn around.

 

[hellogregory]

Well this Carlisle United side is the worst professional football team I've ever seen. The fact we're not relegated yet speaks volumes about the standard of this league, so yeah I reckon it could be the worst league 2 there's ever been.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

So this is the thread we'll be inhabiting next season when our spineless board don't sack our inept manager.

 

[cufc17]

To go along with what Dave says, we started the season with no right back - we were playing a midfielder there. This season we've had 4 or 5 loanees to fill that gap, only Hayden White was half decent but only for the first month.

We had too many midfielders at the club, barely any defenders and Curle has had to attempt to solve this, which he hasn't.

 

[Zeus]

How bad are you lot that Mansfield actually look likely to stay up?

 

[cufc17]

Very.

 

[1884 Belmont]

How bad are you lot that Mansfield actually look likely to stay up?

As said above, very.

 

[AdamStag]

Between the bottom 4 for me as well but those who say Mansfield/York should be safe only have to look at when Lincoln went down they were 5 or 6 points clear at this stage and went, they only had one spot to avoid too as Stockport were already well adrift.

Even last season Tranmere were about 4 points clear with only one spot to avoid. Its unlikely they will go down but Mansfield in particular need a win soon like Cambridge got yesterday.

If we go down it will be completely of our own making. Losing to hartlepool and York wasn't good, though so far we've had luck with results. Southend away and Shrewsbury at home were always going to be hard - but the fact that nobody came any closer to us is a big bonus.

The last 5 are Plymouth away tranmere at home Canbridge away portsmouth at home and accrington away.

The game for me is tranmere at home - if we avoid defeat in that we should be alright. Added that Canbridge portsmouth and accy won't have anything to play for we would be sending ourselves down.

I still think 47 will be enough

 

[1884 Belmont]

AdamStag, I have just posted this on our own messageboard, but take a look at this if you have any doubts over next Tuesday:
Tranmere 2-3 Cheltenham
Cheltenham 2-0 Tranmere
Hartlepool 0-0 Tranmere
Tranmere 1-1 Hartlepool
Carlisle 1-0 Tranmere
Tranmere 0-2 Carlisle
Tranmere 0-0 Mansfield
Mansfield ? - ? Tranmere
Tranmere 1-1 York
York 2-0 Tranmere
9 games against the other members of the current bottom 6 with one to play.
P9 W0 D4 L5 GF6 GA11 PTS 4.
Zero wins. If we don't beat Mansfield next week we will not have won a single game, home or away, against the current bottom quarter of the league (almost quarter of a season).

 

[hellogregory]

Looking at the remaining fixtures, I think it's definitely going to be Cheltenham joining us in the conference next season. I can see Tranmere picking up 1 win and a draw (at the very least) which will be enough as Cheltenham won't get that from their remaining fixtures.

 

[Habbinalan]

If we go down it will be completely of our own making. Losing to hartlepool and York wasn't good, though so far we've had luck with results. Southend away and Shrewsbury at home were always going to be hard - but the fact that nobody came any closer to us is a big bonus.

The last 5 are Plymouth away tranmere at home Canbridge away portsmouth at home and accrington away.

The game for me is tranmere at home - if we avoid defeat in that we should be alright. Added that Canbridge portsmouth and accy won't have anything to play for we would be sending ourselves down.

I still think 47 will be enough

I think 47 with a superior goal difference COULD be enough and 48 with a superior goal difference SHOULD be enough....but 48 COULD go down. How do Tranmere Hartlepool or Carlisle get to 48? With great difficulty based on recent managerial/team performances but we already know that most of their remaining opponents are capable of gifting a team a goal or two on a bad day. All 3 have the players and manager who should know how to turn luck into momentum for a few winnable games.

It's not what I think WILL happen but don't assume that Cambridge will not have anything to play for on the 18th. The last 6 weeks has hurt fans, players and manager. Even if we've got points (or even a win) from Accrington and/or Cheltenham, that match will still be tasty.

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

I've just been having a good look at the fixtures and I am beginning to think people are a bit previous in writing off Cheltenham , the Mansfield v Tranmere game looks the key to a lot of things

 

[Murphy]

Say one thing for Keith Curle, he's good entertainment - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32206792

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

He's right but talk about worst possible timing for such a thing.

but he should have been removed from position today, wonder if that interview maybe was him expecting the boot today

 

[Habbinalan]

Say one thing for Keith Curle, he's good entertainment - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32206792

Almost exact opposite attitude to Chris Wilder, who was equally as entertaining on the drive down the A45 yesterday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32177547 Our lovable Mark Johnson is so gentle and calming with our spikey but much loved Richard "meltdown" Money that we often miss out on these bonuses at home matches these days.

 

[hellogregory]

He's right but talk about worst possible timing for such a thing.

but he should have been removed from position today, wonder if that interview maybe was him expecting the boot today

He's totally right what he says about them, but they are his shower of shite so he has to take some blame.
And if they are weak characters and can't take criticism, their own manager turning on them 5 days before an already impossible task of needing to win a home match, it's only going to make things worse.

 

[hellogregory]

I've just been having a good look at the fixtures and I am beginning to think people are a bit previous in writing off Cheltenham , the Mansfield v Tranmere game looks the key to a lot of things

I'm not completely writing Cheltenham off, the only team I've got totally 100% written off is Carlisle. But having seen Cheltenham's fixtures, it's looking very likely that they'll be joining us.

 

[AdamStag]

I've just been having a good look at the fixtures and I am beginning to think people are a bit previous in writing off Cheltenham , the Mansfield v Tranmere game looks the key to a lot of things

If we lost it will be damaging for us but we could survive given other fixtures we have - it would be near terminal for tranmere

 

[AdamStag]

I'm not completely writing Cheltenham off, the only team I've got totally 100% written off is Carlisle. But having seen Cheltenham's fixtures, it's looking very likely that they'll be joining us.

You should be getting something at home to dagenham!

 

[Richard Cranium]

Looking at the fixtures Cheltenham need 8 points from 15 to catch us and that's without us picking up another point so I can't see that happening and Tranmere only need 6. If they beat us next week then we are really in the shit but if they fail to do so I think we will be ok.

 

[White Army]

We wont beat you next week, we wont beat anyone the rest of the season.

 

[Pogogacy]

Well firstly I don't think this is the worst ever, that was in 1999/2000, 3 teams only had 38 points on the last day of season, us Chester and Shrewsbury were absolutely f*cking dreadful that season, all 3 deserved non-league, thankfully for us and Shrews only one went down that year and Chester's American owner and his 'adopt American football tactics into football management' approach somehow helped keep us and shrews up.

This clearly isn't the worst League Two ever, such statements are hyperbolic in the extreme. Also, bear in mind that standards of coaching/tactics/technique have improved massively at all levels in recent years and it's difficult to make the case that the standard in our fourth tier now is lower than it was in, say, the 1970s.

I think somebody said earlier that this Carlisle team are the worst to ever play at this level. Doncaster Rovers were relegated with 20 points, 113 goals conceded and a record number of defeats in 1998. Carlisle have more than doubled that points total with five games still to play.