EFL Cup Thread 23/24

[ForzaCounty]

Middlesborough?

North Yorks derby

 

[Ainsty]

Middlesborough?

I have an irrational dislike of Middlesborough. They are in North Yorkshire but pretend not to be.

 

[AdamStag]

I'm not as sure as you. I thought we'd finish around 11th, never bought in to the going straight up stuff but am now thinking bottom six.
Morecambe away next Tuesday will tell us a lot about where we are.
I still think we need a defender and a hard running midfielder to get us competitive.

They’ll just be little things like a bit of extra pace or tightening up in defence or that you aren’t playing the cat and fiddle every so often.

You were really too good to go down last season more often than not it’s uncertainty behind the scenes through chairman etc, the reason you went down through hardy and us through haslam (though one was accidental and one was through a fraud), you’re a better club than what went down and you’ll be just fine.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Everton away is what I’m hoping for

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

I'm not as sure as you. I thought we'd finish around 11th, never bought in to the going straight up stuff but am now thinking bottom six.
Morecambe away next Tuesday will tell us a lot about where we are.
I still think we need a defender and a hard running midfielder to get us competitive.

Bottom six? o No chance

 

[Conker]

Not sure what Rovers clusterfuck of a season last year has to do with this anyway.

I have nothing against either club, I’m more annoyed about all the bs spouted by non league covering pundits and journalists like Virgo and that gobshite Elliott about how the National League is basically at the same level as league 2/a virtual league 3 and using those two clubs points tally as an argument that it’s an injustice there are only 2 promotion slots. The fact is it’s a piss poor standard, a long way off this league (which isn’t great).

Completely agree, many bottled it and changed their tune last season.

 

[AdamStag]

Completely agree, many bottled it and changed their tune last season.

That i do agree with, the conference last year was the poorest it’s looked for a long time and it’s even worse this year.

I still believe the argument for 3 up 3 down is valid

 

[Conker]

L2 has admittedly been shitter than usual recently too but maybe this season will go in a better direction, especially if we get promoted, then it’s been super tough.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

So NL has looked poorer recently, and L2 has also been shitter than usual recently. Does L1 buck the trend? Or are the lower leagues and NL falling away from the top 2?

 

[PuB]

So NL has looked poorer recently, and L2 has also been shitter than usual recently. Does L1 buck the trend? Or are the lower leagues and NL falling away from the top 2?

Yeah the gap between L1 and the Championship is now huge, then in L1 you have a fairly large gap inside it itself between say the top 12 or so and the rest hoping to buck the trend or simply just avoid relegation.

 

[Luke Imp]

Probably a smaller gap this season with losing Sheffield Wednesday/Ipswich and FGR/Accrington/Morecambe at the two extremes of the finances.

Not sure whether that makes it better or worse this season, probably a case of an even 10-24 rather than a mid-table group of clubs and a bottom 8 group.

 

[Luke Imp]

Williams sacked the cups off last season playing reserve teams and did it again, but feels more of a risk this time after what happened opening day as we could've done with a bit of confidence from competing in what is a sort-of derby game. As it was I thought we started well and were the better team up until conceding another soft goal from a corner, after which we lost all confidence. Never looked much of a threat without McGoldrick and Langstaff, and we all know we're not great defensively so no huge surprise we then went on to lose to a Lincoln side who were much closer to full strength than we were.

We've got a bit of an issue in that Williams already seemed to want to kill Baldwin, probably the one defender we have who everyone agrees is definitely up to this level, for not coming back to pre-season in proper shape. He now really, really wants to kill for a fairly stupid red card tonight.

I wasn't there so I can't offer an opinion on this view but some of our lot thought you looked like a Lincoln first and third season Michael Appleton side, which means passing across the back line for the sake of it, passing into trouble, can't beat a press very well, lightweight, little creativity and just a bit 'meh'. You'll acclimatise to being back in the league soon enough, though. Took Stockport a while last season I think?

We only made 3 or 4 changes to be fair, not as many as we usually would mainly because we're low on numbers albeit some of our first teamers needed minutes anyway. Bit weird seeing Tyler Walker as our back-up striker, though.

 

[AdamStag]

Good to see good old cloughie on tv

 

[Optipez]

Bottom six? o No chance

Hope you're right Viking but Williams doesn't strike me as a man who's relaxed about our performances.

 

[Son of Cod]

I have an irrational dislike of Middlesborough. They are in North Yorkshire but pretend not to be.

I refuse to acknowledge Middlesbrough as being in Yorkshire. It's like China trying to claim Taiwan, Hong Kong or Tibet.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Hope you're right Viking but Williams doesn't strike me as a man who's relaxed about our performances.

If he was relaxed then I'd be worried.

He's a talented head coach with fantastic attributes needed to be successful as he proved last season with favourable conditions. He will prove it again in tougher climates. Any Notts fans doubting it in mid August should probably go watch the Panthers instead.

 

[chief]

Boring draw that but it's worse for Bradford.

 

[LS Bantam]

Couldn’t have picked a worse tie, we’re away of course and it’s the one week Wrexham aren’t on TV because even bigger Sky jizz fest Salford Vs Leeds is on.

 

[クレイグ]

Yeah that's awful.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Fantastic we get to play the circus 3 times this season.

 

[Son of Cod]

Hughesy absolutely on the pitch though.

 

[PuB]

Away at Luton for us

 

[chief]

Salford v Leeds and Doncaster v Everton comfortably the TV ties.

 

[chief]

Away at Luton for us

Their ground ready yet?

 

[Son of Cod]

Away at Luton for us

Gillingham doing our cup run in reverse. Burton up next.

 

[lordofthepies]

Vale away ffs

 

[PuB]

Their ground ready yet?

No idea, it’ll be nice to see the plants in that back garden again though

 

[kieran_vale]

Crewe fans - winner of this has to make it their sworn mission to take down the shit in one of the following rounds. We cannot let them start enjoying success.

 

[womble76]

Chelsea away, get in. Last time I was there we won. In fact we used to smash them all the time. However I will take a moderate loss this.time

 

[Son of Cod]

Chelsea away, get in. Last time I was there we won. In fact we used to smash them all the time. However I will take a moderate loss this.time

They made it a tenner a pop all around when we went there a while back in the EFL Cup. Filled the home ends to be fair to them, was class (aside from the fact that they put 7 past us).