League 2 General Chat Thread

[joethegill]

Agreed, but not wholly unexpected with just the one fit striker at the moment, and a not very good striker at that. You know you're in a mess when the options on the bench are all 18 year olds plus a very poor player in Osadebe.

Genuinely thought he'd be decent a few years back - that's before he totally lost his head and thought he was the dogs bollocks shortly after breaking into the first team. Slagged a lot of people at the club off on Twitter while still at the club which shows his level of intelligence. Normally I wish ex-players well, but Osadebe can fuck right off.

 

[Tranmerewhite]

General consensus then is that everyone is poor besides Lincoln and the other top 6 spots will be in order of who is least poor?

Clubs at the bottom must be delighted Macclesfield came up with how that’s going.

 

[valefan16]

General consensus then is that everyone is poor besides Lincoln and the other top 6 spots will be in order of who is least poor?

Clubs at the bottom must be delighted Macclesfield came up with how that’s going.

So far Lincoln, MK and Exeter have looked miles ahead of anyone else we’ve faced, everyone else a bit meh although Cambridge were really poor on the opening day. Not really played many of the bottom sides but of the couple we have Northampton looked capable but toothless and Crewe looked like they have the same tactical inept manager as us.

I’d be shocked if Lincoln, Exeter and MK don’t go up automatically.

The rest seems inconsistency, we’ve produced some good stuff and some real shocking stuff in mini spells and seems a lot of the sides are either that or just drawing a lot (FGR, Oldham, Swindon for eg)

Coventry went up last year and they were pretty meh certainly the games against us and other games, what’s noticeable last season that despite being the joint worst Vale side in our history we managed to beat Luton, Lincoln, Exeter and Coventry once without conceding who made the top 7 so I’d say this level is far more open that others. You can literally beat anyone on a given day regardless of position in the league.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

This season appears very similar to last season. Nothing to see here

 

[Tranmerewhite]

This season appears very similar to last season. Nothing to see here

If that’s the case, we’re due 69 points from our remaining 33 games.

Wouldn’t mind that.

 

[RLC]

MK Dons looked pretty average against us. Very good for fifteen minutes until we sussed them out tactically and then very flat.

Lincoln and Mansfield are the best teams we have played so far, in that order. I would guess Exeter will be impressive in a few weeks as well.

I would have Lincoln and Exeter as certainties to go up automatically, with the other top seven positions up for grabs.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

If that’s the case, we’re due 69 points from our remaining 33 games.

Wouldn’t mind that.

I’m sure. Good luck with that

 

[Casey]

Colchester deservedly beat Crawley yesterday. 3-1 was about the right result (4-2 would have been right). Morris once again pulled of a lot of saves, one of which was a worldy. For a bloke who joined as a coach he has, imho, turned into one of the best keepers at this level.

The Colchester first goal summed up our problem at the moment. Gambin lost the ball in the Colchester penalty area. Picked up on the edge of the area by the Colchester midfielder who ran to the edge of our area without a challenge.

The 3rd goal was due to us trying to push forward to get an equaliser. Centre half up front etc. Credit for going for it but if you're going for it why play tippy-tappy stuff at the back?

Oh well, onwards and midtable we go.

Casey

 

[Super_horns]

I see Rene Gilmartin got a game for Colchester..

Silly red card at the end as well - so needless.

 

[Laker]

I don’t think we’ve played anyone good at ours yet. It’s just we’re bloody awful. Milton Keynes are being tipped for promotion but we battered them yesterday - any striker of reasonable level would have had a field day for us yesterday.

My sense is that Lincoln are good, Macclesfield are terrible and the rest of us are all varying levels of poor in between.

 

[shoddycollins]

General consensus then is that everyone is poor besides Lincoln and the other top 6 spots will be in order of who is least poor?

Clubs at the bottom must be delighted Macclesfield came up with how that’s going.

We're at Macclesfield next, hopefully a chance to bounce back while also furthering operation only-one-real-relegation-place-this-season

 

[Tranmerewhite]

We're at Macclesfield next, hopefully a chance to bounce back while also furthering operation only-one-real-relegation-place-this-season

Scenes when Danny Whittaker runs rings around you and you’re contemplating how a 70 year old goblin is ochestrating Macclesfields only win of the season.

 

[shoddycollins]

Scenes when Danny Whittaker runs rings around you and you’re contemplating how a 70 year old goblin is ochestrating Macclesfields only win of the season.

There won't be any contemplating how. Anyone who has seen Carlisle play this season can think exactly how that could happen.

 

[Dan_Macclad]

Reckon we'll beat Carlisle. Starting an immense run that sees us pip Tranmere to the playoffs and our on loan mitch hancox making a new video.

 

[DippyDon]

I don’t think we’ve played anyone good at ours yet. It’s just we’re bloody awful. Milton Keynes are being tipped for promotion but we battered them yesterday - any striker of reasonable level would have had a field day for us yesterday.

It was an off day for us though yesterday. Even so with all your shots we limited you to one on target and our defence held strong.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

A very strong defence usually gets you promoted . Build from the back

 

[DippyDon]

A very strong defence usually gets you promoted . Build from the back

That’s what Tisdale has done for us in the short time he’s been here. I’m tempted to say it’s the best defence I’ve seen at MK. The fact that Baudry can’t get a game astonishes me but at the moment we shouldn’t drop anyone to include him.

 

[Laker]

It was an off day for us though yesterday. Even so with all your shots we limited you to one on target and our defence held strong.

It was dreadful finishing rather than excellent defending which resulted in the clean sheet. As I said, any reasonable striker would have scored a hatful yesterday.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

Yep. Our game against you lot could be trickier than league position suggests. How many chances did you have?

 

[Laker]

Yep. Our game against you lot could be trickier than league position suggests. How many chances did you have?

We had 24 shots with just one on target. Out of that 24, I fully accept that about seven or eight were clearances on the half way line caught by the wind. But 16 or so chances with one on target tells it’s own tale. We had similar stats at Crawley the week before.

But look, we are utter turd. We can’t defend and generally gift a goal a game through a defensive mistake. We can’t hit a barn door up top and we’re powder puff in midfield. Gary Deegan is already on seven bookings for the season. He’s our captain. We’re a total shambles and you will batter us frankly.

 

[Reginald Fodstain]

Out of what I've seen, Lincoln were ridiculously good for 45 mins and that's been about it. MK should probably have beaten us, they also looked a decent side, but apart from that no-one else has really stood out as especially good or awful. Gives you hope that a lot of sides (hopefully us included) can feel they're in with a realistic chance of grabbing a play off spot.

Macc were pretty crap but Col U are the worst side I've seen - I still can't believe they're in a play off place after their performance at our place.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Maybe they’ve played well in plenty of other games ?

 

[wangle]

Maybe they’ve played well in plenty of other games ?

Beautiful thing about football, you never can predict how things can go. Best team I've seen Lincoln face this year are Grimsby (closely followed by MK). Up until a couple of weeks ago they looked in some deep trouble.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

True and you certainly can’t judge a team’s ability on one or even two games.

 

[dedwardp]

We've had a few games that have been utterly abysmal and a few games where we've looked the real deal and blown the opposition away comfortably. Mostly somewhere in between, of course, such as on Saturday where we were fairly decent if not spectacular, but should still have scored four or five goals. We've looked more robust on the road and would be capable of beating anyone at home.

If we're not in and around the top five or six this season I'll be disappointed.

 

[Franchisor]

Lincoln are the only team we've played that genuinely look a class team - and they're the only side to beat us this season so far. Thought Yeovil looked a decent counter-attacking side though.

It's still too early to call. The only 'safe' bet at the moment looks to be Lincoln keeping a top 3 spot all season. We're improving constantly under Tisdale and have the 2nd best defence in the EFL (only behind Middlesbrough), I can't see us messing that up too much given how many decent defenders we have.

 

[MrGloverLover]

Lincoln are the only team we've played that genuinely look a class team - and they're the only side to beat us this season so far. Thought Yeovil looked a decent counter-attacking side though.

It's still too early to call. The only 'safe' bet at the moment looks to be Lincoln keeping a top 3 spot all season. We're improving constantly under Tisdale and have the 2nd best defence in the EFL (only behind Middlesbrough), I can't see us messing that up too much given how many decent defenders we have.

We are. It's a real pisser though that you put one of our players out for the season and another out until the New Year.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Sour grapes from Phil Brown after Saturday. "Exeter are a solid League Two club, no more than that. They've changed their DNA from last season, they're not a young side anymore, they're a very experienced side. They've invested heavily on wages or budget, call it what you like and that's why they are near the top of the Division."

Well we rely on a youth policy, having received around 8mn in fees for players over the last five series. Other than that, we have crowds half of Swindons, and trust ownership meaning no significant cash injections.
So why are we supposedly able to pay more than Swindon?
Oh, and does anyone really think that Brown is managing Swindon for peanuts?

P.S. Made it to the group stage of the Premier League under 21 cup again, so we must have some decent young players.....

 

[Agombar stool]

Sour grapes from Phil Brown after Saturday. "Exeter are a solid League Two club, no more than that. They've changed their DNA from last season, they're not a young side anymore, they're a very experienced side. They've invested heavily on wages or budget, call it what you like and that's why they are near the top of the Division."

Well we rely on a youth policy, having received around 8mn in fees for players over the last five series. Other than that, we have crowds half of Swindons, and trust ownership meaning no significant cash injections.
So why are we supposedly able to pay more than Swindon?
Oh, and does anyone really think that Brown is managing Swindon for peanuts?

P.S. Made it to the group stage of the Premier League under 21 cup again, so we must have some decent young players.....

And money from decent fairly decent cup runs I think?

Brown is just trying to deflect away from his own inability, the big orange gas bag.

However to your point about managing Swindon for peanuts, I’m pretty sure that’s relatively accurate. Our budget is around 1.5-1.8 million I think it was mentioned. I think most of the budget went on Diagouraga and Doughty. Over 20 centre backs had turned us down before we signed Sid Nelson on loan from Millwall for one reason or another (low wages offered it was suspected)

Gone are the Di Canio days of massive budgets, we have cut our cloth massively and running on pretty much break even now. It’s boring, but given our financial history, necessary.

 

[Tranmerewhite]

And money from decent fairly decent cup runs I think?

Brown is just trying to deflect away from his own inability, the big orange gas bag.

However to your point about managing Swindon for peanuts, I’m pretty sure that’s relatively accurate. Our budget is around 1.5-1.8 million I think it was mentioned. I think most of the budget went on Diagouraga and Doughty. Over 20 centre backs had turned us down before we signed Sid Nelson on loan from Millwall for one reason or another (low wages offered it was suspected)

Gone are the Di Canio days of massive budgets, we have cut our cloth massively and running on pretty much break even now. It’s boring, but given our financial history, necessary.

So you have the same budget as us, without the burden of a bunch of non league players that won’t get a game all season. Top manager Phil Brown..

Afaik we have the largest turnover in this division. Expect the budget will follow suit next season.