League 2 General Chat Thread

[Devon_Lad]

This means you need some better set piece takers.

Yeah, we're awful at set pieces tbh. Doesn't help the fact we've been dreadful at penalties this year.

 

[Casey]

Crawley's kit man gets a two game stadium ban under rule e3a (or some such). Violent behaviour in the tunnel after the Exeter game.

There was no issues with the Exeter players or staff so I'm presuming he had a dig at the ref (sent off Nadersan for diving).

Casey

 

[Casey]

There was a fans forum at Crawley last night. Attended by Yems, Erdem (operating officer) and 3 players, Ashford, Nichols and Tunnicliffe.

Seems we have the second lowest budget this season. Would be one of the lowest in the National league.
The players and staff don't like training on the 4g pitch...it may be a factor in our injury crisis.
Yems said he would have liked to have kept Josh Wright as his experience would have helped the younger players (what!).
Thinking of playing Friday nights to avoid clash with London clubs and Brighton. Mentioned Tranmere used to do this (not any more. Is there a reason Robshep et Al?) .
The owner is still committed to the club. The club did not accept bail outs from the league over covid and much more of this sort of stuff.

I dont go to these anymore. My disability means I have problems at them so I just read the reports and I also have trouble keeping gob shut when bullshit sprouted.

Casey

 

[Chris FGR]

I dont go to these anymore. My disability means I have problems at them so I just read the reports and I also have trouble keeping gob shut when bullshit sprouted.

Casey

Must be hard work on here at times then…

 

[Casey]

Disconnect between gob and keyboard. I would've been banned more times than everyone else put together otherwise.

Casey

 

[Robshep]

There was a fans forum at Crawley last night. Attended by Yems, Erdem (operating officer) and 3 players, Ashford, Nichols and Tunnicliffe.

Seems we have the second lowest budget this season. Would be one of the lowest in the National league.
The players and staff don't like training on the 4g pitch...it may be a factor in our injury crisis.
Yems said he would have liked to have kept Josh Wright as his experience would have helped the younger players (what!).
Thinking of playing Friday nights to avoid clash with London clubs and Brighton. Mentioned Tranmere used to do this (not any more. Is there a reason Robshep et Al?) .
The owner is still committed to the club. The club did not accept bail outs from the league over covid and much more of this sort of stuff.

I dont go to these anymore. My disability means I have problems at them so I just read the reports and I also have trouble keeping gob shut when bullshit sprouted.

Casey

The football league came up with some rule or other to make it difficult for friday games to be played on a regular basis. Probably told to do it by Sky Sports when they invented football in 1992.

 

[dedwardp]

We used to play a lot of home games on Friday nights once upon a time as well. To be fair, we've already had three this season too (away though).

 

[Robshep]

We used to play a lot of home games on Friday nights once upon a time as well. To be fair, we've already had three this season too (away though).

Wasn't that at your request. Prefer friday night games. In my younger days i would go to a game and then ease my inevitable disappointment by going to a rock club called Stairways and seeing a band for next to nothing that sometimes became very famous.

 

[denzel ecfc]

There was a fans forum at Crawley last night. Attended by Yems, Erdem (operating officer) and 3 players, Ashford, Nichols and Tunnicliffe.

Seems we have the second lowest budget this season. Would be one of the lowest in the National league.
The players and staff don't like training on the 4g pitch...it may be a factor in our injury crisis.
Yems said he would have liked to have kept Josh Wright as his experience would have helped the younger players (what!).
Thinking of playing Friday nights to avoid clash with London clubs and Brighton. Mentioned Tranmere used to do this (not any more. Is there a reason Robshep et Al?) .
The owner is still committed to the club. The club did not accept bail outs from the league over covid and much more of this sort of stuff.

I dont go to these anymore. My disability means I have problems at them so I just read the reports and I also have trouble keeping gob shut when bullshit sprouted.

Casey

Very few Premier League games take place at Saturday at 3pm these days, so why move yours?
I always chuckle when they say they have the lowest or second lowest budget etc, who really knows what everyone else is on?

 

[dedwardp]

Wasn't that at your request. Prefer friday night games. In my younger days i would go to a game and then ease my inevitable disappointment by going to a rock club called Stairways and seeing a band for next to nothing that sometimes became very famous.

Yes, nowadays our Friday night games seem to be away in order to scrimp on the cost of a hotel.

Very few Premier League games take place at Saturday at 3pm these days, so why move yours?
I always chuckle when they say they have the lowest or second lowest budget etc, who really knows what everyone else is on?

I was always of the understanding that clubs get provided with a list of budgets so they all know where they roughly stand, but not whose budget is who. And the owners will chat amongst themselves anyway. Our chairman said the other night he expects our budget this season (£1.6m) to be somewhere around 13/14th and that he therefore cannot complain if the manager fails to finish higher than that.

 

[Robshep]

Yes, nowadays our Friday night games seem to be away in order to scrimp on the cost of a hotel.



I was always of the understanding that clubs get provided with a list of budgets so they all know where they roughly stand, but not whose budget is who. And the owners will chat amongst themselves anyway. Our chairman said the other night he expects our budget this season (£1.6m) to be somewhere around 13/14th and that he therefore cannot complain if the manager fails to finish higher than that.

Ambitious man.

 

[GTFCfish]

I was always of the understanding that clubs get provided with a list of budgets so they all know where they roughly stand, but not whose budget is who. And the owners will chat amongst themselves anyway. Our chairman said the other night he expects our budget this season (£1.6m) to be somewhere around 13/14th and that he therefore cannot complain if the manager fails to finish higher than that.

I read somewhere that last season we had a top 10 budget so it was quite some achievement from us to manage to finish 24th with it.

 

[Casey]

I read somewhere that last season we had a top 10 budget so it was quite some achievement from us to manage to finish 24th with it.

Oh, it's easy to buy a load of crap. Ask my missus!


...and before you say it I came free so I'm a bargain.

Casey

 

[Luke Imp]

There was a fans forum at Crawley last night. Attended by Yems, Erdem (operating officer) and 3 players, Ashford, Nichols and Tunnicliffe.

Seems we have the second lowest budget this season. Would be one of the lowest in the National league.
The players and staff don't like training on the 4g pitch...it may be a factor in our injury crisis.
Yems said he would have liked to have kept Josh Wright as his experience would have helped the younger players (what!).
Thinking of playing Friday nights to avoid clash with London clubs and Brighton. Mentioned Tranmere used to do this (not any more. Is there a reason Robshep et Al?) .
The owner is still committed to the club. The club did not accept bail outs from the league over covid and much more of this sort of stuff.

I dont go to these anymore. My disability means I have problems at them so I just read the reports and I also have trouble keeping gob shut when bullshit sprouted.

Casey

Not sure it'd be one of the lowest in the NL unless you're on a £400k or so budget!

I was always of the understanding that clubs get provided with a list of budgets so they all know where they roughly stand, but not whose budget is who. And the owners will chat amongst themselves anyway. Our chairman said the other night he expects our budget this season (£1.6m) to be somewhere around 13/14th and that he therefore cannot complain if the manager fails to finish higher than that.

Correct, I think it's a list that gets circulated twice a year. Budgets are listed, but don't have Club names on.

 

[saddler78]

FA Cup 2021-22: Walsall's Brendan Kiernan on helping young players deal with rejection in football

As he prepares for an FA Cup first-round tie with King's Lynn, Walsall's Brendan Kiernan tells BBC Sport about training to be a counsellor to help young players cope with rejection in football.

www.bbc.co.uk

top bloke.

 

[Chris FGR]

Hardly anyone makes it in football. Most kids need to make sure they do it cos they enjoy it above all else, and make sure there’s a plan b.

 

[The Terminator]

Always thought we had the best right back as well as goalkeeper in this league

Very good player though Tom James, unless we go up this year we'll lose him to a Charlton or Portmsouth in the summer. Far too good for this level, he can defend as well as attack. Makes you realise just how limited Sam Ling was for the last two seasons we had him as our right back.

 

[Devon_Lad]

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Always thought we had the best right back as well as goalkeeper in this league

Very good player though Tom James, unless we go up this year we'll lose him to a Charlton or Portmsouth in the summer. Far too good for this level, he can defend as well as attack. Makes you realise just how limited Sam Ling was for the last two seasons we had him as our right back.

Charlton may well be this level next year!

 

[Agombar stool]

Plenty of Vale fans on here who might be interested in this.

Behind the scenes at Port Vale, a club flying on the pitch and caring off it | Ben Fisher

League Two team open the doors for an insight into training and community activities, including the ‘stitch and bitch’ club

www.theguardian.com

 

[kieran_vale]

Plenty of Vale fans on here who might be interested in this.

Behind the scenes at Port Vale, a club flying on the pitch and caring off it | Ben Fisher

League Two team open the doors for an insight into training and community activities, including the ‘stitch and bitch’ club

www.theguardian.com

It’s a really good article and a nice insight into things at the club. To some it might not seem that remarkable but the kind of professionalism you see now is just something that didn’t happen before under the previous owner. Didn’t realise we’d actually shelled out £200k last summer on upgrading the facilities for the players, nice to see we’re trying to do things the right way for a change.

There is another article today from Henry Winter of The Times about DC and his past albeit behind a paywall unfortunately.

 

[Agombar stool]

It’s a really good article and a nice insight into things at the club. To some it might not seem that remarkable but the kind of professionalism you see now is just something that didn’t happen before under the previous owner. Didn’t realise we’d actually shelled out £200k last summer on upgrading the facilities for the players, nice to see we’re trying to do things the right way for a change.

There is another article today from Henry Winter of The Times about DC and his past albeit behind a paywall unfortunately.

Hadn't realised Flitcroft's dad had committed suicide either. Poor sod. Nothing but positives for the club from what I have read. You are number 1 in the EFL community ratings and we are 92, under our new owners they are striving to get to that top spot.

 

[valefan16]

Its a great read and gave a huge sense of pride reading that after years of feeling let down by previous ownership's. Other chairman wouldn't always deal with Norman for example but Carol and Kevin have transformed us, we could easily have gone the way of Bury or Macc Town but we were lucky (sounds like Swindon have had similar but a couple of years behind) and its great, especially after suffering the neglect we have as a club.

There was talk under a certain previous management we didn't even scout the opposition in some cases so we have come on light years in the past few months under AC/DC and great to actually see investment in the club rather than a new Tesla in the chairman's car park spot every time we did something earnt the club financial gain.

As I have said previously it got to the stage of being like a funeral at Vale Park... you went because you felt you had to but now the buzz is back on and off the field, great to see so many young kids there now with the family orientated Fan Zone (although closed tomorrow as a load of Sky TV trucks on the location!) and the plans they have going forward look good (the new part of the Lorne Street to have a creche type facility so fans kids can go in the concourse if bored).

Even little things like this:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1458863407533281280

A huge Vale fan who did the fun buses and helped around the club passed last year, hes now been immortalised in the ground as a representation of all those lost Valiants.

Its a positive place for once, certainly off the pitch, just need to get it right on the pitch now!

 

[Dan Phillips]

What a club.

 

[kieran_vale]

As mentioned above there was also an in depth article in the Times today on DC which someone on OVF has archived so don't need to register. Think it will be of interest to any Rovers fans on here (tends to skirt over his time at Walsall by contrast). Also I didn't realise but apparently it's not just Stockport and Wrexham paying silly money in the league below but Solihull also paying someone £3k a week. Very eye-opening for anyone who ends up down there.

From a Vale perspective we've actually cut our wage budget this season and our highest paid player is on £1850. Obviously not small money in itself but was very surprised to read that given the squad is exponentially better than last seasons. Also noted how he dismissed those sort of managers who only pursue a possession based game like Russell Martin. Rare you see a manager speak like that about others. Overall a good insight in to him as a manager.

archive.md

 

[electrode113]

This time last year Bolton Wanderers were still 20th with only 10 points, so unlike what many of their doomer fans on this form say, there is still a chance for Mansfield to climb up the table and get promoted automatically.

 

[Mary MacDonald]

Charlton may well be this level next year!

We would definitely have been relegated if we didn't sack our old manager Nigel Adkins. But after we've sacked Adkins we've been undefeated in all competitions and we've looked much better performance wise, so highly doubt we'll be relegated now.

 

[Boz]

This time last year Bolton Wanderers were still 20th with only 10 points, so unlike what many of their doomer fans on this form say, there is still a chance for Mansfield to climb up the table and get promoted automatically.

Notlob brought a few players in the January window, who turned the season around, after poor recruitment in the summer. Mansfield seem to have a lot of injuries, so different situation but their owners are wealthy enough to fund a few additions if that’s what they feel is needed.

 

[Luke Imp]

As mentioned above there was also an in depth article in the Times today on DC which someone on OVF has archived so don't need to register. Think it will be of interest to any Rovers fans on here (tends to skirt over his time at Walsall by contrast). Also I didn't realise but apparently it's not just Stockport and Wrexham paying silly money in the league below but Solihull also paying someone £3k a week. Very eye-opening for anyone who ends up down there.

From a Vale perspective we've actually cut our wage budget this season and our highest paid player is on £1850. Obviously not small money in itself but was very surprised to read that given the squad is exponentially better than last seasons. Also noted how he dismissed those sort of managers who only pursue a possession based game like Russell Martin. Rare you see a manager speak like that about others. Overall a good insight in to him as a manager.

archive.md

I read that article yesterday. I've always thought DC came across as a little weird, a bit prickly, but when you read what he went through as a kid you understand why perhaps he has that edge about him.

Solihull have a couple of ex-Oxford guys at the helm I think, they've been big spenders for three or four years now albeit it seems to be more on a handful of individuals who can make a difference rather than a squad full of them.

 

[Super_horns]

Looks like League two games will carry on during the World Cup baring call ups.

Homepage - The English Football League

The Official home of the English Football League

www.efl.com

 

[dedwardp]

Can't imagine any League Two fixtures being affected by the World Cup. Of those of us who get the odd game called off for internationals, they're usually for countries who wouldn't be qualifying or for U21 international sides who presumably won't be playing at the same time either.