League 2 General Chat Thread

[Meadow]

Very sad. The family are going to need a lot of support.

 

[GTFCfish]

Tragic news that has no doubt rocked our youth team:

Club Statement: Cameron Walsh - Grimsby Town Football Club

Grimsby Town Football Club mourns the tragic loss of youth team member and his father.

gtfc.co.uk

It’s one of my Son’s friends, one of his mates messaged him about it on Saturday but as there was nothing reported about it at the time he was hoping it was a bit of mix up but then had it confirmed Sunday morning.
Just awful.

 

[Meadow]

Horrifying. I have three offspring in their twenties and thirties and I couldn't imagine how I'd cope if they passed before me. I already have to deal with their life traumas, but the early demise of any of them would hit me hard and I'd struggle to cope.

 

[chief]

It’s one of my Son’s friends, one of his mates messaged him about it on Saturday but as there was nothing reported about it at the time he was hoping it was a bit of mix up but then had it confirmed Sunday morning.
Just awful.

That's awful, thoughts out to you and your son.

 

[Son of Cod]

It’s one of my Son’s friends, one of his mates messaged him about it on Saturday but as there was nothing reported about it at the time he was hoping it was a bit of mix up but then had it confirmed Sunday morning.
Just awful.

Christ, hope your lad is doing alright mate.

 

[EnglishRed]

I echo everyone else's comments. What an awful thing to happen.

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

It’s one of my Son’s friends, one of his mates messaged him about it on Saturday but as there was nothing reported about it at the time he was hoping it was a bit of mix up but then had it confirmed Sunday morning.
Just awful.

That's awful! My thoughts go out to you and your lad.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

I echo all the comments, losing a child is probably the worst thing that could ever happen to you and you never get over it and struggle to come to terms everyday.

 

[JJ1990]

Didn't see this mentioned elsewhere, but who do we want to see relegated to L2 from L1? And promoted from the National League? I know we're a long way from the end of the season, but I'm curious to see who people want to join L2. Or who do you think will come down?

From L1, Fleetwood down would be good if only because I think this is the start of their freefall and they wouldn't be a threat for promotion and are more likely to be at the bottom.

As for the rest, I'm not so sure. Simpson and Carlisle in L2 with money could be dangerous. Darrell Clarke is also a good manager at this level, so not sure if Cheltenham coming down is preferable. If Reading are still owned by Dai Yongge and still exist, I'd take them down.

Exeter seem a bit of a mess, lost a lot of their better players and I don't think Caldwell is the guy. Same with Burton, not sure about Patterson. Few other dark horse candidates, but I'm not sure if they'll get dragged into danger or not.

In the National League, Chesterfield are surely going to win the title, but after that, the PO picture looks wide open. Could be one of the old boys like Rochdale or Oldham, could be a newcomer like Bromley, Solihull or Altrincham. Plenty of interesting options.

For me:

L1: Fleetwood, Carlisle, Cheltenham, Burton
NL: Chesterfield, Altrincham(POs)

 

[Optipez]

I just hope Bromley don't come up. Horrible manager, threw every dirty trick in the book at us last season at home. They must have blagged 20 minutes off the game with time wasting through fake injuries, mainly to the keeper so they kept eleven players on the pitch.
Chesterfield look strong odds on to come up, Fleetwood the same to come down.

 

[EnglishRed]

I think Mellon will be the edge that sees Oldham come up with Chesterfield, he knows how to get out of that league.

Still not 100% sure Chesterfield won't implode in hilarious fashion, but it's started to look like even they can't mess. it up from here.

L1: Fleetwood, Carlisle, Cheltenham, Burton looks about right.

 

[chief]

I want Carlisle down because I can't be arsed facing them next season.

Reading will probably go down as they're having a mass clearout this month, and could well be on the brink of extinction come the end of the season. Could see them picking up another deduction too. Outrageous that the EFL sanctioned that takeover given the owner had previous seen two clubs go pop under his ownership.

I think Carlisle might pull off an escape with Exeter dropping into the bottom 4. Reading, Exeter, Cheltenham and Fleetwood to go down. Chesterfield and Barnet up from non-league.

 

[Master D]

Chesterfield are already up and reckon Barnet will get it done in the playoffs, they've got a great squad for that level, I thought they'd win the league tbh.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Chesterfield ended last season in great form, already had a talented squad and manager and then they bought in Naylor and Grigg whilst retaining there better players. I wanted to bet on them but their odds were too skinny so I went with Stockport in L2 instead.

If they failed again this season not sure how many big money goes at it they would have left but as Master D says, they are already up and fair play too.

 

[Chris FGR]

I haven't really thought about who I want coming down or up for next season. Not sure why.

 

[chief]

I just hope Bromley don't come up. Horrible manager, threw every dirty trick in the book at us last season at home. They must have blagged 20 minutes off the game with time wasting through fake injuries, mainly to the keeper so they kept eleven players on the pitch.
Chesterfield look strong odds on to come up, Fleetwood the same to come down.

They can't afford to come up!

 

[Stocky]

They can't afford to come up!

Everyone said that about Harrogate and Sutton who had to dig up the plastic pitch but both have done alright (Sutton obviously struggling this season). With the National League being a full time league bar 1 or 2 it's time to ban Plastic pitches at that step IMO. It'd fuck a lot of North/South teams plans though. Dorking manager and owner is convinced the 3g pitches are causing a lot of their injuries.

I think if Altrincham get a bit of luck with injuries and keep their key players (Chris Conn-Clarke in particular) they can beat anybody on their day in the Play Offs. I'd love to see them get in the Football League. A proper club, if history had been kinder with re-elections they would have been a traditional Manchester satellite town Football League club like us, Oldham, Bury, Rochdale etc. That held them back a lot. If they can get in the FL, I reckon they can get consistently decent crowds and become a FL mainstay. They absolutely hate Rochdale, I don't know the ins and outs but they reckon they stole their place many moons ago.

 

[Optipez]

They can't afford to come up!

They keep making the playoffs and look set to do so again, this would be their third year in four so I wouldn't rule them out.
I certainly think they're no less well off than Sutton, Morecambe or Accrington.

 

[chief]

Was playing on the long-running joke that people used for Sutton and Harrogate. Thought it might've landed with the ex-non-league bunch!

 

[Conker]

Altrincham fans really had a disdain for Mansfield when we were in non-league for no particular reason but I actually quite like them and be nice to see.

Unfortunately I find it hard to imagine Chesterfield messing it up this time round.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I don’t know enough about League 1 to say who I think will go, but I’d like Fleetwood ( get them out of the league asap) Cheltenham (good away day) Reading( not played em for years) and Burton (local, good away day).

While it would be fantastic if Chesterfield naused it from here, they won’t and they’ll be a couple of big games. I’d love Altrincham to get up, but I fancy Oldham as well.

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

Anyone in the north west would be ideal for me, and Cheltenham. Made some friends down there through the missus, a decent bunch them lot are.

Fleetwood, though, should be relegated to the depths of non league. After being found guilty of fraud for the last 10-12 years or something like that, our non-promotion with 98 points and losing out to them is a painful one.

Think they're on a slippery slope to non league, similar tot FGR.

 

[BarraMatt]

Everyone said that about Harrogate and Sutton who had to dig up the plastic pitch but both have done alright (Sutton obviously struggling this season). With the National League being a full time league bar 1 or 2 it's time to ban Plastic pitches at that step IMO. It'd fuck a lot of North/South teams plans though. Dorking manager and owner is convinced the 3g pitches are causing a lot of their injuries.

I think if Altrincham get a bit of luck with injuries and keep their key players (Chris Conn-Clarke in particular) they can beat anybody on their day in the Play Offs. I'd love to see them get in the Football League. A proper club, if history had been kinder with re-elections they would have been a traditional Manchester satellite town Football League club like us, Oldham, Bury, Rochdale etc. That held them back a lot. If they can get in the FL, I reckon they can get consistently decent crowds and become a FL mainstay. They absolutely hate Rochdale, I don't know the ins and outs but they reckon they stole their place many moons ago.

I've consulted the Tinpot Archives™ and uncovered the following entry:

"In the subsequent elections to the Football League, the club missed out by a single vote, receiving 25 to Rochdale's 26; this was considered especially unfortunate as the club had been promised the votes of Grimsby Town and Luton Town, but the Grimsby representative was prevented from voting by being in the wrong part of the meeting room, whilst the Luton representative arrived too late after a mix-up over the start time."

 

[GTFCfish]

I want Carlisle down because I can't be arsed facing them next season.

Reading will probably go down as they're having a mass clearout this month, and could well be on the brink of extinction come the end of the season. Could see them picking up another deduction too. Outrageous that the EFL sanctioned that takeover given the owner had previous seen two clubs go pop under his ownership.

I think Carlisle might pull off an escape with Exeter dropping into the bottom 4. Reading, Exeter, Cheltenham and Fleetwood to go down. Chesterfield and Barnet up from non-league.

If Carlisle come down and Wrexham take their place in League 1 the meltdown from Carver will be absolutely golden.

 

[Essex2Wessex]

The Altrincham grudge against Rochdale is well founded, although maybe they would do better to direct latent anger towards I think it was Grimsby and Luton whose representatives were supposed to vote for their election to the FL (in 1980 or thereabouts) but for various reasons didn't make it to the vote, meaning they lost by one vote to Rochdale.

Anyway presuming we're going down, I'd like the bigger and wealthier and better run clubs to go up. So Chesterfield being top is a good start. Let them be joined by one of Oldham or (although it's too soon to assess the calibre of their new owners) Southend, by some miracle....

 

[Pilot_Phonic]

I've always felt Carlisle have a problem with us, but I feel like they have a problem with everyone else too.

 

[JaredSUFC]

Bromley are a Wish.com version of Sutton.

If we do stay up, I wouldn’t mind Alty coming up. I do like a visit to Moss Lane.

 

[Optipez]

Bromley are a Wish.com version of Sutton.

If we do stay up, I wouldn’t mind Alty coming up. I do like a visit to Moss Lane.

If it's just for the away trip I'd pick Halifax. Easy drive up the motorway, quite a nice town, covered seating and the Pigeon is a great pub close by.

 

[joethegill]

As few Northern teams as possible to be honest, but then again this league has always had a weirdly high number of northerners in it.

Fleetwood and Carlisle are crap and will probably both be here, as will Chesterfield, so not a great start on re-aligning to a more balanced league, so fingers crossed we get some southerners taking the other places. Reading seem a decent bet if they still exist, and for me ideally it'd be Cambridge as that's only half an hour from me. I expect one of Cheltenham or Exeter though.

Coming up I think it's genuinely anyone's to win from about 8 clubs. A couple like Aldershot and Gateshead are starting to fall away a little bit, but I think everyone can agree that what this league absolutely needs is another almost-Manchester club with Alty, Oldham and Rochdale all in the play-offs at the minute. Fingers crossed it's Barnet or Bromley. I also wouldn't bet against Southend either, considering what they've been through to be 7 points off the play-offs at this point is remarkable, so now they've got a squad they've every chance of getting into the top 7.

We can agree that none of us wants Solihull up though right?

 

[Greenacres]

We can agree that none of us wants Solihull up though right?

Nope, they can stay down...we need at least one fairly local fixture next season, that is a really easy one to get to...although I went there for an evening fixture, some prat thought it would be a good idea to close the motorway network and it took about two hours to get home afterwards...it would be nice if Kiddy and Oxford City could stay up too.