League 2 Promotion Thread 14/15

[Shrimpurh]

There's a good chance we can go fourth Tuesday. Come on Shrews and Exeter!

 

[Habbinalan]

It sums up our season that we won (fairly comfortably) at Burton and took 2 points off Shrewsbury, yet were beaten at home by Cheltenham and Tranmere - so it makes it difficult to comment from first hand experience.

Results and reports put Albion and Shrews at a different level to the rest. Southend, despite Tango Man, have looked closest to them throughout the team but I think the manager is their main weakness. On that basis, I can see them being beaten by an improving Plymouth in the play-offs. I'll be glad to be rid of trips to monsoon centre Gigg Lane and I can see us having the company of young Mowgli for another season. Bury to take 3rd and Wycombe to fall off into the play-offs and out of the race.

I would welcome a different Boxing Day game to the home of the Vincent Motorcycle but since it looked like Braintree was back on the menu for a while I shall not complain. Actually, it will feel more like the dream's over and we're back in non-league when we'll have played 10 or 12 of next year's League 2 in the Conference - and I don't include Morecambe or Carlisle (who will stay up) in that.

 

[THE TERRACEMAN]

Cambridge United played really well at the Pirelli and comfortably beat us. We were between managers at that time so you didn't see the real deal. Staying up and establishing yourselves first season back plus having that great FA Cup exposure is a good achievement realistically.
I expect last day of the season we will get our traditional nowt at Cambridge ! Going way back to the 60's we have never done well there !

 

[UTS]

If Burton win this league if will be a travesty. An awful team who play complete Anti-football who are completely content on stopping the opposition playing and nicking a 1-0.

When we've played them they've showed no real quality. Beat them easily at home and they scored a set peice away, and rarely troubled the goal apart from that.

Will get hammered in L1. Good luck to you though.

 

[Habbinalan]

If Burton win this league if will be a travesty. An awful team who play complete Anti-football who are completely content on stopping the opposition playing and nicking a 1-0.

When we've played them they've showed no real quality. Beat them easily at home and they scored a set peice away, and rarely troubled the goal apart from that.

Will get hammered in L1. Good luck to you though.

Looks like a bid to boost votes in the worst fans award to me - or have I misinterpreted "worst" and its really an effort to boost the "most impressive football knowledge" vote.

 

[Shrimpurh]

It sums up our season that we won (fairly comfortably) at Burton and took 2 points off Shrewsbury, yet were beaten at home by Cheltenham and Tranmere - so it makes it difficult to comment from first hand experience.

Results and reports put Albion and Shrews at a different level to the rest. Southend, despite Tango Man, have looked closest to them throughout the team but I think the manager is their main weakness. On that basis, I can see them being beaten by an improving Plymouth in the play-offs. I'll be glad to be rid of trips to monsoon centre Gigg Lane and I can see us having the company of young Mowgli for another season. Bury to take 3rd and Wycombe to fall off into the play-offs and out of the race.

I would welcome a different Boxing Day game to the home of the Vincent Motorcycle but since it looked like Braintree was back on the menu for a while I shall not complain. Actually, it will feel more like the dream's over and we're back in non-league when we'll have played 10 or 12 of next year's League 2 in the Conference - and I don't include Morecambe or Carlisle (who will stay up) in that.

Improving Plymouth? I think their recent results have been pretty consistent with their whole season.

 

[THE TERRACEMAN]

I think you are referring more to the Gary Rowett era, although his 1st season we were far more attacking.
This is a difficult league to get out off, being competitive and difficult to beat provides the foundation, we have done that and had enough ability in the final third to win enough games to put us top of the league. We have remained consistent even though we had a bit of a blip around the time the rumours of Gary Rowett's depature and the appointment of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Granted we may be not the most exciting team but we have achieved this within our budget, making a profit and remaining in the black.
Unlike Bury who riddled with debt who have squandered cash they don't have to fund a promotion push which is really beyond there means. All the previous problems caused by bad financial management in the first place which means you find yourself competing against what you perceive is a lesser club. Its not hard to work out which club is the modern role model and which is the dinosaur.
If you fail in the play offs it will be interesting to see the financial state of your club come next season !
Due to your arrogance I hope Shrewsbury beat you on Tuesday and that your don't win the play offs. I would sooner lose the title to Shrewsbury than you get automatic promotion.
Before you claim Shrewsbury have done the same as you, they may have spent some towards a new squad and promotion but they are in a position to do that even though they made a financial lost last season.

 

[Shrew_fan]

Before you claim Shrewsbury have done the same as you, they may have spent some towards a new squad and promotion but they are in a position to do that even though they made a financial lost last season.

Indeed - our average crowds are 1,500-2,000 higher than Bury's so in theory should have a bigger budget (not sure we do though!). I read on the Bury board we have apparently spent £300k on Tyrone Barnett - this is absolute nonsense. The fee was <£100k and we didn't actually give Posh the cash - we just knocked it off the balance of the £400k they owe us for Jon Taylor who they bought last season.

 

[Habbinalan]

Improving Plymouth? I think their recent results have been pretty consistent with their whole season.

Recent results have been pretty terrible but if they roll into the play-offs I think they have the personnel to keep rolling and beat the bookies' current 6-1 odds. Then I am the bookies' friend on the rare occasions that I back my judgement. Do you agree that you could do better than Phil Brown in the manager's chair?

 

[Murphy]

No surprise to anyone that Burton and Shrewsbury are going up is it? Shrewsbury generally get promoted from this league on their habit of being ridiculously good at home, although with Mellon in charge I reckon we'll see them back down here fairly soon. Burton have been inching towards it for years and they're probably one of the best sides I've seen this season, as I've said on a separate match thread, El Khyati in particular looks far too good for this league.

Looking at 3rd place, on the face of it I'd have gone for Bury, but having looked at the run ins I really think Wycombe will do it which would be a great achievement - Ainsworth manager of the season if so. Can't see Southend climbing up on the rails, although if they beat Bury and Wycombe slip up in one fixture or another before the end of the season then you never know. Oh and for the record, Wycombe are the side I most want to go up this season as well having seem them play a few weeks ago.

I cannot believe that Stevenage are 6th by the way either, they're one of the few sides I've seen us play home and away this season and they were pretty dire both times, which says a lot about us given we lost to them at home. Unless they've been absolutely sterling throughout and I've caught them on two bad days, it probably just goes to show how poor the majority of this league has been this season. Plymouth or Exeter for the final play-off spot as well, fancied Exeter but after that 4-0 loss at the weekend I reckon they need a result against Wycombe tomorrow night or they're out of it.

That's my two pence anyway as I haven't frequented this part of the L2 forum much this season

 

[T.A]

UTS is a troll, please don't take what he says as serious.

 

[Shrimpurh]

Recent results have been pretty terrible but if they roll into the play-offs I think they have the personnel to keep rolling and beat the bookies' current 6-1 odds. Then I am the bookies' friend on the rare occasions that I back my judgement. Do you agree that you could do better than Phil Brown in the manager's chair?

I look at our squad and I think it's top 3 quality but we miss a striker who can play off Corr. Brown has done alright with us I think we can do better but we already have more points than last year. We struggle to beat teams who come to Roots Hall and play for 0-0 if they do that chances are they will get one. All if's and but's but we've led against Shrews Burton and Wycombe all fairly recent but have never been able to hold out (2 of those were past 85min equalizers). We lack a bit of bottle to see out the big games which may be down to Brown I'm unsure, if we held on for those games then we'd be up there.

Browns contract is up in summer but if we don't go up I wouldn't be sad to see him stay, we are 5 points off automatic with a game in hand, far from out of it. There probably are a few that could do better than him but I reckon there are a lot more who would do worse so yes I agree with you but he's not that bad in any stretch.

 

[GrahamSFC]

No surprise to anyone that Burton and Shrewsbury are going up is it? Shrewsbury generally get promoted from this league on their habit of being ridiculously good at home, although with Mellon in charge I reckon we'll see them back down here fairly soon. Burton have been inching towards it for years and they're probably one of the best sides I've seen this season, as I've said on a separate match thread, El Khyati in particular looks far too good for this league.

Looking at 3rd place, on the face of it I'd have gone for Bury, but having looked at the run ins I really think Wycombe will do it which would be a great achievement - Ainsworth manager of the season if so. Can't see Southend climbing up on the rails, although if they beat Bury and Wycombe slip up in one fixture or another before the end of the season then you never know. Oh and for the record, Wycombe are the side I most want to go up this season as well having seem them play a few weeks ago.

I cannot believe that Stevenage are 6th by the way either, they're one of the few sides I've seen us play home and away this season and they were pretty dire both times, which says a lot about us given we lost to them at home. Unless they've been absolutely sterling throughout and I've caught them on two bad days, it probably just goes to show how poor the majority of this league has been this season. Plymouth or Exeter for the final play-off spot as well, fancied Exeter but after that 4-0 loss at the weekend I reckon they need a result against Wycombe tomorrow night or they're out of it.

That's my two pence anyway as I haven't frequented this part of the L2 forum much this season

Pretty fair assessment, apart from a few very good games we've been very average for most of the season, we just seem to grind out the results in most games (we've even dropped 6 points late in stoppage time this season, we could be even higher!)

It definitely speaks volumes about the quality of this league... We've had a minimum of 4-5 first teamers injured since December I'd say and we're still up there!

 

[Brox]

This league is wank, most of the sides are shite, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been impressed by our opponents and I doubt we've wowed anyone this season either, the fact we're in the play-offs is testament to that.

 

[3Loggerheads]

No surprise to anyone that Burton and Shrewsbury are going up is it? Shrewsbury generally get promoted from this league on their habit of being ridiculously good at home, although with Mellon in charge I reckon we'll see them back down here fairly soon.

Regarding the Micky Mellon comment I would be interested if you could elaborate?

 

[Brox]

Mellon has for someone reason always underwhelmed me, I can't speak for Murphy but for me I think it stems from his time at Fleetwood, they always had massive spending power compared to others they were competing with and they were always run so close, and in Southport's case, beaten to automatic promotion. The manner of their play-off defeat, the 8-1 to Wimbledon, has stuck with me also.

That said I think he's done a great job this season, it's never easy following a relegation and he's had to oversee a major squad overhaul and he's getting you back into League One at the first attempt. Have to admit I was impressed by his summer recruitment and looking at your squad fancied you for promotion, only thing that put me off backing you was Mellon, deserves credit for his achievements though (both with yourselves and at Fleetwood).

 

[vanner]

Mellon has for someone reason always underwhelmed me, I can't speak for Murphy but for me I think it stems from his time at Fleetwood, they always had massive spending power compared to others they were competing with and they were always run so close, and in Southport's case, beaten to automatic promotion. The manner of their play-off defeat, the 8-1 to Wimbledon, has stuck with me also.

That said I think he's done a great job this season, it's never easy following a relegation and he's had to oversee a major squad overhaul and he's getting you back into League One at the first attempt. Have to admit I was impressed by his summer recruitment and looking at your squad fancied you for promotion, only thing that put me off backing you was Mellon, deserves credit for his achievements though (both with yourselves and at Fleetwood).

Fair comments I guess. Most town fans weren't exactly sure what we were getting and perhaps some were underwhelmed (we seem to have a fascination with Mark Robins). From day one he's impressed and the way he's built a team/squad and a ethos out of what was nothing short of an embarrassing squad last year is pretty impressive. What most on here probably won't know, is the club also appointed a new chief executive and he's just as popular, the club is moving forward after stagnating for a few years.

 

[T.A]

I think the top two are ahead of everything else in this league and then everyone else from 3rd to about 11th has the same quality and then 12th to 18th and then 19th to 24th but even then we get surprise results with teams at the bottom beating teams at the top. I mean how many players could we all say play at a higher level in the future?? Not many which is why this league is seen as poor quality as most players will always be league 2 quality or below.

I believe we have a talented team, but we have as a club made mistakes which looks to have cost us. Flicroft has made a few mistakes tactically and personally but we've got to remember he's a young manager and still has a lot to learn, he does come across as arrogant but then so do our owners and it will be interesting to see their reaction if we don't go up this season. I think our chances of going up automatically will end in the next week. We have Shrewsbury, Portsmouth and then Southend which all need to be won and hope that Wycombe slip up in at least two of their games. Otherwise 4th is a must to keep our form going into the PO in which we have an awful record in. Tbh the final deserves to be Bury v Southend/Wycombe. I don't think Plymouth or Stevenage are worthy enough to win the PO (no offence)

 

[Bartonyellow]

If Burton win this league if will be a travesty. An awful team who play complete Anti-football who are completely content on stopping the opposition playing and nicking a 1-0.

When we've played them they've showed no real quality. Beat them easily at home and they scored a set peice away, and rarely troubled the goal apart from that.

Will get hammered in L1. Good luck to you though.

You are absolutely right. We have stolen 84 points this season. Every one of them. We will be lucky to get double figures next year. I'm restless thinking about that now.

 

[Murphy]

I just don't see Mellon as the sort of man that would be able to sustain you as a League One side. I think really Shrewsbury are a club that should be mid-table League One, looking towards the play-off's there if you can establish which given your rumoured budget, you should be able to.

It's easy to say this from the outside looking in, but if there's hints that you're struggling next year, I'd get rid fairly swiftly and try to get in a young and ambitious manager. I think Shrews have a lot of potential as a club, but I don't see Mellon as the man who can lead you forward consistently in that direction. (Not to say that he hasn't done a good job this season, but that's the least that should have been expected of him).

 

[vanner]

I just don't see Mellon as the sort of man that would be able to sustain you as a League One side. I think really Shrewsbury are a club that should be mid-table League One, looking towards the play-off's there if you can establish which given your rumoured budget, you should be able to.

It's easy to say this from the outside looking in, but if there's hints that you're struggling next year, I'd get rid fairly swiftly and try to get in a young and ambitious manager. I think Shrews have a lot of potential as a club, but I don't see Mellon as the man who can lead you forward consistently in that direction. (Not to say that he hasn't done a good job this season, but that's the least that should have been expected of him).

One thing I'd add about our budget. It's hardly leaps and bounds above everyone else's. We've got crowds of 5,250 and ran at a £280,000 loss last season when we went down, we then sold Taylor for 400k and the money hasn't been added into the equation. We don't run the club with debt and we've not actually spent a penny on a transfer fees barely since Grant Holt. I think the only fee we've paid is for Dave mccallister during our first season in league 1 and that was about 30k. Barnett was 100k but it was knocked off the 400k Peterborough owed us for Taylor. I still don't believe our budget to be in the top 5 in the divison.

 

[BelizeHatter]

I hope it stays as is. Burton have consistently challenged for several seasons and deserve credit with an unforeseen Managerial change mid season. Wycombe looked for all the world as early season pace setters set to crumble after Christmas. Lost three of their seemingly better players in the Window and have kept it going. Shrewsbury have looked the part all season once settled in.

Bury most likely to join if they cope with the mentality of not going up automatically and get lucky - or more accurately don't get unlucky at some point in the lottery.

 

[Super_horns]

Bury and Southend taking advantage of Wycombe's home form being so poor in mid-week?

 

[Braindead]

If Burton win this league if will be a travesty. An awful team who play complete Anti-football who are completely content on stopping the opposition playing and nicking a 1-0.

When we've played them they've showed no real quality. Beat them easily at home and they scored a set peice away, and rarely troubled the goal apart from that.

Will get hammered in L1. Good luck to you though.

There is always one person a day who will boil my piss well done fuck nuts your today's winner.

 

[THE TERRACEMAN]

Bury and Southend taking advantage of Wycombe's home form being so poor in mid-week?

Apparently not, Paul Hayes scores a penalty in 94th minute !

 

[Shrimpurh]

Apparently not, Paul Hayes scores a penalty in 94th minute !

94th? 112th. What a fucking joke. Lucky bastards

 

[mowgli]

94th? 112th. What a fucking joke. Lucky bastards

Must have broken yours and Bury's hearts, that took bottle under so much pressure on Hayes knowing he had to score.

 

[Shrew_fan]

we apparently had a good goal chalked off tonight which is pretty frustrating!

 

[UTS]

Knew something bad was gonna happen!

Sounded too good to be true

 

[Braindead]

Wouldn't it be hilarious if bury got 88 points and didn't get promoted.