Relegation Thread 2017/18

[valefan16]

But, we had shots on goal, we didn't concede, we finished with 11 men, we didn't lose. All of which we have done against teams who will be down there with us like Morecambe, Cheltenham etc

It's a start..Jack has 2 wins in 5. Caldwell had 2 wins in 30.

What team could possibly be shit enough to lose to Caldwell's Chesterfield twice!

Crawley have the honour now of losing at home to Vale and Chesterfield currently 2 of our five wins combined.

Aspin has now won a quarter of our games in 2017... in the space of 4 days...

Brown and Caldwell hang your heads in shame! Two decent clubs for this level.

 

[Casey]

Crawley have played 7 games at home and lost 6 (shame on you Yeovil)! In those 7 games we have scored 4 goals (shame on you Yeovil for letting in 2 of them).
We have lost to two of the bottom three at home (waiting for a home fixture with FGR to make the hat-trick).
Our tactics are based on the Barcelona false nine system. We have adapted it slightly. We play a no-nine system, basically a 4-5-0. Then the management team seem perplexed by our inability to score goals.
Our owners Turkish team have been relegated in successive seasons from the top division to division four and I think that means there is little money for a splurge on players in January.

I said before in this thread if there are two teams worse than us I will be shocked...and horrified.

We play Luton at home on Saturday. I'm hoping for a miracle. By that I mean only losing 0-2.

Casey

 

[Chris FGR]

4-5-0 does sound shit. Does "Harry, Harry Cool" not realise you're allowed to use 11 players at this level?

 

[SkyBluesRose]

I said before in this thread if there are two teams worse than us I will be shocked...and horrified.

Yeovil and Morecombe

 

[Casey]

4-5-0 does sound shit. Does "Harry, Harry Cool" not realise you're allowed to use 11 players at this level?

Deliberate 'cough' mistake.

To be honest I have been trying to work out the basic line up and it's perplexing. We definitely play a keeper and four at the back. After that it is open to debate.
Tuesday we seemed to be in a four defender, two midfielders, four attacking midfielders and no striker (4-2-4-0?). Other times we have played with a 4-4-2-0 ( two attacking midfielder behind the absent forward.

I'm in the 'buggered if I know' camp (I think Harry Cool is in there with me)

Casey

 

[MrGloverLover]

Yeovil and Morecombe

We beat you though

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Worth noting how Yeovil, us, Notts County, Morecambe and Crawley were top half for the first two-three months of last season and ended up all being in the relegation scrap whilst Exeter came back from the dead to be 90 minutes away from League One and sides like Mansfield, Cambridge, Stevenage and Colchester struggled for most of the first half of the season but then all 4 ended up finishing just outside the playoffs.

This league is batshit insane and I expect a couple of sides to drop like a stone, particularly when the games come thick and fast over winter and injuries and suspensions well and truly kick in. Just as I expect the Vale to rise under Aspin and Chesterfield to finally get out of trouble as well. Said at the start of the season Morecambe and Crawley would drop but there's always a surprise I guess...

 

[valefan16]

Worth noting how Yeovil, us, Notts County, Morecambe and Crawley were top half for the first two-three months of last season and ended up all being in the relegation scrap whilst Exeter came back from the dead to be 90 minutes away from League One and sides like Mansfield, Cambridge, Stevenage and Colchester struggled for most of the first half of the season but then all 4 ended up finishing just outside the playoffs.

This league is batshit insane and I expect a couple of sides to drop like a stone, particularly when the games come thick and fast over winter and injuries and suspensions well and truly kick in. Just as I expect the Vale to rise under Aspin and Chesterfield to finally get out of trouble as well. Said at the start of the season Morecambe and Crawley would drop but there's always a surprise I guess...

League One was the same last year, Sheffield United and Millwall had a slowest start but went up, Vale and Gillingham had a top of the table encounter in mid September, in fact we were 4th until mid October and went down and Gills scraped survival, what makes these levels better than the money bags of the top levels.

Now we've picked up, FGR seem Jekyll and Hyde week to week but are scraping points here and there and Chesterfield have got that elusive win (first win not against the Vale since early in the year!) it should make the sides just above nervous.

We looked a level above Morecambe and Cheltenham which is promising for our longer term hopes of comfort. We should of eased past a dire Yeovil too (drew). Cheltenham looked alright mind so those two and Crawley (who've managed to lose at home to both us and CFC!) would be the ones to be worried.

In terms of the top end although they wont go down my money would be on Notts County to drop off the top, the current performing Vale side would of crucified them at Vale Park and have had a couple of poor results lately.

Luton will waltz the league as they should with their spending but beyond that it seems fairly poor and open so a good run for anyone could see them fly up.

 

[devilofajob]

If Kewell, and especially Feeney stay, we're doomed.
I don't think there are 2 worse teams. 1 in Barnet maybe, but not 2.
Having said that, we'll probably beat Exeter now.

 

[SkyBluesRose]

League One was the same last year, Sheffield United and Millwall had a slowest start but went up, Vale and Gillingham had a top of the table encounter in mid September, in fact we were 4th until mid October and went down and Gills scraped survival, what makes these levels better than the money bags of the top levels.

Not to mention that Bury were 2nd around that time before dropping like a sack of bricks to 22nd.

 

[The Terminator]

If Kewell, and especially Feeney stay, we're doomed.
I don't think there are 2 worse teams. 1 in Barnet maybe, but not 2.
Having said that, we'll probably beat Exeter now.

I'm not sure if its public knowledge in Crawley, but Dean Cox was at our game with Dover yesterday.........

 

[devilofajob]

I'm not sure if its public knowledge in Crawley, but Dean Cox was at our game with Dover yesterday.........

Well I knew about it. And if I know, it ain't a secret!!

 

[SkyBluesRose]

This league is batshit insane and I expect a couple of sides to drop like a stone, particularly when the games come thick and fast over winter and injuries and suspensions well and truly kick in. Just as I expect the Vale to rise under Aspin and Chesterfield to finally get out of trouble as well. Said at the start of the season Morecambe and Crawley would drop but there's always a surprise I guess...

I wouldn't be surprised if in January SISU decided to sell Jodi Jones and a couple of our good defenders to a few midtable teams in the third division and we're the team that drops.

 

[valefan16]

Hopefully we are slowly pulling ourselves out of it. Aspin has managed to win as many games (6) in nine games as Brown managed in 9 months! Joint top of the form league and playing as we should of been from start of August (if only Aspo came in the summer!)

Still work to be done and the four point gap was the first real gap we’d managed to open during our 13 points from 18 spell.

FGR have done equally as well, remarkable probably more than us in that we were losing by a goal or two whereas they seemed to be getting smashed most weeks!

Chesterfield have also clawed it back recently and from 2 from 3 a few weeks back there’s now probably about 8-10 currently involved.

Crewe seem to be falling at a rate of knots. They are an odd one, their fans were on the local radio talking up promotion whilst enjoying our fall to the non league despite scraping a lucky win against a ten man Vale side that were awful at the time and Valiants are enjoying watching Artells fall from grace after his post match interview... they need to sack him and get experience but he doesn’t appear under massive pressure and they stuck with Davis for so three years of failure. If they do sack him would they just recruit within I.e. the Crewe way which could be fatal.

Morecambe were terrible when we went there a few weeks ago, seem capable of a result or two though and Crawley under Kewell seem to be suffering.

Barnet have had injuries and McGhee is a strange appointment after recent failures. Plenty of fire power but zero confidence and set up very negative yesterday.

Yeovil seem to be dropping off now too, have been around the bottom six but seem to be really struggling lately and so reliant on home form that if it slips they are in deep trouble (like us last year).

Above them Grimsby and Cheltenham could get drawn in, Grimsby especially seem to have gone flat in recent weeks, losing Dembele in January would be a huge blow so their hopes may be on no one coming in for him.

 

[dedwardp]

It's been quite some run from Forest Green to be fair to them, as I thought they were genuinely one of the worst - if not the worst - teams I'd ever seen us play in the 19 years I've been going to watch Colchester. So hats off to them for seemingly getting themselves together and adjusting to the league, they seem like they should comfortably stay just clear of the bottom two the way they've been going.

 

[Urban]

You can all debate and bicker over 23rd. We're the worst team in the division this season by a pretty long way.

So apathetic about my club right now.

 

[GTFCfish]

You can definitely stick us in the reckoning here, whilst I'm confident we won't go down we havnt scored a goal since October 17th but thankfully for us there seems to be so many awful teams this year that we should still be alright.

Slade really needs to fuck off sooner rather than later though before we have no fans left.

 

[SkyBluesRose]

You can definitely stick us in the reckoning here, whilst I'm confident we won't go down we havnt scored a goal since October 17th but thankfully for us there seems to be so many awful teams this year that we should still be alright.

Slade really needs to fuck off sooner rather than later though before we have no fans left.

I still don't get why you hired a manager who in his previous job relegated us to the fourth division with his atrocious managing

 

[TimeyWimey]

Crewe seem to be falling at a rate of knots. They are an odd one, their fans were on the local radio talking up promotion whilst enjoying our fall to the non league despite scraping a lucky win against a ten man Vale side that were awful at the time and Valiants are enjoying watching Artells fall from grace after his post match interview... they need to sack him and get experience but he doesn’t appear under massive pressure and they stuck with Davis for so three years of failure. If they do sack him would they just recruit within I.e. the Crewe way which could be fatal.

Aside from you always being a wet lettuce when it comes to us beating you or being above you in the league, it sums us up fairly well.

I can see us keeping Artell a little too long because the boardroom are up their own arses and are loathe to sack shit managers. We'll likely panic around February/March when we're still around the bottom two but it'll be too late for a change to make any real impact by then.

Even if we get rid of Artell after tomorrow's defeat, he will be replaced by one of Kenny Lunt, Lee Bell or Alex Morris and that'll be a case of what's the fucking point.

 

[GTFCfish]

I still don't get why you hired a manager who in his previous job relegated us to the fourth division with his atrocious managing

In a nutshell, because Fenty is his mate.

 

[BeesKnees]

In a nutshell, because Fenty is his mate.

Which appears to be the same reason Kleanthous has signed up McGhee. The story being he was about to become director of football but this changed when Eames stepped down.

We are in a real mess, which is gutting after we had such a bright start to the season.

 

[AdamStag]

Barnets form is terrible, they need something sharpish there for confidence.

Forest Green, Chesterfield and Port Vale have all slowly picked up, but yet still are only (on form) getting 1 point a game, which is still relegation form.

Wins for Forest Green and Chesterfield on Saturday were pretty massive - their game tomorrow is a real 6 pointer

 

[valefan16]

Barnets form is terrible, they need something sharpish there for confidence.

Forest Green, Chesterfield and Port Vale have all slowly picked up, but yet still are only (on form) getting 1 point a game, which is still relegation form.

Wins for Forest Green and Chesterfield on Saturday were pretty massive - their game tomorrow is a real 6 pointer

1 point per game? We've currently got 13 from 6?

 

[AdamStag]

1 point per game? We've currently got 13 from 6?

I meant Chesterfield, sorry!. FG have a similar form to you - both better than ours over the last 8 games

Hopefully your form will dip a little tomorrow

 

[AdamStag]

Form last 8 games

GP W D L GF GA GD Pts 2.5+
1 Luton Town 8 5 2 1 25 8 +17 17 75%
2 Colchester 8 5 2 1 9 3 +6 17 25%
3 Swindon Town 8 5 1 2 14 7 +7 16 62%
4 Carlisle Utd 8 4 3 1 13 7 +6 15 38%
5 Accrington 8 4 2 2 11 7 +4 14 25%
6 Forest Green 8 4 2 2 10 10 0 14 38%
7 Port Vale 8 4 1 3 10 9 +1 13 50%
8 Wycombe 8 3 3 2 17 11 +6 12 75%
9 Lincoln 8 3 3 2 8 5 +3 12 38%
10 Notts County 8 3 3 2 12 10 +2 12 50%
11 Mansfield 8 3 3 2 9 9 0 12 25%
12 Coventry City 8 3 2 3 6 4 +2 11 25%
13 Exeter 8 3 2 3 9 8 +1 11 25%
14 Cheltenham 8 3 2 3 14 15 -1 11 75%
15 Grimsby 8 2 4 2 5 6 -1 10 25%
16 Newport 8 2 3 3 11 11 0 9 50%
17 Cambridge Utd 8 2 3 3 5 14 -9 9 50%
18 Chesterfield 8 2 2 4 9 12 -3 8 50%
19 Morecambe 8 2 2 4 5 11 -6 8 38%
20 Yeovil Town 8 2 1 5 8 12 -4 7 50%
21 Crawley 8 1 4 3 2 8 -6 7 12%
22 Stevenage 8 2 1 5 8 17 -9 7 50%
23 Crewe Alexandra 8 2 0 6 7 15 -8 6 38%
24 Barnet 8 0 3 5 5 13 -8 3 38%
More form tables Streaks and sequences

 

[valefan16]

I meant Chesterfield, sorry!. FG have a similar form to you - both better than ours over the last 8 games

Hopefully your form will dip a little tomorrow

We pretend the pre-Aspin era didn't exist.

 

[SkyBluesRose]

Just a reminder that last year Hartlepool were 13th and Exeter were 21st around this time.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Looks like Aspin's honeymoon period is over tbf.

We won the mass-iff six pointer at Morecambe last night. Not indicative of a big turn around but ends a shitty run of defeats. December is looking pretty important, quite a few winnable games.

 

[valefan16]

Looks like Aspin's honeymoon period is over tbf.

We won the mass-iff six pointer at Morecambe last night. Not indicative of a big turn around but ends a shitty run of defeats. December is looking pretty important, quite a few winnable games.

What because of one freak result in a game we oddly were the better side in? We lost 3-0 at home a few weeks ago... followed it up with a devastating performance against Oxford... had we played dire and been smashed due to that i'd have been worried but we were actually better than on Saturday when we won!

Cant have a 15 minute collapse defensively too often mind.

 

[AdamStag]

Looks like Aspin's honeymoon period is over tbf.

We won the mass-iff six pointer at Morecambe last night. Not indicative of a big turn around but ends a shitty run of defeats. December is looking pretty important, quite a few winnable games.

Despite the result i'd have gone away confident in where my side were going if I were a Port Vale fan. It was a ridiculously unfortunate scoreline, and there was just 15/20 minutes where we switched on and they switched off.

In the first half they played some of the better football i've saw from an opposition team in some time