Halfway

Quoted from Mrs Doyle

Worryingly we use to dominate matches and make plenty of chances albeit not always convert. Now we just contain teams but pose little or no threat. If anything I thought we would play a even more attacking game under Bignot

Apart from the second half against Stevenage, I haven't seen us dominate at home all season.

Pretty happy so far but there is definitely room for improvement. A good run saw us pushing for the play offs but the managerial change has killed that off for the time being. The league is so tight that a run of four wins in six could see us challenging again but likewise a poor run could put us in danger. I'm expecting Bignot will start to form his own squad in the other week and I'm hopeful that will provide an upturn in fortunes rather than the other way.

The only two teams I've thought were better than us (that I've seen) over ninety minutes were Pompey and Carlisle. I expect they will both be promoted. There have been a few teams who have looked good in patches though.

Individuals wise whilst Bogle is the obvious choice for player of the season honourable mentions go to Dannys Collins and Andrew. Andrew has had a tough season due to having to do the defensive work of two men at times while Collins is just a class player at this level - a really good signing by PH and good on GTFC for trying to extend beyond this season.

I said at the start of the season that I would be happy with a midtable finish with a foundation to build on for next season and that is being achieved so far.

I'd love to have seen this play off chasing, dominant side, making loads of chances under Hurst. We looked decent in a couple of games but i think people are looking back with some kind of member-eyed nostalgia to 8 weeks ago. We lost to Cheltenham in Hurst's last game, the team second from bottom. We lost to Crewe, Orient and Hartlepool at home and just about scraped a win against Newport, the bottom side. We were the first team to give Exeter a point at their place having lost all their previous home games to that point. We lost tamely at Wycombe and Colchester and failed to beat Notts County when they were there for the taking. I really am struggling to understand how people think we have gone from a good side to a bad one since MB came in. The only really disappointing result under Bignot has been the loss to Crawley IMO.

Bar Portsmouth I haven't seen anything in this league to trouble me. Carlisle were a good footballing side but we exploited an obvious soft underbelly as we rattled them for a long period. Doncaster produced one moment of quality and showed nothing else all game. Plymouth looked half decent first half but they crumbled under pressure and lacked ideas after we scored.

Crewe looked a half decent outfit. Had some good players, dominated our midfield, but we did have a clearly onside goal disallowed and a rugby tackle not given as a penalty. Notts County gifted us two goals but we looked like we would have scored lots more that afternoon, they showed some desire and fight, I'm surprised they're down at the bottom. Orient benefitted from our profligate finishing and costly errors but didn't look anything special. Nor did Wycombe, another game we should have at least drawn but a poor free kick given away and an inability to defend a long throw cost us big time.

Newport, Stevenage, Morecambe Mansfield and Accrington looked poor sides.

3-0 flattered Hartlepool and Podge was massively fired up. We again missed two good chances before their goal. Barnet looked utterly devoid of anything bar Akinde's wonderful propensity to win penalties. Cheltenham was a right off as the players were distracted, the management likewise and then we had two fingers stuck up at us with the "sniffer" Doig sent to blatantly lie to us. I lost a lot of respect for Hursty then, having previously defended him to edge of the earth. In wasn't at Luton, Colchester, Cambridge, Exeter, Crawley or Yeovil.

Marcus has come in, talked an excellent game, won at Plymouth and everything was rosy, I am too be convinced either way but I am perfectly happy to allow him at least 2 windows to get his own men in. What I would definitely say though is we always posed a threat under Hursty, we now look devoid of ideas bar passing the ball to Bogle the messiah and when you put 3 men on him, even he isn't that brilliant.

However, there doesn't appear to be a huge gap between top and bottom and the Conference looks a poor league in comparison. Cheltenham are a case in point as we are 10 points ahead of them and they basically have the same team.

So basically, all of Hurst's poor results can be explained away by refereeing decisions, poor defensive lapses and poor finishing but Bignot's losses are because he doesn't know what he is doing and only talks a good game, despite his run of fixtures being much tougher?

Looking back, if we had turned a few of our draws and losses into wins we could easily be in the play-offs or further. The Notts County game has to be my favourite, awesome songs, nice stadium and turnout, and crazy game where Notts missed a penalty.

I am happy with where we are, there are some good teams in this league and no walk overs.

We are back in the football league, we have a new manager who has come in and had to get to know the players, all of whom he hasn't signed. The new ground now looks more like it will go ahead than ever
and we are still within a chance of making the playoffs.  

I think we all would have settled for mid table after finally getting out of the conference., but after seeing the quality in league 2 we should really have pushed on for at least a playoff place by now.
I blame this on Hurst as he let too many players go, i think Arnold would have been decent at this level, certainly no worse than we have currently.
Defense id reasonable but we should be looking for a younger replacemant for Gowling as i think he has had his day tbh.
Center mid is my great concern at the moment, we really seem to struggle to get 2 players that can operate together in the middle with Summerfield and Berret being the worse that we have had there for some time, Craig Clay would have been better! Would like to see Venney get a few games there to try and develop him further.

Quoted from ginnywings

I think we are doing ok but with plenty of room for improvement. League 2 is either better than it was or just better than i remember it being due to being away too long. Can't decide which.

That's my thoughts too Ginny seems so much better than it was than perhaps it was just us remembering the good old days of the 2nd tier of footballl and thinking gawd isn't league 2 excrement and after 6 years in the excrement we really now know what sh@t really is

Quoted from crusty ole pie

That's my thoughts too Ginny seems so much better than it was than perhaps it was just us remembering the good old days of the 2nd tier of footballl and thinking gawd isn't league 2 excrement and after 6 years in the excrement we really now know what sh@t really is

Think you may be right Mr Pie. I suppose it depends what you are comparing it to but it's a bigger step up than a lot of us were imagining and i think we were right to have a big cull of the playing squad- Cheltenham's league position is showing that. I keep reading about all the players we should have kept from last season and then i look at them. On the other hand B.Rovers went straight through without changing personnel, so it's hard to say. We seem to be somewhere between those two, at least for the moment.