Just a bit of perspective

Yes, we have thrown away a massive opportunity today but....

try to take a step back.

Look at 12 months ago when we were scrapping against relegation. The majority of us would have been pleased to be in Salford or Bromley's position; as we have repeatedly recognised over the last 12 months it would have represented real progress.

As it stands the play offs are still in our hands, and we are likely to still be in with some sort of chance with 2 games to go.
We would have bitten the proverbial hand off to be in this position last Easter. In fact if some one had predicted it they would have been laughed off the forum

The progress the playing and coaching staff have made is stunning, no matter what position we finish in, and should be applauded.

And all this with 1 hand tied behind our backs; one of the smaller budgets, an unattractive proposition to transfer targets, a small squad and then a horrendous succession of serious injuries. Plus we are hobbled by having 2 big earners from the old regime, hanging on, both unavailable and ineffective. add on to that another 2 big earners who we expected big things of , who (probably through injury) have failed
to come up to the expected level.

We have done incredibly well. and the icing on the cake?

Succeed or fail, we know exactly what is needed next season. May be controversial, but we need an upgrade in the goalkeeping position imho.
Less controversially, we need effective options up front, and we need better squad options off the bench. We may have been a bit unlucky with that this season. If you think about Thompson last season and Davies at the start of this, we could have expected them to be awesome subs, but they have been really disappointing.
In conclusion Jamestown and Joe need to come up with 3 or 4 Lukers, rather than Thompson Davies and Cass.
Difficult, but given how we have done this season , by no means impossible as our stock will have risen immeasurably in the football world

Chin up folks, Town are back

The trouble is, and my posts back this up, I’ve spent all season saying “happy to be mid table, taking it as it comes, enjoy the ride, glad not to be in a relegation scrap”.

Then last Saturday and 84 minutes into the game today, I’m in. We’re going to be in the play offs! This is it. Here we go,

The second I get invested in it it all goes to sh1t 😎

So I can say it now, we’ll lose the next three and we’ll finish 10th.


(#utm)

Quoted from BirtlesHatTrick

The trouble is, and my posts back this up, I’ve spent all season saying “happy to be mid table, taking it as it comes, enjoy the ride, glad not to be in a relegation scrap”.

Then last Saturday and 84 minutes into the game today, I’m in. We’re going to be in the play offs! This is it. Here we go,

The second I get invested in it it all goes to sh1t 😎

So I can say it now, we’ll lose the next three and we’ll finish 10th.


(#utm)

Feel like anything could happen but as I have felt for a while think it will go to that last game at home possibly even a winner takes all scenario - can't see Wimbledon winning more than 1 possibly 2 at a push before that with their difficult games

Quoted from forza ivano

Yes, we have thrown away a massive opportunity today but....

try to take a step back.

Look at 12 months ago when we were scrapping against relegation. The majority of us would have been pleased to be in Salford or Bromley's position; as we have repeatedly recognised over the last 12 months it would have represented real progress.

As it stands the play offs are still in our hands, and we are likely to still be in with some sort of chance with 2 games to go.
We would have bitten the proverbial hand off to be in this position last Easter. In fact if some one had predicted it they would have been laughed off the forum

The progress the playing and coaching staff have made is stunning, no matter what position we finish in, and should be applauded.

And all this with 1 hand tied behind our backs; one of the smaller budgets, an unattractive proposition to transfer targets, a small squad and then a horrendous succession of serious injuries. Plus we are hobbled by having 2 big earners from the old regime, hanging on, both unavailable and ineffective. add on to that another 2 big earners who we expected big things of , who (probably through injury) have failed
to come up to the expected level.

We have done incredibly well. and the icing on the cake?

Succeed or fail, we know exactly what is needed next season. May be controversial, but we need an upgrade in the goalkeeping position imho.
Less controversially, we need effective options up front, and we need better squad options off the bench. We may have been a bit unlucky with that this season. If you think about Thompson last season and Davies at the start of this, we could have expected them to be awesome subs, but they have been really disappointing.
In conclusion Jamestown and Joe need to come up with 3 or 4 Lukers, rather than Thompson Davies and Cass.
Difficult, but given how we have done this season , by no means impossible as our stock will have risen immeasurably in the football world

Chin up folks, Town are back

Good post & agree completely the turnaround in 12 months makes this season one of massive progress considering last years debacle. If yesterday was the turning point the Cowley’s might just be saying the same ahead of their 47th EFL game of the season. Let’s not be too happy with missing out on the playoffs considering we’ve spent several weeks of the season 7th or above.

Not sure I agree re the keeper, I know this divides opinion but we’ve conceded more goals by really poor defending and players not picking up opponents than keeper errors.

It’s not individual player quality outside of the starting 11 that’s hurt us it’s injuries & players not being truly ready in match fitness/sharpness that’s been the killer.

Think your scapegoating Thompson & Davies a bit here, we know they can play but depending where you are in your career sometimes it takes longer to get up to speed, as far as I can remember neither where at fault for either Harrogate goals. It’s really hard for coaches as the days are long gone when players could use reserve games to get up to match fitness.

Like I say Forza your sentiment & context is bang on but if we fail to finish 7th it won’t be down to a couple of individual players who are no doubt working rally hard to make a difference.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Good post & agree completely the turnaround in 12 months makes this season one of massive progress considering last years debacle. If yesterday was the turning point the Cowley’s might just be saying the same ahead of their 47th EFL game of the season. Let’s not be too happy with missing out on the playoffs considering we’ve spent several weeks of the season 7th or above.

Not sure I agree re the keeper, I know this divides opinion but we’ve conceded more goals by really poor defending and players not picking up opponents than keeper errors.

It’s not individual player quality outside of the starting 11 that’s hurt us it’s injuries & players not being truly ready in match fitness/sharpness that’s been the killer.

Think your scapegoating Thompson & Davies a bit here, we know they can play but depending where you are in your career sometimes it takes longer to get up to speed, as far as I can remember neither where at fault for either Harrogate goals. It’s really hard for coaches as the days are long gone when players could use reserve games to get up to match fitness.

Like I say Forza your sentiment & context is bang on but if we fail to finish 7th it won’t be down to a couple of individual players who are no doubt working rally hard to make a difference.

The context is without Thompson we might have been playing NL now , he did his job . Whether he's 'gone' or just getting up to speed he still played a big part of where we are now imo . He might in the next 4 games or he might not ; he will probably leave come season end but I hold him in high regard for the way he went into the trenches last time out for sure .

In the words of Tim Booth - if I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor.

Whether you could describe a league 2 playoff place as “riches” is debatable, but going from a 5pt gap to 1 in the space of 5 minutes is tough to take, especially given that Harrogate were absolute dog.

Ultimately you’ve got to hope it spurs the players on, been far too much talk about free hits and having it almost wrapped up. Only slight bit of solace is looking at everyone else’s results and seeing Colchester have Crewe, Salford & Donny in the next 3.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Good post & agree completely the turnaround in 12 months makes this season one of massive progress considering last years debacle. If yesterday was the turning point the Cowley’s might just be saying the same ahead of their 47th EFL game of the season. Let’s not be too happy with missing out on the playoffs considering we’ve spent several weeks of the season 7th or above.

Not sure I agree re the keeper, I know this divides opinion but we’ve conceded more goals by really poor defending and players not picking up opponents than keeper errors.

It’s not individual player quality outside of the starting 11 that’s hurt us it’s injuries & players not being truly ready in match fitness/sharpness that’s been the killer.

Think your scapegoating Thompson & Davies a bit here, we know they can play but depending where you are in your career sometimes it takes longer to get up to speed, as far as I can remember neither where at fault for either Harrogate goals. It’s really hard for coaches as the days are long gone when players could use reserve games to get up to match fitness.

Like I say Forza your sentiment & context is bang on but if we fail to finish 7th it won’t be down to a couple of individual players who are no doubt working rally hard to make a difference.

The art of good goalkeeping is dying a good keeper commands his area and marshalls his defence by talking to them constantly, if the defenders know that the keeper is going to claim most balls coming into the area, it makes defending a little easier.

The problem these days goalkeepers are expected to be better with their feet then with their hands. Also rather than claiming the ball, they punch the ball, this means that they is a chance the ball comes straight back into the box.

The best keeper I have seen play for Town was Dave Beasant.

Perspective is everything here . We are on an upward trajectory for the first time in 20 odd years . The foundations are in place for next season what ever league we’re in . This season has been very enjoyable and entertaining with out any stress at all

Cass has been fine. I don't think he really needs to be criticised as he's done OK when the team has done OK. Same goes for Warren who has performed decently most of the time.

It's a real shame what has happened to Thompson. He was so good last season that he all but kept us up on his own and I'd have expected similar form had he not picked up the freak injury in pre-season. Unfortunately, that seems to have done for him as he's noticeably slower since his return and it has obviously got to him as the other good parts of his play have departed when he does come on. Elsewhere in midfield, it has generally been very good. Difficult before Christmas when we were down to the bare bones and the players often looked knackered through having to play so many minutes. My one criticism of the midfield has been the lack of goals as we've failed to score nearly as many as we should from chances created. This is something which has improved a great deal in the last couple of months so it's just a shame they weren't knocking more of their chances in earlier in the season.

Although the injuries have been a big issue, the most remarkable thing about our current position has been the fact that we've had to play most of the season with just one striker! Rose is a canny operator and has done well, but Obikwu has only been available for about a third of the season and never got near full fitness. Pyke was Pyke. Wilson as disappointing as I've always found him and he's not been available a great deal, either. Ideally, you want at least two or three strikers available so you can play one or two up front and have options on the bench, but we've just not had that. I don't doubt we would have been in an automatic promotion spot had Obikwu been fit all season. This is the main area where we need to do some work this summer.

Individual defensive performances have been pretty decent for most of the season, though we've had some poor play at times (I'm thinking particularly of one or two implosions by Rodgers). Consistency has been the problem as the same line-up which plays well to battle out a clean sheet one game can let opponents easily find acres of space in the box in the next. It's the main reason why I think we won't go up this season, even if we end up in a play-off spot. Without Tharme we struggle aerially (we have very little height in comparison to most teams in the division who tend to have at least a couple of giants). Will we look to shake up the centre of the defence this summer? Probably not. However, if not, this will surely lead to similar problems shipping goals next season?

We'll just have to wait to see how the season plays out and see where we're set in the summer.

Despite all these long posts. The point is during the season most teams throw away 2 goal leads or come back from 2 down, this was ours against a side who aren't doing great but have been getting results. It's the beauty of football that a game can swing on moments, disappointing given what it would have given us but that's why we are obsessed with this game, right?