Sister thread to the what went right one.

We won three games when dixon and woolford were out.

We came from behind against swindon

Dembele had a great spell

Er.....

The end of last season, when he had majority of Bignot's players, he got a few decent results

He then wiped the team out, replaced with OAP's and now we are in this position.

Finally beating Cheltenham! Except for that, and your points, I got nothing.

It didn’t go well for him so we didn’t have to put up with it for too long - I suppose that can be spun into a positive?

We beat Chesterfield 3-1 first game of the season which got all of our hopes up that we actually had a team capable of challenging.

Quoted from Mighty_Mariner

We beat Chesterfield 3-1 first game of the season which got all of our hopes up that we actually had a team capable of challenging.

The result came as a massive surprise to me after our poor and unbalanced recruitment before the start of the season. It's often described as one of our best performances of the season. I was obviously pleased with the result but when looking further into the statistics for the game there was one that unnerved me and stopped me from becoming any more confident about Slade and the squad. Chesterfield had thirty shots. Thirty. That's one every three minutes and look how Chesterfield have fared over the season. Maybe the thirty shots set the tone for the season rather than the 3-1 result? Add that to our panicky poor additions at the end of the summer transfer window a couple of weeks later and I was really fearful from that point, and still am, right up to where we are today. Even those three consecutive wins didn't fool me. I felt a bit of a mood hoover at the time by saying this squad could quite easily go on a long run of games without winning as it was so fragile. I didn't quite envisage how bad the run was going to be though..

The rot set in in the summer transfer window, could have been rectified in January but was made ten times worse, and now we have a bright young manager starting out with both hands tied behind his back. If MJ pulls this squad around to get the points required, it will be a minor miracle. He might just be the breath of fresh air we need in the next ten games to make up for a disastrous transfer policy led by Slade and signed off by the board..

What went right with Slade? Signing Dembele and establishing the need for proper due diligence for future managerial appointments, and that's about it..

He can make presentations, using IT. Can also use stats to support any obscure point that he is making.   Selective use of evidence when talking about players.  Talks a good talk.  

Signing Dembele, getting rid of Gunning.

Yeah thats me out - you have to be amazed that he could get so much wrong

He set up links with the college so maybe that was something good from his tenure and he invested into data analysis and fitness, not that it's done much good.

Dembele and he’s even copulated that up by playing him when injured.

He inspired me to make a 'CAPTAIN LEADER LEGEND' Nathan Clarke banner.

In conjunction with Jarmo; I remember being sat in the stands end of last season and said to the guy next to me that we had a nucleus of a decent side in Pearson, Clements, J Osbourne & Sam Jones. They’ve all gone through the exit door. The next ‘nucleus’ potential wise of players under contract consists of Dembele and Zak Mills for me. Nice work Russ 👍🏻👍🏻

Kept Macca.. that's one small shred of comfort!

Quoted from GTFCH

In conjunction with Jarmo; I remember being sat in the stands end of last season and said to the guy next to me that we had a nucleus of a decent side in Pearson, Clements, J Osbourne & Sam Jones. They’ve all gone through the exit door. The next ‘nucleus’ potential wise of players under contract consists of Dembele and Zak Mills for me. Nice work Russ 👍🏻👍🏻

This is the sad reality of whats happened.

So many good players at this level gone and no way near replaced.

Our team against plymouth last season had:
Andrew - granted he was too good for us, so was difficult to keep
Pearson
McCalister - who is still here sort of...
Osborne
Clements
Comley - Although i'm not sure how good he actually was?
Jones
Dyson - was actually a decent player
Disley - okay, right time for him to go

They would probably all walk into saturday's team

Agreed they’d all walk in to Saturdays side on their individual form at the time. My god we have missed Danny Andrew overlapping this season! Zero comparison between him and Dixon who somehow earned himself a two year deal! Gobsmacking.

Quoted from Davec

He set up links with the college so maybe that was something good from his tenure and he invested into data analysis and fitness, not that it's done much good.

No idea what the links with the college are but with regard to data analysis and fitness, not sure what that has brought us apart from all 11 players back for corners and some players looking fooked well before the end of matches.

Signed Dembele.
Didn't sell McKeown.

I think that is about it.

Another positive for me during the reign of Russell Slade was..

I love the term "bang average"

I don't know why, but I really like it..

I read it so many times on here while he was our manager..

Unfortunately it was used mostly to describe the better players in our squad..

The most remarkable thing about this season is that we did relatively ok for the first part of it. I think that was down more to good luck than bad luck in the latter half.

Quoted from horsforthmariner

Signing Dembele, getting rid of Gunning.

Yeah thats me out - you have to be amazed that he could get so much wrong

I think Gunning gets a lot of unfair criticism on this site. Bignot only signed him to the end of the season and nobody knows if he would have been retained in the summer. Slade released him and he went to Port Vale where , by all accounts , he was quite a favourite with the fans and I do believe played at left back. He left them to go to Village Green Rovers on more money and they have moved up the table to above us. I think he is a reasonable defender at this level but unfortunately Bignot tried to use him as a defensive mid-fielder at every opportunity which seemed to alienate him from the fans.

Quoted from rancido

I think Gunning gets a lot of unfair criticism on this site. Bignot only signed him to the end of the season and nobody knows if he would have been retained in the summer. Slade released him and he went to Port Vale where , by all accounts , he was quite a favourite with the fans and I do believe played at left back. He left them to go to Village Green Rovers on more money and they have moved up the table to above us. I think he is a reasonable defender at this level but unfortunately Bignot tried to use him as a defensive mid-fielder at every opportunity which seemed to alienate him from the fans.

Agree - Nathan Clarke makes Gunning look like a Prem defender, and to think we also let Shaun Pearson go too.

What went right. I think the penny has dropped in quarters that might have been previously resistant to real change at the top.

I blame Slade for the state of the team now and I hold him solely responsible for dismantling an up and coming team and just about relegating us in the quickest time possible!!! It’s a good job he is Fentys mate, Christ knows what he would have done if he disliked him. Four points from the last forty five, yes, just four. I hope you’re bleeding proud of yourself and I hope you never do this again to any other football team, except Lincoln,Scunthorpe and Cheltenham!!

Bigdog nailed it on page 1

Indeed he did Chaos, worth a bump but it really does make you wonder why this was ever allowed to happen.  :o

[1quote=136845]

The result came as a massive surprise to me after our poor and unbalanced recruitment before the start of the season. It's often described as one of our best performances of the season. I was obviously pleased with the result but when looking further into the statistics for the game there was one that unnerved me and stopped me from becoming any more confident about Slade and the squad. Chesterfield had thirty shots. Thirty. That's one every three minutes and look how Chesterfield have fared over the season. Maybe the thirty shots set the tone for the season rather than the 3-1 result? Add that to our panicky poor additions at the end of the summer transfer window a couple of weeks later and I was really fearful from that point, and still am, right up to where we are today. Even those three consecutive wins didn't fool me. I felt a bit of a mood hoover at the time by saying this squad could quite easily go on a long run of games without winning as it was so fragile. I didn't quite envisage how bad the run was going to be though..

The rot set in in the summer transfer window, could have been rectified in January but was made ten times worse, and now we have a bright young manager starting out with both hands tied behind his back. If MJ pulls this squad around to get the points required, it will be a minor miracle. He might just be the breath of fresh air we need in the next ten games to make up for a disastrous transfer policy led by Slade and signed off by the board..

What went right with Slade? Signing Dembele and establishing the need for proper due diligence for future managerial appointments, and that's about it..[/quote]

Quoted from KingstonMariner

What went right. I think the penny has dropped in quarters that might have been previously resistant to real change at the top.

This. Despite the pain of it all i have some hope that the board are now in an untenable position and its just a matter of time before they go.

Sacking the useless twaat went well apart from it being three months too late

what went right, things were relatively ok upto Christmas but then went wrong with the situation with Jamey leaving on loan, and I'm convinced something happened behind the scenes, as Jones's body language had changed.  Maybe some players didn't like the style so RS got rid.

Dembele isn’t even that good. Really overrated by some Town fans. I’ve seen virtually every game and Barnet away was the only really good game he had. Other than that he’s been ineffectual and his final ball is lacking.

Gunning never had a run of games at CB, was mostly played as a defensive midfielder

Quoted from davmariner

Dembele isn’t even that good. Really overrated by some Town fans. I’ve seen virtually every game and Barnet away was the only really good game he had. Other than that he’s been ineffectual and his final ball is lacking.

i think you're being very harsh.

he's been average recently and dropped in form, but at the start of the season he was unplayable, and hopefully Jolley can get the most out of him for the last 10 games, because we are going to need him

Quoted from davmariner

Dembele isn’t even that good. Really overrated by some Town fans. I’ve seen virtually every game and Barnet away was the only really good game he had. Other than that he’s been ineffectual and his final ball is lacking.

Port Vale, Cheltenham, Chesterfield? Even played pretty well against Coventry and Lincoln.

I think Dembele has been found out to some degree though the heavier pitches have possibly played their part as well as the back problem we've heard about relatively recently.

My view is that defenders have been coached to not lunge into the challenge as he's nippy enough over short distances to skip past them, but he doesn't have the strength or pace to hold off the second challenge if they just hold back and let him try to get past them. In his cameos in 2018, he's invariably been muscled off the ball in midfield.

He still has plenty of ability, but we need to get him back into form and receiving the ball much nearer the opposition penalty area as opposed to the half way line.

Oh, needs to work on his first touch as well which tends to be appalling, which is bizarre when you consider how good his close ball skills are.

i just wish Woolford & Kelly was half as good as Dembele  :o

Unfortunately, none of them have done anything for months. Not difficult to see why we've struggled when three-quarters of our wingers have achieved nothing and Jaiyesimi hasn't been tearing up any trees, either!

Quoted from Jarmo.Is.God

i just wish Woolford & Kelly was half as good as Dembele  :o

Could be late  starters like Summerfield,  How can they be as bad as they have been, they have both played like players who are arsed in that they have been selected to play, new manager bounce might do it, although i`m not holding my breath. Kelly has shown better at full back than a winger IMO