League 1 + League 2 + BS premier and below!

Dozen Wicked Words

Darlington in the blue Square just about surviving for another couple of weeks after reciever accepted 50 grand donation to keep them going. The monumental folly of their home ground has all but killed them. Shame to see any team go under but this is 3rd time in administration in a few years.

Dozen Wicked Words

Cobblers are screwed this season I think. Just dire, losing to Barnet after yet again throwing away a lead. Still 15 minutes left for comeback but think we will need a miracle.

edit: nope, no miracle. Blue Square here we come, that and oblivion probably.

greendom

dooferoaks wrote: »

Cobblers are screwed this season I think. Just dire, losing to Barnet after yet again throwing away a lead. Still 15 minutes left for comeback but think we will need a miracle.

edit: nope, no miracle. Blue Square here we come, that and oblivion probably.

Delighted with the win of course, but Northampton have enough in them to get clear, and Barnet are by no means safe yet.

Beefy78

Great result for Barnet. I'm inclined to think that Northampton have enough about them to get safe but that's a horrible result for them.

greendom

Another win for Barnet today - although we may have had a bit of a helping hand from the ref as Crewe had 2 men sent off by half - time. Still 4 wins out of 4 now. Probably means Sanchez will win manager of the month and then inevitably we will lose to Oxford.

Dozen Wicked Words

Another game goes by and another defeat. Concensus seems that Aidy sets us up to be hard to beat. Works well until about 20 to go then the lads buckle. Conceding so many lateish goals. Not fit enough, or confident enough. With no one who can get us a few goals. Going to get cast further adrift if we don't start winning soon.

Oh well, onto the next one! Cobblers!

Dozen Wicked Words

Northampton's unbeaten run in February goes on, admittedly we have only played once but its a home win, the first in what seems like years! One nil against Wimbledon, also our first clean sheet for months too. Our mascot sent off for time wasting! Still in relegation zone but a win certainly gives a bit of hope.

mike65

Lee Clark sacked! :eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17042572

God only knows what prompted that, he'll be in work again very soon.

edit now updated with statement

"This was a very difficult decision; one not taken lightly or in response to one result," chairman Dean Hoyle told the club website.

"Lee and his coaching staff have put their all into the job over the past three seasons and has made a huge contrinution to the club.

"However with 16 matches to go we still have an oppotunity to achieve promotion and we have made this change with this in mind."

How is sacking your manager going to help you fool!

Squelchy

mike65 wrote: »

Lee Clark sacked! :eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17042572

God only knows what prompted that, he'll be in work again very soon.

Sniffing around the Leeds job?

That_Guy

Can't believe Lee Clark is sacked. They've only lost three times and are on the brink of promotion.

Suicidal move.

Beefy78

They're hardly on the brink of promotion. They're four points adrift having played more games than the team in second. They draw too many matches.

keano_afc

Made sense to sack him, 3 defeats in 54 matches is an appalling record

Beefy78

13 draws in 30 is certainly appalling.

Reekwind

Shocking news about Clark. He's one of the brightest young managers coming up through the League and I don't see Huddersfield finding anyone near his calibre to step down a level or two

Dozen Wicked Words

Does seem a strange decision to sack him.A lot of draws but has still done well with an unfashionable team. Won't be out of work for long, if his contract demands are cheap enough for ken Bates he might well end up at Leeds.

Dozen Wicked Words

Martin Allen has been sacked by Notts County, he possibly regrets his move now.

Paul Tergat

good win for City earlier. Weird result mind

Dozen Wicked Words

Cobblers off the bottom of the League without playing, Plymouth won, but otherwise most results went their way.

Edit: We have signed Bradfords 2nd choice Keeper, no offence to Paul T, but I think we should be aiming a bit higher than that. Thats about 6 keepers we have played this season now. Weird cos we signed an lad from the US from the league just below the MLS, seems a waste of his time. We also have a bermudan or something too, as well as an injured lad we signed last month and Wealde who was on loan from Leicester and got injured!

Dozen Wicked Words

Huddersfield have got themselves another good manager, another young one too, Simon Grayson. I think he will get them up this year.

Fowler87

dooferoaks wrote: »

Huddersfield have got themselves another good manager, another young one too, Simon Grayson. I think he will get them up this year.

Hed need to as Huddersfield have a terrible record in playoffs last few yrs. Good move for Northampton mate in getting Toni Silva. Hes gonna be a good player

Paully D

That_Guy wrote: »

Can't believe Lee Clark is sacked. They've only lost three times and are on the brink of promotion.

Suicidal move.

Think it was a good move myself.

He's hiding behind this ''not-really-unbeaten'' unbeaten record and couldn't get the job done in the play-offs. He's spent a decent amount of money too.

Grayson is a good appointment for them, has success of getting through the League 1 play-offs.

Decent view from a Huddersfield fan on Clarke:

The over-riding sentiment on twitter (where Wayne Rooney cited it as evidence that football has gone mad, with no reference to his wages or his hair), on the blogs and in various comments sections is that Lee Clark losing his job as manager of Huddersfield Town was something of a surprise and, not only that, considerably unfair. Rot. He’d been given every chance, every resource and it wasn’t working.

The headline figures make it look a poor decision. A run of 43 league games without defeat recently ended and even though it’s over, it’s still three defeats in 55 games. However, scratch beneath the surface a little and there’s more to it. Despite playing almost a season’s worth of games without a loss, there Town are – stuck in League 1. Of those 43 games, 20 of them were draws. In very few did they swashbuckle their way to a huge win and really get the Galpharm Stadium crowd rocking.

They have also displayed an uncanny ability to lose the advantage from winning positions. Time and again they’d concede one, maybe two, late in a game to drop points thanks to a panicky defence and an inability to retain possession. They’d struggle to break down sides that, perhaps fearful of that unbeaten run, came and parked the bus.

Those sides are invariably ones from lower down the table and it was an inability to beat that kind of unit, where promotion rivals had few problems, that has seen Huddersfield remain a League 1 side. Cracks were papered over by a welter of statistics and wins against the teams around them in the upper reaches of the league table.

Town carried that same form into this season and were running in the top two until a loss to runaway leaders Charlton. Defeat at home to Bournemouth quickly followed and, after a short run of draws with the odd win, another home defeat to Sheffield United sealed Clark’s fate.

The key word in the phrase ‘unbeaten league run’ is ‘league’. There was an encouraging performance against Arsenal in the FA Cup and a thrilling extra-time loss at Cardiff in the League Cup, but also a shuddering 4-0 reverse to Carlisle and a penalties loss to neighbours Bradford in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy as well as a thrashing at League 2 Swindon in the FA Cup. Most damaging of all was the 3-0 play-off final defeat to Peterborough at Old Trafford. Here, Town decided to play one up front; the one being an 18-year old who had never played that role before.

Following that catastrophe and the prospect of another season in League 1, the Town board again backed Clark in the transfer market. In came Danny Ward for a million pounds, Donal McDermott – so impressive in four games for Bournemouth against Town the previous season – from Manchester City, Tommy Miller from Sheffield Wednesday – the list goes on. And yet despite it being pretty obvious that a back four woefully short of pace needed attention,that was one area left exactly as was.

A host of players were signed with little to no regard on how they were going to line up and this is the biggest criticism of Clark. He never gave the impression that he knew his best XI nor even had an idea of how his players should be arranged. One never saw the seeds of a philosophy, of Clark’s way of playing the game. Instead, it was eleven players thrown on the field and a hope that it’d work. Changes were made seemingly at random with little to suggest that there was a plan.

That final Sheffield United game was a typical Town performance. Playing Alan Lee up front, the temptation to lump it long for the big man filtered through the team and the expensive midfield was totally bypassed. A red-and-white shirt was first to every knock-down, every attempted clearance, every second ball. Town had chances – Steve Simonsen pulled off two top class saves – but in the main, United looked untroubled in defence.

It wasn’t always like this. For the first year of Clark’s reign, Town could be electrifying, not least in a seven-goal win over Brighton and sixes over Wycombe and Stockport, but on October 4 2010 Sven Göran Eriksson took over as Leicester City manager and took Derek Fazackerley with him. While an expensively assembled squad occasionally came up with an eye-catching result, it was difficult to avoid the feeling that the brains of the operation had left. In Fazackerley’s absence, the balance was missing; the plan and the philosophy no more.

There’s a decent squad of players left at Huddersfield for someone to take on. I look at it from my vantage point in the commentary box each week and see a group of players capable of being moulded to almost any way of playing the game. Under Lee Clark, however, they were not going to get promoted.

With sixteen games to go this season and with the right appointment they still have a chance.

Dozen Wicked Words

Massive win for the Cobblers, still not out of the bottom 2 but level on points with the 2 teams above them and a game in hand.

2 wins on the bounce now for Northampton which is a rarity!

greendom

Barnet with 2 defeats in a row and its beginning to feel a little shaky again. A penalty miss 5 minutes from time tonight sealed our fate away at Oxford.

OwlsZat

Huddesfield are decent but no more, same why I feel about Clarke. Rhodes will be off at the end of the season and I believe Gary Roberts is playing his contract down till the summer too. Finding replacements of the same standard will be no easy job.

The automatic places look sown up by Charlton and Sheffield United bar some sort of miracle for Sheffield Wednesday or Huddesfield. The latter two will most likely have to settle for play off spots.

Paul Tergat

Bradford missed a real chance to pull away from the mire. Needed and 88th min equaliser at home to Hereford to rescue a point. This after beating 5th place Torquay away last week. Typical.

Dozen Wicked Words

Poor performance by the Cobblers on Saturday by all accounts but Port Vale are a decent team well up there, so no surprise in the result. Good crowd, nearly 6,000 and a load of money raised for Macmillan Cancer. They need a couple more wins to get back in amongst the pack, I think there may be 4 or 5 teams fighting it out come the end of the season.

OwlsZat

IN League 1 Sheffield Wednesday did promotion rivals MK Dons and Huddersfield, a favour by beating 2nd placed Sheffield United. The game was more important than the points as the Owls had been without a win in 3 and had slipped from 2nd to 5th over that stretch.

However, that stat was made history by Chris "Coba" O Grady. He powered home a header from a Lewis Buxton cross to give the Owls a 1-0 win moments after he had a thunderous 25 yard drive kept out. The single goal was enough to give the Owls the victory over the Oinkers and to propel them back up to third.

Run away leaders Charlton won again as did MK Dons and Huddersfield as the pressure is cranked up for the last remaining automatic promotion spot.

Dozen Wicked Words

OwlsZat wrote: »

IN League 1 Sheffield Wednesday did promotion rivals MK Dons and Huddersfield, a favour by beating 2nd placed Sheffield United. The game was more important than the points as the Owls had been without a win in 3 and had slipped from 2nd to 5th over that stretch.

However, that stat was made history by Chris "Coba" O Grady. He powered home a header from a Lewis Buxton cross to give the Owls a 1-0 win moments after he had a thunderous 25 yard drive kept out. The single goal was enough to give the Owls the victory over the Oinkers and to propel them back up to third.

Run away leaders Charlton won again as did MK Dons and Huddersfield as the pressure is cranked up for the last remaining automatic promotion spot.

Apart from Charlton its a wide open top 5, it will make for a very exciting end of season if it stays that way.

Dozen Wicked Words

Gary Megson sacked by Sheffield Wednesday after beating local rivals United and moving to 3rd in the league. Dave Jones likely to replace him. I think poor old Milan has lost the run of himself.

acquiescefc

OwlsZat wrote: »

IN League 1 Sheffield Wednesday did promotion rivals MK Dons and Huddersfield, a favour by beating 2nd placed Sheffield United. The game was more important than the points as the Owls had been without a win in 3 and had slipped from 2nd to 5th over that stretch.

However, that stat was made history by Chris "Coba" O Grady. He powered home a header from a Lewis Buxton cross to give the Owls a 1-0 win moments after he had a thunderous 25 yard drive kept out. The single goal was enough to give the Owls the victory over the Oinkers and to propel them back up to third.

Run away leaders Charlton won again as did MK Dons and Huddersfield as the pressure is cranked up for the last remaining automatic promotion spot.

its COGba btw not Coba

mike65

More CEO madness! Wednesday won't catch Charlton, no one will. Third place 5 points behind Wednesday who they just beat and they sack the manager.

OwlsZat

acquiescefc wrote: »

its COGba btw not Coba

Unbelievably sorry for that typo. What next.

mike65 wrote: »

More CEO madness! Wednesday won't catch Charlton, no one will. Third place 5 points behind Wednesday United who they just beat and they sack the manager.

To explain this comment. Milan Mandric owner/chairman appointed Paul Aldridge as CEO. Megson is rumoured to have had a poor relationship with him. This was highlighted in January when Megson let slip that he had wanted to keep James O Connor in January. It was Aldridge who supposedly ignored this plea and let him go to Orlando City. Megson said that O 'Connor had a very high win-rate in his games up to his departure and its obvious he must have been good to have around the dressing-room.

So anyway they didn't get on, and I'd imagine Megson was sick of not getting backed with his transfer targets. He spent very little in his time there at Wednesday. Some nice freebies, 70k on Lines, 50k on Jones and 200k on Lowe along with plenty of well chosen loans (Batth, Marshall, Antonio, Llera, etc)

In the end the poor run since January probably gave Aldridge the ammo he needed to get Milan to pull the trigger. W-L-D-W-D-W-L-L-L-W in the league since January had seen the Owls swap places with the Blades in exchanging 2nd for third place.

David Jones is one of the early favourites for the job, I've read mixed reviews. Personally I'm said to see Megson go. His football can be direct at times, but he is a very misunderstood manager. He really just works with what he has. He is also an Owls fan so its sad to see him relieved in a season he could have realistically actually have achieved promotion.

Stuxnet

was never a fan of megson, delighted jones is in !

UTO
WTID

Dozen Wicked Words

League 2, at the top, Swindon have bounced back after their local derby loss to Oxford at the weekend, to win again, nailed on to get promotion now I think, Sarfend got a point on Monday against the ? least popular team in the division Crawley. Swindon apart the 2nd and 3rd places are up for grabs by 5 I think.


At the bottom, the Cobblers are on a good run at the moment but still in the bottom 2. Just a point off safety now though with 2 games in hand. A few of the teams at the bottom seem to have a knack of throwing away leads. Northampton threw 2 goals away against Cheltenham to draw and nearly threw 3 away last night against Bristol Rovers. Hereford have done it a couple of times and Bradford have given up late goals fairly often.

Cobblers also only 3 points behind 19th now with at least one game in hand on them, Barnet in 20th, who Sanchez categorically stated would finish above Northampton, so hopefully we can prove him wrong.

One final point, some terrific average attendances in league 2 this year, Bradford head and shoulders above everyone with average of 10,500, but top 11 attended teams all get over 4,000 which is brilliant, and for Northampton to get 4,500 when they have been bottom of the league virtually the whole season is great.

Beefy78

Great point for us on Monday considering we finished with nine men and they missed a penalty. We need to move in the transfer market though. JP Kalalalalalalalala and Liam Dickinson were ruled out until next season yesterday. Kalala can be covered for but with Big Bad Barry Corr out injured as well we're badly in need of a targetman.

Wouldn't surprise me if we've spoken to Barnet about McLeod.

OwlsZat

Dave Jones Owls side got off to a flying start thumping Bury 4-1 in front of crowd of 17,684 at Hillsborough. To add icing to the cake, Sheffield United lost at Walsall meaning the Owls are now just a point behind them in the race for the second automatic promotion spot, although United still possess a game in hand.

In other Wednesday news, The Owls have been linked through the media with a move for Dubliner Stephen Henderson. Anyone know if there is legitimacy to the claims?

Dozen Wicked Words

OwlsZat wrote: »

In other Wednesday news, The Owls have been linked through the media with a move for Dubliner Stephen Henderson. Anyone know if there is legitimacy to the claims?

Read West Ham were supposed to be going for him, but its all rumours I think

Dozen Wicked Words

Northampton finally out of the bottom 2, another good win today against Aldershot, Akinfenwa finding a bit of form again for us. Made it all the way to 94th minute before conceding which was good too.

Paul Tergat

Solid home win for Bradford today against another playoff chasing team.

greendom

After a great january Barnet have been in freefall since and seemed to be hurtling towards relegation. Hopefully today's win away at Port Vale will turn things round.

mike65

What on earth happened to Charlton in first half?

Dozen Wicked Words

Massive win for Northampton tonight, up to heady heights of 18th. Conceded late at the weekend, so made a nice change actually win one in injury time against Burton.

grenache

Just when things were looking rosy for Notts County, the Blunts come to town and stuff em. Have now dropped out of the playoff zone, with both teams above them having two games in hand. Gonna be tough to clinch a playoff spot.

Beefy78

The wheels are well and truly falling off for Southend. We just can't win at home. This is our best ever season away form home but just two wins in the last twelve at Roots Hall just isn't good enough.

I think we've got Barnet at home soon so at least we'll pick up the second half of our traditional six points against them

greendom

Beefy78 wrote: »

The wheels are well and truly falling off for Southend. We just can't win at home. This is our best ever season away form home but just two wins in the last twelve at Roots Hall just isn't good enough.

I think we've got Barnet at home soon so at least we'll pick up the second half of our traditional six points against them

You sure you don't want to keep that bad run of form going until after you've played us ? We need all the help we can get at the moment !

Beefy78

Der der der derrrrrrrr Freddy Eastwood!

Dozen Wicked Words

Often miss not being able to go to football every week, but don't think I missed too much today, Nil nil with zero entertainment according to reports at the Cobblers v Plymouth. Still a few weeks ago a clean sheet at home would have been a massive result for Northampton, so it shows how far (relatively) we have come. Burton lost again today, although they are still above us, they are in a shocking run and wouldn't be surprised to see it get them relegated.

Paul Tergat

Bradford just cant get a few results together to get away from the drop zone. Just 4 point gap now. Although coming back from 2-0 down to get a point i suppose its a point gained :mad:

Beefy78

Had a crazy (and expensive) day yesterday. Inspired by the return of Eastwood on Thursday I decided to book a stupidly expensive last second flight to Bristol for our game at the Memorial Ground. The flight was delayed and my return was about 1hr 45minutes after the final whistle so the whole day was a rush. And we lost to a late dodgy penalty scored by a much-maligned ex-player.

But it was still a huge amount of fun. Football, on a terrace, in glorious weather. Can't beat it.

Dozen Wicked Words

Paul Sturrock on BBC Look East Late Kick Off tonight, (11.35 via the wonders of other channels on sky if you have it!), discussing his Parkinsons Disease. He seems like a great bloke and has done well most places hes been.