Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2015 23:07:52 GMT
I get the analogies. My point was the blokle has taken us to second in the league. We have a decent chance of going straight back up. Apart from steamrollering the division what more can he do? How about outthinking a few managers who probably get to train and drill their part-time players a couple of nights a week if they're lucky? I think he has done OK but failing to win at Dartford, Woking, Alfreton, Braintree, Altrincham, Wrexham, Chester, Aldershot and Welling (may have missed some) isn't great when he still has players to call on like Mildenhall, Brown, Parkes, Lockyer, Monkhouse and Mansell, who are all Football League standard. I know people will say these teams raise their game when they face Rovers but did anyone really think that Dartford excelled themselves, or Woking come to that? I get the fact he has had to rebuild the spirit, and he's done a decent job with that, absolutely. But sometimes his team selection and tactics are open to question and he's a bit of a tinkerman, as Daniel Leadbitter confirmed the other day. I certainly don't agree with him saying "we deserved to win the game" as he did after Dartford. People who didn't go to that game might think we dominated the game. We didn't by any means. I don't think we did anywhere near enough to take the three points. No point trying to reason with the happy clappers. Clarke is great, if we are even allowed to call him Clarke? It seems that now that we are all best buddies we call him DC. Obviously I must have just imagined that we were not in a relegation position when he took over, and that a farcical performance against (all but already relegated) Torquay followed by a totally insane formation against (nothing to play for) Mansfield made sure that after 8 games Clarke took us out of the League. When he took over we had 43 points from 38 games, I make that more than 1 point per game, Clarke managed 7 points in his 8 games. Just in case anyone says that we were on a dreadful run of form and he did well to get 7 points from 8 games, we got 9 points from the last 8 games before he was appointed. Sorry to disrupt the 'DC' love-in, but them's the facts. As for this season, there are no easy games in the Conference, totally unreasonable to criticise the manager for failing to organise a team to beat Altrincham, Alfreton, Welling, Woking, Dartford or Braintree.
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dido
Predictions League
Peter Aitken
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Post by dido on Feb 7, 2015 0:34:47 GMT
"No point trying to reason with the happy clappers"
And vice versa, sunshine.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2015 1:02:13 GMT
How about outthinking a few managers who probably get to train and drill their part-time players a couple of nights a week if they're lucky? I think he has done OK but failing to win at Dartford, Woking, Alfreton, Braintree, Altrincham, Wrexham, Chester, Aldershot and Welling (may have missed some) isn't great when he still has players to call on like Mildenhall, Brown, Parkes, Lockyer, Monkhouse and Mansell, who are all Football League standard. I know people will say these teams raise their game when they face Rovers but did anyone really think that Dartford excelled themselves, or Woking come to that? I get the fact he has had to rebuild the spirit, and he's done a decent job with that, absolutely. But sometimes his team selection and tactics are open to question and he's a bit of a tinkerman, as Daniel Leadbitter confirmed the other day. I certainly don't agree with him saying "we deserved to win the game" as he did after Dartford. People who didn't go to that game might think we dominated the game. We didn't by any means. I don't think we did anywhere near enough to take the three points. No point trying to reason with the happy clappers. Clarke is great, if we are even allowed to call him Clarke? It seems that now that we are all best buddies we call him DC. Obviously I must have just imagined that we were not in a relegation position when he took over, and that a farcical performance against (all but already relegated) Torquay followed by a totally insane formation against (nothing to play for) Mansfield made sure that after 8 games Clarke took us out of the League. When he took over we had 43 points from 38 games, I make that more than 1 point per game, Clarke managed 7 points in his 8 games. Just in case anyone says that we were on a dreadful run of form and he did well to get 7 points from 8 games, we got 9 points from the last 8 games before he was appointed. Sorry to disrupt the 'DC' love-in, but them's the facts. As for this season, there are no easy games in the Conference, totally unreasonable to criticise the manager for failing to organise a team to beat Altrincham, Alfreton, Welling, Woking, Dartford or Braintree. i think for many fans including a work mate of mine who i go to some away matches with lord darrell is simply unforgiven for taking us down and nothing will change that opinion and your one of these people,,i take a different approach taking the positves from the gritty team we have that are 2nd in the conference,,,,what could dc do to make you put your hands up and say "i was wrong" ? is there anything?
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Peter Parker
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Richard Walker
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Post by Peter Parker on Feb 7, 2015 7:37:01 GMT
How about outthinking a few managers who probably get to train and drill their part-time players a couple of nights a week if they're lucky? I think he has done OK but failing to win at Dartford, Woking, Alfreton, Braintree, Altrincham, Wrexham, Chester, Aldershot and Welling (may have missed some) isn't great when he still has players to call on like Mildenhall, Brown, Parkes, Lockyer, Monkhouse and Mansell, who are all Football League standard. I know people will say these teams raise their game when they face Rovers but did anyone really think that Dartford excelled themselves, or Woking come to that? I get the fact he has had to rebuild the spirit, and he's done a decent job with that, absolutely. But sometimes his team selection and tactics are open to question and he's a bit of a tinkerman, as Daniel Leadbitter confirmed the other day. I certainly don't agree with him saying "we deserved to win the game" as he did after Dartford. People who didn't go to that game might think we dominated the game. We didn't by any means. I don't think we did anywhere near enough to take the three points. No point trying to reason with the happy clappers. Clarke is great, if we are even allowed to call him Clarke? It seems that now that we are all best buddies we call him DC. Obviously I must have just imagined that we were not in a relegation position when he took over, and that a farcical performance against (all but already relegated) Torquay followed by a totally insane formation against (nothing to play for) Mansfield made sure that after 8 games Clarke took us out of the League. When he took over we had 43 points from 38 games, I make that more than 1 point per game, Clarke managed 7 points in his 8 games. Just in case anyone says that we were on a dreadful run of form and he did well to get 7 points from 8 games, we got 9 points from the last 8 games before he was appointed. Sorry to disrupt the 'DC' love-in, but them's the facts. As for this season, there are no easy games in the Conference, totally unreasonable to criticise the manager for failing to organise a team to beat Altrincham, Alfreton, Welling, Woking, Dartford or Braintree. You know i am anything but a happy clapper. Maybe relegation was entirely Clarke's fault, but all he can do this season is try and get us promoted, something he is making a pretty good go off. What more can he do He has made some questionable decision at times this season, but we are challenging, something i didnt even think we would manage for one reason or another, so for that he gets a defence from me.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2015 8:48:03 GMT
No point trying to reason with the happy clappers. Clarke is great, if we are even allowed to call him Clarke? It seems that now that we are all best buddies we call him DC. Obviously I must have just imagined that we were not in a relegation position when he took over, and that a farcical performance against (all but already relegated) Torquay followed by a totally insane formation against (nothing to play for) Mansfield made sure that after 8 games Clarke took us out of the League. When he took over we had 43 points from 38 games, I make that more than 1 point per game, Clarke managed 7 points in his 8 games. Just in case anyone says that we were on a dreadful run of form and he did well to get 7 points from 8 games, we got 9 points from the last 8 games before he was appointed. Sorry to disrupt the 'DC' love-in, but them's the facts. As for this season, there are no easy games in the Conference, totally unreasonable to criticise the manager for failing to organise a team to beat Altrincham, Alfreton, Welling, Woking, Dartford or Braintree. You know i am anything but a happy clapper. Maybe relegation was entirely Clarke's fault, but all he can do this season is try and get us promoted, something he is making a pretty good go off. What more can he do He has made some questionable decision at times this season, but we are challenging, something i didnt even think we would manage for one reason or another, so for that he gets a defence from me. Probably But Bamber's point is a matter of record. I want the guy to do well, obviously, but you do have to wonder if and when we do go up, if his tactics will lead us into trouble, again. Time will tell I guess.
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Post by westbourne gas on Feb 7, 2015 9:38:40 GMT
Blimey there are some other doubters on here. I thought I was the only one. I know one thing for sure there will be a lot more before long. Personally I will never forgive him for destroying our League status ancd humiliating our club something he has continued to do this season. Out I say and sooner the better. Demand better Gasheads this is Bristol Rovers not Alfreton Town.
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Post by belmontman on Feb 7, 2015 9:52:01 GMT
"Personally I will never forgive him for destroying our League status ancd humiliating our club something he has continued to do this season." There's silly posts, cheerful posts (few in number), miserable posts, hateful posts, joyful posts (a rare species)and now we have the surreal post. The only response I can think of is 'You what?'.
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Post by oviedista on Feb 7, 2015 9:57:34 GMT
I think we should employ a policy of immediately sacking every manager that fails to beat a part time team more than once. That's the only way to get out of this mess caused by deep and ingrained issues that were created entirely by whoever currently has the job. We need a "name" manager with experience who always gets his tactics right - like er... Mcghee, Atkins, Graydon, Ward etc etc.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2015 12:08:59 GMT
I think we should employ a policy of immediately sacking every manager that fails to beat a part time team more than once. That's the only way to get out of this mess caused by deep and ingrained issues that were created entirely by whoever currently has the job. We need a "name" manager with experience who always gets his tactics right - like er... Mcghee, Atkins, Graydon, Ward etc etc. Had we gone for an 'Atkins' manager last March we would still be a League team. Instead we went for a clueless novice. 1973. What would it take for me to admit I was wrong? Ummm, I've checked last season's stats, what I posted yesterday evening is correct, Clarke got us relegated. I've looked again at this season's results, no matter how many times I read the list we have still failed to win matches against; Grimsby Barnet Altrincham Forest Green Rovers Braintree Town Eastleigh Dover Aldershot Forest Green Rovers again Alfreton Kidderminster Chester Wrexham Welling Bath City Torquay Woking Dartford. Now you'll just have to excuse me if my expectations are too high, but we are Bristol Rovers, a club that traditionally sends teams of kids and trialists to village pub teams like Dartford for friendlies and still come away with a 5-0 win. Of course, sat behind all of this is the worst Chairman in the club's history. Maybe he will deliver a new stadium and leave us debt free, I hope he does, but his record running the football side of the operation is, sadly, there for all to see.
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 7, 2015 12:19:48 GMT
After all the experienced Dave Penney showed who to do a good job!
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Post by fanatical on Feb 7, 2015 12:28:29 GMT
I think we should employ a policy of immediately sacking every manager that fails to beat a part time team more than once. That's the only way to get out of this mess caused by deep and ingrained issues that were created entirely by whoever currently has the job. We need a "name" manager with experience who always gets his tactics right - like er... Mcghee, Atkins, Graydon, Ward etc etc. Had we gone for an 'Atkins' manager last March we would still be a League team. Instead we went for a clueless novice. 1973. What would it take for me to admit I was wrong? Ummm, I've checked last season's stats, what I posted yesterday evening is correct, Clarke got us relegated. I've looked again at this season's results, no matter how many times I read the list we have still failed to win matches against; Grimsby Barnet Altrincham Forest Green Rovers Braintree Town Eastleigh Dover Aldershot Forest Green Rovers again Alfreton Kidderminster Chester Wrexham Welling Bath City Torquay Woking Dartford. Now you'll just have to excuse me if my expectations are too high, but we are Bristol Rovers, a club that traditionally sends teams of kids and trialists to village pub teams like Dartford for friendlies and still come away with a 5-0 win. Of course, sat behind all of this is the worst Chairman in the club's history. Maybe he will deliver a new stadium and leave us debt free, I hope he does, but his record running the football side of the operation is, sadly, there for all to see. It wasn't results in the last few games that got us relegated - it was our performance over the season by a team who, like most connected with BRFC, thought we were too big to go down to the Conference.
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Post by Bath Gas on Feb 7, 2015 13:09:51 GMT
Blimey there are some other doubters on here. I thought I was the only one. I know one thing for sure there will be a lot more before long. Personally I will never forgive him for destroying our League status ancd humiliating our club something he has continued to do this season. Out I say and sooner the better. Demand better Gasheads this is Bristol Rovers not Alfreton Town. I agree. Clarke should be burnt at the stake forthwith, found guilty of managing a team which is languishing in 2nd place.
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Feb 8, 2015 13:25:28 GMT
How about outthinking a few managers who probably get to train and drill their part-time players a couple of nights a week if they're lucky? I think he has done OK but failing to win at Dartford, Woking, Alfreton, Braintree, Altrincham, Wrexham, Chester, Aldershot and Welling (may have missed some) isn't great when he still has players to call on like Mildenhall, Brown, Parkes, Lockyer, Monkhouse and Mansell, who are all Football League standard. I know people will say these teams raise their game when they face Rovers but did anyone really think that Dartford excelled themselves, or Woking come to that? I get the fact he has had to rebuild the spirit, and he's done a decent job with that, absolutely. But sometimes his team selection and tactics are open to question and he's a bit of a tinkerman, as Daniel Leadbitter confirmed the other day. I certainly don't agree with him saying "we deserved to win the game" as he did after Dartford. People who didn't go to that game might think we dominated the game. We didn't by any means. I don't think we did anywhere near enough to take the three points. No point trying to reason with the happy clappers. Clarke is great, if we are even allowed to call him Clarke? It seems that now that we are all best buddies we call him DC. Obviously I must have just imagined that we were not in a relegation position when he took over, and that a farcical performance against (all but already relegated) Torquay followed by a totally insane formation against (nothing to play for) Mansfield made sure that after 8 games Clarke took us out of the League. When he took over we had 43 points from 38 games, I make that more than 1 point per game, Clarke managed 7 points in his 8 games. Just in case anyone says that we were on a dreadful run of form and he did well to get 7 points from 8 games, we got 9 points from the last 8 games before he was appointed. Sorry to disrupt the 'DC' love-in, but them's the facts. As for this season, there are no easy games in the Conference, totally unreasonable to criticise the manager for failing to organise a team to beat Altrincham, Alfreton, Welling, Woking, Dartford or Braintree. I think that's OTT. The 'facts' are OK but partial and laid out to make a case that deliberately paints Clarke in the worst light possible; a lawyers trick. You could paint things in a totally different way if you wanted to put Clarke in a much more positive light which others have done. But I would disagree with the interpretation anyway. True, Clarke hardly deserves a free pass for the relegation but to put it mainly on him seems very harsh to me. I didn't agree with the sacking of Ward either. I think any manager would struggle given only 8 games to turn a situation around with no capacity to bring anyone in or out. It was a decision that spoke of total panic and indecisiveness. If you're going to sack a manager surely you give him enough time to make a few changes here and there. You don't say - 'here is a completely misfiring squad most of whom are now demotivated because they know that whatever happens they're unlikely to here next season, best of luck'. No he didn't do a very good job and we were wrong to hand over to a complete novice but that is not Clarke's fault; he was handed a complete hospital pass. Clarke would be a fair way down the accountability for me when it comes to relegation. It's easy to say 'we were outside the relegation zone' but we were plummeting like a stone at the time and you couldn't see where we were getting our next win from - hence the panicked call. It's the same as the hindsight that says Holloway or Trollope would have kept us up in those seasons they were sacked - which is a counter-factual that ignores the fact that at the time those teams were shot to pieces, disorganised, unmotivated and clearly not responding to the manager any more (I'm as big a Trollope fan as you'll find but I don't he'd have kept that lot up). You can't blame the guy that takes over for that. Equally there can be a seriously marginal difference between success and failure. I saw us play at Bury just after Clarke had taken over - if we'd won I think we'd have gone above them in the table and they ended having a little dart at the playoffs because League 2 is silly. On the night we were the better team and only lost because Brian Jensen had one of those games where nothing was getting passed him. We gave up 2 stupid goals but we played very well and I'm pretty sure if we'd won that the confidence would have returned off back to back wins and we'd have been fine and Clarke would have been the hero. The point is not to absolve Clarke - I was at the Torquay game and we were terrible and there's no excuse for what happened against Mansfield but to pin the responsibility for relegation primarily on him seems almost into the realms of scapegoating because it ignores the context he was working under which was hardly ideal. As for this season - I've been pretty impressed by what he's done tactically in games. He's the best manager I've seen for a while at Rovers for making subtle in game changes and he uses substitutes pretty well too. We shouldn't be in the Conference but we are in the Conference and that means that from time to time we aren't going to beat Conference teams. I don't think it's tactics that we're missing; I just don't think we have the horses to guarantee those wins and that's as much to do with the cost-cutting we had to make in the offseason as anything else. Looking at the record of teams that have come down I'd have taken this position in February; 2nd pretty secure in a playoff place with an outside chance for a tile at the automatic spot seems a good performance with a club that seemed shot from top to bottom in July. He's ridden out a storm early on. I'm not convinced he's the best thing since sliced bread or the best for us longterm but I'm not convinced anyone else would be doing a better job right now or have held the team together so well. He seems like the right man at the moment. They seem to like playing together - I haven't seen that from a Rovers side in a while.
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Post by Curly Wurly on Feb 8, 2015 14:30:14 GMT
.......Clarke hardly deserves a free pass for the relegation but to put it mainly on him seems very harsh to me. I didn't agree with the sacking of Ward either. I think any manager would struggle given only 8 games to turn a situation around with no capacity to bring anyone in or out. It was a decision that spoke of total panic and indecisiveness. If you're going to sack a manager surely you give him enough time to make a few changes here and there. You don't say - 'here is a completely misfiring squad most of whom are now demotivated because they know that whatever happens they're unlikely to here next season, best of luck'. No he didn't do a very good job and we were wrong to hand over to a complete novice but that is not Clarke's fault; he was handed a complete hospital pass. Clarke would be a fair way down the accountability for me when it comes to relegation. It's easy to say 'we were outside the relegation zone' but we were plummeting like a stone at the time and you couldn't see where we were getting our next win from - hence the panicked call. .......... But Ward quit as manager. He was sacked as director of football at the end of the season, but it was his choice to leave his post as manager, leaving Clarke with a poisoned challice.
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irishrover
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Post by irishrover on Feb 8, 2015 14:33:49 GMT
.......Clarke hardly deserves a free pass for the relegation but to put it mainly on him seems very harsh to me. I didn't agree with the sacking of Ward either. I think any manager would struggle given only 8 games to turn a situation around with no capacity to bring anyone in or out. It was a decision that spoke of total panic and indecisiveness. If you're going to sack a manager surely you give him enough time to make a few changes here and there. You don't say - 'here is a completely misfiring squad most of whom are now demotivated because they know that whatever happens they're unlikely to here next season, best of luck'. No he didn't do a very good job and we were wrong to hand over to a complete novice but that is not Clarke's fault; he was handed a complete hospital pass. Clarke would be a fair way down the accountability for me when it comes to relegation. It's easy to say 'we were outside the relegation zone' but we were plummeting like a stone at the time and you couldn't see where we were getting our next win from - hence the panicked call. .......... But Ward quit as manager. He was sacked as director of football at the end of the season, but it was his choice to leave his post as manager, leaving Clarke with a poisoned challice. Fair point - but if anything that evokes slightly more sympathy for Clarke's position at that point not less.
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Post by barleycorn48 on Feb 8, 2015 14:51:50 GMT
My big grumble over the last eight games last season is that he kept picking Alefe Santos ahead of Ellis Harrison, But he was given a poisioned challis
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Post by gasheadnaboo on Feb 8, 2015 14:54:30 GMT
After all the experienced Dave Penney showed who to do a good job! If Higgs had shown some leadership and stuck to his guns rather than give in to the spoilt brats who didn't like Mr Nasty Penney, thus avoiding appointing Buckle, we might have got back in to League One! Never mind drop out of the football league.
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 8, 2015 18:04:20 GMT
My big grumble over the last eight games last season is that he kept picking Alefe Santos ahead of Ellis Harrison, But he was given a poisioned challis Harrison went shopping when we played our most important away game of the season, that suggests to me DC called that one right. Perhaps laying down a marker last season has led to this season's commitment from all the players?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2015 20:04:08 GMT
.......Clarke hardly deserves a free pass for the relegation but to put it mainly on him seems very harsh to me. I didn't agree with the sacking of Ward either. I think any manager would struggle given only 8 games to turn a situation around with no capacity to bring anyone in or out. It was a decision that spoke of total panic and indecisiveness. If you're going to sack a manager surely you give him enough time to make a few changes here and there. You don't say - 'here is a completely misfiring squad most of whom are now demotivated because they know that whatever happens they're unlikely to here next season, best of luck'. No he didn't do a very good job and we were wrong to hand over to a complete novice but that is not Clarke's fault; he was handed a complete hospital pass. Clarke would be a fair way down the accountability for me when it comes to relegation. It's easy to say 'we were outside the relegation zone' but we were plummeting like a stone at the time and you couldn't see where we were getting our next win from - hence the panicked call. .......... But Ward quit as manager. He was sacked as director of football at the end of the season, but it was his choice to leave his post as manager, leaving Clarke with a poisoned challice. Who told you that? That's not the impression he gave by writing his programme notes for the Saturday immediately ahead of the event, or the somewhat pursed lipped air he gave off for the rest of the season. it's also not what the club told us at the time, which was that, as part of a stable and long established vision in which, at an opportune moment when all was ticking over nicely, a smooth transition would be effected, and so it came to pass, the day after the transfer window closed and with the team dicing with relegation, that an opportune moment was declared amidst mutual congratulation about a job well done, and Wardy was elevated to still greater things, so nothing to see here, all is tickety, move along please. 'It's all John Ward's fault' was a later bit of convenient revisionism.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2015 0:48:38 GMT
for me last season is gone,dead and buried,,i cant understand the constant return to last season,,,were 2nd which im pleased with.
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