Had abandoned hope of getting to our match tomorrow. Trains are running from Manchester to Wrexham and back but there will be no local trains to Manchester from us and no buses either. I require a match day companion. My cousin offered to drive from Liverpool to collect me and then return me home, which was kind but bonkers. My lad doesn’t drive and will be hungover.
Mrs. H. has volunteered to both drive and come to the match. Hopefully cannot be as much of a grind as the Bradford away game she recently did the same for. Chuffed to just have the opportunity. Some big players back for us but Barrow are the form team in our division so it’s a home game which is eminently loseable.
Interesting to see that the top 4 teams play each other tomorrow (who could have planned that), hoping that one of the matches is on TV to watch (just looked and seen its either Championship or National League tomorrow afternoon).
Top 10 are absolutely what you’d have predicted at the start of the season but it’s tough to call what the top 7 might eventually look like. This period is tough as no squad can sustain consistency in the face of so many games in such a short time.
I can’t see anything on our site with regard to viewing options tomorrow but I think the games fall outside the Article 48 window and so should be available for purchase via iFollow on each club’s web site.
I’m a little torn with us tomorrow. Barrow is a fairly bleak place and their ground massively problematic given segregation difficulties. Their fans are a little agricultural in their approach to fandom too. On the other hand they’ve got sensible owners; have spent well and are clearly doing good research when it comes to managers. The team Evatt (now at Bolton) built were shockingly good out of nowhere and their current manager, Pete Wild, is a quiet, dignified human being whose teams are never flashy but always attempt to play good football. I really hope they have a successful season as he deserves success. He’s a good young English manager but the media et al will ignore this as ever.
The Old Firm game was excellent, unless you’re @Petersfi (happy new year, pal). But the nonsense of having no away fans – seriously, no away fans – is a disgrace.
Following the previous two disappointing defeats, The Mighty Whites bounced back today against Birmingham.
Admittedly, The Blues were probably the least enterprising team seen at Elland Road this season, but everyone for Leeds was on their game today, and the result sees us claw back points over the second and third placed teams, both of whom drew this afternoon.
Thanks and likewise. I trust your celebrations went well, in compense for enduring the last 15 minutes. The Furahashi goal was brilliant, Tavernier’s just as good. God bless Willie Collum…
First sell out and thus, technically, a new attendance record at the temporarily 4 sided Cae Ras. Rapidly followed by the quietest crowd for some time. Go figure. Credit to the 1,100 Barrow fans who made much more noise than us and in extremely trying circumstances. An extraordinary game.
A goal after 33 seconds; 26minutes (yes, you read that correctly) of injury time; our 1st shot on target was in the 54th minute of the 1st half and we scored from it; we then scored 3 goals in 5 minutes with all of them being in the 15 minutes injury time; 2 players stretchered off (1 to hospital) and a hat-trick of the very highest quality from 36 year old Stephen Fletcher.
Mrs. H. enjoyed her 1st trip to Cae Ras for some years. She was just nodding off when our 1st goal went in She definitely didn’t fall asleep for the rest of it.
Before today I was of the opinion that I might never see Bamford score again. Circumstances (new grandson) meant I couldn’t take up my seat on the Kop today so I’ve still to see him score again
Watching the highlights I thought he took his goal really well and the whole team was pleased for him (as am I).
Rooney’s ruined Blues but 3:0 is still a very good result.
I’ve seen the lot today. We’re the home team playing Southampton and we set up 541. The ball hardly left our half for most of the game and if Southampton had a decent striker they would have been three or four up by half time.
Ten minutes from time we equalise with our one piece of decent football thanks to Sargent, who came on as a substitute after seventy minutes.
Southampton were very good and their movement made us look very second rate.
Upon returning home I read that our manager was pleased with the performance the lads put in!
Well you’ve got me there John. I was reading about this too and found it an utterly bewildering decision to switch formation with a few days notice during one of the busiest periods of the season when training is generally suspended in favour of rest as the games come thick and fast. If injuries or suspensions were a consideration then fair enough but he doesn’t say that’s the case.
Strikes me as a high risk strategy. Certain clubs have expectations of the way their team plays and I would consider Norwich to be one of them. You can get away with adopting a different style if you’re successful but patience soon wears thin if unattractive performances produce a sequence of poor results.
He had you on a decent little run but that’s ended and looking at your next 4 fixtures it looks a very negative step to take and the sort of thing which ends up confusing players and fans. Unless he pulls this off I suspect he’s living on borrowed time.
I’m afraid even our few decent little runs aren’t achieved with attractive football.
Wagner has not only lumbered us with the aging and expensive Barnes and Duffy but he doesn’t seem to be able to develop the youngsters that have been the life blood of our club.
We are charged some of the highest ticket prices in the championship to watch the coach being parked at home games.
What I’ve predicted will happen at our club is coming to fruition and with the latest debt estimate of £90 million a root and branch reset is required.
For the first time in sixty years of watching City I no longer have any anticipation of seeing a decent game. City have always had a reputation for trying to play attractive football. We are now reduced to 541 and little hope.
I would add that I’d rather watch a narrow entertaining defeat that the way we attained a point yesterday.
@JohnF - Given the form that the Saints have been in recently I would have thought a 1-1 draw was a respectable result, particularly with Norwich having to come back from being behind.
It was the manner in which Norwich as the home team started with a back five and only left their half on a few occasions. It made for a nonsense game with no aesthetic appeal whatsoever.
Back in August you noted you were scoring for fun and commented positively on the fact that Wagner had persuaded Delia (who by all accounts has nothing to do with such matters) to go for proven and experienced players as opposed to young and inexperienced players who weren’t good enough. Barnes was becoming a “cult hero” and Sara was ahead of some of the best players you’d seen in 50 years. Now Barnes is someone you’ve been lumbered with and Sara looks out of his depth and a little lost.
It strikes me, as it has before I guess, that you’re not consistent in what you want and so the club cannot satisfy you no matter what they do. First they’re too young. Now they’re too old. It also strikes me that the real problem remains poor decisions on the quality of manager you employ. If you hadn’t employed Wagner I ask myself who else in the UK would after the odd promotion he got with Huddersfield and the shambolic and incompetent end to his time there. What sort of research gets done and questions asked when the answer is “David Wagner”?
Going back to the Southampton game, I noted, somewhat belatedly, that of course in the previous fixture you drew 4-4 with them and it was they who felt lucky to get the draw. In that sense I guess you could take heart from having gotten 2 very good results against a very real promotion contender. I guess that in isolation you could also wonder whether Wagner didn’t want to see 4 or worse conceded against a team who at the time of the 1st game were very much in transition but who currently are on a run that could only make them 1 of the most confident teams in the league.
All that aside I do apologise for not wishing people a happy new year and hoping that you in particular have a much better year in 2024 on all fronts. I trust the ankle is healing well?
At the start of the season Barnes and Duffy looked decent recruits.
We needed experienced players but players in their thirties have proven to be too experienced. I’d seen both playing in recent years and thought they’d handle the championship with ease.
I think all fans remain optimistic when players are recruited but to be honest the two I’ve mentioned have struggled in the championship. One spends a considerable amount of time arguing with the ref and both struggle with the pace of the championship.
I agree that since Farke our management choices have been diabolical and we should have gone for a younger man with something to prove as this seems to be the most successful option in the lower leagues. For what it’s worth I’d have tried to recruit Mark Robins after Farke.
All of these problems have led to a huge gulf between the owners and fans and the three year handover makes us look a bit rudderless.
Once these problems appear they seem to accelerate at an alarming rate. What appeared logical at the start of the season now appears irrational and requires a flexible approach rather than intransigence. I hope Ben Knapper has the answers.
I wouldn’t have believed attendances could drop as quickly as they have. I thought demand would always exceed ground capacity come what may as we’ve always been well supported.
There doesn’t appear to be much to be optimistic about at the moment and with football the plight of your chosen team always seems to affect you more than is the case with other team sports.
She definitely didn’t fall asleep for the rest of it.