And just to rub salt in the wound, Ipswich could only manage a draw against The Boro.
A golden opportunity spurned by The Mighty Whites. 
M.O.T.
2 Likes
Our success, such as it is, is built on our defence. Our problem all season has been the same, we carry 6 non scoring outfield players. The problem is particularly acute in centre mid where any 2 from the 3 who play there offer nothing in the last third. Thought Farke had a poor game today. Gung ho subs weren’t the answer. Gnonto was MOTM but subbed. Summerville who’s turned into a poor man’s Grealish - stop, turn, cut back should have been hoofed. Gung ho cost us a point. A point would have been better than losing our impressive home record. Disappointing all round again today but our set pieces are a particular disaster - Gruev floats the ball too high and we never try anything imaginative which we should given we’re not a big team. Special praise for the ref. He allowed Rovers to steal minutes with as bad an exhibition of time wasting as I’ve seen. I get the tactic, I just don’t get the rules which leave the first booking for time wasting until the game’s virtually over. We get this every home game pretty much. But we’re miles off the finished article and our flair players have tanked at the same time, sadly.
Still, Ipswich just about managing to keep our flame alive.
2 Likes
@JohnF has seen most of our home games this season & I accept his comments regarding Barnes. I have only seen highlights of each match & he doesn’t feature in the majority of them. So from my limited site of him I’m firmly with John on this.
In my time living in Norwich (1979/83) I saw the penultimate season of Martin Peters & the final one of Joe Royle.
The legs had clearly gone for both players but they both exhibited exceptional football brains, enabling them to make valuable contributions to the City cause.
Peters was only able to complete about an hour of most games & was only moving ‘briskly’ for about 10 minutes of that. However, he had the knack of being in the right place at the right time &, if I remember correctly, finished our top scorer for the season. The rest of the time he was clearly organising the rest of the team which benefitted from his experience. When on the ball he was reliable in his possession & effective with his distribution. He was more than effective in the opposition penalty area match after match.
Royle played in a similar manor to Peters. Using what energy he had intelligently. Playing further up the field than Peters, he had less influence on those behind him but had a tremendous influence on his very young, inexperienced strike partner, Justin Fashanu. Match on match you could gauge Justin’s improvement by observing Royle’s constant dialog with him, pointing where he should be & kerbing Justin’s quick temper, keeping him out of trouble he would have been involved in but for Royle’s restraining hand. The fact that Joe also found the net on quite a few occasions was also a big help!
I just haven’t seen Barnes doing any of this, & combined with the lack of goals, have to agree with John in failing to see what he has bought to the team. From what I have seen of him, he is no Peters or Royle.
PS - As an aside, I lived two doors away from a Norwich first team player at the time, Keith Robson. I became quite friendly with him for a while. He & Royle were very pally & I had several memorable nights out in Norwich with the pair of them.
2 Likes
It’s starting to look inevitable that we will be against Farke in either the play-off semi’s or the final itself…
1 Like
Noone seems to want to take their opportunities in the Championship. More great entertainment at Portman Road, Town shoulda won but coulda lost. Missed chances in a first half we totally dominated cost us.
At least, after the nadir of the awful performance at Norwich, we are getting back to something like our best - just missing that clinical edge. We have been running on empty with a stretched and tired squad for a few weeks now.
Preston 0-1 Norwich I’d like to say even we can’t mess it up now but this is the strangest season I can remember it’s as though everybody wants to avoid promotion.
Having seen Sara’s goal on the highlights I have to say what a class act he is.
Like all good players he seems to have bags of time and always makes the correct decision. I jut hope we can keep him, Nunez and Sargent next year as I enjoy watching them.
I won’t mention the defence but on the highlights we were very fortunate.
@mikehughescq don’t want to make this too self congratulatory, but
Yeeeeeeeessssssssss!!!
Here’s to losing more in league 1 but enjoying the ride.
1 Like
Two promotions in a row is a great achievement; enjoy the ride. 
Happy for you, Mike. I expect the pressure will now ramp up on Rob’n’Ryan.
1 Like
Thanks all. Strange day for me as I left the celebrations early to get back to Manchester for an 8pm eye appointment. The 5:20pm from Wrexham was held to 5:30pm to allow celebrating fans time for a late arrival and, er, nobody came 
Made my connection with 90 seconds to spare. Left my cousin to do his first ever pitch invasion aged 58.
What a strange season it’s been. The absolutely terrifying opening 15 minutes against MK Dons when we looked like rabbits in the headlights. An 8 game unbeaten run undone by a weird defeat at Stockport. 9 games unbeaten undone by a 20 year low away performance at Accrington. A second half of the season in which we couldn’t put a run together at all. Plenty of memorable games but few great performances. The win away at Notts County. The FA Cup win at Mansfield? About it really. Season didn’t really turn until Mullin scored an equalising penalty in the 94th minute at FGR. Even then we kept finding ways to lose.
Very odd feeling winning promotion without needing to finish top or look even half the team we were last season but… back to back promotions is a rare thing indeed. Strange to see the Stockport success almost forgotten with our win. They should be congratulated also.
Almost every fan I spoke to really didn’t see other results going our way today. Also fair to say that we didn’t anticipate an easy game after the FGR away game. Cotterill had worked hard to turn them around. Much as I’d like to give us credit for today it’s worth watching his post match interview. He’s clearly devastated; knows he can’t say much as his changing room is “fragile” but boy were they bad. No fight from the off. They just didn’t look interested. I simply don’t believe footballers ever stop trying but this was as close as I’ve come to believing it. They were awful. Even Jack Marriot scored.
Credit definitely due to O’Connell, Cleworth, Barnett and Palmer. All outstanding today but we were playing at walking pace throughout. It was bizarre. Barney’s second ever Wrexham goal and second in a week was a beauty. Lovely volley. Definitely didn’t bounce that one off his knee onto his face.
Highlights of the day included the pitch invasion warning “The referee will be forced to cancel the end of the game.” Er…
Team will need a big rebuild for league one but Parky only does incremental so I’d expect a lower half finish next season. It will be interesting to see how our newer fans cope with that. Will be compounded by reduced capacity as we finally build the 4th side so we can bring the Welsh national team back to its natural home.
Owners said from day one that new investment would be needed to get us out of league one. Will be their first real test on multiple fronts next season.
2 Likes
Congratulations to Stockport and Wrexham.
Following our draw at Bolton yesterday, I’m hoping Pompey can join the celebrations on Tuesday evening when we play Barnsley at Fratton Park needing just one more point from our final three games to confirm promotion; two points for the title. The game is (again) a sell out but I’m lucky in having tickets so very much looking forward to it.
PUP
2 Likes
Absolute peanuts compared to Chelsea , you couldn’t buy a Nicolas Jackson leg for the entire cost spent on Wrexham
1 Like
Oh he’s not “lost” anything yet. At their first Zoom meeting before we voted for the takeover they were very clear there would be “no loans”. Now? Three loans and 5% of the club disposed of with zero transparency on either thing. As a private owner that transparency is not required but if they understood the history as much as he claims to then all would be in the public domain. Gone from zero debt and a low turnover/revenue to a spectacular amount which puts us in the top two in league one and £9m debt.
I’m enjoying the ride but I’m not stupid. This model is unsustainable and our owners have naively bought into the many spins of Shaun Harvey. Our natural level if you believe in such things is the Championship if we have all our ducks in a row a couple of years from now but the clown show will aim for the EPL and the price we pay for that doesn’t bear thinking about.
1 Like
After seven years in League 1, Pompey are promoted and win the league!! It’s brilliant to be promoted on a home win too, though the game did seem rather edgy.
5 Likes
Congratulations 
1 Like
Pompey can be assured of a “warm” welcome at St. Mary’s next season. 
2 Likes
Fascinating evening again across the proper football divisions. Saints edge closer and effectively end Preston’s play off hopes.
Congratulations to Portsmouth then, who did it with a bit of drama.
Similar congrats. to Mansfield. Been there or thereabouts all season so only right that one of those 3 places was theirs. Everyone down to 13th competing for the last play off place thanks to Crawley and Barrow playing out a draw when a win was needed.
In the meantime, farewell to FGR. Immensely satisfying to see them go down and I’ve even less sympathy for them after their performance at our place on Saturday. I’ve never booed my team at a match but if they’d been mine I’d have booed them. They were awful. In the unlikely event Crawley blow their last 2 games against the relegation candidates it would be a perfect week for Wrexham fans when added to Fleetwood looking doomed.
Thrilled for Cheltenham. 12 games before they scored a goal. No points in any of them and with 3 games left they’re now 4th from bottom and have a small chance to stay up. Their remaining fixtures don’t suggest they’ve a real chance but to even be there is a real achievement.
It was quite a night. Tense and emotional. To be honest, Barnsley were the better side but somehow Pompey found a way. The noise for the late equalising penalty, which meant promotion, was some of the loudest I’ve experienced at Fratton Park and then, in the 89th minute, Shaughnessy got the winner and the noise was even louder. That game will live long in the memory.
1 Like