Our unluckiest season?

thecatintheroof

thecatintheroof

Well-known member
For all we can talk about the board, the managers and the players - has this been our unluckiest season? Can't ever remember a team with so many injuries, the red cards, the appalling referees, the fact so many teams (including Millwall) kept 11 men on the pitch and goals conceded and goals that should have gone in for us on any other day.
It has just felt 'one of those seasons' - was amazed we got a pen last night - because it has felt as if absolutely nothing has gone our way ☹️
 
Agree with the above comments but the refs have been shite - even last night were were done by a poor ref.
 
thecatintheroof said:
For all we can talk about the board, the managers and the players - has this been our unluckiest season? Can't ever remember a team with so many injuries, the red cards, the appalling referees, the fact so many teams (including Millwall) kept 11 men on the pitch and goals conceded and goals that should have gone in for us on any other day.
It has just felt 'one of those seasons' - was amazed we got a pen last night - because it has felt as if absolutely nothing has gone our way ☹️
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Nope, 1978 was. But regarding this season :

  • Board makes a poor management appointment in MA
  • Board fail to back MA, no experienced championship level Match Fit CDM signed
  • No replacement for the experienced Keogh to settle the back line
  • Initially unlucky with several injuries agreed, but no quality signings = no quality cover in key positions
  • Injuries mean we haven't had a settled /consistent defensive line up all season
  • Therefore we concede way too easily
  • Due to points 2 to 5, players were often played out of position, so it looked like they didn't know what their jobs were. This led to disorganisation and late lunges, hence the sendings off
  • Yes the refs were shite, but we continually gave them the opportunity to make those shite decisions
  • Inconsistent refs sending off "little Blackpool's" players, whilst other sides get away with similar /worse.
  • No striker cover, only Jerry championship quality / fitness level
  • Kept MA far too long
  • Bizarrely, brought in the players MA needed after he'd gone
  • One of the worst managerial appointments in our history, MM refuses to play our best players
  • Recruit players who haven't had game time, so in the intensity of championship games they get injured after 1 or 2 games, and don't ever seem to come back. That's not bad luck, it's poor recruitment.
I get it that we don't have the financial backing to compete at this level. @Chunkylad recent post covered this very well. To stay mid table we'd have a transfer budget of minus 10m in order to compete with salaries.

But the bottom half of the Championship has been poor this season, this relegation was so avoidable.
That's what hurts the most, and the Board have to take responsibility for that.
 
TSSeasider said:
Injuries aren't luck when so many of the same kind occur.

It's either who we buy, the way we're train, the way we prepare our how much or players want to ** back and play for the club.

It's unfortunate, and possibly inevitable but it's not unlucky.
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The reds were due to us having underpowered players in crazy line ups being put under constant pressure to make mistakes and misjudgments. Not bad luck IMO
 
Nope. Refs are largely shite but the same for everyone; the decisions even themselves out.

Injuries exacerbated by signing cheap crocks and an over-reliance on then overburdened loans etc.

Two teams got deductions and teams in the drop area, I.e. QPR, went on horrendous runs. Couldn't have asked for much more help really, but continual bad decisions cost us.

We are where we deserve to be.
 
I think we've had a bit of bad luck, but mostly it has been self inflicted. This all stems from our inability (for two years now, and counting) to strengthen the midfield. It's physically weak, inexperienced, and leaderless. Consequently, we're often chasing shadows leading our players to be put in situations that cause injuries, and red cards. We have by far the worst red card record in the league and it hasn't just happened by accident or bad luck.

It must be the number one priority area of the pitch this summer, and we need to start with the assumption that Bridcutt, Stewart and Trybull are not going to ever play for us. If we assume they'll be in the team next season and ignore the midfield when it comes to recruitment, then we will struggle even in league one. Get rid of these injury prone midfielders and start again from scratch. It's caused us too many issues not to have a complete restart.
 
I’ve never known so many things go against us in one season.

The board have got it wrong this season for sure, but if I ranked them all in order it would be Injuries, refs and then the board.
 
I sincerely hope, in amongst all the checks and appointments at the end of this season, they get in a proper medic who gets to the bottom of our hamstring problems. This alone has taken out our combative midfield, our best defender, and one of the most creative players, for much of the season. The difference if Trybull or Stewart was breaking up attacks and reminding the opposition that they are in a fight, Keshi's abilities and Big Marv's never say die defence.

Even the useless managers might not have been able to screw it up.
 
mropinion said:
Unlucky with injuries but other than that everything else feels like our own doing unfortunately.
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The board resembles a surgeon's apology:

"The operation? A success. But the patient died."

Unlucky with injuries?

No independent probe on many crocks.
 
The most important position following our initial decent recruitment of Fiorini and Patino was a good experienced DM. Dougall has been utter rubbish, Stewart out all season, we failed to get a CM in (CamBran) so were forced to take another gamble on Bridcutt. Now Bridcutt is a very very good player and you saw that in the 3 or 4 games he played in but then inevitably he broke down and missed the rest of the season. We could have coped without some other positions but that's where our season went wrong.
In Jan we bizarrely brought in MA preferred wingers and another DCM and then sacked him and so began the Jurassic period which has to be the worst decision of the lot and confirmed our relegation unfortunately.
 
Think everyone can accept budgets and acknowledge injuries but what they can’t accept is bringing in utter dross, crocks and kids that barely wipe their own arse. That is the only reason we have been relegated.
 
We’ve had terrible luck. With a fit squad for the whole season I think we’d have stayed up….BUT

Not having a plan for the manager leaving is the biggest factor in relegation. It’s beyond my comprehension that BM wouldn’t have list of strong candidates from leagues both here and in Europe. A plan that could be implemented as soon as the manager (who was highly thought of) left - which was always going to happen. It’s literally the job to plan for things like that!

Since then we’ve compounded the bad luck with bad decisions (especially recruitment) and relegation has been inevitable. In a season where it really wouldn’t have taken much to stay up - we manufactured our own downfall. And it won’t be easy to get back.
 
thecatintheroof said:
For all we can talk about the board, the managers and the players - has this been our unluckiest season? Can't ever remember a team with so many injuries, the red cards, the appalling referees, the fact so many teams (including Millwall) kept 11 men on the pitch and goals conceded and goals that should have gone in for us on any other day.
It has just felt 'one of those seasons' - was amazed we got a pen last night - because it has felt as if absolutely nothing has gone our way ☹️
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77/78 takes some beating!
 
Strahan92 said:
We’ve had terrible luck. With a fit squad for the whole season I think we’d have stayed up….BUT

Not having a plan for the manager leaving is the biggest factor in relegation. It’s beyond my comprehension that BM wouldn’t have list of strong candidates from leagues both here and in Europe. A plan that could be implemented as soon as the manager (who was highly thought of) left - which was always going to happen. It’s literally the job to plan for things like that!

Since then we’ve compounded the bad luck with bad decisions (especially recruitment) and relegation has been inevitable. In a season where it really wouldn’t have taken much to stay up - we manufactured our own downfall. And it won’t be easy to get back.
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Even with no plan how long does it take to knock a list of candidates who would be good for us together and pick ones only that aren't hated, play decent football etc.

There was plenty of time.
 
What I keep hearing is if only we had a decent CDM we wouldn't be relegated. We got relegated because the senior management bought into
Appleton and his idea that we got get a load of talented youngsters into the team on loan, but there was one big problem with this we
had a complete lack of football nouse throughout the team. This was compounded by the sale of Keogh. Lack of nouse resulted in Thompson and his red cards and poor passing decisions, Madine and his violent conduct in front of the ref. Carey going for a reckless challenge when he is 70 yds away from his goal with no threat on goal, Gabriel, and poor thrown-in decisions, and keeps launching himself in tackles when he would be best to stay on his feet. Patino and not being able to tackle unless he goes to the ground, even last night when the ref was desperate to give them a penalty Fiorini threw himself into a challenge when he should have remained on his feet. CJ has a distinct lack of football nouse. Then there is
Husband and Maxwell with bad decisions at critical times during matches, that cost us goals.

Last season Dougall did okay when he had players with football nouse playing with him such as Stewart, and Wintle. This season apart
from the odd game with Bridcutt and Trybull, he has no one with experience playing CM next to him. Last season Critch keep it
simple with a couple of systems everybody drilled knowing what their position was. This season we have played nearly every system
with players rotating positions. There has been a complete lack of players developing an understanding and playing as a team.

The frustrating part of this season is that with a bit of nouse, we would have ended the season mid-table, instead we
will lose our best players in the summer, and we will return to the same situation before covid happened in league one, with a new manager.
 
Play golf with an ex efl who sorted out fixtures and referees etc, he said the clubs struggling always complain about the referees, well he’s not wrong is he 😄
 
Even our loan players had it bad.
Apter, Casey and Tharme all played for teams that got relegated!
 
thefutureistangerine said:
Nope. Refs are largely shite but the same for everyone; the decisions even themselves out.

Injuries exacerbated by signing cheap crocks and an over-reliance on then overburdened loans etc.

Two teams got deductions and teams in the drop area, I.e. QPR, went on horrendous runs. Couldn't have asked for much more help really, but continual bad decisions cost us.

We are where we deserve to be.
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In full agreement with everything you say. Makes a nice change from the paranoid 'bleatings' of so many of our followers these days.
 
NAPMer said:
Agree with the above comments but the refs have been shite - even last night were were done by a poor ref.
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... ' even last night we were done by a poor ref' who gifted us one of the softest (if not THE softest) penalties I have ever seen awarded. Sorry, but the words 'get real' rather spring to mind.
 
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