This Board

Rather than react to them, prevent high blood pressure and laugh at their pathetic opinions. I learnt to do it many years ago. I still read everything but can't be arsed responding anymore, it's not good for one's health šŸ‘
 
Again, yes.

We've all been at games and said 'fuckimg hell, Turton/Eardley/Burgess/Bardsley/anyone of a million different players and gone 'whst the fuck are you doing Larry/Macca/Ollie/Worthington etc... when subs have been made.

No one sits/stands there just clapping everything saying 'play up pool'

At the same time, from time to time you get sat near someone who starts with "what's that? Shite!" from the first 10 seconds and never shuts up no matter what and you just think, ** hell, give it a rest.

I think the relentless positivity of some posters is a bit weird. Yeah, of course we're all incredibly grateful to Sadler and I think in the main, we all seem to quite like Critch as a fella and want him to do well but there's was a tendancy to jump on stuff and characterise it as negative at times when I don't think a lot of it is.

It would be an odd board for a football board if the posts were just

"Unlucky today!"
"Yeah!"
"Gosh, if only Madine had got onto that chance"
"Yes, unlucky"
"Yes we were"
"Roll on Saturday"
"Yes!"
"Isn't everything great?"
"Would have been better if we'd won"
"Can't win em all eh?"
"True"
"Who is your favourite player?"
"All of them"
"Me too"

Etc

There's a line and I ** hate it when people just slate players like they're not human, over and over but there's absolutely no reason why a match thread when we've lost would be humming with positivity. It's just not reflective of the emotion you watch a game with and ultimately AVFTT (and whatever other forums) is the stadium ATM
.... and all because the Critchley dropped the Kai

Have a chocolate šŸ˜‰
 
There is plenty of valid criticism that can be levelled at our players and management team. To take just today's performance as an example, you could touch on the poor finishing, flaky performances from our (usually solid) centre halves, failure to adapt tactically in the second half, lack of creativity in midfield, subs coming too late. I'm in absolutely no doubt that many on here will find a few more.

However, in the aftermath of the past few games, i've seen some tripe on here that has been missing (for the most part) since October.

Comments along the lines 'Typical Critchley' after the 1-0 loss to Shrewsbury. Typical what? Was the 9 league game period beforehand with one loss, atypical Critchley?

What are you expecting from this season? A squad turnaround involving around 20 players coming in and about the same leaving the club, and a head coach in his first role at this level. By what right do we deserve to be challenging for the playoffs? Critchley hasn't even had a full season yet, thank god that our chairman has the patience that a large section of this message board appear to be lacking.

Ifollow has afforded me the opportunity to watch the vast majority of the games this season; I'll use today's performance as an example again. If i hadn't watched the game and gone off the reaction from some on here, I'd have envisaged a hopeless performance, completely barren of any creativity or desire from the team. Along with an opposition that had us tactically sussed for the entire 90 mins. In reality, while it was no doubt frustrating at times, we creative at least half a dozen clear-cut chances that on another day would've seen us win. The majority of the second half we were very poor, but still dominated in the first 45 and the last 10. In no way are calls for replacing the head coach, or overhauling our tactics, valid based on today's performance.

A lot of this hyperbolic criticism comes from a section fans trying to justify their stance of wanting Critch out before we'd played 10 games. The team and manager will now have knives poking their back for the rest of the season, with these fans jumping on any opportunity to prove that their rash early season criticism was justified. On that note, is Calderwood immune from criticism in this latest dip in form, or is he still considered the second-coming, responsible for everything good on the pitch?

We have every reason to feel unified as a fan base after developments off and (and lets be honest, for the most part) on the pitch, yet if you came on here after a loss, we couldn't appear much more divided.

A good post with fair points but I am not sure the supporters are divided as such.

I think it's more just that the FIFA/Facebook generation who seem to find it hard to accept that there will be matches where the opposition scores more than us are very loud when whenever we get beat.

To be fair, they were not as loud when we had a good run, this run clearly came as a direct result of Critchley of reading their criticisms on here and adapting his selections and style of play appropriately.
 
What a great post Challenger. šŸ‘
You should know by now mate that there some very fickle numpties on here who obviously have very short (or selective) memories.
There were a lot of sacrifices made by many in an effort to dethrone the Oystons and now they have gone the usual suspects on here are still whinging.

I certainly agree re the fickleness of many supporters and this is perfectly demonstrated on here with the opinions on Critchley who is a clown one week and the reincarnate of Klopp the next.

While I also agree that sacrifices were made by some to help rid the club of the Oyston's, I don't think that supporters should not be allowed to constructively criticise the players, the manager/coaching staff or the chairman/admin staff whether or not they made any personal sacrifice themselves.
 
Simple question. What was Sadlers aim for this season? If he has stated it's promotion and I don't know if at the start of the season whether or not he said it was, [I believe he did] then I think it reasonable that the fans can have that same aim as well.

I think that's a fair point regarding the expectations of the supporters and I'd go even further and suggest that it is not always unrealistic for supporters to aim higher than the chairman - I'm not saying you suggested otherwise.

Saying that, I feel that all criticism should be constructive even when results fall below expectations.

As I've already said on other responses on this thread, I think many of our supporters - I'm sure it's the same at all other clubs - are very fickle and we have the same people raving about how great things are going one minute and then calling for Critchley out the next.

I feel that their criticism - and praise - is very vague and they come across like petulant kids who just can't accept defeat,
 
I think that's a fair point regarding the expectations of the supporters and I'd go even further and suggest that it is not always unrealistic for supporters to aim higher than the chairman - I'm not saying you suggested otherwise.

Saying that, I feel that all criticism should be constructive even when results fall below expectations.

As I've already said on other responses on this thread, I think many of our supporters - I'm sure it's the same at all other clubs - are very fickle and we have the same people raving about how great things are going one minute and then calling for Critchley out the next.

I feel that their criticism - and praise - is very vague and they come across like petulant kids who just can't accept defeat,
Good post 2020. My opinion is that the "truth" lies somewhere in the middle. No doubt the critics are the far most vociferous and often posts can be just destructive criticism but on the opposite side of the coin I do think that some can be blinded by over optimism and failure to recognise or acknowledge that there are still things that are not right.
 
A good post with fair points but I am not sure the supporters are divided as such.

I think it's more just that the FIFA/Facebook generation who seem to find it hard to accept that there will be matches where the opposition scores more than us are very loud when whenever we get beat.

To be fair, they were not as loud when we had a good run, this run clearly came as a direct result of Critchley of reading their criticisms on here and adapting his selections and style of play appropriately.
Iā€™m just not sure itā€™s the FIFA / Facebook generation? The most obtuse and argumentative (and often aggressive) posters on this board seem to be over 60 in the main.
Not sure why that is? Maybe this generation are more direct and confrontational than the 40-60 and under 40s?
 
Iā€™m just not sure itā€™s the FIFA / Facebook generation? The most obtuse and argumentative (and often aggressive) posters on this board seem to be over 60 in the main.
Not sure why that is? Maybe this generation are more direct and confrontational than the 40-60 and under 40s?
Agree with that. Maybe it's because 15 - 30 year olds are enjoying themselves and playing fifa and having a laugh. And they don't spend 99% of their time of a messageboard and also don't get upset when we lose a division 3 game at Bristol rovers.

Basically, they may have more of a life and therefore not as conintinually angry and argumentative as the demographic of this site!!!
 
As mentioned in my first paragraph, there are plenty of valid criticisms to be made of our performance(s). I am in no way saying this board should be a 'safe space' where we do nothing but praise the side and excuse any defeats.

However, you only have to take a look at the comments section on the clubs social media posts, alongside some of the comments made on here, that the criticism often descends into vitriol. The fact that SS went as far as alluding to that in his yearly review speaks volumes.

Without fans in the stadiums, the expressions of supporters online becomes much more significant. We have a particularly young squad, and whether you believe they should be more thick skinned or not, seeing these comments in black and white is not as fleeting an experience as having abuse hurled at you by fans during a game.

I am not calling for censorship, but I will also not hold back on criticising options that I see as unfounded and sub par.
Sorry but this is Social Media world and even me in my senior years accepts that and there is sod all anyone can do about.
Iā€™m just not sure itā€™s the FIFA / Facebook generation? The most obtuse and argumentative (and often aggressive) posters on this board seem to be over 60 in the main.
Not sure why that is? Maybe this generation are more direct and confrontational than the 40-60 and under 40s?
Agree Chunky it puts a lot off coming on here middle aged and above arguing with each other.
My lads one comment Avftt does his head and only posts now and again and none of his BFC supporting mates do.
 
Iā€™m just not sure itā€™s the FIFA / Facebook generation? The most obtuse and argumentative (and often aggressive) posters on this board seem to be over 60 in the main.
Not sure why that is? Maybe this generation are more direct and confrontational than the 40-60 and under 40s?
An astute observation. I'm not sure I want to agree with it though. šŸ˜
 
A lot of people on this board will probably blame Boris and the government. šŸ˜
Sam Allardyce is blaming Brexit for him not being able to do what he wants in the transfer market, good opportunity for homegrown players to take their opportunity.
Politics effects everything, even football.
 
Football fans have differing opinions and they all think theyre right. Myself included. Thats football and this board is a great place to express youre opinion and read what others are saying.
What I dislike are those who are vindictive and abusive with their comments and opinions. I see them as those we all see and hear at Bloomfield Road being abusive towards players and management, ffing and jeffing at everyone. As if paying your admission fee gives you the right to hurl abuse at people. Very brave when you know that those at the other end of your abuse cannot confront you .
I hate to think of the number of players we have destroyed with such comments over the years. If I was a manager I would tell my players never to read boards such as this. Take Nuttall for example. A young man , with not much experience of life , having to read all the abuse put on here about him. He's a young man for god sake. Think of him as your son. How would you feel then? I don't see anything wrong in " its not working for him, maybe he needs a loan and game time to get his confidence back" as opposed to " useless lazy ** doesnt know how lucky he is ". Clearly things didn't go right for him but I saw a young man who was giving it his all , but it just wasnt working for him.No wonder there are rumours of mental health problems.
Im a Blackpool fan. I happy when we win and down when we lose . I have a right to comment but not to abuse.
 
Football fans have differing opinions and they all think theyre right. Myself included. Thats football and this board is a great place to express youre opinion and read what others are saying.
What I dislike are those who are vindictive and abusive with their comments and opinions. I see them as those we all see and hear at Bloomfield Road being abusive towards players and management, ffing and jeffing at everyone. As if paying your admission fee gives you the right to hurl abuse at people. Very brave when you know that those at the other end of your abuse cannot confront you .
I hate to think of the number of players we have destroyed with such comments over the years. If I was a manager I would tell my players never to read boards such as this. Take Nuttall for example. A young man , with not much experience of life , having to read all the abuse put on here about him. He's a young man for god sake. Think of him as your son. How would you feel then? I don't see anything wrong in " its not working for him, maybe he needs a loan and game time to get his confidence back" as opposed to " useless lazy ** doesnt know how lucky he is ". Clearly things didn't go right for him but I saw a young man who was giving it his all , but it just wasnt working for him.No wonder there are rumours of mental health problems.
Im a Blackpool fan. I happy when we win and down when we lose . I have a right to comment but not to abuse.
I think thatā€™s the main difference particularly recently! Criticise by all means but donā€™t resort to the abuse which certain posters find acceptable!
 
Football fans have differing opinions and they all think theyre right. Myself included. Thats football and this board is a great place to express youre opinion and read what others are saying.
What I dislike are those who are vindictive and abusive with their comments and opinions. I see them as those we all see and hear at Bloomfield Road being abusive towards players and management, ffing and jeffing at everyone. As if paying your admission fee gives you the right to hurl abuse at people. Very brave when you know that those at the other end of your abuse cannot confront you .
I hate to think of the number of players we have destroyed with such comments over the years. If I was a manager I would tell my players never to read boards such as this. Take Nuttall for example. A young man , with not much experience of life , having to read all the abuse put on here about him. He's a young man for god sake. Think of him as your son. How would you feel then? I don't see anything wrong in " its not working for him, maybe he needs a loan and game time to get his confidence back" as opposed to " useless lazy ** doesnt know how lucky he is ". Clearly things didn't go right for him but I saw a young man who was giving it his all , but it just wasnt working for him.No wonder there are rumours of mental health problems.
Im a Blackpool fan. I happy when we win and down when we lose . I have a right to comment but not to abuse.
Why on earth would Joe Nuttall read this board he's from Bury probably supports City or United and any other player if I'm honest.
It just a no mark message board that folk take way too seriously in the ground is a different matter and Joe got massive support from fans when scoring the winner against Ipswich and then again in the following game against the Cods(which he was poor) but no one booed him.
 
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where do you draw the line at what is abuse and what isn't?
Saying a player is shit/crap is hardly any different to saying he's not very good. Not really abuse imo. Just quicker to type. Also bear in mind how much abuse there is of other teams players. Is that acceptable simply for the reason they don't play for Blackpool?.
 
Football fans have differing opinions and they all think theyre right. Myself included. Thats football and this board is a great place to express youre opinion and read what others are saying.
What I dislike are those who are vindictive and abusive with their comments and opinions. I see them as those we all see and hear at Bloomfield Road being abusive towards players and management, ffing and jeffing at everyone. As if paying your admission fee gives you the right to hurl abuse at people. Very brave when you know that those at the other end of your abuse cannot confront you .
I hate to think of the number of players we have destroyed with such comments over the years. If I was a manager I would tell my players never to read boards such as this. Take Nuttall for example. A young man , with not much experience of life , having to read all the abuse put on here about him. He's a young man for god sake. Think of him as your son. How would you feel then? I don't see anything wrong in " its not working for him, maybe he needs a loan and game time to get his confidence back" as opposed to " useless lazy ** doesnt know how lucky he is ". Clearly things didn't go right for him but I saw a young man who was giving it his all , but it just wasnt working for him.No wonder there are rumours of mental health problems.
Im a Blackpool fan. I happy when we win and down when we lose . I have a right to comment but not to abuse.
I will add that the abusive ones are in the minority but it is significant.
Nothing wrong with considered criticism but for the 40 something years that I have been watching Blackpool there have always been people that were quick to scream abuse.
Luckily for them they get to do it online as well now!!
 
Iā€™m just not sure itā€™s the FIFA / Facebook generation? The most obtuse and argumentative (and often aggressive) posters on this board seem to be over 60 in the main.
Not sure why that is? Maybe this generation are more direct and confrontational than the 40-60 and under 40s?

Apologies Chunky.

Just a lazy generalisation that works for me.
 
I'll start by saying that I've never been Critchley out and as Blackpool fan I want him to do well. However there seems to be a growing number on hear that dont like to hear anything bad said about him. I said before Christmas that his substitutes are either too late or just bizarre, I dont think that's extream and it's certainly not me calling for his head, yet I was basically told to shut up and that I didn't know what I was talking about. As much as I back Critchley, I will question his decision sometimes, thats my right as a paying fan. As much as some of the criticism of him gets too much sometimes, we can't also go the other way and make him immune from criticism. I won't do that, I will praise him when he gets it right, but I will also criticise him when he gets it wrong. Yesterday I was happy when the team was announced and said as much, but I also believe he waited too long to make the subs. It's not wrong to have an opinion and express that opinion, but some on here act like it is.
 
I dont post on here very often because I struggle with the extremes on here. Either Critchley just needs time and he will be the next Klopp or he is a PE teacher.
My view (which I know most won't be interested in) is the same as what a few people above have said. Criticism is fine but just be a useful about it.
Also some of the people that post on here are obviously trolls that are looking for a reaction. They get that reaction every single time so they won't stop. Dont feed them their desperately wanted reaction and they will dissappear.
 
where do you draw the line at what is abuse and what isn't?
Saying a player is shit/crap is hardly any different to saying he's not very good. Not really abuse imo. Just quicker to type. Also bear in mind how much abuse there is of other teams players. Is that acceptable simply for the reason they don't play for Blackpool?.

Yes, when I am knocking the criticism, it's because of the fickleness and not because of harmful abuse.

I find it funny how a player gets so much praise after maybe scoring in three games on the trot and is then the worst player in the history of the game a couple of weeks later.

In truth they were probably not as good as the praise they received AND not as bad as the criticism they got.

I couldn't agree more with what you say re chit/crap etc and footballers should be strong enough to cope with criticism.
 
I'll start by saying that I've never been Critchley out and as Blackpool fan I want him to do well. However there seems to be a growing number on hear that dont like to hear anything bad said about him. I said before Christmas that his substitutes are either too late or just bizarre, I dont think that's extream and it's certainly not me calling for his head, yet I was basically told to shut up and that I didn't know what I was talking about. As much as I back Critchley, I will question his decision sometimes, thats my right as a paying fan. As much as some of the criticism of him gets too much sometimes, we can't also go the other way and make him immune from criticism. I won't do that, I will praise him when he gets it right, but I will also criticise him when he gets it wrong. Yesterday I was happy when the team was announced and said as much, but I also believe he waited too long to make the subs. It's not wrong to have an opinion and express that opinion, but some on here act like it is.
I know what you mean about the subs. But Iā€™ve mentioned it on here before, I canā€™t remember a manager that seems to know when to bring a sub on, especially when you listen to fans around you at the game and everyone seems to have a different idea or player or system to revert to. Itā€™s a tough one.
 
I think in the heat of the moment I posted that we'd stuffed any chance of the playoffs on the match thread. Of course a couple of hours later I don't mean that but at the time was feeling frustrated and many of us come out with all sorts of comments we later know to be untrue.
It's when they can't admit that and argue constantly to justify their position. After 9 wins in 11 is followed by a couple of poor results, the 'Critchley Out' brigade are saying 'Told you so'.

The Rovers commentator made the point that we're the definition of a streaky team, in terms of winning or losing streaks. Wholesale changes won't help at all. Be more clinical. Work on that with what we've got.
 
I'll start by saying that I've never been Critchley out and as Blackpool fan I want him to do well. However there seems to be a growing number on hear that dont like to hear anything bad said about him. I said before Christmas that his substitutes are either too late or just bizarre, I dont think that's extream and it's certainly not me calling for his head, yet I was basically told to shut up and that I didn't know what I was talking about. As much as I back Critchley, I will question his decision sometimes, thats my right as a paying fan. As much as some of the criticism of him gets too much sometimes, we can't also go the other way and make him immune from criticism. I won't do that, I will praise him when he gets it right, but I will also criticise him when he gets it wrong. Yesterday I was happy when the team was announced and said as much, but I also believe he waited too long to make the subs. It's not wrong to have an opinion and express that opinion, but some on here act like it is.
I agree with you mate, fair points and opinion . Well put and not abusive. Thats how this board should work
 
There is plenty of valid criticism that can be levelled at our players and management team. To take just today's performance as an example, you could touch on the poor finishing, flaky performances from our (usually solid) centre halves, failure to adapt tactically in the second half, lack of creativity in midfield, subs coming too late. I'm in absolutely no doubt that many on here will find a few more.

However, in the aftermath of the past few games, i've seen some tripe on here that has been missing (for the most part) since October.

Comments along the lines 'Typical Critchley' after the 1-0 loss to Shrewsbury. Typical what? Was the 9 league game period beforehand with one loss, atypical Critchley?

What are you expecting from this season? A squad turnaround involving around 20 players coming in and about the same leaving the club, and a head coach in his first role at this level. By what right do we deserve to be challenging for the playoffs? Critchley hasn't even had a full season yet, thank god that our chairman has the patience that a large section of this message board appear to be lacking.

Ifollow has afforded me the opportunity to watch the vast majority of the games this season; I'll use today's performance as an example again. If i hadn't watched the game and gone off the reaction from some on here, I'd have envisaged a hopeless performance, completely barren of any creativity or desire from the team. Along with an opposition that had us tactically sussed for the entire 90 mins. In reality, while it was no doubt frustrating at times, we creative at least half a dozen clear-cut chances that on another day would've seen us win. The majority of the second half we were very poor, but still dominated in the first 45 and the last 10. In no way are calls for replacing the head coach, or overhauling our tactics, valid based on today's performance.

A lot of this hyperbolic criticism comes from a section fans trying to justify their stance of wanting Critch out before we'd played 10 games. The team and manager will now have knives poking their back for the rest of the season, with these fans jumping on any opportunity to prove that their rash early season criticism was justified. On that note, is Calderwood immune from criticism in this latest dip in form, or is he still considered the second-coming, responsible for everything good on the pitch?

We have every reason to feel unified as a fan base after developments off and (and lets be honest, for the most part) on the pitch, yet if you came on here after a loss, we couldn't appear much more divided.
I think 9 defeats in 20 league games speaks volumes. There is plenty going wrong on the field.
 
I think 9 defeats in 20 league games speaks volumes. There is plenty going wrong on the field.
There are a lot of issues on the pitch to be sorted out but the club are still dealing with years of neglect, self interest and bad decisions.
The ownership are new, the coach is new, the squad is new. Critchley has to have this season and he has to show that he is making progress.
If we end up in a relegation scrap I think he has to go, if we fall short of the playoffs I think he stays.
Next season he has to hit the ground running assuming we are in League 1 again, if he doesn't then he won't get long.
All football coaches are under pressure and they expect criticism but sacking them after 2 or 3 bad results is not the way to succeed.
 
There are a lot of issues on the pitch to be sorted out but the club are still dealing with years of neglect, self interest and bad decisions.
The ownership are new, the coach is new, the squad is new. Critchley has to have this season and he has to show that he is making progress.
If we end up in a relegation scrap I think he has to go, if we fall short of the playoffs I think he stays.
Next season he has to hit the ground running assuming we are in League 1 again, if he doesn't then he won't get long.
All football coaches are under pressure and they expect criticism but sacking them after 2 or 3 bad results is not the way to succeed.
I agree that is what is likely to be the case, but I still think Sadler (via Mansford) has backed the wrong horse.
 
There's nothing wrong with being critical of the players' performances following a game. Football's nothing without opinions. Of course, there will be extremes when people are frustrated, just as there are extremes when we do well. It's a matter of how we respond to those opinions. Last Saturday, after the match, I tried my hardest to get a positive comment out of someone not currently known for their positivity and it never came. I think I'll give up trying and pay more attention to those who's comments give me something to think about and respond to with some purpose. That's all any of us can do really.
 
There's nothing wrong with being critical of the players' performances following a game. Football's nothing without opinions. Of course, there will be extremes when people are frustrated, just as there are extremes when we do well. It's a matter of how we respond to those opinions. Last Saturday, after the match, I tried my hardest to get a positive comment out of someone not currently known for their positivity and it never came. I think I'll give up trying and pay more attention to those who's comments give me something to think about and respond to with some purpose. That's all any of us can do really.
You can mention me, I won't be offended. I have at least been consistent this season re Critchley who has made far too many mistakes for my liking, and worse still appears to not learn from them.
 
Paulco ...6....of ā€œthe bestā€ maybe...but you canā€™t do that anymore...anyway it would probably cause brain damage so best not..
Imagine Paulco's devastating intellect and witty posts being compromised. A tragedy.
 
Yes, when I am knocking the criticism, it's because of the fickleness and not because of harmful abuse.

I find it funny how a player gets so much praise after maybe scoring in three games on the trot and is then the worst player in the history of the game a couple of weeks later.

In truth they were probably not as good as the praise they received AND not as bad as the criticism they got.

I couldn't agree more with what you say re chit/crap etc and footballers should be strong enough to cope with criticism.
Hyperbole is the mƩtier of social media.
 
The season in general has been a strange one, and while rightfully some criticism can be levelled at Critch, certainly at the start of the season, the last ten games have shown a vast improvement. Even the two defeats have shown some glimmers of creating something (but the clear inability to take chances).

I completely understand some people being unsure of Critchley, once you get that opinion of someone, especially with the early season form, its hard to change that opinion. Some people are naturally a glass half full type, some a glass half empty, and some completely neutral who will support the team no matter what. I don't think there is anything wrong with those views, but sometimes, on both ends of the fence, there are those who will shoot down any reasonable debate or view, simply because they think their opinion is the only one that matters. I guess with these people its better to let them argue with themselves.
 
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