Long term form

[BillyStubbsTears]

Yeah. Hands up time.

I've been looking for excuses for a long time. Last season we got a couple of injuries just as the season was getting tasty. This season we had a tough start. And I could see excuses and some promise in defeats against Walsall, Sheff Utd and Bradford. And it sounds like we've played some easy on the eye stuff tonight.

But after a while, the excuses and "it'll be alrights" wear thin.

Fact is, we've been shit for a long time now. Last 31 league games, we've picked up 30 points.

We keep saying, "With THIS squad we should be better than this" but I'm starting to think that this squad actually IS a relegation squad.

Look for the leaders in the squad. The ones to pick up the side and set the example. Not one in the squad when Jones is discounted. We are a team of lightweights.

Look at the spine of the side. McCullough, Butler, Wellens, Tyson, Williams.

Where is the iron there? Where is the indomitable will and the preparedness to go out and dominate the physical challenge. To impose yourself on the opposition and bend them to your will? It's farcical to even pose the question. We are powder-puff all through the key areas.

We have a set of way-past-their-prime players in Coppinger, Chaplow and Keegan who are struggling to hit the standard of being decent L1 players and who will get no better.

And then look at the peripheral players.
ATS, Evina, Lund, Main. Limited lower division plodders.

Forrester. A show pony.

A bunch of hit and miss loanees, (Anderson perhaps a star in the making, but the others no better than we already had).

The excuses are evaporating from me. We have a squad that looks like genuine relegation material.

[les@donr]

League 2 here we come

[BobG]

Which is a terrible indictment of an awful lot of people...

Our erstwhile manager; those that employed him; those that failed to sack him. It's a painful, terrible, demonstration of just how quickly success can disappear.

BobG

[The Red Baron]

I find that very worrying. I am usually the Relegation Jonah on here. The fact that BST also thinks we are a relegation side is a real cause for concern.

[BillyStubbsTears]

TRB

In the past, the moment that I gave up hope has usually been the moment that everything clicked and we tore up the league.

I was pretty sure that we were in a relegation fight in Sept 2003. I led the rants in December 2007 and November 2008. By November 2012 I was convinced that we were flattering to deceive and would do well to finish in the top 6.

Fingers crossed eh?

[IDM]

We are only a "relegation side" at present because of the league position.

But the season doesn't end after 14 games, does it? 

Ferguson has a tough job, to start getting performances and results, but we believe - don't we???

[Canadian Rover]

Any chance we can just put in a few Belles players into the line up? I'm actually being fairly serious here.

[nortikorner]

Need to get some more Irish defenders

[BobG]

Well the Belles have got two forwards who really wouldn't look at all out of place in this lot. Damn sight more intelligence about their play too.

BobG

[grayx]

Fergusons job is tougher than it should have been because the powers that be decided not to replace Dickov until the transfer window was closed. Big mistake. I just hope DF can pick up one or two decent loanees to enable us to pick up enough points to give him a fighting chance 'til the transfer window opens in January. I  hope that the board will then realize how much a rebuild is necessary and give him the opportunity to bring in his own choice signings. The dead wood need to be got rid of or at least transfer listed. He's got a job on his hands but if he's given the tools I dont think we'll go down. IF..

[ian1980]

Big clear out and refresh of the side is what's needed. I think sentiment towards players has been quite a big problem for us and a server overhaul has be on the cards for a while.

[godlike1]

A complete re-think from top to bottom DF said in his pre match interview

It's time we stopped thinking we are some big team with our squad in this league. PD bought poorly and trained them poorly, it will take time to turn them around. Mid table if we are lucky but more like relegation battle all season depending on what support the board will give DF

[Alan Southstand]

Gordon Bennet, it's taken sometime, but at last the majority are now starting to see what a car crash the previous manager was. He should have been given the boot some time ago and now, with the timing of his removal, we're left with one almighty task for any new manager, let alone DF. The lad needs a miracle, as I reckon not even his father could get us out of the hole the Club has dug for itself.

What a shower.

But at least we all seem to be getting on the same page! Please God, we get some decent loans in, as our season could already be defined by Christmas. Out of adversity?

[no eyed deer]

Come on Alan. 3 points from the next game and we're nearly top 6 ..

[Chris Black come back]

There are plenty who have cited mitigating circumstances for Dickov in the two disrupted summers and the shackles this put on his spending.

A less charitable view may be that thank god he didn't get his hands on even more money to waste. God only knows what we'd have on the pitch now.

[Draytonian III]

When the previous manager made the 5 pre season signings not one person on here said that they were bad signings,  but all of a sudden they are , not one person

[Sammy Chung was King]

Ferguson said in the interview, that he needed to change a lot at the club, but wouldn't go into it any more when pushed. That tells me it's a bit more than loss of form, i think what he was saying in a roundabout way was that the club has an ingrained losing mentality, not just the players!
Let's be honest where are the optimistic and good things happening off the pitch?. The club has been dragging along for quite a while.
The crowds have dwindled, we have lost diehard fans as well as 'Second team supporters', the whole club has become very ordinary.
In the past we were a small team who achieved extraordinary things. Ofcourse you can't maintain it forever.

The club has made a hell of a lot of mistakes in the last few seasons, transfers, managerial, short sightedness at replacing players for the future.
I said a bit ago if they got this appointment wrong, it would be the start of a drop down the league's. Though Ferguson wasn't who i picked for my next manager, he is near enough to what we needed.
He plays attacking football, he is ambitious, he wouldn't have taken this job if he thought he wouldn't get a fair chance of doing well.
As this would ruin his managerial reputation, which he has built with three promotions. When our football was being admired under Sean, people were also admiring how Ferguson's side's played.

I do think the man who uncovered most of the 'Nuggets' that Peterborough got from non league was Barry Fry. But it's no mean feat to be able to mould these non league players quickly into a team so that you forget where they even came from.
I do think he has a problem organising defences, but what he hasn't got a problem with, is moulding players into a proper team that play for each other.
Forget relegation, under this fella he won't allow that to happen. Despite our results we have some very good players, once the confidence comes back, a bit of calmness, time working with the new boss and additions in the right areas, we will be more than alright, no doubt about it!.

[Donny Exile in York]

What i found worrying even before a ball was kicked in the summer, was Dickov signing players 29 or older, to add to the players we already had, that was a very old squad, with a huge gap of players aged 25-28 particularly in midfield with no legs. For all Copps and Wellens have been great servants for the club, truly great, their legs have gone and we can't play both in the same side anymore. Nor can we keep playing Butler and McCullough at the back together, way way too slow. Add to that our woeful goal scoring record, and signing a forward who has a reputation for taking a good while to show any form, and we were always destined to struggle.

Reliance on a 35 year old Jones with a bad neck, and Keegan on the treatment table since March really meant we were struggling with a bare bones squad from the off. Surprisingly we looked tight at the back in the first half dozen games, namely because Dickov plays negatively and was happy to draw even if entertainment was zilch and we never looked like scoring. Add to that players like Main hiding in games and its no wonder we have struggled for goals all season, and last to be fair.

I really hope DF can get a few new faces in sooner rather than later via loan, a leader and some strength from set pieces and pace in the centre of the side cos that would make such a difference.. the forresters, tysons, coppinger still without reliance on him all the time, amongst others will then gain from this and we can still turn things round and climb out of the mire. Fingers crossed. And we need to maintain some form at home cos points look likely to be scare away.

What i don't understand is that away from home we should be playing Keegan, at home Forrester to maximise our chances right now.

[Draytonian III]

As I  posted a few minutes ago " Not one person "

[bpoolrover]

I think he only signed them at that age as he needed to blood some of the younger players into the team,meaning he needed experience,I thought at the start of the champ manager experiment that the younger players are suddenly ready for 1st team was a bad idea

[Sammy Chung was King]

What i found worrying even before a ball was kicked in the summer, was Dickov signing players 29 or older, to add to the players we already had, that was a very old squad, with a huge gap of players aged 25-28 particularly in midfield with no legs. For all Copps and Wellens have been great servants for the club, truly great, their legs have gone and we can't play both in the same side anymore. Nor can we keep playing Butler and McCullough at the back together, way way too slow. Add to that our woeful goal scoring record, and signing a forward who has a reputation for taking a good while to show any form, and we were always destined to struggle.

Reliance on a 35 year old Jones with a bad neck, and Keegan on the treatment table since March really meant we were struggling with a bare bones squad from the off. Surprisingly we looked tight at the back in the first half dozen games, namely because Dickov plays negatively and was happy to draw even if entertainment was zilch and we never looked like scoring. Add to that players like Main hiding in games and its no wonder we have struggled for goals all season, and last to be fair.

I really hope DF can get a few new faces in sooner rather than later via loan, a leader and some strength from set pieces and pace in the centre of the side cos that would make such a difference.. the forresters, tysons, coppinger still without reliance on him all the time, amongst others will then gain from this and we can still turn things round and climb out of the mire. Fingers crossed. And we need to maintain some form at home cos points look likely to be scare away.

What i don't understand is that away from home we should be playing Keegan, at home Forrester to maximise our chances right now.

Exile, I think Dickov's thinking was to try and build a solid experienced side like Saunders did, unfortunately even in that short space of time, this league has moved on and what's needed has slightly altered.
You are seeing quicker players filtering down to league one, this means that defenders who just head a ball are extinct. Butler is nowhere near as effective as Jones was in our promotion season, nor McCullough over McCombe.
Yes they are probably better on the ball, but can't dominate at the back like they did, and they are both equally without pace.
 Jones and McCombe didn't get caught out of position, and to be fair to our current centre halves, Jones/McCombe had far better full backs at the side of them.

We needed a few seasons ago, to have brought into the squad successors to Keegan etc, players who could come in and give them a rest back then, and at this stage they would have been replacing them.
You can keep the older players around the squad, but you can't be as reliant on them as we are, we are in this position because the manager wasn't thinking long term, very few managers do these days because they don't get the time.
Dickov made some very strange decisions giving the experienced players not a one year extention but two or three years, how could he not see that it was tying wages up that would hurt us further down the line?.
Now we are reaping the benefits of his and the boards short sightedness, because let's be honest if a corner can be cut to save money, there's already somebody available with the secateurs!.

I keep saying, we need to build our own team, take the hit of paying the regular wages, so the team can become that a 'Team', instead of disjointed individuals.
I am not saying spend massive money, just build a team like we did under Penney and O'Driscoll, the short termism is killing any team ethic and the fans affiliation to players.
One comes in for a month, he leaves, then another comes in for two months, then same again, show confidence in the man in charge to get the right people in permanent!.
I am mostly happy with who the board is, the manager, most of the players, i love the club and just think as a supporter, things are not quite being done right.

[RobTheRover]

Big clear out and refresh of the side is what's needed. I think sentiment towards players has been quite a big problem for us and a server overhaul has be on the cards for a while.

I think they had new servers only a year or so ago, Ian.  The website runs really well now.

[steve@dcfd]

When the previous manager made the 5 pre season signings not one person on here said that they were bad signings,  but all of a sudden they are , not one person

Individually each player PD signed was better than the ones they replaced.

Stuckmann is a good goal keeper and without him we would have had more goals scored against us.

But if you are putting a team together would you sign a centre half who is no more skill full or as any more pace than the two we had, he did.
PD said he was a very good signing.

He did not sign a Right back big mistake yet was it, let's hope DF can get a good one.

Left back was a player PD wanted the year before ATS may develop but young players playing in different postions in a team with no confidence does not help.

Chaplow is not and never has been a central midfield player yet PD chased him all summer. On paper a good player but not in the positions he as been asked to play.

N'guessen was not fit when signed, he was supposedly play left side of midfield he as not  why did we waste money on him.

Williams 22 goals last year, yet like Billy Sharp before him, we lack creativity in getting the ball to them quick enough.

He brought in Gobern to take the place of Richie, he again wanted him this summer, he was buzzing when he signed. Done nothing and a waste of a loan player.

So all the players looked good enough but as yet they are not.

It was always going to be a hard job for DF, he should have been appointed in the summer.

Now it's up to the owners to ensure we can get players on loan and the in the transfer window to turn this bad situation round.

Otherwise their views on sustainability will have led to an average season last year and relegation this year.

[graingrover]

don't forget we now have a very different manager ! 

[Copps is Magic]

We'll stay up, comfortably. It's league one, where mediocrity reigns supreme. We just have to beat a few of those mediocre teams and we'll stay up. One decent defender could turn the whole team round.

[DearneValleyRover]

No one complained at the signings because they appeared to be better than those they replaced but a fair few raised concerns in respect to needing a right back and pace of which neither were addressed. What none of us new was the abysmal training or lack there of that was taking place something I believe DF is alluding to in his interview. You only had to look at McCullough last night, he has to be overweight which doesn't help pace.

[Dare to dream!]

I'm confident we will turn it around. Ferguson has got a lot knowledge about this league, he knows what it takes to succeed. He said yesterday he has given the squad a lot of information, it will take time for them to take it on board and apply it in games. Having a full weeks training with no midweek game will help the squad too.







 

[drfchound]

In the last couple of home games i said to my mate at the game that this season has a relegation feel about it.
Lack of good defenders and an uncanny ability of our players to fail to put the ball in the net.
Also some unbelievably bad decisions being made against us.
It all feels really bad for some reason.

[Dare to dream!]

In the last couple of home games i said to my mate at the game that this season has a relegation feel about it.
Lack of good defenders and an uncanny ability of our players to fail to put the ball in the net.
Also some unbelievably bad decisions being made against us.
It all feels really bad for some reason.

It feels bad at the moment, yes. But do you think we will continue the same way for the rest of the season? I really can't see it.

[drfchound]

At the start of the season i felt very confident of a sustained top six challenge.
Post Dickov we seem to be getting worse (not defending PD there) but i think it is true.
Can anyone see the owners giving DF enough backing before January to bring in three or four defenders?
If the defence was good we would probably see better performances from the lads in front of them due to improved confidence.
I hope the owners decide to back DF very quickly otherwise we will be in a right pickle by Christmas.