Interesting fact about Dickov

[Chris Black come back]

In all the time he has managed us to date he has only once won two consecutive league games (vs Huddersfield and Watford last season).

[Lincoln Rover]

Interesting fact he's never lost any games in The chamions league, and we finished above Bsrnsley.Job done.
See these ae facts as well.
Sorry for being silly but it's Saturday night.

[Chris Black come back]

I try and make the case for the guy on a fairly regular basis, particularly last season when we were always up against it. But, the Board equipped him last season (especially in January window) that was good enough to stay up. With precious few injuries in the final two months, that run at end of season where we lost six and drew one, was an absolute disgrace. If we had the squad we had in December and had a load of injuries then fair enough, but we didn't and the finish is barely believable.

The squad this season provided by the Board is good enough to be in the play offs. No excuses. More consistency needed please Mr Dickov.

[bpoolrover]

They did equip him yes so it's not a pop at the board,but it should have been done a bit earlier and we ended up with a poor billy sharp,tamas who was ok but missed alot of games meite who was coming to the end of his carrer and both them  2 had not played any football for months am sure there will be someone I missed

[mrfrostsdad]

We needed 2 points from our last 7 games to stay up FFS. And we had that extra point in the bag on several occasions and let it slip going for improbable wins.

[Chris Black come back]

Sam Johnstone/Ross Turnbull, Richie Wellens, Gaby Tamas, Abdou Meite, James Coppinger, Billy Sharp and Chris Brown. Any team featuring them was strong enough to stay up last season. We didn't and threw it away in run in. Can't blame the Board. Got to blame the manager and players.

[BigH]

I try and make the case for the guy on a fairly regular basis, particularly last season when we were always up against it. But, the Board equipped him last season (especially in January window) that was good enough to stay up. With precious few injuries in the final two months, that run at end of season where we lost six and drew one, was an absolute disgrace. If we had the squad we had in December and had a load of injuries then fair enough, but we didn't and the finish is barely believable.

The squad this season provided by the Board is good enough to be in the play offs. No excuses. More consistency needed please Mr Dickov.

Agree with everything said here CB. But for the shenanigans around the club's ownership there would have been and should have been a drains up on what happened at the end of last season and PD would have had to come up with some very good answers to keep his job. As it was the ownership distraction meant that he sort of freewheeled into this season. While I would be the first to admit that he had his hands tied for much of preseason, the time for excuses is gone. We have 15 or 16 decent pros many of whom have been around the club for a while or who have worked with PD previously. PD knows this division and if we're not in or around the play off places come Christmas then I for one will be having my doubts.

[mrfrostsdad]

H,
If I'm not mistaken, Dickov was told fairly quickly after relegation he would keep his job, I don't think what happened in the summer had any effect on his position. In fact, I believe John Ryan would also have kept him.
Personally, I don't know why. In my humble opinion he should have gone after the Stevenage debacle in the FA Cup. In the position we were in after the Leeds game a buffoon could have kept us up.
We've got him now for better or worse, so we have no choice other than to hope he gets better with experience.

[BillyStubbsTears]

My take is that Dickov made only one serious mistake last season. But it WAS terminal.

He built a very good initial team. That was decimated by injury. He re-built that side and saw injury rip the heart out of that one as well.

He selected players very well. We played a generally attractive and (given our resources) potent brand of football.

Where Dickov made his mistake was in over-estimating the points that we needed to stay up. When the wheels started coming off at the end of the season, we were still going balls out trying to win matches, when it was clear that a draw or two would do. And that's not hindsight. I was giving a week-by-week assessment if how many points would be needed to stay up, and it was right on the money.

In particular, Dickov made two serious mistakes in matches where we could/should have gritted out a point. The first was playing Wellens in the Bolton match. The second was going hell for leather to get a winner against Reading, and conceding a late goal. That second one in particular was stupid. We should have played the percentages and ground out a draw. I was screaming it at the time and I couldn't believe that no-one in the club seemed to be keeping a level head. If we'd not chucked that point away against Reading, we'd be in the Championship now.

[GazLaz]

I pretty much agree BST. He thought if we carried on playing how we were it was inevitable that we would pick up a few points, and we didn't. We had a couple of decisions go against us and didn't quite get the rub of the green and that was that. Ipswich was one that springs to mind where Brown equalised with a penalty late on and then the ref failed to blow for a leg breaker on Tamas and they got the winner. It was poor defending after the incident but if the ref blows they don't score. Even on the last day the Leicester penalty wasn't a penalty, it was outside the box. We should never have been in the position where we needed to rely on these decisions though should we.

[Filo]

I pretty much agree BST. He thought if we carried on playing how we were it was inevitable that we would pick up a few points, and we didn't. We had a couple of decisions go against us and didn't quite get the rub of the green and that was that. Ipswich was one that springs to mind where Brown equalised with a penalty late on and then the ref failed to blow for a leg breaker on Tamas and they got the winner. It was poor defending after the incident but if the ref blows they don't score. Even on the last day the Leicester penalty wasn't a penalty, it was outside the box. We should never have been in the position where we needed to rely on these decisions though should we.

The chest high kung fu kick on Wellens at Loftus Road and the Penalty at Watford that was a yard outside of the box are two more massive decisions we didn't get

[pib]

My take is that Dickov made only one serious mistake last season. But it WAS terminal.

He built a very good initial team. That was decimated by injury. He re-built that side and saw injury rip the heart out of that one as well.

He selected players very well. We played a generally attractive and (given our resources) potent brand of football.

Where Dickov made his mistake was in over-estimating the points that we needed to stay up. When the wheels started coming off at the end of the season, we were still going balls out trying to win matches, when it was clear that a draw or two would do. And that's not hindsight. I was giving a week-by-week assessment if how many points would be needed to stay up, and it was right on the money.

In particular, Dickov made two serious mistakes in matches where we could/should have gritted out a point. The first was playing Wellens in the Bolton match. The second was going hell for leather to get a winner against Reading, and conceding a late goal. That second one in particular was stupid. We should have played the percentages and ground out a draw. I was screaming it at the time and I couldn't believe that no-one in the club seemed to be keeping a level head. If we'd not chucked that point away against Reading, we'd be in the Championship now.

You didn't go to many away games then?

[Chris Black come back]

Without trying to draw any parallels...SOD had never managed a single second in the Championship previously. After a shaky start in our first season he pulled out what must be our best post 47/48 season run. In a 15 game sequence he won ten, drew three and lost only two (one in FA Cup away at Villa). He did this with a team featuring Lewis Guy, Darren Byfield, JJ Price, John Spicer, Adam Lockwood and Martin Woods.

We are only now realising what a job SOD did for us.

[Chris Black come back]

There is a growing consensus here that Dickov needs to get some consistency. We don't need to win every game. He needs to make us hard to beat and get us on a run. At present it is win one, lose two, draw one, lose two. Aside from our league performance, folk don't want to keep turning up to the Keepmoat to see us lose and play crap.

[BillyStubbsTears]

CBCB

I fully agree about that run. Quite astonishing

As I've previously hammered on about at length though, it only came about after Hayter was injured and O'Driscoll was finally forced to give Heffernan a shirt.

That was the conundrum that was O'Driscoll. He built some amazing teams. But he also had some inexplicable blind spots.

[mrfrostsdad]

Unfortunately Sammy to anywhere near fill the ground we would have to give tickets away for the next couple of games, and that's not gonna happen I don't think