What has happened to the much spoke about on here organised protests?
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Protests aren’t t all burning torches and pitchforks. Takes time.
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Wasn’t shocked to lose last night, after all witnessed defeats against Macclesfield,Port Vale, Bradford, Bristol Rovers etc. But what shocking inept display, poor team selection, tactics, players with no quality, poor support. Hardly created a chance, the result should have been worse. And this our biggest game of season. I’m in DK out camp
Even more worrying the poorest players signed for next season, whichever league we compete in.
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Poor, poor, and even more poor…for what it’s worth thinks went downhill after Leahy and Ferrier bust up on the pitch…strong rumours last night on the terraces about another ding dong in the changing rooms at Blackpool with Ferrier at it again, weren’t in the 18 man squad again last night…something is wrong them players aren’t busting a gut for Keates or this football club like they should.
How much time is needed? is it being organised? Or is everyone sitting waiting for someone else to do it?
It seems to have been talked about on here with so many many excellent posts/ideas/proposals for so long now.
Also, at times when all else fails burning torches and pitchforks are just what`s needed.
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My simple assessment is:
Obviously, things started extremely well and Deano had them playing well, together and with a degree of what some on here call bastardry…
He bought in Martin and there was a noticeable change in everything to do with the playing side of the club - form, formation, player discipline etc etc (let’s face it - all that you’d expect would be positively influenced with a senior pro like him on board…
Clearly Martin didn’t want to be here and felt he’d made a mistake and this brushed off on everyone and had a negative effect.
The new coaching staff and a relatively inexperienced manager couldn’t correct the problems, Martin left, by which time the rot had set in and the players rifts had widened.
Form deserted us and the lack of tactical nous after the experiment with Martin was over resulted in us unable to get things back on track - momentum and player confidence started to move towards rock bottom and DK can’t effect any positive change.
As an act of necessity and will, DK bought in what he could afford and it’s got worse (again, is this a result of a relatively inexperienced manager and his team not being able to make it work??)
That’s my feelings and I accept one man doesn’t bring about the downfall of a squad but it’s a mixture of bad decisions and inexperienced leading us to where we are.
All that said, I still believe the buck has to stop with the man at the top because it’s on his watch this has all happened. We all loathe him and his methods but it’s also inexcusable how a man with his experience at the helm of the club just let’s this crap happen time after time…
Just a simple opinion…
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This thread is brilliant. People picking out the one player that’s actually looked like a league one player this season as the problem (Cook), people moaning about the change in approach from Blackpool (a game we lost 2-0), people calling for Nicky Devlin to come back in after hounding him out of the side.
It doesn’t matter. The formation doesn’t matter. The team selection doesn’t matter. The manager doesn’t matter. We are going down.
We’re going to have this reaction every game between now and the end of the season.
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We simply are not taking chances now either, so now the goals are drying up.
So now we cant defend, and cant score. End of days.
It’s not simply a reaction EN it’s my opinion on what’s gone wrong
I’m not saying it’s ALL down to one player - read the post. I’m saying it’s a combination of a lack of experience, some bad decisions and a catalyst (which in this case, to me anyway, seems to be the arrival and departure of Russell Martin.
I’m sure he’s a very good player at this level but it didn’t work out for us and he clearly didn’t want to be here because he move loads nearer to his family by moving the MK Dons!
And by the way, it’s not a reaction to a bad result last night
Russell Martin? I hadn’t even read your post mate. He was an unmitigated disaster.
I realise that now - oops!
I agree BTW
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People are forgetting that we were already losing games and making silly errors before Martin joined. Everyone was saying he is the experienced defender we need to sort out our problems. This started long before he came.
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You may be right but every team loses games and yes we had slipped in relation to our great start but I think there was something more going on behind the scenes that fuelled the downturn into a longer term problem (what,I don’t know but it clearly gathered momentum and look where we are now…)
But the results just before Martin came in weren’t just the odd losses. The slide had began.
A goalless draw to Blackpool where we never looked like scoring. A hammering at home to Doncaster. A defeat at home to Accrington. A very poor draw at home to Shrewsbury. A ■■■■ performance against Bristol Rovers where we were saved by a last minute Morris goal.
Does it ever occur to you that the ability of the players Keates is allowed to bring in is limited by the budget provided by the Board?
Keates is obviously out of his depth, but you can’t just keep blindly defending the Board. As Funk mentioned, Keates is a symptom of the problem and until the constraints from the top are lifted then it’s going to be a painful existence bobbing around in the lower half of League Two.
We only avoided this exact scenario in 2011 because Bonser lucked out on appointing Dean Smith, who pretty much run everything from a footballing standpoint, including introducing a whole club philosophy etc and found a way to make the most of the meagre budget. Ever since Smith left in 2015 we’ve reverted back to type.
If Keates goes then we’ll just be back in the exact same position in 12 months time. But no, it’s not the Board’s fault. 
Not looking to disagree mate but put into context, 3 of the teams you mention there are well ahead of us this season (the table doesn’t lie I guess) and have taken points from much better teams so I’m not sure that qualifies as a ‘slide.
I don’t see where we go now. A lot of posts seem to back one side over another (ie its the board, not Keates, or its the players fault etc). I think its a combination of everything - literally no one is competent at the basics of their jobs at our club.
We deserve to go down now and I think we will with a whimper. The fact we’re saying the likes of Devlin should be in, or Morris shouldn’t have been let go (all valid points by the way after watching last night) says how poor we are. Picking our team at the moment is like trying to pick the 11 turds out of 20 or so that smell least.
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Kind of sad that I feel past the point of moaning now but that was awful last night
Onto Coventry Saturday then - I’ll be there supporting, the teams going to need as much of that as possible as it looks like we’re already down
Might as well make the most of these league one fixtures too while we still have them
UTS
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Worst performance since the last worst performance last week etc etc and we go on and go backwards.
As others have said are there big issues behind the scenes that were mirrored by the strange Martin scenario?
I wanted DK to be the hero as I came from the same area and know that a successful team would be lauded and supported if the Board provided the ammunition. Regrettably the Board gave him the usual crap budget instead of (for once) doing the right thing and giving him a chance.
Gamble spouts about Championship ambitions and then does the usual (yes Mr. Bonser no Mr Bonser) routine and allows JB to trample over him and give the manager a poor L2 budget. You should be ashamed Stefan to call yourself a CEO. All I see is a slightly more public relations version of Whalley who appears to still pull your strings.
Someone above says negative things about Cook. I can’t believe what I see. Thankfully most agree he is and could be a fans long term hero with quality service. Look what he has done without it!
Btw why was Oteh taken off? He just might have created something around their muscle men back line in the second half. To play Gordon is beyond a joke.
Fortunately I couldn’t make last night with work, looking at the Sky highlights without Roberts’ performance between the sticks I think it could have been a real embarrassment scoreline and if he hadn’t made the saves he did I think the P45 would have been given to DK in the dugout last night
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