I genuinely don’t think that is the case at all.
A bit harsh on a young manager that has improved the team significantly.
It worked okay for half a season.
I’m not saying he hasn’t made mistakes, but we’ve had plenty of more experienced managers that haven’t got anything at all out of their players.
I am on a right downer about it all at the moment and I do think Sadler’s lack of experience has shown recently, but I’m not going to go after the bloke like that.
Would have liked to have gone to this one were it not for work. It feels weird to be in a position where we would have all taken if it was offered to us prior to the season and feel apprehensive, I’ve taken the mentality that I’m going to enjoy something to fight for rather than the season being over this time of year. Of course being so far ahead and the feeling we’ll blow something that was in our hands is hard to ignore but we have to embrace the position we are in. I think we’ll win. 2-0 saddlers.
I wonder whether playing away from home will reduce the pressure a little.
I think at least one of Wheatley or Chan could do with some game time.
I’d also bring in Williams again.
I’m like most people getting quite jittery, but reading some of the posts on this thread you’d think tomorrow was the dog and duck over 50s turning up at Real Carlisle. There’s a distinct possibility Sadler will get this wrong tomorrow, a very distinct one, but there’s also an opportunity to stretch that lead over 4th to double figures with games running out which would be immensely good. About a 50 50 chance of either scenario in my opinion. Let’s not forget other teams are feeling pressure. Successful teams embrace pressure, and successful managers manoeuvre their charges into the best percentage outcome. Both of those scenarios are tests that need to be risen to…. So let’s find out starting tomorrow versus the bottom club in the football league managed by a bloke that failed at Bradford at this level.
Good balance.
For me, it’s the fact that we’ve re-become that archetypical “14th in the fourth division” team that we all recognise from recent campaigns.
That team has it within itself the ability to win the odd game here and there but also spectacularly shoot itself in the foot and lose to some rank opposition.
Lowe is a huge miss but as others have said, the Earing/Hall option is also a huge miss given the apparent absence of suitable replacements.
It’s more the attitude of supporters. It feeds the low bar of expectation. We were talked about as the best team in L2 for years. Record points totals. Then the Walsall mentality kicks in
Oh we’d have been happy 12 points clear
Be glad we are still10 points clear
At least (insert team) dropped points
Still 7 points clear don’t worry great times
We’d have took 5 points clear in the summer at this point
This will soon become
We’d have took Auto promotion nvm the title
We’d have took the play offs it’s not bad
Well it’s better than last season the play offs
Come the end of the season
Good effort the play offs Sadler and Triveka deliver on incremental improvement. A solid platform to win promotion from next season
I’ve seen the threat of us falling off coming from the lacklustre January recruitment. It’s playing out in front of our eyes. We starting to plot our way to 83+
please God give us a 0-5 hammering so i can Stretch to go shove it!!!
Wise words.
We are a good side who have been on a difficult run, look at Stockport last season. From 26th December to 8th March last season they took 14 points from 12 games, they also started the season with only 5 points from their first 6 games. EVERY side at this level who has been successful has gone through an indifferent run of form at least at one point in the season and in all likelihood a couple of spells. Now is not the time for panic, we need a steady hand at the tiller and calm heads. I am not one who will indulge in the hyperbole over the importance of tonight’s game, it is another opportunity to increase an impressive points haul, but it is a tough game and nothing will be decided tonight, although the irony that today is pancake day is not lost on me.
Football is weird. Our great run last year came out of seemingly nowhere. League Two is full of teams whose base ability is incredibly similar, so it just takes a few bits of luck and the belief, confidence and momentum can return.
We’re going to win tonight, i can feel it.
Some, especially on Twitter, are demanding a wholesale shake up and freshening up of the team. I don’t get that, we should have it within us to get back (admittedly without Lowe) to do the things we did well up to Xmas. That means Mat has to go back to picking the right system. With Stirk and Comley, he got it wrong against Swindon - I hope that he doesn’t repeat that tonight, but he just might.
Without Lowe, we are lacking up front, but as we found against Chesterfield and the Dongs, with the right press and level of intensity we are able to overcome that. That intensity has gone missing, though.
Tonight, as it stands, I fear that the best we can hope for is a draw, and the odds seem to be even against that.
Come on Mat - sort it. Back to basics. We can do this. Fight, FFS.
I agree it can be as simple as a bit of luck to get things back on track but I just can’t stop thinking that if only MS had made a substitution after that first Cheltenham goal and taken their momentum away - the last few weeks would have been oh so different…
It’s all about small margins in football but that means you simply can’t let things slip from your control when you are in a good position and MS did exactly that at Cheltenham - we’ve had a great season Mat and we appreciate all the hard work that goes into this team week in week out but please don’t let a stubbornness spoil what we’ve worked so hard to build…
Win tonight and a good result Saturday and we will all be calm and joyful.
I think it’s just the fear of failure biting some of us after 10 years of abject failure. I don’t blame a single person who isn’t getting a little flustered by all of this. It’s just passion and a will to see our team push on and get back to league one.
Every time this season, when the team has looked like ‘this is it’ it’s stood up and showed why it’s a team that is top of the league. That’s why I’m expecting us to win tonight and get a good result against Grimsby on Saturday.
I think Sadler will most likely change Lakin for Comley and Williams for McEntee - but the big concern on a big pitch is the fitness of Gordon and Barrett (especially given the tight turnaround of playing Saturday).
I think earlier on in the season, the reason we sort of consumed and overrun teams was because the wing backs were basically like wingers - pushing the opposition back, but also allowing the 8s to have options wide and swell the team up the pitch.
That seems to have gone now, and we look more isolated up top, and not controlling games as well. Think freshening up Barrett would be a good call personally.
I’m going for a late nervy win.
I agree that random factors are involved, but a run of 9 wins and a lead of 13 points at the top of the table is not all down to luck. There were solid football reasons behind our great form.
One of the reasons was Nathan Lowe - but one player cannot win even one match on his own, he needs the right teammates playing the right tactics. My worry is that Sadler did not know what he was doing right when we were winning; he did not know what were the essential elements of our good performances. I fear that he also does not know what he is doing wrong now we are losing.
That’s my worry too - did he stumble on the successful combination of players after being forced to make changes because some of his favourites, like Josh Gordon, were injured? Would he have played Gordon and Matt up front throughout that time if available? If he had I doubt we’d be top if the table or anywhere near now.
Quite a contrast!! Their ex-manager must be a bit pissed, getting sacked after doing all the hard work to bring in virtually a new side! It just shows that the season is a game of two halves - teams need to re-set in January - we haven’t done that. We certainly weren’t stronger at the end of January than at the start. Can’t help thinking that we have spoiled the ship for a ‘appeth of tar!!
I presume that is why he waited and waited to get Lowe to not play him!!! Before we went on the 9 match winning streak we were in the title race and had won some wonderful cup matches. If you and others want to believe that was in spite of MS so be it but I think you are wrong.
100% agree with that, which is why I think we should be looking to replicate what got us those wins as close as we possibly can. Harrison in for Lowe and be more willing to freshen up the wing-back and central midfield areas in games.
its absolutely this. Its been a trrible decade of football. Now we can see the light, we as a fan base are desperate to get it over the line!
This season the team has been achieving beyond expectations up until the last few weeks and personally it made me feel as though we were going to win the league (which we still can) and I think that’s what has made me feel nervous.
If we are destined to not win it then finishing top three is then the goal because first second or third still takes us where we all want to be next season.
All of the remaining games are huge now for all sorts of reasons, Carlisle fighting for league status followed by Grimsby trying to make the playoffs. To lose both doesn’t bare thinking about but if we win them it will take so much pressure off us (and ease my nerves). I just hope I’m making the long journey back down the M6 with a smile on my face.