That was one hundred percent the talk from Dutton at the time. I actually caught up on the E&S podcasts this week and it covered Clarke leaving and obviously Duttons run.
In the space of TWO WEEKS over Duttons Reign they go from discussing play offs as an outside but possibility to literally the next episode talking about how we are well in a relegation scrap.
It’s quite startling actually to revisit the sentiment when Dutton took over to then see what is being seen as acceptable now.
Longer term, he doesnt seem ready to me.
That said, I wouldnt think its the end of the world if we appoint him and want to develop him. Smith was basically ‘unfireable’ with some of the winless runs he went on.
I also think hysterically declaring ‘only 1 win in 14’ ignores a lot of the tanglible improvements hes made that have been detailled in this thread.
Judging by his subs, his bizarre set-ups in the first 7 games and his interviews he doesnt seem ready to me. But thats all I see. The players are clearly buying in to him as evidenced at the final whistle and them working their socks off the last 14 games.
He needs to win some more games.
Tough fixture list ahead but that’s how you really prove yourself, outbattling and outfootballing teams higher up in the league. Yesterday was good and the team are all but safe now so the shackles must come off.
Just going back to grinding out points isn’t acceptable.
Like Thanny though I just can’t get on board he’s going to suddenly win 20 games next season but of course that’s not just down to the head coach, pretty much everything else around the playing and coaching structure needs to be massively improved and that will realistically take more than one summer.
Not quite there yet but my mind is changing. You can only make your mind up based on the information you have at the time and I felt we were free falling and that we were taking a massive risk with a newbie in charge seemingly taking each game as an experiment (Barrow being a particular lowpoint). But he seems to have prioritised building from the back for the Grimsby and Southend game and it is paying off and the team appears to be getting better now that Holden is back. Our defending in particular has been much improved. Let’s see how we get on from now until the end of the season, as long as we can see improvement and a plan, I don’t see an issue with him carrying on imo.
He is here until the end of the season.The DoF should be here soon.We will know more then.His record is poor but there are some factors which mitigate that. He has shown improvement and if that continues he will stay and coach the team for the start of next season. I think LP will keep him anyway but maybe not as Head Coach.
This league is so poor that us with a fully fit squad (ie likes of Holden and Clarke), plus hypothetically keeping Ade and maybe ADDING to the attacking strength during the window (remember that strange phenomena?) would have been comfortable top 10 even if DC had stayed.
However, DC had three big problems as a manager. He never had any tangible style or method, and he seemed incapable of putting out a side that wasn’t hamstrung with match-changing individual errors, and his treatment of some young players was baffling. Some that impressed pre-season never got a sniff, then there’s the huge gaff of not playing Perry. Personally I think the first two factors are very much connected.
There is undoubtedly a defensive improvement under Dutton, 13 against and 4 clean sheets contrasted with 22 against and zero clean-sheets in the 14 games before DC left.
That is a significant improvement.
Dutton, for all his failings simply can’t be blamed for not having better attacking options as that die was cast before he took over.
So the two areas we need to improve upon, ie recruitment and style seem very much on the DOF’s pay-grade rather than Dutton’s, while the big plus of picking the young players is already a green tick.
It really is over to Pomlett to sort this out.
So were Forest Green, then they had an injury to their leading scorer and best player, and they lose 4 matches in a row.
You could argue that we were in a similar position - just outside the playoffs, then we lose our best player (Holden), our leading scorer and then our Manager all in a couple of weeks! That sort of turn of events would be a blow to any team at our level, so it’s no wonder we’ve struggled to get back on our feet.
He does a good Damon Gough tribute though…
Could be one for the Bonser Suite now that Joe Longthornes pegged it
“What has Pomlett ever done for us?” 
Given all those things happened prior to Dutton being installed as manager I am unsure as to why he proclaimed that getting into the playoffs was a realistic plan and that failure to do so would be failure on his part. Seems Brian didn’t think all those things were going to hinder him in his quest.
Exactly. Never going to happen.
Totally taking what I said out of context. We was 7 points from the play offs about 14 clear of relegation places ( off the top of my head) we shouldn’t be thanking Dutton for keeping us up. That’s all I was saying.
Stealing that for the UTS Facebook page
Rafa Benitez just logged on:
The facts are…Walsall 1 Mansfield 1
Night of that, 6 points off Exeter in 7th with 20 games to go. 13 points clear of Southend who were 23rd as they are now.
Mentioned them last week but Stevenage were 8 points and Bradford were 6 points off Walsall at that stage.
Now it’s 15 points off 7th and 12 points off Bradford although thankfully 9 points again clear of Southend.
Whichever way it’s spun that’s the points difference to top and bottom then and now with 14 more games played.
Using the word ‘hunting’ suggests we were making active progress towards the play-offs until Clarke left. That wasn’t the case.
We had a purple patch over Christmas where we managed to outscore the opposition despite still conceding far too many goals, then quickly slipped back into the familiar pattern of dropping points and drawing too many because we couldn’t keep clean sheets.
Without Adebayo and Holden we could easily have been lower down the league by the time DC left, and we never looked like having the consistency to push for the top seven even when they were both available.
I’m not defending Dutton, and there are plenty of valid reasons to criticise him, none less than he (and his Chairman) making ridiculous public statements about us aiming for the play-offs when it was never going to happen.
Agree Dutton has achieved absolutely nothing. I hope he proves me wrong and performances continue like yesterday against an out of form FGR for the remaining 6 games to give him that opportunity to be the gaffer .
The creation of this thread has taken the Chairman’s plea to “back off” to extreme lengths, so fair play for that.
As at 15th February I was expecting us to be saddled with the previous manager for at least a further 16 months; the prospect of which was something I couldn’t stomach. The possibly short term, or possibly long term appointment of Dutton is something that I find more palatable by contrast, probably simply because he isn’t Clarke. That’s obviously an illogical reason for his appointment and a major risk.
I made a sincerely held, light hearted comment weeks ago about enjoying our defeats more under Dutton. In my opinion the football we are playing now is more pleasing and is something approaching entertainment, although the results don’t necessarily reflect that.
Dutton could have, if he so wished, all the excuses in the world to explain why we are struggling. The contrast with Clarke is stark. Clarke had the luxury of assembling and utilising a squad, almost entirely of his own making. Virtually right up to the end of his reign he had the use of an improving goalscoring centre forward. Dutton, however, has an entirely inherited squad, which may, or may not, contain players he would rather not have. Furthermore, he has been deprived, not insignificantly, of the improving goalscoring centre forward.
Whether Clarke would have done relatively any better than Dutton in terms of results in the last months I don’t know.
I’m sitting on the fence in terms of whether I think Dutton can succeed at our club, but I do recall my initial feelings towards Rory Holden in his first few months here. I thought that he was a total waste of space. A feeble, weak child without strength or resolve. How wrong was I? I certainly don’t feel so anti- Dutton, as I felt anti-Holden, if that’s any endorsement.
Can’t believe this is being debated it’s been a terrible season regardless of who’s in charge it was ■■■■ under Clarke and it’s been ■■■■ under Dutton roll on the end of the season for me and we can only hope things go in the right direction in the summer and we actually show some ambition for once.
