Thetownend.com

Well... Me  and a couple people had this chat yesterday...

We have been very poor this season but we have a much better team than the last time we got relegated. We have all seen these same players do well last season It's very bizarre.

In the 2005/06 season we just couldn't seem to score. The games we were losing were 1-0, 2-1, etc.. When Parkin left and Fallon left the goals dried up. If we had Cox that season or even Parkin still, we would have stayed up.

This season we have 2 decent goal scorers Cox and Paynter however our defence is shit.

It's bizarre in the fact that clearly under Iffy although we were shit the players wanted to play for him. Malpas however these decent players just don't seem to want to play for him at all.

It baffled me. We went 2-0 down and was Bynre or Malpas shouting anything towards the players. Were they fuck? Malpas had his hands stuck to the dugout and Byrne was no where to be seen. No one was relaying anything to the players from what I could see.

When we were relegated last time there was good team spirit and even the fans were behind the lads but this season is just so bizarre in the fact we have a good team but play piss poor.

I've always backed Malpas but it is so clear now that the players don't want to play for him and therefore he has to go.

My mate also noted that all the players looked miserable as sin coming to the ground yesterday Unbelievable.

Inevitably Malpas will go soon BUT in the mean time I can see Malpas hitting the loan market for a couple of players I think before his final fate is sealed....

I will miss the next 2 weekends as I am in Canada but will be interesting to see what I come back to, although to be honest I think it will be much of the same.

  Gazzza, you could have joined in this very debate on the Here is my Rant thread.

We have 1 goal scores. Paynter links up well but is no goal scorer!

I've just been looking at the squad that played on this weekend in that season, a 2-1 home defeat to port vale, and comparing them to the squad we have now.

GK - Heaton/Brezovan - Much of a muchness

LB - Smith/Smith - Maybe is slightly better now, though the last two home games he has been shite
RB - Jenkins/Amankwaah - Again, much of a muchness
CB - Ifil,O'Hanlon/Ifil,Morrison - We know at his best ifil is now a much better player, but he's not been at his best for a good while now. Not too much difference between o'hanlon and morrison either in all honesty.

LM - Heath/Timlin - Timlin is a much better player than heath. Macca isn't even in the same league
RM - Mcdermott/Easton - Easton is like a mcdermott with skill
CM - Whalley,Pook/Peacock,nalis - Hmmm. I'd say the present day pairing is the better, just.

CF - Fallon,Bouazza/Cox,Paynter - I'd take fallon over paynter, but cox over bouazza. Cox,Fallon would be an immense partnership of all proportions.

I think the worrying thing is our defence this season looks every bit as bad as then

Think you're over estimating the skills of Jenkins a touch there Davido.

Peacock and Nalis are more than slightly better than Whalley and Pook for christ's sakes. The problem is the division is considerably better.

pook and whalley were shite. mcdermott should never have been a professional footballer and heath was a laughing stock.

Eh? other way round surely.

No, imo Jenkins was shite and completely over rated.  Amankwaah looks a much better prospect than SJ ever was.

Both teams are not/were not really that bad but bad management has/will send both down

we were fucking shite in 05/06

Yeah we were shite that year, half the team couldn't even control the ball.  We still are potentially a good side, in 05/06 we weren't.

He's a bit old to be a "prospect" though isn't he? When I've seen him (excluding yesterday), he's looked OK at times going forward, lightweight to mediocre defensively. Maybe he does have more, but he's not shown enough of it for me yet and has got lost too often. Meh, game of opinions and all that.

By prospect I mean prospect for the team, once he's had half a season to settle in, not in terms of he'll develop into some brilliant player.  Does thta make sense, I'm getting a bit on the knackered side now, 2 nights on a national express bus is catching up with me.

McDermott was a good player. Just as slow as....well Nalis. Good honest pro who put the work in.

The difference is that season we had shit players playing shit. This season we have good players playing shit.

Didnt help that we sold our top scorer in January that year. I pray to god we dont do that again this season!

Yesterday Amankwaah was terrible. He played like Bruce Forsythe's frigging' hairpiece - covered some ground but didn't ever look convincing

Jenkins was a footballing hobo tramp genius.  Leave him alone.

He was one of them you slagged off at first, but really came to like!

A mans man!

Difference is we have seome decent players this season. Its down to bad management and coaching why we are 19th in the table not player ability