The Class of Feb-Mar 2014

[Sothall_Blade]

__________Howard

Brayford Maguire Collins Harris

___________Doyle________

____Scougall__ Coady______

Flynn____Baxter____Murphy

This team won 10 matches on the trot and conceded only one goal in the process.
At that time, we were probably 2 players short of a promotion winning team.
How could it go so badly wrong in just 2 short years? Little by little. Drip by drip..

Maguire and Murphy sold. Coady not signed:- Replacements of a similar type not brought in, let alone of a similar standard.
Howard, Harris, Scougall, Flynn and Brayford injured. Failed to replicate anything like their previous good form since.
Doyle and Collins:- Age and their limitations catching up with them. Need better players around them to negate their shortcomings.
Baxter:- Off the field issues. Inconsistent. Moved from the "false 9" role and failed to establish himself in a different position.

Partly bad luck. Partly unnecessary sales. Partly poor recruitment. Another missed opportunity.

 

[Treeton Blade]

Dosen`t help that

 

[Roygbiv]

It's almost like selling your best players and not replacing them is some sort of reason why we get continually worse

 

[sitwell]

It's almost like selling your best manager and not replacing them is some sort of reason why we get continually worse

 

[cooperblade]

__________Howard

Brayford Maguire Collins Harris

___________Doyle________

____Scougall__ Coady______

Flynn____Baxter____Murphy

This team won 10 matches on the trot and conceded only one goal in the process.
At that time, we were probably 2 players short of a promotion winning team.
How could it go so badly wrong in just 2 short years? Little by little. Drip by drip..

Maguire and Murphy sold. Coady not signed:- Replacements of a similar type not brought in, let alone of a similar standard.
Howard, Harris, Scougall, Flynn and Brayford injured. Failed to replicate anything like their previous good form since.
Doyle and Collins:- Age and their limitations catching up with them. Need better players around them to negate their shortcomings.
Baxter:- Off the field issues. Inconsistent. Moved from the "false 9" role and failed to establish himself in a different position.

Partly bad luck. Partly unnecessary sales. Partly poor recruitment. Another missed opportunity.

It didn't have a striker but that's a team full of attacking intent (with the versions of the players as they were then).

2 overlapping full-backs, a centre-back who brought the ball out with real purpose and intent, 2 central midfielders who got in the opposition's box, 2 confident wingers with instructions to get at opposition full-backs, a false 9 who, whilst ineffective in the air, could bring others into play and had a quick, tricky, attack minded central midfielder behind him.

Energy, organisation, spirit, desire, quality, a system the team understood inside out.

What have we got now? Hammond and Woolford, a talisman who looks (for the moment) to be broken, a system that appears to be regularly abandoned as each games progresses so that the last 10 minutes are just a complete mess and even Bergen Blade doesn't know what formation we're playing, no pace, no hunger, no energy, no spirit, no-one getting in the box.

It's like the bit in Dry your Eyes when the music goes quiet and Mike Skinner says

And I’m just standin’ there, I can’t say a word
‘Cause everythin’s just gone
I’ve got nothin’
Absolutely nothin’


Oh well, we can call f-off home after 84 minutes on Saturday and that'll learn 'em for what they've done.....

 

[Sothall_Blade]

It's almost like selling your best players and not replacing them is some sort of reason why we get continually worse

Well yes obviously but that only accounts for Murphy and Maguire being sold and not being able to buy Coady.
All of the other eight players have been available to us at times since but none has managed to reproduce the form of that golden period.

Were they playing well above their natural level? Or are they playing well below their natural level now?
Did they all just hit form at the right time? Did the system we were playing suit them better than any since?

I think it’s a combination of all the above and everything just seemed to fall in place.
Self-confidence and confidence in each other had a huge part to play and that’s not easy to recreate.