What was the turning point this season?

[Valleyblade]

The fight back against Oxford at home.

This for me too. 1-0 down at home to Oxford was possibly one of my lowest points of recent times. But something changed at that moment. There was nowhere else to go and if this lot couldn't find a way then no one could. They did, the crowd was on board, And we haven't looked back yet.

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

The penalty hand ball by the West Ham loanee at Gillingham in the dying minutes of the game.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Said it before: it all changed when O'Connell came on at half time v Oxford.

There were a couple of 50/50 balls in the first couple of minutes which he absolutely beasted which raised the blood of the other 10 players and we've not taken a backward step since!

 

[Iceybabey]

Reading the conments, it seems there are number of contributing factors as to the reason for the upturn. I remember Wilder saying something like "a lot of things have to go right, to get promotion" he said this at the beginning of the season. This thread proves this.

 

[I should coco]

Could it be.......

 

[Barney]

THE TURNING POINT THIS SEASON CAME WHEN NIGEL ADKINS FKED OFF AND CHRIS WILDER BECAME MANAGER

• I agree with this

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

Coutts coming on at half time against Southend.

At a time when the atmosphere in the ground was horrible and the players were all terrified of receiving the ball for fear of making a mistake, he showed no fear and total confidence in his own ability. Making himself available to receive the ball, looking for space and demanding it, clipping short accurate passes and being prepared to get it back straight away, trying to make things happen despite the mountainous task of trying to come back from three down.

He did two things: he demonstrated to the rest of the team by example what needed to be done and he impressed Wilder enough to get back his regular place in the side.

THAT turned our season round.

 

[Silent Blade]

Coutts coming on at half time against Southend.

At a time when the atmosphere in the ground was horrible and the players were all terrified of receiving the ball for fear of making a mistake, he showed no fear and total confidence in his own ability. Making himself available to receive the ball, looking for space and demanding it, clipping short accurate passes and being prepared to get it back straight away, trying to make things happen despite the mountainous task of trying to come back from three down.

He did two things: he demonstrated to the rest of the team by example what needed to be done and he impressed Wilder enough to get back his regular place in the side.

THAT turned our season round.

That is a good one!

 

[Scargill]

Selling Chris Guthrie.

 

[alcoblade]

3-5-2 was the turning point.

 

[frank drebin]

It was when you nasty fans started getting behind the team

 

[Lazerblade]

Wilder getting the train home on his own.

 

[CarlingBlade]

3-5-2
EEL
Moore replacing Long
Weight starting in the 3-5-2 formation
Fleck coming in
Sharp scoring left right and centre
Players other than Sharp getting on on scoring goals
Strength in depth in the squad
Playing high tempo foootball instead of the tippy tappy shite served up in the league by Clough and Adkins
Getting in a manager who contacts with the fans

 

[frank drebin]

Thinking about it
It was Deffo when long Got dropped

 

[Canterbury Blade]

Turning point happened nowhere near the pitch.

It was all done in the boardroom and the managers office where some brave decisions were made. Removing players who were on big salaries, paying em off, letting em go on loan (even previous heroes like Brayford), selling 'starlets' and reading some the riot act. Equally, buying and loaning people with the right attitude.

I know McCabe gets criticism but he backed Wilder in his decision making and should be recognised for that.

The season turned when the club was strong enough to realise its mistakes and support a brave manager who was prepare to rectify them with big decisions.

 

[Keef Chedwyn]

Shipping certain players out.

 

[ucandomagic]

If you look at the stats and my charts in the "Tufty This Year and Last" thread you can see that there is a similarity in him getting his ideas and personnel sorted and then a comparable steady progression in both years rather than a sudden turning point.

It looks from the charts as though the turning point was the Oxford game, but the stats do lie a bit though - as we played quite well at Millwall and just lost to the brainfade handball by Jack. In the Millwall game Moore and Coutts started - so maybe that moved the bar up a bit and then in the Oxford game Jake started and added a bit of a steady hand.

Overall, from watching the games, rather than just looking at the stats though, I would agree with the post somewhere above that when Coutts came on at halftime against Southend it was the moment that we started to build our confidence. Moore and Wright coming in, Fleck getting fully fit and 3-5-2 has built further on that and a whole string of players then started to perform at another level - Duffy's crossing v Oxford, Scougall's energy, Freeman's drive, EEL's presence....

The great thing about Tufty is that he builds on success rather than sits on it - that is why he is the real deal.

We Will Do Magic Again

UTB

 

[SB_90]

For me its defietely going 1-0 down to Oxford. Because there was big build up to it almost like a cup match. Knowing we couldnt lose. As the crowd was brilliant took me by surprise as i was expecting the crowd to turn on players again but you wouldve thought we taken the lead not gone behind with the support. & we have been unstoppable since that equaliser v oxford

Nearly forgot Simon moore is big contributer no coincidence that we only lost 1 league game with him in net only because jack oconnell handball in stoppage time v millwall. From the very start he just excuded confidence for me

 

[joshua thompson]

I'm tempted to say Gills away when we got that last minute gift of a penalty (although we thoroughly deserved the win anyway), but there's also the 4-0 demolition of Port Vale which heralded the latest goal scoring spree.
Both key moments of the season so far.
What might be the next key moment?

When we got our first win of the season, away at Gillingham to go on this 13 games unbeaten run, obviously. The rest since then is just pure class, motivation and confidence from all staff and players.

 

[grafikhaus]

Turning point happened nowhere near the pitch.

It was all done in the boardroom and the managers office where some brave decisions were made. Removing players who were on big salaries, paying em off, letting em go on loan (even previous heroes like Brayford), selling 'starlets' and reading some the riot act. Equally, buying and loaning people with the right attitude.

I know McCabe gets criticism but he backed Wilder in his decision making and should be recognised for that.

The season turned when the club was strong enough to realise its mistakes and support a brave manager who was prepare to rectify them with big decisions.

Agree 100%. Some find it easy to criticise McCabe, but a quick glance down the Dronfield bypass shows what happens when a chairman gets pissed off with constant criticism. KMc has backed CW in his dramatic restructuring and has funded all the new players coming in. If, in the past, he seemed reluctant to give similar backing to Adkins and Clough, it was because they could not be trusted to spend the money wisely.

Mr. McCabe is not perfect and he should have chinned Sean Bean when the drunken twat precipitated the downfall of Warnock. But overall he's proved that he is a fan with the club's interests at heart.

 

[Yewsman]

Agree 100%. Some find it easy to criticise McCabe, but a quick glance down the Dronfield bypass shows what happens when a chairman gets pissed off with constant criticism. KMc has backed CW in his dramatic restructuring and has funded all the new players coming in. If, in the past, he seemed reluctant to give similar backing to Adkins and Clough, it was because they could not be trusted to spend the money wisely.

Mr. McCabe is not perfect and he should have chinned Sean Bean when the drunken twat precipitated the downfall of Warnock. But overall he's proved that he is a fan with the club's interests at heart.

Totally agree that KM needs massive praise for backing CW. I also think however he backed Clough and Adkins. Clough signed loads of players on Championship wages plus some loan players who would have been on high wages too not to mention the Beards transfer fee and large wages. We ended up with a huge squad albeit half of whom were injured. It the wage bill must have been horrendous. He backed Adkins signing Sharp, Wilford and Hammond again on massive wages by L1 standards despite the fact Adkins could not really reduce the size of the squad and wage bill. We owe this man a massive debt. I wish all those posting on here understood that.
As to turning point....got to be equaliser v Oxford.

 

[Revolution]

Agree 100%. Some find it easy to criticise McCabe, but a quick glance down the Dronfield bypass shows what happens when a chairman gets pissed off with constant criticism. KMc has backed CW in his dramatic restructuring and has funded all the new players coming in. If, in the past, he seemed reluctant to give similar backing to Adkins and Clough, it was because they could not be trusted to spend the money wisely.

McCabe is not Dave Allen, but the new players coming in have been funded by Calvert Lewin and Adams being sold, haven't they?

I will be praising McCabe if there is no sell off in January. And not before.

 

[blade too long]

Gillingham
Last minute we hadnt had any rub of the green all season confidence was low .we needed a sign things do level out
Up pops their defender thinking he was playing basketball and hands us the winning spot kick cancelling out our gaffe at Millwall. Was all we needed to let us know we werent so bad

 

[Fjortoft's Aeroplane]

3-5-2 / Moore / EEL & Fleck signings are all contenders, but for me the big moment was Wilder holding his hands up and admitting he got it wrong with Hussey and bringing Lafferty in. So refreshing after seeing Adkins stubbornly stick with his signings through thick and thin despite them being obviously not up to the job.

 

[Grecian2000]

CW: "Come in Dean, now here's what we're going to do . . . . . . . . . . . . "
". . . . anyway, all the best and don't trap those invisible bollocks on your way out".