Ardley an improvement

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Originally Posted by Stan Marshall

People forget that Ardley had totally run out of ideas at the end of his tenure with Notts. Results were getting worse and wasn’t there a players meeting which resulted in the change to 5 at the back? Enzio became a right wing back and Ruben wasn’t even in the team.
Ardley is a likeable chap, and I was desperate for him to succeed at Notts, but sadly he wasn’t good enough. He’s had a decent budget this season, which enabled him to sign some decent players, including Dallas, despite, I believe, interest from Notts.
Like other posters, I’m puzzled as to why he was so negative at Notts when he is now putting out a side playing attractive football and scoring plenty of goals.
I do believe he was given sufficient time to succeed at Meadow Lane though.

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Agree with all of this. Ardley was a broken man by the end of his time at Notts - remember the interview after the 2-2 at Yeovil on the eve of his departure? And I still have nightmares about some of those home games last season where the team were incapable of crossing the halfway line.

Ardley and IB both seem like genuinely nice guys - but we all know the cliche about what type of person is a winner. Maybe IB needs to develop a meaner streak - or unleash Doyler and tell him to be more like he was on the pitch than he appears to be in the dugout. Can’t believe he hasn’t been sent off once since becoming assistant manager,

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Originally Posted by nw6pie

Agree with all of this. Ardley was a broken man by the end of his time at Notts - remember the interview after the 2-2 at Yeovil on the eve of his departure? And I still have nightmares about some of those home games last season where the team were incapable of crossing the halfway line.

Ardley and IB both seem like genuinely nice guys - but we all know the cliche about what type of person is a winner. Maybe IB needs to develop a meaner streak - or unleash Doyler and tell him to be more like he was on the pitch than he appears to be in the dugout. Can’t believe he hasn’t been sent off once since becoming assistant manager,

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I think Ardley was all but a broken man when he arrived, sacked by the club he had played and managed for all of his career. We just made sure of it. XD

Ardley was fairly underwhelming in his time here and IB is going the same way. I like the fact he's changed to a more modern style of play but he's neglected the stuff that gets you promoted especially from non league, the dirty side of the game. I was really excited when both were appointed but feel both should have done or do better. I haven't spoken to anyone who thinks we can win a big game away in the playoffs this season and when we play the good teams they make us look completely wet. If we do right in the summer then IB can still be a great manager for us but build another weak team like this season then he needs sacking.

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Originally Posted by Stan Marshall

People forget that Ardley had totally run out of ideas at the end of his tenure with Notts. Results were getting worse and wasn’t there a players meeting which resulted in the change to 5 at the back? Enzio became a right wing back and Ruben wasn’t even in the team.
Ardley is a likeable chap, and I was desperate for him to succeed at Notts, but sadly he wasn’t good enough. He’s had a decent budget this season, which enabled him to sign some decent players, including Dallas, despite, I believe, interest from Notts.
Like other posters, I’m puzzled as to why he was so negative at Notts when he is now putting out a side playing attractive football and scoring plenty of goals.
I do believe he was given sufficient time to succeed at Meadow Lane though.

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It's weird, isn't it. He seemed to constantly play down the fact that we had quality players for this level and resources most team would love to have. He constantly talked us down pre-match while talking-up the opposition, even if they were a genuinely poor side. He got his excuses in early and mostly used excuses that applied to every team in the league ("Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday"). It's like he'd just forgotten how to get a team playing with passion and confidence. Most of the games we won were simply due to moments of brilliance from our better-than-average players.

At least with IB we have a footballing identity that's based on possession and attacking in numbers. Personally, I think it's probably the wrong identity for this league, but it's better than just hoping for the best.

Whatever the outcome of this debate, it seems that the end result will be the same whether it's Ardley or IB - no promotion. There comes a point where discussion about footballing styles becomes pointless. What matters is results, and I'm sure we'd all rather get promoted playing ugly long-ball football. I'm willing to give IB more time. He deserves a good part of next season to make progress. But if we're not in the leading pack come winter, I'd be looking elsewhere.

If only we could Warnock out of retirement for one last dance.

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Originally Posted by countygump

I think Ardley was all but a broken man when he arrived.

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That sums it up for me. It seems that Ardley is a decent enough lower league manager overall, but for us he was a complete and utter disaster in the season we were relegated. Because Yeovil imploded so badly that season, all he had to do to keep us up was to get 6 LESS points than crisis club Macclesfield. He wasn't even capable of that.

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Originally Posted by Chicken Balti Pie

After the transfer window where we had mid table form, i.e. had we had that all season, we'd be mid table.

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We played 17 games after January 2018/19. On a last 17 form table we'd be 18th, so "mid-table" is stretching it a bit.

I wish the 1984/85 Lloyd-Barker season table had been solely based on the 2nd half of the campaign, we'd have finished 15th,

If it's 1-1 in a 2nd leg and you need to win or go out on aggregate, you can't settle for a draw. That's what Ardley basically did that season. Wrong man for the job and continued to be the wrong man for another 2 years.

His biggest single mistake, in my opinion, was bringing back Ben Turner for the playoffs in place of Rawlinson, who'd been outstanding. Turner's woeful performance in the final was as bad as Guy Branston's one and only (half) appearance for us.

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Originally Posted by Robertomac

His biggest single mistake, in my opinion, was bringing back Ben Turner for the playoffs in place of Rawlinson, who'd been outstanding. Turner's woeful performance in the final was as bad as Guy Branston's one and only (half) appearance for us.

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Yes, I agree. There was a suggestion that Rawlinson may not have been fully fit, although I’ve never actually heard it confirmed. Ardley was certainly slow to make a change, on the day, with Turner having an absolute nightmare. Enzio was also left out, which was strange considering he had been an automatic starter throughout the season.

Rawlinson was clearly better than Turner that season. If a straight choice it's a no brainer.

I believe he wasn't fully fit if memory serves me right, if he was you play him. Turner played, and played well against Barnet in the semi final so kept his place. Had a shocker in the final as we all saw.

But let's not kid ourselves put Rawlinson in for Turner and the result is the same. There were numerous players who underperformed that day. We were simply outplayed by an impressive Harrogate who deserved the promotion.
No one player would have changed the result IMO.

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Originally Posted by Robertomac

His biggest single mistake, in my opinion, was bringing back Ben Turner for the playoffs in place of Rawlinson, who'd been outstanding. Turner's woeful performance in the final was as bad as Guy Branston's one and only (half) appearance for us.

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The problem was Turner had an excellent game against Barnet, if he had been left out in the final and the same thing happened NA would have been hammered by the fans. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.