Will SM take us to promotion?

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Originally Posted by Old_pie

You're being selective. What are the figures for the best two managers we've had in most people's history?:

Sirrel
Warnock

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You're getting desperate now to try and make Maynard look good and digging an even bigger hole for yourself.

Sirrel's record after 37 league games
W17 D11 L9 Pts:62

Warnock isn't relevant, he never managed us at this level, but his record after 37 games was excellent, won twice as many as he lost.
Neil Warnock W18 D10 L9 Pts:64

Allardyce was a disaster but at a higher level, taking over a club in the relegation zone, not the play off zone.

Maynard's results have been very poor for this level, period. There's no getting around that. Every manager has an excuse, Thompson had to work under the Trust with an average backing of 4844.

I like to think I've been fairly open minded on Maynard because I know he's worked hard to get to the point of managing a League club so when people were calling for his head on here after 7 games last season I said let's judge at the end of the season assuming that if the bad results continued and we finished in the bottom half then that would be that, however the owners put that statement out saying he'd been unlucky and they talked about the metrics so it was clear they were going to give him time. This season he's been given what he needed defensively and was doing fairly well until Saturday's total brainfart which I still cannot understand. He's losing me tbh and I'll be surprised if he's still here in 12 months time.

I think SM can get us promoted. Not once this season has any side looked a class or level above us. Our defence is night and day compared to last season and we have become a very tough side to beat. We have already kept six clean sheets in the league this season against Tranmere (20th), Accrington (19th), Carlisle (23rd), Wimbledon (8th), Harrogate (18th) and Newport (16th). Some may argue most are bottom half of the table sides but ultimately the clean sheet is what wins titles.

Only Crewe, Wimbledon, Gillingham and Barrow have conceded less goals than us and that is despite us conceding three goals last night. Last night was a bit of a defensive anomaly and was the first time we have conceded three goals in the league since we played Stockport on the 16th April.

The foundations of any successful side start at the back and we are fine in this department.

We have created chances, many chances in some games recently and have been guilty of not taking some of these chances. If we were not creating chances then that would highlight a bigger problem. Only Port Vale, Walsall, MK Dons, Wimbledon and and Chesterfield have scored more goals than us and that is despite the loss of creativity assists and goals from losing Macca in the summer, JJ and Crowley through injury and the pace of Nemane.

If we can get the creativity back in JJ and Crowley and can get some pace and a bit more firepower in January then I see no reason why we cannot be up there competing and that's when we will need do what MK Dons are doing and go on a five or six game winning run.

Far too early to be writing us and SM off in my view.

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Originally Posted by MAD_MAGPIE

Our defence is night and day compared to last season and we have become a very tough side to beat. .

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Whilst we've conceded 13 less than at the same stage last season, we have scored 12 less and - for what actually counts - we've got 5 less points than we had at this stage last season.

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Originally Posted by upthemaggies

Whilst we've conceded 13 less than at the same stage last season, we have scored 12 less and - for what actually counts - we've got 5 less points than we had at this stage last season.

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We lost the next 2 matches last season so hopefully we can make that up by winning against Colchester and Salford. No reason why we can't.

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Originally Posted by upthemaggies

Whilst we've conceded 13 less than at the same stage last season, we have scored 12 less and - for what actually counts - we've got 5 less points than we had at this stage last season.

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That further illustrates that our defence is night and day compared to last season.

It's not just us with injuries.
I've been looking at Chesterfield forum and they reckon they've got at least eight missing through injury at the moment. They've had similar results to us in the last few weeks as it feels like they've been 3 points behind us all season.

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Originally Posted by Boomerangpie

That further illustrates that our defence is night and day compared to last season.

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At what cost though?

This is our 126th season, the 40th best ever campaign defence-wise ended in relegation. The Derry-Moniz relegation season also makes the top half on best defence record.

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Originally Posted by marky

We lost the next 2 matches last season so hopefully we can make that up by winning against Colchester and Salford. No reason why we can't.

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There's one one reason why we can lose the next 2 games, and that is because we are so predictable, and other teams can read us like a book.

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Originally Posted by Boomerangpie

That further illustrates that our defence is night and day compared to last season.

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But we are still conceding soft goals. And now we have Bass doing his best to emulate Slocombe with his goal kicks..