23
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Progression
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on: February 22, 2024, 10:20:10 am
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First off, I apologise about the new thread but I don't see where this should go.
I was just looking back at our progression through history.
Our first season in the Southern League saw us in division of 16 teams. Of those 4 are now currently in the Premiership, 4 in the Championship, 2 at our level, 2 in League 2 and 3 no longer in the football league. So the split of those that are better placed is 8/5.
Moving on to our first season in Division 3 South and from a table of 22 teams we now see 4 in the Premiership, 7 in the Championship, 4 at our level, 4 in league 2 with 2 no longer in the football league. A split of 11/6.
Then we move on to 1958/9 to the formation of the four divisions we have now where we started in Division 4 with 24 clubs. Only 1 of those teams is in the top flight and just 3 more in the Championship. 5 are at our level, 3 the division below and staggering 11 are either non-league or have folded. The split is 4/14 in our favour. So basically in the last 60+ years hardly anything has changed for us. In fact almost half of our counterparts have gone out of the football league and the teams that have replaced them have not changed our standing within the league at all. That should be seen as a plus point. We may be treading water but in the overall race our position in the field remains steady.
So while we all dream of life in the Championship, treading water is far better than non-league.
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24
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: February 22, 2024, 10:16:54 am
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If you go back exactly 50 years, of the 44 clubs in the top two divisions, 37 are still there. 6 are in League 1 and one (Swindon) are in league 2. Of the 6 that are in league 1, Derby & Portsmouth could well return this season (even Oxford) making the figures even more static. Clubs rise and fall but overall stay where they are/belong.
Interesting. A little dose of realism for us all there!
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25
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: February 21, 2024, 11:21:50 am
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It will be a great achievement I agree and all anyone realistically expected. Is it the limit of our expectations though? As fans can we not hope for investment to keep us progressing in the right direction? If we fail to invest and follow the same old story of not being a sustainable league one club with ambitions of progress , what then? We know what happens It’s happened before and David bower hasn’t come out with a rallying call telling the fans that things will be different this time and we will show ambition rather than have our usual relegation. Mind you they haven’t asked for the season ticket money yet. I’m certainly not getting carried away by staying up as it’s usually the lack of further investment needed (as detailed by KT) that leads us to go in ever decreasing circles. Il stand by my opinion that if David bower fails to invest in his club or fails to get outside investment and/or business partners to help we will be relegated within the next two campaigns. Can anyone disagree and if so why?
Can't disagree with much of that and I'm sure most fans harbour the dream of us hitting the heady heights of The Championship. But... at the moment we are in the third season running where we are probably over achieving. I'm too busy enjoying that to look too far ahead.
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27
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Bristol Rovers (h)
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on: February 18, 2024, 11:13:51 am
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This and this.
Anyway great result. The first goal had 20 passes and all bar Bowie touched it. It was a brilliant team goal.
I actually think this was one of the most dominant performances under Brady, and I don’t care that they were down in numbers. We have decimated all season.
Wasn’t it nice seeing the strength of our bench yesterday though! If we’d kept even a nearly fit squad all season, I genuinely think we would have made the top six this year.
Does this mean (statiscally) that we are better without Bowie?
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28
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Relegation Watch
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on: February 18, 2024, 09:50:44 am
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I would guess that many fans thought, as I did, that we would stay up but would be hovering around 17-20th place for most of the season. To see us sitting 11th is just brilliant.UTC
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29
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Leonard and Bowie
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on: February 18, 2024, 09:43:42 am
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Leonard and Bowie have shown how well the loan system can work for clubs like ourselves. Very few of our permanent signings would stay for more than two years, these two loanees joined us for two years and are better and possibly cheaper options than we could have afforded otherwise. If we try to sign proven league one players they would be older and could leave for nothing at the end of their contract, so nothing gained financially.
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30
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General Category / General Chat / Re: Politics
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on: February 16, 2024, 13:00:13 pm
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North Northamptonshire Council is a Conservative lead council trying to find solutions to problems caused by a Conservative Governments policies. Truly disgusting?
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32
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Bristol Rovers (h)
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on: February 15, 2024, 22:18:52 pm
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Moulden is seriously s***e* and I fear for the rest of season if he doesn't drastically improve!
*Not quite Mitchell sh**e
Burge can't seemingly kick a ball without injuring himself...oh for Thompson back!
Thompson was written off by many after his first few games, then when he was recalled by Newcastle many were mourning his loss! He did look shaky at first but improved game by game, let's give Moulden a chance to do the same.
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33
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Injury Updates....
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on: February 14, 2024, 13:24:28 pm
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Hylton, Kioki , AK, Maglorie all had terrible injury records prior to coming here, that’s why there with us.
AK had played 76 games in two seasons with Swindon before joining us, that doesn't sound terrible.
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36
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General Category / General Chat / Re: Politics
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on: February 13, 2024, 13:21:51 pm
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Dear,dear, dear, Stammer and the Labour Party is in chaos yet agin, this time because it’s intrinsically Racist and openly antisemitism party is first backing Azahr Ali (their candidate for Rochdale by election)and then throwing him out for saying Israel allowed the Hamas attacks to happen. CAN YOU IMAGINE IF THEY EVER GOT INTO POWER…… What an utter shîthole we’ve let our country become.
Blown up out of all proportion, it was his choice of the word 'allowed' which caused the row. It was part of his statement that Egypt and USA warned Israel that Hamas were planning the attack, that was, apparently, true.
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39
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Bolton Wanderers (h)
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on: February 11, 2024, 19:23:00 pm
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I think it was a good point. I have to agree with coolcat, it was a good performance.
Now I know this is controversial but I believe that we play better (more pleasing to the eye) when we do not have to accommodate Hoskins in the team and our results do not suffer which has been shown time and time again. Now before you all have a hissy fit, that doesn't mean I think Hoskins shouldn't be playing, he's our top scorer (not for long the way Bowie is playing) and is regarded in the division as our dangerman but it is a trade off. If you've got a scrappy game with neither side dominant, you've always got the chance that Hoskins is going to convert one of his many shots, he never fails to shoot several times in a game, in fact I was thinking watching Man City yesterday and the commentators saying they hadn't had a shot in the first hour that that wouldn't have been the case had Hoskins been playing for them. However Hoskins isn't a winger, he isn't a striker, he isn't a midfielder, he hasn't really got a position so when he plays you are forced to "accommodate" him. This often means Pinnock is moved central which doesn't work or Leonard moved further back which stifles his creativity. In my opinion when Hoskins doesn't play we carry a bigger threat with players down the centre.
Now that's just my opinion and I've said it. I know most of you (maybe all of you) don't agree and that's fine and how it should be on a football forum and I certainly don't want an argument about it. It would take a brave manager to drop his leading a scorer, I remember Ian Atkins doing it with David Seal, said he didn't work hard enough and of course the infamous Aidy Boothroyd at Wembley omitting Bayo which turned out to be a disaster. I just don't think when Hoskins is out we miss him that much but who can tell, had he played yesterday he might have got the winner.
On the other hand on two occasions in the first half the ball ran free near Bolton's penalty spot, just begging for a Hoskins type player to put it in the net. Do other players know they have to raise their game when Sammy is not playing? Much like Bolton did when they went down to ten men and became a better team?
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40
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General Category / General Chat / Re: NHS
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on: February 09, 2024, 16:04:59 pm
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Ahh the voice of a true Labour Party supporter absolutely moronic.
Ahh the voice of a true Tory Party supporter absolutely moronic.
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