A desrved win against what on the day at least was a very poor Burton side. In the first half we weren't much better and it was a bit of a painful 45 minutes to watch. Much improved after the break, they were there for the taking and the players did what they had to do. Two very good goals, too!

Tabasco concurs. 

Nice to see.

I do think it shouldn't come to this in the modern pro game. Goal line technology should be in place throughout the EPL, with the amount of money in the game the Prem clubs should be subsidising it. 2-3 weeks of Haaland's wages would probably be enough.

[Did his best to keep us up in league 1 with Curle’s stooges]

Did his best to keep us up in league 1 with Curle’s stooges .
Lost out on automatics last season to the biggest fraudulent scam in the EFl in decades that went unpunished .
Have been in the automatic positions for most of this season until the injuries really took hold .
Will probably be at the club for some years to come unless a lucrative offer comes in .
 

You're not still banging on about Curle are you?

He got us promoted in the best season since Wilder was in charge and will rightly go down in the clubs history as a hero.

As to this season, I still expect a play-off finish but winning them at the moment would seem like a tall order, however far stranger things have happened in football!

The Peterborough way is flawed when you look further into things.....

Despite buying cheap and selling on for lots more money, their 2019 accounts showed a £12.5m LOSS on their profit and loss bottom line.

Despite buying cheap and selling on for lots of money they are still in League 1.....the same as us!

Their wage bill in the last accounts amounted to over £5m....now they've got to comply with the same ballpark figure as the rest of us! So a £5m+ wage bill despite buying cheap!

That said of course if they get £10m for Toney that will make a huge dent on the losses....

Yes they've flirted in the Championship, but now they're in League 1 playing in front of not too dissimilar crowds to us.......when you look at the whole picture the end product is pretty much the same.

It's funny, isn't it? It's much like the Prem, all those clubs spending 10's of millions and for what? Just to stay up? Shrewd dealing and good management trumps splashing lots of cash - though obviously both at the same time would be better!

I'm being told that Omar Beccles is expected to sign tomorrow. Also that Charlie Goode was at QPR today.
We wait with bated breathe.

In this climate if Goode did move for a decent fee it would be a massive boost for the club.

[what if goode left and we replaced him with better? what if we got better than morton on loan? what if we got better than wharton on loan?]

what if goode left and we replaced him with better? what if we got better than morton on loan? what if we got better than wharton on loan?..................the highest they have played is league 2 - so why wouldnt we be able to find better?

cheer up - at least you arent dead!

Exactly, anybody would think it was a choice between signing these players or signing no-one. The window doesn't close until October 5th, so almost 8 weeks away. Loan signings will be able to made from the Prem up to the 16th October as well. The season starts on 12th September, so there will likely only be 4-5 matches played between then and the windows closes so not a disaster if we don't get our business sorted by then.

I think Bradford were also in the mix, but taking into account our form at the time and our tough run in we would have struggled.

Bradford were in terrible form (3 wins in 14, 2 of which were against Morecambe and Stevenage) and had an impossible run-in (Port Vale, Exeter, Colchester, FGR, Crewe, Cobblers).

It would have been tight but I think we would have made it along with Port Vale by finishing above Col U, though obviously we'll never know.

Serious question, do you honestly think we would have finished in the play off positions if the season had played out minus Covid-19?

Yes. Port Vale were the only real threat to finishing in a play-off spot but I fancied us to finish above Colchester in any case.

Unproven above League 1. Perhaps they need to dream on!

If Marriott left Derby he'd be snapped up by another Championship club.

Hard disagree on Zakuani. I thought he was plenty good enough for League 1. Hard to argue that there werent a loss of dross recruited though.

Perhaps my assessment of Zakuani seems a little harsh, I just found him to be particularly mistake prone however and that was when he wasn't injured or on international duty. I still remember his last game, which ended early due to his getting injured by bizarrely tripping himself up while trying to make a simple clearance. The fact that it can be argued he was one of the 'better' Page signings says it all about his recruitment really.

😂😂 touché. Whilst I am on most of our problems post Wilder we’re down to mental attitude regarding the players we recruited. Loads of us pointed out we needed a general on the pitch and we just didn’t get it. As soon as we did look what happened? Say what you like about supporters and the nonsense we come out with, when you get a strong collective opinion it’s usually right? Anyway now McCormack has gone we are all getting twitchy because most can see we desperately need a direct replacement? I reckon Curle has it covered, at least he might have........hopefully?

The recruitment under Page was, bar one or two notable exceptions (Matt Taylor over the summer and then Boateng and Eardley in the January), absolutely terrible. Nyatanga, Hanley, Wylde, McCourt, Beautyman, Sonupe, Gorre and JJ Hooper were no-where near good enough. Revell, Zakuani, Anderson and Cornell were a little bit bit better than those, but still lacklustre signings for League 1.

I think KC's recruitment has been mostly spot on and I trust him to get it right again during the close season.

Remember when we played Lincoln first game of season 2018-19 and they beat us 1-0 after we had been by far the better team. Their played a blinder saving about 5 one on ones amongst other saves, his name was Josh Vickers and he has been released and still only 24.
A number of our former players have been released including Joel Byrom, Joe Bunney and Rod McDonald.

Vickers always looked good whenever I saw Lincoln play over the last 1-2 years. Was surprised he'd been released, but having looked at the story it seems the financial situation has mean Lincoln couldn't risk offering new contracts. Bostwick and Eardley have been released by them as well for the same reasons, both good players for League 1 and up for grabs.

With the fallout from the COVID situation this is going to be one of the strangest transfers window and probably seasons as well.

Anything can happen in the play-offs so despite the difficult task ahead I'm staying positive. 3-1 to the Cobblers with Morton, Hoskins and Williams scoring in the 90 minutes and then into extra time.

Roll on tonight!

According to somebody on the division 2 forum teams that play in red & white striped shirts have contested 29 play offs and not 1 has ever won promotion. Not good news for Cheltenham & Exeter.

Stoke and Cheltenham have won the play-offs before.

Looks like the £25 month pass is sold out pretty much everywhere on the planet. £10 week pass it is then!

Another option is that it's £5.99 for a months mobile use only pass, but you can get a screen amplifier very cheap (for little more than a fiver on eBay) so still watch it on a reasonable sized screen.

If the 2019/20 is abandoned then thats it, all games and results are expunged. No team will have gained, no team will have lost out, because the 2019/20 will never of happened. Forget Barrow being invited in, just start with the teams that kicked off in August. No law suits nothing, just start again.

If only things were that simple. Voiding the whole season would see plenty of law suits from Championship clubs/the EFL due to obligations of the Prem to have relegations, while teams receiving parachute payments would be effectively penalised to the tune of 10's of millions at the very least by having that first chance of promotion taken from them (as with WBA and to a lesser extent Fulham in their second year of payments). I also don't think the top 3/4 teams in League 1 would be too happy - are Coventry, Portsmouth et al just going to go, 'Meh, whatever'? I also don't see how it would be fair and equitable to not relegate Southend and Bolton at the expense of denying the current top 3 teams in L2 a very likely promotion.

[Play the games out and abandon season 20/21 if need be]

The EFL would open them selves to so many lawsuits if Swindon got promoted but no one else in the entire EFL did. As I said before the only 100% fair way of ending a season, where 80% of the games have been played, is to play it out with no time limit, behind closed doors if need be. Scrap the play offs and promote the next placed team. If clubs want to pay out extra on out of contract players, let them, but it could well be September/October when we can play again, I don't think many League 2 clubs would continue paying players that they don't have to, unless there is a definite restart date.
     Doing this, rightly rewards the clubs that have done well for 80% of the season, why should Bolton & Southend stay in League 1 when they are relegation certs and Plymouth & Crewe have to stay in League 2, when they look good for promotion
     Play the games out and abandon season 20/21 if need be, then no team will have stayed up under false pretences and teams that deserved promotion get it.

This should be how the situation plays out. The only reason voiding the season or going by ppg to complete it is being seriously considered is because those running the show are clinging vainly to the hope of there being a 20/21 season. It has seemed pretty obvious to me for the last 6-8 weeks however that there won't, or more accurately can't be a 20/21 season. If the current situation makes it 'unsafe' to play, then it's not going to be any 'safer' in 2-3 months time. The chance of there being fans at matches anytime this year at least is zero, which will make it impossible for League 1 and 2 to take place for any sustained length of time anyway. The majority of Championship clubs will also be unable to properly function without gate income also, which will make even football at that level unfeasible for the some time.

I think the game should be put into hibernation until next year and see what the situation is then. No option, whether that be voiding the season, playing behind closed doors over the summer or finishing it in 12 months time behind closed doors will be anything like 'satisfactory', but the latter is the most palatable option as far as I can see.

I honestly dont see clubs going bust over this, maybe one or two basket cases like Macclesfield but no more than that. Clubs will get propped up for a few months, then lay off/make redundant all their players (probably all go into administration like as been suggested) - then re-emerge with zero costs and just let their pitches grow until its all over. Obviously, absolute worst case scenario.

How many clubs went bust during world war 2? I've no idea but no big ones as far as I know.

During WWII the game was a different beast, there wasn't the money involved like it is now and clubs weren't profit seeking entities as such.

The point is that the financial effects will be so damaging that a 20/21 season won't be viable. Crowds won't be allowed at games for 12 months IMO, maybe longer. This will leave clubs throughout the EFL with no income, meaning all players and staff being laid-off, hence no 20/21 season. Many clubs will effectively go into 'hibernation' but many have debts they were struggling to repay before the crisis and will now likely go bust. No crowds at games will hurt the Prem because playing in empty stadiums will harm the sales of the 'product' to a global audience, leading to a significant drop in income, which will screw the many clubs who rely on the full T.V. income just to tread water.

You're not wrong that the majority of clubs now will just shut up shop and let the pitches grow over, starting again with zero costs when it's safe to play with crowds again, but that outcome still stems from a financial collapse within the game. I also think this is the likely scenario for many clubs rather than a worst case one.

The Authorities, the Health Service, the public et al will be prepared for it if it disappears during the coming months and returns this winter. We will have learned from our own experience and those of better prepared nations this time round. The scientific community will have made significant inroads into methods of dealing with this virus (we cope with many thousands of deaths from flu every year). It will also be very obvious who are most at risk. We need to protect them.

The virus won't go away over the summer but there's every chance it could spread easier during the winter, leaving the health service to cope with another COVID outbreak as well as seasonal flu. The most important part of protecting the most vulnerable will be in mitigating any spread and as such football will be taking another long break over that period if that outbreak happens as predicted by the experts.

[that small outdoor group training sessions will be able to resume from 8th June (but no physical contact) and that behind closed door sporting events can begin from 29th June.]

My boss has just sent me something he's seen that has apparently been given to Network Rail as a set of vague guidelines as to what to expect from the phased approach to coming out of lockdown that is going to be announced on Sunday. I've no idea as to the provenance or accuracy of it so it's likely to be bollocks, but it looks fairly plausible. If there is anything in it though, it states that small outdoor group training sessions will be able to resume from 8th June (but no physical contact) and that behind closed door sporting events can begin from 29th June.

If these are anything like right then they will blow the EFL's timescales out of the water.

This is the kind of timescale I would expect and also as a best case scenario. This would also confirm what most expect, that there will be no crowds allowed at games for a long time. I'll be amazed if there will be any crowds at matches before this time next year at the earliest. Many clubs from the Premier to non-league will have gone belly-up in 3-6 months in the meantime making any behind closed doors entirely unfeasible even before taking into account all of the safety and logistical issues. All European competition is also naturally done until 21/22 at the earliest which will ensure even the big boys will be hit hard financially. I just can't see how there will be a 21/22 season at this point.