Irvine's negativity will relegate us

[Glaser]

I said when Irvin was appointed, that I was gutted. Why did Preston get rid of him? I am not a great fan of Lee Strafford either and wasn't this his first major decision!

how bad a decision that is now turning out to be

My opinion of him has changed massively in the last 4 or 5 weeks

[kobayashi]

I said when Irvin was appointed, that I was gutted. Why did Preston get rid of him? I am not a great fan of Lee Strafford either and wasn't this his first major decision!

You dare to question the wisdom of the Great Leader?

Get him lads.

[Silkstone Owl]

Alan Irvine has now sent us down

Absolute disgraceful substitutions.

Why can he never influence the game when it enters the final half an hour ?

They were there for the taking if we had a manager with b'ollocks.

What did Tudgay offer to vindicate him staying on the pitch ?

whilst i agree that AI's sub today were just short of 'non effective' i dont agree that he has sent us down...

The reasons why we're in this position are:

1)the players arent good enough

2)Wednesdayites negativity rubs off on the players

Tudgay was nowhere today

Clarke cant jump to save his life and might want to go to the ball as opposed to waiting for it to come to him

Cant really fault Varney/JJ's effort

Trouble is we're stuck in this hellhole of a situation and theres nowt we can do but get back to Hillsboro and get behind 'em, regardless if the players are shocking...

I've never seen owt like at Hillsboro today, both before the game and after - awesome, awesome atmosphere prior to the game, 2nd half its quiet, Wednesday may aswell lost 3 nil come 3pm, i couldnt believe it (i wasnt sure whether this reaction was brought on by pigs fans singing that we're going down or the players reactions at full time or just the fact we hadnt won)

A point against the pigs is a bloody brilliant result to say we could of been spanked hard

- are we down? No

Is playing in the championship a done deal? no

so we stick with what weve got till 2 weeks on saturday and get behind em!!!!!

[dorian gray]

If that's the case then don't have them on the bench, they won't be here next season, why not put a bench full of youngsters that may be involved next season?

our youngsters aren't good enough...and haven't been for donkeys years...

[Glaser]

2)Wednesdayites negativity rubs off on the players

Ha ha ha

If today was negative.... in terms of atmosphere etc.... then it would be a frightening prospect hearing the crowd getting behind the team

Lee has called for the fans............. the fans have delivered.

The fans have called for the manager and the players............ have they delivered ?

[dorian gray]

I said when Irvin was appointed, that I was gutted. Why did Preston get rid of him? I am not a great fan of Lee Strafford either and wasn't this his first major decision!

no sacking laws a month and a half too late was....

[Guest utOwlz]

This is not Alan Irvines team so how could anybody be stupid enough to blame him? What just because he didnt substitute a crap player for another crap player, what difference would any of our subs done anyway, and what if he HAD have made all 3 subs and they all had crap games and did nothing to influence the game there would have been some on here saying "oh why did he bring him on hes poo !". He just cant win with some of you.

I shall be judging Alan Irvine next season when he has his OWN players in, the current lot of players just dont have the quality its as simple as that, and who signed them by the way??

The real crime here is the fact Brian Laws actually paid £300,000 for a lazy and useless striker called Clarke, he also wasted £750,000 on a money grabbing player who has a terrible injury record called Jeffers in a panic buy, He also wasted £250,000 on a striker called Sodje just because he had a good game against us in a pre season friendly for Port Vale. He spent £250,000 on the invisible man Potter, yes he scored today but everyone always moans about him. And the worse part of it all is Alan Irvine has to work with and count on these players to keep us up, i feel sorry for Irvine, hes had no money to bring players in, and now people are starting to turn on him for the subs he has made, it just baffles me

[horny owl]

When Soars came on i felt like going home, he is sh!te and doesnt give a f00k about us.

Irvines substitutions are as cr@p and baffling as Laws substitutions.

I really hoped AI was going to be the man to lead us to better things.

But unfortunately he's not.

[Guest gringo69]

Players not good enough through ability, application or both will relegate us.

Unfortunately we have too many with too little ability combined with a lack of application and irrespective of what tactics you try, the end result will be failure.

You can have a mixture of lesser gifted players who work their asses off combined with skillful players who's workrate is less, but our mix is doomed.

And 4th from bottom in a fortnight would not be a successful season, should that happen.

[shez owl]

I don't think we can rightfully have a go at AI for our impending relegation, we were down in Jan but we have kept it untill the last two matches, we have the same players who are either not intelligent enough or not good enough for this league this season, that is the problem and without an injection of money that will continue to be the case.

I was frustrated today when he brought soares on because it changed nothing, agreed with taking Clarke off but not with another midfielder. I just hope he has his team next season and we can judge him fairly. He certainly starts with a let's not lose attitude but this will only get us so far.

Very depressing season.

[Silkstone Owl]

Ha ha ha

If today was negative.... in terms of atmosphere etc.... then it would be a frightening prospect hearing the crowd getting behind the team

Lee has called for the fans............. the fans have delivered.

The fans have called for the manager and the players............ have they delivered ?

So your telling me that players arent intuitive to the crowds reaction, no matter how loud? I mean take Clarkey for instance, yeh hes frustrating to watch doing the same thing but there seems to be a threshold with wednesdayites where we go 'nah, not good enough, USELESS...blah blah blah'....then we wonder why the players were on the backfoot int second half...confidence was just completely shot

I used to be a moaner, and yeh i'm pissed off with the players for getting us into this godforsaken mess, but like i say we've got to support what we've got

If i'd have one gripe at AI it would be that the players are still playin Route 1 football,why he didnt bring Esajas on i'll never know cos Soares did next to F all

do we think LS actually goes to the dressing room to state his piece?

[Glaser]

So your telling me that players arent intuitive to the crowds reaction

Where did I say that ?

Using your logic then ................ Laws hasn't relegated us, Irvine hasn't, the players haven't, it's the fans fault for expecting a player to be able to pass a ball 5 yards and then complaining when it does not happen

[Guest utOwlz]

When Soars came on i felt like going home, he is sh!te and doesnt give a f00k about us.

Irvines substitutions are as cr@p and baffling as Laws substitutions.

I really hoped AI was going to be the man to lead us to better things.

But unfortunately he's not.

Who should have come on then? Dont you see that all our subs are crap, so he cant win, what were you expecting Franny jeffers to come on or Esejas? What the flip would they have done different? nothing because they are both crap too, thats why they dont start games and didnt even under Laws

Their not his players so how can you be stupid enough to say Alan Irvine wont succeed, all those players are Brian Laws apart from Nolan so judge him next season when he brings his own players in

[mattitheowl]

How can you blame the manager for turning a team who were absolutely hopeless and guaranteed to go down into a team that has a chance of staying up? We have got 4 strikers who are all useless in the cold harsh light of day, Varney is the only one who ever looks like scoring, Leon tries but isn't good enough, Tudgay has given up and the less said about Jeffers the better. Irvine has turned a shambles of a defence into one that is reasonable and not shipping 3/4/5 regularly. He has nothing on the bench that is better or even as good as the starting XI. Johnson is clearly not fully fit, we are missing Miller. I don't really know what more Irvine can actually do. He doesn't have a 20 goal a season striker on the bench. Our problem is not that we are shipping goals all over the place but that we aren't taking our chances at the other end. That has nothing to do with Irvine! He has shown that he can make crap players play to a game plan and stay tight but unfortunately he can't bless them with talent and that is what is missing on the whole!

[nebneeb]

When you have the pace of JJ you need to play to that strength, keep the ball on the floor and play him on the shoulder of the last defender. Not once did we do this today in was all in the air.

That requires JJ (or Varney for that matter) to actually make forward runs in behind the full back. But whenever we did get the ball on the ground in midfield/up front, the wide players just come short and deep to get the ball, then take ages doing nothing and pass it back to the defence who lump it.

I don't know whether it is Irvine's instructions for our forward players not to play on the shoulder of the defender, or the players just being scared to make those sorts of runs. Either way it baffles me why we aren't doing it all day long, when Varney finally did twice in the second half he got in on goal both times and could/should have scored.

[frastheowl]

Irvine has so far avoided a lot of criticism, but enough is enough. The other sides involved in the relegation has recently got vital victories in their past two home games. Poor home form gets you relegated. We have picked up ONE point from two "Must Win" Home games. And why? Because we are too negative. We have game plan with regards going foward. We have had no idea when the game is going against us.

Let's be honest, it's a good job Irvine enjoyed the usual Honeymoon Period when he first arrived. Without that, we'd currently be below Plymouth and have a ® at the side of our name. Since his initial purple patch after he took over, we've picked up a woeful EIGHT points, and scored only FIVE goals at home in seven matches. It's not good enough, and it's purely down to our lack of adventure and positivity.

Don't get me wrong, Irvine needed to tighten us up, and from a defensive point of view he's done a decent job. But it's very easy to improve one aspect of a teams play if you neglect others. And that's what AI has done. He initially focussed on making us hard to beat, and I honestly think, he now has lost complete confidence in us, from an attacking point of view. His interview after the game hinted at evidence of this.

The football is dross. Horrid to watch, and is currently ineffective. There's only one way to describe it positively: opportunistic. We rely on mistakes or percentages to create a chance ("if we kick it up there enough, the centre half will surely make a mistake eventually, and we'll get a chance"). ONE win (a very fortunate one at that) in our last TEN games. Ten game is nearly a quarter of our season...to collect only one victory in a time where wins are so crucial is horrendous.

But I'm not surprised. At the time of his appointment, I vehemently expressed my dissatisfaction with the choice. We needed charisma, a character, someone to who the fans could believe in. We've ended up with another manager who'll end up on the Championship/League One/League Two merry-go-round. He's "just another manager" with no new ideas. I REALLY hope he pulls something out of the bag, and keeps us up. But regardless of what happens, unless the football improves, the club is given an identity (like Doncaster, WBA, Blackpool) and results improve, the attendances at Hillsborough will soon dwindle. It's uninspiring, cowardice and forgettable football that isn't picking up results...and that doesn't draw in the fans, but in fact, drive them away.

Appointing Irvine is, imo, Strafford's biggest mistake yet.

[mcmigo]

If we go down Alan Irvine will join Chris Turner as one of the worst managerial appointments in our history.

All the talk of him rebuilding over summer with his own players - nonsense. If we go down he has to go:

ALAN OUT

Has a familiar ring to it.

[Guest gringo69]

??????????????

Players depart pitch end of first half and the old lady was rocking.

Players return for second half like a bunch of faggots.

Nowt to do with the fans. This is professional football, are our lot up for it ? NO.

[Guest intercity0wl]

Agreed.

I was happy with AI at first, but these past few weeks he's been way to negative.

We NEED to win, draws are not good enough when the team above us is doing exactly the same.

To be honest i think he has done well to get draws with the bag of crap he has to work with, without the influence of AI making us hard to beat we would have been down weeks since.

Edited April 18, 2010 by intercity0wl

[Glaser]

Irvine has so far avoided a lot of criticism, but enough is enough. The other sides involved in the relegation has recently got vital victories in their past two home games. Poor home form gets you relegated. We have picked up ONE point from two "Must Win" Home games. And why? Because we are too negative. We have game plan with regards going foward. We have had no idea when the game is going against us.

Let's be honest, it's a good job Irvine enjoyed the usual Honeymoon Period when he first arrived. Without that, we'd currently be below Plymouth and have a ® at the side of our name. Since his initial purple patch after he took over, we've picked up a woeful EIGHT points, and scored only FIVE goals at home in seven matches. It's not good enough, and it's purely down to our lack of adventure and positivity.

Don't get me wrong, Irvine needed to tighten us up, and from a defensive point of view he's done a decent job. But it's very easy to improve one aspect of a teams play if you neglect others. And that's what AI has done. He initially focussed on making us hard to beat, and I honestly think, he now has lost complete confidence in us, from an attacking point of view. His interview after the game hinted at evidence of this.

The football is dross. Horrid to watch, and is currently ineffective. There's only one way to describe it positively: opportunistic. We rely on mistakes or percentages to create a chance ("if we kick it up there enough, the centre half will surely make a mistake eventually, and we'll get a chance"). ONE win (a very fortunate one at that) in our last TEN games. Ten game is nearly a quarter of our season...to collect only one victory in a time where wins are so crucial is horrendous.

But I'm not surprised. At the time of his appointment, I vehemently expressed my dissatisfaction with the choice. We needed charisma, a character, someone to who the fans could believe in. We've ended up with another manager who'll end up on the Championship/League One/League Two merry-go-round. He's "just another manager" with no new ideas. I REALLY hope he pulls something out of the bag, and keeps us up. But regardless of what happens, unless the football improves, the club is given an identity (like Doncaster, WBA, Blackpool) and results improve, the attendances at Hillsborough will soon dwindle. It's uninspiring, cowardice and forgettable football that isn't picking up results...and that doesn't draw in the fans, but in fact, drive them away.

Appointing Irvine is, imo, Strafford's biggest mistake yet.

BRILLIANT

FANTASTICALLY EXPRESSED

* definite plus one for that