Putting Nailsworth On The Map: EFL 22/23

Up yours Derby. Exeter are *checks notes* second? Keep it up lads

Often the predictable decline takes months or even years, but this season it just took a few weeks for a Greek oligarch to gut my club and then our shit chairman days to apply the coup de grace by not bothering to appoint a new manager after a woefully inadequate pre-season. I spent most of my life watching third tier football - so fuck it all anyway!

Dare I say it, we looked all right yesterday against one of the pre-season favourites. A thoroughly entertaining 3-3 and if we hadn't had two penalties by the time we got to 3 goals we would surely have had at least two more which were far more blatant.

Should have said 'EFL+' in the title, oops

I assumed we weren't having a specific non league thread. ;-)

it's can also encompass teams which are on their way to the football league

But there’s already a Wolves thread

heh!

Shit noddy teams sandwiched between repeats of minder and episodes of the chase or maybe british touring car championships

welp there's the first KDB -> Haaland -> goal

this is the Brodsworth Colliery won't win the combined unibond div IV thread!

make me a mod, I beg you

What a goal from Sarr. How is he still there?

loves a pedestrian underpass

We are coasting along on the momentum and team spirit of the good-enough-for-League-One first 11 that got us promoted last year, only one major player gone (Cam Dawson back to being Wednesday's second keeper, god knows how good their first choice is because Cam was amazing last year) and one arrived (Jamal Blackman, also a keeper, would be interested in Calzino's view of him but he was very good indeed amd very tall indeed when we demolished Vale on Saturday). Lost seven or eight fringe players, meaning a couple of injuries to the wrong people and we are knackered. We'll see.

Bought a season ticket again, partly because I need to be in Devon more for family reasons (not good ones, sadly), but a moderately successful season would be very welcome.

First league managerial casualty of the season, Blyth have sacked Terry Mitchell for losing to Kiddy on the opening day.

Jamal only started once for Town and I think it was a cup game in which he didn't have much to do and I think wasn't at fault for the goal, Nicholls was in such good form at the time he didn't have a chance of breaking into a side on a long unbeaten league run. He was signed because our 2nd choice goalie at the time, the terrible Ryan Schofield - his confidence was shot/was never any good in the first place. Now we've got a terrible rookie manager called Schofield whose confidence is shot/is way out of his depth, which is a shame because I liked him as a player. Soon we'll be a L1 club without any momentum/team spirit. We've signed a striker who is two inches taller than Jamal, in fact at 6"9 the tallest player in England, but haven't seen anything of him since he went to the Dons on loan.

I don't think it was a case of them letting Jamal go because of him not being good enough, more a case of the club wanting to give current 2nd choice Bilokapic his chance because our tightarsed chairman doesn't even like turning the lights on and wants the club to rely more on players from the development squad.

We put out a team with 5 changes away at Cheltenham in the league cup tonight, but they had the decency to put out a team with 8 changes and we won 0-7, can’t say fairer than that. Told you our squad was paper-thin! (It still is though.)

(There were 8 players who’ve come through our youth system on the pitch by the end, although one of them, Liam Sercombe, must be pushing 30 and plays for Cheltenham, having left us years ago)

I reckon a 7-0 win with weakened squad is a strong case for momentum!

it's a shame all the qpr fans left tbh

rip rtc

Jamalwatch update: started off very nicely thank you. And this was fun:

@Big_Blacks @@OfficialECFC 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/NW3RdoKtOE

— PapiBobito (@bobbymmk) August 16, 2022

An especially good night for Exeter fans thanks to events at The Valley too

I had a feeling Jamal just needed a regular peg to hang his gloves on and be given a decent run of games after a few nomadic and unsettled career years and he might just shine, bless him!

Yep he looks a cut above our level tbh.

Also yep Charlton did very nicely against the snot, vg. They have a much, much more expensive squad than ours so it’s doubly pleasant to be above them in the league. (We started last night with 7 academy products on the pitch, so there can’t be many cheaper).

we're looking to offload a couple of centre mids on the cheap if you want to bolster that! gwan give Gilbey and Forster-Caskey a caring home

All we want is two brilliant strikers with great physical presence who don’t want to be paid much and don’t mind waiting around on the bench on the off-chance that one of our forwards gets injured. Is that so much to ask?

We've got one of those in Chuks Aneke. The catch is that he is literally always injured himself. Stockley meanwhile turns out to be able to actually play it on the deck in a possession system, surprising even me

He can, the problem with him IMO is he’s so good at dealing well with balls pumped up to him early that lots of players (and managers) find it just too tempting.

Yes, a temptation that Bowyer/Adkins/Jackson couldn't resist. Garner is the real deal though - people were taken aback when he made Stockley captain, thinking he couldn't play the system, but it's working.

Speaking of Jackson, Wimbledon appear unable to hold a two-goal lead atm, which is a grim sign

Pat Jones with the goal #htafc pic.twitter.com/2W4bNMNnK0

— Matt Jaggar (@MattJMedia) August 16, 2022

last night our 19 yr old "Welsh wing wizard" Pat Jones did more in 10 minutes on his senior debut from the bench than Sorba Thomas has done in 4 games. One of them great unexpected moments in a dismal away game when they are down to 10 and losing 2-0 and you are thinking about shopping lists and wondering if they can keep it to a respectable 3-0 at least. He almost set up the equaliser at the death as well, impressive debut.

Blimey

Our winner last night was a bit special, only saw it briefly in a now-deleted tweet

if you find it again please do share.

i'm visiting my dad in somewhere-near-Hereford at the end of the month and thinking of taking my football-mad 7-year-old along to the game against Gloucester City on the 29th.

all of your teams' goals are very impressive, yes yes

but

Sean Clare’s goal from Charlton Athletic’s 5-1 win against Plymouth Argyle yesterday.

WHAT A STRIKE.#cafc #pafc #LeagueOne #goal #EFL pic.twitter.com/n5Rss7Q7B0

— The Garnerama (@TheGarnerama) August 17, 2022

Sorry not to be a the Gloucester game, should be a good day though. They've got off to a flyer, and bought half our team from last year.

xp

look at those headless chickens defending tho!

and managed by a former bantam

well yes in mitigation, plymouth had just had a defender sent off. but still. still!

not trying to take anything away from that Clare goal really, beautiful shot!

ty, and likewise, may your wing wizards keep you away from trouble

Not the angle I saw earlier, but...

We haven't stopped watching this strike from @LukeHaines9 😍#COYW | #CHEvHFC pic.twitter.com/oPYsjdffpm

— HerefordFC (@HerefordFC) August 17, 2022

I knew there would eventually be a good Luke Haines!

I keep making this joke on Twitter but I don't think the Venn diagram of Hereford FC and people-who-know-who-the-other-Luke-Haines-is has much overlap. sadly.

goal is a beauty btw

No I suspect it's just a sliver in the middle

Town have just allegedly spent a whole million on the very impressive Polish international CB Michael Helik. I fell asleep before it was announced and assumed this morning it would be another of their long list of transfer fails or they'd get gazumped by Luton or something. Barnsley turned a down a £5m offer for him last season. I'm also very happy with the Tyrone Simpson signing even though he's won't be available for selection for months. He was originally a RU player and was offered a pro deal at Leicester Tigers 4 years ago and is still a work in progress, but it's always worth taking a gamble on raw talent.

I meant Tyreece not Tyrone, always get those two names mixed up.

GT assisting with the new search apparently

75 years old is too old to come back isn't it? But hope he can at least find someone less mediocre.

Seen him in the ground the last couple of home matches, seems in good form.

In a similar vein, it still baffles me that Colin Addison doesn't look all that old. Only Dudley Tyler looks as young from the 72 squad.

"shit, I'm probably best off not even joking about that!"

74 yr old Warnock is currently the 1/2 fav, with all the usual caveats about next manager betting markets considered. See youse all in L1 next season

lol

welcome back Uncle Neil! It's only until the end of the season + tbf his record of pulling relegation threatened clubs out of the mire with a third of the season to go is pretty much one of 100% success. Still funny tho!

ONE LAST JOB

Reckon they had to send Ben Kingsley to yell No at him repeatedly

There is a lot of Warnock nostalgia amongst supporters of my generation. It's like the second coming of Christ to some of them. Honest, you wouldn't believe how happy some people are about this, lol. Full disclosure: I am happy as well.

If he keeps us in the Championship the man will go beyong H.T.A.F.C legend, he will acheive messiah status.

hopefully the Lecter mask and sack barrow are still there

I'd have been absolutely aghast if this would have happened straight after our smart and highly impressive, detail obsessed Spanish head coach resigned, but the last 6 months have totally obliterated previous expectation levels. Lol, I'm back to the paleolithic era of football again.

ONE OF US, ONE OF US

(Hope this works out for your sake, but Colin has continually sniped at us since he was king of the slime and I always enjoy seeing him fail.)

Sorry calz but this is hilarious.

I'll have you know the Cardiff fans are extremely jealous of this appointment, they see it as a relegation rival getting a huge boost! After having a deeply unpleasant clueless cunt managing for most of the season, who was doing highly embarrassing Comical Ali press conferences every week. It's impossible to feel any more embarrassed for the state of the club. But I can imagine how funny it is from outside of the HTAFC bubble!

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/2T5X2t2bcZ

— Neil Warnock (@warnockofficial) February 17, 2023

one to brighten up Tim's morning. It was amusing that he revealed he was still sore about the Town chairman lying to him in the 90's. He reneged on an agreement that Col could have his own shop in the Town centre flogging Town merch. Such a ridiculous request to agree to in the first place perhaps, but I suppose in context of what a shabby underfunded state the club was in at the time, not so ridiculous.

and lo!

from now on I don't want read any more "Colin" on here - his name is God!

Today was the first day I have left before the final whistle. Abject.

What do we know about Chris Hargreaves then?

feels like you could have done better, looking at his resume

feels like you could have done better, looking at his resume

it still freaks my nut out that once upon a time i had a match ticket to a league fixture between hereford and leeds. the game was snowed off, i never went

Not sure it's true but final interviews are today and he's the name floating round.

Apparently John Askey is out because of lack of full time ambition.

Despite being ex-Argyle Hargreaves is fairly well thought of at ours I think, he was a part of our coaching set-up and it looked to me as though he would progress inside the club. Wouldn’t seem like a terrible appointment on the face of it. (FWIW it’s my opinion that managerial appointments are less important than we mostly like to think)

My friend Gavin gave him a proper kick when playing youth football in the 80s apparently.

I can vaguely remember Hargreaves when he was that malingering long-haired fucker (I think) who played for the Cobblers when they were one of our hated rivals. He was possibly on the pitch for the game at Sixfields that was abandoned when a falling advertising hoarding almost killed somebody. A detail much more memorable than any of the football being played on the day.

"managerial appointments are less important than we mostly like to think"

As long as there is a reasonable level of organisational competence and the candidate isn't an insecure and vindictive idiot, then there could be some truth in this.

sooooome truth yes, but there's definitely a balance to be made between letting players express themselves without fear and second-guessing, and the instilling of tactical rigour and organisation, which can be surprisingly difficult to find

quite happy with our current manager, even if he doesn't have the gravitas, bloody-mindedness or uncompromising sheer energy of a Warnock quite yet. alas, given he appears to have been Hudds' second choice, he probably isn't far off a move upward

yeah he was allegedly on our radar because his contract situation at Charlton isn't very solid apparently?

he joined on the understanding that there'd be a takeover. the takeover fell apart. his contract is up in the summer. on we lurch

yeah we are in takeover deadlock as well. Lots of issues like a legal wrangle between previous and current chairman, stadium company issues as well - it's falling apart! It's rumoured there is an American consortium interested 🤮

of course there's American interest. UK assets post-Brexit might as well paint a stars and stripes on now

(our current owner is US based and both the consortium he failed to sell to and the one it's rumoured he's still dealing with are US money)

thing is the leveraged debt/parasite it dry/sell at a profit model of ownership might work well at Man Utd, but I don't how it works with EFL clubs.

let's see how it works with a whole country!!1!!!!!

alas, given he appears to have been Hudds' second choice, he probably isn't far off a move upward

― imago, Monday, 20 February 2023 09:27 (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

in talks with qpr apparently, lol

far off a move upward indeed! It wouldn't be too fantastical to imagine Town finishing above QPR and still going down. They are sat on the cushion of a good start to the season making the table look more respectable for them, but it's 1 win since October.

ofc the main link for them is ainsworth. could it finally be time

oh man, our away win against QPR was so hilarious: A freak double from at least one of the top 5 worst players on the pitch, Ruffles. First he crossed the ball into the back of the net and then scored an outrageous overhead kick that must have been some kind of mistake. And lol, Foth did his best to set them up to lose the game.

What the actual fucking fuck

After Saturday's shitshow we go away to top of the league Fylde and are 3 up after an hour.

I can only assume the new manager is common knowledge behind closed doors.

Askey goes to Hartlepool

Big Ron Atkinson had lunch with Colin Addison today. Someone reassure me it's just a coincidence.

people who you thought ....

i could've sworn

Rumours that have been ruled out now are Chris Hargreaves and a start in management to Stuart Fleetwood.

Having been told Monday was final interviews, today's noises are about taking time to find the right candidate. Who has both a smaller wage and a smaller budget than Josh did.

If this is softening us up to Hodgkiss and Klukowski on a permanent basis then I'm going to have to consider whether I renew.

Darren Kelly resigns from Newport yesterday. Hmm.

thank u 4 ur service huddersfield

lost 3-0 to darlington today, wonder if many fans made the journey from hereford, hope not.

I've not looked at the league table for weeks, filled with that same sense of dread that logging into my bank account gives me. gulp.. it still looks bad, but a respectable draw against Norwich and a shithouse away victory against the Wall is a good way to go into the international break. Rowett is still a total arsehoil.

wonder if many fans made the journey from hereford

About 50 I think.

The past few weeks have been horrendous, I walked out of a match before the end for the first time in 40+ years of attending matches. Last week neither side attacked enough to deserve nil.

Only Holloway is really good enough for next season, Evans when back from injury. There are another few worth being given a go in a different role or a settled (and different) formation but it really is wholesale clear out territory.