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Reply | Scoreline 4 - 4
at 15:55 3 May 2024
Why is everyone happy? Yes we'd be promoted but we want to go out with a win, not throwing away a 3 goal lead with the last kick of the game? Surely that just spoils it a bit? |
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Reply | Will any of our owners be there tomorrow?
at 15:21 3 May 2024
Ah brilliant. Would love for them to be there to share the moment with the fans (and let's not kid ourselves, enjoy some return on their investment also). |
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Reply | Why were Hull City
at 13:29 28 Apr 2024
Probably did it to confuse our players who are used to playing away from home in orange. |
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Reply | Mid-life career jump into teaching...
at 15:27 22 Apr 2024
Not a teacher myself but a good friend of mine is.
I'll try to sum up some of the pros and cons she's told me about the profession (for reference she taught at secondary level and then into college):
Pros
It's rewarding work shaping the future generation.
Working with children can be fun as they are often unpredictable and no 2 days are exactly the same. Depending on the school you teach at and the area, most kids are generally well-behaved and can be a pleasure to teach.
More holiday than most jobs
Shorter working day than most jobs
Cons
Children these days are generally over-protected little sh-1ts and you get little to no authority these days and little protection. Some (granted the minority) can be really nasty pieces of work. Parents can be just as bad. And class sizes these days are larger than they were. A lot depends on the school/area.
Long hours - it requires a lot of unpaid overtime marking and prepping lessons.
Pressure - As earlier posters have said, there is a huge amount of pressure on teachers these days to deliver grades / ofstead results. And it's underfunded as everything else is by the government these days.
For what it's worth, my friend has just left the profession citing mental health issues. It seems many teachers are doing the same. She is now off to Europe to teach English as a foreign language instead. Says a lot really.
My mum was a teacher and enjoyed the work - but that was 20 years ago. Things have changed A LOT since then. It's not what it was.
Granted we need teachers and school are crying out for them - we cannot succeed as a society without them. BUT it takes a certain character. If you're thick skinned enough and can cope well with pressure (and you want longer holidays and more time off with your own kids) then it might be for you. But after watching my friend struggle for the last couple of years I really wouldn't recommend it personally. |
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Reply | McKenna interview…
at 09:51 13 Apr 2024
Jolly good interview that. Almost sounded like a job interview in places 
So nice to see an interview outside the generic boring questions he gets asked normally, where we can actually get a glimpse of the man behind the tracksuit.
I know he probably wont admit it but I bet he's absolutely shattered by this point. How he can keep working 12 hour days, day-in day-out is exceptional.
Congrats on the well-deserved award. Keep it up Kieran! |
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Thread | Could these results keep Southampton interested?
at 22:24 10 Apr 2024
Bearing in mind they can get within 4 points of the automatics now if they win their 2 games in hand. Might give them an extra incentive vs Leicester if they are still in touch by then. And then Leeds last day too.
Just trying to think of some positives. |
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Reply | Whatever league we are in next season
at 11:12 7 Apr 2024
It's a difficult one.
If you take it from a purely statistical viewpoint to judge a goalkeeper, he has the 3rd highest clean sheets in the division.
BUT - from his actual save percentages - he has one of the lowest save percentages in the division (and as a team we have one of the highest shots to conceeded ratios). And his expected goals conceeded vs actual goals conceeded is around average.
He is one of those keepers that on his day can win you game as he does make some exceptional saves - plus generally he is good with his feet and can contribute towards a goal. His one-on-one saves are far batter than say Waltons for example and some of the best i've seen in a long time from a town keeper.
BUT IMHO he is also one of those keepers who can equally lose you a game through a mistake - eg yesterday and at other points throughout the season - and I would say he's slightly more error-prone than most.
For me I think he isn't tall enough to be a top keeper - he can't dominate his area or claim crosses as well as the bigger keepers can which relieves pressue on the defence (how many do we conceed from pinball inside the area). He's also not tall enough to reach the corners which means he has to guess and dive early, and sometimes he doesn't set his feet right (ala yesterday) - Great if he gets it right - but embarrasing when he guesses wrong.
Therefore all things considered I'd rate him as an average Championship keeper. But top teams need a top keeper. I wouldn't say Walton overall is any better. Therefore I would agree with the OP that we probably could do better - however how much it will cost to replace him with a top level keeper I do not know. If we are still in the championship then money may be better spent elsewhere (and who knows - Slicker may get a chance and we see if he's good enough). I also think this is why Town aren't busting a gut to keep him on - if we were he would already be tied up for next season. I'd like to replace him if the right player becomes available at the right price, but if we don't go up we could certainly do worse than keep him on. |
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Reply | Would you go to a back 5?
at 15:52 6 Apr 2024
You can if you're missing a key player.
Hirst got injured in December. We kept the same system. We started losing and drawing games. The reason we got out of that situation is because we could buy in someone who fit into the system.
Now we have an injury to another key part of that system. We are struggling. We can't buy anyone in this time. Therefore in my view a slight formation tweak to restore balance to that right hand side which we are missing. |
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Reply | Would you go to a back 5?
at 15:45 6 Apr 2024
However I would argue we did far better in those games with Wes Burns starring on that RW. Without him we've struggled. We've been relying on subs and sheer mental strength to pull us through those games - how many times have we had to come back from losing positions.
I genuinely think a formation change at this time would help us control games more from the start with the better attacking/defensive balance it would give us down that right hand side. |
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Thread | Would you go to a back 5?
at 15:35 6 Apr 2024
With Burns injured and our starting wingers seemingly strugging in most matches, I might be tempted to start games with a back 5 (which worked so well for us at the start of McKennas reign).
Hladky
Clarke Tuanzebe Woolf Burgess Davis
Morsey Luongo/Taylor
2 of Broadhead/Chaplin/Hutch
Moore
Solves the Clarke vs Tuanzebe debate and plays to their relative strengths.
Can always revert to the 4-2-3-1 if needed and still have those options from the bench.
Until Burns comes back I think it could work. |
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Reply | Clarke is better than Tuanzebe
at 15:21 6 Apr 2024
With our main man on the RW injured I'd like us to go back to the back 5 that worked so well for us at the start of McKennas reign and put them BOTH in there.
Goalkeeper (I refuse to type his name after today's howler)
Clarke Tuanzebe Woolf Burgess Davis
Morsey Luongo/Taylor
Broadhead Chaplin
Moore
Sarmiento and Omari from the bench. |
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Reply | McKenna and Hutchinson
at 12:30 19 Mar 2024
It's mad to think (if you believe the rumours) that the Man United players disliked McKenna because they considered him too methodical. Although I think that says more about the type of character in the United dressing room than it does about KMcK. He has proven with virtually every member of the current squad that if you get the right type of character in and build a culture of hard work and improvement, then the sky is the limit under him.
Hutchinson has absolutely bought into that and it is paying dividends. I wish more young footballers these days were like him. |
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Reply | Freddie Sears leaves Dagenham
at 22:48 12 Mar 2024
Assuming he plays and scores for Braintree, that means he will have played and scored in every one of the top SIX divisions in english football.
Can't be many players that have done that surely? |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 164 | | Comment Votes: | 594 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 758 |
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