Opinions

[Pubey]

Am I the only one who reads the thread title as 'Onions' and gets excited?!

 

[Onion_Bag_Dave]

Am I the only one who reads the thread title as 'Onions' and gets excited?!

No you aren't. :sad:

 

[Spenser]

Can't help feeling the people who moan about 'hoofball' are the same ones who used to slag off Kevin Maher every week
for passing backwards/sideways and (shock, horror...) keeping possession. The player who has now become one of the legends of SUFC was continually barracked for being too negative for many years before his magical transformation into a hero once we started winning & moving up the leagues. It's horses for courses. Lets stop getting misty-eyed about this 'golden age' under Tilly (much as we all loved the good times) and concentrate on the present day and get behind the players who, most of the time, work their backsides off for the club. Players like Dickenson, Gilbert and Barker who have all suffered criticism from the 'experts' are good solid pros at this level. Careful what you wish for... Classic example is a couple of occasions this season Barker (our captain and reigning Player of the Year) has got caught in possession trying to play out of trouble, he gets slaughtered by the crowd !

 

[onceknownasrab]

Pish! This is not and should never be a debate about how well we played in the past under different regimes. I have been a supporter for more years than I care to remember and have seen more than my fair share of dross and that includes the Tilly years. Its about now. Its about today. Yes we are top of the league but even the most ardent supporter must concede we have played so poorly, so many times and still got a result, Lady luck has been very very kind to us. Can we keep chancing to luck. We are at the business end of the season and need to put our best foot forward. I for one do not want to rely on luck to win the play-offs. I would prefer we kept on winning and went up automatically but I fear our current level of performance makes it chancy at best.

 

[Angell Delight]

Clohessy put the poor run of results before Gillingham down to the team trying to play too much football, something PS was fuming about. So Luggy reads them the riot act, drops the players who weren't doing as they were told and we've gone back to a more direct style (that's "direct" and not "hoofball" IMHO). We've won 2 on the bounce since then.....coincidence? No I don't think so. Luggy knows how to get teams out of this league. It's not pretty, it probably has limited our attendances a tad and it probably goes some way to explaining the poor atmosphere at home (away support has always been fantastic at this club regardless) but it bloody well works! If the lads can finish the job we're heading back to League One and the magnificent job that PS has already done to turn this club around in a short space of time will become all the more remarkable. So let's roar our boys on to promotion! :loyalsupporter:

 

[Angell Delight]

Pish! This is not and should never be a debate about how well we played in the past under different regimes. I have been a supporter for more years than I care to remember and have seen more than my fair share of dross and that includes the Tilly years. Its about now. Its about today. Yes we are top of the league but even the most ardent supporter must concede we have played so poorly, so many times and still got a result, Lady luck has been very very kind to us. Can we keep chancing to luck. We are at the business end of the season and need to put our best foot forward. I for one do not want to rely on luck to win the play-offs. I would prefer we kept on winning and went up automatically but I fear our current level of performance makes it chancy at best.

I would argue that any side who is top of the pile come late February is there on merit and not because they are "lucky." We have a great manager, a very good squad with plenty of strength in depth and (hopefully now that Phillips is back) a solid spine to the side and quality in wide areas. The style of play makes us less attractive to watch and this could maybe contribute to some supporters feeling we have been lucky but more often than not it's the solid and consistent sides that get out of this league year after year.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

Here's my twopenneth worth .......... in my heart I am not greatly impressed with the overall team performance in the last 8 games say .........but when I look at the individual players, I rate a good many of them - so that is rather strange. :unsure:

I agree that Sturrock knows how to get us out of this league .......... and so far this season, he is proving to be just the man for the job. :thumbsup: Things are right tight ...... and I must admit to some nerves!

Otherwise, I look at Crewe - they are said to be a "good footballing side". We have won both games against them this season and arguably Southend did not deserve to win either. They must be sick of the sight of Bilel on the pitch.

But what would I rather have if I had a choice? A good footballing team in the mid-table or Southend playing a direct style but on top of the table?

 

[Flinty]

Add to the fact that a succession of players and managers have complained about the negative home crowd over the past few years. If you look or recall you can see numerous threads during the 'golden Tilly Ages' complaining about the manager and numerous players on a regular basis.

Its nothing different to whats going on now so i wouldnt take it personally !

 

[united we stand]

shame, but you are never going to please everyone, and just attempting to is always going to be an impossible task,regardless of what evidence you have at your disposal.

I was under the impression tht Paul and been tasked with getting us out of league 2 ASAP, and nothing else. Therefore he is meeting his job description as far as I am concerned.

 

[Norwichshrimper]

Can't help feeling the people who moan about 'hoofball' are the same ones who used to slag off Kevin Maher every week
for passing backwards/sideways and (shock, horror...) keeping possession. The player who has now become one of the legends of SUFC was continually barracked for being too negative for many years before his magical transformation into a hero once we started winning & moving up the leagues. It's horses for courses. Lets stop getting misty-eyed about this 'golden age' under Tilly (much as we all loved the good times) and concentrate on the present day and get behind the players who, most of the time, work their backsides off for the club. Players like Dickenson, Gilbert and Barker who have all suffered criticism from the 'experts' are good solid pros at this level. Careful what you wish for... Classic example is a couple of occasions this season Barker (our captain and reigning Player of the Year) has got caught in possession trying to play out of trouble, he gets slaughtered by the crowd !

I'd be amazed if that was the case

 

[Norwichshrimper]

Here's my twopenneth worth .......... in my heart I am not greatly impressed with the overall team performance in the last 8 games say .........but when I look at the individual players, I rate a good many of them - so that is rather strange. :unsure:

I agree that Sturrock knows how to get us out of this league .......... and so far this season, he is proving to be just the man for the job. :thumbsup: Things are right tight ...... and I must admit to some nerves!

Otherwise, I look at Crewe - they are said to be a "good footballing side". We have won both games against them this season and arguably Southend did not deserve to win either. They must be sick of the sight of Jesus on the pitch.

But what would I rather have if I had a choice? A good footballing team in the mid-table or Southend playing a direct style but on top of the table?

Go on then.....

I hate people who don't finish what they've star

 

[Tampa Blue]

End of the day, football is a results business - I would prefer to see my side win rather than play well and lose. As for the posters who say we are lucky, well the old saying is "the harder I work, the luckier I become".

Sometimes I despair of the aspirations of some of our supporters, for example last season the guy behind me slagged off Corr at every opportunity despite his great goal scoring return - how you can boo a Team that has consistently been in the top 3 all season is beyond my comprehension.

I am not sure that we deserve to have Sturrock here, and I hope that the "moaners" leave at the final whistle of the game where we secure promotion rather than give a well deserved standing ovation to such a lucky Team and a lucky Manager and let the "lucky" supporters show their appreciation of a long hard season.:loyalsupporter::loyalsupporter:

 

[fbm]

When all is said and done, no-one minds playing really well and losing. Occasionally.

Similarly, winning ugly is what good teams do. Occasionally.

We seem to be playing pretty well away from home quite a lot, but not that well at home too often.

Our last 8 home league matches (oldest first) have yielded the following results - WDLDWLLW. That's 11 out of 24 possible points and is the form of lower mid table side.

Contrast our last 8 away league matches - WWLWWLDW. That's 16 out of 24 and is promotion if not title winning form.

People don't moan too much about the away performances.

Luggy is right when he says we need to sort the home form out.

Let's look at our play off winning side under Tilson for a similar comparison -

Home - same time of year - DWLWDWDW - 15 points
Away - DWWWLDDW - 15 POINTS

I feel the key here is that there were just 2 defeats in that middle third of the season, one at home and one away, both of which can be oput down as "bad days at the office". The home games were as follows - 1-1, 1-0, 0-1, 3-0, 0-0, 2-0, 0-0 and 1-0. Hardly a fantastic set of scores, but note we only let 2 goals in during that time and probably didn't often look like losing.

This seasons scores - 2-1, 1-1, 0-1, 1-1, 3-0, 1-4, 0-2 and 1-0. Only two clean sheets. That's not good for an aspiring team.

 

[Ricky Otto]

To first say the style of play was no different under the previous management and then say that some are arguing with facts, without actually providing any of these stats spoken about is disappointing. Any fan who has watched Paul Sturrock's and Steve Tilson's team's will know the style was different.

 

[chapperzUK]

Firstly, I would say that this style of football isn't entertaining, but it can be effective. Lets get out of this league at any cost and hopefully we will be playing better football next season. Found this tweet that was retweeted by Chris Phillips from a Plymouth fan (@M_dubzzhttps://twitter.com/#!/M_dubzz) :

"As a Plymouth fan Sturrock did whatever possible to get out of L2 and then we did play much better football in L1."

Hopefully this will happen with us too.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

"As a Plymouth fan Sturrock did whatever possible to get out of L2 and then we did play much better football in L1."

Hopefully this will happen with us too.

I have my fingers crossed ...........:link:

 

[Norwichshrimper]

Firstly, I would say that this style of football isn't entertaining, but it can be effective. Lets get out of this league at any cost and hopefully we will be playing better football next season. Found this tweet that was retweeted by Chris Phillips from a Plymouth fan (@M_dubzz) :

"As a Plymouth fan Sturrock did whatever possible to get out of L2 and then we did play much better football in L1."

Hopefully this will happen with us too.

Do we/will we have the tools to play better football in L1 though?....I hope so, but would guess not

 

[Bromley Blue]

Do we/will we have the tools to play better football in L1 though?....I hope so, but would guess not

I believe so yes. Grant, Timlin, Martin, Hall can all play with the ball on the floor and to be honest that would be a half decent midfield in league one. I'm a fan of Kalala and recognise what he does for the side but he has the passing ability of Jean-Francois Christophe. Therefore that would be one position I'd be looking for us to improve on if we went up. Also defensively we'd need a better left back and unless Barker improves once he's over his injury then a new partner for Mark Phillips. Having the combination of a ball-playing centre half and a get-rid sort in Phillips would encourage us to bring the ball out of defence when it was possible and get rid when it wasn't.

However for me, the key reason we played decent football under Steve Tilson was Kevin Maher. He was so underrated by our fans it was unbelievable. Ok so he's not gone to the greatest things since leaving us but I believe thats coz his peak years were with us. He followed the ball round the pitch in central areas and was always 5-10 yards away from whoever was in possession for our team at the time. For limited ball players like Che Wilson, Carl Pettefer and Duncan Jupp this made a huge difference as they always had the easy ball to Maher to get them off the ball. IMO this is what Timlin should be doing for the side now and perhaps this is Luggy's plan for next season. Who knows?

 

[Beefy]

However for me, the key reason we played decent football under Steve Tilson was Kevin Maher.

I think Mark Gower would disagree.

 

[shrimpfan]

Who can forget that fantastic 4-4 Cup Tie with Northampton all those years back; not anyone who was there, I'd wager. Strange that anyone who likes their football would prefer to see us win with an own goal and no shots on target, than a match like that.

when i went to the replay i would have prefered to see us win with an own goal and no shots on target instead of a 3-2 loss me and richard must both be strange....................