Six games (hopefully) a litmus test of LJ’s credentials to manage SAFC going forward.


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we arent playing particularly worse than we were playing when we went on an amazing run of good results. its fine margins. we arent very good, and the other teams around us aren't very good.

defence has went from 'solid' to 'shakey', and wyke went 5 games without a goal. owt could happen

This, we went unbeaten whilst playing very unconvincingly. Owt could happen.
 
This, we went unbeaten whilst playing very unconvincingly. Owt could happen.
And strangely, we played pretty well in most of the last six (aside from a couple of 20 minute spells) but hardly picked up any points. It’s come down to individual errors and not being able to hold on.

Charlton - Missed two sitters before Burge fumbled a routine header, then got mugged from a throw where we delayed subs and confused everyone.

Wigan - went a goal in front after a good start. Weak defending from set pieces again cost us in a poor spell.

Blackpool - Lost a tight game where we hit the post seconds before Burge hoyed another one in.

Hull - played well, caught out by weak link CM again not standing up to Wilks. Almost won it at the death. Played well.

Accrington - Went two up early and missed a load of chances to kill it off. Burge and Onien making a mess for their equalizer. Got back in front, thew it away again.

could easily have got a win in each of those games in the balance of play but things that were going for us aren’t right now and some players look shot: we need Sanderson back.
 
And strangely, we played pretty well in most of the last six (aside from a couple of 20 minute spells) but hardly picked up any points. It’s come down to individual errors and not being able to hold on.

Charlton - Missed two sitters before Burge fumbled a routine header, then got mugged from a throw where we delayed subs and confused everyone.

Wigan - went a goal in front after a good start. Weak defending from set pieces again cost us in a poor spell.

Blackpool - Lost a tight game where we hit the post seconds before Burge hoyed another one in.

Hull - played well, caught out by weak link CM again not standing up to Wilks. Almost won it at the death. Played well.

Accrington - Went two up early and missed a load of chances to kill it off. Burge and Onien making a mess for their equalizer. Got back in front, thew it away again.

could easily have got a win in each of those games in the balance of play but things that were going for us aren’t right now and some players look shot: we need Sanderson back.
To be honest mate I agree with most of that, but Blackpool was f***ing awful. Yes we could have scored through McGeady (and iirc onien late on) but we created next to nothing. It was depressingly similar to a jack ross performance. Tap the ball about, create nothing and hope McGeady can pull something out of the bag. They were shit as well but a draw was the maximum we deserved from that one. Play like that in a play off and we'd struggle to see anyone off. We've normally looked better like, certainly Portsmouth and Peterborough were two very decent performances that would breed confidence, but Blackpool was awful
 
It's been awful to watch us buckle under the pressure and considering that pressure is only going to ramp up, its hard to be positive.

I just hope we can scrap our way over the line. I don't expect it to be pretty, but we do have one or two player's, who are capable of making a huge difference on their day.

Hopefully, the lads find the nerve and confidence needed to push on thru.
 
Say we forget what’s happened in the recent past (oh if we could) and look at what the next (potentially) six games could mean not only for the future of the club but as a test of Lee Johnson’s managerial credentials.

It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that 3 wins from the next six games could ensure promotion.

For arguments sake say we draw tomorrow night (1-1 anyone?) and win at Plymouth at the weekend.

Northampton, a side desperate for a result to stay in the league then come to Sunderland and secure the point that keeps them up.

That would leave us on 78 points which I think would be enough to secure 3rd or at worst 4th place in the final table.

Another draw in our first leg play off semifinal is followed by a narrow victory in the return leg taking us back to Wembley having achieved two wins from five.

A final victory would ensure promotion achievable from a win every other game in our last six.

Looks pretty straightforward....... what could possibly go wrong?

Over to you Lee
It’ll go tit up.
 
To be honest mate I agree with most of that, but Blackpool was f***ing awful. Yes we could have scored through McGeady (and iirc onien late on) but we created next to nothing. It was depressingly similar to a jack ross performance. Tap the ball about, create nothing and hope McGeady can pull something out of the bag. They were shit as well but a draw was the maximum we deserved from that one. Play like that in a play off and we'd struggle to see anyone off. We've normally looked better like, certainly Portsmouth and Peterborough were two very decent performances that would breed confidence, but Blackpool was awful
Agree, same old problems , despite the mcgeady miss v Blackpool we rarely threatened ,,home game v Blackpool needs to be different
 
To be honest mate I agree with most of that, but Blackpool was f***ing awful. Yes we could have scored through McGeady (and iirc onien late on) but we created next to nothing. It was depressingly similar to a jack ross performance. Tap the ball about, create nothing and hope McGeady can pull something out of the bag. They were shit as well but a draw was the maximum we deserved from that one. Play like that in a play off and we'd struggle to see anyone off. We've normally looked better like, certainly Portsmouth and Peterborough were two very decent performances that would breed confidence, but Blackpool was awful

Not the best performance by any means but i think we were well in it until the 30 seconds where we hit the post/Burge threw one in. I don't think we deserved to lose.
 
Again though, he's done this whilst actually getting less points per game than Parkinson got this season. And with a January transfer window and Aiden McGeady. I mean, its Parkinson's own daft fault for not using Mcgeady but for Johnson to have a worse record even with him it doesn't inspire confidence. To be fair to Johnson he did have a game on his first day and the Covid outbreak to deal with but still, the fact we were (for a time) near automatic is more due to the fact a lot of other sides went off the boil as opposed to being anything greatly positive from Johnson. And now we're in the position where we still might miss out on play offs. I don't think we will but this run is a real concern. If we stagger over the finish line and lose in the play offs he'll have been no better than Parkinson this season, and no better than the bloke we all said was shit and should never have been here in the first place is far from a ringing endorsement

I can’t recall the lads losing momentum in such a way before. We were nailed on for auto promotion.
We have beaten ourselves here. The defence situation arguably was an accident waiting to happen granted, and we failed to improve the team in the transfer window so maybe I should not be surprised.
Can they get back into some form? Think we need 4 defenders match fit and playing at their peak. Hume and Bailey Wright might get there for the playoffs but the other won’t. Means that Power and O Nein both players who would be first choice centre midfielders are playing as defenders still.
 
..did you raise these concerns 'in his company'?
I did not need to it was brought up by another person, but his answer was calm and clear.
And strangely, we played pretty well in most of the last six (aside from a couple of 20 minute spells) but hardly picked up any points. It’s come down to individual errors and not being able to hold on.

Charlton - Missed two sitters before Burge fumbled a routine header, then got mugged from a throw where we delayed subs and confused everyone.

Wigan - went a goal in front after a good start. Weak defending from set pieces again cost us in a poor spell.

Blackpool - Lost a tight game where we hit the post seconds before Burge hoyed another one in.

Hull - played well, caught out by weak link CM again not standing up to Wilks. Almost won it at the death. Played well.

Accrington - Went two up early and missed a load of chances to kill it off. Burge and Onien making a mess for their equalizer. Got back in front, thew it away again.

could easily have got a win in each of those games in the balance of play but things that were going for us aren’t right now and some players look shot: we need Sanderson back.
So what your saying is, we were stupid not to concentrate for 90 mins plus added time, cos that's how long footy matches last.
 
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I can’t recall the lads losing momentum in such a way before. We were nailed on for auto promotion.
We have beaten ourselves here. The defence situation arguably was an accident waiting to happen granted, and we failed to improve the team in the transfer window so maybe I should not be surprised.
Can they get back into some form? Think we need 4 defenders match fit and playing at their peak. Hume and Bailey Wright might get there for the playoffs but the other won’t. Means that Power and O Nein both players who would be first choice centre midfielders are playing as defenders still.
You never know. Younger may get a chance also
 
We have. To be honest whatever criticisms right or wrong about managers past and present I think we are just short on quality compared to the top 2. We should have as good a chance as any in the play offs tho.
Just my thoughts are we see constantly our weaknesses and opposition tend to make the most of that. Persisting with a couple of individuals that are quite easy too target has been a major downfall but lj doesn't seem to address it and in some instances looks lost
 
To be honest mate I agree with most of that, but Blackpool was f***ing awful. Yes we could have scored through McGeady (and iirc onien late on) but we created next to nothing. It was depressingly similar to a jack ross performance. Tap the ball about, create nothing and hope McGeady can pull something out of the bag. They were shit as well but a draw was the maximum we deserved from that one. Play like that in a play off and we'd struggle to see anyone off. We've normally looked better like, certainly Portsmouth and Peterborough were two very decent performances that would breed confidence, but Blackpool was awful
We 100% deserved to win at Blackpool. We created some good chances to win the game and they created absolutely nothing - while we gifted them their winning goal. We performed better when losing at Blackpool than we did when winning at Bristol Rovers.
This you?
The same fella that claimed that the holdup was because we were waiting till we had employed people in key positions iirc - amongst other claims along the way of course.

This whole conspiracy about the announcement of the deal was bollocks then and it’s bollocks now. The reason we didn’t announce the deal was not because we wanted to avoid blame for the window, or that we wanted an academy director in place (remember people claiming that one - then we appointed someone who was already at the club:lol:). The reason we didn’t announce it till the point that we did was that it wasn’t done yet. FML.
 
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Just my thoughts are we see constantly our weaknesses and opposition tend to make the most of that. Persisting with a couple of individuals that are quite easy too target has been a major downfall but lj doesn't seem to address it and in some instances looks lost
McFadzean is a good example. It’s true Parkinson bought him but as a wing back as cover for Hume in that position. LJ wants to play 4 at the back and had a full window to get an effective left back in but brought in Vokins who is also a wing back while wanting to play a flat back 4. Then whe stupid mistakes are made in games people are saying you can’t blame LJ for that etc.
We 100% deserved to win at Blackpool. We created some good chances to win the game and they created absolutely nothing - while we gifted them their winning goal. We performed better when losing at Blackpool than we did when winning at Bristol Rovers.

The same fella that claimed that the holdup was because we were waiting till we had employed people in key positions iirc - amongst other claims along the way of course.

This whole conspiracy about the announcement of the deal was bollocks then and it’s bollocks now. The reason we didn’t announce the deal was not because we wanted to avoid blame for the window, or that we wanted an academy director in place (remember people claiming that one - then we appointed someone who was already at the club:lol:). The reason we didn’t announce it till the point that we did was that it wasn’t done yet. FML.
Did we deserve to win at Blackpool? I don’t know I’m not sure we tested their keeper enough but we certainly played well. I would say tho I’ve never known in my 45 years of watching football a manager get a free pass for his players making costly errors.
 
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We 100% deserved to win at Blackpool. We created some good chances to win the game and they created absolutely nothing - while we gifted them their winning goal. We performed better when losing at Blackpool than we did when winning at Bristol Rovers.

The same fella that claimed that the holdup was because we were waiting till we had employed people in key positions iirc - amongst other claims along the way of course.

This whole conspiracy about the announcement of the deal was bollocks then and it’s bollocks now. The reason we didn’t announce the deal was not because we wanted to avoid blame for the window, or that we wanted an academy director in place (remember people claiming that one - then we appointed someone who was already at the club:lol:). The reason we didn’t announce it till the point that we did was that it wasn’t done yet. FML.
Deciding the new owner is terrible when he's only been here for five minutes just to defend you "mates" is such a strange hill to die on, especially when they were so poor themselves.
 
Deciding the new owner is terrible when he's only been here for five minutes just to defend you "mates" is such a strange hill to die on, especially when they were so poor themselves.
This after calling safc fans when they were rightly unhappy with the rank incompetence from the previous regime.
 
Is it fuck.

Until its a squad he's been able to build following the new plans of himself, the owners, sporting director, scouts and recruitment manager, then no. He's trying to turn a team of failures around - look at how shit we've been with largely this squad for the last 2 years.

If we go up, great. If not, so be it - next season is the litmus test.
 
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