Sods first ten games!

[Wild Rover]

Yes and I said I could go on.. you and I both know they were not the only good games unders SOD's reign we played some brilliant football and it wasnt by fluke that we were named the \"arsenal of the north\" by other fans all over the country

John Ryan coined the phrase, other fora picked up on it and used it generally to take the pee pee.

I tell you what, of all 200 ish games under SOD i really enjoyed maybe 10% ( irrespective of results ), mostly it was Tip tap go nowhere 5 in midfield football. The ones i enjoyed were when the players seemingly had their way, and certainly didnt play SOD normal style.

Now i didnt advocate a change of manager, change of style yes, now we will see where BOTH take us.

[Donnybax]

You enjoyed 10% meaning around 20 ? so including the 3 games for play offs and johnstones paint at our place against crewe and the final that leaves about 15 in league one and championship. So you did not enjoy our success in league one and you havent really enjoyed the championship are you being serious ?

[Wild Rover]

Very serious. I simply did not enjoy SOD stlyle at all, irrespective of League.

[Donnybax]

Very serious. I simply did not enjoy SOD stlyle at all, irrespective of League.

well each to their own but personally I loved our style of play under SOD

[Glyn_Wigley]

Ahem. No matter how many years ago the Scottish league was never same standard as English top league.

Ahem. Read what I wrote. Were European competitions a lower standard than the English top league?

[dickos1]

The original poster stated sod was experienced in league 1 the same league we were in, and Saunders isn't experienced in the championship! To my mind ferguson wasn't experienced in the English top division he may if done well in a few cup competitions in Europe but that wasn't the point being made! Dalglish, Penney, moyes all managed at higher level with no experience!

[DearneValleyRover]

I was very pro SO'D. I was sad to see him go. However we have moved on and Dean Saunders is now our manager. When Sean inherited Dave Penney's team it was a top half of the table team. Dean has inherited a team low on confidence that only just avoided relegation last season and didn't look like getting another win this season. Can I say things are better now than under Sean? From a footballing point of view, NO! Is it better in terms of points, YES! because with Sean in charge I doubt we would have won the games we have. I honestly believe that we have hit rock bottom not in terms of League position but as a Club including us the fans.

It's time to stop bleating and trying to point score or worse wait to be able to point the finger and say I told you so. This is the biggest crisis we have faced since the Richardson saga and pails into insignificance to that. Let's get behind the team and manager and see where the rest of the season takes us, I'm sure there will be more despair but I'm also certain that there will be some suprises.

Dean strikes me as someone who takes it badly when things go wrong and will endevour to sort it out, he has a winner's mentality and that's exactly what's required when you find yourself in the position we are in. some may think of him as a puppet, I think there is more to Mr.Saunders than that.

[Mr1Croft]

I find it personally irrelevant to compare the first two, that said people have on numerous occassions stated that we were dire under SOD, so I was more than helpful to point out that in the first 32 games in all competitions we only lost to league teams that went on to be promoted.

However for me the underlying difference is that we weren't in danger of relegation when SOD took the reigns, we could afford to sacrifice points and in truth for the sucess it brought in the seasons that followed it was worth it. SOD was a long term move for the club to take us to the next step.

Can we say the same about Saunders? In truth no, SOD wasn't sacked because he had gone as far as he can, he was sacked because we was in danger of going down and breaking a club record that we didn't want to be broken. Saunders was brought in to make an immediate impact, which he did. Some will say it was down to new manager syndrome, some might say it was pure Saunders that caused it, we will probably never know but my concern is with all these players arriving the squad looks better and better and Ipswich aside the perfomances have been poor at best. Saunders and us cannot afford to sacrifice points so that he can get the team to gel, SOD could, you might say that is an unfair judgement but it shows why we should not be judging both managers records as the opposition is different and scenario's are different.

The biggest point for me is would teams like Birmingham, West Ham and Southampton turn down some of the quality we are bringing in? If not, then why are we at the wrong end of the table? Even McKay thinks we should make the play-offs.

[dickos1]

Why do you persist in talking about all the new players, only 3 new outfield players have played yet. Your asking why were bottom when teams like west ham wouldn't say no to these new players but the ones I presume your talking about haven't even put a shirt on yet. Were bottom because were not good enough, fortune, goulon, beye, have just signed not even kicked a ball yet so not sure what they could have done to help!
With regards sod n Saunders first ten games the only relevant point to take from that is the fact that neither started well the fans were/are very restless, yet sod succeeded so let's not see if Saunders succeeds!!

[Mr1Croft]

Why do you persist in talking about all the new players, only 3 new outfield players have played yet. Your asking why were bottom when teams like west ham wouldn't say no to these new players but the ones I presume your talking about haven't even put a shirt on yet. Were bottom because were not good enough, fortune, goulon, beye, have just signed not even kicked a ball yet so not sure what they could have done to help!
With regards sod n Saunders first ten games the only relevant point to take from that is the fact that neither started well the fans were/are very restless, yet sod succeeded so let's not see if Saunders succeeds!!

Ikeme, Kirkland, Ilunga, Chimbonda, and Diouf have all played as far as I'm aware, obviously not together. Combined with the likes or Sharp and Parkin and you have to ask yourself why we are bottom of the league? If your gonna use the excuse of players not playing well together straight away as a factor for losing matches then you surely can't be hugely confident of this new transfer policy either?

[dickos1]

Diouf 3 games,
Chimbonda 5 games
Llunga 7 games

So your main point is that we should have moved to the other end of the table with 2 new fullback and a new attacker. Even though all three have only played together twice! Even if we had won both games when these 3 players played we would still be 3 points from safety.

[dickos1]

You mustn't of meant llunga though because west ham don't think he's good enough for them!