Questions need to be asked...

[glosterred]

We have been poor in a poor league

Haven't they said that every time we have won promotion?


COYR

[DonnyOsmond]

We've just been promoted so Fergie obviously won't have been changing too much in the last few games other than maybe resting a few players, hence the dodgy looking injuries to Williams and Coppinger, etc. How we've played has been good enough for the first 40 odd games so it's not the players ability or the managers ability thats at question. I believe it's mentality over the last few games either a mentality of "job done now relax" or were going out there too desperate and it's not coming off.

In our form from the start of the season up till Easter we definitely wouldn't have lost as many as we have in the last 4 but it's definitely no reason to get rid of first teamers (Lawlor, Butler, Baudry, Alcock, McCullough,Coppinger, Rowe, Blair, Williams, Marquis - these are our best players) or the manager. We do however need more strength in depth to deal with injuries and suspensions to our better players, which I believe in Ferguson to address.

[i_ateallthepies]

I think Ferguson making wholesale changes as soon as we'd secured promotion with a 9pt lead that shouted out the message to the players that we're taking our collective foot off the gas.  And just like last season, once the winning habit was broken they couldn't regain it.

[dickos1]

Newcastle fans probably weren't going to win the title, and were a lot shorter price than we were. Yet their fans stayed behind for 20 mins celebrating promotion.
Not our fans.
They would rather piss and whine about anything that comes into their head

[drfchound]

The Newcastle fans stayed behind right after the game in which promotion was secured.
I seem to remember that the same thing happened right after the game in which we secured promotion.

[Not Now Kato]

It's the same poor league that Pompey and Plymouth have been stuck in for years, we've gone straight back up.
Great achievmen, yet we have the same old moaners moaning about shite

I assume you mean the shite that's been served up by Rovers over the last four games?
 
Partisanship aside, I'd rather watch the kind of football served up by Exeter in the last game than the shite served up by Rovers in the last four.  A team that 'wants it' and 'works for it', and 'plays football'
 
Rovers = can't pass, can't defend, don't appear to care.... One point out of a possible twelve by the supposed best team in the league?  Yep, that's shite all right.
 
As supporters we give everything, EVERY GAME.  Pity the players haven't in the last four!
 
We pay good money to be entertained, if what we've seen over the last four games is entertainment then I'm a Dutchman.
 
Just hope for a better performance against the Monkey Hangers, a loss there would be TOTAL UTTER SHITE!
 

[dickos1]

You're going on about 4 games over a season of 46 games. This is the first bad run we've had all season and some of our fans are embarrassing themselves with their reaction to this bad run

[Not Now Kato]

No, some of our fans are seeing it as it really is.  One point out of a possible twelve, piss poor football from a team that was running away with the league?  A manager tinkering with a working formula? One up front at home in a vital title match - where we're told by the club that the trophy is waiting to be presented?
 
Four very bad games by a team that appear to be going through the motions?
 
Simply, not good enough.  Plymouth and Portsmouth both also promoted,  both 'going for it', Rovers apparently couldn't care less.
 
We, as fans, pay to be entertained every game of the season.  If you call what was severed up over the last four games entertainment then you really should have gone to specs avers!

[i_ateallthepies]

Dickos, it isn't the 'bad run' that has pissed people off it's the abject performances resulting from lack of effort and - again on the season run-in - that people are pissed off about.  If you think it's good then good for you mate.

[Filo]

Dickos, it isn't the 'bad run' that has pissed people off it's the abject performances resulting from lack of effort and - again on the season run-in - that people are pissed off about.  If you think it's good then good for you mate.

Agreed, it's great that we gained promotion at the first time of asking, but, the title was ours to lose, for whatever reason Fergie has either told the players we'd got it in the bag, or given that impression to them in his bizzare team selections and tactics since gaining promotion. We've thrown it away, and that is what pisses people off the most

[idler]

When you give something your best shot and fail there are no comebacks and no guilt.
If I was a rovers player at the minute I would be looking at where me and my team mates had just lost the extra bit that wins things against the odds.
Plymouth have had that in the last three games, we haven't.

[Chris Black come back]

I think Dickos to his credit has always been a 'glass half full' kinda guy when it comes to Ferguson.

Other folk might prefer to call a spade a spade.

Ferguson has got us promoted in some style this season, although this was with a large and expensive squad and has put us back in a position where we were when he took over.

His self-declared goal of winning the title has turned to dust as his players have turned in some of the most risible performances of the season at the moment that really mattered and this might, a reasonable person could conclude, leave just a few questions around our future competitiveness in League One next season.

Think that is fair?

[idler]

Yes, sums it up for me.
As has been said before, players can play their way out of teams as well as in.

[DonnyOsmond]

I think that's a fair summary.

I would however say the players who have player the majority of the games over the first 40 games we know what they're capable of despite the last 4 games. Don't judge players on 4 games, judge them on 46, which they've been more than good enough over.

[dickos1]

If we win the title on Saturday will everyone still be going on like this?

[RedJ]

Probably because we shouldn't have imploded the way we have.

[Bentley Bullet]

If we win the title on Saturday will everyone still be going on like this?

I'll be delighted if we win the title, and I'm sure Darren Ferguson will be.

I've been dismayed by our recent performances, and I'm sure Darren Ferguson has been.

I've openly criticised the players for their recent performances, and so has Darren Ferguson.

I share Darren Ferguson's opinion of the recent performances. Are we both embarrassing ourselves with our reaction to this bad run?

[dickos1]

I'm pretty sure Darren Ferguson hasn't said anything as ridiculous as we're not good enough for the playoffs

[Bentley Bullet]

What's ridiculous about it?

[idler]

On current form it's a good job we aren't in the play offs.

[DonnyOsmond]

If we win the title on Saturday will everyone still be going on like this?

I'll be delighted if we win the title, and I'm sure Darren Ferguson will be.

I've been dismayed by our recent performances, and I'm sure Darren Ferguson has been.

I've openly criticised the players for their recent performances, and so has Darren Ferguson.

I share Darren Ferguson's opinion of the recent performances. Are we both embarrassing ourselves with our reaction to this bad run?

Are you Darren Ferguson?

[Bentley Bullet]

Are you Darren Ferguson?

No, I'm his sister Sheila, I toured with you and your family with the 3 Degrees a few years back.

[DonnyOsmond]

Are you Darren Ferguson?

No, I'm his sister Sheila, I toured with you and your family with the 3 Degrees a few years back.

I'll never forget that one special night we had together x

[Bentley Bullet]

And here's me thinking that I was the dreamer!

[dickos1]

We're not good enough for the playoffs yet the team in the final places of the playoffs have 17 points less than us, have won 8 games less than us and have scored 18 fewer goals than us.

[Bentley Bullet]

Yes, I'd make them favourites against us now. Shit happens.

Ask yourself this, Hartlepool are next to bottom. Are you convinced we'll beat them on Saturday? Would it be ridiculous to say we won't beat them?

[eastender]

Ask yourself this, Hartlepool are next to bottom. Are you convinced we'll beat them on Saturday? Would it be ridiculous to say we won't beat them?

It took a 90th min goal to beat them at home, so it's not ridiculous.

[Sammy Chung was King]

We will deserve to end up where we do the season is over forty six games you rarely win a title six games from the end of any league. Ferguson deserves respect for fulfilling his main objective i don't get this we've hardly beat any of the top teams so aren't good enough. Champions main points come from the other teams apart from your top six in a league. If we only beat those teams we would be in trouble near the bottom of the league.
Our side has scored eighty four goals but we have let a lot of goals in for a promotion chasing side that's okay this season next season we wouldn't get away with it. We've had a fantastic season whether we win the league or not  i am angry we have dropped to bits so near the finish.

To me this collapse has a lot to do with mental and physical fatigue rather than lacking ability. The positives are we have some really good footballers who are still moulding themselves into a team that can serve the club for a fair few years. We just need additions in each department of the team. Bigger, stronger but who can also play football we've got plenty of smaller technical players. I honestly think if we had added a few more physical type players it could have helped us through these recent games where we just haven't performed.

[DRFCMach2man]

Could be a roller coaster job on Saturday as I think Hartlepool will throw everything bar the kitchen sink at us - they have to,only a win gives them the chance of staying in this league.

[Campsall rover]

We have not become a bad team overnight.
It is totally a mental problem. We got promoted with 5 games to spare. The players took the foot off the gas, not deliberately but when you get over the line it very often happens.
I am not defending the players as this should not have been allowed to happen. Therefore I reluctantly have to blame DF for this.
It is no wonder he hasn't won a title as he needs to be more focused. He should not have allowed 2 days of celebrating after the Mansfield match, or the tinkering with the team. He sent out all the wrong messages to the team by doing what he did.
He needs to learn quickly that winning is a habit and losing is also a habit.
It's all a mental thing because we all know this team has been the best in the league for the first 41 matches and it should have been right up to the final whistle after 46.
Having said all that who knows what might happen on Saturday, there might be a final twist. We can but hope.