Well I’ve slept on it….

[Filo]

….and I’m still fuming at that display last night, the players day off should be cancelled and after they have done their training there should be no going home to a cushy afternoon, they should be made to endure watching that game in full on loop until it sinks in that it was unacceptable on every level and that includes the head coach, who must be held accountable for that. I’m really struggling to be bothered for Saturday, if the players and coaches can’t be bothered, why should we fans be bothered? Every last ounce of optimism has been sucked out of the fans. For me last night was the straw that broke the camels back, things must change for Saturday!

[no eyed deer]

An absolutely shocking display, what was the manager thinking with the first sub.

That's me done now and my lad too. This board, who are responsible for this need to hand the club over to the fans.

Time to walk Mr Blunt you first.

[since-1969]

….and I’m still fuming at that display last night, the players day off should be cancelled and after they have done their training there should be no going home to a cushy afternoon, they should be made to endure watching that game in full on loop until it sinks in that it was unacceptable on every level and that includes the head coach, who must be held accountable for that. I’m really struggling to be bothered for Saturday, if the players and coaches can’t be bothered, why should we fans be bothered? Every last ounce of optimism has been sucked out of the fans. For me last night was the straw that broke the camels back, things must change for Saturday!

The overall package that’s been presented by Copps and Co.. has been over sold and underfunded. I sit close the bench and all I see is too many hangers on with clueless looks in their faces devoid of ideas . It makes me wonder what exactly is the match preparation being practiced in between games ?

[ncRover]

What does Chad Gribble’s CV look like?

[Filo]

What does Chad Gribble’s CV look like?

Good question, there was a point last night when Oluwu was down injured when the players came over for a drink, and not one of the coaching staff went over to talk to them, or encourage them, Schofield and Gribble just stood there like they had the whole game, hand on mouth talking to each other, I see no passion on the touchline and that has transferred to the pitch

[DonnyBiz]

Experience

Club Doncaster
1 year

Assistant Head Coach
Nov 2022 - Present5 months

Head of Professional Development Phase
Apr 2022 - Nov 20228 months


Exeter City Football Club
11 years 10 months

Under 18s Head Coach
Aug 2018 - Apr 20223 years 9 months

Youth Development Phase Lead Coach
Jun 2016 - Jul 20182 years 2 months

Oversee the running of the under 12s - under 16s academy programme at the football club.

Foundation Phase Lead Coach
Mar 2014 - Jun 20162 years 4 months

Oversee the running of the under 8 - under 11 academy programme at the club.

Football Coach
Jul 2010 - Mar 20143 years 9 months

Football coach for various academy age groups as well as Manager of the ECFC Ladies team.

[Silkscarf]

What does Chad Gribble’s CV look like?

Good question, there was a point last night when Oluwu was down injured when the players came over for a drink, and not one of the coaching staff went over to talk to them, or encourage them, Schofield and Gribble just stood there like they had the whole game, hand on mouth talking to each other, I see no passion on the touchline and that has transferred to the pitch

Oh no, do we actually do the hand on mouth thing? Did Harrogate have lipreaders with binoculars in the East stand?

[mrfrostsdad]

Filo, I so glad I didn't make the 150 mile round trip over the Wolds last night, in minus whatever the temperature was.
The forecast is crap for Saturday too, so that's on hold as well.
What they should do, is make the whole lot of them watch every game in which they've been shocking this season. The only problem with that is they'd be glued to a screen until Christmas

[Filo]

What does Chad Gribble’s CV look like?

Good question, there was a point last night when Oluwu was down injured when the players came over for a drink, and not one of the coaching staff went over to talk to them, or encourage them, Schofield and Gribble just stood there like they had the whole game, hand on mouth talking to each other, I see no passion on the touchline and that has transferred to the pitch

Oh no, do we actually do the hand on mouth thing? Did Harrogate have lipreaders with binoculars in the East stand?

I don’t think it’s that kind of hand on mouth, more of a natural pose while thinking things out, or just looking like they are thinking things out but haven’t really got a clue

[Filo]

Filo, I so glad I didn't make the 150 mile round trip over the Wolds last night, in minus whatever the temperature was.
The forecast is crap for Saturday too, so that's on hold as well.
What they should do, is make the whole lot of them watch every game in which they've been shocking this season. The only problem with that is they'd be glued to a screen until Christmas

Don’t bother Saturday, travelling that for is not worth the effort for that shite

[eastender]

Filo , things have changed for Saturday , I'm voting with my feet and doubt that i will be the only one.

[glosterred]

Prediction…….

If there isn’t substantial monetary investment in this team during the summer we will be in for a relegation battle next season.


COYR

[Cramby10]

We can’t keep hoping the next transfer window will cure all our ills. We could go out and get Harry Kane next summer and we still wouldn’t score. He’d never see the ball in this set up.
DS to leave for me. Sooner the better. And if that means Copps leaves then so be it. We need someone from the outside to come in and speak a few home truths. And if we are on a budget then get someone in that’s proven to at doing that. It’s not impossible. Look at Stevenage.

[Sammy Chung was King]

A disgrace that performance among many others. The board appointed this guy, it isn’t working and never will.

[normal rules]

This summers transfers in and out will be a copy/ paste of the January window. I expect nothing much different.

[ForsolongaRover]

Put simply, it was clear from the start that Schofield believed implicitly in his coaching methods. It seems to insulate him from adverse comments in his interviews. He would not be drawn away from what he trusted. He assumed that given time they would work. It might be wrong to say that he assumed this, irrespective of the strengths and weaknesses of individuals within the system, but nevertheless he must have felt that he could shape the squad into making it work well.

Over time the evidence began to suggest that things were not working as he had hoped, but you can tell from his manner that he was not going to give up easily. He has probably got increasingly defensive and will not be drawn into detailed comment on individual players as evidenced by a recent response concerning Miller when he said words to the effect that “we” work with all the players to build their confidence. Does he really understand them as individuals?

His post match comments are generalised, seeking to isolate goals conceded as “moments”, seeming to disregard events leading up to them. I think he has a real fear to change anything. He will not be drawn away from his focus on his belief in his principles. In a sense he epitomises the difference between a coach and a manager. Copps seems to be a man who understands people and he should be the one to educate Schofield in this respect. 

[Lesonthewest]

We can’t keep hoping the next transfer window will cure all our ills. We could go out and get Harry Kane next summer and we still wouldn’t score. He’d never see the ball in this set up.
DS to leave for me. Sooner the better. And if that means Copps leaves then so be it. We need someone from the outside to come in and speak a few home truths. And if we are on a budget then get someone in that’s proven to at doing that. It’s not impossible. Look at Stevenage.

There's a guy at Accrington who's worked on a shoestring budget for years.

[EasyforDennis]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is. Why did Paul Green spend large periods of the game shouting instructions from the touchline while DS was sat with the staff?

[Mike_F]

I'm mulling over whether to give them one last chance to show us something different on Saturday or just stay away and do something more enjoyable.

Last night was utterly disgraceful. Starting with five at the back and one up top at home to a team just outside the relegation zone hardly fulfils the mantra of playing attractive, attacking football that is allegedly at the core of our strategy. I feel sorry for whoever is hung out to dry ploughing a lone furrow up front. It's no coincidence that our strikers haven't scored a single goal in months!

[Bentley Bullet]

We can’t keep hoping the next transfer window will cure all our ills. We could go out and get Harry Kane next summer and we still wouldn’t score. He’d never see the ball in this set up.
DS to leave for me. Sooner the better. And if that means Copps leaves then so be it. We need someone from the outside to come in and speak a few home truths. And if we are on a budget then get someone in that’s proven to at doing that. It’s not impossible. Look at Stevenage.

Would the club appoint someone who would speak a few home truths?

[drfchound]

We can’t keep hoping the next transfer window will cure all our ills. We could go out and get Harry Kane next summer and we still wouldn’t score. He’d never see the ball in this set up.
DS to leave for me. Sooner the better. And if that means Copps leaves then so be it. We need someone from the outside to come in and speak a few home truths. And if we are on a budget then get someone in that’s proven to at doing that. It’s not impossible. Look at Stevenage.

Would the club appoint someone who would speak a few home truths?

Precisely.
Anyway, they wouldn’t be given the job in the first place.

[Cramby10]

We can’t keep hoping the next transfer window will cure all our ills. We could go out and get Harry Kane next summer and we still wouldn’t score. He’d never see the ball in this set up.
DS to leave for me. Sooner the better. And if that means Copps leaves then so be it. We need someone from the outside to come in and speak a few home truths. And if we are on a budget then get someone in that’s proven to at doing that. It’s not impossible. Look at Stevenage.

Would the club appoint someone who would speak a few home truths?

sadly not

[oggycompton]

Hes shown he's the least adaptable manager in history. He has his 'process' and it involves plugging players into the same positions and praying for a moment of individual brilliance. There is zero creativity or threat anywehre in the team. Its like football manager but without the fun.

He did the same at Hudderfiled and turned them into a team that never score, he's done the same here and we dont even look like scoring. Its turgid, insipid, boring football and we all know it.

The process doesnt work unless its take a reasonable Championship teamand destroy them and repeat and be a yes man at a league 2 team. He needs to go. Attendances say so, supporters say so and judging by ast night...the team says so too.

Get him gone. Club is absolutely rotten

[CJK]

That was totally abject last night. I really don't know what to make of what is happening at the moment, or indeed how we've manged to get into this position over the last two years or so. That last night was abysmal from front to back. Regardless of whether the players are deemed good enough or not, there is no excuse for that 90 minutes.

The Manager has to take a lot of this. The set up simply isn't, and can't work with the players he's got at this level. Playing five defenders and one lone striker in a home fixture against Harrogate is just absolutely bonkers. Is it any wonder we aren't creating chances and scoring goals. The stat I've seen about a striker having scored only two of the goals since Schofield has been here hits hard.

Molyneux and Hurst were both ineffective, Close and Biggins missing in the middle. It was Lavery's turn to be totally isolated and his frustration almost got the better of him with half a lunge at the end of the second half.

There is absolutely no excitement about going to games now. Its slow, ponderous and low tempo crap. It's disjointed and lacking any technical flair. There's no intent, no plan to get at the other team.

And it's driving fans away in serious numbers. There was no more than 5,000 in the ground last night.

I really hope we bottom out this season because if it rolls into another season, I fear the worst. I'm so glad we've somehow got 47 points on the board already. I really don't know what the answer is, change the Manager again and you have to start the whole squad building again. I thought I could see what he was doing at first, but he's completely lost me now.

[ravenrover]

DS  letter should have been on Blunts desk this morning

[Filo]

DS  letter should have been on Blunts desk this morning

He should have been sacked last night before he left the stadium, failing that his belingings should have been in a bin liner at the gates to Cantley Park, it will take a lot to get the fans back on side now

[oggycompton]

DS  letter should have been on Blunts desk this morning

He'd have missed and passed the letter sideways

[talksbollox]

I think that was the worst performance I’ve ever seen at the Keepmoat/EcoPower and I’ve been a season ticket holder every since we moved there. It was truly atrocious. So still feeling hurt, disappointed and let down I’ve tried to look at things objectively and these are the facts as I see them:-

We have a football club that is sustainable. Regardless of everything else we should not forget to thank the current board for their multi million pound investment over the years and for safeguarding the existence of our club. They are obviously competent businessmen who know how to deliver a healthy P&L and how to maximise the resources at their disposal to generate income streams for the club.

We have a chairman that is unknown to me. If he sat next to me at a game I wouldn’t know him from Adam. He is what you might call low profile! Does he even like football? Is he a fan? Is he passionate about our club? For all I know he may be an inspiration to everyone at DRFC but I’d like him to at least connect with the fans.

We have a director of football that is held in very high esteem by a large section of the fan base. Yes we know of his skills on the pitch but I’m not sure he has the knowledge and the skills for this role. He certainly doesn’t have the experience.

We have a manager that is new to his trade. Some say he is a great coach but I cannot comment on that. He may have the badges and the support of the players but he has very limited experience of first team professional coaching. Apparently he does have a philosophy but I’ve yet to see it implemented on the pitch. He doesn’t seem to be able to communicate and motivate his players - just look at his touch line performance last night, there was almost no interaction with his players even during stoppages of play. I’ve never seen him yet make a substitution that has impacted a game. To me his communication skills seem very limited, I can barely listen to his turgid interviews (especially the Darth Vader breathing - doesn’t this club give its people media training). If a team is a reflection of its manager I can understand by we are where we are.

We have a team delivering slow, turgid, insipid football. We have no pace, no attacking intent and no fight. We are seemingly unable to retain the ball, let alone string a few passes together (unless you include side to side and back to the keeper) and with no sign of any sort of cutting edge should we manage to get out of our own half. A lot of people say we don’t have the players, I’m not sure about that. This is league 2 and if you are organised and set up to your strengths and have the right mentality then I think you’re more than half way there.

Finally we have fan base that is demotivated, demoralised and dwindling. The stuffing is being knocked out of us all week after week watching this dross. We are the club but no one seems to be listening.

So how did we get here? Well as we all know this hasn’t been an overnight thing, this has been a long, slow decline over many seasons. A slow decline where mistakes have been repeated and (what I believe to be) a competitive budget squandered time and time again. We’ve all seen the recurring cycle - a change of manager, he wants time to build his own team, he fails.

For me it’s quite simple, we have a good business but we don’t have a football club. We have a board and a chairman who can run a business very effectively but they have no idea how to run a football operation. They have very little footballing knowledge or nouse. There is a complete lack of leadership from the top down when it comes to the football side of things. But these are the people who make the key footballing decisions i.e. they appoint the DoF and the manager/coach. Everything flows from them. Hence we have ended up with a DoF and a coach with little or no experience of their respective roles. The blind leading the blind. Recruitment in any business is key and it is no less so in football.

So what’s the answer? Football leadership from the very top and recruit as you would in business. You have two options, either bring in someone with experience and a track record or you search for someone with the right characteristics and traits that has the potential to develop into the role you want to fill.

Easy.

[Bessie Red]

I'm mulling over whether to give them one last chance to show us something different on Saturday or just stay away and do something more enjoyable.

Last night was utterly disgraceful. Starting with five at the back and one up top at home to a team just outside the relegation zone hardly fulfils the mantra of playing attractive, attacking football that is allegedly at the core of our strategy. I feel sorry for whoever is hung out to dry ploughing a lone furrow up front. It's no coincidence that our strikers haven't scored a single goal in months!

My son showed me an interesting stat today regarding Dany Schofield. Of the 35 games that he has been a head coach at Hudds & us his out and out strikers (not incl wingers, no 10s) have scored in only 2 games of those 35. George Miller got 2 goals in 1 of those games. That is an incredibly poor outcome and proves to me that he does not know how to set a team up to create chances for strikers. He talks about processes all the time yet there is rarely any positive outcomes from those processes. A process without a positive outcome is not worth continuing Danny

[normal rules]

rovers have a goal keeping coach, but not a goal scoring one.