Firstly in answer to the thread title-no. I missed Tuesday messed my shoulder up boxing so can only comment as I see it based on the run of fixtures going back from Tottenham. So we play Spurs on the Saturday go to Lincoln on the Tuesday and lose, any given season I'm thinking we'll do well to get anything there and then add on we were 8 mins from beating Spurs and this fixture naturally becomes more difficult. We go to Colchester the following Saturday any given season I'd want a point. To be honest this trip us the only trip since we've come back into the league that I didn't enjoy and I went to Plymouth when we lost 6-1, nothing to do with the result just didn't enjoy it, poor atmosphere etc, most supporters I spoke to felt the same, Saturday before Wembley so if a lot of supporters felt like this can it's fair to say it could've effected the player's. Next fixture Spurs away lose 2-0, Fgr postponed so onto Mansfield away got stuffed so your looking for a response, draw 0-0 with Notts who have a massive budget advantage, then draw 0-0 at Port Vale a game we should've won. The trick now is to turn the draws to wins and get on that winning run, do that sooner than later and we might just have a chance. Personally I think if we hadn't played Spurs we might well have had say 4-6 more points but I'd rather the money in the bank that might just set us up and give us a better chance of going to the next level..

Mike needs a stronger board to support him,dead wood on there which needs replacing with more astute individuals.

I generally think MF has lost the plot of late. Not sure what affect Lennie & Hats has had lately, if any.

Bringing Jackson on instead of McCoulsky is scandalous. Willmott has been very average since end of January and Flynny has been reluctant to sub or not play him which is wrong.

He finally has had enough of Noobs by the look of it, but there was a comment that his wife is expecting so he may not be available. Hayes looked great, and it's a 'king mystery why we haven't seen him get more minutes up until Tuesday. Hope he's not crocked for long.

The back 5 when fit and available are probably the best back 5 in the league. They play well as a unit. Same applies if any one of them is long term injured - our side just doesn't function as well. I'm not as convinced of our resoluteness as a Back 4. What I do know is that we need a unearth another gem like Ben White for next year to fill the same role. Is he genuinely out of contract next season now that he didn't re-sign with Brighton?

Midfield is our weakness. Tozer & Dolan should never play together - it's one or the other for me. Without Labs we lack drive to push forward. Obviously we are trying to get him signed up - this is a no-brainer. Without him or a suitable replacement, we are relegation fodder in all honesty (ok, that's probably a bit extreme - but he's incredibly valuable to our well-being!!!)

Willmott is a squad player at best. I know he has fans on here, but apart from a purple patch through December and January, he has not been L2 standard.

It is clear Sheehan needs game time. Osadebe has played only a handful of minutes. He's on loan so Flynny needs to make a decision on him. If he's in 18-19 plans, then he also needs to play. I was quite impressed with him when he played, although he was non-existent on Tuesday.

At the minute we only 5 have defenders that get any time on the park with Benno injured and Reid not featuring.
We really only use 4 midfielders too with Sheehan & Osadebe unused, TOE out on loan & Benno injured.
Up front we have surplus. Collins not even getting on the park baffles me, although in all fairness the 4 in front of him deserve to be there, through workrate alone (not necessarily goal output).

All in all, if you had given me where we are this season in terms of mid table & a decent cup run at the start of the year, I would have chewed your arm off. However, considering the points we have dropped from winning positions, it could and should have been much better.

Beefy

bignbeefy wrote:I generally think MF has lost the plot of late. Not sure what affect Lennie & Hats has had lately, if any.

Bringing Jackson on instead of McCoulsky is scandalous. Willmott has been very average since end of January and Flynny has been reluctant to sub or not play him which is wrong.

He finally has had enough of Noobs by the look of it, but there was a comment that his wife is expecting so he may not be available. Hayes looked great, and it's a 'king mystery why we haven't seen him get more minutes up until Tuesday. Hope he's not crocked for long.

The back 5 when fit and available are probably the best back 5 in the league. They play well as a unit. Same applies if any one of them is long term injured - our side just doesn't function as well. I'm not as convinced of our resoluteness as a Back 4. What I do know is that we need a unearth another gem like Ben White for next year to fill the same role. Is he genuinely out of contract next season now that he didn't re-sign with Brighton?

Midfield is our weakness. Tozer & Dolan should never play together - it's one or the other for me. Without Labs we lack drive to push forward. Obviously we are trying to get him signed up - this is a no-brainer. Without him or a suitable replacement, we are relegation fodder in all honesty (ok, that's probably a bit extreme - but he's incredibly valuable to our well-being!!!)

Willmott is a squad player at best. I know he has fans on here, but apart from a purple patch through December and January, he has not been L2 standard.

It is clear Sheehan needs game time. Osadebe has played only a handful of minutes. He's on loan so Flynny needs to make a decision on him. If he's in 18-19 plans, then he also needs to play. I was quite impressed with him when he played, although he was non-existent on Tuesday.

At the minute we only 5 have defenders that get any time on the park with Benno injured and Reid not featuring.
We really only use 4 midfielders too with Sheehan & Osadebe unused, TOE out on loan & Benno injured.
Up front we have surplus. Collins not even getting on the park baffles me, although in all fairness the 4 in front of him deserve to be there, through workrate alone (not necessarily goal output).

All in all, if you had given me where we are this season in terms of mid table & a decent cup run at the start of the year, I would have chewed your arm off. However, considering the points we have dropped from winning positions, it could and should have been much better.

Beefy

If I wrote this there would be uproar on here....It will be interesting to see the responded you get.

I think, Mat, sometimes where your posts are concerned people tend to play the man rather than the ball.

I slagged Jackson's lack of mobility off about 18 months ago and there were those that defended him. Seems he can count MF as a fan which is curious but I daresay many managers, particularly young inexperienced ones, fall foul of this "favouritism" habit.

I like Butler. I'd go so far as to say he's one my favourites (not because he's much cop, necessarily, just that I sort of enjoy watching him play. He's uplifting somehow - and I mean nowt mucky by that remark), but if he constitutes one fifth of the best back five in the league then the standard in L2 must be pretty poor.

Amazingly,he hasn't had enough of Frank.He didn't play because of a groin strain and MF is hoping he will be fit for Saturday or the week after according to the Gus.Hayes wouldn't have played Tuesday if he was fit.

supporter wrote:then draw 0-0 at Port Vale a game we should've won.

This was actually the game where I thought Flynn's running scared. That fearlessness the team showed last season had been replaced by conservatism. Against Port Vale, a team who barely score, who are threatened with relegation, Flynn picked a five man defense even though Vale play with no wide men and a lone striker (one who had been struggling with injury for months and was straight off to hospital on the Monday for his op). We should have gone there, bossed them, beaten them three-nil and pushed on. Not Flynnie's best period, this.

Not to undermine Flynn's achievement last season in any way. It was a magnificent effort and he is rightly applauded for what he achieved. However he did have some massive advantages. When he took over the position seemed hopeless which took away much of the pressure. Furthermore he didn't need to think of a strategy, merely go out with 100% commitment and gain as many points as possible.

Michael Flynn is still a manager at the start of a career. He lacks experience. He is now a known quantity. The rest of the league have worked out County don't like being pressed. Also his confidence will have taken a knock. Having listened to the ridiculous hyperbole that had this board, the Newport County board and the South Wales Argus saying that he was the latter day Christ it's hardly surprising that he will find it difficult to deal with the inevitable criticism when results are not going his way.

There are two aspects that I don't know and neither I suspect does anyone else. Firstly whether Michael Flynn has the ability to make it in what is a very difficult profession. Secondly whether he has the character. This difficult time was inevitable. Dealing with adversity is the acid test. To tie this in with the title of the thread I don't think that it is a case of morphing into Feeney. Rather it is a case of Warren Feeney failed to deal with adversity. Whether or not Flynn will successfully deal with it only time will tell.

Stan A. Einstein wrote:Not to undermine Flynn's achievement last season in any way. It was a magnificent effort and he is rightly applauded for what he achieved. However he did have some massive advantages. When he took over the position seemed hopeless which took away much of the pressure. Furthermore he didn't need to think of a strategy, merely go out with 100% commitment and gain as many points as possible.

Michael Flynn is still a manager at the start of a career. He lacks experience. He is now a known quantity. The rest of the league have worked out County don't like being pressed. Also his confidence will have taken a knock. Having listened to the ridiculous hyperbole that had this board, the Newport County board and the South Wales Argus saying that he was the latter day Christ it's hardly surprising that he will find it difficult to deal with the inevitable criticism when results are not going his way.

There are two aspects that I don't know and neither I suspect does anyone else. Firstly whether Michael Flynn has the ability to make it in what is a very difficult profession. Secondly whether he has the character. This difficult time was inevitable. Dealing with adversity is the acid test. To tie this in with the title of the thread I don't think that it is a case of morphing into Feeney. Rather it is a case of Warren Feeney failed to deal with adversity. Whether or not Flynn will successfully deal with it only time will tell.

I think that's an excellent point. We need to find a way of getting more time on the ball - picking Sheehan who has the common sense to move off the ball and stand in space would be a good place to start.

bignbeefy wrote:I generally think MF has lost the plot of late. Not sure what affect Lennie & Hats has had lately, if any.

Bringing Jackson on instead of McCoulsky is scandalous. Willmott has been very average since end of January and Flynny has been reluctant to sub or not play him which is wrong.

He finally has had enough of Noobs by the look of it, but there was a comment that his wife is expecting so he may not be available. Hayes looked great, and it's a 'king mystery why we haven't seen him get more minutes up until Tuesday. Hope he's not crocked for long.

The back 5 when fit and available are probably the best back 5 in the league. They play well as a unit. Same applies if any one of them is long term injured - our side just doesn't function as well. I'm not as convinced of our resoluteness as a Back 4. What I do know is that we need a unearth another gem like Ben White for next year to fill the same role. Is he genuinely out of contract next season now that he didn't re-sign with Brighton?

Midfield is our weakness. Tozer & Dolan should never play together - it's one or the other for me. Without Labs we lack drive to push forward. Obviously we are trying to get him signed up - this is a no-brainer. Without him or a suitable replacement, we are relegation fodder in all honesty (ok, that's probably a bit extreme - but he's incredibly valuable to our well-being!!!)

Willmott is a squad player at best. I know he has fans on here, but apart from a purple patch through December and January, he has not been L2 standard.

It is clear Sheehan needs game time. Osadebe has played only a handful of minutes. He's on loan so Flynny needs to make a decision on him. If he's in 18-19 plans, then he also needs to play. I was quite impressed with him when he played, although he was non-existent on Tuesday.

At the minute we only 5 have defenders that get any time on the park with Benno injured and Reid not featuring.
We really only use 4 midfielders too with Sheehan & Osadebe unused, TOE out on loan & Benno injured.
Up front we have surplus. Collins not even getting on the park baffles me, although in all fairness the 4 in front of him deserve to be there, through workrate alone (not necessarily goal output).

All in all, if you had given me where we are this season in terms of mid table & a decent cup run at the start of the year, I would have chewed your arm off. However, considering the points we have dropped from winning positions, it could and should have been much better.

Beefy

Very good post.

I am beginning to think that MF is becoming a victim of his own hype and may have stopped listening to his mentors, in particular Lenny. Also not sure whether he has favourites or whether certain players are selected to spite the majority opinion of supporters.

Occasional public outbursts where players get singled out is not a very commendable managerial trait either. Praise in public, chastise in private.
I don't recall one instance where, after a poor result, he has put his hand up and said he got it wrong, it is always others, and most recently the inclusion of a low budget.

As a young manager he still has a great deal to learn and consequently now finds himself at a crossroad, let's hope for all our sakes, his natural arrogance will not stop him listening and learning. We are presently a Team in relegation form, how he rises to this challenge will determine his, and County's, future prospects.

Justin Edinburgh , Jimmy Dack, Terry Butcher , John Sheridan and Warren Feeney have all been heavily criticised by the experts on here at some point. My view is that sustaining League 2 football on our budget and expecting us to brush aside teams is delusional. We have had a hard run of fixtures sandwiched between the Tottenham games so a lapse was expected for a small squad. The first thing a good manager should do during a poor run is make his team hard to beat. Depending on being a glass half full or half empty person , we are three games unbeaten against three teams with considerably bigger budgets than ours. Maybe it is time for a reality check.

I keep reading on here and social media that effectively Flynny dining out on what he did last season (which was something special) and now he's been found out etc.
Would like to point out in Flynny's defence that THIS season has been very good so far, 13th in the League & only going out in the 4th Rd FA Cup after a replay against one of the top 5 Premier League sides...all this on a bottom 3 of League 2 budget... Yes he's going through a bit of a rough patch (most teams do) but so far we've far exceeded my, and many other of our fans' expectations for the season

Alan G Bryant wrote:Justin Edinburgh , Jimmy Dack, Terry Butcher , John Sheridan and Warren Feeney have all been heavily criticised by the experts on here at some point. My view is that sustaining League 2 football on our budget and expecting us to brush aside teams is delusional. We have had a hard run of fixtures sandwiched between the Tottenham games so a lapse was expected for a small squad. The first thing a good manager should do during a poor run is make his team hard to beat. Depending on being a glass half full or half empty person , we are three games unbeaten against three teams with considerably bigger budgets than ours. Maybe it is time for a reality check.

Fair comment, but we don't have a small squad really, do we? I think there's a bit of frustration that the likes of Hayes and Sheehan have been left on the sidelines for so long when the players who had done so well initially had stopped performing. Surely comments like that are to be expected when we're losing games? Otherwise just close this place down now.

Exile 1976 wrote:I keep reading on here and social media that effectively Flynny dining out on what he did last season (which was something special) and now he's been found out etc.
Would like to point out in Flynny's defence that THIS season has been very good so far, 13th in the League & only going out in the 4th Rd FA Cup after a replay against one of the top 5 Premier League sides...all this on a bottom 3 of League 2 budget...

We are repeatedly told that we have a bottom 3 budget, how do we know, is there a published table? I couldn't even tell you what ours is, what I do know is that Yeovils is circa £700k and FGR at least £2.5m, so I guess of those two we fit in the middle.

Exile 1976 wrote:I keep reading on here and social media that effectively Flynny dining out on what he did last season (which was something special) and now he's been found out etc.
Would like to point out in Flynny's defence that THIS season has been very good so far, 13th in the League & only going out in the 4th Rd FA Cup after a replay against one of the top 5 Premier League sides...all this on a bottom 3 of League 2 budget...

Newport County's gates whilst disappointing are 15th out of 24 in League 2. Colchester, Cheltenham, Yeovil, FGR, Stevenage, Crawley , Barnet, Accrington, and Morecambe all have lower average attendances than County. Add the recent transfer fees and Cup run and this low budget excuse is starting to wear a little thin.