Beechwood Boy wrote: April 22nd, 2022, 11:52 pm Kingofgwent take a bow. What a brilliant post.

Agreed. Spot on

After a bad performance or even a series of them I usually sleep on it before commenting and usually wake up thinking that was the right thing to have done. But not this time, I still think we are ending the season with a squad which risks getting us relegated if we keep it together.

I don't think it's fair to name individuals at this point as it amounts to calling for people to lose their livelihoods, but for several it has looked like they really fancy another season in L2.

Can I just say mickey demetriou has been excellent all season the one go to player who gives 100 per cent every game without him we would never even have been challenging play offs and special mention to telford most25goal a season strikers are in top 3 or at least a play off side not 11th in the league as that is surely where we willend up

Some ridiculous comments on here - this squad was heading towards a relegation fight under Flynn - Telford had been told to leave and Azaz was not been picked. Rowberry took the squad to third place but it has blown up this is what happens in a very competitive league with small squads who pick up injuries we have been without Cain, Cooper and Willmott at 100% fit for weeks now. With no depth in defence and the Pask injury I doubt the defence has been 100% fit for a while.
So take a reality pill and be glad we had a season in contention, form went at the wrong time but still above were we would expect to be with the small crowds we attract and no money behind the club.

County ranger wrote: April 23rd, 2022, 8:05 am Some ridiculous comments on here - this squad was heading towards a relegation fight under Flynn - Telford had been told to leave and Azaz was not been picked. Rowberry took the squad to third place but it has blown up this is what happens in a very competitive league with small squads who pick up injuries we have been without Cain, Cooper and Willmott at 100% fit for weeks now. With no depth in defence and the Pask injury I doubt the defence has been 100% fit for a while.
So take a reality pill and be glad we had a season in contention, form went at the wrong time but still above were we would expect to be with the small crowds we attract and no money behind the club.

'With no depth in defence'. Err, why is there no depth? It's not like the manager's job to get depth in the team, is it? He could have brought in more defenders if he needed to. Or, and here's a thought, how about developing the Academy players who are dying to get a crack at first team football? How about making subs earlier when not only the match requires them but also the chance of injuries is lessened? Can't have been any worse than aimlessly passing about in midfield and losing every single aerial battle we fight. More convenient to blame injuries and say we are overachieving without addressing the real issue, which is our gaping inferiority complex to every other side in the Football League and how we have the mental fortitude of a fifteen-year-old desk fan from the Co-Op.

Again, as I said before, please do not blame Rowberry. He's clearly very talented as a manager. We have done brilliantly this season. But not when it mattered, and that isn't down to the manager, or even players, but more a pervading sense of 'hang on, we might get promoted here. Let's cut that out' which influences them to perform badly under pressure. And Morecambe don't attract a lot of money either, and look what happened to them. There are a few L1 teams who get fewer fans than us. And you do know promotion would have increased our crowds, yeah? Excuses, excuses, excuses.

That entire post basically boils down to 'be glad they got our hopes up and destroyed them again'. At the end of the day, to go from where we were after Carlisle last month to this point is unforgivable. And, if we lose our next two, I'm seriously worried about next season. They couldn't score in a musical orchestra at the minute, and seem to have forgotten they were even in with a chance of promotion anywhere. Luckily, we're already mathematically safe, otherwise I'd be concerned.

County ranger wrote: April 23rd, 2022, 8:05 am Some ridiculous comments on here - this squad was heading towards a relegation fight under Flynn - Telford had been told to leave and Azaz was not been picked. Rowberry took the squad to third place but it has blown up this is what happens in a very competitive league with small squads who pick up injuries we have been without Cain, Cooper and Willmott at 100% fit for weeks now. With no depth in defence and the Pask injury I doubt the defence has been 100% fit for a while.
So take a reality pill and be glad we had a season in contention, form went at the wrong time but still above were we would expect to be with the small crowds we attract and no money behind the club.

I do think that any suggestion that Rowberry should be replaced are wrong. I find the unhealthy obsession so prevelent in Football calling for Mangers sacking when a few results don't go your way is very sad. Having said that, if Rowberry isn't able to achieve at least a top 7 finish in the next 2 seasons he can quite rightly be regarded as a failure compared with Flynn, even given our small crowds and lack of a wealthy backer. This will be especially relevant if Flynn is successful at Walsall.

Good Morning

Great rant by Kingofgwent…sums up a lot of the immediate emotions.
It’s Saturday morning now, I’m lying in bed, the sun is shining, elderly parents are well today, ( regularly they are not)., tonight a family get together meal with Mrs_in_Npton’s four sisters, two brothers and partners. A weekend away with both kids and partners next weekend, a just the two of us weekend break in May, money saved on play off matches and Wembley.
We are not in a war torn country fearing for our lives, we are football fans… hurting in the heat of the moment, our passion for the County overriding all other logical responses.
In isolation, the football is devastating to us, in the real world it doesn’t matter a bit!

Phil in Northampton

Firstly, I must say that I didn’t watch the game last night, so can’t comment on what happened there. However what is true is that over the past six weeks our results have been abysmal. To go from second to 10th in six weeks underlines the fact that something is not quite right. Something needs to change urgently or as some have said, we will struggle next season.

There have been comments on this thread that have completely flummoxed me. Yes, we (the County) have bottled it, and I really do not know why. There have been numerous comments recently that it is the Newport DNA to fight. That, I may agree with. However, we are not bottlers in the City by nature so what has happened?

How is it possible that the players have suddenly acquired the Newport DNA and bottled it. I repeat, yes, we have bottled it but it is not at the expense of the players suddenly acquiring a ‘Newport problem’ syndrome. Something else has gone wrong. Something that I do not understand.

I don’t think it is about coaching or tactics. I suspect that it is the mindset of some of the players. That needs to change. How do we do that? Don’t know. Is JR the man to instigate the changes - goodness I hope so.

I don’t think I have ever felt so deflated at the end of a season than I do now. That even includes the Wembley games. They were one offs and there was the next season to look forward to. Next season already fills me with dread, not anticipation of what could be.

I think the problem is too few players can be relied on to turn in two consecutive good performances. That has to be either complacency or fitness. If it's the latter we don't know if the fitness programme is failing or if it's doing well to generate the good performances which are then followed by poor ones. If it's the former then the axe needs to be wielded.

I still believe in the longterm goal of what we're trying to achieve and we will see the benefits longterm and that's based on my own work experience of implementing change for the better but hitting a few bumps along the way and dealing with a lot of doubt which eventually subsided and settled down when the performance and productivity benefits started coming in.

I understand that football is a unique industry but we haven't become a bad side all of a sudden and JR and his coaching team haven't become bad managers and coaches.

Results haven't gone for us but we could and should've taken something from all the games we've lost possibly with the exception of Hartlepool.

I make a lot of small margins but sometimes you need that little bit of luck ie at Sutton their centre half slices one over their keeper it hits the post and bounces out, yesterday a shot that Day saves comfortably gets deflected by Akinde and they equalise, their second goal was poor from our point of view as, we gave the ball away on the halfway line.

As for not wanting promotion what a load of nonsense.

I'm down and disappointed today but think we'll learn from this recent run and will push on next season.

County ranger wrote: April 23rd, 2022, 8:05 am Some ridiculous comments on here - this squad was heading towards a relegation fight under Flynn - Telford had been told to leave and Azaz was not been picked. Rowberry took the squad to third place but it has blown up this is what happens in a very competitive league with small squads who pick up injuries we have been without Cain, Cooper and Willmott at 100% fit for weeks now. With no depth in defence and the Pask injury I doubt the defence has been 100% fit for a while.
So take a reality pill and be glad we had a season in contention, form went at the wrong time but still above were we would expect to be with the small crowds we attract and no money behind the club.

Generally agree - the hope has killed us but such a shame we went out with a whimper

Count ranger under flynny we had our best years made millions from cup runs which saved our club .play off finals at Wembley! This is by far the best sqaud we have had 2 best best midfielders fin cooper top scorer in league 2 .when flynny left win game in hand bang in there stop talking bollocks ffs .we have played a system for last 3 years which the players know and actually play it well . It wasn't broken so no need to fix it why did JR change it! last month if we beat hartlepool could have second since then we have been awful we actually could have limped into the play offs but we have no plan a nevermind a plan b .lost to teams tbf are average,The buck stops with the management . Now this summer is massive will he get players to replace Telford! Azaz! copper !

I’ve made my views clear more than adequately earlier. I have absolutely no faith in a manager who when he sits down to put the first name on the team sheet then fails to pick his best goalkeeper.

lowandhard wrote: April 23rd, 2022, 10:56 am I’ve made my views clear more than adequately earlier. I have absolutely no faith in a manager who when he sits down to put the first name on the team sheet then fails to pick his best goalkeeper.

It's clear you don't rate Day but he is in my view at least on a par with Townsend. Townsend has conceded a few very soft goals and has a problem covering his near post and shots along the deck. Better distribution than Day for sure but its swings and roundabouts for me. We have 2 decent L2 keepers in my view. Goalkeeper is not the problem position that needs to be addressed.

It's no coincidence since he's dropped Townsend we haven't looked right in defence the defence don't seem to be comfortable with Day

Also since Cooper has been out our form has dipped dramatically