[IronIronIron]

SODIron wrote:

I think the interesting thing with the goals discussion is that most people are understandably focusing on replacing Roberts, but for me the bigger issue is actually what happens in midfield if Roberts, Westbrooke and Ewing all leave.

Roberts is the obvious headline loss because you’re talking about goals, assists, set pieces and somebody who could win a game out of absolutely nothing. You don’t replace that easily at National League level.

But I’d argue Westbrooke and Ewing leaving together could be just as damaging to the overall team.

Westbrooke gave us control. Ewing gave us physicality and balance. One helped us play, the other helped us compete. Take both out and suddenly you’re not just replacing players, you’re replacing the platform the team was built on.

Looking at the season as a whole, I actually don’t think scoring goals was our biggest problem. We scored 77 in the league which is more than enough to be competing at the right end. The concern is we conceded 62. York and Rochdale were down around the low 40s. That’s a massive gap. We were already too easy to play against at times and too many games became basketball matches.

Roberts could get away with that because he could produce moments that won games. If he’s gone, you can’t just rely on having another shootout every week.

For me the recruitment priorities are:

1. A creative midfielder who can dictate games
2. A genuine goalscoring wide player
3. A defensive midfielder with legs and presence
4. A commanding centre-half

I actually think the central midfield rebuild is more important than replacing Roberts directly. Without Westbrooke and Ewing there’s a danger we become a side that works hard, runs around a lot and competes physically, but struggles to control games.

Butler deserves a lot of credit because a newly promoted side finishing 5th and reaching the play-off semi-final is a very good season. But if we want to move from being a play-off side to an automatic promotion side, we need to become harder to score against and better at controlling matches, not just find another winger and hope he scores 20 goals.

The positive is that I genuinely think we’re closer than some people think. The negative is that replacing Roberts, Westbrooke, and Ewing properly is probably the biggest recruitment challenge Butler has faced since taking over.

I can’t agree that we scored enough goals. We did early on in the season, but we stalled badly in the new year.

Butler did better than many expected last season, but he will have one hell of a job next season and I’m still not convinced he is up to it.

As posted earlier, we need goals form defenders, midfielders & strikers. That’s a lot to find in a single close season.

[IronIronIron]

alcazar wrote:

64 wrote:

alcazar wrote:

Surely the “proof” is that Yeovil announced a signing of a player we’d had on loan all season, but we’ve said nothing about not re-signing him?

That’s not proof the club knew he was joining Yeovil,it’s proof he is joining Yeovil only

Do you think he went to the Iron and said I’m negotiating with Yeovil while he has an offer on the table?

Might just have done so.
If he thought we might increase our offer.
So far we’ve “allowed” two to escape, but signed no one.
Bargain basement again?

It’s not even the end of May yet. Lots of clubs will lose players in the coming weeks, but will not sign others until they have gone. Many contracts run until end June as well.

We don’t have a very good record of getting in players early, but it is somewhat unfair to start haranguing them so early.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alcazar

[IronIronIron]

He went back to his registered club at the end of his loan.

Why would we comment on not signing a player??

4 users thanked author for this post.

Northumbiron, iron64, steelworks iron, BigLeftToe

[IronIronIron]

Yes, we over achieved, and next season may not be as good. However, the big problem is that it is a massive risk taking on new investors/owners. To say our record at doing that is poor is a huge understatement!!

I don’t think that I could go through it a third time 🫣🫣🫣

[IronIronIron]

Beagrie was awesome.

A 4-0 win at Exeter on a beautiful Saturday afternoon was probably his best performance.

We played like Brazil that day.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Sharp_Shooter24

[IronIronIron]

alcazar wrote:

Pretty sure he did travel again.
Need to check

Banks was at the 1970 World Cup but he still had both of his eyes.

No need to check.

[IronIronIron]

alcazar wrote:

Even Alf Ramsey made odd choices: taking Gordon Banks in 1970 when he’d lost an eye?

Banks lost his eye in October 1972.

Good story Alky, but not true

[IronIronIron]

Siderite wrote:

The proponents of VAR claimed it would remove controversy from the game and that football was worse with contentious, on the spot, refereeing decisions. With the amount of admitted wrong VAR calls, I don’t see how this can be the case.

A review has concluded that the last minute penalty awarded to Celtic in their game against Motherwell should not have been given and this cost Hearts the title. There is a lot of skepticism towards the neutrality of the authorities in Scotland from non-Old Firm fans and this has really added to the conspiracy. I have to say, with good reason given the peculiar calls over there.

Far from removing controversy, it has added to it. Sure, we have other things like social media that have ramped up conspiracism, but it has only got worse with VAR. Before, people could say the refs had a short time to make a decision; sure, there were bias claims, but there were mitigating factors that made people think it wasn’t so overt. Now, we have VAR being inconsistent and people will see it as a conspiracy to favour certain teams because they have to take time to arrive at their decision; the scope for error is assumed to be lower.

VAR just ruins celebrations, delays the game and does not bring an end to controversy from discussions over decisions, as was the claimed need for it. It’s true that much of this is because of the humans that use the technology, but it has been consistently poor and not just in the UK. Last world cup, I remember a dubious penalty given to Argentina when 1-0 down to Poland after losing the first game to Saudi Arabia, and comments online were “got to get Messi his world cup, so can’t have them going out of the group stage.”

You cannot define a season on one incident.

Whilst the penalty for Celtic may have been wrong, there was an even worse decision in the Hearts v Hibs game, which meant Hearts went on to win the game. You could say it cost Celtic the title!!

The reality is that VAR mistakes are made in too many matches and with the widespread TV coverage it gets played time and time again.

The nearer to the end of the season, or a k/o competition, the worse the controversy becomes.

It is my belief that if the players stopped cheating it would make the referees job much easier.

I also believe that the referee should be left to run the game and that linesmen should contribute more.

[IronIronIron]

Northumbiron wrote:

Probably an apt time to remind everyone what the SFA did to Rangers all those years ago.

Rangers cheating was over many years and was huge in terms of the financial scale for Scotland.

Whilst they got punted down the leagues, they should have been made to start on the ground floor as they came back as a different club altogether.

If it had been any other Scottish club they would definitely have been chucked out of the League completely.

[IronIronIron]

He can’t be as good as that write up if Gillingham are letting him go.

Did his Mum do the write up?

[IronIronIron]

BoyceBullet26 wrote:

Unless I’m missing something, he’s saying goodbye because his loan has come to an end following the conclusion of the campaign and he’s under contract at Leeds United until 2028…

Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story 😉

1 user thanked author for this post.

steelworks iron

[IronIronIron]

Deereyme66 wrote:

Would Butler have done better this season with a budget comparable to York and Dale? I think so. I’d wager fans of those two clubs have criticised their managers over the season. But they had a better player budget and their superior quality trumped every other team in the end.

You still need a good manager to ensure that the budget is used wisely and to play the right players with the best tactics.

Having a big budget doesn’t always work – as we know!!

[IronIronIron]

If it’s more about budgets how can Boreham Wood be going to Wembley?

Yes, budgets play a part. But so do managers. Our manager must take responsibility for what happens on the pitch – after all, he picks the team & the subs.

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alcazar

[IronIronIron]

So much for playing like we did against Southend……

[IronIronIron]

The man is a Legend.

He was 100% committed every time he stepped on to the pitch & a great goal scorer.

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Sanfran49, SDH57, MK Iron, lesgeo, Awaywego

[IronIronIron]

If we play at Rochdale on Sunday as well as we did last night, we have a good chance.

We pressed, we bombarded, we bullied.

Why the hell haven’t we been doing this all season?

It’s also much more fun to watch than the garbage we’ve been served up recently.

1 user thanked author for this post.

alcazar

[IronIronIron]

Selective memory again BPG. Laws did a good job, but he did fade towards the end and outstayed his welcome.

As for Butler, yes we scored a lot of goals pre Christmas – were riding high. Recently, we have been shocking and are certainly not the form team for the playoffs.

When I stated that we were not scoring enough goals 6 weeks ago I was harangued by a good few on here that it was not a scoring problem, and we had scored a lot of goals. It was that we were conceding too many.

The reality is that for the last few months we have scored far too few goals and conceded too many. Yes we scored early on, but that hasn’t helped us recently.

We are not good enough and it is unlikely that we will go up.

Supporting the team all the way, but more in hope than expectation.

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cassidystash

[IronIronIron]

I didn’t think Butler should have been appointed in the first place. However, despite the fact that I don’t like him (and I loved him as a player), he has done a decent job. That said, he does not conduct himself well, he has made many a mistake with major positions – keeper, strikers, wingers – but we are still in a position to go up.

Personally, I think we should be going with a full team for the rest of the season. We need to get the positivity flowing.

[IronIronIron]

RedMistTorpsFist wrote:

Route to Wembley
QF – Forest Green or Southend (H)
SF – Rochdale/York (A)

If we play to our best Wembley is achievable…unless its York. Think we’d be in for another spanking – they’ve dropped 2 (two) points there since we did them in October. eek.

But we did do them – and we can again.

They will be well aware that we were the last team to beat them at home.

Wembley here we come 😁

(We’ve got to be optimistic haven’t we!!)

[IronIronIron]

I remember going to see Forest play Leeds at home in 1967 (my father was an accountant for Peter Grummit the Forest keeper, so we got free tickets) and Leeds had a black left winger, called Albert Johansen iirc.

The Leeds fans sang ” zigger, zigger, zigger, we have got a n…..”. A couple of thousand of them.

[IronIronIron]

ironingboard wrote:

I’m not sure, it kept changing it’s name.

I heard they didn’t have any luck with getting a license for a ransom strip club either.

I believe it’s had 4 names……

[IronIronIron]

A 2-0 win. Surely we must put in a decent performance soon – it might as well be the next game!!

[IronIronIron]

Awaywego wrote:

Round of applause for the SS who said he’s going to the playoffs, another super Uber fan amongst us.

Positivity Simon

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Awaywego

[IronIronIron]

Simonsays wrote:

Aye. Pretty dim. I’ll be at those playoffs though – unlike some others

Being at a game, whether home or away, or being a season ticket holder, doesn’t make you any more of a supporter than anyone else.

Some people work, some have family issues, some live a long way from Scunny and others can’t afford it.

You might realise all this when you grow up.

[IronIronIron]

He is doing well, even if it’s not good to watch. It doesn’t mean I like him though.

Just like Deerey keeps on doing the admin……

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alcazar

[IronIronIron]

Deerey, you try so hard to come over as balanced/the voice of reason, but your “love in” for AB still shines through.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Awaywego

[IronIronIron]

Why doesn’t Dave go back to supporting Barnsley, or Leeds, or…….

[IronIronIron]

Well done Lincoln, and good luck next year in the Championship.

5 users thanked author for this post.

another fed up fan, PhilAnders, cassidystash, lesgeo, MK Iron

[IronIronIron]

I never wanted AB as manager.

He has done a reasonably good job – better than I expected.

This does not make him the man for the future – at all.

We will ot be promoted as we are not good enough.

Next season may not be as successful as this one……

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Bhuna5, ironfromafar

[IronIronIron]

Iron-awe wrote:

Fully behind the starting eleven, mix and match, rest some guys give some others chance to shine in different positions particularly up top. Could prove useful going into the playoffs with more options, strong bench still if we need to rejig things later on.

We need to win, so should start our strongest team. The higher we finish the better.

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cassidystash, Awaywego, ironfromafar, Northumbiron

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