[sloppyattheback]

I need the midweek off to recover from todays pathetic attempt of a team performance. K'OR nailed it on R Weeds, Rotherham were workmanlike, that's all they were but we fell even below that.

Smithies did ok, both Smith and Robinson right off the pace, Smith has to get forward to help Scanz and if he watches the DVD he will see at Bournemouth, Ipswich and fairly sure another few occasions he's created goals, so why does he freeze? Bet Lynch never fit and looks like the same problem he limped off with 4 weeks ago recurred, Coady hardly saw him. Hunt matched Scanz for pace so nullified him. Lolley bright wasnt sure what his substitution was for. Miller totally out of his depth in this league but we're so thin on the ground I expect he'll be offered a contract.

What really pi55ed me off was the sight of Powell cowering in the dugout while cone juggler Dyer tried to play the bad kop.

My ST renewal will sit unopened for a few weeks till I see some desire out there that matches my own commitment week in week out, yes I'll be at Bham next week, its too close and would be rude not to, but this has been a stinker of a week and can't remember such an inept team performance without belief or the know how to boss 10 men for 20 mins for quite some time.

Leeds did us a favour keeping the distance with Wigan and us to 11, but I cant see us arresting this slump till the Fulham game.

[JUSTASILLYOLDGIT]

Not sure I'm as dismayed with not playing two up front as some others are. I mean, I am only going by Oggy's comments to be fair, but it really didn't sound any more attacking when Miller joined Vaughan up front, than it had done for an hour before. We just aren't very good are we, no matter what the formation is.

[theo_luddite]

Lolley put his 90 mins of effort and adrenaline into 45 mins. Cramped up and couldn't walk let alone run thats why he was subbed. Hope his mum feeds him some proper grub for the rest of the week. Left footer on right wing and right footer on left wing needs sorting though. Shows difference between playing for Stiffs and First team but he

[Lord Snooty]

MotM for me was Lolley. Even though he only lasted about an hour. He was our only attacking threat and Rotherham bullied him out of it. Hope he's fit for next week.
On the down side, he was done far too easily by Hunt to set up their first goal.

[Terrier1987cas]

Struggling to think of 3 back-to-back performances as what we've given in the last week. We haven't played well in 3 months now, that's way too long & Powell's got to be on borrowed time. I'm thinking Brentford & Watford are the only 2 good performances since November, any I'm missing? Disgusting, I don't care about Powell sitting in the dugout for 90 minutes because it makes little difference how he acts on the touchline & people jumping on his back for that are extremely naive, but how he sets the team up before a game & the changes he makes during are dire, negative and frankly pathetic. Hate the man, at least with Robins you could see what he was going for & although it didn't work out his intentions were good - none of that with Powell, his intentions are awful & despite being a seemingly good bloke he's well out of his depth.

---

As things stand I won't be renewing my season ticket next season, properly fed up of Powell & the negative shite he puts out every week. I said very early on before most people began getting angry - he's naturally inclined to be negative & his preferred style is direct. I'm not paying to watch that, regardless of results.

We've a squad that's perfect for playing high-tempo passing football but more often than not we completely bypass our midfield & just pump it long. Butterfield's immense but even he's starting to look fed up, & Majewski can't even get a game. I said then & I still think it now, Lillis was the right man at the right time to take over after Robins. He played the right style to suit our players, gave the young lads we have coming through a chance, & had the full support of the fans. Powell's barely been here 6 months & he's messed all 3 of those things up already.

[EastLondonTerrier]

Cas I've defended Powell a lot over these months but I have to agree with a lot of what you say. The performances are rivalling the gutless ones we had at the end of robins career. Maybe its these group of players, maybe its every managers failure to get the best out of them. Who knows the true answer? I've kind of resigned myself to hoping we stay up and then Powell can restructure the whole squad to his liking like he did at charlton but my faith is dwindling after these three performances. I went to charlton and that was shocking so I can't even imagine the horror show that happened yesterday.

[JUSTASILLYOLDGIT]

I have been perusing the meltdown on DATM, most of which is either ridiculously blind optimism, or ludicrously shortsighted pessimism. However I do find myself agreeing, not entirely, but to a point, with our very own Art, when he suggests that Town are now at a crossroads. Stick or twist so to speak. Not entirely sure what Mr Hoyle’s long term plans for the club are. As wealthy as he is, I can understand if he is now feeling enough is enough. Behind the scenes he has clearly financed a huge turn around in the infrastructure of the club, which, being the successful businessman that he is, comes as no great surprise. But on the football side of things, I think it’s quite possible, he may be no more qualified than any one of us, or maybe even some of those over on the other site god forbid. It wouldn’t surprise me if he really was actively putting feelers out for another to take it on, but can’t find anyone better placed than he is right now. We are never going to be a full capacity supported club. There just isn’t that sporting population in our town. So unless somebody is going to throw a kings ransom at it, or somebody is going to come along with a genius footballing brain, I think we are where we are for the moment, until the day comes when we finally lose our grip. We are a bit like the Championship version of Burnley right now, spending little, and hoping what we have got will keep us where we are. To be honest, if playing more competitively in a lower league is what our finances dictate, then, it pains me to say it, but……..so be it!  

[Mirf]

Everybody always blames the poor manager but the true culprit here is Hoyle, who has got rid of three managers in the past 2.5 years and now the fans are calling for the fourth one to get the chop.  No manager is going to be successful at Town until Hoyle forgets all about this self-sustaining crap and staying within the financial fair play rules, which the more ambitious Owners choose to ignore.

Hoyle needs to take a leaf out of Steve Gibson's book and see how he's run the show at Middlesborough, on home attendances around 1000 above Town's average.  Huddersfield is the eleventh largest Town in the UK with a population exceeding Middlesborough's so Gibson's strategy is obviously working, since he's overseen a move into a new stadium and Boro have spent most of the past 20 years in the Premiership, or League One.  Not bad for a Chairman with a nett worth of less than 50% of Hoyles, who had the foresight to take from us our last season's POTY and club captain.

It's all about ambition and being prepared to take a bit of a gamble, which Hoyle is not prepared to do, even when the prize is a jackpot worth around £100 million.

Although Hoyle has done many good things for Town, it's now time to get out and pass the reigns over to someone else, who is prepared to go the extra yard to make us a top half team, instead of perennial relegation contenders.

[theo_luddite]

Hoyle has stepped back a few times from spending bigger money on individual players wages. It wouldn't necessarily cost that much more if he gambled on say 2-3 'much better than what we've currently got' players if we further trimmed down the number of players we have now. Even after letting half-a-dozen go in the last window, with more to follow this summer when contracts end, we've still got 32 players who have a squad number and are earning a wage at the club, plus there's others who haven't yet got a first team squad number. 3 of them aren't ours, Robinson, Edgar and Majewski (at the moment) and may or may not go back to their clubs at the end of the season. 32 is still 2 more than Liverpool and is more unsustainable for us than it is for them. No doubt we are subsidising a few of those out on loan too until their contracts end. Cut that back to about 25 players and use the rest of the money on few higher wage earners. Middlesbrough only have 29 players with a squad number.

Could we have had the likes of Connar Sammon, Callum Wilson, even Ricky Lambert a couple of seasons back, who we apparently claimed would have no sell on value at the end of his contract? OK Southampton probably threw really ridiculous money at it in League 1 back then but it got them where maybe we'd like to be for maybe one season or two and Liverpool didn't exactly get him on a free either.

I'm not saying cull the kids, we still need to bring them through and they aren't anywhere near the top money earners but there's enough middle salaried players amongst that 30-odd list still not getting a game where 2 or 3 of their wages would pay the wages of one much better player. It's another gamble because injuries and suspensions can still leave you with a paper thin squad, plus the turkey's did vote for Christmas just recently and have increased the amount of financial input allowed in the FFP from the 2016/7 season. http://www.football-league.co.uk/news/ar...66799.aspx

In the meantime, as Seamus O'Rubbish said after the match, get them running up and down the Kilner Bank a few times for their warm down after the matches.

[sloppyattheback]

Mirf do you really believe someone is banging Deano's door down to sell the club? It's more likely he's appointed a company to discreetly punt us around the states or gulf countries looking for a zillionaire playboy.

Despite Hudders being a sizeable town, it's true to say a significant percentage of its population are not interested in footy (cricket is their main sport I'm being as PC as I can here) there's too many Mancs & Weeds fans around for my liking but thats what you get with urban sprawl where towns run into oneanother and identity is difficult to define. Take a look at the egg chasers, they cant get 5000 of their own fans either without similar ticket offers no matter how Ken Davy spins the real numbers. Nor is Hudders a wealthy area, yes some nice spots around the edges and tops but its pretty working class and bordering on grim as you come dowmhill in any direction. We cant charge £500-600 season tickets which is probably what the bean crunchers demand to be sustainable at this level.

People will selectively pick n choose where they spend any disposable income and have broadened their horizons & expectations in the 21st century, football has to compete with cinema, concerts, comedy nights, a night on the tiles is small fortune.

I've been going regular since early 80's when 7000 was a decent crowd at LR. We've moved to the new stadium in 95. its fact we struggle to get 15000 home fans even if we're flying, the support level is simply not there and anyone sizing us up to invest, doing their business due diligence, would realise our potential isnt very apetising.

Isn't Deano's current £5-6m per season not significant in itself already just to balance the books, why should we expect him to throw/invest/gamble/spunk (call it what you may) £20-25 million of his own hard earned at it to chase a pot of gold which is the prem for 1 season. Forest have done that this season and are still some way from securing that status.

Lets say you win £72m on the Friday Euro lottery, how much would you want to 'throw at it' and be prepared to gamble. The right type of players wont come for high wages 1 season only otherwise we'd have to shed the lot if we fail when the cheques stop the season after and that would damage us more than ever, managers wouldnt want to work/operate under those terms either.

I'm resigned to the fact this is how its going to be for the forseeable future, bottom 3rd Champ side (at best) whilst ever Deano or someone of similar wealth has control of us. I was underwhelmed when Powell was appointed and that's probably just the start of where all our current problems lie, at board level wasnt Clibbens Deano's auditor when he was at CF? built up a strong bond with him and poached him that's what happens in business - he's a leeds fan anyway - wish I'd now disturbed him on the train back from Norwich and pinged a few questions to him.

We are where we are for a host of reasons, I dont claim to have the answers but dont feel the town/area is fully behind the club and that's where it starts n finishes, there's some elements in the middle that can be influenced outside the control of the average fan and we've not struck that balance succesfully as of yet.