When Two Towns Go To War

**Lord Snooty** · 01-02-2025, 23:32

(01-02-2025, 22:35)SHEP_HTAFC Wrote: Need to start with Evans.....every time I see him come on he changes games we were rubbish at.
One of our best players in my opinion

It's true, Shep. But then he goes and throws in a shocker like the one last Saturday against Bolton. This is what Duff is up against. He's playing with League One players. They're world beaters one match and then utter garbage the next.

Look at Balker. Man of the match last week. This week, his getting caught out by Eaves for the second goal is laughable.

There's a reason why they're all playing in the third tier.

theo_luddite · 02-02-2025, 01:12

Not seen the goals yet but it sounds like I need a cushion to hide behind for the horror show.

Amelia Chaffinch · 02-02-2025, 18:26

MICHAEL DUFF

THE HIGHLIGHTS

**Lord Snooty** · 03-02-2025, 08:50

There are people calling for Duff to be sacked. Which is frankly ridiculous. We're 5th in the table for goodness sake.

We've just lost three in a row, one of them against the league leaders. Looking at it another way, it's three defeats in the last 19 games.

If those defeats had been spread out amongst those 19 games instead of all at once, nobody would've batted an eyelid.

Amelia Chaffinch · (This post was last modified: 03-02-2025, 12:21 by Amelia Chaffinch.)

I wish it had been when two towns go to war, a point is all you can score. I was being ironic the time but in retrospect....!

WakeyTerrier · 03-02-2025, 13:40

(03-02-2025, 08:50)Lord Snooty Wrote: There are people calling for Duff to be sacked. Which is frankly ridiculous. We're 5th in the table for goodness sake.

We've just lost three in a row, one of them against the league leaders. Looking at it another way, it's three defeats in the last 19 games.

If those defeats had been spread out amongst those 19 games instead of all at once, nobody would've batted an eyelid.

3 defeats in a week that could’ve seen us gain significant ground on the top 2. Instead we have lost ground on the top 2. Then factor in the poor performances against Blackpool,Burton and Rotherham and you can see why people are getting jumpy.
Mr Chairman has been unusually quiet since the weekend, he must be looking at the team and thinking they should be doing better despite injuries, after all he’s backed the manager in January.

**Lord Snooty** · 05-02-2025, 14:28

There are rumours spreading around that Roosken and Healy are both knackered now. Doh

jjamez · 05-02-2025, 21:11

I've kept intentionally quiet here. Injuries are killing us but there has to be a root of our problems, is it the fitness people, the head of that department has left, is it the strength and conditioning coach, he's been ever present for years yet there seems to be this soft tissue injury issue.
Is it the overall training methods used by duff and co, it's the first time I've ever known it to be like this, closest is probably the first season of Carlos and his Ill advised murder ball. What sort of sessions are duff and the coaching set up putting on?
Is it Cartwright signing players that are injury prone, we knew Healey was and had had a major injury prior but went ahead, balker the same. Miller was prone to soft tissue injuries, his serious one is unfortunate. Don't start on players that just aren't good enough.

On field the performances aren't great, some gritty wins have overshadowed some performances based on injuries too, this is why I've been quiet. I don't think I'm pro or anti duff, I question who they think is the option to replace him as I don't trust Cartwright to pick but on field is poor tactically

theo_luddite · 05-02-2025, 21:22

A lot of the staff, including coaching/conditioning/medical left or were given an opportunity to explore alternative empoyment elsewhere when Kevin the Gerbil took over. Corboran's staff had got the soft tissue injuries down to hardly any by using warm up techniques that involved little in the way of stretching (and killing off murder ball). You have to wonder if the current lot are aware of this practice? You'd like to think they are but where every injury was a different one early in the season, they sure as hell aren't now. I'm never in the ground early enough to see pre-match warm up stuff but it's what you do during the week as well as what you do on the day of the match that matters Rat fans. Yeah! It's OK sacking a guy but if you keep getting the same injuries was it really his fault?

**Lord Snooty** · 05-02-2025, 21:45

Running up Kilner Bank, a kick around on the pitches oppsite the ICI and getting chucked in the canal, were the training practices of byegone years. Yet quite often we only ever had one or two injuries throughout the season. In the 1952/53 season, we had seven players who played in every game.

Modern footballers are soft as sh.........