Our Manager

[Adam29]

Highest league finishes:

1st: 1967/68: 8th Division 3 - 50pts (2pts per win)
2nd: 1968:69: 19th Division 3 - 42pts (2pts per win)
3rd: 1969/70: 23rd Division 3(R) - 30pts (2pts per win)
4th: 1966/67: 3rd Division 4(P) - 59pts (2pts per win)
5th: 1931/32: 5th Division 3 N - 49pts (2pts per win)
6th: 1947/48: 7th Division 3 N - 45pts (2pts per win)
7th: 1933/34: 8th Division 3 N - 47pts (2pts per win)
8th: 2022/23: 9th League 2 - 62pts (3pts per win)

So a 7th place finish would equal our 6th best league finish (all be it higher points total due to it being 3pts per game)

Thanks to Phil Yelland for providing this info

All be it a complete list of our league positions throughout the years is available here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B ... C._seasons

[Suffolk Blue]

Highest league finishes:

1st: 1967/68: 8th Division 3 - 50pts (2pts per win)
2nd: 1968:69: 19th Division 3 - 42pts (2pts per win)
3rd: 1969/70: 23rd Division 3(R) - 30pts (2pts per win)
4th: 1966/67: 3rd Division 4(P) - 59pts (2pts per win)
5th: 1931/32: 5th Division 3 N - 49pts (2pts per win)
6th: 1947/48: 7th Division 3 N - 45pts (2pts per win)
7th: 1933/34: 8th Division 3 N - 47pts (2pts per win)
8th: 2022/23: 9th League 2 - 62pts (3pts per win)

So a 7th place finish would equal our 6th best league finish (all be it higher points total due to it being 3pts per game)

Thanks to Phil Yelland for providing this info

All be it a complete list of our league positions throughout the years is available here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B ... C._seasons

Thanks for the clarification Adam/Phil. 5th or 6th best. The fact remains. No matter how bad it currently feels, it’s an improvement on last season. And PW will have delivered two of the best ten seasons in our history. Doesn’t mean he’s not due some criticism. But we should always put it into its proper context.

[Sea Dog Sam]

I believe Pete Wild has done a good job.

However, due to his inexperience of managing at this level many would say he's buckled under the pressure. It could be suggested that some of the players have too? Many have suggested that we’ve being punching above our weight? Maybe that’s got into the heads of both him and the players? Maybe a lack of self belief has entered the field of play?

When we first re-entered the EFL all we hoped for was to consolidate our status – that takes time - and avoid relegation. We've done that and a whole lot more and most of that should be attributed to PW. Give him credit for that.

Nobody should berate the guy. The players have to carry some of the blame for recent defeats. The last six games - even before then - we've seen some of our players shirking tackles, producing misplaced passes and missing golden opportunities to score. And the latter has been going on all season. Our defence has looked solid for the majority of the season and we've looked an organised team - until recently. It's our lack of attacking prowess that has being our Achilles Heel for the duration of this campaign - which is firmly underlined in the Div 2 table. Some of the teams in the bottom half have scored more goals than us. We brought in Dom Telford and some were citing him as the answer to our prayers. To say he's under achieved would be an understatement.

A decent team doesn't suddenly become a poor one. There has to be a reason? A lack of self belief could be the reason for our recent downfalls? Belief has to come from the manager first. Before it filters down to the players.

I don't think many footballing pundits, fans of other teams or even some of our own believe we'll beat Mansfield on Saturday.

Does it matter?

Because BELIEF has to come from Pete Wild.
BELIEF has to come from the players.

He and the team have to put the recent run of bad results behind them – put it out of their heads for Saturday - and muster up some Self Belief. And if they can do that?

We’ll Win!

[Sonofsam]

Does anyone else besides me think telford gives a shit he's under achieved massively hence not playing regular and £4,000 a week come on

[bluessupporter]

BELIEF has to come from Pete Wild.

BELIEF has to come from the players.

He and the team have to put the recent run of bad results behind them – put it out of their heads for Saturday - and muster up some Self Belief.

And if they can do that?

We’ll Win!

Spot on!

[sambino]

Does anyone else besides me think telford gives a shit he's under achieved massively hence not playing regular and £4,000 a week come on

I put Proctor and Worral in the same bracket, at this time in the season their experience should be showing but not seen much. Campbell and Spence have run themselves into the ground the old hands should be doing their bit.

[olbarrafancumbak]

Not the time to have a thread like this just because all our emotions are all over the place!

We can all dissect and analyze AFTER Saturday!

We have trusted PW and the team all season and last, let's not loose our heads now and just get what we need Saturday!

Back the man, the team the club like never before this Saturday and who knows, we may just raise an eyebrow or two and ruffle some feathers!!

Let's stick together and prove to the footballing world how good we can be and how much we want it!

All bluebirds are blue

[Sonofsam]

Not the time to have a thread like this just because all our emotions are all over the place!

We can all dissect and analyze AFTER Saturday!

We have trusted PW and the team all season and last, let's not loose our heads now and just get what we need Saturday!

Back the man, the team the club like never before this Saturday and who knows, we may just raise an eyebrow or two and ruffle some feathers!!

Let's stick together and prove to the footballing world how good we can be and how much we want it!

All bluebirds are blue

I will back any player that gives 100% for the shirt but telford he's taking the [SwearFilter]

[janwilder]

Wonder what those on here, who constantly speculate he’s gonna get every job out there that becomes available, think now, the heat is on, and his decisions are questionable,and he’s buckling under the pressure. Are those bigger clubs still bashing the door down, I’m not so sure.

He's certainly a long way short of Evatt's calibre both tactically and in the type of football his teams play.

I think as a previous posted alluded to, Evo inspired the players by bullishly claiming they were the best, deserving to be there etc. I remember he was a student of the game and more so the psychological side of it. This stacked up in our performances and belief on the pitch. Pete is the complete opposite. He's had financial backing, he's got a reasonably stacked competitive squad and yet he's such an uninspiring bloke and has played down our stature at every opportunity and every loss has been met with a comment about us realising where we are. It's so frustrating. I don't know, does playing the game and being a leader of men on the pitch stack up in the management game?

[janwilder]

Small club?? We are where we should be with our budget and it would be catastrophic if we don’t make the play offs

We only have a decent budget in a big part due to a former Barrovian doing well in the states and helping out massively, which won’t last forever.

At the qna it was mentioned that even Morecambe generate way more income than us, via more hospitality space etc.

It’s been one of the toughest and highest budget league 2 in a long time (even FGR spent 200k more in agent fees than we did) if we get 5.5k on Saturday that’s 10k in a week attendance which is fantastic given the local population compared to other teams.

At least we still have a small sliver of hope and something still to play for, Spence has been on of the best players this season and he wouldn’t have even come here if it wasn’t for Wild.

Weren't we too 7 budget last year too?! I've no idea where the club is at budget wise this year mind. Surely still top 7, at least.

[Main Stand SeasonTct]

We only have a decent budget in a big part due to a former Barrovian doing well in the states and helping out massively, which won’t last forever.

At the qna it was mentioned that even Morecambe generate way more income than us, via more hospitality space etc.

It’s been one of the toughest and highest budget league 2 in a long time (even FGR spent 200k more in agent fees than we did) if we get 5.5k on Saturday that’s 10k in a week attendance which is fantastic given the local population compared to other teams.

At least we still have a small sliver of hope and something still to play for, Spence has been on of the best players this season and he wouldn’t have even come here if it wasn’t for Wild.

Weren't we too 7 budget last year too?! I've no idea where the club is at budget wise this year mind. Surely still top 7, at least.

Where is the proof it's a top 7 budget? We only have the chairmans say so and maybe that his perception without knowing anyone else budget but he could be well wide of the mark. I have not seen any tables or accounts detailing anyones budget in league 2. The only thing I think we can confidently say is that Wrexham and Stockport had the highest budgets in league 2

[Hadrian]

Is not budget information shared between clubs?

Not the time for this thread.

Some complete nonsense from certain posters who are beginning to resemble parody accounts.

[Matty]

Now what's done is done I'll get what was in my mind at 9:45pm on Tuesday out of my head. This has to be a steep learning curve going forward as to the way we've collapsed in this final stretch of the season. The players and staff gave their all today which no one can doubt but it should have never got to that scenario.

Going forward we need to evolve somewhat, different ways of playing as we are too inflexible and when we have bad runs of form it takes us a while to recover.

Also the underdog mentality has to go, it is to Wild's credit that we are now competing at the right end of the table, now is the time to be itching to make that next step rather than be satisfied with the our current position based off where we've been in the past. He'd most likely be under a decent amount of scrutiny at a bigger club in a similar situation as we find ourselves in now.

Having said that, in a daft way the pain of the last few weeks is a result of the good work he's put in for us to have had that opportunity to be in the promotion picture in the first place. He has my full backing to lead us going forward and believe he'll eventually manage higher, because if he succeeds, we do.

[Scott5]

Agree with the above and I think a lack of experience on and off the pitch showed in the end. Challinor, Parkinson and Clough have won promotions before, Challinor many times infact and they have players on big money who have done the same in their careers.

Experience at this stage of this season is important it's not easy getting over the line and you can see bigger teams than us losing it at the end think of Rangers in Scotland, Liverpool, Southampton and even Leeds wobbling last night, pressure causes that. Good teams and players deal with it and we didn't. We lacked at times a bit of leadership on the pitch when things weren't going so well, it went deathly quiet after Bradford scored first on Tuesday and we never really recovered. Think back to the Doncaster and Wrexham capitulations too.

Also in that Bradford game we had Telford and Stockton fouling needlessly off the ball, Temple and Farman being booked for dissent and Stephenson for a ridiculous tackle and then the Ray red card, all things that we weren't really doing a few months ago (maybe the manager and coach an exception!) but you could see the frustration and pressure. Today people mis-hitting and totally missing the ball due to panic and pressure.

I think that lack of experience and lack of squad depth in the end has seen us fall short. We had a slow but steady start, improved and went on a great run which was built on defensive stability, running and pressing and being hard to beat. Over time we seemed to tire a bit and playing on heavy pitches over Winter probably didn't help but we seemed to lose our zip and energy. Christmas/New Year result showed some weaknesses but we only brought in Stockton.
Spence and Campbell have been great but are both in their first full season at this level at 23 and needed an older head in there at times I think to get on the ball and break things up a bit. White probably isn't good enough for us where we are anymore and much as I like Foley he's probably not got the legs to do it regularly anymore.
Add to that we suddenly started conceding a lot easier, perhaps due to lack of cover in front but we seemed very vulnerable to crosses even with the first choice back three and our line in recent weeks has been all over the place. With Canavan and Chester there you'd hope they would've marshalled it a bit more although missing Canavan for a month or so was a miss, then Ray....Feeley always has a mistake in him and doesn't fill me with much confidence.

Then there was the wingbacks and a big part of the way we play relies on them defending well and getting crossed in, neither of which I think ours did particularly well at the end. Stephenson will be a great player but is never a wingback, Warren not up to it and Worrall hasn't played enough but not probably shown enough when he has. Newby has done a decent job but again is too lightweight and not a defender, Tiensa and going back to Patrick Brough was a big miss.
You could say the forwards haven't done enough at time but not had great service particularly of late and have fed off scraps. Whitfield probably our most dangerous attacking player hasn't been used as often as I thought he would or should have, and in Stockton we brought a proven striker in who started on fire but hasn't been as noticeable recently and that's down to the team. Telford I just don't think fits into this team, Acquah is still young and we probably lack another really good forward who can hold it up and offer more of a threat than Proctor. Also don't think Garner is up to it for us or will be back.

In the end we were only one point away from the play-offs and you could point to missed penalties, chances, referees, Forest Green, Tyler Smith etc. but if we had have gone up without doubt we'd a Carlisle/Forest Green mark two.
We need to learn from the mistakes and build on the successes which there are a lot, and aim for the level of say Mansfield. Very impressed with them today and I feel had they needed to they could've stepped it up a gear more. They were well drilled and pretty in control in the first half and as Niall Canavan said afterwards a lot more streetwise and showed more nous, something we definitely lack at times game management. Second half i thought we gave them a good game and on another day might've won but in the end 6 games against the top three and we took 3 points, all draws at home. Not bad but shows we're not quite at that level yet.

I think most people would've been quite happy with 8th place but the way it ended when it could've been more will be disappointing and hopefully will spur them on next season rather than act as a hangover.

Big summer ahead again.

[blue nige]

You can't criticise the wingbacks, it doesn't work because, our back 3 are far too slow, if Wild doesn't either get at least 2 mobile centre backs ,or change the system, we'll never go up because we look disjointed!, yes we got away with it for half a season then team's wised up and sussed us out I.e. press high and then we couldn't get out of our half, which then isolated our forwards, then if we went behind we then put subs on in total desperation and lost our shape completely!