Going down?

[Kairdiff Exile]

Phew. We did it.

I am reminded of that passage in The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro about “La Salvezza”: the beatific state reached at the end of the season by an exhausted and desperate club that narrowly escapes relegation.

Fair play to Liam Manning. He’s come in, inheriting a basket-case, made us hard to beat and then built on it to get a couple of precious wins when it mattered. And whilst he may be a bit boring, he has kept his head whilst all around him were losing theirs, to his immense credit.

[Kernow Yellow]

Fair play to Liam Manning. He’s come in, inheriting a basket-case, made us hard to beat and then built on it to get a couple of precious wins when it mattered. And whilst he may be a bit boring, he has kept his head whilst all around him were losing theirs, to his immense credit.

Exactly this. He has achieved part 1 of his goals and very much earned the right to have a crack at part 2 - build a squad in his image capable of doing much better than this. He has got players performing for him that couldn't/wouldn't/weren't given the chance to perform for Robinson. All despite an unbalanced squad with even more injuries than Robinson had to contend with.

Relief, rather than celebration obviously. League 2 would have been pretty soul-detroying.

Oh, and congratulations to Plymouth Argyle, promoted on a smaller budget than us, and up against some pretty big names. It's nice to see football fans down here all talking about them, and plenty of replica green shirts on kids, rather than Man Utd/Liverpool etc.

[Dr Bob]

Throughout the season, almost never have we been hammered. Rather, we have been dispiritingly, depressingly, underwhelming. Bottom line - our GD is so much less bad than any team around us. Plymouth have been superb, whilst Ipswich appear to have spent their way out of the Division. Unless one or more teams go the Ipswich route, it is hard to see next season's division being that much different in quality. Then again, we are far from the only club having a manager come in who will be doing a major rebuilding job over the summer.

These last two games have confirmed the best of LM - defensively much more solid, more organised throughout, and more confidence up front. This has mostly been a season to forget, but those seven goals have shown what we can achieve when our big-name players turn up. We should never have had to rely on the kids to the extent we did, but GO'D has shown great potential, whilst Tyler has now confirmed that the goal against Cambridge all those long months ago really was the start of something special. Who cares which bit of his leg Tuesday's came off, or whether he intended it. Yesterday's strike showed real vision and quality.

Roll on next Sunday. I just hope the weather is better than a few years ago when our last match of the season was away at Accy. Totally unprepared for the miserableness, I was frozen the whole bloody game. At least we won that day. Looking forward to seeing us go out in style, a sign of things to come rather than what has gone before.

[Isaac]

Two weirdly comfortable wins after 17 games of not looking like ever winning a game of football again. Forest Green were terrible, admittedly, but it was still a good performance. We look better with Bodin in midfield

It's good that Manning has managed to eventually get a tune out of the current squad as the vast majority are under contract here next season, plus the various injured/elderly in reserve. The club/board have a lot of questions about the contract extension decisions they've made this year - it looks like Robinson aligned a lot of players contracts with his own. It certainly strengthens the impression that the club left too much power/influence in his hands which was working out ok, up until he lost the plot.

Unless Manning wants to ship out some contracted players in the summer (which may not even be possible, given the general under-performance) you'd think he has limited wiggle room budget wise. I would expect us to rely on the young player loan market this summer. The obvious areas we need to improve are the same as they have been all season, central midfield (despite McGuane and Brannagan looking good, there's nothing after them) and strikers.

[Kairdiff Exile]

Agree with that, Isaac - with the added thought that the smart move might be for Manning to use the backdrop of modest expectations and an experienced squad who he can get a tune from to bring through more of the promising crop of young players rather than improving other teams' youngsters for them on short-term loans. If we have a few more O'Donkors and Goodrhams who can be developed then they either become saleable assets which Manning can then use to shape the squad more than current budgets allow or those players can become the backbone of the side in the longer term.

A mid-table season where we blood a crop of promising kids whilst the crocks see out their contracts and the Board focus on off-the-field matters strikes me as a perfectly reasonable set of aspirations for next year.

[slappy]

That was a good afternoon at FGR and took me back to our conference days of selling out a standing terrace.
Most of the crowd couldn't get any mobile signal to check other scores, but that was an amazing comeback from Barnsley to take a point vs MK, and keep us all but mathematically safe. There score went 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3,1-4, 2-4, 3-4. Then MK made 5 subs, and Barnsley got a goal to make it 4-4.

With Morecambe (perhaps), Accrington and FGR all down, that leaves I think Burton as the only ground with an away terrace for next year. Perhaps Carlisle or Salford if they do get promoted?

[Kairdiff Exile]

I’ve not seen anything like as much of Oxford this season as I’d have liked, but I was there today and it felt like a damning summary of our year. Some luscious football in the first half but an inability to kill the game off. After half-time, Accy probed a bit more and it felt almost inevitable that they’d punish us for not taking our chances. As soon as the equaliser (a lovey goal) went in, I had no doubt we’d lose.

We’ve got to sort out that soft underbelly and get in some striking options by August, or another season of turmoil beckons.

Also, that was amongst the worst atmospheres I think I’ve ever encountered at Grenoble Road. 300 fans of a team almost certainly relegated outsung 10,000 Oxford fans for 90mins. I barely heard a peep.

So long, 2022/23, we won’t miss you.

[Dr Bob]

For me, that was the perfect way to end this season. It encapsulated it so well. Pretty football at times. An inability to score when on top and creating chances. Poor and disjointed decision-making compounded by individual mistakes. Substitutions that weakened the team. Capitulation against a team that showed just any level of commitment. It really felt like a KR performance.

No false hope for next season, that's for sure, with a team that only just did enough to stay up.

At first, I wondered if the lackadaisical attitude in front of goal in the first half was down to our safety having been assured. On reflection, is that the attitude I want to see from my team? Secure the game, then go for individual glory. Even then though, Accy defended mostly very well in that first half. It struck me that even when we got into the box, rarely were we given time and space to do much. No great surprise, then, that this effort paid off for them in the second half.

Got to say, though, I am really looking forward to seeing the aftermath of such a pathetic season, seeing what a Liam Manning team really looks like. Let the bloodbath commence.

[Kernow Yellow]

I had travelled up, braving rail replacement buses, to give the team and Manning some love after a tough end to the season, and I'll admit I expected a win, especially after seeing the opening half. As it is I didn't even stay to clap the team off - my last train home was ridiculously early and I didn't want to miss out on quality pub time with old mates. Anyway, it was a much more fitting result and performance for the season ultimately, and hopefully will cut any planned crack-papering when it comes to evaluating the squad. Not much point analysing the game beyond that - the one job Manning had for this year was done the previous week, thank God. At least we didn't have to endure an Orient-style, last game sickener.

As to atmosphere, I think it would have ramped up second half as we attacked the East Stand had we not completely fluffed the game after the break. And Sunday midday kick-offs for matches with nothing riding on them are notoriously quiet. Fair play to the Accrington fans who had clearly come for a fun day out. Anyway, I was in the East Stand and did my best to sing up so not guilty on that count. Atmosphere, c'est les autres? Hopefully a new ground will help (I'm still not holding my breath on either count).