ChippenhamRed

9 minutes ago, RoystonFoote'snephew said:

You surely haven't just worked that out. VAR had done nothing to enhance the game, made worse by the fact it's now being used for incidents beyond its remit. It's purpose was to correct CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERRORS, not to pick up all and sundry. It should be scrapped or at least be limited to clear and obvious errors viewed in real time and decided upon within 2 minutes.  If you can't decide within 2 minutes it ain't clear and obvious. 

The offside rule has to be one of clear air, it shouldn't be determined on the size of someone's footwear. 

“Clear air” doesn’t help, that just moves the line. It just becomes a forensic decision in a slightly different way.

At the end of the day, we need to decide if the need to get every decision precisely correct at all times matters more than the joy of the fan experience. Essentially it’s about whether we view football as science or art. Personally I would rather accept the possibility of human error if that’s what is necessary to preserve the joy. If we can’t truly celebrate those moments and absolutely lose ourselves in the rush of pure adrenalin, then I don’t see the point of all this any more.

Just now, Kodjias Wrist said:

It was a question as I’m not watching the game but surely if it’s the correct decision that’s why VAR was brought in for? 
 

Or do we pick and choose when VAR is crap based on our bias? 

No, I hate it all the time.

1 minute ago, Kid in the Riot said:

It was the correct decision?! How is that ruining football? 

Imagine what VAR would have done to our Korey moment.

I would rather accept the element of human error to preserve the wonder of those moments.

Just now, Kodjias Wrist said:

Was it the correct decision? 

I don’t care. Accept the element of human error to preserve the wonder of the game and the joy of the moment.

This is what happens when the rules matter more than the game.

VAR ruins the great moments.

Their trajectory is a bit like Yeovil’s.

Disappointed to see them go down. Their training ground is here in Chippenham - it’s also used for youth football, my son plays there a lot and often interacts with the players. So we have a bit of an affinity with them here.

5 hours ago, formerly known as ivan said:

After not having attended a game since Swansea for my own sanity, performances and results have picked up. Some on here and social media believing Manning is in fact the second coming. So against my best judgement, I decided to have another look myself.

Wow, that was dire! It confirmed everything we already knew. This new and improved Manningball was a flash in the pan. That my friends is the football you have to look forward to next season, which will come as no surprise to many.

Good luck all for next season. I shall look forward to a return to the gate in a year or two.

So you acknowledge that “performances and results have picked up”…and then on the basis of ONE game today you declare those performances to be “a flash in the pan”.

And then you cite today’s performance as “what we have to look forward to next season”.

So multiple recent games of improvement count for nothing - but one game is enough to complete dismiss any progress and predict how next season will pan out?

7 minutes ago, Jose said:

You’ve said reactionary? Perhaps he’s had that opinion for a while and three positive results may not have changed his mind. So in fact you have “ reacted “ after three decent performances. 
 

For the record I don’t care enough either way. Do I think he is good enough? No. Do I think his football is any good? No. 
Do I think the idiots above are more of a problem? Absolutely.

Fair.

4 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

He will get that now - you can argue if he’s earned it or not - but it’s the only logical move for the club.

I suspect he won’t have that many games though, from the fans especially, to show he can have us up there (top 10) competing before he’s under massive pressure again though! 

I agree, he doesn’t have a huge amount of credit in the bank. And he doesn’t have a particularly engaging personality that the fans warm to, which doesn’t help with that. But I do think - on balance - he has now done enough to earn the summer and the benefit of continuity that comes with that.

1 minute ago, Numero Uno said:

That’s what’s going to happen and if he changes nothing and we continue to put these performances in regularly then his position need’s revisiting. The ball is in his court.

Of course. We have an issue with a consistency of performance, particularly against lower teams, and he does need to fix that. Though I don’t think we ever give enough credit to the opposition when we talk about performance because it’s always a function of how both teams set up, and not just about what we do.

But you’ve got to give credit for the good performances as well as criticise the bad ones and then assess the overall picture. Right now I’d say that’s about par for the squad - and no longer near the level of underperformance that demands a new manager. I think he has done enough to warrant staying for next season. There are benefits to continuity versus yet another change of manager.

I just think it gets a bit silly when people start calling for the manager’s head after one draw following a good run of form.

13 minutes ago, Alan Dicks said:

Manning not the man to take this club forward I’m afraid.

Is this really how pathetically reactionary we are going to be now? One disappointing draw after a decent run of form and a 5-0 win in midweek?

I was Manning out when we on an extended poor run. But our form has been much improved over the past few weeks. We are a mid-table squad doing mid-table things. Will we win games we don’t expect to and lose some we expect to win. Our league position is about par for the squad.

We can’t constantly keep changing manager without really strong justification. Right now I don’t think that strong justification is there, and Manning needs time - and the summer - to see what he can really do.

2 minutes ago, cellist said:

Well well well.

 

Can't remember who it was on wed who posted about there not being much between most if not all teams in the champ. Coming down to tactical set up/form/desire/who woke up on the right side of the bed. They're being proved right with this top 3 choking the way they are.

Funny old game. Blackburn fans must be scratching their heads.

That was me! Here it is again. I do think this explains the notoriously unpredictable Championship, to some extent at least.

3 minutes ago, Robbored said:

LJ never impressed me, not as a player nor as manager.  He achieved nothing in either career.

That much is obvious. But it doesn’t answer my question and does nothing to argue against the point I am making.

16 hours ago, Robbored said:

The atmosphere within AG (or any stadium) is generated by the action on the pitch. The atmosphere last night was pretty decent despite a relatively small number of away fans and because City were playing well against a poor Blackburn team and scoring goals.

LJ used whinge about the lack of atmosphere at AG not realising that his style of play was the reason - there was very little to get the crowd going.

 

Compared to what?

He kept us up in his first season in charge.

He had us competing at the top end of the division for the first half of 2017/18.

We got to the semi finals of the Carobao cup, beating Palace 4-1, United 2-1 and competing with Manchester City right up until the very end of the two leg semi final.

The following season we finished 8th having been in the play off hunt for the entire season.

Plenty to shout about there - and we did. I know it’s fashionable to slag off Johnson at every opportunity but some of the criticism he gets is just lazy and complete nonsense.

It will be exactly the same as this season’s kit “in homage to our famous 5-0 win against Blackburn in 2024”.

It will cost £80 and they will make 15 of them, which will sell out within an hour. 13 will be returned because the collars are faulty. More stock will be supplied in April 2025.

29 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

Think you missed the point of my post. 

Also, the games I mentioned were more than winnable for us. 

But we didn’t win them. So the expectation that we would drop too many points for the playoffs proved correct. How do you not get that?

As for “missing the point”…how many times are you going to get facepalmed before you start to realise that maybe the communication problems are all yours and not everyone else’s?

6 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

After the Southampton game I got laughed at on here by suggesting we could get play offs. 

Too many teams would all have had to of dropped points etc they said. Totally impossible they said. 

I got laughed at and riducled for suggesting the play offs were in our own hands. 

Well had we beaten QPR, Sheffield Wed, Cardiff and Sunderland following the Southampton win, which I firmly believe we had the ability to do as they are all poor teams, we'd now also be sitting on 68 points. 71 if we had beaten West Brom.

It was very much in our own hands after all. 

Great result and performance tonight. Just what I wanted to see but there is a bitter taste in the mouth still about how this season got wrote off. 

Such a stupid post.

Yes, the play offs were mathematically in our own hands at that point. That’s objectively true. But most people didn’t think we would gain enough of the points available in order to secure a play off spot - and they were proven right. We didn’t.

Coming on here and saying “if we’d won all these other games that we didn’t, we’d have been in the play offs, so look how right I was” isn’t the clever point you think it is.

1 minute ago, TinMan's left peg said:

How is that a yes or no question.  Can interpret this anyway you want.  Does the author work for Ipsos Mori? 

Yes, it’s poorly worded but the thread was titled “Manning out?” so I think it’s pretty obvious what it means.

1 minute ago, Jimbo76 said:

I'm not sure you can say 'majority' with any confidence. Vocal minority maybe. There were plenty of us that said throughout that some patience was needed. 

I never had an issue with criticism. I just couldn't believe how quick to judgement some were and how personal and over the top the criticism was. 

I don't think it's 'I told you so' as lots of people were saying he might not be right but we need some patience. 

Nope. Not a vocal minority. A very clear large majority. But it’s fair enough to call for patience.

Poll from early March:

Just now, Fontaineofallknowledge said:

Will the bed wetters who called for Mannings head after a couple of poor performances/defeats now be calling for his contract to be extended??

Presumably by “bedwetters” you are referring to the large majority of fans who wanted him gone? And by “a couple of poor performances/defeats” I assume you mean an extended run between Christmas and March with few wins and even fewer convincing performances?

It was an entirely reasonable position to hold at the time. No one is impressed with I-told-you-so smugness.

1 minute ago, phantom said:

Was always going to be a poor Gate tonight 

Saturday will be more telling, how many come back 

I don’t think it will tell you that much. It’s still a late season fixture with nothing to play for against a nothing team, and it’s also the Easter holidays.

August will be a much better barometer.

Six or we riot

I actually think the remaining games are quite important in some ways. This little run has given us a fresh perspective on Manning. If he can maintain this form until the end of the season, the whole club will go into next season in a more optimistic mood without the distraction of fan unrest and the question mark over Manning’s future. That can also aid summer recruitment. It will also buy him a little time if we don’t hit the ground running in August. Let’s hope we can keep this up.

2 minutes ago, Andy082005 said:

Not really. The damage has been done . It will take a bit more then a few good results to get people back on board 

Just look at the crowd tonight. Embarrassing 

It’s a midweek end of season fixture with nothing to play for against unremarkable opposition. It has a lot more to do with that than it does the fan’s opinions of Manning. There’s nothing embarrassing about it - most Championship clubs would see a drop off in attendance under the same circumstances.

I wanted Manning gone but let’s give the guy some credit where it’s due.

1 minute ago, Atlanta_Red said:

Right. I remember Serena Williams foot-faulting on possibly match point at the US Open. McEnroe commentating said that they shouldn’t have called that on such an important point. Bull. A rule is a rule. 

Absolutely. If Blackburn go down on goal difference, it could be crucial.