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Mciness - Season 2012 2013


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Just been watching some yputube clips and wondering, with the squad he had, how did Mciness make us so awful and achieve 24th spot.

A front four of Baldock, Stead, Davies, and Taylor.....people i think forget just how good a player Steve Davies was even though he was only here for one season.

Midfield was solid enough in skuse elliott and kelly.....paul anderson who never ever got a game and the weak pearson Mciness favourite pearson.

Not to forget Heaton in goal who got promoted with burnley

I remwmber going to millwall away i think we plsyed 352 with Fontaine Bates and Nyatanga as a back 3.....never seen a side look so completely confused and lost.....unless im mistaken mciness made 2 subs before half time it was so bad.

Mciness comes out and blames the structure for his failure, behind the scnes turmoil......but sorry, he had decent respurces and made a right mess of it.

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Davies was a shambles, looked as if he woke up in the park opposite after a night out & came to play on a match day.

 

Stead just ran around a lot that was it.

Baldock isn’t that great a striker.

Defence was awful

midfield was a tombola 

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Skuse used to majorly hide in games when we were playing badly, so essentially that entire season. Elliott wasn’t a championship player anymore and Kelly has spent his career after us in leagues 1 and 2. 

Poor squad but McInnes didn’t help himself, signings were shocking and continued to dip into the Scottish leagues, citing players like Mark Wilson as top top players. Most of his decision making in that final season was the most bizarre I’ve ever seen. Who remembers Ricky Foster in CM with Jon Stead LM against Hull at home, grim stuff. Year before he also failed to identify Chris Wood as a top striker despite having already hit double figures with Birmingham in that same season and shoved him out to the left wing as well. Fitting that his first half hat trick for Leicester at the gate the next season was ultimately what got him the sack.

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13 minutes ago, Londoner said:

Just been watching some yputube clips and wondering, with the squad he had, how did Mciness make us so awful and achieve 24th spot.

A front four of Baldock, Stead, Davies, and Taylor.....people i think forget just how good a player Steve Davies was even though he was only here for one season.

Midfield was solid enough in skuse elliott and kelly.....paul anderson who never ever got a game and the weak pearson Mciness favourite pearson.

Not to forget Heaton in goal who got promoted with burnley

I remwmber going to millwall away i think we plsyed 352 with Fontaine Bates and Nyatanga as a back 3.....never seen a side look so completely confused and lost.....unless im mistaken mciness made 2 subs before half time it was so bad.

Mciness comes out and blames the structure for his failure, behind the scnes turmoil......but sorry, he had decent respurces and made a right mess of it.

I remember that Millwall game, New Years Day.

Fontaine was having a mare (again). He was shot of any confidence - struggling after being made captain. To make sure Fontaine had zero confidence left, McInnes pulled him off 1 minute before half time just so he could get booed. 

We had Albert, Neil Danns and Cunningham in that team too. 

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I was just the other day going through historical City squads on transfermarkt and this grim era reared its ugly head. Funny how it seems that during more successful times there are any number of fringe players and loan signings that I'd forgotten about, but when times are that bad I could remember every single one...!

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1 hour ago, SFK said:

Davies was a shambles, looked as if he woke up in the park opposite after a night out & came to play on a match day.

 

Stead just ran around a lot that was it.

Baldock isn’t that great a striker.

Defence was awful

midfield was a tombola 

? :violin:

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At the time not one player looked interested or showed any sign of wanting to play for the club anymore. Fonts confidence was shot away, Marvin was past his best too. It was only Stead who looked like he was putting any effort in. Overall the side was awful and most were only putting in 50% effort into games, just going through the motions.

We went down with a whimper in the end  and  I  for one was glad with the thought that we could have a massive clear out and rebuild with players that gave a crap!

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It was a bad time at BCFC.

Rumours of dressing room cliques running the club instead of the manager.

Overpaid players who didn't give a toss. There were one or two who still gave their all but the rest, well, my thoughts on them are still unprintable. One of three terrible times at City since 1945. The Doherty era of 1958-9 with a split dressing room, the dark days of 1980-82, and this period with Coppell, Millen, McInnes and O'Driscoll, all reasonable managers/coaches but unable to motivate a squad that didn't want to work!

McInnes was a winner and leader as a player and IMO, didn't stand a chance. Boring as SO'D was, he was better previously elsewhere than he seemed at City.

Sad times. Probably best just to draw a line under it.

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We still had Kilkenny & Woolford too didn`t we? And who could forget the midfield dynamo signed to save our season, Brian Howard.

The season all started so brightly too, stuffing Palace & Cardiff scoring four both times.

I just had a look at the results from that season and must admit I`d forgotten we only got two points from our last nine games!

Two bright points, albeit in hindsight, was that Bobby and Joe signed their first pro contracts that season I think.

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5 minutes ago, REDLEE said:

We actually made a half decent start to that season and scored a lot of goals. But I remember the shambolic defending at home to Blackburn when we lost 5-3. The writing was on the wall then!

The Blackburn game was an odd one wasn`t it? We were playing well, let them back into it and then Jordan Rhodes took over and tore us a new one IIRC. I remember being shell-shocked walking back to the car wondering what I`d just seen.

The turning point for me though was Leeds at home in the snow when we went down to nine (Bolasie & ? sent off).

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That McInnes era had highs as well as  lows.

Derek McInnes, who had managed St Johnstone to 4th in the Scottish Premier League became Manager; his first game was against Birmingham. That was a 2-0 defeat, but City won four and drew two of the next six games. That run included drawing at West Ham and beating Southampton, the two table toppers, without conceding a goal in either game. At Watford, City drew 2-2 after falling behind 2-0. Then came a dip with three defeats and a draw; City took the lead but lost at Derby, had a 0-0 draw at home to Forest who were beneath City only on goal difference before losing1-0 at bottom team Coventry. Four days later on December 30th, City won 1-0 at Southampton who were still Championship leaders and had not lost at home in 2011. January 2012 started with the signing of Aberdeen’s captain Ricky Foster and a win over Millwall. Results continued to cause concern even though teams below City were dropping points as City lost 7 of the next 9 League games conceding three goals in five of those games.  Nicky Maynard handed in a transfer request and at the end of January went to West Ham. His place at the front of City’s usual 4-5-1 formation was taken by Stead with Albert Adomah making many fine runs down the right flank to either deliver through balls or occasionally score himself. In mid February City were losing 2-0 at home to Crystal Palace. Brett Pitman came on with 20 minutes to go and scored twice to earn City a valuable point. In that game however City had seven players booked which incurred a FA fine. The previous two games had seen three players dismissed. City also slipped out if the FA Cup at Crawley who had only just joined the League. As Winter turned to Spring, results continued to disappoint and City remained just above the bottom three. At the end of March following a poor display in a home defeat by Watford, McInnes signed three players on loan; defenders Andre Amougu and Dekel Keinan and forward Hogan Ephraim. Although relegation had threatened for much of the season, City hit form at the end winning three and drawing five of their last eight fixtures finishing 20th. David James had been replaced in goal by Dean Gherkins who showed much promise. James returned to goal for the final game of the season at Burnley, but was injured with 30 minutes left, so Liam Fontaine replaced him. That game was the last game for David James as he moved to Plymouth. 
    Derek McInnes moved some players on whilst bringing in his own choices during the summer of 2012. David James retired and was replaced in goal by Tom Heaton from Cardiff. The biggest spend was on Greg Cunningham from Manchester City. Then in came defenders Mark Wilson from Celtic and Aaron Amadi-Holloway from Bath, strikers Steven Davies from Derby and after the season started, Sam Baldock from West Ham. He scored on his debut against Cardiff. Two midfielders also arrived, Paul Anderson from Forest and Jody Morris from St Johnstone. Yanick Bolaise joined Crystal Palace the day after they lost 4-1 at Ashton Gate. City then beat Cardiff 4-2, but injuries took their toll on the defence. Successive home games produced 5-3 and 3-2 defeats. When the defence tightened, the goal scoring dried up and a 1-0 reverse at Huddersfield put City at the foot of the table by early November, just 77 days after being top. Many defeats followed and in January following a 4-0 home defeat by Leicester, City sacked McInnes even though he had signed some new players just days before. His replacement was Sean O’Driscoll whom City had sought before. His first game in charge was another defeat, this time at Leeds, but the performance was much better. Then came two wins in three days to lift City off the bottom. Against Ipswich they came from behind and in the second at the end of January, Watford with the most prolific attack in League played City who had the worst defence in the League. City scored in each half  and for the first time that season, kept a clean sheet.
    That was a false dawn though; results trailed off and City slumped. Brett Pitman returned to Bournemouth and promptly scored 20 goals helping them to promotion. In doing so Bournemouth replaced City who finished bottom of the Championship. City’s defence that year was the worst in the entire League; they conceded 84 goals but for the first time in 45 years, City completed a season without having any player sent off. 

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There were definitely issues behind the scenes- when that happens, you're often swimming against the tide regardless.

However, we definitely made footballing mistakes too in recruitment:

1) No signing of an experienced centre back by the transfer window- we scored quite freely and were going to loan Monk from Swansea- it never happened and we had to make do!

2) Lack of balance in squad- we never properly that year replaced Cisse. Did he leave due to cash or did he want a new challenge? Can't remember. Anyway, he helped protect the defence and it showed!

3) Neil Danns. Could we have made a bigger effort to keep him? Seemed to make a difference when he came.

Also the 2 injuries at Peterborough and Elokobi at home to Leeds was it, at a stage we started season okay surely didn't help.

That said, we arguably needed to go down anyway as we were being run appallingly, and with ever increasing losses for ever decreasing returns, a big reset probably necessary- especially in those times with FFP on the horizon.

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We had a bloated squad on high wages that needed to cut back on, also a academy to get up and running for the new academy system. 

McInnes just had to much to do, and first team problems with a uninterested squad that many knew were being moved on. 

But as some had said, there was some nice football amongst it all. But the precedent was set, and SOD picked up the batten with the same remit and fell into the same trap, sadly not much good football in that period though. 

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2 hours ago, REDLEE said:

We actually made a half decent start to that season and scored a lot of goals. But I remember the shambolic defending at home to Blackburn when we lost 5-3. The writing was on the wall then!

Garry Monk- had we got him on loan as was mooted in late August 2012, it may have been different.

@Red Right Hand Was it in the snow? I was there, remember the Elokobi injury for sure, but it was late September- don't remember snow. Cunningham and Skuse were the 2 who got injured at Peterborough with terrible tackles too not long before that Leeds game.

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I don`t think the Elokobi game was the same one as the 2 x red card one. I distinctly remember Bolasie getting sent off for a wild two footed tackle on the half way line - he`d basically lost the plot after a couple of decisions went against him and he was the second player to go I`m sure.

Just looked it up, we lost 3-0 on 5th. Feb 2012 and James Wilson was the other player. Snodgrass, McCormick & Becchio scored for them. It was Neil Redfearn`s first game in charge.

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