ChippenhamRed

I’m a member not a STH. Absolutely zero motivation to part with my money at the moment.

“The impressive cup run”. We got through one round.

Without a doubt the anger should be mostly directed at the board. But they all need to go, Manning included.

Yep. Shite. No point getting excited about the good wins because a crap defeat is only just around the corner. The good wins are starting to look like they happened despite Manning, not because of him. If you can’t get the team performing to a consistent standard, then you’re failing.

Take away Tinnion’s time as a club legend on the pitch and you’re left with a thick sounding bloke with nothing interesting to say, no leadership skills whatsoever, and a terrible managerial record. He shouldn’t be anywhere near running the club.

Correction. Tinnion and Jon Lansdown have. Manning has just helped a bit.

Utter shite. How do we go from Southampton to three straight defeats against poor teams? I try to be pragmatic and say Manning needs time, but that’s inexcusable. He can go.

Hang on, wait. I’ve been watching this for 40 years. Are you saying we’ve only got 3 more years left? BRILLIANT! I was wondering how much longer.

Cheers. Not a fan of commentators using nicknames!

I see we have already reached the stage where we are shoehorning in criticism of Manning into every discussion point. How long until Gaza is his fault?

Robins TV calling Ng “N.G.”. Surely that’s not how you say it?!

You might be right. I was only a teenager then so don’t particularly remember anything prior to the 2003 play off games, which certainly were big - but then any play off game would be. I was in the home end for the first leg! But certainly in more recent times, it doesn’t seem to match the hype. The games don’t sell out at either stadium. In reality, the Swansea game matters a lot more to them and a Rovers game would matter a lot more to us. If we were playing them today, the atmosphere would be a world apart from this.

The amount of empty seats in the sold out South Stand today is just ridiculous. Cheapest seats in the ground, rarely available to members or infrequent attendees. Club need to do something about it.

It’s always been overhyped as a derby I think. The fact that the fixture almost never sells out tells you how much it really matters.

£160 is crazy, I had no idea it was that much. That feels like a bit of a piss take! Agree Fry’s pitches are lovely, my lad played there back in the autumn and they were like bowling greens. I also remember that day because I had a complete brain fart and absentmindedly walked across the middle of another pitch while there was a game in progress!

That’s my point though - clubs shouldn’t need to raise funds like that. There is so much money in the game already!

Yes I’ve heard that too, I’m fairly certain it’s happening.

Really good points. We also have a couple of shocking “all weather” pitches in schools near here - old school hockey type surfaces. Absolutely terrible! Although to be fair they are at least made available outside of school hours. One much better example is Stanley Park here in Chippenham. It’s a fantastic community facility with beautifully maintained grass pitches and top class 3G. Forest Green also train there. During the school holidays, they make the 3G available for “turn up and play” - my son goes down there with his mates, they pay £3 each and stay literally all day. Wonderful! We need more of that sort of thing.

My 13 year old’s match tomorrow is off again because the pitch is waterlogged. He was due to play twice last weekend and both were lost to rain. He is also due to play on Sunday and that’s in the balance. I’m sure plenty of others here will be in the same situation. It’s got me thinking. British football is awash with money thanks to the Premier League - but far too much youth football is lost every winter to bad weather and pitches that can’t cope. When they do happen, invariably a poor quality pitch affects the standard of the game. Games on 3G almost always produce a better match. Surely there needs to be a more urgent push to greatly increase the number of 3G all-weather pitches across the country?! It just seems obvious - and there is no lack of money. It’s incredibly frustrating to see kids who love the game missing out on so much football - and the exercise, team building and socialising that goes with it - because of our notoriously bad weather. I dare say climate change is making it worse, too. We complain about kids being on screens all day, but it strikes me that we could be doing an awful lot more to stop that happening.

Ripped from another thread because it's also applicable here: - Pearson at City: P131 W42 D32 L57 (32% win%) Manning at City: P23 W7 D7 L8 (30% win%) Mitigation for Pearson: - Inherited a mess, Covid, financial restrictions, player sales, substantial injuries Mitigation for Manning: - Not his squad yet, no summer, lack of time, change of playing style So, overall, very similar records for both managers and mitigating circumstances in both cases. It looks to me like two managers getting roughly the same from the squad - mixed, mid table results with a mid table squad. This is not a defence of the sacking of Pearson nor is it particularly a defence of Manning. But it doesn’t suggest Manning is the total disaster some seem keen to make him out to be, when his record compares very closely with Pearson who is widely regarded to have done a good job. Once again the recency bias of two poor results seems to be preventing the forum from making a more objective analysis. Eight days ago we were speculating about a play off push. And even now we are in the top half. We also shouldn’t let the “top six” comment from the board distract from the reality. Manning has been stitched up by that comment, but that’s not his fault. I can’t see the point of making a change and expecting much better from anyone else when all the other fundamentals at the club remain unchanged. Especially when we are in the relative safety of 12th position.

The conversation has turned in 8 days and 2 results. People are obsessed with the last 10 games but it's also 2 wins in 4. We are a mid table club doing mid table things, we're 12th in the Championship and people need to get a grip. What the hell would be the point of getting rid of a manager whose overall record after just 23 games is about par for the squad (and very similar to Pearson), if all the other fundamentals at the club remain unchanged?

At least with all those empty seats in the South Stand, there should be enough room in the lifeboats

Pearson at City: P131 W42 D32 L57 (32% win%) Manning at City: P23 W7 D7 L8 (30% win%) Mitigation for Pearson: - Inherited a mess, Covid, financial restrictions, player sales, substantial injuries Mitigation for Manning: - Not his squad yet, no summer, lack of time, change of playing style So, overall, very similar records for both managers and mitigating circumstances in both cases. It looks to me like two managers getting roughly the same from the squad - mixed, mid table results with a mid table squad. This is not a defence of the sacking of Pearson nor is it particularly a defence of Manning. But it doesn’t suggest Manning is the total disaster some seem keen to make him out to be, when his record compares very closely with Pearson who is widely regarded to have done a good job. Once again the recency bias of two poor results seems to be preventing the forum from making a more objective analysis. Eight days ago we were speculating about a play off push. And even now we are in the top half. We also shouldn’t let the “top six” comment from the board distract from the reality. Manning has been stitched up by that comment, but that’s not his fault. I can’t see the point of making a change and expecting much better from anyone else when all the other fundamentals at the club remain unchanged. Especially when we are in the relative safety of 12th position.

Exactly that.

I just can’t be arsed with any of this any more. 8 days ago we were talking about a possible play off push, now we’re calling for the manager’s head. We win a few, we lose a few, we draw a few. Sometimes we manage to win a couple in a row, and we’re all talking us up. Then we lose a couple in a row and it’s all doom and gloom. Right now we are 12th in the table; the very definition of mid-table. People pick a run of games to support their argument; currently it’s fashionable to pick the last 10 games, because it’s poor and supports the idea that the manager is failing. If you pick the last four, we’ve won two and lost two. Average. If you look over 34 games - the entire season - there are 12 clubs doing worse than us, and 11 doing better. Probably about par for the squad. It all amounts to quibbling over the details, while the reality is: we are a mid table club, with a mid table squad, getting mid table results. None of this is a defence of Manning, nor is it an attempt to justify the clearly-unjustified sacking of Pearson. Tinnion and Jon Lansdown clearly don’t have any leadership skills or any natural air of authority to inspire confidence. The “top six” claim is a noose around their necks. I don’t really know where I’m going with this. But I’m just tired of the constant cycle of vague optimism, then inevitable disappointment and the equally inevitable calls for the manager’s head. Somehow we need to break out of this cycle because it’s so tedious and it’s been the same for years. Pretty much my entire 40 years on earth, in fact. I don’t really have a point here! I’m just a bit fed up. But I’m really not convinced that yet again blaming the manager is the answer for a club that’s been serving up generous lashings of bang-averageness for decades now.