Sutton Who? - Division Four 2021/22

[Nocturnal Submission]

Re: thread title: after a slow start Sutton are doing pretty well.

I really should trot along to one of their games.

The only time I've been in the ground was when I crossed the finishing line of the 1988 Sutton Half-Marathon.

[jwdd27]

Well, Scunny can at least take some heart from drawing the second half 1-1, although I expect Harrogate were playing in their slippers second half.

I'm very disappointed that the season is unfolding as I predicted. It's a mess. The players aren't good enough, neither in all likelihood is the manager (or the assistant), and the less said about the chairman the better, other than that his best route to making money is for the club to dissolve so that he can sell the land. He's blaming COVID and the collapse of the stadium move, which he claims was the council's fault, not his, but we used to be "the best run club in the league" before he took over.
The fans are quite reasonably staying away, down to the core of about 2,000 (and even in the glory years 6,000 was our ceiling. The town is not mad about the club.)

We're not the bounce back type. Something of a York/Stockport/Darlington vibe about us.

[Discordant Resonance]

Grimsby seem to reviving fairly well in the National League, so all hope not lost yet, jwdd.

[jwdd27]

Grimsby seem to reviving fairly well in the National League, so all good not lost yet, jwdd.

Ha.

Friends who are still Scunthorpe-based who I regard as very fanatical are already seriously checking out the alternatives locally - Appleby Frodingham in the Lincs League, and the NCEL triumvirate of Bottesford, Brigg and Winterton. Can't blame them.

[Gas In Name Only]

Told ya GINO

Heh. We seem adept at putting away the worst teams, which offers a measure of relief I guess. Oldham and Walsall have also fallen to Rovers. It would seem if we face anyone who doesn't allow us to play - Swindon with their high press last week for example - then we're completely lost as to how to counter. Walsall stood off us, gave us space and we won there. Gonna assume Carlisle were similar.

As ever the Barton fans are out in force again on our forums etc. They all seem to assume that the rest of us actually want us to lose. We don't.

[Gas In Name Only]

Re: thread title: after a slow start Sutton are doing pretty well.

The same could be said of the game yesterday. An in form Port Vale took a two goal lead and looked good for more. Sutton stuck to their task and the game turned into something of a second half humdinger with a finish I didn't see coming.

Always interesting to see the difference between the attitude of the fans at these clashes. Sutton's just happy to be here vibe vs Vale's grittier seen it all League veterans edge

[cantagalo]

I'm really a Mansfield Town well wisher rather than a fan, but I'm struggling to know what's going wrong. The budget is there, the manager has done it before at this level, but things just don't seem to work out.

Having watched them yesterday, I'm still none the wiser. I spoke to a few of their regulars and they spoke of the mismatch between the budget and league position but generally they seemed willing to give Clough the benefit of the doubt and time to sort it out even though this was a pretty turgid performance against mediocre opposition.

The impression I got was of a side low in confidence and without a settled style of play. I was surprised to see Ollie Hawkins starting at centre half and he was subbed at half time. Clough started with a diamond in midfield which not only resulted in a lack of attacking width but also gave Oldham space to progress down the flanks. To his credit, Clough switched to a 4-4-2 after the break but Jordan Bowery is not a wide midfielder and Danny Johnson continued to be starved of service. So too many square pegs in round holes, lack of confidence, poor recruitment? Take your pick.

[elguapo4]

Thanks for the update. Morale seems to be poor alright.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

In today's least surprising news, Carlisle have given manager Chris Beech the tin tack this morning. If yesterday's game had been at home, he would have got sacked before the sun went down, but they couldnt really do it last night when all concerned were facing a 5-6 hour coach trip back from Bristol.

Beech was an experienced coach but in his first proper managerial role (having been caretaker on at least one occasion) and there was a bit too much of the sense that he was just chuffed to be doing the big lad's job.

He got us to the top of the table in January, but it's been rapidly downhill since, and the sight of him standing on the touchline screaming at the players to hoof it longer, when hoofing it at all clearly wasn't working (and not to mention that we actually had decent ball playing players who were reduced to standing watching the ball sailing over their heads) got old long before the end of last season, so to see it return so quickly this season meant it was only a matter of time.

[Gas In Name Only]

Tbf getting stuffed by us is pretty embarrassing so I'm not surprised

[Baptiste]

I knew there was a stat like this out there somewhere…

https://twitter.com/optajoe/status/1449693107520344066?s=21

[Gas In Name Only]

I knew there was a stat like this out there somewhere…

https://twitter.com/optajoe/status/1449693107520344066?s=21

How's Tom Davies doing? Always thought we binned him off far too soon

[Baptiste]

Probably shouldn't comment until after tonight's match but very solid so far. I heard he was quite injury prone?

[Gas In Name Only]

Probably shouldn't comment until after tonight's match but very solid so far. I heard he was quite injury prone?

Maybe a little bit but given the evidence of our defence the last two seasons it still seems a bad move to have got rid tbh

[Gas In Name Only]

Rovers manage to concede an equaliser and have two sent off in the last two minutes of the game at Colchester. One off for Colchester at the same time

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

...whereas Carlisle hopefully stopped the rot with a 2-2 at Newport, aided by a straight red card for one Newport player (with the resulting penalty providing the equaliser) and a second yellow for another towards the end.

Apart from that it was the best football we've played all season, which admittedly a low bar to clear but something to build on and a confidence boost going into an important game at the weekend.

[elguapo4]

My brother texted me when Mansfield took the lead, I replied " just delaying the inevitable " . Unfortunately I was right.

[jwdd27]

Scunthorpe WIN

There's a nice little OTF cluster developing down at the bottom, only Scunny's embarrassing GD keeping them anchored.

[Gas In Name Only]

A surprising but more than welcome 1-0 win at Harrogate yesterday, their first home defeat of the season. Spoiled by the post match comments of the nobhead in charge who effectively dismissed last week's furore after his non-apology on Friday. Fans are more divided than ever, love seeing people telling me and other stay aways to "never come back"

[slackster]

2 peculiar things happened at Brisbane Rd on Saturday.

1) Despite running one of our cheap tickets events (fiver) Orient won 5-0 v an abject Hartlepool. More usually these promotion games are a stinker to ensure any inquisitive newbies never, ever want to return.

2) The ref blew up for half time without playing the additional minutes due before the 4th official could put up his board. Maybe he was desperate for the loo. Anyways, the teams come back out for the second half and play the 4 mins 1st half additional time before then restarting the 2nd 45. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that blooper happen in the pro game.

Maybe @E10Rifle was there and can provide more info…

[Gangster Octopus]

He wasn't, but it was mentioned on Quest.

[E10 Rifle]

Yeah I was away at the weekend, typically, having sat through three goalless draws in the preceding month. Couldn't even get any takers for my season ticket for the afternoon.

[jwdd27]

EDIT (removing speculation about who will be the new Scunthorpe United manager).

Keith Hill it is then. I'm neither under or over whelmed.

[Ray de Galles]

Apologies if this has already been covered and I missed it but this is a lovely story ;

Rochdale fans raise £10k for statue tribute to superfan

[Gas In Name Only]

By all accounts Rovers looked very good in beating Northampton 2-1 at the Mem yesterday. Barton's on about having turned a corner and tbh there is a gradual, if not steep, upswing in results just now. Given that the division seems to be largely dogshit (NTFC were third before yesterday and were apparently awful), I don't think a finish anywhere between, say, 4th and 20th is out of the question. That's an improvement on my estimate of 13th to 23rd a month or so ago. I'm pleased, especially seeing the pleasure my friends took from yesterday but my word it's beyond tedious to see all the "where are the Barton haters now eh?" comments from the world's most boring men on social media

Of course, it's a big month or two coming up for our Joseph