PNE vs Derby County 2/4/22

433?

Browne is the liability, gave the call away there and not for the first time this match. I’d get rid of him and cannot understand how he starts ahead of McCann

10 all Bird off for challenge on Whiteman

Sounds pitiful 😰

Blackpool were really poor today also. With the quality of both sides it may come down to hard work and passion.

I know I will probably get shot down for saying it but up to know dont see any real difference in results under RL maybe he is not the messiah or maybe he just does,nt have a majic wand

Rafferty was picked simply to put him the shop window with a view to sell him. A bit difficult to get players motivated when you don’t pick your best team with Sepp on the bench as well They might be professionals but they still need revving up. You also did not need to be a genius to figure out three up front would not work .
I am not seeing anything from RL that AN did not bring to the party until he got frustrated with the club .
This PNE time warp is no good for anyone.
If we are going to mess about with the team at least put the kids in.
We learnt nothing and got nothing out of the game .

Awful.

First thought on seeing the line uo was that it was a bit bizarre and I wondered how it was going to work.Simple answer is 'it didn't'. Still, even though with 3 forwards but no pressing from the front ( against a keeper who thought he was playing sweeper) and Browne and Whiteman repeatedly giving the ball away, Derby were so poor we were still the better side for 30 mins. The sending off (no complaints from the far corner of the ground (although wfter the match Derby fans told me he was not the last man) only confirmed Lindsay's lack of pace and judgement.

After that words fail me...or rather they remain best not expressed because the only person who put in a shift was Iversen.

Ryan Lowe: “I want to apologise to the fans, they’ve spent their hard-earned money to come here. We will be reimbursing those who travelled tonight the cost of their ticket. I will be working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen again, hopefully it’s a one off.”

Well thats a two off!! Clueless!!

To be fair the game plan went out window with the red card, I expect there will be a few more experiments with personnel and formation before the season is over. It’s all about planning for next year now.

Rafferty doesn't need putting in the shop window, he's a free agent in the summer. I do believe RL is trying to give players a chance to show what they can do where he can, but that doesn't excuse that performance.

Watched the "meet the manager" event on the clubs YouTube channel the other day... A lot of fans couldn't have got their heads further up Lowes backside if they tried. I'm confident things will improve next season but a lot of talk and little improvement so far. Certainly doesn't warrant the level of brown-nosing on show at that event.

I would have thought ther obvious explanation for playing Rafferty was because SVB had played two U21 games and Lowe went to 4 at the back for this match. The notion that L1 scouts would be at the match looking for a fb or that a free agent needs putting in a transfer window is bizarre. And \I don't see how 'the kids' can be put in when we havn't got any or any anywhere near League football standard.

I think it is becoming pretty evident that we are in for hard times. Nobody is going to buy the club and put in the sort of money TH did. And whist the Hemmings are the custodians the club is up for sale and the need to make it a more attractive financial proposition means cutting the wage bill and the losses. Neither are sustainable. And whilst players leaving the club will reduce the wage bill the club isn't ina position to offer silly transfer money or wages. It is what it is.

Had an interesting drink with Derby fans before the game yesterday...all clinically depressed. Clearly blamed their previous owner, Morris, for spending money the club did not generate and for now keeping hold of the ground.. a major issue. Also felt he should have faced legal charges for not paying HMRC for 2 years, now owed £29m. However it now seems other creditors prepared to accept 26p in the £. (This seems to refer to former manager and players owed £10m, Arsenal owed £8m and American investor owed £20m). One or two even favoured liquidation and starting again in non-League.

I said none of them were complaining when they were spending..and whilst they said they had to agree there was an exception. Guy who told me he was 66 and had followed the club since he was 6 (and would be 'devastated' with liquidation) apparently did publicly question where the money was coming from when they paid large fees and wages but said that he was not taken seriously and got called names for it.

(Consensus appeared to be that if ground ownership can be sorted Ashley will buy the club..only bidder with the money. As one remarked 'out of the frying pan' because they know he will not put money in, but as, they said, a fire is better than being in the cold. Also felt we were well shut of Kirchner interest, 'hasn't got the money', 'all mouth'). Felt far more sympathy for the Derby fans after that (all seemed decent supporters to me).

-------

Penultimate note..McCann, what has he done to not get picked in this shower? I think it is time Browne moved on he has become so unreliable and McCann came in.

----

Final note, I hope you have not got a good feeling about Tuesday Mooney.

You miss several significant points Nextie

1. The Bournemouth Prem push started before the current level of parachute payments (and as for being well run they have been repeatedly fined £millions for breaching FFP) 2. The Brentford push also started 10 years ago with the owner's strategy and, as the club has said, it was unique at the time and it is no longer repeatable.3, Current FFP rules make it impossible to 'take a chance' . In the last financial year Hemmings put in circa £11m just to bridge the shortfall. No owner can now even begin to close the gap between the PNE turnover (last accounts £10.5m) and over half the clubs in the Champ.

PNE is too small a club (as measured by turnover and attendances, just 3,000 full paying ST holders, and low commercial income) to support a Prem team within the current financial structure of football....and , indeed, in the last 10 seasons no side with such a small catchment and /or without parachute money has found its way to the Prem. PW has often sdaid that the ground is too big...even if it was 16,000 it would rarely be filled, but it might lead to a more realistic assessment as to the size of the club and its potential.

The strategy adopted by TH has given the club its most consistent League status and some of its best finishes in the last 60 years (since the abolition of the max wage)....and with no external debt threatening the club's very existence as it did in the 1980s. It has been a success.

As for expecting anybody to now start pumping money into the club is, I suggest, just pie in the sky, the real issue is how to maintain Championship status..that's the challenge, not an airy fairy one of getting to the Prem, and when you see the plight of a club like Derby, one that can fill a 30,000 plus stadium, I would have thought the lesson of taking a punt with money you don't generate is clear. I can guarentee the Derby fans I met yesterday would smatch your hand off to trade places with us even if within their singing crowd in the stadium their riposte to PNE mocking was somwwhat exaggerated:

PNE' Accrington Stanley are waiting for you'
Derby reply 'Accrington Stanley are bigger than you'.

No one is going to buy a company that is making losses each year without having a strategy to rectify the issue.
No company owner is going to fund a company with a shortfall year in year out with out either giving it away or liquidations it .
Maintaining Champ status only works if you are making money and over the last 12 years it has become obvious that is not possible .
You keep supporting the Hemmings model without addressing what will happen when the money stops coming in .
We cannot survive as a mediocre Champ team .
So you either accept a new owner coming in with grand plans for the club or you accept Div 1 football.
Please explain any other possible scenario as I cannot see one.