TOPIC: 3 in a row

I'm surprised no mention (unless I missed it) of this on the board. Just read EN&S; that says the last 4 in a row was in 2008. Wasn't that when GA was in charge and he never got 3 in a row?

3 games closer to CCU treating Mysterious Curle to a cheeky Nando's

Cayambe wrote:

No, that was the John Ward era......Abbott didnt become manager until December 2008. the 4 in a row was March 2008.....our 'oh so nearly season'.

Six in a row I think it was. Ward couldna have been that bad!

Tue 12 Feb 2025 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN H League W 2-1 Livesey 21; Graham 76 6,196
Sat 23 Feb 2025 DONCASTER ROVERS H League W 1-0 Graham 40 8,390
Tue 26 Feb 2025 Crewe Alexandra A League W 1-0 Dobie 64 4,786
Mon 03 Mar 2025 Nottingham Forest A League W 1-0 Graham 71 28,487
Sat 08 Mar 2025 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION H League W 2-0 Graham 35; Livesey 59 6,793
Tue 11 Mar 2025 LUTON TOWN H League W 2-1 Livesey 22; Murphy 29 5,489

It would be interesting to know if Lummy could tell us if John Ward was a half decent manager or was it more down to the players that season organising themselves.
Or was it that great tactician and coach Greg Aboott behind it all!

nobbyblue wrote:
People go on about how we didnt go up coz we didnt replace the injured Joe Garner but look how tight our defence was at that time. Think we just ran out of steam in the end.

Dancingbear wrote:
And when we did concede the defence had the decency to score at least one to make up for it!

For me when we were 1-0 up at halt time at elland road in the league that season we were 45 minutes from promotion. We conceded early through a mistake just after half time and went on to lose the match. From then we struggled til the end of season, this in my view down to running out of steam as a lot of players that year were main stays of the team in a relatively small squad, but also I don't think some of the lads had the experience to deal with the pressure and expectation came onto us.

John ward took over from a caretaker stint from Greg and we had had a couple of good results, John also knew Dennis booth very well as they were ex team mates so he felt he didn't have to change much. Momentum took us through that season and I don't think it was a hard job to manage us that season, the team picked itself and apart from joe we were lucky with injuries.

The season after I think John wanted to stamp more of a mark on things and signed a few players who to me were not up to it. Also myself, grant smith, Kieran and joe were either ruled out or had left.

Things started well but then went wrong quite quickly. I think at that time John didn't get the support needed from his staff or even some sections of the dressing room, I could see it but when you are injured you feel really out of the loop and not your place to say anything. I think he wished then he had brought his own staff in from the start but was very loyal to Greg and Dennis.

We were in a horrendous run and it looked like his time was up and I felt really sorry for him because as I said people started to look after themselves and done things that they wouldn't dream of if they were in charge of the team, I felt he was let down.

When I returned from injury near the end of the season under Greg I could see and feel that the dressing room started by simmo and the character in that had gone, the lads were good lads it was just a different dynamic, it wasn't the musketeer spirit running through the whole club, it has changed. I have spoke to players and people working around the club and they all say it was at that time it changed.

All in all I think john had to go as he had run out of ideas, but I think he deserved more help or people standing up to be counted.

That 2-1 loss to Southend at home was gutting, think we only picked up 1 or 2 points in our last 5 league games. How do you think the squad would have coped going upto the championship lummy ?

When we beat Leeds away in the play offs what were the thoughts on the home tie ?

Nicky [censored] Bailey.

Moorlad wrote:
i got banned off the charlton mb cos of him. i only posted a after his penalty miss and they took the huff.

Was at that Forest game, which was one of the great wins. We didn't play brilliantly but it was a 6 pointer and we deserved it. Was convinced we were going up after that.
After it didn't happen, we knew we had blown our chance and it has been flat ever since.
Absolutely hated our years of mediocrity under Abbott. Staying in League 1 was a reasonable achievement but the club went stale.
Feels like we've bottomed out now and hopefully better times are ahead.

Yeah we went into that Southend game not as confident after the defeat to leeds, they scored early, Si Hackney equalised and I thought here we go we are back on it, then Ravo smashes Bailey with a great tackle and we all know what happened.

After the Leeds away game I thought we were all ready to go again after such a good performance, I was quite surprised by how nervous some of the lads were before it, maybe inexperience, I remember myself and Grant Smith buzzing in the dressing room, but the buzz wasn't all about like it had been say the Leeds 3-1 league match, I actually will say I think a few lads were scared, and these are players that have gone on and upwards, it was just they had not been in this situation, in fact a lot of the older lads had not either.

Nottingham Forest was a great result, I was drug tested after the match so I missed the celebrations!

Had we went up Im sure we would have struggled, I dont think we would have splashed the cash, but we would have tried to keep Brunton Park the fortress it was then and I think we would have had a chance at staying up.
Its my biggest regret, from Conference to Championship in 4 years when I was advised not to sign for Carlisle as I might be forgotten about down there in the bottom league.

Did you pass the drug test?

Never heard out back!

Was the Forest home game when I realised we weren't going to make it, the midfield looked leggy from the first ball was kicked. Like Lummy says, we had a tiny squad and it always felt like we'd had to really graft to get results where other teams could seem to coast to victories. We just ran out of steam.

Don't think the club has recovered yet, it deflated everybody and years of GA tore the heart out of the place.

lummy8 wrote:
The game that f**ked that season was the utter shambles that was the 3-0 at Millwall! WTF happened that day Lummy?!

We were gone by milwall, belief was shot, only a few of us still thought we could do it. That is not through lack of caring, it's what I explained earlier, not enough players had been in the situation we were in suffered from the pressure, put that with running on empty, the milwall game was a struggle. The Bournemouth match last day of season was also.
In the Leeds play off game it was one of them nights where everything clicks,nearly a perfect performance.

By the way CCU you must be gutted seeing curle getting praise

Don't bother me, just as I didn't mind folk slagging Abbott long before he went. All about opinions!

Aye that Wall game was terrible, we were like a team who'd been relegated! Think I left about 4:30, was at Tottenham Court Road with a pint by 5:00!

Yeah massive let down. I still looK back to games like Northampton away 2-1 with a minute to go, Brighton away 2-1 up with about 4 minutes, Hartlepool away 2-1 up with around 4 mins.
Even Swansea away think we were 1-0 going into stoppage time!

The result that put the most important nail in it for me was losing at BP to Forest. A reversal of that one and we would have been up and it would have been them in the play-offs against Leeds. Still, it brightened up a wet day in spain watching Donny beat leeds.

Please feel free to correct me!

Could be right with forest, I was in the middle of it all and I felt elland road was the turning point mentally, but you could obviously see from the stands how it looked. When we beat orient away then Northampton at home then I think Yeovil, I thought that was us, then I thought we went to Leeds? I'm not sure when we played forest,could have been in between them.

Forest was Tues before Yeovil I think, then the 0-0 with Swansea following Tuesday.

Legs and then belief just looked gone. Even getting the Yeovil win and draw against a very good Swans side.

lummy, have you seen a better save than westy off Beckford in the leeds play-off? i watch the highlights now and again and every time i'm still not convinced he's going to reach it. was a great save off freedman and a good save off arni but the fingertip round the post off beckford was unbelievable. had it been a premier league keeper, we's still be seeing it today.

you'll probably say he did that every day in training.

Remember it well, for me Millwall was the one that killed us off. One thing that has always got me about that season was it was the team Neil McDonald put together that nearly got us there. Wonder if we would have made it he had still been there. I think we would.

I felt we had a soft underbelly on the road under NMc, lovely to watch at home though. Fancy we'd have been about 8th had he stayed.

Yeah maybe at home would have had more victories, but pretty sure we set a record that season. Agreed away from home would have been a problem,also he was adamant about playing a diamond formation that season which I don't think suited the majority of the squad, but still an excellent training ground coach.

I was right behind freedmans shot and thought that's in,looks unbelievable on the replays. He is the best keeper I have played with and will end up back in the prem, he had offers last Xmas and the summer but said he wanted 2 years playing before he done anything.
Better than Thomas Sorensen, miles miles better than Ross turnbull and he has a champions league medal!!!
But he knew it ha ha, I think that's what made him so good though.

All that time added on away against Leeds

Often I look back and think how we fluffed our chance to go up but on reflection I think actually we done really well with the players we had and our budget, there were some big teams in league one who must have had budgets that dwarfed ours.

Westwood is the best keeper I've seen I think he didn't get a fair chance at Sunderland and the slim chances he got he made one or two mistakes, had a mate in the youth team back then who said although Westwood was a cocky so n so he was really good with the other young keepers.

Not to invest in the squad after Xmas that year was a disgrace ,we virtually played the same set of players ,then losing Garner in Febuary at Crewe made things worse,how we actualy maintained a chalange to the end is testimont to the players involved.It still leaves a sour taste in my mouth especially when Story was quick to bail out after we didn't go up.The rumour mill was rife ,that we flogged it on purpose .For me you can't blame the players however you can question the club ,they didn't make much of an effort to strengthen was about the smallest squad in the league.