The Rest of League One 23/24

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Portsmouth currently 1-0 down at HT in the FA cup vs Chesterfield with our man SKD currently chatting on screen.

Just goes to show a well performing team can be hard to beat, no matter what league they're playing in. Tow men injured for Portsmouth. Hopefully this will go someway to derailing their league campaign.



Full time win for Chesterfield. Lovely upset. Surprising that it was a full strength Portsmouth side aswell.

Also, Aldershot banged in seven at Swindon - so maybe these here non-leaguers aren't the cakewalk we made 'em look....?

I'm sure on any given day, there's always a chance you get beaten. But it really shouldn't a) happen very often, if you have Championship aspirations and b) should really be down to how well they've lifted their game as opposed to us being well off the pace. It only really becomes an annoyance, if it looked like we've put in a 60% shift.

All true. But Cupsets are rarer than they were – see the almost total failure of the best academies in the Pizza Cup, not to mention the sewing-up of the major cups by the Big Four Or So. I doubt we'll see many cupsets in the FA Cup Third Round but it may be indicative that non-league is closing the gap on the lower EFL, even as the lower EFL drifts further away from the top boys.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Rumours strengthening that Oxford are going to lose manager Liam Manning to Bristol City.

[Harry Genshaw]

Rumours strengthening that Oxford are going to lose manager Liam Manning to Bristol City.

Just seen that. Great news for everyone else but they must be gutted if he does go. Can't see them attracting as good a replacement. Cowleys perhaps?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Rumours strengthening that Oxford are going to lose manager Liam Manning to Bristol City.

Just seen that. Great news for everyone else but they must be gutted if he does go. Can't see them attracting as good a replacement. Cowleys perhaps?

Would be fitting – Cowley could live in Cowley, just outside Oxford. #localjoke #isthisthingon #toughcrowd #etc

Not sure he's proven he'd be as good as Manning has been this season. Not sure who they could get that has. (When's Leam Richardson getting another job?) It will be a spoke in their wheel, and they were already wobbling. No bad thing.

[Mar]

That Chesterfield result for Portsmouth gets worse for them with the news that a mainstay of their defence Regan Poole has an ACL injury and will miss the rest of the season.

Hopefully he comes back well enough but his absence should have some impact to Pompey given they've got two months before they can get a replacement in place.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Interesting appointment (if it happens)

Screenshot 2023-11-16 at 13.06.42.png (110.12 KiB) Viewed 15107 times

[sonicthewhite]

OMFG! I wouldn't normally use that abbreviation but Jeezus H, this surely has to be a wind up?

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... d-reading/

Would the odious tw*t that is Shamberson and his equally odious offspring really try a return to football? May the Gods, the Universe and any other Celestial entity help Reading avoid that torture

[TANGODANCER]

Relative:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67486563

[Mar]

Relative:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67486563

Wow, that's quite surprising that Tango. On the one hand it highlights club mismanagement and on the other they're performing relatively well in the league.

Hopefully that news will unsettle them a little and make gaining ground on them a little easier.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

4pts: the gap between us in 1st and Posh in 4th
4pts: the gap between Posh in 4th and Derby in 5th
4pts: the gap between Charlton in 10th and Vale in 19th

Curious division, this

[BWFC_Insane]

4pts: the gap between us in 1st and Posh in 4th
4pts: the gap between Posh in 4th and Derby in 5th
4pts: the gap between Charlton in 10th and Vale in 19th

Curious division, this

I'd be keeping an eye on Peterborough and Derby. Both I feel are dangerous still. Blackpool too potentially.

These sorts of sides can go on runs in this league.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

4pts: the gap between us in 1st and Posh in 4th
4pts: the gap between Posh in 4th and Derby in 5th
4pts: the gap between Charlton in 10th and Vale in 19th

Curious division, this

I'd be keeping an eye on Peterborough and Derby. Both I feel are dangerous still. Blackpool too potentially.

These sorts of sides can go on runs in this league.

Oh yeah there's still plenty of peril yet. If we don't make the top two we could easily fall to a solid team like Posh or Derby in the play-offs. I've seen us get 83pts in this division and stay down - thanks to Chris f**kin Malkin. (And, for that matter, Paul Comstive.)

January will be interesting for both Posh and Derby. Derby will be expecting bids for their best young players, and that's a difficult juggle – if you sell you have to replace them and soothe the fans, if you don't it can go south quickly. Posh are a bit more brutal in the market so I guess they'll sell Clarke-Harris (often a sub these days) for about £300-500k and reinvest in younger faster players, which may make them stronger in spring.

Blackpool are funny - capable of great results (see Saturday!) but they've also been fallible. To be fair they've only lost to us and Posh since Oct 3rd – and again, Critchley will shuffle in January and get more of his types in so I'd expect them to improve.

But in the OP I was just talking about the shape of the division, which is again following last year's lead: three teams on a ludicrous pace, six or so contesting behind, and then a great mass of also-rans.

[Harry Genshaw]

Agree on those sides. Wigan (& possibly Barnsley too) probably have too much to do but being the annoying gits they are, will be chucking spanners in a few works here and there.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Agree on those sides. Wigan (& possibly Barnsley too) probably have too much to do but being the annoying gits they are, will be chucking spanners in a few works here and there.

Barnsley very good going forward but still suffering at the back end from a crippling summer of losing their very organised gaffer, their captain/centre-back and their overachieivng loanee goalie.

We might get one or two outliers - Stevenage will stay buggardly and Evans will presumably recruit again in January – but otherwise it's shaping into another top seven or so largely made up of the recently relegated (Posh, Derby, Blackpool, Barnsley) and the former-Premmers slowly bouncing back from admin (us and Pompey). Oh and Oxford.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Reading flattening Carlisle 5-1 - the Cumbrians, our most recent conquerors, tail-spinning and third-bottom. Wonder if they'll cash in on Moxon in January? Wonder if we're interested?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Oh my days

[Worthy4England]

Foul, for me, irrespective of whether he's been an arsehole prior to it...

[boltonboris]

Play acting. Glad they gave it. Hopefully it'll make them think twice about the way they sh*thouse their way through matches. Detestable team with absolutely no endearing qualities whatsoever. Being cheats is ingrained in their DNA as a club, so for that reason. F*ck em

[Worthy4England]

Oh, I'm laughing well enough...just another piss poor bit of refereeing

[Prufrock]

Arguable but funny and deserved