[OldburyWBA]

Seeing as we have one for the Prem and the Championship, its time for one for League 1 and 2.

Coventry still without a win this season, just gone down 2-1 at home to Stevenage

[WBArgo]

Yes, but who got the goal/winner for Stevenage?


MARCUS HABER! 

2-1 Stevenage, final score...an unbelievable fixture many years ago! If honest, I'd completely forgotten Haber existed, fair play though.

[KingKoren]

Yes, but who got the goal/winner for Stevenage?


MARCUS HABER! 

2-1 Stevenage, final score...an unbelievable fixture many years ago! If honest, I'd completely forgotten Haber existed, fair play though.

Always felt he could be a decent player. He is really tall, strong and quick. The serious serious knee injury he picked up, whilst on loan at St. Johnstone, gave him no chance. He is still very young; a decent signing for Stevenage.

[reiss]

 I have a soft spot for Stevenage, they have great fans

 they have done brilliantly the last few years, coming all the way from the conference.

 and it wouldn't surprise me if they go up this season

[leeiswba]

Under 9,500 at Coventry!

[LiamTheBaggie]

Crawley down to 9 men now. Fantastic chance for Portsmouth to get their first win of the season.

Sheff United were down to 9 men yesterday and scrambled a draw against Scunthorpe.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Within a couple of minutes Pompey take the lead.

18 year old Ashley Harris

[LiamTheBaggie]

They're running riot.

3-0 now. Cracking free kick for the second, although plenty of controversy surrounding it.

Delighted for Appleton.

[FallOutBoy]

Think Coventry are in a spot of trouble. They knocked the ball around well enough at times, but they didn't look to have much of a goal threat. Their strikers played well, but it was mostly around the area rather than inside it.

[The Black Pearl]

Yeovil lost to Bournemouth at the weekend, fatigue blamed by many fans, not been the same since they played us!

[LiamTheBaggie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19520436


Rotherham United boss Steve Evans banned by FA

Rotherham manager Steve Evans has been given a six-match stadium ban and fined £3,000 by the Football Association.

Evans was found to have used abusive and insulting words and behaviour with a reference to gender  during a League Two match between his former side Crawley and Bradford City in March.

The match finished with ugly scenes as a mass brawl led to five players being sent off in the changing room.

The 49-year-old does not intend to appeal against the decision.

He said in a club statement: "I am very disappointed by the decision, however for the good of Rotherham I accept the verdict and will move on with no further comment."

Evans left Crawley for Rotherham two weeks after the incident.

The ban prohibits the Scot from attending the ground at which his side is playing at any time during a match day, starting with Saturday's home clash with Torquay.

Games Evans will miss

    Saturday, 15 September - Torquay (H)
    Tuesday, 18 September - Rochdale (H)
    Saturday, 22 September - Barnet (A)
    Saturday, 29 September - Oxford (H)
    Tuesday, 2 October - Accrington (A)
    Saturday, 6 October - York (A)

[DownInAlbion]

Crawley down to 9 men now. Fantastic chance for Portsmouth to get their first win of the season.

Sheff United were down to 9 men yesterday and scrambled a draw against Scunthorpe.

I had a bet on sheff utd! Don't like them anymore!

Great result for Appy! While read FourFourTwo's season preview one of their fans commented that Appy was the only bright spark in a poor season. Looks like it could get better for them too....

A Middle East consortium have submitted an offer to buy Portsmouth, the club's administrators have confirmed.

Pompey have been in administration since February and remain threatened with liquidation unless a buyer can be found.

Fans' group the Portsmouth Supporters' Trust and former owner Balram Chainrai also want to take over at Fratton Park, with both parties having until the end of this week to finalise their bids.

But administrators PKF are now considering an offer from the new consortium.

A PKF spokesman told The News: "We can confirm we have had a preliminary offer from a Middle East group and we are currently seeking clarification of funding before we can take it any further."

Pompey won their first game of the season, 3-0 at Crawley on Saturday, to move out of the League One relegation zone but will be deducted 10 points by the Football League when they eventually come out of administration.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11674/8069803/Pompey-receive-a-fresh-offer

[LiamTheBaggie]

I had a bet on sheff utd! Don't like them anymore!

Great result for Appy! While read FourFourTwo's season preview one of their fans commented that Appy was the only bright spark in a poor season. Looks like it could get better for them too....

A Middle East consortium have submitted an offer to buy Portsmouth, the club's administrators have confirmed.

Pompey have been in administration since February and remain threatened with liquidation unless a buyer can be found.

Fans' group the Portsmouth Supporters' Trust and former owner Balram Chainrai also want to take over at Fratton Park, with both parties having until the end of this week to finalise their bids.

But administrators PKF are now considering an offer from the new consortium.

A PKF spokesman told The News: "We can confirm we have had a preliminary offer from a Middle East group and we are currently seeking clarification of funding before we can take it any further."

Pompey won their first game of the season, 3-0 at Crawley on Saturday, to move out of the League One relegation zone but will be deducted 10 points by the Football League when they eventually come out of administration.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11674/8069803/Pompey-receive-a-fresh-offer

I just hope its genuine rather than like the previous owners they've had.

As for SUFC. Haha. Two of their away games this season have seen ex-Wednesday players score after receiving barracks of abuse. Clinton Morrison for Colchester & Leon Clarke for Scunthorpe. If you believe the rumours, it isn't looking very good for them financially either.

[OldburyWBA]

Gary Waddock has been relieved of his duties at Wycombe - ie sacked !!

[LiamTheBaggie]

Colchester have sacked John Ward

Adrian Durham of talksport later said something like he predicted he would be sacked when he signed Clinton Morrison. Apparently called him a bad egg. Surprise surprise, have a guess who the next caller was?

http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/drivetime/120924/clinton-morrison-rings-drive-time-181698

[LiamTheBaggie]

Walsall are on sky sports 1 against Shrewsbury in the Black Country Shropshire Derby.

Visitors have made a good start. Currently 0-0 but Walsall are looking extremely good at the moment.

[LiamTheBaggie]

After dominating the majority of the game, Walsall now find themselves losing 1-0.

[OldburyWBA]

Mickey Mellon sacked by Fleetwood after FA Cup defeat today, bit surprising as he got them into the league and they're 7th at the moment

[WBASPE77]

Mickey Mellon sacked by Fleetwood after FA Cup defeat today, bit surprising as he got them into the league and they're 7th at the moment

Very suprised at that, he has done a great job at Fleetwood, first season in the league and they are 7th is very good going.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Graham Westley has been sacked as manager of Preston.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21444208

In-fact, I was reading a very interesting article about him the other week in the Daily Mail. Here it is:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2269446/Graham-Westley--The-Footballers-Football-Column-It-cancerous-I-arrived-Preston-Did-turn-drunk-training-Probably--I-24-signings-clear-start-again.html

Graham Westley is in the middle of the hardest job of his career. After taking Stevenage from the Conference to League One, the former England U18 striker is now the manager of Preston North End. Tough times mean he has had to slash the wage bill, get rid of more than 30 players and face accusations from his players of him dropping them by text message. It has not been dull. Here, the 44-year-old, who knocked Newcastle and Reading out of the FA Cup during his time at Stevenage, writes his first Footballers’ Football Column. And he packs a punch...

The starting point in football management is very difficult. You’ve normally been given a job because something has gone wrong for somebody else.

When I was considering the Preston job, people I respect were asking me if I knew what I was getting myself into. They told me I was walking into a mess.

The club had been relegated and saddled with players on Championship contracts. There were no relegation clauses and the club’s revenue had been slashed. I was warned that the dressing room was a cancerous environment. I knew it was going to be difficult and it was.

The players seemed to have a view that it was me or them. They didn’t want to work to the regime I was putting in place — the work was harder, the hours were longer and that didn’t suit them.

And they thought I was trying to push players out the door. But whoever went in there would have had to do that because the club couldn’t afford the wages.

The lads saw me as the enemy. It became quite public too, with the boys releasing stories about text messages I’d allegedly sent them. There was so much going on behind the scenes.

There was some bad stuff. Did I have anyone arrive drunk for training? Probably. It was cancerous. The way they behaved was like they thought they were in the Premier League.

When I arrived, I cancelled the masseurs coming in. What did they have those for? The culture was like a health club, not a football club.

It was more about getting your legs pampered than putting your boots on and training. If you go and win at Wembley, let’s go to Champney’s for the day. But I couldn’t understand all the pampering going on.
Preston: match analysis

The lads expected it but I think you get what you earn. Manchester United have been out in Qatar but they have earned that.

I’m quite a confrontational person. If I’ve got an issue, I’ll express it. But in a big dressing room it wasn’t easy working out who the troublemakers were. But there are ways and means and you like to think your intuition gets you there in the end.

When you are under attack, what’s important is that you attack back. 
Preston recent results

Getting to the end of the season and not getting relegated was a miracle. When I arrived, they’d lost nine of their last 11 games and you could see why.

They couldn’t put one foot in front of the other, there was no care in the way they were playing. It was a horrific mess and to try to put points together was desperate.

I got to the summer and told the club that I wasn’t sure exactly where the cancer lay. All we could do was clear the decks. It was like an operation. There were a lot of people who wanted me pushed out the door but I survived.

I remember losing 3-1 at home to Brentford last season. It could have been 10. As I was walking off at the end of the game, the fans had decided it was my fault.

They had decided I was not a Preston North End manager, they were hearing stories about how I was treating the players and they went for me. People wanted my blood.

In that situation, I had to respect that and realise there must be a reason they were angry. I looked at myself, thought about it and had to take it on the chin. But I was confident it was the players that were the problem.

Of our 37 players, we kept the goalkeeper, a young centre half Bailey Wright and a lad from the youth team. We sold a few but the others we just had to get rid off. I had to push them out the door.

Then we were about to play League One football and we didn’t have any players. People were asking me how the season was going to go and I didn’t have a clue.

I tried to recruit players who I thought could do a good job but I didn’t have a huge budget. We may be a big club but I couldn’t compete with clubs like Brentford and Swindon on wages.

I couldn’t get near them. It was all about signing free transfers, some youngsters, some from the non-League too.

I made 24 signings — I remembered their names but not all their birthdays — and when you bring in that many players, you’ll get some right and some wrong.

I think it was Howard Wilkinson who said ‘if I get three out of five signings right, I’ve done well’. If I got three right, I was going to end up with 15 players who were good enough and that’s not many.

We started the season well and there was point when we weren’t at all far off the play-offs. We were seven unbeaten and looking alright. Against Notts County, I lost my two full backs — Scott Laird and Keith Keane — and they were my biggest points-per-game players. I think those stats are really important.

Every manager has his dashboard of indices that he looks at and points per game is the indicator I use most.

Soon after I was without 50 per cent of my outfield players who had beaten Stevenage through injury. It was like that for four weeks and the transfer window was shut.

I was stuck playing with my squad players or playing people out of position. The harsh reality was that we got some draws but struggled to win games. So that’s where we are now.

We won 4-1 at Stevenage this season. It’s a little bit of an odd feeling going back there. It was harder the previous year when it was my team.

I couldn’t even look at their players. I was avoiding eye contact because I’d only ever worked with those lads and loved those lads and suddenly they were my opponents.

I didn’t like that feeling of having to beat my team. I’d never looked at them as enemies. This time it was easier and we drew 1-1.

Peter Ridsdale works as a consultant to the owners. I take as I find not as I hear because I’ve read things about myself which are so far from who I really am. Why would I ever judge anyone on their portrayal?

In every conversation I’ve had with Peter, I’ve felt I’m dealing with a really straightforward person. I don’t always like the answers I get from him but they are always honest. I don’t look at him in anything other than a positive way

You should learn every day. I’m sure Sir Alex Ferguson is still learning. There’s talk at the moment about David de Gea and whether Sir Alex has made a mistake.

He’s probably asking himself that because we all learn all the time. I bet the Preston fans are thinking: ‘We’ve absolutely battered that bloke but he’s still standing, still smiling, still talking’.

I remember my assistant John Dreyer speaking to Phil Parkinson about his spell at Hull. And Phil said he had complete belief in the way he went about things there but that maybe he wanted to get to his way straight away.

He said maybe it was too radical and that switched the players off. When I heard that, I wondered if we could have been less radical when we arrived.

Maybe we put our whole regime in place too quickly. Maybe with a gradual approach, we would have kept one or two players on board who we lost.

Now we just have to try to get winning again. I always just say ‘win the next, then win the one after, then the one after’. It got me promoted with Stevenage.

This weekend we drew at home to Coventry. No-one wants to finish 14th or somewhere like that in the league so we’ll just have to see where it takes us.

[WBASPE77]

Not surprised about Westley getting the sack they have been on a poor run of late.

[Pelsall_Baggie]

Two Albion youth players out on loan, Cameron Gayle (Shrewsbury) and Donervorn Daniels (Tranmere) are currently playing against each other live on Sky Sports.

[WBASPE77]

Two Albion youth players out on loan, Cameron Gayle (Shrewsbury) and Donervorn Daniels (Tranmere) are currently playing against each other live on Sky Sports.

How are they getting on?

[Pelsall_Baggie]

Tranmere down to 10 men after 5 minutes. Shrewsbury 2-0 up, with the second goal scored by a certain Mr C. Gayle of this parish with a glancing header from a corner!

Gayle, at right back, looks very tidy. Daniels at Centre Back also looks very good, considering neither of them have played more than 10 games at this level.

[The Black Pearl]

Tranmere down to 10 men after 5 minutes. Shrewsbury 2-0 up, with the second goal scored by a certain Mr C. Gayle of this parish with a glancing header from a corner!

Gayle, at right back, looks very tidy. Daniels at Centre Back also looks very good, considering neither of them have played more than 10 games at this level.

Our youth players are regularly starting to make a difference to lower division sides when loaned out, this is a very promising sign to me.