Tickers

It''s just coincidence. For example at the start of the season we played Exeter and Wycombe the week after Leeds did. At the end of the season we have Gillingham the week after Leeds do and they have the same with Rovers in the final game.Anything random can always appear to have patterns.

[quote user="Old Boy"]A very significant thing is that it''s only local authority schools that are closing. My daughter teaches in a private school, and that never closes due to the weather. That''s because they know that the parents would not be happy about it and would be able to move their kids to another school. And where''s the concern about the safety of the kids on school premises? The claim that that''s the reason why LA schools close as soon as it the first snowflakes are spotted is bunk - it''s for the benefit of the teachers. Very few employees in the private sector are in such a privileged position. I drove 250 miles on business on Friday - it was tedious, but I felt obliged to do it. Teachers don''t feel that anymore about their job.[/quote] This simply isn''t true. Culford shut for day pupils on the 9th, Langley and Thorpe House were both closed on the 8th - the reasons for these closures are exactly the same as in the state sector - a lack of decent transportation and a concern for the health and safety of the pupils. Other schools ran limited timetables and placed up messages informing parents not to take any risks and that normal timetables were unlikely. Even more private schools aren''t even back yet - The Norwich School, Gresham''s, the High School and others don''t start until Monday or Tuesday. There are some aspects of private schools that may enable them to open more easily - any school with boarding students will naturally be able to open as they have staff and students on site, they have a larger teacher:student ratio, allowing them to cope with higher absentee rates among staff should they collapse the timetable or need cover and also many of them have facilities and resources that allow them to run activities that other schools cannot do if the attendance rate is poor enough to effectively cancel ''proper'' lessons. Regardless of whether a teacher or a headmaster is employed in the state or the private sector, the first priority (not just in extreme situations) is the safety of the pupils - perhaps this arises in part because of the litigation culture that exists, but also because nobody wants to see a bus full of kids get into an accident. Perhaps you disagree with that, or believe them over-cautious, but taking a moral high ground on the basis of false accusations simply doesn''t take the debate anywhere - much like a car stuck in the snow.

My thoughts on his performance would be:Goal 1: Primary fault is certainly with Semmy, it was a woeful backpass. To be honest I think Theo was shaping up to parry an expected shot from Lisbie, who appears (from the replay angle anyway) to attempt to control and miss the ball, which resulted in it bouncing embarrassingly over Theo. I''d need a better angle to be sure, he could possibly have done better, but I think the fault lies elsewhere.Goal 2: Doherty is caught and Nelson manages to be slower than Doherty, which is impressive. Lisbie is allowed to cut in too easily. The shot is decent enough and the save is okay, but really I would have hoped he would hold the ball. However it must be said that neither Nelson or Drury were anywhere near Platt, so I think overall you''ve got to be faulting the whole back line for that one.Goal 3: I think Theo is slightly more culpable here - the cross is in the area where a good keeper could have plucked the ball out of the air. However the back line again was woeful - aside from the goalscorer there were two colchester players who missed the ball who were in front of their man. Any one of them could have scored, but I think he could have made it to the cross.Goal 4: Here he is fully to blame. It''s a decent enough free kick but take a look on the replay where Theo is standing. It''s a pretty central free kick, yet he''s so far across it''s no wonder he got nowhere near the shot. Sitting in the Upper Barclay for that one I recall that it wasn''t a shot that thumped the corner, but was one that any keeper standing in the right place would have reached with little effort.Goal 5: The defending is poor, but again here Theo is the prime culprit. The shot is straight above his head and he really should be getting a hand on it. Reflex saves are vital and he could have done better.Goal 6: It''s a decent strike and although I thought at the time that better positioning might have led to a save (it''s not a screamer into the corner) the replays don''t show a wide shot so I can''t be sure so I wouldn''t condemn him for it.Goal 7: Primarily the fault is the ease at which the defence were carved open, however the pace that the ball was moving at pretty much meant that a cut back was inevitable and Theo should have stayed on his line. However the rest of the defence were standing around motionless so I think it''s more a problem with the back line.Overall I think he can take the major blame for one of the goals, Semmy can take major blame for another and the rest were the result of a team working hard together to be as woeful as possible.

[quote user="Yellow Rose of Texas"][quote user="BlyBlyBabes"] There''s a compatibility button that should sort out your quoting problem OTBC [/quote] There is, is there ? ... On Safari / OSX ...[/quote]I had the same issues with Safari on OSX when  I post (rarely), switching to firefox got rid of it though. However I''m unaware of any compatability button that would have improved the situation, so if there is one then I would be happy to know of it as well, simply because it bugged me for a while. I just assumed that it was some poor coding somewhere in Safari.Tickers

It''s somewhat unfair to compare the people brought in by Gunn against those brought in by previous managers, since none of them were looking for League One standard players (they may have brought some in, but they weren''t trying to!)

Cheers Pete, thanks for the reply.Tickers

Hey all;Hoping someone can answer this query. If you''re on direct debit payment for a season ticket and claimed the rebate is it August that the monthly costs decrease or should it have been this month? I''m not 100% sure and can''t find the letter with the info on (and there''s nothing on the official site that I can find).Cheers and Best Wishes,Tickers

Terrible appointment. We will be staying in League One.

We also have to remember that any transfer fee is not based on the quality of the player but the value of the player to their parent club. If Joe was contracted to Norwich still then regardless of loan spells his valuation would largely be limited by the fact that he would be our number 2 goalkeeper behind David Marshall - we simply couldn''t demand £3 million for our back up goalkeeper, especially given our financial situation. By contrast since he is the number one goalkeeper at Posh he is a vital part of their team and as a consequence has a much higher value.Frankly I think we got a perfectly good deal for Joe back in 2008, and it was certainly a good move in terms of his career; the sell on clause means that if he ever is the subject of a big money move then City will have had a great return on him.

I''m not sure the table actually proves a tighter championship this year since as far as I can work out last year would qualify as one of the tightest final tables that I am aware of, certainly so since the 2000-2001 season (which is all Wikipedia backdates to). Last year we saw the lowest points tally for winning the title, which was 81, a score that Wolves are already 2 points ahead of this and one that could even be surpassed by Birmingham, Sheffield and Cardiff. Wolves'' record so far predicts a final tally of 88-89 if they keep up their current points per game, and while this is still below the average winning tally since 2000-1 (95) it''s still well in excess of last year''s total achieved by West Brom.Of course at the other end we can look at the points accumulated by the team in 22nd place. Leicester have the rather unfortunate record of having gone down with the highest points total last year with 52 points - the performance of City, Forest and Barnsley would suggest that they will finish in the 49-50 point region, and since one of them has to get relegated it''s likely that this will be the marker for relegation. It''s a little above the average (47.5) but nothing special.Hand on heart I think we would be safe with 50 points, maybe because of goal difference but again that in itself is not a new phenomenom in the relegation scrap, and while the final three games could throw up some surprises I think this season''s table will really only dramatically differ from the one of last year because it is that one, not this, that was unusually tight.Tickers

I think the problem is that in thinking back to Hucks you really are thinking of a different team entirely, one where we had a reasonably solid core that then allowed Hucks to have the high level of impact that he did. Since Huckerby we have signed good players, but they have failed to have the same impact largely because the squad as a whole has been allowed to degenerate to such a poor standard. Under Worthington, Ashton, Earnshaw and Dublin for me would all be classed as good players, and although he never really showed his capability until Roeder arrived Croft has proven himself at this level. As for Grant - really he was a failure in the transfer market as virtually all of his purchases were a waste of money. I would however defend Marshall - while he makes mistakes he is a talented goalkeeper who is still improving. Roeder - frankly I can''t criticise his permanent signings (his loan signings were more baffling, but more because he wasn''t using them). There is no doubt to my mind that Hoolahan, Bell, Clingan, and Stefanovic (before being injured) all added quality to the squad. The wider problem is that none of these players added to an already solid team, but were basically part of a wider rebuilding effort that we didn''t complete, whether this was because Roeder was unable to convince players to sign or if the Board were unable/unwilling to put in the necessary funds is not something I know. I do think perhaps on considering player signings you could ask yourself the question of ''would this player have added to our squad the year we won promotion?''. I think there''s a fair few who could have done. The problem really in my view is that we have allowed the squad as a whole to seriously degenerate since relegation from the top flight.

Roeder is a difficult problem. I don''t think he can have any real complaints about his dismissal. After saving us from relegation last season Roeder should have been lauded as a hero, but his utter lack of tact or diplomacy was quite simply astonishing. How he managed to throw away so much goodwill is beyond me.

[quote user="CT the Jarrold king"]He left because he wasnt being played in his right position.[/quote] I''m not sure I really buy into that, since he lined up on the left hand side for Coventry today, if that was his issue with Norwich then he won''t sort it out there.

There was a lot in the Barclay - some of the shouts that accompanied it included claims that he was Judas for being here six months before leaving. I think people are frustrated by wider issues affecting the club, booing Bell gives an opportunity to vent without it being directed at the players on the pitch. Personally though I''m sorry we lost him, since I thought he was a good player...did get caught offside a lot though.

My statement on Grant is wrong: Should have read that the financial mismanagement and the appointment of Peter Grant left the club in dire need of players but up to the eyeballs in debt. Apologies.