League Two Observations 15:19 - Sep 16 with 13846 views | RSCOSWORTH | Leyton Orent are the only unbeaten team in the division. Stevenage and Barrow are 2nd and 3rd respectively despite finishing last season 21st and 22nd. Hartlepool and Rochdale remain the only two sides without a win. Swindon have drawn 5 of their eight matches. Gillingham have only managed two goals in eight games. There are 21 individual players who have scored more than two league goals this season. | ![](/images/avatars/1856.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 09:32 - May 26 with 2339 views | bwildered | Wrexham's home will no longer be known as The Racecourse Ground from July 1, after co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney announced a new stadium sponsorship deal. Disney World ? | ![](/images/avatars/1057.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 20:56 - May 26 with 2275 views | bwildered | Peterborough have a policy of transfer listing players with a year to go on contracts, hence former U’s defender Frankie Kent available. | ![](/images/avatars/1057.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 18:07 - May 28 with 2174 views | burnsieespana | The two longest trips gone if I am not mistaken. | ![](/images/avatars/1050.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
League Two Observations on 19:47 - May 28 with 2158 views | mfb_cufc |
League Two Observations on 18:07 - May 28 by burnsieespana | The two longest trips gone if I am not mistaken. |
Barrow? | ![](/images/avatars/1870.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 07:39 - May 29 with 2104 views | burnsieespana |
League Two Observations on 19:47 - May 28 by mfb_cufc | Barrow? |
Be the longest remaining I would think. [Post edited 29 May 2023 13:12]
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League Two Observations on 09:42 - May 29 with 2085 views | durham_exile |
League Two Observations on 07:39 - May 29 by burnsieespana | Be the longest remaining I would think. [Post edited 29 May 2023 13:12]
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Although Carlisle and Hartlepool have gone I am looking forward to Morecambe and Accrington Stanley again. In fact there are 14 Away games next season on the cards for me. Enjoy the Summer. Up the U's | ![](/images/avatars/1043.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 17:57 - May 29 with 2032 views | burnsieespana |
League Two Observations on 13:55 - May 29 by wessex_exile | Bizarrely, in terms of road miles, Barrow is actually further than Carlisle |
Is it? Didn't know that but thanks for the clarification. According to the Gazette we will travel an additional 500 miles this next season! | ![](/images/avatars/1050.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) | Login to get fewer ads
League Two Observations on 23:56 - May 29 with 1998 views | wessex_exile |
League Two Observations on 17:57 - May 29 by burnsieespana | Is it? Didn't know that but thanks for the clarification. According to the Gazette we will travel an additional 500 miles this next season! |
It kind of depends on your preference to balance miles vs journey time. The optimum to Barrow is via M1 and M6, to Carlisle is A1 and A66, which is less road miles. | ![](/images/avatars/1046.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 16:21 - Aug 15 with 1413 views | RSCOSWORTH | After two matches, for the majority of the division, Milton Keynes and Gillingham are proving the bookies right so far with two wins from two, Barrow, who weren't so fancied by the bookies, have started strongly again and are the only other side with a 100% record. At the other end of the table there are four sides yet to get off the mark and we're one of them. In our defence we've only played the one game and it was away from home against the biggest club in the division. The other teams on nil points are Stockport, Tranmere and Doncaster. | ![](/images/avatars/1856.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 21:41 - Sep 15 with 1255 views | RSCOSWORTH | We're now seven games, or six for some, into the season and Mansfield and Swindon are the only teams in the division that remain unbeaten. Neither of them are top though because Gillingham lead the way despite having a goal difference of 0. Are they going to show that in these lower divisions it's about not conceding rather than scoring that gets you promoted? At the other end of the table Doncaster Rovers are the only winless team in the division but have had a couple of draws whereas the four teams immediately above them haven't managed a draw between them. | ![](/images/avatars/1856.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 12:19 - Feb 21 with 971 views | RSCOSWORTH | 48 points at this stage of the season is currently enough for a place in the Play-Offs. There are only three points between 7th and 16th though so there are plenty of teams that will fancy their chances of nabbing that last remaining spot. This means despite the terrible season we're having, this is our worst return points wise since we returned to this division and the only time we had less points after 32 games in the last 19 seasons was when we got relegated from League One, we're only 18 points off the Play-Offs. To put that into context if we'd just won every game we'd gone 1-0 up in we'd be 18 points better off and that doesn't include the leads we lost against MK (2-1), Wimbledon (1-2) and Forest Green (3-2) which are worth a further eight points had we held onto them. We'd be fifth! | ![](/images/avatars/1856.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 18:44 - Feb 21 with 922 views | wessex_exile |
League Two Observations on 12:19 - Feb 21 by RSCOSWORTH | 48 points at this stage of the season is currently enough for a place in the Play-Offs. There are only three points between 7th and 16th though so there are plenty of teams that will fancy their chances of nabbing that last remaining spot. This means despite the terrible season we're having, this is our worst return points wise since we returned to this division and the only time we had less points after 32 games in the last 19 seasons was when we got relegated from League One, we're only 18 points off the Play-Offs. To put that into context if we'd just won every game we'd gone 1-0 up in we'd be 18 points better off and that doesn't include the leads we lost against MK (2-1), Wimbledon (1-2) and Forest Green (3-2) which are worth a further eight points had we held onto them. We'd be fifth! |
...and Ben Garner would probably still be manager? It does show though the fine margins between success and failure in this division. The reassuring fact is that on our day we have a squad to compete with anyone in this league, and have done, the issue is clearly a mindset problem. I can't imagine that isn't the highest priority for the Cowleys, so I'm expecting a big clear out and refresh in the summer. In many ways I can't blame people, but the sometimes toxic negativity of supporters after season on season of struggle doesn't help improving that mindset, but a positive end to this season and a half-decent start to next will wipe out a lot of that. | ![](/images/avatars/1046.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 21:27 - Feb 21 with 901 views | ghughes11 |
League Two Observations on 18:44 - Feb 21 by wessex_exile | ...and Ben Garner would probably still be manager? It does show though the fine margins between success and failure in this division. The reassuring fact is that on our day we have a squad to compete with anyone in this league, and have done, the issue is clearly a mindset problem. I can't imagine that isn't the highest priority for the Cowleys, so I'm expecting a big clear out and refresh in the summer. In many ways I can't blame people, but the sometimes toxic negativity of supporters after season on season of struggle doesn't help improving that mindset, but a positive end to this season and a half-decent start to next will wipe out a lot of that. |
the mindset one is a strange one though isn't it?!? How many players, managers, coaching staff etc have we gone through in the last 4 years. We gone youth who shouldn't have been scarred by previous failures. Experienced old heads who should be able to dust off any setback and "go-again" as the famous saying goes. Also signed players from higher divisions who have tasted recent, relative success - Jay (promotion), Hall (promotion). Hopper, Mingi from higher divisions. Just to name a few The only player, manager type, personnel that I can think of still left from previous seasons are Noah, Hussey, Ball and the chairman! Our home record has been woeful for sometime now - so maybe you are on to something there Wessex! | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 16:24 - Apr 9 with 535 views | RSCOSWORTH | As it stands Notts County have the best attack and worst defence in the division. I wonder how many times that has happened. We could definitely do with another 5-4 at their place. Didn't Man City score and concede 100+ goals in a season many, many years ago? | ![](/images/avatars/1856.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 17:33 - Apr 9 with 487 views | mfb_cufc |
League Two Observations on 16:24 - Apr 9 by RSCOSWORTH | As it stands Notts County have the best attack and worst defence in the division. I wonder how many times that has happened. We could definitely do with another 5-4 at their place. Didn't Man City score and concede 100+ goals in a season many, many years ago? |
Correct. Man City did it in the 1957-58 season, and only in 42 games as well. Though City would finish a more than respectable fifth in the First Division, one wonders where Les McDowall’s team might have finished with even just a slightly less porous defence. Let this sink in - 42 games played; 104 goals scored… 100 goals conceded. Every game averaged just shy of five goals and just three clean sheets were recorded all season – all the more mystifying when you consider City’s goalkeeper was Bert Trautmann – imagine what the numbers might have been without the great German keeper between the sticks? Without looking at every game played, there were clues of an eccentric campaign ahead after just three games, with City losing 4-1 away to United and then beating Chelsea 5-2 in the next match. The wheels seemed to come completely off when McDowall decided to try a new tactic involving Keith Marsden, who had been a striker with a decent record at his previous club Chesterfield. McDowall was convinced the cultured forward would be better employed as a sweeper and so devised the ‘Marsden Plan’ – a distant relative of the Revie Plan that had helped City win the FA Cup in 1956. It was a disaster. In mid-September City travelled to Deepdale to face Preston North End – a side already beaten 2-0 at Maine Road a few weeks earlier. Preston took full advantage of the defensive confusion Marsden’s new role created and won the game 6-1. Just three days later, things became even worse as City were comprehensively thrashed 9-2 at West Brom. Cruelly, for Marsden – coerced to play a role he had little understanding of -his career at City was as good as over and he was dropped from the team. City bounced back with a 5-1 win over Tottenham meaning the Blues had been involved in 50 goals in the first nine matches of the season. And it went on – a 4-3 win over Leicester, a 5-2 win away to Blackpool, a 4-2 win at Leeds United and a 4-3 loss at home to Wolves. City then thrashed Everton 6-2 at Maine Road and beat Sheffield Wednesday 5-4 at Hillsborough – all this before Christmas! Things weren’t as crazy in January and McDowall’s men exacted revenge on the 9-2 loss by West Brom by winning the return 4-1 at Maine Road. The next three games were off the chart, with a 5-1 loss at Spurs followed by an 8-4 defeat away to Leicester! Yep, 8-4. That was followed with a (by now) mundane 4-3 victory over Blackpool before a run of games that suggested there had finally been a rethink as City win four games on the bounce in 14 days, scoring eight and conceding just two goals. City racked up a century of goals in the penultimate game against Everton with the third strike of the 5-2 win bringing up three figures. However, the 2-1 loss at Villa on the final day brought up a more unwanted century – and the chance to finish as high as third in the table. Trautmann had played 35 of the 42 games and some of the heavier losses he had missed – though not all – while Joe Hayes top scored with 26 goals. City would concede 95 goals the following campaign, but with nowhere near the potency of the previous season, escaped relegation by the a single point In the 1960-61 season Chelsea came close to equalling the Man City feat when they let in 100 but only manager to score 98, again in the old First Division. | ![](/images/avatars/1870.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 17:51 - Apr 9 with 479 views | thrillseeker |
League Two Observations on 17:33 - Apr 9 by mfb_cufc | Correct. Man City did it in the 1957-58 season, and only in 42 games as well. Though City would finish a more than respectable fifth in the First Division, one wonders where Les McDowall’s team might have finished with even just a slightly less porous defence. Let this sink in - 42 games played; 104 goals scored… 100 goals conceded. Every game averaged just shy of five goals and just three clean sheets were recorded all season – all the more mystifying when you consider City’s goalkeeper was Bert Trautmann – imagine what the numbers might have been without the great German keeper between the sticks? Without looking at every game played, there were clues of an eccentric campaign ahead after just three games, with City losing 4-1 away to United and then beating Chelsea 5-2 in the next match. The wheels seemed to come completely off when McDowall decided to try a new tactic involving Keith Marsden, who had been a striker with a decent record at his previous club Chesterfield. McDowall was convinced the cultured forward would be better employed as a sweeper and so devised the ‘Marsden Plan’ – a distant relative of the Revie Plan that had helped City win the FA Cup in 1956. It was a disaster. In mid-September City travelled to Deepdale to face Preston North End – a side already beaten 2-0 at Maine Road a few weeks earlier. Preston took full advantage of the defensive confusion Marsden’s new role created and won the game 6-1. Just three days later, things became even worse as City were comprehensively thrashed 9-2 at West Brom. Cruelly, for Marsden – coerced to play a role he had little understanding of -his career at City was as good as over and he was dropped from the team. City bounced back with a 5-1 win over Tottenham meaning the Blues had been involved in 50 goals in the first nine matches of the season. And it went on – a 4-3 win over Leicester, a 5-2 win away to Blackpool, a 4-2 win at Leeds United and a 4-3 loss at home to Wolves. City then thrashed Everton 6-2 at Maine Road and beat Sheffield Wednesday 5-4 at Hillsborough – all this before Christmas! Things weren’t as crazy in January and McDowall’s men exacted revenge on the 9-2 loss by West Brom by winning the return 4-1 at Maine Road. The next three games were off the chart, with a 5-1 loss at Spurs followed by an 8-4 defeat away to Leicester! Yep, 8-4. That was followed with a (by now) mundane 4-3 victory over Blackpool before a run of games that suggested there had finally been a rethink as City win four games on the bounce in 14 days, scoring eight and conceding just two goals. City racked up a century of goals in the penultimate game against Everton with the third strike of the 5-2 win bringing up three figures. However, the 2-1 loss at Villa on the final day brought up a more unwanted century – and the chance to finish as high as third in the table. Trautmann had played 35 of the 42 games and some of the heavier losses he had missed – though not all – while Joe Hayes top scored with 26 goals. City would concede 95 goals the following campaign, but with nowhere near the potency of the previous season, escaped relegation by the a single point In the 1960-61 season Chelsea came close to equalling the Man City feat when they let in 100 but only manager to score 98, again in the old First Division. |
Impressive commentary Mick | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
League Two Observations on 17:54 - Apr 9 with 475 views | Moor_Pinot |
League Two Observations on 17:33 - Apr 9 by mfb_cufc | Correct. Man City did it in the 1957-58 season, and only in 42 games as well. Though City would finish a more than respectable fifth in the First Division, one wonders where Les McDowall’s team might have finished with even just a slightly less porous defence. Let this sink in - 42 games played; 104 goals scored… 100 goals conceded. Every game averaged just shy of five goals and just three clean sheets were recorded all season – all the more mystifying when you consider City’s goalkeeper was Bert Trautmann – imagine what the numbers might have been without the great German keeper between the sticks? Without looking at every game played, there were clues of an eccentric campaign ahead after just three games, with City losing 4-1 away to United and then beating Chelsea 5-2 in the next match. The wheels seemed to come completely off when McDowall decided to try a new tactic involving Keith Marsden, who had been a striker with a decent record at his previous club Chesterfield. McDowall was convinced the cultured forward would be better employed as a sweeper and so devised the ‘Marsden Plan’ – a distant relative of the Revie Plan that had helped City win the FA Cup in 1956. It was a disaster. In mid-September City travelled to Deepdale to face Preston North End – a side already beaten 2-0 at Maine Road a few weeks earlier. Preston took full advantage of the defensive confusion Marsden’s new role created and won the game 6-1. Just three days later, things became even worse as City were comprehensively thrashed 9-2 at West Brom. Cruelly, for Marsden – coerced to play a role he had little understanding of -his career at City was as good as over and he was dropped from the team. City bounced back with a 5-1 win over Tottenham meaning the Blues had been involved in 50 goals in the first nine matches of the season. And it went on – a 4-3 win over Leicester, a 5-2 win away to Blackpool, a 4-2 win at Leeds United and a 4-3 loss at home to Wolves. City then thrashed Everton 6-2 at Maine Road and beat Sheffield Wednesday 5-4 at Hillsborough – all this before Christmas! Things weren’t as crazy in January and McDowall’s men exacted revenge on the 9-2 loss by West Brom by winning the return 4-1 at Maine Road. The next three games were off the chart, with a 5-1 loss at Spurs followed by an 8-4 defeat away to Leicester! Yep, 8-4. That was followed with a (by now) mundane 4-3 victory over Blackpool before a run of games that suggested there had finally been a rethink as City win four games on the bounce in 14 days, scoring eight and conceding just two goals. City racked up a century of goals in the penultimate game against Everton with the third strike of the 5-2 win bringing up three figures. However, the 2-1 loss at Villa on the final day brought up a more unwanted century – and the chance to finish as high as third in the table. Trautmann had played 35 of the 42 games and some of the heavier losses he had missed – though not all – while Joe Hayes top scored with 26 goals. City would concede 95 goals the following campaign, but with nowhere near the potency of the previous season, escaped relegation by the a single point In the 1960-61 season Chelsea came close to equalling the Man City feat when they let in 100 but only manager to score 98, again in the old First Division. |
Thank you mfb, marvellous information. I learnt a lot and marvel at those undeniably different times | ![](/images/avatars/19520.gif) |
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League Two Observations on 17:55 - Apr 9 with 474 views | burnsieespana |
League Two Observations on 17:51 - Apr 9 by thrillseeker | Impressive commentary Mick |
The depth of knowledge some people have never ceases to amaze me. Thanks mick for that information. | ![](/images/avatars/1050.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
League Two Observations on 23:23 - Apr 11 with 382 views | ghughes11 | Reading this thread from the start until the end - it is hard to know where one season ends and the other started! All rolled into one unfortunately Whatever league we end up in let's hope we are not fighting for our lives down the bottom of the league again next season! | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) |
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