Given I've started every other category with an "It ain't easy" forword, it seems only fair to point out what the lads who plot our course through a season are up against. Outgunned massively in the transfer market every season due to budgetary restrictions and having to deal with some of the most expensive local housing in the country isn't exactly what you'd have high on the wishlist as a manager. Add in a pitch which collapsed, lots of injuries at the same time and a living disproval last season of the "it all balances out" theory when it comes to refereeing decisions and you get to realize what they were up against.
Despite that, in many ways we had the perfect season. Getting promoted at Wembley is THE BEST way of doing it, and although you could frame an argument which says we really should have done it automatically, now we did it our way I wouldn't swap it for anything. Sure Port Vale had a knees up at Plough Lane when they got promoted, but comparing that to OUR party was like trying to draw parallels with a couple of pints to celebrate a 43rd birthday down the local to a 21st birthday beano in Ibiza. There's no comparison, we had the perfect season and I'm not having it any different.
Anyways, here's my take on how the coaching staff/Craig Cope went during the season.
Bayzo-I've got to the point now where I'm considering telling my boy to give his career up in the city to take up goalkeeping. He's 6ft 4, daft as a brush and never played in goal before, but I reckon Bayzo could get him in the England squad by the time the next World Cup comes around.
Seriously this fella is a genius (not our Charlie, Bayzo). The improvement in Owen Goodman as the season progressed has been nothing short of staggering. We should build a statue of our goalkeeper coach outside of Plough Lane.
Skivvers-It's always hard to comment when you don't really know what's going on (although it's never stopped me before so I will) but I THINK Skivvers job is primarily to coach the defenders. If I'm right, you have to say that although I'm not doing scores, this fella is due a 10/10. Our defence all season has been absolutely rock solid, there have been periods where we haven't even looked like conceding a shot never mind a goal.
Skivvers interviews very well too in my opinion. In person and on camera he comes across as an awful nice bloke, but there's something in the sideways glance that tells me that he'd have it in him to go through someone like a dodgy curry if provoked. He's probably a bit unlucky too in that he has a very impressive barnet but happens to be sitting next to the fella with surely the best one in the EFL, so nobody mentions it.
I think he's a shrewd operator though Skivvers, I'm not in the least bit surprised that Johnnie Jackson from day one as a manager wanted this bloke alongside him.
Dave Rennington-Came in at the start of the season as the supposed boffin of all things 5-3-2. It was probably Johnnies most cut throat moment since he became our manager to bin off club stalwart Rob Tuvey in favour of this lad, but I guess it shows just how badly he wanted to get him on board.
I must confess I miss Rob, I like him as a man and rate him as a coach, but you can't argue with the results. My one criticism of the Renningtonisation of our team is that the football can look at times a little robotic. We were never great at playing with lots of freedom and piling men forward, it appears to this naked eye that we have become even less adventurous this season gone.
If course I could be wrong and all of that could be bugger all to do with our new coach. If he plays poker against you though and shoves "all in", my guess would be that he has a hand (pocket aces would be my guess). Maybe he'd surprise me and turn over 6 2 off suit once everyone has folded, but I doubt it.
It'll be interesting to see him plotting a shape which allows us to stay solid in league one.
Johnnie Jackson-There's no question in my mind that the teams fortunes and league position have almost exactly mirrored Johnnies development as a manager. We bombed out in his first season and almost got relegated, if I'm honest I thought in that period he made a bit of a dog's arse of it. I'd personally have pulled the trigger at the end of that first season, but the board stuck with him and it's proved to be an inspired call.
He and we went much better in the second season, but I think it's in the second half of THIS season where he's really started to flourish. Now I know that our results were actually better in the FIRST half of the season, but we have good players and we found our level. It's towards the END of the season when I thought he really came into his own. The substitutions got earlier, they were bolder, not necessarily like for like and the selections got funkier too. Sure it didn't work ALL of the time, but I'm convinced his freshened up approach had a reciprocal impact upon the team. We won our last four matches, all of them MUST WINS and we didn't concede a goal. That'll do for me.
Yes I wish he'd go for it more, yes I wish he'd drop the "It's a tough place to come" interviews, but this lad has grown a lot as a manager. That's a good thing, we are going to need him on his A game if we are going to have a chance of staying up next season.
Craig Cope-Arguably our most important signing for many a year, "Copey" continues to do everything possible to help us defy the odds. Last seasons recruitment when taken as a whole basket was a piece work of the very highest order, and only the Josh Kelly signing (only in terms of fit not in terms of his quality) continues to baffle me.
My guess is that he'll unearth a couple of gems next season too, which is handy because as anyone with anything resembling a clue already realizes, we are bang up against it.
Anyways what a season, what a club. That's all from the Scores on the Dores for now, roll on August!
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