Not seen it mentioned but seems to be doing a fine job at Cheltenham, early days I know but he has got them into the play off places.

Good to see, I hope this continues.

Agreed. Was hoping he’d do well. He will have learnt a lot from the great ginger one... if he does well he could be the man to take over in about 20 years hopefully

Hibsclaret wrote:Agreed. Was hoping he’d do well. He will have learnt a lot from the great ginger one... if he does well he could be the man to take over in about 20 years hopefully

He will have learnt lots. Good and bad from Cotterill, Coyle, Laws, Howe and Dyche. Should have a bright future.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:He will have learnt lots. Good and bad from Cotterill, Coyle, Laws, Howe and Dyche. Should have a bright future.

He doesn’t have a wrong word to say about Cotterill but that’s understandable given he gave him his chance at both Cheltenham & Burnley, but his main influence is undoubtedly Dyche.

ClaretTony wrote:He doesn’t have a wrong word to say about Cotterill but that’s understandable given he gave him his chance at both Cheltenham & Burnley, but his main influence is undoubtedly Dyche.

Cotterill will definitely have been a good influence on many of that team. Had plenty of leaders under Cotterill. Duff, Caldwell, Carlisle, Alexander. Definitely knew how important experience and leadership was in a tight squad.

Always keep a look out for Cheltenham's results, and also Michael Jolley at Grimsby Town .... both teams seem much improved on last season.

It's a precarious job, Jolley is already the 28th longest serving manager of the 91 Clubs, whilst Duffo comes in at 41st ..

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Cotterill will definitely have been a good influence on many of that team. Had plenty of leaders under Cotterill. Duff, Caldwell, Carlisle, Alexander. Definitely knew how important experience and leadership was in a tight squad.

Agreed. Pairing McGreal with Sinclair when he first arrived was a masterstroke.

Fretters wrote:Agreed. Pairing McGreal with Sinclair when he first arrived was a masterstroke.

Funnily enough, I bumped into Mcgreal a few weeks back in a hotel at Grimsby pre match (he’s currently managing Colchester). Spoke very fondly about his time with us

Clarets4me wrote:Always keep a look out for Cheltenham's results, and also Michael Jolley at Grimsby Town .... both teams seem much improved on last season.

It's a precarious job, Jolley is already the 28th longest serving manager of the 91 Clubs, whilst Duffo comes in at 41st ..

Seeing the 91 there jarred me... jeez

Are Sky sticking with the "72" branding?

Cheltenham win 2-0 at Plymouth today and go 3rd on 20 points, after 10 games last year they were on 8 points ...

Grimsby, under Michael Jolley, beat Macclesfield 1-0 at home, and go 9th on 15 points. This time last year, they were 23rd of 24, with just 5 points from a possible 30 .....

Good progress ..

2-0 win at Plymouth sees them up to 3rd.

MRG wrote:Funnily enough, I bumped into Mcgreal a few weeks back in a hotel at Grimsby pre match (he’s currently managing Colchester). Spoke very fondly about his time with us

He was brilliant, and at the time I thought we'd have a tough job replacing David May!

Tricky Trevor wrote:2-0 win at Plymouth sees them up to 3rd.

MD's after match comments courtesy the Football League Paper:

"i think it's fair to say no-one saw this run coming, but we'll see where it takes us. We are not making anything of it.

The mantra has stayed the same 'just win the next game' and it was the same last season when I came in and we were not in the bottom two.

Just because we are in the top three now it doesn't change. It's just as important as it ever was 'win the next game'.

I am not really interested in what other people say about us. It's great when they are saying nice things about you, but again it's like last season when they weren't saying such great things about us: it's outside noise.

We need to concentrate on what is going on in our camp and the only people who can influence that is our staff and our players."

levraiclaret wrote:MD's after match comments courtesy the Football League Paper:

"i think it's fair to say no-one saw this run coming, but we'll see where it takes us. We are not making anything of it.

The mantra has stayed the same 'just win the next game' and it was the same last season when I came in and we were not in the bottom two.

Just because we are in the top three now it doesn't change. It's just as important as it ever was 'win the next game'.

I am not really interested in what other people say about us. It's great when they are saying nice things about you, but again it's like last season when they weren't saying such great things about us: it's outside noise.

We need to concentrate on what is going on in our camp and the only people who can influence that is our staff and our players."

Just sounds like Dyche He'll have a disc beard soon

Fretters wrote:He was brilliant, and at the time I thought we'd have a tough job replacing David May!

I can't really remember much of David May playing for us, but he had the biggest fall from grace ever in football.

Man Utd-Burnley-Bacup Borough all in the space of a couple of years.

I think John McGreal must have been a very positive influence on Gary Cahill. He certainly helped his playing development.

levraiclaret wrote:it's outside noise.

We need to concentrate on what is going on in our camp and the only people who can influence that is our staff and our players."

That is pure SD. Bless them both.

Quickenthetempo wrote:I can't really remember much of David May playing for us, but he had the biggest fall from grace ever in football.

Man Utd-Burnley-Bacup Borough all in the space of a couple of years.

From Wiki:

At the end of his contract with Manchester United in the summer of 2003, May was given a free transfer and snapped up by Burnley manager Stan Ternent,[18] an old friend of Ferguson's,[19] to bolster his leaky defence.[18] In September 2003 he scored in a 2–1 win against Stoke City,[20] while at the end of the month he was sent off against Wimbledon for two yellow cards.[21]

In December 2003, May was headbutted by Ternent following a disagreement at the club training ground.[22] They later settled their differences.[22]

He played 39 times for Burnley during the 2003–04 season,[23] and captained the side on a number of occasions.



Think we signed Andy Todd on loan from Blackburn at the same time and we suddenly looked much better (after Gnohere and Branch at centre half).

Fretters wrote:From Wiki:

At the end of his contract with Manchester United in the summer of 2003, May was given a free transfer and snapped up by Burnley manager Stan Ternent,[18] an old friend of Ferguson's,[19] to bolster his leaky defence.[18] In September 2003 he scored in a 2–1 win against Stoke City,[20] while at the end of the month he was sent off against Wimbledon for two yellow cards.[21]

In December 2003, May was headbutted by Ternent following a disagreement at the club training ground.[22] They later settled their differences.[22]

He played 39 times for Burnley during the 2003–04 season,[23] and captained the side on a number of occasions.



Think we signed Andy Todd on loan from Blackburn at the same time and we suddenly looked much better (after Gnohere and Branch at centre half).

FFS remember stands headbuts

cricketfieldclarets wrote:FFS remember stands headbuts

His victims don't

Mentioned above about Michael Jolley, he takes Grimsby to Chelsea this evening, good luck to them!

claretburns wrote:Mentioned above about Michael Jolley, he takes Grimsby to Chelsea this evening, good luck to them!

I think it was probably more than your good luck he needed

ClaretTony wrote:I think it was probably more than your good luck he needed

Chelsea to be fair did the job expected of them unlike several other clubs in this competition this season and previous years. I just hope the Grimsby players don't take to much of a confidence knock from this, a top half finish for them will be a really good achievement and going back to Michael Duff I had Cheltenham on e/w to win League Two this season so keep them going Duffo.

Cheltenham stay in 3rd with a 1-1 draw at home to in form Crewe, whilst Michael Jolley's Grimsby probably ruined a few coupons with a 1-3 away win at leaders Exeter, and move up to 7th. Grimsby are on 18 points after 11 games, it took them 18 games to reach that mark last season ....

n.b: My interest in Grimsby is not unrelated to the fact I have a small E/W investment at 50/1 !!

Cheltenham were 20/1 the other week. Nice on an each way accumulator

Anyone else hear the Radio 5 Sport interview with Duffo on Saturday lunchtime ? Gave a very good account of himself and referenced the support he has had, and continues to get, from very regular conversations with SD. The team in the studio (Mark Chapman etc) were very impressed and complimentary afterwards.

Darnhill Claret wrote:I think John McGreal must have been a very positive influence on Gary Cahill. He certainly helped his playing development.

I often thought exactly this. When Cahill came to us he was young and raw, but clearly had all the potential to go massive. McGreal was just what he needed at the time. Experienced, hard and knowledgeable and he'd never been right to the very top so was totally grounded and with a fantastic work ethic which had kept him playing really well way past his probable sell by date. It was a brilliant pairing for both of them and definitely helped Cahill enormously in his development.

Cheltenham up to 2nd after 3-0 win last noght

Cheltenham still in there fighting, 4 wins on the bounce and up to fifth, only 3 points of automatic spot. Fantastic stuff.