'Papering over the cracks'

[bright1064]

Harty seems to use this phrase a lot on the phone in. It is a phrase used to describe the team and Wilkins' performance last season.

Except it's not true is it?

Apparantly it was only a few results that didn't really matter at the end of the season that got us up to 7th in the table. That's not true. The only game we won when it didn't really matter was Bristol Rovers away. All the rest of the games we won towards the end of the season were won at a time when the play-offs were still possible.

I think it's a disrespectful stance to take on Wilkins, who had to build TWO different teams either side of Christmas and STILL managed to challenge for the top six.

If we were papering over the cracks with Wilkins last season, then what is Adams doing this season?

He's not even bothering to paper over the cracks, let alone moving us in the right direction. But he is our saviour, and therefore the sun shines out of him...

I've got nothing against Adams, apart from the fact I don't think he should've been offered the job when we had a perfectly decent manager in place.

 

[Chesney Christ]

Absolutely. Its absolute tosh made up by the Adams-apologists to hide the fact that we were MUCH BETTER last season than this. I don't remember too many people talking about "papering over the cracks" at the end of last season, but now that we are utter shit under Adams it seems all of a sudden that last season was a total fluke. Utter bollocks.

 

[blockhseagull]

Don't think alot has changed to be honest.

We were shit for large parts of last season, and that has continued this

 

[bright1064]

Don't think alot has changed to be honest.

We were shit for large parts of last season, and that has continued this

We were shit over xmas last season, that's all. That was to be expected with the team falling apart!

We were good for large chunks of last season, otherwise we wouldn't have finished 7th, would we?

 

[Elder for England]

Don't think alot has changed to be honest.

We were shit for large parts of last season, and that has continued this

Exactly, we were crap for most of last season, yes amonsgt them we won, but because we had a good run towards the end of the season people remember that we were brilliant, had a great side and Wilkins was a great manager. They miraculously forget about ALL the things they were moaning about just a few weeks ago.

 

[blockhseagull]

Exactly, we were crap for most of last season, yes amonsgt them we won, but because we had a good run towards the end of the season people remember that we were brilliant, had a great side and Wilkins was a great manager. They miraculously forget about ALL the things they were moaning about just a few weeks ago.

I can honestly remember us palying some woeful football last season.

This season hasn't been any better i admit, but the way some see Wilkins as some managerial legend that we played total football under must be forgetting some of the dross we served up last season.

 

[blockhseagull]

We were good for large chunks of last season

We weren't

 

[Mr Blunt]

We were shit over xmas last season, that's all. That was to be expected with the team falling apart!

We were good for large chunks of last season, otherwise we wouldn't have finished 7th, would we?

But we are not far off being a good side we have only lost 5 games all season. This is the same as leicester who are second in the table. If we had not drawn so many games we would be sitting pretty now in the league.

 

[bigc]

We weren't

How come we got 69 points then?

 

[BensGrandad]

Last season we had a good run about this time of the season and also again about easter but at no time did I consider we would reach the play offs. This season I believe that we have the team to make the play offs even now.
We have the goalscorers,get the defence back on song and tinker with the midfield and we can still do it.

 

[blockhseagull]

How come we got 69 points then?

If we won our next two league games we would be one point off where we were after 18 games last season.

We aren't really any different from last season

 

[bright1064]

We weren't

We'll have to agree to disagree then.

But I remember having a decent home record for most of last season, and putting together a few decent unbeaten runs.

Hence we finished 7th, and we finished there because we EARNED it across the season, not just at the end.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

We weren't brilliant last season, but Wilkins was learning quickly and had us playing some decent football in spells. How exactly were we 'shit' when we finished in 7th place, 21 points off the relegation zone and the sixth best home record in the league? I am confused. Not forgetting the saga over Christmas, losing key players at the wrong time (Is there a right time?).

 

[Mr Blunt]

I can honestly remember us palying some woeful football last season.

This season hasn't been any better i admit, but the way some see Wilkins as some managerial legend that we played total football under must be forgetting some of the dross we served up last season.

Im not saying Adams is a messiah , but when people say that about Wilkins last season i do scratch my head aswell.

 

[Elder for England]

I can honestly remember us palying some woeful football last season.

This season hasn't been any better i admit, but the way some see Wilkins as some managerial legend that we played total football under must be forgetting some of the dross we served up last season.

Same here, I have no idea where this perception of Wilkins has come from (and I'm sure people are going to point out why). And like you said, most of this season hasn't been better, but what people need to remember is that he has been in charge for 3 months. He hasn't got in all the players he wants, he hasn't found his best eleven and in my opinion needs to be given the whole season before people start making their minds up completely. He might not prove to be great, but then he might so we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Silent Bob]

Same here, I have no idea where this perception of Wilkins has come from (and I'm sure people are going to point out why). And like you said, most of this season hasn't been better, but what people need to remember is that he has been in charge for 3 months. He hasn't got in all the players he wants, he hasn't found his best eleven and in my opinion needs to be given the whole season before people start making their minds up completely. He might not prove to be great, but then he might so we'll just have to wait and see.

Most of that is totally irrelevant.

This isn't about Adams. This isn't even about Adams vs Wilkins. It's about talking revisionist SHIT about Wilkins as a way of justifying his sacking. Ian Hart's original comments like this were before his enforced hiatus, he said the last two games of the season were meaningless and that we papered over the cracks by winning them. How anyone can seriously make such a claim beggar's belief. As if two games at the end of the season could "paper over the cracks" of the previous FORTY FOUR. And we were 7th before that anyway.

But then when you've got the chairman coming out and saying we should have finished higher last season then ludicrous claims and re writing of history shouldn't really be too surprising...

 

[Chesney Christ]

Yet more revisionist horseshit on here. The simple facts are this:

We were in 6th place at the same date at this last year. NINE places higher.

We will (barring a miracle) finish lower than 7th this season.

One of these is a definite fact. The other is a virtual certainty. Everything else is pure waffle.

 

[vitusvivi]

how can anyone say that getting 69 points deems us bad for large parts of the season? you don't get 69 points by papering over the cracks...

 

[Barrel of Fun]

The whole "The League was easy last season and the standard has improved dramatically" seems to be a bit of an escape clause for the Adams fans.

I am not anti-Adams, I am anti-Brighton being turd.

 

[SeagullRic]

Harty clearly did not like Wilkins. He clearly loves Adams, because of what he did here before.