Well what a season, following on from the euphoria of winning the League 1 title we started this campaign full of optimism, Will Grigg appeared to still be on fire, he scored 6 goals by mid September, and the immediate future looked ok.
A run of five straight defeats though had Gary Caldwell putting an emphasis on defence, this helped to steady the ship but unfortunately the goals dried up, a win against Wolves and drawing the next four games against some tough opponents looked like Caldwell was starting to get things sorted but a spanner in the works with a 1-0 loss to top of the table Brighton had David Sharpe heading for the eject button and Caldwell was out of a job, very much prematurely in my opinion.
What happened next sealed out fate. The appointment of Warren Joyce as manager at the beginning of November was a calamitous decision of the greatest magnitude. Joyce was totally out of his depth, he appeared in interviews like a rabbit caught in the headlights, he was bereft of ideas, his football was duller than dishwater, it was as clear as daylight that he was the wrong man for the job from the first game, he should have gone before Christmas, unfortunately the decision to leave him in situ until March cost us our Championship place.
The highlights of this season have been the transformation of Dan Burn from public enemy number 1 in August to player of the season come May, the demolition of Blackburn back in the first home game of the season and Nick Powell’s superman shows against Rotherham and especially Barnsley.
Now we search for a new man to lead us into the new season and beyond (hopefully), just who I would choose out of the candidates that are being bandied around I have no idea, but please can we have a boss with charisma, drive and an attacking intent, the squad is good enough to be competitive in League 1, we just need someone prepared to give it a go.
Out of the names available, if I was pushed, I’d go for the Luton Town boss Nathan Jones, young, ambitious, plays attacking football, would we be able to attract him to the Latics though? I’d feel it depends on how well – or not – Luton do in the League 2 playoffs where they face Blackpool in the semis.
Hopefully next season will see us winning games, playing without fear and scoring a few goals, the ultra-cautious approach that was adopted through the winter months has now been placed in the bin and the club can move forward again giving the fans some enjoyable moments, I’d love to see us get promotion again, but more than that I am looking forward to us simply having a go.
Up the tics!
Check out the latest PWU Podcast – Summertime
The last podcast of the season.
Leeds at home was an entertaining game as we concluded the season, just a pity there was nothing to play for.
Where did it all go wrong? No need really to go over old ground, let’s hope we’ve learned from our mistakes this season.
It was the EFL Youth Alliance cup final on Tuesday and what a game that was, great to see the kids in action, some good prospects there.
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