A change is needed.

I'm not Prawn. Still in with a chance so stick with Nigel until the season end. Give him next season as well is my logical assessment.

There are three, or possibly four, other teams in it - including Forest (only 2 points above us) and Palace (5 points above us). You are right that (for the first time this season) it's not in our hands, although we still potentially finish 7th not 8th if we beat Bolton on Tuesday.

All four of the teams have away matches for their game
in hand:
- Bristol v Bolton (today)
- Boro v Brighton (today)
- Cardiff v Forest (today)
- Millwall v Palace (Tues 30)
Only Bristol and possibly Boro look "easy" fixtures, but they are both desparate for points for different reasons. So it will be interesting to see where we are at 1700 - could be back in our hands unbelievably.

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

Prawn - yes definitely. Here's the logic.

Firstly, do I think Pearson is the best thing since sliced bread? Absolutely not. Is he a managerial genius to rival Clough? Of course not - nowhere near, he's a reasonable Championship level manager, that's all. So I don't have Pearson-tinted glasses on.

However, this year has seen a new team which is very young and inexperienced do really well in patches and not so well in others. Injuries to key players - SSL and Whitbread -have meant that very inexperienced players - Moore and Keane specifically - have been thrown in at the deep end in the critical centre back position. Despite this we have overall done well defensively, but I think that this inexperience has directly cost us a number of points (eg Derby away). Having such a young team may of course be a direct result of FFP and not necessarily of Pearson's preference.

Pearson's tactical nous has been criticised, but we played a more long ball game last night, which (nearly) worked. Exactly how could any manager mitigate against what Nuge did last night to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory? Really small margins - eg Shlupp being a bit more composed in front of goal.

So to next year. Assuming we don't go up - we've still a chance of promotion, even now - then the choices are to stick with Pearson or get somebody else in. Big unknowns are the finances/will the owners stick with us etc but that would be similiar whoever's in charge so for the purpose of this assessment I'm ignoring that.

Keeping Pearson would mean essentially the same team, with perhaps a couple more added, provided we can keep the better players (oddly enough our recent run has probably made some of them less attractive to other clubs). It would be a far more experienced team and in a better position to compete. I understand your point about relegation form but in general we have not played badly and could/should have got more points in the last 13 games - Barnsley excepted, where we were absolutely pants and deserved nothing.

The alternative is to sack Pearson and bring in another management team - Shakey and Walsh would no doubt leave too. That's the easy part. The difficult bit is who do you replace them with? Names mentioned recently are Adkins and McDermott, both of whom are now safely ensconced in other jobs (by the way, sacking McDermott and replacing with Adkins hasn't done Reading much good yet). Whoever it is would bring their own style of play, clear out a number of the current squad and bring in their own players. In other words, back to square one again. This approach has not worked for Leicester in the last 10 years nor is it likely to work in the short term.

So to me it's a no-brainer - the logic means stick with Pearson next year. I do realise that the owners may well take a different view.

Sorry about the long post btw but hope the thoughts are of interest.

In managerial genius I did of course mean Brian rather than Nigel of the Clough family!

"I still have hope.

Small hope, but hope."
-------------------------------------------------------
Me too, Merseyside, that's the killer!

As do I, Tuesday becomes the next "must win" Cup match, lets hope Bristol City can hold on or knick a winner!

Thanks to Cardiff, our fate is still in our own hands.....just

Agree with Nuneaton_fox. Changing manager will just set us back. Current players will go, new manager will bring in his own back room staff and players too. It takes more than one season to build a team and get the balance right, We've all heard the phrase "back to the drawing board" and that's what NP needs to do. Its the final adjustments that are required. We have seen some great performances, when we could have beaten anyone on the day. We raved about the team then. Now we have hit a slump (and remember with the same players) but off with the managers head is not answer.... We will get out of it, but not by starting all over again. Think Moyes and Ferguson. Their clubs stood by them during rough times, as we did with Martin O'neil (who would not be our saviour a second time around. End of). The benefits of stability are clear. If it doesn't happen this year then give NP another season.

To call those saying "it's still in our own hands " 'deluded' is factually incorrect as if we win the last 4 we are guaranteed enough points for at least 6th place and could only miss out on goal difference to Bolton. Anyone who thinks it's actually anything more than the remotest possibility that we'll actually win 4 games on the bounce given our recent form...now they're deluded.

OK, fair comment Brownsover.

But you later comment seems to come from a more rational place !