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You have to spare a thought for Paul Buckle. After leaving behind such a great bunch of players for Martin Ling last year, he did the same for Mark McGhee at Bristol Rovers after leaving them in January. Both clubs went on to vastly improve their form and league positions. Strange, that..

The arguement of Ling V Buckle is now over. We have more points this year than last and thats on a smaller budget.

usagullmichigan wrote:The arguement of Ling V Buckle is now over. We have more points this year than last and thats on a smaller budget.

Good point well put. No comparison IMO

usagullmichigan wrote:We have more points this year than last and thats on a smaller budget.

Er, no we don't, we are now on the same number of points as last season.

69 points reduced to 68 for the offence of fielding an unregistered player.

Gullscorer wrote:You have to spare a thought for Paul Buckle. After leaving behind such a great bunch of players for Martin Ling last year, he did the same for Mark McGhee at Bristol Rovers after leaving them in January. Both clubs went on to vastly improve their form and league positions. Strange, that..

You are having a laugh Gullscorer.

Buckle raped the squad for what he thought were the best players. Luckily his judgement was as awful as ever!

It is not strange that the departure of Paul Buckle Esq. leads to improved performances. It is a blessed relief when the pompous little t*at moves on..

Gullscorer wrote:You have to spare a thought for Paul Buckle. After leaving behind such a great bunch of players for Martin Ling last year, he did the same for Mark McGhee at Bristol Rovers after leaving them in January. Both clubs went on to vastly improve their form and league positions. Strange, that..

Not quite sure about your post here, the bit in red a wind up attempt ? bit in blue, an admission that Buckle really was not that good after all?

So here is some more data to mull over.
This is the records of all the TUFC manages (source - wikipedia) with Martin Ling updated through March 18)
The stats talk for themselves and tell us what we know from this fantastic season.
Records are consolidated across all league and cup the far right pts colum is the number of points the managers overall record would generate across 46 games (3pt/win, 1py/draw)
A season in Div 1 will level this up a little...
So there you have it - 83pts is the number
Nuff said

Do these numbers include cup wins/losses too?

austrianandygull wrote:I take your points Nick but i'm talking in terms of achievement. For all we know we could fall apart in April and finsih outside the play offs (highly unlikely but i'm just highlighting the fact to emphasise my point) and then Ling will have not achieved anything tangible in terms of a promotion or play off spot. Yes you can argue that even if we finish out of the play offs it has still been a remarkable season and a great achievement from Ling but if that were to be the case would it be better than PB did? After all, i didn't expect us to get anywhere near the play offs LAST season but we did so surely Bucks deserves a bit of credit despite being a total c**k?

League 2 is far stronger this year than it was last season though. The points tally from the top 7 says that all. Not even 70 points to reach the playoffs. I always thought we'd be top 10 last year with pushing the playoffs, after the finish we had at the end of 09/10. It was a weak division last season compared to now - Swindon, Argyle, Shrews, Gills, Rovers, Oxford, Vale are all big clubs who should realistically be in a higher division. Then you get teams like Crawley who have come through, sides like Cheltenham, Southend who are becoming a force in the division. The fact that we are above all of these teams bar Swindon, who have 3x our budget, suggests to me that Ling is doing better than what Buckle did. It is no question as far as I'm concerned, ML has got us where we are on a reduced budget, small squad, and we're already ahead (or equal if you discard the -1 point) of Buckle last season, with 27 points left to play for. We've a real shot of a top 3 finish, something we never had last season, and this is in much tougher circumstances.

Brought this one out of the past pages archive for a couple of reasons.

Martin Ling this season has already passed Paul Buckle's best points total in League 2 of 69pts (minus 1 for irregularities) by achieving 79pts with 4 games still to play.

Paul Buckle's highest number of points for TUFC after a 46 match campaign was 86pts gained in season 2007/08 with the final position in the BSP being 3rd.

Dinger is 7pts (2 wins and a draw) away from equalling Buckle's highest total and in a higher division from Buckle.

I'm hoping Dinger finishes the 46 game season with 91pts, automatic promotion, sets a new record points total for a team finishing in 3rd place, and puts to bed the Ling v Buckle debate.

Think dinger is one away win from having that record under his belt aswell as manager, and one clean sheet away from another record, on what has been so far a record breaking season, didn't the 1.0 wins record tumble aswell.

Not, that is all a Ling .v. Buckle thingy.

forevertufc wrote:Think dinger is one away win from having that record under his belt aswell as manager, and one clean sheet away from another record, on what has been so far a record breaking season, didn't the 1.0 wins record tumble aswell.

I initially said on this subject that Ling will not have surpassed the achievements of Buckle unless we got promoted automatically; however, i have changed my mind with 4 games left and can say hand on heart that what Lingy has done this season regardless is an unbelievable achievement. Considering the upheaval at Plainmoor in the summer, the short time in which Martin has had to assemble his team and his management of the loan market then it makes the success all the more remarkable. I say success because even if we end up in league 2 again next season, this season has been a resounding success and nobody could have dreamed for any more.

Look at our substitutes bench, I think that is a telling reflection on the job Martin Ling has done. A goalkeeper no-one wanted us to re-sign, a young centre back with one career league start, a left back with only a handful more, and two attacking players we were mocked for signing by fans of their previous clubs. The players beyond that (McPhee, Macklin, Yeoman and Halpin) haven't made huge contributions either, so we have relied on our starting 11 to play well consistently over a 46 games season, and they have (for 42 at least). Compare this to Buckle, who has signed a ridiculous number of loan players in 2011 (6 months apiece at TUFC and BRFC) to cover every injury/suspension/drop in form/fallout with player/just fancied another player then there isn't actually a comparison - Martin Ling is a football manager and Paul Buckle is a cheque book manager. Even when we were on an 8 game winless streak, he stuck to his faith in the squad, and they repaid him. Whenever a player has been injured/suspended that someone else from the squad stepped in and we continued winning. Danny Stevens has been absolutely fantastic this season, Lee Mansell has scored 13 from midfield, Joe Oastler looks a brilliant defender, Mark Ellis is playing well consistently... I could probably go on forever naming reasons why Ling has done a much better job - and he's liked by the fans too, which is important at a Club like ours.

If we get promoted with the squad we have, especially in comparison to those around us, then it will be an incredible achievement and one of the biggest in our history.

Bucklemania is taking off in Luton. Buckle is being regarded as a new Messiah. Shops are selling out of hair gel and fake tan. Since he arrived they have taken 10 points out of a possible twelve and are now looking good for the play-offs!

On the other hand, the Gulls have won only one of their last four games, 5 points from a possible twelve. Getting very wobbly.. :S

LING OUT...!!!