So off to the play offs we go. Bring them on!!! We will still go up and with a lot of extra cash from them. Another massive pay day at Wembley. F*ck anyone who plays us. We will be the team to beat. Onward and upward...
I can't argue with your logic. However, if you think back to the time of Roy Keane, my least favorite Manager over the last 70 years, his promotion winning side regularly scored in the last ten minutes. This turned draws into wins and losses into draws, on occasions. It was SAID that this was down to Roy's ferocious training systems. He was reputed to train them for a 100 minute game. The logic was that when the opposition started to tire, his sides didn't. I have no way of knowing if this was true but the results were there to see. Lack of concentration late on in games can also be caused by tiredness, and again this MIGHT be a training issue.
Sunderland´s presence in the división has raised the standard of the other teams involved in the race for promotion, and also made the Black Cats the team to beat. It meant that Barnsley and Luton were allowed to play their own game and profited from it, while SFC have had to adapt to opponents at this level. Thank you for making League 1 a much better product this season.
Your club is essentially a PL2 one, which is one that fits in between 7th in the PL and 10th in the Championship. My club are not at that level and won´t be until Fratton Park is updated or a new stadium is built, and for that reason alone, ill remain a League 1, lower Championship club at bestfor the foreseeable future.
For what it's worth I don't think we'll go up through the playoffs. I think we've lost too much momentum over the last 5 games or so and this is incredibly hard to get back.
Can't disagree, but I live in hope that I'll be making my second Wembley trip of the season to see the lads finally triumph on the hallowed turf to win promotion and lift the cup.
Like I said, it should be possible to coach any lack of concentration out of the team. I would be surprised if Jack Ross wasn't concerned about our inability to hang on to a lead and I would imagine he is trying to do something about it. The problem is, a manager can teach players a game plan, but if they aren't capable of carrying it out it won't make any difference. A manager can only work with the players he's got.
For the record - SFC is Southampton - we're SAFC (Thought a Pompey poster would know that - if you are a Pompey poster of course - assumption made!) Cheers for the comments - I've watched everyone who turns up at SAFC raise their game - watch them all previously and they were poor, turn up at Sunderland with a point to prove and I do think that has cost us massively this season. Not many have followed a game with SAFC with a win (think there's only 1) and most look out on their feet in the next game. No-one has done that with Luton or Barnsley which has made things a little easier for them. Never fancy the play offs - simply due to the misery we've had in it every time!!
If it comes down to penalties... Rule 1, our LB cannot take one, particularly if it is against Charlton
More likely to score is probably the phrase I should have used, but I hope you got the gist, even though you probably disagree.
I did man - just a wind up!! Leadbitter takes a great dead ball - but, sadly, I think he's been bang average over the last few he's played - he certainly isn't the only one mind!!
Perhaps a few suddenly realised they would get moved on were we to go up MBC, levels have dropped at a critical time. Thats my conspiracy theory
Imho a perfect storm has resulted in a number of poor results lately. We have 5 poor CBs... generally we have played with a couple of DMs to protect them and only 1 up front. For the Coventry game we seemed to a 4 2 4 formation and... I also reckon we only have 13 or 14 first teamers, clubs around us have more18ish. So when fixture congestion coincides with injuries we get stuffed. I bet if we are stuck in the 3rd division next season we will play our reserve side in the tinpot cup Our leading goalscorer left, we have two other strikers who are or have been injured.... Ross overall has done okay... pity he was sucked into playing best side for tinpot cup and he choose badly his CBs. If we have a fully fit first team.. we have a good chance in the playoffs
Either that or we're still being punished for the 1950s payments scandal. Or Jimmy Hill is manipulating the league table from beyond the grave.
I was always behind Wyke 100% its not my fault i went to the Terry Thomas school of accounting..............
I said the other day that I thought we'd been poor since Maja left. I think someone else said that too. Roker Report made a good point today. Earlier in the season (when we had Maja) we were playing a high press and we were winning games. After he went, we've been not been playing that game. That's why we've gone off the boil.
