Agree with Siam although we have so many opportunities but seem almost afraid to put the ball in the back of the net at times.
Siam - sorry that the word "limping" offends you so much. Don't go off on one mate - you're reading something into it that isn't there. No one is criticising the players for lack of effort and committment. The fact is that as a club, we are definitely limping along as we see out this Championship season, and have been for the past 3 months. All this bollucks about an unbeaten run is just something to hide behind. It's a media statistic promoted by the club and press that belies the real truth. The real truth about this fabulous " 9 game unbeaten run" is that after getting stuffed 0-3 by Hull at the CCS, we've played 6 of those 9 games at home and drawn 5 of them. Burnley, Coventry, Millwall, Watford and Leeds. The other game was a fortunate - yes fortunate - win against Derby. Missed the Hull game (thank God), but I've watched every one of those games at the CCS since, and we ran out of options and ideas as to how to win any of those 5 draws and turn them into 3 point games. Didn't attend the away games but saw them on Player probably like you. For all the working so hard plaudits being heaped on the guys (and they deserve it), it doesn't cut any ice when it comes to the performance of the club since the New Year which is the matter under discussion.
I must agree with Sparkey, I've been to every home game this season, from Celtic & Parma through the Carling Cup to Leeds yesterday. The fact that we have lost so many points from a winning position is frightening; the mid-field seem to pull back instead of going for goal 2 and goal 3. At the start of the season we won many points because we were in opponents faces, we gave them no time to settle down. Since Christmas it seems that we let teams come to us and if you do that sooner or later they will score. This is not a criticism of Malky and the boys but we need to know our frailties so that we can work on them.
Have to agree with Sparkey on this one. A team that was 3rd placed in December you'd expect to be higher in the league based on pre-December results. Unfortunately the team did not build on those results and we find ourselves going into the last game needing a draw to secure a play off spot. I listened to the Derby game on ccplayer and also though we were a tad fortunate as it sounded like Derby were at us from the 1st minute. Let's cast our minds back to the times DJ got us into the play-offs and the dreaded November hoodoo, we all expected a promotion spot going into November then a play-off spot at the end of the month. This was achieved with no plan B and a bunch of prima-donna's if you listen to some. Malky has brought in some exciting youngsters and got some good deals when he first arrived. He's got them playing as a team with a never say die attitude. All excellent work but if we can't get the ball in the net it's all for nothing. Expectation levels rose coming up to the Christmas period but dropped after the CC final. This nonsense of a CC final hangover holds no substance with me, the lads are extremely fit and should be able to compete in the games they are selected to play in. If anything has gone wrong then it's (as alluded to in other threads) Malkys job to sort it out. No signings for us in January, not many elsewhere either, so essentially most teams had the same playing squad available. A lack of a plan B and strikers that are not finding the net has meant we are in the position we find ourselves this morning.
We played well 1st half and should have won that game easily. Derby should have beaten us. We badly need Don Cowie in the starting line up next Saturday. Mcphail in the line up is actually my biggest concern. He played well yesterday though. Our passing as become so slow.
I'm not one for statistics, but this is fact not just "shots on target" or "possession" etc. Let's explode this wonderful "9 game unbeaten run" hype that some are latching on to once and for all - in fact, let's look at our last 10 Championship games. An incredible 7 of them have been at the CCS. That's a possible 21 points to be had from those home games. How many did we get? A very poor 8 points return out of the 21 against opposition sides that were no better than average for the division. Also, the 3 points off Derby included in those 8 were a gift. That has been our achilles heel this past couple of months and no amount of "unbeaten run" spin will change that fact. We are not party to the reasons behind the inactivity at the club in the transfer/loan windows, but it has surely cost us dear if we don't make the playoffs. If we do make it, it could cost us even more without the squad in place to win them.
Sparkey. Thats true but we are anywhere up to £70m in debt. If the right players werent available then why gamble and make the situation far worse. Our owners probably remember the expensive rubbish brought in by Jones last January. This summer will be interesting. If The Malaysians take more shares then Malky will surely have funds available. If not then its wheel and deal for the right players. We need pacey wide players and im sure we will get them. A magnificent effort to get us to this position after the mess the squad was left in. If we get into the play offs great - if not at least this season we have a squad to build with.
No question about that Hilts. The only point I'm trying to get across is this. Compared to where we are now as to when we started of the season on such a low note, we've done very well. Compared to where we are now as to where we were at the New Year, we've done very poorly.
I started out in life with NOTHING. Nearly 50 years on and I've still got most of it left. As you say Sparkey, the season could have been so much better. We have to remember that it could also have been so much worse. The play offs will be a bonus after the summer. Something has to be done to fix the issues whe have had of late undoubtably. Another transfer window (I know nothing happened in January, but there isn't as much up for grabs as in the summer) will see us in a better position again. A top 7 finish makes us attractive to players and the game time Mason has got will show other youngsters we are club at which they could develop.
we were the better team and restricted leeds to very few chances: todays sunday times: 'becchio clinically converted leeds only second half opportunity' 'cardiff were the superior team' as i said before our passing was the best its been in weeks, an issue leeds was that we had a tendancy to not take risks in the final 3rd, passing it around for the sake of it at times.....
"I really respect how we are playing right now." - what??? Have you been watching us? We are quite awful!!
Hey Sparkey, I had a few beers under my belt when I typed my answer. I didn't think I was going off on one Perhaps I did read too much into the word limping. In the last 5 games we have 11 points, that just seems the opposite of limping, so based on that i took the term as a criticism. "Bollocks about an unbeaten run"...I don't get that either. But hey ho different opinions
That is the point. I stated on another thread, the fact that we are continuing to get points while not playing well says something about the character of the team and they get my respect for that.
well that says the teams we are playing arent any better either, and if that means finishing 6th/5th by default i'm happy with that...
Siam. The "unbeaten run" cliche being trotted out just masks the inability to win games - just something to cling on to. Of those 9 games that we've been unbeaten, we've drawn 6 of them to give us a total of 15 points. I'd rather have lost 3 of them and won the other 6 to give us 18 points. Hence the expression "bollucks to the unbeaten run"............
Yes I read what you said before, but it is still an unbeaten run and that means the other teams struggled against us. If we stay unbeaten for every match here on in, it will just be a penalty shootout that kills us
This is a brilliant thread for pure emotion and love of our club, As the saying goes there are two sides to every story and both have been on display here, so thanks to all for reinforcing my belief that we still have passionate and real supporters who can debate the positives and negatives of our club without it descending into a farce. Have to agree with Oldsparkey on the word limping as we seem to be doing just enough to get into the play offs, but here we are at almost the end of another rollercoaster ride of a season still having our emotion tested by our club.
Evening all (incl Cling who I haven't 'spoken' with for a while - hope you're well) 1. Most of us expected to finish around mid table back last September 2. An excellent November (yes I know - what a turn up for the books) saw us flying high and pinching ourselves - we all started to believe that automatic promotion has a possibility. If not, then the play-offs should be a given 3. A Carling Cup Final against Liverpool that we should have won (how didn't Miller bury that change?) left the team feeling flat, in my opinion, and saw a drop in momentum. However we have since started to stabalise a sinking ship and 8 games unbeaten is more that adequate. 4. Take a look at the results week in week out. This league really is one where everyone can beat anyone. From West Ham down the teams have been slipping up and it's just too easy to say that we could have turned draws into wins. This is true for all of the teams above us. 5. Clingo says it the best; with 18 draws so far then surely we can get another one. FINALLY this is our away form for this season: W W D D D L L D W W D d D W d D L L D W D W W Don't be too worried guys
Hang on LLF - winning games is the secret. I know others have drawn games a well, but we are the champions at that this season with 18 of the buggers. It is no coincidence that the two top clubs, Reading and Soton have drawn the least in the league at 8 and 10 respectively. Both those clubs have also lost more games than us this season, but they're both have more than a dozen points than us as a result of winning the rest. There is no substitute for accumulating 3 point results through winning in this division in order to get out of it.
Your form and result might be totally academic if Watford can help you out and get at least a draw next weekend . That is going to be a tough game for Boro!
