That could be the most significant result of the season so far for us. I mentioned a few weeks back that someone, maybe a couple of teams, would make the break at the top before long and I hoped we'd be one of them. Let alone our brilliant result today, it seems the others around us have started to stutter and given us an opportunity. It may have been backs to the wall stuff today for that last 15 minutes, but I doubt we'll have a more important result this season if it proves to be the catalyst to banish our "on the road" bogey. Long way to go and a lot of football to play - I think we have a great chance.
Could be Sparks. Another 2 wins from the next 2 very winnable games may see some real daylight open but December will be a real test with Blackburn and Leicester away and Palace and Millwall come. Come New year's Day we will have a much better idea.
The situation will be as mental as anything else. 2 - 0 and relatively comfortable then a bit of a panic at the end. Teh sending off didn't help. The 'brough win and this one with a scratch defense could bring that steely mentality. Derby had a win today against brum and won't be easy, especially as we need a left back! A draw on Tuesday and a win against DJ's side will see us sitting pretty with a few players to come back. The better quality in the squad this season will see us there or there about. It'll be as much about how the teams around us fare over the next two months as what we do, though we need a few more wins under our belt on the road. The bit I don't understand is why, with the quality we have on the bench, we struggle in the last quarter, when that is when we should be turning the screw.
This is so true. Sitting on a lead and inviting the opposition on to you (if that's what we did) is asking for it. The three substitutions, Gestede, Mutch and Bellamy seem positive enough, but the seige mentality principle that we adopt seems so strange.
It's very rare in championship you go away and smash teams. Away wins are normally hard earned. I think this formula of trusting our best players and undoubted set piece quality to get a couple of goals then all working their socks off to try to restrict the opposition to 1 or less is the way forward. B city, Palace, Charlton, 2 goals should have got us something from each of those games ( I know we were **** against bc). If we'd been tighter at the back and got say 4 pts from those games we'd be walking the division. There'll be games when we take our chances and get well in front of teams on the road I'm sure, but promotion will be earned through today's type of performance rather than battering teams 3-0 on the road every week. For the record I was in bits listening to the last 10 minutes today. I wish we could have controlled it better but hey ho, we're top of the league. In some ways holding out is probably more of a psychological boost for the team than if we'd scored again and coasted.
Sparkey.......at our age we have seen too many false dawns. Yes, we'll see better in the New Year but it will be much clearer by the middle of next May! I am just enjoying the ride and the position (so to speak) and will not jinx things by any expectations. But it is a lot better than fiddling around mid-table or at the bottom. Some 'should-win' games coming up and some tough ones too.....I bet we confound all thoughts through this period. But we have a good and strong squad for once and hopefully thinner ones will falter as time goes by.
No doubt we'll have a blip Frankfurter, but maximising points on the board and making a break can allow you to get away with it. Look at Southampton last year. They stormed off through the middle part of the season and then from memory, had a dreadful few weeks when they could hardly buy a point. The gap they had on the rest was the cushion they needed to get back on track. We'll have a rough time at some point no doubt about it, but if we can pull out a gap on the pack, perhaps it won't be just another false dawn. Anyway, I thought False Dawn was a transvestite...........
