Woke up with a sore throat. Yeah, I know, but save your sympathy, I'll survive. Happy New Year Guys n Gals. If the Mayans are wrong, then I've got a bloody good feeling about 2012! (on a side note regarding the title, we got out of jail today, so we draw a big fat blue line & move on)
Every time we slip up so does everyone else. I know the gap between us and third has closed, but we've maintained the gap between us and second. I know it feels that we're slipping up but we have been top only by goal difference earlier in the season. GD could be very important for us. To be top for 3 months is a huge achievement...let's keep it that way until the end of season.
From the position we are in now,it would disappointing if we didn't go up this season, but not a disaster. We are having our mid-season blip. This will be over soon and things will get better. A couple of decent signings in January and I reckon we'll be OK.
Think we are in a good position. What we're upset about is dropping points we should have got and increased the gap between us and the pack. However, this is what happens. Look at ManU v Blackburn yesterday. Overall though, we are top on January 1st 2012 by 2 points and a decent GD. I am confident that we are going to make it...I feel we must because I doubt we will have a second start in the Championship as good as this next season. As the song says: We're on the edge of glory.
We have to accept there is more shocks to come. The general standard of play is that much better in the championship and making mistakes is more costly. We need some more players to allow us to change things. A couple of injuries to key players is proving a bit costly to say the least. Trying to get into the premier on the cheap is never the best solution in my book. We need quality and we need it now.
If football was predictable then teams could stay at home and we'd just use the old pools panel, so agree there are going to be other Bristol City moments. I am totally with you on not trying to get there on the cheap. I am slightly nervous of too many changes disrupting the excellent team spirit which is so evident. New signings can take a while to bed in. Remember how excited we were when McMenemy signed Osgood? By the time he'd found his touch we were relegated! Sorry, not wishing to be negative. It is just going to take some delicate handling. In NA and NC I trust!
It's been a fantastic start to the season - way beyond my expectations - but it's a long way to go. Looking at the previous few end of season tables and the threats posed from West Ham, Middlesbrough and Cardiff - I reckon that we need minimum of 86 points for the 2nd auto-promotion spot. So we need another 39 points over the second half of the season. The aim should be to improve the away performances and we need to strengthen the squad in both attack and central defence. Hopeful of a play-off spot, not so sure of auto-promotion because the squad [other than midfield] lacks cover – does need addressing soonest.
