Games against the rest of the top 6 teams this season:
Norwich (A) 2-2
Leeds (A) 0-0
Colchester (A) 0-3
Millwall (H) 4-4; (A) 0-4
Swindon (H) 2-2; (A) 1-1
I know people will say some of these are "good points" and most have been away from home but I would expect us to win at least one of these and take more than 5 points out of a possible 21 against these teams.
0
Comments
Stats can work both ways, we had 9 men at home against Swindon and would've won easily with 11 men, a draw away at Swindon where Leeds had just lost 3-0 was a good result. We drew away to the top 2 where any team would've taken a point. There's no defending Colchester/Millwall away though.
It's not only what you do against the top clubs though, Millwall can beat the top sides but then lose home and away to Wycombe, it's overall that counts. Arsenal may well win the league despite taking 0 points from 12 against Chelsea and Man U.
Since then injuries etc have kicked in and the team has not re-found its balance (e.g. Racon and Semedo were a great combination).
Not sure if Parky is able to motivate them enough to get the consistency back.
You've nailed it.
Those are the matches that have done for us not Saturday.
10 points lost
In League 1, there are no great teams like MU, Chelsea etc. that can almost always brush aside the inferior opposition. I suspect that all the top sides have some bad results over the season. We just chose (arguably) the worst game to get our biggest defeat.
Many predicted that we would end in mid-table this season and we are comfortably above that. We are no longer playing Premiership football where good standard professionals when organised well can nick points and occasionally turn over decent sides. We are now playing in league 1 in which every team has some weaknesses and results are going to be more inconsistent. Yes, Saturday sounded like a debacle - at least from the 44th minute - but it's a fairly rubbishy division in which we can't expect to lord it.
We just have to hope we can clamber out and play a much more decent level with better players in the side.
Up front we very average. We don't have any natural goalscorers, just a good footballer in Burton.
Defensively we have a standard top 6 League One defence. Nothing special, can do their job but on a bad day look terrible.
Out wide Sam is good with confidence, very quiet without. Reid doesn't seem as effected by confidence as Sam, but his end product isn't reliable. Wagstaff still isn't ready to start regularly.
I think with this squad and its weaknesses third is a good season, but that's only from looking at the league table. Performances haven't been as good as we'd like and we look like we are about to drop down the table. I still think are managers out there that could have had a worse season with this squad, and only a very few that would have done better when it comes to results and points.
If you think he didn't spend a penny on improving a team which were woeful last season suddenly some of the results we've had this season don't look too surprising.
I look at our side and when they are all on form they're a very competitive team but not a massively talented one. We have a couple of good players with a hard working core around them.
You also have to remember that the club had had an aura of abject failure around it for a long time now. Breaking out of that mentality can be really hard.
Agreed but I think that when its obvious that you have the wrong man in situ there can be no alternative but to try someone who might get it right. Admitedly finding that needle in a haystack is not easy but why stick with proven rubbish ?
For me it just won't be a clear decision for the board, because of the risk you could just make things worse. The fans that wanted Curbishley out assumed a new manager would do as well as him at the very least.
Its unpopular , but i think tis true....
in answer to the original poster, we arent really good enough and yet, we are still where we are .....
No we are not good enough. Parky has done what he can to attract players in adverse circumstances. The only criticism I would level at him is that he should be playing Jonjo rather than the erratic Racon but others I'm sure will disagree with me.
We are not doing badly I mean we are third but I think for us a lot of these games hinge on whether we get the first goal or not. Our biggest problem is we do not have an out and out goalscorer. Parky has had to look at loan options within his limited budget. Mooney and Akpo Sodje in my opinion both had promising first spells at the club. Enough for Parky to think they could do a decent job. Burton is the best striker we have but he is not a goalscorer and has also struggled with ongoing injuries. McCleod and Dickson both have potential but i'm afraid the attitude is wrong. Not sure what happened to Tuna, is he injured?
Another possible factor is how many of our players have proven themselves successfully over a full season? The remaining regulars from last year helped to get us relegated so apart from Bailey no one is in credit. In defence we do have that experience but that is undone by age, injuries and not being very good (Llera). Apart from Bailey, can anyone name a regular in our midfield who has played through a whole season and kept his form. My point is that I think we do have some good individuals but at this stage of the season they are unproven.
Have to agree with this.
After curbs left we fell so far, and so quickly that it leaves scars that will be felt for quite some time, and to be fair, it has been quite a turnaround when you consider the 3 seasons prior to this one. If we did manange promotion, remaining in the CCC would take a massive effort, one that i feel we would stuggle to do. The days of premiership security are a long way off.
It will take years to heal from our fall from grace.