Morro's been a bit off form for a while. Hamer has been a bit flappy. Wiggy has been out injured for much of the season. Neither Cort, Taylor or Dervite are quite good enough, IMO, at this level. We are up against quality teams/players every week.
The reason we have done so well away is that we press and defend well. For a team that defends well, you would expect clean sheets but I think two things do for us. We can lose concentration at times- at this level you get punished more than in league one and secondly, we are better defending in an even game, than when we sit back and invite pressure- which we have done a little too much this season. We did it yesterday and won the game, but it has cost us in others. I seriously can't remember a game when we were so much better than another team across the pitch than the first half against Palace. The 2nd half tactic should have been to tonk them but it seemed to be to hold on to our lead and allowed them to play higher up the pitch with more forwards! We have to stop teams playing high up the pitch and that means always carrying a threat, which we are more than capable of doing. We mustn't forget, defending is a team responsibilty and attack is a form of defence - as opponents who fear an attack, are less offensive.
Five in a row, when was the last time we managed that? Unless I'm mistaken we didn't make a run of five consecutively in either of our league winning seasons 99/00 or 11/12.
Comments
I was also wondering about those two seasons.
We did 9 or 10 before the 98 play off final but since then I don't know.
The best we did in 11/12 was this:
31 March 201240
Charlton Athletic
2–0
Leyton Orient
showThe Valley
From memory I think it was 8 on the trot in the league before the play off final.
Swindon 1-0
Wolves 1-0
Reading 3-0
Port Vale 1-0
Portsmouth 1-0
Tranmere 2-0
Birmingham 0-0
Playoffs
Ipswich 1-0
Ipswich 1-0