So did they run out of steam, or did they lose their nerve ?

AFKABartram

Crazy set up, but it appears its easier to motivate and perform when in hope, rather than expectation. With results and momentum, confidence should be bolstered, but ours appeared to become edgy and have the opposite effect.

The five games between West Ham at home, and man City away saw not just a points return, but a big step up in workrate, confidence and technical play. From the Reading game onwards, we never seemed to match that level again ?

So did we run out of steam, or lost their nerve ?

Ledge

just not good enough and nerve mate.

the steam was there

Ormiston_Addick

Ran out of steam added to the fact that teams worked out that if they double-marked Thomas then out main attacking outlet was shut down.

Pards was running a squad with only one decent striker, a patched up midfield being led by a 19 year old loanee, a 33 year-old whose best days were long gone, a Chinaman who was getting acclimatised to the game and other odds and sods.

Nerves were a factor against the Blades but I was worried from the Wigan game onwards that people had found us out and knew how to stop us playing.

Ledge

we never ran out of steam - with respect watching games on tv is a lot different to actually being there

The fitness of the players has improved since Pards came quite dramatically - we lost our nerve and ideas end of.

Off_it

We just weren't good enough. That's all there is to it.

ThreadKiller

i blame curbishley.

Ketman

The games we picked up points from in that run were in hindsight against poor opposition (West Ham, Watford, Wigan, Man City, Newcastle) as soon as we played teams in the top half (Reading, Everton, Spurs, Blackburn), our lack of creation from the centre of the park was exposed.

Chris_from_Sidcup

The last minute goal at Everton killed us. If we'd got a point there we'd have had momentum and kept the run going. Defeat there seemed to knock the team and we never recovered.

Off_it

[cite]Posted By: Chris_from_Sidcup[/cite]The last minute goal at Everton killed us. If we'd got a point there we'd have had momentum and kept the run going. Defeat there seemed to knock the team and we never recovered.

Nah. What did for us was not taking enough points off the teams around us. In fact, we've only ended up actually taking points - as opposed to sharing or losing them - in the two games against just three teams, and none of them were down there in the bob with us.

Anyonr want to name the three?

Ormiston_Addick

Over the course of the season, these are the games that killed us.....

Watford (H&A)
Sheff United (H)
Fulham (H&A)
Man City (A)

Agree anyone?

Barn Door Varney

In most of the games this season we've had plenty of running but not enough quality.

Whether it's down to a lack of ability or players not performing is open to debate but as Off_it say's, the bottom line is we haven't been good enough and pretty much deserved to go down.

Alex Wright

[cite]Posted By: Ormiston Addick[/cite]Over the course of the season, these are the games that killed us.....

Watford (H&A)
Sheff United (H)
Fulham (H&A)
Man City (A)

Agree anyone?

Totally. You don't expect to beat the Arse away every season It IS the games against the teams around you that unltimately decide your fate. If we'd been good enough to have won half of these matches we'd still been in the premiership. Overall we are where we deserve to be.

carlsberg

you can add the &A next to sheff united too.

Ormiston_Addick

Not really, they have a very strong home record so losing there was not really that big a deal.

We were in abysmal form at the time too, so you could not expect much from that game.

vancouveraddick

yeah but remember we went 1 nil up and threw it away in the last few minutes.

Ormiston_Addick

Well, they got their winner in the 88th minute but, being honest, they were all over us and we scored from one of our few attacks of the game.

Most people who were there admitted we were crap and deserved nothing.