Flat-track bullies

[Eric Cartman]

Would anyone say we are that? Seem to beat most of the worse sides in the division, normally a hiccup if we don’t - but against the better teams (our rivals) we nearly always struggle and usually lose.

Our recent form isn’t great in general but if you look over the course of the season and since our return to the championship we just haven’t been good enough in the big games (Wilder said as much yesterday) but we have collected plenty of points from the lesser sides.

Now even the likes of Rotherham and Wigan are capable of beating the top sides, we don’t seem to be able to yet we collect plenty of points from the mid table sides down to stay around the top of the table.

Is it a mentality thing? Are we flat track bullies? We don’t seem to often get complacent like I said bar the odd hiccup such as Rotherham but we don’t seem to have the belief we can win against sides littered with ‘premier league players’.

The reaction after the second goal yesterday was very telling. We seem to be quite weak mentally.

 

[dc_blade]

Would anyone say we are that? Seem to beat most of the worse sides in the division, normally a hiccup if we don’t - but against the better teams (our rivals) we nearly always struggle and usually lose.

Our recent form isn’t great in general but if you look over the course of the season and since our return to the championship we just haven’t been good enough in the big games (Wilder said as much yesterday) but we have collected plenty of points from the lesser sides.

Now even the likes of Rotherham and Wigan are capable of beating the top sides, we don’t seem to be able to yet we collect plenty of points from the mid table sides down to stay around the top of the table.

Is it a mentality thing? Are we flat track bullies? We don’t seem to often get complacent like I said bar the odd hiccup such as Rotherham but we don’t seem to have the belief we can win against sides littered with ‘premier league players’.

The reaction after the second goal yesterday was very telling. We seem to be quite weak mentally.

I'd say there's an element of truth to this. For a season and a half we've been putting in decent performances against some of the top teams in the division and very rarely getting a result. I'm finally ready to accept that it's not just bad luck or a coincidence.

I don't know about being mentally weak, because you don't get to where we are without some bottle. But at times we have these wonderful 45 or 60 minute spells of attacking, emerge from it only one goal ahead (or still drawing) and start to look a bit lost. When we turn those spells into goals (Bolton, Villa, etc) we look one of the best teams in the league.

If we can keep up the results against the weaker teams we've still every chance of being up there in the spring. But if we start to slip up against the likes of Reading and Ipswich we're probably looking at a finish similar to last year.

 

[SwissBlade]

I love this saying, it seems to be used a lot nowadays.

And yeah, we are

 

[bromtom]

Whilever we bottle it with the big teams, we need to beat the others, plenty of points available doing that but there's no room for cockups, the pressure would be immense and probably make us drop points anyway.

We're halfway through the season next week, we've got a good away record and of the top teams we've beaten Norwich and Villa at home, if we can get points at every other team outside of the big 6 or so, preferably wins, and get a couple of unexpected results in the big games we'll be there or there abouts.

January is big though. We need people in, even if they're not guaranteed starters, we just need people to keep the people we have on their toes and pick their game up.

Last season's JTW gave us a lift and it wasn't exactly spectacular, a better window could give us a real push.

 

[Eric Cartman]

Whilever we bottle it with the big teams, we need to beat the others, plenty of points available doing that but there's no room for cockups, the pressure would be immense and probably make us drop points anyway.

We're halfway through the season next week, we've got a good away record and of the top teams we've beaten Norwich and Villa at home, if we can get points at every other team outside of the big 6 or so, preferably wins, and get a couple of unexpected results in the big games we'll be there or there abouts.

January is big though. We need people in, even if they're not guaranteed starters, we just need people to keep the people we have on their toes and pick their game up.

Last season's JTW gave us a lift and it wasn't exactly spectacular, a better window could give us a real push.

We played them both at the right time. We wouldn’t beat either of them now if you ask me.

 

[bromtom]

We played them both at the right time. We wouldn’t beat either of them now if you ask me.

Absolutely agree, but on the flip side, I think we could beat Boro now, to be honest I think if we'd have played them when we were supposed to we'd have beat them.

Either way doesn't matter, the points are on the board, let's hope we meet some other teams at inopportune moments.

 

[Living In a Fantasy World]

Got to remember a lot of our team have had to make the step up from league one and have limited experience in the championship (Stevens, Baldock, O'Connell) , some of the players that do have the experience are on the latter end of their career (Sharp, Duffy, Clark, Coutts ect.) and some players are just not that great and Wilder is hoping they can bring something to the team. (Washington, Johnson ect).
Guess its not going to be easy facing a lot of ex premier league players, since they do have proven quality.

 

[Harry's Game]

The Big Beasts of the League have some excellent players who are Premier League players on Premier League wages in all but name.

If anyone of those sides has a good 30 minute plus spell it’s likely they will beat us, as we saw with Swansea and West Brom and Boro.

If you spilt the division into three, Top, Middle, Bottom. We are one of the top Middle sides.

 

[IMABLADE]

The thing is we are one of the few teams in the top 6 that doesn't drop too many teams to the smaller teams

 

[Bladesway]

Would anyone say we are that? Seem to beat most of the worse sides in the division, normally a hiccup if we don’t - but against the better teams (our rivals) we nearly always struggle and usually lose.

Our recent form isn’t great in general but if you look over the course of the season and since our return to the championship we just haven’t been good enough in the big games (Wilder said as much yesterday) but we have collected plenty of points from the lesser sides.

Now even the likes of Rotherham and Wigan are capable of beating the top sides, we don’t seem to be able to yet we collect plenty of points from the mid table sides down to stay around the top of the table.

Is it a mentality thing? Are we flat track bullies? We don’t seem to often get complacent like I said bar the odd hiccup such as Rotherham but we don’t seem to have the belief we can win against sides littered with ‘premier league players’.

The reaction after the second goal yesterday was very telling. We seem to be quite weak mentally.

No, we can beat most teams in the division on our day but it is crystal clear that without additional investment we need to be constantly at 100% to compete. Hence we miss a lot of chances and we run out of steam. When you look at our wage bill in this division I would say batting above our average rather than flat track bully.