Step by step says Chris.

[GrayBlade]

It makes a difference due to the fact it’s easier to achieve against inferior quality opposition, and shouldn’t be held up as representative of anything aspirational. We need to be setting our collective sights higher. In my opinion, Stoke are a far better side than Hull and the real test of our abilities is seeing out games against the likes of them, Villa, Cardiff, Bristol, Derby, etc. and not olè-ing against the joint worst team in the league. Teddy Atlas recently said ‘a fight isn’t a true fight until you meet resistance’.

We I don’t know about Cardiff, I’m hoping we pass them on the way up, but Villa were as bad or worse than Hull (on the day). I’m still figuring out what happened after we scored against Derby but it was very similar to at Bristol. Not really about seeing a game out on those two occasions though was it N_C? More about completely losing the plot for a whole half. I don’t even blame their fitness personally, not at that stage of a game.

Back to the oppo’s quality, yes it’s obviously a major influence on how we can play but I think it’s wrong to assume that a club having better players always equals a better team. As we learnt ourselves in League One and also under Robson, that’s not always the case, and I’m sure if we’d have tried to play it around against Stoke as with Hull and not started lumping it we’d have seen it out because up till then they were shocking.

I do take your points though.