Blues boss Paul Jewell says Town need to find greater consistency in the second half of the season after a “proper rollercoaster” of a campaign up to now. The New Year’s Eve game at Reading marks the halfway point of 2011/12.
Looking back over the 22 fixtures so far, with his side in 19th place, six points from the relegation places and nine points off the play-offs, Jewell says it’s been very up and down: "I would say that at times it’s been really good and at times terrible. It’s been a proper rollercoaster.
"We started off the season with a win, then we lost a few, then we picked up and had a five or six-game spell where we were playing great football.
"Then we had seven games where we could win, we’ve conceded late goals and thrown games away. The season so far has had a bit of everything.
"We need to add consistency and we need to be better if we’re going to be in the top part of the table.”
The Town boss admits that he’s only once known a season where one of his teams has suffered so many heavy defeats: "I don’t think we’ve had more beatings, other than perhaps with Derby in the Premier League. After 20-odd games it feels as if we’ve had everything in it.
"We’ve had a last minute winner at West Ham. We’ve had two games where we’ve lost when we’ve been winning the game 2-1 and have lost both 3-2 with a goal in injury time.
"Then we were 2-0 down at half-time against Barnsley and won 5-3. We’ve had almost everything in the 22 games, some really good, some bad, some really bad."
He says that in some ways it seems as if Town have been through a full season: "It feels like we’ve had 46 games already, emotionally.
"I think any manager in any 90 minutes you go through the whole emotions of elation, disappointment, anger, everything. But that’s part of management.
"The seven-game run was tough and anyone who says it wasn’t tough is telling fibs. But that’s what we get paid for and if you can’t deal with it, then give someone else the job.”