| Games that defined our season 07:00 - Mar 13 with 2076 views | PioneerBlue |
There are a lot of people saying the first 6 games are where to look. I have.
It’s lazy to say it’s all about the first 6.
Aug was poor, Nov was poor and December was not great.
These clubs have taken to many points from us:
Morecambe Cheltenham Burton Cambridge.
Double them and the league looks very different. |  |
| |  |
| Games that defined our season on 08:21 - Mar 13 with 1924 views | Churchman |
I would add that taking 1 point from Sunderland, nothing at Plymouth when we deserved better has also hurt. You are not going to win every game against teams around you, but we haven’t won enough against those, despite playing well enough.
I agree it isn’t all about the first six games. However, it’s true to say that if you take three points from eighteen and four of those games are at home, that leaves you 10 points or so behind a number of teams, not all of which will fade. You are playing catch up. A below average start of say 8 points would have meant we were in the play off mix, but we were deservedly well short.
My expectation was that we’d challenge for the top two. Play offs bare minimum. It’s been a very disappointing season. We have Cook largely to thank for that, but since December we’ve moved forward.
We are closer than last season in terms of the team and the club itself. Even Cowley (he irritates me like a fly that needs swotting) has spotted something is going on here so my hope for the summer is that we can find a goal scorer (gold dust) and amend the squad just a little to push up a level.
We are close to a really good team, with that defence behind it and the players we have look settled. |  | | |
| Games that defined our season on 08:29 - Mar 13 with 1888 views | Cheltenham_Blue |
I could say that its pretty lazy of you to assume that we have the right to double the teams in 13th, 14th and 15th but equally, if we want to go up, we also need to be taking points out of Plymouth, MK Dons and Wigan too. |  |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 08:31 - Mar 13 with 1880 views | textbackup |
| Games that defined our season on 08:21 - Mar 13 by Churchman |
I would add that taking 1 point from Sunderland, nothing at Plymouth when we deserved better has also hurt. You are not going to win every game against teams around you, but we haven’t won enough against those, despite playing well enough.
I agree it isn’t all about the first six games. However, it’s true to say that if you take three points from eighteen and four of those games are at home, that leaves you 10 points or so behind a number of teams, not all of which will fade. You are playing catch up. A below average start of say 8 points would have meant we were in the play off mix, but we were deservedly well short.
My expectation was that we’d challenge for the top two. Play offs bare minimum. It’s been a very disappointing season. We have Cook largely to thank for that, but since December we’ve moved forward.
We are closer than last season in terms of the team and the club itself. Even Cowley (he irritates me like a fly that needs swotting) has spotted something is going on here so my hope for the summer is that we can find a goal scorer (gold dust) and amend the squad just a little to push up a level.
We are close to a really good team, with that defence behind it and the players we have look settled. |
the first 23 games were very poor (bar a few big wins) the next 23 are proving to be a huge success.
if we finish on 76-78 points, which i think we will, thats firstly very unlucky not to grab 6th spot.... and also brilliant from KMc and his team for 1/2 a season |  |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 09:37 - Mar 13 with 1758 views | jayessess |
Even the best teams in this club's history dropped points they shouldn't, that's part of the natural variation of football.
To win the 27/28 games in a season you need for 2nd place you've got to be consistently better than the opposition, such that when you do have those days where it just won't go in, where you're off it for some reason, when the opposition score with their first shot and you never come back into it, it doesn't hurt you. We probably are that good now, but we weren't up to January. [Post edited 13 Mar 2022 9:54]
|  |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 09:52 - Mar 13 with 1719 views | BiGDonnie |
Seasons not over yet... |  |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 10:03 - Mar 13 with 1689 views | Guthrum |
Morecombe (who have, nevertheless, taken points from teams up to current 6th place) aside, Rotherham are the only leading team to double Cheltenham or Cambridge (tho the latter have yet to play a lot of their second matches against the top six), Sunderland have only taken one point from Burton.
Cheltenham, Burton and Cambridge are solidly mid-table for a reason - they've fought hard and are decent teams at this level. |  |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 15:01 - Mar 13 with 1542 views | Vic |
Those first few weeks of the season haven’t helped. But I’d also say that our consistent inability to beat the top teams is as much of a problem. We’re getting there, but good as we played yesterday the failure to win jus5 heaps pressure on the next block of games.
That said, we are soooo much better than we were 3 months ago I no longer live in hope that next season will see us out of this league. The level of performance, the defensive stability and midfield flexibility all fill me with confidence that next season we really will be right at the top of the league all season. I’m confident that KM and his team will sort the striker situation.
Nothing is certain, but we really do have justifiable reason to be optimistic about the future. At last! |  |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 15:49 - Mar 13 with 1507 views | brogansnose |
Sunderland away. No idea how we lost that.
Cambridge away. Absolutely threw away a two goal lead.
Four points right there. |  | | |
Login to get fewer ads
| Games that defined our season on 16:00 - Mar 13 with 1484 views | pointofblue |
I'll keep saying it, even though it hurts - Cheltenham at home and Morecambe away. Just as we seemed to be closing up on the top six we pick up two points and the gap grew again. | |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 16:33 - Mar 13 with 1441 views | patrickswell |
| Games that defined our season on 15:49 - Mar 13 by brogansnose |
Sunderland away. No idea how we lost that.
Cambridge away. Absolutely threw away a two goal lead.
Four points right there. |
Was it 18 points lost from winning positions under Cook this season? McKenna hasn’t dropped any yet from a winning position, I don’t think.
Failure to make the play offs this year would be 99% Cook’s fault. McKenna’s provided one of the biggest new manager bounces I’ve ever seen here, but the size of the defecit and the other teams’ season long (not half season) levels of consistency mean that we’ll probably miss out this year.
If McKenna can maintain that level of defensive solidity next season, we will win the title. [Post edited 13 Mar 2022 20:32]
|  | | |
| Games that defined our season on 16:49 - Mar 13 with 1404 views | Steve_M |
| Games that defined our season on 16:33 - Mar 13 by patrickswell |
Was it 18 points lost from winning positions under Cook this season? McKenna hasn’t dropped any yet from a winning position, I don’t think.
Failure to make the play offs this year would be 99% Cook’s fault. McKenna’s provided one of the biggest new manager bounces I’ve ever seen here, but the size of the defecit and the other teams’ season long (not half season) levels of consistency mean that we’ll probably miss out this year.
If McKenna can maintain that level of defensive solidity next season, we will win the title. [Post edited 13 Mar 2022 20:32]
|
It's right up there with Mick turning Jewell's utter mess of a team around in 2012-13. That same sort of improvement over three seasons and we're back to mid-table in the Championship by 2024. |  |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 17:41 - Mar 13 with 1313 views | Churchman |
| Games that defined our season on 16:49 - Mar 13 by Steve_M |
It's right up there with Mick turning Jewell's utter mess of a team around in 2012-13. That same sort of improvement over three seasons and we're back to mid-table in the Championship by 2024. |
Normally I’m a bit glass half empty, but I think there’s a good chance that, like Southampton a few years back now, we could pile through the Championship to challenge for the PL in 2024.
Maybe I’ve too much faith, but we are improving, we appear to have a good fit of a management team, the club itself seems to be settling down and going forwards.
I know, it’s the hope that kills you. | | | |
| Games that defined our season on 17:44 - Mar 13 with 1307 views | LankHenners |
You can micro-analyse all the games and say 'this outcome would have been different if xyz' but the early games set the tone for the poor first half of the season. The way we buckled to robust but one-dimensional pressure against Burton and Cheltenham was something we never got over under Cook, with the away games at Accrington and Cambridge seeing us drop points from winning positions following a similar pattern. Wimbledon at home similarly a game we looked comfortable in but became sloppy and threw away.
The first dozen league games was where a lot of damage was done - holding onto leads we should have done on just a few occasions would see us up near MK Dons right now. Obviously that would change things re: Cook/McKenna but in terms of raw points we killed our season barely any time after it started. |  |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 20:27 - Mar 13 with 1194 views | peterleeblue |
I think Sunderland away was fairly indicative of our season.
Total domination yet created very little (Maybe one clear cut chance) and then lost 2-0 in the last 10 mins when Sunderland had a little pop at us. |  | | |
| Games that defined our season on 07:34 - Apr 3 with 962 views | PioneerBlue |
I’m highlighting this one more time.
24 points on offer. I make that 7 earned, 17 points dropped or left on the table against this.
Win all of those and we’ve are out right too today on 81 points!
Let that sink in.
Poor. But we know the season hasn’t planned out like that, this post started by challenging the first 6 games group think. It’s more than that of course. Even taking only 4 out of 8 wins from second half of season and we’d now be within 1 point of 6th place.
Next season with the right summer business and a new look attacking threat we can look to be in a very very different position May 2023. | |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 08:12 - Apr 3 with 883 views | Chrisd |
There’s no doubt the stuttering start we made under PC certainly slowed our progress as we were always playing catch up, but if you can’t beat any of the promoted L2 sides in 8 games then you don’t really deserve to be a top 6 side. The fact we’ve struggled to beat any top 7 side in L1, apart from last week against Plymouth, also serves to highlight our limitations. There’s no doubt KM has had a huge impact since arriving and provided us all with plenty of optimism in going forwards, but there’s plenty of work that still needs to be done to make us genuinely one of the best sides in this league. [Post edited 3 Apr 2022 8:16]
| |
| |
| Games that defined our season on 08:17 - Apr 3 with 855 views | PioneerBlue |
| Games that defined our season on 08:12 - Apr 3 by Chrisd |
There’s no doubt the stuttering start we made under PC certainly slowed our progress as we were always playing catch up, but if you can’t beat any of the promoted L2 sides in 8 games then you don’t really deserve to be a top 6 side. The fact we’ve struggled to beat any top 7 side in L1, apart from last week against Plymouth, also serves to highlight our limitations. There’s no doubt KM has had a huge impact since arriving and provided us all with plenty of optimism in going forwards, but there’s plenty of work that still needs to be done to make us genuinely one of the best sides in this league. [Post edited 3 Apr 2022 8:16]
|
Agreed.
Initially it wasn’t aimed to me a Cook v McKenna thread, it was looking at games that defined the season. Some took it as a swipe at KMcK, he’s been awesome and over achieved compared with what I was hoping for in Jan.
Future is bright and there is a lot of reason to believe we will be an even better proposition next season having been though hard yards this as a club and new team. | |
| |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
