Very telling and an excellent return considering the quality of opposition
Norwich is going to be very tough.
Not only are we showing quality, we are showing grit. It’s almost as if Robins was right to say they needed time to gel!
Nobody will fancy playing us, and we are still improving.
Feels very much like last years run in, in that every game is massive and can leave us anywhere from 6th to 12th. Bit of an adventure.
The key difference for me is that last year felt like a one time opportunity. This year is different and we are in a far better position long term. Whatever happens from now until may, next season is when this team is likely to peak.
Autos is on the cards if we don't go up this year.
And we are 5 points ahead of where we were last season at this stage
Well, maybe.
The turn in form is correlated precisely with our change of formation. Is that gelling? Why did they not need time to get used to the new tactical changes? Or is it just players being used optimally? Had we started with this formation would we have done better than we did?
It's more the management and coaching needed time to work out how to use the players than the players themselves.
Teams get better the longer they play together after comong together as new , been proven time and time again over the course of history
When did the run start last season? This feels much earlier.
It's earlier , we also had a bad dip in form post Christmas last year at some point , we hit the playoffs towards the end
We have a tough run in the month of April. So we really have to get as many points between now and then.
That’s good and bad.
Good, well it’s just good that we are playing well.
Bad. I nearly had a complete and total nervous breakdown last time and this one will probably be longer.
Agree. Sometimes we defy expectations don’t we. Guess that’s what makes things so exciting unpredictable .
The biggest obstacle for this group is fitness. Add a bit more squad depth and the consistency will be a lot more likely to stick.
I actually think we look a better team than last season now .. by quite some way
L2 season, we bolted in to the playoffs last minute. Similar last season. This one feels like the L1 championship season. In the mix earlier; more nerves for us as we'll feel we've got something to lose. MR teams don't seem to suffer from nerves, though. Just us. Enjoy the stress if you can, folks! 
Just got to keep it up and let the rest do the worrying!L2 season, we bolted in to the playoffs last minute. Similar last season. This one feels like the L1 championship season. In the mix earlier; more nerves for us as we'll feel we've got something to lose. MR teams don't seem to suffer from nerves, though. Just us. Enjoy the stress if you can, folks!
If we beat Bristol and Millwall, I'll start to believe we can get more points than last season. If 75 points is playoffs, and we win those two, that's 26 points more from 15 games, maybe 7 or 8 wins. A bit scary how possible that would seem.
Does anyone need a reality check?
We all agree Southampton are flying. They're on a great run. But look at that form table. Southampton have just one more point than us. But their opponents PPG is easily the lowest at 1.14 and ours just 0.06 off the highest at 1.42. That is WBA and they've lost 5 out of the last 12 games. We're in second. In the last 12 games we've played the clubs in 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th.
We all agree Southampton are flying. They're on a great run. But look at that form table. Southampton have just one more point than us. But their opponents PPG is easily the lowest at 1.14 and ours just 0.06 off the highest at 1.42. That is WBA and they've lost 5 out of the last 12 games. We're in second. In the last 12 games we've played the clubs in 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th.
Start believing.
18 games left. We have 43 points. Win 2 lose 1 is 2 PPG. We could lose 6 games but still get 79 points.
Let's put it another way. We're 2nd in the form table over 12 games. But in this run we've played 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the form table. We've won 8, drawn 3 and only lost to Ipswich in a close game. That's 2.25 PPG. That's over 100 points a season average. A fantastic run considering before it we drew 2 lost 4 in 6 games.
So why bother spending so much in the transfer market and signing new players every year? Just keep the players you've got and you'll get better, surely, if it's been proven time and time again over the course of history that the longer teams play together the better they get?
If we changed back to 3-5-2 do you think we'd be as good as we are now because they've been playing together longer? Fact is we weren't using the players right to begin with and once we did we looked much better immediately.
Ofcourse , but we couldn't afford to buy our loan players over the years , and we couldn't afford to keep our better players either
I'd argue that if we miss out this year , we will be auto candidates next year
The formation we're playing now suits us better but 100% we would look much better in 3-5-2 now, than we did at the start of the season.
We're not going to be signing new players every season now (to the same extent). This is the first, we won't need wholesale changes. Of course players perform better the more they play together but they also have ceilings.
We have had a massive turnover of players over the last 7 years because our rise from L2, short contracts, SISU finances, loan reliance & the requirement to bring in better players.
We can beat Bristol and get rid of that nasty red.
This is all getting a bit much now, just turned down an invite to an event on Sat 17th August because I don't want to potentially miss our first game back in the Prem
I’d have accepted. Plenty of twists and turns before needing to make your excuses.
Don't worry about it. It'll be away at Newcastle on a Thursday night, 9.30pm KO.
FYI the Championship PO final is on the Sunday this year. In case you need to book Monday off.
Robins just always seems relaxed doesn't put pressure on himself or others. So assured doesn't get too high or too low.
What a man.
Still could make substitutions earlier.
What a man.
Still could make substitutions earlier.
