One thing that was apparent was our need to catch up on competitive match fitness. With the more recent games other Championship teams have played they are starting out with an edge on us. However, as the season progresses we will hopefully gain our own advantage as those teams start to tire from too many games. In the meantime our use of subs is going to be crucial. Yesterday we were forced into replacing Kelly and Hamer, who were otherwise players that would have probably played the full 90, and which meant we couldn't replace Pask when he kept getting cramp, or others that were visibly tiring. Hopefully in upcoming games MR will be able to dictate when he makes his subs, rather than events dictating them instead.
A fair assessment. It's probably also worth mentioning that Robins suggested in his pre-match interview that it may take up to a month to get where we need to be fitness-wise. So, against QPR it could well be that we see a repeat of what we saw at Bristol, whereby fatigue begins to kick in after 60ish minutes and we consequently find ourselves on the back foot for the last 30 again.
Not that's anything to be disheartened about though, as I think we can take comfort into how we played up until we began to tire our fitness is something that can be improved upon. Once we've dusted the cobwebs off post-September, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how we play over the course of the full 90.
Personally, I think one of the reasons why we lost on Saturday is that we tried to play to the same tempo as in the first half and chase the win, something that whilst admirable, probably in hindsight wasn't particularly feasible given the substitutions Robins was forced to make and of course, the fact that we'd ran out of steam after 60/65 mins.
Assuming Robins won't be forced into making any unwanted substitutions again on Friday, I'm sure he'll do his best to address any fatigue issues against QPR by looking at how best to cope during the final third of the game.
