Here are some thoughts to help put the situation into perspective: 1) If any other team in the league was playing well this far into the season and dropped two defeats one after the other away from home, would we be looking at them saying 'they're for the drop - relegation fodder'? I doubt it. We'd see it for what it is - a couple of bad results. 2) A good team does not go bad over night. We've lost a couple of games away from home - that's all. Two weeks ago some on here were talking like we held the crown jewels and every other team in the land wanted to steal them away from us. There was a thread talking about how many million we'd accept for Howard! 3) If we were down at the bottom of the league, having lost most of our games, and only drawn a few, and then we went away to Hull and Leicester and took six points - would we be sat talking about promotion? I'm sure a few on here would, but any sensible person would be saying 'there's a long way to go'. Instead, we've got off to what most would consider a flying start - exceeding all our expectations - and we lose a couple of games and suddenly it's 'relegation' this, 'bubble has burst' that. Again, any sensible person ought to be saying 'there's a long way to go'. 4) In actuality, we're playing and picking up points, like a mid-table side. We've had a nice little run (unbeaten - not wining necessarily) Looking good against some teams, surprising some of the big boys, dropping points and looking hopeless the next week. Our salvation is that we have a team capable of taking points when they are playing well, and there are teams below us who, try as they might, can't do bugger all. 5) For those people who were talking about the playoffs, and counting chickens about survival, it's wake up time. The realists never took their eyes off fifty points, and yes, we're still ahead of schedule on that count. As far as it goes, it's up to Davey to pick the lads up, get them back to winning ways. Panicking about relegation and how apparently all our plays are now officially ***** really isn't very constructive. IMHO I still think we have a much better squad that we had last year, and I still believe that we will finish higher than we did last year. This post probably isn't as much fun as adding to the 'Odejayi is worse than Dave Regis' hysteria, but there you go.
Although I agree with most of that.... .... I think it has to be said that it is not so much the last couple of results that are unnerving people, as the seemingly inexplicable and dramatic downturn in performance. Neither Hull nor Leicester are exactly big hitters in this Division, yet they have managed to make us look like very poor performers.</p> When you set that against the first ten or so games it has to make you wonder how wecan suddenly look so bad without making significant changes to the starting line-up. I really do hope we come back stronger, but it has long been known that our frontline attack is being carried by the lads further back. You cannot sustain that forever - and perhaps the weaknesses caused by that situation are starting to kick in.</p>
RE: Although I agree with most of that.... I think that every team in the second tier of football has their own insecurities and an area they worry about or would like to improve - even the genuine promotion contenders (as often gets shown when they get stuffed by the apparently smaller teams in the prem after they get promoted). I don't think that anyone would disagree with the fact that our strikers aren't firing on all cylinders yet - but to simply blame two consecutive defeats on that and start worrying that we've been 'found out for the rest of the season' (not your words - obviously - but I've read it on here) is a bit over the top. In all honesty our down turn hasn't been that dramatic. Just as our unbeaten run hasn't been that dramatic either (the way that some have been talking on here and the way that some papers have been writing, you'd think we had been top of the division, and that unbeaten actually meant 'winning'). We've picked up plenty of draws along the way, and there is only a very fine line between a draw and a defeat. We weren't very good against Hull - poor in fact (all over the pitch) - the same, it would seem against Leicester. We know we can play better than that. The nature of mid-table second tier football is that sometimes you beat teams you don't expect to, and then on other days you lose to a pretty ordinary outfit who you'd expect to beat (having beaten a big hitter). There's no fathoming it and we all know that because we've been following Barnsley for years and years. It's just way too early to be pushing the panic button - although as you say you can see where that insecurity is coming from.
