Points since val took over

Hopefully the negative reports of our "lumping it up field" will prevent anyone taking notice of Val until we're doing on Sky every week in the Premier League and people realise it's a bit more than that.

 

Aye and we were closer in 95/96 than the league table would have people believe. I don't think the football changed that much between 94/95 and 96/97 it was just tweaked. I thought Wilson had a brain fart getting rid of Payton but he brought in Hendrie, Marcelle and Wilkinson and the rest was history.

 

We had. But the point I was making is that whenever we have any success, someone will claim it's because the Division we were in is the poorest it's been for years. Two years ago, the only reason we won promotion with a club record number of points was because according to some "It's the poorest Division 1 in years" and "Portsmouth & Sunderland bottled it".

 

Did you remind them that we finished 12 places above Man City?

 

What do you think?

 

I know. I remember going to the Oldham game at Oakwell on a sunny Tuesday evening full of hope that two more wins could get us into the playoffs..... dreams shattered

 

I know mate. I think this year is we've adapted the gegenpress to such an extent that Chelsea struggled to cope with us in the cup game. It's spiralled from that night for me.

 

Actually I think the turning point for me was 3 days later at Brentford. No way can we rise to the highs of the Chelsea game surely. Wow, we blow Brentford away and then win 7 on the bounce. We haven't looked back since

 

Automatic promotion form.

 

It is indeed. Imagine this squad plus VI here from Day 1 this season. The mind boggles

 

I think the 4 points under Murray were quite valuable in the end. The players were rock bottom after the rudderless start and depressing football under a sulking Struber. Murray definitely lifted them.

 

I believe we'd have won automatic promotion.

 

I think it's we play a style of football nobody else does. They set up thinking we play long ball when in fact we can actually play football in different pockets of the pitch. That's what I think takes teams by surprise because they set up solely for the long ball. It's happened more since the Brentford game because the team had gelled by then and the belief was there too.

 

I think so too

 

I think there has been an overall drop in quality in the bottom half of the division this year, with promotion from league 1 settled on ppg, Wycombe getting promoted from 8th, and the circumstances of Wigan's demise.

But that alone would only be enough to be a factor in us climbing towards the middle of the table. There's always been a perceived gulf between Bournemouth / Brentford / Swansea and the rest, and we've matched them. Just had a look at the table, only 4 teams outside the top 6 have beaten us since Ismael took over. Incredible consistency.

 

73 points from 37 games and a win percentage of 62.50% in all competitions.

 

I'm sure we'd still be in with a shout going into the final two games at the very least.

 

I think he'd been announced as new coach, but Murray was in charge for the first game- the 1-1 at Millwall, when Mowatt scored a worldie.