Taking Comfort

[Portishead Puffin]

We played poorly yesterday against a Cardiff side who are on a very good unbeaten run. But to be honest they were nowhere near the best side we have played against this season and if thats what it takes to get edge of the play offs, then I don't think we are as far away from being a good Championship side as some would have us believe. I don't want to single out any players because I didn't think anyone had their best game, I was pleased to see that we kept going, but just didn't have sufficient quality on the pitch and to bring off the bench to hurt them, and yet we put their defence under enough pressure that they were giving the ball away a lot and on another day would have conceded 3 penalties.

I still think we will stay up comfortably, but getting Korey back will help ease any fears in that direction.

[daored]

1 minute ago, Port Said Red said:

We played poorly yesterday against a Cardiff side who are on a very good unbeaten run. But to be honest they were nowhere near the best side we have played against this season and if thats what it takes to get edge of the play offs, then I don't think we are as far away from being a good Championship side as some would have us believe. I don't want to single out any players because I didn't think anyone had their best game, I was pleased to see that we kept going, but just didn't have sufficient quality on the pitch and to bring off the bench to hurt them, and yet we put their defence under enough pressure that they were giving the ball away a lot and on another day would have conceded 3 penalties.

I still think we will stay up comfortably, but getting Korey back will help ease any fears in that direction.

Think your comment about Smith is correct. He sets out tempo and the others follow our lead, he certainly gets the best out of Pack as well. 

For me next season full time captain, and I just hope the club are looking at getting this lad signed up on a longer term contract. For me make him the best paid player at the club

[pongo88]

We missed Smith, but the biggest problem was the same as it has been all season - inability to create decent chances when we have a lot of possession. Smith won't solve that problem as he hardly ever shoots and has scored one league goal in five seasons. Yesterday (IMO) Reid was ineffective for long periods; Freeman ran in ever decreasing circles; Kodjia kept trying to beat the same man four or five times etc. I don't blame Johnson as he can work with the squad he's got, which is very small. The crunch will come in the summer, assuming we survive this season. We either get some decent signings to rectify the problem or it will be another relegation fight. 

[Guest]

The cliche is coming out: Cardiff took their chances, we didn't.

11 games left and I would like at least 15 points as a minimum - if we can do 2 point average, I'll be over the moon.

[Red-Robbo]

12 minutes ago, daored said:

Think your comment about Smith is correct. He sets out tempo and the others follow our lead, he certainly gets the best out of Pack as well. 

For me next season full time captain, and I just hope the club are looking at getting this lad signed up on a longer term contract. For me make him the best paid player at the club

For me, it seems likely that Smith's vision might have cut out at least one of those goals - probably the first.

I think the shove on Reid was a stonewall penalty - I was too far away to see what happened to Agard - and I think a less clueless ref would have given it. When you're cueing up a shot with the keeper to beat, you aren't going to suddenly fly six feet forward! The less said about the visually challenged linesman in front of the Dolman, the better.

So, in short,  Cardiff were the better team but I  don't think we were totally outclassed.  Certainly,  our second-half surge saw them looking as panicky as we did in the first and even the players who looked poor in the first, such as BR,  started to perform.

Although defeat to the Yacky Dars is very disappointing,  I do take some solace from it. 

Lee's half-time team talks certainly seem to inspire the side. I just wish they'd shown the same assurance from the start.

[samo II]

14 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

For me, it seems likely that Smith's vision might have cut out at least one of those goals - probably the first.

I think the shove on Reid was a stonewall penalty - I was too far away to see what happened to Agard - and I think a less clueless ref would have given it. When you're cueing up a shot with the keeper to beat, you aren't going to suddenly fly six feet forward! The less said about the visually challenged linesman in front of the Dolman, the better.

So, in short,  Cardiff were the better team but I  don't think we were totally outclassed.  Certainly,  our second-half surge saw them looking as panicky as we did in the first and even the players who looked poor in the first, such as BR,  started to perform.

Although defeat to the Yacky Dars is very disappointing,  I do take some solace from it. 

Lee's half-time team talks certainly seem to inspire the side. I just wish they'd shown the same assurance from the start.

It will be interesting to as how we react on Tuesday, as while Cardiff have only lost two league games in 2016 (to Hull and Boro), Wolves have only three wins in the same period, with two of them in the first couple of games of January.

Form-wise, we couldn't have a better team to 'bounce back' against; it will be another good test of our mettle, and of LJ's ability to lift the side.

A good performance and result midweek, and we'd have ten games to go to save ourselves.  And if we can keep or increase our gap on the bottom three, I'd find it hard to see us getting overtaken by more than maybe one of those in the drop zone right now, and we'd still have two home games against clubs down there to make sure of that.