A boot up The Cobblers? Northampton away, Tues Oct first 19-45.

[irie Cee Bee]

Great football at times. Evatt has finally cut out the passing around game at the back and midfield (I hope). Direct football at speed. This is what we all have been crying out for. Never thought he had this in his locker. We are back in it with a shot if this continues!! Hope he doesn't ditch it against the top sides.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I've been enjoying the recent Twitter bitching about Thomason, as it was inevitable he'd shut them up.

Have a bit of that, you melts.

Who the hell would complain about Thomason? He’s probably the only one who is always totally committed and up for it, no matter what.

Yeah it's amazing what some folk feel free to complain about...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

[GhostoftheBok]

Don’t care about giving anyone a ‘proper game’ we need to beat them.

You can't have an away win against this Birmingham side as the minimum acceptable outcome.

We all want to beat them, but a point would be a really good result.

[jimbo]

Don’t care about giving anyone a ‘proper game’ we need to beat them.

You can't have an away win against this Birmingham side as the minimum acceptable outcome.

We all want to beat them, but a point would be a really good result.

If we win the next 3 which are all winnable, it gives us a bit of sliding room in those next 5 tougher games. 8 points from those 5 would leave us on 30 from 16. We’d be there or thereabouts with that and it would be a fantastic recovery from where we were 2 weeks ago.
Obviously we want to win every game, but we have to be realistic that that isn’t going to happen and there will always be blips on the way. What we can’t afford is runs like we had earlier in the season.

Edit - I’ve just seen that Stevenage has been postponed due to the international break, so my working above doesn’t quite stack up, but I stand by the point that we can allow ourselves the odd blip!

[boltonboris]

Some great stuff last night. Obviously, as Evatt said in his post match interview, the 2 late goals took the gloss off it, but for 90 mins before that, it was the best performance of the season.

When Evatt talks about high risk, it's not just passing it round the back and inviting a press, it's having your Central Midfielders 50 yards apart when you're 1-0 up. Most managers would tear their hair out. That second goal was absolutely fantastic. Great run by Thomo to break the lines and the timing of it was perfect. Equally great by Sheehan, who danced, pirouetted, jinked and jived waiting for an opening and delivered a beaut of a pass with just enough back spin to keep it in the corridor without skipping through.

Another goal scored from a set-piece and another one for McAtee, which for me, was the pick of the bunch. Blink of an eye, 2 mouth watering passes and the balls in the net. Great stuff.

Dion's goal was a good one too. Great strength and composure. He's looking sharp and hungry and up for the challenge of a good bunch of players looking to take his spot.

[Worthy4England]

Don’t care about giving anyone a ‘proper game’ we need to beat them.

You can't have an away win against this Birmingham side as the minimum acceptable outcome.

We all want to beat them, but a point would be a really good result.

I think based on what's happened so far - Brum W7 D1 - I agree, a point wouldn't be indecent. Derby were on 13 from 8 last year, with a 5 point gap to second which they overcame. So not impossible, but it's still more than 2 ppg so winning the next 2 is still important. What we don't need, should that come to pass, is for us then to be self satisfied that we've "caught up".

[TANGODANCER]

Our front men are going to create a real selection problem if they keep up current form. I really want Vic to score, but that will compound the problem even further. Add to that, our midfield Thomo and Dempsey are scoring and even our defence want in on the act.. Problems, problems

Key solution lies in clean sheets and goals, but that's the story of football. Park the bus deep against set pieces and corners and charge outwards instead of allowing the opposition to just do a bum's rush at us. This proved the case in the last ten minutes last night. Learn the lesson. You don't need a college education to see where 0 plus 0 equals 1 and 1 plus 0 equals 3. Sort that out.. .

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Don’t care about giving anyone a ‘proper game’ we need to beat them.

You can't have an away win against this Birmingham side as the minimum acceptable outcome.

We all want to beat them, but a point would be a really good result.

If we win the next 3 which are all winnable, it gives us a bit of sliding room in those next 5 tougher games. 8 points from those 5 would leave us on 30 from 16. We’d be there or thereabouts with that and it would be a fantastic recovery from where we were 2 weeks ago.
Obviously we want to win every game, but we have to be realistic that that isn’t going to happen and there will always be blips on the way. What we can’t afford is runs like we had earlier in the season.

Edit - I’ve just seen that Stevenage has been postponed due to the international break, so my working above doesn’t quite stack up, but I stand by the point that we can allow ourselves the odd blip!

There's already two campaigns, really.

One is to get as close as possible to maximum points from the non-contenders; we've done that well (in various ways) in the last three league games. The other is to use six-pointers to hurt your promotion rivals; we don't yet know 100% who they'll be but 0-0 with Wrexham, 0-2 at Charlton and 0-4 home to Huddersfield was a very troubling start in this endeavour.

Remember we're supposed to be targeting a top-two, not top-six, finish. Top two needs 2ppg or thereabouts. Top six usually requires 1.66ppg these days. We're currently on 1.625ppg. A win on Saturday would take us to 1.77ppg and we still might not be top-six because the chasing pack is so tight. It's highly unlikely to stay that competitive that far down (literally they can't all win, etc) but we need to press on.

Birmingham away is the hardest game by far, but we can't really 'accept' too many other non-wins.

[Mar]

Don’t care about giving anyone a ‘proper game’ we need to beat them.

You can't have an away win against this Birmingham side as the minimum acceptable outcome.

We all want to beat them, but a point would be a really good result.

If we win the next 3 which are all winnable, it gives us a bit of sliding room in those next 5 tougher games. 8 points from those 5 would leave us on 30 from 16. We’d be there or thereabouts with that and it would be a fantastic recovery from where we were 2 weeks ago.
Obviously we want to win every game, but we have to be realistic that that isn’t going to happen and there will always be blips on the way. What we can’t afford is runs like we had earlier in the season.

Edit - I’ve just seen that Stevenage has been postponed due to the international break, so my working above doesn’t quite stack up, but I stand by the point that we can allow ourselves the odd blip!

There's already two campaigns, really.

One is to get as close as possible to maximum points from the non-contenders; we've done that well (in various ways) in the last three league games. The other is to use six-pointers to hurt your promotion rivals; we don't yet know 100% who they'll be but 0-0 with Wrexham, 0-2 at Charlton and 0-4 home to Huddersfield was a very troubling start in this endeavour.

Remember we're supposed to be targeting a top-two, not top-six, finish. Top two needs 2ppg or thereabouts. Top six usually requires 1.66ppg these days. We're currently on 1.625ppg. A win on Saturday would take us to 1.77ppg and we still might not be top-six because the chasing pack is so tight. It's highly unlikely to stay that competitive that far down (literally they can't all win, etc) but we need to press on.

Birmingham away is the hardest game by far, but we can't really 'accept' too many other non-wins.

I think when it comes to other teams that are pushing for promotion, it'll be key not to lose those contests rather than must-win.

We should be able to get the results against the rest of the teams in the league by sheer consistency, easier said than done. What unstuck us last year was dropping points to Oxford (0-0) and Portsmouth (1-1) when we were notably decent in those matches. Obviously there was the horror show that was Wigan and Carlisle, but had we finished off Derby or any of those draws late in the season we'd've likely been promoted.

We'll likely lose against Birmingham, but if we're going to get promoted, it's time we started taking points off sides like that when we slip up against sides like Charlton or Exeter.

[BWFC_Insane]

Don’t care about giving anyone a ‘proper game’ we need to beat them.

You can't have an away win against this Birmingham side as the minimum acceptable outcome.

We all want to beat them, but a point would be a really good result.

It’s not about minimum acceptable outcomes. We need to escape this mindset. The mindset of as long as we do enough to keep ticking along it’s ok.

It’s not. We can look at last season. Went away to Portsmouth, gave them a good game. Lost. No calamity at the time. But it precipitated our problems in games against the best sides and ultimately we slid down.

So nothing to do with what’s the minimum result. It’s about aiming to go and beat every side.

We have adopted a pragmatic approach to games and have a huge amount of quality. No reason we cant go there and soak it up and win. And our attitude should be that’s what we’ve got to do. If we don’t then it is what it is but top two demands special results and that is what we need to aim for.

[Worthy4England]

Don’t care about giving anyone a ‘proper game’ we need to beat them.

You can't have an away win against this Birmingham side as the minimum acceptable outcome.

We all want to beat them, but a point would be a really good result.

If we win the next 3 which are all winnable, it gives us a bit of sliding room in those next 5 tougher games. 8 points from those 5 would leave us on 30 from 16. We’d be there or thereabouts with that and it would be a fantastic recovery from where we were 2 weeks ago.
Obviously we want to win every game, but we have to be realistic that that isn’t going to happen and there will always be blips on the way. What we can’t afford is runs like we had earlier in the season.

Edit - I’ve just seen that Stevenage has been postponed due to the international break, so my working above doesn’t quite stack up, but I stand by the point that we can allow ourselves the odd blip!

There's already two campaigns, really.

One is to get as close as possible to maximum points from the non-contenders; we've done that well (in various ways) in the last three league games. The other is to use six-pointers to hurt your promotion rivals; we don't yet know 100% who they'll be but 0-0 with Wrexham, 0-2 at Charlton and 0-4 home to Huddersfield was a very troubling start in this endeavour.

Remember we're supposed to be targeting a top-two, not top-six, finish. Top two needs 2ppg or thereabouts. Top six usually requires 1.66ppg these days. We're currently on 1.625ppg. A win on Saturday would take us to 1.77ppg and we still might not be top-six because the chasing pack is so tight. It's highly unlikely to stay that competitive that far down (literally they can't all win, etc) but we need to press on.

Birmingham away is the hardest game by far, but we can't really 'accept' too many other non-wins.

I don't doubt there's a bit of leeway. Derby from this same points position/games played lost a further 7 and drew a further 7, if we assume 92 would be enough (which is ok unless you're Sheff Weds maybe),

I'm sure we'll have times when we're not at our best through injuries and ailments etc. So I'd be hugely impressed if we didn't lose another from here.

I felt we were too accommodating with the "well every team loses games," last season. Yeah they do, but we lost 2 too many. I'd be surprised if the race for second wasn't similarly tight this year.

Top 6 last year used up 8 of our "didn't win" games, out of the 14 we have left, so similar results would only leave 7 spares (coz we already dropped 2 vs Wrexham)

[officer_dibble]

Don’t care about giving anyone a ‘proper game’ we need to beat them.

You can't have an away win against this Birmingham side as the minimum acceptable outcome.

We all want to beat them, but a point would be a really good result.

We need to make up the 6 points lost at home from games we wouldn’t have expected a win - that might include a point at Birmingham to be fair.

[boltonboris]

Whilst some fans are simply happy that we’re picking up points again, regardless who it’s against. (We have to play everybody twice), it does seem that some other fans are setting him nicely to fail, by demanding wins against the likes of Birmingham etc.

People will always find something to limit other people’s enthusiasm.

At the end of the day, nobody’s getting carried away. It’s a step in the right direction. Let’s just be happy that there’s points being put on the board now and back them appropriately in the hope it continues, whilst also accepting that there’ll be bumps in the road ahead

[Worthy4England]

His target was to get us promoted last year. He didn't. Yeah, it was a near miss, but it's binary. Either he did or he didn't - and he didn't.

This season, to continue the "we're improving" thing, he has to get us up. Otherwise it'll be another near miss (I suspect). I don't doubt we're a top 6 side, even with the poor start. I'm less certain he gets us up. He's set that one up himself, but to be fair, my head would have set it for him, this season, had he not done so.

[Mar]

Something to consider regarding the goals we conceded last night.

Johnston left with two defenders on the left side and the midfielder with loads of time to pick a ball out to their big man (Eaves). That's just asking for trouble from a team setup.

As for the second goal, Adeboyejo seems to own up to making the mistake by pointing to himself when Sheehan is asking questions. It's an avoidable goal, but its good to see accountability. I thought Santos could've gone and attacked the ball a bit quicker but in reality, the main concern here is Vic losing his man and making it easy for them to make a run and score.

Neither goal is the end of the world of course. The hard work had been done earlier in the match and despite the frustration with losing the clean sheet, it bares no impact on the points accrual.

[Worthy4England]

Something to consider regarding the goals we conceded last night.

Johnston left with two defenders on the left side and the midfielder with loads of time to pick a ball out to their big man (Eaves). That's just asking for trouble from a team setup.

As for the second goal, Adeboyejo seems to own up to making the mistake by pointing to himself when Sheehan is asking questions. It's an avoidable goal, but its good to see accountability. I thought Santos could've gone and attacked the ball a bit quicker but in reality, the main concern here is Vic losing his man and making it easy for them to make a run and score.

Neither goal is the end of the world of course. The hard work had been done earlier in the match and despite the frustration with losing the clean sheet, it bares no impact on the points accrual.

I think they're both in the "poor goals to concede" column. Not like we didn't have nearby bodies. First one we have a player either side of the scorer and they get up, in between and a long way from being the tallest guy at the disco.

Whilst I'm pleased we've started scoring again - nay delighted - we are. in general working at a similar level of dysfunctionality as last years defence and well on target to shatter last year's 51 conceded. Whilst we don't notice much in a 4-2 or a 5-2, there will be more than enough games where it's 1-2 or 0-1 to scupper our chances. Feels along way from being addressed.

[BWFC_Insane]

Whilst some fans are simply happy that we’re picking up points again, regardless who it’s against. (We have to play everybody twice), it does seem that some other fans are setting him nicely to fail, by demanding wins against the likes of Birmingham etc.

People will always find something to limit other people’s enthusiasm.

At the end of the day, nobody’s getting carried away. It’s a step in the right direction. Let’s just be happy that there’s points being put on the board now and back them appropriately in the hope it continues, whilst also accepting that there’ll be bumps in the road ahead

Nobody is setting anyone up for failure. We are a very good side for this level, and our ambition is to go up. We were the same last season but did not because we lost the big games, they key games and the pressure games.

The results last season were rendered irrelevant.

Nobody has said ‘we have to beat Birmingham or it’s failure’ but we have to go into the game with a view we win it. Not a hope, or a ‘well a point will be good’. We need to be expecting to win these sorts of games if we are to fulfill our ambition.

The difference between this season and last has to be winning the big games when it matters.

[Worthy4England]

Agree with the middle bit. I don't think we have a plan that encompasses "play for a point" - so in that sense, I think we're good. We only lost 2? big league games (against the rest of the top 6) last season and I don't think we were playing for a point in either. Derby away, their keeper made some excellent saves, we had chances to win that. POffs we lost two out of three, which wasn't great, but had done just enough at Barnsley to see us through that nervous finish at home.

I think there's a world of difference between expecting to win vs playing to win and accepting that a draw wouldn't be the worst result.

[BWFC_Insane]

Agree with the middle bit. I don't think we have a plan that encompasses "play for a point" - so in that sense, I think we're good. We only lost 2? big league games (against the rest of the top 6) last season and I don't think we were playing for a point in either. Derby away, their keeper made some excellent saves, we had chances to win that. POffs we lost two out of three, which wasn't great, but had done just enough at Barnsley to see us through that nervous finish at home.

I think there's a world of difference between expecting to win vs playing to win and accepting that a draw wouldn't be the worst result.

My point was more about mindset. We have to not be of the mindset that walloping some lower mid table sides then losing to Birmingham, Rotherham etc is ok. That won’t cut it. We might lose some games but we shouldn’t be thinking ‘ah well’. We should be absolutely itching to go to Birmingham and win. Doesn’t mean we will but teams that go up tend to find a way more often than not even against the best sides.