"Wednesday's child is full of woe". Away to Sheffield Wednesday, Friday Mar.17th 7-45.

[TANGODANCER]

"Thursday's child has far to go."

.Might as well have an early league match thread since after Hillsborough there's no action in sight till the second of April and Plymouth Ho at the Mecca.

"Friday's child is loving and giving", so sayeth the poet, so let's hope the white-rose wonder boys may follow the prompt and gift us a present on a rare Friday feature. Everything about our future is very subjunctive right now and we're most definitely in the Thursday's Child far-to-go bracket relying heavily on fate to upset a few apple carts in our favour. It's all about ourselves in the end, so let's remind them all who we are and fulfill the title thread...

Come on you Whites, up and at em...

[BWFC_Insane]

Sheffield Wednesday are unbeaten in 22 games. A club record. They are far and away the best side in this division. It’s a massive game. We need to go there and over-perform. I want to see us in their faces, making it a really tough physical game for them.

It’s time this much vaunted press we do (that I have to say I am not seeing much evidence of) shows itself. Like Ipswich came to us and strangled the game. Time for us to go to a very good side and do the same.

People argue we don’t lose many big games under Evatt… to lose two in a week would be problematic to say the least.

[Worthy4England]

I'm not very confident of coming away from this with anything much...But I'm also not sure it's season defining (if we go on and win the ones after it)...

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm not very confident of coming away from this with anything much...But I'm also not sure it's season defining (if we go on and win the ones after it)...

It’s not as an isolated fixture. For sure. It’s a game you go ‘it’s a bonus if we get anything’.

But, we’ve just lost two out of the last three. Not won the other. And indeed even our last win was a shocking performance. So we go into this one needing to find something. Cos after that it’s two weeks off before Wembley. Who wants to go into that on our worst run of form - then the run in.

It’s not that this is on its own season defining. But it’s the last chance to find some positivity to take into Wembley and the run in.

[Worthy4England]

I'm not very confident of coming away from this with anything much...But I'm also not sure it's season defining (if we go on and win the ones after it)...

It’s not as an isolated fixture. For sure. It’s a game you go ‘it’s a bonus if we get anything’.

But, we’ve just lost two out of the last three. Not won the other. And indeed even our last win was a shocking performance. So we go into this one needing to find something. Cos after that it’s two weeks off before Wembley. Who wants to go into that on our worst run of form - then the run in.

It’s not that this is on its own season defining. But it’s the last chance to find some positivity to take into Wembley and the run in.

A win's going to be better than a draw is going to be better than a loss or a thumping, and for sure we'd like to see "a performance." No doubt. I'd probably settle for a Port Vale like, point, though on balance - I think that would also generate confidence...

[dave the minion]

How come this is on a Friday? Is it on t'telly?

[TANGODANCER]

How come this is on a Friday? Is it on t'telly?

International football?

[LeverEnd]

Re Friday I think I read somewhere because Sheffield United were at home but now they're not.
We do sometimes surprise better teams away from home because the onus is on them to come out and attack. Plus 23 game runs are even rarer than 22game runs...
6-0 defeat.

[LeverEnd]

I'm not very confident of coming away from this with anything much...But I'm also not sure it's season defining (if we go on and win the ones after it)...

It’s not as an isolated fixture. For sure. It’s a game you go ‘it’s a bonus if we get anything’.

But, we’ve just lost two out of the last three. Not won the other. And indeed even our last win was a shocking performance. So we go into this one needing to find something. Cos after that it’s two weeks off before Wembley. Who wants to go into that on our worst run of form - then the run in.

It’s not that this is on its own season defining. But it’s the last chance to find some positivity to take into Wembley and the run in.

I don't think it is really. Lose this as expected, 2 weeks recovery and 'content', win at Wembley and we could easily finish the season strongly.
I don't think any of that will happen mind you. (Apart from the Friday defeat)

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm not very confident of coming away from this with anything much...But I'm also not sure it's season defining (if we go on and win the ones after it)...

It’s not as an isolated fixture. For sure. It’s a game you go ‘it’s a bonus if we get anything’.

But, we’ve just lost two out of the last three. Not won the other. And indeed even our last win was a shocking performance. So we go into this one needing to find something. Cos after that it’s two weeks off before Wembley. Who wants to go into that on our worst run of form - then the run in.

It’s not that this is on its own season defining. But it’s the last chance to find some positivity to take into Wembley and the run in.

A win's going to be better than a draw is going to be better than a loss or a thumping, and for sure we'd like to see "a performance." No doubt. I'd probably settle for a Port Vale like, point, though on balance - I think that would also generate confidence...

Any sort of point would be good. Any sort of win would be obviously amazing.

I’d be happy to see a backs to the wall ground out 0-0. Just because I think we need to show fight and desire and determination in these games. Go back to at least not conceding. Anything else on top even better.

Or if we go toe toe with them and really test them.

If they are to win I want to force them to do their absolute peak performance and score some worldies, not hand them the game as we did on Saturday.

The most alarming thing for me is not the spark that’s gone. That happens. It’s that since Accrington we’ve completely lost our fight and determination that we had prior to that. Portsmouth away was a capitulation. Port vale before that although a win was far from solid and efficient and Ipswich we didn’t really show that determination to grind out something. I don’t think it’s lack of effort or anything I think it’s probably a loss of focus that we are finding hard to reclaim.

You do go through these spells normally it’s just ours is at the very worst time and we don’t really seem to have much to change it round during it. We’ve also not got any easier games on the immediate horizon we can say ‘well at least we should arrest the slide there’.

It’s really hard to explain some things. Watching the Ipswich game again and the complete lack of ability on the ball from Mbete and his general nervousness on it is in complete contrast to his early starts here. It’s not like he’s had any howlers or whatever to completely erode confidence. But away at Peterborough he overlaps takes it into the box and lays off for shola to win a penalty. Against Ipswich he looked scared to make a straight pass and running towards the box was a no no.

Young player and all but hard to explain such a massive drop off. And he’s not alone. Watching again and Dempsey had an absolute shocker…maybe explainable….but Morley’s on the ball work has been really lacklustre too since the semi final. I don’t know but I’d bet his off the ball stats aren’t as good either. Won’t be deliberate but the drop off in a few is quite cliff like.

You can’t even compare it to say Owen Coyle post Wembley where we saw it all unravel but the reality was we’d struggled with that side minus Holden for a while and it was just a question of when results would catch up.

There is no obvious reason here. Even tiredness doesn’t fully account for it. I’d say Charles who has played a lot of football shows no sign of dipping…penalty miss aside (which can happen anytime).

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm not very confident of coming away from this with anything much...But I'm also not sure it's season defining (if we go on and win the ones after it)...

It’s not as an isolated fixture. For sure. It’s a game you go ‘it’s a bonus if we get anything’.

But, we’ve just lost two out of the last three. Not won the other. And indeed even our last win was a shocking performance. So we go into this one needing to find something. Cos after that it’s two weeks off before Wembley. Who wants to go into that on our worst run of form - then the run in.

It’s not that this is on its own season defining. But it’s the last chance to find some positivity to take into Wembley and the run in.

I don't think it is really. Lose this as expected, 2 weeks recovery and 'content', win at Wembley and we could easily finish the season strongly.
I don't think any of that will happen mind you. (Apart from the Friday defeat)

Yeah but confidence will be low. And we go into Wembley now almost certainly out of the top 6 by that point…I just think that it has the feel of a season ending blow. I’d far rather pick up something to take to Wembley in terms of a performance or even a point and then use that two weeks to reset. In a way it’s backwards, we’d like Wembley the Sunday after Sheff Wed then the two weeks after that to really be ready for the run in I suspect.

[LeverEnd]

Looks like Williams and jonhstone will be back for the run in, both would be an upgrade on Saturday from what I've heard.
Doubt either will start at Hillsborough though, and I fear for Mbete.
I'm going and staying over because it's my mate's birthday so I'm going to expect nothing, enjoy the big game atmosphere and have a skinful in Sheffield.

[GhostoftheBok]

Low on confidence. Out of form. Away against clearly the best side in the division.

Easy 2-0 win for us, surely?

[Harry Genshaw]

Ipswich was a pretty sobering reminder of the difference between genuine promotion contenders and a decent league 1 side.

Going over for this one with BP and fearing the worst. That we bump into a drunken LE

Expecting nowt and that our soft underbelly will be exposed by a dominant, physical Wednesday.

1-0 win.

[boltonboris]

3-0 to th'owls

[TANGODANCER]

3-0 to th'owls

Owls of protest from the optimists.(well. okay me..)

[LeverEnd]

Ipswich was a pretty sobering reminder of the difference between genuine promotion contenders and a decent league 1 side.

Going over for this one with BP and fearing the worst. That we bump into a drunken LE

Expecting nowt and that our soft underbelly will be exposed by a dominant, physical Wednesday.

1-0 win.

I'll sithee there. Well, two of thee.
Arriving at 4:30, hammered by 5:15.

[Mar]

Well the chasing pack just added some extra pressure with Portsmouth, Peterborough and Wycombe all winning. To add insult to injury the 'hard to beat at home' Morecambe conceded 4 tonight. Benefits of an early goal I guess.

I fully expect us to be out of the play off spots by the time we return from the cup final.

Bolton have:
Sheff Wed

Wycombe have:
Barnsley, Charlton, MK Dons

Peterborough have:
Lincoln, Derby, Oxford Utd

Shrewsbury have:
Ipswich, Bristol, Charlton

Portsmouth have:
Bristol, Port Vale, FGR


Can't imagine Shrewsbury and Portsmouth catching us but they could go ahead of us by the time we return. You'd suspect Barnsley would beat Wycombe and Ipswich would beat Shrewsbury so it doesn't seem too bad in terms of catching us. The teams below us have been in middling form, relatively similar to ours.

Likelihood is, we'll be challenging, but outside the play top.


There's also a case for not getting injured at this point in time, so it's likely affecting us and Plymouth in terms of recent results being subpar.

Hopefully time for renewed optimism after the cup final.

[TANGODANCER]

An opinion: The Owls will try to draw us out by the delayed pass that's lobbed across our box for a quick break to beat the offside trap a la Ipswitch. A bit of man marking might not go amiss here. An early goal by us could really scupper their plans. Time Cameron Jerome showed his power....Charles can't do it all.

Amen.

[Bertie Wooster]

5-0 Sheff Weds.