" CLUBS IN THE LOWER HALF OF THE TABLE "

13 Crystal Palace 26 4 7 2 12 9 6 0 7 13 16 0 37
14 Barnsley 26 6 2 5 22 19 4 4 5 15 20 -2 36
15 Leicester 26 6 3 5 20 15 3 5 4 14 15 4 35
16 Peterborough 26 6 2 4 27 20 3 4 7 17 22 2 33
17 Portsmouth 25 7 3 3 19 10 1 4 7 8 16 1 31
18 Watford 26 5 4 5 19 20 2 5 5 9 16 -8 30
19 Ipswich 26 5 1 7 20 22 3 3 7 17 29 -14 28
20 Bristol City 26 3 3 6 10 14 4 3 7 13 22 -13 27
21 Millwall 26 5 5 4 17 16 13 8 7 18 -10 26

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22 Nott'm Forest 26 3 2 9 11 24 4 1 7 10 18 -21 24
23 Doncaster 26 4 5 4 10 12 2 0 11 12 31 -21 23
24 Coventry 26 4 4 5 14 14 0 3 10 6 21 -15 19

I was looking at the table last night and felt a little disappointed at the points we have dropped against teams in the lower half of the table.

Coventry, Doncaster, Millwall, Ipswich, Watford, Portsmouth, Peterborough, and Leicester.

A total of 17 points dropped against teams currently in the bottom half of the table leaves me thinking 'what could the table have looked like'.

We have taken 25 points from the teams in the lower half of the table.

Hopefully we can turn the away draws against Portsmouth, Watford, Millwall and Coventry and beat them all at home.

IpswIch and Leicester away next month and at present neither team is having a good time so who knows we may look back at this post and think it is not as bad as it seemed weeks ago.

This will probably be deemed a negative post but which ever way it is read it is fact.

I will counteract this post with a look at the points gained/dropped against teams in the top half later today.

to be fair though this is a division where all teams are capable if beating each other.

it always has been and even more so this year jydging by the fact ni one is running away with it

13 Crystal Palace 26 4 7 2 12 9 6 0 7 13 16 0 37
14 Barnsley 26 6 2 5 22 19 4 4 5 15 20 -2 36
15 Leicester 26 6 3 5 20 15 3 5 4 14 15 4 35
16 Peterborough 26 6 2 4 27 20 3 4 7 17 22 2 33
17 Portsmouth 25 7 3 3 19 10 1 4 7 8 16 1 31
18 Watford 26 5 4 5 19 20 2 5 5 9 16 -8 30
19 Ipswich 26 5 1 7 20 22 3 3 7 17 29 -14 28
20 Bristol City 26 3 3 6 10 14 4 3 7 13 22 -13 27
21 Millwall 26 5 5 4 17 16 13 8 7 18 -10 26

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22 Nott'm Forest 26 3 2 9 11 24 4 1 7 10 18 -21 24
23 Doncaster 26 4 5 4 10 12 2 0 11 12 31 -21 23
24 Coventry 26 4 4 5 14 14 0 3 10 6 21 -15 19

I was looking at the table last night and felt a little disappointed at the points we have dropped against teams in the lower half of the table.

Coventry, Doncaster, Millwall, Ipswich, Watford, Portsmouth, Peterborough, and Leicester.

A total of 17 points dropped against teams currently in the bottom half of the table leaves me thinking 'what could the table have looked like'.

We have taken 25 points from the teams in the lower half of the table.

Hopefully we can turn the away draws against Portsmouth, Watford, Millwall and Coventry and beat them all at home.

IpswIch and Leicester away next month and at present neither team is having a good time so who knows we may look back at this post and think it is not as bad as it seemed weeks ago.

This will probably be deemed a negative post but which ever way it is read it is fact.

I will counteract this post with a look at the points gained/dropped against teams in the top half later today.

Carl we have dropped more points than any other club from a winning position 16 in total and as you have quite rightly pointed out holding onto the lead in any 2 of those away draws would see us joint top of the table.

However we have scored the first goal in 18 of our league matches so maybe it is not surprising that we have dropped more points from a winning position than any other club because we have been in a wining position more often than any other club. Also our opponents have only scored the first goal in 5 of our league matches which is also better than any other team in the league. The remaining 3 games being 0-0 draws which is also the lowest number of games where a club has failed to score in the League.

In short that means we are a very difficult team to beat and why I still believe we will make the playoffs at least. I totally agree with you that if we can turn draws to wins then the table would look so very different.

But we all know what we need a winger or two with real pace and another CF and we will be on our way.

to be fair though this is a division where all teams are capable if beating each other.

it always has been and even more so this year jydging by the fact ni one is running away with it

Polo that is said every season but if we think we can gain automatic promotion then we have to beating the teams on poor runs.

I could say the table don't lie and you're where you are because you deserve to be, so a team in 3rd should be beating a team in 23rd, unless of course factors such as injuries and suspensions hinder team selection but that was not the case yesterday.

13 Crystal Palace 26 4 7 2 12 9 6 0 7 13 16 0 37
14 Barnsley 26 6 2 5 22 19 4 4 5 15 20 -2 36
15 Leicester 26 6 3 5 20 15 3 5 4 14 15 4 35
16 Peterborough 26 6 2 4 27 20 3 4 7 17 22 2 33
17 Portsmouth 25 7 3 3 19 10 1 4 7 8 16 1 31
18 Watford 26 5 4 5 19 20 2 5 5 9 16 -8 30
19 Ipswich 26 5 1 7 20 22 3 3 7 17 29 -14 28
20 Bristol City 26 3 3 6 10 14 4 3 7 13 22 -13 27
21 Millwall 26 5 5 4 17 16 13 8 7 18 -10 26

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22 Nott'm Forest 26 3 2 9 11 24 4 1 7 10 18 -21 24
23 Doncaster 26 4 5 4 10 12 2 0 11 12 31 -21 23
24 Coventry 26 4 4 5 14 14 0 3 10 6 21 -15 19

I was looking at the table last night and felt a little disappointed at the points we have dropped against teams in the lower half of the table.

Coventry, Doncaster, Millwall, Ipswich, Watford, Portsmouth, Peterborough, and Leicester.

A total of 17 points dropped against teams currently in the bottom half of the table leaves me thinking 'what could the table have looked like'.

We have taken 25 points from the teams in the lower half of the table.

Hopefully we can turn the away draws against Portsmouth, Watford, Millwall and Coventry and beat them all at home.

IpswIch and Leicester away next month and at present neither team is having a good time so who knows we may look back at this post and think it is not as bad as it seemed weeks ago.

This will probably be deemed a negative post but which ever way it is read it is fact.

I will counteract this post with a look at the points gained/dropped against teams in the top half later today.

Carl we have dropped more points than any other club from a winning position 16 in total and as you have quite rightly pointed out holding onto the lead in any 2 of those away draws would see us joint top of the table.

However we have scored the first goal in 18 of our league matches so maybe it is not surprising that we have dropped more points from a winning position than any other club because we have been in a wining position more often than any other club. Also our opponents have only scored the first goal in 5 of our league matches which is also better than any other team in the league. The remaining 3 games being 0-0 draws which is also the lowest number of games where a club has failed to score in the League.

In short that means we are a very difficult team to beat and why I still believe we will make the playoffs at least. I totally agree with you that if we can turn draws to wins then the table would look so very different.

But we all know what we need a winger or two with real pace and another CF and we will be on our way.

Gary the only surprise in this thread for me is you were not the first to reply, I love your stats on all things City

Hard to beat is something we have agreed on, both on the board and the phone, but I find it frustrating when we don't hold a lead, especially when we are becoming a team difficult to break down.

to be fair though this is a division where all teams are capable if beating each other.

it always has been and even more so this year jydging by the fact ni one is running away with it

Polo that is said every season but if we think we can gain automatic promotion then we have to beating the teams on poor runs.

I could say the table don't lie and you're where you are because you deserve to be, so a team in 3rd should be beating a team in 23rd, unless of course factors such as injuries and suspensions hinder team selection but that was not the case yesterday.

I agree if we want autos we got to go to somewhere like donny and take 3 points and im dissapointed we didnt.

however i think 3rd place and 4 points off top at halfway stage is good going.

i think we would snap malkys hand off if he offered play offs at the start of the season so im not to downbeat.

to be fair though this is a division where all teams are capable if beating each other.

it always has been and even more so this year jydging by the fact ni one is running away with it

Polo that is said every season but if we think we can gain automatic promotion then we have to beating the teams on poor runs.

I could say the table don't lie and you're where you are because you deserve to be, so a team in 3rd should be beating a team in 23rd, unless of course factors such as injuries and suspensions hinder team selection but that was not the case yesterday.

I agree if we want autos we got to go to somewhere like donny and take 3 points and im dissapointed we didnt.

however i think 3rd place and 4 points off top at halfway stage is good going.

i think we would snap malkys hand off if he offered play offs at the start of the season so im not to downbeat.

Polo I fully agree, I am very happy with where we are but disappointed when we look at results at places like Donny, Peterborough, Coventry, Millwall and Watford.

13 Crystal Palace 26 4 7 2 12 9 6 0 7 13 16 0 37
14 Barnsley 26 6 2 5 22 19 4 4 5 15 20 -2 36
15 Leicester 26 6 3 5 20 15 3 5 4 14 15 4 35
16 Peterborough 26 6 2 4 27 20 3 4 7 17 22 2 33
17 Portsmouth 25 7 3 3 19 10 1 4 7 8 16 1 31
18 Watford 26 5 4 5 19 20 2 5 5 9 16 -8 30
19 Ipswich 26 5 1 7 20 22 3 3 7 17 29 -14 28
20 Bristol City 26 3 3 6 10 14 4 3 7 13 22 -13 27
21 Millwall 26 5 5 4 17 16 13 8 7 18 -10 26

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22 Nott'm Forest 26 3 2 9 11 24 4 1 7 10 18 -21 24
23 Doncaster 26 4 5 4 10 12 2 0 11 12 31 -21 23
24 Coventry 26 4 4 5 14 14 0 3 10 6 21 -15 19

I was looking at the table last night and felt a little disappointed at the points we have dropped against teams in the lower half of the table.

Coventry, Doncaster, Millwall, Ipswich, Watford, Portsmouth, Peterborough, and Leicester.

A total of 17 points dropped against teams currently in the bottom half of the table leaves me thinking 'what could the table have looked like'.

We have taken 25 points from the teams in the lower half of the table.

Hopefully we can turn the away draws against Portsmouth, Watford, Millwall and Coventry and beat them all at home.

IpswIch and Leicester away next month and at present neither team is having a good time so who knows we may look back at this post and think it is not as bad as it seemed weeks ago.

This will probably be deemed a negative post but which ever way it is read it is fact.

I will counteract this post with a look at the points gained/dropped against teams in the top half later today.

Carl we have dropped more points than any other club from a winning position 16 in total and as you have quite rightly pointed out holding onto the lead in any 2 of those away draws would see us joint top of the table.

However we have scored the first goal in 18 of our league matches so maybe it is not surprising that we have dropped more points from a winning position than any other club because we have been in a wining position more often than any other club. Also our opponents have only scored the first goal in 5 of our league matches which is also better than any other team in the league. The remaining 3 games being 0-0 draws which is also the lowest number of games where a club has failed to score in the League.

In short that means we are a very difficult team to beat and why I still believe we will make the playoffs at least. I totally agree with you that if we can turn draws to wins then the table would look so very different.

But we all know what we need a winger or two with real pace and another CF and we will be on our way.

Gary the only surprise in this thread for me is you were not the first to reply, I love your stats on all things City

Hard to beat is something we have agreed on, both on the board and the phone, but I find it frustrating when we don't hold a lead, especially when we are becoming a team difficult to break down.

I'm with you 100% Carl being hard to beat is great but we are unbeaten in 84% of our matches which is better than both West Ham and Southampton, both 76%, but we are 3rd. It no surprise really that it's wins that get you promoted and both West Ham and Southampton have 3 more wins than us.

We have a missing ingredient in our recipe and thats why I think this transfer window is so very important for us, find the player that completes our recipe and I truely believe this will be our season.

Easier said than done though.

13 Crystal Palace 26 4 7 2 12 9 6 0 7 13 16 0 37
14 Barnsley 26 6 2 5 22 19 4 4 5 15 20 -2 36
15 Leicester 26 6 3 5 20 15 3 5 4 14 15 4 35
16 Peterborough 26 6 2 4 27 20 3 4 7 17 22 2 33
17 Portsmouth 25 7 3 3 19 10 1 4 7 8 16 1 31
18 Watford 26 5 4 5 19 20 2 5 5 9 16 -8 30
19 Ipswich 26 5 1 7 20 22 3 3 7 17 29 -14 28
20 Bristol City 26 3 3 6 10 14 4 3 7 13 22 -13 27
21 Millwall 26 5 5 4 17 16 13 8 7 18 -10 26

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22 Nott'm Forest 26 3 2 9 11 24 4 1 7 10 18 -21 24
23 Doncaster 26 4 5 4 10 12 2 0 11 12 31 -21 23
24 Coventry 26 4 4 5 14 14 0 3 10 6 21 -15 19

I was looking at the table last night and felt a little disappointed at the points we have dropped against teams in the lower half of the table.

Coventry, Doncaster, Millwall, Ipswich, Watford, Portsmouth, Peterborough, and Leicester.

A total of 17 points dropped against teams currently in the bottom half of the table leaves me thinking 'what could the table have looked like'.

We have taken 25 points from the teams in the lower half of the table.

Hopefully we can turn the away draws against Portsmouth, Watford, Millwall and Coventry and beat them all at home.

IpswIch and Leicester away next month and at present neither team is having a good time so who knows we may look back at this post and think it is not as bad as it seemed weeks ago.

This will probably be deemed a negative post but which ever way it is read it is fact.

I will counteract this post with a look at the points gained/dropped against teams in the top half later today.

We cant win every game. Peterborough away was lost because of an awful reffing decision for their equalising penalty-had that not gone in we would have won that game. Leicester should not be at the bottom end of the table and although they haven't gelled as a team they are capable of beating anyone in the league. Away from home we are difficult to beat and are far more defensive than at home.

I'm a huge Malky fan but i feel that he is missing a trick in not having Earnie on the bench-the 7 subs rule has not helped. If 7 subs were allowed we'd see more of an impact from Earnie in last 10 minutes of games

Looking at our remaining fixture we have 9 away games and 6 of those are against teams in the bottom half of the table;

Brighton, Palace, Barnsley, Leicester, Ipswich and Bristol City. As Carl has pointed out we have dropped points against 8 of the 12 teams in the bottom half of the table so how important are these 6 away games going to be in deciding our ultimate fate this season.

Of our 11 home games 5 are against teams in the bottom half of the table;

Coventry, Millwall, Portsmouth, Peterborough and Watford.

In my opinion these are becoming massive games for us because with over half of our remaing fixtures, either home or away, being against teams in the lower half of the table we should be looking to take a minimum of 20 points from the 33 available.

Carl is absolutely right to highlight our performance to date against teams in the bottom half of the table and improving that record will be pivotal to the outcome of our season.

Surely getting results against the top sides is better as those games become the proverbial '6 pointers'

Although I agree we should be doing better against lower placed teams, the situation we have now is better than the reverse i.e. beating lower end teams instead of those at the top.

I can't get my head around the fact that the lower teams have lost a lot of games but not to us - why not?

Time someone got hold of footage of the defeats of those teams and analysed why and how they lost. It's not rocket science, so there must be someone in the CCFC set up who can figure it out.

Most importantly, IF WE NEED MORE PLAYERS, PLEASE, LET'S SIGN THEM SOON!

I can't get my head around the fact that the lower teams have lost a lot of games but not to us - why not?

Time someone got hold of footage of the defeats of those teams and analysed why and how they lost. It's not rocket science, so there must be someone in the CCFC set up who can figure it out.

Most importantly, IF WE NEED MORE PLAYERS, PLEASE, LET'S SIGN THEM SOON!

its quite obvious, lower teams stay defensive and get everbody behind the ball knowing were the better team, rarely do they open up themselves which would allow us to open them up in return.

as they stay back its much harder for us the break them down and create chances, with us lacking in a couple of wingers and a striker, if teams put 11 players behind the ball we lack the cutting edge to break down teams

I can't get my head around the fact that the lower teams have lost a lot of games but not to us - why not?

Time someone got hold of footage of the defeats of those teams and analysed why and how they lost. It's not rocket science, so there must be someone in the CCFC set up who can figure it out.

Most importantly, IF WE NEED MORE PLAYERS, PLEASE, LET'S SIGN THEM SOON!

its quite obvious, lower teams stay defensive and get everbody behind the ball knowing were the better team, rarely do they open up themselves which would allow us to open them up in return.

as they stay back its much harder for us the break them down and create chances, with us lacking in a couple of wingers and a striker, if teams put 11 players behind the ball we lack the cutting edge to break down teams

That begs the question: do they do that in all their games, though?

They clearly don't, which is why they've lost so many (other than to us).

I can't get my head around the fact that the lower teams have lost a lot of games but not to us - why not?

Time someone got hold of footage of the defeats of those teams and analysed why and how they lost. It's not rocket science, so there must be someone in the CCFC set up who can figure it out.

Most importantly, IF WE NEED MORE PLAYERS, PLEASE, LET'S SIGN THEM SOON!

its quite obvious, lower teams stay defensive and get everbody behind the ball knowing were the better team, rarely do they open up themselves which would allow us to open them up in return.

as they stay back its much harder for us the break them down and create chances, with us lacking in a couple of wingers and a striker, if teams put 11 players behind the ball we lack the cutting edge to break down teams

That begs the question: do they do that in all their games, though?

They clearly don't, which is why they've lost so many (other than to us).

well if they dont do it in every game.... its probably because we are a big side in this division and teams play us like a cup final most times.

if they do did it every game though i feel its because we dont have the cutting edge that other top 6 teams have.
im also worried that our 4-5-1 has been over used now and that teams know how to play us. even i know what were going to do each game

Surely getting results against the top sides is better as those games become the proverbial '6 pointers'

Although I agree we should be doing better against lower placed teams, the situation we have now is better than the reverse i.e. beating lower end teams instead of those at the top.

Last season we only dropped 23 points against teams in the bottom half of the table, in contrast we dropped 35 points against teams in the top half of the season so in terms of the "6 pointer" your point is very well made.

But this season things are a little different as so far no team in the playoff places has dropped more points against bottom half clubs than us (18) although Reading have also dropped 18 points. West Ham have dropped only 9, Hull 10, Southampton 14 and Middlesbrough 17.

Against teams in the top half of the League only Southampton have dropped fewer points than us (14) and we have dropped 15. West Ham have dropped 19, Middlesbrough 16, Reading 18 and Hull an amazing 26.

I know things may very well change over the remaining games but I still think that games against teams in the bottom half of the table are equally important to us, if for no other reason than to keep pace with West Ham and Southampton who are in our sights.