Beef Bagel

We did! Great bonus of 3 points at Villa and that doesn’t happen very often, even in better seasons. This made up for the draw at Sunderland which could have been better.

It’s a good run. No point in getting carried away, but let’s just carry it on.

Parts of the team are working better and apart from makings things happen – Lennon twice – Jenas was well forward, where players should be more often, and putting his head in where it hurts. Of course, against some teams you’d also get your head kicked in!

Robbie’s doing nicely now but actually that shot wasn’t going in, so well done Darren.

Still some way to go but it wasn’t premature to talk of next season. We have to finish this one as best we can, but have to plan a short-term and a long-term future – something that’s clearly been missing for the last couple of seasons. Sell a number of players and then buy three back the same season or the one after?

We’ve seen enough changes in recent years. There’s only one more necessary in the future, apart from seeing Spurs at the top that is, and I don’t think I need to spell that out, do I? We’re hopefully going to change the ground, we’ve changed a bus load of managers, players, directors of football, even bakers – now what hasn’t changed? A bit of stability would be a nice change.

COYS.

The Platzel.

…roll? Bagel? You may ask where we have been – well, there wasn’t much to write about for most of February!

We didn’t score a goal until late in the month, although we didn’t play much in the first half. The window closed and Robbie came back, which must be a good thing, even if he was ineligible for a lot of the matches that came up? Now, he’s scored his first since his return maybe we can start to show some improvement. We have a better squad than we started the season with, but not very helpful for the later stages of cup competitions if cup-tied.

A draw with Arsenal was better than nothing, but all we are saying is give us a …

We needed goals in Donetsk, but they didn’t come and then we didn’t defend well in the last 10 minutes. The win at Hull was great, but a bit shaky! We perked up for 5 minutes in the second leg against Shaktar, but that was the end of that! It was welcome novelty to be back in Europe for 3 years after quite a gap – almost like the old days – but barring a miracle that’s it, at least for more than another year.

We did the hard work in the Carling Cup Final against…oh, I can’t remember who we played (some provincial team, I think?)…but not the easy part. Penalties are easy to take, except in the head – a bit of hypnosis wouldn’t have gone amiss – Harry, give Derren Brown a call?

We can’t score goals, yet amazingly our defence has held up pretty well this season? We’re on course for some record low totals at home this season, I’m sure…so what happens 4-0 against an in-form Middlesbrough! As Fred Trueman might have said, I don’t know what’s going off out there?

We want survival or just work your socks off to see how far we can get in the league and I guess it will be two seasons in the bottom half following two in 5^th place! Progress will be a top half finish next season and certainly qualification for Europe as a bonus!

We can beat Sunderland, of course, if we’re up for it!

COYS.

The Platzel.