Dan

1st but we have a real problem in these games and you're a fool if you can't see it.

Beat them.

It's not just this game but it's their next few games after it compared to ours. If they beat us they genuinely could win 13 on the bounce. While our March is probably our hardest month of the season. I just feel like 13 in a row is too many though. This is feeling a little like one of those situations where lots points to a Leeds win so that it doesn't happen. We'd won 9 in a row going into the loss at home to them, they've won 8 in a row going into this.

I sit somewhere in the middle of the debate on it to be honest. I hold both views that it's probably overreacting to think we'll collapse again and treating this game like it's unwinnable, given that we'd be 6 points above them even if we lost (having lost twice to them!) is silly. But I think even this season, I can't totally shake this idea that we're just a bit too good for anybody 7th down (bar Middlesbrough who have some sort of juju over us this year) and that in the face of proper adversity we have been found a bit wanting. But that is to be revealed for certain by the end of the season. It's probably where the Burnley comparison becomes fairer too. What I'm saying is this team needs a really defining win. People can talk about Coventry on the opening day but we have a better team than them. I want to see us go to a genuinely tough game and do it. For what it's worth the Bournemouth game can probably come under this category too particularly given Bournemouth have no reason at all to not go for that game. I want to see that this style of play and this team can genuinely come up trumps against a comparable outfit. Can punch us above our weight, if you like. Which I appreciate given the nature of how we went down is extremely hard for us to actually do. We need an attitude shifting win. I think there'll be a collective bullishness if we go and win at Leeds on Friday.

I quite like caring again after the misery of Rodgers' last 18 months to be honest, even if our record is still bugging me a bit.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/craig-pawson/bilanz/schiedsrichter/2289 Interestingly he's refereed us more than any other team. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/craig-pawson/bilanzdetail/schiedsrichter/2289/saison_id/0/heim_gast//verein_id/1003/wettbewerb_id//funktion/1/plus/1 seems like not far off all of our wins with him as referee came behind closed doors!

Another reason I wanted Rodgers out quite a long time before it happened is that it fully immerses you in this mindset. Rationally we will win this league still, but Rodgers' era truly could make the unthinkable happen and not in a good way.

£92 to Bristol. ****ing hell. They deserve every fare dodger they get.

£75mil for KDH that's a Forest take sorry. He'd obviously go for substantially more than Whittaker though if we are promoted - the same way we got less than Maddison / Barnes true values because we were in the Championship.

We lost twice to Southampton. It was a pretty mad run totally at odds with everything we saw. We actually looked semi organised. Quite impressive to have that run and still go down.

There was a fair bit of talk around that game that he was gone if we lost wasn't there? It was in hindsight the worst fixture we could've had. That run we had in October will forever be bizarre to me. How did we manage a run of 4 wins in 5 games with Ward only letting in 1 goal? Like how did that happen? All just contributes to the perfect storm to relegate us idea. It was like no matter what happened we would revert to being terrible anyway.

I wonder where we'd be if we'd lost at home to Forest in October 2022.

That's annoying about Beale. I had that down as a comfortable win whereas now it becomes a trickier game I'd say. He's turned out to be a huge dud. Remember that furore about how he nearly ended up at Wolves? What a bullet dodged by them. Just seems an odd bloke. Some of the stuff he's been coming out with at Sunderland implies he wanted paying off ala Rodgers.

You are right, but we do have a recent history of blowing the improbable so I think you can forgive the fears. I think it's just simply a quite extraordinary season. The fact one of us, Leeds, Southampton or Ipswich has to miss out is unreal - possibly even two if the playoffs are cruel.

To think that cretin has a cup final next week is incredible.

One of the most memorable home games in 2013/14 when we got promoted was that 2-2 draw at home to Watford when we equalised from 2 down. It ended a winning run of 9 games and yet it was still great, so I completely get you. It definitely had a better atmosphere yesterday. Once again I have to stress that the majority of our home games have felt like cup games against lower league opposition and I'm not saying that to try and be a dick.

Jesus I didn't realise there was a fair chance that we could be only 6 ahead of 3rd this time next week. We just need to not lose this. I'd love us to win though. We're about due a result in a game like this.

As ever with this place these days - the ones overreacting most are the ones calling the OP for overreacting. It really wasn't that mad a post. It's a valid point.

We objectively weakened the side in January. We had Ndidi go down to injury and then lost Casadei with nobody else come in. This means we're not able to rotate as much as we would wish to do so. It has a knock-on effect. We didn't need to go mad in January, just a loanee midfielder would've been fine. But we've left ourselves short again.

I agree with the post earlier that said it was to do with the fact it was an actual competitive game - of which we haven't really had many if we're honest. Their end wasn't bad either.

There's never a good time to lose but this feels a particularly bad one given our next fixture. I think over the 90 minutes and based on the chances we were quite unlucky to lose it but I don't think Maresca helped himself today. Some bad subs.

I just don't trust us in these sorts of games sadly. I hope I'm wrong.

So that's 4/4 games against Southampton and Leeds on Fridays.

Tend to agree. Totally reject this notion we'll do a Burnley. Extremely lazy argument.

Yeah Ipswich aren't out of this with those fixtures. I'd not be shocked if they got back into 2nd although I expect Leeds to probably finish there now, but I hope it's Ipswich. Think they'll win quite handily tomorrow. Swansea look abysmal.