City Palace post game

[Jiggers the Fox]

Every single game since Norwich i've alternated between giving up and then getting my hopes back up! Nobody seems to want 6th at the minute!

[AlphaMaleFox]

That's an interesting point re conceding first! - and better than the point we got on Tuesday! Have we actually won a game this season whereby we've conceded the opening goal?? There might be one game that bucks that trend but surely no more than that! I think every game we played under Sousa's short spell, we conceded first! - and seem to have picked up that same baton under Sven too. Last season we conceded the first goal of last season after seven minutes or something against Swansea at home but such things didn't seem to phase us under Pearson, invariably we just fought our way back with more determination and rarely ended up losing many when we conceded first. Depending on the remaining five games to come, it'll be a bizarre statistic if it turns out to be the case that we haven't won a single game over an entire season when conceding the first goal.......and surely one for the record books!!

14/09/2010 (under Sousa) - Cardiff City /home/ 2:1 (King 51, 68 : Naylor 26)

11/12/2010 (under Eriksson) - Doncaster Rovers /home/ 5:1 (Gallagher 45+2, Wellens 61, Naughton 69, Vassell 75, Waghorn 90+4 : Sharp 6)

[Kitchandro]

14/09/2010 (under Sousa) - Cardiff City /home/ 2:1 (King 51, 68 : Naylor 26)

11/12/2010 (under Eriksson) - Doncaster Rovers /home/ 5:1 (Gallagher 45+2, Wellens 61, Naughton 69, Vassell 75, Waghorn 90+4 : Sharp 6)

If those are the only 2 it tells it's own story.

Not enough fight, team spirit or self-belief. That's why there are so many false dawns, we can't handle the pressure.

That and our personnel isn't good enough.

We need a left back, centre back, a goalkeeper, holding midfielder, attacking midfielder, winger, and out-and-out striker in the summer, as well as holding on to Naughton and Mee.

Just not good enough this season.

Edit: we came from behind in the Carling Cup at Leeds.

[Guy]

Oh well, only two league games all season in the second tier then that we've managed to overturn that opposition's early goal deficit - against an understrength Cardiff side that night in Spetember and a punchdrunk Doncaster team when we were under Sven! Even in our inauguaral season in the Prem. in 1994-95 I think we may've bettered that statistic to date of winning more than two league games all season whereby we conceded the opening goal.......:-(

[Brown Fox]

If those are the only 2 it tells it's own story.

Not enough fight, team spirit or self-belief. That's why there are so many false dawns, we can't handle the pressure.

That and our personnel isn't good enough.

We need a left back, centre back, a goalkeeper, holding midfielder, attacking midfielder, winger, and out-and-out striker in the summer, as well as holding on to Naughton and Mee.

Just not good enough this season.

Edit: we came from behind in the Carling Cup at Leeds.

Yet after all of this we still have a chance of getting into the play-offs! I do agree that we should have come back more times but haven't we only lost once after going ahead and that was against Norwich under Sousa. Our personnel is easily good enough but because we have so many loan player all coming at different times in the season it is hard for them to gel and work fully as a team compared to last season where all the players had already had a full confidence boosting season in league 1 beforehand. To be fair though we couldn't really help the amount of loan signings without Sven having a pre-season or summer transfer window. As for the list of positions you want new players for i think we could have Mee as one of the centre backs and Kamara/Vassell as the out and out striker. I also think even if we do get Naughton that we could do with a half decent right back as cover because come the end of the season we will not have one good right back on our books. I agree with most you have said but I think you're being a tad harsh with the whole no team spirit etc.

[marbelladave]

Life is very complex at the moment, havn't been able to see any of our recent games and have head very little time to post, however our 'problem' is pretty obvious and has been for some time.

Firstly Sven was brought in after 10 games, he had no preseason and none of the players were his own choices, yet his brief was to go for promotion this season.

With no time to build a team Sven brought in players who he believed would be good enough to play at our level, purely on the strength of their abilities. Some of the players did exactly that, Naughton, Davies, Mee, were exceptional, several others pretty decent and just a couple of real flops.

When those individual played well, usually the team played well and we were, until 5 or 6 weeks ago, the form team in the division and the playoffs looked like a shoo in.

Then it all went wrong, key players lost form, got injured and our play suffered, when Sven tried to ring the changes and freshen things up, things actually became worse, confidence was lost and we dropped out of the playoff race.

Why? Because we are not a team, we remain a group of talented individuals who blow hot and cold, the teamwork and spirit that helps teams through difficult times is not there and will not be this season. The result is a fragile, inconsistent team that during Jan and Feb were brilliant yet were awful in March, thats unfortunate but the players we had just could not keep it going, simple as.

Management errors? No not really, just a series of choices made earler in the season to try and gain promotion by certain means that, miracles apart look like falling just short.

C'est la vie and other bollox...

[Earlydoorsjones]

can we please stop with this complete bullshit - if he did have that clause he'd've played tonight (which he didn't). Fair point - tonight does confirm this is bull shit.

First of all, why is it weale is pretty much immune from critism for a goal that even david blunkett could have stopped, yet if it were ricardo making that mistake he'd've been torn to shreds (and rightly so)?

Poor and unispiring first half, better second but still not good enough to be even contemplating the play-offs.

And finally DB11 - care to explain why, despite yakubu outpacing garvan and getting to the ball first before being pulled down, the ref made the right decision to not give the stonewall penalty and instead award a free kick to palace?