by WestYorksRoyal »
22 Oct 2020 09:51
Hound Stranded WestYorksRoyal We're doing well, but this list of games shows how tentative I still am. In 05/06 and at our peak in 11/12, you'd look at games and know we'd win (forget the no easy games cliché, the teams just had an aura).
Now I'm even looking at Rotherham as a possible banana skin. I'd be very happy with 10 points from those 5.
Maybe some games where we make a statement and score a hatful would make me feel better. When you keep coming out on top in close games, it's to be expected a couple of results will eventually go against you.
The aura for both those teams developed over time - in 05/06 for me at least it was a win against Hull in November (about game 18 or so) where Hull were the better team, equalised and looked like going on to win it - we then scored 2 in a minute to kill the game off. From that point on, I turned up to each game with the only question being "How many will we win by today?".
In 11/12 the aura was only there in the last third of the season.
Since then we've been generally awful so it will take a while for any aura to build and the natural nervousness that this may be the game we are found out to die down a bit, especially in home games.
The way I am looking at it, at the start of the season most of us would have been over the moon with 10 to 12 points from the first 7 games, we are already well ahead of that.
Think there were home games in the Stam era when you'd turn up expecting to win once we got up and running. In a way I don't think we are massively dissimilar at the moment from that side where we are really building the wins by being very strong defensively and often getting the odd goal or two by a bit of magic up front. Certainly a bit more entertaining though
Stam's season was bizarre. Most seasons when we were flying that high, there would be excitement, growing attendances, bigger atmospheres and a general feelgood factor. But there was real apathy around it and the dire final against Huddersfield, quite possibly the worst football match ever, was a fitting finale. Maybe memories of 2013 and how tough the PL can be were fresher too.
There's definitely more excitement this time, even with empty stadiums. Pauno's football is better to watch than Stam's, but it's also great just to be discussing the possibility of promotion after several poor seasons, even if many of us suspect it won't last.