Relegation

[South Coast Royal]

In regards to the winless run, if we do go down, I think the games that will have cost us are the Birmingham, Hull, Bristol City and Preston games. Ordinarily, we have been strong at home to bottom half sides with a lot of our wins coming against those sides and we have dropped potentially 4 points there. Preston and Bristol City you'd have thought we could have potentially got more from, even if our away record is so meagre.

I do wonder what changed. On the field, we didn't change that much under Ince. May have hindered more than it helped at times, but we were always "doing enough" to stay up either way. Even away from the field, the mentality was always about survival. Again, probably hindered more than it helped but I wonder if the points deduction had a bigger impact on the squad than we maybe realised.

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

So what happened with the siege mentality and "we'll show them" attitude from the players rather than "poor us"?

[Snowflake Royal]

In regards to the winless run, if we do go down, I think the games that will have cost us are the Birmingham, Hull, Bristol City and Preston games. Ordinarily, we have been strong at home to bottom half sides with a lot of our wins coming against those sides and we have dropped potentially 4 points there. Preston and Bristol City you'd have thought we could have potentially got more from, even if our away record is so meagre.

I do wonder what changed. On the field, we didn't change that much under Ince. May have hindered more than it helped at times, but we were always "doing enough" to stay up either way. Even away from the field, the mentality was always about survival. Again, probably hindered more than it helped but I wonder if the points deduction had a bigger impact on the squad than we maybe realised.

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

So what happened with the siege mentality and "we'll show them" attitude from the players rather than "poor us"?

Didn't we go to shit once the last one was announced too?

I'm not sure anyone at the club knows how to spell 'winning mentality' let alone have one.

[South Coast Royal]

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

So what happened with the siege mentality and "we'll show them" attitude from the players rather than "poor us"?

Didn't we go to shit once the last one was announced too?

I'm not sure anyone at the club knows how to spell 'winning mentality' let alone have one.

[stealthpapes]

In regards to the winless run, if we do go down, I think the games that will have cost us are the Birmingham, Hull, Bristol City and Preston games. Ordinarily, we have been strong at home to bottom half sides with a lot of our wins coming against those sides and we have dropped potentially 4 points there. Preston and Bristol City you'd have thought we could have potentially got more from, even if our away record is so meagre.

I do wonder what changed. On the field, we didn't change that much under Ince. May have hindered more than it helped at times, but we were always "doing enough" to stay up either way. Even away from the field, the mentality was always about survival. Again, probably hindered more than it helped but I wonder if the points deduction had a bigger impact on the squad than we maybe realised.

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

So what happened with the siege mentality and "we'll show them" attitude from the players rather than "poor us"?

'lol'?

[stealthpapes]

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

So what happened with the siege mentality and "we'll show them" attitude from the players rather than "poor us"?

Didn't we go to shit once the last one was announced too?

I'm not sure anyone at the club knows how to spell 'winning mentality' let alone have one.

I did look. We went off and beat Brum.

Our league form absolutely tanked after Kidderminster (A).

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I do wonder what changed. On the field, we didn't change that much under Ince. May have hindered more than it helped at times, but we were always "doing enough" to stay up either way. Even away from the field, the mentality was always about survival. Again, probably hindered more than it helped but I wonder if the points deduction had a bigger impact on the squad than we maybe realised.

Show me a club with a large number of injuries, and you'll almost always see a team doing much worse than expected.

Without the excessive injury problems, we'd probably have stayed up comfortably.

We had injuries, Ince losing his way, and the points deduction, making a perfect storm at exactly the wrong time.

We have had a bad injury list previously though, in fact there was probably only a few weeks of this season where it's been at acceptable levels and even that was coming back after the World Cup break as we were down to the bare bones from basically the opening game until then.

It just seems to be that, after the points deduction, that's where something changed which has massively affected us as we've had most of everything else thrown at us at some stage this season and "dealt with it".

[tidus_mi2]

Welp, if we do go down, a lot of us, myself included, will get to see a league game against a rival as Oxford with their goal difference are effectively 4pts clear of the drop with 2 games to go, very unlikely they get relegated now.

[Stranded]

In regards to the winless run, if we do go down, I think the games that will have cost us are the Birmingham, Hull, Bristol City and Preston games. Ordinarily, we have been strong at home to bottom half sides with a lot of our wins coming against those sides and we have dropped potentially 4 points there. Preston and Bristol City you'd have thought we could have potentially got more from, even if our away record is so meagre.

I do wonder what changed. On the field, we didn't change that much under Ince. May have hindered more than it helped at times, but we were always "doing enough" to stay up either way. Even away from the field, the mentality was always about survival. Again, probably hindered more than it helped but I wonder if the points deduction had a bigger impact on the squad than we maybe realised.

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

That feels like what has happened, where as you would have hoped the management would have tried to engender a mood of screw the buggers - lets get the 2 or 3 wins we need quickly - if we had managed to find just 2 wins in this run, 2 in 11, we would be safe - our form would still be shocking but we would be safe.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

In regards to the winless run, if we do go down, I think the games that will have cost us are the Birmingham, Hull, Bristol City and Preston games. Ordinarily, we have been strong at home to bottom half sides with a lot of our wins coming against those sides and we have dropped potentially 4 points there. Preston and Bristol City you'd have thought we could have potentially got more from, even if our away record is so meagre.

I do wonder what changed. On the field, we didn't change that much under Ince. May have hindered more than it helped at times, but we were always "doing enough" to stay up either way. Even away from the field, the mentality was always about survival. Again, probably hindered more than it helped but I wonder if the points deduction had a bigger impact on the squad than we maybe realised.

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

That feels like what has happened, where as you would have hoped the management would have tried to engender a mood of screw the buggers - lets get the 2 or 3 wins we need quickly - if we had managed to find just 2 wins in this run, 2 in 11, we would be safe - our form would still be shocking but we would be safe.

Yep - that's why I thought that little 4 game run from Birmingham to Preston could be potentially costly as we dropped points at home to bottom half teams where we are normally strong and will win games. Those dropped points in those games might be the difference.

Having said that, those 2 wins could come in the last 2 games of the season. Here's hoping.

[Stranded]

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

That feels like what has happened, where as you would have hoped the management would have tried to engender a mood of screw the buggers - lets get the 2 or 3 wins we need quickly - if we had managed to find just 2 wins in this run, 2 in 11, we would be safe - our form would still be shocking but we would be safe.

Yep - that's why I thought that little 4 game run from Birmingham to Preston could be potentially costly as we dropped points at home to bottom half teams where we are normally strong and will win games. Those dropped points in those games might be the difference.

Having said that, those 2 wins could come in the last 2 games of the season. Here's hoping.

Maybe they will but that may now be too late. Being on 49pts and losing the last 2 probably wouldn't have mattered but now, winning two and getting to 49 may not even be enough as the context is shifted.

[leon]

In regards to the winless run, if we do go down, I think the games that will have cost us are the Birmingham, Hull, Bristol City and Preston games. Ordinarily, we have been strong at home to bottom half sides with a lot of our wins coming against those sides and we have dropped potentially 4 points there. Preston and Bristol City you'd have thought we could have potentially got more from, even if our away record is so meagre.

I do wonder what changed. On the field, we didn't change that much under Ince. May have hindered more than it helped at times, but we were always "doing enough" to stay up either way. Even away from the field, the mentality was always about survival. Again, probably hindered more than it helped but I wonder if the points deduction had a bigger impact on the squad than we maybe realised.

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

That shows what small minded morons they are. They just had to win a couple of games and would have been ok.

[South Coast Royal]

The winless run starts immediately after it gets leaked we're due another points deduction.
That must have destroyed morale. "What's the point, if we're just going to get relegated by fiat".

So what happened with the siege mentality and "we'll show them" attitude from the players rather than "poor us"?

'lol'?

See subsequent posts in the same vein.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

That feels like what has happened, where as you would have hoped the management would have tried to engender a mood of screw the buggers - lets get the 2 or 3 wins we need quickly - if we had managed to find just 2 wins in this run, 2 in 11, we would be safe - our form would still be shocking but we would be safe.

Yep - that's why I thought that little 4 game run from Birmingham to Preston could be potentially costly as we dropped points at home to bottom half teams where we are normally strong and will win games. Those dropped points in those games might be the difference.

Having said that, those 2 wins could come in the last 2 games of the season. Here's hoping.

Maybe they will but that may now be too late. Being on 49pts and losing the last 2 probably wouldn't have mattered but now, winning two and getting to 49 may not even be enough as the context is shifted.

I'll be surprised if 49 isn't enough. Assuming we get there, that means Huddersfield have to win their other 2 games to beat that which they likely won't. It then goes on to affect other sides who they play like Cardiff, which in turn affects Rotherham etc.

[elrey]

I do wonder what changed. On the field, we didn't change that much under Ince. May have hindered more than it helped at times, but we were always "doing enough" to stay up either way. Even away from the field, the mentality was always about survival. Again, probably hindered more than it helped but I wonder if the points deduction had a bigger impact on the squad than we maybe realised.

Show me a club with a large number of injuries, and you'll almost always see a team doing much worse than expected.

Without the excessive injury problems, we'd probably have stayed up comfortably.

We had injuries, Ince losing his way, and the points deduction, making a perfect storm at exactly the wrong time.

We have had a bad injury list previously though, in fact there was probably only a few weeks of this season where it's been at acceptable levels and even that was coming back after the World Cup break as we were down to the bare bones from basically the opening game until then.

It just seems to be that, after the points deduction, that's where something changed which has massively affected us as we've had most of everything else thrown at us at some stage this season and "dealt with it".

I don't think anything changed. We won a few games after the World Cup because the squad was rested. I was talking about the inevitable Ince effect happening before the World Cup, I thought we wouldn't win a game ever again under Ince, instead we won 4 times, two wins in three games. I think we started dropping after the Norwich game in October. Since then we've won 6 games, out of 29 under Ince. We let a goal in EVERY GAME except Luton and Coventry, and we only scored one goal in those two games.

It wasn't about the points deduction... it was about the manager.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Good chance this is going to the last day.

Will Hudds get 4 points v Cardiff away and Sheffield at home? I wouldn't bank on it.

Good to see Sheffield not on the beach by hammering a Preston side still in with a play off shout at start of play. Local derby v Hudds too,

And Rotherham could easily lose to Boro Monday

[windermereROYAL]

Anybody that thinks an already safe Cardiff won`t roll over and get their belly tickled tomorrow are sadly deluded, they love Colin down there.

[windermereROYAL]

Rotherham could easily lose to Boro Monday

Boro will rest players ahead of the play-offs. they are certain to finish 4th.

[JR]

Good chance this is going to the last day.

Will Hudds get 4 points v Cardiff away and Sheffield at home? I wouldn't bank on it.

Good to see Sheffield not on the beach by hammering a Preston side still in with a play off shout at start of play. Local derby v Hudds too,

And Rotherham could easily lose to Boro Monday

Hallelujah there is one other Reading fan who hasn’t thrown in the towel!

Decent chance we’ll still be in it on Monday - and then we should be well rested compared to our opponents.

[Royal_jimmy]

Nathan Jones fits that bill

[Loafer]

Nathan Jones fits that bill

Absolutely not, an awful manager