I couldn't help but notice something when we were playing Cardiff last Saturday.
We passed around brilliantly and both our strikers were a handful, but around that hour mark I started to think to myself that now would be a really good time to go for the kill.
As Cardiff's defence (and our strikerforce) began to tire, to me it was crying out to see how effective a Bowery and JCH partnership would be for the last half hour.
Pace, Power and enthusiasm coming up against a defence that has just been tired by the industry of Revell and trickery of Lawrence.
I end up feeling a little frustrated when we use the same, predictable and bizarre substitutions with 47 seconds to go.
No more Bowery lost on the wing (not enough work rate for a winger), and for crying out loud give JCH more than 2 minutes to influence a match.
We have two Young (and expensive!) future talents of our own on the Bench who have half of this team's goals to their name. Give them both half an hour against Forest if the game is calling for it.
I agree with that, I think though while ever we're flirting with the bottom then a point is better than the risk of losing (I think that's SE's stance this season).
If we can get a 10-15 point cushion from the bottom 3 I reckon we'd go for more, but when you think on average we need a little over a point a game to stay up then I think we're erring on the side of caution, which I suppose is fair enough.
It was always going to be the home performances that keep us up, and I must admit - I think we can do a lot more to play our part to make it as hostile an atmosphere as possible. We can't do what Wednesday have done year on year, and that's strike fear into our own players of making an error. They must have our support. Boo's and jeer's help nobody. I find it weird that we have many songs for players while they do the Warney warm up, but these are not repeated during the game. When Prings comes over to take a corner - he loves killing pigs etc, if we target the songs to individuals when they do something good then it will enhance the feel good & confidence. Remember these are entertainers they feed off the crowd.
If we can kick on and ac***ulate some points this December / Jan, we'll be a lot more exciting to watch once the threat of relegation leaves everyone's mind
Yes, I see where you are coming from. I guess hindsight is going to be a big thing this season. The main objective after all is survival, I just really don't feel we have the tight ship to keep squeezing draws out of games all of the time.
Come the end of the season. If we get relegated to we want to look back and go "Why on earth did we respect other teams so much and not attack?"
Or would we rather go "Yeah, we've gone down. But by 'eck, we went down fighting".
Personally, I would rather we play to the team and the managers strengths. Let the opposition worry about us and get at them, without going too gung ho.
Cardiff was a step in the right direction. Solid and patient, wingers overlapping to support - We just couldn't find the back of the net.
That little extra bravery may just get us enough points to get over the line, or it may lose us too many points. We'll have to wait and see. Either way, I'm enjoying the third chapter of the SE rollercoaster as i always knew it'd be tough. I just wish we played with a little less fear and respect.
Who is our best strike partnership? Can anyone even have an educated guess? It seems to me that not one single striker with the exception of revel is well know to the fans. It's all conjecture and opinion based on the odd good team performance and several poor ones.