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Been offline again for a few days so haven't had a chance to look at the bigger picture after our 1-1 draw against Plymouth. Still too early for any real stats but this is my take on what this match means.
Firstly the positives - Helguson scores and we open our away count.
As the debate for wanting a new striker continues we must remember that the ones we currently have still have to do a job. Whether we sign an Arsenal loanee or Jermaine Beckford we still need goals from the forwards we have so Helguson scoring is a definite positive. This should give him confidence going into tonights game.
Our away form for years now has been poor so although many will feel that we dropped two points it is good that we have opened our account. If we have any chance of a top 6 finish we must aim for 30 points away from Loftus Road. Last season Preston finished 6th with 27 points but their record at Deepdale was fantastic so they could afford to not pick up so many points on the road. A point tonight against a tough Bristol City side should be the minimum target we are aiming for.
The negatives - no improvement on like for like results and the late goal that made the game feel like a defeat.
We drew 1-1 at home to Blackpool last season and 1-1 away to Plymouth last season so no improvement there but there are of course plenty of matches that we only drew or lost last season which if we turn those into better results this year we of course will finish with a better points accummulation. Last season we drew 1-1 at Ashton Gate so a draw tonight would mean we haven't improved on last years results. A loss would obviously mean we are down on last season but a win and we are up. All very obvious but with the league having 18 of the season teams in it as last season we can draw like for like comparisons and see which direction we are heading. People will argue that the performances are better and the overall matches are better to watch but this is a results game and we haven't YET improved on last season.
What more needs to be said about the last minute goal? We felt the same on Saturday as the Blackpool fans probably felt the week before. It happens in football the only difference is that last season we seem to eradicate it because we had such great levels of fitness but this season we appear tired in the last few minutes and if we haven't killed off a team or taken the game to them all the way up until the whistle blows we may find that this happens again. I think the loss of Harbin may come back to haunt us.
As many have already said Reading, Ipswich and Nottingham Forest all have fewer points than us and Burnley last season sat bottom with zero points and a goal difference of -6.
Early days.
Firstly the positives - Helguson scores and we open our away count.
As the debate for wanting a new striker continues we must remember that the ones we currently have still have to do a job. Whether we sign an Arsenal loanee or Jermaine Beckford we still need goals from the forwards we have so Helguson scoring is a definite positive. This should give him confidence going into tonights game.
Our away form for years now has been poor so although many will feel that we dropped two points it is good that we have opened our account. If we have any chance of a top 6 finish we must aim for 30 points away from Loftus Road. Last season Preston finished 6th with 27 points but their record at Deepdale was fantastic so they could afford to not pick up so many points on the road. A point tonight against a tough Bristol City side should be the minimum target we are aiming for.
The negatives - no improvement on like for like results and the late goal that made the game feel like a defeat.
We drew 1-1 at home to Blackpool last season and 1-1 away to Plymouth last season so no improvement there but there are of course plenty of matches that we only drew or lost last season which if we turn those into better results this year we of course will finish with a better points accummulation. Last season we drew 1-1 at Ashton Gate so a draw tonight would mean we haven't improved on last years results. A loss would obviously mean we are down on last season but a win and we are up. All very obvious but with the league having 18 of the season teams in it as last season we can draw like for like comparisons and see which direction we are heading. People will argue that the performances are better and the overall matches are better to watch but this is a results game and we haven't YET improved on last season.
What more needs to be said about the last minute goal? We felt the same on Saturday as the Blackpool fans probably felt the week before. It happens in football the only difference is that last season we seem to eradicate it because we had such great levels of fitness but this season we appear tired in the last few minutes and if we haven't killed off a team or taken the game to them all the way up until the whistle blows we may find that this happens again. I think the loss of Harbin may come back to haunt us.
As many have already said Reading, Ipswich and Nottingham Forest all have fewer points than us and Burnley last season sat bottom with zero points and a goal difference of -6.
Early days.