Steve Coppell is an honourable and intelligent man whose frank admissions in post-match interviews offer a refreshing antidote to the usual rubbish spouted by so many other managers, so his comments after the 1-0 defeat at the hands of
Ipswich Town will come as no surprise. SC admitted it 'he hadn't got a clue' why things were going so badly at home, and opined that we were
'almost looking for a gimmick' (a thinly-veiled reference to the
Little and
Kitson deals perhaps?) to change things around. On paper surely we have the players to get out of this division, but something isn't right and time's running out. The gaffer got it spot on when he said
'we're a soft touch' at the moment at the
Madejski - Ipswich didn't really have to bring their 'A' game to get a result. After a promising start when we hit the bar from a set-piece header you could sense half way through the first 45 that the away team had weathered the 'storm' and were growing in confidence. I'm usually less than prescient but my prediction of a goal for Town soon after half time became reality almost immediately after the restart.
Jon Stead's belter of an overhead kick was a rare moment of class in a poor match, the other moment was a wonderful save from the recalled
Marcus to
keep us in the game. We created so few chances that it's hard to recall a decent attempt on goal. It's seems almost ridiculous to criticise individual performances such is the malaise that hangs over the club at the moment, but how on earth
Michael Duberry continues to keep
Andre Bikey out of the team is a one of the great mysteries of our time (yeah, OK, I exaggerate
slightly).
We are playing so badly without any reason that can be clearly defined so perhaps it doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility that we could suddenly click and find the form that has eluded us for so long. Three away games on the bounce seems a perfectly feasible place to start.
In a season that has been so unpredictatble, disjointed and frustrating I'm not going to hazard a guess as to what will happen over the next 9 games. We might go on an unbeaten run, but we might struggle to make the play-offs.
3 comments:
We're doomed Captain Mainwaring.....doomed!!!!
The sad reality is that there is a chance on current form that we will slip outside the top 6. Assuming we make the play-offs though, you have to win at least 2 out of the 3 games and the Royals certainly don't look capable of that at the moment. Coppell almost certainly won't stay beyond the end of the season if we don't go back up so there could well be interesting times ahead next season. Phil Scolari's out of work isn't he..............?
The other thing that made me smile was Dave Kitson's comments about going to Stoke was the biggest footballing mistake he has made. He might find, at the end of the season, that it was a bigger one to come back!!!
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