No wonder some people don't like seeing old threads resurrected
Davef
Stoke City Legend
member is offline
Fair play to Philip. He took the Stokies' piss taking in very good heart
Joined: Jan 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,182
Re: OH -WOH -WOH AND THRICE WOH!
« Result #535 on Dec 4, 2008, 12:39pm »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It appears that there are some Stokies who think that we can just turn our performances and results on and off like a tap, on the basis of what match is important or a priority.
Winning and performing well breeds confidence. Playing poorly and losing at home to shite like Derby County most certainly doesn't.
In truth our last three home performances haven't been that brilliant and it's vital that we don't get ourselves into a rut. Fulham will be a much harder game than some of us are expecting, and I wouldn't feel confident about getting a result if we put in the kind of performance we've just witnessed against Hull and Derby.
Davef
Stoke City Legend
member is offline
Fair play to Philip. He took the Stokies' piss taking in very good heart
Joined: Jan 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,182
Re: Stop Panicing
« Result #649 on Oct 26, 2008, 8:08pm »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unless we improve dramatically, I think we'll do very well to get eight points away from home this season.
If we manage that then we're going to have to find at least thirty from our home fixtures.
That's a tall order.
Davef
Stoke City Legend
member is offline
Fair play to Philip. He took the Stokies' piss taking in very good heart
Joined: Jan 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,182
Re: more optimistic now than in August?
« Result #697 on Oct 7, 2008, 6:46pm »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm actually less optimistic than I was at the start of the season.
We all knew at Bolton that the team wasn't strong enough and lacked the pace and creativity to genuinely give us a chance of staying up.
Since then the introduction of Abdoulaye Faye and Danny Higginbotham has added experience to the back four, but in terms of quality and pace we are no further on.
We'll compete till the cows come home, and daresay bloody a few noses along the way, but at the moment I really can't see three teams in this league finishing below us.
member is offline
Fair play to Philip. He took the Stokies' piss taking in very good heart
Joined: Jan 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,182
Re: Idiots on the radio again!
« Result #702 on Oct 7, 2008, 12:17pm »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's knock this 'luck' thing on the head shall we? Those who claim we were lucky to win promotion with 79 points are quickly shot down in flames, so why can some of the same people use luck as an argument as to why we have 4 points and Hull have 14? Hull may well have had an easier start than us on paper, but they've taken full advantage of that. I still maintain that had the fixtures been reversed, then we would be nowhere near 14 points.
In actual fact, if you want to use the luck card, then quite frankly without it we'd be in far more trouble than we are now. Had that Villa full back not ducked out of the way of Mama's header, and our luck not been in against Liverpool we'd be the laughing stock of the league right now. You could even argue that we got extremely lucky getting that penalty against Villa. Of course there are instances we've been penalised unfairly (Fuller's goal against Everton for one), but that's just the way it is.
We are where we are because that's what our performances and results merit, and the same can be said of Hull.
Davef
Stoke City Legend
member is offline
Fair play to Philip. He took the Stokies' piss taking in very good heart
Joined: Jan 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,182
Re: Worrying Issues?
« Result #706 on Oct 6, 2008, 9:51am »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a stat that proved that midfielders and defenders have more time on the ball against Stoke City than against any other team (both in the Premier League and the Championship).
It's a Pulis-trait. He's quite happy for the opposition to have the ball and then force them to play through us. He's also quite prepared to see opponents have a dip at our goal from 25 or 30 yards, because I dare say he's got the stats to show that a small percentage of shots end up in a goal from that distance.
They are tactics that have served him well so far and that will probably mean that we won't take too many batterings this season, but our main problem is that we can't exploit teams because we simply don't possess the pace to hit teams on the break and are reliant on playing the ball long for Fuller to perform his magic or to force the opponents to concede a throw in high up the pitch.
I really can't see any change in our style in the foreseeable future.
Davef
Stoke City Legend
member is offline
Fair play to Philip. He took the Stokies' piss taking in very good heart
Joined: Jan 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,182
Re: Tell you what lads - GET SOME BACKBONE...
« Result #710 on Oct 5, 2008, 6:55pm »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oct 5, 2008, 6:50pm, denman wrote:
Hull have been more tha lucky in the fixture list that was dealt them. People seem be just happy to go "oh Hull won we sould be in the top half of the table". GET A FUCKING GRIP.
I keep reading this nonsense about Hull's fixture list. Let's be perfectly honest here, does anyone truly believe that had our fixtures been reversed, we'd now have their points haul and they ours?
Davef
Stoke City Legend
member is offline
Fair play to Philip. He took the Stokies' piss taking in very good heart
Joined: Jan 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,182
Re: How many points from now to May?
« Result #496 on Dec 21, 2008, 10:45am »
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stockportpotter,
I think you're in danger of being ripped to pieces by the head in the sand mob but I actually don't think you're too wide of the mark there the way things currently stand.
Of course, our transfer dealings are going to be crucial in January and may help us, but the big worry I have is those next six or seven fixtures. If we only come out of them with a couple of points then it will be a massive dent to our confidence and it will be very difficult for us to pull out a winning run on the back of it.
The other major worry is our goal difference. Even if we do manage to get ourselves onto the magical 40 point mark, we would still be in grave danger.
