We need a spark to ignite this final push.

[ted1965]

It would seem the league has become stagnated, nobody with the exception of Hull are actually making anything like progress. It’s always said that the league season is like a marathon and this years Championship is proving that statement to the fullest.

They say marathon runners hit the wall about the 20 mile mark, well it seems almost all those fighting it out have hit a collective wall, as I say with the exception of Hull city who at this moment in time must be considered warm favourites to occupy one of the two automatic places if they continue with their amazing run of form.

The other place is going to come down to which side can stumble, claw and fight their way across the line, though lets be honest till now Hull haven’t actually had the shackles of real expectations around them as yet. That will surely come now, suddenly everyone is going to be looking at them, the microscope is going to be on them and the weight of form and expectation will weigh on their play, how they handle it will be interesting.

We desperately need a spark, there’s a real lack of impetus in our play at the moment, we have taken just 5 points from the last 15 available and thanks mainly as I have said to everyone else falling into a deep hole at the same time we have remained top of the league and therefore still very much the masters of our own destiny. Though the need for a player who carries some menace in the last third is obvious. The fact we were missing Lawrence and Fuller can’t be ignored but we are a side treading water at the moment and if we had only brought in that something extra in the front line we could have already been gone by now.

There looks to be a fear of failure in the side at the moment, that fear of over committing and being caught out, it’s almost like the players and management are saying better not to lose and keep ourselves there or there about rather than a desire to take a game by the scruff of the neck. We could have been two up in the first few minutes and it was almost like they said it will happen eventually rather than lets take this on and really take the game to Blackpool. It was absolutely awful, yes we are top of the league but if we don’t improve and fast it will become a hellish play off route and I honestly don’t see us winning those, we are not a good cup side.

We can’t keep relying on others to mistakes to keep us top of the league, you need to win promotion not hope to receive it because nobody else seems to want it. It’s easy to just say we’re top of the league and so there’s no reason to worry, the last few games have given every indication that there are things to be concerned about and they need to be addressed now before they become dangerously self defeating.

The questions would then be asked, will we have such a chance again in the near future. It’s easy to say, yes of course we will be even stronger next season with the players we have and additions during the summer, well the record of our summer activities isn’t good and we have now come into the spotlight and certain players progress will have been noted and they will become targets if we fail. The club may express its desire to hold on to it’s better players, though football is an ever changing world and a good offer can soon change peoples perceptions and as we saw in the summer, players become unsettled and suddenly you have to begin again. This isn’t some kind of omen of doom post simply realistic and as I am seeing things at the moment.

I really hope there’s a quality forward being lined up, the team needs something new, something to lift them up and drive them over the line, at the moment we are scrambling up a slippery bank and thankfully almost everyone else is doing the same. This is the time for unity but there are questions to be answered and solutions to be found and we as supporters are mere helpless spectators as far as they go, it’s down to the manager and players to find that inner belief and that spark that can ignite the team again over this last 6 games.

[skidog]

i sincerely hope that in coate's office there is an alarm bell going off equivalent to one in an underground nuclear bunker, indicating that the shit is about to hit the fan.

The only good news is, if they were launched in russia and then travel at the pace that stoke have in their team, then we've nothing to worry about for at least another 50 years ;D

There is only one reason that i can think of as to why pulis is so reluctant to inject a player with real pace into the team, there will be no fucker to get on the end of the cross because the rest of them are so slow it's untrue.

Come on coates/pulis, get your fingers out because the natives are getting restless!

[ersaurebot 1, 000, 000 views]

Fuller will spark us off - he will have had the best part of four games off, shawcross even longer and when both score on their return we will be in the right place for sure.

[Northy]

a fliiping big rocket, not a spark to snap us out of this. Hopefully Fuller and lawrence can both nab 6 more goals each and reach the 20 mark, that would take us up

[potters11]

Fuller will get 5 from his final 5 games! That's my prediction and a side prediction, Lawrence will grab 3 from his final 6 games!

[kingdeano]

think you hit the nail right on the head ted, we need a shrewd signing to lift the team and fans, just like when hendrie 1st came, we need someone with that swagger and cockiness either it be a striker or left midfielder, were too close now to let it slip so come on pulis get someone in quick

[jarhead]

I really hope Fuller does it in the last 5 games after his break.

[Davef]

It's going to be extremely difficult for us to find that kind of player in the last month of the season. Clubs aren't just going to loan out goalscorers willy nilly. The only player I can think of that we'd have a reasonable chance of getting is Earnshaw, because Derby will be down, but the reported £500,000 loan fee will put us off.

Our next best hope is that Ricardo Fuller does what he did last season and returns to the team from his break with a bit of fire in his belly and gives us that spark. The same can be said for Liam Lawrence.

If they don't, then I fear the worse...