a timely reality check, what happens next matters

[ted1965]

I think yesterdays loss will serve as a wake up call to many and maybe even serve a stark reminder that we haven’t arrived or survived as an established Premiership side yet. I think many were totally getting carried away and why not considering how we were performing since the shock of the opening game at Bolton.

We need to look at the facts of yesterdays game, we were playing the Premiership title holders and also the champions of Europe. They can afford to leave players sitting in the stand who are worth more than our entire side on the open market. They like Chelsea are also totally ruthless in games like this, they work as hard without the ball which always puts sides like ourselves firmly on the back foot if we can’t outwork r outmuscle a side like United then in reality their superior class is going to hurt us at some point. They don’t have a soft underbelly like Arsenal and they can be equally devastating going forward maybe more so due to the fact they work so hard and negate our strengths. So realistically they worked as hard as we did and when you have that quality as well then it really was a forlorn hope that we could take anything against them. If anyone had told me that we would have taken 4 points from 12 against the big four when the season began I would have looked for the men in white coats and wondered if he was on strong enough medication but those are the facts. A team that is only supposed to be making up the numbers has beaten Arsenal and taken a hard fought point away from home against Liverpool

It’s what happens now that will decide whether this experience will be damaging to the morale of the players or not. We got turned over at Manchester City and bounced back to take 7 points from the next 9, we have been quite fortunate in regards to the fixtures that follow this game. So far we have shown such durability after a defeat and that’s what is important in this league. There will always be days like yesterday and for me it came at the right time, yes losing 5-0 is never an easy pill to swallow but it’s what happens in the next month that really matters. If we could have chosen three home games to follow a hiding then surely Albion, Hull and Fulham would have been very close to perfection. If we had gone to Old Trafford and done what we did against Liverpool and somehow escaped with a point we may have gone into the next few games a little complacent thinking we had done enough and could just turn up and win, that attitude can’t be acceptable either in the players, manager or supporters and so a good spanking in a game where we realistically were just trying to keep the score down isn’t such a dent to our plans.

That doesn’t mean we should go into any game expecting to win but we should believe we’re capable of winning all three of these games. If we even take 7 points from 9 we will head towards the new year very comfortably placed and certainly well ahead of any predicted points tally when this adventure began, in fact more points than many thought we would have after 38 games let alone 19. We are in the quarter finals of the league cup with a very realistic chance of making the semi finals if that’s how most people saw the first half of this season going then you must be millionaires from playing up your winnings with the bookies.

I am sure many in the media will be saying, ah yes Stoke have finally been put in their place and this will be the beginning of the slippery slope for them. That is another huge incentive for the players and for ourselves to get right behind the lads as we have all season and if we could choose one game to bounce right back it would be the Baggies. If we can do it without the talismanic Fuller then even better. This is Dave Kitson’s opportunity to start paying the club and supporters back on some of that 5 million investment. It is a perfect game against a side who like Arsenal have a very soft underbelly and one who we have the most exceptional record against. They don’t like playing us, we scare them witless and I am sure they’ll be once again making great play of our so called roughhouse physical style of play. If so I think that will immediately hand the game to us psychologically a win would put 6 points between us and that in this league is a huge gap to overcome. While it wouldn’t take them out of the equation it would leave them floundering. That wont mean we’re safe because it seems this year Is going to be a really tight finish maybe at both ends but it will keep us well in contention and with a few astute January acquisitions we will surely have a chance .

So while it’s never very edifying to get spanked it might be a blessing in disguise

[lexie]

Totally agree Ted, manure worked harder and out muscled us yesterday, a lot does depend on how we bounce back one big concern yesterday is are lack of attempts on goal we had two shots from outside the area and they ended up in row Z

[JoeinOz]

The real test was always going to be how we react to a hammering. Over to you Tony and players!

[GRUMPY 1]

At last some sanity prevails,
I knew we could rely on you Ted.

That was "the one" tonking we have been expected to get all season.


ONWARDS AND UPWARDS,




GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARN STOKE.

[SneydGreenStokie]

Nov 16, 2008 9:14:46 GMT lexie said:

Totally agree Ted, manure worked harder and out muscled us yesterday, a lot does depend on how we bounce back one big concern yesterday is are lack of attempts on goal we had two shots from outside the area and they ended up in row Z

Yep, agreed. Watching Manu U yesterday, everytime stoke got the ball, it was a case of either us panicking and lumping it forward, which Vidic seemed to deal with comfortably, or it was Man U working very hard to close down our space to either win it back or force a mistake. When you couple that with their speed of movement and thought and players like Ronaldo, Carrick, Tevez and Berbatov all clicking together it was always going to be a massive, massive effort. I hope, and I think we can bounce back and claim at least 10 points from out next 5 games, 3 ow which are at home before we face United again, at home on Boxing day. That game will be totally different and I expect us to make life much harder for Man U that day.

SGS

[swampySCFC]

Thats a fair summary.

If there is one saving grace I hope our lacklustre performance will spur us on to get stuck in to them on Boxing Day.

[andy9196]

good post again ted

[Titan Uranus]

It is a fair summary

I think a lot of us are just a bit peed off at the manner of the defeat.

Anyway, I would go as far as to say that Saturdays game against the Baggies is one of our most important games of many a year.

It's a must win in my view and Tone must set his stall out to attack and show a lot more positive mindset than the last two away games.

This is West Brom we are playing.

[crimesy]

great post... also a question of will these next few weeks not just determine the season, but the knock on effect afterwards ..