MATCHWATCH : Wigan Athletic (a)

[Snowball]

Also played 12th, 13th, and 14th, beat all three, two of those away.

[windermereROYAL]

Some reactions I`m seeing on twatter are quite frankly laughable, listen we are NOT making the play-offs and we are NOT going up, 50 points is my target, 32 from 36 games, less than a ppg.
Should be a cake walk in truth but footballs a funny old game, got some hard games coming up before the WC. keep our feet firmly on the ground for now.

[Snowball]

Some reactions I`m seeing on twatter are quite frankly laughable, listen we are NOT making the play-offs and we are NOT going up, 50 points is my target, 32 from 36 games, less than a ppg.
Should be a cake walk in truth but footballs a funny old game, got some hard games coming up before the WC. keep our feet firmly on the ground for now.

Don’t dispute this but we are nit yet playing with a full squad and ATM no player has hit a hot scoring streak

For example, if we were seeing Joao at his best, Ejaria, Loum, Sarr…

Who knows?

Categorically we aren’t in the Sheffield United class and Burnley, Norwich, WBA, Watford (etc) have classier elevens and squads

But six wins from ten and we could’ve got something at Blackpool and we’ve yet to field our best eleven or really hit top form

I already think we will be 13th or better by season’s end

I wouldn’t be surprised to finish, say, 8th… but if we hit striking form top six (6th) might be just about reachable

Seems to me that the league is for the most part quite even and any club might surprise

[Snowflake Royal]

10 games in, clear third and we only have three of the current top eight to play.

Would expect to see a fair few of that top 8 drift down as the season continues though. Us, Rotherham, maybe Sunderland, Blackburn and QPR.

Although only really Watford are well placed to take over, from the teams you'd expect to see at the top but aren’t there.

[Royal_jimmy]

We won't stay in the top 6 but we'll be OK i think. We can get 9 wins and some draws from the last 36 games. Its the lack of draws which are benefitting our points tally.

A lot of the teams tipped to struggle have started well

[Hound]

We should be fine really

Do like the look of our first 18 or so with some useful youngsters to help out

Not enough real quality in midfield and an over reliance on Ince to create will prob prevent us getting top10 but that’s fine

Of course if everyone did stay fully fit (they won’t) then we’d have a shot. But a lot of our players are injury prone and prob won’t manage more than 30 games

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Important win yesterday, not flashy to say the least but gritty and were probably well placed to get the win, glad to have a clean sheet as well, even though Wigan would have probably said a draw may have been a fair result.

Tidy free kick from Ince, particularly considering the talk was we didn't have any sort of free kick specialist either. But it was a solid performance all around really, so should be happy to go home with the 3. Get our way to 30 points by game 23 minimum (easily doable now) and we should be ok really.

Agree with P.Ince re taking our chances as well, 10 goals in 10 games isn't exactly brilliant and we probably should be finishing off one or two more opportunities to kill games off, but whilst our defence stays strong (when we win at least) then it shouldn't be an issue, it's just if there becomes a situation where we start leaking a couple of goals which ends up costing us points potentially.

[Snowball]

Important win yesterday, not flashy to say the least but gritty and were probably well placed to get the win, glad to have a clean sheet as well, even though Wigan would have probably said a draw may have been a fair result.

Tidy free kick from Ince, particularly considering the talk was we didn't have any sort of free kick specialist either. But it was a solid performance all around really, so should be happy to go home with the 3. Get our way to 30 points by game 23 minimum (easily doable now) and we should be ok really.

Agree with P.Ince re taking our chances as well, 10 goals in 10 games isn't exactly brilliant and we probably should be finishing off one or two more opportunities to kill games off, but whilst our defence stays strong (when we win at least) then it shouldn't be an issue, it's just if there becomes a situation where we start leaking a couple of goals which ends up costing us points potentially.

How many seriously decent chances have we fluffed this season/

Not a challenge. I really don't know

And have we missed a sitter that was very costly?

[CountryRoyal]

Important win yesterday, not flashy to say the least but gritty and were probably well placed to get the win, glad to have a clean sheet as well, even though Wigan would have probably said a draw may have been a fair result.

Tidy free kick from Ince, particularly considering the talk was we didn't have any sort of free kick specialist either. But it was a solid performance all around really, so should be happy to go home with the 3. Get our way to 30 points by game 23 minimum (easily doable now) and we should be ok really.

Agree with P.Ince re taking our chances as well, 10 goals in 10 games isn't exactly brilliant and we probably should be finishing off one or two more opportunities to kill games off, but whilst our defence stays strong (when we win at least) then it shouldn't be an issue, it's just if there becomes a situation where we start leaking a couple of goals which ends up costing us points potentially.

How many seriously decent chances have we fluffed this season/

Not a challenge. I really don't know

And have we missed a sitter that was very costly?

The Hendrick and Long misses in the Milwall game probably the most glaring (outside of yesterday).

[Nameless]

Important win yesterday, not flashy to say the least but gritty and were probably well placed to get the win, glad to have a clean sheet as well, even though Wigan would have probably said a draw may have been a fair result.

Tidy free kick from Ince, particularly considering the talk was we didn't have any sort of free kick specialist either. But it was a solid performance all around really, so should be happy to go home with the 3. Get our way to 30 points by game 23 minimum (easily doable now) and we should be ok really.

Agree with P.Ince re taking our chances as well, 10 goals in 10 games isn't exactly brilliant and we probably should be finishing off one or two more opportunities to kill games off, but whilst our defence stays strong (when we win at least) then it shouldn't be an issue, it's just if there becomes a situation where we start leaking a couple of goals which ends up costing us points potentially.

How many seriously decent chances have we fluffed this season/

Not a challenge. I really don't know

And have we missed a sitter that was very costly?

Any sitters missed in victories cost us nothing.
We don’t tend to lose by single goals….

[Stranded]

Important win yesterday, not flashy to say the least but gritty and were probably well placed to get the win, glad to have a clean sheet as well, even though Wigan would have probably said a draw may have been a fair result.

Tidy free kick from Ince, particularly considering the talk was we didn't have any sort of free kick specialist either. But it was a solid performance all around really, so should be happy to go home with the 3. Get our way to 30 points by game 23 minimum (easily doable now) and we should be ok really.

Agree with P.Ince re taking our chances as well, 10 goals in 10 games isn't exactly brilliant and we probably should be finishing off one or two more opportunities to kill games off, but whilst our defence stays strong (when we win at least) then it shouldn't be an issue, it's just if there becomes a situation where we start leaking a couple of goals which ends up costing us points potentially.

How many seriously decent chances have we fluffed this season/

Not a challenge. I really don't know

And have we missed a sitter that was very costly?

Any sitters missed in victories cost us nothing.
We don’t tend to lose by single goals….

All depends on if you think GD will come into things. If we'd scored the sitters we've missed, we have a GD of 0 now.

[Franchise FC]

How many seriously decent chances have we fluffed this season/

Not a challenge. I really don't know

And have we missed a sitter that was very costly?

Any sitters missed in victories cost us nothing.
We don’t tend to lose by single goals….

All depends on if you think GD will come into things. If we'd scored the sitters we've missed, we have a GD of 0 now.

Every time could have changed the entire outcome
Let’s settle for enjoying the rollercoaster

[TiagoIlori]

7 tricky games in a month is going to be very rough. I don’t think we’ll be in the playoffs by the end of it, but if we can get about 3 wins out of it we’re already halfway there well ahead of schedule.

[Millsy]

First match I missed in a couple of years I think, just found out the result. NICE!

Can we get a BTGF with ratings please, Ian, someone, anyone?

[JR]

Important win yesterday, not flashy to say the least but gritty and were probably well placed to get the win, glad to have a clean sheet as well, even though Wigan would have probably said a draw may have been a fair result.

Tidy free kick from Ince, particularly considering the talk was we didn't have any sort of free kick specialist either. But it was a solid performance all around really, so should be happy to go home with the 3. Get our way to 30 points by game 23 minimum (easily doable now) and we should be ok really.

Agree with P.Ince re taking our chances as well, 10 goals in 10 games isn't exactly brilliant and we probably should be finishing off one or two more opportunities to kill games off, but whilst our defence stays strong (when we win at least) then it shouldn't be an issue, it's just if there becomes a situation where we start leaking a couple of goals which ends up costing us points potentially.

Off the teams that have played 10 games (most in the division), only 3 have scored less than us and only 4 have conceded more.

Funny old game!

[Nameless]

How many seriously decent chances have we fluffed this season/

Not a challenge. I really don't know

And have we missed a sitter that was very costly?

Any sitters missed in victories cost us nothing.
We don’t tend to lose by single goals….

All depends on if you think GD will come into things. If we'd scored the sitters we've missed, we have a GD of 0 now.

Unless the opposition had tucked away all their chances too….

[Stranded]

Any sitters missed in victories cost us nothing.
We don’t tend to lose by single goals….

All depends on if you think GD will come into things. If we'd scored the sitters we've missed, we have a GD of 0 now.

Unless the opposition had tucked away all their chances too….

Well quite, all if buts and maybes and fully expect to miss sitters occasionally.

I'm actually encouraged by it as it shows we are able to create a decent number of clean cut chances, whilst in most games not giving too many away (bar the 3 stuffings) - so over time if we continue making these sort of chances we'll score more. Take Ince's header on Saturday 99 times out of 100 that goes in - better for it not to go in at 1-0 up than 1-0 down even if it does make the last few minutes more nervous than they could have been.

[Brogue]

Start to the season reminds me very much of paunos first season.

[mikey_1871]

Start to the season reminds me very much of paunos first season.

Would be more than happy with a 7th place finish this season!

[Stranded]

Start to the season reminds me very much of paunos first season.

I disagree. Pauno's side had an amazing run of 7 wins, 1 draw in 8 but was clear, more in retrospect, that there was a lot of luck in that run. As soon as we lost at Coventry, the team fell apart and that is what feels different about this side - there is no sign at the moment that they will crumble in that way, managing to win a game after every defeat.