The way I see it

[Bentley Bullet]

It’s not just a question of playing well, it’s about playing better than your opponents. It doesn’t matter how well you play, if the other team play better the chances are you’ll look rubbish and lose.  It’s difficult to play better than your opponents when they have better players, and I don’t think you can blame the manager for having a lower transfer budget.

Perhaps about 90% of teams in the Championship have better players than us. Considering this we are not positioned too badly. I feel we would have been higher up the league by getting more points out of the Barnsley and Yeovil games, had Sharp played. I also believe we’d have been higher still had we had Forrester available this season.

Dickov hasn’t done too badly with his signings this season. Had we not strengthened and just relied on the players we had last season, I firmly believe we would be rock bottom of the table now.  He’s made some good signings, but it seems his budget doesn’t stretch to obtain strength in depth.  The players are playing out of their skins week after week to try and compete against better, less fatigued oponents, and they’re buggered.

I’m told Bournemouth have spent a fortune on players this season, so it’s not like we’re a real match for them anymore. It was a much harder game than some people anticipated.

Maybe it’s the whole set up that’s the problem, and we’re simply not investing enough on players to match all but two or three teams in this division.

I’m not so sure the blame lies with Dickov.

[timdrfc]

Don't forget the three points we would have got had Charlton had decent drainage, plus they would be three worse off.. If only

[BigColSutherland]

You're assuming the 10 men would have won that game.

[GazLaz]

We had a bit of bad luck early on. The Watford penalty that was a yard outside the box, Charlton, How we didn't win at Wigan I'll never know, they weren't untitled to score the free kick when they did. It's going to be a hard slog due to the fact we didn't pick enough points up when we were playing well and we don't have the quality to play badly and win. I don't fancy us against Hudds but we need to stop the bad run and what better time to do it than against a local side that will bring a few. If Billy hits a bit of form we will be ok I'm sure.

[Bentley Bullet]

Sharp's presence should make all the difference. Teams aren't so gung-ho when he's playing for us. Without him opposition teams are more ready to push everyone forward, knowing that we have very little by way of counter attacking.