13 victories, 11 defeats, 4 draws = 43 points, 5th place.
We've lost our second straight league game and if Everton were to win tomorrow the gap between us and them would be 11 points. However we have a game in hand which will be played on March 16th against Blackburn at home, four days before we play Everton at home. Two victories from those games still gives Everton some breathing space, a 5 point gap.
As a fan I can only continue to hope and pray that we get ourselves together sooner rather than later. I can not write us off from reaching the 4th spot. It's not mathetmaticaly impossible, there's plenty of games to be played in order for us to collect the points we need. We all knew that we were going to lose a game or two in the next 10 games, unfourtanetly we lost today.
Poor performance,poor display. We have good enough players to get 4th place but we don't have a solid team. Certain players don't seem to have the ability to play consistantly with one another week in and week out.
Not only that but injuries (20 different players have been injured this season, some players have been injured more than one time. We have the biggest injury crisis in England, and most likely in Europe as well ) have shifted our squad. How many times has the partnership changed up front due to injuries?
I am not using that as an execuse to why we play poorely but it has some effect on the players. When you mix those together you have an ugly season such as this one. It hurts to watch us play poorely, it hurts to watch our players play as if they didn't care but we all knew deep down inside at the beginning of this season that before things got better they would have to get worse.
So many fans raised expectations because we signed a new manager and a new striker. Did we actually think that we would change over night? I hate to say such obivious things but they are easily forgotten by not just few but many of our supporters.
Sometimes you have to play poor in order to play better. I know these are tough times, Champions League place is at stake, PRIDE is at stake but we can not simply give up and call it quits. We all get angered when we lose and say things we want to take back after a day or two but we simply have no other option but to get behind the team[even if they have been poor].
Nothing is impossible, not in football. Never say never, it's not over until the fat lady sings, we've heard her hum but it's not over, not yet.