Are City going up this season?

But where are we compared to what you were predicting preseason

 

That's no consolation. We've been in the top 6 all season. Do you think the management and players will take any crumbs of comfort if we miss out. Not a chance, they'll be as pee'd off as we'll be. Doing better than predicted is no consolation I'm afraid.

 

Worst away day (and there has been many) in my 50+ years as a supporter

 

It's a bizarre mindset some of our fans have. This is the best chance we have had in nearly 10.years to reach the championship, we might not get this chance for another 10 years riding the crest of a wave as we are. It's ours to either take or throw away at this stage.

 

Agreed this will be our only chance to go up for at least 5 years.. we have no rich Arab to bank roll us all the way to the prem..

Then again if this team had bottle and didnt collapse under pressure we’d be in Cardiffs position

 

Our form is so patchy at the minute and there are lots of comments around us simply not being good enough and there may be some truth in that.
Imo we have a first choice 11 or 12 that when in top of their game can compete with most in this league. We just struggle when we lose one or 2 key players and missing Bobby and Tyreik, coupled with no Sarce for 60 odd minutes and a totally out of form Neufville yesterday left us looking like mid table fodder.
We should still scramble over the play off line from here, then we have potentially 3 cup finals to get into the Championship. Those games will all be about the 11 we can put out on the pitch.

 

So if Mansfield had bottle and didn’t collapse under pressure would they be in Cardiff’s position? We have over performed this season with out a shadow of a doubt. The squad overall isnt top 6 quality which I think proves how well the club have done over the full campaign. Yesterday was massively frustrating but I do think since the turn of the year we have seen performances more on par with where we are in terms of the ability of the players at this level. It also helps that the league has been massively inconsistent.

 

To be fair Neufville was our only threat for a lot of the game, he just can't trust his first touch to be either good or bad. Our problems stem from having one way to attack, down the middle we are so limited. Metcalfes form has dropped off a cliff to a point where its been fairly easy to pick him as the one to be substituted for weeks now. Badly need him to rediscover the form that gained he rave reviews a couple of months ago.

 

I think the same applies to many of our competitors now.

We aren't the only team that is missing key players at this stage of the season. Our outstanding start to the season has kept us in a playoff place and been better than virtually the rest of the division has been able to do over any period in the season. I do believe we are where we deserve to be. I just hope we can rise to the challenge against Plymouth on Tuesday.

 

Cardiff have a budget that blows us out of the water, they and Lincoln are a level above anything else in the division. Can't just simply chuck out mantras like bottlers, thats not how football works. I was fuming yesterday after witnessing a woeful display of dumb football game management but that doesn't mean i don't appreciate how well Alexander has done to get this limited squad up to the playoffs. There again i think the limitations of the squad suit the limited way that Alexanders squads play football, we never look like a team that can tear teams apart more built on a solid defensive back 5 with two sitting midfielders.

 

We are absolutely where we are on merit and the comments about not having bottle or crumbling under pressure are unfair. You also have to give credit to the opposition sometimes. Football isn’t as simple as we have more players on the pitch so have a god given right to go on and win by 3 goals. Barnsley battled hard and deserved their point. I never felt our lads weren’t committed.

 

I agree its way too simplistic to say they bottled it. Naive and lacking quality when it mattered would be fair criticisms but no there wasn't a lack of bottle or strength of character imo.

 

So what is Nick Powell’s preferred position? I like the look of this very experienced player, yes he can’t play 90 but can’t we have him on first?

 

Attacking midfielder.

 

I thought Barnsley played well yesterday, they certainly move the ball better than we do through midfield. Personally i'd like to have seen us bring an extra midfielder on at half time when it was clear we weren't taking advantage of the extra man.

 

But this is reflective of our entire season, we just don't play the ball through midfield whereas other teams we face seem confident doing that. Let's be honest since September time we've huffed and puffed at best in a lot of games without really dominating the game but it has served us well thus far scraping some good wins along the way. I just don't think we're now going to make changes to our style with 3 to go but do think it's something we need to focus on ready for next season irrespective of which league we're in.
I think the big conundrum now is the left side as we looked devoid of attacking ideas and exposed in defence in the 1st half with Humphrys in the Pointon role, but 2nd half he produced some excellent moments after Powell came on. I'm not sure he'll start there on Tuesday but we shall see.

 

I had completely written off Powell, however, since his surprise return, I have been impressed with him.

You can certainly see that bit of class he has, hopefully he can stay fit and he can up the amount of minutes he can give us, may turn out to be our surprise play off secret weapon.

He made his goal look simple yesterday. He was in the right place to nod home an excellent cross. He was also unlucky not to open his account against Stevenage, but for a 10 minute spell of excellent goalkeeping.

 

Can't disagree with anything you've said. The whole dynamic of the team was wrong from the start, Alexander waited far too long to change it, at one point Jackson seemed to be making a point to Baldwin about these bloody diagonal balls out from the back.

 

We fail and it will be down to what happened in January on and òff the pitch

 

I , like all City fans, i imagine would love us to gain a successive promotion
If we do, its not going to be pretty, our performances since Christmas have been workmanlike at the best and i know the playoffs are cup football, but i think we just don't have the quality to come out on top
My fear is missing out and what might follow. Its clear we need that bit extra. Where is that going to come from, without greater input from the owner
The club has done well to get us here, but in the world of spend and damn the consequences , can we keep up?
I dread falling away again