The View From Churchmans

In the end, going down to a dodgy penalty to one of the best club sides in the world (even with some absentees) is no disgrace. If we'd tried this hard in the games which mattered (we've discussed here before that, in our minds, we should be competing in a theoretical "mini-league" of the bottom ten teams, and that's the one we have to do well in), this result wouldn't be that disappointing. ... More...

Well, we made hard work of it against a poor Middlesbrough side, but it's the points which matter. We'll have to play a lot better to get the points on Saturday, but there were some big performances tonight, and some big lessons to be learned too. When the time came for players to stand up and be counted, several really did so, and they can be very proud of themselves. The defence took ... More...

I kept reminding myself after the game that I'd said from the outset that if I could award most of the team 3, or preferably 4, out of 5 for effort this afternoon, perhaps the result wouldn't matter. Well, they tried. But in the end, it did matter. At half time the consensus of opinion around us was that "a draw was of no use to either side". But it was. Chances ... More...

In the Premiership, it's probably possible to get by on commitment alone, but you've got to do it week in, week out. If we'd played with this amount of enthusiasm in all or most of our fixtures this season, we'd be as safe as houses by now. But of course, this afternoon was the exception in that respect, not the norm, and that's why we're in desperate trouble. And the match also showed ... More...

Unquestionably a worse performance and worse result than the hammering by Liverpool, because it puts us right back where we were before Christmas on every front except league position. Fellow listie Jim, sitting behind me, commented on the lack of sparkle around the team even as they came out at the start, and this became apparent from the start of the game. Three weeks off has not done us any favours. The individual ... More...

If it'd been three or four, we might be holding a big inquest now like Leeds are. But six? You just have to hold your hands up in despair, hope the cringe-making embarrassment will give the players enough impetus to retain the recent form to the end of the season, and put it down to history. Ever since we got promoted, I think we've all realised that the gap between the Premiership and ... More...

Just what the doctor ordered, and more ammunition for those of us who think the aberration on Sunday night wasn't an accident. One of the hardest-working performances of the season all-round, and what's more, an excellent game. Whilst we missed four clear chances, and Fulham barely tested Marshall once, a big Town win would have been unfair on Fulham, who played their part and really came at us for the last 20 minutes. A ... More...

Dear oh dear oh dear. What an absolute and utter embarrassment. On the surface, this was one of those performances we saw quite regularly before Christmas, half an hour of trying to play football, then it all starts to come apart and by the end it's more or less a shambles. But there was more to this one than that. I don't think it was as simple as the cup not being our ... More...

Not the best we've played all season, but in many ways the most exciting game. And in the same way, not the most comprehensive victory, but in many ways the most important. Because it could have gone either way, and at 1-1 you felt we *had* to finish this one off - we wouldn't have done, earlier in the season, but if we were really on the road to recovery, this was ... More...

I bet Brian didn't get too many correct entries in the prediction competition today. An extraordinary scoreline largely due to an extraordinary half-hour when we couldn't seemingly do anything wrong. It'd be going a bit far to say I felt sorry for Sunderland, but it really wasn't their day. Couple their luck (or lack of it) with an atrocious defence, and you have the proverbial drubbing. And how good does it feel? No radical ... More...

Two wins in two, and the scores might suggest we've sprung back to life, but it's probably a little more gradual than that: the Newcastle - Villa - Tottenham - Leicester matches represent a steady progression, with all of them being in the zone where a few (un)lucky breaks the other way could still have turned the result on its head. But progression it is, and there definitely looks to be a little ... More...

I'm started to get irritated as well as a tiny bit scared now. Every time I think "well that's the low point, the recovery starts here" we come out the next week and offer nothing new. I can't see where the next goal's coming from, the defence looks more porous than it has done for years, and the midfield seems outnumbered 2:1 regardless of how many people we put there. Today I think ... More...

We came to Milan, we saw a big stadium, and we failed totally to conquer our own nervousness. The team stood around like they didn't deserve to be there for eighty minutes, and in the end, it wasn't the occasion or the devotion to the cause which finally got some of them going, it was getting a little bit angry after the constant Italian diving, niggling and generally irritating play had gone just ... More...

What a glorious evening. If ever there was an example of how commitment and concentration can overcome the odds in football, this was it. Did we suddenly discover a new formation which worked? No. Did the players all turn in exceptional performances? No. We really didn't do that much differently from some of the ordinary performances of late. But we had such a huge dose of commitment thrown into the mix that the ... More...

This is getting irritating now as well as frustrating. Nothing's going for us, every loose ball seems to drop to the opposition, and Portman Road is becoming an unexpected three points for anyone. The players are there, the skill's there, even the commitment is there, but as a whole, they're simply a rabble. For those who remember 1994-1995, it's not nearly as bad as that, yet by this stage in that season we ... More...