Maximise the Opportunity

There's me thinking that there was not a lot for anyone to say after Saturday's numbing defeat at the hands of fellow "strugglers" Sheffield. Well, seems I was wrong as Les had plenty to say.

And if you're looking for a pick-me-up, by far the most encouraging thing was that he, and apparently the players "are all quite pleased we can go straight into the game with Blackburn on Tuesday and not have a week of pondering about what went wrong today." And there's most of the fans wondering what else they can do on Tuesday night to avoid the Valley....

Obviously tired of explaining away frequent flucks and wonder-goals as the reason for our constant defeats, he's now putting it down to a "a certain lack of confidence but that's because of the position we are in in the league. Our away record is bad but that's not necessarily been this team and these players."

And Monica's obviously been giving him lessions in manager-speak as Les looks forward to the coming month, "We have four games at home coming up and we'll be looking to maximise that opportunity. "

He did, however, slightly spoil his copybook by adding "We have a lot of creative players who like to get the ball down and play." I wonder who that is then.

In his defence, however, it has to explained that being bottom of the League and worst of the bunch is an obvious way of losing confidence and looking at the last 5 goals we have conceded we've not had a lot of luck, 2 have come from unmarked headers from a cross and a corner (mark the buggers!), 1 was set-up from a deflection over a defenders head, 1 was an own-goal deflection from a header and the other "a breathtaking/stunning volley".

And, at the moment, we're not getting walloped - a year ago today remember we were hammered 5-2 at home by Man. City. (Lets hope tomorrow doesn't see a repeat!) But, having said that, we have now conceded the most goals - 23 - in the Premiership (along with Fulham), have the worst goal-difference, now -12, and if Les is looking at home games to save us, it should be pointed out that we have scored less goals at home than anyone else, a meagre 5 in the 7 games. Hope springs eternal, I suppose.....