Looking Forward to Sheffield?

Yes, it was the famous Henry Ford that said 'History is more or less bunk' but after Saturdays horror show I'm not so sure. Perhaps it's the long trip north or the bracing sea air affecting the players but large figures in the goals conceded column at Bloomfield Rd is not a new phenomena.

We conceded 8 goals back in 1952 in a 12 goal nightmare, 7 back in 1964, 6 on two occasions and now 5 goals 4 times. A grand total of 74 goals hitting the back of our net in 26 games at an average of 2.85 per game.

So with only 4 wins for the Addicks in those 26 games its obviously never been a good place to go and furthermore no-one in the Big Three can hold a candle to Blackpool's home scoring record against the boys from SE7.

At the Arse its 5 wins for the Addicks out of 28 but goals conceded per game of 2.46.

At Manure its 3 wins for the Addicks out of 31 but goals per game conceded of 2.42.

At Liverpool its 6 wins for the Addicks out of 30 with goals per game conceded of 1.77.

So Mr Pardew, we've just given you another excuse, if you need one, for our performance last weekend.

But the point of this exercise is really to confirm the message that, despite everything that Henry Ford had to say, history cannot be completely ruled out. And with the next game just 3 days away I sure you don't need reminding that with only 1 win in our last 21 games at Bramall Lane and just 3 wins out of a total of 29 visits, the opposition, even forgetting their 3-0 win at the Valley in November, will be brimming with confidence, even if our goals conceded is only an average of 1.93 per game.

Perhaps its time to forget our usual 4-4-2 attacking gameplan and turn our concentration on stopping the other team scoring. Whatever the conclusions reached regarding our latest defeat, it would appear that things are due a change and a repeat of our boring 1-0 wins at Bristol and Southampton back in November are sorely needed right now. The formation back then was a 4-5-1, with Iwelumo the only striker, and scorer of both goals, and we can only regret the forced exit of our key midfielder in both games, Andy Reid.

Whatever, times change and we can only hope that Pards gets it right cum 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon and has managed to install a fighting spirit sadly missing last weekend. At least there's no sea air in Sheffield to worry about.

Oh, and something else that Henry Ford said, strangely enough regarding the Play-Offs, was 'If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right.'