It was Birmingham at home for me, thought there was no way back and not even biggest optimist would have seen us win 3-0 at Fulham and win three on the bounce.
Preston away. The confidence is too far gone to ever get out of it now. Doesn't matter who replaces him. Whoever it is will do well to beat Rotherham's record-low total for this division.
Stoke had me thinking we were about 95% down & then after the Leeds game I was 100% sure we were gone
Am I allowed to say none? Maybe after the Brentford equaliser though. Not trying to be a super fan but I was always hopeful during the lockdown games. I did have a crisis of faith after those Reading/Cardiff defeats as we were appalling in both games and they were miserable games to be at. Reading especially as it was freezing cold waiting for the last bus back in to town.
When Huddersfield beat WBA on the Friday night game. We were bottom and with the games being played against the other teams around us that weekend meant we had to win both remaining games AND hope a few other results went our way. In the end it turns out the 2.2 draw between Charlton and Wigan was as massive a result for us as the two wins themselves. Yet another injury time goal was the Charlton equaliser. Nobody knew it at the time but that result saved us as well
Reading and Cardiff defeats just before lockdown as well. If games had carried on we wouldn't be in this position now. Lockdown actually gave us a chance to regroup and rethink.
Not sure, my mind was toing and froing all the time. I always live in hope not accepting defeat. My spirits and hopes being knocked up and down. Not by our results but those of others. What I did say is. If we finish below Luton we were down. How wrong was that. Got to say Luton’s escape was the phenomenal one for me. Seeing how nervous and lucky they were to keep us to a draw.
Coming out of lockdown with 9 games to play, I knew we had a mountain to climb. That said, I was also confident that we were far from being the worst side in the Championship. The away win at QPR proved that anything might happen, and the following two games gave me hope. But going into the trio of relegation scraps Stoke-Luton-Wigan I felt we needed at least 6 points from 9. We got 2. The 0-0 draw at home to Wigan was probably my lowest point - with Leeds, Forest and Brentford to come, I didn't think we had enough goals in us to get enough points from those games. I reckon I could live to be 100 and still be rubbish at predicting football scores.
Against Stoke l left the ground 25 minutes early. First time in a long time . We were awful against a very poor Stoke side. I admitted we were down. The lock down and playing without crowds was a massive advantage to our young players and took the pressure off. I do feel the experienced defender brought in was massive. GS as to be trusted now with the Austrian additions brought in.
I'm ever the optimist, but that Birmingham game was one of the worst I've ever seen. They were the worst side we played last season (marginally over Reading), yet we were worse in that game. There didn't look to be a goal in it, until we inevitably made a defensive error. I'd changed my mind over the lockdown. And when we won at Loftus Road, I assumed that we'd win every game for the rest of time. Leeds away was a real downer. But the late goal against Forest made me feel anything was possible going into that last game.
Saddo that I am, I keep a spreadsheet record of all the games I attend. The last entry is for the Cardiff game and it ends with the word "down"
I never thought we were down. I might have posted some rash, negative diatribe in the aftermath of bad results but last season reminded me of 2015/16 season. Even under Johnson we were bottom, playing good stuff and you sensed we might click. Lock down gave us that respite we needed.
Birmingham away. We looked like a team who when we played poor sides came a distant second. The Fulham game started to look like a fluke. We had a run of games at that time against poor opposition early on and turned lost. We were turning potential draws into defeats. It looked like Jan window was too little too late And we didn't seem to start learning from our mistakes until after lockdown. I never had true belief until the 93rd min v Brentford away. I reckon we have a better starting point now with experience this past few months and having blooded the youngsters. Other teams now know what we are about too so unless we bring in more quality on the field and strength in depth i think it could be another tough uninspiring season.