Mental strength

We're in an excellent position with regards to promotion, if you look at today as a snapshot in time, the same way we were in an excellent position last Christmas with team being top always getting promoted, but we know how that ended.

We've had an excellent run that has enabled us to open up a gap, but I've felt we've struggled when teams equalise or take lead against us. Last season we were very good at coming back, not giving up and scoring late winners and equalisers.

I believe that the team, perhaps the club, are naturally traumatised to a degree from the failure to secure promotion last season and the manner of the end of the end of the season. I don't feel we've had a genuine opportunity to successfully put that behind us and matches like Charlton, Cardiff and Fulham show that when we've needed to step up, we've been unable to.

These things sometimes never leave you, for example, we still today talk about lost European Cup Finals and fear we're cursed, it will happen again etc etc.

I feel that we need a symbolic victory. A come from behind never give up victory right now, might just be that symbolic victory. Giving faith to the team that they can come back. Serve notice to opponents that if you take the lead against us, it is not job done, regain a bit of that aura of awesomeness that we had for so much of last season.

At this point last season I genuinely believed that we were going up, indeed I'd put money on it very early in season after our brilliant displays at the start. Partly based on last season's experience and also that Bielsa does not have a track record of winning the prize at the end of the season I'm not so sure, even a decent points gap has proven not be be good enough for us and I'd like the team to show that when the wobble starts, as it has that they have what it takes to show this team's true calibre, for I'm sure most of agree that when this team is on song, they can beat anyone in this division and are good enough to go up.