Goal difference

Not ideal but its in our hands. Keep winning we go up auto

Gd has changed because they win whilst we lost its a double whammy, so it’s easy to reverse, IF we win.

As Bielss has said it’s hard enough to create a style of play let alone suddenly change that.

We’re paying privevfor those draws that we’re supposed to be good points earlier in season and not scoring enough goals from half chances we create.

We need to create better chances and put more away.

That depends on Pablo staying fit, Bamford staying fit, Brown having a meaningful impact.

It’s a big ask, let’s take it one step at a time and try and get 3 points v Bolton.

Clean sheet needed this weekend too, when was the last one?

Don’t think 2nd and 3rd will be decided on GD so doesn’t make a difference.

Agree with the OP. Taking a leaf out of Boro's book ain't a bad idea in regards to being first and foremost, hard to beat. Given that Norwich have Pukki, Sheff Utd have Sharp, West Brom have Gayle and we've lost Roofe kinda says that we ain't going to catch there superior goal differences. Like Viduka says, just gotta keep winning

"Gd has changed because they win whilst we lost its a double whammy, so it’s easy to reverse, IF we win."

There's more to it than that. Our rivals are convincingly brushing teams aside, whilst we're having to battle for to get wins by just the odd goal.

We've won 10 games since we last played WBA, 8 of which were by a solitary goal - the other 2 by 2 goals.

The effect is that we have to play for 95 mins every game which eventually takes its toll on the players. Our rivals can switch into cruise mode after 60 mins because the job is done.

I happened to go to the Villa-Sheff U game as I have a mate who had a spare Villa season ticket. This is exactly what happened that night. Sheff U got caught out on this occasion, but make no mistake they were exceptionally good and tore Villa apart.

I agree with the low margin wins but just look at last minute winners in rivals games it’s no different to outdo

Gd only really swing because of a couple of big scoring wins, you get a big scoring loss ie Preston/noruegch and we’re wevto get big scoring win it changes just like that.

The problem of course, is that we don’t have a propensity to get big scoring wins.

Yes agreed - lost count of how many stoppage-time goals Norwich have scored.

I struggle to imagine us being 3-0 up at HT. Perhaps Bolton on Saturday is our time.

comment by Warwick (U13131)
posted 46 minutes ago
"Gd has changed because they win whilst we lost its a double whammy, so it’s easy to reverse, IF we win."

There's more to it than that. Our rivals are convincingly brushing teams aside, whilst we're having to battle for to get wins by just the odd goal.

We've won 10 games since we last played WBA, 8 of which were by a solitary goal - the other 2 by 2 goals.

The effect is that we have to play for 95 mins every game which eventually takes its toll on the players. Our rivals can switch into cruise mode after 60 mins because the job is done.

I happened to go to the Villa-Sheff U game as I have a mate who had a spare Villa season ticket. This is exactly what happened that night. Sheff U got caught out on this occasion, but make no mistake they were exceptionally good and tore Villa apart.
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A fair reflection. We should be winning games as well and the other sides are as we're playing just as well as them.

comment by AZA (U5000)
posted 9 hours, 53 minutes ago
Don’t think 2nd and 3rd will be decided on GD so doesn’t make a difference.
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What are you basing that on, Aza?
Here is what my post is based on:
Norwich 33 23 63
Blades 33 24 61
Leeds 32 17 61
WBA 33 25 60
There are 4 points between 4 teams, competing for 2 automatic places. Don't tell me that goal difference is unlikely. It has to be a factor in our thinking over the run in, because we are unlikely to match the others for goals.
I think we saw a different style of game management against Swansea, which made it harder for Swansea to come back, but less likely for us to kill them off. The back four looked better with Phillips in front of them, but with uncertainties around Pablo's stamina, Brown's return and Bamford's capacity to fill Roofe's boots, a more conservative approach may suit us better. We also saw how Ayling's penalty concession sent us into panic mode in that last five minutes, so we still have a way to go to regain that defensive composure that we had earlier in the season. It's not easy to get the right balance for the run in and each team will be facing questions of their own but for us, it's about bolting down the hatches, more than opening the floodgates.