I’m not surprised by that. We’ve been woeful in almost every second half this season so we’ve either played well in the first half, gone in front and been pegged back or we’ve played badly in the first half gone behind and then still been awful in the second half.

Interesting article Wulfrun.

Something struck me yesterday watching the Liverpool match - I thought that if Liverpool had got another immediately after what turned out to be their last goal, they'd have been on track to go through, Zenit would have pulled out all the stops for half an hour and the game would have been ridiculously open. BUT, I felt if they could keep up the pressure and search for a goal without going all out, I felt sure they'd get one eventually but keep Zenit under pressure till it went in, and give them less time to reply afterwards. That relied on them scoring eventually of course but I hope you can see my point.

Perhaps we should be doing something similar. We obviously really suffer terribly from a fear of failure when we take the lead, we're far more nervous about losing when we are winning than when we are losing! Maybe we should be looking to keep it really, really tight, playing long ball quick counter attacking and staying rock solid defensively and in shape, hopefully not conceding...before really turning it on with about thirty minutes left. We have the quality to get a goal in thirty minutes, I believe it is only nerves that stop us. This would also perhaps cover for our lack of fitness from Stale's "just do the training you fancy" fitness regime.

Is that a stupid idea? I'm not sure

Another fairly unknown worrying statistic is that half of our conceded goals this season have been from shots outside of the 18 yard box.

tatts from your assessment ...it's fair to say we are just woeful...end of !

these stats seem close to our record last season as well....or am i dreaming ?

basically, we can't defend for sh@t ! and i blame Wardy

just because.........

Under Stale you just knew it was going to happen every game. We came out and played brightly in the first half, looked to have some energy and attacking intent and then regardless of whether we were in front, behind or drawing at the break they came out for the second half and looked a totally different team.
We seem more even under Saunders but we need results by hook or by crook. I don’t care if we take the lead in the 1st minute and hold out for 89minutes or don;t have a shot for 89minutes and get a last gasp winner. We just need to win.

we've got second goal syndrome

I think it a fitness issue. Not unfit players but I think we wear ourselves out too quick.

Cologne had similar issues.

Solbakken and Saunders are very different in most ways but one thing they have in common is that when their teams get in front they are prone to trying to protect what they have rather than push for a second goal. And I think by doing that they allow the opposition back into the game rather than killing them off

Koln started the season poorly, a lot of draws but no wins and were in the bottom 6 - since November they have picked up and are now 5th.
Perhaps DS is doing the same.

You are dreaming halfy.
Last season we started every game really slowly and didn't pick up til half time.

I put the stats up the other week, We were behind within 20 minutes(often 10 minutes) in a large number of games.

We lost the lead at Burnley halfman - if only Deano had picked Ward...

You mean Barnsley Crikey?

The problem at Barnsley was that we were dominating the game they had barely touched the ball but then as soon as we scored we released some of that pressure then went to 4-5-1 and suddenly they didn't need to worry about us so could play their own game. This compounded when Ohara when off and then we lost.

We should make teams worry about us not the other way round. If we're constantly attacking then the opposition will be so busy defending they won't be able to score.

I'm with you Mike. And if that doesn't work at least we get entertainment.

The only reason that I could see for him changing it was that Edwards couldn't do his job so he moved siggy to do it for him. Edwards shouldn't have been on the pitch. If he's not up to it just take him off