We have, according to Lennie Lawrence, the best group of players ever at his disposal and whom, he felt, would meet his expectation of a sustained Premiership play-off or promotion challenge.
However every supporter accepts there has been a massive downturn at this club since City won 3-2 at Stoke on December 6, 2003. Peter Thorne’s hat-trick threw City into the play-off frame with a game in hand on many teams too.
The tale of the tape since this time however confirms the dramatic slump at the club with a set of results bettered by just about all, if not everyone, of the other 91 clubs in the league have
At
Played: 26, Won: 9, Drawn: 6, Lost: 11, For: 31, Against: 31, Points: 33
Apart from losing nearly half our home league games in this time, we also lost both home cup games in 2004.
We didn’t even score in almost half (11 or 43%) of those games but 20 of our 26 opponents (77%) managed to score against us.
Highlights were beating Sunderland and
Lows were home defeats to Walsall,
On the road, where City have frequently enjoyed good results, it’s all gone wrong too. The record reads;
Played: 25, Won: 3, Drawn: 10, Lost: 12, For: 26, Against: 38, Points: 19
It was once said how you had to go away to see a good City display and how they were better playing away because the support was always behind them, worth an extra man, and they could play without the pressures of performing in front of a Ninian Park crowd. Not any more. If that was true, how can anyone explain away this awful record? Three away wins in 13 months over 25 attempts and none of them anywhere special – Bradford,
We tend to score away – failing 7 out of those 25 times – but only kept 5 clean sheets on the road (20%).
Overall then, our league record since early December 2003 is a depressing
Played: 51
Won: 12
Drawn: 16
Lost: 23
For: 57
Against: 69
Points: 52
That’s an outrageously bad record, relegation form for well over 12 calendar months. You can argue the whats, the ifs and the maybes. You can try and find false positives. You can come up with excuses. What nobody can deny is facts. What nobody can defend is the indefensible. This is appalling, unacceptable and can only be condemned. Worse thing is, there’s just no sign of City improving or turning this around.
Happy New Year then, City fans should be happier than most to see the back of 2004. Let’s just hope for better in 2005 but, sorry to say it, don’t hold your breath.
It’s up to Sam, Lennie and the players to go and do what they failed to do for so long. Not meeting over-cooked expectations is one thing, having a playing record that is possibly the worst in football at present is something they should double their efforts and intensity to rectify in the New Year. We’ve been badly let down by them all.