@owlstalk Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 This season do you think we've exceeded where we expected to be at the end of the season or are we around where you thought we would be? Owlstalk Shop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthefish2002 Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Yes exceeded expectations for me. Thought we would be about where Rotherham and Millwall are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wayne the owl Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 All I had hoped for was a season free from a relegation battle , so yes I would say this season we have exceeded my expectations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animis Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 clearly last night was cause for optimism, but in general the home form and performances have been poor. In contrast, the away form and results has exceeded expectations probably due to how Gray sets the team up. Mixed picture then, but we need to look forward now with a chairman who has committed to us to be challenging at the top and this will be the new benchmark for Gray, the players and the club Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HirstWhoScoredIt Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 I expected us to finish around 13th to 18th. If we end up on 58 points we will probably finish exactly where I expected. If we get one more win then top 12 will have slightly exceeded my expectations. Top 10 would be extremely satisfying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shez owl Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Purely thinking about where we are in the table, massively exceeded! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geörge Whitebread Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Overall, yes. League position, yes (I predicted 14th at the start of the season iirc) Defensively, yes (to break our clean sheet record will be a great achievement) Away from home, yes (7th in that table is superb) BUT I expected to score more goals at home than at least one other football league club. To be sat right at the bottom of that table is dire. We've actually scored less than half of the average in the Championship So we need to beat Leeds 6-0 to rescue the situation really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HirstWhoScoredIt Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 I never thought relegation was a realistic possibility this season as I thought Blackpool and Birmingham were absolutely nailed on to take up at least two of the relegation spots. I also expected us to finish above Millwall, Rotherham and Brentford. I thought that we had a reasonable chance of finishing above with Huddersfield, Brighton, Reading, Charlton and Bolton (the latter 3 all having well documented financial issues). You then hope that a few of the Premier League teams have the hangover that some always seem to have and hence we have slightly exceeded my expectaions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wilyfox Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 This is our highest position and points tally since our return to the championship, so we're certainly heading in the right direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HirstWhoScoredIt Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 This is our highest position and points tally since our return to the championship, so we're certainly heading in the right direction. This (barring a collapse) will be the fourth season in a row that our league position has improved. Not many can say that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobTheDogTheOwl Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Would have taken 4th from bottom again, definitely exceeded my expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamnich Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 (edited) clearly last night was cause for optimism, but in general the home form and performances have been poor. In contrast, the away form and results has exceeded expectations probably due to how Gray sets the team up. Mixed picture then, but we need to look forward now with a chairman who has committed to us to be challenging at the top and this will be the new benchmark for Gray, the players and the club Am i being a bit daft here but i dont really understand why it matters where you are playing. Surely it's just a bit of grass with a goal at each end?? Edited April 15, 2015 by adamnich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barton6435 Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Yes my start of season prediction was 19th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flat Owl Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 At 43 games last year - W13 D14 L16 F59 A57 pts 53 At 43 Games this year. W14 D16 L 13 F39 A44 pts 58 Lost less games & defended better - tighter at the back and less potent up front. Add to the mix the 'what if factor' of points dropped from winning positions or even games like the Bolton away draw then the picture is dramatically different and IMO a massive improvement on last year. We could have won an additional 10 points at least if we could have built on those leads before teams recovered. On the flipside Westwood has saved us single handedly at least 10 points this year and is my Player of the Season by a mile. Clearly adding a front line of quality to the existing set up and support for Semedo in the middle could see us kick on equally dramatically. Certainly progress and proper club / squad building whether this year has exceeded expectations well IMO yes but that is against a background of very disappointing home form that is worse compared with last year and frustration with our inability to put teams to the sword when we should have. Away form has been a revelation and Stu will do well to repeat this next year. He has managed to reverse last years home form with this years away form - its a mirror of last year. If we can hang on to the starting 11 and replace the departures with quality we have a great chance next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowl Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Exceeded what I expected just before the season started. But we set a standard early in the season and since then it's been hard to not be frustrated with our typical mid-table runs of form and performances. In truth, I've just wanted this season over with since the back end of January. It's all about next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rikowl Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Am i being a bit daft here but i dont really understand why it matters where you are playing. Surely it's just a bit of grass with a goal at each end?? It's a very simplistic view - the emphasis is on the home team to push the pace and attack. Generally teams do better at home than they do away, this is due to whole host of factors - fans, familiarity, sleeping in your own bed and not hotel room the night before a game, length of travel etc. The fact that we are better away from home points to our discipline but also our ability to counter attack. When we are away the opposition come at us and we capitalise on the spaces they leave open. At home we are expected to attack and we have struggled to do that. Part of last nights success was that Brentford came at us so it was more like an away game in some ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowl Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 At 43 games last year - W13 D14 L16 F59 A57 pts 53 At 43 Games this year. W14 D16 L 13 F39 A44 pts 58 Lost less games & defended better - tighter at the back and less potent up front. Add to the mix the 'what if factor' of points dropped from winning positions or even games like the Bolton away draw then the picture is dramatically different and IMO a massive improvement on last year. We could have won an additional 10 points at least if we could have built on those leads before teams recovered. On the flipside Westwood has saved us single handedly at least 10 points this year and is my Player of the Season by a mile. Clearly adding a front line of quality to the existing set up and support for Semedo in the middle could see us kick on equally dramatically. Certainly progress and proper club / squad building whether this year has exceeded expectations well IMO yes but that is against a background of very disappointing home form that is worse compared with last year and frustration with our inability to put teams to the sword when we should have. Away form has been a revelation and Stu will do well to repeat this next year. He has managed to reverse last years home form with this years away form - its a mirror of last year. If we can hang on to the starting 11 and replace the departures with quality we have a great chance next season. It's an improvement on last year's results overall, but hardly a massive one. Also, Gray's performance as head coach was slightly better last season than this one (so far) because he averaged 1.4 points per game as opposed to about 1.35 points this. That's only about 2 points difference over the course of a season so it's hardly worth calling a difference, but it certainly can't be called progress. Still, I'm still behind Gray enough to mitigate for him on this point. The backline is good (especially so when everyone's fit), and Gray can rightly take plenty of credit for that - and it's undoubtedly progress on previous seasons, especially so considering that the additions of Westwood, Lees, and Loovens were all on frees. He hasn't solved the problems with the forward line yet, but he needs some decent money for that, so hopefully this summer he can do that. McGugan (or a player of his quality) and a couple of good wingers and I reckon we can expect ourselves to be in the play-off spots next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leaping Lannys Perm Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 At the start of pre season, I was hoping for about where we are. However, it should be remembered what an uninspiring pre-season we had. I'm not going to get into whether Milan was fair with his budget or not but the unquestionable truth is that we didn't, on the surface, appear to do much to strengthen in pre season and most of us were very pessimistic in the week leading up to the big kick off. At that point I was definitely expecting a relegation struggle. Thankfully it turned out that we had actually unearthed a few jems and have managed to do quite well. So, in conclusion I would argue that yes we have exceeded expectations based on what we had going into the season, but it could definitely be argued we should have been given more of q fighting chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modboy Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 just disappointing that we didnt kick on at the beginning of the January transfer window with a couple of quality players that perhaps would see us in the playoffs now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingOwl Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 We've exceeded expectations. But I'm still disappointed. How does that work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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