Reason we didn't go up Automatically

[Paul Handscombe]

There are two reasons we didn't go up automatically.  The first is Neil Adams and the second is our poor record against the bottom third of the table.

We only picked up 27 points in 15 games (with 1 to go against Fulham) against the bottom 8 teams.  Compare that to the top two:

Watford 46 (16)

Bournemouth 44 (16)

So even if we beat Fulham we would still have 14 points less that Bournemouth.

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2014-2015/versus-bottom-third

 

[splutcho]

That's a very interesting stat. Even more so that this crappy record carried on under Alex Neil to an extent. We're 2nd in the "vs the top third" table, which I'd say bodes well for the play offs, except that Middlesbrough are top...

 

[Din]

I think to be honest both of those reasons are the same thing. Appointing Neil Adams was a poor decision because under him we dropped so many points against teams in the bottom third of the table.

Under Alex Neil we've taken 16 points out of a possible 21 against teams in the bottom 8. A pretty good record.

Under Neil Adams we took 14 points out of a possible 27 against teams in the bottom 8. A pretty poor record.

Another big reason as to why we haven't gone up automatically is because of the fact that we've dropped a lot of stupid points in home games. Even under Alex Neil we lost at home to Wigan, who have since been relegated, and were also very poor against Boro and Brentford at home, and consequently lost both games. Under Neil Adams though we lost at home to Charlton and Reading, and also dropped points to Birmingham, Rotherham, Leeds and Brighton. I'm not saying that we should be winning every single home game against teams below us, however taking 4 points from a possible 18 in those games is not good enough, and has contributed massively to us missing out.

 

[Salopian]

It could have been so different! We missed goals from strikers largely over the past six games, and then Johno was off for two games. Add to this we made sufficient defensive errors to produce draws instead of wins, and defeats instead of draws.

The reason for this? When the strikers were on form we scored plenty of goals, and it's a pity the goals were not more evenly spread among games.Add to this just the occasional error by defenders was enough to lose points. In a nutshell, we were not consistent enough.

 

[dj161]

Another big reason as to why we haven't gone up automatically is because of the fact that we've dropped a lot of stupid points in home games. Even under Alex Neil we lost at home to Wigan, who have since been relegated, and were also very poor against Boro and Brentford at home, and consequently lost both games. Under Neil Adams though we lost at home to Charlton and Reading, and also dropped points to Birmingham, Rotherham, Leeds and Brighton. I'm not saying that we should be winning every single home game against teams below us, however taking 4 points from a possible 18 in those games is not good enough, and has contributed massively to us missing out.

I agree with this completely, so many points dropped at home for an team chasing promotion just isnt going to cut it, if we had won just one of those games we lost we'd still be going for automatic this weekend, had we won two of them we'd be top of the league, Wigan and Charlton are the two that spring to mind, outplayed both of those teams for practically 90 minutes, and got absolutely nothing from either 

 

[Suffolk Canary]

Under Neil Adams though we lost at home to Charlton and Reading, and also dropped points to Birmingham, Rotherham, Leeds and Brighton. I'm not saying that we should be winning every single home game against teams below us, however taking 4 points from a possible 18 in those games is not good enough, and has contributed massively to us missing out.

100% agree - Those were the games which cost us automatics.  Too many below-par performance against below-par teams.

I feel like that was Adams's main weakness, that he couldn't motivate the team enough in the 'bread and butter' home games.