21 days into the month, I felt compelled to comment on February so far. It's been alright hasn't it?

Since the Blackpool game (when we were all questioning Coleman's motives and ambition) there's been a noticeable shift in attitude around the club. While Coleman spent January talking down our prospects, the talk this month has changed and there's far more determination and belief about our performances too. 

The interviews going into the Forest game were particularly refreshing, as they were all I'd been hoping to hear the entire season. Oggy obviously realised that cowering and pandering to teams in pre-match interviews was only giving them the advantage, so came out with some fighting talk. Nothing crazy, but just enough to make everyone realise that we weren't going into it playing for a draw for once. And the players appeared to respond, because we ended up putting in our best performance of the season. In the words of Richie Bernau, "marvellous stuff there".

And with 10 points out of a possible 15, it seems we've now told losses and draws to bugger off (in the main) and realised that wins are far better. 

Crystal Palace 0-1 Coventry 
Newcastle 4-1 Coventry
Coventry 1-0 QPR
Coventry 1-0 Nottm Forest
Bristol City 1-1 Coventry

The most telling thing recently is that while we've continued to take the lead in every single game, we're now managing to show some steel and get the points from the games too. Here's a stat; we've taken the lead 19 times in the league this season.. Newcastle have taken the lead in 20. To me, that can't be just a fluke. I'm just glad that we're now starting to believe in ourselves and realising that with some organisation and positive tactics, we can actually beat these teams.

Just to reiterate the relative unimportance of draws. You see how we lost to Newcastle (as everyone is), then beat Palace a few days later, having gone for the win in both games? How many people would have taken 2 draws before those? We all would have wouldn't we, mainly cos it sounds good - 2 games unbeaten blah blah.

Fact it though, it's all about 3 points in the Championship. Ipswich will tell you that. They've lost far less than anyone else in the bottom half, but they're still fighting a relegation battle, simply because they've drawn too many.

A loss followed by a win will always leave you better off. 3 points plays 2.

I'm just mighty glad to see the attitude has changed recently, and unsurprisingly this has coincided with decent a climb up the table.

We just need to guard against complacency though, that's our biggest enemy. We had that great run last February, and we all started talking about play-offs. But that soon fell apart, so we need to make sure we maintain the same levels of positivity, concentration, determination and effort so we can finish the season on a high.

We're playing the bottom 3 in the next 3 games - we couldn't ask for a better opportunity to really thrust ourselves up the league even more. 

I know we're often scared to talk about winning runs because we've been burnt before, but I think it's time the players and manager forgot about guarding against failure and go for it. Like we always say, if they at least give it a go, we'll be happy with that. What we don't want is negative interviews, tactics and targets of mediocre league finishes. They simply don't work for us.

We're not the finished article but you don't take the lead in 19 games (21 if you count the cups) if you're a bad team, do you?

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Has been confirmed on the official website.

Best completes Magpies move

I doubt we'll get to hear the details of what we've received for him. You have to remember we paid a decent sum to bring him to club, and he's become a full Republic of Ireland international in that time.

A tribunal would have seen us get far more than the £500k that it's rumoured we received for him. I'm sure of that.

We've lost him on deadline day, with no sign of a replacement coming in and seemingly minimal compensation.

And on a separate note, his farewell to the club turned out to be a crescendo of undeserved boos, even given how vital he's been for us this year.

I reckon we're going to miss him.

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Very difficult to believe our manager actually set out at home to achieve a draw against the mighty Barcepool. He bloody well did though.

Following on from praising Swansea to the rafters and dismissing ourselves as a bunch of talentless prats (not in so many words), Coleman's build up to this game again focused on how the team that he's spent 2 years creating is actually no bleeding good at playing football, so we're just going to try well hard at kicking things and hope we get a clean sheet from the match. (Again, reading between the lines).

That's really going to install confidence in the team isn't it? He seems to forget that we'd won 3 league games in a row at the Ricoh, and were playing a Blackpool side who'd only won once in their last 5 so were hardly setting the league on fire.

Quite obviously, this never came into his thinking. This was best demonstrated by him deciding to persist with a formation from the Playing-away-at-Old-Trafford Handbook.

Leon Best got the nod to play up front. On occasions, you hope that a 4-5-1 formation will turn itself more into a 4-3-3. Listening to our manager prior to the match, the focus was very much on our one and only striker doing "a lot of unselfish running with no reward".

What this means in real terms is that our lone striker, in a home fixture (i.e. the one person who you'd really want to be selfish and being on the end of all the chances we would create) was being told that his job was not to bang them in the net - but to perform Coleman's favourite move; run around like a lunatic leaving no-one in the box.

Annoyingly, Best chose Saturday to have one of his most ineffective games of the season, so we didn't even get the lunatic side of things.

The first half was bad. None of the attacking players (and I use the term loosely) seemed to have a clue about where they were supposed to be playing. All except Bell that is, who impersonated a life-size table football man for the first 20 minutes of the match. This was essentially him patrolling an area no bigger than a pair of Jay Tabb's pants.

A slight ray of light was Carl Baker, who was at least trying to link up the midfield and attack in a hoof-less way. Chances fell to McIndoe and Best early on, but neither could finish. Even Baker was far too tentative though. Throwing him into the middle of the park and asking him to dictate the play of a Championship match seemed to be a bit too much.

For a team that has supposedly been working on making it hard for the opposition to create, we didn't do a very good job of hassling Blackpool. They looked confident, and stroked the ball around us with ease. While they were doing what all footballers are taught at the first day of football school (passing), our boys were playing as if they'd had that side of the game trained out of them. Every pass seems to be an effort to us this season. There's no eagerness to get onto the ball, and when we do get it, we soon run out options and end up giving it a way. I'd suggest this is a by-product of spending all our time focusing on how the opposition might hurt us, rather than looking at how we might attack them.

The second half should have been a different story. Again, Blackpool were the more attacking, with young Villa prat Barry Bannan looking like an absolute world beater for them. Then again, you could put Paul Trollope against Stephen Wright and I think he'd come out of it looking good. Unfortunately, while I'm making a joke of it, Bannan really was brilliant.

But things should have all changed when Ormerod got his marching orders for supposedly belting Gunny. Now, I didn't see it, but if our own player has to go off because of it, and our own fans around that bit say that he's been whacked - I for one believe them. I hear Blackpool have concocted about 4 different versions of what happened, but a bit of solidarity wouldn't go amiss from certain quarters (Clive).

Anyway, here's the "equation".

Coventry (11) v Blackpool (10) @ Ricoh Arena + more attacking formation + motivation = 4th home win in a row.

Simple maths.

Here's what happened instead

Coventry (11) v Blackpool (10... but still playing like 11) @ bewildered Ricoh Arena - home ambition - positive tactics + negative manager = EXACTLY THE SAME TEAM, TACTICS AND PERFORMANCE UNTIL WE CONCEDE AND HE'S FORCED TO ALTER HIS STANCE.

Seems to be a recurring theme of games just lately. No really drive to go and win.

Freddy, Morrison and Deegan all came on to try and salvage the game for us. I'm still trying to work out what Leon Best has done in the last 2 weeks that suddenly warrants him now being booed off the pitch though. He may have had a less than effective game, but booing him? Very odd behaviour. Maybe I misread it and it was actually a booing of Coleman's tactics - I'd guess it's a bit of a mix.

Having moved Baker over the wing, we immediately looked threatening, and the goal came from him getting to the byline and pulling the ball back. Something that all good wingers should do. Neither of our current first choice wingers possess any sort of pace to be able to do this, so in normal circumstances, you'd be entitled to expect a change. Under the current regime, I can't see them looking beyond McIndoe and his new yellow boots with go faster stripes (which don't work).

All in all - unbelievable that we didn't look to take the game to them until we went a goal down. I feel like I'm repeating myself, but I'm gobsmacked by our management and ambition at the moment.

We've gone from having decent momentum over Christmas, gearing us towards a push up the table - to the immediate brakes and reins from our manager.

Needless to say he thought that the result against 10 men Blackpool team at home was "a point gained".

It beggars belief.

Disclaimer:
It's getting embarrassing writing much the same after every game. So for this, I apologise (sort of). I'm well aware that some fans enjoy optimism and the "keep the faith" attitude towards the club and its current progress, and I respect that. While I like to think I'm quite a rational person, I can't bring myself to congratulate consistently below-par performance and hold blind faith, as I genuinely think it does more harm than good. This is my angle when I write things in this blog - some will agree, some won't.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, even though it might seem it, I'm not the negative git.

Coleman is.

Haha, etc.

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A team who have only scored 11 goals at home all season, against a team set out by their manager to defend, defend, defend.

Only going to be one result wasn't there.

Quite where the logic is in going all-out-defence against a team that find it notoriously difficult to score goals, only Christopher Coleman will know. Everyone seems well pleased with it though.

We're now 17th by the way, but that seems to have gone unnoticed. It's become the norm.

I also find it strange that our manager seems to think that one successful element of play has to be to the detriment of another. If we want to keep a clean sheet, we have to completely abandon any attacking tactics. After 60 mins he decided that our window for winning the game had gone, and shut up shop. I always thought it was the job of a manager to develop a team that is capable of both. It seems that ours has one aim, to hold on.

The more I write, the more I realise what I say will be unpopular. I can't really do much about that. If I thought what I'm thinking was unfair, I'd keep it zipped. But I'm very clear in what I think it should be fair to expect from our football club and manager. Consistently negative tactics and a refusal to aim higher than 16th isn't really anywhere close. I seem to say it in every post, but we're still not progressing, so it seems to me that our approach is way off.

Looking at the bigger picture, we're talking almost 23 years now without even a sniff of success, and we're still being told that "we're not ready", "we have to be patient", "we're building".

Stupid clichés all the time, guarding against defeat. Too easy.

I'm sure there must be a few people out there who find it worrying that our manager has such a low opinion of the team he's created. Basically, you can tell that he thought the best we could achieve last night was a 0-0 draw.

What chance have you got!

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Right, probably about time I let my thoughts be known about this match. I'll just write a list of my musings as they come to me.

1) Yes, Clinton scored a nice goal...but he shouldn't be our first choice striker. I read him say in the paper today "If Forest can rotate, why can't Coventry?"

I'll tell you why Clintonio - it's because the Forest team has developed a style of play and winning mentality over many months that the best teams do. We won 3 in a row (which would normally be classed as the beginning of a winning run) and thought that we were suddenly brilliant, all over again.

Maybe if we'd stuck with a winning team as far as possible, we'd have a mentality and fluency about us by now. Instead, Coleman's still fiddling with the formula, and even when he comes across something that works (Best and Eastwood up front), he tries to be clever and bring you (Clint) back in.

All because he fancies you.

It's been the Clinton Morrison show all season.

2) Following on from this thought, Martin Cranie was playing out of his skin at right-back when we won those 3 games in a row, so shoving him over to left-back is rubbish. Wright did okay in the previous league match, but if you're talking longevity, Cranie is the best right back at the club. You've got to play him there.

3) There is something wrong with our tactics and ability to adjust during the game. We've played 29 games this season (league and cup), and gone ahead in 16 of those. That's a whole load of opportunities to win and progress.

We've won 8 games all season. To me, that's a very poor ratio from winning positions.

We went ahead against Ipswich, and almost immediately went into our shell and seemed scared to go for the win. People who "know" football say that's sensible. I don't think so, I'd say that's unrealistic and a negative mentality. You've got to understand the ebb and flow of a game - when to attack, when to defend. We can't do either it seems. One thing that is for certain; you can't rely on holding teams out for the entire game if you score in the first 10 minutes.

That's ludicrous.

It seems simple logic that if we play well up until we score, it might actually be because we have got something about us when we play our natural game. So why we're constantly trying to curb that and just encourage teams onto us once we do go ahead, I don't know.

4) Substitutions. Christopher, bloody identify when players aren't doing it, and change them.

And this doesn't mean identify them in the 80th minute. It's pot luck if they're going to even get the ball in that time. Give people the chance to make an impact.

Basically, take McIndoe off if he's rubbish again and bring on Carl Baker. He earned a decent crack by showing McIndoe up in the previous game.

5) We can't concentrate for an entire game. It happened against Portsmouth, and the same keeps happening again and again. Right before half-time, right after half-time, right before full-time. There's no professionalism to get the job done and they just switch off too often.

You could see it so clearly on the TV. We scored, and were so pleased with ourselves (lots of high-fiving and inane grinning) we thought it was perfectly okay to forget about shape and concentration. Gunnarsson may not be a right back, but he was an absolute country mile out of position. McPake then decided to commit himself when there was no cover, and the rest was just shocking.

It's all about decisions, and we make some crazy ones sometimes.

6) Coleman embarrassing me with his rant.

Oi, Chris. Why not focus all that rage and anger at the players who can't defend for 10 seconds?

Fact is, we scored after 6 minutes injury time, so your argument is void anyway. I appreciate the passion, but if you can't defend for 10 seconds, you don't deserve any points.

All you've done is deflect from the real issues of the game - bad tactics and our team's lack of professionalism. I bloody hope this is all a front and behind the scenes you're working like you've never worked before to address these problems.

I doubt it though.

All in all - the result was gutting. All the momentum and confidence the players built up in December has probably gone now because of this fiddling and piddling with the formula.

Bloody hell fire.

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And freeze we did. If I was one of those people who think it's wicked to turn everything into a website address rather than an actual description, I'd say that it was Brrrr.com.

Gladly, I'm not.

It was disgracefully cold.

Anyway, it's a bit of a shame that while we were all freezing anatomically in the stands, the players did the same for lots of the match -  only metaphorically. There were many poor touches and a lack of urgency, in the first half especially.

To be honest, that's the main criticism I have - now for the cliché: We did what all good teams should do and won when we didn't play very well.

It's true though, there were some pretty dodgy performances out there. But the good thing was that this was balanced with some solid ones too. McIndoe, Barnett and Bell were all off the pace for most of the game. But Clingan was influential, Freddy is oozing confidence, and Stephen Wright had his best game of the season.

One thing I'm not very pleased about is the over-the-top criticism Leon Barnett though. Let's put this into perspective for a minute; during our 3 match winning streak, Barnett was an ever present. So, there shouldn't have been such surprise why he was brought back into the team. He couldn't play against Portsmouth, but before that game him and McPake had been playing very well and forged a good understanding.

Yes, everyone can see that he had a very nervy game. I'm not denying that. But it's too easy to jump on the bandwagon after one bad performance. I didn't hear anyone saying that he was "the worst defender they've ever seen" during the winning streak.

Basically, just get a bloody grip. He had a mare, but he's had plenty of good games too.

I suppose what makes this reaction seem even more strange is that on the pitch at the same time you have a player like Michael McIndoe who has consistently put in below-par performances this season.

He's missing the edge he once had, and he's just not a threat for us. Can't blame anyone for this, because it happens - he was worth a punt given how he has performed against us in the past, and having a left-sided player on the left does give us good shape. But if you're analysing his individual performance this season, it's been a dramatic fall from grace for him. I read about how the opposition pick him out as a threat, but what does this actually mean? If he was playing against us this season, we'd do the same. I'm sure he loves the compliment, but it's all based on reputation, rather than form.

What spoke volumes was that Carl Baker came on and managed to have more of an impact on the match in his 10 minutes, than McIndoe has in the last 10 games. Nice to have options on that side now.

Generally, it's quite clear that we weren't brilliant. But there were positives which we must take to the next game.

- How clinical we were in the first half to punish their lack of cutting edge. That's such a vital quality.
- We looked far more likely to create opportunities than we did month or so ago.
- Clingan, Gunnarsson, Best, and Eastwood showed how good they are technically, and matched this with determination. So important.
- With everyone now fit, it's great to see some options and real competition for places.

And I was very pleased to hear Coleman keeping their feet on the ground afterwards. Yes, we won and that is great which he acknowledged. But I think he's realised over the last few weeks that we can't accept a return to nightmare performances of November. What we have to do is make sure we don't make the same mistakes again. We can't play the same way against Ipswich - one thing Roy Keane demands is that they always win the physical battle and show more desire than the other team.

If we do that, and continue to show the footballing qualities of the last few weeks, we should be beat Ipswich. And we have to be looking to beat them if we've got any ambitions of pushing our way up the league.

Rather coincidently I read Roy Keane's autobiography the other day. Whether you love him or hate him, the man is a winner. I'd recommend reading this if you want to get inside the head of someone who understands how you achieve in football. Also if you want to know why I waffle on about the importance of ambition and attitude, Roy Keane('s ghost writer) explains it in way that a mere spectator like me never could.

I'm considering sending a copy to our boys before the Ipswich game.

But first, the small hurdle of Portsmouth in the FA Cup to negotiate ...

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Well, of course, we couldn't manage that.

Going away to a team who haven't lost in 15 was always going to be tricky. Saying that, it just means their next loss can't be far away. That was my attitude going into this game.

Everything is possible in this league, just ask Peterborough and Cardiff. And given how well we played the other day against Doncaster (another team in great form), I would have expected everyone to go into this game with a bit more belief than what you read all over the forums.

"I'm expecting a loss today ".

This was the consensus. Sure, I can understand guarding against complacency, and playing as the underdogs can often work - but it's Nottingham Forest, not Barcelona.

You don't see many teams winning 3 in a row then going into the next game expecting to lose! I don't think it makes you particularly radical if you go into a match thinking your team can get something out of it, and being disappointed if they're not able to. Personally, I'd rather do that than be content to amble along in the wilderness for the next 20 years. But each to their own, I guess. Any anyway, the fans don't prepare the team.

I assume the reason Freddy didn't start was because he was a little ill last week. Even though he managed 80 mins on Saturday and was able to come on and play 30 against Forest. It's always the way really - find the winning formula and then have to change it. Bloody hell fire.

Being my usual cynical self, all I can see is that we have a 5 day rest until an FA Cup game on Saturday, where we could afford to change the team then. (We sacrificed our league form and rested players to be ready for a cup game last year - never again . We're not the sort of team who winning comes easy to, so I don't think squad rotation is really something we should employ by choice.

Really, unless Freddy was totally incapable of playing, he shouldn't have spent the first hour sat on the bench. He's been a cut above everyone else in this winning period. He's was vital to that run of form.

Suffice to say, one penalty and Clinton is back in the team for the duration now.

It's just annoying not being able to keep the run going, really. Yeah it's only one loss - but I still can't quite work out which way we're heading which is the frustrating thing. It'd be nice to have an idea.

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We've endured the following games since my last major waffle:

Coventry 0 Newcastle 2
Coventry 3 Peterbrough 2
Plymouth 0 Coventry 1

I think what has to be acknowledged is that since the Scunthorpe game, it's finally occurred to the squad that they're actually under pressure to perform. About bleedin' time.

I've said it so many times before, but a big problem at our club is the constant acceptance of mediocrity. From the players to the manager, right through to the fans. Ambition and pressure to succeed has to be present for it actually to happen. There are too many clubs in the Championship more than willing to snatch opportunities from teams who don't have the drive to take them. It's unforgiving like that.

So, with all that said, the pressure was on everyone against Peterbrough to win. I think Coleman and the players knew the majority of fans weren't going to accept anything other than 3 points. They knew they had to perform and get them, and they did.

No one's going over the top, but fair play to them - they finally stood up and didn't bottle it. Freddy's hat-trick was great, Cork stopped being scared, and Bell's return once more gave the midfield some much needed shape and discipline.

Although I had to chuckle when I heard some of the comments praising Coleman's tactical wizardry in playing Freddy up front. It was absolutely the right decision, sure. But one that he should have made 10 games ago...

But that's neither here nor there. He got it right and we won, and that's all I care about at the moment.

The same goes for the Plymouth game. Winning was the absolute priority. Yes, these are the 2 lowest teams in the league, but you've got to beat them.

The problem we have now is ensuring our standards don't slip. Let's be clear about this; 2 wins in a row just isn't enough and we can't rest on our laurels. We've been in this situation far too many times before. There can be no madness, no relaxation, no assumptions that everything is now alright and we can start looking at the play offs. It doesn't work like that.

What we need first and foremost is a sustained run of form to get our season back on track (a la Barnsley, Forest, Sheffield Utd). Sod the negativety - its completely feasible. I said the other week that Coleman has to pull something special out of the bag to prove he has what it takes. The target has to be more wins. The players have done well over the last couple of games, but quite frankly, I've had enough of the false dawns and "turning the corner" statements, only for us to fall flat on our faces the very next game.

We want the same attitude, the same drive and the same pressure. Boxing Day at home to Doncaster is winnable, but the players have to go out and win it. It won't just happen.

P.s. I don't want either Aaron McClean or Craig Mackail-Smith... If it's Peterbrough players we're after and we want to throw money at them, I think we all know that George Boyd should be our target.

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Yes, Mr Sky Sports commentator (whose name eludes me), we heard you the first time. We're ever so impressed that you know such a posh sentence..

now zip it, por favor. Fanks.

Anyway, 19 games into the season and we're already in a relegation battle. Not exactly what I had in mind when I demanded consistency back in August.

Once again, we were shown up in front of the TV cameras as a weak, gutless and technically deficient football team. Is there no respite?

It was shocking. You shouldn't have to cringe yourself through an entire half, as I did while we struggled to string together more than 2 passes in the opening 51 minutes. That's no way to have to watch your team.

I'm still struggling to come to terms with that first half display even now. A group of professionals, all paid thousands of pound a week, showed genuine distress when trying to pass the football accurately. Sean Flynn would be turning in his caravan watching it.

There's not much you can say about the game that hasn't already been covered in these blogs (extensively) before. The central defensive pairing gave a near-perfect example of "video nasty" defending. Poor decision making, sloppy touches and Fifa 95 positioning.

The central midfielders were, as per usual, anonymous. Jack Cork buzzed around like a prat, but was swatted away in equal measure. It's like watching a child play the game. While Aron again realised he was on TV and did a brilliant job of getting his name mentioned loads. Mainly due to his decision to start throwing the ball like a hobnob.

And up front, Morrison continued to act like a cartoon character. Exaggerating everything, and twisting his face into shapes even Morph would be proud of. Football wise, he was thoroughly rotten.

The only players to come out of the game with any credit were Cranie and Eastwood. Not that they were anything special, but all you can say is that they did their jobs.. ish.

Post match, and Coleman's response to the defeat was thus.

we have players who were too selfish at times and you don't win anything as a team when that happens.

Quite clearly a reference to our top scorer and best player, Leon Best. Yes, he should have passed.  But that wasn't the reason we lost. And if it weren't for his goals, we'd be bottom of the Championship now. Quite what he thinks he's going to achieve by singling out our best player for public criticism, I don't know.

I honestly believe we have a squad that is good enough to be sitting in the middle of the table in the Championship.

When Coleman arrived at the club, if he'd said "by my 3rd season I think we will be a middle of the table team, at best" would you have taken that as acceptable ambition of an incoming manager?

No. All I ever read is him trying to defer judgement and curb expectation. Where's the motivation there? I'm getting fed up with the lame targets he keeps attributing to us. Fact of the matter is, we've had years of nothingness, and we're desperate for a team to be proud of. A team that can give us hope they're capable of achieving something.

There are still many fans who think he's doing a good job, and believe that no other manager will be able to any more with the players we've got. Fine, we can keep waiting and waiting for him to turn the corner, but as far as I can see, all the signs are that he's not pushing the players to achieve (case in point, The Chronicles of Clinton Morrison).

But we are where we are. It's no good just producing performances two or three times out of every six or seven games. We have got to put together a consistent run of form.

Yes, although I don't know what two or three times out of six or seven games he's thinking of. All I can see is we haven't won in 9 games, and have only won 5 times in the last 33. That is by anyone's standards, an absolute effing disgrace.

I am actually a very patient person. I will try to see where the positives are and as far as possible give the benefit of the doubt. But at this moment in time, there is no denying that Coleman's performance as manager of our football club has not been good enough.

He's made things very hard for himself now. He's either got to come up with a solution to our problems very fast, or else it'll be a lean Christmas in the Welsh dragon's household this year. This is not unwarranted - you can't justified a record like ours for much longer.

You just can't.

P.S. You may notice that there was bugger all written up about the QPR match. In short, I had no real opinion on the game. We still hadn't won, but it seems draws are just as good lately, and I'd only look like a right moaning mick if I'd dared to look at the bigger picture after that. So I left it.

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So we played a whole load better than we have done over the last couple of months, but still couldn't manage to win. Interesting.

Having stormed out in a huff at the final whistle on account of Coleman appearing content with a draw at home, I've now calmed myself and will reflect on things in a more placid nature. If I'd written this immediately afterwards, the post would be entitled Swineathon 2009, I'd be crucifying Clinton Morrison again, and the FC Coventry City Mönchengladbach Saint-Germain dream would be back in motion.

But I listened to fans after the match, many verging on delirium that we'd not lost, and it shocked me. I couldn't help but wonder; maybe I'm expecting too much? Maybe, even with all our players whom I swear can perform far better, we're still only a bottom 8 team?

I hope not.

So rather than indulge myself in a bitter and ruthless analysis of the game which has become the norm over the last month or so, I'm going to keep things brief and simply run through the positives and negatives of Saturday's game.

Positives

- As a whole, we played better than we have been doing.
- Barnett and Wood both look pretty athletic as a defensive pairing.
- Michael McIndoe finally had a decent-ish game.
- Leon Best scored again.
- The shape of the team looked a lot more solid.

Negatives

- We have dropped more vital points at home.
- The attitude of the players and manager appeared to indicate that they were content with holding on for the point.
- Gunnarsson is still a shadow of the player we know he can be.
- Morrison is struggling to have any sort of impact.
- The referee - who thought that he could stop the game every 20 seconds to wag his finger around - only gave 3 minutes added time.
- Flaming wind and rain blowing in my face.

As happy as I am that we didn't have to endure the same twaddle we've been used recently, my immediate concern is that it's only November and we're already lumbered in and around the bottom of the table.

Couple that with the fact that even if we were to do the unthinkable and win 3 in a row, we'd realistically only move up to about 13th - things aren't as rosy as many fans would have you believe.

Not after 1 home draw, that's for sure. Ipswich will vouch for where draws in this league get you.

Lord help me for daring to suggest that I'm still not satisfied after Saturday; but I want more than a point at home to Crystal Palace. Yep, I really do.

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