Eric's epilogue!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

So now we come to the ever popular summary of the season. Man-of-the-match awards were more concentrated than in recent years, a reflection of a better season rather than my having to arrange for mediocre performers to each have an turn - however, they are not an accurate reflection as I do still try to reward the occasional good effort from unexpected quarters. Anyway, the figures are:

8: Jhon Viafara

6: Chris Baird

5: Kenwyne Jones, Jermaine Wright

4: Pele, Rasiak, Lundekvam, Bale

3: Guthrie

2: Davis, Wright-Phillips, Makin

1: Dyer, Belmadi, Bialkowski, Saganowski, Surman

Our close shot at the playoffs suggest those guys and their colleagues were good enough for promotion, and I've no hesitation in suggesting that the team that ends up winning that third spot is no better than Southampton.

However, I felt that we had spent sufficiently in the summer window to have had a real tilt at automatic promotion - but we never really challenged for it, did we? Many fans of Championship rivals have said that Saints were the best footballing side in the division, which is nice; however, how many more points could have been gained with a bit more muscle, and passion as well, at the cost of losing friends?

I thought we ended up awash with elderly ball-playing midfielders and reactive rather than proactive strikers (I'm trying to avoid saying 'lazy') whilst we were crying out for an experienced, dominating and where necessary violent centre back - a dinosaur in Premiership terms but still pretty near the top of the food chain in the Championship.

Getting hold of a young and eager midfield terrier like Guthrie a bit earlier in the campaign would also have helped, as well as selecting our best goalkeeper.

Never mind, next year's fixtures are out in a couple of weeks.