January and the mid-winter blues

I started the month by bringing in two new signings, both wingers, one to strengthen the squad right now, and the other as a prospect for the future.

Slory is a left winger,and can also play as a striker and right winger, and rated at a decent signing for a Premiership club. He is brought in to help bolster the squad and now our best winger in the side. Kacaniklic is a signing for the future. He has the potential to be as good has Slory, by whom he is now being tutored.

January started with a trip down to Home Park to take on Plymouth in the FA Cup. Sadly we didn't really play terribly well and at times were played off the park for periods, and showed our skills far too rarely. This is a disaster of a result, as our minimum expectation was to reach the fourth round, and losing to Plymouth will not go down too well. The only crumb of comfort is I don't have to worry about any cup matches causing extra fixture congestion for us, it's small consolation.

Jay Simpson picked up a dead leg in a training incident, so out of the next match. The return of Martin Rowlands as captain seems to have help fire the team up for a better and grittier performance, to exact revenge upon Plymouth a week later on their visit to Loftus Road. It was still a hard battle and Plymouth seem to be a team we find hard to play really well against. If it hadn't have been for Rowan Vine latching onto a throughball to score a screamer from outside the area this would have been another frustrating draw.

Next up was what appeared to be any easy match at Bloomfield Road, against Blackpool who are bottom of the league. We never seemed to get to grips with the icy conditions, and wasted many clear cut chances, so the score shouldn't have been quite so bad. However, Jason Steele saved a penalty, so it could have been even worse. We just seemed to get ripped to pieces at will, which is very disappointing.

I can't say I was feeling too confident about our trip to the City Ground to play Nottingham Forest. Although we showed some great touches at time, Forest's sheer persistence meant we succumbed to a disappointing loss. A draw would have been a fair result, but nearing the end of the match, we parted like the Red Sea to concede a goal which sunk us. This run of form is getting pretty desperate now, and we need some turnaround to stop ourselves being swallowed up by the chasing pack. Also Adel Taarabt is suffering a sprained wrist and will be out for about 2 weeks. Is the tide turning in our bid for promotion?

Next up a visit to Loftus Road by Scunthorpe. It was immediately obvious they'd come for a draw. This was an immensely frustrating match, with chances just not taken, and the woodwork hit three times, and very we very nearly conceded from a free kick in extra time, which if it had gone in would have been travesty. Fortunately that didn't happen but we really should have taken this match. We spent large periods on the game camped in their half, passing the ball about trying to find that little gap, and when we did create a chances we wasted them.

Despite only gaining 4 points from a possible 12, things are still surpisingly good for us. The main title contenders Newcastle have had a bad run, which means we have managed to stay within 2 points of them. In fact during the bad run we actually took the lead for a while. The chasing pack has closed in a bit further, but even they have largely suffered from being inconsistent. We really must turn our form around, because I can't believe the chasing teams will continue to keep tripping over each other as they have been. Jason Steele the goalkeeper I acquired has won Young Player of the Month award. In one way this is good, but it also tends to be a reflection of how much work the keeper has been required to do. I am a little annoyed by how opposition managers are trying to unsettle Angelo Balanta by commenting that he needs to be stopped. He seems to suffer when expectation is placed upon him.

It should be noted, that in a serious change of fortunes, Blackpool are currently one of the form teams, along with Nottingham Forest and Scunthorpe. This puts the last 3 matches into better perspective. In fact Blackpool have now managed to lift themselves out of the relegation area, having now won 6 matches. Given their dire position 2 months into the season this is some turnaround.