I don't understand where it went wrong

[loyalroyal]

Up to 27th Jan we (I think following data is correct!) :-

Won 16 games
Drew 4 games
Lost 5 games
Scored 46 goals,
Conceded 20 goals

Why? What changed after the 27th Jan and that win against Wolves? I know NHunt, Lita and Doyle's injuries didn't help but I still don't quite see how it all went so wrong in Feb/Mar/Apr/May? Home form played a huge part but again, we were doing so well at home in the first half of the season, what changed?

[Snowball]

The wobbling started Boxing Day versus Cardiff

The amazing 96th-minute equaliser from Feds may have distracted us

We were poor at Saints and scraped the draw. The team "felt wrong" that day

The 4-0 v Watford was a bit flattering but the team were getting less fluid

[Chaney]

well nothing went wrong as far as our away form was concerned, only one loss from Nov to the end of the league season, the question should be asked, where did it all go wrong AT HOME?..it just doesn`t happen does it?, turning from rolling over sides with ease to a team that just couldn`t score a goal or win a game, surely the biggest mystery in RFC history

[Norfolk Royal]

The pitch deteriorated?

I know it's not the full answer but there must be something which explains the poor home form as opposed to the decent away form.

[Terminal Boardom]

Not replacing Steve Sidwell when it was known 1 year in advance that he was leaving.

I think it is time for some thought provoking stats!

[Terminal Boardom]

Can anyone generate some stats showing on a game by game basis the number of shots off target, shots on target and goals scored?

That I think might be quite an eye opener. Was it the Burnley game when we had 3 shots all game and scored 3 goals?

[Ark Royal]

The wobbling started Boxing Day versus Cardiff

The amazing 96th-minute equaliser from Feds may have distracted us

We were poor at Saints and scraped the draw. The team "felt wrong" that day

The 4-0 v Watford was a bit flattering but the team were getting less fluid

Travelled over from the US for the Cardiff game and from what I saw that day was a) we were lucky as hell and b) if we continued playing like that, we would definitely not go up. We were poor and it just got worse.

[tlcs]

The wobbling started Boxing Day versus Cardiff

The amazing 96th-minute equaliser from Feds may have distracted us

We were poor at Saints and scraped the draw. The team "felt wrong" that day

The 4-0 v Watford was a bit flattering but the team were getting less fluid

Clearly you didnt go to theaway games at Ipswich and Charlton !!

Therfore i would say it started going pear when all the clowns went to the car park and pleaded for SC to stay.

[The 17 Bus]

The wobbling started Boxing Day versus Cardiff

The amazing 96th-minute equaliser from Feds may have distracted us

We were poor at Saints and scraped the draw. The team "felt wrong" that day

The 4-0 v Watford was a bit flattering but the team were getting less fluid

Clearly you didnt go to theaway games at Ipswich and Charlton !!

Therfore i would say it started going pear when all the clowns went to the car park and pleaded for SC to stay.

If you had posted that when we had 50 points from 25 games you might have a point, but lets be honest, you didn't did you? reality is that after 25 games everyone thought SC was the man to take us back up.

[Ian Royal]

The wobbling started Boxing Day versus Cardiff

The amazing 96th-minute equaliser from Feds may have distracted us

We were poor at Saints and scraped the draw. The team "felt wrong" that day

The 4-0 v Watford was a bit flattering but the team were getting less fluid

It started before that, the run of 5 wins contained less than convincing performances which were hidden by results and teh great win against B'ham.

I don't think we ever really got going this season. Poor away form early on. We were just putting it together and getting the results coming up to that run of 5 wins when the wheels showed their first signs of coming off. After that it was really only a matter of time.

Too many players who didn't compliment each other well enough. Too many slightly suspect attitudes and players thinking they could win games without really focusing on their game hard enough.

[Snowball]

Can anyone generate some stats showing on a game by game basis the number of shots off target, shots on target and goals scored?

That I think might be quite an eye opener. Was it the Burnley game when we had 3 shots all game and scored 3 goals?

In the SKy-TV showing the commentator made the point
that Burnley's players on the pitch had scored 60 goals between them


The reading players starting the game had scored, all season, a total of 16 (I presume he means for Reading)

[Snowball]

The wobbling started Boxing Day versus Cardiff
The amazing 96th-minute equaliser from Feds may have distracted us
We were poor at Saints and scraped the draw. The team "felt wrong" that day
The 4-0 v Watford was a bit flattering but the team were getting less fluid

Clearly you didnt go to theaway games at Ipswich and Charlton !!

Therfore i would say it started going pear when all the clowns went to the car park and pleaded for SC to stay.

Nope. That was the not-uncommon case of relegation blues. We then started to get it together
and steadily worked our way up the table, going second when we beat Birmingham at their place

[Mr Angry]

I don't think there is any single reason, but some contributory factors would (IMHO) include:

The ongoing saga about players possibly leaving in january
the pitch
the fact that teams sussed out how to stop us creating chances
an inability to try different tactics

How we still had a chance to go up automatically on the last day of the season is the most surprising thing of the last few months!

[Kites]

Singing we'll be top by saturday.

thats what went wrong.

[Handsome Man]

I can't be arsed to look, but wasn't Wolves the first game without Ingimarson?
Before that, the team tried to play football.
After that the hoofball axis of Armstrong and Duberry were allowed to take over and we stopped playing football for about two whole months.

[Focher]

it was nothing to do with Jimmy Kebe

[sid]

That was my first game for quite a while. I thought the team looked like they had lost that 'We are more than the sum of our parts' belief which has characterised the Royals (on and off admittedly!) since Martins Allen and Butler joined.

[glass half full]

We missed leaders on the pitch like Murts and Ivar.

[The Prisoner]

I do think Coppell went in panic mode with his team selections. Players were in and out of the side - starting one game and not in the 16 the next. Did anyone really know where they stood? Couldn't have helped harmony or morale and nobody could play themselves into form.

Lita, Kitson, Karacan, Henry, Long, Cisse, Marek, Little, Kebe, either Hunt.... i could go on, but these guys were starting one week and frozen out the next, and in some cases after a half decent performance.

Our squad was almost too big and Coppell didn't know his best 11. If he did he should have sat them down when the form started to dip and told them they had 5 games to play themselves back into form. Nobody seemed on the same wavelength in the second half of the season and this can't have helped.

The of course there is the injuries and the lack of leaders on the pitch....

[loyalroyal4life]

The loss of Ivar i think was a big factor as well as the lack of atmosphere down to fans already thinking promotion was on the horizon and plastics starting to emerge in anticipation of prem football.

Next years atmosphere will be amazing