17.8.99

Early Doors

We've only played three matches I know but quite honestly we are unlucky not to be Top of the League - unlucky and unfortunate. Were it not for two isolated incidents of poor defending and dodgy refereeing, just think how high our spirits would be.  But then again we are not downhearted.

We have made a terrific start to the 99/00 season and we appear to be full of the fighting spirit that has seen us through the last few years.   Personally speaking I wouldn't swop our outfit with any other in The Premier League.  For me you can keep your costly prima donnas from foreign shores -  our team will do for me. When I sit and watch them, their endeavours fill me with great pride and I feel certain that we will bloody a few noses again this season, and I can hardly wait.

Arsenal: got away with it.

Coventry: were given an easy ride but we still beat them.

Chelsea:were so lucky and our no nonsense approach seriously upset them.

Now we have a couple of tricky matches away from home at West Ham and Middlesborough before we entertain Watford at home. You may remember I set us a target of 66 points for the season and if we continue to play like we've been doing we could get them. But these next three games epitomise what we need to achieve our true potential. We must really achieve well against this type of opposition. We need at least 6 points from these games and that is not an unreasonable target. That would then give us 10 points from 6 matches. There are 38 league matches in a season and we would mathematically be on target to end up with 63 points, but we can improve slightly I'm sure to give us the 66 points we need to qualify for a European place.

So we've played well so far but shall we say 'bad luck' has plagued our efforts, we are now in line for better fortune to shine on us.