We're more 'consistent' than I thought. | Vital Football

We're more 'consistent' than I thought.

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gills69

Vital Squad Member
On many occasions this season I've thought, said and written that it's our inconsistency that would cost us promotion, or even a place in the play-offs.

That thinking may have been right looking at our patterns of results over blocks of 6, 8 or 10 games or our results vs good and then poor opposition but, as I discovered this morning, not across the 46 game season.

After 23 games we had 32 points and in 46 games we achieved 64.

In other words we achieved exactly the same in both halves of the season, albeit in different ways.

First 23 games. Won 10, Drew 2, Lost 11 = 32 points
Second 23 games. Won 8, Drew 8, Lost 7 = 32 points

In summary : We were consistently 'not good enough' over the whole season.
 
Results were inconsistent but I don’t think the performances were particularly inconsistent.

Due to obvious deficiencies in the squad we were predictable and one-dimensional in attack. Therefore we struggled to score goals - when you struggle to score goals you’re not going to get consistently good results (more likely consistently bad results).
 
BlueToTheGills said:
Well, that's suggests an improvement even if the points don't. If we could improve like that again over the next 23 I am sure the points will follow. Imagine 35-24
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Unfortunately neither halves of this season have been as good as the second half of last season.

In that 23 games we won 12, drew 5 and lost 6. We scored 29 and conceded 21 and totalled 41 points.

For next season the size of the improvement required is significant as, like last season, replicating that form over 46 games would have given us 82 points and would only have been good enough for 4th.
 
We were bang average over the whole season and the table shows that.

Goals for column disappointing but an improvement on last year.

We have conceded more than we have scored fairly consistently over the decades. An out of the ordinary 2024/25 would be good.
 
Agree with all the above. Basically very average all season. Win some, lose some.

Like all fans, after every win we think our team is great. After every loss they are the worst, not trying, no bottle, hopeless etc. But often the games could be very similar except in one we got the rub of the green and score goals, in the other we don’t.

Clem mentioned “advice” he got from Guadiola(?) about management - just have the best players. Totally agree. In our history the best managers we have had, also had the best players. No coincidence.

Andy Nelson had Yeo, Wilkes, Tydeman and others. Sir Keith had Bruce, Cas, Shearer, Cochrane, Greenhall among others. Our rise under Pulis saw us consistently have some of the best players in L2 and then L1. Bailey, Sarbs, Hess, Southall, Taylor, list goes on. Our promotions over the last 15 years contained McDonald, Jackson, Kedwell, Bayo etc.

No surprises there. You don’t win promotions with average players.

One of our best and unluckiest was JED who got us sailing at the top of L1 for a year when he had 2 of the very best players in the division in Dack and Egan. When they got crocked together and we fell down the league it was all blamed on him and he was hounded out within a year.

Currently we have some “decent” players. But we don’t have any of the very best in L2. A couple of our defenders are close. But we need some top quality in midfield and attack.

That’s how to turn an average season into a good season.
 
JED inherited a good well organised team from the gang of four.
He decided they were too open when attacking so changed it ffs.
Always on about little gillingham which was shown when he took us to spurs and embarrassed us by setting us up as training cones.
Was glad to see the back of him.
 
I really wonder what our fitness levels were over the course of the season. Someone made the point that your fitness is determined by your pre-season and I don't know the sports science behind that and whether you can raise it later, but a fitness deficiency seems to me the most obvious cause of our consistent failure to perform at anything near the same level for more than one half per game most of the time. I wonder if Harris' style of play was less demanding on energy levels making it less of a priority and meaning Clemence would have come unstuck trying to change things to a higher intensity style. Just a thought based on what I thought an astute point someone had made after Mansfield. I suppose we'll see next time.
 
Lizardprime said:
I really wonder what our fitness levels were over the course of the season. Someone made the point that your fitness is determined by your pre-season and I don't know the sports science behind that and whether you can raise it later, but a fitness deficiency seems to me the most obvious cause of our consistent failure to perform at anything near the same level for more than one half per game most of the time. I wonder if Harris' style of play was less demanding on energy levels making it less of a priority and meaning Clemence would have come unstuck trying to change things to a higher intensity style. Just a thought based on what I thought an astute point someone had made after Mansfield. I suppose we'll see next time.
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Interesting point as we ran out of steam a few times. Interesting that they announced that the fitness and conditioning coach was leaving, not suggesting that they were in any way to blame, but we'll have someone new in either way.
 
gills69 said:
Unfortunately neither halves of this season have been as good as the second half of last season.

In that 23 games we won 12, drew 5 and lost 6. We scored 29 and conceded 21 and totalled 41 points.

For next season the size of the improvement required is significant as, like last season, replicating that form over 46 games would have given us 82 points and would only have been good enough for 4th.
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We also made Priestfield a fortress again. The only home defeats from the turn of that year were Bradford and Newport and I think we only drew once (Stockport, I think).

We have let that slip a bit, only beating Wrexham and Barrow at home since the turn of this year, despite being unbeaten. Too many home draws meant only 8 other points from a possible 24.

It seems slightly ironic that Harris was seen as the manager not "going for the win" and yet at Priestfield from the start of 2023 to his sacking, we only drew with Stockport (22-23) and Mansfield (23-24) and only lost three - Bradford and Newport (22-23) and Colchester (23-24).
 
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Lizardprime said:
I really wonder what our fitness levels were over the course of the season. Someone made the point that your fitness is determined by your pre-season and I don't know the sports science behind that and whether you can raise it later, but a fitness deficiency seems to me the most obvious cause of our consistent failure to perform at anything near the same level for more than one half per game most of the time. I wonder if Harris' style of play was less demanding on energy levels making it less of a priority and meaning Clemence would have come unstuck trying to change things to a higher intensity style. Just a thought based on what I thought an astute point someone had made after Mansfield. I suppose we'll see next time.
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Well, McCann was Donny manager during all of their pre season but completely transformed their form half way through, having been flirting with relegation from the start until after Christmas.

Evans took our pre season in 2021-22 and managed 18 points from 24 games before his sacking. When Harris eventually took over, he managed 21 points in the final 18.

I don't think any manager or team tries to play with a LOW intensity, do they?
 
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GillsBluenose said:
Well, McCann was Donny manager during all of their pre season but completely transformed their form half way through, having been flirting with relegation from the start until after Christmas.

Evans took our pre season in 2021-22 and managed 18 points from 24 games before his sacking. When Harris eventually took over, he managed 21 points in the final 18.

I don't think any manager or team tries to play with a LOW intensity, do they?
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Well, of course form can turn mid-season for all kinds of reasons, but I'm not sure either of those examples compare against our season IF there was a fitness issue (which is a big if, based purely on guesswork from my observations). My impression was that particular deficiency is harder to address in the middle of the season than other causes of poor form e.g. that may have caused the first half of Donny's season.

Of course no manager sets out to make the squad outright unfit but different styles of play can be more or less demanding and in different ways over the course of 90 minutes and the entire season, that much I do know for sure. A high press is a more sustained physically demanding style for example than say a counter-attacking side that consume energy in bursts.
 
Lizardprime said:
Of course no manager sets out to make the squad outright unfit but different styles of play can be more or less demanding and in different ways over the course of 90 minutes and the entire season, that much I do know for sure. A high press is a more sustained physically demanding style for example than say a counter-attacking side that consume energy in bursts.
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Of course that is possible, but doesn't really explain why we have been scoring nearly all our league goals under Clemence in the second half at Priestfield including yesterday, apart from the Grimsby and Barrow (one in first half injury time) games.

If anything, we have been generally been consistent slow starters. Unless it is a conscious way of conserving energy.
 
GillsBluenose said:
Of course that is possible, but doesn't really explain why we have been scoring nearly all our league goals under Clemence in the second half at Priestfield including yesterday, apart from the Grimsby and Barrow (one in first half injury time) games.

If anything, we have been generally been consistent slow starters. Unless it is a conscious way of conserving energy.
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That would be my thinking exactly. But yes I agree it wouldn't come close to explaining all of our problems this season. Perhaps just played a role.
 
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