On paper our performance in the transfer window was much better than expected. My thoughts on this have been well documented in previous columns but now it is important to focus on our path forward.
Success is not achieved overnight. The summer transfer activity has been significant and the first team no longer resembles Owen Coyle’s merry bunch of has-beens. For the first time since he joined the club almost ten months ago Uwe Rosler has a team he can call his own.
The consequence of such large scale changes in such a short space of time is bound to affect the on-field performances and it is fair to say that is the case.
The Birmingham City thrashing aside, our performances have been laboured and without inspiration. Only Callum McManaman has been hitting the levels he should, and even that only lasts for a fleeting 45 minutes.
In some ways is it comforting to know that there is a lot more to come from our players but the harsh reality of it all though is that we need to click sooner rather than later if we are to have a hope of gaining automatic promotion. It is fair to say an automatic spot was our pre-season aim but the rate we are going it is going to need our usual end of season spurt to be able to come close to this.
The facts and paperwork suggest we will have a good season, but as we well know, football isn’t played on paper and results need to flow soon. Blackburn and Huddersfield have brought reality into our expects following the Birmingham game but we need to get a run going sooner rather than later as we’re already playing catch up.