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KILLER INSTINCT

Another win, at Derby, means that Regis Le Bris’ side continues to push for those automatic places. But, with it being another close result, do the Black Cats need to be looking to make things easier for themselves?


It was a valuable three points on Tuesday and although it should have been more comfortable than it was, thanks to a bizarre decision from the referee to rule out Wilson Isidor’s goal, I came away slightly disappointed that we made hard work of it. Once we got going in the first half, we looked solid and comfortably on top in the game, yet in the second half we seemingly stopped playing at times. We found ourselves holding on to the game and if it was not for two great saves from Anthony Patterson, we could have been looking at a very different outcome. My issue at the minute is that we seem to be making hard work of games that you would expect the likes of Leeds and Sheffield United to breeze through. The Portsmouth game is a good example: score an early goal against a side that have struggled away from home, yet despite them being down to ten men in the second half we found ourselves sitting back in the latter stages.


At the moment it’s not a huge issue as we are winning, but I do look back at games like Blackburn and Millwall away, as well as Coventry at home, and this strategy seems a bit risky. I feel we need to start killing games off. For context we have not won by a two-goal margin since October 26 against Oxford and have done so just five times this whole season. In fact, we have only scored three or more on three occasions. To compare that to the other teams that are up there, Burnley have only scored three or more in the league three times this season, with last night’s hammering of Plymouth one of them, but the other two were their first two games of the season. Burnley have become kings of 1-0 wins and seem to have a bit of a problem up top (until last night it seems anyway), but in fairness they have the best defensive record in the country so I doubt it is seen as much of an issue at Turf Moor right now. Sheffield United have won by at least two goals in nine of their 18 wins, but then again they themselves have only scored three or more once which does show it’s not necessarily about battering teams every week. Leeds are of course the benchmark in the league, and have won by a two-goal margin 14 of their 17 wins and have scored three or more five times.


What I think this emphasises is that the gap between us, Sheffield United and Burnley is not that big, and I do feel if we just made things a bit more comfortable in games it will benefit us in the long run. It allows us to sub players off who have played a lot of minutes, utilise our fringe players a bit more, but most importantly it boosts our goal difference. We currently sit on +18, with Sheffield United on +22, Burnley on +27 and Leeds on a huge +34. We are not miles away but we could do with scoring more goals.


We are having a great season, no doubt about it, and I feel if we can just start killing games off, it could give us that extra boost when it comes to the run in. With Plymouth off the back of a battering yesterday, I feel this weekend is the perfect chance to go and get that goal difference up and keep the other three on their toes.


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