Time to build another run

I suppose the good run had to come to an end at some point, shame it was down to a horrific first-half showing. I’m not ready to throw these young lads under a bus though, quite yet.

Coming in to Saturday’s game we suffered one loss in fourteen matches in all competitions. That’s an amazing feat for a side like ours that is still so inexperienced in this league, unfortunately we’re going to have games like this at various points in the season and that is ultimately what will stop us getting a shot at promotion this season.

That isn’t to do us down, anyone expecting promotion this season needs to think again, if we weren’t ready to go up as a club in 2022 then we definitely aren’t this year, and there’s no shame in that. It’s just where we find ourselves thanks to a combination of the actions of Phoenix 21 and the EFL.

Speaking of the EFL, I see they’ve been found wanting again this week in terms of consistency of punishments. Last season when Wigan Athletic were experiencing that terrible eight months from October through to June that could well have seen the club wiped off the face of the map it was the club that was punished for the actions of the board and owner. Resulting in a three point deduction last season and a four point deduction this season.

For the exact same breach of EFL rulings the EFL this time haven’t pursued a further points deduction against Reading instead leveraging fines against Dai Yongge which of course is the correct way to address this issue. Why should football clubs pay the price for failing owners, who in most cases walk away from these clubs unscathed? Whilst the institution of the football club has to pick up the pieces.

I don’t want Reading to face a further points deduction, but I do want the second points deduction issued against Wigan Athletic last summer that took our punishment to a season changing -8 returning. Of course that won’t happen but if parity is the least we should expect it should happen.

With Charlie Wyke in the goals, Chris Sze scoring his first professional goal (should have been his second after Lincoln) and Josh Stones netting on his debut for Oldham we know there’s going to be lads pushing for an opportunity at the top of the pitch.

The next few weeks could offer us a glimpse in to how our season will progress, Saturday was a blow but with the games coming thick and fast over the Christmas period we’ve the perfect opportunity to get back to winning ways and to start building another unbeaten run.

If we can put together a similar run to the one that we’ve seen over the last couple of months we’ll be well placed for a very exciting second half of the campaign.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PIE AT NIGHT PODCAST
We promise you that it’s easier to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t have to rely on us to remind you when a new episode comes out.

Apple sorts can find it on iTunes here – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-pie-at-night-podcast/id1097853442?mt=2

If you prefer a different podcast app then just search for “The Pie at Night Podcast”.

You can also find us on Stitcher, here – http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-pie-at-night-pocast/the-pie-at-night-podcast

If you’re that way out, you can find and subscribe to our RSS feed here – http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepieatnight

And if you just want to take pot luck then you can find all our episodes on our Soundcloud page