We have the big game players

[George Smiley 3]

To be fair even if we were flying on all four cylinders and playing to our true potential we would still be behind Brighton and Newcastle who have been ruthless to opposition teams.If and that is a big if, we manage to sneak into the play offs I would back us to go up purely on the basis that certain players in our squad are big game players and have have the experience to cope with the stress and high tension that the play offs will bring. The likes of Wes , Naismith and Jonny Howson aren''t going to be overawed by 3 high pressure games.The teams around the play offs do not have this. There are 2 games from our history which sum this up .. The first was the FA cup semi final in 1989 against Everton.That season we had a superior team to theirs as a collective but their players had big game experience and we just froze from the occasion.The second was the play off final in Cardiff in 2002.For the first 10 mins our team were frozen from the fear of being in such a huge stadium and it helped put Birmingham on the front foot.

[TCCANARY 263]

[quote user="George Smiley"]To be fair even if we were flying on all four cylinders and playing to our true potential we would still be behind Brighton and Newcastle who have been ruthless to opposition teams.If and that is a big if, we manage to sneak into the play offs I would back us to go up purely on the basis that certain players in our squad are big game players and have have the experience to cope with the stress and high tension that the play offs will bring. The likes of Wes , Naismith and Jonny Howson aren''t going to be overawed by 3 high pressure games.The teams around the play offs do not have this. There are 2 games from our history which sum this up .. The first was the FA cup semi final in 1989 against Everton.That season we had a superior team to theirs as a collective but their players had big game experience and we just froze from the occasion.The second was the play off final in Cardiff in 2002.For the first 10 mins our team were frozen from the fear of being in such a huge stadium and it helped put Birmingham on the front foot.[/quote]

In 1989 we missed Robert Fleck and him pulling out on the eve of the match probably made a big difference.I''m not sure your point about 2002 either, we didn''t concede in the first ten minutes so I''m failing to see why it was sutch an advantage to Birmingham.