Winning mentality

[lake district canary 4,830]

Winning when the chips are down, when you''re not playing well, when the other team are better in every department, is possible if your mentality is right.    A successful season - in our case staying up - is dependent on your mentality being right.

I am talking about the mentality of not allowing yourself to be beaten - not just in a match but in the season as a whole.  Lambert seemed to have that with us - we always looked as if we might snatch a point or three against the odds (largely thanks to Holt as well, but that is another story).   Even Hughton seemed to be able to get the team to win when really needed - except against WBA.  

The mentality is being able to cope with defeats and not letting yourself be influenced by them and always keeping in mind what you want to achieve by the end of the season.  Refusal to be beaten can be a terrific attitude to have - it requires stubborness, willpower, singlemindedness and most of all total belief that you can achieve what you need to achieve.  

In our case it means we need points against the odds.  The players have to believe totally that they can get those points - however many it is that they need.   The bottom teams are catching the rest up - not just us.   All teams in the bottom eight will be feeling the pressure  - and the top teams will feel the pressure to achieve too, as they approach trying to get their aims achieved - so it is not over by a long shot. 

People talk about "match-play" in all sorts of sports.   Snooker and tennis are two sports where you can be almost seemingly down and out by the score line (down 8 frames to 0 and you can win 9-8 etc etc).    Football is the same and at this stage of the season there are going to be some strange results.  

Fulham, Cardiff and Sunderland are going to pick up points - no doubt.  Swansea, WBA and Villa are going to struggle with the pressure too imo.   We simply have to believe - the players and the fans - that we can pick up the points we need.   I believe we need 37 points to stay up so that means one win and two draws or two wins.   It is possible - and I wish those say its done and dusted now would stfu to be honest.   The season is not over for any of us - its not easy, but with belief,  anything is possible.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

Sorry LDC. I admire your resolve and your optimism greatly, but words don''t win matches. Unless of course those words are Suarez, Gerrard, Sturridge etc.

[Tim Dawson 0]

I agree with the O/P it is a mentality that we need to change but alas this season looks too late, a win against Arsenal and a draw at Old Trafford are not beyond the realms of possible but i doubt that will be enough, makes me really sad but honestly we dodged a bullet last year with Hughton sadly we didn`t duck in time this season !!!!

[lake district canary 4,830]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]Sorry LDC. I admire your resolve and your optimism greatly, but words don''t win matches. Unless of course those words are Suarez, Gerrard, Sturridge etc.[/quote]

I''ve always been of the opinion that fans have an influence over what happens on the pitch.  Even people who don''t go to matches - people particularly in Norfolk where the bulk of our supporters obviously are - can have an effect on  the mood of the club and everything to do with it.  I don''t believe the club lives in a goldfish bowl - it is part of everything to do with the city and around and about.     Large groups of people can influence a club and its well being.    I often cite Man City, as I have been to a few games there in the past with one of my relatives - where the crowd used to be so resigned to being duffers compared to Manure - it was there every match - you didn''t need to be a genius to see it - it stepped up and hit you as soon as you got to the ground with a negative air about the place so thick you could feel it. 

If enough people believe we can get out of trouble then we can.  I know it sounds like baloney to some.   "Mass consciousness" is not talked about much these days, but it is fairly well documented that a large number of people all with a similar mindset can set the pattern for what happens.   Man City look to have got out of their mindset that had set in over decades - but I bet its still lurking under the surface.   

If enough people think - thats it, we''re down - then we probably are.    Its a tad evangelical. I know, but if enough people believe we can stay up -  then that increases our chances of staying up.   Its about the power of the mind - individually and collectively.

[Tim Dawson 0]

Crystal Palace ( as much as i dislike them) their fans have had Selhurst park bouncing this season each and every game, win or lose, with a very average squad they look to be over the line, pretty sure the support they have had has helped

[Tetteys Jig 851]

Perhaps another reason Hughton should have gone earlier.

[Dubai Mark 0]

Palace under Pulis remind me a bit of the season we went up with Lambert, and unlike Lambert, Pulis will have the balls to stay for the second crucial season.

But I agree it is about a winning mentality, and at home other than West Brom I think we have seen plenty of that from our team to be honest. As has been mentioned many times, the margins are very slim when you really look at it and you do need a bit of luck, something that I have said all season we really have had very little of.

I expect to see the right mentality for the next few games, but know that it will be fragile if we fall a couple behind early doors in any of these games.     

[lake district canary 4,830]

[quote user="Jimmy Smith"]Perhaps another reason Hughton should have gone earlier.[/quote]

Do you know, it is the one thing that gets me about this whole Hughton saga.  Some fans insisted they knew best, that Hughton was no good for the club - and some started saying before the first game in charge.  Well, they got what they expected.   The point about fans being supportive regardless of who the manager never got going.   He wasn''t Lambert - "boo hoo, everything is going to be rubbish compared to him" - and they got what they expected.  If they had been up for the new challenge and showed it at the games more - like Crystal Palace have this season - or like we were in our first season in the premiership - then Hughton might have had better luck - and he did have some bad luck along the way in terms of injuries upsetting the continuity of the team development. 

Hughton may wish he had never taken the challenge on, given that he had to follow Lambert''s success - much as Moyes must be wondering after taking over from SAF.   But the challenge is NOW.  Adams is in charge, we have the players, we have positivity in the fans.  LETS  BL**DY  WELL KEEP THE POSITIVITY GOING!!    If we don''t stay positive, no one else will.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

You cannot knock that way of thinking but at the end of the day bravado doesn''t win football matches.

 

I haven''t totally written us off yet because I feel we have under-resulted (if you''ll excuse the strange phrase) and we are perfectly capable of springing a surprise, but we really have to admit that the odds are very much against us.

 

Some of the venom directed at players (especially RVW) and the Board on here sickens me. It is self-destructive and the complete opposite to the sentiments you put forward.

 

I agree with you, but it might not be enough.