Well it had been coming, we've been dropping points at home for weeks now and it's finally caught up with us as Reading drew 1-1 at Doncaster to leapfrog ourselves and climb into second.
No one can say it's undeserved, we haven't been showing the fighting spirit that promotion chasers should and Reading have been on an incredible run which has seen them fly up through the play-off places and now into the top 2. We do still have a game in hand on Reading, however and a point would lift us back into the top 2 on goal difference. We should probably count ourselves lucky that Doncaster have been on a good run our their own lately because had Reading battered them they could have made up some goal difference on us and made it very difficult for us even if we did win that game in hand.
There have been some positives lately though with David Gold confirming on twitter that Papa Bouba Diop is back in training with the first team, Ravel Morrison scoring a brace for the development squad earlier today and Carlton Cole expressing his love for the club, despite criticism from a small minority of fans. There have been reports floating about that Morrison will start on Saturday at Leeds after an impressive display for the development squad but with Nolan coming back and scoring 2 in 3 after his suspension and Noble, Lansbury and Collison all fit and vying for the central midfield positions I'm not convinced he'll be shoved into the starting XI just yet, though it is very promising to see him playing and scoring for the reserves.
We've hit a bit of a slump in form lately with 3 disappointing home draws and we will need a result against Leeds to maintain out promotion push and then, more importantly we have arguably our most important home game of the season and a massive test for the players at home to Boro next Tuesday which will be on Sky - although that shouldn't affect the attendance as the last time we were on Sky in a home fixture the Boleyn sold out for the visit of Crystal Palace - and my prediction is that if we fail to win, we won't finish in the top 2 and will have to settle for he lottery that is the play-offs. I know a lot of people will say that it's too early to make that prediction but going 5 games without a win at home including 2 draws against relegation candidates will surely affect the players' confidence and be very hard to recover from, not to mention the fact that Reading could be 7 points ahead of us by then. obviously I hope I'm wrong and I think we'll bounce back and be sitting on 72 points this time next week after a much needed home win.
COME ON YOU IRONS!
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