[madsteve]

Also our good start of 15 points from our opening 8 matches propelled us into the top half of the table. Since then our form has been disappointing with only two wins against sides outside the bottom four (Forest away & Boro at home) in 31 matches.

Take out every team's first eight results results and the table looks like this:

1. Bournemouth 64
2. Middlesbrough 57
...................................
3. Watford 56
4. Brentford 55
5. Derby 54
6. Ipswich 53
................................
7. Norwich 53
8. Wolves 48
9. Birmingham 44
10. Blackburn 43
11. Fulham 42
12. Cardiff 42
13. Bolton 40
14. Charlton 40
15. Nottm F 39
16. Huddersfield 39
17. Leeds 39
18. Sheff Wed 38
19. Brighton 37
20. Reading 34
21. Rotherham 32
................................
22. Wigan 27
23. Millwall 22
24. Blackpool 21

This isn't to minimise our overall position this season but shows that but for the excellent start, we would have been looking over our shoulders, worrying about relegation. Two wins against the top twenty teams in this division since 20th September (our last two before that date were against teams in the bottom four at the time) is pretty disgraceful in my opinion.