Perhaps we should all respect each other’s opinions a little more. Because that’s all they are - opinions.
We all want our club to do well. I’ve had almost 50 years of (mostly) disappointment but I keep coming back for more.
I’ve gradually shifted from being optimistic about Ismael to the opposite, mainly because of results and performances over the last several months. I’m afraid that view hasn’t shifted with three late goals at home to Peterborough. That’s my honest opinion, and it has built up over time rather than through the odd result here and there.
What will start to shift it positively is if the team follows up with some more positive results and performances. This was Ismael’s third win in almost three months - 3 wins in 11 games isn’t great, and we’ve failed to score in 5 of them.
I think he has the worst squad we’ve fielded for 20 years, and that’s not his fault. I cut him slack for that - I don’t think we have any right to expect automatic promotion, but we are better than the poor results and performances have been since he had such a good start in the first ten games.
So it’s about trends for me. If his next three or four results are as poor as the last three or four before today, that keeps the trend line going down. We won’t stay in the top six with the results he’s achieved over the past four months and good coaches don’t tend to make teams worse.
If he starts to get top 6 results over the next few weeks (and he needs to if we’re to stay in the top 6 for much longer), then he’ll start to restore some of my confidence.
But I’m afraid three late goals against probably the league’s worst team - welcome though it is - is not enough to persuade me that Ismael has turned the corner. It took quite a lot of poor results to turn me negative on Ismael, and likewise it’ll take quite a few positive ones to restore my belief.
That’s an honest opinion. I entirely respect that other people may see it differently. But one result isn’t enough to swing the pendulum either way on its own for me.
Pleased with the result, but not anything more than that for now.