Our head coach has said that promotion is not a realistic aim for this season, though with our disappointing results so far, this may not be telling us anything we don’t already know.

He told the Yorkshire Post “For me, it is realistic that we improve from last season. My personal aim, I said it from day one, is to finish in the top ten. I said from day one, promotion is not on our agenda. I can understand our supporters when they think they want to win promotion this year. But I am a football coach and judge what I have available and the teams we are competing with.”

“Automatic promotion or the play-offs this year isn’t possible. What you have to plan is improvement. You have to improve the young players and the team and our supporters should see improvement over six months and 12 months in terms of how we play, points tally and position in the league. I am completely for that and that is what I get judged on.”

Maybe he’s right to dampen our expectations, but after the lacklustre performances that have produced only one point from the last three home games, it’s more of a surprise to learn that he seems to be happy with the season so far.

“Every person can have their say and criticise us. I obviously wish we had one or two wins on the board. (But) I am disappointed where we are? Not really. We want to improve from last year and being two years in a row at number 15. For me, the main thing is we stay calm, improve day and day and then judge where we are at the end of the season.”

Hmmm…I can’t help being reminded of the school report which author Jilly Cooper's once brought home, which said: “Jilly has set herself a very low standard, which she has failed to maintain.” Even if the stated aim is merely to finish higher than 15th then the season still has to be judged as a failure so far, seeing as we’re currently one place lower than that!

It all seems a far cry from the heady days of the start of the season, when we were all hoping for much better things, with some much needed stability at the club after Cellino promised to stay in the background and allow the head coach to do his job. I was hoping that at the very least we’d be making a challenge for the play-offs.

Most of us are getting extremely bored with watching season after season of mid-table mediocrity, and if our current form continues it will be harder to hang onto the young talent players who might be able to take the club forward in the years to come. Things will have to get better, hopefully starting with tomorrow’s game at home to Brighton.

Photo: Action Images

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