What was the sliding doors moment of the season (1 Viewer)

Sky_Blue_Daz · Feb 8, 2026

Don’t think i ca edit the thread title that’s supposed to say season sorry ! Lack of investment in key areas ?
BTA injury when is was in great form
Dropping Simms for wright
The flu bug that Went through the team
Stubbornly refusing to change tactics and formation

The lack of points , motivation and on pitch leadership is worrying.
Although I’m sure back in August we would take the position we are in now . And if we beat Middlesbrough 4 points from two games is a decent return

Ccfcisparks · Feb 8, 2026

BTA injury coupled with us not signing Bamford.

richnrg · Feb 8, 2026

...the win at home against Boro

SeaSeeEffCee · Feb 8, 2026

BTA getting injured and Rudoni coming back in for him

skybluelee · Feb 8, 2026

Hirst not being sent off. That was the first game in this run of 16 points from 13 games. We were on top and would most likely have gone onto win that game. It would have put us miles clear of Ipswich and our confidence and belief would have gone up another notch.

Cally Fedora · Feb 8, 2026

Don’t think there has really been one. Fine margins that went for us early arent so much now. If I had to identify one it might be not killing Preston off when 1 up with them down to 10.

jto123 · Feb 8, 2026

Not winning at preston

andy86 · Feb 8, 2026

Not being able to break down 10 man Preston.

Felt like an off night at the time, but goals have been hard to come by since.

MAFF · Feb 8, 2026

I think Lampard is tactically inept and got away with in a lot of games purely because of the confidence within the team. I reckon the players got complacent and thought we were already up. Since Ipswich and Preston away they've just looked gone. Something mental that I don't think Lampard can fix.

Otis · Feb 8, 2026

richnrg said:
...the win at home against Boro

Yup.

The sliding doors moment will be when FTT has a stormer against Boro and we win the game

By the end of the season his statue will be a quarter of the way chiseled.

SIR ERNIE · Feb 8, 2026

For a large part of the season we looked a seriously impressive team, on a different level to most others in the division.

The last time I saw that was the first 45 at Southampton.

It's been a struggle since then.

junglej13 · Feb 8, 2026

SIR ERNIE said:
For a large part of the season we looked a seriously impressive team, on a different level to most others in the division.

The last time I saw that was the first 45 at Southampton.

It's been a struggle since then.

Was going to say similar. Dasilva's red card

Sick Boy · Feb 8, 2026

skybluelee said:
Hirst not being sent off. That was the first game in this run of 16 points from 13 games. We were on top and would most likely have gone onto win that game. It would have put us miles clear of Ipswich and our confidence and belief would have gone up another notch.

It does feel as though the Ipswich defeats so close together affected the players.

alexccfc99 · Feb 8, 2026

Losing to Ipswich at home

Performances in December had not been what they were, but we were still grinding out wins and got a battling point at an inform Southampton - Beating Ipswich at home would have took us 16pts clear and not losing would have kept us 13 clear

Since that game we’ve looked really average (a half each against Leicester and Millwall aside)

Liquid Gold · Feb 8, 2026

Not signing Bamford.

I wasn’t really for it at the time but he would have scored enough goals to have kept us ahead of the chasing pack.

oscillatewildly · Feb 8, 2026

One word - Bamford.

alexccfc99 · Feb 8, 2026

I do not for the life of me get the Bamford answer

Bamford wouldn’t have stopped our defenders brain farting at Blues, Norwich and QPR away

jto123 · Feb 8, 2026

alexccfc99 said:
I do not for the life of me get the Bamford answer

Bamford wouldn’t have stopped our defenders brain farting at Blues, Norwich and QPR away

Yeah I’m with you on this. Bizarre take.

oscillatewildly · Feb 8, 2026

I do not for the life of me get why some people confuse the actions of strikers with defenders.

CovValleyBoy · Feb 8, 2026

The First Blink was the, 10 man, Preston equaliser.

Saddlebrains · Feb 8, 2026

Lampards inability to do anything pragmatic

How many times have we seen teams that get automatic promotion grind out 0-1 away wins?

Preston threw away 3 points and got 1
Charlton threw away 3 points and got 1
Norwich threw away 3 points and got 0
QPR threw away 3 points and got 0

12 points that were on, and we got 2

Also, the home game v Ipswich sent out completely the wrong signals to the players for me. We were under clear instruction not to press, clear instruction not to go at sides and destroy them like we were doing to anyone at home up to that point. That game for me was basically admitting that he was scared of Ipswich and they are the best side in the league, but we were fucking 13 points clear of them. Even if we had lost but played our way, fair enough, but the mental message that sent to the players for me really wasnt good

I seriously think he is being given an easy ride at the moment, and what hes done up to December for us is absolutely incredible

But he's the one carrying the can for this shite at the moment in my eyes. So not a sliding doors moment, more a 'I think its the manager more than the players'

sotvtoday · Feb 8, 2026

oscillatewildly said:
I do not for the life of me get why some people confuse the actions of strikers with defenders.

Perhaps because our strikers have been pretty woeful for the last 2 months (along with virtually everyone except the goalkeeper).
Bamford would have scored goals though, and we would have had several more points.
Still - Doug saved a million quid.
(I realise this is much easier with hindsight, but to me it looked like a no-brainer).
If the idea was to show confidence in Wright and Simms then that has backfired spectacularly.

CCFCSteve · Feb 8, 2026

sotvtoday said:
Perhaps because our strikers have been pretty woeful for the last 2 months (along with virtually everyone except the goalkeeper).
Bamford would have scored goals though, and we would have had several more points.
Still - Doug saved a million quid.
(I realise this is much easier with hindsight, but to me it looked like a no-brainer).

Said before Simms (8 in 9 starts) has outscored Bamford (6 in 8 starts I think) since Bamford joined SU and we only play one up top.

He might’ve chipped in but in but I doubt he’d have changed our form

oscillatewildly · Feb 8, 2026

sotvtoday said:
Perhaps because our strikers have been pretty woeful for the last 2 months (along with virtually everyone except the goalkeeper).
Bamford would have scored goals though, and we would have had several more points.
Still - Doug saved a million quid.
(I realise this is much easier with hindsight, but to me it looked like a no-brainer).
If the idea was to show confidence in Wright and Simms then that has backfired spectacularly.

I think you've misunderstood the sentiment of my reply - I was 100% in favour of Bamford and for exactly the reasons you've given.

play_in_skyblue_stripes · Feb 8, 2026

Southampton away. Never had the confidence after that.

Pezza · Feb 8, 2026

The irony is Southampton away was the moment where we were all shown the "character and togetherness" of the squad. Yet the real sliding doors moment was the red card and us not winning that game, not the 1 point we got from it.

Sheffield Sky Blue · Feb 8, 2026

For me it was the JDS red card. Until then I thought we'd beat Southampton. His three match ban shook up the defence. We've been unconvincing since then, even when we've won, except perhaps for one half vs Leicester.

CovRes · Feb 8, 2026

There could be something in @Chris1987's (if I've remembered the right person) theory about Grimes going down injured at Southampton and him not being the same since

steve101 · Feb 8, 2026

BTA injury and the illness I think started the rot. He has a knack of being in the right place for scraps in the 6 yard area. The Oxford game, though not missing through injury, was the type of game he would have made a big difference. His energy was also missing when he was out.
We may never know exactly how many players were impacted by the illness but I am sure that altered our intensity of play.

steve101 · Feb 8, 2026

Maybe if we beat Middlesbrough, we will slide the doors in the opposite direction

baldy · Feb 8, 2026

As if an aging Bamford would've solely done anything to carry on the upward trajectory ffs - surely we're not that desperate - even in hindsight

Ccfcisparks · Feb 9, 2026

baldy said:
As if an aging Bamford would've solely done anything to carry on the upward trajectory ffs - surely we're not that desperate - even in hindsight

Yeah he would have helped

Ellery Cairo's Wig · Feb 9, 2026

From what I have heard Bamford's contract with Leeds ran until summer 2026 and although he had been "let go" by Leeds they were still paying him (almost £2m per year I believe). Whoever signed him would not only have had to give him a contract but also pay a sum of money to Leeds by way of compensation. This means paying quite a large sum of money for someone who had only played 235 minutes of Championship football in 15 months. Whether or not the final decision made proves a prudent one or not is for us to discuss but at the time if these details (assuming they are correct) were available to us would we as owners of a club wanted to take that chance especially if it meant paying almost double what the highest earner reportedly receives for a forward who seemed injury prone and not the most prolific in recent times. Type in "Bamford missed chances" into Google and he appearas in many stats tables as a leading man. This is not to say he would not score the chances that Wright, SImms etc have recently missed but going back three months with the available information and stats would seem a relatively high risk. Not saying who is right or wrong merely adding in what I have been told along with his recent injuries and form. Of course we are all wise with hindsight and he has done well so far for SU but if we all benefitted from hindsight we would all be successful managers/owners in our own right!

shmmeee · Feb 9, 2026

Comprehensively losing to Ipswich twice in a short space of time seems to have knocked all confidence out of the side.

Ccfcisparks · Feb 9, 2026

Ellery Cairo's Wig said:
From what I have heard Bamford's contract with Leeds ran until summer 2026 and although he had been "let go" by Leeds they were still paying him (almost £2m per year I believe). Whoever signed him would not only have had to give him a contract but also pay a sum of money to Leeds by way of compensation. This means paying quite a large sum of money for someone who had only played 235 minutes of Championship football in 15 months. Whether or not the final decision made proves a prudent one or not is for us to discuss but at the time if these details (assuming they are correct) were available to us would we as owners of a club wanted to take that chance especially if it meant paying almost double what the highest earner reportedly receives for a forward who seemed injury prone and not the most prolific in recent times. Type in "Bamford missed chances" into Google and he appearas in many stats tables as a leading man. This is not to say he would not score the chances that Wright, SImms etc have recently missed but going back three months with the available information and stats would seem a relatively high risk. Not saying who is right or wrong merely adding in what I have been told along with his recent injuries and form. Of course we are all wise with hindsight and he has done well so far for SU but if we all benefitted from hindsight we would all be successful managers/owners in our own right!

I would be amazed if that were the case

What was the sliding doors moment of the season (1 Viewer)

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