How many points have bad decisions cost us this season

[donny dave]

?
We could have been mid table.

[HomerJSimpson]

How many have we got away with? They say it evens out over the course of te season but very recently we've had some shockers so I'm guessing we're at least 3-4 points worse off over the season.

[donny dave]

I would think you could at least double that figure.

[DRFC17]

I'd say it evens out, people tend to forget decisions that we've gotten away with.

Although if it has cost us only 1 or 2 points that would be vital this season.

[donny dave]

I suppose Sam could have been sent off a couple of times this season but I cannot remember getting a Pen that should not have been.
Has anybody got the link to Readings penalty photo.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Luck tends to balance out over a lifetime (unless you get hit by a meteorite in the maternity ward). I'm not entirely convinced that 46 games is enough time for it to balance out.

We've been particularly unlucky this season in getting some bum deals.

We were unlucky in getting the game at Charlton called off. (There's been nowt to balance that one out).
We were unlucky in having two rank decisions against us in the final minute of what looked like hard-fought away draws at Watford and Ipswich. (Can't think of any game-changing last minute decisions that have gone for us this year.)
We were unlucky in a dreadful sending off decision at Millwall. (Can't think of any opposition players who have been sent off where it wasn't clear-cut.)
We were unlucky in the single most stonewall penalty decision of the season going against us at Loftus Road (which probably cost us 3 points). I can't think of any equally stonewall decision going in our favour (there have been a couple not given to opponents, where it was debatable, but nothing remotely like the Hong Kong Phooey on Wellens).

So, aye, I'm in the "We've been unlucky Jeff" camp.

The luck will even out before most of us shuffle off.

[Akinfenwa]

There's no such thing as being unlucky in football to the tune of causing a relegation or a failed promotion, it's just something that football people, usually managers use to shirk responsibility and a sign that they don't know how to identify a team's failings. Contrary to popular belief there is no conspiracy against Doncaster Rovers.

If we go down and I hear the people in charge of the football club bemoaning 'bad luck' as the main cause of our relegation (rather than identifying the actual reasons and endeavouring to improve) then I will be mightily pissed off. See John Ryan's recent Free Press quotes as an example of what I don't want to see.

It cannot be too difficult to work out that, over a season if your team spends more time than the average with the ball in the attacking third then you are more likely to get favourable, game changing decisions. And therefore be less likely, because you spend less time in the defending third without the ball, to get unfavourable decisions. The opposite is also true.

It's up to the manager to work out why we spend the majority of away games defending in our own box and put it right rather than blaming match officials and 'bad luck'.

[Dare to dream!]

No such thing as luck.

[Hag]

No such thing as luck.

True, most of it is down to fortune, you either have one or you haven't !

[BillyStubbsTears]

There's no such thing as being unlucky in football to the tune of causing a relegation or a failed promotion, it's just something that football people, usually managers use to shirk responsibility and a sign that they don't know how to identify a team's failings. Contrary to popular belief there is no conspiracy against Doncaster Rovers.

If we go down and I hear the people in charge of the football club bemoaning 'bad luck' as the main cause of our relegation (rather than identifying the actual reasons and endeavouring to improve) then I will be mightily pissed off. See John Ryan's recent Free Press quotes as an example of what I don't want to see.

It cannot be too difficult to work out that, over a season if your team spends more time than the average with the ball in the attacking third then you are more likely to get favourable, game changing decisions. And therefore be less likely, because you spend less time in the defending third without the ball, to get unfavourable decisions. The opposite is also true.

It's up to the manager to work out why we spend the majority of away games defending in our own box and put it right rather than blaming match officials and 'bad luck'.

Ooh, ooh! I know! I know!

Is it because we have one of the smallest budgets and cheapest squads in the division?

If we go down by one point or on GD, will you still reckon that bad luck had no role to play? Cos me, I reckon that knife-edge situations are often tipped one way or another by luck. Like, for example, if Khumalo had landed an inch to the side in that match in South Africa, I reckon we'd have stopped up. Or if the ref had seen that leg-breaker at Ipswich in the last minute. Or if the ref at Loftus Road had read that bit in the rule book about how neck-high tackles in the penalty area are frowned upon these days. 

Little things at crucial times.

But I'm soft like that. I think those things can tip the balance.

Mind, I'll admit that over time we must get other outrageous bits of luck going in our favour that tipped a crucial result our way and made the difference at the end of the season. I'm still scratching my head 15 years on trying to figure out how the ref at Rushden didn't send Colin Sutherland off for repeatedly fisting Colin West (mind, we lost that one anyway, so that doesn't count. And it was in the FA Cup First Round, so it was hardly crucial).

There must be another one somewhere.

Actually, I'm struggling here. I'm f***ed if I can think of one. Somebody help me out here.

[Dare to dream!]

Barnsley scored a legit goal that was disallowed for no reason

[Filo]

There's no such thing as being unlucky in football to the tune of causing a relegation or a failed promotion, it's just something that football people, usually managers use to shirk responsibility and a sign that they don't know how to identify a team's failings. Contrary to popular belief there is no conspiracy against Doncaster Rovers.

If we go down and I hear the people in charge of the football club bemoaning 'bad luck' as the main cause of our relegation (rather than identifying the actual reasons and endeavouring to improve) then I will be mightily pissed off. See John Ryan's recent Free Press quotes as an example of what I don't want to see.

It cannot be too difficult to work out that, over a season if your team spends more time than the average with the ball in the attacking third then you are more likely to get favourable, game changing decisions. And therefore be less likely, because you spend less time in the defending third without the ball, to get unfavourable decisions. The opposite is also true.

It's up to the manager to work out why we spend the majority of away games defending in our own box and put it right rather than blaming match officials and 'bad luck'.

Ooh, ooh! I know! I know!

Is it because we have one of the smallest budgets and cheapest squads in the division?

If we go down by one point or on GD, will you still reckon that bad luck had no role to play? Cos me, I reckon that knife-edge situations are often tipped one way or another by luck. Like, for example, if Khumalo had landed an inch to the side in that match in South Africa, I reckon we'd have stopped up. Or if the ref had seen that leg-breaker at Ipswich in the last minute. Or if the ref at Loftus Road had read that bit in the rule book about how neck-high tackles in the penalty area are frowned upon these days. 

Little things at crucial times.

But I'm soft like that. I think those things can tip the balance.

Mind, I'll admit that over time we must get other outrageous bits of luck going in our favour that tipped a crucial result our way and made the difference at the end of the season. I'm still scratching my head 15 years on trying to figure out how the ref at Rushden didn't send Colin Sutherland off for repeatedly fisting Colin West (mind, we lost that one anyway, so that doesn't count. And it was in the FA Cup First Round, so it was hardly crucial).

There must be another one somewhere.

Actually, I'm struggling here. I'm f***ed if I can think of one. Somebody help me out here.

Point of order!

It was the second round, Rushden went on to play Leeds in the third round

[BillyStubbsTears]

There's no such thing as being unlucky in football to the tune of causing a relegation or a failed promotion, it's just something that football people, usually managers use to shirk responsibility and a sign that they don't know how to identify a team's failings. Contrary to popular belief there is no conspiracy against Doncaster Rovers.

If we go down and I hear the people in charge of the football club bemoaning 'bad luck' as the main cause of our relegation (rather than identifying the actual reasons and endeavouring to improve) then I will be mightily pissed off. See John Ryan's recent Free Press quotes as an example of what I don't want to see.

It cannot be too difficult to work out that, over a season if your team spends more time than the average with the ball in the attacking third then you are more likely to get favourable, game changing decisions. And therefore be less likely, because you spend less time in the defending third without the ball, to get unfavourable decisions. The opposite is also true.

It's up to the manager to work out why we spend the majority of away games defending in our own box and put it right rather than blaming match officials and 'bad luck'.

Ooh, ooh! I know! I know!

Is it because we have one of the smallest budgets and cheapest squads in the division?

If we go down by one point or on GD, will you still reckon that bad luck had no role to play? Cos me, I reckon that knife-edge situations are often tipped one way or another by luck. Like, for example, if Khumalo had landed an inch to the side in that match in South Africa, I reckon we'd have stopped up. Or if the ref had seen that leg-breaker at Ipswich in the last minute. Or if the ref at Loftus Road had read that bit in the rule book about how neck-high tackles in the penalty area are frowned upon these days. 

Little things at crucial times.

But I'm soft like that. I think those things can tip the balance.

Mind, I'll admit that over time we must get other outrageous bits of luck going in our favour that tipped a crucial result our way and made the difference at the end of the season. I'm still scratching my head 15 years on trying to figure out how the ref at Rushden didn't send Colin Sutherland off for repeatedly fisting Colin West (mind, we lost that one anyway, so that doesn't count. And it was in the FA Cup First Round, so it was hardly crucial).

There must be another one somewhere.

Actually, I'm struggling here. I'm f***ed if I can think of one. Somebody help me out here.

Point of order!

It was the second round, Rushden went on to play Leeds in the third round

f**k it. Even less crucial then.

[Akinfenwa]

Ooh, ooh! I know! I know!

Is it because we have one of the smallest budgets and cheapest squads in the division?

I don't know what our budget is, probably in the bottom 6 even after our January transfer dealings. But yes I agree that a lot of it is down to budget, couple that with a guy who is in my opinion a poor manager and seems to learn nothing from game to game in how to best deal with these situations and we're bound to be penned in almost constantly away from home.

Our shots for to shots against ratio away from home stands out as terrible, second worst in the League only to Yeovil (who's budget is minuscule in comparison). The stats actually flatter us based on what I've watched this season because I've never seen a team as consistently 'up against it' as I've seen from us away from home. I don't think that the regularity of that manner of defeat can be blamed entirely on budget.

Personally I think we've got a good set of players on paper considering the budget, not great by any means but better than 44 points. The rest is down to the manager to get the best from the good players that people credit him with getting in January especially.

If we go down by one point or on GD, will you still reckon that bad luck had no role to play? Cos me, I reckon that knife-edge situations are often tipped one way or another by luck. Like, for example, if Khumalo had landed an inch to the side in that match in South Africa, I reckon we'd have stopped up. Or if the ref had seen that leg-breaker at Ipswich in the last minute. Or if the ref at Loftus Road had read that bit in the rule book about how neck-high tackles in the penalty area are frowned upon these days. 

Little things at crucial times.

But I'm soft like that. I think those things can tip the balance.

No I don't really. You're bound to get some misfortune, as is everyone else. But I'm always of the thought that you get what you deserve at the end of the season. People thought we were lucky last season, and I disagree. We were good enough to have earned the right to be in a position to capitalise on that famous fortunate incident (to mention just the main one). This season we've not been good enough to have earned the breathing space we needed for an unfortunate incident or two.

Like I said above, if you're 'unlucky' to the point of blaming a relegation on it then the likelihood is that you're doing something wrong that is inviting 'bad luck'. There's an endless amount of 'what ifs' that could have gone the other way but didn't (and therefore we don't know about) but no one ever calls that 'good luck'. E.g. We're not classing Chris Brown not getting a lengthy injury as 'good luck'. Just as we wouldn't be bemoaning Schmeichel for catching that corner rather than chucking it in.

I think the people who matter ought to be focusing on things that we can control and affect rather than wasting time moaning about things that we can't.