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ROY Hodgson admits his players are caught in a 'vicious circle' at The Hawthorns after seeing his men lose 2-1 to Swansea - their eighth home league defeat of the campaign.
The Baggies boss was sympathetic towards the fans' frustrations as his troops again shot themselves in the foot.
Marc-Antoine Fortune's 54th-minute opener was quickly turned into a deficit by goals from Gylfi Sigurdsson and Danny Graham in the space of five minutes.
And, while he issued a rallying call for the supporters to lift his men, he knows only a victory on their own patch now will bring back the 'Boing, Boing' of last season, when expectations were lower.
"It's an all too familiar story," said Hodgson, whose team remain in 15th place but are now six points above the relegation zone.
"We keep giving ourselves a chance and getting into good situations and then when we come to play at home in front of our own crowd we disappoint them by not being able to get a result.
"It's a vicious circle that can only be broken by us getting a result - and we don't seem capable of doing it.
"When we took the lead I thought this is maybe going to be a situation where we would get a result.
"But it only lasted a minute and then you suddenly find yourself 2-1 down and it's a familiar pattern.
"In the last 20 minutes we worked very hard, took a few chances, and got the ball into the opponent's penalty area often.
"The ball bounced around and there were chances but we didn't take them.
"In particular Peter's miss from such close range.
"Those misses are very, very crucial.
"If he'd have scored it we might have been saying we're perfectly happy with our day's work.
"But he didn't, and once again we all go home extremely unhappy, dissatisfied and downhearted.
"The games against Stoke and Fulham lift you up and give you great hope then games like today do the exact opposite - they knock you down.
"It's a fact of football life."
He added: "The fans don't see Swansea as one of the top three or four teams in the country against whom a team like ourselves should have no chance, so of course they get very disappointed.
"Finishing as high as we did last year has raised expectations.
"The great help we got last year from them in keeping us up, we're losing because we can't give them the results to keep them happy.
"You can feel the anxiety.
"Last season from the very first moment we were getting the 'Boing, Boing' because people were half-expecting us to go down.
"Now you never hear the 'Boing, Boing' anymore you just hear a sort of fearful silence - 'how's it going to go?'
"That transmits itself to us and it's just a natural phenomenon that we can't do anything about, except win.
"All the time we don't win that's how it's going to be, whether we like it or not, because people are human beings.
"We all get down when we lose and up when we win.
"So you come away from Stoke very happy and tonight we go home extremely unhappy.
"That's the life we chose."
Hodgson did feel his men should have been awarded an 18th-minute penalty when Ashley Williams clearly handled in blocking Gareth McAuley's goalbound header from Nicky Shorey's cross.
And, although the Albion chief admits his men did not deserve it based on their first-half performance, he believes they would have held an advantage at the break had referee Jonathan Moss awarded a spot-kick.
"I didn't think we played at all well in the first half," he added.
"But when you see the TV replays it is quite amazing we didn't get a penalty that probably would have taken us into half-time leading 1-0.
"Perhaps it would have been against the run of play.
"But I would defy anyone to say that's not handball.
"It's very disappointing that such clear handballs are not seen because I'm sure the Swansea players had accepted their fate as it being a penalty."
Waffle, waffle, waffle. He is scum.Leave a comment:
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"It is extremely painful and frustrating for me to watch this crap. To the point I am seriously asking myself if it is worthwhile to torture myself doing so. Honestly it isn't good for my blood pressure. Roy's football is so utterly anathema to what I consider football. It's not that I don't like seeing us organized defensively, I actually appreciate a well organized defence. It is the utter overall predictability, rigidity, lack of imagination etc etc and above all the HANDBRAKE that does my head in.
I think I will take a break from Roy's "football" for the rest of the spring. It can't be healthy to get this worked up over a game. We are Stoke the lesser, God help us."
"Agreed.
No place in the modern game for this style of football. Shame we didn't clear off some more of our boring one-paced players as well in January.
To be loosing as many home games in a premiership as dire as this is unacceptable. "
You get the feeling he cant swallow his pride and admit hes wrong after all weve all heard the experience line before from his mouth and it would make him look like an idiot if he admitted he was wrong. I think its time someone had a word in his ear reminding him that his personal pride doesn't come before the club
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"It is extremely painful and frustrating for me to watch this crap. To the point I am seriously asking myself if it is worthwhile to torture myself doing so. Honestly it isn't good for my blood pressure. Roy's football is so utterly anathema to what I consider football. It's not that I don't like seeing us organized defensively, I actually appreciate a well organized defence. It is the utter overall predictability, rigidity, lack of imagination etc etc and above all the HANDBRAKE that does my head in.
I think I will take a break from Roy's "football" for the rest of the spring. It can't be healthy to get this worked up over a game. We are Stoke the lesser, God help us."
"Agreed.
No place in the modern game for this style of football. Shame we didn't clear off some more of our boring one-paced players as well in January.
To be loosing as many home games in a premiership as dire as this is unacceptable. "
You get the feeling he cant swallow his pride and admit hes wrong after all weve all heard the experience line before from his mouth and it would make him look like an idiot if he admitted he was wrong. I think its time someone had a word in his ear reminding him that his personal pride doesn't come before the club
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Posted on YNWA:
Hodgson the movie.
Man lies on his deathbed in his private bedroom in a huge massive croydon mansion.
"Wosebud.."
Frantic excitement breaks out. What could it mean? What's it all about? How does it explain his own life and career and his lives and loves and...
"...f-f-four. Halmstad...nil".
Screen fades to black.
The end.
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a) I can't believe you thought about that
b) I can't believe you wrote that on here
c) I can't believe I read all of that
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