Our “bouncebackability” is in question?

Urban legend says that it was then Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie that first used the word bouncebackability back in 2004 after a they beat Wimbledon 3-1.

It is a term largely used only in sporting circles and of course relates to the way that a team/individual can come back from a set back to return towards the goal which they have set themselves.

So, after a last minute home defeat to Leeds, Steve Cooper’s side will be looking towards that bouncebackability on Wednesday night when they face fellow play off contenders Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.

For now we should forget the full post-mortem that has centred around the lack of changes made by the Swans when the team was clearly tiring and should look ahead to the games with Forest, Bristol City and Reading knowing that whilst three wins won’t guarantee the play offs it will only deny us them if Cardiff also win their remaining three fixtures.

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For Forest, they will go into the game knowing that a win will secure their own place in the end of season lottery that can be the play offs, possibly no greater incentive for them to push hard to get the win.

For large periods of yesterday’s game we not only matched Leeds but at times we looked stronger than them and appeared to possibly be the side that could break the deadlock between two very evenly matched teams.  Of course it wasn’t to be but for now the focus should – as I said earlier – be on the games ahead, we can analyse the games that we missed out on at a later date.

That certainly has to be the mentality of Steve Cooper ahead of the game.  He may well know he made a mistake and he may have woken up this morning vowing to put that mistake right starting on Wednesday night.  He will also be comforted in a simple statistic that says only once this season have we lost two league games on the bounce – to Fulham and West Brom at the end November/early December.

On the flip side though only once have we followed a league defeat with a league win – that being against Cardiff back in October which followed a defeat away at Brentford.  It becomes clear from these two statistics that Cooper looks to ensure his side doesn’t lose twice on the bounce but with a league record of losing 12 games which have been followed by 10 draws it suggests the most likely result on Wednesday would be a draw.

On the face of it that in itself would, under normal circumstance, not be a bad result but would almost certainly leave us needing two wins in the last two games to take our season into the lottery that is the play offs.

One thing is certain though is that there will be twists and turns ahead of us even with just three games remaining and I am almost certain that somewhere there will be a surprise to be sprung.  Let’s hope for our sakes that it is us that springs it