"The Championship is unforgiving. It punishes inconsistency..."
Sheehan's strength is his consistency. Southampton was an exception for the worse, but almost every game we have had this season has followed a similar pattern. We are organised, solid and do not concede lots of chances. It was similar to his spell as the caretaker. The problem with this consistency is that we have consistently not been very good going forward. I actually wonder if we were more inconsistent and had some better attacking performances thrown in, even if it meant some worse defensive performances, if people would be happier with Sheehan even with the results remaining exactly the same.
The Plymouth and Blackburn games last season were very good attacking performances, but other than that we have not really ever looked like scoring many goals. A good example is the final day v Oxford. Neither side really looked good for 3 goals that day but sometimes that happens in football. The first hour v Leicester might be our best spell of attacking football other than those two games but it is a low bar.
He needs a run more in line with the 5 game winning streak last season but it will probably come in a similar manner if it does happen with us not looking like a dominant side in the game and probably not winning by two goals. 5 games in a row is a unfair expectation but maybe 3 wins in 6 or 3 or 4 games unbeaten.
It is a good written piece by Mark though incase my comment sounded too critical and I agree with 99% of it.