Town managed to come away from Burnley with a point last weekend, which was far better than most hoped for before the game. However, it felt like an opportunity missed rather than a valuable away point, given how well Town performed and the chances we spurned. This was a feeling that we’ve become used to this season as Town fans.

The performances in general haven’t been nearly as bad as the results suggest. You could take this as a cause for optimism or concern, depending on your outlook. It’s a positive that the performance levels are decent and surely our luck will soon turn. Alternatively, we can’t win games even when we play well, so what chance do we have?

I’m an eternal optimist when it comes to Town, so here are some of the reasons I think we’re getting close to the end of our start-of-the-season slump.

The fixtures are about to get a lot kinder to us

The fixture computer front loaded the start of the season with tricky games for Town, with most of our opponents so far being either top-six clubs or likely top-half finishers like Everton, Leicester and Crystal Palace. While Town should be pushing to pick up points from these opponents, it’s far harder to do that than teams such as Newcastle, Brighton or Fulham.

If you put our opening fixtures through this lens, then there’s only really the Cardiff game where you could say we did worse than most people expected us to. And that game could very easily have ended in a win if Hogg had kept his cool and avoided his red card.

Liverpool are Town’s next opponents, which is another game where we might find it hard to score points, but after that we’ve got the following run of games:

Watford away

Fulham at home

West Ham at home

Wolves away

Brighton at home

Bournemouth away

Obviously the cliche about there being “no easy games in the Premier League” is true to an extent, but that run of fixtures looks a lot kinder than our recent run of games. If David Wagner can keep Town’s performance levels similar to recent games then surely we’ll register our first win of the season too.

David Wagner really is a great manager

There have been a vocal but small group of fans that have questioned David Wagner’s position at Town during this recent run of poor results. While most fans find the idea of sacking Wagner laughable, there have been more grumbles about tactics and selections this season than the previous two combined.

The brand of football that got Town promoted to the Premier League was exhilarating to watch at times, and it’s understandable that fans want to see similar now. However, our relative lack of resources compared to other Premier League teams has meant that Wagner has occasionally had to sacrifice his footballing philosophy in favour of pragmatism.

I’ve noticed in the last few games that we’re starting to show a bit more of the aggressive pressing, Terrier Spirit type of football. While we might not be taking quite as many risks as we did back in the Championship, there are signs that we’re being more positives in games and are trying to create goal-scoring opportunities. Look at the possession and shots taken stats from our recent games for proof that we’re being more positive. (Converting possession and shots into goals is still a problem that needs solving, but it’s a nicer problem to have than not having any chances at all.)

The support from the fans will keep the mood positive

The noise inside the John Smith’s Stadium against Spurs was incredible at times. We were 2-0 down, but a casual observer would have assumed that it was the home side in front. This support from the stands clearly gave the players a lift and helped the players finish the game strongly, even if we didn’t get the goals or points we all hoped for.

That wasn’t an isolated occasion either, our fans have consistently backed the team, regardless of the scoreline or performances. This support has been vital in recent seasons, and will give Town an advantage over their rivals in the relegation scrap. While fans of other teams will start boycotting games, booing players, and calling for the manager’s head in the middle of games, we’ll still be supporting our team. That could be the difference between survival and relegation.

Apologies for the lack of blogs lately. I’ll be posting more regularly now.