“Make your own luck”

This is what many say and believe that top of the table teams do to remain where they are. If you persist in your philosophy and style and be relentless in this pursuit the luck of the dice will eventually fall your way, or more precisely, you will make it fall your way.

When teams are leading the pack on the ladder, it appears that they are constantly creating their own luck. The ball bounces favourably for them, their strikers are in a never ending purple patch of goal scoring form, their midfielders are performing impossible passes constantly and their defenders are rocks at the back. This continues for weeks until another team may come along and break the cycle one way or another.

But this belief can only go so far for those trying to follow suit. Sometimes no matter what the team does or how they approach the game, this fabled “luck” never appears to materialise.

There comes a time when you look to the heavens and believe the universe is simply against you.

I have a feeling that the Wanderers are looking at the sky right now and asking questions of whatever Gods they believe in what more can they do to get some luck every weekend.

Since Round 1 the Wanderers have conceded soft penalties, have conceded goals against the run of play, have had multiple penalty shouts denied, have struggled to put away chances that any other team would have finished, always seem to have inexperienced referees officiating their matches which leads to a large amount of dubious calls made against them, or not given at all.

As a supporter it is extremely frustrating. Perhaps rose tinted glasses blind me in what I see every week, but when 2 clear cut penalty decisions are denied and the opposition scores from a cross that gets carried in the wind to change direction suddenly and bounce in the net; there is only so much we can take from the Football Gods.

The Wanderers impotence in attack is well documented and is another issue altogether. But when the dice simply fail to roll the way you want them to, and the cards being dealt are not worth a second glance, what can be done to rectify the situation and change the trend?

Perhaps the game being played is the wrong one. Perhaps those playing that game are not the right ones to be playing it. Or perhaps its a combination of the two?

It is now up to Popovic to review what has happened in the opening round of fixtures against all the A-League clubs and forge a plan for the next round. What has worked, what hasn’t? Who fits into the system, and who doesn’t? Who is going to create the goals and who is going to score them?

Who is going to create the luck that the Wanderers appear to be lacking and so desperately crave?

An inconsistent run of results are not too surprising for a new team trying to find its feet and identity in the competition. Being competitive was the goal for this season. But now people have had a taste of what it’s like to be more than merely competitive and we feel we can actually do something in this competition in our first year.

Inconsistency and a lack of luck appears to be holding the team back from taking the next step.

Someone has to make their own luck. Let’s hope it decides to suddenly appear at home this weekend.