Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
Not quite.
He started the first 30 games of that season, which included a dreadful run of 11 without a win, scoring only 5 goals in the process. He got injured early on against Leicester at the end of January (where interestingly the crowd had dropped from 20,000 for the Birmingham match to 12,000) when we were 6th in the table. We were 7th in the table when he came back a month later, managing a 4-1 rout of Preston on his return, and we were 7th after he made his last full 90 minutes against Southampton. He missed the defeat at Derby and only lasted 45 minutes at home to Sunderland and his season was over.
Would we have made the playoffs that season had he not been injured for the run-in? I doubt it very much. The sparkle of the early season performances had long gone. Discounting the games against Leicester and Sunderland where Jones pulled him off we won 3 of the last 16 games where he played 90 minutes (or most of).
I think the slump was a team wide issue. Scimeca was exceptional at the start of the season but, like others in the team, it didn't last.