SIX points from the last seven games. Six points out of twenty one. One win, three draws and three defeats.

No matter how you try to dress it up our recent run of form is unsatisfactory and a trend that needs to be reversed sooner rather than later.

Otherwise the second half of the season is going to be far more of a struggle than everyone would like. Not something that could really have been anticipated a couple of months ago.

After the experience of last season when a barren 12-match run threatened to sabotage the campaign, it was my dearest wish that this season would see more consistency.

Unfortunately the course of the season bears an uncanny resemblance to the events of last year. With the possible silver lining of another extended Worthington Cup run.

Where has it started to go wrong? Is there genuine cause for concern? Or have we simply been unlucky as was suggested by Graeme Souness, not without some justification, following Saturday's result at least.

The supporters have not been slow to identify areas in need of improvement and opinion has shifted as the weeks have gone on.

"Dunny isn't fit" and "Cole and Yorke aren't doing the business" were the most common complaints early on.

"We're missing Matt Jansen" and "We're trying to walk the ball into the net" were popular pieces of analysis proffered a few weeks later.

As results started to tail off the confident assertion was that we were missing Flitcroft and Taylor as if their return would be akin to the waving of a magic wand.

When this all too predictably turned out not to be the case, the sophisticated and highly technical conclusion a lot of people seem to have arrived at, especially in the wake of the Everton game, is that "The defence is rubbish" (or words to that effect).

If there was one simple solution to the team's shortcomings I suspect we'd all be highly successful managers earning in excess of a million quid a year.

It's been a preconceived notion for some time amongst the fans that the defence isn't really up to scratch.

However, as was the case last season, the statistics have never really borne that out. The goals against column has never actually shown any major damage in relation to other teams.

This season in the League for example we have conceded three goals twice only, and two goals on just four more occasions. And one of those times was during the 5-2 rout of Newcastle.

No, it's too simplistic in my view to lay all the blame at the feet of Yorke and Cole, or to blame Martin Taylor for allowing a ball to bounce at Everton, or even to say that the defence as a whole isn't good enough.

An opinion put forward to me by a fellow fan on Sunday with which I am in complete agreement is that the entire team, Friedel excepted, have been playing to about 75 per cent of their potential in recent weeks.

The reasons for this are far from clear and again, if any of us had a magic formula, we'd be well sorted.

One thing I think is clear though. We need to a marked increase in performance right through the team if we're going to get back to the sort of results which threatened to see us go third or fourth what seems like a lifetime ago now.