Final 12 Games

[BR2]

agreed- could easily have been 3.

You don't get bonus points for nearlies.

did i say we would?
no

No but your stupid point was that in some way we deserved more .
Look at the league table-we didn't get extra points for "could easily"

[RobRoyal]

I have never been a fan of the play-offs ever since the year of injustice when we finished 2nd and in any other season would have been promoted.
IMHO the top 3 ought to be promoted.

Madness. We were unlucky that year because of the restucturing. You could argue that as a one-off the top 2 should have gone up in 94/95, but our misfortune wasn't the the fault of the playoff system.

To get rid of it would be to denature the one of the most competitive and exciting leagues in the world. Afterall, our league season really would be over if it wasn't for the playoffs. I'll watch Reading balls-up 10 playoff finals before I turn against the system.

[brendywendy]

BR2:

Except my point wasnt that we deserved more points.firm believer that theres no such thing as deserve in football. If we didnt score enough its cos we missed our chances,and if we lost due to late or dodgy goals its cos we didnt kill the game off when we should have.
My only point was to those saying we were never good enough to get those points,and was simply that we could easily have,therefore the margins were far tighter than they supposed.

nowt more stoopid than assuming you know what on a poor communicators mind

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

I am in the scrap the play-off camp, teams that really do not deserve to get promoted too often do, it is a league, top clubs promoted, bottom ones relegated.

However I would like to see 4 teams go up each season to the Prem from Prem2, with 20 clubs in each division. Then Prem3, 4 up, 4 down. and Prem4 north and south, with 2 up to Prem 3 from each.

Oh and would like to see the FA Cup winners make the Champions League, along with top 3 from the Prem.

[Svlad Cjelli]

I have never been a fan of the play-offs ever since the year of injustice when we finished 2nd and in any other season would have been promoted.
IMHO the top 3 ought to be promoted.

Madness. We were unlucky that year because of the restucturing. You could argue that as a one-off the top 2 should have gone up in 94/95, but our misfortune wasn't the the fault of the playoff system.

But we only finished second that season because the othe rteams eased up once they were sure of play-off qualificiation but knew they couldn't get automatic promotion. I'm convinced that if there were two places up for grabs then we'd not have finished second.

[rhroyal]

To be fair, it's only 6 points between us and Leeds. Burnley are 2 ahead of us with 2 games in hand. If we can get a little run with our full strength team, complete with Leigertwood and the firing Long-Hunt combination, we could scrape in. The game away at Leeds could be key. And we'll need our defence to be something closer to what we saw last night, as opposed to what we saw at Palace.

[rhroyal]

Also, play-offs are not fair, the top 3 teams should go up. It's a league.

However they are utterly necessary and should never be scrapped. Everybody down to 13th still has a very slim chance of promotion this season which makes the division exciting. If the top 3 went up, there would only be 5 teams at the top and 5 teams at the bottom playing for something as the table currently stands. How dull would that make the final 12 games of the season; over a quarter of the season would hold little interest.

[Scarface]

With Kish now back in the team I think our general form will improve, but no way will we win 9 games.

The damage has been done

[Snowball]

With Kish now back in the team I think our general form will improve, but no way will we win 9 games.

The damage has been done

Do we need to win 9?

W6 D6 is 24 points putting us on 72

[andrew1957]

With Kish now back in the team I think our general form will improve, but no way will we win 9 games.

The damage has been done

Do we need to win 9?

W6 D6 is 24 points putting us on 72

Not sure 70-72 will be enough this season. Looking at the sides in contention I think we will need 74-76 this year.

8-4-0 or 9-1-2 would both give us 76

[RoyalChicagoFC]

2009/10: 34 P 44 pts
2010/11: 34 P 48 pts

[Kitson12]

Got to remember we'll have the Preston home game (12th March) postponed, so that could prove crucial!

[SLAMMED]

w(FAC)
W
W
W
w(FACQF)
W
W
W
W
w(FACSF)
W
W
W
W
W
w(FACF)
W(POSF)
W(POF)

Still in with a shout.

[Mr Angry]

I have never been a fan of the play-offs ever since the year of injustice when we finished 2nd and in any other season would have been promoted.
IMHO the top 3 ought to be promoted.

Madness. We were unlucky that year because of the restucturing. You could argue that as a one-off the top 2 should have gone up in 94/95, but our misfortune wasn't the the fault of the playoff system.

But we only finished second that season because the othe rteams eased up once they were sure of play-off qualificiation but knew they couldn't get automatic promotion. I'm convinced that if there were two places up for grabs then we'd not have finished second.

100% agree with that.

The last game for Bolton was (iirc) home to Burnley; they rested a lot of players and Burnley sneaked the win. We beat Charlton, so ended in 2nd place.

Had Bolton NEEDED to beat Burnley (who were close to relegation that season) I believe they would have done.

[SLAMMED]

w(FAC)
W
W
W
w(FACQF)
W
W
W
W
w(FACSF)
W
W
W
W
W
w(FACF)
W(POSF)
W(POF)

Still in with a shout.

[Arch]

68

[Snowball]

It's going to be very hard at Ipswich, but if we can get a point and stay on track
lots of our rivals have tough games and there are four or more six-pointers

Tuesday, 8 March 2011


Bristol City v Portsmouth

Hull v Burnley

Ipswich v Reading

Leicester v Norwich

Millwall v QPR

Swansea v Watford

Preston v Leeds
Sheff Utd v Nott'm Forest
Crystal Palace v Cardiff


Unfortunately when we are playing in the cup, many of our rivals have a chance to open up the gap

Saturday, 12 March 2011
Burnley v Millwall
Coventry v Hull
Derby v Swansea
Leeds v Ipswich
Nott'm Forest v Doncaster
Portsmouth v Middlesbrough
QPR v Crystal Palace
Scunthorpe v Leicester
Watford v Sheff Utd

[Libertine]

All road games are generally very tough Snowball, I absolutely agree. And not trying to step on any statistical toes here, but Ipswich are only 7-2-7 at home this year with only a +1 goal differential at home. They have been a very ordinary team at Portman Road this season. Hopefully we can continue with our good recent form and grab all three on Tuesday. A result which I feel there is a realistic chance for if we stay focused and not start thinking about next Sunday yet...

And as far as our opponents opening up ground on us with us having the game against Citeh...everybody plays the same amount of games when all is said and done. Right now a key in our favor is goal differential, +15 is massive for us in a tiebreaker scenario.

[Snowball]

This two-points-per-game is all that counts.

We finish with a great chance of WWW. Win your home games, draw away or sneak WLL every three away, doesn't look impossible. (Have to say though that I can still see us unluckily seventh with 73 done by Burnley.)


DEFEAT VERY POSSIBLE AT IPSWICH, DECENT CHANCE OF A WIN AT BARNSLEY (ONE POINT OFF SCHEDULE?)
A Ipswich
A Barnsley

WE NEED SIX FROM THESE, MIGHT GET SEVEN, BACK ON?
H Portsmouth
H Preston (Starting to grind out draws, but...)
A Nottm Forest (Point here is huge, win is even better)

THREE-FOUR OR SIX POINTS FROM?
A Scunthorpe (They are finding some form, but if we want it...)
H Leicester City

Neither of these straightforward but not ridiculous to see two wins and ahead of schedule

THREE-FOUR POINTS FROM?
A Leeds United (an away draw good, a win there would be worth masses)
H Sheffield Utd WIN

SIX POINTS FROM?
A Coventry City WIN
H Derby County WIN



Sat 12 15:00 H Preston FLC P-P

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Sat 12 15:00 H Preston FLC P-P

Rearranged provisionally for Tuesday 5th April (KO 8:00 PM) if no replay needed v. ManC