The Promotion Run In

Win every game from here and we'll win the title. Incredible, given the early season troubles.

 

Billy Sharp woo-hoo!

 

86 points is usually enough to get 2nd and based on the fact that us and Derby are on 65 pts after 35 games it could well be again this season.

Wolves Away: Draw

Reading Home: Win

Wigan Away: Win

Ipswich Home: Draw

Derby Away: Lose

Boro Home: Lose

Millwall Away: Win

Forest Away: Draw

Brum Home: Win

Brighton Away: Win

Sheffield Wed: Win

= 86 points

We could continue our ****e record against the top six and take just 1 point from Ipswich, Derby, and Boro and still do it (although we don't do draws).

Cheers for tonight Malky!!!

COYGB

 

There will still be a twist and a turn too come, but very hard to not be excited

 

Bornmuff at Flam on Friday. Tricky.

 

What's happening to our home game against brum?

 

Well spotted (got a bit hysterical after Norwich lost).

Now edited.

We could afford afford to take 1 point from Ipswich, Derby and Boro as long as we continue to be "flat track bullies".....

 

Yup ... we can even afford to draw one if it's not Boro or Derby (Edit: oops except Bournemouth could still overtake us on GD)

 

Come on the flat trackers!

 

Nice of Kit Symons to rest Scott Parker against us so he is at full pelt for the Bournemouth game.

 

Grabban out injured too.

 

Don't want to sound like a **** but Grabban needs ankle surgery and that is just fantastic news.

 

Amazing.

 

He deserves it for that beard he has. He looks like a goat. Oh and he's a ****.

 

Form over the last 10 games

Wufud 24/30
Narj 22
Boro 22
Brentfud 18
Derby 17
Wolves 17
Muff 15
Ipswich 13

LOL

 

Thank you very much kind sir :sign15:

 

MotM curse for Joka?

 

I believe in karma. Be careful what you say.

 

If karma is playing a part it should have been Houlahan.......

 

What are all those "draw" results you wrote about? I don't remember what's that.

 

I feel the experience of missing out in 2013 by a point dispite dropping loads of points in run in gives the players the required experience to fight for every point. In 2013 Zola went gung ho against Millwall away , Millwall scored in last 9 minutes and won a game we dominated. If we had gained point on last day when cardiff equalised against Hull we would have gone above Hull on goal difference and been holding a draw for promotion rather than needing to score. The squad were boys in 2013 now 2 years later they are still gutted about how close it was, having realised the value if every point i think the experience we have of this situation can only be matched by Derby. This will do us well I firmly believe.

 

Guys, it's over, we're up.

Now we can focus on losing every week in the Prem.

 

more stats from excel over last 10 seasons:

1st place, ave games won 27, ave points 93 (median 90)
2nd place, ave games won 25, ave points 86 (median 86)

1st place highest games won = 31 (106 pts); lowest games won 23 (81 pts)
2nd place lowest games won =21 (79 pts)

 

Extrapolating last 10 games (in which our 2 losses were shall we say 'officially' influenced) for remaining 11 gives the following final table

1 Watford 91
2 Boro 90
3 Norwich 86
4 Derby 84
5 Brentford 81
6 Bournemouth 80
7 wolves 76
8 Ipswich 74
9 Forest 70

 

Let's just beat Wolves.

 

As said, a bad night out for East Anglia.

We all know we are currently the top scorers in all four leagues. On form over the last ten games only Liverpool and Northampton are ahead of us with Arsenal level. Last time I looked we don't have to play any of them in the run in.

Last night someone on one thread or another was singing the praises of Narch and putting them ahead of us. Why? Let's look at owners, squads and managers/head coaches.

We have real, sensible football people at the helm with a proven track record elsewhere. Narch have some old bird who can rustle up a half-decent sponge cake. Ipswich's and 'Muff's have dodgy as their middle name. Brentford's open their big gobs at just the wrong moment. The other two I don't know about but they could hardly be better.

We have a real quality, in-depth squad and thanks to the Joka, now all pulling in the same direction. Probably the best in the league. And now Narch have messed up (as they were always going too) and got an important man crocked too. Excellent news.

On the manager/head coach front we have the Joka with a playing record in top-flight football and an international, winning managerial record. Narch have a jumped-up wee gnome from Bellshill with a lower-league playing record and minimalist managerial experience. Other contenders have competitive managers/head coaches agreed but the Joka's right up there with them.

So who's your money on? I suggest, ladies and gentlemen, you put your tables and chairs in the upright position, fasten your seat-belts and get ready to rock-and-roll ...

 

There's still 11 games left! Form changes in that time. The next ten are far more relevant than the last ten.

I can't help but be excited but we're not quite at the death yet - still a long way to go. Let's concentrate on Wolves...

 

I love a good stat as much as the next guy but I'm not sure what the point of all this predicting is? This league is notoriously difficult to predict and the last 2 weeks have produced some very unpredictable results. Stop predicting. You can't predict it. Que sera sera.

 

It eats up some time until the next game.

 

Yeah. But you've gotta believe ...

 

We can easily focus on groups of 2 or 3 games. we have 3 matches before we get to 3 more against our rivals. 7 to 9 points from the next 3 games will in my opinion leave us top. We could then play boro and derby knowing that a defeat is not the end of the world, a draw would be a good result and a win would give us daylight.

Norwich have grabban injured, derby have martin injured and bent too, muff and boro dont have riches of goalscorers, we have 2 of the top 6 scorers and Vydra is 100% ready to come in. We've got the on form keeper in the league, the most consistent forward over the last 3 years (who incidently is starting to blow hot) the leagues most on form forward in ighalo, Almen Abdi approaching full fitness, defence coming good at the right time and a team spirit (at last). We're winning games we dont play that well, we're smashing some teams when the opportunity arises, we're scoring late goals, we're not conceding late goals, we've got guediola in, another wing back to cover jokas wants and needs, and even players at non rival clubs trying to score v our rivals for promotion. Of course it could go wrong but we're the team the others should be concerned about. I'm not saying it'll be easy but we all know that if we find a system or style to fit these players, and we hit form, we'll be unstoppable.

Just as a funny aside I read a comment on a derby forum that said Deeney was over rated and a poor version of Martin.

 

Exactly this. We are only third because we've won two games on the bounce that Derby have lost. We could lose at Wolves then suddenly we drop a couple of places. This is the tightest league for some time. Whoever keeps their bottle during the few games where it seems there's several six pointers then I suspect they'll be the team to go up.

 

I know others have been chipping in putting the current tables etc, but I feel you're all looking forward to my definitive regular piece. Wait you're not? Screw you, I'm gonna do it anyways.

Latest round of fixtures:

Bornmuff 2-1 Wolves
Brentford 4-1 Hudders
Brighton 2-0 Derby
Boro 3-0 Millwall
Watford 1-0 Fulham
Leeds 2-1 Ipswich
Norwich 0-1 Wigan

Latest table:

1 Middlesbrough 35 29 66
2 Derby 35 29 65
3 Watford 35 28 65
4 Bournemouth 35 31 63
5 Norwich 35 28 62
6 Brentford 35 12 61
7 Ipswich 35 17 60
8 Wolves 35 6 57

Next round of fixtures (6/3/15 - 7/3/15):

Fulham vs Bornmuff (Friday)
Derby vs Brum (Saturday)
Ipswich vs Brentford
Millwall vs Norwich
Forest vs Boro
Wolves vs Watford

 

We really must beat wolves this week and put 11 points between us and 8th, plus with Brentford and Ipswich playing a win would also guarantee a 7 points gap over 7th.

We've already beaten relegation now the next step is to try to guarantee play offs at a minimum.

As an aside, I had a dream last night that we lost the play off final on penalties having drawn 2-2 on 90 and 3-3 aet. This mustn't happen.

 

Agreed

However, if it does I will hold you responsible