I'm not so sure, i think we will have a period of slightly greater struggles as the weather gets a bit more tasty, although we play a number of top sides who will want to play and similarly struggle with poor pitches and weather in the next 2 months. If we can do alright upto and including the game against the binners, I think we will then storm home as the pitches improve for our passing game. Bah!
Luckily, several of our matches in the next 6 weeks are at home, so the boggy pitches won't be an issue. Am I right in thinking that Elland Road is also home to Leeds Rhinos, but at least it will have a week to recover, unlike the KCom or whatever it's called. Edit - Our defence will have to be wary of Joe Lolley on Boxing Day, as he had a couple of long range shots list night, one of which hit the bar. Also, Grabban is the Championship's leading scorer.
His goal ratio for us was pretty good 13 from 42 and all the other sides he played for. Not easy to score if you don't play regarding Bournemouth.
Well, quite an eventful weekend, with both Forest and Villa losing and Frank Lampard's Derby also dropping points. Update - 1. Leeds 2. WBA 3. Boro 4. Derby 5. Blades I'm not convinced that Villa and Forest are still a threat.
Dean Smith says Leeds are the best team that Villa have played. He's only been there for about 3 or 4 games
They are creeping up the table and have mostly drawn games against the teams above them and apart from Leeds on 19th Jan, their games against the other top teams are spread throughout the 2nd half of the season. We play 4 of the top 6 over the next 6 weeks, with our trip to Elland Road being the last one!! <yikes
He had to ruin it contingent /kənˈtɪndʒ(ə)nt/ Learn to pronounce adjective 1. subject to chance. "the contingent nature of the job" synonyms: chance, accidental, fortuitous, possible, unforeseen, unforeseeable, unexpected, unpredicted, unpredictable, unanticipated, unlooked-for;More 2. occurring or existing only if (certain circumstances) are the case; dependent on. "his fees were contingent on the success of his search" synonyms: dependent, conditional;More noun 1. a group of people sharing a common feature, forming part of a larger group. "a contingent of Japanese businessmen attending a conference" synonyms: group, party, body, band, The Leeds effect
Looking at the form tables, I'm less concerned by Boro and Sheffield United than I was before. Over 6 or 10 games, both have decidedly mid-table form. Boro seem to have a real goalscoring issue, only the bottom 5 teams have scored fewer in the last 10 games, and their defence hasn't been tight enough to negate that.
I think Boro’s standard 0-0-10 formation may limit their goal scoring chances. I can see them in the playoffs and possibly a threat to win them but no more than that.
Am coming late to this but my original thoughts seeing the OP were these: 1. Leeds 2. WBA 3. Boro 4. Blades 5. Derby That's almost the same as JMF's updated version except the last two teams are reversed. WBA's scoring makes them a threat, though they concede a few as well. Boro are a threat as they eke out a lot of 1-0 wins and they are consistent. SU have the ability to hurt teams if they get a run going but they've fallen away of late. The same is true of Derby, but they are capable of putting on a winning run. I had thought that Villa could be a threat but losing to Leeds the way they did will hurt them badly and they're now 14 points behind us and that's a lot to make up. Hopefully we can dim the threat of Forest and Derby in our next two games.
