Seems to me Brooking that you need to play the remainder of your games away from home! You only just made it a draw with Watford last week! That said; I do expect you to make it - Reading area have to play both of us yet and although they are on a great run, but I expect the both of us to make it. Good luck for the rest of the season; just as long as you finish second behind us!
Hardly choked last year. I went to the Pray-Off final and Reading should have won that, they had their chances. Swansea got lucky, got all the breaks, all the decisions and only scraped through by the odd goal. Reading sailed the Championship a few years ago with record points, so not sure where the "I think Reading will choke (as usual!)" comes from?
West Ham will be right up our trumpet until the end. In a similar vein, I wouldn't write Man City off yet either.
Southampton have two very tricky away games, I am hoping they beat Hull just to keep our outside hopes alive and obviously I am wanting a nice Leeds win on Saturday. If Southampton win their next two and with Sharp and Lallana back they are going to take some beating, goal difference alone is worth an extra point. It certainly is nail biting stuff between the top three at the moment and even though Readings next three are all away and on paper very win'able this season has proved anything can happen, no game is a certain 3 points any longer.
for a while i have thought that west ham will drop out- its thier crap style of football and alot of teams can cope with it. what teams can not cope with is our style of pass and move-unless they completely block out the midfield and then we struggle. reading has been a suprise-boro a suprise by how quickly they have fallen off. brighton are doing well again,but have left it too late. if we continue at 2 points a game then we will go up. could be a really **** year for west ham as they may lose thier A status for the academy
If West Ham had our Nige or Brian McDermott as their manager, then they would be clear favourites in my mind and would probably be as good as promoted by now. Big Sam is very overrated as a manager and the way he has been panicking by bringing in even more players must send out the wrong message to his squad. Saying things like "if we had Lambert we would be well clear" is not great psychology and sends out the message that he doesn't rate his strikers, of whom he has brought together at great expense. I think us and Reading will cope with the pressure better than the Hammers and will be the top 2, I also expect Sam to be sacked at the end of the season.
We don't have any pressure ... We sold Shane Long and Matt Mills in the summer for £12 million and re-invested 350k of that on Adam Le Fondre! The pressures all on West Ham ...
Brooking. Come on, mate. What is the Newham equivalent of the Itchen Bridge? Just stay away, and ask your friends to hide sharp objects and drugs from you. We've all been there. OMG, the team have blown it ... but you know how football goes, surely. Chin up, mate. It'll be all right in the end (and as they say in India, if it's not yet all right it means it's not the end).
TBH I am shocked at the humility shown by Brooking here. However my gut feeling is that West Ham will go up. I'm actually more worried for us than them. I think their quality players even with the poor tactics will come through at this time of pressure. My honest preference would be for Reading because of many West Ham fan's attitudes. Not all WH fan's just a decent proportion but I expect it will probably remain the same top 2. Which one top I have no idea (but an obvious preference. lol) Chin up matey. Get promoted, then sack the manager and get someone good in, or wait 2 years till Redknapp gets sacked as England manager and he may well decide to spend his remaining retirement years at the Hammers. For the 'coming home' or 'Nostalgia' trip of course as Redknapp has no interest in the mighty £ (or swiss franc )
I would much prefer us + Reading for autos, and personally think that is how it will finish! West Ham, to come through the play offs though
I go back and forth between confidence and sheer terror, typically on days when we aren't even playing. The rational side of me says that, if it's a two-team race, we have at least a 67% chance of going up, and with our goal differential, three point lead vs. their games in hand, and remaining schedule, it's probably closer to 75%. Then I start looking at the table for more than thirty seconds and conclude that we haven't a hope of going up, because it's all too fairytale and surely it'll come crashing down any minute now.
Think Brooking said things with a little tongue in cheek!! Can I remind you Brooking, that it took WHU two attempts to get back to the Prem last time your team were in this division so if you miss out this time, don't depair? Are you that desperate to play the Chavs and Spuds again??
That's the long standing Saints fan in you, Schad. You've had too many let-downs over the years. I can start to feel the way you do and then I have to shake myself and realise that this Southampton FC is nothing like the Southampton FC that I grew up with. This club is so incredibly different to the one that I've known. It is all the things that the old one never was. It is so ambitious that I'm still trying to come to terms with it. Everything is planned, right to the last minute detail. Everything is catered for. Nothing is left to chance. The controllables, that Nigel famously refers to, are controlled. The Chairman is, I think the best chairman I have ever come across in football. The Manager is undoubtedly the best manager we've had for a very long time indeed. As Nigel also says, if it's not this season, it'll be next, or the next; but it will happen. The thing is, dare we doubt them..?
All about momentum. we get a couple more wins under our belts and the teams confidence will be soaring. Reading's must be. Therefore we have to hope that WHU drop a few points and get the losing mentality. We are back in the position that it's still in our own hands, so COYR.
I am completely certain/entirely unsure that we will romp to the title/secure an automatic place/just fall into the play-offs. Whilst I echo TSS' statement about us being the real deal these days, the nerves still jangle every time I think about it.
Agreed, the pressure is enormous on WHU; far less so on Reading. Saints have created their own pressure by being in one or other of the auto-promotion positions all season. In the 32 weeks, so far, Saints have been in 2nd place for 8 of those, and 1st for 24. I almost wish we'd done it another way. Of course, if we're in position 1 or 2 come the end of the season, I won't really care, but we've certainly given ourselves enormous expectation since probably the end of September, last year. As far as Saints go, I think the fans think about it far more than the players though.
Best Saints related chuckle I've had in the last few days. Only a Saints fan could come up with that. You've covered every conceivable exit.
Mathematically we could still fail to get in the playoffs. At least we're safe from relegation now... (speaks another Saints fan of nearly 50 years of not allowing any optimistic feelings at this stage of the season!)
Yep, as soon as I posted I thought we could. Probably a good idea to point it out though. Don't want to get beyond ourselves.
