We'v had a bit of a look at it now, won 10, lost a hefty five, just 1 draw.....dropped 17 points. Is it good enough, are we on the right tracks. What will be your 1,2, and 3? Personally can't see us winning it outright, we could make runner up, it seems to suit our personality somehow, so I wii go for: Blackburn Cardiff City Huddersfield Hope it comes true!
Still any 3 from about 15 for me. Leicester remain very strong but seem to drop more silly points than us. I have reservations about Palace sustaining their run although Ollie will know what to do to keep them alive. Also, if they sell Zaha (now probably valued at £12m+ as in the England squad) they will have lots of cash to play with. If that happens watch Ollie pick up some of his tried and trusted players from Blackpool. Blackpool will also sell Ince and maybe the younger Phillips to cash in while they can so they could fall further away. I think Bolton will get stronger as the season progresses and be challenging at the end along with Blackburn. Boro (sorry Minxy the Middle kind not the Peter ones) have a strong squad and I don't see them folding like last year. Hull have a good footballing side but were the least physical team so far at CCS this season. That may be a problem for them. I don't think Huddersfield have the squad depth to remain at the top. As for dark horses watch out for Watford - just ask the Leeds fans. They have been the best away team at CCS so far this season and have a number of unknown quantitites with all their loan signings - and moneybags backers to boot. My top 3, Bolton, Blackburn and us - in no particular order.
Glad we're not drawing so many games again. Dropping stupid points through drawing games that we should have put to bed has held us back in the table these past couple of years. Sticking with a 2 to 1 ratio of wins to losses will do me for the rest of the season - it'll put us in an auto spot. Now if we could win a few more away from home................. The current top 3 right now could be the same come May, but not necessarily in the same order. Holloway will keep pushing Palace and Middlesbrough are a slick passing side under Mowbray. With our dreadful injury list sorted and maybe an out and out striker brought in in January, we'll be up there as well. I'll go for the same autos I did last year (and failed miserably ), City and Middlesbough, with Holloway's Palace winning the playoffs this time. Surprise package for the playoffs? I'll go for Bolton.
Hello up there!......can you here me??.......its me CCR......Hello!!!!....... I'm down here!.........no.....further down......no no......further still!!..........ah ha!........so you can see me! Just popped over to say if you fellow dwellers of gods wonderfull (but damp) land should see a wheel or four rolling down the M4, could you please send them back to Ashton Gate as they fell off 7 games ago.........many thanks oh mighty ones from "up there"........
I can hear you CCR. Will gladly return any wheels found on our side of the Bridge to you although as you live on the God's country side can't you just take 'em back yourself? Seems like your season highlight was the thrashing you gave us so at least you have one good memory. What has gone wrong?
Morning Blue....hope your well What makes you think I will be going over THERE again?.........I can think of better ways to waste £50 lol. Hard to think our last few home wins were Palace and the Bluebirds isn't it.......since then we have been on an alarming downward spiral mate. We had a deadly strike force that were scoring for fun then something just happened. Is the new manager in over his head?....some say he is. Then we get all the "he's lost the changing room" shouts. OK, we have had an horrific run of bad, long term injuries to key players, including loanees to replace them!........but we are not the only team to have that sort of luck. My own opinion is we have a collection of players from seasons gone by who are in the so called "comfort zone" and just not putting a shift in....Carey, Elliott, Skuse, Nyatanga to name a few. The team in general is just below average with the exception of a few forwards, but with our midfield being non existant and a defence like a wet Argos and confidence as low as snakes balls, you could have Messi up front and still be where we are now. It realy is that bad at AG at the moment. Will the board get the knife out?.........not sure tbh, is it the answer to keep going through mangers?...probably not. Its stick or twist time for us lot.
Sorry to hear that CCR. Sounds like a bit of steel is needed in both defence and midfield to at least give more quality ball to your good strikeforce. Regret we can't help you there as we are surviving with only 5 front line defenders plus an untried youngster (high hopes for him though). It can be argued that central midfield is where we have lost some of our away games by conceding too much ground to the opposition. We have a couple of good youngsters who could possibly benefit from short term loans elsewhere (although one of them came on as sub and did well for us Saturday). The other one is a nippy winger but that is not what you need at present. How is Heaton doing for you? Getting plenty of practice by the seem of it. Look on the bright side, you could be a gas supporter!!!!
I don't think Heaton has had a bad game realy.........fit as a fiddle with all the bending and picking the ball up exercises though! It would take an exceptional keeper to compensate for our defensive displays thats for sure. You boys are doing fine as usual Blue........all my mates are still not getting carried away yet though, but surely this time around eh?....gotta be hasn't it?
Fingers and all else crossed CCR. The manner in which we are losing, no throwing away, away games casts a bit of a cloud over our 100% home record. While we have the strongest squad in my memory (a strong squad doesn't guarantee success, just ask Leicester) it is not the finished article and hasn't been helped by injuries to Maynard (who was starting to be a real asset), Mutch, Bellamy and Smith. The latter 2 should be back in a week or so to give Malky some selection headaches. Maynard may well be out for the season and Mutch's injury is apparently a nerve problem in his foot. Each week we hear he may be back and then come Saturday no sign of him. I seem to recall he has had long term injury problems with previous clubs - a bit of a sicknote!!! Our owners seem keen to continue to back Malky and if he has a couple of targets in January which can give us the final boost to the promised land I am sure they will splash whatever reasonable cash is needed once again. Keep your pecker up mate, I am sure your guys will do whatever is needed to keep you going in the Championship.
Cheers Blue Well we have been down around the wrong end for the last few seasons so I am kind of getting used to it now! I do look at teams like yourselves, Swansea, Reading, Saints ect with a hint of envy and wonder if the common denominator there is the nice new stadium...... "build it and they will come" as they said. A regular train of thought with our fans is that the board as a whole have put so much time and effort into our new stadium, which by the way is no closer now than 4 years ago when planning was sought!, that the on-field matters have been allowed to stagnate with no-one taking a close look at whats been going on there.
Just getting a bit of "who's going up" practice for when we try to haul ourselves out of L1 Sparky! Hows things mate?....hope all is well
Sparks - just doing nice to a friendly fellow from across the water who needa a bit of tlc. CCR - could be true on the new stadium front although Blackpool are the exception to the rule - but they came straight back down again. Could also be true about your stagnation on and off the pitch while new stadium matters festered. Whatever is said about our former Chairman (Pistol Pete) in fairness to him we would not have our stadium without his drive, motivation and shady dealings to get it all done. Thankfully we have also developed as a club and had a reasonable level of success and good home attendances to help bolster the cashflow since we moved. Thankfully again some nice, rich Malaysian gentlemen have come in to shore up the very leaky, red coloured finances and keep us on the straight and narrow. I suppose the clue in that was that Pistol Pete went for the new stadium without delay - and then left someone else to sort out the financial mess afterwards. Others may have done it in a more dignified fashion with their own money rather than someone else's. Your guys haven't done it either way (subject to planning disputes I know) and the club is left low and dry on and off the pitch.
Top 6 to be Us, M,Bro Palace (if they lose Zaha in Jan or to injury they may tail off) Leicester Bolton Blackburn or Huddersfield I think that we'll take one of the auto spots, if Palace avoid injuries and keep Zaha they might sneak the other.
Dont worry about Zaha, theyve just done a Bothroyd on him and picked him for England, he'll only be worth tuppence after his one game, and will play ****e for the rest of the season.
Start of the season I predicted a final 6 of Cardiff Blackpool Leicester Bolton Charlton Middlesborough Also predicted Palace would go down.
i predicted second for us at the start of the season i think, dont know who will finish in the top 6 as i dont really take any notice of other teams in this league..... as for bristol, it seems the only way you can progress nowadays is with the 25000 + crowds, though for most teams that gain promotion 80% of turnover will be the sky money, all other revenue streams pale into insignificance when compared...... good luck....i thought bristol were meant to be getting a new stadium a few years ago anyway, whats the financial situation like over there? we are continually told by tan backers that its sugar daddy or bust for us, if thats the case then its a sad state of affairs....
Alright Swamp mate........hope alls well with you. We are loosing millions a season, year upon year mate, but have a very rich owner who just bails us out as a hobby, but he must be wondering why he bothers anymore. HE has planning permission granted on HIS land and has struck a deal for Sainsbury to buy Ashton Gate for developement, but the local nimby's and councils have dragged the whole sorry debarcle through the courts and authorities so many times now, it just makes us all wonder if it will ever happen...........it appears the powers that be in Bristol don't want a new state of the art stadium anywhere near the place!
I too thought this before a ball was kicked. The championship is a mental league! My father in law is a big Palace fan and I was worried for him. He's doing my ****ing head in now with top of the league texts..........
