Was double checking our home fixtures last night against my shifts and my word were they chosen by a Newcastle fan??? After Fulham we play the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Spurs. Not to mention the mags at home all before Christmas. We are going to have to be picking up points away cos that is a ridiculously hard run of home games. I work every other weekend and usually have to eat into my holidays to make matches, this season I have gotten so jammy its unreal. 17 of the 19 home games fall on my days off.
I reckon we might just pick up a few more points from those games than people are expecting us too. Should rename the ground the fortress of light this season cause id put money that we take more points than we give away at home.
I noticed this as soon as the fixtures came out! I was not happy and I'm still not! It will make it really difficult to string any wins/confidence together throughout the season! Remember, the second half of the season we will have a huge chunk of 'unwinnable' away fixtures to deal with! So in conclusion we will do extremely well to be outside of the relegation zone before Xmas! By the time our 'winnable' home games come around our position/confidence might be low and they may not seem so winnable anymore! This is my fear! Sorry to be so pessimistic, but supporting the bonny lads for a quarter of a century has made me so!
i share your fear mate. The way fixtures fall is crucial, I still maintain that Newcastle had such a good season before last due to the way their fixtures fell. Winnings breeds confidence and i think we've been properly fecked over here
It seems to be a fix !, we have never had a run like that before, we play all of the top 7 (apart from Everton) consecutively, ridiculous.
2 ways to look at it and approach it, get *hit scared and get an ass whooping... or put up a fight make the sol a fortress!!! Personally this season i'd rather have those fixtures, let's put ourselves up against the best at our fortress early in the season! There's no backing down this season, no fat arse's, no players here just making up the numbers and getting overpaid to do it.. Just Genuine Sloggers CONSECTATIO EXCELLENTIAE!
there's a flipside to this though. We'll be fitter and have less collective fatigue going into the second half of the season than 90% of the other teams, the players will be gelling better and a run of really winnable home games. if we can somehow muster a mid table place by christmas I'm going to have a bet that we'll qualify for Europe. That's a big if but I think we'll excel 2nd half of the season.
Lets try and win the away games and get points at home. I think we might surprise some of the bigger teams at the start of the season because of our unknown players and the fact we will be fitter than everyone else.
I'm with you on this one. Call me crazy, but i think it's a good thing to play the top teams early doors before they get into their stride while we are more fully into ours. I think we'll surprise quite a few by picking up more points than expected. and if we hit teams early doors, no-one will like coming to our gaff to face us.
This is important. Taking points from those teams is a hell of a start. We are an unknown quantity. They will be wary. As Bri said earlier, mid table by Xmas? I`d be happy with that. I think it`s achievable. If we can manage that we can crack on from there. PDC will do the rest. I`ve taken a bet on us top half finish. Not being over ambitious, I don`t think that`s beyond the realms of possibility.
