The first pairing were top two at Christmas and the second pairing were promoted at end of that season. In four out of those ten seasons, 2nd in the league did not go on to secure a top two finish. Of those four, only one made it through the play offs - Hammers in 2011/12. This is not a statistical analysis but what it shows is that: 1) In two out of 10 seasons, the top team did not make promotion at all. Bad news for Leicester 2) In four out of ten seasons, the 2nd team did not stay in the top two. Bad news for QPR 3) In those four seasons, only once did the second team who had dropped into the playoffs go on and win promotion. Good news for somebody! 2003 Norwich, WBA. Norwich WBA 2004 Ipswich, Wigan. Sunderland Wigan 2005 Reading, Blades. Reading Blades 2006 Brum, Preston. Sunderland Brum 2007 Watford, WBA. WBA Stoke 2008 Wolves, Reading. Wolves, Brum. 2009 Newcastle, WBA. Newcastle WBA 2010 QPR, Leeds. QPR, Norwich 2011 Soton, Hammers. Reading Soton 2012 Cardiff, Hull. Cardiff Hull. However you look at it, it is clearly good being in the top two at Christmas. It is in our own hands. A few tweaks over the transfer window and I am sure we can step up a gear. There are a few who see the negatives of our situation. Fair enough. I hope you are wrong and I hope that you hope you are wrong too! We can't influence Claridge or whoever / what other clubs do. However, our new year's resolution must be to start beating the top ten teams and make no more mistakes against the teams in the bottom half of the division. I hope these figures bring some cheer and I will take the opportunity to wish one and all a very joyous and blessed Christmas indeed! And hopefully an incredibly Happy New Year!!
No worries mate. I was being a pedantic **** cos I knew what you meant! I like your OP, RTID. Its been far too negative on here recently. We're a point better off than we were at the same stage in our last promotion campaign for God's sake!
Those stats back up what I thought, teams dropping from 2nd rarely win in the playoffs. Its usually someone hitting derby like form from mid table. Not really a shock to see the top team more likely to go up than the 2nd place team.
No worries. Let's face it, most of us would have taken 2nd at this stage. At the start of the season, I was hoping for top 10 with a decent shout at the playoffs! I hope we do not bitterly regret the squandered chances and losing to the likes of Donny (no disrespect Donny fans - great club etc).
I don't think it is completely meaningless. I was careful not to present it as anything other than observation of the past without necessarily implying much about the future. Given that the top team at Christmas has been promoted 80% of the time in the last ten years, I wish we had been top so that we might have been exposed to that degree of meaninglessness!
Don't pay any heed to Cerny, RTID. He's just miffed SSShteve is tearing up the league with Derby at the mo
It is interesting but for the ones who are so optimistic that that they look on it as confirmation that we will go up, it is worth pointing out that in the vast majority of those seasons the teams in 1st (and sometimes 2nd) place were already well clear by Christmas. We're not. In fact have there not been many seasons when 1st to 3rd are separated by one point and goal difference with the team in 4th only two points away? Each of the top 4 have had a fabulous run at some point. It is not inconceivable that they will be joined by others before the final day, Wigan for example could yet haul themselves up there. As ever it's in our own hands. We will need to step up and become more ruthless if we are to maintain our position. Playing for a 1-0 score line will not do. Sneaking such a result when we have been outplayed is fine but in matches where we are clearly the superior team we need to start going for the jugular and actually give ourselves a chance on goal difference. We may need it.
It is very tight at the top this year, in previous years this number of points would have seen one or two clubs well clear. In fact its the most interesting thing about the league, its competitiveness. Brilliant at the top of the Prem too, 2 points separating 5 teams. Fact is we, or our nearest competitors, haven't dominated anywhere near enough to deserve to be clear, table is probably a bit generous to us at the moment.
This sort of proves my meaningless point, Burnley won't finish in n the top 2 and I'd put dough on that. A better stat based thread would have been averages of points needed and then how many wins/draws we need and where we'll get them ... That would mean something imo
