UPDATE I posted this on 31/7/11, exactly 3 months ago today. As its halloween i thought i would ressurect this thread. How things have changed - less than 100 days later and 14 games, saints are top, clear of third by 6 points. in our wildest dreams none of us could have thought that. How are the rest of the telegraphs predictions doiing - leicester top, forest second and to have pompey above saints Anyway just wanted your thoughts for the next 3 months and interested to hear from anyone who originally posted. you could definately not say we thought we would run away with the league -we were very cautious. I will revist this thread in a nother 3 months and hopefully will still be as happy as i am now - what are the chances? table at 31.10.11 Championship table Sunday, 30 October 2011 15:35 UK P GD PTS 1 Southampton 14 17 30 2 West Ham 14 13 27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Crystal Palace 14 6 24 4 Middlesbrough 14 5 24 5 Derby 14 3 24 6 Hull 13 2 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Leeds 14 5 22 8 Birmingham 12 5 21 9 Cardiff 14 4 21 10 Brighton 14 1 20 11 Ipswich 14 -5 20 12 Peterborough 14 3 19 13 Blackpool 14 1 19 14 Leicester 14 0 19 15 Burnley 13 1 18 16 Reading 14 1 18 17 Millwall 14 -1 15 18 Portsmouth 14 -2 15 19 Barnsley 14 -3 15 20 Nott'm Forest 14 -10 14 21 Watford 14 -11 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Coventry 14 -6 12 23 Doncaster 14 -14 9 24 Bristol City 14 -15 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- predicting saints to finish 13th with the following comment Southampton With the likes of Alex Chamberlain, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert, will not want for attacking options. Jack Cork is also an exciting signing from Chelsea. But they will find the Championship punishes their occasional defensive lapses more harshly. Will beat some superb teams, but also lose to some abject ones. Prediction: 13th http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...3102/Championship-2011-12-season-preview.html full prediction table 1. Leicester 2.Nottingham Forest 3.Middlesbrough 4.Blackpool 5.West Ham 6.Cardiff 7.Brighton 8.Ipswich 9.Portsmouth 10.Reading 11.Leeds 12.Derby 13.Southampton 14.Burnley 15.Birmingham 16.Hull 17.Watford 18.Crystal Palace 19.Barnsley 20.Bristol City 21.Millwall 22.Doncaster 23.Coventry 24.Peterborough Harsh on birmingham and saints to finish behind brighton and pompey. good assessment or not? would you be pleased with that final table?
I wouldn't be too upset if we finished there. If we can do better than a lot of the Championship also-rans we would be in a good position to push in the next season. But I have a feeling that team spirit and continuity might count for something (ask Norwich). Still unconvinced about Leicester, they will face a lot of team buses and cup finals.
Reasonable assessment. Our defence was one of best in League 1, but we did tend to play knowing we could always score if we fell behind. Made a difference to know we could always come back after shipping 1 or 2 goals, but may be harder this year. We also play better against the better teams, so all in all the Telegraph has got it right. However, although immediately after the end of last season I would have gone for 13-16th, I'm beginning to hope we might do better than that.
I think quite a few of their predictions are laughable. I reckon they must have drawn them out of a hat. Reading in 10th for starters!
yes the statement is so Southampton - beating superb teams and losing to abject ones. Am i missing something about middlesborough and even blackpool. i would also be disappointed if we finished the season behind pompey
I dont quite agree with this reading 10th HAHA. Hull have bought in a fair amount to. Very harsh on us hull and birmingham. I think we should be chasing 10th-6th. All we can do now is prove them wrong.
There seems to be a lack of consideration for whether a team is weaker or stronger than last season. They have a number of clubs that haven't strengthened their lot doing better than last season?
Overall, our position is not far off where I'll think we'll be. I hope we do better, but that's my thought. They have a couple of odd ones, Deby high up; don't think Blackpool will do 4th, but I agree with their assessment on Birmingham and Middlesborough.
I'm sorry, Brighton will not finish 7th. What a joke! We are better equipped for the championship than them. They must have mixed up Brighton and Saints.
Don't agree with all the predictions but feel 10th to 13th place for us is realistic. Comments about the defence are fair - how many times did we fall behind last year for that to kick-start a revival for us to go on and get something from the game. The difference this season will be that the chances of overturning the teams after falling behind will be so much harder.
It maybe pre-season, but we have already seen a few defensive lapses. That said, we did just break a club record for clean sheets and if we do sign another centre back comparative to Fonte then we'll be better equipped for the more ruthless Championship attacks. Very encouraged by what I have seen in pre-season in terms of us keeping possession and feel confident we will have the ball more than we don't in the majority of matches. Think the position is a fair one for us, but the difference in opinion amongst us fans on teams like Blackpool, Portsmouth, Reading & Brighton just shows how tight this division is. I think for Saints the success of the season rests on the form of Rickie Lambert. 10-15 goals and we'll be mid-table, but if he can do a Grant Holt and get 20+ we could be in with a very good shout of the play offs
Norwich/Leeds/Millwall finished 2nd/7th/9th last year without spending too much after promotion. Seriously cannot see us outside the top 10 bearing in mind we went up with a far better GD in L1 than any of those 3, and the signings/team spirit seems spot on. I'll go as far as saying we're (just) more likely than not to be top 6. Lat
I don't know weather it's just me, but I can't see us in the top 10 this season. Would be over the moon with mid table and stability. I think there's a lot of saints fan expecting great things this year, where I see it as a team building season, getting a good grounding for the future.
Predicting league places is is a bit of a lottery so who knows where we will end up, but the comment is quite accurate I would say. Pretty much agree with this. It wasn't only that we sometimes fell behind but also that we escaped from a number of lapses. Teams in Div 1 weren't always capable of punishing mistakes. This season's defence is at the moment, the same as last season and if it remains like that I expect to see us opened up from time to time, particularly down the wings.
Basically, at the end of last season most of us thought that we'd finish 10-16 in the Championship, but how dare anyone else suggest that
I envisage us finishing 10th or thereabouts... I think that West Ham will finish up in the top two though, and will definitely finish above Blackpool, players like Kevin Nolan are undoubtedly of Premier League quality. I'd also say that their team is better than the team Newcastle (with Nolan) romped the Championship not so long ago with.
I agree with their comments. We took a friend who is football mad and very intelligent to a Saints game and he used to watch a lot of football back in Nigeria. He watches Southend United occaisonally but he said it isn't great to watch due to Sturrock's long ball, so we invited him to tag along with us to a Saints game. We saw Saints 4 - 1 Swindon, and even then he said to us "Going forward your team is exciting and dangerous, but you go to sleep too often at the back, and you will get punished more in the next division." I agree with this comment, and would like to see a new face for exactly this reason. I always find that watching Harding he loses his man and doesn't have the pace to get back, as happened that day against Swindon. Dickson for me at Left Back. Still, offer me 13th with some great victories right now and I would take it.
