It's been a fascinating Championship this year and congratulations to Bournemouth and Watford. By general agreement, Bournemouth have played the best football this season and have gone up in the right way. And despite what I said at the time about Watford being 'lucky', they deserve promotion because they kept their nerve right to the end. For us, on to the play-offs. I hope we give different players (e.g. VOO) a chance against Fulham because I agree with other posters who have said that we are starting to look tired. Middlesbrough look a tough nut to crack and oddly I could see Ipswich having the best chance of beating them because Boro seem to thrive on sitting back against teams who try to play football (and no one can accuse Ipswich of doing that). Derby scare me - they've had a lot of time to adapt to the idea of being in the play offs and they have their forwards back now - and Brentford (if they leapfrog Ipswich) are the only team to outplay us this season at CR. To be honest, though, I'd still be happier for Brentford to make the play-offs at the expense of Ipswich. The thought of Ipswich getting into the Prem at our expense is almost too much to bear.
Ipsquit away to Blackburn, Derby home to Reading, Brentford home to Wigan, Wolves home to Millwall. If the scrum lose, possible, Brentford would need a four goal swing to overtake them, Derby with a much better goal difference, just a draw. Wolves could also overtake them but would need a large victory to do so. I cannot see either Scummers or Derby missing out on the playoffs. I see Ipsquit drawing and Derby winning to leapfrog them into fifth place.
It's definitely been an entertaining season and whilst we all desperately want PL status, a little bit of me will be quietly satisfied with another crack at the title next season. I'd also love to see Odjidja get some game time but playoffs need momentum and it may not be the appropriate time to start tinkering, assuming these elite athletes can crawl there way through three more games. I'm nervous about Derby especially if we have to play them over two legs, but whatever happens in the next couple of weeks, I think we're in a good spot right now.
How does ticketing work? I'm guessing season ticket holders get first refusal, but will there be many on general sale?
Here are the dates by the way, looks like if we play that lot the games will definitely both be Saturday lunchtime kick offs, if not and we finish 3rd then they will both be on Friday nights. That could be a long old trip back from Middlesbrough if we get beaten away in the second leg! (Won't happen, just sayin') http://www.football-league.co.uk/ne...tball-league-play-offs-confirmed-2323292.aspx Edit: actually our second leg will be at home, regardless of who or when we play so that nightmare scenario can't happen anyway.
I realise that a balance between keeping it going and preparing for the play-offs needs to be struck but I would definitely like to see key players rested or not play the full game on Saturday. Any injury niggles don't need to be risked. The first semi-final play-off game will be just about a week after then the other leg a week after that. With Grabban out until the final, if we get there, we need to look after Hooper & Jerome. I'd like to see VOO in action, perhaps Carlton Morris/McGrandles/Andreu too. I think Redmond needs a good run out to really show what he can do. And protect Wes and Tettey. It'll be a funny atmosphere on Saturday but we should still celebrate what the team has done this season and give them a rousing send-off.
The ticketing info for the semi's has been announced. http://www.canaries.co.uk/news/arti...ship-play-off-semi-final-tickets-2428752.aspx For the final (if we get there), Derby and QPR both got just over 37,000 each for Wembley.
Strange to think that we have taken 10 points from a possible 12 against the two auto promoted teams and yet we have to go through the play-offs. We have loaned out both Lafferty and RVW and with Becchio (where has he gone?) well and truly out of favour we have only two main strikers to rely on. Sorry, not feeling confident about play-offs. Results against Wigan (home), Middlesboro (home) and Rotherham (away) were disappointing and below expectations for a team with Premiership aspirations.
But when you factor in that we only took two (2) points from a possible 12 against lowly Rotherham and Reading, it paints a slightly different picture.
The if only column starts here and goes on for a long time. The soft goal against Derby was 2 points again and not beating Charlton at home was another three. I could take another season here though and if we aren't good enouigh for the Prem it is not a bad second prize.
