Boudewijn Zenden says a top half finish remains the target with two Premier League games remaining. The Black Cats are currently 12th in the table, just two points behind Stoke who occupy eighth spot. "Last season it could have gone a few ways and we ended up in 13th place," Zenden told BBC Newcastle. "The last two games will be important to see if we can push for 10th place, which was always the objective." Zenden added: "We've been looking over our shoulder, because we've been on a bad run [one win in 11], but now it's a case of seeing if we can hold onto this form." Meanwhile Saturday's 2-1 win at Bolton secured top flight safety for Zenden and his team-mates, and returned the Wearsiders to winning ways after last weekend's 3-0 defeat by Fulham. Success was also achieved despite a crippling list of absentees, with 11 first-team players ruled out through injury. "Friday we trained with only 12 first-team players, and the rest was filled up with youth team players," Zenden continued. "It's great for them to get this opportunity and to see things up close, and it made things easier for the gaffer to point out his first eleven, because there wasn't much choice. "We knew we had to stick to our game plan, we knew what Bolton would be about, we were solid, and we had really good team spirit." 12 players training, makes saturdays result even more be-wildering
I think we'll either win both or lose both. Wolves is a very intriguing encounter as they are fighting for their lives. All we have to play for is finishing above them lot up the road, unfortunately I don't think that matters very much to the set of players we have, as witnessed in the derby games. I'm worried we'll see a 'job already done' performance on Saturday and micks team will nick a win. I think we'll be going to upton park with west ham already down, so I think we'll get the 'we're sorry, please forgive us we'll be better next season" perfermance from West Ham and they'll beat us 2/3-0 leaving there fans asking where has this been all season. Orrrrrrrrrr we pay our fans back with 2 big performances get 6 points, finish above the skunks and ill be a relatively happy man
If we win two and finish in eigth place I'll give Bruce the benefit of the doubt for one more season and see where he can take us from there.
I believe we can get anything from between zero and six points from the last two games, not that I'm hedging my bets or anything..
We should know how wolves will play as their manager was once ours. As for West Ham it is a bit more difficult but we have played them before this season.
Naturally I want us to win on Saturday but if we lose to Wolves I won't be too despondent if it helps them avoid relegation. MrRAW looks to have covered all the options by saying we can get between zero and six points so I think I'll put my money on us getting five points
