I also seem to remember in a recent season top three were still in contention until last day. The team that lost out lost the play off semi a week later. Don't remember the actual teams of course. Wouldn't surprise me if third team does exact same this season. Having bagged 95 plus points and not going up would be devastating for whoever would suffer that
Thought it looked weird Leicester having 5 of 7 at home. They're actually away to Plymouth, not that it matters as Plymouth have secured a cheap return ticket to League One
Season we won the Championship under Biesla, I know its not quite as you have stated Eire, but its a pretty similar position WBA were second on 82 points, Brentford 3rd on 81 points and Fulham 4th on 80 Points. WBA draw at home against QPR to finish on 83 points. Brentford lost at home to Barnsley so stayed 3rd on 81 points and Fulham draw away to Wigan to finish 4th on 81 points. Brentford lost in the play off final. Closest I can find to your scenario was the 2015/16. Burnley were top on 90 points, Boro 2nd on 89 points and Brighton 3rd on 86 with Hull 6 points behind in 4th. Burnley won to finish on 93 points. Brighton were away to Middlesborough and needed to win by 2 goals to finish second. They won 1-0 so Middlesborough finished second and Brighton 3rd. Brighton then lost 3-1 on aggregate to Sheff Wed (who were 15 points behind Brighton in the League), who were then beaten in the final by Hull, who had finished 6 points behind Brighton in the league
15/16 was a tough one for Brighton. Lost out on autos due to gd and actually played 2nd place Boro away on the final game. Lost the semi as you pointed out.
It more or less happened to us 2019 under Bielsa. The game against Villa at Elland Road was right at the end of April with us still having a mathematical chance of auto's. That was when Bielsa allowed the walk in goal and sealed Sheffield United's promotion. We ended up third and lost the Play Off Semi to Derby who had finished sixth. Not sure if my memory serves me correctly but, weren't we also the first team to win the away leg in the Play Off's and get knocked out in the second leg? For those desperate for Promotion, top 2 is a must. I cheer us on every game and "want" promotion but.............. this year has been so much more enjoyable than the previous two
Spot on. This year has been proper football with almost every game highly entertaining, lots of cheering at the tv etc whereas the last two seasons were well, totally forgettable washouts and a lesson in how to get almost everything wrong
Yeah think you're correct regarding the playoff stat (not sure if that was all divisions or just Championship?) Mathematical chance...
The best thing about this season is no VAR. All that pathetic waiting around for ten minutes for a decision. Also, if we had VAR, Leicester’s second goal at ER would’ve counted, they’d have gone 2-0 up, and we’d probably have been out of contention for the autos.
Yup, Bielsa decided to keep Janson benched. It was the game with the mix-up between Cooper and Casilla.
Yeah, Byram played 2nd half without sprinting. Dunno what the issue was but he couldn't run at pace. If Gruev comes back, he'll go to midfield alongside Kamara and Gray will go to right back. Kamara was ill over the weekend with a heavy cold so hopefully he is a bit better this weekend. Hopefully Rutter is a little better after his op this weekend but Gnonto doesn't look like making it. The more worrying aspect is that Rodon had to use pain killers to get through Easter after suffering back spasms. Having suffered myself with back spasms, he could be ruled out at any time over the next few weeks until they subside. If they subside.
That would be disastrous, Rodon and Ampadu are key to this defence. Hopefully they can get him right during the few days “rest” between games. We’ve been fortunate with injuries so far, don’t need that to change at the business end of the season.
