The Play Offs 2025

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Brilliant job, there’s another young French manager who’s reached the playoffs as well in his first ever term in the championship. New and up and coming as well. Doesn’t quite get the same credit from his own fans though :emoticon-0105-wink:

Good season from RLB no doubt about it. That said, I do value our squad as top 6 on paper, price and pitch. I also think the horrendous end from Beale and Dodds gave us a bit of a underwhelming view of some of our players and how they should be performing.
 
Good season from RLB no doubt about it. That said, I do value our squad as top 6 on paper, price and pitch. I also think the horrendous end from Beale and Dodds gave us a bit of a underwhelming view of some of our players and how they should be performing.
Agree, Can’t wait to get this first match out the way to see the lay of the land. I’m off work all week and I know I shouldn’t but I’m willing the time away !
 
People keep saying that but I'm not so sure, if he's fit enough for the bench he's fit enough to start.

Even if he's replaced at half time he'd make them very wary of committing too far forward.

They're poor away from home and know they need to score in the first leg ...

... that's where we can take advantage I believe.

The only just beat Portsmouth with the last kick of a game they could've easily having only two other goal attempts ...

... it's great seeing their fans claiming they'll batter us, home and away, especially after their defeats at Luton and Plymouth.

We're much better than they think.
Their fans are saying that, wow, it’s quite blatantly obvious we took our foot off the gas once we’d qualified. Miles ahead of them at the time as well. Overly confident, champion let’s get them battered.
 
Their fans are saying that, wow, it’s quite blatantly obvious we took our foot off the gas once we’d qualified. Miles ahead of them at the time as well. Overly confident, champion let’s get them battered.

On their forum they’re discussing Wembley and who their opponents will be …

… thankfully for them it’s not Plymouth or Luton <laugh>

Even there local newspaper are scouting our forums, cherry-picking the comments and stoking up the 'bitter rivals' shyte.

‘Get hammered!’ - Sunderland reaction to play-off showdown against bitter rivals Coventry City

Coventry City opposition news from CoventryLive as we take a look at how the fact that Sunderland will be playing the Sky Blues in the play-off semi-finals has gone down in the North East


"Sunderland fans are fearing the worst with some predicting their team will get “hammered” and “battered” by Coventry City after fate has thrown the two bitter rivals together in the play-offs."
 
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I don’t believe that for one second mate. 24 points away from Leeds and Burnley (who scored more and conceded a load less than we did). Closer to 18th than 2nd points wise!
Don't forget the 15 points we dropped in the last 15 games by fielding weakened sides, trying different tactics.
Had we been still in with a chance of top 2 we would have approached those games totally different and picked up more points. So no we were really 24 points away from the top 2
 
Don't forget the 15 points we dropped in the last 15 games by fielding weakened sides, trying different tactics.
Had we been still in with a chance of top 2 we would have approached those games totally different and picked up more points. So no we were really 24 points away from the top 2

Even in the last game the manager was trying out players in positions they may have to play if we have injuries, etc.

Bringing on Ballard was another example as is playing Enzo on the left.

I doubt Jobe, Neil, Enzo, etc, will play in those positions so surely it's clear the result was secondary.

It's a risky strategy but we've lost out by playing it safe in the past ...

... it's certain Lampard won't have a clue how RLB will approach these games and that's to our advantage.
 
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Every game counts, after a full season we are nowhere near, not even close. Everyone has injuries, it’s part of the game. Anyway, let’s see if we can suddenly flip our performances in the next week or so…

That's like saying all clubs have gangs of hooligans to excuse the worst offenders, easy to trot out …

… losing Ballard, Alese and Cirkin is serious for a club without a big squad of high priced replacements.

We had a bad run of injuries, at the worst time, and it hit us hard.
 
That's like saying all clubs have gangs of hooligans to excuse the worst offenders, easy to trot out …

… losing Ballard, Alese and Cirkin is serious for a club without a big squad of high priced replacements.

We had a bad run of injuries, at the worst time, and it hit us hard.
Sheff United had it just as bad with injuries, not that it matters now. Hopefully we’ve got a few back for Friday as the bench has been weak for a while now