Fascinating reading this, a league made up from matches solely between the top eight: 1 Burnley....................11 5 5 1 17 9 20 2 Leicester...................9 5 2 2 13 9 17 3 Wigan......................10 5 2 3 12 10 17 4 Brighton...................12 4 4 4 12 10 16 5 Forest......................11 4 3 4 17 17 15 6 Reading...................10 3 4 3 14 12 13 7 Derby.......................12 4 0 8 10 19 12 8 QPR..........................11 1 4 6 7 16 7 Perhaps a truer reflection of the relative strengths of the contenders...
Thats exactly what I said the other day - our record v the top 8 is awful. Terrible reading, and shows why we are 4th.
All good and well, but that James Corden fellow grates after a while. Too full of himself. I like what the Managing Director guest on the Open All Rs podcast said about this subject; something along these lines.... 'Wouldn't it be just Rangers to go and beat Nottingham Forest away in a second round leg'.
Not sure any of that will count for diddly when/if we contest the play offs. Two semis and then a one-off final can go either way.
Awful reading and couldn't of believed it myself . We really have been poor still Wigan could do some damage to those top two Maybe still time for a twist Have to keep believing it will happen
Disappointing to see, and suggests that we will be lucky to get through the playoffs if that is our record against the others we are likely to face.
When were were in the PL, we lost every six pointer but beat teams at the top. Now we lose virtually every six pointer but again beat the teams at the other end. We do like making it hard for ourselves by failing to beat the teams around us.
Not quite sure how much "damage" they can do to us other than take 3 points of us. Not really going to have any effect on us being promoted
... not just the top two ... they are away at yours before we play them ... they are on a roll no doubt but have a tough run of fixtures coming up ... they play their game in hand on Tuesday against Yeovil, which they should win (but would still leave them 19 points behind us on equal games) ... they then have Watford at home, you guys away, Bolton away (very much a local derby) before us at home ... ... to answer your question, with a 19 point gap (assuming they win their game in hand), I'm not sure they can really damage us by taking 3 points ... they are on an excellent run admittedly, but we are currently on the Championship's longest unbeaten run of the season and have won our last four scoring 3 goals in each ... we also appear to have unearthed another real talent in Riyad Mahrez (watch his contribution against Blackpool) who has only just been given his chance following Lloyd Dyer's injury... so at the moment we would happily play anyone ...
Leicester have the toughest run-in as the table shows with five games against top eight opposition, however, with 17 points to spare over 3rd place it would take a monumental blow-up to deny them promotion. Burnley have only lost three games all season and I can't see them suddenly losing more than that in the final ten games so the top two places look done and dusted. I'd still expect Leicester to top the 100 point mark and Burnley to make the 90s. Both these teams have proved the significance of playing settled sides and avoiding serious injury pile-ups through the season, they both richly deserve to go up. We have to concentrate on (a) finishing 3rd or 4th and (b) avoiding Wigan over two legs. I'm not overly confident on either being achieved...
Maybe Nigel Pearson is a good option for our manager next season when he is dispatched by Leicester by Christmas?
