afar

May just be a case of can they catch Boro and not finish bottom of the league rather than overcome the 10 point deficit to safety now. I would not want to be a mackem right now (or anytime really but..) since there is nothing really to hope for even after relegation. They've got such an ill fitted squad for the 2nd tier, their best player is away, the manager doesn't seem to have a clue to the extent that makes you wonder how he had such a successful time at Everton, they can't even buy themselves out of it because of their mountain of debt. They've tended to quickly bounce back up again following relegations in previous seasons and I'm pretty sure most of their fanbase are thinking the same will happen again, and they regard the champ as a pretty crappy division. The silver lining for the season for them is this is a chance to cleanse, get rid of the high earners, waste of spacers and start again. Unfortunately for them, it's not going to be that easy. If I were them, I would make a priority in getting David Wagner from Huddersfield, assuming Huddersfield don't go up and TBH I don't fancy them in the playoffs. I know people will question why would he leave Huddersfield for the Mackems, and rightly so but Sunderland are a much bigger fish and he may see that as a better long term project. He's ideal for what they need, someone who has shown this year that he can turn around a team almost immediately, on a small budget and he knows the loan market very well, based on the quality of his loanees this season, loans are going to be something Sunderland will need to lean on very heavily next year.

His goals tally is what 14 in all comps, that would have been good enough to be top scorer for us in all but 2 season over the last decade, pretty darn impressive, the goal last night was a beauty.

If/when this happen it will be the 4th promotion I have witnessed. 83/84 was a celebration and the end of the fairytale KK story, it was expected but the previous year's failing, although we had been a pretty run of the mill 2nd div club when we sign the England Captain I think a lot thought it was a certainty we would go up in the first season. There was more expectation on the 2nd season once we added to that team with the likes of the returning Terry Mc, brought in Beardsley and brought through Waddle, finishing 3rd in the final table which was enough for promotion back then was the minimum most expected. In 92/93, the turnaround from the previous year's calamitous season was simply amazing, practically every one of KK's signings was a huge success. I remember the night at Grimsby when promotion was confirmed, the celebrations were amazing. In 09/10 I can't really remember when promotion was secured, I remember the Plymouth away game where we secured the title but it was more of a relief that we were out of that division rather than a celebration that we won promotion like it 92/93. This year if/when it happens it'll be more a feeling of 09/10 than 92/93, we need to get out of this division, we should celebrate that success but no open top buses or civic receptions , like we had in 92/93.

Could very well be, can see Huddersfield taking around 14 to 15 points out of the remaining 21, since we are 10 ahead with a huge GD advantage then 4 points may be all we need. One thing I am certain of though is Rafa won't be just content with securing promotion, he wants the title too, Brighton may have a slightly different mindset, especially after the heartache last year.

Could you imagine if we had managed to sign Knockheart at the beginning of the season, him and Ritchie in the same team and Brighton severely weakened, we probably would have been up weeks ago already.

Looking at those I think we have three potential banana skins in Leeds, Sheff Wed and Cardiff. If we win the other 3 though we'll still be promoted surely. Brighton really only have one tricky looking fixture in Villa away. Huddersfield could find Derby and Fulham tough, the extra game also making it more tough for them. I think we'll win 3 draw 1 and lose 2 of our remaining. Can see Brighton winning 4 draw 1 and lose 1, Huddersfield my prediction would be that they win 4 draw 2 and lose 1. If that all transpires, Brighton are champs and we are promoted. It would be disappointing not to win the title having been the club at the top for most of the season, but having said that I may be overestimating Brighton's away form and they have 4 games away and only 2 at home left.

That's awesome.

Good on him for apologizing but that doesn't excuse him and his crew for utter incompetency. Having said that Gayle needs to learn to hold his run a bit, if the proper rules had been applied and Ritchie retook and subsequently miss that would have been just as bad, no reason to be that fast off the mark, with his pace, he's probably gonna get there ahead of the others anyway.

I'll be shitting myself about anyone until it's mathematically certain, I honestly couldn't take another year in this division. People may say it's fun winning most weeks and visiting clubs they've not been to in a while and I get that, but really the referee tonight is a shining example of why this is such a second rate place to be in and one you want to avoid at all costs. As for Reading, thought Huddersfield had hit a bit of a wall but tonight's result for them will help them, but it's still almost mission impossible for either them or Reading to catch Brighton or ourselves, the difference in GD makes it even tougher. It's looked lie Brighton and us going up automatically practically all season and surely it'll finish that way, entirely in our own hands now, only a monumental collapse and a near perfect run of form from the chasing pack will stop it now.

Win the next two games and we are up, probably our two hardest games left. Great win for Huddersfield tonight with the game in hand they are 7 points adrift so still a threat but games are running out fast now.

YES !!!!!

Perez has been so disappointing for me this season, he's had his odd moments, but missed too many chances, this is a division he should be cutting to bits.

Not good enough performance though again at home, why do we struggle so ?

if Gayle has fouled, it's stupid and could be hugely costly. Just watched that clip, lol obviously he's no where near the player.

Not got a good feeling on this, we should be ahead obviously but we're not, we need to create a lot more in the 2nd half. A draw is not the end of the world though, especially if Huddersfield continue to draw against Norwich, moves us to 9 points ahead of Reading with a much better GD.

That could in the end cost us a place in the PL, I don't think it will but that's just not acceptable, a ref needs to know the rules, everyone else surely can't be wrong ?

That one is over, hopefully it keeps us on our toes a little ahead of a game where we could so easily just go through the motions.

Kind of set up for it isn't it, however a draw for them is a great result, mightn't be enough in the whole scheme of things but would certainly give them something to latch onto.

And this from an attacking perspective is where we need to improve should we go up. Gayle deserves a chance in the top flight, but we really need to upgrade the 10 position and the other wing to Ritchie. if we do that well keep Shelvey and Hayden together and fit, I'm sure we'll score a lot more goals and under rafa we'll always have a good defensive record.

Brum hit the bar not long after they conceded and also had another good chance. Brighton wanted yet another soft penalty apparently at the end of the half, they've been getting those calls all season one of the reasons why they've been so good against the weak teams. We've not been so lucky.

Reading 2 up, could be they are the team we need to check ourselves against in the marker for automatic instead of Huddersfield. They've hit some form and have a striker on fire, 8 points behind us now but played a game more.

That stays like that and that's another team we can forget about.

If Villa climb into the playoffs, they'll win them IMO, Bruce has a knack for them and they'll have serious momentum.

Off the top Hopefully not for long though. Both teams should win their midweek games on paper at least.

I was hard on him mid season, when I thought he wasn't really contributing enough but over the course of the season he's really been huge, it's difficult to pick a player of the season because there are a few to pick from, my vote would probably go to Shelvey because without him we are nowhere near the team we need to be, but Ritchie, Gayle and Clark run him pretty close. 12 million in today's market is a steal.