Paullow

Aye, need to win 2-0, but they haven't half closed in. Ipswich still doing really well, although will still be kicking themselves from last week. 1 up after 95 mins, ended up losing 2-1 to Cardiff, Huge response from them yesterday though.

That Leeds ref was the one at Forest in the Championship back in the day. Was it 2 reds and 2 pens?

Wolves do still have to play Forest at home, which was postponed either last week or the week before, but this was only Wolves' 2nd match since Feb 18th, and they have played 5 matches fewer than us, so the matches may catch up on them by the time they play Forest, especially with them not being full time. Still in a very good position even if we did go on to lose, but obviously that margin for error decreases in the final 4 matches.

They played 51 mins that half, so hopefully no injuries on our side.

Yeah, Leicester would have preferred the original decision from the ref, especially with Chelsea already missing a penalty earlier, but even if they scored, it would have been better playing 15+9 with 11 men chasing a goal, than try to hang on for 24 mins, plus almost certainly extra time as well, if you did manage to keep them out in the time remaining.

It is now.

2-0, grim.

They are losing 1-0 as well. At the start of the day they were only 11/10, so not odds on against the 3rd bottom side, and their GD is poor compared to Palace +9 vs +25, but nobody seems to want to win that league. Birmingham strung 6 wins together and looked very likely, but then they have lost the last 2, which isn't great in only a 22 game season. Only 1 point separating the top 4 as it stands, although plenty of time for Sunderland to change their match.

1-0 Wolves

Probably a 25% chance this goes in, but 20 mins and potential ET to hang on for, but probably an 80% chance the pen is scored, and then quite hard to come back. Tough one.

I was going to ask the same Q ask Keown. What would you rather have? At this stage?

Crystal Palace lose to a bottom half side in the league above, and while Sunderland do have to play them and Charlton before the end of the season, Sunderland are in the best position in that league, I think for the first time, there was always a chance that others could win games in hand and pass them, but that will no longer be the case. They are also only 10 mins into their match today (0-0)

Odds are 11/4 Wolves, Newcastle 8/13. Definitely the hardest game on paper of the 5, by far, but they were closer than I thought.

Literally just stuck YouTube on the TV about 50 seconds before the goal as I assumed the tie was over. I'll watch again until if/when Chelsea score again.

Thought Liverpool were at home for some reason today, it being at Old Trafford does make it more interesting for the neutral. You can get 7/2 for Man Utd to win, which looks quite generous IMO.

Shame the Leeds match isn't on at 2pm instead of 3pm. I'd imagine a massive % would be switching over to the big FA Cup match at 3.30pm.

Quite enjoyed this interview

Big game tomorrow, Wolves away at 2pm. Doesn't look like there will be a stream, but there is audio on the Wolves website, although I guess if you can't actually see the game then NFTV's stream would probably be the better alternative. By far the hardest match on paper of the remaining 5. If we did win then that would surely be the league all but secured, although a draw wouldn't be a disaster as it would mean 3 wins from the final 4 would guarantee the title, regardless of what anyone else does.

Just found this thread:

Of course I get the struggles, but again, I was originally responding to that Thumbhead's post about why wouldn't anyone accept the following criteria at the start of the season, which is obviously before the injury nightmare, tough draws, fixture congesting etc. became apparent, suggesting what we have done and where we currently are now would have been acceptable before a ball was kicked, and like many, I disagreed, and still do. That was my original point. Taking everything into account, I'd have still liked a few extra points on the board, especially against the likes of Luton x 2, Bournemouth, Forest etc. where we would have still had enough quality, despite the set backs, to have picked up more points than we have, and be sitting in a healthier position. To go from having the joint best defense in the league last season to suddenly having only 6 teams concede more in the whole league, is frustrating, and some of the goals we have conceded have been pathetic, and in many cases we need 3, 4, 5 goals to get any kind of result.

Because the question of the discussion was literally would you take that at the start of the season, and no I wouldn't, because pretty much everything that we've achieved is below par from what was expected at the start of the season. Yes, there's been circumstances, and unfortunate issues, but to be 2 points clear of Fulham in 12th at this stage of the season is pretty poor. 12 defeats in 28 is very poor, it just hasn't been a good season at all.

Fuckin hell

Just looking on another forum (boxing one) and the thread was expectations for the start of next season, and this was mine on June 29th, which you can barely read: Should know far more by the end of the window, but something like 5th or 6th, stay in some form of European football beyond the CL group stages, and a reasonable run in one of the domestic cups would be a decent follow up season, especially if it was 5th and that got a bonus CL spot this year. In terms of pre season odds Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Man Utd were all expected to finish above us, and we were kind of in and around the Chelsea odds, some shorter some longer to win the league, top 6, top 4 etc. then Spurs. So 5th to 7th would be par and if we were to finish 7th, and be 'best of the rest', I think most would have been fine with that, not delighted, and it would have been nice to to finish above one of those, but no complaints if those teams squads, budgets etc. lack of Europe in some cases, proved too much, but I don't even see us finishing 7th this season as we are just not consistent enough.

It's actually 7 points, so 3 wins off 6th place, and we're only one defeat from 12th, or 2 defeats from 13th. We've made a right pigs ear of some of our most 'favourable' fixtures in recent weeks, so there's literally not one match you look at and think 'we'll definitely win that one', or even 'we should win that one', especially with the amount of goals we are conceding. We're probably on course to finish 8th or 9th, which I would consider below par at the start of the season, and I certainly wouldn't have taken 8th or 9th if offered. Nice to have a cup run, but still no silverware, or Wembley appearance, and even Bruce managed a couple of QFs. We were second favourites to win the CL group, but ended up out of Europe completely, even if a tough group. I think most would have been expecting some form of European football to continue into February, especially when sitting on 4 points from the first 2 games. 1 point from the final 4 games was very poor. At the start of the season I would have taken 6th, stay in Europe beyond the group stage, and really reach the business end of one of the cups, like a SF and feel within touching distance of a final / trophy, and we're extremely unlikely to do all 3, so no, while I'm still Howe in, even if we lost the last 10 games, it's been a very underwhelming season, particularly from early December onwards, and I don't particularly look forward to matches at the moment, as I know it's likely to be underwhelming and there's just a massive lack of jeopardy on any of the games.

Fulham leading Spurs 1-0. Start of the season you'd expect be pleased with that, but Fulham would just be 2 points behind us if they won.