Paullow

Brighton resting a few key players ahead of Man Utd on Thursday. MacA, Mitoma, and Caicedo all on the bench. If we beat Southampton tomorrow, and Man Utd drop points against Villa, probably be in a position to want Brighton to win that one, or certainly at least draw.

It did feel huge at the time, and to be fair, I said in the middle of our poor run, which it kind of was because it was in the only win in a stretch of 8 league games, but at the time, it was also made it 7 wins and 2 draws from 9, so we weren't actually doing badly then. But the Wolves win was absolutely massive. We played well, had a cracking stretch just before half time, took the lead, but then we're pegged back to 1-1 with 20 mins to go and looking like just one win in 9, on the back of the cup final defeat, we were already outside the Champions League spots, and a chance that the season could just fizzle out: https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/10-march-2023/

Wolves, late Almiron winner. Fulham was the 1-0 in the middle of the poor run.

I could have done it from the start of January when our position was far worse, but Southampton won a few games around that time, but it's crazy going back to Feb 25th, so only 14 months ago, and seeing where the teams were in the league, and where they are now: https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/25-february-2022/ We jhad picked up a bit, just outside the relegation zone, but still with a shocking GD and a chance to fall back into the bottom 3 if Burnley won their game in hand. Southampton were in the top half, 35 points, had only lost 7 games, and an outside chance of Europa League / Conference football. Fast forward 14 months and the respective league records are: Newcastle: P46 W26 D11 L9 PTS 89 Southampton: P45 W7 D8 L30 PTS 29 One couldn't have gone much better from that position, the other couldn't have gone much worse.

Shite day of live football tomorrow. I guess West Ham will still need 2 or 3 points to be absolutely sure of survival, the sooner the better for them before their Euro semi final, but they are like 40/1 to go down, so it's clearly not going to happen, and Palace vs West Ham at 12.30pm on BT is pretty meh for the neutral. Only 2 PL 3pm games, and no 5.30pm match. West Brom vs Norwich at 5.30pm will be all but academic if Coventry beat Birmingham at 3pm - Norwich officially out of playoff contention and WBA will be relying on snookers. I know Man Utd (like ourselves) are on TV pretty much all the time, but they should have had Fulham vs Man City at 5.30pm on Saturday since neither of those were playing on Thursday and then had Man Utd vs Aston Villa as the 2pm Sky game on the Sunday. I guess there is a lot to be decided at 3pm in the football league. It would still be nice to see Brighton drop further points, just in case, and I'd also like to see Forest get something in their match.

Quite interesting in the Scottish 2nd tier. Dundee drew 0-0 at home to Cove tonight with the latter moving off the bottom of the table, but that result also ensures there will be a title decider on the final day. Dundee are 2 points clear of Queen's Park who play playoff chasing Greenock Morton tomorrow, but Dundee are away at Queen's Park on the final day - if QP win tomorrow, they will just need a point for the title and promotion, but if they fail to win tomorrow then they will have to win on the final day. So I guess if it's 0-0 in stoppage time and they get a corner, they may as well bring the keeper up. Queen's Park are chasing a third successive promotion.

Full time 2-3. Didn't realise Huddersfield played Reading on the final day, so that means Blackpool are officially down.

This match will go on to the 105th or so minute. Lengthy stoppage and Bpool down to 10 men as they have used up all their sub windows so can't replace the injured player. Would be good if Millwall could nick another goal for their GD, but the most important thing is making sure they take 3 points and then ask questions of others.

2-3 now. Cracking game, no idea which way it's going to go. Often these Champo Friday night matches just peter out, but this one is very big for both of them. Hoping Millwall win because of the Sunderland factor, but hope it isn't a draw as it doesn't really help either of them.

Crazy how we drew 11 of our first 22 league games, exactly half, but we have now gone 10 games without one

Shorter than you'd think and we were 7th favourite across the board, but that would definitely be a case of bookies covering their backs and anticipated money going on.

Around 8/1

Saw that at a couple of bookies like PP etc. but think it must have been a palpable error. https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-4-finish Generally 1/14 or 1/16 which is still short enough, but Liverpool best price 5/1, not the 9/1 they were at the time.

It wasn't during our game, but BT Sport out of sync there with that Case header.

Sonny!

GET THE FUCK IN MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Adam P

Joelinton has had a tough start.

He's not even 29 and a half. Thought he was far older than that for some reason, like at least 32. Aye, it's surely too early for him just to be a lad in the changing room. He could easily have 3 or 4 decent years at a yo-yo type club.

Just saw this on redcafe's top 4 thread: Spurs were done last weekend and Brighton are done today. And if the Scousers put together a run to finish 5th or 6th, it will be fecking perfect. Thursday night football for all those magical Anfield European nights.

Massive win for Forest. Many had written them off, but they are currently outside the relegation zone and have Southampton at home the game after next. Arsenal at home in their penultimate match won't be as daunting now either, so they've given themselves a fighting chance. I hope they stay up, the mad b@stards

Yeah, was just going to say the same as samp. Shame Liverpool didn't drop points as that was one of their hardest remaining games, but Brighton losing is a big advantage. We knew we had a 9 point gap on Liverpool, which is now 6 with a game in hand, but if you just went by pure league record-wise / PPG Brighton were in a stronger position than Lpool, and were slightly shorter odds to make top 4 at the start of the day (than Lpool), but that's almost them out of the equation now. We know that 4 wins and a draw will definitely do it for us, possibly 4 wins, and less with any points Liverpool drop. Arsenal and Brighton (H) have probably become more manageable after tonight's results as well, Brighton far less likely to be a shootout now, win only one of those, beat Leicester and Saints at home, and then one of Everton and Leeds away, and it'll probably be all wrapped up going into the final day, and 4 wins from those 6 is surely manageable?

It will be interesting to see how the new changes go. I think the two group system from around 20 years ago was generally unpopular as it meant more matches for the superior teams, but it was great for teams that don't qualify every year, like us. We could have drawn Barcelona or Inter over two legs in the last 16 and probably gone out then, but as it was, we got an extra 6 matches, over 10,000 went over to Italy, more chances to pit ourselves against huge clubs and great teams, and we got a couple of wins against an out of sorts Leverkusen. At our stage, the potential idea of a guaranteed 8 matches, 4 at home sounds good, although if / when we get more established, and it's less of a novelty, and competing on multiple fronts, we probably would want less matches, but that's obviously far down the line.

From the 2024/25 season, it increases from 32 to 36 teams and two of the four extra places will be awarded on the performance of a country's clubs in Europe over the previous season. So by no means guaranteed 5 places, but a good chance if the English clubs do well.

It's currently £27.67. Obviously won't be cashing out. Quite a nice position to be in. Still hoping they don't come up (and would prefer them to still miss out on the top 6), but a hefty return should it happen.