Paullow

Liverpool losing and Brighton not winning were my main two hopes today (not too fussed about Fulham, but guess it's not a bad thing them losing). One is in the books, and the other is not looking likely, so aye, happy as it stands. Would have preferred Carlisle to win their big match on a personal note being a Tynedale lad, but they've just fallen behind to Orient (who are now down to 10), but obviously irrelevant to most Newcastle fans.

Sunderland do have quite a nice run of games coming up - Hull (H), Cardiff (A), Birmingham (H), Huddersfield (H). They don't have a great home record, and some of those are fighting for their lives, and doing OK at the moment, but it is a chance for them to get 10 or so points, and the results today are going for them at the moment with those above them Bburn, Norwich, Coventry and Watford losing or already lost, WBA and Millwall drawing (each other) is quite positive for them too. It'll be tough for them, but if they do string some wins, then they could be back in with half a chance of the PO's.

It's strange a huge city like Sheffield having two teams pretty much the same size, you could argue either way, but neither really doing anything these past 30 years. Rarely in the top flight, or just hanging on if they are, and both having spells in the 3rd tier. You'd think either could be ripe for the next significant takeover, but while it'll obviously never happen, (and shouldn't), if they merged and became 'Sheffield City' they could be quite the force. Having two of pretty much the same stature, but not really massive, kind of holds both back. I wouldn't mind Sheff U back in the top flight. They are harmless enough at the moment, and I think it's quite good to have more bigger city teams in the top flight, and they are at least Northern.

Terrible 10 minutes for Boro! 3-1 down, and now Sheff U take the lead.

I've not seen the (non) penalty at Forest, but Wolves certainly don't seem to be getting the rub of the green generally with these VAR decisions. That goal at Liverpool, Pope, the Leeds goal the other week, and now this. That new manager will definitely feel something is up

Get in Brentford!

It's great football at this stage of the season. Huddersfield level against Boro, and no doubt Sheff U fans watching one of those GSS / Final Score shows, who normally wouldn't care so much about their relatively near Yorkshire neighbours, will be absolutely buzzing.

We'll just have to agree to disagree, because they've already taken 4 points off Liverpool, including a 3-0 home win, and also put them out of the FA Cup. They beat Chelsea 4-1, and won at Old Trafford at well. They likely will drop points in some of those games you mention, and the games may well catch up on them as they juggle the FA Cup, and some rearranged league games, but as they have already beaten a lot of the sides that you have mentioned, and are in great form, you certainly can't just assume they will draw / lose those return fixtures.

I just have and it's arguably better than ours. We only have Southampton and Leciester at home where we will be clear odds on favourites to win, whereas they have Southampton, Everton, Wolves at home for a start. They have Bmouth away where we were disappointed to drop points (so would they be, and less travel). Villa away on the final day will probably be a dead rubber for the home side as well, and possibly not even a league position on the line, and potentially more favourable than when we play them soon. They've got 16 points from their last 8 games, or 25 from their last 13, so have been averaging 2 points per game for a while, and are a very good side.

We're not really in a position to be picking and choosing who we would want to get there at this stage to be fair, so while it's extremely tight, I'll personally be wanting the teams who I perceive to be the biggest threats to drop as many points as possible, and then perhaps hope teams I quite like to do better once we are well clear of them.

They will literally be 2 points behind us on the same amount of games if they win, and a similar goal difference. We still have Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, even Brighton themselves, so without checking, I'd say the fixtures would at least be comparable. They absolutely are a threat to us.

Brentford were 20/1 for top 6, let alone top 4, whereas Brighton were 4/6 to 4/7 before kick off, so Brighton are clearly much more of a threat. I'd rather Brentford won myself, but a Brighton win is clearly the worst, and the longer Brentford are, or were, winning, the less chance there is of the clear worst outcome to materialse.

He'll likely know what he's doing as he's got everything else pretty much spot on since he took charge, but still find it weird how Jason Steele has replaced Sanchez as first choice keeper. Sanchez was in Spain's World Cup squad a few months ago, and has generally been decent since he's been in England, whereas Steele is coming up to 33, has barely played these past 5 years, and the last time he got a string of games it was in Sunderland's disastrous Championship campaign in 2017/18, where he only played 15 games, and rotating with Lee Camp and that Dutch lad who broke his finger.

I guess if Brighton did win today then, from a more conservative / pessimistic POV, it would make European football more likely if we did have a very poor end to the season and dropped to a disappointing 7th, but we've obviously got to be thinking much more positive than that. Man, 1-2 now. Wish you could easily televise the 3pms.

A draw will be fine as only 2 points will be taken, as opposed to 3, and neither will close significantly on us, and it will still feel like dropped points for Brighton with them being at home, but realistically, I think I'd prefer a Brentford win with them having played 2 games more, and generally not as good. https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-6-finish If you look at the current top 6 odds, Brighton are around 4/6 to finish inside, whereas Brentford are a modal average of 20/1, so Brighton are clearly much more of a threat to us generally - it's a bit like a few weeks away when Brighton played Fulham, some were wanting a draw, others were wanting Fulham to win, and that shock Fulham away win is obviously looking a lot better now, as it was generally always more likely to be, longer term. A Brighton win is clearly the worst result, by a mile.

Sunderland probably looking the more likely to get a winner at this stage. I don't trust Burnley passing it around the back, although I guess they've done it successfully all season.

Gibraltar doing OK (without watching) to limit Netherlands to just 1 goal after 40 odd minutes. Thought Sven might have recovered to take a place on the bench, but his first cap will have to wait. At least there's no chance of him getting injured, and you'd hope he would be fully fit for Sunday.

Are any of these international matches more accessible? When they were under the Premier Sports banner a year or so ago there was always one match on BoxNation where BT Sport subscribers could watch.

It does feel strange to see England and Italy in the same group, as well as France and Netherlands, yet Denmark being the clear better side in that group. They should probably still be fine, but it does open the group up. Ukraine being the third team in our group feel stronger on paper than anything Denmark will face.

He's committed is wor Adam. He obviously needs to keep getting content out, but going down to Solihull on a weekend to see the reserve side of a team he wouldn't know much about only 18 months ago is some going.

Completely forgot that Wednesday were on Sky again, a bit like us, after going 23 games unbeaten in the league, they have now lost 2 in a row, although today wasn't against a Man City type equivalent, it was against bottom club Forest Green (which I think is big Dunc's first win in charge). https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/sheffield-wednesday/table Very tight now. Just 3 points clear of Ipswich, and a worse GD, and Barnsley will be fancying their chances more now after winning in midweek. 6 behind with a game in hand.

Just having a look at some of the tables from the 6th tier downwards for the first time in months and a few things have changed since they start of 2023. Darlington were in and a round top spot last I saw (although Kings Lynn did have a fair few games in hand), but after only 1 win and 7 points in their last 9 games, they are now 19 points off the top, although should probably still make the play offs, even with a modest return in their final 8 matches. Probably too much for Spennymoor to do to make the playoffs, and while they currently occupy the final spot, Scarborough have only taken 2 points from their last 5 so look to be clinging on in their first season back at this level. South Shields look nearly there in the 7th tier. Not in particularly great form, just 5 points from their last 5 games, and when I last looked it was close, but I see they did win 8 from 9 at the start of 2023 to presumably pull away from the pack. With GD they pretty much just need 6 points from their final 5 games to seal it, although they would probably still win the league if they lost all their remaining games. Crazy that Bamber Bridge in 2nd have won 9 more matches than they have lost, but their GD is only +1

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Forest_Green_Rovers/Forest_Green_Rovers.html http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Luton_Town/Luton_Town.htm

Luton went from white to orange, which seemed weird as I was used to white, but apparently they were orange back in the day. Forest Green went from black and white stripes to green (hopefully that's not replicated up here....)

Wow, didn't realise Sheff Wed were 23 league games unbeaten. Barnsley are 11 unbeaten themselves. Draw?