Championship run-in tightest in years

mike65

Buisness end of table before 3 pm

• 1 Derby 35 10 4 4 25 16 10 2 5 23 19 13 66

• 2 Birmingham 34 10 5 2 28 16 9 2 6 24 17 19 64

• 3 West Brom 35 13 3 1 39 14 5 6 7 23 25 23 63

• 4 Sunderland 35 11 3 4 27 12 7 3 7 25 24 16 60

• 5 Southampton 35 11 5 2 27 13 5 6 6 29 26 17 59

• 6 Cardiff 35 10 6 2 30 13 6 5 6 20 23 14 59

• 7 Preston 34 11 4 2 29 12 6 4 7 21 26 12 59

• 8 Wolverhampton 35 9 5 4 25 18 8 3 6 13 17 3 59

Looks like being a real thriller this season any of the top 8 can have serious thoughts of promotion, even going straight up.

C'mon Wolves!

Mike.

Kingp35

And at the other end Leeds are rooted to the bottom and losing 3-0. Football has stopped being fun a long time ago.

Chucky the tree

2-3 now in the leeds match, just hit the bar aswell!

KdjaCL

3-2 now

A lot of my mates are leeds fans some at it now, god the abuse i give them



kdjac

Kingp35

Its over now. Battered them in first half, stopped playing in seconf until last 5 mins. Dont deserve to stay in this division. At least all the other relegation candidates except Southend who drew.

Dr. Nick

Big win for SundIreland today. Keane in the Prem would be fun.

Rollo Tamasi

Dr. Nick wrote:

Big win for SundIreland today. Keane in the Prem would be fun.

Excellent!

ciaran76

Nice win for Wolves too.

PHB

My money is on Derby due to the incredibly talented young midfield they have of Barnes and Jones.

mike65

Birmingham v Cardiff kicked off at 11.30! Talk about taking no chances.

Wolves striker Stephen Ward has been named as the Championship's player of the month for February.

Mike.

Kingp35

Birmigham just score against the run of play. Very lucky goal too.

therecklessone

Fairly rain-sodden pitch at St. Andrews.

mike65

Brum win

1 Brum

---

35---20---67
2 Derby----35---13---66
3 WBA

---

36---22---63
4-Sund'd---36---17---63
5-Wolves---36---4----62
6-Soton----35---17---59
7-Cardiff---35----14--59
8-Preston--34----12--59

Mike.

Carcharodon

Thread locked due to Leeds non particapation in promotion battle :mad:

But I think Bermingham and Derby should go up and then maybe West Brom or Sunderland

Wolves v Sunderland playoff final would be good

leninbenjamin

it'd be some achievement for keane if he managed to get Sunderland promoted this year, although i wouldn't be too worried if he didn't get it this time around. Championship race though is looking a lot more entertaining than the Perm though.

Chucky the tree

Birmingham wont make it up this year i dont think. WBA, sunderland and derby will fight for the top 2 spots.

Preston and southampton play tomorrow, should be a good match.

MrJoeSoap

Chucky the tree wrote:

Birmingham wont make it up this year i dont think. WBA, sunderland and derby will fight for the top 2 spots.

Preston and southampton play tomorrow, should be a good match.

By most accounts Southampton deserved something but such is life.

Down to 7th now, amazing what one defeat can to to your league position and probably to the confidence in the squad as well. Still, we'll keep fighting!

Fratton Fred

MrJoeSoap wrote:

By most accounts Southampton deserved something but such is life.

Down to 7th now, amazing what one defeat can to to your league position and probably to the confidence in the squad as well. Still, we'll keep fighting!

I wish you lot would get a move on, the premiership is boring without our stripey neighbours to play against.:o

Melion

The championship is a lot more exciting than the premiership this season. I think Birmingham will top the table at the end of the season but only just. If Kamara keeps scoring then WBA will be in the other automatic spot. Interesting fight for the play-off places. As someone said, Sunderland vs Wolves in the final would be nice. Keane definitely deserves it after what he's done this year. I didnt think he'd do anything and be a huge failure because he had no experience. Definitely proved me wrong, he's still a cvnt though.

redspider

I'd say Birmingham and Derby will fill the top-2 places. After that, the romantics may want to see Cardiff or Preston getting up, but the pragmatists and many Irish will be rooting for Sund-ireland.

Its an interesting league and certainly throws up a lot of varied results. Also, unlike the top-flight in England, there is no big-4 aspect to it as many clubs are closer in revenues/income and spending. That makes for a tigher league. And this point brings me back to one of my recurrent theses in relation to financial controls in football. Having a spending cap, for example, on the topflights across Europe would make them closer, and who's to say, more interesting. I think it should be tried and Serie B in England is a working example of that.

Redspider

Melion

Just to put a different spin on the thread.

Of the teams mentioned who do you think would be able to survive in the premiership next year? I think Derby, WBA, Preston and Wolves would just be like having Watford this season. Sunderland would get a decent mid-table finish, Birmingham would be the same.

Chucky the tree

Birmingham luck will run out. They will finish 4th.

Melion

What luck?

They have the best players in the division, no question. They had a bad run their last year in the premiership but will definitely improve next year.

Chucky the tree

Last minute goals, poor performances yet winning. Great team, **** manager. They should be walking away with the league the team they have.

WBA are one of the best footballing teams in the Championship, i think they would do alot better then Watford.

Kingp35

Chucky the tree wrote:

Last minute goals, poor performances yet winning. Great team, **** manager. They should be walking away with the league the team they have.

WBA are one of the best footballing teams in the Championship, i think they would do alot better then Watford.

Totally agree with Chucky. I watch more Championship football than any other league and Birmingham have been incredibly lucky so far. They have been playing very poor football in the last 2 months. They should not have picked up anything against Leeds or against Cardiff as they were outplayed both times. Yes they have good players but Bruce is an awful manager. I think they will slip up as well and only grab a playoff spot.

WBA and Derby to go up in the automatic spots for me.

Melion

Chucky the tree wrote:

Last minute goals, poor performances yet winning. Great team, **** manager. They should be walking away with the league the team they have.

WBA are one of the best footballing teams in the Championship, i think they would do alot better then Watford.

Its been said many times about many different teams, thats championship winning play. Look at United in the 90's, Chelsea in the last 2 years and United again this year. Grinding out results after playing rubbish for 85-90 minutes.

Nalz

c'mon Sunderland!!

Chucky the tree

Melion wrote:

Its been said many times about many different teams, thats championship winning play. Look at United in the 90's, Chelsea in the last 2 years and United again this year. Grinding out results after playing rubbish for 85-90 minutes.

Yea, and i always thought that was bull**** aswell. Its one of those annoying cliches that does my head in.

BaZmO*

Chucky the tree wrote:

... i think they would do alot better then Watford....

Not really that difficult to do tbh...

Melion

Chucky the tree wrote:

Yea, and i always thought that was bull**** aswell. Its one of those annoying cliches that does my head in.

You just have to look at Uniteds performances in the last few weeks? They were awful against Liverpool last weekend and got the win, didnt deserve anything more than a draw against Fulham but went away with 3 points. Its exactly like Chelsea last year and United in 95 or 96 when they were scraping games 1-0

Chucky the tree

Melion wrote:

You just have to look at Uniteds performances in the last few weeks? They were awful against Liverpool last weekend and got the win, didnt deserve anything more than a draw against Fulham but went away with 3 points. Its exactly like Chelsea last year and United in 95 or 96 when they were scraping games 1-0

I'd actually love to see the stats of it. I just think its a case of people remeber the late goals the year their team wins the league and says "its the sign of a champions".

Last season United got a last minute goal against Liverpool aswell? Was that the sign of champions? No, because they still didnt win the league. This season Chelsea have done it against Everton and Wigan, will that be the sign of champions? Nope, because they wont win it.

Kingp35

Yeah I think its just an annoying Cliché. Plenty of teams win matches while they are not playing well. Its simply a case of being lucky. There is no other way of explaining it. I mean think about it, is there some kind of tactic that "Champions" employ that allows them to win when not playing well? Of course there isnt, its just luck.

Leeds were a poor side last year but got bucket loads of luck by winning games we had no right to win. We didnt end up as Champions, the luck has run out this year and we are bottom of the League.

The luck will run out for Birmingham too. Also if you remember back to the start of this season, Chelsea were winning games when not playing well and the cliché was used for them too, "its the sign of champions". well the luck ran out for them too and they find themselves well adrift of Man Utd.

astrofool

I think what Chucky is saying is that every team has it's share of last minute wins, and stealing points, regardless of their eventual position and whether champions or not.

shatners basoon

Being able to do it consistantly though is the key. Most games are won on merit but points are vital and winning a game you don't deserve to win is pretty damn important when you're in a tight race.

However United have been excellent this year, look at their goal difference. Their luck has been with injuries mostly but recently those two results mentioned have, in my opinion, practically sealed the league. Teams like Arsenal and Liverpool have had little of that though, i put it down to the fact United and Chelsea believe they can win that way. (Having a more valuable squad often tells in the end too :P)

I'm getting off topic though, nice to see Sunderland do well, though if they get up we'll have to bear with Dumphy's ass kissing all over again!

PHB

Jones grabed a brace last night, him and Giles will be interesting to see in the premiership. If they don't go up, I think they'll be in the premiership anyway.

mike65

Wolves 1 - 0 Baggies.

Top result! Wolves sixth win on the bounce puts them 4rd.

Current table

Birmingham

---

36--21---70
Derby

---

37--13---69
Sunderland

---

37--19---66
Wolverhampton-37--5----65
West Brom

---

37--22---63
Cardiff

---

37--14---62
Preston

---

36--12---62
Southampton---37--14---59
Stoke

---

37--15---57

Mike.

Collie D

Isn't there still a Sunderland-Wolves game to come? Also the possiblility of a Play-off final between the two...Sky couldn't have written a better script....pity the two gaffers kissed and made up, a punch-up in center-circle would have been a much more interesting way to resolve a tie than a penalty shoot-out

RasTa

Go on ze Wolves.

mike65

Wolves play Black Cats Saturday 7th April. They also play Soton a week earlier and Brum two weeks later. The fixtures list is going to make it a real thriller. Derby have the easiest run in I think.

Mike.

mike65

Another busy night with some unexpected results, making it even tighter.

Birmingham---37--20----70
Derby

---

38--13----70
Sunderland---38--19----67
Preston

---

37--13----65
Wolves

---

38---4----65
West Brom---37--21----63
Cardiff

---

38--14---- 63
Soton

---

38---14----60
Stoke

---

38--15----58

Mike.

Chucky the tree

Wolves are definitly worth a punt. Mick has done a fantastic job with them.

Pighead

I see Anthony Stokes didn't even make the bench last night while the other 2 late boys did. Extra punishment because he did it twice or just a very good squad which is hard to get into?

Anyway tough few games for Sunderland now, they play an improving Hull (H) next followed by Cardiff (A)Wolves (H) and Southampton (A). 4 games that will probably decide their season

mike65

Baggies loose to Palace.

Mike.

Draupnir

Huge game this sunday, Birmingham against West Brom, could make serious carnage of the top of the table if West Brom beat Birmingham and Derby and Sunderland win.

GuanYin

Wolves don't look a team that could stay up. They're playing defensively tight and hoping to nick a goal. Doing well as a 1-0 team who don't score many goals but not so good when the opposition make a game of football out of it.

Birmingham aren't convincing me but the table doesn't lie. They're top but the pressure looks to be getting to them. They've given up a bit of ground but they'll be in the top 3.

Derby are another team that just don't look as good as their league position, but again I reckon they'll be in the top 3.

Sunderland are the form team, unbeaten in 12 and looking like they don't know how to lie down and die. Is that 2 last gasp goals in 4-5 games? I'm pretty sure I've seen that in another Keane-associated team. I reckon they'll take 2nd or 3rd.

West Brom look to have run out of steam. If they lose this weekend I can see them floundering in the play-off spots for the rest of the season.

Preston are a decent side, but don't have the depth or strength to finish and even if they did go up, they'd be straight back down.

Southampton arguably play the best football in the division, a late run of forum will see them cement a playoff place I hope. I fancy them to take the play-offs.

At a guess I'd say Derby, Sunderland and Southampton to go up.

mike65

Baggies and Brum in 1-1 stalemate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_1/6437437.stm

Derby

---

39--15----73
Birmingham--38--20----71
Sunderland--39--21----70
Preston

---

38--15----68
Wolves

---

39--4

---

66
West Brom--39--20----64
Cardiff

---

39--12----63
Soton

---

39--13----60
Stoke

---

39--14----58
Colchester---39--9----56

Good day for Wolves.

Mike.

GuanYin

Three horse race now with everyone but Sunderland and Birmingham dropping points in the last round.

Derby drew a game they really should have won today and I think all bets are off now.

1 Derby

---

Pl 41 GD 16 Pts 77
2 Birmingham

---

Pl 39 GD 23 Pts 74

---

3 Sunderland

---

Pl 40 GD 22 Pts 73
4 Preston

---

Pl 40 GD 13 Pts 68
5 West Brom

---

Pl 40 GD 21 Pts 67
6 Wolverhampton - Pl 40 GD -2 Pts 66

---

GuanYin

Brummies lose and the Black Cats overcome Wolves.

If Sunderland win on Monday I can't see them slipping.

Mushy

I'd be leaning for Sunderland for champions this year, they are beating all the teams up around them, playing very well.

Its the other end of the table we should be looking at, what with Leeds winning today:D. First time outta the relegation zone in ages, and what a time to do it. Hold steady throughout this week andI honestly see them staying up. Great turnaround now, perfect timing. Still only one point above the drop though, cant be complacent at all. If we catch up with any one team above us, it'll be Championship football at Elland Road again next season thankfully

KdjaCL

todays games of note

The Coca-Cola Football League Championship
Barnsley v Birmingham, 15:00

Colchester v Leeds, 15:00


Southampton v Sunderland, 17:15


Leeds have hope now, hopefully that will build to a last day relegation and i get my my laughs at grown men crying , this time be lots of mates i cant point and laugh at


kdjac

mike65

I have a horrible feeling Wolves blew it over the last two games.

Mike.