Final day of the Championship

Necronomicon

I always love the final day of the Championship. This season is particularly exciting as there are three teams who can clinch an automatic promotion spot, while the play-offs and one remaining relegation spot need to be settled.

Automatic Promotion
Reading and Birmingham play each other at the Madejski Stadium in what has turned out effectively to be a play-off to reach the Premiership. Birmingham's fate is in their own hands; a win and they're up. Sheffield United need a draw in that game and a win at Crystal Palace to go up, while Reading need to beat Birmingham and hope that Palace beat United.

Play-offs
Cardiff need a point against Sheffield Wednesday to guarantee their spot in the semi-finals, while Burnley need 3 points against Bristol City to be assured of their place. The only team currently outside the play-off positions that have a chance of getting there are Preston, who can sneak in if they beat QPR at home and other results go their way.

Relegation
With Southampton and Charlton down, there is one relegation spot to be decided. Nottingham Forest are now safe, which means it is going to be one of either Barnsley or Norwich. Norwich currently occupy the spot and travel to Charlton, while Barnsley visit Plymouth. Barnsley will be safe with 1 point, but if they lose and Norwich win, Norwich will leapfrog them on goal difference.

Reading vs. Brum is on SS1 with KO at 1.15 - should be a cracker.

As an aside, though, does anybody know why it's finishing up this early? I thought the Championship always finished just a week before the Premiership.

mike65

The Blades to nick it. Cardiffs poor run to cost them a play off place.

highgiant1985

really looking forward to this!

does anyone know a site where I can find the starting XI for the reading Birmingham match? tempted to throw a small bet on

JerryHandbag

Hope Reading can squeeze in, unlikely tho, just for the sake of the Irish lads in the team

Their home form is shocking though

Necronomicon

highgiant1985 wrote: »

really looking forward to this!

does anyone know a site where I can find the starting XI for the reading Birmingham match? tempted to throw a small bet on

Reading: Hahnemann, Rosenior, Duberry, Bikey, Harding, Hunt, Karacan, Tabb, Kebe, Kitson, Long.

Brum: Taylor, Carr, Taylor, Jaidi, Traore, McFadden, Carsley, Johnson, Fahey, Phillips, Jerome.

DSB

Hope Birmingham win, so Fahey is in the Premiership next season.

mayordenis

Necronomicon wrote: »

Automatic Promotion
Reading and Birmingham play each other at the Madejski Stadium in what has turned out effectively to be a play-off to reach the Premiership. Birmingham's fate is in their own hands; a win and they're up. Sheffield United need a draw in that game and a win at Crystal Palace to go up, while Reading need to beat Birmingham and hope that Palace beat United.

A reading win and a sheff draw would be enough no?

DSB

FAHEY!!!!!!

kensutz

Bollocks. That is all. Sack the board of NCFC.

mike65

Bye bye Nowich.

Tom65

Why wasn't Kevin Doyle starting?


EDIT: 2-0. Play-offs for Reading, so.

mike65

Brum 2-0 they go up surely. 3 Black Country derbies next season!

edit Reading scores!

JPA

C'mon Reading.

Tom65

Tom65 wrote: »

Why wasn't Kevin Doyle starting?


EDIT: 2-0. Play-offs for Reading, so.

Oof, maybe not...

Frisbee

Really want to see Brum back in the top flight next season. Next goal wins it I reckon

JPA

Frisbee wrote: »

Really want to see Brum back in the top flight next season. Next goal wins it I reckon

Small Heath are a horrible horrible team to watch.

mike65

Preston scores, thats Cardiff in the Championship for another season by the looks of it.

pickarooney

JerryHandbag wrote: »

Hope Reading can squeeze in, unlikely tho, just for the sake of the Irish lads in the team

Their home form is shocking though

Looks like Birmingham have more Irish lads playing today. I never knew Carr had come out of retirement to join them.

Tom65

pickarooney wrote: »

Looks like Birmingham have more Irish lads playing today. I never knew Carr had come out of retirement to join them.

I was trying to work out who has more Irish players. Birmingham have Fahey, Carr and Carsley. Reading have the two Hunts, Doyle, Jay Tabb and Shane Long. Am I correct in that?

Xavi6

Tom65 wrote: »

I was trying to work out who has more Irish players. Birmingham have Fahey, Carr and Carsley. Reading have the two Hunts, Doyle, Jay Tabb and Shane Long. Am I correct in that?

Colin Doyle also plays for Birmingham. And if you include Stephen Kelly who's out on loan that makes 5 each.

mike65

Brums anti football wins the day.

LuckyLloyd

Delighted for Carsley. What a player.

JPA

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Delighted for Carsley. What a player.

Ya he's freaking amazing. :rolleyes:

Frisbee

Delighted Birmingham are back up

noodler

JPA wrote: »

Ya he's freaking amazing. :rolleyes:

LOL Yeah he was today actually.

Shame for Reading, Doyle wasn't starting becasue he hasn't scored in months and Long is in form for whoever asked. Turned out to be a mistake as Long was shocking but there you go.

Can only hope Reading get it together for the Play-offs. Footballing-wise they were awful today.

LuckyLloyd

JPA wrote: »

Ya he's freaking amazing. :rolleyes:

Huh? He's been brilliant over the past five years. An integral part of a decent Everton side, and after enjoying a dominant year at the lower level. Great pro who really understands the game, and works as hard as anyone. What's your problem?

joe123

Would of liked Reading to get up because of the Irish lads.

Happy for the likes of lee carsely though. I remember David Sullivan (birminghams chairman) last year and he looked a broken man. He was crying in the interview when they got relegated and that the fans were looking for his head.

Dont know what he did but I felt really bad for him. Looks bloody delighted today though. :pac:

mike65

Reading can still go up of course. The Irish contingent assuming they remain could be quite large next season.

dreamers75

mike65 wrote: »

Reading can still go up of course. The Irish contingent assuming they remain could be quite large next season.

They havent won at home since january.

Fahey scores one and makes one and earns a nice little bonus for Pats

Cha Ching :pac:

Notorious

I hope Reading go through on the playoffs. I'm not too happy about Birmingham getting through, I think overall they aren't interesting to watch. I know this might be a bit of an early prediction, but I can see them going straight back down; I don't think they've the quality to stay up.

Guy:Incognito

Cant believe Cardiff ****ed themselves up so badly. Not so long ago they were doing well and had games in hand that could have put them in the automatic promotion spot.

JPA

Notorious wrote: »

I hope Reading go through on the playoffs. I'm not too happy about Birmingham getting through, I think overall they aren't interesting to watch. I know this might be a bit of an early prediction, but I can see them going straight back down; I don't think they've the quality to stay up.

Well obviously and I don't think they'll be spending too much either. A lot of older players in their team who helped them battle on to the end but I don't think they have anyone who's going to step up the the PL and shine.

Unless they unearth some major bargains, (22 of them), they are going down.
I'm probably saying that much to early though, we'll see what happens.

theteal

what's good for birmingham is good for inchicore!

glenn whelan, meet keith fahey. . .now give him your jersey:D

Photi

noodler wrote: »

LOL Yeah he was today actually.

Shame for Reading, Doyle wasn't starting becasue he hasn't scored in months and Long is in form for whoever asked. Turned out to be a mistake as Long was shocking but there you go.

Can only hope Reading get it together for the Play-offs. Footballing-wise they were awful today.

Doyle was injured according to the BBC:

1242: BBC Sport's Paul Fletcher at the Madejski Stadium:
"There is a rumour doing the rounds that Dave Kitson is a doubt. With Leroy Lita, Kevin Doyle and Noel Hunt all injured his absence would leave the Royals very short of options up front."

dreamers75

Stekelly wrote: »

Cant believe Cardiff ****ed themselves up so badly. Not so long ago they were doing well and had games in hand that could have put them in the automatic promotion spot.

irony of being beaten 6-0 vs preston is what done them in the end.

monkey9

Delighted to see Fahey in the Premier League! A long overdue call up to the Irish squad should be imminent hopefully

Aidric

monkey9 wrote: »

Delighted to see Fahey in the Premier League! A long overdue call up to the Irish squad should be imminent hopefully

Ya it's nice to see the lad has settled so quickly and nailed down a starting spot. He has chipped in with a few goals and assists since his move, fair play to the guy.

gimmick

I was at The Valley today for Charlton Vs Norwich. My god, Norwich were muck. They did not give a crap it seemed. No urgency out of them whatsoever.

Good atmosphere all things considered. "Stand up, if you're going down"!

monkey9

gimmick wrote: »

I was at The Valley today for Charlton Vs Norwich. My god, Norwich were muck. They did not give a crap it seemed. No urgency out of them whatsoever.

Good atmosphere all things considered. "Stand up, if you're going down"!

How come you were at the match??

Yeah, i thought Norwich would put up more of a fight against an already relegated team

Podge2k7

Reading to go up through the play-offs hopefully!

monkey9

Podge2k7 wrote: »

Reading to go up through the play-offs hopefully!

Yep, hope to see Reading go up!!

kensutz

gimmick wrote: »

I was at The Valley today for Charlton Vs Norwich. My god, Norwich were muck. They did not give a crap it seemed. No urgency out of them whatsoever.

Good atmosphere all things considered. "Stand up, if you're going down"!

No surprise really and the fans leaving after 20mins gave a sign of how sick and fed up we are of seeing the same crap week in week out. Delia has said she's willing to step down as soon as an investor comes in. Sooner she's gone the better. Apparently there's a meeting on Wednesday which will announce their resignations.

LuckyLloyd

monkey9 wrote: »

Yep, hope to see Reading go up!!

Teams that miss out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season have a less than stellar record in the playoffs.

If I had to punt these games, I'd take Burnley. They've been great in cup competitions so far this year, and have been psychologically focused on the playoffs for a couple of months now. All that should stand them in good stead.

Daemos

dreamers75 wrote: »

irony of being beaten 6-0 vs preston is what done them in the end.

Good spot, hadn't thought of that. Well done.

monkey9

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Teams that miss out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season have a less than stellar record in the playoffs.

If I had to punt these games, I'd take Burnley. They've been great in cup competitions so far this year, and have been psychologically focused on the playoffs for a couple of months now. All that should stand them in good stead.

Yeah, i agree with that. I hope Reading go up, but if i'm putting money on anyone, it's Sheff Utd. They have a bit of steel aboout them.

(please excuse the pun about Sheffield and the steel)

invincibleirish

Its crap yo yo teams like Blues coming up and going straight back down that make the proposals for a 2 tier PL more appealing and lets these type of teams stay at their level. Their criminal scummy porn merchant owners are only interested in the TV money & parachute payments, Mcleish will be gone by Xmas and team relegated by May 1 2010.

gimmick

monkey9 wrote: »

How come you were at the match??

Just happened to be in London. Had a contact you sorted tickets. Well nice stadium.

kensutz wrote: »

No surprise really and the fans leaving after 20mins gave a sign of how sick and fed up we are of seeing the same crap week in week out.

Even still. There were fellas throwing their jerseys onto the pitch, Marshall was booed an awful lot, chants of "yu are not fir to wear the shirt" were rife, though I am not sure was that also directed at Marshall or the team in general. It all struck me as actions of fans who realise a club is in the ****ter and are frustrated as hell about it. Talking to a Norwich fan on the tube, he said they were resigned to this for weeks now, so not much disappointment there and then.

I shall be visiting Carrow Road next season with my Leyton Orient buddies hopefully.

Mushy

Bizarre to see Norwich go down, with Charlton and Southampton too. Congrats to Birmingham too. I'd like to see Burnley or Preston get promoted too.

And so we move on to Cardiff. HA! Absolutely delighted for them. I love when things like that happens to people like that(Ridsdale),and in this case, couldn't make me more happy.

kensutz

gimmick wrote: »

Just happened to be in London. Had a contact you sorted tickets. Well nice stadium.

Even still. There were fellas throwing their jerseys onto the pitch, Marshall was booed an awful lot, chants of "yu are not fir to wear the shirt" were rife, though I am not sure was that also directed at Marshall or the team in general. It all struck me as actions of fans who realise a club is in the ****ter and are frustrated as hell about it. Talking to a Norwich fan on the tube, he said they were resigned to this for weeks now, so not much disappointment there and then.

I shall be visiting Carrow Road next season with my Leyton Orient buddies hopefully.

Yeah we more or less had relegation in our sights from about 6 weeks ago. Gunny was a cheap choice for manager and it blew up in the boards face. Can't blame the man as he is a legend at the club and tried his hardest to get us out of the trouble. Roeder and Grant were the 2 responsible for ruining the club but at least the rumours are Huckerby will be back in November to help us back into the Championship.

The actions by the fans are purely against the team and the board. We're fed up with the rubbish being fed to us week in week out. So hopefully after Wednesday we'll have new owners coming in and someone to help us buy a few players.

grenache

gimmick wrote: »

I was at The Valley today for Charlton Vs Norwich. My god, Norwich were muck. They did not give a crap it seemed. No urgency out of them whatsoever.

Echoes of the 6-0 defeat at Fulham on last day of 2005 season. Norwich do seem to have a bit of a soft side to them.

kensutz

grenache wrote: »

Echoes of the 6-0 defeat at Fulham on last day of 2005 season. Norwich do seem to have a bit of a soft side to them.

It's called having a decimated squad, ruined by inept management courtesy of Glenn Roeder and Peter Grant.