The run in

N

NI_Red

Active member
No matter what way I try to spin this, I can't see us picking up three more points than Sheff Utd

Sheff Utd fixtures

Norwich - a
Wigan - h
Burnley - a
Cardiff - h
Bristol - h
West Brom - h
Preston - h
Huddersfield - a
Birmingham - a

Let's be honest, they have a kinder run-in than we do and those four consecutive home games are going to be crucial.

Worst case scenario I can see them picking up 15 points, dropping points against Norwich, Burnley, West Brom, Huddersfield and Birmingham

Boro fixtures

Huddersfield (a)
Burnley (h)
Bristol (a)
Norwich (h)
Hull (h)
Luton (a)
Rotherham (a)
Coventry (h)

Realistically I can see us picking up 16 points, falling just short.

Can anyone offer some positivity? I am an optimist but think Wilder may have just given Carrick too much to do.

With it looking likely I'll miss the playoffs, I'm desperate for us to do it automatically.
 
Last edited:
Darren said:
No matter what way I try to spin this, I can't see us picking up three more points than Sheff Utd

Sheff Utd fixtures

Norwich - a
Wigan - h
Burnley - a
Cardiff - h
Bristol - h
West Brom - h
Preston - h
Huddersfield - a
Birmingham - a

Let's be honest, they have a kinder run-in than we do and those four consecutive home games are going to be crucial.

Worst case scenario I can see them picking up 15 points, dropping points against Norwich, Burnley, West Brom, Huddersfield and Birmingham

Boro fixtures

Huddersfield (a)
Burnley (a)
Bristol (a)
Norwich (h)
Hull (h)
Luton (a)
Rotherham (a)
Coventry (h)

Realistically I can see us picking up 16 points, falling just short.

Can anyone offer some positivity? I am an optimist but think Wilder may have just given Carrick too much to do.

With it looking likely I'll miss the playoffs, I'm desperate for us to do it automatically.
Click to expand...
Move the Burnley game to the Riverside ;)
 
Darren said:
No matter what way I try to spin this, I can't see us picking up three more points than Sheff Utd

Sheff Utd fixtures

Norwich - a
Wigan - h
Burnley - a
Cardiff - h
Bristol - h
West Brom - h
Preston - h
Huddersfield - a
Birmingham - a

Let's be honest, they have a kinder run-in than we do and those four consecutive home games are going to be crucial.

Worst case scenario I can see them picking up 15 points, dropping points against Norwich, Burnley, West Brom, Huddersfield and Birmingham

Boro fixtures

Huddersfield (a)
Burnley (a)
Bristol (a)
Norwich (h)
Hull (h)
Luton (a)
Rotherham (a)
Coventry (h)

Realistically I can see us picking up 16 points, falling just short.

Can anyone offer some positivity? I am an optimist but think Wilder may have just given Carrick too much to do.

With it looking likely I'll miss the playoffs, I'm desperate for us to do it automatically.
Click to expand...
sadly i feel the same as you. Going to be loads of twists and turns but feel we will come up just short.

The Stoke game and result felt massive, if we had have won that, I'm not sure they'd have got the result at the mackems the following night and then its a completely different equation.
 
I can see us still being in with a shout come the last game of the season. They will be nervy if they have to go away to Brum needing to match us, because I think Carrick will still send us out with no fear against a tough Coventry team. They are nervy now, frankly. Norwich is a massive game for them, because they definitely don't get a win from the Burnley fixture.
 
I tend to agree, we have the harder run in. I've said previously before on here I thought we needed to be ahead of Sheff Utd by 1st April to make it stick.

However......

This is the CHAMPIONSHIP. Arguably the most unpredictable league in the world. EVERY game is tough. Any team is capable of getting 3 points if their opponent has an off day and is not bang on it.

In a nutshell, there will be quite a few surprises over the next 8-9 games, many twists and turns, stress, tension, elation and huge excitement. What a time to be alive.

So, for this reason, I am happy.
 
I can easily see them dropping points against Norwich, Burnley, Bristol City and WBA. They don't even need to lose, a few draws would help. Cardiff have the potential to cause an upset by snatching a point, Birmingham again could easily muster up a draw if it means stopping a team getting promoted at their ground.

Ultimately though we need to do our job otherwise it counts for nothing.
 
dooderooni said:
One word, form.
Two words, outstanding form.
Three words, goals in abundance.
And finally four words on Carrick's title winning experience, been there done that.
Click to expand...
fingers crossed and all that but Shef United still big favourites 70/30 and after that cup win may have their mojo back I'd say but we still have a chance which is amazing after the start we had, what ever happens to be even competing for top two or the play offs is bonus
 
I love this time of the season a team has to win just to keep their position in the table.Every week a team loses and drops out of the chasing pack.Easter sorts the men from the boys.
 
The thing is football is unpredictable especially when it gets to the end of season. You get strange results like a team at the bottom who seem doomed suddenly start to pick up points off teams at the top. It's still a big ask and we will have to do the business ourselves first and foremost. We may need to win 6 and draw 2 or win 7 and lose just 1. One game at a time and see. On a positive note I think we are playing better than them, They have more games to cram in with the distraction of the Cup and I think we will finish with the better goal difference which it might come down to. Oh and we have the better manager as well.
 
The next games for Boro and Sheff Utd are very important.

Sheff Utd at Norwich - Norwich must see this is a must win, or at the very least must not lose, or their play off hopes are gone.
Boro at Huddersfield - this is a must win for Boro.

If Norwich were to beat Sheff Utd and Boro beat Huddersfield, then it's really game on.

Boro and Sheff Utd both play Norwich, Burnley, Bristol City and Huddersfield, although (except for Huddersfield), the venues are reversed.

Going to be exciting.
 
The next 3 games in short space of time is tough. Id take 7 points. The remaining 5 are all winnable. Being super positive i can see 5 wins in last 5...making 22pts. Being cautious we draw at luton or lose that 20 or 19pts from the run in in total. . That puts us on either 87 or 86pounts overall.
 
We do have a harder run of games, but if Sheffield lose their next game away to Norwich (which is definitely possible), and we beat Huddersfield - We move into 2nd.

Yes, they have a game in hand, and it's still there's to lose.... but seeing another team in 2nd changes things for them in my opinion, everyone was expecting them to finish 2nd two months ago... they've lost 4 games out of the last 7? lost something like a 15 point gap to 3rd? and not only have we caught them up, Luton are there too... they could very easily end up in 4th.
 
As already mentioned, how often do results not go the way you expect in this league?

All we can do is try to win as many as possible and pick up as many points as possible. Doing that will keep an element of pressure on Sheff United which will be felt by the players and fans. They also have the FA Cup Semi Final to hopefully cause some sort of distraction/below par performances from players trying to avoid injury.

If Norwich can somehow beat them at home and we can do the business over Huddersfield it will be very interesting. Burnley could be pivotal with us both playing them*

*Huddersfield will not be easy, they have just won and Warnock will be keen to get one on us.
 
Easter is going to be pivotal imagine we picked up 3 points at home to Burnley and managed to get 3 points at Ashton Gate imagine the pressure on Sheff Utd away to Burnley on the last game of the Easter fixtures. It's ok to dream isn't it??
 
Remember in 2017 we drew last 4 on the bounce and still went up automatically.

Even though we dropped 8 point's in those games.

Remember how flat we were after the Desmond at Brum?
 
I've always felt we would need 86 points to have a realistic chance and there's no reason why we can't still achieve that. I reckon if we do, we will go up in 2nd.

The only thing that matters for me is that we keep churning out the wins. We won't win them all (probably) but 6 wins and at least 1 draw gets us to 86. Even if we're only 2-3 points ahead going into the last 2 weeks of the season, I think the pressure on Sheff Utd having lost such a big lead could weigh them down as they play their games in hand.

My gut feeling is this will go down to the last day and then anything can happen.
 
UTB70 said:
The next 3 games in short space of time is tough. Id take 7 points. The remaining 5 are all winnable. Being super positive i can see 5 wins in last 5...making 22pts. Being cautious we draw at luton or lose that 20 or 19pts from the run in in total. . That puts us on either 87 or 86pounts overall.
Click to expand...
I mentioned weeks ago that applying knowledge of form, etc (and ok, a fair amount of guesswork!😁) had my being led to the most likely eventuality (out of hundreds) of both sides finishing on 86 points.

Weeks later and I still consider that marginally the most likely. It would be a repeat of our last 8 games results wise and has given the Blades an improvement on their last 8 to the tune of ×1.5 owing to their potentially easier fixtures (despite the fact that they'll doubtless be exhausted by the end of the run in with all those games)
If that does happen then who would you imagine having the superior GD?


As an aside you could almost discount Luton from the picture if that happens too. They'd need to win 7 and draw 1 to reach that total AND somehow overcome a GD deficit of -16 against us that will almost certainly grow were we to reach 86 points. Or win all 8 of their remaining matches, but can you see them doing that when they have Watford, Millwall, us and Blackburn in amongst those fixtures?


I agree with WillMunny on another thing too; regardless of whether the joint 86 finish happens or not I think it will go right down to the last day, with at kickoff against Coventry and Brum either of both sides potentially able to go up.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top