Re: Why? I'm confident. I think it's too easy to write anyone off at this stage. There's always at least one club that drops like a stone and ends up embroiled in the battle. I've tipped Blackpool to be that side ever since they were fluking their way to the summit early doors, and they have indeed plummeted. A club in turmoil if ever there was one. As are Millwall. Whereas, I've seen signs of life in ourselves and our South Yorkshire neighbours. I'd tipped Wednesday and Doncaster to go down with Millwall in the Summer, but I think the longer they keep the likes of Wickham and Macheda, the better chance they have of churning out results. Then you look at Middlesbrough. Trust me, they're bang average generally. But Shay Given coming in has solidified them defensively, and they've never had a problem with goal scoring. All of a sudden, they've gone from just three points above us, to a point now where their supporters are thinking of a playoff tilt. You can add Huddersfield and perhaps yesterdays opponents Birmingham into that. Both were struggling until recently. Some teams/players take a while to get going. Others - like Blackpool, Bournemouth - set off like a train and run out of puff. You've then to take into account the nervousness of the run in. We had a nightmare run in last season, faced all the top sides. But with promotion in their sights and a long season in their legs, it can have an adverse effect. Which is where the January window comes into play. Let's hope Danny utilizes it well. A three or four game winning streak and everything changes. The mood, the morale of the club, confidence reemerges. He's already made us more difficult to beat in my opinion. He can't legislate for individual mistakes that cost us at Oakwell over Christmas. But away from home, we created enough opportunities to pick up two victories. The hosts had their chances, too. But ours yesterday - by all accounts - and ours at Elland Road were the clearest. It's a matter of being more clinical. Which then relieves the defence of pressure. Even against Bolton on Boxing Day, we had some cracking chances. Hassell's header for example. The one hooked off the line. O'Brien was close a couple of times. And then, against Derby, COG missed that sitter. He was banging them in for fun up until late October. So yes, I'm still confident. Look at the goals we 'do' score. They're practically all of a sublime nature. Never known us score so many beauties in one season. So the talent is there. It's the **** house scrappy off your arse type goals we've to master. Mellis yesterday for example. Fudges the simple, pulls off the extraordinary. We'll be reight.
I think we've dodged it too many times so this may be the season we finally drop. The glimmer of hope I still have is that Danny might be the best manager of the five or six teams I think will be scrapping it out.
Heart says we'll stay up but head says we'll go down and that's why I hope rumours about Danny being here until the end of the season are wide of the mark. He's the man to rebuild the team in League 1.
Re: Why? I was on about this with our kid and we both think that 47 / 48 might be enough this season.
Re: Why? It might be as low as 45 IMHO. Some proper dirge in this league this season and the top are pulling away.
I genuinely dont know - this time last year I was certain we were going down and look what happened We need something similar again this year - it all depends on whether Danny can sort out the biggest problems quickly enough Looking at how dire some of the sides are down our end of the table we might only need 45 points this time round so 8 wins and 5 draws might do it - its a big ask and a lot depends on what Danny can do in the transfer window If I was a betting man I would have money on us going down but its not a lost cause yet
Re: Why? Relegation for me. I've tried to be optimistic but Hillcroft has left us with sone awful players and I think this is one season too far.
Re: Why? I think we will stay up, wont take 55 points this season. 45-47 is often enough to stay up. Preston went down 3rd from bottom with 42 points a few seasons back.
Re: Why? I'm going to state the obvious, we need a point more than third from bottom, at the moment its possible but in my opinion we will be relying on other teams (Donny,Washday,Yeovil and Millwall) faltering enough for us to scrape 4th from bottom, can't see this bunch repeating the form of last half of last season.