It came as some surprise to track the Bristol City vs. Bradford game tonight and see Bradford run out 3-2 winners. That’s Bristol’s game in hand gone, and us a mere (a mere?) four points adrift of them. Sure, still a lot of work to do – starting on Saturday, but should we do the do against Gillingham, and Bristol continue to drop points (they have Crewe away on saturday) then we could be within a point of them – before we play them at the end of the month. Yeovil have a tricky home game against Blackpool too – interesting.
Perhaps Smoulds was right and there is a twist in this season’s tale – certainly I still maintain his assertion of a title challenge is rather overly-optimistic, but well, I guess I’d be equally critical if he came out and said “Well, we’ve spunked it haven’t we? We’ll be lucky to make the playoffs!” – if not more critical. So I’m still convinced he found Big Fat Joe’s final stash of mushrooms when rooting through the youth team personnel files, but perhaps there is a glimmer of hope that second place isn’t quite so far out of sight as it could have been.
Now, it’s down to our players to capitalise – and this is what worries me, because they’ve let us down so many times before, not least in losing the lead we once commanded, but also when chasing other teams who are slipping up – so whilst I’m slightly heartened by the massive favour that Bradford have done for us this evening, I certainly won’t be quantifying any poultry any time soon – if results go our way on saturday then I may allow myself a few celebratory beers, though! So a huge thanks to Paynter, Ashikodi and Schumacher – the Bantams three goal-scoring heroes this fine evening!
The only bugger of the evening was Derby’s late equaliser against QPR – and the fact that their automatic promotion chasing rivals weren’t able to capitalise, with Wolves and Birmingham losing on the night, with Sunderland merely scraping a draw at home to Stoke – bah! Still, it’s our league that counts for now, and that went swimmingly! Thank you very much Bradford, and may Crewe be blessed with a sublime performance come saturday!
Filed under: News
I does occur to me that the use of that picture may well bite me on the arse later – but fuck it!
I said on a nother thread we could do it and if the right team turns out on Saturday the crusade starts then
Yep, that result gives us a glimmer of hope. There is no doubt that automatic promotion is still possible but only if we win our matches. We have 2 home games and Bizzle have 2 away games before we meet each other, so there is a real opportunity to get ahead of them.
Although I still think it is between Brizzle and us to go up automatically, it would be foolish to rule out Yeovil and Oldham. If I could write the script, I’d send Yeovil up with Scunny and we’d give Bristol or Swansea a good thrashing at New Wembley!
Agreed, the plot looks set to thicken once again…..BUT we really do need 6 points from the next 2 games…..and to be honest I’m pooing myself.
We just LOVE banana skins of this nature!!!!
Every game is now must win. I just hope the players are up for it…it might sound silly, but they need to be in a relegtion battle frame of mind, ready to fight and scrap for every ball. YOU REDS!
Its great that we’ve all taken a lift from this as fans. Other clubs in the frame aren’t getting it all their way (even Scunthorpe, we got a draw out of them).
Its certain the players noted this just as well as the fans, and hopefully they will be boosted by it too. With a bit of luck, this will be in evidence both sides of the touch line in the coming weeks. We all need to get up for this one last push, fun as a trip to Wembley would be, lets try to give it a miss and go for it.
I’m on holiday next week, humbug, two crucial home games missed! Come on you Reds!
This has opened it all again, but it will mean nothing if we can’t put together a decent run of form and results. If we can win the next two games, we may be able to put pressure on Bristol, something they have not historically been good at dealing with. As said above, Oldham and Yeovil are also still right there, so we shouldn’t rule them out.
The Evening Post has today listed the remaining games for all of the top six sides. With the exception of Yeovil (who still have four of the top six to play) all of the teams have games which form suggests they should not lose.
Our run in is undoubtedly one of the easier ones on paper but it’s our away games which may well prove to be our undoing with regards to automatic promotion. The two consecutive away games at Bristol City & Millwall appear the most difficult but with our dodgy away form, even Brentford (where we lost last season) and Orient (who turned us over easily in December) are no forgone conclusion.
All last night’s result has done is open the door slightly, but Bristol’s form overall still suggests they will not get four points less than us (particularly if they do not lose against us on March 31st.) Equally, if Oldham kick on from their weekend result, then I could well see them challenge – particularly as their run in is, if anything ,even easier than ours.
By some rough calculations (and some dodgy match predictions) I have come up with the following final league table.
1 Scunthorpe 93 points
2 Oldham 85 points (go up on goal difference)
3 Bristol City 85 points
4 FOREST 81 points
5 Yeovil 79 points
6 Blackpool 78 points
Let’s hope I’m wrong – very wrong!
At our branch meeting on Sunday (South Coast branch if anyone wants to join!!) we also ran through the final matches. Ours was extremely dodgy and i feel a little biased as we ended up second by 1 point! But we had predicted that Bristol beat Bradford so what do we know??