That is the question. In the two games since the restart our defence has let in a sloppy early goal to put us on the back foot and despite having lots of possession in both games we never really crafted any decent chances. When we do create a chance Hugill looks totally incapable of converting. Our two best players are off at the end of the season and surely are not going to roll their sleeves up. Our captain has wandered off because he didn’t get the deal he wanted and several players making the starting X1 simply do not look good enough. Ball is awful, Kane is worse and even Rangel has looked poor. In fact the only two players who look capable in any way of helping out in the current situation are young Masterson and Manning who himself gets caught out of position on a regular basis. Below us Wigan, Middlesborough and Charlton are showing the qualities that will get them out of trouble. They and Reading, Wednesday and Birmingham will all finish above us if things don’t change soon. This leaves us with hoping and praying that Stoke, Huddersfield and Hull cannot all collect enough points to catch us. Our remaining fixtures Fulham (H) Middlesboro (A) Wigan (A) Sheff Wed (H) That’s four losses! The pressure now will be huge. Luton (A) Millwall (H) WBA (A) If I am right then our survival rests either on teams not catching us or on us getting points from the Luton and Millwall matches. In the last two seasons 43 and 44 have been the magic number for the final spot but in 2016/2017 Blackburn were relegated with 51. I have taken out some “pain insurance”. Skybet are offering 200/1 at the moment for us to be relegated. A fiver returns you a grand.
We should have enough points in the bank, but during these last 2 games we haven't looked like scoring, but do look likely to concede, and it's hard to see us getting even a point out of those remaining games based on these no crowd performances.
We aren’t going to get zero points from eight games. Granted I don’t think we’ll get many but one win and we’re fine, albeit a disappointing and gutless way to finish another mediocre season. There’s a bunch of absolute ****e below us who will all take points off each other. We’re 200/1 to go down for a reason. Admittedly I’ve seen worse 200/1 shots.
The good news is that Boris Johnson has just announced that after 4th July we’re allowed back in the opponent’s penalty area.
Have you been watching. Huddersfield denied a clear penalty in the first half when it was 0-0. Both times look miles better than we do at the moment. Wednesday leapfrogged us today.
Think Wednesday may be desperate for points with the EFL considering their FFP ruling. They cannot fine them under the current situation, so I bet money they will have points deducted, they have something to play for and are trying to put enough points on the table before they are deducted
If it all comes down to West Brom (away) in the last game, you just know Charlie will score the only goal
Just looked at table properly. It would take a very unusually freakish set of results for us to get relegated hence the 200:1.
We should have been ready and raring to go for a top six finish for these last 9 games. Instead we weren't even ready for these first 2, and let 2 first team regulars go before the games, Hall the Captain the day before the restart. As usual the Club show no ambition. Just possibly we will improve as the players get up to speed, and manage to stay up if we don't get a few injuries and results of others go our way. But there was a small chance of promotion based on our form before the Covid stop. We don't look to have even gone for it.
I suspect we'll see the need to cut our budget again over the summer, with a number of high profile departures to raise much needed cash Like it or not I doubt that more than a small percentage will go back into the transfer budget
I think - but hope I'm wrong - that we'll be scrapping at the wrong end of the table If key players like Eze and BOS leave I don't see other players in the squad able to step up - though of course BOS in particular has only really come good this season It's our lack of goal threat that worries me most. Hugill is not effective up front on his own, and neither does he have that poacher instinct that "natural" goal scorers possess. We certainly need to score because out defence is threadbare to say the least That said there will be many other teams in the same position as us in having to scale back player wages and transfer fees, so there could be some decent current L1 players out there for the taking in the next window I also worry about how long it will be before we're able to watch games from within the stadium - if football was only ever available on TV I suspect that I would be one of those who's interest waned. Football to me has always been more than just the 90 mins - it's the travel, the buzz on seeing the stadium etc