REVIEWING THE SITUATION

Pity about tonight's result......but no prob, we can do it for ourselves, can't we???

1 Southampton 42 36 82
2 Reading 42 27 82
3 West Ham 42 25 76
4 Birmingham 42 25 70
5 Blackpool 42 15 67
6 Cardiff 42 9 65
7 Brighton 42 6 63
8 Middlesbrough 42 0 63
9 Leicester 42 12 62
10 Hull 42 1 61

Points Gap with West Ham
Feb 19 2
Feb 22 -1
Feb 26 1
Mar 3 4
Mar 4 1
Mar 6 2
Mar 7 1
Mar 10 3
Mar 17 5
Mar 20 7
Mar 24 9
Mar 27 6
Apr 6 3
Apr 7 4
Apr 9 6

Points Gap with Reading
Feb 19 5
Feb 26 5
Mar 3 5
Mar 6 3
Mar 13 2
Mar 20 5
Mar 31 2
Apr 6 -1
Apr 7 =
Apr 9 3
Apr 10 =

Feeling the nerves again now. The 6 point gap over West Ham is great........but if Saints should lose tonight, and West Ham should beat Brighton tomorrow the gap would be down to 3 and too close for comfort again..........

SaintMike wrote:Feeling the nerves again now. The 6 point gap over West Ham is great........but if Saints should lose tonight, and West Ham should beat Brighton tomorrow the gap would be down to 3 and too close for comfort again..........

I *wasn't* (very) nervous until I read that.

I'll take a draw right now. Reading are a very dangerous side but so are Saints and, if Saints can get their passing game going we'll be OK. Reading are going to want to attack, rather than sit back and defend, and this usually plays right into Saints' hands. Saints are going to have to do what other teams do to Saints, that is close them down early and force them off the ball and into errors.

Again I would be happy with a point and think both teams will actually play it tight so not expecting an open game. We probably only need 6 points from 4 games and believe we can win 2 of our last 3 games, though would prefer to achieve the wins early, so a point tonight would not be a major issue.

Still think W Ham will drop points when they go away to Leicester though do think they will beat Brighton tomorrow which will give us that little bit of breathing space.

If we want to finish top think we have to win tonight as Reading will win at least 2 of their last 3 games and Birmingham last game may rest players as result probably wont affect their position.

Well, we f*cked that up. We won't be winning the title, barring one hell of a drop in fortunes for Reading and an improvement for us. 1-3 at home is hugely disappointing, when you consider that Reading had three shots on goal, all of which went in, like the Skates did last weekend.

I've been reading the post-mortems on SW and Not606 and people say Fonte was at fault for the Reading goals, while Sharp's sole contribution was diving in the box. Matty, was this the case?

I still think we'll go up (and we have to hope that Brighton can beat Wet Spam) but it is incredibly disappointing to be potentially falling short of winning the title. I don't think there are that many of us who have seen Saints win a league title before (it hasn't happened in my lifetime) and, while promotion is the main aim, being content to merely settle for second best - as some fans are - is not good enough, especially when we have led the division nearly all season. At least I'm in the US and don't have to see Sally 'Reading-fan-when-they-are-doing-well' Taylor's smug face on South Today...

A lot can happen, but I think we've blown the title.

That all said, who thought, prior to the start of the season we would be in this position, on the verge of getting back into the Premier League? I didn't, I thought we'd finish 11th or 12th, maybe snatching a play off place. It's been beyond our wildest expectations. And, if we get relegated from the Prem, we can have another crack at winning the Championship title.

1 Reading 43 29 85
2 Southampton 43 34 82
3 West Ham 42 25 76
4 Birmingham 42 25 70
5 Blackpool 42 15 67
6 Cardiff 42 9 65
7 Brighton 42 6 63
8 Middlesbrough 42 0 63
9 Leicester 42 12 62
10 Hull 42 1 61

Points Gap with West Ham
Feb 19 2
Feb 22 -1
Feb 26 1
Mar 3 4
Mar 4 1
Mar 6 2
Mar 7 1
Mar 10 3
Mar 17 5
Mar 20 7
Mar 24 9
Mar 27 6
Apr 6 3
Apr 7 4
Apr 9 6

Points Gap with Reading
Feb 19 5
Feb 26 5
Mar 3 5
Mar 6 3
Mar 13 2
Mar 20 5
Mar 31 2
Apr 6 -1
Apr 7 =
Apr 9 3
Apr 10 =
Apr 13 -3

Brighton certainly rolled over and had their tummies tickled by Fat Sam's lot, thus eroding our goal difference. No-one wants to be dicked, but I bet that simian-faced twat isn't too disappointed if it means Wet Spam can overhaul us. We need 7 points from the last three games now. What a sh1t weekend of results.

NA said will be plenty of twists and turns. cr*p weekend but things can look up next week

SaintMike wrote:Feeling the nerves again now. The 6 point gap over West Ham is great........but if Saints should lose tonight, and West Ham should beat Brighton tomorrow the gap would be down to 3 and too close for comfort again..........

Hmmmmm!!!

1 Reading 43 29 85
2 Southampton 43 34 82
3 West Ham 43 31 79
4 Birmingham 43 25 71
5 Blackpool 43 15 68
6 Cardiff 43 10 68
7 Middlesbrough 43 1 66
8 Brighton 43 0 63
9 Leicester 43 11 62
10 Hull 43 1 62

Points Gap with West Ham
Feb 19 2
Feb 22 -1
Feb 26 1
Mar 3 4
Mar 4 1
Mar 6 2
Mar 7 1
Mar 10 3
Mar 17 5
Mar 20 7
Mar 24 9
Mar 27 6
Apr 6 3
Apr 7 4
Apr 9 6
Apr 14 3

Points Gap with Reading
Feb 19 5
Feb 26 5
Mar 3 5
Mar 6 3
Mar 13 2
Mar 20 5
Mar 31 2
Apr 6 -1
Apr 7 =
Apr 9 3
Apr 10 =
Apr 13 -3

Tuesday evening promises to be highly intriguing.......

If Reading should lose at home to Forest (well stranger things have happened ) and Saints win at Peterborough then Saints go top on goal difference.

If West Ham win at Bristol City and Saints lose at Peterborough then Saints will probably slip to 3rd. (I say 'probably' because if West Ham's win and Saints' defeat are both by just a single goal then Saints will cling on to 2nd spot with a better goal difference , 33 to 32).

So, Tuesday night could see Saints in 1st, 2nd or 3rd spot............

Bit worried that the Sky voodoo could cost us promotion..........why do they have to screen Saturday's game???

So far so good......

Half-time Saints up 0-2, West Ham 1-1 at Bristol City.

Started 15 minutes later in Reading's game, no score after about 35 minutes.

Reading-Forest goalless at half time

YES, Bristol City-West Ham finishes 1-1

Oh shite!! Reading 1 Forest 0 on 81 minutes


COME ON FOREST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reading now sure of promotion.....

1 Reading 44 30 88
2 Southampton 44 36 85
3 West Ham 44 31 80
4 Birmingham 44 25 72
5 Blackpool 44 16 71
6 Cardiff 44 12 71
7 Middlesbrough 44 1 67
8 Hull 44 3 65
9 Brighton 44 0 64

Points Gap with West Ham
Feb 19 2
Feb 22 -1
Feb 26 1
Mar 3 4
Mar 4 1
Mar 6 2
Mar 7 1
Mar 10 3
Mar 17 5
Mar 20 7
Mar 24 9
Mar 27 6
Apr 6 3
Apr 7 4
Apr 9 6
Apr 14 3
Apr 17 5

Points Gap with Reading
Feb 19 5
Feb 26 5
Mar 3 5
Mar 6 3
Mar 13 2
Mar 20 5
Mar 31 2
Apr 6 -1
Apr 7 =
Apr 9 3
Apr 10 =
Apr 13 -3

If you fancy a chuckle....

http://thegamesgonecrazy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/allardyce-hails-heroic-draw-at-bristol.html

Could almost imagine Big sam spouting that sort of rubbish. Although I am not a fan of Alladyce think only fair if W Spam go up as will finish 3rd.

hope saints focus on the title, win the last 2 and we could still win the title.

1 Reading 45 30 89
2 Southampton 45 35 85
3 West Ham 44 31 80
4 Blackpool 45 20 74
5 Birmingham 45 25 73
6 Cardiff 45 12 72
7 Middlesbrough 45 2 70

Points Gap with West Ham
Feb 19 2
Feb 22 -1
Feb 26 1
Mar 3 4
Mar 4 1
Mar 6 2
Mar 7 1
Mar 10 3
Mar 17 5
Mar 20 7
Mar 24 9
Mar 27 6
Apr 6 3
Apr 7 4
Apr 9 6
Apr 14 3
Apr 17 5

Points Gap with Reading
Feb 19 5
Feb 26 5
Mar 3 5
Mar 6 3
Mar 13 2
Mar 20 5
Mar 31 2
Apr 6 -1
Apr 7 =
Apr 9 3
Apr 10 =
Apr 13 -3
Apr 21 -4

Looking into my crystal ball..........

Monday West Ham are 100% certain to win at Leicester, and it will probably be by enough goals to wipe out our dwindling advantage in goal difference.

Our Coventry match will almost certainly be chosen for screening on Sky (are we not able to stop them doing this???????)

If televised, we will definitely not beat Coventry.

I am thinking our main hope of going up is now that West Ham might just possibly fail to beat Hull on Saturday.....


(Hope to feel better tomorrow.)

West Ham certainly did beat Leicester, 2-1. So, we need to equal or better their result on Saturday in order to get promoted. Over on Saintsweb, people are going through all the permutations but it's frankly too nerve-racking to read through all the mathematics and permutations!

Never mind all the 'we would have taken this at the start of the season' bollocks, we're in the here and now and failure to be automatically promoted after being in the top two all season will be nothing less than abject failure. Losing out on the title was disappointing enough, this would be devastating.
That said, I feel that we will comfortably beat an abject and demoralised Coventry side on Saturday.

Too nervous to comment

Agree with you totally Nostromo. Let's be positive (hopefully the players are as well) !