SaintJackoInHurworth

A more current reflection of form is form over the last 6, which you can find here: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/CurrentForm/0,,10280~20117,00.html In terms of teams ending up on level points, etc., these would be an interesting (if rather unlikely!!) set of results: [table] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]P'boro(a)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Bristol City(a)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Forest(h)[/td] [td]Lose 1-2[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]M'bro(a)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Leicester (a)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Palace(h)[/td] [td]Win 3-0[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Coventry(h)[/td] [td]Lose 0-2[/td] [td][/td] [td]Hull (h)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Brum(a)[/td] [td]Lose 1-2[/td] [/tr] [/table] This would result in the following table: [table] [tr] [td]Team[/td] [td]F[/td] [td]A[/td] [td]Pts[/td] [td]GD[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td]79[/td] [td]45[/td] [td]88[/td] [td]34[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]WHam[/td] [td]79[/td] [td]45[/td] [td]88[/td] [td]34[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reading[/td] [td]71[/td] [td]41[/td] [td]88[/td] [td]30[/td] [/tr] [/table] As you can see, Saints would be crowned champions by virtue of results against W.Ham. WHam would come second and Reading would finish third on goal difference! The likelihood of Reading also having the same points, GD and GS as Saints and Reading is so remote I won't bother showing what that would look like, though it would result in Reading coming first and Saints second.

Well, a few things are turning better - Brum have equalised and Cardiff gone ahead. Not so sure about Coventry's equaliser though.

Quite aside from the disaster of Brighton's failure to cope with a team that have not been able to win at home since January, a lot of the other scores are also not going too well on your assessment. To these I would add: Leeds v Peterboro match - we don't wish them to get confidence from winning. Glad with that in mind to see that Leeds equalised just before half time and have now gone 3-1 up. This could be an important scoreline for us! Barnsley v Cardiff - Cardiff winning could be in our favour if it knocks the stuffing out of Middlesbrough's promotion campaign. Forest v Blackpool - as for Cardiff above and if Blackpool win could put pressure on Brum. Oh well... things can only get better - and the Leeds comeback is good - would be even better if Brighton could do the same!!!!

I got bored of reading this thread before geting to the bottom of page 1. The fact is, we are still 6 points ahead of West Ham and they have not won at home since January and are playing a team who are looking to get into the play-offs. The chances are therefore that WHam v Baha will end in a draw or a win for Baha. If Baha win then we only need one more win. I still believe we could still win the Championship title though! OK, we would have to win all three of our games, but I think that is more than possible - Posh have little to play for and are more than beatable, while Boro could well find their season is over by next Saturday - especially if they lose away against Derby today. We should be capable of beating Coventry. If we were to win all three games then Reading would need to win two and draw or win the other. You would expect them to win their next two games against Forest and Palace, but their last game away against Brum could end in defeat. OK - it's fairly unlikley, but stranger things have happened! If we don't win the title (and to be honest I think it unlikely!) we can be justly proud of the team's achievements this season. Who knows, we could even see a repeat of this season with the team that came second having achieved back-to-back promotions ending comfortably placed in the Premiership while the blue-and-white-hooped Championship winners have struggled against relegation!

I think Rocha was very fortunate not to have already had a yellow card from earlier in the match. If you watch the Football League show on iplayer you will see that early in the match (5 mins 22 into the programme) he fouled Lallana by leading with his elbow. Moments later he then kicked out and fouled Sharp (5 mins 31). Finally from 7mins 33 onwards you can see the incidents mentioned - he kicks the ball into a fan and then hits Lallana in the face. IMO he should have been off and that could have made a significant difference to the match. Also, I think Allan should have been booked for his deliberate kick on Fonte (7 min 20). He tried to make it look like it was an accident but it was clearly deliberate.

Errr... I take it you have never heard of the song 'Oh When The Saints Go Marching In!'??? OK, other teams sometimes use that, but not with the same gusto as Saints. There is no question that it is 'our' song!! The song you have suggested seems absolutely impossible to sing as well so I really don't know how anyone would pick that one up! If you want another song than OWTSGMI, there are also the following: * The Saints Are Coming * Us Against The World - Coldplay (with the classic line 'As the Saints Go Marching In')

I agree with your sentiment, although your maths are a little wrong! If we win 3 of our last matches then that would leave West Ham needing to get at least 13 points (not 15 as you suggest!): 9 points gained from the 3 wins PLUS the 4 points difference that is currently between us and them. In other words they would have to win 4 of their remaining 5 games and get at least a draw in the other to equal our points tally. They would also need to improve their goal difference by 10 at least. So your suggestion that they must win all five is not far off... IF we can win three games (or win two and draw three others). Another way of looking at it is to consider West Ham's results first and then see what we need to get to be promoted.... West Ham's home form has been atrocious. If they continue with this then let's assume they draw both their next two games. Let's also assume they win both of their away games. Finally, let's assume they pull out all the stops and finally get a home win against Hull in the last match. In this scenario, West Hame would achieve 11 points. However, since we have a four point lead over them at present, this would leave us needing just 7 points from our remaining games to equal their points tally. Goal difference should be good enough to then see us past them! SO... wins against Palace and Coventry and a draw in of the other games could in fact be sufficient to get promoted. In actual fact though, my predictions for the remaining games are a bit better than that. I posted a predictions table a couple of weeks ago, which has been reasonably accurate so far. Here is an update to that based on how I now think those matches will pan out. The table shows cumulative points after each match. At the top I have also indicated their current points score: [table] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]79[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]79[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]75[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]82[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]80[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]76[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]83[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Saints[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]77[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]N.Forest[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Bristol City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]80[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Middlesbro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]87[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leicester City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]83[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Coventry City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]88[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]88[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Hull City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]86[/td] [/tr] [/table] These results would place Saints top level with Reading on 88 points. West Ham would finish 3rd with 86 points. If we lose to Reading then they would finish top on 90 points, we would be second on 87 and West Ham third on 86 points (but that is based on them doing pretty well in their last 5 games relative to their form so far this season).

Why is it odd? It's team of the WEEK not team of the weekend. Leeds may have won this weekend but over the course of the week they also got thrashed by Forest letting in seven goals in the process! As for Reading, while they may have got back to winning ways at the weekend, they suffered their first defeat for ages during the week. Surely a stat for the week should be an average of all performances during the week, not just a selective statistic that chooses a player's best performance in a week! OK - I suppose there were not many teams that didn't lose at least one of their matches last week, so maybe that explains the inclusion of Pearce, but surely it only goes to back up my final point - why were there not more Saints players in the team of the week considering we won both our matches?! In fact, we evidently had a brilliant defensive display against Hull and kept a clean sheet in both matches, with Jos Hooiveld getting a goal too so I would have thought there would be a good case for putting him in that team.

I can't see this posted anywhere else, but I was looking at the link on the OS to the NPower Championship Team of the week. It's great to see Billy Sharp on there, but doesn't most of the rest of the team look a bit odd to you??! Alex Pearce is in the team even though Reading lost 3-1 to Peterborough and a lot of those players are with teams down near the bottom. Most bizarre of all though is the inclusion of Leeds Goalie Andy Lonergan despite letting in seven goals against Forest!! I can't understand why there aren't actually more Saints players in that team. After all, unlike most other teams we won both our matches in the week!

@adlallana1: Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today. Somehow lost a fiver out of car window by The Quays earlier. #freakgustofwind

I have posted this elsewhere (on the reaction to the Hull game thread) but thought it worth posting it here. The table shows my predictions for the three top teams in their final fixtures and their cumulative points after each match. At the top I have also indicated their current points score: [table] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]75[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]70[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]68[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Doncaster[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Blackpool[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]73[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Burnley[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]69[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]70[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Blackpool[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Lose[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]74[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]71[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Pompey[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leeds[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]77[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Barnsley[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]74[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]82[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Lose[/td] [td]77[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]77[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]83[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Saints[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]80[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]N.Forest[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Bristol City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]83[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Middlesbro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leicester City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Coventry City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]88[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Hull City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]87[/td] [/tr] [/table] I have been a little pessimistic for the Saints results (I certainly hope that we can beat M'bro as I am going to that match and rather hoping it will be a bit of a promotion/champions party!) Nevertheless, despite my pessimistic forecasts, these results would still place Saints top with West Ham second and Reading third.

Ooops! Excuse my attempt at embedding some very poor html there! I shall try again using just bbcode. The table shows my predictions for the three top teams in their final fixtures and their cumulative points after each match. At the top I have also indicated their current points score: [table] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]75[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]70[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]68[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Doncaster[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Blackpool[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]73[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Burnley[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]69[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]70[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Blackpool[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Lose[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]74[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]71[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Pompey[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leeds[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]77[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Barnsley[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]74[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]82[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Lose[/td] [td]77[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]77[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]83[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Saints[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]80[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]N.Forest[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Bristol City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]83[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Middlesbro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leicester City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Coventry City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]88[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Hull City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]87[/td] [/tr] [/table] This would place Saints top with West Ham second and Reading third.

Err... Some dodgy Maths here - but not as dodgy as your prediction that we will lose against 'another team' by which I can only assume you mean Pompey! If we lost four games and drew another, that would leave us winning only three and netting just ten points, making a grand total of 85 - not 88! FWIW, my predictions are as follows: </pre><table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> Saints 75 Reading 70 West Ham 68 Doncaster H W 78 Blackpool H W 73 Burnley A D 69 Peterboro A D 70 Blackpool A L 78 West Ham A D 74 Reading H D 71 Pompey H W 81 Leeds H W 77 Barnsley A W 74 C.Palace A D 82 Brighton A L 77 Birmingham H W 77 Reading H D 83 Saints A D 78 Brighton H W 80 Peterboro A D 84 N.Forest H W 81 Bristol City A W 83 Middlesbro A D 85 C.Palace H W 84 Leicester City A D 84 Coventry City H W 88 Birmingham A D 85 Hull City H W 87</

I've finally got commentary again! BBC Radio Sheffield covering last few minutes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_sheffield

BBC Berkshire commentators thought that should have been a sending off. Sounds like Reading were fortunate there. Hopefully that will be the only fortune they have all evening.

I haven't got Saints player but have discovered I can listen to commentary on BBC radio Berkshire online! http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_berkshire 3 misses for Reading!! Haha!

lol@Skysports again: 90 Goal scored by Ricardo Vaz Te (West Ham) followed by... 90 Blackpool are in control of the match. Key player: Joey O'Brien. Still at least they got the player names this time!!!

Hehe!! Just hope ZZZZ can get a couple at the end.

Commentary on Sky Sports Score centre for Blackpool v WHam says 'xxxx (Blackpool) shoots. It goes wide.' Then next one says 'yyyy (Blackpool) shoots. It goes over.' and so on... pathetic!!

Didn't get to watch the game earlier, so only just seen highlights on the football league show. Fox sending off was a total joke - he shouldn't have had a yellow card even!! First one was a completely fair tackle which he won and the second one was possibly a foul but was nothing and the sort of challenge that referees usually let go! Complete joke! As to the game overall, I think it should have been called off - conditions were atrocious. Also, Chris Hughton's comments were fairly laughable - to suggest they were well on top when Saints had 54% of the possession (at one stage, before the sending off it was almost 70%) is ridiculous, let alone to suggest that they would have been the better team if the conditions had been better!! Shame Billy Sharp couldn't have done better with his chance (did you lose concentration for that bit Saints Fan CaM?!!) but I think the pitch largely accounted for that. I was a little surprised that Connolly started rather than Sharp and that Puncheon is getting so many starts suddenly! On another note I think Wham were pretty lucky with their win. Their second goal was clearly a foul on a keeper. I couldn't believe Fat Sam's comments at the end of the match either! West Ham should have actually had a second player sent off imo. Taylor was late on Lowry and should at least have been booked. Bizarrely on The Football League Show they said that Lowry was the one fouling Taylor because Lowry caught him with the follow through of his kick. Next thing they will be saying that kicking a ball hard should be a bookable offence because of the risk of your follow through catching a player who arrives late with a tackle!! I think Rosenior was just a 'little' biased there somehow!

Of course, we could just forget about defence and go for something like this: Puncheon DeRidder Connolly Holmes Reeves Guly Barnard Lallana Sharp Lambert Lee Reeves gets the nod over Ward-Prowse as he used to be a defender and is now a striker-cum-winger, whereas Ward-Prowse has always been a midfielder. As for Puncheon in goal, hasn't he had experience there already? Or did I imagine that?

That's an interesting one and closer to my view - though surely you would want to swap Cork and Chaplow around - Cork is the more defensive holding player, Chaplow the box-to-box player. Another similar possibility might be this: ........................Davis......................... Richardson....Fonte....Hooiveld.........Fox .........................Cork......................... ..........Guly.......Chaplow......Lallana...... ..................Sharp.....Lambert..............

Danny Butterfield hasn't half put on some weight! No wonder he's not been playing!

On a slightly less conspiracy theory tack... I wonder if seeing AOC's performance for Arsenal at the weekend has had anything to do with Puncheon's decision? Maybe he has realised that he actually lost his place in the side to a good player?! Perhaps realising that AOC is no longer here has brought him to realise that he could potentailly stake a claim for the left wing berth.

It's a shame we can't produce a top international/Champions-League quality full-back who can bomb up the wing and also play as a top class winger. Like that guy at Spuds... what's his name? And which academy produced him? We should be keeping tabs on any young defenders they might be churning out! And then who's that young defender the top clubs have been trailing recently? Luke somebody? Which club is he at? If only we could turn out top defenders like those two.... .....OH!!