Play Off Chase

[Sheaf Saint]

16 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

Cmon Norwich,beat Ipswich in the derby at the weekend.

We need Delia to come out and do one of her drunken half time pep talks.

[RedArmy]

18 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

Cmon Norwich,beat Ipswich in the derby at the weekend.

With their superior goal difference they need 12 points from 7 games to stop us getting above them. 

 

Seems pretty unlikely for us when you look at it like that. 
 

 

[James G]

27 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

5-1 v Wrexham

Thoughts on second?

I think we'll beat Ipswich on current form. Other than that, it's in the hand if the gods. I think if we can treat every game as a cup final and improve our goal difference, that can help

[EBS1980]

3rd place is our most likely aim imo. Get 6th place in play offs and home tie second leg

[Pilchards]

The Ipswich forum is raving about us and are pretty worried that we could catch them.

Got 3 threads about us from this evening alone.

[pimpin4rizeal]

Lol 6 points behind Ipswich and have them last game of the season .keep doing what we are doing and we might just pull it off

[Lighthouse]

32 minutes ago, Pilchards said:

The Ipswich forum is raving about us and are pretty worried that we could catch them.

Got 3 threads about us from this evening alone.

Typical football fan paranoia, we aren't realistically catching them. They've only really got three difficult games left; us Norwich and Boro. Even if they lose all three AND we win all our remaining games, they'd still finish level with us if they win their other four against Pompey, Charlton, WBA and QPR.

It would take an awful lot to go perfectly for us in a very short space of time, and they're in decent form themselves. Five wins and three draws in their last eight.

[woodsaint1]

8 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Typical football fan paranoia, we aren't realistically catching them. They've only really got three difficult games left; us Norwich and Boro. Even if they lose all three AND we win all our remaining games, they'd still finish level with us if they win their other four against Pompey, Charlton, WBA and QPR.

It would take an awful lot to go perfectly for us in a very short space of time, and they're in decent form themselves. Five wins and three draws in their last eight.

Wouldnt overlook these 4 games. QPR second behind us in the form table and the other three fighting for survival. They'd much rather be playing teams with nothing to play for than those in a relegation fight.

We arent going to catch them though, lets be realistic

[Lee On Solent Saint]

2 minutes ago, woodsaint1 said:

Wouldnt overlook these 4 games. QPR second behind us in the form table and the other three fighting for survival. They'd much rather be playing teams with nothing to play for than those in a relegation fight.

We arent going to catch them though, lets be realistic

I don't think we will. Third would be a tremendous achievement from where we were. I'd take that.

[Eire Saint]

80/1 to finish 2nd before the game. Now 33/1. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

Realistically we won’t finish second, I think the points dropped against Charlton and West Brom in recent times have kind of guaranteed that, not to mention the first third of the season wasted.

All that said, clubs are fighting at the top and the bottom, points are going to be snatched by teams we didn’t expect, and there will be a few upsets.

Probably best to keep dreaming until it’s no longer possible.

I fancy us to beat Ipswich, I fancy us to do a job on anyone currently. I actually think our toughest remaining games will be Swansea and Preston (both away).

[HKsaint]

If we win every remaining championship game, automatic promotion is still possible.

[StrangelyBrown]

On 07/02/2026 at 18:51, StrangelyBrown said:

Possible, but unlikely given the run we would need to go on.

Having said that we've made a good start - I thought we needed 10 wins from 16. 1 down with 15 to go.

With 6 to go; 8 wins from the previous 10 and the other 2 results were draws. How wrong could I have been? 

Somehow I think we'll need more than 2 more wins from the last 6 though...

[sockeye]

 

3 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

I actually think our toughest remaining games will be Swansea and Preston (both away).

I agree and they will seek to frustrate us. I think these games could be draws. We will want to rotate the squad to not risk injury before the playoffs, so although I don’t expect us to really concede many in the remaining six we might not be able to pierce through all of them cleanly.

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

Opta giving us a 3.28% chance of finishing 2nd in their predicted table.

https://theanalyst.com/competition/english-championship/table

Regardless, if Ipswich don't beat Norwich and we beat Derby this weekend then I am going to fully believe it's possible.

Edited 7 hours ago by Luke SkyWalker-Peters
gammar

[Saint Matty 76]

Won’t even entertain 2nd unless they lose/we win on Saturday, still be a huge stretch even at that point.

What I do really want is 3rd or 4th to get the home fixture for the 2nd leg. Well within our ability to get there too.

[SouthWalesSaints]

Ipswich won’t win either of the next two games.  They’ll lose/draw at Norwich.  I also think the skates have turned a corner, they’ll see this as a huge opportunity to climb away from danger. 
 

if we win both of our next two and they get 1/2 points it’s on.  If they get 4/6 regardless of what we do it won’t be enough.  So by this time next week we’ll know. 

[Saint Garrett]

5 minutes ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

Opta giving us a 3.28% chance of finishing 2nd in their predicted table.

https://theanalyst.com/competition/english-championship/table

Regardless, if Ipswich don't beat Norwich and we beat Derby this weekend then I am going to fully believe it's possible.

It was about 0.5% before last night...!

Only downside is that Ipswich have a game in hand on us, and it's against the skates.

Norwich (A) - D
Pompey (A) - W
Boro (H) - W
Charlton (A) - D
WBA (A) - D
Saints (A) - L
QPR (H) - W
Gives them 12 points = 84 points

We win all 6 - 18 points  - 84 points - we go up 2nd on goal difference...#ITSHAPPENING
 

[Football Special]

41 minutes ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

Opta giving us a 3.28% chance of finishing 2nd in their predicted table. https://theanalyst.com/competition/english-championship/table

Regardless, if Ipswich can't beat Norwich and we beat Derby this weekend then I am going to fully believe it's possible.

Middlesbrough have some nice home games v Pompey and Sheffield wednesday as well, hard to catch 

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

30 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Middlesbrough have some nice home games v Pompey and Sheffield wednesday as well, hard to catch 

Middlesbrough are in poor form at the moment, regardless of who they're playing. They haven't won in their last 5 and have been playing like a mid-table side since mid February. If both teams stay on their respective trajectories, then we will overtake them.

[Lord Duckhunter]

I can see Middlesbrough stalling, can see Millwall stalling, it could even  happen that Ipswich suddenly hit a wall. But all 3, not a fucking chance. Don’t want Ipswich anywhere near he play offs. A knock out tournament involving us, Middlesbrough, Hull & Millwall , id take that every day of the friggin week.  

[Willo of Whiteley]

If we win all our remaining games then it means Ipswich won’t win all theirs 😉

Ipswich have some tricky games coming up.

Middlesbrough is a weird one, they’ve completely faltered in the last month.

Millwall I see going for the aggression route for the play offs, I don’t think they’re a particularly good footballing side.

[beatlesaint]

We wont win all our remaining league games, none of the teams chasing play off spots will. 

We just need to keep one step ahead of Derby, Wrexham and if we win our game in hand over them, Hull.

5th or 6th is most likely, 4th is possible.

I agree about Ipswich, we dont want them in any play-off, I hope their fate is sealed when they come to St. Mary's and its 2nd !

Edited 4 hours ago by beatlesaint

[Oisin]

15 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

Typical football fan paranoia, we aren't realistically catching them. They've only really got three difficult games left; us Norwich and Boro. Even if they lose all three AND we win all our remaining games, they'd still finish level with us if they win their other four against Pompey, Charlton, WBA and QPR.

It would take an awful lot to go perfectly for us in a very short space of time, and they're in decent form themselves. Five wins and three draws in their last eight.

Likelihood is you’re correct, but there’s a perfectly reasonable scenario where by this time next week we’re 3 points off second with a game in hand still on 2 of the other candidates.

Im not writing off our chances yet and I hope the squad aren’t. We all need to be realistic and accept it’s unlikely but by no means impossible. We get to 3 points behind by next Tuesday night and the pressure on the others could well start to show

[CB Fry]

3 hours ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Won’t even entertain 2nd unless they lose/we win on Saturday, still be a huge stretch even at that point.

What I do really want is 3rd or 4th to get the home fixture for the 2nd leg. Well within our ability to get there too.

This is the realistic aim to go for.

[Jack]

I think 84 points would just about do it. Anything less would be very difficult to imagine.
 

Boro are in bottom half form so would need a big uptick to pick up 12 points from 5. Ipswich and Wrexham away and Pompey at home next where they always seem to crumble against shit sides

Millwall’s run in is very easy on paper would need them to lose one they’d expect to win. W4 L1 = 84 points 

Ipswich have a big fixture pile up like us but some tough games, 2 home games and 5 away. Norwich away next where they’re notoriously bad. W3 D2 L2 or W4 L3 = 83/84 points. Could happen. 
 

I don’t think for a minute we’ll win every game, but if we do then I think it’d be enough, possibly on GD
 

Edited 2 hours ago by Jack

[SNSUN]

1 hour ago, Jack said:

I think 84 points would just about do it. Anything less would be very difficult to imagine.
 

Boro are in bottom half form so would need a big uptick to pick up 12 points from 5. Ipswich and Wrexham away and Pompey at home next where they always seem to crumble against shit sides

Millwall’s run in is very easy on paper would need them to lose one they’d expect to win. W4 L1 = 84 points 

Ipswich have a big fixture pile up like us but some tough games, 2 home games and 5 away. Norwich away next where they’re notoriously bad. W3 D2 L2 or W4 L3 = 83/84 points. Could happen. 
 

I don’t think for a minute we’ll win every game, but if we do then I think it’d be enough, possibly on GD
 

If we win every game i think it'll be either us or Ipswich for second, seeing as we play them. They'd only need to slip up once for us to come second probably on GD.

But I can't see it happening. As long as we nail a play-off spot and we go into the play-offs injury free and in form, we will have a great chance of winning them again. That's more than I thought we'd get a month ago, when I felt we'd just fall short of them and finish 7th. 

[S-Clarke]

I'm not getting too excited about 2nd, I don't think that's realistic as we will literally need to win every game, in addition to the other 3 dropping points, 5/6 games isn't enough for us to leapfrog 3 sides. If we had say 15 games left then absolutely, well in there - but it's just come a little late.

It's amazing it's even being debated though. Let's just finish as high as we can, I reckon we'll end up around 4th/5th. The momentum is with us, very much in the same way as it was with Forest under Cooper years ago when they finished in the playoffs. 

[Baird of the land]

2 hours ago, Jack said:

I think 84 points would just about do it…..I don’t think for a minute we’ll win every game, but if we do then I think it’d be enough, possibly on GD
 

Agree, with flaws of the teams above us 84 might do it but I can’t see us winning out. 

[Eire Saint]

17 hours ago, Eire Saint said:

80/1 to finish 2nd before the game. Now 33/1. 

Down to 9/1 today same odds as Milwall

Edited 38 minutes ago by Eire Saint

[stknowle]

7 hours ago, HKsaint said:

If we win every remaining championship game, automatic promotion is still possible.

It is indeed HK my old pal, it is indeed.

[Dark Munster]

28 minutes ago, Eire Saint said:

Down to 9/1 today same odds as Milwall

And about the same bookie odds for us beating City!