Lose at home to Villa and we are down...

[windermere_royal]

Of course we are down if villa beat us. Nothing less than a win is enough. We are on the cusp
Of relegation now. You do not lose to fellow relegation contenders home and away and stay up! may as well play the kids the final games. Even if we beat villa we will be behind cause of the next
two away games.

Not enough pl quality in our side. Most pf the squad have been found out at this level. Most of us already knew that would be the case.

we could well have a two point cushion if we beat Villa (providing villa lose to city on Monday), Wigan don`t have a game next week, it could limit the damage as we fall to the two obvious defeats in our next two away games

[AthleticoSpizz]

agree (the fellah betwixt Barnsdale and Starvation Roads lol)

But can just see Citeh letting us down....after all, the BIG teams seemed to have made a habit of it this season (Chelsea 0 QPR 1 etc etc)

[windermere_royal]

agree (the fellah betwixt Barnsdale and Starvation Roads lol)

But can just see Citeh letting us down....after all, the BIG teams seemed to have made a habit of it this season (Chelsea 0 QPR 1 etc etc)

not forgetting soton 3 citeh 1

[jellytot]

If we cannot get any points from 4 games against villa and wigan we deserve to go down.

[Skin]

So what

Reading Reading Boing Boing

[AthleticoSpizz]

Boing boing boing boing biscuitmen

has a ring to it


bring it on back

[The Royal]

We have as much chance of staying up as we will have of coming straight back up, none. There are at least 2-3 better championship teams than us.

[AthleticoSpizz]

only 2-3 "The Royal"?

get out of my happy clappy world, why dontcha

[Man Friday]

If we cannot get any points from 4 games against villa and wigan we deserve to go down.

I agree but I would say six as we were/are at home and they are bottom 5 clubs.

Anything less than a win against Villa and we may as well pack our bags for the Championship. Draw or lose and we'd better make a start on the toiletries bag.

[Man Friday]

Bottom 3: Reading, Wigan and Villa.

(Southampton instead of Villa???)

[PieEater]

Who are the 3 worst teams in the division? After the tonking Wigan gave us last week I can't include them.

Even QPR are now starting to play, so I'd say us (worst) then QPR, and Villa. The most likely team to get sucked into it are Soton, but they don't seem to be playing badly enough. We may not be down yet but we're just not good enough to be here.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Very true Pieman, but we were not good enough to be champions last season yet look what happened.

Stay up and we can rebuild at a better level, go down and it is much harder.

They cant change the staff now, IMHO the only man to keep us up is Brian, but like last season everyone has to pull together.

FWIW we need to start playing further up the field, less hoof, and as someone else said less reliance on the wingers, play wide yes, but charging down the wing to find there is no one to cross to is pointless.

[Big Ern]

. There are at least 2-3 better championship teams than us.

Aren't they likely to get promoted this season then?

Impossible to make predictions for next season in the Chump. We do not know for sure who we will retain and what signings we will make, or who will be managing the team for that matter.

[RoyalBlue]

. There are at least 2-3 better championship teams than us.

Aren't they likely to get promoted this season then?

Impossible to make predictions for next season in the Chump. We do not know for sure who we will retain and what signings we will make, or who will be managing the team for that matter.

I predict another painfully poor slow start if McDermott is still in charge.

[redscot]

I am OK with slow starts as I have seen where they lead us....

[andrew1957]

,,, to me this seems blindingly obvious but I am sure that the Club will put a positive spin whatever the result.
What do the rest of you think? Which will be the pivotal match?

It is certainly true that if we fail to win Saturday and also lose to Arsenal and Man U that we are likely to be adrift and will need 5 wins from the last 7 games. That is not impossible but is rather unlikely.

[handbags_harris]

With the manner of the last two defeats in mind, if we don't beat Villa I can't actually see where we are going to get the required points from. Look at our fixtures between now and the end of the season, we have four games which are almost nailed on defeats and six games against teams we could feasibly get something from, but given our away record (5 points from 42) that leaves me realistically looking at three games to save our season - Villa, Saints, QPR. Win three games that gives us 32 points, with maybe a bonus win somewhere along the line at somewhere like Norwich or Fulham (or even better, West Ham ).

Can someone who cares more than me put the previous season's relegation/survival points stats up? Would be interesting to see what sort of figure we require...

[Ian Royal]

With the manner of the last two defeats in mind, if we don't beat Villa I can't actually see where we are going to get the required points from. Look at our fixtures between now and the end of the season, we have four games which are almost nailed on defeats and six games against teams we could feasibly get something from, but given our away record (5 points from 42) that leaves me realistically looking at three games to save our season - Villa, Saints, QPR. Win three games that gives us 32 points, with maybe a bonus win somewhere along the line at somewhere like Norwich or Fulham (or even better, West Ham ).

Can someone who cares more than me put the previous season's relegation/survival points stats up? Would be interesting to see what sort of figure we require...

Average is 37 for a 20 team PL season, both the most commonly occurring figure and what you get when you total them all and divide by how many seasons it was. Lowest was about 31 ish. Highest was about 44 ish. We're probably looking at a lower year with so many still at 30 or below, I'd guess around 35.

[melonhead]

technicaly, no.
if we lose to villa we can still stay up.
just makes it less likely

[Barry the bird boggler]

Let's do it the Reading way

Reading 0-2 Villa
ManU 1-2 Reading
Arsenal 0-1 Reading