*RELEGATION WATCH*

[andrew1957]

Thank God no-one in the bottom 9 won at the weekend. If we lose at Millwall we're really in the thick of it, make no mistake.

Interested to see that Charlton, as I predicted, are tumbling down the table and have just hired their latest foreign manager. Let us hope he is as clueless as Riga and Peeters.

Currently, I fancy Charlton to go down with Millwall and Blackpool. I will be amazed if Wigan go down, I rate their strongest XI as superior to ours in terms of quality.

Seriously Floyd you are unparalleled in your negativity. Even if we sign no one we are have a much stronger squad than most teams at the bottom. In the last 10 games we have had a change of manager and played a lot of top teams and yet our league position has not worsened. Just look at the points tallies of those around us for the last 10 games.
16th Charlton 7
18th Reading 9
19th Brighton 10
20th Leeds 9
21st Rotherham 9
22nd Millwall 5
23rd Wigan 5
24th Blackpool 10

And so far the performances under Clarke have been promising. It does not look like we need more than 20 more points from 20 games this season for comfortable survival and so the summer is the time to rebuild the squad IMO.

[marlowuk]

And so far the performances under Clarke have been promising. It does not look like we need more than 20 more points from 20 games this season for comfortable survival and so the summer is the time to rebuild the squad IMO.

Hmmmm! 20 more points would put us on 50 points. In the season before last Peterborough were relegated with 54 points and a better goal difference than we currently have. And - 20 more points from 20 games is a worse average than NA achieved with us during his tenure this season. If we can't do better than that there will be serious questions to be asked of SC!! Personally, I think we will do better than that and that we will be safe but we should take nothing for granted!!

[Man Friday]

Thank God no-one in the bottom 9 won at the weekend. If we lose at Millwall we're really in the thick of it, make no mistake.

Interested to see that Charlton, as I predicted, are tumbling down the table and have just hired their latest foreign manager. Let us hope he is as clueless as Riga and Peeters.

Currently, I fancy Charlton to go down with Millwall and Blackpool. I will be amazed if Wigan go down, I rate their strongest XI as superior to ours in terms of quality.

Seriously Floyd I am unparalleled in my complacency.

[andrew1957]

Thank God no-one in the bottom 9 won at the weekend. If we lose at Millwall we're really in the thick of it, make no mistake.

Interested to see that Charlton, as I predicted, are tumbling down the table and have just hired their latest foreign manager. Let us hope he is as clueless as Riga and Peeters.

Currently, I fancy Charlton to go down with Millwall and Blackpool. I will be amazed if Wigan go down, I rate their strongest XI as superior to ours in terms of quality.

Seriously Floyd I am unparalleled in my complacency.

In only 3 of the last ten seasons has more than 50 points been needed for survival in this division and on all three occasions the 22nd club had more points after game 26 than the 22nd club has this season. It is, therefore, statistically unlikely that we need more than 50 this season - which for example could be win 5 draw 5 lose 10.

Although I expect us to do much better than that in any case.

[Man Friday]

Fair enough.

[JIM]

Tell me. is this management/owner just going to sit on all their capital, as ROYALS slowly sink down the divisions using FFP as an excuse, or are they going to surprise us and sell us again,????? cause there are onlty 15 days left to the end of the transfer window, and we have heard F/A of their plans for the team this season,

[loyalroyal4life]

Am sure SC said we were aiming for the playoffs

[Haag Royal]

I think the club should keep their cash, squeaky bum time to avoid relegation, renew the contracts they want to renew in the spring/summer, have a clear out, give SC the money to rebuild and kick on for next season. Write this one off as a dud.

[Royalclapper]

The middle of next month should be the indicator as to how realistic relegation could be.

2 big home games in a week against Leeds & Wigan 10th-14th (unless 14th FA Cup 5th round). If we're closer to the drop zone after that time than we are now then I'd be seriously worried.

3 of the last 4 are against Brentford, Bournemuff & Derby so you'd like to think there'll be enough points on the board by then.

[Ian Royal]

I think the club should keep their cash, squeaky bum time to avoid relegation, renew the contracts they want to renew in the spring/summer, have a clear out, give SC the money to rebuild and kick on for next season. Write this one off as a dud.

The problem is that attitude can filter through to the players dropping performances further.

There's no big change between our success under Adkins and Clarke so far. We've picked up a couple of draws rather than loses and we're harder to score against, but ultimately when it comes to points on the board we're barely better off. We've got a long way to go and complacency in writing the season off and hoping we squeek through all right isn't a solid plan.

[floyd__streete]

Seriously Floyd you are unparalleled in your negativity.

Andrew, I well remember your thread a few weeks before the end of 2007/08 season titled 'x CUP FINALS TO GO' which rather optimistically started crowing at the nay sayers (you name-checked myself), insisting we were staying up. We all know what happened there so forgive me if I 100% choose my set of reality over yours.

I barely even agree with your assertion that we have a better squad than the teams around us; Huddersfield are fellow relegation contenders and they have Wells and Vaughan and are rumoured to be moving for ALF. I'd have those three over Pog, Cox and Blackman any day of the week.

Bad result yesterday, Leeds 1-0 Bournemouth. Brighton 3-1 up vs Ipswich at half time, more bad news. We are Peter Capaldi; we are in 'The Thick of It'.

[SCIAG]

I barely even agree with your assertion that we have a better squad than the teams around us; Huddersfield are fellow relegation contenders and they have Wells and Vaughan and are rumoured to be moving for ALF. I'd have those three over Pog, Cox and Blackman any day of the week.

Cox has scored as many as Wells this season and Pogrebnyak only scored one fewer than ALF last season. Even though Vaughan has built his career off a goal he scored ten years ago (38 since then in all comps) and is out for most of the season, he is probably a better option than Blackman, so I'll give you that.

[floyd__streete]

Rotherham's win tonight was hugely unhelpful. Good point for Reading away from home which maintains the gap but we could be fourth bottom by Saturday tea time. Worrying times; this is by some distance our worst side since we were promoted back to this division in 2002.

[LUX]

Charlton falling alarmingly, only one point ahead of us.

I worry that Wigan will wake up, just as Millwall do every year. Blackpool look to be as sure of going down as one can be.

Other teams in it? BHA, Leeds.........Rotherham. I reckon Huddersfiled will be there or thereabouts at the end too.

[Turns8]

Rotherham's win tonight was hugely unhelpful. Good point for Reading away from home which maintains the gap but we could be fourth bottom by Saturday tea time. Worrying times; this is by some distance our worst side since we were promoted back to this division in 2002.

+1...are failure to score will come back to haunt us...teams around have added to their squads with forwards likely to bag a couple of goals...we are just banking on not conceding and picking up a point...with the defence we all know can look woeful at times during games and I would put the clean sheets down to luck rather than skill...

19 games left...if we draw every game we will have 50points...Millwall would need to win 9 of their remaining games to finish above us...we should be fine!!!

[Pepe the Horseman]

Wigan seem to be trying to sell all their players.

[genome]

Quite... McManaman, Espinoza, Tavernier, Riera, Watson, Maloney and Forshaw all out.

[tee peg]

Pity we cant sell a few of ours, HRK , Blackman,.............

[Silver Fox]

Rotherham's win tonight was hugely unhelpful. Good point for Reading away from home which maintains the gap but we could be fourth bottom by Saturday tea time.

Also, we could be 15th

[Royalclapper]

Wigan's situation is noteworthy, you'd imagine Whelan has become more and more pissed off with football and the wage drain of wannabe players who just don't perform well enough for what they're on. Mackay has made little difference to them either.

Blackpool are goosed already, Millwall are always in this position, Rotherham are giving it a decent go.

From the others, Leeds must also have a weighty wage bill and be worried - think they'll be safe though, Charlton look edgier by the game, Brighton have had a response from Hughton and you'd think Reading and Huddersfield are about the same level - still in danger of course.