Run-in thread

[Barry the bird boggler]

There are still 6 games to go which is ample time for cock ups, from all three contenders. Sadly our run in is the worst of the 3 so will take some determination and belief to crack so let's not get carried away after Saturday and keep our feet on the ground.

Note, not sure about the last game of the season, the BBC says it's Saturday 28th April but I've seen it as Sunday 29th April elsewhere....

Reading

Fri 06 Apr - Leeds United (h) > 2pm
Tue 10 Apr - Brighton & Hove Albion (a) > 7.45pm
Fri 13 Apr - Southampton (a) > 7.45pm
Tue 17 Apr - Nottingham Forest (h) > 7.45pm
Sat 21 Apr - Crystal Palace (h) > 3pm
Sat 28 Apr - Birmingham City (a) > 12.30pm

Southampton

Sat 07 Apr - Portsmouth (h) > 1pm
Mon 09 Apr - Crystal Palace (a) > 3pm
Fri 13 Apr - Reading (h) > 7.45pm
Tue 17 Apr - Peterborough United (a) > 7.45pm
Sat 21 Apr - Middlesbrough (a) > 5.20pm
Sat 28 Apr - Coventry City (h) > 12.30pm

West Ham United

Fri 06 Apr - Barnsley (a) > 5.15pm
Mon 09 Apr - Birmingham City (h) > 5.20pm
Sat 14 Apr - Brighton & Hove Albion (h) > 3pm
Tue 17 Apr - Bristol City (a) > 7.45pm
Mon 23 Apr - Leicester City (a) > 7.45pm
Sat 28 Apr - Hull City (h) > 12.30pm

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

The last games of the season are normally scheduled for a Sunday, is this not the case this year?

[tee peg]

no, saturday 28th .

[Vision]

Absolutely right that we should savour the weekend's result and indeed the position we find ourselves in as it's far too easy to take these things for granted in football.

However there's still plenty to play for and all it takes is a couple of bad games for us or a hot streak for one of the others and 4 points could evaporate in no time. The championship as we know only too well is a very difficult league to predict individual fixtures and at this stage of the season it's even more unpredictable.

Thing is I cant see this team choking it from here. If Southampton & West Ham win their remaining 6 games (and the pressure may well be off West Ham as far as automatic is concerned) and pip us to the post then good luck to them but it will have to be them taking that spot rather than us giving it to them.

[loyalroyal4life]

I hope promotion is wrapped up by time brum away happens, praying we go up auto so i can book a holiday during playoff final

[Stuka]

Absolutely right that we should savour the weekend's result and indeed the position we find ourselves in as it's far too easy to take these things for granted in football.

However there's still plenty to play for and all it takes is a couple of bad games for us or a hot streak for one of the others and 4 points could evaporate in no time. The championship as we know only too well is a very difficult league to predict individual fixtures and at this stage of the season it's even more unpredictable.

Thing is I cant see this team choking it from here. If Southampton & West Ham win their remaining 6 games (and the pressure may well be off West Ham as far as automatic is concerned) and pip us to the post then good luck to them but it will have to be them taking that spot rather than us giving it to them.

You're right and I think morale is good and our team is focused enough to get on with it.

[TBM]

We certainly have the hardest run in - Forest are just finding form which is a worry - i can potentially see us losing 3 of those games

[Dare to Dr£am]

I love this time of the season. Highs, lows, looking to see if someone has done you a favour, or if West Ham or Saints have wobbled again.

If we can chalk off a win against Leeds and go 7 clear, AND top of the league Friday night, then I think that's it for West Ham. They'd be play-off bound.

West Hammersmith United can't afford another defeat, yet you look at them and can see one or two more in them.

It's poetry it is, poetry.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

I hope promotion is wrapped up by time brum away happens, praying we go up auto so i can book a holiday during playoff final

I'd rather be playing Brum last game than over Easter like West Ham.

They will likely be secured in play offs by the time we play them and could ease up or rest players.

[ZacNaloen]

And hull have lost theirs, if it came down to the final day I can't see West Ham losing to them as things are. Unless they absolutely fall to pieces after Saturday.

[Wimb]

I've been thinking for weeks that Southampton have the easiest run in but looking at it again there's not a gimmie in there. Pompy will be up for perhaps the last ever derby, Palace and Posh have both beaten big teams, Boro will be scrapping for a play-off spot and Coventry might need a win to survive.

[paultheroyal]

I love this time of the season. Highs, lows, looking to see if someone has done you a favour, or if West Ham or Saints have wobbled again.

If we can chalk off a win against Leeds and go 7 clear, AND top of the league Friday night, then I think that's it for West Ham. They'd be play-off bound.

West Hammersmith United can't afford another defeat, yet you look at them and can see one or two more in them.

It's poetry it is, poetry.

Spot on. All big games but none more so than Friday. Top, 7 clear of third with 5 for us to go is a fantastic position to be in.

[ZacNaloen]

I just love that we are still in with a shout for the championship.

All it takes is winning all our games, at the moment...

[Gordons Cumming]

I love this time of the season. Highs, lows, looking to see if someone has done you a favour, or if West Ham or Saints have wobbled again.

If we can chalk off a win against Leeds and go 7 clear, AND top of the league Friday night, then I think that's it for West Ham. They'd be play-off bound.

West Hammersmith United can't afford another defeat, yet you look at them and can see one or two more in them.

It's poetry it is, poetry.

I'd be happy to see them just go on another drawing run...

[Dare to Dr£am]

I love this time of the season. Highs, lows, looking to see if someone has done you a favour, or if West Ham or Saints have wobbled again.

If we can chalk off a win against Leeds and go 7 clear, AND top of the league Friday night, then I think that's it for West Ham. They'd be play-off bound.

West Hammersmith United can't afford another defeat, yet you look at them and can see one or two more in them.

It's poetry it is, poetry.

I'd be happy to see them just go on another drawing run...

I'd be happy to see them just lose the last 6 games and fall out of the top six...

[RepressedRoyal]

Depressingly, I didn't go on Saturday, but at least I am at the Saints game. When I watched the highlights, what impressed me was the focus of the Reading players as the pandemonium set in elsewhere. Understandably, the fans of both sides were losing the plot, but the key thing was, so were the West Ham players, they looked like Dad's Army compared to us. SuperChav, Kevin Nolan, is supposed to be a captain, to get caught up in all the emotion is a cardinal sin in a game that meant so much, he lost it and so did West Ham as a result.

When I reflect on that game, I just don't see us panicking, at least not as much as our rivals anyway, we have a lot of good experience in that team and a steely determination as a unit to win games. A win against Leeds and it is looking nailed on, the only concern I have is that judging by what I saw, Saturday looked like a promotion party in the stands, I just hope and assume that isn't how the players feel.

I would really like to have it sewn up before Brum away as my son is working that day and I really don't want him to miss a party!!

[Wizard]

Have been invited to a wedding of someone I don't even know on the day of Birmingham away, some old work mate of the missus or something. Was hopeful the match may be moved to the Sunday like normal but it hasn't been. So I hope we have it sewn up before then!

[The Prisoner]

If you look at dissect those six fixtures for each team:

Average positon of teams left to play:

Reading 9th
West Ham 12th
Southampton 13th

(rounded to nearest position)

Number of teams to play with something left to play for:

Reading 5 (discounted - Palace. 4 promotion rivals, 1 relegation candidate)
Southampton 4 (discounted - Palace & Peterboro. 2 promo, 2 rele)
West Ham 4 (discounted - Barnsley & Leicester. 3 promo, 1 rele, tho Hull may be out of it, or Leicester might be back in by time they play)

IMO it is imperative to beat Leeds on Friday as West Ham then play twice before we do again away at Brighton: If we beat Leeds we open up a 7 point gap (albeit having played one more) which is an enormous psychological blow at this time of the season. IF we were to lose/draw they could overtake us by beating Barnsley & Brum (I can see 4 points at least for them in those two games) before we play a hard game at Brighton a week Tuesday.

The stats show there isn't too much variance in the quality of the opposition we have to face. I'd rather be facing promotion rivals at this stage of the season than teams scrapping for their lives and can see Coventry being a banana skin for Saints, whilst Pompey might play out of their skins against them given their thumping at the weekend, backs against the wall and rivalry (similarly Saints have a point to prove). West Ham's last two away games could well yield just nothing against a Bristol City team fighting to stay up and a Leicester team who might actually play to their full potential if they have no pressure & Saints will drop points at Boro.

There will be twists and turns, but everyone has been predicting us to blow up and so far & (except for the Peterboro blip) we haven't. We are 2 games into a hard 5 game run, but if we come through it still in the top 2 I'd back us to make it.

[melonhead]

sorry Wiz- i know you are in the -early relationship phase and everything, but if we are going up that day, you have to be there.
especially if the other option is a wedding of someone you dont know.


the missus needs to understand this.

[winchester_royal]

sorry Wiz- i know you are in the -early relationship phase and everything, but if we are going up that day, you have to be there.
especially if the other option is a wedding of someone you dont know.


the missus needs to understand this.

^this

It's decisions like these that you'll come to regret when the inevitable happens