Vs Top Half, Vs Bottom Half

[Eddie Hitler]

I knew we weren't doing well against the top half but the football365 tables show quite what the difference is:

Vs Bottom Half:

1 Bristol City (7) 32 19 13 5 1 35 15 20 1.84 0.78 2.31 44

2 Wolverhampton Wndrs (1) 33 16 11 3 2 38 22 16 2.37 1.37 2.25 36

3 Cardiff City (5) 29 16 10 5 1 25 12 13 1.56 0.75 2.18 35

4 Reading (3) 31 14 9 3 2 28 13 15 2.00 0.92 2.14 30

5 Sheffield United (6) 32 17 11 3 3 29 14 15 1.70 0.82 2.11 36

6 Birmingham City (2) 32 15 9 3 3 19 12 7 1.26 0.80 2.00 30

7 Crystal Palace (13) 29 15 9 2 4 24 12 12 1.60 0.80 1.93 29

8 Preston North End (4) 33 17 9 5 3 26 16 10 1.52 0.94 1.88 32

9 Blackpool (15) 32 14 7 5 2 21 15 6 1.50 1.07 1.85 26

10 Burnley (8) 32 16 8 4 4 25 18 7 1.56 1.12 1.75 28

Vs Top Half:

14 Doncaster Rovers (16) 31 15 4 3 8 8 16 -8 0.53 1.06 1.00 15

15 Derby County (17) 30 16 3 5 8 13 24 -11 0.81 1.50 0.87 14

16 Watford (22) 30 19 4 4 11 26 38 -12 1.36 2.00 0.84 16

17 Norwich City (20) 33 16 3 4 9 21 26 -5 1.31 1.62 0.81 13

18 Crystal Palace (13) 29 14 2 5 7 15 22 -7 1.07 1.57 0.78 11

19 Barnsley (21) 30 16 3 3 10 14 26 -12 0.87 1.62 0.75 12

20 Southampton (23) 32 16 2 5 9 18 30 -12 1.12 1.87 0.68 11

21 Charlton Athletic (24) 32 18 3 3 12 24 39 -15 1.33 2.16 0.66 12

22 Blackpool (15) 32 18 2 6 10 12 27 -15 0.66 1.50 0.66 12

23 Nottingham Forest (19) 32 16 1 5 10 13 28 -15 0.81 1.75 0.50 8

24 Bristol City (7) 32 13 0 6 7 7 21 -14 0.53 1.61 0.46 6

[DavidNoble]

God that's horrific. Imagine where we would be if we could only be mediocre against top half teams.

[22A]

Interesting that Palace, like City feature in both tables.

[Alex_BCFC]

Seeing as most of our games in the run-in are against top half sides, we will need to improve that record dramatically to make the PO's.

[Ian M]

Seeing as most of our games in the run-in are against top half sides, we will need to improve that record dramatically to make the PO's.

Now we've remembered how to win home games you'd like to think we were capable of winning each of them. Preston & Cardiff are the most dangerous sides left to visit us and both are sides that we beat at AG last season. Do that and we relieve a lot of pressure away from home where we'd only need to pick up 6-8 points to make the play-offs.

[Mr Popodopolous]

Now that is a huge gap....5 times as productive vs bottom teams as we have been vs top sides!

Major improvement of that record needed...then again, there is terrific momentum now.

[Alex_BCFC]

Now we've remembered how to win home games you'd like to think we were capable of winning each of them. Preston & Cardiff are the most dangerous sides left to visit us and both are sides that we beat at AG last season. Do that and we relieve a lot of pressure away from home where we'd only need to pick up 6-8 points to make the play-offs.

I was thinking before yesterdays game- this would do it:

5 home wins

3 away wins

Now I'm thinking from the final 14.

5 home wins

2 away wins with a couple of draws.

Easy

[Ixion]

We spent a fair bit of time in the bottom half (or mid table at best) from the 4th October to 20th December playing teams that were, or that went above us on an awful run that yielded just 16 points from 19 games (13th Sept to 20th Dec); compare this to 22 points from the last eight games and we can see what a dent to our league position the loss of form did.

We cannot afford to let teams that beat us early season and who are above/around us now, (and whom we have to play again) to double us i.e. Brum, Reading, Burnley and Preston. A point from each at least is pretty vital for playoff aspirations.

I meant to say that November looked a bit of a killer month for us.