Could the unthinkable happen?

[GrahamC]

1 minute ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

But last season we improved after xmas by tightening up at the back - including picking 3 tall, no-nonsense CBs - Semenyo hitting an excellent streak of form - motivated, playing well and scoring goals - as was Weimann, with Martin's linking and hold up play knitting the whole thing into a potent strike force. 

That's how we clambered to safety.

This season we have the opposite of no-nonsense CBs, Semenyo appears disinterested or out of form (take your pick), Weimann isn't scoring (for reasons not entirely his fault) and Martin seems to have gone over the hill.

So I'm not sure how we replicate last season's improvement. Basically we need a miracle - either in the transfer market or in players' form/attitude/fitness. Imo. Glass half empty as usual.

Merry xmas! 

 

You too, we never did sort out that drink!

I think we have already tightened up relatively, in the last 10 league games we have conceded 10, even with my basic maths that suggests a goal a game, the sort of ratio that gives us a chance, though for balance we have only scored 9 in those 10 games & 3 of those were at Rotherham..

I’m more pessimistic than a few weeks ago but saw Wigan last night (poor), & as I have said elsewhere think with Huddersfield (who would have to pull back 8 points on us & have a much worse goal difference), Blackpool, Cardiff, Hull, & Rotherham (on a terrible run) too, we should be able to finish above 3 of these.

Expect next month to be busier than last January when we signed a free agent (Klose) a couple of days before the window closed & loaned out some kids.

[And Its Smith]

10 minutes ago, Super said:

Not even halfway through the season and they are 3 points off the playoffs.

Guessing you haven’t seen them play. A few lucky wins means nothing long term. Guess we will see. Happy to hold my hands up if they make the play offs

[Davefevs]

10 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

You too, we never did sort out that drink!

I think we have already tightened up relatively, in the last 10 league games we have conceded 10, even with my basic maths that suggests a goal a game, the sort of ratio that gives us a chance, though for balance we have only scored 9 in those 10 games & 3 of those were at Rotherham..

I’m more pessimistic than a few weeks ago but saw Wigan last night (poor), & as I have said elsewhere think with Huddersfield (who would have to pull back 8 points on us & have a much worse goal difference), Blackpool, Cardiff, Hull, & Rotherham (on a terrible run) too, we should be able to finish above 3 of these.

Expect next month to be busier than last January when we signed a free agent (Klose) a couple of days before the window closed & loaned out some kids.

I think you sum up why we don’t think we will go down, and that’s because of others.  That’s not me being negative and thank our lucky stars, just that we are likely to fill one of the positions outside of the bottom three.

I look at the bottom half and first think we will finish above Huddersfield, Wigan, Blackpool, Hull and Rotherham.  Maybe one of them might put together a decent second half of the season, but I expect there’ll be a team or two who might fall off a Cliff too.  I don’t think that will be us either.  I’d like us to finish better than 19th though.

[pongo88]

5 hours ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Ohh I thought you were going to say we could promoted, surprising how often a team at the bottom makes a run second half of the season

This isn’t impossible. City are only 7 points away from the playoffs. I’m not saying it will happen, but the year City lost to Hull in the playoffs, Hull were pretty low in the league at this stage of the season. In another example, Gary Johnson took Yeovil from the depths of League 1 with a late run to the playoffs, and subsequent promotion.  I’m sure @Robbored was at Wembley to witness this. 

[1960maaan]

33 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

This isn’t impossible. City are only 7 points away from the playoffs. I’m not saying it will happen, but the year City lost to Hull in the playoffs, Hull were pretty low in the league at this stage of the season. In another example, Gary Johnson took Yeovil from the depths of League 1 with a late run to the playoffs, and subsequent promotion.  I’m sure @Robbored was at Wembley to witness this. 

Not true pongo, as these two shots show. Pretty sure we were up there all year and only dropped off later on.

 

Now Forest last year were 16th around this time last year, and on fewer points than we are.
I still honestly believe we could go on a run, at times we look good enough to sneak top ten. Of course that would mean cutting out a large percentage of the stupid errors that have cost. Also a little more luck and a few Pens would come in handy. 
Not totally out of the question yet.

[Dr Balls]

44 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

Not true pongo, as these two shots show. Pretty sure we were up there all year and only dropped off later on.

 

Now Forest last year were 16th around this time last year, and on fewer points than we are.
I still honestly believe we could go on a run, at times we look good enough to sneak top ten. Of course that would mean cutting out a large percentage of the stupid errors that have cost. Also a little more luck and a few Pens would come in handy. 
Not totally out of the question yet.

We could go on a good run, but I see no evidence of that right now. The defence has to get better and we need to rediscover our goal scoring touch. Playing players like Weimann out of position doesn’t help our chances either. Bad luck and individual bad decisions have cost us a lot of points already this season, but there is no reason why that should change either. Kalas returning to the back line might help improve things. It would certainly be better than Andy ******* King at centre back!

[pongo88]

51 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

Not true pongo, as these two shots show. Pretty sure we were up there all year and only dropped off later on.

 

Now Forest last year were 16th around this time last year, and on fewer points than we are.
I still honestly believe we could go on a run, at times we look good enough to sneak top ten. Of course that would mean cutting out a large percentage of the stupid errors that have cost. Also a little more luck and a few Pens would come in handy. 
Not totally out of the question yet.

You’re quoting something I didn’t say. I made no mention of City’s position. I said Hull were low in the league in the first half of the season and then went on a good run to get into the playoffs. 

[1960maaan]

11 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

We could go on a good run, but I see no evidence of that right now. The defence has to get better and we need to rediscover our goal scoring touch. Playing players like Weimann out of position doesn’t help our chances either. Bad luck and individual bad decisions have cost us a lot of points already this season, but there is no reason why that should change either. Kalas returning to the back line might help improve things. It would certainly be better than Andy ******* King at centre back!

I'm with you there.

I do think we have played better than the results we've got recently. Should possibly have beaten Sheff U & Stoke, with a decent slice of luck might have beaten Watford. That said it's going to be hard getting any run together while constantly shooting ourselves in the foot so regularly.

6 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

You’re quoting something I didn’t say. I made no mention of City’s position. I said Hull were low in the league in the first half of the season and then went on a good run to get into the playoffs. 

Sorry read it too quickly obviously .

Just checked and today in 2007 they were 13th , interestingly 2 Playoff teams are around the same place in the table.

Edited December 20, 2022 by 1960maaan

[Robbored]

2 hours ago, pongo88 said:

This isn’t impossible. City are only 7 points away from the playoffs. I’m not saying it will happen, but the year City lost to Hull in the playoffs, Hull were pretty low in the league at this stage of the season. In another example, Gary Johnson took Yeovil from the depths of League 1 with a late run to the playoffs, and subsequent promotion.  I’m sure @Robbored was at Wembley to witness this. 

I was and never witnessed a City shot on target. I was feeling optimistic after the two cracking performances against Palace.

I should have known…………

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

It’s not “unthinkable” is it?

It can happen any season that we are only one division apart and this threads like this appear every time we find ourselves in a dodgy position.

The fact that footballing giants like Yeovil, Stevenage, Torquay, Fleetwood, Burton, Crawley, Scunthorpe, Hartlepool, Rochdale and Shrewsbury have all been above us in the League (a whole division in Yeovil’s case) since the last time Rovers were should be a huge source of embarrassment for the blue few. The excuse of Lansdowns billions didn’t prevent Colchester looking down on us in the table…

Sooner or later they will find themselves above us as many teams have done, probably due to our own failings. Will they stay there for 22 years?

Will they ****.

 

Edited December 20, 2022 by Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan

[Henry]

I’m not worried about relegation. Pearson seems to manage to get a win every few games and rarely goes on losing streaks.

Id worry a bit if we had Conway, Scott and Wells injured at the same time

[Wrongagain]

Referring and stupid line decisions have cost us at least 9 points since season start - if that continues into the new year we’re in the shit if we have to rely on the average points we actually win.

[cidercity1987]

Hahaha no chance

I'm not THAT worried about relegation but there is no way Rovers are getting promoted, they'll get their usual nosebleed when they get a sniff of success in that division 

[Topper 123]

I don’t give them bluenoses much of my time and see them for what they are a middle div3 side ,as we are no more a mid table div 2 side (that’s old money) 

its 23 games in , half way point and we’ve amassed 27 points and everyone is moaning about a crap season , well if the second half is equally shit and we get the same return that will give us 54 points which is easily safe so I’m pretty confident we have nothing to worry about only the arrogance of a very pompous manager

[Red_Alligator]

We'll survive and they won't be going anywhere. That shall be the order of things.

[tin]

I couldn’t give a toss about the blue few, but every dog eventually has their day and there is a chance they might go above us very briefly before we go above them for another two decades. 

Regarding relegation, I don’t think it’s likely right now. There are worse teams and Nige does have form for getting a result, usually when the pressure’s off. I do think we’d be in the shit if he left right now, though, and for context I’m not happy with Atkinson’s treatment. 

But then again I think it’s a minor miracle he’s rebuilding us while we’re at this level. Every other time we’ve undergone a rebuild it’s been in the third tier. 

[Wanderingred]

Worried about relegation…. Yes for sure.

Worried about that shower coming up? Not a chance. 

[bpexile]

Have to admit I am more concerned than I thought I would be. Hopefully our inconsistency will work in our favour & we'll pick up unexpected points but I am quite concerned about Nige openly nameing & shaming players, that cannot be a positive for moral. 

[weepywall]

155/1 with Paddypower for this senario.

[Super]

2 hours ago, weepywall said:

155/1 with Paddypower for this senario.

About the same odds as us getting a penalty before the end of the season.

[cidercity1987]

Derby in 6th are on for 74 points

Rovers would need 1.83 points per game to make the play offs if so

Not gonna happen

[Son of Fred]

12 hours ago, Magger1 said:

I don’t give them bluenoses much of my time and see them for what they are a middle div3 side ,as we are no more a mid table div 2 side (that’s old money) 

its 23 games in , half way point and we’ve amassed 27 points and everyone is moaning about a crap season , well if the second half is equally shit and we get the same return that will give us 54 points which is easily safe so I’m pretty confident we have nothing to worry about only the arrogance of a very pompous manager

Every chance someone will go down with 50+ points this season..

[And Its Smith]

1 hour ago, Son of Fred said:

Every chance someone will go down with 50+ points this season..

Agreed. Currently I’d say 53 would be safe.  Anything under 52 is squeaky bum time.  I just want to see a positive goal difference. This is from memory but I think we have only posted a positive GD once in about last 10 seasons. 

[freezer]

5 hours ago, weepywall said:

155/1 with Paddypower for this senario.

I've got 220/1 with Skybet. I like an outside bet. 

Please don't let it happen. I'd be happy to lose my bet but the payout is a bonus. 

I did win a decent amount on their last day flukey promotion. 

Its a funny ol game football. 

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, Son of Fred said:

Every chance someone will go down with 50+ points this season..

Definitely a possibility, but nor would it surprise me if at least 3 teams end up in the 40s either.  Huddersfield obviously the least likely to get 50, need 31 points, the other two need 26.

Nobody should be resting on their laurels at AG, though.

[Sir Geoff]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Definitely a possibility, but nor would it surprise me if at least 3 teams end up in the 40s either.  Huddersfield obviously the least likely to get 50, need 31 points, the other two need 26.

Nobody should be resting on their laurels at AG, though.

Long way still to go but our superior goal difference is currently worth an extra point too.

[robofwells]

To be honest I thought Barton would do a good job at Rovers (they are a good fit both scummy). But his record at Fleetwood was good.

As for the thought of us going down and them up not impossible but not likely I think we will stay up just and Rovers will fail in the play offs.

Lets wait and see.

[Mihai]

It is exactly what I wanted to ask. If we do a pool Im wondering how will we vote.

I am afraid of this second half of the season. If they don't improve the team is all about morale because we are close... very close. 

[GrahamC]

22 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Definitely a possibility, but nor would it surprise me if at least 3 teams end up in the 40s either.  Huddersfield obviously the least likely to get 50, need 31 points, the other two need 26.

Nobody should be resting on their laurels at AG, though.

Me neither.

At the risk of repeating my earlier post;

Huddersfield have 19 points from 22 games, so to get more than 50 now would take some effort from here.

Wigan & Blackpool are averaging a point a game so would also both need to improve a fair bit.

Rotherham are on a very poor run, 5 points in their last 9 games, Cardiff have lost 6 of their last 10, winning just 2. In contrast we might think we’re in a poor spell but still have picked up 12 points from our last 10 games.

3 of these other sides would need to significantly improve in order to finish with more than 50 or so points.

[elhombrecito]

On 20/12/2022 at 20:15, Robbored said:

I was and never witnessed a City shot on target. I was feeling optimistic after the two cracking performances against Palace.

I should have known…………

You very much remind me of Donald Trump. Keep spouting the same nonsense over and over again, even when others provide definitive proof that you're wrong.

For clarity: