The Final Games

Barnsley should never of lost but did. Wednesday look nothing but ordinary and if they still have Wildsmith in goal I will be delighted. Let's not forget the Scum banged 3 past them in one half. Play our game to our potential and it's another home win.

 

There is as much basis for believing we are suddenly going to collapse as there is in believing Norwich will. So that would be none then.

Points wise we will finish comfortably in the 90s

 

4 wins and 4 draws and we’re up. That’s 2 PPG and will put us on 91.

 

Slightly pessimistic on the last 5 games. Our season PPG is 1.97, Munoz's PPG is 2.27. I've not bothered with any predictor league things because there are too many permutations, the key thing is obviously that we beat Sheffield Wednesday. With Swansea & Brentford kicking off after us we could potentially have a 9 and 10 point gap respectively, even then they will have 2 games in hand at that point, it will start to look like a mountain.

 

I can agree with that. Hopefully we can go 9 on the spin. It will be tough but Norwich achieved it.

 

And so did Barnsley.

 

Agree with this.

Got to focus on beating Sheff Weds. Get the three points and as you say we go “clear” of the rest by some margin, even if just mentally, the pressure will all be on them.

A win also will give those around us that sinking feeling of, Watford have picked right back up where they left off before the break.

On paper, we have the “most winnable” game out of everyone around us and I think there will be points dropped by those around us. Just got to do what we need to, win our game. Dropping points at home to Sheff Weds will be poor.

 

I don't disagree with you guys, as in recent weeks going by our performances we are pacing our season far better and definitely seem to be less fatigued than Brentford, Swansea & Norwich, which is why I am so pissed off that the final run in is being interrupted by the international break.

This break better suits our promotion rivals than us, as they are flagging right now but we are not. Therefore this break gives our promotion rivals the chance to refuel and rejuvenate, whereas if this break had not come our rivals would probably have become more and more fatigued and we probably would have powered on through to possibly even win the title.

OK we get a rest too, but we probably could have still maintained our form regardless, whereas our rivals might well have run out of steam without it

 

It might be well-timed for us seeing as Sarr and Zinckernagel picked up knocks tbf! Plus, Brentford and Swansea have that extra game to get through, but with a smaller squad, and they still have players going on international duty

 

Agreed...the type of knocks picked up by Sarr, Zinck & Masina could well be the first hints of some fatigue, so maybe it’s not a bad thing for us either.

 

I remember fearing that an explosive player like Sarr might not have been able to deal with the fixture backlog after lockdown, but fair ******* play, not only did he play pretty much every minute of that doomed end to the season, he's also played almost every game he's been available for this season in what is of anything an even more physical division, bloke's superhuman! Masina's knock isn't too serious as he's still in line to feature for Morocco according to Leventhal

 

I'd go 88 points and with the following:
Shef Wed (H) - Win
Boro (A) - Draw
Reading (H) - Win
L*ton (A) - Draw
Nowich (A) - Draw
Millwall (H) - Win
Brentford (A) - Lose
Swansea (H) - Draw

Boro is such a massive game. Win that along with Reading & Shef W that will knock the stuffing out of the others and think we'd be able to go to Scum and really give them a game with no worries

 

This. With our current gap the fact that we play our next 3 matches before either of our promotion rivals means that a win for us will hurt them each time.

 

One game at a time. First and only thing that matters at the moment is beating Sheff Wed. Can't look beyond that game right now

 

No manager worth his salt will tell his team the result of a crucial earlier kick-off so I can't see any psychological advantage in winning an earlier game.

 

May have been true years ago, but now a days with social media etc the players are certain to know

 

The manager won't need to tell them anything. You reckon at 8pm Swansea's players will be unaware of the result of a game that finished at 5pm? And that Brentford, who play the following day, will avoid looking at all media and social media in case they see Watford (and Swansea) have won?

In a world where phones are an extension of people's hands and players are on social media pre- and post-match I'd say it's nigh on impossible for anyone to avoid knowing the results of earlier matches. They will certainly concentrate on their own performance and control only what they can control (and all the other sports psychology clichés) but there's absolutely no way Swansea's players will kick-off unaware of Watford's result.

 

Imagining that episode of the Likely Lads where Bob and Terry go to extraordinary lengths to avoid hearing the result of Bulgaria-England so they can watch it 'live' on telly later...

 

We need to win the game anyway, least not because it’s our easiest one left.

 

I’ve got a vague memory of Noel Edmonds purposefully revealing results on Noels house party to wind people up?

 

Yes they do. My dad is the same at half time and full time at Watford he covers his ears.

Last season when we lost away at Man City, I spoke to him in the early evening and said "You don't want to watch MOTD tonight", his reply was "It couldn't be worse than the cup final", I told him it was.

 

I think we'll be promoted by the time we play Brentford and Swansea, Norwich will be champions. Both games dead rubbers and will give us a chance to give players like Hungbo a start.

See you in the Premier League

Shef Wed (H) - Win
Boro (A) - Win
Reading (H) - Win
L*ton (A) - Win
Nowich (A) - Win
Millwall (H) - Win
Brentford (A) - who cares
Swansea (H) - who cares

 

Just noticed that Preston's next 3 games are Naarch, Swansea and Brentford. If there was ever a time for a New Manager Bounce...

 

Birmingham's first two games after the international break are Swansea (H) and Brentford (A). Let's hope that Lee Bowyer's bounce resumes after its interruption at the Vic. IMHO they will take something from at least one of these games.

 

I agree, I thought Brum were good on Saturday but we were a class above, plus Bowyer will have time to get his style in place after the international break.

 

My bet would be Brentford. Brentford have no trouble scoring but leak goals and can’t hold on to leads, case in point Derby and Forest, we held out against both whereas they squandered leads against them. Birmingham gave a fairly decent aerial examination, so I think they’ll trouble Brentford.

 

Swansea’s game in hand has been arranged to take place on April 13th, 6pm KO.

They play Millwall on the 10th, Sheff Weds now on the 13th, then Wycombe on the 17th.

 

Piss easy games for them on paper at least