The Championship 2020-21

Forest about to have a big say in the promotion push. We need to beat them and then hope they go on a 3 game winning streak.

 

A shame Brentford and Swansea both won but we just have to keep winning. If Swansea drop 5 points more than us, and we can overtake Brentford, we are up.

 

It's definitely going down to that last game isn't it. Let's hope for no last day Dom Poleon dramatics.

 

6.30am kick off. Damn these EFL broadcast changes!

 

Last year we knew we needed to be well clear of the bottom 3 before those last 2 games due to their difficulty. This year I think we need to be safely in 2nd place before those last few difficult games. Yes we may win one or two but we won't beat Norwich, Brentford and Swansea ! In fact 6 of the last 7 look difficult. Reading & Boro battling for PO places, N, B & S battling for top 2, the L**** derby.

 

I don’t know, part of me thinks it might be better to be slightly behind. Brentford are perennial chokers, if we were a point or two behind them before we played them I think that might be easier mentally to be the chaser, rather than the team with something to lose. How would Brentford cope knowing they couldn’t afford to lose the game and on the flip side how would we cope in that same situation? Obviously it would be great to be well clear, but is it realistic to think we could be 7 points clear with 2 games left? I just wouldn’t fancy playing either Swansea or Brentford needing to not lose.

 

Source?

 

The main thing is no **** ups against Bournemouth. I very much doubt the players have the weird obsession with them some of our fans do, and to them they’re just another team, but they’re not the Bournemouth we’ve been used to playing for the past 6 seasons, they’re currently one of the worst teams in the championship with an awful manager, no excuses for not getting 3 points.

 

Cue insipid 1-0 defeat. Very Watfordy.

 

Very likely, sadly.

 

How can you be so mean about them? They are a small team like us and we should be friends with them. We should give up our promotion push in solidarity.

 

The football league, but more importantly, the man at ESSO.

 

On the plus side, my Norwich Brentford Swansea treble paid out so I'll do the same this weekend. On the other hand, for next week, Norwich playing Brentford - who do I back hoping they lose?

 

I'm hoping for a mass brawl and a load of them get 10 match suspensions.

 

Throw Norwich or Brentford double chance into the accumulator. Then you can celebrate the draw, when it costs you your accumulator.

 

After the 32 match mark in 2015, the top looked just as congested, this was after our 3-0 loss to Norwich in Feb 2015. Our current points tally and GD would have had us in 3rd place in that year at this point too.

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/21-february-2015/

 

I think with the state of the squad and owners it was fortunate we managed to stay in contention all season scraping 1-0 wins. Could have easily been down the bottom like Stoke and Huddersfield did.

 

Brentford's second goal came with Wednesday down to 10 men with a player injured by a tackle the Brentford player should have got a red for.

 

Am I being overly optimistic in hoping that Pearson can have a good impact for Bristol City on Saturday?

 

My friends who support Coventry thought that they were very unfortunate last night against Swamsea and were complaining about not getting a penalty when O'Hare went down.

 

With all the luck that Swansea and Brentford got last night, are we seeing a refereeing conspiracy against the Hornets building up? Fortunately the ref for our Friday night match obviously misunderstood the memo he received by disallowing Derby's 'goal' near half time. No such problems from our friend in the middle last night. He had worked out which team he was supporting waving play on each time as Blackburn's hit men made their mark. Prepare for more of the same in the coming matches!

 

Not quite the same, the last 2 games last season were more or less unwinnable, all our remaining games this season are winnable.

No Man Citys in the Champo (except us).

 

After tonight the current average league position of our next 6 opponents is 16th. Let's hope we are nearer to 60 points than 50 points, by the time we play AFCB on 27 Feb.

I wrote this on the Stoke City match thread 5 weeks ago - mission accomplished I would say! We probably regarded AFCB as a rival in those days....

 

Any game is winnable. Do you think we will win them all ? The point is they are much more difficult than the games we have between now and then so best not to still be behind going into those last games.
PS the arsenal game certainly should have been winnable with arsenal having nothing to play for and a cup final coming up. We were the better team on the day but blew it. MC, yes pretty impossible given they fielded their best side, unlike when they played Muff who outplayed them and should have got a point.

 

By coincidence the current average league position of our next 6 opponents is again 16th. Another run of 4W 1D 1L (Cardiff L - AFCB D - Wycombe, Forest, Rotherham, Brum W) is possible if we can maintain our current form.

By contrast the average league position of our last 6 opponents of the season is 6.5

 

Had a word with one of my contacts about what will happen at the end of the season (platypuses have a rudimentary ability to communicate with the future but only if they are ITK).

My contact said we may as well just talk about the final game at home to Swansea. We go into it knowing a win guarantees promotion, but anything but a win and it’s playoffs for the Hornets (and likely a match with Bournemouth who scrape into the Top Six after eventually appointing Henry).

My source (who usually gives very good insight into the near future) says we take an early lead to calm the nerves, Cleverley sidefooting in a Sarr cross from 15 yards. Scores of Watford fans erupt with joy at the makeshift Fan Park the council has set up adjacent to the Pond. Lager is for sale from kiosks but is expensively priced.

Swansea take the game to us from thereon, eventually we break and they grab a heartbreaking equaliser in the 85th minute. Watford rally and reassert themselves on the game, desperate for a winner.

In the 95th minute we win a corner and Foster goes up. Zinckernagel’s delivery causes chaos and there is pinball in the six yard box! Suddenly Foster leaps, aiming an overhead kick at the ball.

At this point my I lost my connection to the future so the rest is tbc.

 

If you get your connection back, let us know if we make it or not.

 

I was nervous reading that,heaven knows what I'll be like if it's all still possible on the day!

 

If all our hopes hang on a Foster overhead kick in the last game I’m officially writing this season off.

 

At least we’re not relying on a Deeney overhead kick, if we were he’d need to start jumping now.

 

He has.

 

I'm not at all downhearted about Brentford and Swansea's results last night, they got results that pretty much everyone would expect them to get from those fixtures. Wednesday are a poor team without question and would still be in trouble without that points deduction and before last night's game were beaten heavily at Millwall who looked average at best against us and lost a big six-pointer in their home game against Birmingham. And Swansea apparently weren't convincing again against Coventry, only having two shots on target (it would be interesting to know what their fans feel about their style of play despite the results, because many would be pretty displeased if we performed like they did against Forest and Coventry, like with games we won against Rotherham and Birmingham under Ivic). There'll be plenty more opportunities for them to drop points surely.

 

... especially as Swansea lost their last game 4-1 against Huddersfield and Brentford lost their last three. It’s only Norwich we haven’t really made any ground up on, but we’ve made a significant amount up against the other two.