[Archived] Relegation Watch

[LeChuck]

My heart says Hull because I'd love Spurs to go down.

However, I think Spurs will ultimately be fine, whereas Hull are well and truly screwed having lost their best striker to Boro and having their record signing ruled out for the reason of the season. If they hadn't had such a great start they'd probably be a long way adrift at the bottom of the league.

[MI ROVER]

Do we want a draw or a win for Hull. Im hoping for a Hull win, as spurs run in looks bad!

No matter what spurs run in is like and I haven't seen it but there's is no way the southern media darlings will be relegated absolutely no way. They will survive in some way whether it be dubious penalty decisions etc - A spurs victory keeping Hull in striking distance.

[John]

Think a draw would be really good for us. Spurs run in is pretty hard: click here

[philipl]

Spurs won- a bit of class but no bottle beat no class and running out of bottle.

Both sides look woeful and Hull only exploited Cudicini's failings once- I think Cudicini finally caught the ball for the first time in the 89th minute. And we complain about Robinson?!?

Don't think Spurs cannot go down because on that showing they can even though they won.

Hull on the other hand really look to be in deep deep trouble and are perhaps even worse than West Brom.

[jim mk2]

Hull on the other hand really look to be in deep deep trouble and are perhaps even worse than West Brom.

The difference being Hull have the points in the bag and will glean enough from their remaining games to stay up.

And if Hull are in "deep deep trouble" on 29 points what does that make us ?

[philipl]

The difference being Hull have the points in the bag and will glean enough from their remaining games to stay up.

And if Hull are in "deep deep trouble" on 29 points what does that make us ?

Playing well and with positive momentum, not something you can say about Hull.

[jim mk2]

Playing well and with positive momentum, not something you can say about Hull.

Rovers have lost their past 2 league matches and not won in goodness knows how long. Hardly "positive momentum".

[John]

To put it in perspective, Hull probably could get away with just winning two more home games to end up ok (obviously picking up draws in other games).

Massive game for us on Sunday, but also a massive incentive for them to win as well.

[Eddie]

We played 60ish minutes of good football, but it is still only 2 points from our last 4 games. I think we should hold out on saying that we have any momentum until we have 6 points or more from 3 games.

[Parsonblue]

Playing well and with positive momentum, not something you can say about Hull.

We played well in the second half on Saturday but the fact remains our momentum at the moment has come to a halt with two defeats in the League. If Hull beat us on Sunday they will be nine points clear of us and out of range. I suspect the relegation places will be between WBA, Middlesbrough, Ourselves and Stoke. If Hull are to be brought into it we must win on Sunday. However, the gap that is now opening between the bottom four and the rest means that we need two wins to get back into the pack - the position we were in when Sam took over. Despite our positive results we are not making progress in terms of League position so I'm not quite sure if I would describe that as postive momentum. Hull should be a winnable game and so should Everton - considering their injury problems. Anything less than four points from those two games and I think we will be in real trouble.

[Eddie]

More to the point, if we don't win on Sunday we're fast running out of "winnable" fixtures. I wouldn't want to see us heading into games against Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and a few others needing a win. If we don't win on Sunday then we will have to win one of our tougher fixtures in the coming weeks to make up for it and stand a chance of getting to safety.

[John]

I remember last season, someone on here saying that being in a relegation scrap is exciting.

Sadly, I cannot agree. Finding this a bloody nightmare.

[gumboots]

What it comes down to is can we capitalise on the mistakes Hull will make? if you saw the pre match ananlysis they showed lots of Hull mistakes/wrong options etc and they did exactly the same things wrong in tonight's game too. If allardyce has done his homework properly when watching tonight he should be able to see exactly what we need to do to score against them. The rest is up to the players to take on board what they are told to do and carry it off.

[philipl]

Last eight games

Rovers W2 D4 L2 last win 17 January

Hull W0 D2 L6 last win 6 December

Last two games for Rovers were against the Premier League's two top form sides.

I stick by what I say, Rovers are playing well and have the momentum. Of course that could be disrupted by Coventry and Hull in the next two games but so long as we don't have Roberts missing empty goals I would expect Rovers to make significant progress now.

Having watched all of the bottom half teams over this week-end, only Sunderland look to be playing well at the moment and Rovers look much more convincing than the other eight.

[gumboots]

Last eight games

Rovers W2 D4 L2 last win 17 January

Hull W0 D2 L6 last win 6 December

Last two games for Rovers were against the Premier League's two top form sides.

I stick by what I say, Rovers are playing well and have the momentum. Of course that could be disrupted by Coventry and Hull in the next two games but so long as we don't have Roberts missing empty goals I would expect Rovers to make significant progress now.

Having watched all of the bottom half teams over this week-end, only Sunderland look to be playing well at the moment and Rovers look much more convincing than the other eight.

Agree but you don't get points for looking convincing - you get them for winning games and we haven't done too well on that score recently.

[philipl]

Agree but you don't get points for looking convincing - you get them for winning games and we haven't done too well on that score recently.

Three words- Jason Roberts misses.

[jim mk2]

Three words- Jason Roberts misses.

Precisely. Substandard players = poor results.

The league table does not lie : we are third bottom because we are a poor team.

[Eddie]

Three words- Jason Roberts misses.

I've played on a lot of football teams and I've played on teams where a striker or strikers have missed several crucial chances in a short period of time, I can tell you that I've never found it to be inspiring that we were simply creating the chances. Missing chances is nearly as demoralising as conceding is. We've used the "playing well, but not winning" card twice this season (as things turned sour under Ince and at the start for Allardyce), no one is going to fall for it a third time. We need points and we need them soon.

[DE.]

After watching Hull's matches over the past few weeks, and especially tonight, you have to say that if we can't win this one we really are looking at Championship football next year. They're the type of team we must beat.

[CAPT KAYOS]

After watching Hull's matches over the past few weeks, and especially tonight, you have to say that if we can't win this one we really are looking at Championship football next year. They're the type of team we must beat.

But thought you where confident we would stay up -are these not one of the teams 'worse ' than us as you put it.

According to your book its a win game - but we have another 'if'.

[RevidgeBlue]

It's starting to look quite clear cut now.

If Hull beat us on Sunday and move to 32 points they should be safe by the end of the season leaving it as perm any three from four (us, Stoke, Boro and WBA) to go down.

If we beat Hull leaving us just three points behind them with a game in hand, they're very much getting dragged back into the mix.

A draw on Sunday and I still think we're left with the "perm any 3 from 4" situation.

Another thing is starting to become apparent to me, we can't afford to be too negative in the remaining games. Draws won't keep us up. If we were to draw all our remaining games it would leave us on 36 points which will take us down whereas a sequence of win/loss/win/loss etc would give us 44 points keeping us up comfortably.

[MCMC1875]

It's starting to look quite clear cut now.

If Hull beat us on Sunday and move to 32 points they should be safe by the end of the season leaving it as perm any three from four (us, Stoke, Boro and WBA) to go down.

If we beat Hull leaving us just three points behind them with a game in hand, they're very much getting dragged back into the mix.

A draw on Sunday and I still think we're left with the "perm any 3 from 4" situation.

Another thing is starting to become apparent to me, we can't afford to be too negative in the remaining games. Draws won't keep us up. If we were to draw all our remaining games it would leave us on 36 points which will take us down whereas a sequence of win/loss/win/loss etc would give us 44 points keeping us up comfortably.

Good post Rev.

........kitchen sink time approaching.

[1864roverite]

Rovers have to take points from Hull its ass simple as that. Defeat is not an option.

With a home game against Everton on the horizon, its imperative that we have something to take forward into this game. Yes they are a pain and have done well at Ewood over the years but without Arteta they are a differnet team. Although hardowrking, they will coem to Ewood and defend hoping to hit us on the break or get a set piece for the likes of Cahill to get on the end of. Rovers have shown though they can compete. Add anything we pick up from Fulham and we could actually find ourselves in a healthy position.

Looking at the 6 teams along with Rovers that I think may be in the frame for the drop, the fixtures they have are as follows:

Stoke - H - Bolton, Rovers, Boro, Wham, Wigan and Newcastle.

A - Villa, Everton, WBA, Fulham, Hull and Arsenal.

Spurs - H - Boro, Chelsea, wham, Newcaslte,WBA and M City.

A - Sunderland, Rovers, Villa, Man u, Everton and Liverpool.

Boro - H - Liverpool, Pompy, Hull. Fulham, man u and Villa.

A - Spurs, Stoke, Bolton, Asenal, newcastle and wham.

WBA - H - Arsenal, Bolton, Stoke, Sunderland, Wigan and Liverpool.

A - Everton, Wham, Pompy, M City, Spurs and Rovers.

Newcastle - H - Man u, Chelsea, Arsenal, Pompy and Boro and Fulham.

A - Liverpool, Spurs, Bolton, Hull and Stoke and Villa.

Portsmouth are not on that list but they still have a major run in. Away games at Rovers, Hull, newcastle, Man u, Boro and Wigan whilst at home they face the likes of Sunderland, Everton, WBA, Arsenal and Chelsea.

So its all on. Rovers have the whole thing in their own hands.

18 points should suffice as long as we dont lose games at Hull, WBA, Spurs, Stoke and Pompy. The home results are going to be crucial but some decent away games, where the pressure is off compared to Ewood, will go a long way to saving our Premiership life.

Another thing we want is for the like sof Chelsea, Villa, Liverpool and Arsenal to keep fighting for those 3 spots for the Champ League, this will ensure maximum outout from them as we approach the run in. It will also guat=rantee that the clubs that have to play them will take little from them, or at least it should do.

Its pretty simple for me.

[Hughesy]

I just did the predictor thing on BBC sport website.

I had rovers as finishing 15th on 39 points.

Bottom 3 being West Brom (30), Stoke (34) & Boro (34) with Hull (35), Pompey (37) & Us (39) the next 3.

Noticed Stoke have Arsenal away and Hull have United on the final day and Villa Away 4 from end.

Also had Chelsea in 2nd – 6 behind United, Villa got pipped to 4th on the final day by 1 point

[gumboots]

I just did the predictor thing on BBC sport website.

I had rovers as finishing 15th on 39 points.

Bottom 3 being West Brom (30), Stoke (34) & Boro (34) with Hull (35), Pompey (37) & Us (39) the next 3.

Noticed Stoke have Arsenal away and Hull have United on the final day and Villa Away 4 from end.

Also had Chelsea in 2nd – 6 behind United, Villa got pipped to 4th on the final day by 1 point

I'd more than settle for that!