[Archived] Relegation Watch

[Hughesy]

Sunderland are better prepared for relegation than most:

"With the club just three points off the relegation zone, and facing a tough run-in, Quinn also revealed that should the worst happen and the club be relegated, players' wages would be cut.

He said: "We've secured minimum wage cuts of 40% on every player and every contract."

[RibbleValleyRover]

It’s going to be interesting to see how the players respond tomorrow knowing that a win could see us move into 12th place and should greatly boost our chances for survival. You would think this would give them an incentive to secure the three points, but you know Rovers never do anything easy.

With the Fulham win whether we survive or not is in our hands, the players need to make the step up and ensure we play premier league football next season.

[Hughesy]

If we win tomorrow and did move to 12th, then mid-table is a real posibility - especially if we can win our next two home games. At close to £850k a place, position is very important.

The difference of 17th and 10th is almost £6m - that is potentially 2 better players than what we currently could afford in the summer!!

[gumboots]

If we win tomorrow and did move to 12th, then mid-table is a real posibility - especially if we can win our next two home games. At close to £850k a place, position is very important.

The difference of 17th and 10th is almost £6m - that is potentially 2 better players than what we currently could afford in the summer!!

Or more money for the trust depending on who you listen to.

[Bobby G]

Disastrous result considering the other scores today.

I think 42 points is what we would need, but that means we need 4 wins out of 6, saying we lose away to Pool and Chelsea.

I think Stoke have a real possibility of staying up based on their home form and our game there is a huge 6 pointer which may be decisive at the end of the season.

Spurs, Wigan, Pompey and West Brom home hold the key, but can we win them all?

Games are running out and unfortunately we have drawn far too many games when we deserved wins!

[BRFC1995]

done that predictor, losing to spuds and liverpool, drawing stoke and winning wigan. with 4 games to go on 35 pts i make us 1pt of relegation and 1pt off 13th. with chelsea, wba, portsmouth and man city to play and i only see a max of 6 pts there.

everything is going to rest on last game of the season.

with 4 games to go i have newcastle on 34 pts with liverpool, fulham, villa and boro to play. could well be between us and them last day with them being out of it before kick off................my nerves could'nt take that!

[Bobby G]

If its going to the last day of the season then Ill fly out from Dubai. I cant take a chance that I may not see us play in the Premier League again for many years. I hope we secure our stay before then, but considering the tight table, I cant see it.

[SoccerHQ]

Disastrous result considering the other scores today.

I think 42 points is what we would need, but that means we need 4 wins out of 6, saying we lose away to Pool and Chelsea.

I think Stoke have a real possibility of staying up based on their home form and our game there is a huge 6 pointer which may be decisive at the end of the season.

Spurs, Wigan, Pompey and West Brom home hold the key, but can we win them all?

Games are running out and unfortunately we have drawn far too many games when we deserved wins!

Thought you'd win today tbh so pretty poor result.

3 wins will be enough, probably need another two of those coming away judging by your home form.

Good news is I went to watch Boro today at Stoke and they're as good as down, toothless. And I can't see Newcastle reaching 40 points either.

[BRFC1995]

Disastrous result considering the other scores today.

I think 42 points is what we would need, but that means we need 4 wins out of 6, saying we lose away to Pool and Chelsea.

I think Stoke have a real possibility of staying up based on their home form and our game there is a huge 6 pointer which may be decisive at the end of the season.

Spurs, Wigan, Pompey and West Brom home hold the key, but can we win them all?

Games are running out and unfortunately we have drawn far too many games when we deserved wins!

42 pts would mean newcastle picking up 13 pts in 8 games, and that is never happening, 39 may do it 40 would be guarenteed safety

[alexanders]

And Hull losing to Wigan. They aren't safe them either.

[1864roverite]

bad result for Hull

keeps them firmly in the battle to beat the drop.

[cn174]

Just the two points above Rovers. They're firmly in the battle.

[alexanders]

Same with Sunderland who lost against ######. They are not safe either.

I reckon this battle now consists of : Us, Stoke, WBA, Boro, Newcastle, Sunderland, Hull, Pompey and even Bolton!

BTW, Lpool showing premier league champions effort against Villa.

Going to be close both in the top and the bottom this year!

[Iceman]

Just been to a few Newcastle message boards, and their fans are even more worried than us. Rightly so it seems, as their run in is awful. Spurs is a must win for us, and if we get anything from Liverpool and Chelsea then we will be okay to stay up. However my main concern is our games against Pompey and Wigan for some strange reason. Those 2 games might be tricky and i just hope we win those 2 plus Spurs and West Brom. That will be the 4 wins we need imo to stay up.

Has anybody thought that a few dodgy ref decisions might just go Newcastles way? This is what worries me and might keep them up.

[MCMC1875]

Just done the BBC Sport predictor.......

......Rovers finished 12th on 44 points.

Down.... West Brom, Boro, Newcastle.

FINGERS CROSSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I did this , I went for win at Fulham, defeat at Arsenal and draw with West Ham.

So far so good.............

[ChesterRover]

Having trawled thru the remaining fixtures I'm still very worried, our home form is so bad it could cost us dear. Unbiased view has us finishing on 38 points where as a biased view on 42 points.

My own view is that WBA and Boro are down with any one of Rovers, Newcastle, Sunderland, Stoke or Hull taking the final spot. Its going to be a stressful few weeks thats for sure and cant help thinking Ewood will be full for the first time in a while against West Brom.

[John]

Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, said: “People will say this is the most important result we have had so far but the most important game is the next one. Our supporters have been unbelievable. Just look at our home results. That says it all about how important the fans are.”

[Veevs]

Blimey the next three games are a scary combination... as I think we will drop into the bottom 3 and then turn it around in the final 5 games... its pretty key we look at the rival matches at this stage as the points are going to distributed between those teams.

With Stoke, Hull, Midd, Bolton, WBA and Ports all playing relegation rivals in 2 or 3 of their next 3 games this could be a pretty messy part of the season for us.. and fingers crossed we dont hit the panic button.

But hey after this period there are not that many remaining matches between the relegation rivals.

For me I really cant see Midd (nightmare last 5 games), Newcastle (still have Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool), Hull or WBA finishing above us

[philipl]

It is going to be important to avoid any more pastings from a GD point of view. I think w2 d4 l2 should see Rovers ok and is probably now the most likely outcome.

[Hughesy]

We should really break this down. Games we should really be targetting a win, where it will most hurt. Games we should be able to get something, and then finally games where its difficult and even a point is a great result.

Games we need to really need to target a win - Spurs, Stoke, Pompey, West Brom.

Games we can get something: Fulham (WON), West Ham (DRAW), Wigan, City

Games where anything is a bonus: Arsenal (LOST), Liverpool, Chelsea

Going better than planned so far. To me we seem on track to stay up - going off my previous plans, A win against Spurs would be great, but not crucial given the bonus at fulham.

[67splitscreen]

Going better than planned so far. To me we seem on track to stay up - going off my previous plans, A win against Spurs would be great, but not crucial given the bonus at fulham.

I pretty much agree, but I have us on 40 it's going to be tight.

Spuds draw at best.

Pool Lose, by how many could be crucial.

Stoke draw.

Wigan win

Get beat in those two and there is no chance of coming back.

City lose

Pompey draw

Chelsea lose, again GA a worry.

WBA win.

[Earlydoors]

Weekly Predictor Update

14 Blackburn 43

15 Portsmouth 42

16 Hull 39

17 Sunderland 38

18 Newcastle 38

19 Middlesborough 34

20 West Brom 33

..two points dropped this week

[Amo]

Wow... I wasn't all that optimistic with our results and we still finished 8pts clear.

14. BLACKBURN 41pts

15. Bolton 40pts

16. Stoke 40pts

17. Hull 40pts

---------------------------------------

18. Newcastle 33pts

19. Boro 31pts

20. WBA 28pts

[Plastic Head]

Bottom 9 against the top 5.

Pld Pts GD

Stoke 9 9 -7

Midd 7 7 -6

Newc 7 5 -8

Hull 9 5 -11

Sund 8 2 -11

Pompey 8 1 -10

Bolton 9 0 -16

Rovers 8 0 -18

WBA 9 0 -22

Thats 27 pts out of 222.

Best league in the world!

[RevidgeBlue]

Going better than planned so far. To me we seem on track to stay up - going off my previous plans, A win against Spurs would be great, but not crucial given the bonus at fulham.

It's only going better than planned because you're assuming we'll get four wins in games we haven't played yet!!!

I disagree totally about not needing a win against Spurs. I think any other result but a win and we are in big trouble. I can't see us getting it either. Spurs are in red hot form.