[Archived] December Fixtures

[Tom]

So after today we look like being on 18 points from 15 games (barring a miracle). Now whilst not sensational it's pretty steady. December is a huge month for us playing a few teams around our level. What would you expect from these games, what is acceptable?

These are the fixtures:

Sat 4 15:00 H Wolves

Sun 12 13:30 A Bolton

Sat 18 15:00 H West Ham Utd

Sun 26 15:00 H Stoke City

Tue 28 15:00 A WBA

For me 9 points is the minimum we should be aiming for, Wolves and West Ham at home should be nothing other than 3 points each and draws in the other 3 are acceptable. I'd like to say we should beat Stoke but I feel they do what we do but are more adept at it. The two away games could go either way, both look decent at times but are nothing to fear.

9 points would leave us on 27 points going into the new year and in a strong position for survival.

[Steve Moss]

For me 9 points is the minimum we should be aiming for, Wolves and West Ham at home should be nothing other than 3 points each and draws in the other 3 are acceptable. I'd like to say we should beat Stoke but I feel they do what we do but are more adept at it. The two away games could go either way, both look decent at times but are nothing to fear.

9 points would leave us on 27 points going into the new year and in a strong position for survival.

Sat 4 15:00 H Wolves Win

Sun 12 13:30 A Bolton Draw

Sat 18 15:00 H West Ham Utd Win

Sun 26 15:00 H Stoke City Win

Tue 28 15:00 A WBA Win

I'm thinking we pick up 13 points in December and go into the new year with 31 points.

[Mr. E]

Sat 4 15:00 H Wolves Win

Sun 12 13:30 A Bolton Draw

Sat 18 15:00 H West Ham Utd Win

Sun 26 15:00 H Stoke City Win

Tue 28 15:00 A WBA Win

I'm thinking we pick up 13 points in December and go into the new year with 31 points.

it would be the only acceptable apology from the players.

[AndyNeil]

9 points would be acceptable, between 10 and 12 would be good, anything about 12 would be a real bonus ... and after today we need to try and get the g/d back down towards 0

[Steve Moss]

it would be the only acceptable apology from the players.

I was thinking more in terms of penance, than an apology.

[darwenblueswearehere]

These are the fixtures:

Sat 4 15:00 H WolvesWin

Sun 12 13:30 A Bolton Lose

Sat 18 15:00 H West Ham Utd Draw

Sun 26 15:00 H Stoke City Draw

Tue 28 15:00 A WBA Lose

[Daremz]

I'm visiting the beautiful Ewood again on December 18th and hope to see Rovers win for the first time 'live' (last 3 matches I saw were loss, draw, loss)...

10 points at least, starting with a win vs Wolves this saturday!

[Sparky Marky]

You're joking aren't you mate? West Ham always hammer us...

[LWX]

If we can win the home games and get a point or two from the away games I'd be very happy... there are no push overs in this league at the moment!

[Paul]

Sat 4 15:00 H Wolves Win

Sun 12 13:30 A Bolton Draw

Sat 18 15:00 H West Ham Utd Win

Sun 26 15:00 H Stoke City Win

Tue 28 15:00 A WBA Win

I'm thinking we pick up 13 points in December and go into the new year with 31 points.

A five match unbeaten run? I can't see it myself as we are bound to slip up somewhere so 12 is the maximum I think we are capable of. For my money 9 points would be OK, 10 would be good and anything more and I'll start to believe in Santa...........

[Majiball]

and I'll start to believe in Santa...........

I believed in Santa during 07-08.

[philipl]

A win three draws and a defeat would be more like par for the course.

[Blue n White Rover]

A win three draws and a defeat would be more like par for the course.

6 points from a possible 15 is reasonable? I'm afraid in this league it isn't, especially with the opponents we are facing. Minimum is 9 points, and anything more is a bonus.

[philipl]

Six points takes us to 23 just past half way in the season and comfortably on course to stay up.

Anyway I deliberately used a golfing term of par for the course- I didn't say anything about good, bad, reasonable or indifferent and certainly not desirable. I picked 1-3-1 rather than 2-0-4 because giving four of our opponents 3 point wins would not be good news. Bearing in mind how we made a mess of a seemingly easy run of fixtures last December, I think we ought to be realistic in our expectations this December.

[Steve Moss]

A five match unbeaten run? I can't see it myself as we are bound to slip up somewhere so 12 is the maximum I think we are capable of. For my money 9 points would be OK, 10 would be good and anything more and I'll start to believe in Santa...........

It is the Christmas season. So stop being a Scrooge and have some faith.

6 points from a possible 15 is reasonable? I'm afraid in this league it isn't, especially with the opponents we are facing. Minimum is 9 points, and anything more is a bonus.

Anything above a 1.1 point per game average is "reasonable". 6 points in 5 games gives us a 1.2 points per game return. Our current 18 points in 15 games is also 1.2 points per game.

All of which places us on track for a 42 point season. But I have one hope and one concern.

First my concern. This is a tight season. The normal 40 points and your safe may not apply. So we'll need a bit of padding to deal with that, and possible reverses the second half of the season.

Second my hope. To date we haven't been playing the bottom teams. We've mostly matched up against teams above us on the league table. Now that we've a good run to play our peers and those below us, I hope that the squad takes full advantage and goes for blood, maximum goals and maximum points. We need to improve of league standing, our goal difference (it may be one of those seasons), and wipe away the shame of our ManU performance so we start the season with a clean slate and in very good position.

It's all about confidence; our squads, our fans and the oppositions. If we can get 2+ point return from our December matches, we'll be bursting with it while other squads will be more fearful as the possibility that the Rovers are in serious drop contention becomes more remote.

So I'm hoping Sam and the squad are preparing to do a Ghengis Khan on our December opposition. We're more than capable and the 7-1 defeat should be more than enough motivation to express some ruthlessness.

[waynerovers]

west ham will be my first game of the season, finances have been terrible this season so havent been able to afford to go but my housemates new fella works for silicone engineering who sponsor ewood so he's getting me a couple of free tickets, so just the train fare from leeds to pay. Happy days!

[m1st]

So after today we look like being on 18 points from 15 games (barring a miracle). Now whilst not sensational it's pretty steady. December is a huge month for us playing a few teams around our level. What would you expect from these games, what is acceptable?

These are the fixtures:

Sat 4 15:00 H Wolves

Sun 12 13:30 A Bolton

Sat 18 15:00 H West Ham Utd

Sun 26 15:00 H Stoke City

Tue 28 15:00 A WBA

For me 9 points is the minimum we should be aiming for, Wolves and West Ham at home should be nothing other than 3 points each and draws in the other 3 are acceptable. I'd like to say we should beat Stoke but I feel they do what we do but are more adept at it. The two away games could go either way, both look decent at times but are nothing to fear.

9 points would leave us on 27 points going into the new year and in a strong position for survival.

I'm sure that the magnitude and manner of last Saturday's defeat has many of us looking at the December fixture list as crucial to our Premier League survival. However; I've been looking at the fixtures that some of the teams below us have in December; and, trying to be as unbiassed as possible, their fans must be even more concerned than we are.

We've all got five games to play next month; I can't see Wolves and Wigan Athletic getting more than 4 points; I reckon that West Ham could get 5 points; while Fulham will, I reckon, do well if they pick up 3 or 4. I got an e-mail from a mate who's an Everton fan and was at their defeat on Saturday - reading between the lines of what he told me, morale at Goodison is really low and I could see them struggling to get more than 3 or 4.

Those predictions may well be woefully wrong, but they put our hopes for a minimum of 9 points into a bit of perspective. Keep the faith, folks!

[Claytons Left Boot]

I reckon we'll do well to better 9 points from these five fixtures. Much depends on how we react to our thrashing last week. If we suffer a reverse against Wolves, confidence will be extremely low. A key game this weekend.

[Hughesy]

Win your home games, dont lose your away games has to be the hope.

Do that & we sit on 11 pts more minimum

[Jim Royle]

Anything less than 16 points and I'm outta here - I'd be thru with the useless feckers

[RibbleValleyRover]

From these fixtures i am predicting:

Sat 4 15:00 H Wolves- Win

Sun 12 13:30 A Bolton- Lose

Sat 18 15:00 H West Ham Utd- Draw

Sun 26 15:00 H Stoke City- Win

Tue 28 15:00 A WBA- Lose

Wolves- Should win but Wolves are battling for survival themselves so could be dangerous.

Bolton- Should beat us at their ground if they keep up their current form.

West Ham- They have enough about them to be a threat and they do have a decent record against us. Grant under pressure may get the side playing for him.

Stoke City- I can see us just winning this or Stoke getting a draw.

WBA- Play some really nice passing football from what i've seen. Battle of the midfields and i think they will beat us.

From that run of games and if my predictions are correct it will see us pick up 7 points.

[RevidgeBlue]

Anything around ten points from the five games would be a huge bonus imo and would leave us on or around 28 points which would probably be enough to ensure we stagger onto the forty point mark no matter how we perform in 2011.

You would hope we could win at least two of the three home games with maybe another draw. That would leave us needing a win from one of the two away games to ensure a very healthy festive return.

[John]

Slight concern this month with the amount of games we have in close proximity is our current injury situation we are a little bit stretched at the moment so hopefully we dont continue to pick up injuries (particularly in midfield).

Not so much current injury situation but also lack of fitness of certain players too.

[PAFELL]

I'm visiting the beautiful Ewood again on December 18th and hope to see Rovers win for the first time 'live' (last 3 matches I saw were loss, draw, loss)...

10 points at least, starting with a win vs Wolves this saturday!

My wife and I are also doing our annual escape from the south uk for christmas. Have just bought our tickets for the WHU /stoke games and waiting for the WBA tickets to be available. Sadly there are still no decent pubs near travelodge. Oh well it will have to be the blues bar again and again and ......

[USABlue]

Seems to me the last few seasons we have come across these groups of winnable games only to do rather poorly. Perhaps some one has the results from the past season or two.