[Archived] The Relegation Battle Aftermath

[RibbleValleyRover]

Blackpool now winning 2-1

Bolton score 2-2 now

[Josh]

1-0 wolves

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Blackpool 2-2 Bolton

[RibbleValleyRover]

Sunderland 1-2 Wolves

Blackpool 3-3 Bolton

[Billy Castell]

We are likely to go down. The results went against us, and Wolves are picking up a few wins recently. Man Utd will put out a 3rd team against Blackpool as well. See you all at the Ricoh.

[imy9]

We are likely to go down. The results went against us, and Wolves are picking up a few wins recently. Man Utd will put out a 3rd team against Blackpool as well. See you all at the Ricoh.

Cheer up Billy, a lot of results have to against us for us to get relegated.

[Iceman]

West Ham MUST beat Wigan tomorrow, or else that last game is going to be really unbearable

[tony gale's mic]

Wigan - West Ham is a huge game.

[sam_rovers]

hopefully fulham can do better than they usually do away and beat birmingham. We really need Wham to beat Wigan

A lot that could have gone wrong has from our point of view.. A point against Man Utd was more than I expected but I didn't think that both blackpool and Wolves would win.. could have stomached one of them winning but not both...

[RibbleValleyRover]

Still not safe yet and I am not that confident we will beat Wolves at their place in the form they are in. 6 goals in their last two games, Doyle should be back and they have a final home game to guarantee survival.

[Billy Castell]

Too many ifs and buts to make me feel comfortable. I get the feeling we'll lose to Wolves and then have to rely on a disinterested Man Utd to save us.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Didn't Fergie say he'll play if United are Champions before Blackpool visit them.

After seeing their goalie today, I wouldn't be surprised if he went in goal!

[Tom]

Wolves drawing or winning made no difference a point sees us above them.

Blackpool now have to beat united a point isn't enough, Wigan need to win 2 out of 2 and Birmingham need 2 points to overtake us.

Thats all dependent on us losing at wolves as well, there's still hope!

Oh and another Mercerman myth was proved false today, remember when united were going to do all they can to destroy us, well how about that last ten minutes?

[DE.]

Wolves drawing or winning made no difference a point sees us above them.

Blackpool now have to beat united a point isn't enough, Wigan need to win 2 out of 2 and Birmingham need 2 points to overtake us.

Thats all dependent on us losing at wolves as well, there's still hope!

Oh and another Mercerman myth was proved false today, remember when united were going to do all they can to destroy us, well how about that last ten minutes?

United were awful today. Which makes it even more galling that again we threw away all three points... almost at the exact same minute we did against West Ham last week.

Rovers always have to do it the hard way, though.

[imy9]

Mercerman expected a -5 goal difference in our final two games if we were lucky and -8 was if we played badly!

Good to see the team set up so well, Kean is getting better.

[Tooogs]

Footballers are footballers and whoever plays for Man Utd against Blackpool will want to prove their worth to Sir Alex and be in contention for the Champions League Final. Berbatov said in his interview he wants to score lots of goals against Blackpool!

[RibbleValleyRover]

Mercerman expected a -5 goal difference in our final two games if we were lucky and -8 was if we played badly!

Good to see the team set up so well, Kean is getting better.

If United had used their dominance in possession better it could have been a different story...

[Tooogs]

Fergie just said that he will be fair to the other teams in the league and not put in a half arsed side with little effort.

[BuckyRover]

If United had used their dominance in possession better it could have been a different story...

It was a very good performance in the circumstances.

I think people should get used to Steve Kean. I think he will be around for a good while yet. (I'm not advocating this it's just what I think will happen).

[DE.]

If Steve Kean remains as manager for next season Venky's are going to have to throw £20-30M minimum for us to stay up next year (assuming we aren't relegated this year). I wouldn't even put money on us staying up with that outlay.

[Emge]

As United has not yet lost at Old Trafford in the Premier League and Blackpool not yet won an away match, I cant see Blackpool winning.

Lets hope West Ham gets a lucky win tomorrow (and 3 points in the bag to us at the Molineux next week of course )

[Bobby G]

When our form was bad, results usually went our way. Since we had a little upturn, I havent seen any result really go our way.

[RoverRich]

As United has not yet lost at Old Trafford in the Premier League and Blackpool not yet won an away match, I cant see Blackpool winning.

Lets hope West Ham gets a lucky win tomorrow (and 3 points in the bag to us at the Molineux next week of course )

Blackpool have actually won 5 away games this season but I can't see United wanting to give up their unbeaten record easily so it should be very hard for Blackpool to win.

[Amo]

No one, but no one has claimed that except for you repeatedly putting that argument into other peoples mouth.

Get real. People are constantly told that anything other than Sam's game was impossible for a club of our size, and attractive football is a pipedream etc etc. When in actuality, people were just tired of one-dimensional football.

Firstly under Sam we did sometimes play something in between, however like most successful sides we had one particular style which we used most frequently.

And that style, while pragmatic, was dismal and downright embarrassing at times.

Secondly, we can play something in between. But the more we went towards that side chances are our results would suffer. Under Sam we played to our strengths.

Well, that's just wrong. Last season we finished the season well and our performances reflected that. We started to mix it about and played with more fluidity than usual. Fans, such as myself, thought we'd continue in the same vein this season, but we were wrong.

We didn't have much creativity in the side, we didn't have too many pacy players, but we did have players who were strong in the tackle, good in the air and who could put themselves about.

Hoilett? Olsson? Two young, pacy wingers, one of which was consigned to little gametime until Kean gave him a run in the side.

And Sam had opportunities to sign attacking players but failed to deliver. It's all well and good to say he'd sign attacking players if he had the money, but the sign of a great manager is one who can unearth those gems. Need I remind you he turned down Stuart Holden.

Last season under Sam we finished 10th. One might argue we couldve finished ahead of Birmingham maybe who finished 9th (though we were level on points).

Apart from that, who else do you think we couldve feasibly finished ahead of last season?

Our league finish wasn't the issue, was it?

But since you ask, had Sam changed his approach to away games, it stands to reason we would pick up more points.

However before he was booted out, one only needs to look at his transfer targets this season to see after making us a solid outfit last season he was looking to introduce some guile into the side like he did at Bolton.

You almost reminisce about his Bolton days as much as he does! You do know he's managed two clubs since then? And he hardly pulled up trees in the transfer market at either of them. He spent money at Newcastle and they still played like crap.

£8.5m well spent on Kalinic & Chimbonda, btw. Don't get me wrong, Sam made some coups here, but I don't buy this pledge that he'd spend our cash wisely and transform our playing style.

[Tom]

I can see Blackpool getting a point but no matter what team United play it's not easy to win there although West Ham did it on the last day a few seasons ago.

If Brum lose tomorrow I think they'll go down but Fulham at home is a kind kind game.

My biggest fear today was a tonking (4 or 5) and Wigan, Wolves and Blackpool all winning, the opponents may have won but our point is still massive.