Felt sorry for Stoke last night at Newcastle, they were on a hiding to nothing once Mort had announced the news that Keegan was returning. Good luck to them in the Champs, thought the atmosphere they created in the first game was phenomenal.
Solid squad. They should be a nice addition to the prem if they can avoid getting sucking into a playoff battle. Would be interesting to see how Premiership Defenses deal with Jon Parkin's size on a week in and week out basis...
Four more wins should do it I reckon, two for the play-offs. Tbh I think were kinda shite, big and powerful yes but barely an ounce of skill. Better than Bristol though.
With how the promotion battle is shaping up, you have to wonder if promotion could be something of a poisoned chalice for those that do go up. While the average talent levels aren't quite as amazing as some like to make out (yesterday's Reading v Blackburn match featured a shocking collection of errors by both teams, for example, and we are odds on to stay up despite playing like cack all season) it is a different world. Looking back at our promotion season dvd a short while back, it was noticeable just how many goals were scored as a result of defensive mistakes and/or slack marking. Such goals are much harder to come by, and you have to wonder how the likes of Bristol City, who've only scored 49 in 41 this season, will score anywhere near enough to stay up. In the past I'm sure a lot of fans would love to go up, even if for only one season, to get a taste of it, but the prospect of a season where 20 points would be a good return would be utterly miserable.
No championship team at the minute would be able to do a good job in the Premiership - its a bit disappointing really, because often there's a team whose style would adapt well, but right now every team has an Achilles heel. West Brom can't defend for toffee, Stoke are worse than Derby in terms of quality but are even better at 1-0 grinding while Hull and Bristol City's lack of individual talent would soon be exposed. Pretty bad state to be in, really. Given some funds to fix their defense I'd think that West Brom could stay up and I think that Gary Johnson could probably put up a good fight despite Bristol City being quite poor whenever I've seen them this season, but other than that I'd struggle to see anyone do well. Not because they're bad, mind, as they're really rather good, but because of all the little faults that would be exposed. I still can't get my head around how being 19pts behind the leaders in the premiership puts you 6th, while down here it puts you 16th. Awesome.
The three that go up this season will go right back down the next I believe. The only team that has a shot is maybe WBA
Very few second tier clubs have looked that good since Middlesbrough and Fulham were promoted years ago but Wigan, Sunderland and Reading have hung on. Whom ever makes it will have survive for a season on their merits before help comes. Stoke chances are at least as good as Wigan's, except that they just dropped one to Palace. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/soccer/blog/
Cant believe they pulled it off. Good for the potteries. Next year should be - entertaining? Go on boys!
It's going to be good seeing Stoke in the top flight. Yes next year should be entertaining now that some real fans are going to be in the Premier League. All we need is Millwall and Leeds, then we'll have a decent league.
for pessimists out there, of the 11 lowest ever points totals in the history of the league's top division, Stoke have been responsible for four of them.
West Brom are up also, that's 6 pts there. I don't think we'll embarrass ourselves like Derby the team has too much backbone if nothing else. Sadly I'm expecting a Watford-esque season with lot's of 1-0 losses and pundits patting us on the head and saying ''awww didn't they do well'. All depends on the signings of course. PS- I hope Reading stay up (for the purely selfish reason) as I think you'd get relegated next season if you do. From the outside it's starting to look like Coppell's lost it and he's never been great at fixing teams when things go wrong.
we've been "wrong" all season - in fact even in pre-season we looked low on confidence. Things can change. We had a complete runaway train style slide in 2004/5 under Coppell, and the same accusations being levelled at him now were coming thick and fast then too. The following year we ran up the highest points tally in English professional history, so extrapolation is never as obvious at it may seem. To be honest though, I'd rather go down than have another season like this one. It's been the most boring season I've known in over 20 years.