Does anyone seriously have any at this point? This season is ending kind of like last season did, with very few goals and less results. That does not bode well for a deep playoff run. I don't know what could be done to get the team back on track, but I don't think that bringing back Little and Kitson was the answer.
OK, so if we win out and everyone ahead of us losses out we can get the last automatic promotion spot. No sweat!
WE SCORED A GOAL!!! Not only we scored a goal, but 2 goals!...and we won!? Automatic promotion is gone, but maybe a late season surge can help us through the playoffs. CMON URZZZZ!! WE WANT THE PREM!
Not completely. If we win out, United lose one of their last two and Birmingham lose out we get that last spot. A lot depends on others but it's not impossible.
i'm so sad i can't bring myself to watch footie anymore. i was so enjoying it this winter, and until a couple weeks ago, but i've got that sick feeling back in my stomach. it's not that i just threw away 300 pds, either, it's that broken hearted, so sick i can't stand the sight of the game feeling that came on last year at this time. god, footie sucks. no, hope is dead. given the way we've been playing, what chance can we have in a playoff? really too bad, because this was a team that should have beaten the odds and gone straight back up. it's a very good team, and a team that just fell apart (as noted, just like last year). And with this failure, copps will leave, or be fired, doyle will be sold (for a lot of money, but sold) the team will start to fight ... We need jamie cureton to come back and save us.
man, the lesson here is don't drink and post, i guess. I am down, but really not as down as i just sounded on reading that last post. one positive, the club has tried everything this season to turn it around. Bringing back kits and little and lita and bringing in new blood and blooding new boys, etc. it's just the f'ing bounce of the ball, isn't it? stupid round ball. stupid 90 minutes. stupid anything can happen.
Dude, step away from the bar, take a breath and take a nap. Man I thought I was downer the way I started this thread. I do agree that if we don't go up Copps is gone and Kits will be sold, so will S. Hunt, and it will basically be a rebuild.
There is still a possibility of automatic promotion. We just got to rely on Brum to lose that one game and then we beat them on the last day of the season. Maybe the Derby game will spark something in this club. We have to make it up the prem this year, or we'll be facing a long exile.
That 0-1 home loss to the Blades was massive looking at it now. Just a draw would have made a world of difference.
If we get £3 million or so for Kitson it'd be a great deal, particularly as we don't own him. It's an odd season. Our away form, if not performances, are quite remarkable even since results started going pear-shaped. Just 1 defeat in 15 now. It's be pretty bizarre to get the chance of beating Birmingham to go up on the final day, but funnier things have happened, but the play-offs are something of a clean slate.
It's been ugly, really ugly. The really astonishing thing is just how hard it suddenly became to score goals. In the first half of the season, it was 2, 3, 4 a game... Now, it seems like every week brings another 0-0 draw. If the Derby game does mark a turnaround, then anything is possible I guess. I still believe that this team has a LOT more talent than most of those around us, so an in-form Reading really would be expected to be favored in the playoffs. And it's true that winning these last two games, and a couple other favorable results mean automatic promotion is still in our grasp. And still, imagine if they'd picked themselves off the floor just a little bit earlier. If they'd managed to find a goal in just one or two of those 0-0 draws at home, we'd actually be sitting pretty. I'd put our chances at going up around 25%. The terrible form we've been in is balanced against the possibility of righting the ship and the advantage in true quality I think we've got. Which means we've got a chance, if only as good as the other teams.
The birmingham loses, we win, then we beat birmingham and grab auto prom narrative is appealing but of course not going to happen. If we got those results, stupid blades would proably win out, as well, anyway. Which means the playoffs. Oh. I have very little hope. I think we should be going up. I don't think we will be. Still, i'd like our chances if we got to wembley. Big one-off, big attention, I think would favor a more talented team that's been in a lot of pressure games. Does anyone else see us NOT stumbling out of the gate in a playoff (who would it be right now, anyway, swansea (i can't look at tables these days, as noted, on the ledge)). Also, totally amused by the fact that the new ad system here automatically inserted a shipping link into your post when you used the phrase "the ship" I would think these means we want to avoid using phrases such as "need a larger penis." Just a test
Well, Birmingham have left the door open after losing 2-1 to PNE. But, yea, still not great odds on this. Need two difficult wins, and then some help from Crystal Palace.
Basically, we've got back to back playoff opportunities. If we win the next two games and have some luck, we're up. If that fails, we've got another chance to win a couple games. I'll emphasize once again how much different this would all be if we'd just managed to score ONE goal in ONE of those horrid 0-0 draws.
If we win the next two, even if Sheffield doesn't drop a point, I will feel real good about our chances in the playoffs. If we just roll in and don't do anything in the last two games I think we are in for another season in the Championship.
Wild mood swings here: A lot of hope after the Birm loss. No idea why. norwich is exactly the club we would lose to at this point.
LONG WITH 2 AGAINST NORWICH! Ok, that brings up a wild final day of the season. To gain automatic promotion, we have to take care of business against Brum and hope for United to draw or lose. Sounds all too familiar though.
If nothing else, it's nice to have this last game of the season still mean something. To be honest, they didn't look particularly good against Norwich. I don't know why the strategy of hoofing the ball has so completely taken over, but it's really no good. We don't have the personnel for it, for one thing. That said, Kebe looked good (and put in some great crosses), Long showed the scoring touch, and Bikey was a monster in the back. Let's win our game and hope for the best in the other game. And really, even if United manages to win their game, if we can close out the year on a strong run, I'll feel a lot more confident about the playoffs. I said our chances of promotion were 25 percent a few days ago. I'll up it to 33 percent now [it's a pretty exact science].
Well, here we go. I agree that it wasn't necessarily the prettiest win today, but it got the job done. Sunday will be...something.
My daughter's report from Norwich tonight (she's a student there, and also a Reading fan. This, though, was her first game in person. and turned out in Reading gear to find her seat just in the norwich section): ...before the match started a security guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted to move to the Reading section because it might be safer but (her freind) supports Norwich and we wanted to stay together so in the end they put a security guard in the seat right in front of me. I had a little kid, probably about 10 years old, tell me to shut up and sit down after one of the reading goals but other than that no one mentioned it. It was a good time!!! I felt a bit sad for Norwich because they are, maybe for sure now, going to be relegated, but I got over it pretty quick. Both goals were by Long... I think... I know for sure the second one was... It was actually pretty back and forth until Reading got their first goal in the 70-somethingth minute (I think) and then it was just totally Reading's game. The kid and his dad behind me had some of the foulest mouths I've ever heard... that kid is a football hooligan in the making. There were people there with American flags and every time Hannehman made a save, which admitedly was only maybe 2 all game, they would wave the flags and everyone would chant USA. Apparantly I never told (her friend) Hannehman was American because she said she spent half the match trying to figure out why they were yelling that. And every time Long got the ball they sang "there's only one Shane Long" (her friend) didn't realize he was a player and so about halfway through the match she turned to me and wanted to know what a Shaelong was. And when we went up everyone sang "are you watching Birmingham" and pretty much carried on singing it until the very end of the match. Seriously, it was a good time. Noel Hunt was out because apparantly he fractured his ankle last game but S Hunt came on a little before half time and got a foul almost immediatley. And Kitson's hair is even more shocking in real life than it is in pictures. Plus, I never realized how short Long was. But yeah, first half was a little bit frustrating, a lot of corner crossess went straight across the front of the goal without anyone touching them, but the second half was well worth it. Good times!!!
Awesome feedback mschofield. Sounds like it would have been a great game to attend. I got to make it up to Reading for a match some time in my life time.