14pts away from autos, 11 pts away from play-offs.

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

It's do-able.

Not a poll, just my opinion.

What's yours?

I don't know, maybe give me a poll and then I could record it for you...

 

[richblade]

We're gonna win the FA CUP instead as it's now 100 years since we won owt - it's fate I tell theee I can feel it in Mee wattter

 

[Northernsoulblade]

Things looking a bit better bit of room for optimism at the moment onward and upward hopefully

 

[ancientblade]

i think anything is possible in this league but a mid table position would be a very good achievment this season after the start we had and go for it again next season

 

[Harry's Game]

a couple of tricky fixtures up next .. let’s calm down

 

[Dkc]

All we cann?

It almost certainly isn’t possible.
6th place invariably needs 70+ points.
To get that we’d need to gain points at a better rate than every single team (except Coventry) has managed so far this season, and maintain it for the next 29 games. We’ve beaten a side that genuinely looked like it belonged in League 2, and a very poor side that were then reduced to 10 men for an hour. I don’t think we have turned into a team that will outdo every single side in the league except one for the remainder of the season.

Yes we'll need to average two points per game for the rest of the season to get 74 points, (which may not be enough for the play-offs). That means we need to win every second game and draw the rest, or win two out of every three. Can't see it.

 

[MojoMuffin]

Think everyone is in a bit of a limbo at the moment.

I was concerned this season simply due to the finances of not being promoted and where that would leave us next season. All these rumours about COH and whether they're in, out or going to shake the piggy bank all about have thrown a fair few things up in the air. For now, I think it's just important to enjoy that winning feeling again and hope that Chris and the players can use it moving forward to simply get as many points on the board as possible. Even when we've been in promising league positions before, it's always been "let's just focus on the next game", but I think that line really does matter now.

Finish as high as possible to encourage any protentional new investment, finish as high as possible to encourage any new owner, finish as high as possible to assure safety from the drop. UTB.

 

[SwitchBLADE Smiles]

I’m afraid we’ve left far too much to do to reach the play-offs. We’re 4 ‘wins’ shy of getting enough points to overhaul Preston, but that also means we need all 15 of the teams directly above us to lose those 4 games too - which obviously can’t happen.

Just need to continue improving and putting points on the board. Who knows, come the end of the season, we might scrape in, but smart money goes on a top half finish at best IMO.

 

[SteveBlade]

Don't think we're good enough, patchy and prone to nightmare performances.

Think we'll finish 14th or something.

 

[Sithblade]

This isn't true.

Crystal Palace after 17 games in 2003 had 17pts, and were 13pts off the playoffs. They finished 6th.

Ian Dowie made a management career out of that 6 month turn around. Think they beat us in the first home match after the West Brom game was abandoned.

 

[bakeblade]

I'm hopeful we won't be in a relegation struggle. However, we don't look like a promotion chasing team, the first 40 minutes yesterday we created nothing.

That's the reality. We were poor last night until a penalty and red card basically gifted us the game.
We still need 3 or 4 good additions in January

 

[Snowflake]

Relegation battle all season long this is a pointless post as nothing has changed

It’s nice to be out of relegation zone and two 3-0 wins.

Still not good enough to finish inside top 10

Good enough to be amongst the top 10, but too faraway to get there this season.

 

[Dkc]

We were poor last night until a penalty and red card basically gifted us the game.

Agreed, we were marginally the better team against very crap opposition. However, I presume Gus will be starting every week now. He made a difference when he came on (albeit against 10 men). If he stays fit performances will definitely improve. And if Arblaster returns showing form we could start winning games regularly.

 

[CPB]

Yes it's possible. It's more than possible given the league.

But I'll hold any prediction like this till beyond Christmas.

I've been happy with the past 2 games. I do also think we could and should have scored more. We were a tad unlucky not to take 3 pts vs QPR too.

But we need to back up these last few with more results. Do that and then I will let myself be optimistic.

Take the games leading up to Christmas. (5 games)
A draw away at Leicester right now is still progress, but they are also very much a mixed bag so we could come away with more too.
Stoke are going good but we are at home, can we build on that and get something.
Norwich at home is a big match, we need to target a win.
WestBrom are middling.
Brum are starting to find some form.

Can we pick up more than say 9 points? Even 9 points would be progress. But any more than that and we really are moving in the right direction.

 

[CPB]

Agreed, we were marginally the better team against very crap opposition. However, I presume Gus will be starting every week now. He made a difference when he came on (albeit against 10 men). If he stays fit performances will definitely improve. And if Arblaster returns showing form we could start winning games regularly.

I would say we were shading the half but around that moment we were starting to get more on top.
Lets not forget goals change games. So had Devlin not handballed, that would have been a goal for Tanganga. So we would have gone 1-0 but against 11 men.

 

[CrookesBlade]

It’s natural after an upturn in form to start looking up the table and given it’s only November it’s a bit depressing to say beyond staying up the season is over, especially given we have some quality players for this level and we are paying big wages.

That said there’s no chance of the play offs. Too big a gap plus I’d expect injuries to take their toll.

Best case scenario is a run in the FA Cup and get a team built to go again next season. The building blocks are there, decent young players under contract. If we invest money we get for Hamer wisely plus COH get their hand in their pocket for a couple we’ll be on decent shape.

 

[Kenilworth]

By the way. I can confirm that BoSS was not on the sherbets pre game. Just one Stella (so he said) but coffee when we saw him

As for post match, we didn’t witness that.

Home at 00:30 - two hours after Roy’s View From was published

 

[programmechap]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

When you look at the points tally required and the time left, it always seems doable. But it's easy to forget position and the amount of traffic in the way.

We would need to put perform so many teams from here on in and even at this relatively early stage, probably couldn't afford to lose many more games if we realistically wanted top 6.

And as delighted as I am with the last 2 results, we have just beaten 2 awful teams. I am not detracting from our performances however and by rights we should have scored 3 or 4 more goals.

Make no mistake though, for now the target is 50 points. December's fixtures might also bring us back down to earth again.

Theres the precedent of 2013-14. After 17 games we had 15 points. We then only lost 5 of the remaining 29 and finished 7th (albeit 7 points off the play offs).

 

[Grappler]

This isn't true.

Crystal Palace after 17 games in 2003 had 17pts, and were 13pts off the playoffs. They finished 6th.

And didn't Sunderland get promoted in 2006/2007 season (when Roy Keane was manager) after a similar start to us?

 

[Pintor75]

Said yesterday if we won tonight some of our fans will be saying "we can go up", as they always do after winning, deluded?, yes, quite a few football fans in Sheffield are on both sides. There are some bigger games coming up in the next two months, Leicester and Stoke twice, Ipswich, Wrexham, Birmingham etc and we'll have a better idea of where we are after then, but if we can get something of a run going who knows, Leicester are off form at the moment and their centre backs Faes and Vestergaard are two of the worst I've seen at top level we could get something on Saturday , the top half is littered with perennial bottlers like Stoke, Boro, PNE, Bristol city and there's a long way to go, going to be interesting

 

[Slim Man]

Let's chill out eh?

We've just beaten the worst team in championship history and a 10 man Portsmouth at home

 

[Gimli]

We’ve just hauled ourselves out of the relegation zone for the first time this season, think talk of anything above a mid table finish is piggish levels of optimism

 

[Smirth]

It's a good job they went down to 10 men yesterday as before that we didn't look like scoring.

Any talk of promotion is futile. We are in a relegation scrap.

 

[vas borbokis]

Things are looking up. We look like we're improving and it's early days for the new free agents.
I'm increasingly hopeful we keep winning more games and crucially stop losing them.
The division seems pretty poor compared to last season.
We're a team that's improving week by week.
That's evidence Wilder Knill et al are having an impact.
Not having a big centre forward around the team has been addressed which gives us so many more options. Hamer and Blaster to return and a couple of new quality loans in and who knows.
Good news is the manager knows what he's doing and is working hard to improve us week by week.
No reason we can't look for 2 points a game from here, or possibly more. There's nothing to beat from what I've seen so far.
Getting to the playoffs we've definitely got a chance. 2nd very unlikely.
Imo.
And don't think about changing manager unless you know you've found someone better!
UTB & FTP!

 

[Tarqs]

Let's chill out eh?

We've just beaten the worst team in championship history and a 10 man Portsmouth at home

A terrible portsmouth and we created nothing until the penalty. Someone mentioned above we're moving the ball around quicker now - I haven't seen it. Thought our passing was extremely sloppy and invariably backwards.

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

I'm glad I don't have the outlook of some people on this thread
When will you actually enjoy a match?

 

[Maidenhead]

I'll relax IF and WHEN we get to 52 points on the board.

Until then, this season's all about avoiding the drop.

 

[Mad Mick]

It will be interesting to see how we do in the next few games. Leicester are only a few points above us, and then it's Stoke who are doing well, but we are at home. Then we have Norwich at home, whom we should beat. If we can get 6 points out of those 3, it will start to look possible. These last 2 games, we have gotten better, but still a lot of work to do. Get within 5 or 6 points by January, then I reckon it's on.

 

[Balham]

This isn't true.

Crystal Palace after 17 games in 2003 had 17pts, and were 11pts off the playoffs. They finished 6th.

...and won the play-offs, beating West Ham 1-0 in the final.

EDIT: I've also fixed the gap to the play-offs for Palace after 17 matches. West Ham were 6th on 28 points meaning the gap was the same as it is for ours to Preston this season.

 

[Slim Man]

A terrible portsmouth and we created nothing until the penalty. Someone mentioned above we're moving the ball around quicker now - I haven't seen it. Thought our passing was extremely sloppy and invariably backwards.

Same. I hate to be the harbinger of doom, but this type of thread makes my shit itch.