The Blades against the top 8

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ThatJa

ThatJa

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Anyone worried if we finish 3rd/4th? 3 wins against the top 8 this season... Boro on the other hand top that mini 8 team table....

Funny owd league.
 

Still to play 4 of them. Nowt to worry about.
I was a bit worried how we would cope with injuries and suspensions, but not after last night. We looked solid with the back 4 and limited Boro to next to nowt in real goalscoring chances. Can see us getting wins at Albion and Brum with a draw at weeds. Hull and Preston also look toughies away but we are in fine form at the right time so..........
 
Not worried at all.
As the season's gone on, we've moved up another level on the old maturity scale.
When you consider how many soft points we threw away, that's a good indicator of how much better we are than the results suggest.
Leeds at home, Derby, Brizzle and Villa away.
Boro away was a freaky result and so early in the season has little bearing imo
WBA did show their class against us, but I think we'll give a much better account of ourselves at their place.
Besides, we'll beat enough of the rest to not have to worry!!
 
If you look at the manner of the defeats though, only Boro have absolutely done us, and we've just beaten them.

Boro 3-0 Blades - Battered
FLDC 2-1 Blades - We stopped playing at halftime
Blades 1-2 WBA - Individual error whilst on top causes goal and dejection
Blades 0-1 Leeds - Henderson and Egan clanger
Bristol 1-0 Blades - tight game won with a loopy cross that ended up in the top corner to everyone in the grounds surprise.

4 points off Norwich, 3 off FLDC, 3 off Boro, still to play the rest.

And then there's the teams that were in the top 8 when we played them but now aren't.

Bolton, Villa were I think when we played them at the Lane. There might be others.

I always say, I'm not worried about anyone in the championship because we have more say than any of our opponents, which goes both ways, we can contrive a way to lose against anyone, but we can also beat anyone on our day.
 
We are as good as anyone most of the time. I still feel like a few teams best performance may be better than ours, but not by much.
 
I thought middlesboro looked a good side last night delighted with it.
Keep our identity between them all in dressing room ( be us ) and I’d take sixth now if it means we go Wembley Again for a 50-50.
Law of averages
 
This year it's there for the taking as are first and second, I mean think about that a minute...we could still be champions.
Last year Wolves and Fulham, this year nothing. You know after we win something and Wednesday fans say, 'aw but it was the easiest it's ever been' (even though they compete against the same opposition and do fuck all) well this year they could be right! We win the league when it's terrible, just putting it out there.
 
Theres a fine line between silky football and becoming Billy big bollocks and just expecting it to happen.
If we stick to the former we'll be fine. :)
 
A big difference between League One and the Championship has been how many teams have players that can turn a game in one moment. We got outplayed, outfought, outclassed, at various times in the lower division but you were rarely worried that someone was going to curl one in from outside the box like Snodgrass did to rob us of a point against Villa last year. Even Birmingham, who came when they were really struggling, were under pressure for the entire first half when one lad cuts past a couple of players and puts in a screamer.

You play teams below us in the league and they've got names you recognise. One of Boro's subs last night was Downing, a player with 35 caps, and another is Assombalonga who's been hot property in this division for a while.

There's no shame in dropping points to anyone in this division. I don't really care about looking at "mini-tables" anyway. Clearly we've played better or more consistently than all of the teams below us over the season so far. That's what matters, not random little spikes in the graph from what have been very close games.
 

The way I always remember the play offs is that we normally do well against teams that we’ve struggled against in the league and lose to the teams we’ve beaten in the league. This might be bollocks and is not backed up by any form of statistical analysis but that has been my perception of us over the years.
 
derekacorah said:
The way I always remember the play offs is that we normally do well against teams that we’ve struggled against in the league and lose to the teams we’ve beaten in the league. This might be bollocks and is not backed up by any form of statistical analysis but that has been my perception of us over the years.
Click to expand...

I was interested enough to check this:

1988 - didn't play Bristol City in the League

1997 - lost both league games to Ipswich. Drew both playoff games and won on away goals
beat Palace home and away in league. Lost playoff final

1998 - beat Sunderland home in both league and playoffs and lost both away games

2003 - beat forest at home in both games. Lost in league and drew in playoffs
Won at Wolves and drew with them at home in League. Lost playoff final

2009 - beat Preston home in both league and playoffs and drew both away games.
Lost all 3 games against Burnley

2012 - drew at home to Stevenage and lost away in league: beat them at home and drew away in playoffs
lost at home to Huddersfield in league, beat them away, drew playoff final and lost on pens.

2013 - lost at home to Yeovil but won away in league: reversed these results in playoffs

2015 - beat Swindon at home and lost away in league: lost at home and drew away in playoffs (10 goals conceded in 2 games at Swindon)

Your theory was true for 1997 (one of the reasons I thought we'd win the final was because we'd demolished Palace a month earlier) and partly true in other years.

We won't win the playoffs. We need automatic promotion.
 
Results from the first game against our SIX genuine promotion/play-off rivals:=
P6 W1 D0 L5 Pts 3

Results from the second game against them:-
P3 W2 D1 L0 Pts 7

Three still to play for the second time
 
derekacorah said:
The way I always remember the play offs is that we normally do well against teams that we’ve struggled against in the league and lose to the teams we’ve beaten in the league. This might be bollocks and is not backed up by any form of statistical analysis but that has been my perception of us over the years.
Click to expand...
I'm taking this as a fact and i'm going to get really angry now that we haven't got the bollocks for the fight. Albeit with entirely different players, management and over the course of 20 odd years!

We've never won a play off final at Wembley, so lets hope they move it to the worlds finest ground, no, super stadium, the sty.
 
Revolution said:
I was interested enough to check this:

1988 - didn't play Bristol City in the League

1997 - lost both league games to Ipswich. Drew both playoff games and won on away goals
beat Palace home and away in league. Lost playoff final

1998 - beat Sunderland home in both league and playoffs and lost both away games

2003 - beat forest at home in both games. Lost in league and drew in playoffs
Won at Wolves and drew with them at home in League. Lost playoff final

2009 - beat Preston home in both league and playoffs and drew both away games.
Lost all 3 games against Burnley

2012 - drew at home to Stevenage and lost away in league: beat them at home and drew away in playoffs
lost at home to Huddersfield in league, beat them away, drew playoff final and lost on pens.

2013 - lost at home to Yeovil but won away in league: reversed these results in playoffs

2015 - beat Swindon at home and lost away in league: lost at home and drew away in playoffs (10 goals conceded in 2 games at Swindon)

Your theory was true for 1997 (one of the reasons I thought we'd win the final was because we'd demolished Palace a month earlier) and partly true in other years.

We won't win the playoffs. We need automatic promotion.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I knew someone would do this, I was too lazy.

The Ipswich and Palace ones are the most vivid for me and I remember at the time everyone saying we’d lose to Ipswich and best Palace.

Fairly indifferent against the others though so it was a bit bollocks!
 
We’re a match for anyone home or away in this division this season . If it’s the playoffs so be it .. I’d certainly have took that at the start of the season .. other than been shite at Boro no ones outplayed us .. We all know playoffs can be a lottery but I wouldn’t be saying I hope we avoid X .. think they’d be more concerned about avoiding us
 
Be a problem if we'd lost heavily in every game .But Boro apart all have been by 1 goal in games where had we got a result the opposition couldn't have grumbled
 
Its the blades v the other 23 that counts.
Who we get the points against is utterly meaningless so long as we gather more than 22 of them
 
The team we had at Boro was nothing like the team we have now, both in personnel and confidence

I don't get all this top six bullshit, Bolton were top six when we beat them away from home

Villa could still get top six as could Blackburn, would our record look so bad then ?

Swansea have done the double over us and are floundering in mid table
 
Our results and/or performances against the teams around us are steadily improving. Since the Boxing Day won against Derby I’ve noticed this. It’s a process, one of know how and continual improvement of the squad. Trust it.

I was sceptical of our tactical ability to compete in those games earlier in the year and felt the approach was too one dimensional however we have shown signs that we have learned and improved.
 
Plymouthblade said:
I thought middlesboro looked a good side last night delighted with it.
Keep our identity between them all in dressing room ( be us ) and I’d take sixth now if it means we go Wembley Again for a 50-50.
Law of averages
Click to expand...
Some serious gamblers logic in there :D
 
Bolton were third when we beat them...does that count?
 
The only 2 teams that could worry me are Leeds and Norwich and even them not greatly, the rest of them we are well capable of beating, but as others have said the play offs are a lottery so I’d rather give them a miss if you don’t mind.
 

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