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Are we playing for 2nd place?



Live by the sea

Well-known member
Oct 21, 2016
4,718
I agree on paper Newcastle should walk it. But the great thing about football is that what you think on paper should happen doesn't always. As long as we go up hopefully this season, don't care how we do it.
 




Aveacarlin'

New member
Jul 5, 2011
1,177
I think some people have completely misconstrued my op. I am not suggesting we should be aiming for/targeting 2nd. That would be patently ridiculous and anyone who thought I meant that must seriously lack intelligence! I was just asking the question are we competing with Norwich/Hudds etc for 2nd or do people believe both automatic places are still up for grabs
Why should we not be targeting 2nd? What's wrong with 2nd?

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Wilko

LUZZING chairs about
Sep 19, 2003
9,922
BN1
There's as much chance of Newcastle having a car-crash as there is of them going up. Difficult to say.

This is what I keep thinking. If there is one team that can spectacularly knob it up then it is Newcastle. They are more erratic than us, they will have more huge wins but hopefully lose lots of games they should have won too.
 




sdmartin1

Well-known member
Sep 23, 2008
1,258
Why should we not be targeting 2nd? What's wrong with 2nd?

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Every team should be targeting 1st. Especially us given how close we were last season. If we end up 2nd no one will be complaining but that is not the target.
 




Aveacarlin'

New member
Jul 5, 2011
1,177
Every team should be targeting 1st. Especially us given how close we were last season. If we end up 2nd no one will be complaining but that is not the target.
Sorry, but I am totally confused by your posts. It's obviously down to my lack if intelligence 🤔

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Munchkin

Well-known member
Jul 12, 2005
2,289
Littlehampton
I'm targeting top of this division, but also realistic and sense if we finish one place behind Newcastle we will go up as runners up.

Marathon not a sprint, but a positive start and in a great position in the race so far.

Kayal, March and Rosenior will make us even stronger and a significant investment in January in the striking department may just give us the final piece of the jigsaw this season. Exciting times.
 






Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,180
Surrey
Hmmm... I could've sworn it was more than 3. I suppose we took our foot off the gas towards the end.
That is exactly what happened. A shame really, because whilst it was a canter that is not what the history books will show. The only game we seemed to try and win after the title was sewn up was Southampton at home, and sadly we managed to lose it!
 


sdmartin1

Well-known member
Sep 23, 2008
1,258
Sorry, but I am totally confused by your posts. It's obviously down to my lack if intelligence 🤔

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Every team should be targeting finishing first. My question is, is our realistic best case scenario finishing 2nd or do people think we can still trouble Newcastle, it really isn't that complicated
 


ac gull

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
1,931
midlands
Don't see why privately we should not believe we are playing for first place.

It's very fine margins, arguably we should have beaten Preston and if we had got Duffy in before the Forest game then the two in a row losses may have been different.
After New Year you get some very unpredictable results re pressure being on bottom six teams - our two nil win against Derby in CH first season a case in point.

As soon as anyone starts to think they have "it sorted" re getting promoted they will get found out and go on a poor run very quickly
 




Eeyore

Colonel Hee-Haw of Queen's Park
NSC Patron
Apr 5, 2014
23,525
How can anyone play for second place ? Do we decide to concede a goal for fear of going top. The players want to win every game. And so do we. If we end up in second then fine.
 


Peter Grummit

Well-known member
Oct 13, 2004
6,769
Lewes
Latest Experimental 3-6-1 (https://experimental361.com/2016/10/23/e-ratings-update-championship-23-oct-2016/) prediction has us 2nd with a 60% chance of automatic promotion.
ch-probabilities-2016-10-23.png
Not sure I subscribe to that, the bookies have us 3rd favourites for promotion behind Newcastle and an odds-on Norwich.

PG
 


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,661
West west west Sussex
We all know this question is impossible to answer until 01.02.17.

I'm amazed the team is currently second, they're certainly proving me wrong at the moment.
I desperately hope I'm still as loud wrong in 6 weeks time, even if that means we 'crawl' into the transfer window.
It's clear CH can squeeze every last point from the players.

I'm still concerned we're following the same template as last season.
Winning ugly away is great esp somewhere like Wigan. But scraping wins at home makes it tough for me to commit to our promotion credentials.
 




Peter Grummit

Well-known member
Oct 13, 2004
6,769
Lewes
We all know this question is impossible to answer until 01.02.17.

I'm amazed the team is currently second, they're certainly proving me wrong at the moment.
I desperately hope I'm still as loud wrong in 6 weeks time, even if that means we 'crawl' into the transfer window.
It's clear CH can squeeze every last point from the players.

I'm still concerned we're following the same template as last season.
Winning ugly away is great esp somewhere like Wigan. But scraping wins at home makes it tough for me to commit to our promotion credentials.

Broadly agree.

The earlier in the season the more important performances are (the later, results are more critical). Most managers subscribe to this view. I'm not yet convinced our performances have been good enough. The flip side, of course, is that we are 2nd without playing consistently well, and with players to return we have potential to improve.

PG
 






Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,661
West west west Sussex
On B365 we've gone from 6/1 just pre-season to 15/8 today to finish top 2 (and from 6/4 to 1/6 to finish top 6)

All the betting market is, is a representation of the weekends results in number form.
 






smeg

New member
Feb 11, 2013
980
BN13
I think the Toon will run away with this, thought so before a ball had been kicked, so yeah second for me would be the best we could achieve. Actually think Norwich will come second and it's the playoff's for us again but we beat Wednesday away so anything is possible, right?

:albion2:
 


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