Either you think the teams are deluded, or you don't understand what 'expect' means.
How many teams were odds on to get promoted? Those are the ones that could justifiably have expected to win promotion.
Fair enough.
So we'd have had to play with 10 men?
The points are:
Stockdale is playing better
Bong is better than Bennet
Bruno is playing better
We've got more options at centre back, with quality on the bench
Stephens isn't injured, and he's playing well
There are a couple of options ahead of...