madsent

I'd like QPR and Crystal Palace to be relegated. Would be the ultimate hat-trick for Paul Hart.

Charlton and Colchester are both wobbling at the moment but it's probably too late. Our goal difference means we're almost guaranteed to be above any team we catch but we still need to gain 5 points on Bristol Rovers, 6 on MK Dons, 11 on Huddersfield and to catch one of the playoff teams who are all 13-17 points ahead of us. The pressure will tell on our players (and fans) so we're bound to slip up at some point. My prediction from a few weeks ago was that we'd get between 65 and 75 points. I now predict we'll get to 73 points (7 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat) which won't be enough.

It means spelling "consistent" wrong every time you use it rather than sometimes

We did not turn around our form on poor pitches. Our run of decent away form was when the pitches were still in reasonable nick. Since the weather turned in December, the record is : 1W, 4D, 3L. The win was at Norwich who have a pitch comparable to ours in quality. We had the lead in 3 of the draws as well.

I agree that we could win our last 7 home games. Away from home, it's a different kind of form. Apart from a 5 game run when we got 13 points, we've gained 10 points from 13. Only 7 points from the last 8 away games tells the story of why we fell away after getting within 9 points of the playoff zone.

Has someone killed more than half the population of our favourite city in Eastern Hampshire ? Current statistics have Southampton at 235,000 and them at 190,000. Both have substantial potential catchment areas. We have the New Forest, Romsey, Eastleigh, Winchester and have a decent showing in Salisbury. They have Fareham, Havant, Hayling Island, most of the Meon Valley and a good following in Petersfield. If they had been marketed correctly (not easy for such an insular club as theirs), they could have taken a lot of the fans in West Sussex as well as East Hampshire.

Why would MK Dons need to win 9 to get in the playoffs if we can get there with 10 wins ? They're effectively 3 wins ahead of us already.

Given that we have almost no chance of promotion this season (since the last playoff team has 63 points in L1 as opposed to 52 points in the Championship and 55 in L2), lets see how the crowds look next season with the likelihood being that Leeds and Norwich are going to be replaced by Peterborough and Plymouth. If Charlton then get replaced by S****horpe then there won't be any big teams left in the division for us to play. I think we'll continue to have big crowds if we're top but they will dwindle quickly if we're not winning regularly.

Interesting that Branfoot appears on the day we get to 7 straight home league victories. It's been a very long time since his team won 6 home games in a row and avoided relegation.

He's played in 38 of Fulham's 45 games this season. The times I've seen him on TV, whether he's played right-back, left-back or midfield, he's been tidy and done his job. Roy Hodgson certainly seems to have changed his mind on Baird.

Averaging 1 point per away game is good but nowhere near title-winning form. We're averaging 1.35 points per away game for the season. Even if you discount the first 5 away games, we've gained 20 points from 12 games which is 1.66 per game. It's better than Charlton's 1.64 per away game but worse than Leeds with 1.81 and Norwich with 1.82. If we've been producing title winning form since October, how come we're further behind Norwich than we were in October ?

Come on you two, you must remember that we went into administration after the cut-off date. Before that date, the points are deducted that season. After that date, the points are deducted the next season if the team is relegated without the points deduction. It's a moot argument anyway because, AFAIK, there is no corresponding cut-off point in the Premier League. For those wondering, the 9 point penalty is basically pro-rated from the 10 points in the Football League since they play less games. Luton got loads because their new owners told the FL of irregularities in payments to agents and players made by the previous owners.

As I recall, Man Utd were told by UEFA that they had no choice other than to represent Europe in the World Club Championship with their strongest side. They were then told by the FA that they couldn't field a weakened team in the FA cup without fines and possible expulsion. I'm not sure what they were meant to do in those circumstances. As for whether Birmingham would get a bye or they'd play us or one of the other R5 losers, that's a question for the FA. There is nothing in the rules of the FA Cup for this season that say what should be done. I'm sure that they'll add a new rule for next season's competition even if Pompey stay afloat long enough to lose this season.

We'll probably go into every game as favourites now and we're good enough to win any of them. We certainly could win 13 games (or more) but it is only the exceptional teams that actually go on that kind of run. There's a good chance it wouldn't be enough anyway given the current form of Colchester, Swindon, Huddersfield and Millwall especially as we are only playing 2 of them again. I think we'll end up with somewhere between 65 and 75 points and teams will need somewhere around 79 points to get into the playoffs.

The poor form of Leeds and Charlton is not really relevant to us. We couldn't possibly overhaul Leeds as they are 28 points above us with 18 games left. Charlton are sinking like a stone and could be this season's version of Cardiff but are still a huge 23 points ahead. To get into the playoffs, we'll probably need to do better than 2 from Swindon, Millwall and Huddersfield. All three are in decent form. As for Norwich away being a winnable game, all games are winnable otherwise there wouldn't be any point playing them. However, they have dropped 7 points at home all season and only 4 points with Paul Lambert in charge. Most of us would be pretty happy with a draw.