23/24 Fixtures

[Wade Garrett]

On 22/06/2023 at 14:13, Saint Matty 76 said:

Is it? September looks a little rough but we have the best opportunity of the entire league to go into it with momentum.

 

They’re all going to be easy.  Going to fucking walk it.

[Charlie Wayman]

3 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

They’re all going to be easy.  Going to fucking walk it.

If we were that good, we'd still be in the PL. You might be in for a nasty surprise.

[EssEffCee]

On 23/06/2023 at 10:25, Give it to Ron said:

Champ’ away allocations 23/24

Bham 2250
Bburn 7500
Bristol C 3000
CCFC 2200
Hudd 2300
Hull 2000
Ipsw 2100
Leeds 2500
Leic 3000
Boro 2000
Mill 3000
Nwich 2000
Plym 1500
PNE 5800
QPR 3000
Rham 2300
Sheff W 3500
Southmpton 3000
Stoke 2600
Sun 2500
Swansea 2000
Watford 2000
WBA 2000

 

Where did you get this list from? Surely clubs with 30k+ capacities will have to offer 3k in line with regulations. 

Not that we'd be taking 3k to the likes of Sunderland and Boro of course but we've taken more than those quoted figures to Leeds and Norwich in recent seasons. Cardiff too on our last visit there I believe. 

Think Wednesday can offer more too although again not likely to affect us. They did have a capacity reduction on the Leppings Lane earlier this year mind. 

Edited 25 June, 2023 by EssEffCee

[Dr Who?]

On 23/06/2023 at 10:25, Give it to Ron said:

Champ’ away allocations 23/24

Bham 2250
Bburn 7500
Bristol C 3000
CCFC 2200
Hudd 2300
Hull 2000
Ipsw 2100
Leeds 2500
Leic 3000
Boro 2000
Mill 3000
Nwich 2000
Plym 1500
PNE 5800
QPR 3000
Rham 2300
Sheff W 3500
Southmpton 3000
Stoke 2600
Sun 2500
Swansea 2000
Watford 2000
WBA 2000

Tickets on the day at Blackburn and Preston then. No way we are getting anywhere near that many. 

[Wade Garrett]

1 hour ago, Charlie Wayman said:

If we were that good, we'd still be in the PL. You might be in for a nasty surprise.

Bollocks.  We’re going to fucking destroy the Championship.

[EssEffCee]

25 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

Tickets on the day at Blackburn and Preston then. No way we are getting anywhere near that many. 

 

Doubt we'll take even a quarter of that to Preston seeing as it's midweek. 

Presumably those clubs can both accommodate smaller areas and open up tickets for home fans too as those figures are the entire stand. 

[Charlie Wayman]

11 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

Bollocks.  We’re going to fucking destroy the Championship.

Maybe we should have a fiver on it. I'm not understanding what your optimism is based on even if it is to be applauded. For a start we have no idea which players will be here to start the season, whether by retention or through incoming transfers. Secondly the new manager may or may not be any better than the last four and will have had only a few weeks to decide who best fits his style of play and meld them into an effective working unit. Thirdly it is always a supreme folly to underrate or dismiss all opponents as inadequate or worthless.

I am confident that you had taken all these factors into account when forming your considered judgement but my assessment of the hard realities of our situation has led me to a different conclusion. We will struggle in the first third of the season and are unlikely to be in the top six at Christmas.

Edited 26 June, 2023 by Charlie Wayman

[Southner]

On 25/06/2023 at 18:10, Wade Garrett said:

They’re all going to be easy.  Going to fucking walk it.

139 points come season's end. Complete domination. 

[Wade Garrett]

2 hours ago, Southner said:

139 points come season's end. Complete domination. 

We’ll smash 100 points.  Fucking Championship donkeys.

[aintforever]

New CEO, new DOF, new manager and probably a massive change in the players - I can't see us challenging for the title.

It all does depend on how much the owners are willing to punt on it though.

[Give it to Ron]

1 hour ago, aintforever said:

New CEO, new DOF, new manager and probably a massive change in the players - I can't see us challenging for the title.

It all does depend on how much the owners are willing to punt on it though.

So have Leeds but wouldn’t rule them out would you?

[Southner]

7 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

We’ll smash 100 points.  Fucking Championship donkeys.

We will completely embarrass the competition. The structure of the football pyramid will need to be overhauled in order to salvage even the smallest bit of respect. 

[SotonianWill]

10 hours ago, Southner said:

We will completely embarrass the competition. The structure of the football pyramid will need to be overhauled in order to salvage even the smallest bit of respect. 

If we lose one game i’ll be disappointed. Anything under Readings 106 points would be failure. 

[Southner]

39 minutes ago, SotonianWill said:

If we lose one game i’ll be disappointed. Anything under Readings 106 points would be failure. 

Anything other than an invincible season, and I'll be fucking livid. Finding it hard to see myself accepting a draw at this point in time. 

[Bad Wolf]

Plymouth game moved to 12:30 same date

[niceandfriendly]

4 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

Plymouth game moved to 12:30 same date

Perfect. Leaves plenty of time to travel and get some beers in. 😒

[Wade Garrett]

On 26/06/2023 at 10:21, Charlie Wayman said:

Maybe we should have a fiver on it. I'm not understanding what your optimism is based on even if it is to be applauded. For a start we have no idea which players will be here to start the season, whether by retention or through incoming transfers. Secondly the new manager may or may not be any better than the last four and will have had only a few weeks to decide who best fits his style of play and meld them into an effective working unit. Thirdly it is always a supreme folly to underrate or dismiss all opponents as inadequate or worthless.

I am confident that you had taken all these factors into account when forming your considered judgement but my assessment of the hard realities of our situation has led me to a different conclusion. We will struggle in the first third of the season and are unlikely to be in the top six at Christmas.

I repeat, we are going to fucking destroy the Championship.

[Wade Garrett]

On 27/06/2023 at 23:10, Southner said:

We will completely embarrass the competition. The structure of the football pyramid will need to be overhauled in order to salvage even the smallest bit of respect. 

Fucking right mush.

[CB Fry]

42 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

I repeat, we are going to fucking destroy the Championship.

I was fully on board with this until I found out that Leicester had signed Connor Coady.

[Southner]

3 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

Fucking right mush.

Let's avvit, me blud!  

[Patches O Houlihan]

On 22/06/2023 at 09:00, trousers said:

...

 

Well we all spotted that September would be tough, and so it turned out to be.

Back in June we agreed that playing Norwich, Plymouth(A), Sunderland (A), Leicester, Ipswich, Middlesborough (A) and Leeds in the first nine games would be a big ask for a squad that was likely to go through a wholesale change.

We've got through that period having won 4, lost 4 and drawn 1. I'm sure we'd all have preferred a couple of those losses to be draws or a win, but I'm in a pragmatic mood after as enjoyable a first half as I can remember so I'm going to say we are more or less par for the course at this point bearing in mind who we've played and all the change. 

Our next nine games are:

Stoke (A)

Rotherham (H)

Hull (A)

Preston (A)

Birmingham (H)

Millwall (A)

West Brom (H)

Huddersfield (A)

Bristol (H)

Three of those teams are currently in the top third of the table, so seeing where we are at the end of November should be much more representative of where we are likely to finish the season.

The key to me seems to be

a) The balance between playing out/bravery & pragmatic play. We largely got it right today.

b) The midfield/attacking balance. Personally I'd be playing Charles in the midfield anchor role, but by playing an offensive, creative set of forwards that were willing to run and play quickly we gave them too much to think about. However I think that group of players may get found out if we had still been at 0-0 after 25 minutes...

So where do we think we'll be going into December? I think we'll be 5th/6th somewhere there.

Thoughts? 

[JRM]

2 hours ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

Well we all spotted that September would be tough, and so it turned out to be.

Back in June we agreed that playing Norwich, Plymouth(A), Sunderland (A), Leicester, Ipswich, Middlesborough (A) and Leeds in the first nine games would be a big ask for a squad that was likely to go through a wholesale change.

We've got through that period having won 4, lost 4 and drawn 1. I'm sure we'd all have preferred a couple of those losses to be draws or a win, but I'm in a pragmatic mood after as enjoyable a first half as I can remember so I'm going to say we are more or less par for the course at this point bearing in mind who we've played and all the change. 

Our next nine games are:

Stoke (A)

Rotherham (H)

Hull (A)

Preston (A)

Birmingham (H)

Millwall (A)

West Brom (H)

Huddersfield (A)

Bristol (H)

Three of those teams are currently in the top third of the table, so seeing where we are at the end of November should be much more representative of where we are likely to finish the season.

The key to me seems to be

a) The balance between playing out/bravery & pragmatic play. We largely got it right today.

b) The midfield/attacking balance. Personally I'd be playing Charles in the midfield anchor role, but by playing an offensive, creative set of forwards that were willing to run and play quickly we gave them too much to think about. However I think that group of players may get found out if we had still been at 0-0 after 25 minutes...

So where do we think we'll be going into December? I think we'll be 5th/6th somewhere there.

Thoughts? 

It's such an inconsistent league IF we  can put a run together then we'll be back up in the mix for promotion pretty quickly, teams like Preston started well but then will go on a bad run, it's difficult to say what are the tougher fixtures far in advance. 

We've got Jack Stephens and Ross Stewart to come back in a few weeks , who knows how that will change us. Still think central midfield needs to be stronger. 

Edited 30 September, 2023 by JRM