Catching Leicester

[Block41 Saint]

Performances in 3 of our last 4 games suggests we'll fall away from autos now. We've gone back to being shite defensively. 

[Sheaf Saint]

Time to lock this thread. Not a chance in hell we're catching Leicester now.

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Sheaf Saint said:

Time to lock this thread. Not a chance in hell we're catching Leicester now.

There was no chance this afternoon, ffs

[Saint_clark]

Yeah it's done, time to look forward to the playoffs.

[tdmickey3]

7 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Yeah it's done, time to look forward to the playoffs.

Trouble is I'm not looking forward to the playoffs 

[Saint_clark]

2 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

Trouble is I'm not looking forward to the playoffs 

Trick is to not care whether we go up or not and just enjoy the rollercoaster. 

[Block41 Saint]

2 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

Trouble is I'm not looking forward to the playoffs 

Best way to go up, worst way to stay down. 

[S-Clarke]

15 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Yeah it's done, time to look forward to the playoffs.

If it's the playoffs, I hope that we know that a good few weeks before the season ends. Ending up in the playoffs after a gut wrenching defeat at Elland Rd on the last day isn't my desired outcome. We'd never recover from that.

[obelisk]

12 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

If it's the playoffs, I hope that we know that a good few weeks before the season ends. Ending up in the playoffs after a gut wrenching defeat at Elland Rd on the last day isn't my desired outcome. We'd never recover from that.

Leeds will be well out of sight by then.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Can absolutely see us finishing 4th now. 

[Saint_clark]

29 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Can absolutely see us finishing 4th now. 

3rd-6th doesn't really make any difference. 

[Lighthouse]

On 18/02/2024 at 10:47, Saint_clark said:

Leeds all the way. Go for the title lads. 

 

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

Yeah it's done, time to look forward to the playoffs.

So in the space of one, single defeat you’ve gone from wanting Leeds to win, so we can catch a team 11 points above us, to, "it’s all over, we can’t possibly catch a team 2 points above us."

[S-Clarke]

3 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

 

So in the space of one, single defeat you’ve gone from wanting Leeds to win, so we can catch a team 11 points above us, to, "it’s all over, we can’t possibly catch a team 2 points above us."

This isn't a place for rational thought, you should know that!

[Lee On Solent Saint]

9 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

3rd-6th doesn't really make any difference. 

I'd rather us finish 3rd and play someone like Coventry, than finish 4th and maybe face Hull or WBA.

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

I'd rather us finish 3rd and play someone like Coventry, than finish 4th and maybe face Hull or WBA.

We'd have to play them in the final anyway tbh, doesn't really matter in my eyes. Coventry are a good side as well, will cause us problems when we play them.

[SaintBobby]

Tonight's horror show has led me to change my mind. A win tonight and an imagined win at Leiecester and the shot was, just about, on the board. Just.

Now it's a fight for second between 3 teams.

[IFHP]

I can’t believe anyone seriously wanted Leeds to beat Leicester even before us losing last night . it was always going to be hard to maintain 2nd let alone try and catch a team 
11 points above us . 

 

[Dark Munster]

Well with autos now 100% gone don't we still want Leeds to win, so that they will finish above Ipswich and we don't have to play them in the playoffs? 😀

[Saint_clark]

6 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

 

So in the space of one, single defeat you’ve gone from wanting Leeds to win, so we can catch a team 11 points above us, to, "it’s all over, we can’t possibly catch a team 2 points above us."

Form, momentum and the evidence of results against the top teams mean nothing, no siree.

Leeds fans were right. We'll struggle with the rest of our games. 

[AlexLaw76]

12 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Form, momentum and the evidence of results against the top teams mean nothing, no siree.

Leeds fans were right. We'll struggle with the rest of our games. 

You could have saved some time and accept that yesterday afternoon, or last week

[Saint_clark]

5 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

You could have saved some time and accept that yesterday afternoon, or last week

Literally cost me no time at all. 

[AlexLaw76]

2 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Literally cost me no time at all. 

It was an hilariously ridiculous thought - 'we can catch Leicester' lol

[S-Clarke]

9 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

It was an hilariously ridiculous thought - 'we can catch Leicester' lol

Just to stick up for those who were starting to think this, it was whilst we were still unbeaten in 25 and had just done Huddersfield. If we (as we all totally expected) had won against Bristol City, WBA and Hull, whilst Leicester dropped points against Boro and Leeds, we'd have gone into the Millwall game on 73 points with a game in hand on them. They'd have still been on 78. Beat Millwall and it was down to 2 points and we were right on their coattails.

A week or two ago it wasn't totally unfathomable that this scenario could have played out, but given we've not done our job it's now done and dusted and most will accept that.

I don't think there was anything wrong with fans having a bit of hope that there could have been something to grab, certainly no need to now laugh back in the faces of fans of your club.

Edited 21 February, 2024 by S-Clarke

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I don't think there was anything wrong with fans having a bit of hope that there could have been something to grab

I remember this time last year after Stamford Bridge thinking if we win this/that match, we can still avoid relegation. The hope's back again but this time it's if we win this/that game, we can still get automatically promoted. It's not an irrational hope. We've still got to play the top three (the proverbial six pointers) so it's in our hands. RM needs to pick the best team, stop the tinkering and there's no reason why we can't do it. Certainly this year's hope is more realistic than last year.

[CB Fry]

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I don't think there was anything wrong with fans having a bit of hope that there could have been something to grab, certainly no need to now laugh back in the faces of fans of your club.

There always was, and still is, "something to grab" - it's called automatic promotion.

It was the twattish belief that we could over turn an 11 point deficit in only 14/15 games that was then, and is now, absolutely laughable. The sneery arrogance that second wasn't good enough for super Saints.

And the fact that people have reversed like an Italian tank at the first sign of adversity, shows how fuckwitted it was. 

Edited 21 February, 2024 by CB Fry

[S-Clarke]

17 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

There always was, and still is, "something to grab" - it's called automatic promotion.

It was the twattish belief that we could over turn an 11 point deficit in only 14/15 games that was then, and is now, absolutely laughable. The sneery arrogance that second wasn't good enough for super Saints.

And the fact that people have reversed like an Italian tank at the first sign of adversity, shows how fuckwitted it was. 

But the point was that if the scenario above had played out, which wasn't unthinkable at the time, we would have almost turned over that 11 point deficit - whilst still having to go to their place.

Of course there is still automatic promotion to grab and that's still very much the aim of the game, it's just that people saw the chance to win the league - there was a tiny glimmer, and our form and the fact Leeds and Leicester played each other opened the door ajar slightly - as long as we did our job, but we didn't so it's done.

I don't think having hope can ever be constituted as having a twattish belief.

[east-stand-nic]

Just had a glance at the remaining games for all top 4 sides and came up with this final table

Leicester 109

Leeds 106

Ipswich 94

Saints 92

 

 

[CB Fry]

7 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

But the point was that if the scenario above had played out, which wasn't unthinkable at the time, we would have almost turned over that 11 point deficit - whilst still having to go to their place.

Of course there is still automatic promotion to grab and that's still very much the aim of the game, it's just that people saw the chance to win the league - there was a tiny glimmer, and our form and the fact Leeds and Leicester played each other opened the door ajar slightly - as long as we did our job, but we didn't so it's done.

I don't think having hope can ever be constituted as having a twattish belief.

It was unthinkable, it was never going to happen and here we are it hasn't happened.

All the scenarios and calculations and it was all a load of bollocks boiling down to "other teams will just lose games to give us what we want".  Meanwhile we win every single game as a given.

The whole thing was horseshit. 

[AlexLaw76]

It was laughable to think we would gain 11 points on Leicester in 14 games, when we gained 0 points in 25 unbeaten.

just madness

[The Cat]

1 hour ago, AlexLaw76 said:

It was laughable to think we would gain 11 points on Leicester in 14 games, when we gained 0 points in 25 unbeaten.

just madness

Obviously you have never had a bad opinion so let's all stand around and applaud Alex for his history of spot on posts over the years on a huge variety of topics under a multitude of different logins.

It wasn't even that bad of a discussion. I've heard multiple people talk about it in pubs, at actual football games that you don't go to, and seen plenty of other fans online talk about us possibly catching Leicester.

What's laughable is the amount of time you spend on here posting utter bollocks before then jumping on anyone who ends up being wrong in a condescending way.

Weirdly when it's pointed out to you that you have been wrong you don't like it.

You're like a child.

[austsaint]

10 hours ago, CB Fry said:

There always was, and still is, "something to grab" - it's called automatic promotion.

It was the twattish belief that we could over turn an 11 point deficit in only 14/15 games that was then, and is now, absolutely laughable. The sneery arrogance that second wasn't good enough for super Saints.

And the fact that people have reversed like an Italian tank at the first sign of adversity, shows how fuckwitted it was. 

I see S. Clarke's point - that people are entitled to hope (and a "winning mentality") as a Football fan, just as hope is crucial to just about every aspect of life.    As you point out though; even the most basic of mathematicians could tell us we weren't going to make up that deficit on Leicester in the remaining games.   In that sense hope of winning the title was not hope, but pie-in-the-sky.    The more realistic hope was/still is that we finish second - a couple of weeks ago, that hope burned brightly, despite the proximity of Leeds and Ipswich.    Now it's a slightly flickering low wattage globe after the defeats at Bristol and St Marys v Hull.    It's still possible - the hope of automatic promotion lives on.....precariously.

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

On 22/02/2024 at 08:33, austsaint said:

I see S. Clarke's point - that people are entitled to hope (and a "winning mentality") as a Football fan, just as hope is crucial to just about every aspect of life.    As you point out though; even the most basic of mathematicians could tell us we weren't going to make up that deficit on Leicester in the remaining games.   In that sense hope of winning the title was not hope, but pie-in-the-sky.    The more realistic hope was/still is that we finish second - a couple of weeks ago, that hope burned brightly, despite the proximity of Leeds and Ipswich.    Now it's a slightly flickering low wattage globe after the defeats at Bristol and St Marys v Hull.    It's still possible - the hope of automatic promotion lives on.....precariously.

And tonight's game will see hope levels shift dramatically one way or the other. C'mon Leicester.

[CB Fry]

The march to the title is on, on, ONNNN

[SNSUN]

3 hours ago, CB Fry said:

The march to the title is on, on, ONNNN

Keep Positive! Stranger Things have happened. There was a whole documentary series on it on Netflix.

[Pamplemousse]

It would be very Saintsy of us to beat all three of Ipswich, Leeds and Leicester away and and end up finishing 4th.

[Charlie Mealings]

The last few games have created a problem for us: teams aren't afraid to press us anymore. I don't know how Millwall will play today, but I wrote a bit about how we need to make that a scary, fruitless tactic again. If you have 5 min:

https://www.statemarys.com/p/weve-been-rumbled

[CSA96]

Now as close to 5th place as we are to Leicester.

[Daft Kerplunk]

I think this ship may have sailed

[Saint_clark]

8 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

Now as close to 5th place as we are to Leicester.

So if you think we're likely to finish 5th you must think we have a chance of finishing 1st?

[CSA96]

Just now, Saint_clark said:

So if you think we're likely to finish 5th you must think we have a chance of finishing 1st?

Nah, I think we'll finish 4th. Maybe 3rd if one of the other two falters. Never said anything either way, just think this is/was a ridiculous thread.

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, CSA96 said:

Nah, I think we'll finish 4th. Maybe 3rd if one of the other two falters. Never said anything either way, just think this is/was a ridiculous thread.

Personally I think the result last night means that Leeds are beyond our reach, while Leicester are catchable.

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, Daft Kerplunk said:

I think this ship may have sailed

The Mary Rose, The Titanic or the Exxon Valdez?

[Daft Kerplunk]

19 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

The Mary Rose, The Titanic or the Exxon Valdez?

That is quite the line up of strong performing boats 😂

[trousers]

If only we'd beaten the footballing giants that are Bristol City, Hull and Millwall....

 

[S-Clarke]

I called it a few weeks ago, on the back of our Huddersfield win - it was in reach, esp. with the Leeds/Leicester game on the horizon. We didn't do our job though so it's null and void.

But it wasn't that ridiculous 'never a chance' opportunity that many made it out to be. We had every chance.

[trousers]

4 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I called it a few weeks ago, on the back of our Huddersfield win - it was in reach, esp. with the Leeds/Leicester game on the horizon. We didn't do our job though so it's null and void.

But it wasn't that ridiculous 'never a chance' opportunity that many made it out to be. We had every chance.

I'm still bonkers enough to think we can still do it! (If that doesn't attract @CB Fry back to the thread I don't know what will! )

[hypochondriac]

I'd say that Ipswich have every chance of catching them. If we'd won last week then there was an opportunity but 8 is too much to catch up sadly. 

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

I'm still bonkers enough to think we can still do it! (If that doesn't attract @CB Fry back to the thread I don't know what will! )

Now you've put the bait down Trousers......

We had our chance tbf, I knew Leicester had a wobble in them - but we decided to have ours at the same time. 8 points between 4th and 1st is pretty mental at this stage though.

Ipswich somehow have clawed themselves back to within 3 points of the top. After Leicester were what feels like 11 points clear of everyone all season it's a bit of a bump in their rear view now.

Edited 2 March, 2024 by S-Clarke

[Saint Pete]

Leicester's next 2 games are away to Sunderland and Hull. After 3 defeats on the bounce, they won't be fancying those too much...

[sfc4prem]

Problem is gents, Ipswich, Leeds and Leicester all have to play us again. They're bricking it, I reckon. Could swing the table and see us near the summit - who knows?!?

Enjoy the ride.