Sorry to criticise, but this is factually incorrect, and also avoids actually addressing our form against the most likely play-off contenders.

We lost to Derby at home, so picked up one point, not two.

Against the teams between 3rd, 4th and 6th, we have P6, W1,D1,L4. Against the team currently in 4th we have P2,W0,D0,L2.

Sorry.

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My apologies for the Derby County shocker.

But if we only look at the teams if 3,4 and 6, that is only six games. And that is very small. Norwich at home was settled by one mistake. Some Middlesborough fans are still not entirely sure how they won the game at theirs, given the balance of play. Hence why I chose to expand to the two promoted teams and the two chasing teams.

Widening up to all these games, in my view, a more balanced view of our chances than just those games.

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Notwithstanding the Derby result, I would have similarly positive feelings about our abilities against our likely playoff rivals, (should we get there).
Watford & Bournemouth are up with very high goals scored figures as they were able to demolish weaker teams on a regular enough basis; something that we were not so good at for a lot of the season. However we are battlers and in matches against the better teams in the league, had the ability to play to our strenghts, put in great defensive performances (up to January & since March at least) and hit teams through Murphy, Sears & previously McGoldrick.
I don't rate Middlesbrough as highly as many commentators do, despite the 4-1 defeat, and would be quite confident that we would beat them over two legs. Bamford is a very good striker when given time & space, as was shown when we pushed forward trying to get back in the game, but I think he can be contained by our centre-halves if we stay tight on him. I also think we would beat Derby, although the return of Chris Martin certainly strengthens them.
I hate to admit it, but I would most fear playing that yellow lot, either in the semis or the final, and would hope that we avoid them in the semis & that Derby then put them out, so we play them in the final. Maybe the last couple of results has affected them and their form is deserting them, but they have players that can hurt us and I don't think I'd get over having our promotin dream ended by them for at least 30 years or thereabouts.

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To defend commuterblue, the broad point is correct - that we have done reasonably well against the better teams in the division. It should certainly be some comfort as we head towards the possibility of playing Norwich in the play-offs. Our games against them are our worst performances against any of the top teams. Just as we might argue that our two wins vs Watford were an aberration, you could say the same of our two defeats vs Norwich. I genuinely don't think we have anything to lose IF we end up in the play-offs.

The thing we should all focus on right now is that it is still very definitely "IF", not a "WHEN".

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I seem to recall from much earlier speculation about possible playoff opponents that most if not all of those teams will lose loan players for the playoffs. In particular, I understood that Bamford would not be available to Middlesborough and similarly Dorrans to Norwich (Mr Grabban having conveniently removed himself by other means). Derby will lose both Darren Bent and Tom Ince.

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I would have preferred it if Bournemouth had waited until the weekend to secure promotion, thereby giving the budgies and Middlesbrough less time to get over the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion before the playoff first leg.

IF we do get to the playoffs, the corresponding results from earlier in the season will count for nothing. Our best chance will be defending a narrow lead in the second leg of the semi and then playing a team at Wembley that don't travel well (Middlesbrough?).

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"The Only Thing We Should Fear is Fear Itself" now was that Potter or was it Roosevelt? I always get those two confused myself...

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Three of the defeats against top six teams came in our bad patch from Jan to March. We are now in a run of 1 defeat in 8 and have almost a full squad to pick from.

Get the point we need on Sat, win the home playoff leg, and I think we'll get to Wembley!

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@Jas1972: Where did you see the speculation re: the loan players not being available for the playoffs? I was trying to look that up last night, but couldn't put in a google search that came up with the details. I did find a reference to a Jose Mourinho quote about Bamford playing extra games if Middlesbrough are in the playoff unfortunately, but nothing concrete.

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Interesting debate!

FWIW - I think we are the poorest team in the top 6 by someway, but that said we are a battling bunch not easy to play against, and yes we have got some results against top 6 opponents for a change.

I would agree with others, and Len Brennan in particularly, when he says that we could potentially get a result against Boro or Derby....but just cannot see anything other than defeat should we get Narwich in either semis or final. They seem to comfortably have the beating of us... Maybe it is lopsided that we are somehow due a result against them.

Anyway let's see how convincing we are against a team with nothing to play for....Bburn.

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@Len Brennan:It was at the time that we were in the top two - and I can't find it on the TWTD website now. I could well be wrong about Bamford as his loan is a season-long one which implies that it would include any play-offs. The others however are on timed loans which run out at the end of the normal season and hence they would be unavailable for play-offs - like Johnny Williams on his original loan terms.

As an aside, it seems now to be more difficult to look up past stories that are more than a month or so old - unless I'm not using the system properly.

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" Some Middlesborough fans are still not entirely sure how they won the game at theirs, given the balance of play. "

I would suggest they took 2 of their 3 chances first half, and we simply couldn't put the ball in the net.

At 2-1 down we went chasing left holes everywhere and they picked us off at will!

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Words are one thing JohnStirk, but would Roosevelt have actually seen a Dementor when faced with a Bogart. That is the real question...

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I was there in '78 and would love my son to have his own Wembley memory. However, my head is telling me that we'll fall short this time.

It's been an wonderful season, full of highs (and a few lows) and the cause of many a sore throat / hangover :-) If we do make the play-offs it will be an amazing achievement and I will be celebrating as if we've been promoted on Saturday.

If we fall short on Saturday or lose the play-off lottery, I will be looking forward to a full season of Murphy-Sears-McGoldrick tearing Championship defences apart. Automatic next season anyone?

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We are not in the playoffs.

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JohnStirk, CommuterBlue et al - 'Nothing to fear but fear itself' is sometimes attributed to Eleanor, the Missus of Franklin, Roosevelt although he did use the phrase in his inaugral address - in a strange parallel to the blog she married Franklin on St. Patrick's Day, 1933 so that sitting President, Theodore, could attend as he was in town (New York, not Ipswich) for the parade. Not sure who we were playing on that day though.

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Hi Zombies. Old Teddy Rooseveldt died sometime around the First World war - so I guess that's a typo. '03?

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Er, yes, dusth - I somehow managed to read Wikipedia's Eleanor Roosevelt page wrong and mistook 1905 for 1933 (which was the year of FDR's inauguration). Apologies

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