With the team currently out of form I reckon the upcoming set of fixtures up to the end of January couldn't look much better for us (based merely on the league table as of this morning).

In that period we have 14 games so 42 points up for grabs. Six of the 14 games are against sides currently in the bottom seven so regardless of being home or away any supporter of any club chasing promotion would surely expect a healthy haul of points from those games.

We also play five of the top seven but three of those games are at home and again if you are looking to get promoted you surely expect to perform well in all your home fixtures regardless of the opposition.

The order in which those games come is also really encouraging/helpful as four of our next six games are against sides in the bottom five and all our away games in that period are against sides in the bottom five. You could easily make a case for us getting 18 points from the next six fixtures as follows.

Bolton (22nd) - H

Rotherham (24th) - A

Wolves (13th) - H

Charlton (23rd) - A

Middlesborough (4th) - H

MK Dons (20th) - A

The next four are more tricky but we'd surely target at least seven points?

Fulham (10th) - A

Derby (5th) - H

QPR (12th) - H

Brighton (1st) - A

Then things look easier again and the three home games would surely see us targeting another seven points?

Leeds (19th) - H

Preston (18th) - H

Birmingham (6th) - A

Reading (7th) - H

I think most of us would accept anything above 1.5 points per game average and that benchmark normally puts a side in or around the play-offs.

Surely the next run of fixtures through to the end of January presents a really good opportunity for us to pick up at least that ratio of points and hopefully even better (I assume we'll need better if we are to close the gap on the play-off spots).

Brighton sit top of the table with 30 points from their 14 games so far and I reckon we could beat that in our next 14 games to bring us right back into the mix.

However, I suspect we are going to be facing a tougher looking fixture list for the final third (and a bit) of the season so my fear would be that if we can't turn things around by the end of January then the task to do so after that will look so much harder.

Dyland added 13:58 - Nov 2 "You could easily make a case for us getting 18 points from the next six fixtures as follows." Arf
-1

TR11BLU added 15:46 - Nov 2 Wake up and smell the coffee. All ideas of promotion are long gone from this callsign. Before you shoot me down, I offer the thought that we will be merely 6 points better off following the next 6 fixtures you speak of as follows: Bolton (22nd) - H - Surely 3pts Rotherham (24th) - A 0 pts - We lost 2-0 last season when doing well and we all had a sure 3 points penned in. They will be up for it, are no pushovers and when do we ever win away? Wolves (13th) - H - 1pt Charlton (23rd) - A - 1pt Middlesborough (4th) - H 0 pts. Three Reasons - Good team, Sky and....Nugent MK Dons (20th) - A - 1pt - see Rotherham above I have fallen off my chair after reading 'The next four are more tricky but we'd surely target at least seven points?' Really???!!! Honestly I hope I am well wide of the mark but unless Mick changes his football philosophy and team selections (no need to list them all again....we all know the problems), then I cannot see anything other than disappointment.

-1

Smithy added 16:15 - Nov 2 Yep, because the Championship is so predictable. We could lose 4-0 to Bolton tomorrow and then beat Rotherham by six!, alternatively it could be a 5-5 draw, unlikely, but not unheard of in this league. Some say the Premiership is the best league in the world, for me it's not even the best league in England! Bonkers
0

Ashinbarnsley added 21:58 - Nov 2 New to this, however I have been reading comments daily for years now. I believe that we will come good towards Xmas. We still have 3 of our best players out in bishop hyam and Fraser. With these 3 young guns in our squad we will offer much more attacking
2

shortmarine1969 added 23:40 - Nov 2 Hyam..!!one of our best players..really??..while i like the guy he is very much a blood and thunder type player with very little forward penetration in his play..i honestly think he will struggle to hole a place in the team down..and will become a squad / sub player in the main
1

Ashinbarnsley added 07:25 - Nov 3 Up until his injury last season he was in the team week in week out. The only competition he has is either Skuse or Douglas which majority of people on here don't seem to rate very highly anyway.
0

commuterblue added 08:23 - Nov 4 I admire the optimism, even after the win, you will get long odds on an accumulator for the next 5 games. But only one year in the last 5 would 1.5 points a game get you into the playoffs.
0

Stato added 10:02 - Nov 4 @commuterblue I guess I didn't write the blog as well as I had intended as I wasn't predicting 6 straight wins but merely pointing out that though first 6 fixtures were all winnable. If we did win all 6 I would be thrilled but I wouldn't be declaring us world beaters because in my view they were all winnable anyway. My point is more about saying we need to take advantage of a relatively easy run of fixtures than it is about predicting how we will do in those fixtures.

1

MedwayTractor added 16:06 - Nov 4 commuterblue: 1.5 points has been good enough for a play-off place only once in this division in the 21 previous 46 game seasons. The average is 73 points and to achieve this, we need another 52 points, almost 1.7 points per game, just to finish 6th. This is not to mention our poor goal difference, which might mean a more realistic target is 74 points. It is not so much about taking points off the top teams, it's more about making sure we get the most out of matches against the lower teams. If last night is the start of a good run, we ought to be back on track by the end of the year. Then the aim must be to avoid repeating last season's New Year downturn.

2

MaySixth added 14:10 - Nov 5 Just take one game at a time. Rotherham won't be easy this Saturday. They deservedly beat us last season.
0

HALLSJ added 12:40 - Nov 7 Got us as part of a 5 game accumulator, £200 return sounds good so COYB don't let me down
1

Stato added 13:17 - Nov 7 Rotherham are bottom of the table with 1 point from their last 6 games. On paper we couldn't wish for an easier away fixture.
0

IamSpartacus added 20:58 - Jan 3 Got to be honest, I've been keeping an eye on this and the predictions are awesomely on target so far- especially in the face of dismissive nonsense from the normal negative people. I hope the next fixtures bring the predicted points as we are right back in the mix for the play-offs now.
0

Blogs 295 bloggers