Relegation watch

With the games played tonight (and us not playing) we've slipped into the bottom three again (22nd).

Birmingham(20th) won 3-1 at Home to Sunderland (23rd), and Hull go above us (21st) after a 0-0 draw at home to Leeds.

Burton lost at home and stay bottom but Reading (18th) who beat them 1-3 put a five point gap between them and Barnsley (19th) who lost at home on Saturday.

So we are tonight, two points off the bottom and just one off 19th place  - its tight down here!

...and we don't even know what team we have!

Wow.

It'll be fine when Lee Anderson throws up a photo of Port Vale away and some hashtag or other, then that Leeds Wanderers lad will be along to denounce everyone else a #shitfan.

Love it.

It's great news for the other teams in the relegation battle that Bolton are selling the player that gets them the most points.

This window so hard to read, we have a bigger squad with more  options but taken a huge gamble on selling Madine. Its a fact that under PP we only seem to win when Madine plays, so that in itself is a real worry. However if the fee is correct it's a very good deal for the club financially.

We have strengthened at the back, and in midfield  and brought two in upfront, i don't usually get excited about young unproven strikers but at least we know what to expect with Clough warts and all.

Many Bolton fans think Madine / Style was the problem, well your going to find out one way or another, either we will stop winning/ scoring or we will play better football and find another way to win.
The bottom line is GM could have picked up an injury and we would have just had ALF and AW to pick front, so on balance i think the club are in a better position than yesterday. The 6 Million we needed to balance the books is in the bank. IF the Embargo wasn't fully lifted surely it will be now.

Villa 1-0 Burton
Sunderland 0-2 Ipswich
Preston 2-1 Hull
Sheff Wed 0-2 Birmingham 
Qpr 0-0 Barnsley 

Current scores could be worse! We’d be 20th, 2 points clear and a game in hand if things stay the same

Sheffield Wednesday keeper not helping us much!

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3-0 Birmingham now

Boggersbelief wrote:3-0 Birmingham now

..and Wednesday down to 10 men so there's only one way that's going ATM.

Perhaps I'm being a bit optimistic but there usually is a side that slides down the league in the second half of the season.

I thought it might be Reading but maybe it will turn out to be Wednesday - both of who are only a win or so better off than us on points right now.

Maybe if we can carry on playing solid and picking up points along the way and they can continue to decline, then it will drag even more teams into the relegation scrap and give us a better chance of staying up.

Sluffy wrote:Perhaps I'm being a bit optimistic but there usually is a side that slides down the league in the second half of the season.

I thought it might be Reading but maybe it will turn out to be Wednesday - both of who are only a win or so better off than us on points right now.

Maybe if we can carry on playing solid and picking up points along the way and they can continue to decline, then it will drag even more teams into the relegation scrap and give us a better chance of staying up.

It's a lottery ATM with Reading doing their best to join us in the melee, but all we can do is try to get whatever we can from our remaining fixtures. As it stands we're a long way from being out of the woods but I think we would all be happy with our position given the start we had to this season.

Not a bad day for us overall. Brum deservedly won, Sunderland have lost, Barnsley have lost, Burton trying everything against Villa but it looks too late, Reading have lost, Hull have lost

Cardiff score 4 but none of them from Madine who started.

Barnsley's next 2 matches are easy home games against Sheff Weds and Burton, Hull have  a tricky run of fixtures coming up.

We have a huge home match against Sunderland at the end of Feb

Hull 
Burton
Sunderland 

To go down in that order

Gonna be interesting that's for sure. Fulham game is very tricky indeed they are playing well and are capable of taking teams apart we definitely need same again next Saturday and even then it may not be enough. If I was a Wendy fan I would be worried, awful today by all accounts and two sent off to boot. It's too close to call but Sunderland look favourite then two from six, us, Barnsley, Burton, Hull, Brum and Sheffield Wednesday.

Cardiff away has been rearranged for next Tuesday so we have 5 games remaining in February:
Fulham (H)
Cardiff (A)
QPR (A)
Sunderland (H)
Norwich (A) 

Tricky.

The bookies have reacted to recent results to the extent that for the first time in ages we're not odds on to go down. ATM Ladbrokes are offering:
Burton  1/6
Sunderland 4/7
Barnsley  6/5
BWFC     7/4
Hull   2/1
Brum   5/2
Reading  7/2

See how we stand after Fulham and Cardiff...

Paul Heckingbottom ditching Barnsley to manage Leeds is a strange one.

Despite Barnsley's terrible form they'd given him a new contract just last week, and this week he walks out. That's loyalty.

But why would Leeds want the manager of a team near the foot of the Championship?

Crazy world. Mickey Adams was available.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Paul Heckingbottom ditching Barnsley to manage Leeds is a strange one.

Despite Barnsley's terrible form they'd given him a new contract just last week, and this week he walks out. That's loyalty.

But why would Leeds want the manager of a team near the foot of the Championship?

Crazy world. Mickey Adams was available.

He was born in Barnsley, supported them as a season ticket holder and even went on to play for them too!

Apparently though Leeds tripled his wages.

So much for loyalty in football I guess.

I agree Wednesday could be the one to dive, they have injuries to Hooper and Bannan hopefully they won't be back to soon.