WHAT IS REQUIRED FOR PROMOTION?

Everyone will agree that 8 points will do it. That means we require 30 points from 20 games.

Now most of us have tried to work it out with wins to cross the line. 10 wins will do it some say and they are right. However I have decided to look at how many games we can afford to lose then look at combination of wins plus draws. People are fogetting you get a point for a draw.

Right lookingat the remaining fitures there are 2 left that I think we will lose, Middlesborough and Hull away. I do believe we are capable of not losing at home for the rest of the season. So allowing for not quite gettin things right I am going for we will lose 4 remaining game.Considering how many we have lost already I think that is a safe estimate.

So going on 4 loses we require 30 points from 16 games. A win ratio of 50/50 will be enough, 8 wins 8 draws giving us 32 points. Considering we have won 18 out o 26 then I think those stats are feasible, very feasible.

Going into detail a bit more I'll start with our 4 loses. I've already given Middlesbourgh and Hull the wins. The other 2 wins I will give to Leicester and Forest at CSS. I do believe they are the 2 strongest teams that are left to come to the CCS. Personally I believe if we take points of these 2 then the target of 86 could come down.

Right so the remaining 16 teams we required the magic combintion of 8 wins 8 draws. 8 of those games are at home so for arguments sake lets say we need to win those 8 at home and draw the 8 away. Now if we draw one of the at home then we need to win one of the away games to balance the promotion push. I'm comfortable we can do that. Its if we surprisingly lose one that is gets worrying or does it?

So its 8 wins and 8 draws against the least fancied teams and we are up. However if we do lose one we need to make it up by winning 2 on the road. I honestly believe we can do that, not so much of a worry when you look at it this way.

So when we play the following I'm expecting us to win Ipswich, Bristol City, Brighton, Derby, Blackburn, Charlton and Bolton. On the road I expect us to get something from Blackpool, Leeds, Huddersfield, Wolves, Sheff Wed, Peterborough, Watford and Burnley. If we are to drop points at home I can see us quite easily picking them back up on the road.

Personally I think we can take points of Leicester and Forest plus win most of those away games. If this happens we can be looking at an early promotion party.

I've cut it down a bit, looked at next 10, might be ambitious but got us down to take 19 points. This keeps us on target for 2 points a game, enough to seal the deal!

I can see us losing 6 drawing 6 and winning 8. Giving us 30. Never tried to make it total 30, just think this league is the same as back in July/aug when we said everyone will take points against everyone. The way this league is shaping up everyone seems to be n a dog fight, for either promotion, play offs or relegation, everyone seems to have something to play for. We are a good side but by no means the finished article and see us dropping stupid points as usual, plus we are a bit like andy Murray and seem to feel the pressure when the end of the season comes, have a feeling we will finally limp over the finish line as champions though.

I think some of the away games that you think we'll win are going to be much harder than anticipated. e.g. blackpool, leeds, huddersfield, wolves.. peterborough! our bogey away team. Its going to be a hard ride. We need to dig in and perform consistantly as a unit for the tough fixtures.

But then again the only easy fixutre I can recall in this league is Barnsley.. And sometimes that turns out to be a bit more shakey than aticipated!

Fans to be united and not bickering amongst each other so we can be that 12TH Man

I have us finishing on 94 points
which is about average and just under 30 - 28
Boro there their abouts around 90 points
Hull city just behind
Leicester it appears had a tougher run in on the predictor table,
Palace 5th

Leeds nicking 6th spot

sheff wed
bristol
barnsley going down

lets just say ...we need to win every game....promotion guaranteed

I think we'll come close to bottling it to be honest. Would love to be proven wrong but I think we'll scrape it by one point and this 7 point gap at the moment will, come May, prove to be the difference.