The official CHAMPIONSHIP Thread

Id rather play all our games away fron home...

Crap..1 point in 6 aint good enough..too many injuries and useless strikers...sound familiar?

Surprised to see that Southampton haven't slipped from the top this season. West Ham V Pompey next saturday, pretttttty excited.

Cardiff are threat as always..may choke again in playoffs.  Do us a favour and beat them eh..

Lambert has definitely been an enigma for the Saints to season, Lallana has been key to this, was surprised to see Pompey hold them to a 1-1 draw. Though Iu think Cork and Lallana being in their midfield has been very good for them all season. Can see both of them being signed by a bigger club sometime soon, only young fellas, but very talented, especially Lallana.

It would be cool to see a team to get promoted two seasons in a row, a shame it has to be the Saints Azevo2012-01-07 01:05:36

Stupid home form......

Last seven league games West Ham have only scored 6 goals, but survive in 2nd place. Phoenix arent the only team relying on a solid defence.

Pompey really have a nice habit of turning up against bigger opposition (even though we lost) than we do against mid tablers and people down the bottom with us. Appleton has started what I think will be a fantastic job once his work is completed.

Article about West Ham's Olympic Stadium bid. Can someone tell me why sharing the stadium has never been considered as an option? Is it just that the clubs refuse to? I mean its pretty common in other parts of the globe, even with big clubs - Inter and Milan sharing the San Siro is an obvious example

</> Reading132012-01-28 22:29:37

Ahhh keep Pompey out of it I just hope we end up going down to league 2 or even conference to allow sh*t to be properly sorted out. Feel truly sorry for Appleton to walk into such a poorly run mess. Lots of fans frustrated at how the club has been run in the last 4 years, hoping the Portsmouth Trust can end up buying the club and turning it profitable with no debts at all.

at least we slammed Peterborough 3-0 this morning.Azevo2012-01-29 09:48:16

Listening to a feed from Big Sam he mentioned a stat that the Chamionship League has the fourth biggest following in Europe. Obviously EPL and Spanish League are 1 & 2 but that must put us ahead of either the Serie A or the Bundesliga.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attendance_figures_at_domestic_professional_sports_leagues - from the looks of it the championship has a greater total attendence than Serie A but a lower average

I doubt you would be ahead of the Bundesliga. That has a phenomenal following.

Um... not sure what's going on today. 

Birmingham want to off load Zigic. He's just scored 4 with half an hour to go.

It's ok, i'm sure normal transmission will return on the weekend. We play the team in last place, so we are just about guaranteed to lose. Nice to have a 2+ game buffer on the relegation zone though, was getting worried.

Not sure what is meant by "biggest following", but Bundesliga average attendances well ahead of the EPL. And any other league. EPL may pip Bundesliga on total attendances over a season (24% more games).

And back to the Championship, do we get a full three points for beating Forest? Doesn't seem fair really.

Cotterill couldn't coach a rock to stay still.

My god am I glad he went.Azevo2012-02-01 22:49:04

Starngely, we (Burnley) have mixed views on Cotterill. Did great on recruiting on a bugger-all budget and getting rid of deadwood (for money). But was responsible for the most dire football seen on the turf for many a year (and there's some serious competition for that dubious honour!).

Cotterball, we know all about it. Very pleasurable win this morning.

He seems to b the 'goto guy' for when clubs are in the sh*ts, Burnley, Pompey, Nottingham.. Though we're not really out of the sh*t yet, Appleton is a superior option however.

Anyone else do the Championship fantasy football? I've not been doing to badly in it..Azevo2012-02-02 00:20:25

It's hard to believe that the Forest team on the pitch this season are the same team that pushed for a Premiership spot last season.  Dropping Billy Davies was such a stupid decision, I only hope we can survive this season without falling back down to League 1 again.

OK business end of season now. What's the current thinking for Champions; Automatic promotion; Play-offs (* indicating also promoted)? Here's my crack (spot the bias):
C - West Ham
A - Birmingham
P - Cardiff*, Southampton, Reading & Burnley

Can't say I've put my three favourite clubs going up, however this doesn't seem a bad bet based on recent form.

I'll take a note of everyone's picks and will name and shame at season end, with the winner picking up the coveted Turf award (whatever that is).

As for relegation, it's hard to go past the current bottom 3 - Donny, Forest and Cov.

West Ham haven't been that great as of late (Maybe Frankie Mac started going to games again..)

Last ten games:
5 wins
4 losses
1 draw

They also still have to face a lot of teams which are only trailing them by 8 points or less (top 8 on the table). Though I think Faye, Demel and Taylor have recently come back from injury? Not really sure how much they've played and how effective they are.. But assuming that they will be a boost if they get back on the field (or if they already are?)



Underneath them we have Southampton who also have not been having a great run as of late;

Last ten games:
3 wins
4 losses
4 draws

However, excluding Blackpool and Cardiff, they only have to vs. 6 of the top 8 teams in the table. Having Rickie Lambert back hasn't really shown much promise for them either.



Birmingham Have had the best run out of the first 3 teams mentioned,

Last ten games:
2 loses
2 draws
6 wins

They only have to verse 4 of the current top 8 teams remaining. Ashame they don't have Wood anymore..



Cardiff have had the second best run as of late,

last ten matches:
5 wins
4 draws
1 loss.

They only have to verse 5 of the top 8 teams in their remaining matches.

Though this is all purely statistical (and probably to long a post for most to bear when it come to championship knowledge ) At the moment I am quite contempt on waiting for say.. 3-5 more rounds before having a go at predicting.. Though if I was pushed to say now;

West Ham, Birmingham then Cardiff or Southampton (fighting in play-offs).

Great league this, isn�t it.  Being a Hammers supporter I have to be pleased that we are at the top and not chasing.

We have stumbled recently through suspensions and injuries and used our youth to see us through. Much is said of depth, and to still be at the top after the run of injuries we have had, endorses that.

The Ipswich glitch aside, we have defended well, but the pressure has always been there because we have not scored goals. Signing Maynard, who has averaged 11 a season over the last four seasons with a team like Bristol, and Vaz Te, 10 for Barnsley this year, we now have goalscorers capable of feeding off Cole. Then there is the wonder boy, Morrison from Manure. Sam has dealt with headcases before, Barton and Nolan, and West Ham has been a good place for rebels to show what they can do, Di Canio and Tevez., so stick them in as Champions in May

Runner up Birmingham. Depth and capable of scoring goals. They have come through Europe and although they are still tied up in the FA Cup, so are Southampton and Cardiff (LC), their greatest challengers.

Promotion from playoff doesn�t often go to the third team at the end of the 46 games. West Ham went up after finishing 6th.

Southampton will now continue to push having signed two quality strikers to compliment Lambert. Billy Sharp from Doncaster 10 from 20 this year playing in the bottom team and Japanese striker, Tadanari Lee. The important player though is midfielder Richard Chaplow. He provides a lot of the ball for Lambert and has been out for the last 6 weeks.

Cardiff � 2011 4th, 2010 4th, 2009 7th. Hung on to Whittingham which was vital.

Last year Norwich came from nowhere in the last 15 games to get up. Reading are nicely placed as are Hull and keep an eye on Leeds who sacked Grayson yesterday. If the new Gaffer can settle the ship quickly, they may be headed for the playoffs

Once those four are decided it becomes a battle of experience and commitment. Put Cardiff at the top of that group

Perhaps we should have a Championship drink before the playoffs start. Always nice to meet people who follow teams that have to battle for the scraps of English Football.

uiron2012-02-03 05:59:24

Neil Warnock, Lee Clark (Huddersfield) and Karl Robinson (MK Dons) in for Leeds job

I'd be keen for some banter before play-offs.

Results this morning a bit odd, I got to watch a bit of the Southampton v Birmingham match, surprised they drew. Then of course Cardiff lost to Blackpool, Boro drawing with Crystal Palace as well.

Westham can really start building tht points gap now, especially when Winny is running up and scoring like he did. Well done lad.

Then of course Hull v Pompey called off and so was Reading v Doncaster. Azevo2012-02-05 12:13:19

Match abandoned against tractor boys..now 9th but game in hand but in reality stlil 9th.

Boro to charge to the play offs?

Thoughts around PFC fans is that the old owner c**t face Chanrai is going to get the club relegated to get his money back as we'd be able saving around 22 million quid in player & staff wages.

He is so very desperate to get his "investment" returned and I bloody hope he does and f**ks offs and never comes back. Don't care where we are, so long as the club is financially stable and the majority of the board are kicked, oh, Antonov getting prosecuted wouldn't hurt either.

Dont think so..too many injuries to key players and lacking strike power.  we are also struggling at home to get three points often enough.  Might make 6th which beats last year and gives us a shot.

Misguided pessimism above without knowing Forest result!  COB.

List of items which are banned by Southampton for the derby between Pompey, found some of the wording quite humorous

Southampton Football Club Prohibited Items
Flares
Knives
Firearms
Fireworks
Laser devices
Bottles, glass vessels or cans
Balls, frisbees or inflatable items
Air horns
Offensive weapons, i.e. baseball bat
Flag poles
Alcohol
Unauthorised fliers and handouts
Aerosols
Smoke canisters
Dangerous or hazardous items
Glass
Flasks
Drugs (illegal substances)
Musical instruments, i.e. Bell
Transmitting devices or recording monitors
Spray paint
Cameras, flash photography or other lighting devices
Flags (due to an expected capacity crowd for this specific fixture there will be no areas where flags may be displayed)
Any item which may be used as a weapon and/or may compromise public safetyAzevo2012-02-23 00:35:46

we obviously dont what to be in EPL next year...

Please encourage a few others to think the same way. Its getting a bit crowded up at the top.

Forest out of the relegation zone (for now), yeesh what a tense year!