Sunderland vs Sheffield United

Finishing 2nd is now going to be a big ask. Even if we win all of our remaining games, the most points we can get is 91.

Bournemouth had 88 points when they finished 2nd last season, and Watford finished on 91 the season before.

The average over the last 16 years is 87.

21/22 - 88
20/21 - 91
19/20 - 83
18/19 - 89
17/18 - 90
16/17 - 93
15/16 - 89
14/15 - 89
13/14 - 93
12/13 - 79
11/12 - 88
10/11 - 84
09/10 - 91
08/09 - 83
07/08 - 79
06/07 - 86

Average:87.

We need 23 points from 9 games to get to that.

Even if Sheffield United only got 4 wins and 2 draws and lost 3 games.. they’d be on 84. They’ve got Wigan, Cardiff, Huddersfield and Birmingham.

That’s 20 ahead of us. We’d need 20 points from 9 games. That’s 7 wins from 9 and we have Burnley, Norwich, Luton, Bristol away, Coventry.

No chance.
 
The average over the last 16 years is 87.

21/22 - 88
20/21 - 91
19/20 - 83
18/19 - 89
17/18 - 90
16/17 - 93
15/16 - 89
14/15 - 89
13/14 - 93
12/13 - 79
11/12 - 88
10/11 - 84
09/10 - 91
08/09 - 83
07/08 - 79
06/07 - 86

Average:87.

We need 23 points from 9 games to get to that.

Even if Sheffield United only got 4 wins and 2 draws and lost 3 games.. they’d be on 84. They’ve got Wigan, Cardiff, Huddersfield and Birmingham.

That’s 20 ahead of us. We’d need 20 points from 9 games. That’s 7 wins from 9 and we have Burnley, Norwich, Luton, Bristol away, Coventry.

No chance.
There's every chance of them or us dropping more points. We win Saturday the pressure is back on them even with a game in hand, last night they were fortunate and were losing their heads at 1-0 and 1-1. This place will have a different atmosphere if we win on Saturday. If not, the playoffs are almost in the bag 8 points clear, even if we finish 4th and play Blackburn we'll stuff them over two legs.
 
After last night fivethirtyeight give Blades a 72% chance of finishing 2nd, Boro a 17% chance.

Yeh, I'd go with those percentages.

They'd have to implode massively and we'd have to be almost perfect.

I know a point at home isn't the end of the world under normal circumstances in the middle of the season but when you're at the business/crunch end of the season with a handful of games to go, slip ups and dropped points are absolutely huge, nearly fatal. I was gutted on Tuesday!
 
What did we expect?

It's the latter part of the season and they have Mowbray as manager.

Sunderland will fall off a cliff as usual for Mowbray's teams.

It does make me laugh how they genuinely thought they had a sniff of the play offs mind.
 
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Such a boost that they could only scrape past Sunderland with the benefit of a horrific offside decision.
They’re not a good team, he’s a very poor manager. I’m as confident as I’ve ever been that we’ll beat them to second spot. UTB.
 
Yeh, I'd go with those percentages.

They'd have to implode massively and we'd have to be almost perfect.

I know a point at home isn't the end of the world under normal circumstances in the middle of the season but when you're at the business/crunch end of the season with a handful of games to go, slip ups and dropped points are absolutely huge, nearly fatal. I was gutted on Tuesday!
100%. I was also gutted when we failed against West Brom, and Sheff Utd ground out an ugly win against Reading.
At the top end of the table, most teams win most of their games. It's good to be up there, but the fact that all other teams won while we drew at home with Stoke, has to chalk it up as a slip really.
I can't help feeling that we've given up those two chances to get within a point of Sheff Utd, and really ratchet up the pressure.
 
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Such a boost that they could only scrape past Sunderland with the benefit of a horrific offside decision.
They’re not a good team, he’s a very poor manager. I’m as confident as I’ve ever been that we’ll beat them to second spot. UTB.

They got the job done mate. 3 points are 3 points. That's all that matters at this stage. Big win for them that.

Imagine the pressure they'd have been under if we'd have turned up Tuesday and did our part.
 
100%. I was also gutted when we failed against West Brom, and Sheff Utd ground out an ugly win against Reading.
At the top end of the table, most teams win most of their games. It's good to be up there, but the fact that all other teams won while we drew at home with Stoke, has to chalk it up as a slip really.
I can't help feeling that we've given up those two chances to get within a point of Sheff Utd, and really ratchet up the pressure.

Yeh, we've got within 4 points of them twice and fluffed our lines both times to close it further. Managing to keep us at arms length aren't they.
 
They got the job done mate. 3 points are 3 points. That's all that matters at this stage. Big win for them that.

Imagine the pressure they'd have been under if we'd have turned up Tuesday and did our part.
Three points yes but the performance wasn’t suggestive that they’ve received such a boost from our draw that they’re firing on all cylinders again. They were poor. Sunderland deserved to win.

Whatever the result last night they’re still a poor side with a poor manager and won’t get those decisions to help them in every remaining game (hopefully).

I’ve seen us and I’ve seen them and if I had to put a bet on who I fancied to pick up more points between now and may I know I’d back us.
 
Anything other than 6 points from the next 2 games and Sheff Utd failing to win at Norwich then Autos are gone I think.

I'll still be over the moon if we make the playoffs given the start we had.
 
The problem now is we are quickly running out of games to bridge the gap.

So it’s no longer about form.

They can basically lose 2 games after last night that’s huge with just 9 games left.
 
Three points yes but the performance wasn’t suggestive that they’ve received such a boost from our draw that they’re firing on all cylinders again. They were poor. Sunderland deserved to win.

Whatever the result last night they’re still a poor side with a poor manager and won’t get those decisions to help them in every remaining game (hopefully).

I’ve seen us and I’ve seen them and if I had to put a bet on who I fancied to pick up more points between now and may I know I’d back us.
They just looked like they have all season to me. They're a big, strong physical side with players capable of a bit of quality. That's usually enough to get them a couple of goals (either from 1 bit of quality or from their physicality at a set piece). They rarely look that impressive to me but have managed to grind out wins all season so I'm not sure that will change enough in the next 9 games.
 
Looked like there was a genuine shout for hand ball in the 2nd half which would have nicely evened up the competition.

no point in competition is the shyte officials dictate the result.
 
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