See, I just don't accept this. There aren't 11 teams in the mire.

There's six of them. The bottom six now have been the bottpm six for the vast majority of the season; I'd be astonished if anyone is relegated from outside that group.

Of the remainder, I guess it's possible that Hull could collapse - but it ain't happening. They're no Blackpool, 10/11; in fact, they're much more like Norwich 11/12. Too solid, too happy, too well managed, too good at getting results in games that matter.

Stoke have improved this season and will be fine; as will West Brom, the best run club in the league, now they've changed coaches. Villa have had problems but are still *just* too good to get dragged into it; and the idea that Swansea, with their quality, could go down is ridiculous. It might happen next season if their gradual decline continues; hardly this one though.

So it's between six of us - and we've already thrown away far, far too many points in the games that most matter to be confident of our chances. Had we beaten Fulham, I'd feel differently: my minimum target for the halfway point was 22. We missed it by three (that's the impact of the Fulham game); and 2 games past halfway, we're STILL 2 points below that target. Not good enough, and unlike the other 5 clubs I mentioned, it leaves us in very serious trouble.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Jan 17, 19:23:02