The 2005 promotions and relegations thread

Yeah, I'm excited by the relegation battle in the Prem, and the race to follow Sunderland there.

i suppose as long as Forest get relegated fom the Championship i'll have something to celebrate.

Hi Tracer!

Stevenage Vs Hereford
Aldershot Vs Carlise

I would have thought those were the three worst teams you could have, pity you couldn't have Birmingham, Blackburn and Newcastle i.e teams with nowt to play for.

I want all four of the teams at the bottom to stay up.

Southampton have to face the mighty Manchester Utd

I really wouldn't worry about that. As soon as United realised they couldn't win the league they just gave up.

I like to think we made them give up :D (Norwich that is)

Blimey, I hadn't realised that! Six pointers all the way!

I'm sure there have been similarly tight relegation battles in the past - back in the late 90s didn't Everton have to beat Wimbledon to stay up on the last day of the season, or was it Coventry? And Bradford beating Liverpool to stay up was classic.

Steve - I think we stayed up on goal difference at least twice in the 90's. Everton did at least once and so (I think) did Man City.

WBS face up to the facts:

Scenario 1:

Southampton have to pick up 6 points from Crystal Palace and Norwich games to have a good? or 50/ 50 chance of staying up [34 Points] - because the last match is against the Mighty Manchester United

34 points enough? that would mean Crystal Palace and Norwich would need to pick up 2 wins in the other matches to definately relegate Southampton. Plus West Brom would need to reach 35 points as their goal difference on 34 points would be inferior to Southampton's [Southampton currently have a 4 goal diff advantage over West Brom].

What if Crystal Palace, West Brom and Norwich all manage to reach 34 points, it is likely that Southampton would stay up on goal difference.

Scenario 2:

HOWEVER A draw and a win in these two games [against Palace and Norwich] will leave Southampton on 32 points, AND IF West Brom or Crystal Palace or Norwich reach 33 points by the end of the season - then the last match against Manchester United will see this scenario:

Lose this match: Southampton relegated
Draw this match: Southampton reach 33 points [but will this be enough?] goal difference is worth an extra point - at the mo Southampton and Crystal Palace have the same goal difference
Win this match: Southampton reach 35 points [will this be enough? possibly or maybe not?]

There are other Scenarios, such as drawing both games against Palace and Norwich - however Southampton are already 2 points behind Norwich and Palace

Another Scenario: West Brom play Pompey on the last day of the season, Pompey's away record is NOT good. What if Pompey bring back The Greek clown goalie? and West Brom pick up 3 points?

games/ points/ gdiff/ g scored

Blackburn 34 40 -8 29
Birmingham 35 39 -7 36
Newcastle 32 38 -9 42 KO 16:05 (A) v Man Utd
Portsmouth 35 38 -12 42 4-1 v Southampton
Fulham 34 35 -16 40
Crystal Palace 35 30 -21 37
Norwich 35 30 -29 38
West Brom 34 29 -25 32
Southampton 35 28 -21 38

The last game of the season could have many possible scenarios. A goal scored or conceded in the last few minutes of a key match could have significant implications for survival.

Southampton, however, are surely fucked, no?

Coventry saved themselves in unlikely circumstances on the last day at least twice - against Spurs in the 90s and against Everton in '86 (i think) in a highly suspicious match which saw the Sky Blues trounce an Everton side who had won the championship a few weeks before. however, it feels as if they only saved themselves on the last day every single season, except when they finally got relegated.

and yes, i am a Cov fan. and i hope to god we don't follow Forest down.

Suffice to say we've played much better than that this season but the result was what counted (and Ipswich's obviously). Two minutes of amazing tension at the end: our game finished, and the announcement came over the PA that Ipswich were level at Leeds but still playing, we all stood waiting, and finally they announced that that was the final score, and the celebrations started.

Got quite a lump in my throat when they did the lap of honour. I think McCarthy's done pretty well with some of his young signings this season (Whitehead, Lawrence, Welch, Elliott), and they were going bonkers at the end.

Marcus Stewart has been excellent, especially in the second half of the season. Not sure whether we'll be keeping him on for next season, as he is slowing down, and I'm not sure he'll get much out of Premiership defenders (the rumour is he's going to Bristol City, and Sunderland may be after Lita), but it was good to see him celebrating yesterday.

dont think we will win the 1st division next year, but we migth win more than 7 games, and it wont cost 35 quid to get in....

34 points and you stay up. Best league in the world!

Me and Onimo are gutted. He texted me to say at least he had more beer, there isn't enough beer in the world as far as I am concerned.

It hurts because the papers up here are all full of how MON is leaving, also it was ours to throw away, also Rangers have been more rubbish than us this year (when the chips were really down, we won against them).

Also it hurts for the simple reason that my team lost and I don't like it when we lose so much as a game, let alone an important one.

London: [6] Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Charlton, Fulham, West Ham
North West: [7] Man Utd, Everton, Liverpool, Bolton, Man City, Blackburn, Wigan
North East: [3] Middlesbrough, Newcastle Utd, Sunderland
West Midlands: [3] Villa, Brum City, West Brom
South Coast: [1] Portsmouth

Some areas of the country no premiership clubs 05/06: Yorkshire, East Midlands, East Anglia

1 Chelsea
2 Arsenal
3 Man Utd
4 Everton
5 Liverpool
6 Bolton
7 Middlesbrough
8 Man City
9 Tottenham
10 Aston Villa
11 Charlton
12 Birmingham
13 Fulham
14 Newcastle
15 Blackburn
16 Portsmouth
17 West Brom
18 Sunderland
19 Wigan
20 West Ham United

Coventry
Crystal Palace
Derby
Ipswich
Leeds
Leicester
Norwich
QPR
Sheff Utd
Sheffield Wednesday
Southampton
Watford
Wolverhampton

Does anyone know if 13 ex premiership clubs out of 24 in the second tier is a record for a season?

runners up Kingston-Upon-Hull and Plymouth

http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/

Nice to see Etherington and Zamora doing well. If only Teddy had been on the pitch as well :)

Well done Thames Ironworks and both their supporters. The G is a happy man

All told, I'm strangely gutted. Obviously, part of it is familial, but I also have a vague feeling that this was their best chance in years. Just looking at that list DJ put up shows that there's 13 clubs who've been there, including 5 who get around 5M more per year than the rest of the division. Can't quite make up my mind about the parachute payments though. They're a bad thing per se, but they arguably make a bad system better. But then maybe if they weren't there, peopel would see the gross injustice that is the Premiership's commandeering of the TV revenues laid bare. Alternatively, the ensuing even worse performance of promoted clusb would probably lead to the abandonment of promotion. How very depressing.

apparently

"Norwich City, Southampton and Crystal Palace will each receive £14.4 million from the Premiership in parachute payments over the next two seasons." [Times]

first season of parachute payments:
Crystal Palace
Norwich
Southampton

second season of parachute payments:
Leeds
Leicester
Wolverhampton