Six matches to go
Without us even kicking a ball the month has started well with Cardiff getting stunned at home by local rivals Swansea, bringing their run of victories to an abrupt end. This is a boost to me, but I feel we need to perform well and if possible remain unbeaten. If we can acheive that, it should be enough to get us across the line in second place. This has also confirmed promotion for Newcastle, as we're now the only team with a chance of catching them, but I don't feel much hope of that happening.
The visit of Sheffield Wednesday to Loftus Road, saw another familiar story unfold, with us dominating the match, but failing to put away any chances in the first half. Wednesday had come to defend starting with a 4-1-4-1 formation, and hoping they might snatch it at some point. I began to wonder to wonder that was going to happen, but first minute of the second half, we gained a penalty, which our ever reliable captain, Martin Rowlands despatched with no problem. We continued to largely dominate, and on 69 minutes, our captain stepped up to despatch a second penatly. Wednesday then changed to a 4-4-2 and moved into attacking mode, and no surprises that we conceded a goal, though this time it was not from a high cross. This seemed to spur them on even more, though this did give us several superb opportunties to extend our lead, but failed to do so. I feared yet again we'd concede a late equaliser as we conceded corner after corner, but somehow we managed to scramble the ball away and hold onto a valuable 2-1 victory.
Elsewhere West Brom got a 2-0 victory over Leicester to lift them back to 3rd place, but now 9 points behind us with 5 matches to go. This is the biggest gap we've had over a 3rd place team for quite a long time. Very dramatically Newcastle's run was halted when Peterborough pulled off a surprise by beating them 2-1, which means we're now only 7 points behind them. Newcastle have however Preston achieved their 5th draw in a row, to bring their tally to 22, which is quite insane. Blackpool who had the most dire start are hovering just above the drop zone by goal difference alone.
Five matches left
The Walkers Stadium in Leicester was a match I expected to prove tricky, and the first half proved to be so. The first half was scoreless with us having the better of the play without creating much of note. The second half saw us playing much better, and with 10 minutes gone Kaspars Gorkss hit a long ball over the top which Simpson latched onto to be one on one with the keeper and placed the shot in the bottom left corner of the net. Our second goal came with 20 minutes to go, in bizarre fashion after a corner was cleared to Taarabt on the left. He then floated the ball back into the box, over the keepers head, and all he achieved was pushing into the far post where it deflected into the goal. Leicester became much more attacking and started to finally put some pressure on us. This provided us with opportunities to counter attack and Slory raced down the right and picked out Balanta with marvellous cross which he buried. The match ended 3-0 giving us marvellous revenge for the defeat inflicted by Leicester back at Loftus Road. A man of the match performance by keeper Jason Steele made sure we kept a clean sheet. At the end of the season I will explain why, although he is rated lower than Radek Cerny, he is much better under match conditions.
Newcastle managed to gain a 1-0 victory at home to Sheffield United, to maintain their 7 point lead. Cardiff were demolished 4-1 by Nottingham Forest to end any hopes they may have had of sneaking into second place. West Brom went to Watford, beating them 4-2 to keep within 9 points of us in 3rd. Their chance of climbing above us is looking remote with 4 matches to go. Our win has now guaranteed us a place in the playoffs. At one point during our match the live league table had us just 5 points behind Newcastle, but Sheffield United failed to do us any favours.
.. And then there were four
Selhurst Park was our next destination to play a badly out of form Crystal Palace, currently in 23rd place. This was definitely not one of the best matches but we made the most of how poor Palace's front line has been this season. Approaching half-time we won a free kick just outside the area, which Alejandro Faurlin stepped up to and curled it over the wall and into the top corner. The match continued in much the same way until midway through the second half when Palace made some changes to search for an equaliser. Adel Taarabt made excellent use of the extra space to send a great through-ball for Simpson to run onto. Simpson rounded the keeper to give us a second. We were then put under considerable pressure, but managed to keep Palace from scoring. A definite battling performance, rather than a display of good football, and a 2-0 victory over a rival is always great.
Newcastle beat Blackpool 2-0 to maintain their 7 point gap meaning our only chance of overhauling them would be for them only get 2 points from the remaining 3 matches, and for us to win all our matches. This is exceedingly unlikely to happen. West Brom were beaten by Southampton in the FA Cup Cup semi-final, so are now 12 points behind us with 4 matches left and a considerably poorer goal difference. Only a miracle would now stop us gaining automatic promotion.
Three days later West Brom were in action, going down 3-1 at Doncaster, so secure us promotion.
Three matches left
Cardiff came to Loftus looking to do the double over us, and came out attacking. In the first half the Cardiff goalkeeper was brilliant, making some astonishingly good saves to deny us. It wasn't until the 72nd minute the deadlock was finally broken, with Balanta shrugging of the last defender as he took control of through ball, and proceeded to advance on goal and round the keeper to finally beat their keeper. 3 minutes later Balanta doubled the lead, by getting on the end of cross to the near post and sneaking the ball by the keeper. Unfortunately he took a knock from the attempted tackle by a defender, so I'm guessing if he hadn't scored we'd have had a penalty. I took him off as a precaution. As seems to be the tradition now we failed to keep his lead, and let in a goal in the 83rd minute. Cardiff continued to press which allowed us to make a swift counter attack, in the 90th minute, allowing Simpson to square the ball to Helguson in the six yard box, who did his best to miss. Fortunately it went in off the inside of the post. This was not the last score of the game, as we managed to make a complete mess of defending a free kick from the near the corner, allowing them to get a second goal in the 93rd minute. Fortunately this didn't leave them enough time to score again. This was an action packed game, and for me very frustrating until we scored the first goal. This was a good display, although I'm a bit disappointed in how vulnerable we are in the final 10 minutes of a game. Cardiff are another rival team, so gaining revenge with a 3-2 victory is sweet.
Newcastle secured the Championship by recording a 2-1 away win over Plymouth. Preston were also comfirmed as the first team to be relegated. Following the match Peter Ramage has put in a transfer request, which I have accepted, as Laure is much better than him, and whenever I do play Ramage him lack of vision and poor first touch often lead to us coming under pressure when the ball is fed out to him by the keeper. The same also goes for Borrowdale, also transfer listed now, who is quite frankly even worse and to my mind better suited to playing in League 1.
I tried to sign Simpson, one of our loan players. Arsenal accepted the offered, but the player said he has no intentions of signing for us, which is annoying. Anyhow Balanta seems to improved more over the season and looks as though he'll be a better prospect, so maybe this is a good thing.
Two matches left
Oakwell was our next destination to play Barnsley, which on paper should be an easy match. However, as the Tykes are fighting for their survival in the Championship, I knew they would come out fighting, and keeping tight at the back was vitally important. This proved to be the case and I quickly drop our defensive line deeper to try and stop them getting in behind us. This largely worked and most of the war, at least it felt like it, was waged in the centre of the park, with neither side producing many chances. The deadlock was finally broken on 80 minutes when Hogan Ephraim produced a excellent cross from the left to edge of the six yard box, which Balanta ran onto and put away with a great volley. Barnsley still kept pushing hard and produced a few late chances, but a man of the match performance from keeper Jason Steele made sure the scoreline stayed at 1-0. This was not a pretty match as Barnsley were always trying to close us down which mostly worked. Unfortunately during the match our captain Martin Rowlands picked up a bruised rib, so out for about 6 days, which is our only first team injury, making him touch and go to start in the last match of the season.
Newcastle continued on their merry way notching up another win to break the 100 point mark. Wins for West Brom and Reading secured them a place in the playoffs. At the bottom end of the table Blackpool's valiant fight to avoid relegation came to an end with a 3-0 defeat, consigning to League One football. Given the awful start they had to the season to get relegated with only one match left was a great effort, but sadly for them too not quite enough.
Last match to go
With one match left for all teams in the division still sees a few things to decide. The last two playoff spots are still up for grabs with Sheffield United and Cardiff favourites to secure them, with Middlesborough and Nottingham Forest both 3 points adrift. At the bottom the last relegation place is still to be decided, with Crystal Palace the firm favourites to take the drop, being 3 points behind Barnsley and Watford. Palace have a tricky encounter away to Sheffield Wednesday, but teams battling for survival sometimes produce the goods when most needed. As a QPR fan of course, they are a rival and as such like to see them suffer, however I have had several Palace supporters as friends, so have a certain soft spot for them, though I would never tell those friends. Football produces so many conflicts of emotion like this. Of course this is only a game, but it's amazing how passionate you can get watching a bunch of animated pixels.
Our last match sees the Toon Army head to Loftus Road in a battle between the top two sides. Nothing to play for now other than pride. Before the match I wouldn't even dare guess what might happen, as I believe anything from one sides demolishing the other, an exciting score draw or a boring draw. I consider a boring draw to be the least likely outcome, but only one way to find that out.
In the run up to the match centre back Fitz Hall has strained ankle ligaments putting him out for the 5 weeks, though he was unlikely to feature in the last match anyhow. I have also claimed the Manager of the month award for the third time during the season after securing 5 wins during April.
Newcastle's formation a 4-1-4-1 told a story, in that they'd come to keep tight at the back and take us on the break. This was a largely entertaining match, with us wasting a couple of chances we really should have put away, but somehow we failed to score. Newcastle looked dangerous when they came forward. Buzsaky fired two free kicks towards the top corner of the net, only for the Newcastle keeper to somehow make a fabulous saves. In the 86th minute Newcastle managed to score the winner with a cross into the middle of the box met by the head of Alan Smith. This is disappointing to concede a late goal, and feel a draw would have been a fair result.
Crystal Palace only managed a 1-1 draw and are the finally game to be relegated, joining Blackpool and Preston. However even if they had managed to get the win they required, other results would have still led to disappointment for them. Cardiff and Sheffield United duly secured their berths in the playoffs.
End of our season
The final table reveals that we had the best away form which definitely helped us to secure second. The teams in the playoffs also helped by taking a lot of points from each other as well as several surprises along the way. It turned out that we only needed to have gained 3 points from the last 6 matches to secure second place.
Preston surprised me with just how poor they were at gaining wins, especailly as a side I was expecting to challenge for a playoff place. Peterborough and Reading played above where I was expecting them to finish. 10th place for Peterborough is excellent, and where we were predicted to finish.
The next post will detail how the playoffs went for those teams involved, news from the other English Leagues. An analysis of the Queens Park Rangers team will also be coming as well.
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