Monday 11 April 2011

Causes for Joy and Despair in League One

So today i'm going to look at the situation in League 1. Apologies for all the football related posts, i'll cover other things in a couple of days i promise.

Much as with QPR in the Championship, Brighton look as good as promoted. They've been remarkably consistent all season and haven't yet lost a game at home so it appears that the first season in their new ground will be in the Championship and good luck to them, they've played good football and Poyet is a likeable guy.

Second place will be fiercely contested until the end with Huddersfield, Southampton and Peterborough all surely feeling optimistic about their chances. Southampton have to be considered the favourites out of that group due to the 2 games in hand they have, but all it would take is a patch of bad form or a couple of poor refereeing decisions and that advantage could disappear.

M.K Dons, Bournemouth, Rochdale, Leyton Orient and Exeter make up the teams fighting for the other two play off spaces, with it being hard to call who will secure them. The last place or two of the play offs in any of the English leagues are usually decided by such fine margins and by often the final game of the season so i really couldn't say who is likely to finish 5th & 6th respectively.

At the other end of the table it looks like the 10 point deduction they suffered in February combined with far too inconsistent form will see Plymouth relegated to League Two. Swindon look almost certain to follow them, but it is still very close between Walsall, Notts County, Dagenham and Redbridge and Bristol Rovers. Notts County appear to be in free fall but they've brought in Martin Allen who is an expert at getting teams to win ugly and is exactly the kind of manager you want while in a relegation scrap, plus they have games in hand so there's still a good chance they can turn it around.

The two teams in the league that i have a particular interest in Sheffield Wednesday and Yeovil both look like they are safe now. I'm glad Yeovil have survived and i guess i'm glad Wednesday are as well, though i wouldn't have minded seeing Megson's reputation as a manager become even more tarnished than it already is.

So right now these would be my predictions for the top and bottom of the league once all the games have been played.

1. Brighton
2. Southampton
----------------------------------
3. Huddersfield
4. Peterborough (who then go up through the play offs)
5. M.K Dons
6. Leyton Orient

and

21. Bristol Rovers
22. Walsall
23. Swindon
24. Plymouth

To finish this blog i'm going to post a cover of a Pixies song, a song which i love the original of (though it's irrevocably linked to Fight Club for me now). This is a piano cover by an artist called Maxence Cyrin and it featured in a film i watched today that i really enjoyed and will be reviewing later in the week. It's a purely instrumental piece but it really works that way in my opinion.



No comments:

Post a Comment