Relegation battle

Said for a while Plymouth Wimbledon Rochdale and shrewsbury are my picks to go down.

 

Easy, tiger!

There's no way Scunthorpe are out of it based on back-to-back wins in late December/early January!

I believe any team from Burton (9th) on down could go down. The gap is so tight at this point, from 21st place to 9th there is only 8 points in it.

Likelihood is, at least two of the current bottom four will go down, but who we are we chasing?

All of them.

Finishing in the top half is a very achievable aim; top six, not so much.

 

Think scunny will pull clear no problems as we will.

 

You might be right, but I'm not counting any chickens at this stage - if we feel we're not totally safe given the run we're on, I'm pretty sure Scunthorpe, on a much less impressive run of form, won't feel safe either - nor should they!

But if we are to assume both Bradford and Scunthorpe will stay up, I'd actually plump for a bottom four of Wimbledon, Oxford, Accrington, and Bristol Rovers.

Wimbledon and Bristol are the two lowest scoring sides in the division by some way, while Oxford probably have the wrong manager for a dog fight in Karl Robinson. Accrington are a bit of a punt based on the league table, but they seem a little delusional about the amount of talent in their side and may be about to embark upon a distracting cup run...

 

Scunny are starting to get over their awful injury list which has seen them drop down the league. They're artificially low in my opinion and will continue to climb out of trouble as their player roster improves. So long as they stay relatively injury free
But I agree with the overall point: it"s very tight in this league and any team capable of stringing a few results together or losing a few could either pull away from the drop zone or get dragged into it

 

Let’s just dick everyone we play and fly up the league.

Not a problem.

 

we're good as down. As good as the games we've won in December its not getting us out the shit YET. Far from it.
The fact people like @How are talking shows how f#%*"d our fan base is. How small minded the people of Bradford as a whole really are.

 

Lot of clubs involved this season. Unusually, there isn't a club that is getting left behind and marooned at the bottom.

As good a run as we have been on during the last month, we still have an awful lot of work to do to pull clear.

Recent talk of playoffs or even top half finish are Way off the mark in my opinion. I will still be glad to finish 20th.

My tips for bottom 4 would be

Wimbledon
Rochdale
Walsall
Oxford

 

Quite right, Jon, as you have pointed out to How, it's not about the finishing position, it's about the points.
I said on another thread last week (and got some flak) that in my view we need 54 points and that might be optimistic as I have a sneaky feeling the last relegation spot could actually go down with a record number of points given L1 is so congested. I would be happier if we got 56.
As usual someone will hit a bad streak, Rochdale with the off field upheaval may be one but I'm not going to speculate. I repeat Julian's comment when he came in and said again last week in the Yorkshire Post, finishing fifth bottom is, and remains our only aim, anything else is a bonus.
Given the congestion, your view for a top half may happen but it's the points that count and nothing else.

 

It's that time of season now and we are in a position to not worry about teams round us
We need to treat every game as if it's a cup final and aim for the highest position possible whether that be 6th bottom mid table or a very optimistic top 6
Other teams will stand or fall by their own volition we need to concentrate and build on our very late starting season

 

Not sure how you come to this conclusion. One win puts us within 4 points of top half. Some hard work ahead but hardly unattainable.

 

Payne goes, we get an injury or two and any replacements don't hit the ground running and we are right back in the shit.

The recent upturn is great, and I'm confident we can survive, but a lot of people are getting ahead of themselves. Thankfully I don't think Hopkin et al are quite as naive.

 

I just think that some fans have become complacent on the back of a very good month results and performance wise.
It's been an incredible turn around since McElhone arrived, yet we still remain in the bottom 4.

I'm with Rhodes, aim for 20th, anything else is a bonus

 

Probably take Scunthorpe out of the battle, They have made some really good signings and early

 

Agree.

Unlike us who we got lied too yet again McCall made sure he was going to get business done early.

Rupp where is your money at?

 

I truly don't believe anyone is complacent where City are concerned. I'm certainly not. One look at the table will see to that. But i believe we are entitled to feel a lot happier about things right now. And i agree, it's no coincidence that it's since the arrival of McElhone. On paper, January is a reasonable month for us regarding fixtures. February should see a good return then i'm going into hibernation until April