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Champions League
Well top 4 seems to be already in the correct order unless the rags win by a large margin and Arsenal lose.

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Europa League
The battle for the Europa league places can still be a bone of contention as if Villa upset the apple cart in the FA Cup final, then the 7th place team will not qualify. As things stand the 5th place is automatic, 6th is courtesy of the Chelsea winning the League Cup and 7th will be given the spot if Arsenal win the FA Cup.

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As an aside, West Ham will also be in Europa qualifying as England qualified in the top 3 countries for Fair Play and have been handed one of the fair play places by Eufa. The team currently in pole position who are not already in Europe are West Ham, so unless they have a complete melt down at the weekend they will be in Europe next season.

Relegation Fodder
It's down the 2 teams for the final berth, with Burney and QPR already down, the final games for Newcastle and Hull are going to be very nervous!!

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Fixtures
Newcastle United v West Ham United
Hull City v Ragchester United

Form last 10
Hull - DDLLLWWLLL
New - LLLLLLLLDL

It doesnt look great for any of them TBH, but I cannot see Newcastle getting anything, especially as Fat Sam will go there and would like nothing more than to send down Mike Ashley after the way he was treated when he was the Newcastle boss.
Hull on the other hand have managed to scrape a couple of wins in their last 5 and two good ones as well against Liverpool and Palace, it all depends if they can get themselves up for it, the rags will already be on the beach and Van Goul probably has his mind on the saxophonist still.

A really tough one to call, lets hope at least for some drama!

Promotion
Play Off Final is on Bank Holiday Monday. not sure who I would want here to be honest? A chance to get one back over boro would be nice, but not sure which I would want? A trip to the Riverside or Carrow Rd. I know Kippax lives over Norwich way and he travels the globe watching City, so I will go for Norwich just so he can have a local game for once.

The Teams
Norwich v Middlesbrough

Form last 10
Canaries - WWWWWLDWDW
The Boro - LWLWWWLDWW

Norwich and Boro finished 3rd and 4th in the Championship and only separated by 1 point, so its a fitting final to see who will play in the premier league next season.
Norwich beat Ipswich in a local derby in the semi final, with both legs were very close and only a sending off in the second leg swung the game in Norwich's favour. Ipswich's Christophe Berra was sent off for handling Nathan Redmond's shot and Wes Hoolahan scored from the spot. It was still a close game but Norwich made their 1 man advantage count and ran out 3-1 winners on the day and 4-2 on aggregate.

Boro cruised through their semi final beating Brentford 5-1 on aggregate and didn't really seem in any trouble in either leg. Cant help but think that Brentfords chairman didn't help things, he announced back in February that the manager (Mark Warburton) who got them promoted to the Championship last season and guided them to the play offs this season, would not be at the helm next season! This was despite the fact of the fantastic job he had done and that they were in contention for a place in the premier league, it must have had some kind of bearing on the form, surely? Boro however, will be without Chelsea striker Bamford next season, or so it seems, he has said he wants to go back to Chelsea and fight for his place, he will be a massive miss for Boro as he has been in great form this season. However, he will be the "one to watch" at Wembley.

Great post.

My god that Newcastle record is horrendous

Really good summing up. Hull must be favourites but I bet it will change a couple of times during the course of the game. Like to see Norwich come up

Will the rags throw the game for Bruce as a thank you for all the 3 points his teams gifted them?

Clowncrete wrote:Will the rags throw the game for Bruce as a thank you for all the 3 points his teams gifted them?

If they do lose, that's what the rags will claim. When in actual fact it would be because they are shit

Scum

Excellent post WW, there is indeed drama to be had come 15:00 on Sunday, personally I would like the barcodes down (not that I like Bruce or hull), it's more about seeing Ashley get more shit off the fans. I would much rather see Norwich come back than Boro, if not for another Delia rant, but the drubbing Boro gave us still grates beyond belief (even though the blame sits squarely with those were staff at every level at the time).

Just gutted the seasons end has come round yet again, but happy (given where we were 6 games ago) that we finished 2nd, it's a shame that the gayer managed to haul the rags into 4th spot single on his own.

Be good to see Norwich City back in the Premier League , quality football club with great fans and one of the best away days :-)

how many games are sky/bt showing?

I can see a few West Ham players getting sent off it means missing out on Europa League football next season.

Wa cud doon a Toon !

Nigels Tackle wrote:how many games are sky/bt showing?

sky:
hull v rags
newcastle v sunderland
chelsea v sunderland (red button)

bt sports:
none

Nigels Tackle wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:how many games are sky/bt showing?

sky:
hull v rags
newcastle v sunderland
chelsea v sunderland (red button)

bt sports:
none

thanks mate!

while watching the Dortmund match today they were talking a lot about the table standings and I was curious what everyone's opinion was on the way that the Bundesliga handles promotion/relegation. as opposed to the Premier League where its 3 up and 3 down the Bundesliga has 2 up and 2 down along with the highest of the bottom three playing a 2-leg playoff vs the 3rd highest in the Bundesliga 2nd division with the winner playing in the Bundesliga and the loser playing in the 2nd division. its interesting.

phips wrote:while watching the Dortmund match today they were talking a lot about the table standings and I was curious what everyone's opinion was on the way that the Bundesliga handles promotion/relegation. as opposed to the Premier League where its 3 up and 3 down the Bundesliga has 2 up and 2 down along with the highest of the bottom three playing a 2-leg playoff vs the 3rd highest in the Bundesliga 2nd division with the winner playing in the Bundesliga and the loser playing in the 2nd division. its interesting.

We used to have teams from the division above in the play-off but they stopped it because of all the fighting (between Middlesbrough and Chelsea, if memory serves).

How it is now works because no-one is really any worse off.

Nigels Tackle wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:how many games are sky/bt showing?

sky:
hull v rags
newcastle v sunderland
chelsea v sunderland (red button)

bt sports:
none

I can't see Sunderland getting anything at Chelsea and Newcastle!

Newcastle is my favourite away trip of the season by some margin. But there would be something strangely entertaining about them going down. Hull is also a good trip with our services running there direct.
Similarly I hope the Smog Monsters come up for that reason, even though I have nothing at all against Norwich

Bruce will be going through torture at the moment.

Having being conditioned by the vile pisscan to never beat the scum, which way does he turn?

I want Newcastle to win and Hull to beat the scum but it means nothing.

Then he can go and crawl back to his master along with fat sam, brown, Warnock and redknapp.

hopefully both hull and newcastle win their games today.

also, tomorrow's play off final will be massive. from what I've seen I think the winner depends on which norwich turns up. Boro seem to be much more consistent but when the canaries are on song they are better imo. big big game, I hope it's Norwich who comes up

City64 wrote:Be good to see Norwich City back in the Premier League , quality football club with great fans and one of the best away days :-)

They're also trying to play a bit of football as well, as opposed to 'Boro who seem to want to be a Chelsea clone.

Two questions I have this afternoon:

1. Do I watch the Hull game instead of ours?

2. Am I supporting John Merrick or his even uglier brother, John Carver?

After a week away, and missing last weeks game, it'd be a shame not to see us spank the Saints 6-0 ;-)