Administrator Stan 18,394 Posted October 5, 2023 Administrator Share Posted October 5, 2023 all kick-offs 15.00 (BST) unless stated Friday 6th October, 2023 Birmingham vs West Brom, 20.00 Saturday 7th October, 2023 Sunderland vs Middlesbrough, 12.30 Cardiff vs Watford Coventry vs Norwich Ipswich vs Preston Leeds vs Bristol City Leicester vs Stoke Millwall vs Hull Plymouth vs Swansea QPR vs Blackburn Sheff Weds vs Huddersfield Southampton vs Rotherham Saturday 7th October, 2023 Oxford vs Bristol Rovers, 12.30 Bolton vs Carlisle Charlton vs Blackpool Cheltenham vs Derby Exeter vs Barnsley Fleetwood vs Wycombe Leyton Orient vs Reading Peterborough vs Lincoln Portsmouth vs Port Vale Shrewsbury vs Northampton Stevenage vs Wigan Monday 9th October, 2023 Burton vs Cambridge, 20.00 Saturday 7th October, 2023 Accrington Stanley vs Forest Green Barrow vs Notts County Bradford vs Swindon Colchester vs Morecambe Crawley vs Wrexham Gillingham vs MK Dons Mansfield vs AFC Wimbledon Newport vs Harrogate Salford vs Crewe Stockport vs Doncaster Sutton vs Walsall Tranmere vs Grimsby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebird Hewitt 1,282 Posted October 5, 2023 Share Posted October 5, 2023 (edited) A tough one, especially as you don't know which Watford will turn up. We deserved our loss on Tuesday and need to pick ourselves up at home. We're starting to get a little bit of an injury list going now, and Ramsey being out for 3 months (maybe more) will be a big loss. Think we need to rotate a little more where possible, as players like Robinson should be starting, while Colwill should be given a chance as well. Think regardless of the result, the international break will be good to hopefully have some injured players for again. Edited October 5, 2023 by Bluebird Hewitt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Palace Fan 3,404 Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 A big test for Preston. Whilst losing to the best team in the league midweek isn't exactly a crisis, the manner of the loss to West Brom the week before does compound concerns. A loss this weekend to Ipswich followed by fixtures to Millwall, Southampton, Hull, Coventry and Blackburn. It could see them drop down the table like a stone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber Dan+ 1,918 Posted October 8, 2023 Subscriber Share Posted October 8, 2023 I want the record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan 18,394 Posted October 8, 2023 Author Administrator Share Posted October 8, 2023 5 hours ago, Dan said: I want the record. 77 pts required from remaining 35 games. Just over 2ppg. Doable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebird Hewitt 1,282 Posted October 8, 2023 Share Posted October 8, 2023 Utter shite from both teams yesterday and a draw was the right result really. I think we created all the chances yesterday. The problem was about 75% of them we created for Watford as a lot of our passes went wayward and given to Watford in dangerous areas. Thankfully, poor finishing from them made sure we didn't lose. As for Watford's goal, Alnwick had an absolute howler for that one. Simple backpass to him and a very poor first touch went to Bayo, who just about managed to round the keeper and squeeze the shot in. Very poor all round and the international break has come at the right time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Palace Fan 3,404 Posted October 8, 2023 Share Posted October 8, 2023 I've been very impressed with Ipswich. Looking at there fixtures, I think this form could continue until December. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas 3,827 Posted October 8, 2023 Share Posted October 8, 2023 Tbh, we deserved a 3-0 scoreline yesterday, bar the first 15mins of the game, we put in a really good performance. Bit annoying like the QPR game, that the game was still there for the opposition to sucker punch us in the final minutes but fortunately we saw it out. Archie Gray being asked to play RB and putting in the most mature and solid performance in a position that is not natural too him showed exactly why there's so much buzz about a 17 year old. We won't get to keep him long at this rate. Georginho Rutter is thriving. Can't knock one in from two yards out and yet he he is so dangerous going forward. Confidence is really building with him now and he's becoming a big player, especially with Gnonto out. Very good atmosphere yesterday too, do love Elland Road when it's like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber Dan+ 1,918 Posted October 8, 2023 Subscriber Share Posted October 8, 2023 8 hours ago, Stan said: 77 pts required from remaining 35 games. Just over 2ppg. Doable! I think that's totally achievable. That's less than what we got in 2014 over a full season and I think it's abundantly clear we're miles better than the others. The only caveat I will give to us is we haven't yet played Ipswich, Leeds and Sunderland - who are for me the 2nd, 3rd and 4th best teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Palace Fan 3,404 Posted October 8, 2023 Share Posted October 8, 2023 1 hour ago, Dan said: I think that's totally achievable. That's less than what we got in 2014 over a full season and I think it's abundantly clear we're miles better than the others. The only caveat I will give to us is we haven't yet played Ipswich, Leeds and Sunderland - who are for me the 2nd, 3rd and 4th best teams. It's hard to judge at the minute. You were winning games at the start of the season late on and since then haven't need to be impressive to exert control to win matches. What separated Nuno's Wolves and Coppell's Reading from other winners was when they lost a game, they wanted blood in the next game four days later and got it with heavy wins. It feels like Leicester have only had to be I second gear so far, so we'll probably know if they're an 100 point team when they eventually have to react to losing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan 18,394 Posted October 8, 2023 Author Administrator Share Posted October 8, 2023 17 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said: It's hard to judge at the minute. You were winning games at the start of the season late on and since then haven't need to be impressive to exert control to win matches. What separated Nuno's Wolves and Coppell's Reading from other winners was when they lost a game, they wanted blood in the next game four days later and got it with heavy wins. It feels like Leicester have only had to be I second gear so far, so we'll probably know if they're an 100 point team when they eventually have to react to losing. I agree, and we did just that after losing against Hull. Won every game since, and the game straight after the loss was the 4-1 win at Southampton. What's pleasing me is the following: - teams are sitting so deep, having 11 men behind the ball, and we're still finding ways to break them down. Bristol City, Stoke, Preston have all done so. Kept clean sheets in all of them and scored freely. - Part of that free-scoring is down to our fitness. It's one of the things I've noticed the most and why we actually score late on. It's 50% mental fortitude to keep going to the end, and 50% having better fitness because we've pretty much knackered the opposition in having to chase the ball. Having players like Dewsbury-Hall who's energy in this division is valuable, and the sheer strength in depth to be able to rotate PL-quality strikers in Vardy/Iheanacho sees us through games. I actually think our real test is when a) Winks gets suspended/injured and has to miss a game and b) Ndidi and Iheanacho have to go to AFCON in January. The latter is mitigated by hopefully having Cannon back in the squad and fit when he is, and Daka perhaps ready to take a chance. Ndidi is a changed man - never thought we'd see such attacking output from him. 1 goal and 3 assists - Maresca is changing him from a defensive-minded destroyer to some kind of playmaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Palace Fan 3,404 Posted October 8, 2023 Share Posted October 8, 2023 1 minute ago, Stan said: I agree, and we did just that after losing against Hull. Won every game since, and the game straight after the loss was the 4-1 win at Southampton. Yeah I completely forgot about the Hull defeat . Albeit the Southampton game was still one of the most comical football games I've seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Palace Fan 3,404 Posted October 8, 2023 Share Posted October 8, 2023 Well these two blokes are never going to live this down. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber Dan+ 1,918 Posted October 8, 2023 Subscriber Share Posted October 8, 2023 5 hours ago, The Palace Fan said: It's hard to judge at the minute. You were winning games at the start of the season late on and since then haven't need to be impressive to exert control to win matches. What separated Nuno's Wolves and Coppell's Reading from other winners was when they lost a game, they wanted blood in the next game four days later and got it with heavy wins. It feels like Leicester have only had to be I second gear so far, so we'll probably know if they're an 100 point team when they eventually have to react to losing. Sort of true and I suppose we're only a quarter of the way in. You did get the feeling early doors it would go one of two ways - we could either maintain our sketchy, 'OK' performances and stop getting the results (the Hull loss felt like it had been coming a bit) or we would start to pick up. Well the latter has happened quite substantially. We've already faced quite a variety of styles and we seem to come through all of them. I do sort of think by law of averages there has to be bumps in the road, but I think we have quite comfortably the best squad in the league, being well coached into a style of play that is so good at reducing our margin of error that we really could break a few records. I mean the point I'm making there about margin of error is I think the big strength of ours. I listen to not the top 20 weekly now and they've had a bit of a misconception about us in my opinion that we're "easy to get at". Couldn't be further from the truth for me. I think we are quite substantially the hardest team to attack in the league. We've let in 6 goals, and only 2 in our last 6, still yet to concede more than 1 in a league game. The last two games were almost funny. Two teams who've come here for pure damage limitation, have barely laid anything on us and if anything in Stoke's case could've let in more. The fact we changed six players between the two games as well tells you how well the system is being coached. Players are slotting in all over the place. It's got the feel of a well-oiled machine - I didn't think he would achieve this level of performance as early as this despite how much we've spent or how good our squad is. The main caveat for me is we're the only one of the group of ourselves, Ipswich, Leeds and Sunderland, the teams I personally consider to be the four best (Preston are coming 10th) in the division to have played none of the other three yet. Sunderland and Leeds are our next two home games. I think they will make more of a game of it than the likes of Preston and Stoke did - but then how sure can you truly be of that? I've spent a lot of this season overestimating our opponents in retrospect and I'm at a point where I need to see it to believe it. In shorter terms I think Ipswich are the only side remotely close and to be totally honest, I think they're far likelier to dip than we are. I doubt Preston and Stoke went to Portman Road thinking of damage limitation. The biggest obstacle for them is that I don't think opposition are paying them the respect they deserve yet, whereas in our case they definitely are. I'm enjoying this anyway - I'm excited about our ceiling again after what has felt like the last two years of perpetual decline under a self-serving gobshite of a manager. Maresca's doing a fantastic job. You only have to look at Leeds and Southampton to see that it wasn't entirely inevitable even if we have made it look stupidly easy so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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