I've been to Brighton to see City win away, we're currently doing well in the league although we crashed out of the JPT to The Blue Team which is a shame as my sister in law was due to get married the day before the final in Cardiff, so we wouldn't have had to have gone very far.
Lots of player movement in the NFL - I can't remember what was happening on Friday, but it was the first wave of Free Agent nonsense. The only activity concerning the Raiders was that OT Langston Walker has signed by the Buffalo Bills and it looks very much as if Jeff Garcia will not being joining the Raiders...meaning that it looks increasingly likely that JaMarcus Russell will be the quarterback of the future, especially as Aaron Brooks was cut on February 22nd. There are also rumours on the interwebnet about Randy Moss going to the Packers, which would be something of a turn up considering what happened there a few years ago...but let's be honest here, after last season anything and anyone on the offense would be better. Given Coach Kiffin's USC connections, it's unlikely Brady Quinn is going to be a Raider (he might be the new David Carr though); Troy Smith certainly won't be. The draft is right at the end of April.
So far there haven't been a great deal of FA moves, but the 49ers have made some interesting signings on defense and I'm immediately wondering if I'll return to them in the months to comel the Patriots are restocking too, which should set the alarm bells off around the league.
Other coaching changes (other than the boy wonder that is):
Ken Whisenhunt (ex-OC with the Steelers) replaces Denny Green in Arizona
Bobby Petrino (ex-Louisville) replaces Jim Mora Jr in Atlanta
Wade Phillips replaces Bill Parcells in Dallas (this looks dodgy already)
Cam Cameron replaces Nick Saban in Miami, Saban being the latest Bear Bryant replacement at Alabama
Mike Tomlin replaces Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh
Norv Turner replaces Marty Schottenheimer in San Diego (snort, giggle...Norv Turner? Are you kidding me?)
My extremely early take on this: Arizona and Atlanta will benefit the most.
The college football season has been over for so long that spring practices have already started (Tennessee stated on 22nd Feb!), but there will be some intriguing issues going into 2007. Todd Boeckman will probably be tOSU's starting quarterback but at Notre Dame things are confusing, with four players in the frame including highly touted freshman Jimmy Clausen. Darren McFadden (Arkansas) is already being touted for the Heisman, but there have been some interesting times down there during the offseason; my long range punt would be Tim Tebow of Florida. He's going to be a Sunday afternoon Monster one day, it's a shame it won't be for at least another couple of years.
You want a super-deep sleeper? Here's your man: Alex Brink of Washington State.
50/28 TD/INT ratio plus 7095 career yards. Plays on a 6-6 team though.Right, returning to football that's still going on, here's how the top six head to head in Division 3 table now looks:
Tranmere P9 W4 D3 L2 F10 A7 Pts 15
Oldham P9 W4 D2 L3 F10 A6 Pts 14
Scunthorpe P7 W3 D2 L2 F9 A6 Pts 11
Forest P8 W3 D2 L3 F4 A12 Pts 11
City P8 W3 D1 L4 F8 A7 Pts 10
Yeovil P7 W2 D0 L5 F3 A9 Pts 6
City's position first: only have two games left against the current top six, at home to Forest and Yeovil. As luck would have it, both those teams have to travel to Scunthorpe as well and neither of them have home games left against the other teams in the top six.
As you can see from the mini table, neither Forest nor Oldham have been a real powerhouse against the other sides this season - Yeovil also have to travel to Oldham.
So here's one scenario: Scunny have a ten point lead with ten or so games left is actually favourable. If they can beat Forest and Yeovil they will be doing us a massive favour: if we can beat Forest and Yeovil...
Just to make it even more confusing, here's a table with results against the bottom six teams factored in:
Scunthorpe P18 W10 D5 L3 F23 A11 Pts 35
Tranmere P19 W8 D6 L5 F22 A17 Pts 30
Oldham P17 W9 D2 L6 F26 A17 Pts 29
Forest P15 W7 D4 L4 F17 A 19 Pts 25
Yeovil P15 W6 D3 L6 F14 A14 Pts 21
City P16 W5 D5 L6 F19 A17 Pts 20
So why on earth are we third in the table now?
Here is a revised fixture list, taking into account top six v. themselves and top six v. bottom six as it stands right now.
10th March: City v Brentford, Cheltenham v Yeovil, Scunthorpe v Nottingham Forest
Tuesday 13th March: City v Bradford
24th March: Nottingham Forest v Cheltenham, Yeovil v Chesterfield
Sunday 25th March: Brentford v Oldham
31st March: City v Forest, Oldham v Yeovil, Scunthorpe v Bradford
Friday 6th April: Scunthorpe v Yeovil (is this on Sky?)
Monday 9th April: Bradford v Oldham, Nottingham Forest v Rotherham
14th April: City v Yeovil, Brentford v Nottingham Forest, Oldham v Cheltenham
21st April: Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth, Yeovil v Rotherham
5th May: City v Rotherham, Oldham v Chesterfield, Tranmere v Brentford
So right off the bat, there are four weekends with three matches that are going to be crucial. Next weekend, the weekend my sister in law gets married, the weekend after Easter and the last game of the season.
Incredibly, I will be away from home on three of those weekends, including the last game of the season, when I will be in Cardiff to watch Superleague.
How I think it's going to pan out
We need to take maximum points from our four remaining games against the teams in the bottom six: three of them come in the next week and a half and the last one - against Rotherham on the last day of the season - might be absolutely crucial.
THIS IS AN ADVANTAGE THAT WE CANNOT AFFORD TO SQUANDER.
Best case scenario:
Winning the division is not out of the question, but it would take a collapse by Scunthorpe to do it*. Automatic promotion is still attainable, but every game is now a must win: there are still 36 points to play for and if we can pick up more than 20 then we can do it. Our destiny is in our own hands and we must make sure it stays that way; promotion before the last game of the season must be the aim.
Worst case scenario:
Out of the playoffs on the last day.
Wildcard Team and Biggest Threat:
Brentford and Oldham.
If the season ended today:
Playoffs v Tranmere, the winner to play the winner of Yeovil v Oldham in Cardiff.
* Madame Zaza moment: if Scunthorpe have to sell Billy Sharp in the summer or at any point next season, they'll go straight back down. Of course, they may have to deal with the Bob Taylor scenario, which is what finished us off in 1990.
