Championship already decided ? asks the Guardian.

[californiahoop]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/football-league-blog/2010/sep/22/championship-already-decided

[waterbuffalo]

don't jinx the team, mate! whatsammata wit you, we never talk about promotion, , never!

[Yousef]

Don't believe this $hit. Keep treating each game a cup final.

[californiahoop]

I agree, that's why I headed it " for those that already believe"

I have been a hoop for 30+yrs, the fat lady has to sing for me dude, but I hear ya.

[W6hoops]

What a good article

[geejaybee]

Championship already decided ? asks the Guardian.

At the top and bottom, the Championship is already decidedNo matter what the managers may say, history suggests QPR are as good as up, while Portsmouth are heading to League One
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John Ashdown guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 September 2010 09.20 BST Article history
Jamie Mackie, right, has been in prolific form for QPR who, history suggests, will go up this season. Photograph: Lee Mills/Action Images
As autumnal expectations rocket and plummet on terraces up and down the Championship, managers have been looking to take the edge off euphoria after roaring starts ("We know we'll have a dip," said QPR manager Neil Warnock after the weekend win at Leicester) or play the reliable old "early days" card in the wake of nightmare openings ("The league is very much in its infancy," said Portsmouth manager Steve Cotterill following defeat at Bramall Lane. "There's a lot of football to be played"). But those at Loftus Road should put the cake in the oven, line up the party poppers and stick the champagne in the fridge, while Fratton Park needs to get ready for League One football in 2010-11 – the title race is all over and Pompey are down. Well, at least, that's what history suggests.


Rangers' 2-0 victory at the Walkers Stadium was their sixth in seven league games and Warnock's side have picked up 19 points out of a possibly 21, putting them five points clear at the summit. The team top after seven games has only missed out on promotion once in the past five years (Watford, who ended up sixth, in 2007-08), but more than that their points tally suggests near-invincibility. It's a mark reached by very few teams of late, but the pattern is clear: Wolves 2008-09, 19 points, champions; Portsmouth 2002-03, 19 points, champions; Fulham 2000-01, 21 points, champions; Newcastle 1992-93, 19 points, champions; Oldham 1990-91, 19 points, champions; Oxford United, 1984-85, 19 points, champions. (Although in the interests of accuracy, it's only fair to point out that both Watford and Bolton reached the 19 point mark from seven games in 2000-01, but even then they were already dropping behind Jean Tigana's rampant Fulham).


In fact, to find the last side to lead the second tier after seven games having racked up 19 points or more who did not go on to achieve promotion you have to go all the way back to 1982-83. Grimsby had been rock bottom, six points from safety in the old Second Division, at the beginning of April 1982, but they took 20 points from their final 12 games to seal safety and maintained that form at the beginning of the new season. The Mariners won six of seven, scoring 17 goals in the process. Before the eighth game of the season, a trip to Stamford Bridge, fans complained about a lack of recognition, pointing out that Chelsea, QPR and co were grabbing the attentions and headlines. A 5-2 hammering burst the bubble. They would win only six more games all campaign and finished a distant 19th.


At the bottom, the writing on the wall looks bleak for Portsmouth. Not since 1991-92 has a team survived after taking just two points from their first seven games, although on that occasion there were two of them – Barnsley, who finished 16th, and Bristol Rovers who almost reached the top half but finished 13th.


Though those turnarounds ended in hugely divergent paths. Rovers had sacked manager Martin Dobson after 11 league and cup games, with director Geoff Dunford saying: "We felt we were incompatible." Caretaker Dennis Rofe took over, did a superb job guiding them up the table – they were one of the best sides in the division under his stewardship – but two months into the following season was dismissed after refusing to cede control of training and team selection to the recently appointed coaching consultant Malcolm Allison. Despite a brief upturn – with a style of play compared to the "Hungarians of the 50s" in this newspaper – they went on to be relegated, have never been back to the second tier since, and that 13th remains the club's highest finish since 1960.


Barnsley, meanwhile, stuck by Mel Machin and did so until the end of the following season, when he was replaced by the Sheffield Wednesday centre-half Viv Anderson, who brought his 32-year-old Owls team-mate Danny Wilson along as player coach. That was in 1993. Four years later the Tykes, under Wilson, were promoted to the Premier League for their first (and, still, only) season in the top flight.


Of the teams since then that have picked up two points (or fewer) from their first seven games, all have been relegated: Stockport in 2001-02 (bottom), Grimsby in 2002-03 (bottom), Millwall in 2005-06 (23rd) and Plymouth in 2009-10 (23rd).

[QPR1234]

thread already made mate.

http://www.wearetherangersboys.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76315

[geejaybee]

thread already made mate.

http://www.wearetherangersboys.com/f...ad.php?t=76315

Oops!!Sorry about that and my apologies to the original poster Californiahoop.

[QPR1234]

Oops!!Sorry about that and my apologies to the original poster Californiahoop.

no problems! we all do it! just gotta wait for mods to merge it!

re: the actual story.. i am still 50/50 on our promotion prospects until we taste defeat.

[Ginger Ninja]

its way way too early to even think of the possibility of promotion imo. we can dream about it and wonder if, after the good start we made, we can go the distance. but knowing QPR like we all do, it could all come crashing down around us. just for the record, im not trying to be negative, just realistic. jeez i would love it, love it if we went up, and im extremely happy about the start we have made. but thats all it is, a start. we are only 7 games in, still another 39 to go. if we are still up there at the end of january, i will start to get excited.

[sirpiechucker]

I wonder if the Guardian wrote a similar piece on Watford a few seasons ago? Far far too early to start making us champions.

[Factamondo]

taint over til heather trott signs...............though she is a gargaling as we speak