| Its the hope that kills 16:59 - Mar 7 with 12776 views | swisscottage |
6 points off the playoffs |  | | |  |
| Its the hope that kills on 21:18 - Mar 7 with 2702 views | Rog |
It would be an extraordinary run to make the playoffs but I dearly hope we do just for the joy of maybe seeing this group play an extra 3 games. They are such a pleasure to support. | | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 22:29 - Mar 7 with 2582 views | PinnerPaul |
| Its the hope that kills on 18:27 - Mar 7 by timcocking |
Surprised you'd say that Brian.
Let's be honest here, we have had, remarkably, against all odds, one of the best teams in the league this year. If Joe Lumley had had a good year, we'd be top six no doubt. So to say it isn't a missed opportunity...of course it is.
Not passing any judgement on any other posts, but in terms of somebody saying damn it's frustrating because it's a missed opportunity, well that really is just stating a fact. The fact we were odds on for relegation to begin with is irrelevant.
Don't get me wrong, i think it's been a brilliant season, but easy to understand the frustration at the same time imo. [Post edited 7 Mar 2020 18:31]
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You can't let in the 2nd most goals in the whole league and say you have one of the best teams in the div - would laugh at any other fans who said that. | | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 22:31 - Mar 7 with 2565 views | PinnerPaul |
| Its the hope that kills on 18:38 - Mar 7 by 2Thomas2Bowles |
Glad someone else understands my point.
Things could and should have been better, getting beat by better teams is one thing, stupidly losing goals and games /points is the frustrating part. |
All teams loste to teams they 'should' beat if they didn't no bookies within a month! | | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 00:05 - Mar 8 with 2413 views | kensalriser |
It's really 7 points given our GD. And I'm pretty sure we weren't odds on to go down.
I'm happy enough we're top half. |  |
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| Its the hope that kills on 06:55 - Mar 8 with 2318 views | nix |
| Its the hope that kills on 20:58 - Mar 7 by loftus77 |
Fair play to you. On the highlights, look at Eze and Bright after Eze’s goal. Two brilliant young lads on top of their game enjoying their football in a team led by a manager who wants his men to go out, play, and express themselves.
And this in a season which, after we’d secured survival at Derby last season, had (IMHO) relegation written all over it. We were clobbered by a massive FFP fine, had lost our parachute payments, had sacked our manager on account of 17 defeats in 23 matches and had lost arguably 3 of our best players (Freeman, Onuoha and Furlong).
To come from that to a situation where even the most pessimistic of fans are genuinely contemplating a play-off push is just outstanding.
This was meant to be the season of struggle — the ‘rickety bridge’ — for the reasons given above. Warburton and his team are simply swooning across it with a style , as you say, not seen since Gerry Francis's band of entertainers from the early Premier League years.
Wonderful. [Post edited 7 Mar 2020 21:02]
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Exactly this. Completely don't get the frustration. Tbh I was expecting a season where we'd have to have to hunker down, hope for a bit of luck, keep our tin hats on every time we lost with all the naysayers having a field day. I certainly wasn't expecting us to have 5-1 and 6-1 wins, to win 3-1 away at Preston, to have six away wins before the end of the season (we are QPR and we never win away, the consolation song of many of the way fans a couple of seasons ago), to see some of the goals like BOS away at Birmingham and home against Stoke, to see scorpion flicks and nutmegs and roulettes, to have three players score more than ten goals, to have that half an hour of sublime football against Luton.
It's been a fantastic and enjoyable season in so many ways. And not getting into the playoffs is not a surprise given our situation. In fact getting into the top half is more of a surprise. |  | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 09:22 - Mar 8 with 2129 views | Ned_Kennedys |
| Its the hope that kills on 00:05 - Mar 8 by kensalriser |
It's really 7 points given our GD. And I'm pretty sure we weren't odds on to go down.
I'm happy enough we're top half. |
Agreed: I expected mid table so a top 11 finish would be a decent result. Absolute rubbish that we were odds on for relegation or most fans expected is to be relegated: we had some good young talent in the squad together with two decent loan forwards so why would we be expecting to be below teams like Luton, Barnsley, Charlton or Wigan for example? |  | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 09:28 - Mar 8 with 2094 views | 2Thomas2Bowles |
Absolute rubbish that we were odds on for relegation or most fans expected is to be relegated:
Probably said by the same peps buying up bog paper. |  |
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| Its the hope that kills on 09:29 - Mar 8 with 2087 views | PlanetHonneywood |
All things considered, I think they have done bloody well.
If that defence had been a bit tighter, we’d definitely have been in the PO berth for sure. But the fact we’re not should not undermine what has been a positive season so far.
I’m inclined however, to accept that the POs might just be beyond us and as a result, I’d be tempted to start planning for next season now. Who knows who’ll be here come August and so I’d give game time to the pups to see what we’ve got. Better to play them when the pressure is off and who knows what this might unearth. |  |
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| Its the hope that kills on 10:18 - Mar 8 with 1995 views | francisbowles |
| Its the hope that kills on 09:29 - Mar 8 by PlanetHonneywood |
All things considered, I think they have done bloody well.
If that defence had been a bit tighter, we’d definitely have been in the PO berth for sure. But the fact we’re not should not undermine what has been a positive season so far.
I’m inclined however, to accept that the POs might just be beyond us and as a result, I’d be tempted to start planning for next season now. Who knows who’ll be here come August and so I’d give game time to the pups to see what we’ve got. Better to play them when the pressure is off and who knows what this might unearth. |
We shouldn't give up on the season just yet but it is extremely unlikely that we could reach the playoffs.
Usually, you need 73 points to make the play offs. This means we need 7 wins and 2 draws from our last 9 fixtures of which 5 are away.
it has been done with 68 leaving us needing 6 wins. However, Preston would only need 4 wins to match this and if Blackburn win today they will be on the same points as Preston with a better goal difference.
Both scenarios are very difficult to envisage but I would give it another game or two until it is virtually impossible, before we start looking at next season. | | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 10:24 - Mar 8 with 1983 views | gazza1 |
I am sure that a play-off position is in the management teams eyes as well as the players. It would and will be tough but this is a funny old league this season. I personally think it is a step too far but we do have a chance, albeit limited.
Next 3 games will give us all a better cidea.....Barnsley(h), Charlton(a) and Fulham(h). Get 9 points and we may be having 'expectations'. | | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 10:30 - Mar 8 with 1965 views | rsonist |
Bigger picture it's been a success. Game to game I can sympathise with not being disappointed per se but certainly rueing what might have been, especially in the bittersweet shadow of Eze's imperious long goodbye.
For what it's worth even from the beginning of the season Warbs has never come across as wanting anything less than being in promotion contention. Obviously making every game feel winnable in a culture of ambition is his job but privately I think he himself may well feel disappointed that we're only (only!) looking at a long shot now.
Norf's thoughts of the week/season on contentment obviously come to mind. The even mediocrity of this league, particularly so this year, and the insane game-changing bounty at the end of its rainbow are set up to create a distorted mania. It's a hall of mirrors you wander through until you can't remember what you actually look like.
The club has built good solid foundations now but it feels precarious nevertheless - there's still an anxiety knowing the progress can still all be undone in one summer, even with the most sensible intentions. |  | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 10:46 - Mar 8 with 1906 views | rsonist |
| Its the hope that kills on 09:22 - Mar 8 by Ned_Kennedys |
Agreed: I expected mid table so a top 11 finish would be a decent result. Absolute rubbish that we were odds on for relegation or most fans expected is to be relegated: we had some good young talent in the squad together with two decent loan forwards so why would we be expecting to be below teams like Luton, Barnsley, Charlton or Wigan for example? |
It may seem silly to you now in hindsight but of the season previews in the media Norf's prediction of 16th was the most optimistic by far. Long term issues, huge turnover of new players, and no way of knowing until the first game that they would gel so quickly. | | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 10:50 - Mar 8 with 1896 views | stevec |
This could come down to which teams keep their players best quarantined, all played out in empty stadiums. |  | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 11:12 - Mar 8 with 1855 views | w7r |
Massively exceeded my expectations this season.
I may be alone here but...
Of course there’s the ”what if” when individually, or collectively, bollocks have been dropped by a new team, still gelling, that have dropped some points that could have seen us scraping a play-off place doesn’t bother me too much. Given the constraints, the tone at the start of the season was one of achieving a solid bottom half table finish avoiding relegation whilst the club cut deep into the budgets I for one would have to consider this to be a successful campaign - 50 points early March, is no mean achievement - and the best thing is it’s not over yet.
On a personal note I’m still annoyed at myself for not taking up my wife’s offer to buy me a season ticket. 
Looking forward to the remaining games and seeing where it takes us, exciting times indeed.
Come on you R’s |  | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 12:04 - Mar 8 with 1756 views | WestbourneR |
| Its the hope that kills on 17:23 - Mar 7 by 2Thomas2Bowles |
Today is a good day result wise BUT
I can't pretend that it could and should have been an even better season had we not chucked to many goals and points away with some bad player mistakes and by the manager.
Frustrating season for me. |
You’re just pathetically bitter because Warburton is CLEARLY a better manager than Holloway. Which means you were wrong. Again. |  |
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| Its the hope that kills on 12:07 - Mar 8 with 1748 views | Watford_Ranger |
| Its the hope that kills on 12:04 - Mar 8 by WestbourneR |
You’re just pathetically bitter because Warburton is CLEARLY a better manager than Holloway. Which means you were wrong. Again. |
Rare that I’ll defend 2t2b but I can see where he’s coming from on this. Ultimately I’m delighted we’re as good as safe with a shot at the top six when I expected us to be well in the relegation mix but it could go down as more of a “what if” season than most. | | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 12:56 - Mar 8 with 1637 views | CiderwithRsie |
I do sort-of get 2T2B's point. So long as it's not meant as a criticism of a manager wildy exceeding expectation in his first season and of a club which is trying to struggle out of years of mismanagement (and which itself was a reaction to years of different mismanagement by different owners).
This could have been an utterly brilliant season with us storming to promotion and Eze replicating Taarabt. Chances still are that we'll fall short or at best get knocked out in the play-offs and have to sell Eze. The difference between the two is largely down to some really sub-par defensive performances.
That shouldn't be a criticism of anyone - it would take a miracle to simultaneously
(a) replace our midfield playmaker and outstanding player
(b) turn a team, whose only recognised CF a few weeks before the start of the season was a youth player, into 3rd top goalscorer in the division
(c) fix a defence which wasn't that great last year either
all at the same time and on no money.
It's just that the better it gets the sadder it is that it couldn't have been perfect - a bit like if the Gerry Francis era team had had a better keeper than Roberts, if we'd not had to sell Parker, if Wegerle had forged a partnership with Ferdinand... | | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 12:59 - Mar 8 with 1628 views | Match82 |
| Its the hope that kills on 12:07 - Mar 8 by Watford_Ranger |
Rare that I’ll defend 2t2b but I can see where he’s coming from on this. Ultimately I’m delighted we’re as good as safe with a shot at the top six when I expected us to be well in the relegation mix but it could go down as more of a “what if” season than most. |
What if works both ways though surely?
What if the coaching staff hadn't developed Eze and BOS the way they had?
What if the coaching staff had played it safe with the likes of Chair and just given him a few substitute appearances?
What if they had brought in this year's equivalent of Maiga or Will Keane or Hemed on loan instead of Wells and Hugill?
Always what ifs. Always tons of decisions to make. They made more good ones than bad ones. I think people are frustrated by the comment because it comes across as a criticism of the few bad decisions (or pieces of bad luck) we have had, rather than celebrating the many many good ones.
As for expectations this season it's easy in hindsight, but the most unbiased ones are probably looking at the bookies, who if I recall had us 4th or 5th favorites for relegation. |  | | |
| Its the hope that kills on 13:16 - Mar 8 with 1598 views | terryb |
I was one of the few that thought we would have a good season, based on that the players we signed were better than most that we had sold. At the end of August I even updated the good season to automatic promotion!
However, we will not reach the play offs, but I don't really care about that! I have loved watching us play this season, more than any season since Jago was manager. Yes, we were better under Sexton, Vernables, Smith, Howe, Francis & Warnock, but were those more exciting? Not in my view.
Part of the reason for my enjoyment is that it didn't matter that we fell short in matches. The 75/76 season wasn't enjoyable to me as the result was all that mattered, hence being upset that we failed to win four of the home games! 73/74 &19/20 were/are fun!
I will certainly be back to watch MY TEAM next season & I'm already looking forward to seeing who Warburton replaces our departing players with! [Post edited 8 Mar 2020 13:19]
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| Its the hope that kills on 13:17 - Mar 8 with 1598 views | BrianMcCarthy |
| Its the hope that kills on 09:22 - Mar 8 by Ned_Kennedys |
Agreed: I expected mid table so a top 11 finish would be a decent result. Absolute rubbish that we were odds on for relegation or most fans expected is to be relegated: we had some good young talent in the squad together with two decent loan forwards so why would we be expecting to be below teams like Luton, Barnsley, Charlton or Wigan for example? |
PaddyPower had us the second shortest odds for relegation, Ned. Can't remember who was below us. |  |
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| Its the hope that kills on 13:41 - Mar 8 with 1546 views | BrianMcCarthy |
In response to superhoopdownunder (also applies to others!)
Fair play for getting up/staying up in Oz for all the games. Serious dedication. [Post edited 8 Mar 2020 13:41]
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| Its the hope that kills on 14:53 - Mar 8 with 1397 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Thanks, Ned, fair enough. I saw us at second-bottom at one stage and odds-on, but these things fluctuate. To be fair, sixth from bottom was nearer the consensus so more realistic. | |
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