Eight games to go and this last portion of the season is being described as eight Cup Finals for Cardiff City in which their Championship destiny will be decided. I’m sorry, but despite the very welcome win at Blackburn last time out, I can’t forget that the game before that, Luton at home, was being described as “huge”, “massive” and all of the other adjectives that get trotted out on such occasions and we just didn’t show up – in fact, a few of them looked intimidated by the situation.
The suspicion that this City squad has a soft centre has lingered for much of the season for me and one thing that surely must happen in the coming weeks is that question has to be put to bed.
You can look at the fixture list for each of the sides in trouble and think all sorts of things about them with your mind changing on every viewing, but, deep down, our run in doesn’t look that bad to me.
Given our deplorable record against the top four in the division, it’s certainly to our advantage that we’ve only got to play one of them on one more occasion – Sheffield United away looks like the freest of free hits, but the other seven can all be called winnable. Of course, our poor win rate over the season and just five of them in our last twenty five is hardly an inspiring stat.
However, even that one in five winning record means that we should be winning one of our remaining matches and have a slightly better than even chance of winning a second. There’s also been a lot of draws in those twenty five matches, so, based on those results since we beat Norwich back in November, so, if I had to guess the outcome of our last eight games based on our form over the past half a season of so, I’d say you’re looking at something like two wins, two draws and four defeats or one win, four draws and three losses, so we’d finish with something around 46 to 48 points.
My feeling is that forty six will see us relegated and forty eight would mean us staying up, while forty seven would make us slightly more likely to be safe than relegated with the obvious fly in the ointment being our poor goal difference.
Tomorrow we face Sheffield Wednesday at home and, ideally, I would have preferred this game in about a fortnight’s time because I feel Wednesday’s Play Off hopes would be over by then. As it is, they’ll be coming here needing to win and their away record of nine wins and eight defeats, along with the second best goalscoring record on their travels in the division suggests they could well do it.
Hope for City comes from the fact that, besides one of the most potent away attacks, Wednesday also possess one of the Championship’s leakiest away defences, but then you also have to factor in our woeful defensive record – although everyone will be saying that this game is a must win, I think I’d take the draw if it was offered now,
Here’s the Sheffield Wednesday quiz then, with the answers to be posted on here on Sunday.
60s. With a surname that became associated with the position he played in, this player signed for Wednesday from amateur football and was soon making his first team debut. His first league goal came in a 6-0 win over Everton in a season which saw both teams relegated from the First Division. Internationally, it could be said that he did everything but win a full cap for his country and the same sort of thing was true of his club career as he was a member of a team that were runners up in the First Division and reached two FA Cup Semi Finals. When he eventually moved on, it was to stay in Yorkshire with a team that has never played in the top flight for a couple of seasons which saw them win a league title in the first one and get relegated in the second one. He finished his career playing for non League Reds at North Street, who is he?
70s. This Scottish winger spent much of his career wearing stripes (although most of his time at Wednesday was spent wearing their blue and white Arsenal type shirt). He had two spells wearing black and white at his first, Scottish, club and he was also a member of a team that were venerated as the club’s most recent big trophy winners until recently. Before joining this club, he had gone hunting in the Midlands and Wednesday were his fourth club. There was a loan move to a Derbyshire club late in his four years at Hillsborough before returning to Scotland to wear those black and white stripes again and then play in maroon for Warriors.
80s. No moist drains at Hillsborough while he was there! (5,8)
90s. Historical schemer meets legend!
00s. A way of saying you got your feet slightly wet maybe?
10s. TV detective based in Midlands spa town?
20s. According to an article published around this time last year, this player, now with a Welsh club, had, by some distance, the worst WhoScored.com rating of anyone to have played for Sheffield Wednesday in the previous decade – he’s a forward who didn’t score a goal for Wednesday, but who is he?
Answers
60s. Alan Finney won under 23 and B caps for England, while making over four hundred and fifty league appearances for Sheffield Wednesday. The winger moved on to Doncaster Rovers in 1966 after fifteen years at Hillsborough and finished his career at Alfreton Town.
70s. Jackie Sinclair began at Dunfermline before moving to Leicester and then Newcastle where he was a member of the team which won the Fairs Cup (later UEFA Cup) in 1969. Moving to Sheffield Wednesday, he was eventually loaned to Chesterfield before a return to Dunfermline and a move to Stenhousemuir to finish his career.
80s. Simon Stainrod.
90s. Guy Whittingham.
00s. Wade Small.
10s. Lewis Buxton.
20s. Jack Marriott, now of Wrexham, played twelve times for Sheffield Wednesday while on loan from Derby in 20/21 and had an average WhoScored.com rating of just 6-02 during that time.
