Thread for those who have believed we are doomed

[Otis]

If come 5 p.m. Saturday, we are out of the bottom 3, will you believe we have a fair chance of survival?

I am one of those who has said we will be relegated.

If we are 4th from bottom come Saturday evening though, I will alter my view. Outside the bottom 3 with 7 games left would be a great position to be in wouldn't it. And it then would be in our hands.

If this scenario happens than I most certainly will think we are in with a good chance of survival and it won't be anywhere near being grim as it has been.

So ........ will you change your opinion if we are above Bristol on Saturday?

 

[torchomatic]

As George Michael one said "wake me up before you go-go". Sorry, wrong quote, "you've got to have faith".

 

[@richh87]

I've thought us destined for relegation since the summer when SISU screwed us all over and then even more so when they sold Juke.

Have I ever mentioned on this forum that I hate SISU??

IF we beat Pompey on Saturday then I will believe we can get out of it. We're Coventry City - it's what we're famous for!

 

[Covstu]

i was adament that we were down this year however we are still within reach of pulling out of it but we cannot forget it has taken portsmouth to be deducted 10 points to make this happen though! Nevertheless it has given us a lifeline and we must take it, we have a massive game on saturday so fate has droped back into our hands.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Getting out of the bottom 3 itself would be a massive boost to the team as it's been so long since we were out of it. Pompey will be buzzing though with those players they can't afford and more on the way.

 

[Macca]

ask me after Saturday. Too many false dawns

 

[LeamingtonBootBoy]

It'll be a roller coaster, and although it is a cliche, we do have to take this game by game.

We are seeing surprise results and that's changing the picture all of the time. All we can do is win our games...which we haven't done for the last 4...although the last 3 draws we would all have taken....but let's get one thing straight....8 draws from our last 8 games will NOT keep us up...so come 5pm Saturday, we MUST be celebrating 3 points.

Would we have taken 4 points from the last 4? Maybe we would have expected 5/6/7 points (beat Palace and/or Watford, draw with Blues or Cardiff)...so what do we expect from the next 4 (Portsmouth, Hull, Peterborough and Bristol)? 7 points?

 

[Otis]

ask me after Saturday. Too many false dawns

I'll have this thread at the ready.

Not so convinced we will beat Pompey to be honest. I think it could be a draw. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[coop]

The Pompey game will see what AT and the players have in there locker we will either freeze like we did against Forest or will we come out at 100 miles an hour and go for it from the off.We must start at a high fast tempo and just go shit or bust for the win.If we start slowly fans will get restless and the players will get edgy

 

[Otis]

Totally agree.

 

[MatthewWallis]

I'm worried that we are just gonna do what we did before and miss the chance. For a while it was 'a win and were out' and the players just didn't deliver, I really hope they win Saturday but if they mess up again then that is really it this time

 

[Robccfc87]

It'll be a roller coaster, and although it is a cliche, we do have to take this game by game.

We are seeing surprise results and that's changing the picture all of the time. All we can do is win our games...which we haven't done for the last 4...although the last 3 draws we would all have taken....but let's get one thing straight....8 draws from our last 8 games will NOT keep us up...so come 5pm Saturday, we MUST be celebrating 3 points.

Would we have taken 4 points from the last 4? Maybe we would have expected 5/6/7 points (beat Palace and/or Watford, draw with Blues or Cardiff)...so what do we expect from the next 4 (Portsmouth, Hull, Peterborough and Bristol)? 7 points?

It Depends on who we take points off, if we beat hull/pboro then lose to BC it's a nightmare, I will take 6 points if it's Portsmouth and BC we get them off!!

 

[covcity4life]

I.have never felt that survival is out of reach, my gut feeling was we would go down though, but since palace we are showing heart so yes I thinke we can stay up now which is awesome

 

[flammablepiss]

We can survive this. My only fear is that the other bottom teams will want to win more than us. That being if we beat Bristol and keep our home form going there is no reason why not. Only people who can get us relegated now is the team. In all truth we probably don't deserve all these second chances. But i'll certainly take them!

 

[ICHAN]

One things for sure, saturday will show us what the team is made of, and if they have the fight and passion to survive.
If they put on a piss poor lethargic performance then the players and club will get what they desereve(not the fans) as the fans are always loyal, considering the lack of any kind of sucess we as a club have had.

 

[Otis]

If they are not up for it on Saturday and lose I think they will be very much roundly booed.

 

[sky_blue_up_north]

I said in August we would go down, I was saying would go down after the Forest debacle, but somehow we have put a few results together, putting us in the unbelievable position of still been in with a chance of survival. Saturday is a our biggest game since god knows when, I guess the Spurs games that won to stay in Premiership is pretty close. I won't be the end of if lose Saturday, but it will be another nail in the coffin, if we win, I have gut feeling we can do it. I think this will be the most difficult game of all our remaining home fixtures, win this and yes its on... I can't believe I'm saying that.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

No, nothing has happened to change my mind, unfortunately.

I said a few weeks ago that survival would be based on:

1. being the best team out of four (CCFC, Pompey, Bristol, Donny)
2. maintaining the freak home form or starting to win away (we have won one in seven)

Pretty much everything is going as expected, including the assumption that Forest would pull away. All things considered, including the fact that Donny and Pompey have games in hand, it seems very unlikely that CCFC will be the best team out of four.

 

[Otis]

They do have games in hand, but if they win them and we beat them we will still be above them both.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Doncaster's form is starting to take a hit even with that bunch of mercenaries they've got. Pompey being rejuvenated by Tuesday's result and being able to continuously add to their squad despite nearly being liquidated are the ones I'm more concerned about.

 

[BackRoomRummermill]

Sorry to be a party pooper, if the two teams below us win the game in hand they have over us then we are bottom , we will be relegated win lose or draw on Saturday irrespective.

I have accepted league one already and the reasons as why we will be there a few months back

 

[Paxman II]

I've been looking over my shoulder and studying League 1 for a couple of weeks now with a view to the possibility of us going down and how that can be a positive for us and not the disaster we all assume it to be.

However my eternal hope is that our position is savable if we want it. Do we want it? Last nights second half performance suggest we do. We have to make those performances consistent. There is marked improvement though since Cameron came in and we have had a clean sheet and scored a few!

It's no secret that AT and the coaching has been below par for me throughout this campaign but that's easily tempered by a run of fair results and the knowledge others down there are equally managed by 'poor' coaching staff with weak or no track record. So yes always survivable but we need to get the results by being at a consistent level not for half a game or it will bite us!

After Forest which at the time seemed a guilt edged opportunity I never thought it was over. It was simply too far out. Study the fixtures of us and others which I pointed out weeks ago and you can see that the games and results will even out as the season draws to a conclusion.

AT is spot on that we have some outstanding home games coming up that will decide our fate.
We have to play several of our fellow strugglers.

It is very much in our own hands and I believe very doable as it stands. So yes I think we might and SHOULD stay up.

There will be twist and turns to come. If we get beat Saturday but Bristol also lose it's still not over. Win on Saturday and Bristol lose the general picture will be very different going into the remaining games from there. The pendulum will swing our way a bit.

Another viewpoint is that should we fail when you can obviously see we are a very capable team at times then we deserve nothing and the management have failed us. Lets not mince that one.
AT will be looking at those fixtures knowing it's down to us now and we can be better than those 4 down there with us. The players too must know that. Guess I'm saying there are no excuses. We should survive from this position.

You don't go and get a battling draw at Cardiff mid week after missing a penalty, hitting the bar, one disallowed and come from behind twice to then throw it away by performing badly on Saturday. Who would do that? - No pressure eh lads?!

So yes AT and the players have already proved they can if they want it get out of this. So now it looks rather more like survival is 'expected' or they will reap what they sow...

 

[Grendel]

I still believe we cannot stay up if we fail to win an away game. I cannot find another team since we were relegated that did not manage an away win all season. Even Stockport and Rotherham who accumulated less than 30 points in a whole season managed away wins. It is unlikely we will win all our home games.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

Sorry to be a party pooper, if the two teams below us win the game in hand they have over us then we are bottom , we will be relegated win lose or draw on Saturday irrespective.

I have accepted league one already and the reasons as why we will be there a few months back

Everyone was saying the same a few weeks back when teams were playing a game in hand. Between them all they managed 1 point that night so by all means keeps pooping away.

Donny and Pompy are both in poor form so points in there games in hand are not a certainty and they are playing tough teams as well, I think Pompy are away to Palace and Donny are home to Hull. Pompy and Donny will not both win there game in hand and even if they do, beat them at H and we are back ahead of them.

Why are people so pessimistic then call it realistic?

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

I still believe we cannot stay up if we fail to win an away game. I cannot find another team since we were relegated that did not manage an away win all season. Even Stockport and Rotherham who accumulated less than 30 points in a whole season managed away wins. It is unlikely we will win all our home games.

If we can pick up a few draws away it could be possible though. Get 10 points from the last 4 H games and draw at Bristol and another.

 

[Astute]

Why are people so pessimistic then call it realistic?

Some people have an unrealistic meaning of realistic

 

[BackRoomRummermill]

Cloud cuckoo land springs to mind, survival - it is not in our own hands and has not been for about 3 months which is why we are in the relegation zone for nearly the whole season.

Forget Blackburn Rovers breaking free, they got themselves a certain Mr Eric Black as Steve Keans number two to do that, we on the other hand are lumbered with a crap manager, make your own mind up

 

[Paxman II]

Of course it's in our own hands in the sense you can be certain the others will also not win all their games either! As the fixtures stand conventional wisdom suggest it is very much in our own hands now.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

Cloud cuckoo land springs to mind, survival - it is not in our own hands and has not been for about 3 months which is why we are in the relegation zone for nearly the whole season.

Forget Blackburn Rovers breaking free, they got themselves a certain Mr Eric Black as Steve Keans number two to do that, we on the other hand are lumbered with a crap manager, make your own mind up

It is in our own hands though, we are 3 point behind Bristol, 1 point ahead of Donny and 2 ahead of Pompy and we still have all 3 sides to play.

How is it not in our own hands?

 

[kg82]

Cloud cuckoo land springs to mind, survival - it is not in our own hands and has not been for about 3 months which is why we are in the relegation zone for nearly the whole season.

Forget Blackburn Rovers breaking free, they got themselves a certain Mr Eric Black as Steve Keans number two to do that, we on the other hand are lumbered with a crap manager, make your own mind up

Of course it's in our own hands! Win more than those around us, stay up. Not rocket science.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Why are people so pessimistic then call it realistic?

What do you consider the difference to be?

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

What do you consider the difference to be?

One is a balanced view and the other is a negative view.

I weren't referring to you it is just people that say we will be bottom league after the games in hand, is it realistic to think that Pompy and Donny will beat Palace and Hull on the same night?
Same with the people before this round of fixtures some people were saying we were going to be 7 points behind Bristol and 3 behind Donny after they win and we lose to Cardiff.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

They do have games in hand, but if they win them and we beat them we will still be above them both.

Too many "ifs" and "buts" for me, Otis. It is easy to if-and-but our way to hypothetical safety.

The bottom line is that it comes down to CCFC winning a mini-league involving three other teams over 8-9 games. Nothing that has happened this season can suggest that CCFC is capable of that. Hope I'm wrong...

 

[Colonel Mustard]

One is a balanced view and the other is a negative view. I weren't referring to you it is just people that say we will be bottom league after the games in hand, is it realistic to think that Pompy and Donny will beat Palace and Hull on the same night?

Fair enough. It is realistic to expect Coventry to go down, and merely optimistic to believe that they won't; but yes, there's no mileage in users always looking for the absolute worst case scenario (or the absolute best case scenario).

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

Fair enough. It is realistic to expect Coventry to go down, and merely optimistic to believe that they won't; but yes, there's no mileage in users always looking for the absolute worst case scenario (or the absolute best case scenario).

I also think we have a realistic chance of surviving as well though at the same time, looking at the fixtures and the form of all the surrounding teams I think it will be close and could even go to goal difference. So 1 good result here or there for any of the bottom side could swing it in their favour and keep them up. I think both outcomes have a similar chance of happening tbh and it could go either way by the narrowest of margins.

If you were to press me into a prediction I would like to say we will stay up by a point or GD.