Championship Talk

The first leg of the CCC playoff semi’s are all said and done, both Bristol City and Hull are in the drivers seat to punch their tickets to Wembely. I thought both matches were fairly well played but the Bristol City v Crystal Palace definatelly had the drama and great goals scored. City opened up the scoring in the 53rd minute by Louis Carey who hit a stunning curling shot that gave Bristol City the lead. It was end to end football until the 87th minute when Carey gave up a penalty that Ben Watson slotted home making the tie all even. The drama was yet to come, David Noble popped up in injury time to hit a sublime 30 yarder that gave Bristol City a 2-1 edge going back to Aston Gate. The second leg will be played on May 13th.

Hull got a fortunate 2-0 win over Watford at Vicarage Road that saw the ref determine the outcome of match sadly. In the 4th minute it appeared the Watford had taken the lead but the goal was called offside, and from my vantage point it was not. That was only the start of a bad day for Watford. On 8 minutes Hull City’s Nick Barmby put the Tigers ahead. It got worse for Watford on the 23rd minute when Dean Windass put Hull up 2-0. Watford did play much better in the second half going close within the first 5 minutes but then on 61 minutes Watford’s John Ustache was given a straight red card that will rule him out of the second leg and the Playoff final if Watford advance. Now down to 10 men Watford were put on the back foot by Hull who were looking for that killer third goal. It never came but Hull take a commanding 2-0 lead into the KC Stadium on May 14th.

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Bristol City v Crystal Palace:

League Position 4th

Points: 74

Form past 5 matches: W-L-L-D-L

Crystal Palace:

League Position: 5^th

Points: 71

Form Past 5 Matches: W-L-W-W-W

Outlook:

Right now Crystal Palace are by far the hottest team in the Championship. They have won 4 or their past 5 matches and come in with confidence of continued winning. Bristol City while the surprise of the season coming up from League One last season, and a squad that was virtually unchanged from that promotion winning squad, ended the season on a skid that sent them out of the second automatic promotion spot. The two meetings between the teams saw Palace get a 2-0 victory at Bristol City while the match at Selhurst Park ended at 1-1. Credit has to be given to both managers Neil Warnock( Crystal Palace) and Gary Johnson (Bristol City) for the jobs they have done with their clubs. Bristol City was tipped to be relegated at the start of the season and they have been in the top ten since August defying odds makers, at one point they topped the table. When Warnock took over at Palace they were hovering near the relegation zone and looked doomed for the drop at the time, he took over and lead them to a playoff place against the odds. I think this will be a tight affair but Crystal Palace have the momentum and will come out victors in this tie. Aggregate score: Crystal Palace 4 Bristol City 2

Watford v Hull City

Watford:

League Position: 6^th

Points: 70

Form Past 5 matches: D-L-L-D-L

Hull City:

League Position: 3^rd

Points: 75

Form Past 5 Matches: L-W-L-W-D

Outlook:

Both teams are not having the end of the season they would like, Watford especially. At one point Watford topped the Championship but went into a free fall after January. They were fortunate to even make the playoffs and did so only by a goal difference of a single goal over Wolverhampton Wanders. Hull has had a solid season sitting mid-table for most of it, it was really only after Frazier Campbell of Manchester United came on loan that Hull started to pick up momentum and challenge for a playoff spot and that second automatic promotion spot as well. Both teams are struggling for form but I think Hull will advance to Wembley. Watford are in a tailspin and nothing Aide Boothroyd has done seems to stop the bleeding and I don’t see the playoffs being the cure for Watford’s form. Watford have surprised before in the playoffs but I don’t see a repeat of that here. Aggregate score: Hull City 5 Watford 2

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Please note there will be no new Championship Talk show this week unfortunately. It turns out that Brian’s move is taking longer than anticipated. We are however planning on a new show for Monday, 12 May. Apologies for the delay, and thank you for your patience!

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Thank you to Eric Piazzoni (South Bend, Indiana) and the Ipswich Town FC Supporters Club for the following historical breakdown on the required Championship league point totals for potential promotion to the Premiership. Eric’s blog is http://ericpz.wordpress.com and his supporters club chapter is http://www.itfcnasc.com.

Points needed for the final (6th table position) playoff berth:

2003-2004: 72
2004-2005: 72
2005-2006: 68
2006-2007: 75

Points needed for automatic promotion (2nd table position):

2003-2004: 80
2004-2005: 86
2005-2006: 82
2006-2007: 85

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Please note that we have a new show Facebook page. As with the prior site, it is an individual page (as opposed to a group site), and can be found under “Championship Talk”. The prior site was accidentally disabled. Feel free to be our Friend all over again!!

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Please send caption suggestions to brian@championshiptalk.com regarding this recent perplexing gesturing from the animated Ian Holloway.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leicester_city/7144144.stm

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Please feel free to submit you caption ideas regarding this inspiring photo linked below of Cardiff’s reticent forward Steve Thompson to brian@championshiptalk.com. The winner will receive a “Championship Talk” tee-shirt in January.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/7122584.stm

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We’re proud to announce that Championship Talk and our sister sites have joined Football Media, a network of leading football websites from around the world covering the beautiful game.

Fellow sites within Football Media include Soccerlens, Footy 24/7, Anfield Red, FCB News, The Republik of Mancunia and several other sites.

Some of the goals behind Football Media is to share best practices among soccer bloggers about how to create better sites, generate advertising revenue and to answer technical questions.

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The “Championship Talk” show originally scheduled as per usual for Monday, 10 Dec. has been delayed to Wednesday, 12 Dec., due to unexpected technical glitches and scheduling conflicts this week. Apologies for the inconvenience…if signs of withdrawal syndrome are starting to set in, please refer to our 5 suggestions below on how to cope with the pain:

1. Older episode(s) may be fun to listen to…especially for the first time in the case of new listeners. “Gaffer Go Round” and “Glad All Over” are two of our personal favourites.
2. Sleeping pills until Wednesday….some of the over-the-counter stuff these days is not bad.
3. You might get an emailed photo from Georgie if you ask nicely. Brian’s on Facebook.
4. There may be subliminal messages if you play the recent shows backwards (or not).
5. Alcohol….Brian recommends Johnnie Walker Black….Georgie enjoys red wine, especially during the “festival” season.

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