Watford

Relegation watch revisited (2): It was the draws wot done it

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John McCormick:
John McCormick
number crunching

The season before last we won only 7 games and we stayed up. We even finished above Aston Villa, who won 10, as well as QPR and Hull City, whose 8 wins each could not stave off relegation. The other relegated team, Burnley, had 7 wins, the same as us.

The difference between us and Burnley was that we achieved 17 draws, and lost only (only??) 14 games. They could manage only 12 draws, and their five fewer points meant they finished second bottom, three places below us.

And thinking about that got me started on the notion of win-loss ratios, which became the tool I used to track clubs in last season’s relegation watch.

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Relegation watch revisted (1): admit it, we fans know nowt about football*

by
John McCormick:
John McCormick
having a rest between graphs

Regular visitors will know I’ve been in the habit of looking at the relegation spots for the last couple of years. I haven’t wanted to, it’s just that I’m not sure where the top half of the table is.

So, about a year ago, instead of making my own predictions, I asked readers which clubs were going down, with the aim of tracking these clubs as the season progressed.

The poll ran from June until the end of the transfer season. Initially it was more or less confined to SAFC fans then others  came on board, and some of them weren’t complimentary about us.

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Sixsmith says: Something for the weekend, sir?

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Pete Sixsmith: toasting another season in the Premiership
Pete Sixsmith: toasting another season in the Premiership

John McCormick writes:

There are a quite a few posts and comments coming in as we enter the last week of a tumultuous season. They are all good but this one, from Pete Sixsmith, is a cracker. It contains words of warning to the manager, suggestions for a pre-match warm up, and lots of memories.

Not to mention a little bit of gloating.

Over to Pete:

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Watford v Sunderland Who are You?: ‘loved Niall, love your club’

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Geoff Hiron: Chicago - and Watford - are his kinds of town
Geoff Hiron: Chicago – and Watford – are his kinds of town

Rudyard Kipling went to Chicago and considered it an abomination: ‘I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages.’ It serves Geoff Hiron* OK all the same. Born near Vicarage Road, he has made his home in the Windy City while remaining loyal to his roots and his football club. Salut! Sunderland spotted his nom-de-guerre – Harry Hornet – in Comments posted after mentions of his team and asked him to handle the last Who are You? of the season. Here are his responses. I like Geoff’s replies, and that is not just because he likes us. What Kipling made of Watford may or may not be recorded …

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Night time is prime time in Sunderland’s latest great escape bid

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Paul Summerside, with
Paul Summerside with better half Sharon, keeping the faith

The atmosphere at the Stadium of Light as Sunderland pressed for the equaliser against Crystal Palace, which Fabio Borini finally supplied in style, got Paul Summerside thinking.

Call it positive thinking, or plain old clutching at straws over post-match pints at the Avenue, but he reckons we are more fired up as a side in evening games, especially at home and when – as is usually the case as a season draws to a close – there’s a lot to play for. There’s one such game to come in the run-in -the still-to-be-rescheduled Everton home game – but Paul senses, maybe, more to come. He also takes heart from the competing priorities of some of the teams we’re still to play …

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