23/06/06 - I predict a right - well most of them! By Mick Burrows
Back in August, just prior to the opening games of the 2005/06 football season, the predictions team here at “Tipped at the Post!”, bravely gave our forecasts for all 92 teams and it would be remiss of us if we didn’t analyse how we got on - if only to allow you all to disregard our tips next season! At the top end of the Barclays Premiership we wrote: ”Obviously the big 3 will fight it out again; with a good start required by Arsenal - and perhaps more significantly Man Utd; to enable them to push Chelsea right up to the finish. If the trio are still close coming into the final quarter, then we’ve a sneaking feeling United could just edge it; but if they leave it too late then it’s impossible to see beyond the Blues. Martin Jol has been patiently putting together a young, but very strong squad and we’d expect them to battle with Liverpool for that 4th spot.” Well, we have to be reasonably pleased with that; as United were the closest to Chelsea and may, with a little more consistency earlier on, have got much closer.
Spurs did indeed battle it out all season for 4th spot, but we got the Gunners and the Merseysiders back to front. Another good spot by us was Blackburn who finished 6th; we wrote: “Craig Bellamy could either fire Rovers to a cracking season, or possibly spark more trouble; but we favour the former and see a top half finish for them.” Of promoted Sunderland we suggested: “they will do well to simply avoid the drop and their home form will be vital in securing a second season.” Waiting until the final fixture of the season for their first win confirmed this! We did expect Bryan Robson’s Baggies to perhaps be able to take the next step and prove harder to beat, allowing them to stay just out of trouble, but we were correct again with their West Midlands neighbours. We wrote: “Aston Villa however, could be in for an uncomfortable time. They should be too strong to go down, but we can see them being involved at the wrong end of the table.” Just about spot on with that one! We totally underestimated Wigan, but we certainly weren’t alone there, and expected better of Man City and Birmingham, with Charlton and Bolton struggling a little more; but on the whole we have to be fairly pleased with the Premiership! In the Championship we wrote: “The team we have a firm fancy for are Leeds United; who after a season of consolidation, now appear to be ready to mount a big promotion push.” Well they didn’t prove quite as strong as we thought but still made the play-offs. Many highly rated tipsters had Wolves and Southampton as the 2 to go up; our thoughts were: “Many people’s favourites are Wolves, after their long unbeaten run after xmas, but there is always immense pressure at Molineux when expectation levels are high and we see their only route up being via the play-offs.
Of the relegated clubs, we can see both Norwich and Crystal Palace being right up there, but Southampton may well suffer - just like many before them who’ve dropped out of the Premiership after a long stay - and need a season or two to adjust.” Again just about spot on, with Saints spending all season in the bottom half and Wolves again flattering to deceive and just missing out. Palace were right up there, but Norwich failed miserably. Ipswich lost in the play-offs the previous season and of them we wrote: “they may well have missed the boat and could find life a lot harder, having lost several key players.” A bottom half finish would suggest we were correct! We had Reading in the play-offs, so underestimated them, a we did with Watford, although we did write that we expected them to be well clear of danger, under their bright new Manager - he proved to be even better than we thought! On the whole though, not so good from us! Of Coca-Cola League One our feelings were for Huddersfield Town to be the strongest side, unfortunately there were 3 or 4 stronger. We had Brentford, Bristol City and Oldham in the play-offs and the latter 2 only just missed out. Nott’m F were many people’s clear favourites to go straight back up. We wrote: “This can only be because of their successes in the distant past, because we simply cannot see their current squad being anywhere good enough. They will be the “big fish” everybody wants to beat and Gary Megson will need to bring in some experience to counter this, otherwise a young team could well be struggling towards the other end of the table.”
This was indeed the case until the Manager parted company and they embarked on a run which should have taken them to the play-offs, but they bottled it right at the death. Of Champions Southend we wrote: “they will do very well to hang onto highly promising striker Freddie Eastwood and without him they may well be in trouble.” Well they did hang on to him, he finished top scorer, so in a way we feel justified in our comment. The one big spot we came up with was Swindon. We predicted: “They are the one team who we feel that may struggle more than expected , although they were close to promotion only 2 years ago, they have badly fallen away and could well slip into League 2 this time.” They had a bad start and never recovered. So some decent forecasts, with no major slip up’s, I think we can call League One’s predictions a reasonable success. As usual League two was the most difficult to call, but we had some success. We wrote: “Northampton were our tip last year, but never got going, but they have added some experience to a solid squad and could put it right this time. Lincoln are this division’s Bristol City; having missed out repeatedly over recent seasons. Maybe this time they can avoid the pain of the play-offs and go straight up. To accompany them we like the look of Wycombe, who finished very strongly last term.” Well, the Cobblers did go up and the other 2 made the play-offs. We also stated: “Leyton Orient may well be the dark horses in their rebuilt stadium and Paul Simpson’s Carlisle should be ok and may well compete towards the top with a genuine challenge.” They both made automatic promotion, so we have to get a tick for those! I think, bearing in mind the difficulties with this division, we did very well and on the whole I think we can be quite satisfied with our overall predictions. It’s up to you if you listen to us next time, but we will be back in August putting our head on the block once more!
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