With all of our next five league opponents stranded in the bottom half of the league there is scope to feel confident. Dare I say that the full 15 points is within our reach! We are now coming into the business part of the season and I’m thinking that if we can manage to get at least 10 points from these games then we are in with a serious chance of gaining automatic promotion.
Derby – With a host of suspensions and the squad still riddled with injury. We’re missing Nolan, Faubert, McCartney and Collison through suspension. The heart of our midfield is simply not going to be there for this game but I‘m still confident for a win. Derby have picked up just 7 points in their last 5 games. But with 6 of those coming in the last 3 I think that there is a need to take these guys seriously. They are strong at home recently and, to be fair, they’re only 5 points off play-off spot! This game is going to be tough and we are going to need to pull out all the stops especially with such key players watching from the stands. However, there is a chance that Sam Baldock is back from injury so I am hoping that he can make an impact. I’m predicting/hoping that we’ll get a 1-0. We’re going to need to grind out a result though.
Coventry at home should be a pretty routine fixture. With a number of key players returning from suspension and the likes of Matty Taylor and Abdoulaye Faye coming back from injury, we will be close to full strength again. We should win this game comfortably if Taylor and Faye manage to be fit in time, but we are talking about West Ham here. A straightforward home tie against a bottom of the league team never seems to be as straightforward as one would hope. For this reason, I am taking the West Ham factor into account and saying 1-0 again. I’m hoping they surprise me and stuff em 4-0 but just when you start to feel confident, the hammers come and bite you on the backside.
Portsmouth haven’t lost at home since September and this is not going to be an easy please to take all 3 points. But with our brilliant away record you can’t rule out a win. At the moment, Pompey lie 17th in the table and, with a full strength squad (providing we’re not hit by a new wave of injuries and suspensions) we can certainly grind out a result at Fratton Park. But winning this game, along with my prediction that we’ll pick up maximum points against Derby and Coventry means that we would have won 3 on the spin. As a West Ham Fan I know that rarely happens. Therefore, my prediction is that we’ll draw it 1-1 but my heart says 2-1.
Forest at home. We beat them 4-1 last time around and there is no reason why we can’t do it again at home. I think that we can earn a comfortable victory against these guys and take yet another 3 points and put it towards a shiny new trophy at the end of the season. 3-0.
Ipswich could prove a stumbling block. We lost to them last time around with an agonisingly late and calamitous goal from Lee Bowyer. Earning a victory at Portman Road is going to be difficult. I’m predicting a draw. A draw wouldn’t be a bad result to be honest and 1 points from 5 games is the kind of form we need t gain promotion.
We’ve gone off the boil in the last month or so and, taking a look at Southampton and Middlesbrough’s next 5 league games, I definitely think we have a real chance to gain some ground and really cement our place in the top two. I don’t want to be subjected to the torture of the play-offs again!
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Sounds to me like someone’s counting chickens, we all know what we’d like to happen, but also what’s likely to happen don’t we? ………… COYI ‘><'