Can't see it happening. I also believe the Bolton performance was better. we should have won that 4-1.
We got Huddersfield on the back of their FAcup game on Sunday.

Saying that we still had to do the job and we did. However, they should have scored at least 2 more.....but didn't.

As far as your question is this a good time to go up?. Well, yes, of course it is. Personally I'd sooner win the Championship next year and not go up this if you could guarantee it.
If we went up, even with a heavy investment into the team, I think we would still struggle. There would be 2 aims.

1. get to 12 points
2. finish 4th from bottom or above



A better question to ask is :
Are there at least 3 better teams than us in the Championship
My answer would be : Yes

It's always a good time to win promotion.

But if we did go up I think that it would be just about impossible to do everything we need to do to stay up. From the squad we have now I think only Jara, Guedioura and Reid could hold their own in the PL. We would have to sign about ten players who are better than what we have.

But if we went up and came back down at least we would have a pot of money to build properly the following season.

I also suspect we are modelling ourselves on the QPR model rather than the Swansea model

Play offs are too far off to be concerning ourselves with, take it game by game and not worry too much about the play offs! See where we are with 6 games to go, Billy needs this time for squad evaluation and getting ready for the summer and new year. Personally I think a promotion this year might be more trouble than it'll be worth but of course if we somehow pulled it off we'd happily take it

I agree - there are 3 better teams. But, when Blackpool went up instead of us, there were more than 3 better teams than them. What's difficult to know is just how much investment we would get, but I still don't see it working if we went up this year. The squad we have now aren't stable - too many loanees, a few unsure of their place etc, so adding hugely to this in the summer, which we would have to if we went up, is probably not gonna help.

Which three Webbo?

Certainly Cardiff. Hull? Better organised and these two Egyptians seem to be on form but is the squad better? Watford? Yes I think so although they don't own any of their players! Leicester? I don't think so. Palace? Possibly - in Zaha they have a Prem class player and in Murray they have a striker in the form of his life. They don't have an expensively assembled suqad though and just seem better organised and motivated than we have been. Boro? I don't think so.

I'd say there are definitely two better teams than us in terms of the squad. In terms of organisation, motivation, momentum etc there are 6-7 better teams pre Davies being back in charge.

Personally I don't think we'll make the play-offs, then again a couple of seasons ago when we were just outside the top six at the beginning of December I didn't think that two months later we'd have wiped out something like a ten or twelve point deficit on Newcastle to go within one goal of going above them. I just seem to remember us picking up results (not all wins) and reeling in the teams above us one at a time, we were also beating the teams around us, Swansea, Leicester and of course the Baggies to take us above them in to second. I know it's a cliche but with good run at 'the business end of the season' anything could happen.
I'm also of the opinion that it's never the wrong time to go up. Does anyone think that Blackpool regretted going up even though they came straight back down and the same for Reading and Southampton if they come back down. As long as you run the club well like West Brom you'll be ok. If you do a QPR you can end up in real trouble. If they come down with the contracts they've been handing out I think they could end up going the same way as Portsmouth, Southampton and I think Bournemouth and end up in administration. Note I only mention those two (three) clubs as they have the one thing in common - the man many of us wanted to be let loose with Fawaz's money - Harry Redknapp.

To go up or not should not even be considered a question.

With the incoming FFP and the changes to parachute payments, you absolutely HAVE to get on that gravy train asap. The model should be West Brom; gain promotion, be sensible with the increased revenue and subsequent parachute, and be in a stronger position next time around.

Neither of our clubs would do anything in the Premier League; survival would in some ways be a massive bonus but, if expectations were managed properly, then being promoted to be relegated with dignity to enjoy another promotion season the year after allows time for the club to be built up rather than hurling millions at it in a desperate attempt to stay up first time around. The ensuing turmoil has doomed clubs which went that way to successive relegations and often administration, so caution is the byword.

Nobody should shy away from a shot at promotion, but it takes sensible prudence to improve your club with a long term view thereafter rather than piling as many eggs as you can borrow into one flimsy basket.

A short point about Hull, I wonder how many of their fans were moaning that their Egyptian owners would be forcing in their Egyptian players on Steve Bruce. I know Egypt are probably better than Kuwait but if in the Summer we have more Kuwaitis on trial and Billy decides he likes the look of them we could unearth a gem or two for next to nothing after all Hull's Egyptians have been a big reason for their clim up the table.

Good point Jacko, we need to expand our horizons and the Kuwait thing is great for branding! There are surely some decent unheard of talent out in the middle east and the surroudning areas and with visa restrictions we'll only ever sign the cream of the crop as average players simply wont be eligible so with the increased branding and some top tier players its a win, win situation!

Well - a sensible Derby post. Glad I read it before hitting delete. And of course, I agree with everyone - you have no choice but to go for promotion - it's not like we're going throw games if we get into the position - but like others have said, i'd prefer it with got some time to get ourselves together over the next year and be really prepared to give the Premier league a go. I will never moan, though, if we somehow end up there. Just to be able to see us playing at those grounds again after so long would be a bonus.

Cannigia of the teams you mentioned I'd say Cardiff, Hull, Palace, definitely - Leicester maybe as an overall squad, Watford, yes, but as you say they are all loanees. But if you took our loanees out we are suddenly very short in key positions. We have the best and most competitive central mid in the league, but we lack hugely elsewhere.

With FFP coming and the TV money going up massively now is the best time ever to go up. We're not in a bad position in that if we do make the playoffs we'll be the form team going in to them and that's what matters. You don't need to be the 3rd best team over a season you need to be the best team over 3 games. Of course we're pretty big outsiders to finish top 6.

I'm sure our owners are fully aware nows the best time to go up and it's why they didnt stick with SOD. They wanted someone who they thought stood a better chance. Obviously they made a mess of it but I understand the thinking behind it to a certain extent.

Agreed, King Jacko. Exactly. As long as the manager gets to choose we should be looking everywhere for talent. Why not Kuwait.

Why are playoffs so unrealistic? Not like any teams around us are in any kind of form. We lost 3 in a row and failed to win in 5 and we're still in with a shout. Heck with how things are 2-3 wins could very well get us into the playoffs.

With getting promoted, who would realistically thrive in the PL? Cardiff would probably just miss out of relegation but not comfortabley. IF.... and the massive if, we win the playoff, i just hope we dont rival derbys stellar record.

Putting 2-3 wins together... not 2-3 wins till the end of the season*

SHH,

Yeah the midfield is very strong. Defence very weak. I think upfront we have some very good options. Hull are an odd one, they weren't favourites for a play-off place at the start of the season but have slowly worked their way up the league. They have a mean defence and get quite a few 1-0 wins. On paper they don't have a much better squad but in Bruce they have a manager who knows what he's doing. He will always get a job at the bottom end of Prem, top end of Champ because he rarely fails to at least meet the minimum expectations. At Wigan he exceeded them and if he gets Hull up then he;s done a great job.

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I think that if Ayala & hutchison were 100% they would be two of the better defenders in the league, but they're are not. I quite like Ward, although he gets caught ball watching a bit and sometimes loses his marker. He's definitely improving though. Halfords growing on me & I can see him thriving under BD. I think his versatility is valuable to the squad. I'm not keen on Collins. I keep musing over potential, but forget he's 32. He wasn't highly rated by either Sunderland or Stoke fans. he's certainly not captain material and it doesn't surprise me that Davies has removed him from the starting line up. Harding always has been and always will be average. It's funny how BD seems to spot the obvious and do something about it. I liked this about him the last time he was here. Our midfield, based on the last two performances looks pretty tasty. The difference in energy has been pretty amazing, and if players like Lansbury and Raddi can thrive, we have an abundance of creativity.

^^
Agree completely with those last two posts. Although Webbo I think we would beat Leicester over two legs and maybe struggle against Palace.

Strange league again. When we finished third the table stayed fairly static from not much after the new year Newcastle, WBA, Us, Cardif and Leicester were all in the top six with Swansea and Blackpool fighting it out for the remaining place.
The season after, a with a couple of months to go we looked nailed on to go up - clear second with games in hand. Then Swansea overtook us and I remember someone on here saying they could not see them losing another game and most felt Norwich would be the team most likely to slip away.
For most of last season it looked like Southampton and West Ham would go up then Reading charged above them both.
Even this season the only real constant have been Cardiff, since around Christmas Palace, Hull and Leicester have all been in the top two (Didn't Leicester even go top)? Also the amount of teams who have been in the top six has been staggering in fact (apart from after the first couple of games) we are one of the few in the top half who have not been there, I seem to remember that even the likes of Huddersfield being up there at one sage.

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Interesting one this is, of course I would love Forest to go up this year and if you do it through the playoffs then that is the best way i.e going to Wembley.

However there are also the worries of everyone else if we went up with all the upheaval we have had, if we could cope but I suppose when you have the chance you have to take it as you never know what might happen next (i.e BD sacked then just having gone through 20 months of nightmares!).

however if we didn't go up or didn't get into the playoffs I think with the way BD can get these players to play after 8 days, with a BD pre-season over the summer and make some additions and I would seriously think we could challenge for autos next year!

Agree with 666 and Sutton.

Do a 'smash & grab' like Blackpool and get some big money in the coffers.

Think we have left it too late now but you never know.

Shouldn't ever turn down the opportunity for promotion. Silly to think otherwise IMO. If we get there, well then the team is good enough to go up... Who's to say, if we do improve the squad for next season that we would go up anyway? If we're in contention and the chance arises, take it, no matter what. Might not get another chance for many years to come.

Hate to be negative but I think everyone above us would probably beat us over 2 legs if we did reach the playoffs, as I think the weaknesses in our team can't really be fixed until Summer. If we get over 70 points this season Billy Davies will have worked a minor miracle. I expect we'll finish round about where we are now.

70 points only requires an average of 2 points per game from now on. That is far from unrealistic for us. The big question will be whether 70/71 points is actually enough to get you there.

We need to put a positive run together and, as someone mentioned earlier, we just happen to have a run of 'winnable' looking games coming up. The next couple of weeks will determine our fate.

I just hope we won’t be looking back at the end of the season, to point the finger at Mr Ecks reign of darkness. The points dropped over those 40 days could well end up being the determining factor.

Isn’t it odd that just a few games ago we were looking over our shoulders at the possibility of being dragged down into the relegation scrap – and just two games and four point further on, we are now considering the possibility of re-joining the chase for the play-offs. It’s doing my current affliction with bi-polar disorder absolutely no good at all!