Points target at this point?

[Aggy 747]

7 points so far, in the relegation zone. But looking at the games we''ve played, is 7 points actually all that bad of a haul?

The only games where I think we "should"/could have done better are Hull and Villa. Villa have become a bit of a bogey team so I''m not overly surprised about that, and Hull have started fairly well. I really don''t think we could have expected a lot more than 7 points at this stage. (I''d have had a point from Everton as a ''bonus'' point on paper as well.)

I think the real time to judge will be at the end of November. 4 "winnable" games and the two Manchester teams in that time. From those 6 games, we should really be wanting 8 or 9 points, otherwise I''ll start to get a bit worried.

But I don''t think we''re at panic stations just yet!

[lappinitup 629]

But do you think Hughton should go?

[can u sit down please 0]

I don''t think it was unrealistic to expect our current points tally after 3 games.

I think 11 would''ve met expectations.

[Move Klose 303]

We are probably 3 points away from where i would expect us to be after those games.

[Aggy 747]

Lappinitup, no I don''t. Even if we are still in the relegation zone by the end of November I would still be hesitant to sack him; who else would you bring in? If we are really, really poor between now and the start of December, then it might be worth getting rid so that a new manager can come in for the transfer window. But I''d only do that if we were seriously bad and it was clear Hughton had simply lost the dressing room or something like that.

Can u sit down please; 11 would certainly not have been unrealistic. It would have been a win and a draw against, say, Villa and Hull. So I can''t argue with 11 as such, but at the moment it is only those two games which have been bad results. Like I said above, by the end of November, if we''re not on 15 or 16 points from the 14 games, then the bad results will have become a bit too much of a pattern and I will be getting worried.

[Mr Brownstone 0]

As pointed out by many pro Hughton posters, we shouldn''t expect any points from the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal, so with our run in we shouldn''t expect any more points after the 34th game, meaning we need to keep well above the 1 point per game average just to achieve safety.

At the moment we''re below it and we should probably be ahead of it already, that being said the next 10 games will define our season, 5 winnable home games and 3 out of 5 away games where we could well take points. We really need to be looking at taking 15 points+ from this run.

[Warren Hill 0]

11 points would have been a good haul. We''d have to have a 3-2-3 record, or a less likely 2-5-1.

A 3-2-3 would have us unbeaten apart from, I''m assuming admittedly, the Spurs and Arsenal away games and Chelsea at home.

Now, it''s entirely possible that we could have taken points from Everton, Villa and Southampton at home and Hull and Stoke away. Possible yes, probable? No.

If your expectation level is that we should remain unbeaten against all but the elite then I''m afraid you''re destined to be disappointed because it just won''t happen. West Brom finished 8th last season and lost 17 times.

Expectation is fine as long as it is tempered with realism.

[BroadstairsR 2,137]

I anticipated four points from Hull and Villa, either way, but just one at Stoke. The rest went to plan.

We are two down then but at this stage 9 points would seem a lot healthier than than 7.

[Aggy 747]

I think as well that, because we''re so early in the season, one or two poor results seem a lot worse.

An extra 2 or 3 points at this moment in time would be a third of our current points tally again. At the end of the season, a third of the points could be 10 or 15 points. So, on the ratios, it doesn''t look great. But further down the line one or two bad results won''t stand out quite so much, as long as it doesn''t become a regular occurence.

I''d be interested to see at what point (if at all and if not already) some of you will lose patience with Hughton? Anyone got a "so many points by such a time" deadline before they''d want someone new?

[Houston Canary 0]

Results are important but a lot of the animosity comes from us not showing up to play in those early debacles.

The expect nowt at Spurs attitude of the apologists was especially gauling when you consider how well we''ve played them the previous 2 seasons. Going there with a loser mentality was unforgiveable. WBA showed that.

Caving in to Villa regularly is weak. If anything, the team should be stoked to show up their old boss, or for the new boys, let him know he doesn''t matter.

[sgncfc 1,221]

I forecast 26 points by the end of the year before the season began.We are 2 points down on that target at the moment. Realistically, less than 20 points by the year end and we are in some trouble because of our run in. But I still think it will be Jan through to March which will define our season

[Branston Pickle 3,632]

I do find it odd people talking about the ''relegation zone'' after just 8 games, I do wonder if people would be talking about being in the ''Champions League'' places were we in the top 4 at the same stage. I doubt it; to me it seems at least in part to be another stick to beat CH with.

That said, there isn''t much doubt that we don''t have the points haul we would have hoped for right now, perhaps 3-4 shy - but recent signs are that we have started to perform much better and we will hopefully start to rectify things. The run of matches up to Christmas ''ought'' to see us climb the table and ease any pressure, certainly if we don''t get points under our belts in that run it would be perfectly reasonable for CH''s job to be questioned, but we aren''t at that point yet.

[SeattleCanary 0]

This is all well and good, I like to share optimism amongst all supporters of NCFC.... but where are the goals to win the games and points coming from????

[Chip20 69]

This is the problem with ''expectations''. I hate that word ''expect'' in relation to football. It smacks so much of the attitude of entitlement that so many youngsters in this country seem to be growing up with. People write about certain teams being "there for the taking" because, yeah, it''s always that simple(!)Some people on here write about ''expecting'' to beat certain teams and then stamp their feet like spoilt children when we lose or perform badly. Every single season we will fail to win games that people ''expected'' us to and sometimes we will achieve results that we certainly didn''t forecast. Even throughout the golden years of success under Lambert we lost games that certain posters on here expected to win. Teams will always put in disappointing performances. It happens to every club in the world, even the best ones. People who expected us to have a certain number of points on the table by now or expected us to beat Hull or expected us to put in a terrific performance against Villa (for example) are downright naive, in my opinion. It''s as if they''ve never noticed that every other team also has unexpected defeats or put in disappointing performances over the course of any given season. But that won''t do for us, of course, because we''ve spent nearly £25m and so we are entitled [goddammit!!] to win every game that, on paper, we are ''expected'' to and the occasional poor performance, especially near the start of the season, just isn''t acceptable for teams spending that much money. Somebody above whined about not being able to see where the goals are going to come from. I saw all the same drivel being posted on here a game or two before the WBA and Man City games last season. It can happen. If you take the bleedin'' blinkers off and open your mind a bit you may see that. Besides; you don''t need to be scoring goals galore to win football matches; you just need to score one more than the opposition. We have scored goals in most games this season and here have been some encouraging performances over the past few games. We will lose more games this season that certain posters expect us to win and we will pick up some more ''surprise'' results this season. You simply cannot target games that are ''must win'' and then throw your toys out of the pram like the sky is caving in when it doesn''t happen. Seasons ebb and flow; no team is consistent all season; don''t expect ours to be! Judge the season as a whole; not just the microcosm of a handful of matches.

[Houston Canary 0]

It''s called "being a fan". Sociology lesson- over.

[Yelloow Since 72 54]

The points required will be somewhere around 38-40 again, but the target will be higher than that.

[Tumbleweed 106]

Using a straight mathematical extrapolation, on the basis that we do not expect any points against the Top 5 as argued by the "pro Hughton" folk (for want of a better term). So if that means we discount Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea we have 28 games.

 

To get to 40 points, we''ll therefore need a run rate of 1.43 points per game for those 28. So after 8 games (actually 6 games because we discount the two against Arsenal and Chelsea) we should be on 8.58 points. We have 7 so we are 1.58 below target.

 

The above ignores:

1. That we beat 3 of those teams last season so no points at all is conservative

2. The target may well be less than 40 as it was last time so the accrual rate may be lower, meaning we are not quite so behind target

3. Just one unexpected win here or there will make a big difference as will one unexpected defeat.

 

Conclusion? Well, I think we already know. It''s going to be a squeaky-bum season.............

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

We''ve not yet picked up many unexpected points and have lost points we would have hoped to gain. The Stoke away win being the highlight given out appalling away form these last 12 months.

I think 10 points would be what we were aiming for in these 8 games