Magic Number

[Mr Angry]

After today's results, the magic number is now 32.

[Silver Fox]

26, couldn’t have gone better

[Royal_jimmy]

Getting there. We might have just about enough points in the bag already. We aren't a good side but we are better than Huddersfield, Wigan and Blackpool, I don't see any of them catching us. Nor Rotherham or Cardiff

[paultheroyal]

3 wins and we are home and hosed. 2 wins and a draw will probably do it.

URZ.

[Mr Angry]

If/when the 6 point deduction comes in, our Magic Number goes back up to 32.........

[Winston Biscuit]

[Mr Angry]

So, Hull are buggered then?

[tidus_mi2]

So, Hull are buggered then?

Well they have an 11pt gap so are probably fine. Huddersfield might be in a lot of trouble though.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

That's all relative to the league table (currently) though. We are 14th in the table (currently) so we are facing the 10th~ best side in the league on average, so you'd imagine it's quite likely we'd get something.

The likes of Wigan (23rd), Rotherham (20th) and Birmingham (19th) are facing teams that are significantly higher than them in the table on average, so they are actually "harder" fixtures, per game, than what we have.

Even if/when we have 6 points deducted, we are still performing as the "14th-best" side in the division. I still think with just 6 points off that we will do enough to get over the line and it still reaffirms Paul Ince's point to get to 50 points as well. It "could" be a bit more of a motivator for the players and makes sure we aren't on the beach as early as we would have otherwise been.

The downside is we are getting dragged into a relegation battle which may effect morale and subsequently go down on the last day with a defeat at Huddersfield... but we don't think like that do we...

[Dirk Gently]

That's all relative to the league table (currently) though. We are 14th in the table (currently) so we are facing the 10th~ best side in the league on average, so you'd imagine it's quite likely we'd get something.

The likes of Wigan (23rd), Rotherham (20th) and Birmingham (19th) are facing teams that are significantly higher than them in the table on average, so they are actually "harder" fixtures, per game, than what we have.

Even if/when we have 6 points deducted, we are still performing as the "14th-best" side in the division. I still think with just 6 points off that we will do enough to get over the line and it still reaffirms Paul Ince's point to get to 50 points as well. It "could" be a bit more of a motivator for the players and makes sure we aren't on the beach as early as we would have otherwise been.

The downside is we are getting dragged into a relegation battle which may effect morale and subsequently go down on the last day with a defeat at Huddersfield... but we don't think like that do we...

I agree, but I think if anything the effect on morale from a points deduction will be a big boost rather than the opposite. Any manager who can't use the sense of injustice and the "they're all out to get us, us agains the world" factor as a team-builder and a motivator doesn't deserve to be in their role.

[tidus_mi2]

That's all relative to the league table (currently) though. We are 14th in the table (currently) so we are facing the 10th~ best side in the league on average, so you'd imagine it's quite likely we'd get something.

The likes of Wigan (23rd), Rotherham (20th) and Birmingham (19th) are facing teams that are significantly higher than them in the table on average, so they are actually "harder" fixtures, per game, than what we have.

Even if/when we have 6 points deducted, we are still performing as the "14th-best" side in the division. I still think with just 6 points off that we will do enough to get over the line and it still reaffirms Paul Ince's point to get to 50 points as well. It "could" be a bit more of a motivator for the players and makes sure we aren't on the beach as early as we would have otherwise been.

The downside is we are getting dragged into a relegation battle which may effect morale and subsequently go down on the last day with a defeat at Huddersfield... but we don't think like that do we...

I agree, but I think if anything the effect on morale from a points deduction will be a big boost rather than the opposite. Any manager who can't use the sense of injustice and the "they're all out to get us, us agains the world" factor as a team-builder and a motivator doesn't deserve to be in their role.

Hopefully it can be used as a boost, I just worry because we were doing fine last season but the moment we got the point deduction we seemed to just collapse. Might have been a failure on Pauno's part to properly motivate the players, can't really say.

Would imagine Ince would be better at getting the right message across, while tactically I'm still unsure about him, he does seem to be a good motivator.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I can definitely see it being a boost, but the timing isn't ideal. After beating Blackpool, contrary to P.Ince's comments, the squad of players probably "knew" we'd confirmed safety next season, now with a points deduction we have to go and do it again now.

Depending on when the points come off, we may have played 2, possibly 3, games by then, so the picture could look entirely different, especially considering I'm expecting nothing in our next 2 fixtures whereas I'm anticipating the bottom 3/sides below us to pick up something on us. So we are looking from being 13 points clear today, whereas this time next week we could be something like 4/5 clear.

Ultimately, it's going one of two ways, it either boosts us, or it does the opposite. If we just continue what we've been doing all season, then we should still survive providing nothing else off the field happens in that time.

[Stranded]

If the deduction is 6 then it leaves 5 teams below us - we have won 5 or 6 games more than all those teams, we should be fine unless our form drops off a cliff.

Warnock is targeting 48 points for Huddersfield to stay up so beat Hull, Wigan & Brum at home, which we should realistically be able to do and we are looking at probably 1 more win (or 3 draws) in the other 10 (assuming 6 off) to get over the line.

[Winston Biscuit]

If the deduction is 6 then it leaves 5 teams below us - we have won 5 or 6 games more than all those teams, we should be fine unless our form drops off a cliff

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64835869

But last time this happened, Reading's form immediately dipped to nearly disastrous levels. The fear is a similarly spectacular crash after this points deduction.

Last season, Reading recorded just six points from their subsequent 13 games following the points deduction.

ruh-oh

[Stranded]

If the deduction is 6 then it leaves 5 teams below us - we have won 5 or 6 games more than all those teams, we should be fine unless our form drops off a cliff

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64835869

But last time this happened, Reading's form immediately dipped to nearly disastrous levels. The fear is a similarly spectacular crash after this points deduction.

Last season, Reading recorded just six points from their subsequent 13 games following the points deduction.

ruh-oh

Would argue that this is a slightly different situation especially as we are nearer the end of the season. Target has always been to stay up and this should galvanise the side to manage that - you would hope.

Also we have a much more mentally strong squad this year than last, IMHO at least.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

If the deduction is 6 then it leaves 5 teams below us - we have won 5 or 6 games more than all those teams, we should be fine unless our form drops off a cliff

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64835869

But last time this happened, Reading's form immediately dipped to nearly disastrous levels. The fear is a similarly spectacular crash after this points deduction.

Last season, Reading recorded just six points from their subsequent 13 games following the points deduction.

ruh-oh

I'm not really sure there is too much of a comparison to last season considering we are now at different stages of the season, under a different manager and with a lot of different players as well.

We were also actually in good form at the time really, so we were always going to be expecting a drop off as well.

[Sutekh]

Would agree 9 points should see the club safe really. Obviously the expectation of when those points would arrive would be from games like Wigan and Hull at home, however they are two sides that have seen a quite miserable home return from in recent seasons, both in terms of points and the on-pitch performance (Hull: 1 home win in 7, Wigan: 2 home wins in 6) so nothing is guaranteed. You never know though, Reading might have a truly miracle week and somehow wangle 9 from the next 3 games!

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Would agree 9 points should see the club safe really. Obviously the expectation of when those points would arrive would be from games like Wigan and Hull at home, however they are two sides that have seen a quite miserable home return from in recent seasons, both in terms of points and the on-pitch performance (Hull: 1 home win in 7, Wigan: 2 home wins in 6) so nothing is guaranteed. You never know though, Reading might have a truly miracle week and somehow wangle 9 from the next 3 games!

Birmingham are another where we've had a pretty lousy home record in recent times, barring our win last season, but where you'd be targeting that game for 3 points.

Bottom line is, despite not performing especially well or having relatively poor results in our last 10 games, we still haven't been beaten at home since the return from the WC break. Anticipating that might change on Tuesday, but given we have 7 home games left, you'd be thinking we could pick up at least 3 wins there, plus a couple of draws.

We might also sneak a win away from home and maybe pick up a draw or two, which would get us there.

[Green]

GUO lousy

[Snowflake Royal]

If the deduction is 6 then it leaves 5 teams below us - we have won 5 or 6 games more than all those teams, we should be fine unless our form drops off a cliff

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64835869

But last time this happened, Reading's form immediately dipped to nearly disastrous levels. The fear is a similarly spectacular crash after this points deduction.

Last season, Reading recorded just six points from their subsequent 13 games following the points deduction.

ruh-oh

I'm not really sure there is too much of a comparison to last season considering we are now at different stages of the season, under a different manager and with a lot of different players as well.

We were also actually in good form at the time really, so we were always going to be expecting a drop off as well.

The positive slant is those players last year knew a points deduction was incoming and it could be 12 so when it turned out to be 6 relaxed disastrously.

Whereas this will presumably be a relatively unexpected six, so might galvanise them.

All guess work of course.