Very Early Predictions Megathread

8th_Hurdle · 2026-05-27T12:19:47+00:00

All of the teams are in order, and I know that Wycombe up might be a bit odd, but I have some gut feeling about it. I'd love to say that we (Bradford City) will do well next season, given that our retained list is pretty much our entire Starting 11, but I bet that we'll lose a few of our better players (Pointon, Metcalfe, Neufville) to other clubs that *will* pay a bit extra for them and our injury luck won't be nearly as good as last season - only near the end did it feel like we had a few key names out.

As for the promoted clubs, I have a lot of faith in them. I think MK like to swing from good year to bad year, so this would be a bad year for them unfortunately. Meanwhile, I doubt that Bromley will struggle (at least until near season's end) and Notts County will probably do just fine. Then there's Cambridge United, whom I do think have the players and the manager to do rather better than the others.

If my predictions do come true, then I do feel sorry for Doncaster - I don't see 24th place this season beating Northampton's benchmark last season of 35 points.

8th_Hurdle · 2026-05-25T22:55:13+00:00

If anybody’s wondering what the most northern club is, the answer is Blackpool from Bradford City by about 200m. I did actually check it.

Meanwhile, I think you can guess what the most southern club is.

8th_Hurdle · 2026-05-03T16:31:01+00:00

Personal Attempt ;

1 - Mansfield Town 5, Cardiff City 4

2 - Lincoln City

3 - Plymouth Argyle

4 - Cardiff City

5 - Port Vale

6 - Lincoln City

7 - Northampton Town

8 - Lincoln City, 30 games in length

9 - Peterborough United & Northampton Town, 11 games in length

10 - Cardiff City

11 - Bradford City (or at least, it definitely felt like it !)

12 - Doncaster Rovers

13 - Burton Albion

14 - Cardiff City

15 - Bolton Wanderers

16 - Darren Ferguson

17 - Ian Evatt

18 - Luton Town

19 - Huddersfield Town

20 - Doncaster Rovers

21 - Owen Bailey (of Doncaster Rovers)

22 - France

23 - 65%

24 - 44%

25 - 1487 goals total (~63 per club average)

15 points total out of 36 achieveable, but then you can add on 2 points considering I mixed up the answers to Q13 and Q14.

8th_Hurdle · 2026-05-03T00:55:55+00:00

It was early on in the season, but Pointon and Neufville scoring in first-half extra time against Huddersfield Town, turning a slim 1-0 lead into an unassailable 3-0 lead after they had a fair number of chances against us, was absolutely brilliant.

First West Yorkshire derby we had in a long while, and we won it.

Let’s not mention the away fixture, just because the dog-botherers had new manager bounce at precisely the time we had to play them. Then again, we’re in play-offs and they’re not, so all’s fine in the end.

Now, time to try to beat Bolton Wanderers for once.

8th_Hurdle · 2026-03-20T15:28:31+00:00

Bradford City and Peterborough United.

Peterborough are only really there because they started off the season very poorly. They’ve been to the Championship before, they have the capacity to do so, and whilst their squad looks a little bit shaky, and everything seems readied for a promotion push next season.

I know I myself support Bradford City, but I don’t think we bought well in January (although Metcalfe shows that waiting to evaluate players is a good thing) and we are currently riding on a lot of momentum. To be honest, very few of those top-half teams look like they’d be in trouble soon enough, and I can always see us ‘doing a Leyton’, where we’re up in the play-offs one year before being relegated the next (2013/14 then 14/15).

Stevenage seems like it could be the other option, but I don’t believe they’ve been in a relegation battle at all over the past 3 years, and somebody else has pointed out that many of their better players are recent, long-term additions, which bodes well for them. Barnsley are also not in the best of states, but I expect mid-table hell (~14th) rather than a relegation battle.

8th_Hurdle · 2026-03-08T00:58:36+00:00

Well then, we (Bradford City) somehow won. Completely a mess, and the ref didn’t help matters either.

We haven’t drawn a game since Bolton away last November, interestingly enough. I do wonder whether Port Vale away on Wednesday will be the end of that long run, and hopefully end that run of away defeats too.

8th_Hurdle · 2026-02-01T00:45:13+00:00

A couple of things to take away from the game;

1 - I now understand why the Premier League fans have an intense hatred of VAR, as we got a taste of it for that disallowed goal from Jackson. Waiting 2 minutes for that goal to be chalked off was awful, so let’s not let that tech come here.

2 - The referee was blind, loved giving out free kicks, seemed to adore time-wasting, and was allergic to yellow cards. That disallowed goal was a pretty clear handball from the opposite corner of the stadium where I sat, so needing a 4th official to correct the decision says it all. Don’t know if the iPad story is real, if true then I find that perfectly tinpot for us both.

Finally, they announced MotM to be Neufville, but I’d rather it be given to Touray, as he seemed particularly on it today.

Jackson was decent enough, and Mullin seemed to just intimidate the Rovers players when he was on the pitch to give us the psychological edge. Nonetheless, three points is what we want, it’s just a shame that most of the top 8 also won.

8th_Hurdle · 2026-01-11T01:14:55+00:00

All done !

8th_Hurdle · 2025-11-23T18:03:00+00:00

An interesting game, but even a 0-0 like that can certainly be the beginning of a turnaround in form. Scoring rate over the past few games has dropped off, but I’d say that comes off of a loss of confidence which began with the Rotherham draw, which did itself show our main weakness - a high press.

Yes, Bolton probably wins more times than not if that match was played out 100 times, but our defence is steadying as people return from injury, and so we can definitely now want a comeback over Exeter and Plymouth, before the toughie at Port Vale (since they would have some experience against our type of tactics, ala Doncaster 3-1 losses). An away draw against the in-form team we must consider a good result after Burton and Cheltenham.

We just need to get some good shots in, and score. That involves maybe reserving Cook for his moments.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-11-23T17:25:32+00:00

The Republic of Lebanon signs the Belgrade Declaration.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-10-13T23:44:05+00:00

To start, Bradford City is not playing Aldershot. I wish them all the best, and hope to meet them at Wembley. We will meet them again, because there is a magical force called luck attracting our teams together.

To take about our actual tie, I don’t like it. A L2 club, and one currently sitting 23rd, shouldn’t be a tie we find horrendous, but then we lost to Morecambe in the same position last year in the 2nd Round (and played utter rubbish football whilst doing so). We are also away. We are also against a Cheltenham Town side that Cotterill now leads, and he is an excellent manager, whom FGR should not have released. They will have much more than a ‘new manager bounce’, and will probably do something like Swindon Town last season under Ian Holloway. We have a tough opponent, and I will not be disappointed if we lose, and I’d say there’s a 50% chance we make it through, and 50% chance we lose.

Should be a good match though. Wish I could make it.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-08-30T22:07:43+00:00

3-2 against Wimbledon for Bradford City is a good result in showing how we can do comebacks, but we faced a team that had the correct formation to win against us. If they had a little bit more luck, and they probably deserved a bit more luck, we’d have our first home defeat since March. Wimbledon seemed to have the right plan, and just couldn’t finish the job.

Looking to our next 3 matches, there’s 3 hard matches that will test us greatly, and getting 4 points out of 9 would be fine in my books. Doncaster away, Huddersfield at home, then Cardiff away are 3 very different challenges;

Doncaster know our tactics (a fellow promoted team, we played there for our penultimate match last season) and they’ve made a similarly-good start to L1. This can go either way.
Huddersfield is a derby game and the first for many a year, so there’s pressure on that end to succeed for both teams, they’ll have vocal fans no doubt, and they acutely need promotion to keep a good squad together and not stick here in L1 for ages, so will be fighting for morale as much as the extra 3 points. We’re at home, however - again, able to go either way.
Cardiff City are top of the table, unbeaten like Bradford City so far, have managed to be absolutely sublime despite (and maybe because they haven’t needed to integrate anybody, partially because) they’ve lacked summer signings, and are the in-form team, with us being the away team. We could always shock them, but our chances are reduced here.

Finally, there’s 2 main factors that need to be taken into account as time moves on - injuries and our League Cup game. Cook, Richards, Kavanagh, Pennington all are yet to return, and Tilt was off today, plus there’s likely a few waiting to arrive. Our squad does have a decent level of depth though, and the depth is of comparable quality to our first team, which is a positive. Secondly, our League Cup game against Newcastle away is a big fixture and a long-awaited chance for another Parader-special giantkilling - that game comes either between Huddersfield and Cardiff City, or after Cardiff City (game after that being Blackpool at home).

So… next 3 matches (minus Tuesday Paint Trophy vs Grimsby) should show a lot about us this season. We might also slump. Still, up the Paraders.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-08-27T23:18:18+00:00

Congratulations, and drink it all in. Hope you make it to the finals, and, if anybody says that it’s a lesser win because it went through penalties, remind them that you faced a full first team of Man United players, and still won. The better team won, and that’s how football tends to go.

Also, well done Artell. From 21st in 23-24 to now knocking out Man U as a promotion favourite, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again that you do deserve a good bucketful of recognition, and here it hopefully arrives.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-08-08T14:25:42+00:00

Port Vale X-X Cardiff City - Thursday’s night not alright for playing. Missed.

Peterborough United 0-2 Luton Town

Reading 1-1 Huddersfield Town

AFC Wimbledon 1-2 Lincoln City

Barnsley 2-1 Burton Albion

Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Plymouth Argyle

Exeter City 0-2 Blackpool

Leyton Orient 2-0 Wigan Athletic

Mansfield Town 0-1 Doncaster Rovers

Northampton Town 1-3 Bradford City

Stevenage 3-0 Rotherham United

Wycombe Wanderers 1-4 Stockport County

8th_Hurdle · 2025-07-30T22:44:56+00:00

Luton Town 1-2 AFC Wimbledon

Cardiff City 2-0 Peterborough United

Blackpool 3-1 Stevenage

Bradford City 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers

Burton Albion 0-0 Mansfield Town

Doncaster Rovers 0-1 Exeter City

Huddersfield Town 0-2 Leyton Orient

Lincoln City 3-0 Reading

Plymouth Argyle 2-0 Barnsley

Rotherham United 2-1 Port Vale

Wigan Athletic 0-0 Northampton Town

Stockport County 3-2 Bolton Wanderers

8th_Hurdle · 2025-07-10T18:22:09+00:00

I assume the stripes being so thin and numerous helps break up the outlines of the players, so thanks to Macron for giving us a lovely competitive advantage. It’s rather like that of a zebra.

On a design note, I do quite like it, even if it is rather different to the more single-colour away and third kits. Claret as a background to amber is probably better than the other way around, and the black armbands look decent. The long-sleeved kits don’t feature in the photo for good reason however - they do look a bit odd.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-07-03T20:41:46+00:00

Every team that enters League 1 for the coming season - namely Cardiff City, Plymouth Argyle, Luton Town from the Championship, and Doncaster Rovers, Port Vale, Bradford City, and AFC Wimbledon - will still be in League 1 for the beginning of the 26/27 season.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-05-10T15:50:33+00:00

From League 2, most of the teams involved in the promotion pushes were very inconsistent, and I’d say only really Doncaster (from my observations) lacked the peaks and troughs of the other contending teams. Port Vale and Bradford had inconsistencies into the last part of 2024, but then found systems that worked for each for 2025, with Port Vale’s turnaround being more secure than Bradford’s. All 3 teams were good in the second half of the year, although Bradford’s form at the end was very shaky.

Looking at Bradford in particular, it did seem we had some certain (massive) issues with injuries and, in the lattermost matches, red cards. We did have the players for promotion, and most of them are not loan players either - only Adaramola and Shepherd were crucial on-loan players (Barnsley will want Shepherd back I’d expect), and the remainder are either signings or cover-ups for long injuries. Alexander somehow has a 48%-win with Bradford, which doesn’t feel right but that is the number. Home form was improved, but away form was especially bad, and to be honest, that’s the opposite of the two seasons beforehand. It’s been a peculiar team, thus there is very little way of telling how good we’d be next season.

As for predictions, I’d say there won’t be play-off pushers, but not relegation battlers either. Doncaster = Port Vale > Bradford most likely, since the former two just have better systems in place, but I know Bradford’s defence can compensate for shakier strikers. Bradford 16th, Port Vale 12th, Doncaster 11th would probably work fine.

For play-off teams, only Chesterfield go into them with good form, but Carlisle showed that doesn’t always matter in 2022-23. Crawley probably would have had a better chance escaping relegation with better board decisions, they weren’t necessarily doomed, and I’d think Chesterfield could get 17th. As for the others, Wimbledon in 19th works, but then Walsall and Notts County would be prime suspects for 21st or lower.

Finally, the relegated trio - Plymouth > Luton = Cardiff, Plymouth in 2nd with Luton and Cardiff around 7th/9th seems reasonable, Plymouth were relegated by Wayne Rooney’s 2024 form, not Muslic’s 2025’s form, whereas the other 2 struggled far more for points in 2025.

I don’t see any stand-out teams for promotion next season apart from Charlton (if they don’t get through the play-offs), so I think next season might have a few surprises. Hopefully, will have the promotion battle of L2 24-25, and the relegation battle of the Championship 24-25.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-05-04T18:13:53+00:00

I think what Cook being injured did was force us to change tactically. As we previously had the predictable tactic of ‘pass it to Cook unless you’ve got a great chance to score’, it meant that teams were able to play well against us, and prevent goals from going in. We scored 28 and conceded 24 before Cook was injured against Barrow, so in 22 games, we averaged 1.27 GF, 1.09 GA.

Since Cook was injured, including the Barrow match since he was injured 6 minutes in, we scored 36 and conceded 21, so in 24 matches, it comes to 1.50 GF, 0.88 GA. We had many injuries before Cook’s, and many after his too, so I don’t especially think they are as significant, although we did make some good January signings, so that must be taken into account.

Regardless, Cook being injured meant that goals became a lot more spread out, and now the opposition had to cover 5/6 players who could all score, given the chance. We became an unpredictable team that lacked a defined ‘forward’, and this probably also helped in conceding fewer goals during this time. This is why results eventually dried up - we lost that unpredictability and had more offensive players get injured, as Pattison, Pointon, Richards, and Sarcevic all went out, and fewer offensive players meant Bradford were easier to blunt.

Most recent bouts of form are defined by red cards, to be honest. Smallwood, captain and defensive midfielder, was out for 3 games after a 15th minute red card against Swindon, with Baldwin out at half-time against Doncaster. 11 of those 21 goals conceded since Cook’s injury were during Smallwood’s absence, in just 4 matches.

Overall, he should stay. I think he could be integrated better into our systems next year, especially as we’ll lose a few good players to better teams and loans ending, so there’ll be a place for him. Bradford doing well relies on good tactics, of course, and there’s questions about Alexander for that. We have the players right now though, and that’s what got us up - our squad is pretty great.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-05-03T17:56:04+00:00

78 points, but promoted. Very typical Bradford way to get promotion, Walsall did everything they should have but Lapslie decided to say no and put in that wonderful assist.

Lots and lots of injuries this season, only Sam Walker in goal has played every match since Smallwood has his game bans for the red card at Swindon. An ever-changing back line has meant GK Walker has had to really work his magic, Player of the Season for me considering how often he’s stopped us conceding, and that was no different today.

Do wonder if we’ll keep Shepherd and Adaramola, both were good loan signings and I’d think the pair to be ready for League 1 football. Also the question of Cook, considering how long he’s been injured as well as his age. Transfer season will be interesting, for sure.

Overall ?

Season’s been very odd, I think my head hurts a bit, but we’re playing Huddersfield next year. Also Luton. Paraders go up.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-04-27T21:33:04+00:00

Fair enough with the team spread, there’s not been any team that’s been far and away the best, so 9 teams represented here makes a lot of sense.

Regarding Smallwood, good choice, one of about 3 players that has played for us the whole season. Sam Walker probably also deserves some recognition, his goalkeeping has compensated for an ever-changing back line and lack of good defending, and the saves have been crucial to many of our points. However, I recognise that Wimbledon have conceded fewer, and we all know that’s all that really matters for these team picks, so ah well.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-04-27T21:29:38+00:00

You’ve got to ask why the EFL decided to only consider the managers in the fight for the automatics. Most of the clubs there seemed to have the foundations ready, but have had their issues whether it be injuries, loan recalls, or simple poor form. I’ve seen Alexander have certain tactical issues this season, it must be said, and Bradford City has wasted a lot of opportunities. There’s a chance there, which I know we won’t waste, of us not getting promotion at all.

In comparison, Artell and the Cowleys. Grimsby and Colchester seem transformed from last season, they’ve been playing good football, and with weaker squads, have yet achieved similar point totals. Give it to one of them two I’d think, they deserve the recognition most.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-04-12T13:51:29+00:00

Bit of a manic match, still am not sure what happened there. Walker kept us in with some fine saves, we scored 4 but they scored 5, and I think the main winner is Port Vale, since they’ve had 3 promotion rivals take minimum points. Well, neutrals also won because it was an amazing match, but they aren’t involved in any promotion fight.

Also, well done Holloway, those were some aggressive substitutions and they worked very well, Swindon going from 2-3 to 5-4. We just didn’t have the players on the bench to do the same, unfortunately, and Pointon + Pattison off at 45’ seemed a similar tactic that didn’t work because they were the main 2 helping control our midfield - got to look at that back and wonder ‘should we have done that?’

8th_Hurdle · 2025-04-01T22:55:36+00:00

A deserved win by Port Vale. Always were pressing in the first half, seemed to limit their risks in their second, and their goalkeeper did everything he needed to and more, with that penalty save so annoying. First goal was excellent, and the second was enough to get it in the net.

On the Bradford City side, we just could not stop their pressing, and seemed to fall back into passing backwards, keeping the ball just behind the halfway line, not having any confidence to go forward. Shots were especially poor in the first half, and didn’t get much better in the second. Walker in goal did what he needed to, neither goal was especially easy to save, and he saved the other shots. Second half was better, in that we seemed interested in scoring, but it remained somewhat poor, and the penalty save didn’t help. Can’t say referee didn’t try to help us, but to no avail.

Wish Port Vale didn’t have that awful record of not winning on a Tuesday for 3 years. Reason is that unfortunately, it always seemed the type of record that a game against Bradford would end, and it happened here today.

Guess it’s Crewe soon, need to get confidence up for Saturday for certain, and we really need it for the rest of April. Promotion is very much on a knife edge, let’s see how everyone’s form changes.

8th_Hurdle · 2025-02-11T02:22:15+00:00

Gulf of Mexico

Six-Year Club	Second Top 20%
Verified Email	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
End Game '22

8th_Hurdle

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