post-Souness Life... Well it's been roughly 4 weeks since Souness got the axe... and what a difference a month makes... At the end of January, things were looking very grim... In the time since then:

-> We're unbeaten!
-> We've advanced to the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup
-> Shearer's scored his 201st goal
-> Dyer has made a comeback (and gone away again)
-> Owen is 1 month closer to returning, talk of him perhaps making the FA Cup quarter finals...

We're not only 6 points out of 6th place, and seriously looking like we could mount a challenge for a UEFA Cup spot... With Man United winning the League Cup over the weekend, and they most likely finishing in 2nd place, not sure what that does, if that opens another UEFA Cup spot to the league or not...

This weekend's match against Bolton is key, it really is a 6 pointer, if we can win that match, then sets us up very nicely, because the next 2 fixtures after that are away to Man United and home v Liverpool, so even an optimist wouldn't go into those 2 matches realistically expecting much... Although I'd love to at least grab a point...

After those two we then go on a decent looking run of fixtures:

Charlton away
Tottenham home
Middlesboro away
Wigan home
Sunderland away
West Brom home
Birmingham home

and the season wraps up at home versus Chelsea...

I think the key to our season rests in the next 3 matches... If we can get at least 4 points from those fixtures, then I think we have a really decent chance of getting amoungst the teams in 5-8th spot and making a go of it...  ¶ Monday, February 27, 2006