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Don’t do predictions. Never really have. Just hunches. And my best hunch is…

15th April 2009 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

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Several moons ago I wrote a piece suggesting that anyone who honestly hoped that I might be able to shed any light on what was about to unfold over the final ten games of the season was going to be disappointed.

Cos, I didn't know.

And with three games to go, I still don't.

After 16-odd years reporting on Canary affairs – be it either as a wood-stainer or here on MyFootballWriter – you get a hunch as to which way the wind is blowing. But it is rarely anything more.

My best hunch then was that Norwich would be OK. That somehow they'd scramble their way out of it.

And that hunch remains.

I also had a slight hunch that events off the field would play as big a part in deciding Norwich's fate as events on it. That little hunch proved, for once, reasonably well-founded as Southampton's descent into administration duly materialised and it now remains for the 'forensic' accountants and the well-heeled lawyers to slug it out as to whether Saints will be docked ten points this season. Or next.

Or neither. If the Rupert Lowe defence of 'It wos the parent company that did it, guv…' holds any water.

Frankly, I suspect that argument leaks like a sieve.

And as Lord Mawhinney and Co sit down and ponder their options, one thing is certain. If Lowe and Co wriggle off the hook, hell really will hath no fury like a Leeds United owner scorned. Ken Bates will do his nut.

And he will drag the Football League through every Court of Appeal and Arbitration Committee he can find. And there are plenty. It's what the European Union revels in. It's what keeps half the hotels in Geneva and Strasbourg in business. Lawyers appealing against eachother – and all at someone else's huge expense.

So, Southampton will kop it.

And, I suspect, staying up and starting next season still in the Championship albeit with a ten point penalty won't satisfy our Ken either. Three wins and a draw and they're out of it.

That – for many – will be deemed too soft an option.

If they go down anyway, they can start next season in League One ten points adrift. If they somehow scramble their way to safety this season, then it remains at the discretion of the Football League to apply that dread sanction to this campaign – and send them down anyway this summer.

All of which just leaves one, final place up for grabs.

And I'm not about to list everyone's remaining fixtures.

At this stage of the season, the Championship – even by its own, logic-defying standards – can produce the weirdest of results. Which is why I don't buy into the 'Norwich have to win every game…' line either. They could lose every game and still stay up. Albeit on goal difference. And provided, say, Barnsley don't win another point either.

Funnily enough, of Norwich's final three games, the one I'd be most wary of is Charlton on the final day.

By then dead and buired, they'll just turn up to play – which is the last thing you want.

They'll be pinging the ball around for fun; care-free and up for a laugh.

And somewhere in the midst of it all will be a certain Jonjo Shelvey. That kid can play. In the FA Cup clash at The Valley, he all-but ran that game for the first hour. No mean feat for a 16-year-old. He did turn 17 in February.

So given that he's unlikely to be following the Addicks into League One next season, he'll pulling out all the stops as he sits in the shop window for one last time ahead of the summer.

There lies Norwich's big banana skin.

But I still think they'll be OK.

Cos, I think Barnsley are the ones in real bother.

When a manager no shows for a Press conference, that's when you know there's trouble a-foot.

That's the give-away.

Simon Davey's non-appearance after the 3-1 home defeat by Swansea on Monday was – for me – one of the most telling incidents of the whole weekend.

It suggests – in no uncertain terms – that Oakwell is not a happy ship. And when your one remaining home game is against Wolves – and that could be the game when Mick McCarthy's men win the title – that's trouble.

And whilst the 'extra' game might be against a pretty couldn't-care-less Coventry side, Barnsley have got to travel away to Reading before they get to the Ricoh.

Can't see them digging too much of that.

No.

For someone who said that they weren't about to do predictions, I've all but said it now.

One way or another, Southampton will get their administrative come-uppance and I think Barnsley are starting to whiff badly spirit-wise.

Put those two together and I have, therefore, to be saying that Norwich will survive. Just don't expect it to be a care-free day down at The Valley, that's all.


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