The Mail Bag
The Derby Fixture
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Simple question guys: Why is the first derby fixture of every season held at Goodison,and the trip across the park to the home of Satan second ?
Probably getting paranoid-but it happens every year ! It's been scratching at my mind for a long time,and my fear is that the shite are given the home tie in the spring,when they're "challenging" for the title, and home advantage gives them a better opportunity to get the 3 points, so as to aid the above mentioned "challenge."
I think from memory, (and probably wrong here) the Kev Campbell derby was our last November Anfield fixture: we won,so have the feckers in red asked the FA to arrange games in that particular order to suit their own deluded purposes ?
Information,opinion and answers on a postcard please folks.
Or is it just me ?
Kevin Hudson, Posted 17/06/2009 at 11:05:13
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Run in is very good tho...
And when was the last time they ’challenged for the title’? Unless you include the season just gone, which I’m not sure you can.
Understandably runs of games against ’better’ oppo seem a bit troublesome, but that frees up other runs of games i.e. the fairly ’easy’ run in.
The key to this season will be weekends after european performances (If we have a run like 07/08). If we play at home in the bulk of those games and struggle then we could be up against it. However, they could be just what we want if we manage to win the majority.
The Anfield fixture benefits the dark side in the sense that they?re favourites. We celebrate our draws there, because our last win across the park was 10 years ago!!
As regards to my usage of the word "challenge," I deliberately employed quotes for sarcastic effect. Possibly too subtle for you, but I do take your point about paranoia on board..
Cheers
Its not the Anfield, its the playing it second I was questioning as an advantage. I’d rather get off to a good start and use the momentum gained, I’d say playing home first was more of an advantage. As someone mentioned on another thread, this is more due to a lack of anything else to talk about.
If people think that the order of the fixtures doesn?t have some bearing on the season as a whole (even though every team has to play the others twice), think of the start Burnley have. Might break them even before they get going. Or would you rather have had Hull at the beginning of last season or at the end? Or, ponder this, would we have been relegated in 1994 if we?d played Wimbledon away last game of the season?
Don?t subscribe to a conspiracy theory though!
Thu 20 Aug, QR4 1st leg
Sat 22 Aug, Burnley (A)
Thu 27 Aug, QR4 2nd leg
Sat 29 Aug, Wigan (H)
If we get through to the group stage:
Thu 17 Sep, Game 1
Sat 19 Sep, Blackburn (H)
Thu 1 Oct, Game 2
Sat 3 Oct, Stoke (H)
Thu 22 Oct, Game 3
Sat 24 Oct, Bolton (A)
Thu 5 Nov, Game 4
Sat 7 Nov, West Ham (A)
Wed 2/Thu 3 Dec, Game 5
Sat 5 Dec, Tottenham (H)
Wed 16/Thu 17 Dec, Game 6
Sat 19 Dec, Birmingham (H)
Overall it seems a reasonable set of fixtures with no especially difficult games. Of course most of these league games will be shifted to the Sunday.
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1 Posted 17/06/2009 at 19:11:04
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