What we have learned this weekend: 26th/27th April 2008

City are safe! Yesterday’s resounding 3-0 win over Queens Park Rangers at Carrow Road finally put to bed any nagging fears regarding relegation.

Nothing else really matters, but there’s also:

The Premier League race is not over after all. Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat of Manchester United blew the title race open again with two games to go. I still think United will win through in the end though.

Don’t mess with the Chelsea ground staff. You’ll get hurt.

Carlos Queiroz understands irony. After the Chelsea game, he said It must be necessary for a player to “bring a gun and shoot one of our men in the box for us to get a penalty”. Yes Carlos, as United never get penalties do they?

Poor old Southampton – and my god look at Stoke!

Now that we’re safe I can look at the Championship table in a relatively calm state. No longer am I peering at it from behind the sofa, or feeling the need to turn the TV over every time it appears on the screen.

I’ve been playing with the BBC Predictor for a number of weeks now, but for the most part I was really just concentrating on us and everything else was dressing, but when I look at it now two things stick out:

1. Southampton are in big, big trouble. You wouldn’t put an awful lot on them getting anything at the Hawthorns tomorrow night, and then next weekend they host Sheffield United – who could still reach the play-offs. On top of that their goal difference is woeful, and Youssef Safri says the Saints won’t go down. They’re in it up to their eye balls.

2. Stoke. Just look at them all the way up there – no, not the ball from another Rory Delap throw, I mean actual Stoke City. The team. They’re one point away from the Premier League! What sort of madness is this??

And who do they face on the last day? Leicester at home. Hold on tight Southampton, maybe you’ve got a chance after all…

Mansfield owner attacked

Around a month ago I wrote a post called “Football clubs and the fear of failure“, about why football clubs failed.

I mentioned the plight of Mansfield Town, who were held up as an example of a properly run club who only spent what they had, and the result was almost certain relelgation to the Blue Square Premier.

Yesterday somebody took it upon themselves to attack owner Keith Haslam following the Stags’ defeat to Rotherham.

We’ve had a hell of an up and down season at Carrow Road, but I’d like to think that no matter how bad things got we wouldn’t resort to this sort of behaviour.