Mid-season talking points

[Mr.Stanford]

If Bath played Purley (I have played both team in the last 12 months)...
For me, assuming Bristol finish bottom, I think the 9th placed team are likely to stay up.

I fancy Bristol to take Purley in the return match @ bristol.

Does it still come down to head to head if teams are tied on points? If so, Bristol need to be aiming for a 3 goal win (last game was 6-4)

Quins are travelling away to both teams after xmas, and results have shown that quins have stuggled with the away games this season (0 wins, 4 losses and 2 draws).

Bristol is more of a home game for Quins, will that leave Purley with an advantage?

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On a positive note for Quins we only have 3 away games after xmas... and one of those is Brizzle good bye carbon footprint!

[Tree13]

Norwich have played well in the first half of the season with some awesome results and as norwich coach I'm very proud of the players. At home we're very good with a massive squad, now if only we could get 10 players for away games and stop playing with 9.

What's the story there then? Do you have a predominantly young team, not many drivers? Seem to recall there was a time when there was a separate UEA team and an East Coast team, have the two simply amalgamated?

[a1ex87]

cheers kieran, always nice to feel loved

[nickspacey123]

What's the story there then? Do you have a predominantly young team, not many drivers? Seem to recall there was a time when there was a separate UEA team and an East Coast team, have the two simply amalgamated?

We had a couple of guys left over from east coast, i got uea on board and including some of the american guys from lakenheath we have a great young team that can hopefully move forward and we have shown so far that we can play some good lacrosse. Unfortunately we only have 1 driver in norwich 'me' which is why were getting low numbers for away games but it hasn't seem to bother us yet.

[Spencer20]

One thing that jumps out is that Spencer's results have been all over the shop. Beating Hampstead and Hitchin as well as drawing with Blues, but then losing to Hillcroft and Reading. Does it just vary depending on who they have avaliable each week?

We've had a lot of injuries to offensive players but in all honesty this hasn't really correlated to our disappointing results, we are just struggling to follow up a good performance with another one the next week, which is very frustrating!

[Parksey21]

I still want to know what the hell has happened in Colchester?

Well we are just more organised this season to be honest. We haven't gained any new players, in fact we've lost a couple of our better ones. Colchester has always just been a group of individuals that turn up on a Saturday but now we are starting to have proper training sessions and just play like a team.

We have some good players but having said that, we have no depth hence our results being all over the place. As soon as we lose a couple players, we only have freshers to fill their place.

We are still growing but I genuinely think we have some great potential and we appreciate the fact that our current league position is drawing some attention. Buckhurst Hill however, now there is a talking point! Chris must be doing something right!

[Paddyp]

Having played Bath twice, Portsmouth once and missed the Brum game (but heard reports), my money is with Bath for W1. For the first time in probably 5 years, their young guns are more of a threat than the old timers (with the exception of Ken and Doug who are still capable of bossing the game from midfield) - the likes of Mike Carey, Lloyd Butler and Sam King have had a huge impact in the two games v quins a this season and I'd fancy their youthful confidence to see them hold their own in the prem too.

The young guns at bath this season are impressing in both first and 2nd team with plenty pushing for places in 1st team. One name you have definitely missed out there is 16 year old Matt King who is Baths leading goalscorer at the moment far ahead of the likes of Ken, Doug, Pete Short and Si Griffiths who usually occupy those top spots. Our top 5 goalscorers this season excluding old fart Nik Roberts are all U21 which shows how well the youngsters have come on.

I for one wouldnt mind seeing Bath, Bristol and Cardiff in the Prem next season.

[chippie]

I for one wouldnt mind seeing Bath, Bristol and Cardiff in the Prem next season.

defo agree on the sam king front...he had a good season last season, and is doing well again this season!

[Tree13]

Time to re-visit this thread I think!

Prem: The title is mathematically not settled, but totally within Hampstead's hands... so let's look at the bottom - Bristol have the slightly easier run-in on paper, can they make it to the questionable safety of ninth?

East 1: Cambridge conceding their remaining games means everything in this division is decided. The wheels have well and truly fallen off for both Brighton and Cambridge, with both teams conceding multiple games - is this down to the expansion to a ten-team division creating a fixture list that uni teams can't handle, or is it something else? And who's got the edge in the remaining Spencer 2 v Buckhurst hill game, which will decide 2nd place?

West 1: Southampton, Cardiff, Warwick or Bristol for the second relegation spot? Portsmouth and Warwick have played fewer games than some of their opponents, is this a sign of a problem across all uni teams in the SEMLA game?

East 2: Epsom and EG both stumbling in recent weeks has left the door open for Maidstone - who's gonna secure the second promotion spot? London, Oxford and Canterbury all scrapping for survival too. Any thoughts?

West 2: Can Bath catch Cheltenham?

East 3: Still wide open due to all the unplayed games - I think that mathematically anyone bar Blues and Marham can still win this division!

[Paddyp]

West 2: Can Bath catch Cheltenham?

I cannot see Cheltenham losing another game this season. Bath 2nds pulled out a cracking performance against them and looked (in my eyes) to have won the title in "the most important game of the season" which is what I told the team. But 2nds then struggled against Exeter and Swansea due to key players either being away or getting calls up to the first team. As it stands Swansea are ahead of Bath 2nds, level on points, but with 2 games to play and Swansea having played all their fixtures all Bath have to do to secure 2nd spot is turn up to their fixture on saturday.

[GarethBrown]

West 1: Southampton, Cardiff, Warwick or Bristol for the second relegation spot? Portsmouth and Warwick have played fewer games than some of their opponents, is this a sign of a problem across all uni teams in the SEMLA game?

We obviously have a problem with holidays being pretty un-doable for us - but there's only 14 games + flags to play in the 18 'within term' weekends - should be easily doable. We've been fairly unlucky with various other teams cancelling this season really.