Post by Jamie Crawford on May 10, 2016 15:21:14 GMT
Wednesday 18th May – KO 7.45pm
What a fantastic semi-final against Carnegie on Sunday 8th May. To coin an old phrase, ‘we lost the battle but won the war’. Carnegie’s late score enabled them to pip the Knights to the post 14-17 in what was a very close match throughout. Our 17-30 victory at Headingly meant that the Knights had a 13-0 lead going into the game, so the aggregate result was 10-0 (44-34) to the Knights.
The game against Carnegie was the biggest game ever played at Castle Park but move on ten days and we surpass that to play the biggest game that there can ever be played in the Championship; a home tie for the Play-off Promotion Final.
4791 supporters attended the Semi-Final against Carnegie and Neil and his team coped admirably. We need to up the ante and increase the support for the Final against Bristol.
The Knights are definitely the underdogs with the finances that Bristol have and spend but underdog is a role that the Knights cherish. Bristol are in most respects a Premiership club that couldn’t quite ‘cut the mustard’ and find themselves languishing in the Championship. They fear that if they stay in the Championship any longer then deterioration will ensue and there will soon be little hope of promotion, the phrase ‘now or never’ springs to mind afterthree two (corrected by KR sorry, this is their third) failed attempts.
To paraphrase Michael Casey, ‘can the Knights become the Leicester of the Championship'. Ladbrokes were offering odds of 5000/1 on Leicester to win the Premier League on the first day of the season but they won it! For example the salaries that they paid their players and support staff were far less than the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United or Manchester City yet Leicester City overcame their more affluent competitors.
Premier League Clubs Wage Bill For 2015-16 Season
Chelsea £215.6m (nearly 4.5 times that of Leicester City)
Manchester £203 m
Manchester City £193.8m
Leicester City £48.2m
In Stage One of the league campaign Bristol were only beaten twice over the 22 games played but The Knights were one of those victors. Last November the Knights beat Bristol 27-39 at Ashton Gate Stadium but then last March Bristol scored in the last minute of normal time to beat the Knights 29-31 at Castle Park. Therefore if the two scores were aggregated to one score as per the Play-off Final, the Knights would have won by ten points; Knights 68-58 Bristol. This is something that Bristol will be very aware of and won’t want to finish the season as runners-up again. Bristol have topped the league table for the last three seasons but the team that finished second won the Promotion Play-Offs oneach occasion (the last two occasions - hopefully to become three).
The Knights’ mantra going into the second leg of the Semi-Final against Carnegie was rightly ‘job half done’. Now that the job is complete, it’s back to job half done again in the Play-Offs Finals. Both legs of the Semis are complete, now it’s Bristol home and away in the Final.
Bristol have many dangerous players to look out for. Fly-half Gavin Henson finished stage one as the top points scorer in the Championship. Dougie Flockhart was leading this list until his bicep injury. From what I remember of the match at Castle Park; Henson beat a few Knights players before offloading which led to Winger Tom Varndell scoring a try in the 80th minute. In other words Henson’s break led to their winning try being scored. Back Row Oliver Robinson was the Championship’s fourth top try-scorer, Varndell was equal-fifth with Back Row Mitchell Eadie a couple of tries behind Vardell. Scrum Half William Cliff and Back Row Jack Lam were a brace behind Eadie. Centre Jack Tovey scored half a dozen and Full Back Jack Wallace has scored five. The Jacks (Lam, Tovey and Wallace) obviously know where the try line is but then again so does all the team but the Jacks crossed it more than most this season.
David beat Goliath in the Bible; Leicester City triumphed over Chelsea, Manchester Utd and Manchester City – in fact every Premiership club (of which only Norwich City had a lower wage bill) very recently so the underdog can prevail. Don’t forget that Bristol have been at this stage for the pastthree two seasons so, although that gives them a wealth of experience, it also reminds them of three two failures. Will three two failed attempts spur them on or weigh too heavily on their minds?
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
What a fantastic semi-final against Carnegie on Sunday 8th May. To coin an old phrase, ‘we lost the battle but won the war’. Carnegie’s late score enabled them to pip the Knights to the post 14-17 in what was a very close match throughout. Our 17-30 victory at Headingly meant that the Knights had a 13-0 lead going into the game, so the aggregate result was 10-0 (44-34) to the Knights.
The game against Carnegie was the biggest game ever played at Castle Park but move on ten days and we surpass that to play the biggest game that there can ever be played in the Championship; a home tie for the Play-off Promotion Final.
4791 supporters attended the Semi-Final against Carnegie and Neil and his team coped admirably. We need to up the ante and increase the support for the Final against Bristol.
The Knights are definitely the underdogs with the finances that Bristol have and spend but underdog is a role that the Knights cherish. Bristol are in most respects a Premiership club that couldn’t quite ‘cut the mustard’ and find themselves languishing in the Championship. They fear that if they stay in the Championship any longer then deterioration will ensue and there will soon be little hope of promotion, the phrase ‘now or never’ springs to mind after
To paraphrase Michael Casey, ‘can the Knights become the Leicester of the Championship'. Ladbrokes were offering odds of 5000/1 on Leicester to win the Premier League on the first day of the season but they won it! For example the salaries that they paid their players and support staff were far less than the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United or Manchester City yet Leicester City overcame their more affluent competitors.
Premier League Clubs Wage Bill For 2015-16 Season
Chelsea £215.6m (nearly 4.5 times that of Leicester City)
Manchester £203 m
Manchester City £193.8m
Leicester City £48.2m
In Stage One of the league campaign Bristol were only beaten twice over the 22 games played but The Knights were one of those victors. Last November the Knights beat Bristol 27-39 at Ashton Gate Stadium but then last March Bristol scored in the last minute of normal time to beat the Knights 29-31 at Castle Park. Therefore if the two scores were aggregated to one score as per the Play-off Final, the Knights would have won by ten points; Knights 68-58 Bristol. This is something that Bristol will be very aware of and won’t want to finish the season as runners-up again. Bristol have topped the league table for the last three seasons but the team that finished second won the Promotion Play-Offs on
The Knights’ mantra going into the second leg of the Semi-Final against Carnegie was rightly ‘job half done’. Now that the job is complete, it’s back to job half done again in the Play-Offs Finals. Both legs of the Semis are complete, now it’s Bristol home and away in the Final.
Bristol have many dangerous players to look out for. Fly-half Gavin Henson finished stage one as the top points scorer in the Championship. Dougie Flockhart was leading this list until his bicep injury. From what I remember of the match at Castle Park; Henson beat a few Knights players before offloading which led to Winger Tom Varndell scoring a try in the 80th minute. In other words Henson’s break led to their winning try being scored. Back Row Oliver Robinson was the Championship’s fourth top try-scorer, Varndell was equal-fifth with Back Row Mitchell Eadie a couple of tries behind Vardell. Scrum Half William Cliff and Back Row Jack Lam were a brace behind Eadie. Centre Jack Tovey scored half a dozen and Full Back Jack Wallace has scored five. The Jacks (Lam, Tovey and Wallace) obviously know where the try line is but then again so does all the team but the Jacks crossed it more than most this season.
David beat Goliath in the Bible; Leicester City triumphed over Chelsea, Manchester Utd and Manchester City – in fact every Premiership club (of which only Norwich City had a lower wage bill) very recently so the underdog can prevail. Don’t forget that Bristol have been at this stage for the past
COYK
DONNY, DONNY, DONNY…
