I am happy with Wanderers and the handicap start here against the champions elect, who do need a point to seal the title, but still have two games after today to clinch it and both look far easier than this.
There are far more options for Northampton Town manager Chris Wilder today and it now looks as though this was the match he was looking to take three points from this weekend and the first, one he was determined not to lose.
Valenciennes did us several favours leading up to their disastrous home defeat to Ajaccio at the end of last month, that stalled their momentum and made their survival bid all the more difficult. Before that game my notes read....
United are are in the drop zone and have just one home game left after today to preserve their third tier status, road games at Peterborough, Crawley and Wolves, do not immediately appear to offer much, given the Blues away day woes and they have been decent at Brunton Park, since Christmas, beating three top 8 teams and taking a point from mighty Brentford . They have kept clean sheets in their last four home starts and get combative midfielder James Berrett ( 35-2-6) back from suspension today, but for them it is less about team news and more about their motivation to be playing League 1 football next season.
The absence of Cristiano Ronaldo overshadows the game and is why we see Barcelona as marginal favourites for the final in Valencia. This is the third Clásico of the season and Barce have won the other two, the last 4-3 at the Bernabeu last month.
Parma ended their mini blip with a 1-0 win over Napoli last weekend, but it was a fortunate win in my opinion and on another day, a match they could have lost comfortably. Ahead of the fixture I wrote:
Bristol Rovers are just four points above the drop zone, they are the same number adrift of Cheltenham Town in 13th and should have enough about them to secure safety, but will want to get this decided as soon as possible.
We are on Benfica outright (see foot of email) and with a 1-0 lead from the first leg and holding a seven point lead at the top of SuperLiga with just four rounds to play, I am very pleased with our position, the title should be done and dusted before the semi final and then their entire focus can switch to this competition, well almost. They do have a domestic cup competition semi-final with rivals Porto next midweek, so a case that they might want to get through the game tonight with the minimum of effort and that is almost always, the Portugese way in any case.