So we know now that we will finish 3rd or 4th, which at least guarantees us 4 home and 3 away games.

If Saints win today we finish 3rd and games will be :

Home : 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th (Wakey, Salford, Wigan, Huddersfield)
Away : 1st, 2nd, 6th (Cas, Leeds, Saints)

If Wakey win, we finish 4th and games will be :

Home : 1st, 5th, 6th, 8th (Cas, Salford, Saints, Huddersfield)
Away : 2nd, 3rd, 7th (Leeds, Wakey, Wigan)

Looks like the games are marginally easier if we come 4th, but we would of course be starting 1 point behind Wakefield in the race for the final top 4

But 2 points further clear f Saints ! Just think all in our own hands this year, we don't need to fear anybody, if we play well results will take care of themselves. Leeds reverse on Friday brings them within range 5 points with 7 games was looking tuff to recover.
At least this year all 8 teams can make the semis, at least for a couple of rounds. Cas are one round from qualifying for a home semi !!

OT - If rovers beat Halifax today, Leigh will end up with 2 trips to France and 1 to London in the Middle8's.

Our fixtures certainly look more favourable from 4th rather than 3rd. Finishing third would ironically give us the three away games we've just lost. From the regular season we have six points from our potential 3rd placed fixtures and ten from the 4th placed fixtures.

The fixtures are released on Wednesday morning at 8am, it'll be interesting to see when we play Castleford who need just two wins to gurantee the League Leaders Shield. I can see them rotating their squad after that so it would be an advantage to play them as late as possible.

The tfl should make sure the 4 semi finalists play each other the week after the semis and the week before and after Wembley to even the playing field a bit. They won't of course

saints winning easily at wakey so looks like 3rd

Third place finish whilst playing inconsistently.

More due to the lack of quality in SL than anything we've done

yes, correct.

Can't believe we have lost so many games, but so many other teams have too

Third place confirmed

Home : Wakey, Salford, Wigan, Huddersfield
Away : Cas, Leeds, Saints

Need to win all home games for starters, and one away win would see us stay in third I reckon

On the other hand, we probably need to win four to make the top four so IMO the fixtures for third give us best chance of that. It maybe makes the harder fixtures that bit harder playing saints, Leeds and Cas away but makes wakey, Salford and Huddersfield that bit more winnable

Win 5 I think from those. All the home games and 1 away. Finish 3rd and play Leeds away in the semi finals

..... unless Wembley raises its ugly head again.



And, as has been mentioned before, 4+ teams could well be playing Cas when they have already cemented top spot, so those games could well be "easier" than they might have been.
Similar could apply to Leeds games as well.

Only 3 points behind 2nd which very much attainable if we can grab a result at there place and they slip up so who knows could get a home semi final.

Agree. Quality not been great last couple of seasons and can't see it changing anytime soon.

Don't think the quality is much worst than previous years, just the lower teams getting stronger because of the salary cap.

Not too worried about the 3 away games, as we only lost these by a small margins and with more brains and luck we could have won all three.

I'm sure Pearson will be slightly disappointed with playing the only two teams who bring any fans both away.

A lot will depend on Saturday

Agree with this as the 3 games in question were games that were lost because of stupid errors and penalties. All 3 games were games that would more than likely have been won had the players held onto the ball and not given away soft penalties.
Interesting as the players can right the wrongs of the those 3 games.

Citys season starts 5th aug and goes ahhah-a (think the gap is an international break) so I reckon the fixtures will be opposite to them

It's really just a little common sense isn't it. I said it last season also, those teams still in the CC should always play each other the weeks after so that there is no advantage to other teams but that's obviously far too easy for our esteemed leaders.

Stop laughing at City, that's not very nice!

Best fixtures for us all four home games winnable and can see us winning a minimum of one away

But we're a better team away from home and can't see us winning more than one away from home.
In all honesty though, I think we'll win four lose three.

We have been up to the last three away games

Are we better at home, was at the start of the year, but ardour won an away game since Easter?