Chapter 819: Unpopularity
Although West Herts pulled a goal back in the second half, this did not change the final outcome. Leeds City still defeated them 2:1 at their home court.
This round of the league has been full of upsets. It is a good result for Leeds City to defeat West Herts 2:1 at home:
First-ranked Stan Park Rangers suffered their first defeat of the season. They lost to 12th-placed Abion 1:2 away from home.
Manchester United drew 2:2 with the 14th-placed Highlanders away from home.
London Bridge lost 0:1 at home to the 17th-ranked London Mars.
Tramed was tied 2:2 at home by newly promoted Holt, who ranked only 16th.
Warship Harbor also failed to win. They played 2:2 away from home against the 19th-placed Peterborough United.
Among the top seven teams, only Leeds City and Widgerstown have won this round.
Although Stan Park Rangers lost, they still ranked first with 37 points: their points advantage is so great that even losing a league round will not have much impact.
In other words, the main impact is on the psychological level, not on the points ranking - the first defeat in the league brought an end to Stan Park Rangers' record of 30 consecutive unbeaten league games across the season. This is a situation that Stan Park Rangers fans are very unwilling to accept. and regrettable consequences.
Since Stan Park Rangers lost 1:2 to Manchester Athletic in the 21st round of last season, they have remained unbeaten in the league and won the league championship last season as they wished. After entering the new season, they were also undefeated in the first thirteen rounds of the league, with twelve wins and one draw, and the momentum was amazing.
It also took advantage of the trend to create the longest unbeaten streak in the history of the club.
It had been hoped that Stan Park Rangers could break the 48-game unbeaten streak in the Premier League set by Trent at the turn of the century twenty-five years ago - a record that spanned the 1999-2000 season. for two centuries (at that time, people believed that the year 2000 was the beginning of the new century), so it was also called the "Invincible Century".
Trent, who created the "invincible century", has experienced a bankruptcy crisis and has already been relegated to the British Championship. At present, there is no hope of promotion. But the record they set is still the longest unbeaten record in the top leagues in the history of English football, and so far no one can shake it.
Stan Park Rangers fans originally hoped that their team could do it, so that they could be worthy of the media who shouted "Dynasty is coming" all day long.
As a result, it was ended in just thirty rounds. This result is not even ranked among the top five unbeaten records in England's top league... It's just too embarrassing.
This dealt a fatal blow to the reputation of Stan Park Rangers fans.
Manchester Athletic drew with the Highlanders in an away game and had 27 points, but was overtaken by Leeds City who had won 28 points.
As a result, Leeds City once again became second in the league, while Manchester United returned to third place.
This is already the fourth time that the two teams have gone back and forth in the second and third positions. The competition is very fierce.
At the same time, it also shows that it is reasonable for Manchester Athletic fans to still be dissatisfied with the team's performance after winning in the last round. It is not that they are hypocritical - Manchester Athletic's performance this season is indeed not stable enough.
In the past fourteen league rounds, Manchester United has never been able to win three consecutive league rounds.
Win one and draw one, win one and lose one, win two and lose one, win two and draw one...
With such a performance like a roller coaster, anyone who is a Manchester Athletic fan would be unhappy.
And many times the games they lose are against teams ranked lower in the middle and lower reaches.
For example, in the fifth round of the league, they lost 2:3 away to Peterborough United, which was ranked second from last.
In the eighth round, they lost 0:2 at home to Woldhampton, which was ranked fifteenth at the time.
If you can't win against a weak team, then it's just like Leeds City, robbing the rich and giving to the poor. However, they did not win the three games against direct competitors Stan Park, Leeds City, and North London Wanderers:
One loss and two draws. Lost to Stan Park Rangers, and were tied by Leeds City and North London Wanderers.
This is the direct reason why Manchester United was dropped by Stan Park Rangers by double digits in points this season.
As for the four BIG6 teams, Tramed, London Bridge, Warships Harbor and North London Wanderers, their performance this season has been even worse, even worse than Manchester United. Otherwise, they would not have been crushed by Leeds City.
North London Wanderers are particularly poor and have now simply fallen outside the seventh place.
The current league leader is Stan Park Rangers, who are nine points ahead of second-placed Leeds City, but their lead has been chased from double digits to single digits. The third place was Manchester Athletic with 27 points, the fourth place was Tramed with 24 points, the fifth place was Widgerston with 24 points, the sixth place was London Bridge with 23 points, and the seventh place was Warship Harbor with 2 points. Eleven points.
After the fourteenth league round, the betting company updated the winning odds of each team. Although Stan Park Rangers are still the most favored team, their odds have increased slightly.
Leeds City, on the other hand, has greatly reduced its previous offer of 1,000 to 1,000 to 100!
This odds means they went from "completely unlikely to win" to "maybe have a slight chance of winning".
This is an amazing improvement!
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When Neil Mullin, a truck driver with a Leeds City football team scarf hanging around his neck, pushed open the company's lounge door again, he could feel that everyone's eyes on him were different from the ones before.
"Hi, Neil, congratulations! It looks like you really have a chance to win the super prize!" A colleague raised his hand to greet Mullin.
This time they were not in a weird mood, and this was definitely not a sarcastic comment on Mullin.
Although the odds of losing 100 to 1 are still very high, compared with the odds of losing 5,000 to 1 at the beginning of the season, Leeds City is getting closer to that almost impossible goal with its actual performance...
In the past, when others questioned Leeds City's championship, Mullin would always shrug and ask: "Why not?"
Use this kind of "strong words" to protect your hometown team.
Now it's a different attitude - he waved his hands: "I don't care whether Leeds City can win the championship. I'm very satisfied with the team's current performance and can't ask for more."
Andy Warman, a Tramed fan next to him, snorted: "Hypocrisy!"
Mullin smiled: "Yeah, the fans of small teams have never seen the world, and they are scared enough to be ranked second in the league. They are afraid that they will collapse next. In order not to let me down too much, I can only lower the Standard, as long as we can avoid relegation! Andy, Leeds City’s goal this season has been clear from the beginning - we are a relegation team.”
"Damn it, they're already second in the league and still asking for relegation! Isn't this hypocrisy?" Warman yelled.
"So what do you want us to say, Andy? 'Yes, our goal is to compete for the championship!' And then when we are finally squeezed out of the top six, you are going to laugh at us for overestimating our capabilities. Okay, Andy "I know your tricks very well, so don't take them out." Mullin waved his hand and went to get a can of Coca-Cola from the beverage cabinet.
Pulling it open with a bang, the sweet smell was sprayed out along with the gas, which made Mullin feel relaxed and happy.
Behind him, Andy Warman was speechless.
In this round of the league, Tramed was held to a draw by newly promoted Holt at home. With other strong teams falling behind one after another, Tramed failed to make any further progress and failed to live up to expectations.
This made Warman even more unhappy, feeling particularly unable to hold his head high in front of Leeds City fan Mullin.
He could only think in his heart: I don't believe you can keep this momentum going! Christmas is coming, with a busy schedule before and after the New Year, and no advantage in lineup depth, what can Leeds City do to compete with the giants? The reason for your good results now is because the physical energy you have reserved during the pre-season training has not been used up yet, and you can still make a breakthrough. Wait and see again in the second half of the season, then you will be in the right position!
Joe Irosted, who was once a common friend of the two, saw the situation and came out to smooth things over: "It's really hard to say about winning the league championship. Now Stan Park Rangers are nine points ahead. Even if they lose a game, as long as they are normal in the next Even if you perform well, you can still successfully defend the title... But as for the league's top scorer list, I think there may be no suspense..."
His words were echoed by others: "Yeah, Hu is in great shape. To be honest, I didn't expect him to perform like this this season..."
"Hu's odds of winning the Premier League Golden Boot this season have dropped to 1 to 6. This basically means that there is no suspense for him to win the Golden Boot!"
"It's really scary! Leeds City really found a treasure this time! When they announced the signing of this player from China at the beginning of the year, I had never even heard of Hu's name... But now I can see him almost every week I heard his name in media reports..."
Mullin did not express his daring to expect Hu Lai to win the Golden Boot as he did just now, but happily raised the Coke in his hand: "If Hu Zhen can win the Golden Boot, I will treat everyone to a drink!"
"Oh——!!"
His words prompted cheers from colleagues in the break room.
Amid the cheers, Andy Warman sneered. (End of chapter)