Monday night's game against Hull was huge. Considering we played at least a day after everyone else, we knew going into the game that if we could get a victory it would put us 5 points above relegation. If we lost, we would stay in the same spot we've been all season with fewer and fewer games remaining. We ended up winning 2-1, on a late header from Woodgate. This is a huge result and gives us at least a game cushion considering our superior goal difference. Big, big win.
Thursday we host Shakhtar, and I'll just follow this one online. After the Hull game Harry was interviewed and flat out said we beat Hull because we rested our players against Shakhtar a few days prior. He pointed out that Villa had not rested their players and they ended up losing to Chelsea. Yeah, it was Chelsea, but they and Villa had similar records and so did Spurs and Hull. He proceeded to slam the fixture list about this and the fact that we have a game on Thursday night a few days before a cup final! Anyways, if we fielded a weak team last week, this week's matchup against Shakhtar is going to be even weaker. I'm pretty sure he said he'll make 11 changes to the team that played Monday night against Hull and will give even more of our "youngings" a run out.
This leads me to Sunday morning...8 a.m. Tottenham face United in the Carling Cup Final, hoping to pull off the upset in the same cup final as they did last year against Chelsea. Anything can happen, but I wouldn't bet on it this time around. Regardless, another cup this year would slightly sweeten this bitter season. Additionally, it would get us back into the UEFA Cup next year - something we can't do in the league since we're so far down the table.
Things are looking a bit more hopeful right now. Who knows, if we happen to win on Sunday and hit a good stretch, we could end the season in mid table and with a cup! That's a far cry from even a few days ago. Here's hoping.