On a very rough and ready guesstimate, I can see 5 games we are likely to win, with maybe 6 potential draws. 50 points would (just) have secured safety last season in League One, but no-one's cut adrift this year - so it would be a very nervy ending to the season (again). If we scrape survival, I can see nothing ahead (based on the present squad, and the club's apparent attitude to it's business) except a series of struggles against demotion similar to what we had in the Championship. I'm not a pessimist but I am a realist, and my profession has taught me to always consider the worst-case scenario and work back from that. A relegation would presumably see us financially downscaling yet again, and our recruitment would involve fishing in even lower pools. Considering our opportunities after 2006, this would represent a calamitous failure in the club's stewardship. I remember feeling the same way about the austerity policy we adopted which cost us Mark Robins' services, and led to the appointment of wrecking ball and his mate, and being told I was wrong then! I really hope I'm wrong this time! Is there a BFC equivalent of Syriza?
The mad thing is, 3 wins on the bounce and we'll probably be closer to the top 6 than the bottom 4. It's such an open league this year. Peterborough have had a bad patch like us and plummeted, yet if they can get a little run together, they won't be too far off the playoffs again. It's a very strange league. If we play to the strengths of some of our better players,I have no reason to think that we can't get a run going and finish in the top half.
I don't know about 50 points but at the moment everything points to us falling thru the trapdoor again!
Where we finish this season is all down to opinion. Mine is that we will be comfortably OK. The worrying part of your post is that you think we will continue to struggle as we did in the Championship. For years our plan has been to survive. This has been achieved in different ways by different managers. We've seen loan players from the prem, players from managers' previous clubs, foreign players, journeymen etc. Some of them have worked and some haven't, but none of them have even come close to giving us long term stability. I don't know whether we will be competitive in this division this year, next year or the next, but there is no doubt that the club has a long term plan to not only return us to the 2nd tier but to be stronger than ever before when we get there. If we lose sight of that long term aim because we have lost a couple of games we will just go back to the old days that we have all been complaining about for years.
We could just as easily end up promoted by the playoffs. Depends whether you prefer to live life fearing the worst or hoping for the best. I'm in the latter school of thinking. 21 games to go.
Or you could go for the in between thought - we will win a few games - have a little run somewhere and also lose a few more and finish up somewhere in the middle with between 58 and 62 points Its what I think will happen - but would much rather have Whiteys outlook than the OP
Its hard to get perspective sometimes. When we are in good form and look good people think it will last to the end of the season and then complain when it doesn't Equally when we are in poor form people can't see where the next points are coming from and think that will continue until the end of the season. That's why predicting the results to the end of the season is impossible as we will have peaks and lows in form between now and then. We will win games that on current form you wouldn't expect us to.
Yeah but the expectations you have, upon which to base your hope, seems to be somewhat low. So if for example in an FA Cup match at Oakwell you expect Boro's second team to comfortably beat whatever we put out, then it's easier to hope for the best innit?
My expectations for the Boro game were that we would be beaten by the side they put out, but that we would have a bit of a go in a game which wouldn't harm our league position. Although realistic, my expectations (hopes?) were not met.
optimistic folks tend to be dreamers sometimes.....whereas a pessimist tends not to get disappointed very often! and with BFC that is defo the case.....whichever way you look at it this season, we are currently shlte. This is so despite whatever the self assumed 'wise men' of this forum come out with. It's only football after all so it don't matter............but we are utter carp hth
well our current Points per game ratio is 1.16 so if that continues we would arrive at 53.36 so lets round down to 53. That should be safety...... but only just. I would like to think that with injuries coming back, and a couple more signings then we can get nearer to the 60 point tally.