I can’t see us making the top two as there’s too many points to catch them and too few games - and below the top eight or ten in this league the teams are pretty much all quite poor and the teams above us all have enough games against those teams. We’d have to win all the games against those around us and hope the rest drop a lot. I can’t see it. I do hope we make the top six and I think we will, but it isn’t a foregone conclusion by any stretch. I’ll also be in Florida at the time of the playoff final
Were good enough to make playoffs i've said it time an time again wer a good team in this league, wer even better nar since January's deals, yup we'll be there at the end of the season 81points plus, should be enough, i reckon if we play to our strenghts an Duff keeps the lads motivated we could achieve 94 points, what do you budding Managers think, or do yer reckon i've been eating too many wine gums.
I think its just asking too much for the top two, for various reasons that have been mentioned. One of the Play off places is ours though if we really want it, and its a case of taking each game as it comes etc. If or when it comes to the end of season Play offs though, that's another matter altogether lol.
Top 6 for me. I think top 2 is just out. Im expecting us to drop points against in March, but who knows. If all the results went our way in March, we probably would seriously be looking at top 2
If we carry on at the same PPG as we've been averaging all season, we'll finish on 87-88 points. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to be enough this season. It seems highly likely that at least one side will stay down with 90, which is incredibly harsh. However, I think that, tall order as it looks, we will go up in second. We're comfortably ahead of Ipswich and Plymouth in the form table over the last 15 games, and slightly ahead of Bolton. We have improved as the season has gone on, and in quite a few recent games, we haven't just beaten sides - we've absolutely blown them away. Accrington, Cheltenham and yesterday were all performances of a promotion side. If we continue the form of the last 15 games until the end of the season, we'll finish on 94 points, which will almost certainly be enough for automatic promotion. Obviously the Ipswich and Plymouth home games are absolutely key here and there is very little margin for error. But the same was broadly true of our last two seasons at this level, when holding off Sunderland and when coming from nowhere to finish 6th. We just had to keep on winning, and we did.
It's in our own hands big big month of March coming up , 4 home 3 away . Saturday was a real yardstick to show how far Duffy as took this young bunch of lads (grandad nors excluded) he as done an amazing job and fair play to the board for backing him in the transfer window. The bench looks so much stronger now.
I’m not as bad as I used to be but I am by nature a pessimist. On the way to the game Saturday me and the boy were chatting about our chances. We were both convinced Plymouth have a wobble in them (based on nothing but gut feeling). We agreed that in terms of top 6 a draw would be ok but if we do win, top 2 is on. Not just the 3 points on the board but the lift beating Derby would give everyone would be huge with big games coming up. Fast forward to 5pm, we win 4-1 and Plymouth ship 5! It’s on! I honestly think we’ve a great chance. Wednesday will win league at a canter, even if our great run continues they won’t drop enough points. But second place is anyone’s! Our biggies against top 6 rivals are at home. April looks kind fixture wise. Why can’t 2nd place be ours? With games in hand it’s already in our own hands. And if I of all people believe then we must have a reyt chance!!
If I was supporting any other team I would say there is no chance but we have past form of going on great runs at the business end of the season Flickers great escape season Hecky's reaching the playoffs and then Promotion by via the playoffs Strubers even greater escape season What I can say for sure though is if we do pull it off - it will be done in the second half of the last game - probably in injury time - we have form there as well
2nd place is achievable, but is a tall order and will require an almost perfect run of results in March. Win those games in hand and beat Plymouth and Ipswich at home and who knows! On current form the team should have no one to fear. That poor run of results in October really was random.
If ever you fancy a look at statistics and likelihood of promotion without having red trimmed specs on have a look at https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/league-one/ Currently we have a 90% chance of finishing 6th or higher and a 38% chance of promotion. Expected points sits at 86 which would have us finish level with Ipswich in 3rd. All totally made up but something to pass time by on a slow Monday.
I think we can do it. While past performance is no measure of future success, there have been quite a few times in the past decade where things have fallen into place. Flicker, Hecky, Stendel, Struber, Val. There's just been a confidence about the team and the town. And it's in our hands. Win our games in hand and beat Plymouth and we go in front of them, it's as simple as that. No relying on anyone else to do us a favour. 11 goals scored in the past three games. Why not us?
To get 2nd obviously we need to keep scoring(talk about stating the obvious) but this got me thinking, Cole is on 10 goals so needs to keep chipping in, he has a decent chance of emulating Moore & Woodrow with their 18&16 goals. Be interesting to see if people’s opinions of him change if he achieves it.
Thing is, if someone were to guarantee that we would be promoted this season, which way would you prefer it to be? Personally, I'd love another winning trip to Wembley.
Id prefer Automatic Gives us more time to prepare for the Championship and a less stressful May Not that I'd turn down a trip to Wembley but I do remember how it feels to lose a playoff final and I'd rather not take the risk