Do we need the Play-Offs?

I don't disagree we've shot ourselves in the foot recently, mate. It seems like the last minute penalty against Bolton really took something out of the players and their heads have dropped. The momentum has definitely changed. We had a real genuine shot at the top 2 with the game in hand, now it's looking far-fetched and I think it's had an impact. Fingers crossed we pick up our form again and if we do miss out on autos, which I think we will now, let's go into the playoffs with some fire in the belly!

 

A nearly corrected tht misen lol

 

And end up getting tonked every week like Wednesday?

 

Of course we need the Play offs in footy, or are you asking if we as a club and fans, can manage to go through them all again.
Especially after last season's Wembley Final backstabbery.

 

I think the rest of the thread suggests what I'm getting at.

 

So we don’t want promotion then, in case we can’t hack it in the Championship?

 

Play-offs are not a fluke, Every time we make the play-offs we keep hearing this mantra, you need to go into them in good form, or take momentum into them. Well we have won play-offs without either in the past. WHEN we make the play-offs we’ll have deserved it,and IF we win promotion we’ll have deserved it.

 

Apart from their last 2 games, against the top 2 (at the time), they've been on a brilliant run of form under their 'new' manager to be fair. Think they'll stay up, quite comfortably actually.

 

You don’t fluke playoffs

 

Needing to be in the best form of the 4 teams, is an absolute myth. Swansea were in the poorest form weren't they, when they beat us in the Semi's (under Val).

 

If it’s any consolation…..Wendies went into last seasons playoffs in rubbish form. We all know what happened next.

We’ve not been top 2 all season and have always been 4th or 5th which is where we will finish.

 

We were top after first game

 

We’re not good enough to go up and stay up. I’d sooner us go up with a bit of momentum and a settled squad, like Luton, Coventry, Ipswich, Sunderland, etc. if we went up with this squad we’d struggle.

BUT…

In the summer we’ll be losing Roberts, McCart, Williams, Kane, Grant, McAtee and Cole for nothing (yeah, I know some are loanees but they are first team players and the point still stands). So if we don’t go up, we are also going to struggle. We need to replace at least 7 players with no additional money coming in to buy them with. I thought the days of us letting three key players’ contracts expire at the same time were behind us?!

So, we need to go up for the extra money, and then build a team who would help us launch a more serious promotion campaign the season after, after we inevitably get relegated again. If we don’t go up we will be watching a team made up of a few players from this season still in contract, 5 loanees and a few free transfers, as we can’t expect the owners to keep throwing money in. This will rely on us dropping lucky with the incoming players and will require the coaching staff to be on top of their game from the off.

To bring better players in we would have to sell one of our saleable assets, who could be anyone from the following list:

er, Luca Connell

Not going up this season won’t be a disaster, but it will be ******* close to one. But I don’t see this side getting through a semi-final against Bolton, Peterborough or Lincoln.

 

And before it

 

Ultimately it comes down to getting recruitment right & if we go up we’ll be able to sign a better calibre of player.

Just enjoy it. We lost our manager, keeper & back 3 & are comfortably in the play offs. If we pull it off great if not we’ll go again from a better starting position than at least 2/3rds of the division.

 

I think if we'd done what we should have done, and beat the Fowls at Wembley, and won promotion...
We would have been where they are, and that's in the bottom 3 all season long!.
They went up with Ipswich, and yet look at how differently both teams have adapted to the Championship, and today's 6-0 result shows that.

 

What I mean is we don't want to mirror Wednesday by slipping a bung to the EFL/FA for a referee so we get an undeserved promotion, then getting tonked every week cos we weren't good enough to go up. We're better than that.

 

Are we ? lol. Hey yeah I'd like to think that as well.
But with the set up we had at that time under Duff, compared to this current set up under Collins...
Well put it this way, I think we'd set an all time embarrassing low points total if this lot went up (and that's before I/we think about spending etc).

 

We're better in that we don't have to cheat.

 

I want us to go up but at the same time I want us to be competitive if we do, imo this current team isn't a patch on the team that fell short last season, and I don't think the board would invest enough for us to be competitive if we do go up.(a rock and a hard place for me,) l don't want to be losing most weeks where it gets to a stage where it doesnt bother me anymore ( if that makes sense) Pompey have imo been the best footballing side this season but I even think they would struggle big time in the league above such is the divide ( you always get exeptions like Ipswich who even in Lg1 were championship ready) COYR