We all know where this is heading...

Not sure I can face the final day inevitability of it all.

 

wembley?

 

We won't get in for Keith Hill's head

 

Shame your fans aren't buying into it though - 2,738! How many from Scunny?

Really poor turnout but I suppose it's about all you can hope for I suppose

 

well its in your hands fella

you have enough games in hand to make the play-offs. Right now we are euphoric over our fabulous surge in form. I hope the last day game with you is one that has no effect on the final standing ref : the play offs. If we get in them I will be delighted , if we do not and you do then I wish you all the very best. I have been to two Play off finals with Barnsley (and one with my mates team Torquay) one at the Old Wembley and whilst I felt so very very proud to see Barnsley walk onto that hallowed turf, I was also heart broken with the result.. then I went to the Millenium and was totally proud when I turned the corner to view a sea of red with all our fans... that day we got the result over Swansea and went up...it was bliss. So hopefully the last game with you lot will be a great day in the sun and one we can all enjoy.

 

Maybe 300. We wouldn't expect many more than 2400 home fans at games like today. Until we get it right off the pitch, the town can't be made to care. Hopefully the arrival of a new marketing manager soon will see things change.

Those of us who do go regularly get very frustrated by the crowds, but we're not surprised. There has to be a commitment from the club to do something about it. If we got into the playoffs with 2500 regulars, you'd be hard pushed to find a greater achievement at this level.

 

Re: well its in your hands fella

I was very underwhelmed by the whole Wembley thing in 2008. Horrible weather and we never looked like winning. Plus we messed up the ticketing and had a decent following (about 16-17k) spread all over the place.

 

Wembley is crap matey

the main reason for that is its location... If you ever get a chance to go to the Millenium stadium in Cardiff take the opportunity. You will see just what I mean by location of a stadium... its literally minutes from a very great city center... its just a few minutes hop on a bus or a mini train from a fabulous water front ... the entertainment bars food etc is stunning.... then we have Wembley... on an industrial estate. They really should have re-located the place when they decided to do a new national stadium. OR at least built some kinda retail/leisure park/estate with it.

 

Sadly it's the same up and down the country. More clubs are becoming increasingly more distanced from their fans. Sadly it seems the only way to bring in the crowds is to throw money at the club in an attempt to get into the premier league. Some teams will do just that and never get there. Although we regularly get crowds of 8-9,000, it's s far cry from the 12-15 we were getting 15 or so years ago. 9,500 home fans today, that's only 1,500 casual supporters, the rest are season tickets. There's little hope for us ever pulling in regular crowds of 12,000 again sadly. And in the greatest respect to you, it's probably a massive over achievement for a team the size of Rochdale, to be challenging for a championship spot.

 

Worst case scenario - we draw and both miss out!

 

Hill has done a fantastic job given the crowds Rochdale attract even his harshest critic can't deny that. Still at **** though.

 

I don't think we'll catch Peterborough. Even if we beat them at home, we still have to match every other result they get. We've Bristol City away next week, Sheff Utd at home the week after and a trip to Bradford to come, who can move above us with their games in hand. Plus the inevitable defeats against those we expect to beat, but we'll all have them. With your two games in hand, and your vastly superior goal difference, you don't have to rely on the results of anyone else, it's in your hands. So, I doubt it will be an us or you scenario come 3rd May. More likely, you will be in a position where a defeat at Oakwell will prevent you making the play-offs.

If anything, your turnaround is even more impressive than ours. Six victories on the trot without conceding a goal is more spectacular, but we didn't do that off the back of a poor run. We haven't had a poor run. We've been consistently inconsistent all season, winning a couple then losing a couple. We then had our easiest run of games of the season, all against teams in the bottom half. 8 in a row and we even managed to lose the first of those 5-1. We kept up our home form but finally managed to get a few results on the road. Add in the new manager factor, which may be a cliché, but has some truth to it, and you've got the perfect storm. Not that we didn't deserve the victories, we did, but how often do you get 6 results in a row that you deserve? We've played better this season and lost. We also deserve to be where we are in the table, on the cusp of the play-offs, surrounded by similar inconsistent teams, well behind the top four, who we can match on any given day, as we did yesterday, but not week in, week out.

Rochdale were dropping like a stone. Your top goalscorer had been sold and you lost 5 games in 7. It was beginning to look like you'd have a second half of the season similar to what we had to endure under Keith Hill back in 2012 (16 losses from 23 games for the record) and that a fight against relegation could be on the cards. It's very difficult to halt a slide, player confidence dips, managers lose sight of what their best team is and start playing all sorts of daft formations, so to come out of that with 4 victories from the last 5 games is very impressive.

I don't like Keith Hill, I may have mentioned that before. I'd love us to get one over on him and if it's a choice between Barnsley and Rochdale for last play-off spot, I obviously hope we stuff you. But, if you still have a chance of the play-offs and we don't, I hope we don't prevent that. Getting a club the size of Rochdale promoted to The Championship would be an amazing achievement. Seeing Rochdale compete and hopefully win against all that money is worth a hell of a lot more than any petty grievance I have with your manager. I hope it's us up there, but if it can't be, I hope we don't prevent you from making it.

 

I don't think Peterborough are going to be the side to catch to be honest. Sheffield United seem to have done what they do best and bottled it right at the death again. Yes they won yesterday, and they host S****horpe on Tuesday in their game in hand. But I just feel the wheels have come off a bit, a bit like it did under Danny Wilson for them. Port Vale aren't in particularly good form, and were out of the game as soon as Brown got sent off yesterday. I just think United are going to struggle over the line, if they ever get there at all. If we're still within a couple of points of them by the time we've played them, I'd fancy us to finish above them. The main threat is obviously going to come from the teams around us. We have a difficult run in, but I've seen enough in the last 2 home games to believe that there isn't anyone in this division we can't at least give a good go at.

 

Think our attendances are pretty stable , apart from the Premier League year and just after we've always had crowds similar to this apart from a brief spell in the 80s. The difference this season is the really low away followings turning up.

If we were a mid table Championship team I'm sure there would be 15k in Oakwell regularly