Would we have taken a playoff Place ?

When duff left for Swansea would we have been happy with a Playoff place at start of the season ??
I'd say the answer from most would have been YES!
Granted some performances (specially at home) have been not great. I also do agree with the opinions that L1 standard as been bellow par and maybe that as helped us.
I'm confident we can get the job done vs Northampton on Saturday and secure a L1 playoff place. I hope the fans will get behind the team at the weekend as from what I heard from Blackpool it turned very bad very quickly.
Its a funny game football and you just never know.
COYR ⚽️!

 

The issue is we are worse without Killip, Shepherd and Lopata in the team. In the first half of the season with these guys we were winning regularly. We've since got worse. If our first and second half of the season were the other way around we'd be delighted the team are showing a marked improvement. We shouldn't be getting worse as the players play with one another more, but we are.

 

Context is important though.

If we'd have started a little slowly as we did last season and then started to see improvements as Collins and his staff got their ideas across to the team and we'd then snuck into the playoffs late in the season or even just settled in there as we were roo far adrift then we'd have all taken it.

But we started ok, had a good spell and got into contention for the top 2 and then fell off a cliff totally. There's been no real improvement defensively all season and we continue to make the same mistakes week after week.

We are absolutely limping into the playoffs (as things stand) in relegation form giving us fans no hope of us being able to win them. We went in last time in decent form giving us all hope we had a chance.

 

I agree are form as late as been well off it.
but with a winnable game Saturday and 3 Cup finals we can all live in hope an maybe come 18th May be celebrating at Wembley.

 

We won one of our last five games.

 

We have had 31 positive results out of our 45 games .Although we're in somewhat a bad run over the season we've been consistent at getting points.

 

Had us down for 10th-12th, so the answer to your question is obviously yes. Quite how they've managed it defies all logic, as the football has been genuinely terrible on the whole. At best workmanlike, with a very, very occasional moment of excitement, but a clear decline in the standard of football throughout the side. That falls on one man, unfortunately.....

 

We haven’t yet though.

 

My bad forgot about that dip. Wasn't that when Mads was out/rested in preparation for playoffs?

Still better form than we are on now though.

 

"Same"...10th ish....so yea snatch your hands for a play off place at start.
Still not sure how we are 5th!

 

I'm not sure recent form matters all that much in the play-offs. Invariably it seems the team finishing 3rd gets promoted.

18/19 - Charlton promoted (3rd)
19/20 - Wycombe promoted (3rd)
20/21 - Blackpool promoted (3rd)
21/22 - Sunderland promoted (5th)
22/23 - Chansiri FC promoted via VAR (3rd)

There's always outliers, anomalies also. For example, this was how Barnsley finished a third tier season once upon a time:

Draw, Draw, Loss, Draw, Draw, Loss, Draw, Win, Draw, Draw, Draw, Win. 14 from 36 points. (slightly better than our current 12 from 36).

That was 2005/06. We finished 5th. We even lost the first leg of the play-off semi. And some still think we were lucky to win the final.

Surely, the only thing that matters NOW is that we get a result this weekend that sees us in the mix for another three weeks? And surely, the best way of helping that become a reality is for those who support/love/follow Barnsley FC to leave their issues/grievances/agendas to one side this week, and create a noisy, supportive and positive atmosphere at Oakwell from 12.30pm on Saturday?

I'm not pretending the last few weeks haven't seen disappointing performances and results. And everyone who supports a football club will have various opinions on how it is run, how the team is coached, about the incomings and outgoings and whatever else. But for 90 minutes at the game, I can say with complete and utter certainty, that creating and maintaining a positive atmosphere at Oakwell gives that team a much better chance of winning a game.

My last post on this forum of this kind of length came just over a year ago, after Wembley. And we'd lost. To them. Cruelly so. And most of what I remarked upon and most of what anyone connected to the club remarked upon was the way the supporters, the fanbase made everyone proud. Went down to 10 men, were undone by officials and yet the fans kept singing, kept believing, out-performed double the amount of deedars at the other end. I walked out of Wembley proud of the fanbase. Regardless of result.

So can we please have that same kind of backing for this game coming up? Because the worst-case scenario is exactly the same as it was as we walked out of Wembley proud. Another season in the third tier.

 

I hope the people that are there get behind them and they win at the weekend. We need to get a good performance in and secure the playoffs. I can't be there but would always back them if I was.

For me, going into the playoffs in good form is super important. When we got into the playoffs under Hecky we were flying and I felt so confident that we'd be able to beat anyone and I'm sure the players felt invincible then too as we were so good going into the playoffs that year.

 

We won two of the last five games in 15/16. Awful 0-0 at Burton. Injury time winner from George Williams in a bad game against Peterborough. A dull 0-0 at Bramall Lane. 2-2 draw at home to Colchester. Then the big win against already-crowned Champions, Wigan saw us scrape 6th on goal difference.

We weren't 'flying'.

But I do get where you're coming from.

Let's hope we get there and finish 5th or 6th (promoted from both before).

 

I said I'd expected mid table or top half (at best), for both the Duff and Collins seasons.
So seeing as we might make the Play offs again, Id say they have both been good seasons, certainly based on results.

 

I think having seen the levels of the division this season I like most people revised upwards. Easily the worst league I have seen at L1 level. We have just been over reliant on moments from our quality players rather than having a defined structure and team.

 

Whitey
At a challenging time for our Club, without us knowing what has gone on behind the scenes regarding NC, you have just posted the best possible rallying cry for Saturday.
I really do seriously hope that the anti-NC brigade will now stop with the negativity and turn their attention to the Northampton game and support the lads to their fullest extent.
Let's make some noise for the final push.