The league Table

Looking at the full table on the BBC web site, it gives the last ten results of each team.

We have the joint best results over the last ten games, W6, D3, L1.

Macclesfield are the only team with the same record, whilst the team that's running away with the league have W6, D2, L2.

Looking at the posts on this site, you would think that we hadn.t won a game over this period, but in fact we are still gaining points, albeit slowly, over Barnet.

Time to get a grip fellas, it's not over yet by a long chalk, usually the team that wins this league goes on a run about this time.

Could that be us??

I think the winners will be the team that beats the other top teams, we have both Barnet & Macclesfield to play twice. Then we will have a better idea.

It's not impossible, but I think we throw away too many stupid points against shit opposition. I was hoping earlier in the season that we'd iron this out (and hopefully we will), but we've lost 4 more in the last 2 away games.

I still think we'll reach the playoffs fairly comfortably though, and after that it's 2 cup ties etc (not a lottery, that's nonsense)

We won't do it by being negative. The squad is good enough, proved it at Gateshead, but is the manager?

We have the direct opportunity to beat Barnet and Macclesfield twice.  This opportunity is also "high risk" as all 4 games should be a real challenge.  These games are more "a tennis match" than a "football match".  If don't get the points then our main rivals will.  (Unless the games are all draws).  

Quoted from mimma

Looking at the full table on the BBC web site, it gives the last ten results of each team.

We have the joint best results over the last ten games, W6, D3, L1.

Macclesfield are the only team with the same record, whilst the team that's running away with the league have W6, D2, L2.

Looking at the posts on this site, you would think that we hadn.t won a game over this period, but in fact we are still gaining points, albeit slowly, over Barnet.

Time to get a grip fellas, it's not over yet by a long chalk, usually the team that wins this league goes on a run about this time.

Could that be us?

I think the winners will be the team that beats the other top teams, we have both Barnet & Macclesfield to play twice. Then we will have a better idea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/conference/table

Quoted from MuddyWaters

We won't do it by being negative. The squad is good enough, proved it at Gateshead, but is the manager?

You could just as easily say that the squad isn't good enough as was proved in the home game against Southport!

One swallow doesn't make a summer so taking one result in isolation doesn't really tell you anything.

As thing stands, I'd say the table currently gives a pretty good indication of what's what. We're one of the better teams in the division but our inconsistency at times means we've dropped points which would have taken us away from some of the others and closer to Barnet.

Plenty of time to sort things out yet. Just a pity that we've got so long to wait for a League game so no chance of adding any points for a couple of weeks.

Quoted from mimma

Looking at the full table on the BBC web site, it gives the last ten results of each team.

We have the joint best results over the last ten games, W6, D3, L1.

Macclesfield are the only team with the same record, whilst the team that's running away with the league have W6, D2, L2.

Looking at the posts on this site, you would think that we hadn.t won a game over this period, but in fact we are still gaining points, albeit slowly, over Barnet.

Time to get a grip fellas, it's not over yet by a long chalk, usually the team that wins this league goes on a run about this time.

Could that be us??

I think the winners will be the team that beats the other top teams, we have both Barnet & Macclesfield to play twice. Then we will have a better idea.

Whilst I admire your optimism you are basically confirming that we have gained just 1 point on Barnet in the last 10 games.

We are 11 points behind with a game in hand so if we were fortunate to win that we would be 8 points behind so on current form we would catch them up after 80 games.

"usually the team that wins this league goes on a run about this time."

The team that wins this league has the most points at the end of the season.

Look win our game in hand and beat Barnet twice and we're 2 points behind them. Happy days if that's the case. Hope it is.

The point is that Barnet also drop points in games they should win, every team does, not just us.

When they do, their board goes into meltdown as well!

I still think that with the league being as tight as it is, it will be decided by the head to head between the top sides, & we are one of those sides.

It is still up to us to minimise the dropping of silly points, & beat the top teams.

Oh, & pray!!

I just hope grimsby don't turn out like arsenal. A very good team in their respective division but ultimately struggle in the games that really matter against other title challenging sides. We generally do quite well against the better teams but Barnet x 2, macc x2, Bristol rovers and Woking to play again to name just a few is quite scary really, I just cannot see us taking the required points needed to challenge for the title , just hope we secure enough for the playoffs, not pessimistic just realistic. UTM

Have thought since about early October we are just a play off team and, in my mind, I will be happy with that given the league is so competitive with 10-12 teams all about of the same ability at the top
Not lethal or potent enough up top - we dominate matches for long periods (as our shots on target and possession % prove in many matches) but we don't get 2/3 goals
For that reason we are always susceptible to an Altrincham type situation

Also, we are already into the "if we beat them, and win our game in hand, and beat Barnet twice etc" - give me points in the bag any day

We haven't lost too much ground with clubs who had games in hand but IMO Barnet won't collapse and will just keep chipping in with points

Can Hurst pull a rabbit out of the bag in January (namely a goal machine!) to give us a title challenge boost?

Well, Lennie is third in the scoring charts, so we can't complain too much in that respect.

However, the rest of the strikers just aren't chipping in enough. Pittman had a good start but probably ought to have scored two or three since he came back from injury and Hannah just isn't doing enough at the moment, goals-wise.

We've had a few goals from midfield and defence which is good, but you can't just have one striker scoring goals (unless he's scoring a ridiculous number) so hopefully, Hamish will score a few or we'll sign a new striker or two in the transfer window to get us the points we need.

Quoted from Maringer

Well, Lennie is third in the scoring charts, so we can't complain too much in that respect.

However, the rest of the strikers just aren't chipping in enough. Pittman had a good start but probably ought to have scored two or three since he came back from injury and Hannah just isn't doing enough at the moment, goals-wise.

We've had a few goals from midfield and defence which is good, but you can't just have one striker scoring goals (unless he's scoring a ridiculous number) so hopefully, Hamish will score a few or we'll sign a new striker or two in the transfer window to get us the points we need.

Hannah not doing enough goal wise.....you can't score goals from the bench can you?
Also I hope he does sign a striker but ph is happy with what we've got, so can't see it tbh

He also can't score goals from an offside position.

Everyone is forgetting Eastleigh in this equation.  IF they win their games in hand, then they will be 2nd in the league and only 4 points behind Barnet, and they still have to play them.

Looking through the fixtures, after a quick calculation in my head, I reckon Hannah has played over 10 hours of football (in the Conference) this season. Around 7 games worth of football in total. I suppose his return of two goals from this (one a penalty), isn't too bad for a stop-start run of play, but he just doesn't look as though he is going to score at present and hasn't really done so for a long while.

Providing that Hamish (or Hannah/Pittman) don't start scoring some goals, I think there is no doubt Hurst will be looking out for a striker when the transfer window reopens. He was looking for attacking players (without success) at the start of the season and when the loan window was open, so no reason to think that anything will change there.

Let's hope we can find a good player or two to strengthen the squad and offer a few more options in attack.

Quoted from northbankmariner

I just hope grimsby don't turn out like arsenal. A very good team in their respective division but ultimately struggle in the games that really matter against other title challenging sides. We generally do quite well against the better teams but Barnet x 2, macc x2, Bristol rovers and Woking to play again to name just a few is quite scary really, I just cannot see us taking the required points needed to challenge for the title , just hope we secure enough for the playoffs, not pessimistic just realistic. UTM

Finishing fourth at the end of the season is considered a success by the Arsenal regime but we all know that finishing fourth leaves us with a mountain to climb still and ultimately disappointment in the last two campaigns

Sad to say but I don't think we have it in us to win the league so looks like we'll have to hope it's third time lucky via the play off route

We're nothing like Arsenal. We won at Stoke the last time we played there

We have been too predictable for for too long making it easy for opposition managers to nullify our play . The ever present players who have a constant change of partners , no wonder we don't see exciting forward play .
It's getting to the point that draws aren't any good for us if we are to press Barnet . Play off at best .

Quoted from DocTower

We have been too predictable for for too long making it easy for opposition managers to nullify our play . The ever present players who have a constant change of partners , no wonder we don't see exciting forward play .
It's getting to the point that draws aren't any good for us if we are to press Barnet . Play off at best .

I'd go along with that though there were good chances not taken early on in the last game. My impression is that the team seems to believe nil-nil or one goal is enough and don't press home an advantage. If anything they sink back to edge of the box defending and leave LJL on his own for long stretches.

I know the situation is different but watching Watford demolish Fulham this weekend, they got a goal up and kept going for the jugular and ended up at 5-0. No lucky goals either. We have really only done that twice this season and it's not good enough to get the side any higher than 5th place at best.

Unfortunately I think PH is too cautious as a manager and this seems to have carried on over to the players. I don't think it is anything to do with him being an ex defender, just his natural character. I really hope he starts to be more adventurous with his approach because at the end of the season it could cost us promotion and on a more personal note , his job.

Quoted from northbankmariner

I just hope grimsby don't turn out like arsenal. A very good team in their respective division but ultimately struggle in the games that really matter against other title challenging sides. We generally do quite well against the better teams but Barnet x 2, macc x2, Bristol rovers and Woking to play again to name just a few is quite scary really, I just cannot see us taking the required points needed to challenge for the title , just hope we secure enough for the playoffs, not pessimistic just realistic. UTM

On the contrary, it fills me full of confidence.
Look at it so far against the top teams in our division, we have played seven of them-
Bristol Rovers....... Drew
Gateshead.............Won
Halifax....................Drawn and won
Kiddy.......................Lost and won
Wrexham............... Won
Torquay...................Lost and won
Woking....................Won
So, the results against the top twelve teams that we have played so far-
Played 10, Won 6, drawn 2, lost 2.
All hypothetical I know, but if we continued this average till the end of the season it would give us a total of 80 points.
Which would be enough for a play of place in every season we have been down here except one, which was season 11-12.
Incidentally, If we have serious aspirations about winning the title we would have to achieve somewhere near the 100 point mark, this has been the case in the last five years except one season when Mansfield went up as champions with 95 points.
We are not going to do that realistically. We would need to take 59 points from our remaining 22 games and only dropping 7 points.
I would think that it's looking like the title will be won with a total a lot less than 100 points.
And hopefully that will be us.

UTM

I am hoping we can buck the trend and not have a post Christmas slump this season!!!

Quoted from easypeersy

I am hoping we can buck the trend and not have a post Christmas slump this season!!!

Should that occur again we will be looking for a new manager before the season ends

The most we can do is get behind the team.

Another thing. If Diz played every week, we'd get 10, 12, 15 goals from him a season.

Our judgement time begins next Friday. In 2 months we will play Barnet, Macc and FGR twice and Brizzel Rovers. After those games we will have a great idea of where we are. If we win all of them (which I seriously doubt we will) it will mean us and us alone will be breathing down Barnet's neck.

I just hope he signs good quality to improve us in Jan rather than confuse us with signings such as Devitt, Brodie, Jennings or Fyfield. Boyce and the Tonk improved us last season. He needs cover at centre half (which might be Parslow) and a massive target man to throw on if we need a goal.

Quoted from Garth

Should that occur again we will be looking for a new manager before the season ends

Don't you kid yourself.

Quoted from chaos33

Don't you kid yourself.

I'm not, we can't and won't go through that disappointment again without a major change surely

Quoted from Garth

I'm not, we can't and won't go through that disappointment again without a major change surely

You would hope not Garth, but stranger things have happened......this is GTFC we're talking about  

Last time I looked at the table we were second...................

Last time i looked we was 5th and 3 teams below us have games in hand