Walsall Saturday

Hoping for a big turn out Saturday after the cup heroics , hopefully can get a better atmosphere going at home to .

They are only a couple of spots ahead of us to , so whatever happens Wednesday there will be the opportunity to climb a few places .

On another note I see Kiernan has mainly been on the bench for Hartlepool ,thought he would be utilised more with a team near the bottom .

I watched Hartlepool game on Saturday v Bradford..they were decent, didn’t play like a side near the bottom at all. Which is often the case this time of year..bottom sides suddenly hit form they haven’t had all season. Kemp played wide on the right, he’s in a rich vein of form, far better than Kiernan (no offence)

Read on a BBC article earlier that we are supposedly “out of the play off picture”. Might have given ourselves a lot to do, but we can certainly push on and give ourselves half a sniff. In the next 6 games we play teams 17th, 19th, 20th and 22nd in the form table (plus Mansfield twice in 7th).

We’ve got a decent squad, no reason we can’t give it a good go and see how the picture looks after Easter.

Absolutely agree Ska. I hope the mindset doesnt set in that we are pretty much done - not going down or up, because a tilt at the play offs isn’t out of the question. I know our form is inconsistent and has been all year, and our home record is rubbish, but we have games in hand. Any sort of a run - winning 4/5/6 games on the bounce and a late play for the top 6 isn’t inconceivable.

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really looked at the top half of the table in quite some time as I had long written the play-offs off as a possibility. I wasn’t being intentionally defeatist about it either, it’s just seemed too long a shot for a few months now.

I’ve just taken another look. Wednesday night’s opponents Mansfield are currently 7th on PPG, and as a rudimentary barometer if we extrapolate that out over 46 games they look set for ~74 points. So that’s the approximate benchmark.

We’re currently on 45 points from 34 games, essentially meaning we likely need to accrue roughly another 30 points from our last 12 matches. That’s 10 wins and 2 defeats, or 9 wins and 3 draws. Effectively, we’d need to take two thirds of the points we have in our first 34 games from our last 12.

For the life of me, I can’t see that happening. We’d have to display form way over and above anything we have produced this season over just over a quarter of the season.

Not trying to put a dampener on things, it just looks like a stretch too far at this stage. Personally, I think a top half finish would be a noble aim and with our FA Cup run in the bag, a strong signal to prospective signings that the old, bottom-feeding Grimsby is no more.

Quoted from marinerjase

Kemp played wide on the right, he’s in a rich vein of form, far better than Kiernan (no offence)

True.

12th place usually requires 60-65 points. Doncaster currently occupy that spot; their extrapolated PPG would give them 64 points. We'd need 20 points from 12 games to beat that, so W6 D2 would do it. I think that's a fairly realistic aim as we still have to play a number of teams below us in the form table, and would give us our strongest finishing position in the league since 2006, 17 years ago.

Quoted from Poojah

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really looked at the top half of the table in quite some time as I had long written the play-offs off as a possibility. I wasn’t being intentionally defeatist about it either, it’s just seemed too long a shot for a few months now.

I’ve just taken another look. Wednesday night’s opponents Mansfield are currently 7th on PPG, and as a rudimentary barometer if we extrapolate that out over 46 games they look set for ~74 points. So that’s the approximate benchmark.

We’re currently on 45 points from 34 games, essentially meaning we likely need to accrue roughly another 30 points from our last 12 matches. That’s 10 wins and 2 defeats, or 9 wins and 3 draws. Effectively, we’d need to take two thirds of the points we have in our first 34 games from our last 12.

For the life of me, I can’t see that happening. We’d have to display form way over and above anything we have produced this season over just over a quarter of the season.

Not trying to put a dampener on things, it just looks like a stretch too far at this stage. Personally, I think a top half finish would be a noble aim and with our FA Cup run in the bag, a strong signal to prospective signings that the old, bottom-feeding Grimsby is no more.

I agree with you. I honestly thought that the momentum of promotion would have carried us through this season. Unfortunately, our worrisome home form took a tremendous dip leaving us where we are in the table. I think we'll no end up just short of the play offs, which given our FA Cup performance is an acceptable season.

Quoted from Poojah

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really looked at the top half of the table in quite some time as I had long written the play-offs off as a possibility. I wasn’t being intentionally defeatist about it either, it’s just seemed too long a shot for a few months now.

I’ve just taken another look. Wednesday night’s opponents Mansfield are currently 7th on PPG, and as a rudimentary barometer if we extrapolate that out over 46 games they look set for ~74 points. So that’s the approximate benchmark.

We’re currently on 45 points from 34 games, essentially meaning we likely need to accrue roughly another 30 points from our last 12 matches. That’s 10 wins and 2 defeats, or 9 wins and 3 draws. Effectively, we’d need to take two thirds of the points we have in our first 34 games from our last 12.

For the life of me, I can’t see that happening. We’d have to display form way over and above anything we have produced this season over just over a quarter of the season.

Not trying to put a dampener on things, it just looks like a stretch too far at this stage. Personally, I think a top half finish would be a noble aim and with our FA Cup run in the bag, a strong signal to prospective signings that the old, bottom-feeding Grimsby is no more.

We would have to go on a run which we havent really achieved so far .

Only once have we gone on a decent unbeaten run ,which was after the first league game ,when we went 7 unbeaten after that its been a mish mash of form -we would also have to reel off a string of back to back wins ,which on previous form does look unlikely .

Realistically we will probably end up 12-16th but if we could play all the remaining games as cup finals you never know .

My main hope is a bit more on the floor football with attacking intent at home , now the pressure is off .

We do still have some exciting games though -Bradford and Donny away (who we might outnumber on their own patch )
Mansfield at home who should bring a few
And then the wombles at home final day which should be a good occasion after the formalities that weekend.

Well there's nothing to lose now and many of our players should have an eye on next season for a new contract wether it’s here or another club .
I’d like to see us really have a go now especially at home , I’m hoping we’re gonna get games where we have more than a couple of shots on target at Blundell park and give us something to shout about .
There’s absolutely no pressure on us now so what do we have to lose ?

We’ve got a swathe of players on two year deals, and a handful who may want to impress.

The playoffs are out of reach but you’d imagine Hurst will still want to finish on a high.

Fundamentally though, our season is done.

Quoted from aldi_01

We’ve got a swathe of players on two year deals, and a handful who may want to impress.

The playoffs are out of reach but you’d imagine Hurst will still want to finish on a high.

Fundamentally though, our season is done.

Hurst did say after the Brighton game that he wants to win as many as we can and finish high up the league.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the possibility of fatigue affecting us. I don't think we have a spare Tuesday between now and the end of the season which means small gaps between games and the associated changes as the club seek to protect players. I cannot see Hurst being able to avoid changes. Are our squad players good or consistent enough to be able to seamlessly maintain momentum? I guess only time will tell.

Quoted from barralad

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the possibility of fatigue affecting us. I don't think we have a spare Tuesday between now and the end of the season which means small gaps between games and the associated changes as the club seek to protect players. I cannot see Hurst being able to avoid changes. Are our squad players good or consistent enough to be able to seamlessly maintain momentum? I guess only time will tell.

We do. Today!  

Quoted from DB

Hurst did say after the Brighton game that he wants to win as many as we can and finish high up the league.

Gives away too much info does PH  

Fatigue?
2 games a week, just drop the work load in training.

To have a sniff of the play offs we'd have to beat Mansfield twice, win at Bradford and then win six of the other nine. Stranger things have happened, probably. Three league wins on the bounce would be pretty mad to start with so let's give that a bash first. Expect Hunt, Morris and Green to be our midfield 3, Lloyd and Taylor. That team can get a result

Playoffs are worth aiming for.  Very difficult but achievable.  

Is it any more difficult that what we did against the odds in the playoffs last season?

Is it anymore difficult that our cup run against the odds?

Are the playoffs more difficult that both the above successes combined?

I think we have a small chance if the energy and desire is there.  With games in hand to play we may just run out of gas after a long season, a lot of games and a shortened close season.

Quoted from immariner

To have a sniff of the play offs we'd have to beat Mansfield twice, win at Bradford and then win six of the other nine. Stranger things have happened, probably. Three league wins on the bounce would be pretty mad to start with so let's give that a bash first. Expect Hunt, Morris and Green to be our midfield 3, Lloyd and Taylor. That team can get a result

I've watched every game this season and for me personally this would be my choice starting XI.
Crocombe.
Emmanuel efete Waterfall maher glennon
Holohan Hunt/Green
Clifton mcatee
Lloyd

I can't decide whether I'd prefer a baller like Hunt or a big unit like Green. I guess it'd come down to how the opponents set up etc

We’ll now we’re out of the cup we can concentrate on the league, usually saying that in November not March.