Playoffs

I was just wondering why nobody has started a thread on this yet.

Because we're nailed on for automatic promotion?

#ExtraSpecialOne

Won 1 game for goodness sake

When we played Sutton we were relegation fodder

Just go 1 game at a time and get some distance between ourselves and the bottom 2

Quoted from HerveJosse

I was just wondering why nobody has started a thread on this yet.

first thought was 'ffs Herve' ,but looking at the table we are 8 points off relegation n 8 points off the play offs, so maybe not so stupid!

To get to th play offs we need to be averaging more than 2 pts per game for the rest of the season. That’s pretty much champions form. Just can’t see that happening.

Bit early for thinking about play offs  ask again in 10 games time

Quoted from Hagrid

Won 1 game for goodness sake

When we played Sutton we were relegation fodder

Just go 1 game at a time and get some distance between ourselves and the bottom 2

T’was always thus.

Quoted from Theimperialcoroner

To get to th play offs we need to be averaging more than 2 pts per game for the rest of the season. That’s pretty much champions form. Just can’t see that happening.

Not this season . As Forzano says we have halved the gap between relegation and play off places since Hurst left and are only eight points outside the play offs. From what I have seen if the opposition this year the league is full of mid table teams with several higher placed looking very ordinary eg Gillingham, Morecambe ,Crewe. With a couple of new signings in key positions in the transfer window and some luck on the injury front it’s there for the taking.

Quoted from Theimperialcoroner

To get to th play offs we need to be averaging more than 2 pts per game for the rest of the season. That’s pretty much champions form. Just can’t see that happening.

Which we are over the past 1 game. Extrapolate that to the end of the season and it is promotion.

Too much far projecting at either end of our fortunes - some on here were going ‘make no mistake, we are in a relegation battle’ half a dozen games ago. With half a season left, clearly an overstatement and similarly, there’ll be a few talking about plays offs and promotion because we’ve just seen a proper home performance and picked up our standards a bit since November.

Truth is - we’ve gone from sub standard to show something much better.
If we can sustain that and accrue some more decent results in a sequence, the division is such that a team can climb into contention, or at least be competitive. There are no outstanding teams, nobody running away with things and inconsistency is rife. If we take a calm, meta perspective on where we are now and where we might ascend to, then mid table is readily achievable if we add two or three more good results to those we’ve acquired recently, and if the play off places are only sub 10 points away, then they can be targeted. It’s that kind of league, and the team we’ve started to see looks very capable of getting into the top half. Personally, I’m keeping expectations in check beyond those that I started with - that we should be competitive in this division at least. For large parts before November we looked disappointingly short, especially defensively. Now, we look good.
UTM

Quoted from Hagrid

Won 1 game for goodness sake

When we played Sutton we were relegation fodder

Just go 1 game at a time and get some distance between ourselves and the bottom 2

Prefer 5 League games unbeaten since PH left including two wins agains teams who were in play off places at time and creditable draw at MKD to its one win

I would say it's more improbable than impossible.

We have been a nearly team all season, evidenced by the fact we have lost more points from winning positions than any other team, and could quite easily be up around the play off spots now. If we can start coming out on the right side of tight games, 8 points isn't a massive amount to make up. In 5 games since PH left, we have gone from 4 points above the relegation zone to 8, so making up lost ground is not beyond us. Most of the teams above us are very inconsistent and are losing games regularly. Almost every team from 6th down to 18th have lost 3 or 4 games from the last 6.

We have recently beaten 2 sides that were in play off positions and that was only the 4th defeat of the season for Crewe, so no mean feat. We really should have beaten MK dons too.

The rest of the month will be a good barometer. Three of the four teams we play are just above and just below us, and all three are below us in the form table. After that run, the transfer window opens, and if we get that right, who knows?

We know what can happen in football. we've seen it first hand. You've got to keep believing, or what's the point?

The real stand out point for me so far this season is that to date there has been no outstanding teams who have totally outplayed us. Yes some very decent teams like Mansfield and Notts County plus Stockport & Wrexham are well backed financially so have L1 players in their ranks but nothing where you go into a game thinking we don’t have a chance.

Think Ginny made the point in this, or another, thread that other than Wrexham we have mostly lost by the odd goal and this includes the period when we were playing pretty poorly and were low on confidence. Let’s face it Crawley are doing well and they looked absolute crap at Town despite winning.

With 3 points a game you can quickly rise and fall in any league but we are not far off being more than a very good team in this division. 3 new players in Jan could make hell of a difference.

Dale Mince said that FGR will be buying a number of new players in January (to avoid the drop).  As they are below us we need to secure our league status as the main priority.  Other teams in trouble may panic and start winning games.  

Let's see how much DA can get out of this squad first. Things are certainly looking far better, so much so I no longer fear the drop - but it is still far too early for prediction of play offs...

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

The real stand out point for me so far this season is that to date there has been no outstanding teams who have totally outplayed us. Yes some very decent teams like Mansfield and Notts County plus Stockport & Wrexham are well backed financially so have L1 players in their ranks but nothing where you go into a game thinking we don’t have a chance.

Think Ginny made the point in this, or another, thread that other than Wrexham we have mostly lost by the odd goal and this includes the period when we were playing pretty poorly and were low on confidence. Let’s face it Crawley are doing well and they looked absolute crap at Town despite winning.

With 3 points a game you can quickly rise and fall in any league but we are not far off being more than a very good team in this division. 3 new players in Jan could make hell of a difference.

Yep, we have lost games by the odd goal that we really shouldn't have, and each time it's been our own sloppy defending. Crawley and Colchester both won 3-2 at BP and both were hardly world beaters. Accrington looked nothing until Waterfall got sent off, and that is the only other game we have lost by more than one goal after Wrexham.

We've lost less games than Gillingham, and they are in 8th spot. They looked very poor at BP and we beat them easily.

We lost 3-2 at Stockport, 3-2 at Notts, 2-1 at Swindon, but it's the draws that have cost us really. Mansfield outplayed us but even then, it was a massive blunder that gave them their equaliser. Draws at Bradford, MK Dons and Walsall are all games we really should have won, then there are draws with teams at the bottom in FGR, Sutton and Tranmere.

I think the standard in league 2 is about the best it's ever been, with no massive drop in standard from top to bottom, but ironically, the best team to visit BP has been Barrow, and we somehow beat them.

Dale Mince said that FGR will be buying a number of new players in January (to avoid the drop).  As they are below us we need to secure our league status as the main priority.  Other teams in trouble may also panic and start winning games.  

Surely if you panic, you're less likely to win games?

I agree we should not get carried away after a couple of improved performances.

Out of interest though, would I be correct in saying that in December 2015 we were more that 8 points away from a play off spot? If memory serves we were over 10 points adrift at some point?

Just saying.

Quoted from HerveJosse

Not this season . As Forzano says we have halved the gap between relegation and play off places since Hurst left and are only eight points outside the play offs. From what I have seen if the opposition this year the league is full of mid table teams with several higher placed looking very ordinary eg Gillingham, Morecambe ,Crewe. With a couple of new signings in key positions in the transfer window and some luck on the injury front it’s there for the taking.

Well there's a surprise...I remember you explaining that you see yourself in the 20% of humanity that lacks 'optimistic outcome bias', so
your positive outlook is a welcome reinforcement of my own (I'm in the 'other camp', so to speak).

I see things much the same way - it's a congested league, with the majority of the mid-table teams capable of beating a top side on their
day. Any team that can manage a winning sequence will close the gap with the top sides. It could be us, with our new-found belief.

Stockport looked like they might run away with L2, but have now had a bit of a stumble. It'll be that sort of league this season I think.

Injuries to key players would obviously dampen my hopes a bit, but I've every faith in our manager to cope whatever.

This team have the potential for a really good run. A few more wins instead of draws and we could make big strides up the table.

A couple of star additions in the window would make us a really good side.  

I took a slice of the 25-1 available this morning as I think that’s a bit of value. I don’t expect us to get top 7 but I don’t think the odds should be that big.

The gap certainly highlights what is possible, let's see where we are at the end of the month, and then again at the end of January.

Can’t see it this season but many of the players who contributed yesterday are on deals for next year (thanks Paul) I think we’d be worth a punt for the play offs next season.

Pessimists will say 7 points off relegation and optimists 8 points from a playoff place. We've just beaten Crewe who are still in 5th place and most importantly put together a run of unbeaten games in the league since the departure of PH.

There are more than half the league games still to play so we should be in with a chance of a playoff spot. DA seems to have changed a few things already and things are looking good so I think it's time for us to be optimistic about our future.

Also we have played a lot of the bigger teams away Bradford MK, Wrexham, Notts County, Swindon and Stockport.

Has there ever been a club get into the playoffs without an away win all season? I’m not going to check, but I’ll assume it’s a strong “no!”. Saturday would be a good time to get that monkey off our back……

I think that’s a really strong point. DA will know we haven’t won an away game and that we won’t make real progress until we become an effective away team. I don’t think he’s worried about being in a relegation scrap. I dont t think the clues he gives about his model show that he has that psychological configuration. I also think he knows about ‘growth mindset’ and that he feels he has some quality players. He’s said as much regularly. What he will, I’m sure, be really stuck into, is Grimsby Town away from home and how we start to win some games. Getting above mid table without progress in our away results would be out of reach, and he’ll know he has to address that as a top priority. Next game gives him a big shout to chalk up a win; as will the games coming up at Harrogate, and Salford. Plus, we’ve got very winnable home games before the end of Jan. Obviously Notts and Mansfield are a bit more like big ‘one offs’ in some ways.

Quoted from chaos33

I think that’s a really strong point. DA will know we haven’t won an away game and that we won’t make real progress until we become an effective away team. I don’t think he’s worried about being in a relegation scrap. I dont t think the clues he gives about his model show that he has that psychological configuration. I also think he knows about ‘growth mindset’ and that he feels he has some quality players. He’s said as much regularly. What he will, I’m sure, be really stuck into, is Grimsby Town away from home and how we start to win some games. Getting above mid table without progress in our away performances would be out of reach, and he’ll know he has to address that as a top priority. Next game gives him a big shout to chalk up a win; as will the games coming up at Harrogate, and Salford. Plus, we’ve got very winnable home games before the end of Jan. Obviously Notts and Mansfield are a bit more like big ‘one offs’ in some ways.

Agreed but Harrogate is at home

Away on 20th Jan. I was referring to away games this month and next.

Oh ok fair enough

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/league-two/league-table/predicted

15th predicted, with no away wins all season...

Quoted from SteffiMariner

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/league-two/league-table/predicted

15th predicted, with no away wins all season...

Updated after each game. After 46 games it should be spot on.

If we reach the playoffs I’ll suck my dad off. Maybe next season.

Quoted from Wiley2405

If we reach the playoffs I’ll suck my dad off. Maybe next season.

I've seen some bizarre posts on this site over the years, this might be the worst

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Dale Mince said that FGR will be buying a number of new players in January (to avoid the drop).  As they are below us we need to secure our league status as the main priority.  Other teams in trouble may panic and start winning games.  

IF Town are going to be promotion contenders, we'll need a long unbeaten run with a high percentage of wins in it.

In that (hypothetical) circumstance, we'd want the teams currently below us to start winning games to help us overtake
the sides above us. (Cos' they won't be catching us...)

Understandable that you want to secure our league status - but with the ExtraSpecialOne in charge I'm looking up.

Quoted from 137

IF Town are going to be promotion contenders, we'll need a long unbeaten run with a high percentage of wins in it.

In that (hypothetical) circumstance, we'd want the teams currently below us to start winning games to help us overtake
the sides above us. (Cos' they won't be catching us...)

Understandable that you want to secure our league status - but with the ExtraSpecialOne in charge I'm looking up.

I'm not sure we do need a high proportion of wins.

If you look at the league table, most teams above us are losing as many as they win, some more so. Nearly everyone up until 6th spot have lost 3 or 4 games from the last 6 played.

It's a very up and down league and a few wins can propel you up the league quickly. There are plenty of games left to make up ground.

Yup. It’s pretty much what I said on the first page of the thread.

Let's hope big D can string a 4 or 5 game winning streak together because that's what we will need for any chance of top 10 or the play-offs . I suspect we may well fall short but with more hope for next season ; should be a real opportunity then with the league (hopefully) emptying out of the big spenders and being replaced with teams with less resource -Fleetwood , Cheltenham ,Burton and 1 other + Chesterfield and  Bromley rather than Stockport,Wrexham ,Mansfield and Notts would hopefully give us a much better chance of going right through upwards .

Great for us to be unbeaten in 5 league games.  There are also 2 other teams in the bottom 6 who are also unbeaten in 5 league games.  (Sutton and Tranmere).

We need to keep plugging away.  As said above, Forest Green said that they want to recruit new players in Jan.

Quoted from Wiley2405

If we reach the playoffs I’ll suck my dad off. Maybe next season.

Can’t you just suck a Fisherman’s Friend instead? I’d always ask the girl in the sweet shop if she’d like to…

Anything is possible, playoffs a big ask but who knows.
What I do know is that for the first time in a long timem I cant wait for the next game without the nagging fear and trepidation.

18 years since we reached the top 10 in this league. There is still a big gap between us and the top sides. Crazy to think we can do it but we're fan(atic) s.

Quoted from GrimRob

18 years since we reached the top 10 in this league. There is still a big gap between us and the top sides. Crazy to think we can do it but we're fan(atic) s.

Why does where we finished in the noughties etc have any relevance to where we are now?

In 1979/80 we were 13th on this day in December lost only two more league games and won the now First Division Championship. Is this relevant?

After Newport we have 4 matches in quick succession.
After our 5th match on 01 01 2024  we shall have a much clearer view if the team with DA 's input is the real deal and can push onto Play Offs or just a mid-table team.
I'm just glad the trigger was pulled early enough for the new manager to have time to make the changes.
Christmas time is the time for miracles.