That always seem able to f@@k up every time we have managed to manoeuvre ourselves into a promising position ?

I have never been a fan of Paul Hurst, however I do give him credit for our recent good run of form and the position he has managed to put us in to prior to the Gateshead fixture.

I feel that Bristol Rovers were under the most pressure playing first in the recent fixtures against a side that given Gateshead's injury problems was a harder fixture than ours. In front of a BIG crowd they DELIVERED and won 5-1.

Barnet whilst not playing particularly well DELIVERED and won 1-0 against a team that has been playing well recently.

Why when it comes to the crunch do we lack the mental strength to perform when the chips are down ?

I feel that we have lost our best opportunity to gain promotion from this godforsaken league and whilst many on here continue to calculate the mathematical permutations I feel that we all know the chance has now passed us by !

The same problems have been evident over the last few years in play off situations against Newport and Gateshead, and whilst many on here bemoan the other team cheating or us having men sent off etc etc the problems persist.

I genuinely hope that I am wrong however I feel we will all be having the same conversations this time next year !

As I said earlier "WHY IS IT ALWAYS US THAT F@@K UP" ?

Discuss...........

PS I do not wish this to be seen a negative post, more a post borne from continued frustration !!!!!!! Having said that I envisage attending all the remaining games to offer my FULL support to the team.

Plenty of Barnet fans were saying "How come we messed up against Alfreton letting in a last minute goal, while Grimsby did what they were supposed to by putting Welling away 2-0?"

It's all perception and our position is down to results over a season, with many of the poorer results coming at home in the first half of the season before we really started to fire with Palmer joining the team.

So, we're conveniently forgetting about a couple of weeks ago when Bristol lost at home to Eastleigh in front of a 7k plus crowd, Barnet lost 3-1 at home to FGR whilst we were winning 2-1 at Woking.

You can't just pick results from the last game just to try and prove a point.

if...and it is still an if....but if we do fck up what has been our best opportunity so far then you only really have to look at one thing IMO, the failure to sign a decent striker in close season.
We knew we needed one, but didnt get one, yes the shop has hit a few now but how many more has he missed? Yesterday he himself had two in front of goal opportunities, one high over the bar the other a weak header.
Ollie Palmer has ignited the front line, look back at the first half of the season and just think what a striker like that would have done for us in those losses and draws.

Barnet have Akinde, a match winner, thats the only difference between them and the rest of us chasing them, he scores regularly.  

At the end of the day there are only two prizes at the end of the season. There are probably at least a dozen clubs who are in a "promising" position at some stage and hope to get one of these prizes. So I would argue that "flipping up" as you put it is actually the norm for every club and it certainly isn't just us when we do so.

I fear you are missing my point. I am not talking about what Eastleigh or FGR did a few weeks ago, that is irrelevant.

The point I am making was about three teams with relatively equal opportunities to win the league going into matches at the squeaky bum time of the season.

Two DELIVERED and one DID NOT (AGAIN) !

If we end up in the play-offs I fear we do not possess the mental strength to gain promotion and I felt that our best opportunity was via the automatic route !

No team has the devine right to win every game.  Barnet and Rovers have both "fcked up" as you put it, in recent games, and we took advantage by winning.  However, yesterday was just one of those games that no matter what, Lenny and Palmer were just never going to score.

There are 4 more cup finals to win between now and the end of the conference season, and if necessary, a few more games if we need in the playoffs

KEEP CALM AND KEEP FAITH, THE TOWN ARE GOING UP!  8)

7 wins and 2 draws in the last 9 games. I suspect you have a different definition to most about what "f*cking up" is.

The original point is also irrelevant if you are comparing all three teams against one set of results.

Had this been the weekend we won at Woking then this whole discussion would be completely different.

Either a poor attempt at trolling or someone that really is a pessimist.

I'm basking in the glory of us being in the title hunt, if Barnet really were as good as they think they'd have already won the title...

Quoted from moosey_club

if...and it is still an if....but if we do fck up what has been our best opportunity so far then you only really have to look at one thing IMO, the failure to sign a decent striker in close season.
We knew we needed one, but didnt get one, yes the shop has hit a few now but how many more has he missed? Yesterday he himself had two in front of goal opportunities, one high over the bar the other a weak header.
Ollie Palmer has ignited the front line, look back at the first half of the season and just think what a striker like that would have done for us in those losses and draws.

Barnet have Akinde, a match winner, thats the only difference between them and the rest of us chasing them, he scores regularly.  

This for me. The points frittered away in the first 15 games count just the same as the draws against Chester and Gateshead. A prolific striker was needed at the start of the season.

I'm afraid ithe original post is very much a negative one for me. It ignores all the team have done to put themselves in this position in the first place. Barnet looked like they were running away with it for most of the season and Bristol Rovers are clearly going to be devastated if they don't go straight back up so the sentiment of even suggesting we have f@@ked up misses the point.

Yesterday was a bit of a slap in the face but could have been worse and the remaining games all need to be won and then we might have a slim chance with a bit of luck.

I think last year against Gateshead and the year before at Newport weren't really about f@@cking up - we simply found our level. This year it is very different. I like a lot of fans, I guess, thought yesterday was a formality. I think we forgot there may be a few half decent teams trying to stop the Mighty Mariners dream coming true. We played pretty well yesterday and it didn't work out exactly as we wanted it to but we certainly didn't 'f - up'.

15 points behind in January, now down to 3 and even that's after a slip up.

Yet we're the ones who have copulated it up?

Argument about Saturday is a red herring and the main focus of the post, if appropriate at this time, is the points wasted at the beginning of the season. to be honest those debates have been held many times throughout the season and will again become relevant if we stay in this league. I am no PH  fan but all I care about now is next four, or if need be seven matches, hopefully at the end we will be successful fail and those of us who wanted change will have had our guns loaded lets hope that is not the case and we are arguing about what players we should retain for our return to league 2.

Talk of what has costed us etc etc. The only thing any draws or losses have costed us, is being top of the league earlier and now. But it's where we finish that's important, not where we are now.  ;)

Have the losses or draws costed us promotion? We will only know once that full time whistle goes in that very last game! But I believe, one way or the other, we ARE going up.  8)

senseless post we are on a incredible run how have we fecked up?

A win tomorrow and Barnet/Bristol draw or lose and we are back in it, we've got to still believe whilst it still is possible mathematically, there is still 4 games to go yet, if it is the playoffs I bet the other teams would want to avoid playing us over the 2 games.

Our home form is poor,

Its been poor all season,

You can not win every game but we should have won a few more than we have,

Early season lacking that cutting edge might be the reason we do not go up as champions,


BUT

This squad will win the play offs.

If Barnet win three of their last four and lose the other we still need to make up 10 goals and win all ours to finish ahead of them so looks less likely now
What we can do though is go into playoffs off the back of four more St wins full of confidence which we will need if we face BR
Come on Town!!

Barnet will feel that they have f**ked up if they don`t succeed being as they were 12 points ahead at one time
If Bristols great run had more wins and not so many draws they would have been out of sight by now.
If we win all our remaining games we will go up via the playoffs, if automatic fails, so whats your point?

It,s all if buts and maybe's. We may have lost a game here or dropped a point there but so have Barnet and Bristol Rovers. If we are good enough or lucky enough we will go up if not then we will fight again next season.

In answer to the original question, because we care about our team.  We always watch our team and put our results under the microscscope more than any others.

Yesterday was annoying but we have been coming from a long way behind, we have been on an amazing run to get ourselves back into it, we can pick and choose results from all over the season, but we didn't 'mess up' yesterday because of 'pressure' but because we came up against a 'clever' side who played as well. If we collapse under pressure we can discuss that but that was not what happened yesterday imo.

Quoted from big al

I'm afraid ithe original post is very much a negative one for me. It ignores all the team have done to put themselves in this position in the first place. Barnet looked like they were running away with it for most of the season and Bristol Rovers are clearly going to be devastated if they don't go straight back up so the sentiment of even suggesting we have f@@ked up misses the point.

Yesterday was a bit of a slap in the face but could have been worse and the remaining games all need to be won and then we might have a slim chance with a bit of luck.

I think last year against Gateshead and the year before at Newport weren't really about f@@cking up - we simply found our level. This year it is very different. I like a lot of fans, I guess, thought yesterday was a formality. I think we forgot there may be a few half decent teams trying to stop the Mighty Mariners dream coming true. We played pretty well yesterday and it didn't work out exactly as we wanted it to but we certainly didn't 'f - up'.

With regard to finding our level, Neil Woods did that by crap management of a poor squad, that got relegated and then signing more crap players that weren't anywhere good enough to get us promoted.

We are still here after 5 seasons and although this looks like our best chance so far of getting back in the league it is all down to the next four games or the three after, and current form won't come in to it, it is all down to the performances on the day and unfortunately Saturday's wasn't good enough, let's hope the next few games are better.

To be fair I can see where the OP is coming from.

Sides that win titles deliver the goods when it matters the most. The lost points earlier in the season have gone, we got ourselves right back into the race and slipped up at a time when no more slip-ups could be afforded.

Who knows what may happen in the playoffs though?

Thank god for Sconeboy, it took 23 posts before someone read and understood the point being made in the original post !!!!!!

The original post was my immediate reaction on Saturday.

Thinking about this logically:

Out of the three team we had by far the hardest game on Saturday, we now have the easiest run in our respective fixtures.

It is actually very very hard to win every match - Our record since Jan 2nd is 10 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats - or 32 points out of 42 - THAT IS ASTONISHINGLY GOOD.  The problem is that in our first 14 games we only managed 20 points out of 42.

We are in very good shape if we don't win the title (and I think we might). Lets not get on anyone's backs we are in a title race, but we are no longer under any pressure, its for others to lose.

I think every understood your point, they just disagreed with it.

You are looking at one game in isolation and claiming it as proof we always mess up when it really matters and the other title contenders don't.

The preceding 3 games all really mattered and we won them all. Barnet and Bristol have dropped points recently when it really mattered.

Quoted from Sconeboy

To be fair I can see where the OP is coming from.

Sides that win titles deliver the goods when it matters the most. The lost points earlier in the season have gone, we got ourselves right back into the race and slipped up at a time when no more slip-ups could be afforded.

Who knows what may happen in the playoffs though?

Almost but not quite...we have never been in pole position...slip ups made have always been in relation to catching up..never extending a lead or consilidating a position.
We only won 5 games in the first 15...that is where the title has been lost, we may only be a small number of points behind now but in reality champions are consistent over a season, we have had an extraordinary second half of the season and even an average first half would have the title sewn up by now.
In reality the league this year has seen no outstanding team run away with it, i cant recall feeling outplayed by many teams this year (Torquay maybe) and therefore that is what grates.

I will feel largely more optimistic in the pay offs this season than previously but as yesterday and for the most of the season all a team needs to do is come and park the bus to get a result.

Quoted from Sir Matt Tease

Thank god for Sconeboy, it took 23 posts before someone read and understood the point being made in the original post !!!!!!

That's like saying 'so 22 of you have all disagreed with me but 1 person does agree with me, therefore I was right!
Btw I also understand what you were getting at but still don't agree but we're all entitled to our opinions UTM

Failure to sign a consistent striker early enough is what has held us back and had we acquired a Palmer or similar earlier, we could now afford a few slip ups. Barnets form has been pretty average the last couple of months but they had built themselves such a cushion that even our magnificent form of 7 wins and 2 draws in 9 has not been enough to overhaul them.

There are no really good stand out sides this year and i feel that should we not go up, we will have missed a great opportunity because we don't convert enough of our chances. The stats say we have had more shots than any other side but last time i checked, we were averaging 8 shots per goal to Barnets 5.

All is not lost yet though and there may be a couple of twists and turns. We also have a far better chance in the play offs if that is where we end up.

Quoted from ginnywings

Failure to sign a consistent striker early enough is what has held us back and had we acquired a Palmer or similar earlier, we could now afford a few slip ups. Barnets form has been pretty average the last couple of months but they had built themselves such a cushion that even our magnificent form of 7 wins and 2 draws in 9 has not been enough to overhaul them.

There are no really good stand out sides this year and i feel that should we not go up, we will have missed a great opportunity because we don't convert enough of our chances. The stats say we have had more shots than any other side but last time i checked, we were averaging 8 shots per goal to Barnets 5.

All is not lost yet though and there may be a couple of twists and turns. We also have a far better chance in the play offs if that is where we end up.

Totally agree with this ginny, good post as usual.

I rest my case, I genuinely wanted to be wrong but alas I am not !