Views from the Sieve

What are the chances of us making the playoffs?

I'd say about only 30% chance AM, people could look at some of the teams left at home and remark 'should beat them that's another three points our way' but as were mostly aware we generally come a cropper against their like, I somehow think were find Plymouth one hard team to break but Mansfield will be a bit of revenge there, so a 3 point there after owing them one for not showing up there earlier. Not so sure about the next two away, Exeter on their day- a pretty decent side and Rovers on a Tuesday night? I think a point , will beat Morecambe home, draw at Lake South Wales and also feel quite easy to do Bury up there. The toughest test will be Oxford and Pompey at home, Wycombe? anything is better than last season's ground zero farce! but if we lose to Torquay away, Cobblers and Accy at home it'll be our own destiny why we havn't answered your question with an affirmative, and at Cheltenham away we can celebrate a 'fairly' decent season finishing mid table and another year in League two and to hold onto our key players for another term!

Thanks!

I've got a training day provisionally scheduled for 17th May, I will go and confirm the booking.

Sheez Fella! How could I forget Easter Monday April 21 Chesterfield home- THE game that will put us on stage to show how far we REALLY have come this season, a win here and were just be out of p/o position!

You cruel man! Just booked the 17th.

Oh Well, hopefully we will be playing at home on the Friday night or Away on the Sunday with a TV appearance. Otherwise I will be having kittens when I'm meant to be teaching.

Somebody in the top seven at the moment will implode which will help. Southend appear to be the team once again who look to have the jitters at the moment. That will leave the door open but I just think that a minute of the season will prove crucial.

That minute came in the last one at Oxford ,Rhys just delays a pass that would Put Lawson away , from the Offside free kick Oxford go down the other end and score.

Frustrating when you consider that we have only lost to two of the current top seven away and that could have easily been better still if not for that mugging at Oxford and a disastrous first ten minutes at Fleetwood.

Those results prove that we are well up to it but games like our last home performance are always likely .

We must be long odds to get there, but always remember it must have even been longer odds at the end of last season that we are even having this conversation.

SUSSEX DAGGER wrote:Somebody in the top seven at the moment will implode which will help. Southend appear to be the team once again who look to have the jitters at the moment. That will leave the door open but I just think that a minute of the season will prove crucial.

That minute came in the last one at Oxford ,Rhys just delays a pass that would Put Lawson away , from the Offside free kick Oxford go down the other end and score.

Frustrating when you consider that we have only lost to two of the current top seven away and that could have easily been better still if not for that mugging at Oxford and a disastrous first ten minutes at Fleetwood.

Those results prove that we are well up to it but games like our last home performance are always likely .

We must be long odds to get there, but always remember it must have even been longer odds at the end of last season that we are even having this conversation.

Think there's a lot of moments you can pinpoint to be honest. For me, we've just not been tough enough to beat consistently which is why we're in 10th rather than 6th/7th. Still, this is a young group of players so I'm not overly surprised.

If anything, Hartlepool are going to be the team to really challenge 7th. I was pretty impressed with them at ours. They did what we need to be doing more regularly on the road which is make themselves tough to beat and have their good players perform and make the difference. Luke James is the best player I have seen in L2 this season. I thought he showed about 70% of his talent against us but I can only see him getting better week in, week out. Players like him may just be the difference. Still, if the likes of Zav and Rhys get back to what they were doing a few months ago, it could be us who also puts a bit of pressure on. It only takes 1 game for it all to click again and off we go. We need that game to come soonish though.

I think we could do it with a bit of consistency.On our day we're as good as the rest of them,better in most cases but we have great games then play like 5 year olds in the very next fixture far to often for my liking.The gap between 7th and 8th wont be so large by the seasons end and 2 or 3 of the top 7 may well find themselves out of it by then.Its all to play for still but we must have consistency.

I'd imagine we will fall short by about 4-5 places come the end of the season. IF we could re-create the early season form then maybe anything is still possible.

Something which remains to wrankle with me and maybe I should just let it go is that since our game Vs Wycome (we WON 2-0 incidentally) in which Burnett labelled the performance "pathetic", our form (appears to have) tailed off massively.

League Form up to and including pathetic-gate:

Played: 19
Won: 8
Drawn: 6
Lost: 5
Goals For: 28
Goals Against: 23

League Form post pathetic-gate:

Played: 12
Won: 2
Drawn: 4
Lost: 6
Goals For: 10
Goals Against: 16

Don't know exactly what those stats show other than prior to the comments our win ratio was just below 1 in 2. Since the comments the win ratio is 1 in 6.
I said at the time I hoped the comment didnt come back to bite him on the bum and whilst at the moment we are reasonably positioned in the league with an 11 point gap to the relegation spots, we could still get very quickly dragged back down.

We do losing streaks better than any other club I've ever known so lets not count any chicken just yet.

The answer auntie is no chance and i am loving this great season of mid table obscurity,something weve needed for a couple of seasons.Next year we can push on after a season of consolidation.

dagger4eva wrote:I'd imagine we will fall short by about 4-5 places come the end of the season. IF we could re-create the early season form then maybe anything is still possible.

Something which remains to wrankle with me and maybe I should just let it go is that since our game Vs Wycome (we WON 2-1 incidentally) in which Burnett labelled the performance "pathetic", our form (appears to have) tailed off massively.

League Form up to and including pathetic-gate:

Played: 19
Won: 8
Drawn: 6
Lost: 5
Goals For: 28
Goals Against: 23

League Form post pathetic-gate:

Played: 12
Won: 2
Drawn: 4
Lost: 6
Goals For: 10
Goals Against: 16

Don't know exactly what those stats show other than prior to the comments our win ratio was just below 1 in 2. Since the comments the win ratio is 1 in 6.
I said at the time I hoped the comment didnt come back to bite him on the bum and whilst at the moment we are reasonably positioned in the league with an 11 point gap to the relegation spots, we could still get very quickly dragged back down.

We do losing streaks better than any other club I've ever known so lets not count any chicken just yet.

It isn't a coincidence that our form went after Billy Bingham was injured, Wimbledon away (the game before "pathetic gate").

Just saying like.

Mike the Dagger wrote:

dagger4eva wrote:I'd imagine we will fall short by about 4-5 places come the end of the season. IF we could re-create the early season form then maybe anything is still possible.

Something which remains to wrankle with me and maybe I should just let it go is that since our game Vs Wycome (we WON 2-1 incidentally) in which Burnett labelled the performance "pathetic", our form (appears to have) tailed off massively.

League Form up to and including pathetic-gate:

Played: 19
Won: 8
Drawn: 6
Lost: 5
Goals For: 28
Goals Against: 23

League Form post pathetic-gate:

Played: 12
Won: 2
Drawn: 4
Lost: 6
Goals For: 10
Goals Against: 16

Don't know exactly what those stats show other than prior to the comments our win ratio was just below 1 in 2. Since the comments the win ratio is 1 in 6.
I said at the time I hoped the comment didnt come back to bite him on the bum and whilst at the moment we are reasonably positioned in the league with an 11 point gap to the relegation spots, we could still get very quickly dragged back down.

We do losing streaks better than any other club I've ever known so lets not count any chicken just yet.

It isn't a coincidence that our form went after Billy Bingham was injured, Wimbledon away (the game before "pathetic gate").

Just saying like.

Yeah I think it was more to do with Bingham to be honest.

We've also played all 8 of the teams above us and 10th place York (who have gone on a good run) in them 12 games. I'm not surprised our form has dropped, plus it's coincided with losing Bingham and these better sides marking Zav out of the game.

Whilst 10 points from 12 games is not the greatest return, it could have been worse.

I think now Bingham is back, Zav will come good again. Recently he's been coming short in field to get the ball and in the end has to take on too many players. Bingham will hold the ball a lot more in midfield and Zav can stick to the wing. Now D'ath has settled aswell, our midfield looks very strong, IF all players stay fit I see us having a better finish! Also, it seems our away performances are picking up, I didn't go to the Rochdale or Burton games but going by reports and outcomes we seem to be a lot more solid defensively than in previous away games.

Southend draw, collapse continues, 5 without a win. Good result for us really. Could have done with Oxford beating Newport, their first away loss all season. Newport's games in hand could go either way, hopefully it gets too much for them and they can't hack it, HOPEFULLY.