On the whole, over the last two months, results have improved and a good few wins under the belt and hopefully thoughts of relegation are quickly vanishing from your minds and you are up to 16th and just 6 points off the play-off places and 9 points off 3rd place - do you dare to dream of the possibility of getting right up there among the top 7 places, or even the top 3?
i think if we can stay injury free and keep hold of our players this january (2 big ifs!) then the play-offs are not out of the question at all! top3 is definatly dreaming though
Really? I will add another 'if' for you. If you get a decent run of results you could easily find yourselves in the top 6 and breathing down the necks of 3rd place. I know it is always far easier to say than do but as football fans we always want to believe our team, when doing quite well, can compete for promotion places (almost effortlessly in some cases). As the league is currently so tight from 3rd to where Wycombe currently are I really don't think it is at all impossible with the three IF's mentioned above are all working for you
I think what is nice is that there is no real pressure on the team now. We shouldn't go down as we are getting too many results now, drawing games we would have lost under previous management. Winning the 1-0's that would have been 1-1 before. There is not the expectation there to get to the play offs but it is by no means out of the question. Situations like yesterday in getting the game on, one of only three league 2 games to survive the weather and winning the match are so important. It means we have points on the board and helps to avoid the situation where you have 2-3 games a week from Feb to April. Other teams will face this the more they get games called off. Take Bradford, the long cup run, yesterday's game off means more tiredness and more games in a short space of time. They have already lost 3 out of their last 4 in the league. Of the teams from 8th to 15th just above us, only one (Oxford) have won more than one in their last 4 games and 6 of them have lost 2 or more in their last 4. Torquay a place behind us with 2 games in hand, haven't won in the last 6 games, losing and drawing 3 a piece. Like I said I by no means expect us to be in the promotion shake up, with all the early season issues and injuries, but as long as we keep doing what we are doing (20 points in the last 10 games) there is always a chance. However, based on the early season issues I would be more than happy with mid table obscurity!
Although I don't think a play off place is realistic, I have to admit that I must be thinking it's possible as I'm always looking at that gap. However, it is an achievable goal; football is a funny old game. Since the bearded wonder Jimmy Hill introduced the 3 points for a win system, first experimented in the Isthmian League when Wycombe were in it, it doesn't take much to turn tables upside down. It certainly feels better to be looking at the possibility of a play off place than staring at relegation. Historically 50 points has been enough to avoid relegation (only just on a couple of occasions, and comfortably on others). So 5 more wins from 18 games and we can put relegation completely out of our minds. Play offs generally need 70 points. It has been lower but also up to 78. 34 points from 18 games is an average of 2 points a game which is too much to ask (neither P Vale nor Gillingham have achieved that). So a mid table place is probably the most realistic target and I think we would all be over the moon with that, having been rock bottom in November.
Regardless of whether we can gain the points required to reach the play offs, I dont think we're ready to go up again. This has been one of the problems in the past few seasons, we have only just crept in along with poor signings. Mid table or even top half would be a successful season given the start we had.
i agree but a play-off semi final or even a wembely trip could be good for the clubs revenue and the players experience, setting us in good stead for next season.
Let's not get carried away here,yes we've had some good wins lately bur surely consolidating our place in League 2 is the best we can hope for this season and see where we are after that.If we can build a team that's capable of promotion for next season fine but we need a couple of new experienced players to help towards that aim and i don't mean loan players.With the c**p that went on under Waddock we should just be happy to be able to call ourselves a Football League club.
I think that is the general view Mowgli. If we can average a point a game, which seems achievable, we'll all be happy.
the fact that our club still remains is a bonus,anything like a play off place would be a right bonus
An average of two points a game is a big ask, that's for sure Ron. But interestingly, we've taken 23 points from our last 11 games which is 2.09 per game. On 17th November we were bottom of the table with 13 points from 17 games. Now we're 16th with 36 points from 28 games. A quite remarkable turnaround by Ainsworth - automatic promotion form in fact, and over a period of 11 games which is nearly a quarter of a season. If only we hadn't had such a bad start.
okay guys, a great win away to Gillingham last night and 7 behind the play offs - come on, you can do it
Thai i think your right i think we can do it. But i quite like this zero expectation and clearly the players do as well. I know its a tall ask in some ways but remember this league is very tight we're only 9 points off automatic and yes thats 3 games but why not, anything can happen. 70 points is normally a given for a play-off spot but i dont think its going to be as much as that as there is so much competition i think it will be a little lower. - 65 - 68 As for are we ready to go up? Probably not, but then i dont think many are set up to be ready for league 1. Lets do what the old adage says and take it a game at a time.
After coming down from the euphoria of last nights result my head tells me we're not ready to go up into League 1 as it's a lot harder than League 2,we don't want to go up and come straight back down again which could demoralise some of the younger players.I'll be happy for another season in this division and see how we are doing after that before wanting promotion and if we keep Gaz and all our young squad i think we can go up,fanciful perhaps but remember where we were in September.
The way you played us off the park last night I would not be suprised to see you in the playoffs. Even now in the cold light of day I still think you were the best 'footballing' team to come to Priestfield this season. Almost every other team has come to us and tried to kill the game, going to ground, diving and heavy hitting. Some of the passing last night and build up play was sublime and I honestly would rather not say it! Be much easier for me if you had been a bunch of divers and cheats and we had lost on a poor ref. We lost to a better team, and we are meant to be second...
Certainly keeping the feet firmly on the ground is always a good idea but we football fans are not always in the habit of doing that Good luck for the coming weeks and as always one eye will be cast on your results and I hope you can close the gap a little more in the next 4 or 5 weeks
