People started to moan about MA and his team selection also I sit in meway upper and there were groans when morecombe scored maybe cheltenham fans were right about MA certainly the Payne situation is a bit baffling but he knows what his doing . 7 points clear and people are moaning I don't understand it .
You should have a read of the Port Vale forum. "onevalefan". Admittedly they are on a bit of a poor run, but mainly draws. Only lost 1 in the last 7 and still second. But sounds as if they all think their MA has lost the plot, no tactics, no plan b etc etc. This despite the fact they are still in admin and have one of the smallest squads in the div. I reckon if they fall to 4th some of their fans will be calling for Micky Adams to be sacked.
I asked a vale fan if they will catch us and he said no chance we are the best side in the division he can't see us losing to many games hope his right .
We are five games away from the half way mark, of course I do not wish to chance fate but what I have not seen mentioned by anyone is that we have only suffered two defeats and incurred four draws. Now I am not sure if anyone has checked the statistics on all previous champions under this structure but the minimum number of defeats is seven, however, any team that has only had that number of defeats has been well into double figures in regards to draws. In Brentford's champion's season they incurred a massive 16 draws and seven defeats. So for those that want to moan they need to realise we should be expecting at least another five defeats this season and at least another six draws minimum. Unless we continue to exceed all expectations and break more records along the way. If I were to use Brentford's stats as an example that would be another 12 draws and five defeats, yikes, that will give the moaners something to chew on.
People can moan but it don't mean that they are right, it does my head in when I hear it though (that is me moaning about them) but they can entitled to their opinion on what ever they think, they pay to watch the match so if they think that something is wrong they can say it, I personally don't think MA is doing anything wrong and even though Payne is one of my favourites if MA thinks he should go then I back him as I have a lot of trust in him. I think some gills fans have been so used to finding bad things to say that they get bored as it is a usual daily thing to talk about how we have played bad, times have changed now so they will have to get used to it UTG.
Yesterday we reached 40 points, a quick comparison to last season; we didn't get into the 40s until the February 25th. That is all.
I know that none of us are getting carried away, but with it being a bit slow this morning at work I have looked through the league tables of the last 10 seasons to see what is generally required to be champions and to get promoted. The average points total to be champions is 90, gained from 26 wins and 12 draws, the most points gained in the last 10 seasons is 97 and the lowest required to be champions was 83, to get promotion an average of 80 pts is required, the highest total finishing third was 85, and the lowest was 75. We are currently averaging 2.2 pts per match, if we carry on at that rate (unlikely I know) we will get over 100 pts, if we assume that 85 pts will get us promotion then we need another 45 pts from 28 games, now obviously the sooner we get them the better, but on average the champions lose 8 games in a season and the other promoted teams 10 or 11, so it looks like the moaners will have plenty more opportunities to voice there opinions in the coming months and looking at Exeters away record this season tomorrow night could be one of those games (particularly as I will be there, I have only been to 3 league games and The FA cup game and our record with me in the ground is won 2, Drawn 1, Lost 1 and we have twice finished with 10 men!)
I'm happy that with 40 points we have probably avoided relegation Can you tell us those stats for the last 10 years Ashford?
43 pts is the average requirement to avoid relegation, only 3 times in 10 years would 40 pts avoid relegation, and Oxford were relegated in 2006 with 49. And I guess the other question is the minimum required to make the play offs (which we would all have settled for in August). The average pts total for 7th place is 71, the most required was 74, and in 2006 when Oxford went down with 49, Lincoln made the play offs with 66 and were 3 pts clear of 8th!
