The run in - No games left - the Gas are going up!

After a poor start to the season Rovers have hit form at the right time and the team has dragged themselves up from the nether regions of League Two into promotion contention.

There are ten games left. What do you think will happen? Are we on target for automatic promotion, the playoffs or will we fall short of both?

Here are the games we have left:

Tues 15 March - Rovers 1 v Colchester United 0 - 3pts

Sat 19 March – Northampton 0 v Rovers 1 - 3pts

Sat 26 March – Carlisle 1 v Rovers 0 - 0pts

Sat 2 April Rovers 2 v Bradford 1 - 3pts

Sat 9 April Tranmere 1 v Rovers 1 - 1pt

Fri 15 April Rovers 1 v Salford 0 - 3pts

Mon 18 April Port Vale 1 v Rovers 3 - 3pts

23 April Rovers 0 v FGR 0 - 1pt

30 April Rochdale 3 v Rovers 4 - 3pts

7 May Rovers 7 (seven) v Scunthorpe 0 - 3pts

I've guessed that we could accumulate 20 points from that lot which will leave us on 77 points for the season. Is that enough for automatic? I'm not sure it is. Bearing in mind that I'm near the bottom of the prediction league I'm not overly confident of my calculations - what do you think we'll end up on?

UTG!

 

If we can pick up 7 wins I reckon a top 3 place should happen but apart from Scunny most of the sides we play could be looking for playoff places themselves and I think that FGR, Tranmere and Northampton are in the top 5 it ain't going to be easy

 

By looking at the fixtures ahead, my conservative head has worked out 21 points in total, giving us 78 points - in my opinion we got to aim for top 3, I don't fancy the play offs and it would be gutting to get so close to miss out this season. As we all know, we could just as easily win all 10 games the way the team are focussed at the moment, and there's no doubt the winning mentality is ingrained into the players. I think we could drop points at Northampton, Tranmere, Port Vale, and maybe the home game with FGR, so picking up 3 points in any of these will be a real boost. I would be a bit miffed if we don't win the other games cos that will just make life difficult for us,although it wont be the first time!!

 

My 20 points guess is made up of 6 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws.

I think we’ll drop points against Tranmere, Northampton, Vale and Carlisle. I reckon we’ll beat FGR - they’re having a mare at the mo.

I don’t think it’ll be enough for auto but it’ll be close.

 

It's funny isn't it - we all target Northampton, Port Vale and Tranmere as the games we will probably come unstuck with and yet I bet we win all 3 of them and lose elsewhere to teams we fully expect to beat!! Either way, let's hope it's top 3 finish, **** or bust starting with tonight!!

 

Indeed. It would burst our bubble a bit if we don't get past Colchester at home tonight!

 

Depends on which team turns up, some games we come out of the traps at ninety miles an hour and fail to take our chances others we just seem to struggle and get a stroke of luck and get a break through and in others we huff and puff but fail to blow the opposition away. It is either going to be very exciting or highly disappointing but never dull. I hope that we make the top three but I am not convinced that we will, if we don't then recruitment over the Summer period will have to be better with the need to get fit strikers in as we only seem to have Collins who finds the net consistently and I can't see players like Nicholson and Evans wanting to stay in league 2 and Elliott Anderson Connolly and Taylor are loan signings who I cannot see returning next season and others like Westbrooke Harries not hopefully being kept on the books,

An interesting last few matches and Summer lie ahead

 

I’m going to update the table above as the results come in so we can see how our predictions pan out.

Anyone else to predict the last nine games?

 

I think Newport and Exeter are the ones to beat for the automatic places. I can see Forest Green falling out of the automatic places eventually, and probably a scrap between Rovers, Northampton, Mansfield and Swindle for the remaining automatic place. Rovers have some pretty tough fixtures to be honest, but at least they finish up with Scunny on the last day, which is probably a lot better than most of their rivals. All pretty exciting.

 

Good thread

I think we should be looking at wins vs Carlisle, Bradford, Salford, Rochdale and Scunthorpe. That will take us to 75 points.

If we can get anything from Northampton, Tranmere, Port Vale and FGR then that will be a bonus. Not saying we won't or can't but too hard for me to predict so anything from these games can only help.

 

Newport lost tonight 2 - 3 Hartlepool

 

Do you think we can win the title?

 

It's FGR's or Exeter's to lose I reckon but I wouldn't rule us out. We have confidence, form and momentum but so do Exeter and Port Vale so it's going to be tight. Whatever happens, it's a fantastic turnaround from where we were three months ago.

 

FGR are near the bottom of the form table and have injury issues. Exeter lost a couple of key players to long term injury on Saturday and have a midfield crisis. The Cobblers have lost quite a few to injury recently. In contrast, I reckon we're in pretty good shape with a strong squad available for the run in. It's gonna be exciting that's for sure.

 

A bonus 3 points already for me. Moves me on to 78 points.

 

Good thing about Saturday's results.... the team below us that have games in hand on us, if they win those games, we still don't drop out of the play offs. Also, our goal difference is now very similar to the teams around us and that could be the difference of who makes the play offs or automatics and who don't.

 

I think we've got the momentum and the squad to go all the way. Winning the league is a tough ask, but I think we've got enough in the tank to finish in an automatic place.

 

According to Sam Frost in the Post, no team in the top four divisions has won as many games as we have since the turn of the year, and no team has bettered our 10 clean sheets.

Momentum.

 

Wow! When you think about that, that is quite an achievement, out of 92 teams. Having looked at Saturday's game at Carlisle, their overall recent form is good, but their home form is not that clever, most of their success has come away from home, so I fully expect us to return with 3 points, and keep the winning run going. Shame FGR won last night but to be expected I guess.

 

Exeter only drew with Port Vale, so that's two rivals who dropped points. Mansfield have a lot of games in hand, so should be there or thereabouts. It's going to be a rollercoaster over the next few weeks!