I fear we are going to get caught the last 7 games have not been great .I might be wrong but I just think that sooner rather than later .
ever the optimist eh Gavin? No I would like something changed too. The last couple of games Mad Dog has reduced the amount of rotation and feel that perhaps some players are getting a bit too complacent. I would like to see Jack Payne, Connor Essam and Adam Birchall back in the side and for us to refer back to the 4-1-3-2 formation that was working at the beginning of the season.
To be honest I think it started going wrong when wright left and what I don't understand is ma rates Birchall highly but don't play him .I'm more than happy with where we are but just think the wheels are starting to come off .
The performances have not changed at all since the start of the season and the results just reflect the quality and form of the opposition. From mid December there are plenty of winnable games everyone is going to say well done MA for sorting it but the truth will be that the opposition has got poorer. Still on course for auto promotion but everyone now realises that September and October painted a slightly flattering picture of how good the squad is.
What you have to remember is we beat Port vale 2-0 away and that is no mean feat , keep the faith , 9ts clear is great , we were not going to go the whole season being quality , rather now than end of the season when it matters .
Over the last few seasons,many of the teams that went up,were much better than us, and even they all lost some to inferior opposition. I'm talking here a few seasons ago when Wycombe went up, Chesterfield the year before last who absolutely played us off the park at Priestfield, and Crawley last year,who again were far too good for us again at Priestfield. Yes,we had a World Cup Final against them away,but they picked themselves up and carried on picking up points. This season, I have not seen one team that is better than us overall and none play as good football as we do at times. We have lost a few stupid games that we should have got something out of, and there have been reasons why we haven't,i.e Rochdale we were down to ten men, Torquay won't score goals against anyone else like they did against us and Exeter won because of a bad pass in the last few minutes.We've dropped some points,perhaps when we shouldn't ,but so have Man City and Utd. We have nothing to worry about, and even if we lose another 5 or 6 games before the end of the season,it shouldn't matter. Those teams below us are all going to drop points and we've got a nice cushion to 4th place. Those teams that have beaten us, have all lost which shows that they raised their game against us, but no=one will remain unbeaten for the rest of the season. The only team that looks like catching us is Port Vale, and its not beyond the realms of possibility that they will lose Pope in January,or he will go through a barren spell as all strikers do.
Thats the point port vale have pope who is going to get 25 plus goals and thats what could be the difference between us being champions or finishing 2nd 3rd it in the play offs .
I have not looked yet but has anyone ever won the league only losing 5 or 6 games? This is the point I have been trying to make throughout the first half of this season. I think people have easily forgot how well we were doing. Up until the last couple of games we were not even drawing games, whereas champions are normally in double figures! As for Chesterfield and Wycombe, I would not like to add to many comparisons to them, unless we are planning to replicate them the following season. As for Crawley they do not count as a comparison in my eyes.
All I'm saying about those three teams is,that when they were in our division they were in my eyes the best at that time, irrespective what they did the following year, but in in spite of being good in L2 they still lost some games, but still went up. Because I've not seen anyone better than us, that is why I'm not worried about what will be a temporary blip in form. In any case, we are sure to strengthen further in January,hopefully with David Wright and a new striker.
I think what would be an interesting comparison of teams that got promoted, rather than just the point tallies and who won, drew, lost stats but more who was the top scorer for those teams and what happened to first, the player and second, the team the following season. I think the point I would be interested with this one, is what teams got promoted with goal scorers spread throughout the whole team rather than a solitary goal scorer and did that team stay up the following season. Also those that held on to their solitary goal scorers did they stay up. I hope that all makes sense for any one that can gather the detail.
Personally I reckon Southend are as big a threat going into the 2nd half of the season. They were unstoppable for a lot of last season. And they now appear to be bang in form again. I think they have a w7 d2 L2 record over the past 9 games in all comps. That's pretty decent. And they have beaten Rochdale, Cheltenham, Torquay and drawn with Vale in that lot. As for Tom Pope, he would be a massive loss if he were to be sold, but unless some silly money is thrown at them I think Vale will keep him until next summer. Probably why they are bringing in Lee Hughes. ON the field, he's probably a good replacement.
right in response to brb's comment I've started doing a bit of research and hunting. I have no doubt that AshfordGill will do a by far better comment than I will but I want to give it a go. The last five seasons the champtions were as follows 07/08 MK Donalds 08/09 Brentford 09/10 Notts County 10/11 Chesterfield 11/12 Swindon In the years these sides went up as champions, only one team had the Leagues leading goalscorer and that was Notts County with Lee Hughes (30). Chesterfield is currently the only team from the last five champions to have be relegated back to League 2 (Swindon Not Applicable) MK Dons were the 2nd highest scorers within the league when they were promoted but they did not have a top goal scorer in the top 10 of the league Brentford were joint 4th highest goalscorers in the league and their top goalscorer Charlie McDonald came 7th with 16 goals (Simeon Jackson came joint top) Notts County were the highest goalscorers in the league by 14 goals. Lee Hughes was theirs and the league's top scorer with 30 goals Chesterfield were 2nd top goalscorers in the league. Craig Davies came 4th with 23 goals. Jack Lester came joint 6th with 18. Swindon did not have a top scorer within the top 10 in the league but were the leagues 4th highest scoring team for 11/12 season. Out of those goalscorers listed currently only Lee Hughes & Jack Lester still play for those clubs. Craig Davies plays for Barnsley in the championship and Charlie MacDonald currently plays for MK Dons in League One Hope that helps
The Gills PegLeg - thank you it does help and it is interesting, because if we bear relation to that it means that Champions are not born by a solitary team high goal scorer if I am understanding it correctly?
Fatty Evans and his team won at Accrington last night and move in to 4th spot. No doubt to the delight of 'Kent on Line Ron'
Thanks man! I was bored at work and thought that this was a better use of my time aha. But I still found it very interesting that only one team of the last 5 had a standout goalscorer. Normally you would just assume that the leagues leading scroer would be playing for the top clubs. But apparently not
