Play-off/relegation watch.

[WestYorksRoyal]

We could lose every remaining game and still stay up now. It's a non-issue

[windermereROYAL]

It`s looking likely now that our home games will define our season, 3 of the next 4 are Plymouth Lincoln and Cardiff who have 24 away wins combined. if somehow we can get 7 points from those nightmare fixtures we`ll be right in the melting pot.
Not hopeful unless the form improves tbh.

[Sutekh]

Unfortunately I`m unable to edit this post, but it`s pretty safe to say that relegation is out of the equation. it`s all about a play-off push now.
1 points off 6th with a game in hand and only 7 off 4th.

A big thank you to Huddersfield for making a game of the play off chase.

Reading’s biggest threat at the moment though is Stevenage, they just +4 goals behind Reading with 2 games in hand on Huddersfield. Their games in hand are Orient (h) - scheduled for 10 March - and Barnsley (h) - scheduled for 21 April. Reading visit Stevenage in 3 weeks so getting something there is likely to be rather important.

Next 5 games for all 3 clubs are:

Huddersfield
07 March - Rotherham United (h)
14 March - Port Vale (a)
17 March - Lincoln City (h)
21 March - Plymouth Argyle (a)
28 March - Cardiff City (h)

Reading
07 March - Luton Town (a)
10 March - Mansfield Town (a)
14 March - Plymouth Argyle (h)
17 March - Burton Albion (a)
21 March - Stevenage (a)

Stevenage
07 March - Burton Albion (a)
10 March - Leyton Orient (h)
14 March - Wimbledon (h)
17 March - Plymouth Argyle (a)
21 March - Reading (h)

Just looking round the state of the table currently, only Cardiff (68), Lincoln (63), Huddersfield (55) & Barnsley (53) have scored more league goals than Reading (50) though Bolton and Peterborough have also scored 50.

Lincoln and Cardiff both have the best goal difference (32).

[Sutekh]

It`s looking likely now that our home games will define our season, 3 of the next 4 are Plymouth Lincoln and Cardiff who have 24 away wins combined. if somehow we can get 7 points from those nightmare fixtures we`ll be right in the melting pot.
Not hopeful unless the form improves tbh.

4 of Reading’s next 5 are away though and despite what is currently the 8th best away form in the division we know that Reading just don’t travel well so the first problem is going to be just staying in touch.

Also the 1 home game in that run is Plymouth and only Cardiff and Lincoln currently have better away form so things are now getting very much harder esp. building up to and over the Easter period

[stealthpapes]

I remember when the Posters What Know Things were telling me the table don't lie and we were in the relegation spots.

You are all morons. Utter, utter morons.

Anyway.

Quoting for emphasis.

[stealthpapes]

Anyway, stop laughing at the back.

Leam overall form in league - played 20 won 10 draw 6 lost 4 (1.8 ppg).

12 games left to go, so keeping the same form gives won 6 draw 4 lost 2, an additional 22 points, for a total of 73.

If we can improve just a small amount, who knows.

[Snowflake Royal]

Certainly we seem plenty good enough against the weaker sides, but a bit too vilulnerable to the better sides to quite make a challenge

Leam's picked up a load of points, but he has had quite a few games against weaker opposition, and whilst I don't think Hunt would have done as well, I do think he would have seen results improve too.

Not quite there yet often enough. You can see have lots of quality, but its not quite hanging together properly yet and a bit too inconsistent. But come end of season, trim the squad, small number of quality additions in key places and we should have a very good chance of a good season.

It's quite easy to look at older posts and go 'what was I thinking', but I'm pretty content with this take from a month and 7 games ago.

I would say very little has changed other than our chance of being in the POs has grown a bit.

[Clyde1998]

Doing some basic calculations on the remaining matches. Using the points per game for each side against sides in each quarter of the division (1st-6th; 7th-12th; 13th-18th; 19th-24th), and assuming sides continue that form in their remaining matches, the final table would be:

1. Cardiff - 96.76
2. Lincoln - 95.90
3. Bradford (+1) - 78.72
4. Bolton (-1) - 77.89
5. Stockport - 76.91
6. Stevenage (+2) - 71.42
7. Wycombe (+2) - 71.10
8. Reading (-1) - 69.33
9. Huddersfield (-3) - 67.71
10. Barnsley (+3) - 66.17
11. Luton (-1) - 63.60
12. Peterborough (-1) - 61.84
13. Plymouth (-1) - 61.83
14. Wimbledon - 61.00
15. Mansfield (+1) - 57.52
16. Exeter (-1) - 56.13
17. Wigan (+2) - 55.21
18. Doncaster - 54.59
19. Burton (-2) - 52.55
20. Blackpool - 50.48
21. Leyton Orient - 50.45
22. Northampton - 49.51
23. Rotherham - 47.39
24. Port Vale - 36.02

Ourselves; Huddersfield; and Barnsley have basically an even distribution of matches against sides from each quarter of the league (albeit, we play a game more than Huddersfield; three less than Barnsley). Stevenage play eight sides in the bottom half; five in the top half. Wycombe basically play sides in the top or bottom six, but their record against each has been good this season so far.

[MR. CYNICAL]

It`s looking likely now that our home games will define our season, 3 of the next 4 are Plymouth Lincoln and Cardiff who have 24 away wins combined. if somehow we can get 7 points from those nightmare fixtures we`ll be right in the melting pot.
Not hopeful unless the form improves tbh.

Plymouth, Lincoln and Cardiff next at home then, nightmare fixtures? I'm shaking in my boots, they are only 3 other league one teams, none are anything special on the day, in fact we outplayed Cardiff at their place second half earlier in the season. If Richardson can abandon his safe football, negative tactics philosophy, we could beat them all.

[Sutekh]

It`s looking likely now that our home games will define our season, 3 of the next 4 are Plymouth Lincoln and Cardiff who have 24 away wins combined. if somehow we can get 7 points from those nightmare fixtures we`ll be right in the melting pot.
Not hopeful unless the form improves tbh.

Plymouth, Lincoln and Cardiff next at home then, nightmare fixtures? I'm shaking in my boots, they are only 3 other league one teams, none are anything special on the day, in fact we outplayed Cardiff at their place second half earlier in the season. If Richardson can abandon his safe football, negative tactics philosophy, we could beat them all.

It doesn’t get any harder, those 3 currently have the 3 best away records in the division so Leam will need to do the homework on them.

[Snowflake Royal]

7 points is a hell of a lot to ask for from the three best away sides, which includes 1st and 2nd. Achieve that and we would likely be comfortably assured of the POs. 4 would be a decent return.

[windermereROYAL]

We move into 5th place with a win on Tuesday evening.

[Sutekh]

We move into 5th place with a win on Tuesday evening.

If both Reading and Stevenage win then both Stockport and Huddersfield will drop out of the play off places for the first time since god knows when.

[Hound]

7 points is a hell of a lot to ask for from the three best away sides, which includes 1st and 2nd. Achieve that and we would likely be comfortably assured of the POs. 4 would be a decent return.

I’d certainly take 4 points from those 3

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Stockport and Stevenage have a game in hand of course (thought I’d get that in as there is an odd lack of negativity this evening on the TB)

Let’s hope we get a win or draw at least on Tuesday

I’m just enjoying being in and around the playoffs, I’d be pleasantly surprised if we finish top six but it’s a nice place to be and if not this season let’s hope next season we mount a promotion push

[windermereROYAL]

Still only 1 point behind after a non performance tonight, roll on Saturday for the pilgrims to go above us with a win and 3000 noisy annoying fans to help them do it.
Hard to believe they`ve been bottom 4 for quite a long time this season.

[stealthpapes]

Leam overall form in league - played 22 won 11 draw 6 lost 5 (1.77 ppg).

10 games left to go, so keeping the same form gives won 5 draw 3 lost 2, an additional 18 points, for a total of 72.

Our form remains pretty solid - how much has it changed since this thread has started? As it stands, we probably just miss out. A bit of luck, any improvement, and it’s on.

Poor form of 1 ppg leaves us on a creditable 64.

I thought the relegation spots were decided in October or something. I was assured of that.

[stealthpapes]

Hard to believe they`ve been bottom 4 for quite a long time this season

It’s hard not to pick an arbitrary point, but they won twenty games ago, and that’s a nice round number. It also took them off bottom position.

Played 20 won 11 drawn 3 lost 6 for 1.8 ppg.

It is quite similar to our recent/LEAM form, you know.

So, are we now agreed that having a slow start to a season isn’t an excuse to shit the bed?

[Hound]

Hard to believe they`ve been bottom 4 for quite a long time this season

It’s hard not to pick an arbitrary point, but they won twenty games ago, and that’s a nice round number. It also took them off bottom position.

Played 20 won 11 drawn 3 lost 6 for 1.8 ppg.

It is quite similar to our recent/LEAM form, you know.

So, are we now agreed that having a slow start to a season isn’t an excuse to shit the bed?

If we both hadn’t had a shite start we’d be nestled comfortably in the play off positions though. Fair chance that poor start will have a big impact on at least where one of those teams finishes the season. So it doesn’t mean it wasn’t justified to some extent

[Snowflake Royal]

Hard to believe they`ve been bottom 4 for quite a long time this season

It’s hard not to pick an arbitrary point, but they won twenty games ago, and that’s a nice round number. It also took them off bottom position.

Played 20 won 11 drawn 3 lost 6 for 1.8 ppg.

It is quite similar to our recent/LEAM form, you know.

So, are we now agreed that having a slow start to a season isn’t an excuse to shit the bed?

I'm sure we'll have more bed shitting this season. And next.