I think I need a lie down

We go to Bristol Rovers on the 8th March.

On the same date in 1986 we visited Eastville. On that day Orient loanee Kevin Godfrey notched a winner that sparked the most sensational end of season form we have ever enjoyed; it was the first of 9 straight wins in a run of form that saw us W14 D1 L1 culminating in that night at home against Bristol City.

We currently have 15 games still to play.

A similar run, starting at D&R, of 16 would see notch another 40 points giving us a total of 82. Last season Gillingham won the league with 83 points.

I'm pretty confident lightening won't be striking twice, on this occasion.

This squad has mid-table written all over it. The vast majority are middling mediocrity personified. Capable of grinding out ugly wins like on Saurday, but equally capable of getting dicked at home by nothing teams like the Saturday before.

That said, I'd love to be wrong.

It would be great wouldn't it but I am with the Czar on this one as I don't think the squad has enough quality to get across that finishing line but if we win at Fleetwood tomorrow then we can always dream a little bit longer can't we.

Czarcasm wrote:

I'm pretty confident lightening won't be striking twice, on this occasion.

This squad has mid-table written all over it. The vast majority are middling mediocrity personified. Capable of grinding out ugly wins like on Saurday, but equally capable of getting dicked at home by nothing teams like the Saturday before.

That said, I'd love to be wrong.

The 0-4 loss to York was an anomaly.

We have not been dicked like that this season away, let alone at home. And playing with a man short for 80 minutes was a reasonable explanation.

Even in previous seasons with a squad rife with garbage, losing by 4 goals never been commonplace. One dodgy away performance with 10 men against the league champions excepted.

We are liable to lose games, don't get me wrong, but we have become a consistent and solid opposition team for any team in this league, home or away. Not many teams have taken an easy win off us all season.

Where we fall down is our home form against midtable/bottom half sides. We play lethargically. We often go a goal down, and we don't take care of business in games where we ought to be the favourite. What should be wins often end up draws, or even 1 or 2 goal losses to teams we are capable of dispatching. Teams we did dispatch with Lavery helping Reid up front.

If we had a better approach to these games, we would have been a play off team all along. Having to chase the game at home to Mansfield is a great example - great equaliser, but being in that position in the first place was tragic.

ejh wrote:

Where we fall down is our home form against midtable/bottom half sides. We play lethargically. We often go a goal down, and we don't take care of business in games where we ought to be the favourite.

These symptoms are just bulk standard for a team going nowhere fast. Oh....ah ! if only. Poor teams don't put away the opposition "when they should". Good teams at their level win games even when they play poorly. That's how football is. It's only a two horse race every week.
As for the home/away thing, league football has changed and the home advantage is not anywhere near as potent as it used to be across the league.

I remember when we got a job done on us by a very poor Hull side, the crowd booed the team off the pitch at the end of the game. It was early in the season, I seemed to be the only one who thought that Hull had what it took and I got 36/1 on twenty quid at the end of the game for them to go up, good old Phil Brown.
Ps. I don't think we will do a Hull either.

There's no Tommy Tynan this time.

There wasn't a Tommy Tynan in '86 either until April when he replaced Kevin Godfrey.

That said I agree that it is highly unlikely that we'll be promoted this season but it was highly unlikely in '86 too.

In fact in '86 after 31 games we had 47 points and this time we have 42 so not only do we need an almost unbelievable run of results but we then need to win the play-offs too.

But you never know...

If we go up i ll buy freathy a season ticket ! Lol. (only jesting)

Someone usually storms into the play-offs - why not us? I hate looking at the league table as I've sat through plenty of games at Home Park that we should have won. Add ten points to what we have and it'd be a lot better to look at.
Fleetwood and Newport away are really big games for us.
Fleetwood though are the only team I've seen us play that have completely dominated us - I expect nothing from the game.
Having said that, playing teams above us is better than playing teams below us if we want to move up the table.

hairy j wrote:

Someone usually storms into the play-offs - why not us?

There have been countless times down the years when results haven't been as good as they might have been and you look at the squad individually and scratch your head, because in terms of quality of players we should have been winning far more often.

That scenario just ain't relevant I'm afraid with this current crop - Reid aside.

Also McCormick's out and whilst Cole is a sufficient deputy, he ain't a keeper that's going to save you points consistently like Luke has. Allesandra can look really good one game and hopeless the next. Thomas has obvious talent, but he's not impressing Shez enough for him to trust him every game.

All in all it just doesn't look like a squad full of winners, but more so one cobbled together that will probably lose as many as they win.