Results are going our way

[BillyStubbsTears]

Other than Fleetwood winning, all the others are in our favour.

Nice

[MrWoodySir]

Just about to post this, really don't want to bottle in on Saturday now - genuine chance of been in the play-offs this time next week.

[Colemans Left Hook]

from a single minded purists (aiming to get Rovers into 6th place) point of view the Bradford city result was a total disaster if they spend some of their income - including further potential on strengthening -- then they look a very big danger

the Chesterfield result was fine -- help deflate them for Saturday -- Chesterfield have also lost an Aston Villa loanee who has signed for Preston

as for Sheff u --  no opinion as we all know they will make the play offs

and Rovers on paper have easy games 


by the way Matt Smith's loan to Bristol C runs out tommorrow

oh and notts county peterborough would have been much better  as a draw
county are a bad team "custers last stand style defence" don't want to encourage peterborough to strike form

[BobG]

Not sure I agree about ther Bradford City result being a bad thing. At least in the short term anyway. They'll be so focussed on the Cup now that their league form will go to pot. It happens all the time when a lower league club gets into a good position in the Cup. Not always, I agree, but the odds are it will. I really do hope we 've got them soon.

BobG

[DearneValleyRover]

I think we have them on Good Friday Bob

[The Red Baron]

Not sure I agree about ther Bradford City result being a bad thing. At least in the short term anyway. They'll be so focussed on the Cup now that their league form will go to pot. It happens all the time when a lower league club gets into a good position in the Cup. Not always, I agree, but the odds are it will. I really do hope we 've got them soon.

BobG

We said that about Charlton last season Bob. However their cup run seemed to give them a bit of confidence.

[IDM]

Screw everyone else, we just need to accumulate our own points...

[donnievic]

from a single minded purists (aiming to get Rovers into 6th place) point of view the Bradford city result was a total disaster if they spend some of their income - including further potential on strengthening -- then they look a very big danger

the Chesterfield result was fine -- help deflate them for Saturday -- Chesterfield have also lost an Aston Villa loanee who has signed for Preston

as for Sheff u --  no opinion as we all know they will make the play offs

and Rovers on paper have easy games 


by the way Matt Smith's loan to Bristol C runs out tommorrow

oh and notts county peterborough would have been much better  as a draw
county are a bad team "custers last stand style defence" don't want to encourage peterborough to strike form

whos that like

[GazLaz]

We want Matt Smith to stay at Brizzle. More chance of taking points off our rivals.

[Colin C No.3]

Screw everyone else, we just need to accumulate our own points...

Dead right. Too much of that bloody nonsense last season!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Colin

As you wish

At Xmas, this division was looking very unusual. It has been many, many years since the side in the final play-off place had do few points at Xmas.

That's interesting for us because, realistically, we are only going to make the play-offs this year if there is a very low points total required. We had a bad start to the season, and while we've improved, I do t think anyone realistically thinks we can get 2 points a game from here on, which is what we'd need to hit 76-77 points (which is usually a safe points total for getting in the play-offs).

However, if this is one of the very unusual years where 68-69 points is enough, then we are right in there with a chance.

By Xmas, the team with the 6th best record were on target to get 69 points over the season. Is kind of expected some sort of reversion to the mean as January wore on. In simple terms, there are so many teams sniffing around the play-offs, I'd expected at least a couple of them to start pulling away from the pack and lifting the likely end of season target points for 6th place.

But they haven't. A month later, the team with the sixth best record is heading towards 68 points. And every time that the teams around us fail to go on a decent run, it increases the chances that a very low points total will secure the final play-off position. 

I still expect someone in the group from 5th-14th to start putting a good run together. But the way it's looking, I'd be surprised if more than 71 points is needed for 6th place. And it might be lower than that.

10 wins, 6 draws and 5 defeats and I reckon we'll make the cut.

[IDM]

One game at a time BST.  Being much harder to beat these days (Bristol only got their 2nd in the cup because PD gambled on loads of forwards to change the game) means we are potentially in good shape to pick up points, especially if we can increase the goals for column.

Any mid-table team hitting a winning streak now can easily break into 5th or 6th.  Plus, if you want to win the play offs then it helps IMHO to go into them in winning form, ie a late-ish push up the table.  If we can't win 11 or 12 out of our final 21 fixtures, we won't deserve to be up there, obviously.

[The Red Baron]

Agree with the analyses, BST and IDM. However I'm far from convinced that we are capable of winning between 10-12 games, largely because of our home form and lack of firepower. I see quite a lot of draws to come.