Where we'll end up...12th

[Foley]

Yeah fair enough tend to agree with that, but the point I'm making would ruffles get into a team in top 10? imo probably not. re McMahon was more referring back to my original point of summer recruitment, surely he would realise the struggles of being so far from home when signed.

No re McMahan. He had a serious personal issue after he joined that made things clearly more difficult.
Ruffels? Yes I reckon he could comfortably play in a team in the Top 10.

 

[Reynolds97]

No re McMahan. He had a serious personal issue after he joined that made things clearly more difficult.
Ruffels? Yes I reckon he could comfortably play in a team in the Top 10.

ah I stand corrected then, I thought was purely down to the distance and daily commute.

 

[Bigfella72]

Yeah fair enough tend to agree with that, but the point I'm making would ruffles get into a team in top 10? imo probably not. re McMahon was more referring back to my original point of summer recruitment, surely he would realise the struggles of being so far from home when signed.

Fair enough, hard to say with Ruffles (think he could help us out of the league but no further imo) but in McMahons case who knows? Maybe marriage problems? Don’t think his wife moved down did she?

 

[Bigfella72]

We're currently in 19th after 35 games. However, we're really doing that poorly thanks to the first five to 10 games of the season. Looking at the form table of our last 30 games, we're in 16th place, last 25 games in 11th, last 20 games in 9th, last 15 games in 14th, last 1o games in 12th, and last 5 games in 11th. Over the last 20 games our form has been good enough for anywhere between 14th and 9th. Given that we have games coming up against some of the worst teams in the division, but 9th and 10th spots look out of reach, it seems reasonable to say that 12th place will be ours, with a chance at 11th.

And considering what a terrible season this has been, that'll be a pretty reasonable place to end up.

Could still be correct but not far wrong whatever happens

 

[Jon-ioualways]

I really like looking at the form tables (the one I use shows as far back as the previous 30 games) as it takes into account what all teams are doing, not just us. And over the last 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 games we've been no lower than 6th. A reasonable start to our season and we'd be in with a chance of promotion this season. And given that it looked for so long that we were far more likely to be battling relegation that's some improvement.

Just let that improvement continue next year (and of course against Looton next week).

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Surely the lesson to learn from that is that you need to start the season with a fit and (as nearly as possible) complete squad - with a core of players who are used to playing with each other. Make such an appalling start as we did this time and almost no matter how much your subsequent form improves, you will never make up that lost ground.

 

[holdsteady]

You can have an average start and still get promoted, but you can’t have a dreadful one like we did, if we hadn’t of played the first quarter of this season it wouldn’t of made much difference to our fate.

 

[Foley]

You can have an average start and still get promoted, but you can’t have a dreadful one like we did, if we hadn’t of played the first quarter of this season it wouldn’t of made much difference to our fate.

Did you mean to say it wouldn't have made much difference?

 

[holdsteady]

Did you mean to say it wouldn't have made much difference?

Sorry, yes.

 

[AbbeyOx]

even with the shocking start to the season, if we'd have won the 3 games at xmas time (which should have been achievable) we'd be on 69 points, and go into that Luton game with all to play for (if Doncaster lost their last game)
I know it's all 'ifs' but could've been an exciting end to the season

 

[Barbadosyellow]

Not to mention the effect of those crazy 10 minutes at Scunthorpe

 

[ToTheManorBorn]

There's another factor here which is the impact of the Fixture list - of the first 7 games we played all, except Accrington Stanley, have finished above us. And getting Barnsley, Portsmouth and Sunderland in that early run of games was always going to make it a challenge. Not an excuse, but had we been playing some of the smaller clubs who, ultimately have found themselves fighting out the relegation battle below us, our start to the season may have been very different and we might have developed some momentum and been off and running. All if, buts and maybes I know but ultimately the Fixture List determines everything. So fingers crossed for a kinder start to the season come Fixture Release day in June.

 

[MarkG]

Looking back at the first post, we are all but guaranteed a "good" 10th to 12th place on 63 to 60 points, a massive ten points from potential relegation. Also nice to see that we pulled away from the "bottom 12" who were all in the relegation mix.