Some posters have bandied about the figure of 50 points as the survival target, but in at least one recent season 46 was the number to beat - Bury on 34 points after 33 games are more of less on course for this, so let's call 46 the bare, bare minimum on which we MIGHT survive......
Getting to 46 points means adding a further 21 points to our current 25. To get 21 points in our remaining 14 league games means we need, conveniently, 1.5 points per game to reach this target (which may be insufficient to keep us up). Coincidentally, that would mean we'd need to sustain a run of form now which, taken over the course of 46 games, would leave us with 69 points which last season was our actual points total when we finished 8th (albeit after a real topsy turvey rather than consistent sesaon). However, 14 games is quite a short space of time for an uptick in form - e.g. if we needed 3 points to survive from the last game, you could make the argument that 3 x 46 meant that "surviving means we'd need the same form as if we were to win every game of the season. I digress.
Where can 21 points come from? The answer must be 6 wins and 4 draws with only 4 defeats. I can't see another plausible combination where we win fewer, as it means the number of defeats is just impossibly low. So we need a minimum of 6 wins - probably 7 but let's say 6.
Looking at the fixtures, the next games stand out a mile away. Swindon, Bury, Shrewsbury - all down with us in mire. After that, it starts to look a lot harder with games at Bradford and Southend, both in the play-off mix, admittedly followed by MK Dons and the as-yet-unscheduled Port Vale home game. The rest of the season is taken up with teams still in with a chance of pushing for promotion either automatically or via the play-offs.
Now I know last season was weird in that we went on a great run of form when it mattered least and we beat some good sides - but what I'm worried about is that if we can't pick up a couple of wins out of the next 3, we'll have fallen so far off contention that any "pressure's off" run like last season turns out, well, just like last season when it made no difference to the eventual outcome. The mid-table sides in particular like Wallsall, Charlton and Bristol Rovers may have nothing to play for by the time we play them, but we'd need to win most of these games too.
Whichever way you slice and dice it, we probably need to win half our remaining matches and 2, if not 3, of the next 3 if we're not to be cut adrift when the going gets much tougher from mid-March onwards. Too few of our current line-up were here last season to remember the late rally in form, although it must give us hope.
My head says it's too much of an ask - ask me again after we've won the next 3 on the bounce and I will likely have a very different answer!!