Otis, if there had been no changes in personnel or management I would have to agree with you.
Looking at the league table for end of September at the time Robins joined us. You say 10 points is massive. After 8 games we had 3 points. W e were 7 points off 15th which is where we are now. We were in 23rdWe were 14 points off 2nd and 17 points off 1st......after only 8 games. We were still looking poor at that time of course. No confidence at all.
Shall we move on to the end of last month? We had moved up to 21st. 19 points off first, 18 points off 2nd. 3rd and 4th place were 17 points ahead of us. 13 points away from the playoffs.
We are now 15 points off 1st, 12 points away from 2nd. We are 10 points away from the playoffs.
So this month after only 5 games we are 4 points closer to 1st, 6 points closer to 2nd and 3 points closer to the playoffs. If only we never let in that late goal against Pompey. This was after 3 wins, 1 draw and a defeat. Not your 3 wins and 2 draws.
We are now hitting form and playing much better. Teams at the top are having bad runs. A few teams are falling down the table. There are presently 4 teams with better recent form than us. Even Sheff Utd have only got 5 points in the last 5 games. We have 10.
Otis, if there had been no changes in personnel or management I would have to agree with you.
Looking at the league table for end of September at the time Robins joined us. You say 10 points is massive. After 8 games we had 3 points. W e were 7 points off 15th which is where we are now. We were in 23rdWe were 14 points off 2nd and 17 points off 1st......after only 8 games. We were still looking poor at that time of course. No confidence at all.
Shall we move on to the end of last month? We had moved up to 21st. 19 points off first, 18 points off 2nd. 3rd and 4th place were 17 points ahead of us. 13 points away from the playoffs.
We are now 15 points off 1st, 12 points away from 2nd. We are 10 points away from the playoffs.
So this month after only 5 games we are 4 points closer to 1st, 6 points closer to 2nd and 3 points closer to the playoffs. If only we never let in that late goal against Pompey. This was after 3 wins, 1 draw and a defeat. Not your 3 wins and 2 draws.
We are now hitting form and playing much better. Teams at the top are having bad runs. A few teams are falling down the table. There are presently 4 teams with better recent form than us. Even Sheff Utd have only got 5 points in the last 5 games. We have 10.
The gap was more than 10 points. It is now 10 points.
Are we hitting form though? Last 2 league games at home, lost and drawn. That's not hitting form. We are away from home but we need to hit form at home too.
As I said above, 9 games ago we were 10 points adrift. So, 9 games on, very decent run of form, still 10 points adrift.
Agree with you fully here. If we had average home form over the season we would be top 6 now. A long time problem of ours seems we can only get results either at home or away and not both.
If the season was longer and we played each other 4 times then maybe would catch them. We are catching up at a rate of a few points every 10 games so its a huge task to catch up and we've got some very difficult games in December. In the last 10 games we have picked up 17 pts, Tranmere 15pts, Mk Dons 18 pts, Doncaster 22 pts, Sheff Utd 18 pts, Brentford 21 pts, Notts C 16 pts. So we have caught up 1 point on the team in 6th and narrowed the gap to the team at the top who are 15 pts ahead and our form over this period has been good W5 D2 L3. Its not impossible but we are miles away at the moment. It may sound like a few points but in reality its not.
We can all see there has been a general improvement, and we all really want the team to do well (I think). Thing is that it takes longer than a few months for a manager to really make his mark-and by this I mean creating a team that doesn't drop 20 points over a whole season, let alone half way through.
Lets try a more recent run of games. Last 6 is used the most.
Us 13 points
Tranmere 9
MK Dons 16
Doncaster 12
Sheff Utd 8
Brentford 14
Notts C 9
Stevenage 5
Swindon 10
Crawley 3
So we have been catching up with 7 out of the top 9 sides.
I agree unfortunately everytime we look like stringing together 4/5 wins in a row we falter. I still think 14th is a little negativeAs I say, we can all list stats, but I do think these ones below at least give some indication of what would be needed.
Top six last season.
Charlton won 30 games
Sheff Weds won 28 games
Sheff U won 27 games
Huddersfield won 21 games
MK won 22 games
Stevenage won 18 games.
The most games anyone lost was 10.
We have only won 6 games and have already lost 8.
Just think we need to look at what would really be needed to make the top 6. Last 15 years it has always been over 70 points needed to get in the play-off positions.
We still need an absolute minimum of 46 points to be even in with a sniff. 26 games, 46 points.
10 wins and 16 draws, no losses?
12 wins, 10 draws, just 4 losses?
13 wins, 7 draws, 6 losses?
That would be just to get us to 70. More than likely we will need 73-75 points in reality.
As you can see it is just such a massive, massive ask.
If we can come thorugh Doncaster, MK Dons, Preston and Stevnage matches in December with a good amount of points it could be on again. If we could do that then many people would start to believe it I reckonWorth remembering that each of the top six we play will be six pointers.
So will compound the effect either way.
As I say, we can all list stats, but I do think these ones below at least give some indication of what would be needed.
Top six last season.
Charlton won 30 games
Sheff Weds won 28 games
Sheff U won 27 games
Huddersfield won 21 games
MK won 22 games
Stevenage won 18 games.
The most games anyone lost was 10.
We have only won 6 games and have already lost 8.
Just think we need to look at what would really be needed to make the top 6. Last 15 years it has always been over 70 points needed to get in the play-off positions.
We still need an absolute minimum of 46 points to be even in with a sniff. 26 games, 46 points.
10 wins and 16 draws, no losses?
12 wins, 10 draws, just 4 losses?
13 wins, 7 draws, 6 losses?
That would be just to get us to 70. More than likely we will need 73-75 points in reality.
As you can see it is just such a massive, massive ask.
I think we were good first half and surrendered the game in the second. Why? Mentally not quite with it I feel. Do think Cody has to have a role from the bench more often when we are searching for that extra goal. McGoldrick scoring only 1 in 4 now and that from the spot suggest we must keep Cody fresh with the lads out there.
Overall though we can't complain - it all went a bit tits up after the bizare referee's decisions over that free kick. We should have been out of sight long before all that. But we were at home and that is a place we are struggling to come to terms with - unlike away from home. Walsall next who are dropping like a stone. 3 points and we are back in the hunt for the playoffs. Just wish these cup games would go away!
As I say, we can all list stats, but I do think these ones below at least give some indication of what would be needed.
Top six last season.
Charlton won 30 games
Sheff Weds won 28 games
Sheff U won 27 games
Huddersfield won 21 games
MK won 22 games
Stevenage won 18 games.
The most games anyone lost was 10.
We have only won 6 games and have already lost 8.
Just think we need to look at what would really be needed to make the top 6. Last 15 years it has always been over 70 points needed to get in the play-off positions.
We still need an absolute minimum of 46 points to be even in with a sniff. 26 games, 46 points.
10 wins and 16 draws, no losses?
12 wins, 10 draws, just 4 losses?
13 wins, 7 draws, 6 losses?
That would be just to get us to 70. More than likely we will need 73-75 points in reality.
As you can see it is just such a massive, massive ask.
Doncaster are only 2 goals off second place and are in 3rd. They have lost a whole 3 games less than us.
MK Dons are in great form. They have showed what happens when a team puts a run together. Would take a point from that game right now.
Let's beat Walsall and things look prettier again
December has some very hard fixtures those, I'd take 2 wubs1draw and a loss out of the 4 after Walsall...shed have us top 12 by jan
Have you been on the alcopops?
Lol fookin smartphones
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