I know its a very old thread but I couldn't really remember what people were predicting pre season.
Now after we have won the league officially I have found a few interesting comments, some spot on and some rather wayward, as all predictions are TBH.
Its easy to see the pessimists vs the optimists, I am and always have been a glass half empty but some the glass is always empty....
I don't think there are 7 better squads than ours. So top 7. Top 3 if we can add more goals through striker recruitment over the next few weeks.
This season I have only got us on 50 as I can see a whole load of draws as will not concede many but neither will score many.
Want to be proved entirely wrong!
14th and above
The aim should be autos..... I don't see it in this squad so far. Anything less is failure, OK you can be pretty average like Newport last season, and get to the PO's, but not the sort of thing good enough for us in Div 4.
With the sicknote recruitment we're relying very much on luck to get the minimum higher than 13th, that will at least represent an improvement on last year.
Should definitely get playoffs. Top 3 may be a push but if we get a good striker in and IF we keep key players fit, every chance
All the so called favourites have question marks against them - it’s why we have just as good a chance as any of them.
Mansfield - rookie boss, first season as a manager
Plymbury - gelling what is essentially 2 separate contingents. Managing the dressing room could be a problem.
Bradford - got no midfield and 2 strikers who have done fuck all for 2 seasons
Exeter - as we know, continually selling your best players catches up with you sooner or later
We’ll piss it!
5th-9th.
Winning the opener on the road is relatively rare and usually portends a decent season.... an exception would be something like 90/91, where after the summer fiasco we won at Charlton, but it fell away. That was always going to be a strange season.
Winning at Scunny would be very impressive, and unlikely.
I'm a natural pessimist so I'll go for an upper-mid-table finish.
Still, I'm looking forward to the new season and like the cut of Wellens' jib.
My expectation - In or very close to (within a point of) the top 7 all season.
Interesting thing for me is we pretty much exclusively signed from the leagues above. Scunny, Northampton and Newport have to a large extent as well. Not sure it means too much, but certainly better than punts on below or the french 3rd division i would suggest.
I'm not sure it does mean much.... getting proven Div 4 players is probably a better route.
Only been 1 match. I don't care- it's our job as football fans to get excited. That's the highs and lows of why we love this game. A new season is new hope.
We still need that 1 striker- just to keep it challenging up top and offer a plan b. But that aside I'm loving this SQUAD. Haven't been able to say that for many many seasons. Strength in depth.
Those goals yesterday were a joy to watch. Our expectations when playing in League 2 should and always have to be promotion.
Lots to be positive about this season and I predict an 8th - 10th place finish.
Positive? And that’s the best you can come up with? Another season of failure?
I don't regard that as a season of failure. I am comfortable with the fact that div 4 (or the lower end of div 3 if we win promotion at some point) represents STFC's place in the football pyramid. Of course, a change in ownership/investment may change that - but I suspect that this is unlikely happen in the near future.
Presently I think Plymouth, Bradford, Exeter, Mansfield, Colchester, Walsall, FGR, Salford and Newport look potentially more capable of maintaining a challenge over a whole season, which would leave us 10th, but lots can change between now and May.
Still feels life a promotion season, as it did after game 1.