Thetownend.com

The last time DV Canio did a similar thread it was for target 52 points in 2011!

18/19: AUTO 79 CHAMPIONS 85
17/18: AUTO 84 CHAMPIONS 93
16/17: AUTO 85 CHAMPIONS 87
15/16: AUTO 85 CHAMPIONS 99
14/15: AUTO 84 CHAMPIONS 94
13/14: AUTO 81 CHAMPIONS 84
12/13: AUTO 78 CHAMPIONS 83
11/12: AUTO 83 CHAMPIONS 93 (Swindon!)
10/11: AUTO 79 CHAMPIONS 86
09/10: AUTO 73 CHAMPIONS 93

10 Season average for auto 81 points average 1.76 ppg
10 Season average for champions 90 points 1.96 ppg

Played 29 Current Points 56. average 1.93 ppg
Remaining games 17 (25th Jan)

PPG Required for promotion: 25 points 1.47 ppg
PPG Required for champions: 34 points 2 ppg

Next week will be a mahoosive game, we could in theory go 5 (or even 8!) points clear at the top if we win (yes I know theres a game Tuesday too). Even though Exeter have a game in hand its about points won.

They have sold around 2,000 tickets so far so will be a healthy attendance too, possibly more than the one vs their neighbours 'Muff which was our biggest attendance so far of 9,548.

In theory we could be top on 62 points after the game with Exeter 2nd on 54 if they lost at Vale on Tuesday and we win at Colchester, 8 points clear would be amazing, if a pipe dream.

Exeter have a tight defence lately being the only team outside Liverpool in the Prem to have not conceded a league goal so far in 2020.

Their last goals conceded ironically being in a 2-2 draw away at Colchester on 29th December, 5 matches ago.

Colchester unbeated in 15 I saw which surprised me. decent run that even though lots of draws

Very difficult 2 games coming up for sure!

They won't be worried then..

But those sort of runs have to come to an end at some point and 15 unbeaten is a lot at this level.

We won 9 out of 10 with the last gasp equaliser conceded at FGR and had what you could call a mini wobble with the injury induced defeats at Port Vale and Newport defeats relative to our October and November form.

The teams behind us like Colchester and Plymouth have found form but they are bound to hit a sticky patch with injuries, suspensions or just difficult games.

I always think of point barriers. Get to 60 points quickly and the play offs should be in sight. 70 points and you can think about pushing on for auto.

The benefit of having a tricky run of fixtures is that if you do well in them the 3 points, or even 1 point, is worth that little bit more.

Not only have we got the 3 points but deprived a rival of points - re Plymouth, Crewe, Bradford (ha ha ha). Get the next 2 games out of the way and I reckon we’re good to go.

Players coming back from injury - and hopefully staying that way - new faces (maybe old faces) in the door this week. As we’ve seen, even severe pressure from a absence of so many players we can still perform to a good standard.

There’s no way we won’t make the autos from here. (Cue Reg!)

A few weeks ago, I was hoping that by the time the Exeter game was done with then we'd be in touch with the top 3. It's gone considerably better than I expected so far.

I think I'd take 2 points from the next 2 games, and not losing to Exeter is important. Having said that, I may not be giving this team enough credit.

Once the Exeter game is out of the way then we have a relatively easy run of fixtures.

FUCK YEAH!!!

As a Swindon based Grecian, I’d like that to be true, Peter.

We’ve sold 1300 tickets, would be great to make it 1500 on the day, but doubtful.

Watched your 3-1 v Crewe and the second half press was really impressive, good mobility that I think we’ll struggle to contain if imposed. Much prefer your first half performance for the whole game !

Really looking forward to the game - should be a cracker.

Our home form isn't the best against your lot, to say the least. Hopefully we'll put that right on Saturday  :)

We've ended a few good runs this season. Colchester draw a lot....

Certainly hoping for better than last season, my youngests' first game, he was gutted, ha!

Crazy to think how long ago 2011 was now....

Also crazy to think despite being top of the league we are averaging below ‘average champions’ form. I know it’s minimal enough average ppg that one game was probably swing it back or forth of the 1.96 but interesting none the less (to me anyway)

Thanks for the update Banker, was going by some posts on your forum, would be disappointing for you to bring only 1,300 or so as apparently there was a post saying you had sold out the Arkells allocation already, which is around 1,100 to 1,200 depending on segregation.

Still you will be the 2nd largest away following of the season after your Southern neighbours 'Muff.

Exactly this. I think the last 2 home games i've seen us play Exeter we've lost 2-0. Hoping for a more positive result on Saturday.

The game could very well be won and lost in midfield, I think if we stop Law playing we have a great chance. Exeter have a very strong and well marshalled defence so we are going to need to be on the top of our game to get something.

I'd take a draw.

In all games between the clubs at the County Ground - Swindon have won 55% of them with Exeter only winning 8 times in the 47 games, Swindon winning 27 of them.

But.....

Swindon havent beaten Exeter at home since 1985, ironically Town favourite Martin Ling scored for them in a 2-1 Swindon win.

Thats 6 games undefeated for Exeter here, starting last season with a 0-2, 1-1, 1-2, 0-0, 1-1 and a 1-1 back in 2000. Albeit 4 draws in that run, before that saw Exeter only win once in the previous 12 games.

Its going to be difficult, especially so as I will be at my first home game to witness it since I last attended on Wellens first game in charge, the 4-0 home defeat by Carlisle!

I hope I am not the new 4D :)

Think you've included a LC in there.

Although we haven't beaten Exeter since 85 we haven't played them that often, Mainly because we've been higher up the food chain, however it's now very much a battle of equals, as they're Trust run and we're running a tight budget.

I'm a talisman now PV, think the last defeat I witnessed was ColU  :)

UPDATE
-------------------------------------------------------
10 Season average for auto 81 points average 1.76 ppg
10 Season average for champions 90 points 1.96 ppg

Played 33 Current Points 63. average 1.91 ppg
Remaining games 13 (11th Feb)

PPG Required for auto promotion: 18 points 1.38 ppg
PPG Required for champions: 27 points 2.08 ppg

-------------------------------------------------------

Every team in the league would swap their position for ours right now. We aren't playing well but we are still top and we are still clocking up the points.

Home Games: Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Forest Green, Crawley, Salford, Cheltenham, Leyton Orient 
Away Games: Mansfield, Oldham, Stevenage, Wasall, Morecombe, Macclesfield

Last 6 games form:

Crewe 2.33ppg Plymouth 2.16ppg Exeter and Swindon 1.66

Feels almost like we are treading water to an extent.
We seem to keep picking up points but aren’t creating an separation between ourselves and Crewe, Exeter and Plymouth.

I know the obvious answer is we are all on similar form (at a guess) but I don’t remember being top, winning games but not getting away from the pack before.
 

They all play each other over the coming weeks so that will all change.

Agree. To look at those fixtures remaining and think to achieve the 10 year average for auto we only need to win 6 of them that looks too easy. Whereas I dont think that's anywhere near enough with the form of the other 3.

Only works if we are winning all our games though.

I mean recently we’ve beat Exeter and Plymouth to get ahead but have lost to Newport and Colchester allowing them to catch.

Crewe v Plymouth will be an interesting game.
I'm looking at how far we are from 4th compared to 2nd

Not sure which result i'd like. Both are in good enough form to recover from a loss/draw.

Guess we just have to keep winning and see

Macclesfields next 3 games are Exeter (H), Plymouth (H) then Crewe (A).

Come on you silkmen!

There will be some team wobbles as the weeks progress as there always are, let’s hope it is not us.

I think some are being overly pessimistic.
We have been top for 2 months now, despite having played all of the other contenders since Christmas (some were concerned we couldn’t beat teams near the top - that has been put to bed now), and a lot of recent games have been played in poor conditions - heavy pitches, torrential rain, high winds or some combination thereof.
We had a depleted squad in that period due to injuries, Lyden’s suspension, and the Doyle / Yates loan recalls, but shrugged that off too, and now have a strong squad.
No team wins promotion playing teams off the park on a weekly basis. 46 games is a long, attritional process, and the most encouraging thing is this team is getting wins / points in games Town sides of recent years (under Luke, Flitcroft or Brown) would have lost or drawn.
As I have said previously, 84 or possibly 85 points is what we need for top 3 - so 7 wins and 1 draw from 13 will be enough.
I think we will do that - last night’s win felt like a huge result and the platform to move on.
COYR

Almost 2 points per game since start of the year (17 from 9), including every other side in the top 6. That's phenomenal.

SWINDON TOWN
Scunthorpe (H)
Grimsby (H)
Mansfield (A)
Forest Green (H)
Oldham  (A)
Stevenage (A)
Crawley (H)
Walsall (A)
Salford (H)
Cheltenham (H)
Morecambe (A)
Leyton Orient (H)
Macclesfield (A)

---

CREWE ALEXANDRA
Plymouth (A)
Macclesfield (H)
Morecambe (A)
Exeter (A)
Stevenage (H)
Mansfield (A)
Colchester (A)
Forest Green (H)
Port Vale (A)
Northampton (A)
Newport (H)
Bradford (A)
Grimsby (H)
Cambridge (A)

---

EXETER CITY
Macclesfield (H)
Northampton (A)
Crawley (H)
Crewe (H)
Walsall (A)
Salford (H)
Scunthorpe (H)
Plymouth (A)
Bradford (H)
Cheltenham (A)
Morecambe (H)
Mansfield (A)
Carlisle (H)
Leyton Orient (A)

---

PLYMOUTH
Crewe (H)
Macclesfield (A)
Cambridge (H)
Bradford (A)
Grimsby (H)
Macclesfield (H)
Morecambe (A)
Leyton Orient (A)
Exeter City (H)
Grimsby (A)
Forest Green (H)
Walsall (A)
Northampton (H)
Oldham (A)
Port Vale (H)

The competition is hotting up.  The eventual squad strengthening in January is looking helpful, even necessary, now.  We can be grateful for the ambition shown in the transfer window.  And also pray.

Just need GP to start smashing in goals again every game and I think we are a dead cert for champs this season.

It's all as clear as mud at the moment.

First milestone to aim for will be securing top 7, then top 3, then the title.

Might be a better idea of actual points required with about 8 or so games left.
Just need to continue grinding if it gets the job done.

Agree WB, having secured our primary objective of L2 survival, maybe we can kick on a bit 😉

I believe we likely have achieved that first objective. 

I recall the days when the first objective was of a different nature altogether.

Power may not be the sugar daddy many fans covet but at least he seems fionancially sound.

The days of illegal payments and, touch wood, administration seem behind us for now.  I well remember the first objective was not to fall into administration - or worse - with the second objective being to garner sufficient points to avoid relegation.

It's decent that whilst the play off objective is not yet secure, the automatics are still very much in our sights.

Let's do it!

I think 8 wins would give us the title. 87pts in a tight as a nuns chuff battle. Let the others play catch up. With Plym playing Exeter & Crewe it almost cancels out their games in hand (which they have to win) if they fail to take maximum points from both. They could get 12pts from all 4 but they could easily fail to claim say 9pts. They do have a knack of grabbing a victory (like Crewe) late on. That could be fitness related. An important factor at this stage.

What will be, will be but those below us have more work to do than we do.

I think we will pull away from at the very least the 4th place team over the next 3 or 4 games.

Think Noel Hunt put it very well in his post-match on Tuesday when he said "I'd rather be in the position we're in than any other position in the League". POTB

Can't argue with that.

I know it was disappointing- again - to have no cup run, but looking at other clubs who have all are struggling now,

Northampton - lost 3 in a row after a replay defeat at Derby in the FA Cup
Piss Stains - bottling fully underway after replay defeat to Newcastle
Shrewsbury - lost 3 in a row after replay defeat to Liverpool

Blessing in disguise?

I see Exeter are in action tonight in the Winky Wanky Cup v Pompey

Yes

No.

Just for balance :)

Couldn't have come at a better time,  hope they get through to the final - that'll distract them !!!.

As an aside, if Salford beat Newport in tomorrow night's other semi-final, then our home game vs Salford on Sat 4th April will need to be re-arranged for a Tuesday night. Because the Leasing.com trophy final is on Sunday 5th April.

Come on Newport!!

Oh fuck that. Come on the Newts.

Is the checkatrade no longer regional?? How have Salford and Newport ended up in the same semi final

I think it stops being regional at the QF stage??

Correct.

Not wishing to start another thread but this is very interesting.

Its about Ian Evatt the manager of Barrow, dubbed Barrowcelona for the style of play.

A lot of this sounds very familiar to Swindon fans, a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=73&v=yjJkv2ZsiJ4&feature=emb_logo

Even down to the "get it forward" man.

He is also attributing a lot of it to what he learnt under Holloway at Blackpool, so even more evidence that Saturday will not be an easy game against the Lincolnshire Barcelona.

https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ian-holloway-barrow-grimsby-town-3859483

Watching these highlights it doesn't look that Barcelona, although nice to see Brad Barry once of this Parish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItphmJvKd5I

Sixteen quid  :eek:

I suppose compared to what they have been watching then it is, a bit like Barnsley fans a few years back singing "its just like watching Brazil" yes, Brazil nuts maybe.