Thetownend.com

Just been looking at the current league table and previous season's final tables.

It appears that roughly 70 points is needed to make the play offs.

With 20 games left, we need to pick up roughly 35 points out of a possible 60.

Can we do it?

Discuss.

Yes we can do it but no I dont think we will, I will be happy with just avoiding relegation for starters then take it from there, a good run of 3 or 4 wins in a row would work wonders for confidence.

 No.....don't even think about it.  Our position reflects our present standing.

  Its hard to see how,  a reasonably difficult to beat side, that doesn't score many goals and has terrible discipline problems, is sudenly going to go on a hot winning streak.....if the manager was fully up to speed on his players etc, then maybe it might happen, but MM is still in the phase whereby he thinks playing Pooky wide right is a good idea.

 After the season we've had, doing a bit of squad restructuring for next season is the best we can hope for.  

  Speaking of BEST....can you begin to imagine, what Newbury would have let us in for, if Rufus was now running the show.   I wake up at night in a cold sweat,  wondering just why Newbury sanctioned this deal,  if Fitton was also around.

  I can only think it was a way of dumping on us fans one more time.

I've been saying for most of this season that I think we'll finishing between 10th and 12th.
A consolidation year, with all the off-the-ptich stuff sorted out.

I think next season is the year for an assault on the play-offs...

But with some luck we might nick a 6th place finish, but it's going to need a lot of luck  :|

One word.  No.

Im sick to death of players losing their heads and getting booked/sent off etc.

  A bit iof luck always helps, you could argue that 2 OG's v Forest, was a sizeable helping.

  I can only think of one season 88/89 where we made a late run for 6th place.   Around the start of Feb we were 16th

  The situation though was so different.....we had a settled side, which came together, because of 2 key things, firstly Duncan Shearer started scoring, after a slow start, and Alan Mac was slipped into the attacking role just behind the front 2.....whereas previously he was a utility player mainly at full back.

  This new move was tried v Scum and Mac duly obliged with a fine goal in a routine 3-0....he never looked back.

Win our games in hand and we're in touching distance.  IMHO we won't do it, notwithstanding the fact that it's our first season post promotion anyway.  A solid top half finish this year, followed by on and off-pitch restructuring over the summer and we might be in with a shout next year.  Fitton's aiming for three years, and I think that might be about right.  Progressing too quickly can cuase problems, we need to put the framework in place first.

We have a great chance of making the play offs.

20 games to go, 11 wins and a few draws thats all it needs.

We also have a better side now than we did at the beginning of the season. For instance Corr was out for the first couple of months, and I'm hopeful we will have Cox or a similar player before the deadline.

   It certainly makes things difficult....Jerel is out on Tuesday I believe...we know what happens when he's missing.  Luton despite their problems, have one of the better home records in our league.  Its the sort of game that if you go and put in a convincing show and win, could provide some momentum. Just can't see it though.

Least Kanyuka is here though as Jerel is out.  If he plays as well as is reported to be then we should be ok.

Jerel could do with a rest anyway IMO as hes been a bit off the boil recently.

not a chance ...

It would appear that we are still very inconsistent and struggle to create and put away chances. Doesn't sound like a promotion chasing team to me (although weren't we like that last season too?)

NMH

Kanyuka won't be playing on tuesday, as he's nowhere near match fit.

that's what i was told anyway.

going back to why the BEST deal was entertained... i distinctly remember holt saying when it fell through that there was another deal, which wasn't as good. i took that to mean that BEST showed more money than fitton.

anyway, i dont think we have enough creativity, or goals to make the play-offs. in 03/04 we made it solely because of mooney and parkin both banging them in - i would imagine both were in double figures at this stage in the season.

Oh right, I didn't realise he was that far away from fitness.

We have a reasonably solid base, but a lack of firepower will hold us well short of the playoffs. The lack of firepower isn't just down to the front 2 either, offensively we are a bit short as a team.

To be honest, my expectations for this season was a solid mid table finish. If we achieve this then jobs-a-goodun. We can build on what we have for next season.

 Sounds about right....Newbury were prepared to allow the ruination of our club for the sake of a few extra quid in their own pockets.  I think we got our result for the season  when Fitton's mob took over.

in a word no....

No because we have a shit midfield

....what he said

no.

fitton is already talking of reducing the wage bill by 25%, we should concentrate on survival this season.

We've already had this season's 'promotion' as far as I'm concerned.  The Fitton takeover has gone through.  We're simply not good enough, not disciplined enough and - most important of all - not ready for Championship football at the moment.  But with a competent board now in place, I think we have the potential to have a tilt in the next few years.

The rest of this season should be about consolidation.  We want a solid upper mid table finish.  We need Mr Malpas to make his mark on the squad and to establish contacts south of the border.  We need the board to continue its work in building a dialogue with the fans.

Now Diamandis/Holt et al are in the past we have the relative stability we have been craving for the last few years, I would be perfectly happy to pause for breath on the field while we make some much needed changes off it.

surely if we are going to make progress more should be spent on wages?
cut backs dont usually deliver success.
i'm all for running a tight ship, but these blokes are minted.i'd like to see them chuck a bit of dosh at the club.
if we get players in(upfront is a must)then it is possible. if not then we dont have much of a chance.we need to score more goals pure and simply

 Fitton has said from the outset, that they wont be chucking money at this....so any success has to come from careful management and youth development.

I'm not too bothered about a 25% wage cut, as long as the wages that are being cut are those of the players who are nowhere near the first team.

I get the impression that the Best 3 are on considerably more than we might expect them to be, and I'm hoping that this will acount for a sizeable chunk with the rest made up from the dead wood in the squad.

good management and a few kids breaking through will get us so far.but will it be enough?
i dont think so myself

we'll have to stop selling the kids as well won't we?!

Think this season is about steadying the ship, seeing what we've got to work with and how that can be improved.

Next season will be more of the same but with a view to progression - probably play offs are our target.

Remember Fitton said Championship in 3 years. I personally think the new owners would prefer us not to go up this season if we could do it in a subsequent one instead.

 There's no substitute for good management....if Malpas turns out to be a good manager then we'll be sorted

Playoffs? not a chance















i think we will win the league.

Agood chance of making the playoffs,long as we dont get too many pens!...seriously i think we have a sound defence and a hard working midfield,but a couple of strikers are needed badly,we wouldnt have to worry about any team we met as theres no outstanding team thats going to be in them.

The problem is we're on a reasonable run now - 9 unbeaten is it? (Not counting Barnet in the Cup as it came down to penalties)

Ok, some up and down performances, but we're grinding out results. What will happen when we eventually lose? Will the wheels fall off the wagon spectacularly, or will we become our normal inconsistent selves?

If, and its a big if, we can get Simon Cox back either on loan or permanently, we have a very slim chance. Otherwise, no bloody way, and if we finish 20th or above, I'll be satisfied.

My thoughts on the subject are, if you wanna be in the play offs this year, start supporting Nottingham Forest, as Swindon aren't going anywhere (this season).

It is possible, as the maths clearly shows

Is it likley?  Not really. We dont create or take enough chances. I'd fancy our chances a lot more if we could field Corr & Cox up front for 90% of the remaining games

I'm really not bothered about the play-offs. Say we signed a goal scorer (cox or someone else maybe) and managed to sneak it. And then won them.

We'd get fucking raped next year in the Championship. We need to lay the foundations next season spending time building a squad and then push for promotion properly

I think the 25% wage cut is basically in regards to alot of the shit floating around the club at the moment

Win tonight puts us 5 points behind Leeds who are in 6th place and we have 2 games in hand over them  :D

And we have Easton and Ifil to come back.
Plus this Cox fella who's menna be quite good to come in.

I am gonna be optimistic, we're going up  :mrgreen:

...................................Brez/Smith
Minge/Smith...Ifil/Kanyuka/...Aljofree/Vincent...Vincent/Nicho
JPM/Roberts...Easton/Pook...Peacock/JPM...McNamee/Zaaboub
.....................Cox/Ashikodi...Corr/Paynter/Sturrock

Not a bad squad to end to see us till the end of the season.

I wish I could share your optimism about that one

If Cox signs I will do a sex wee.

If we can get Coxy we have a chance. If not i'll be happy to settle for where we are now.

2 games in hand over Tranmere, Orient and Leeds and 1 game in hand over Southend.

Can I just say that we haven't actually lost since Cox left.

we never ever ever never ever ever ever win games in hand ever! FACT!

I remember the season we finished 12th the year after our play off season....for most of the season it was 'win our 2 games in hand and we'll be right in the mix for the play offs'

The fans kept saying it, hell even King kept saying it....and well we obviously finished 12th.

But funnily enough DV, that was a few years ago and isn't now. A few things have changed since then!

well still dont win games in hand though....

I'm sure it was the same at one point last season as well.

Its alright saying we've got two games in hand and we can catch so and so if we win them both


but we wont!

And we went up last season!

It wasn't long ago everyone was saying we never win away from home on weeknights... Well....

Times are a changing.  :mrgreen:

We probably wont get anything at Oldham on a tuesday.

Win at Forest and its on.  :mrgreen:

I think we've probably left ourselves a bit much to do.

However, sign Cox and a quality midfielder alongside Easty, and we've got a chance. You've got to say that if we did get in, that would mean we'd be on a storming run which might mean we took the momentum on and won the fucking things....  :mrgreen:

I said we'd clearly make the play offs all along.  Oh ye of little faith :wink:

16 points from the last 8 games is play off form, the only time we had a really bad run this season was when Sturrock left and it looked like the club would fold, 2 points from 5 games I believe in that period (if only we had gained 3 points more the situation would look a lot different right now).
We've come through that bad patch, players are coming back from injury and suspension, new signings are being made, and we are a better side now than we were in November, we might not be playing flowing football but we are getting the results.

Like you CT I've always stated we would get to the play-offs, even if we lose 2 out of the next 5 I can see us staying in touch.

When you put it like that, my optimism appears to be increasing!

But if we lose against Northampton you'll all be saying how shit we are and how we don't have a chance.

I wont as i dont think we will make the playoffs with the current set of players anyway

we better fucking not make the play-offs.

My opinion on whether we make the play offs or not varies after each game, Im not going to pretend otherwise!

Sometimes I see us play, puts me in a bad mood and Ill say never in a million years, whereas some days we play brilliantly and I think we might make it!

Why?

If the unthinkable happened and we got promoted, Mr Fitton would need to seriously open his wallet.

Shouldn't this be who thinks of we have an outside chance of automatic promotion? The plays off's are a given, I reckon were already there  :mrgreen: Just hope the players don't ruin my day out at Wembley for the 2nd year in a row by getting automatic  :wink:

I think that some people may be mis-reading the promotion within 3 years thing. My understanding is that AF wants us to acheive promotion asap, BUT he is not naive enough to think it will be easy, regardless of finances/players.

My personal aim is for us to be in europe in 3 years  8)

I am and it's not all it's cracked up to be.

InterToto or death!

i won't be in the country

if i've got to suffer, you've all got to suffer

Leeds at Wembley please.

If we get to the playoffs it'll be a massive achievement, considering what the clubs been through.

But I won't be too disappointed if we don't as I now know the club is going in the right direction.

Intertoto please.