Thetownend.com

..... seem to be complaining that we are not commanding an automatic promotion place. We have all but confirmed a play off place but that still isn't good enough.

Of course, Swindon Town has the right to go up over every other single team in this league, and how dare Norridge steal 1st spot from us innit.

Beejaysus.

We are in the play-offs. I think people are just dissapointed at the manner our challenge seems to be just sliding away without any real purporse. It is worth noting that it's not beyond the realms of possibility we can still get 2nd. In fact it's a bit more likely after today. The downer for me was the performance. It wasn't what we have been used to seeing at the CG this season. We need a confidence boost for the play-offs because on that evidence we won't be winning our last 3 games.

the thing is we could have put this season to bed in recent weeks,but instead have wobbled like fuck

As could Leeds, Milwall, Charlton...........

After taking two points from a possible 9 in the last three games, I'm not surprised there is a feeling of disappointment at the moment.  Football is all about ups & downs though, and I'm sure there are few more of both around the corner.

so could every other team from 2nd to 7th.

so what if other could have too?
it's what we have done which matters.

As in gain a point over them this weekend?

 because we are now 1 point closer to auto than we were this morning

...people just get disappointed, but realistically at no time until 4 games ago were we playing for an auto spot....we achieved our success, by being under the radar, and so avoiding hype and pressure, as soon as we got a sniff, then we've stalled.

 Very difficult to read how things pan out from now on...nevertheless with 3 games to go we've lost the least games in the league....practising pens might now be a good idea.

no. as in drop points in recent weeks.
2 points lost today,fuck all from colchester,and a scraped point from exeter is hardly convincing.
if that aint wobbling then i dont know what is.
thank fuck those around us are dropping points too

Gaining a point every match wont help us..the seasons nearly up,Leeds and Millwall along with Charlton are fucking up...unfortuanatly so are we.....its got to be said as its fact.

What he said.

And don't forget people that our Reg was constantly slated not so long ago for his negativity.

not saying we're not wobbling,just that the others are as well.

The others are wobbling bigger than we are.

Even Millwall, which gives me even more hope.

2 points off 2nd-three weeks to go,so if we gain a point each week we'll finish 2nd.You gotta have faith Leefer.

When you get the chance of glory, especially when you are not expecting it, you then want to at least do your best. Think against Exeter we did that but came up against a good organised side.

Fine balance between hoping we give it our best shot and expecting too much.

Look...when the team plays well they take the plaudits and rightly so but the last three matches have been poor...abit unlucky maybe but today was poor,Walsall and Exeter will both be miffed they didnt win...thats how poor.
We are still in with a shout but i feel the chance has gone...the playoffs are a lottery,we dicked Brighton both matches last time and still missed out....good effort on the pitch today,but not much else.

Sorry BR but I don't think you can understand the sheer frustration without having watched the last two games.

Its not that we aren't challenging the top 2 that bothers me. At no point this season have I expected it or even given it  much of a second thought.

What annoys me is the fact we had the chance to swing it back in our favour by winning our games and we haven't.

When people have sat up and noticed us and when the pressure has been on us we haven't dealt well with it.

...Play Offs aren't exactly a pressure free zone.

I don't think I explained that very well...

I think we're knackered. Wilson picks the same XI each week if possible (which is great) but sadly we cannot rely on our attacking reserves to stick it in the net (like the last P-O campaign with Fallon).

I agree with BR though as my points on the matchday thread would indicate. Southampton's late goal annoyed me a bit but I'm just glad we're in the situation we're in.

Of course I am not there, but I have attended enough matches myself in the past to empathise with the frustration.

It is just terms such as "pathetic" on the match day thread which promoted me to start this thread.

Danny's main job now is to get the team playing like they did in February.  To all intents and purposes we are in the playoffs.  Danny should just say, ok lads we have got where we want to be, we have three games left just relax play your normal game, and don't be shot shy.  If we don't get auto, we then should be in the groove for the play-offs.  The fans can help by saying great it's the playoffs and just enjoy the ride.  If we don't make it in the next three games, we have two more games after that to have a go.

I was hoping for three more games(!)...but point taken.

We were poor today. But we still got the best result of all the teams chasing 2nd this weekend. How often do you hear it said in the last 3/4 games of the season whether in the Prem, Championship whatever "Does no-one want promotion/the title/4th place?". There's a reason for that - it's hard when the pressure's on and you've got it all to play for. That's why there's so may "shock" results at this stage of the season - Rochdale got promoted from League 2 today, but lost to the bottom side last week.

I'll take play-offs and be delighted with it but at 2 pts off 2nd and with the kind of "everyone fucks up" results you always get at this stage of the season, not given up on auto either. I'll say again what I said last week - I'd rather be a Town fan than a Leeds fan, if the season ends tomorrow. We've massively overachieved on what we expected, they've fucked up big style.

Some of the comments on the Match Day Thread are a fucking disgrace, some of you really want to have a look at yourselves.

I don't think Ferry nor Ward has played this number of games in a season before, and I wouldn't be surprised they are starting to feel it.

Good post, I fully agree.

Go to the BBC sport web pages and take a look at the stats for the Exeter game and then come back and tell me that Exeter are pissed off they didn't win.

Their fans and their manager didn't look fucking disappointed to me at the end of the game. They set themselves up with 10 men behind the ball and defended like mad for 90 minutes, had 2 shots on target and scored from one.

They were fucking delighted they got a point. which is clearly what they had come for.

You can rewrite history however much you like but people are going to notice when you talk complete bollocks.

thats a bloody good point and the only thing I could pick as a negative of this entire season if I had to, we don't have the strikeforce backup.

Other than that I'm loving the ride, and that cunt in the townend today was close to getting chinned by me for his negative antics. didn't hear a peep out of him when we were passing the ball around nicely, then sheehan slips or something and he's ranting like a madman

then when pericard came on I thought he was going to have a coronary the angry twat

around g54 you know who you are!

I'm not a regular any more so I don't wish to disagree with anyone who was there today, but as a general comment, there are always some fans who are unable to keep things in perspective. 

Swindon are fourth, and two points off second, with three games left.  OK, two points from three games isn't great, but who would have believed we would be in this position before the season started, or after the first game at Gillingham?

Whether or not we go up this year, I think Danny Wilson and the players have achieved an awful lot and deserve continued support and a hell of a lot of credit.

A-fucking-men :thumb:

Pauld you said it right, but then, don't you always say it right?

 i will love the play-offs, i will love 2nd place more, but no way I thought we'd be where we are now after drubbing by the Gills.  We've come a long long way and it's been the most exciting season for years, with some of the best football and some of the classiest results.

We have one of the best managers in the division/several divisions, a hatful of players vying for POTY, a board that cares and does things right.   

Disappointed with the result today of course cos that 2nd place carrot is being dangled, but overall, no complaining from me.

Trudging away from the Withdean, as drenched as if we'd just jumped in the sea, was one of the worst feelings I can ever remember in over 30 years of watching the Town. It's still sore to think about it now (so I don't).

If it goes wrong this time also, I can't imagine feeling the same way. This is BONUS time. We all need to just really enjoy and make the most of what is around the corner. Andy King - despite his critics - got us a bit higher, and higher, every season until those play-offs, there was a build-up, we had big hopes that were smashed right at the death. Not this time. This is pretty much out of the blue. And whatever happens, it's been a superb and thoroughly enjoyable season.

Bring it on, footballing-Gods. 

Cheers Bill.

Agree with everything in your post - remember feeling sick for days after that wet night in Brighton. The Club is in better shape now and moving forward once again.

This season is starting to look like 86/87 where we petered out a bit with 5 draws in the last 5 games and ended up in 3rd with 87 points. If we don't make in auto promotion then I'm more than happy with the play offs. I also think in some ways that I don't want Leeds to end up in the play offs with us and would be happy for them to take the auto place if we don't overtake them.

I just think if Leeds get in the play offs that there would be so much media attention on it and if we ended up playing them could we replicate the league results again, would also hate to lose to them at Wembley (and if you beat them at Wembley can imagine it being unpleasant on the way out). If Leeds get auto, then the play offs would be 4 evenly matched teams and the media attention would be fairly evenly spread and you could just enjoy an honest contest and let the best team win.

We as a club have enjoyed great success in the play offs and a couple of disappointments (plus one absolute heartbreaking travesty of injustice, I still hate Doug Ellis and his FL cronies to this day). We should embrace them and let what will be happen.

...other than the fact they would be promoted.

Exactly your Dukeness - when we lost that night it was a case of "when will we ever get another shot at promotion", whereas, whatever happens at the end of this season, we can feel pretty bloody optimistic about a continuing upward curve.

Wha?

After the Brighton game we all thought we'd be top 2 the following season with Bristol City.

Didn't work out that way in the slightest but I don't any of us expected  to finish 12th at the start of that season.

You seem strangely confident about knowing what EVERYONE was thinking.

True, many people assumed we were definitely going up, but many others thought we'd blown our chance - and they were proved right. We weren't exactly challenging for promotion year after year, hence the lack of confidence amongst many of us.

The last couple of games have reminded me very much of that season. I particularly remember Doncaster at home, who were fighting relelgation. We were expecting to coast to victory but only drew 1-1 thanks to a very late equalizer..sound familiar? :hmmm:

And in 92-93 we pretty much limped over the line at the end of the season. Two lessons to be learned?
1. Promotion is bloody hard to get and there is a shed load of anxiety and frustration to endure on the way and there is loads and loads more yet to come.
2. How you end the season has no bearing whatsoever on how you preform in the play offs as these two examples show.

That is of course assuming that we don't make automatic. I have thought it was achieveable since January and I'm not giving up now.

Tend to agree about Leeds, given a choice I'd rather avoid them.

Agree completely. I bloody hope we don't let in a last-minute equaliser and go out on penalties again, though.

I booked play off final saturday off

jinx

The 1986/87 comparisions are also there in terms of the number of points accumulated as a higher than average, we finished 3rd on 87 points which in normal circumstances would get you auto. Would be interesting to comapre the quality of the 1986/87 squad with our current one given the depth of the division this year and big budgets.

Lucas or Digby, Calderwood or Cuthbert, Chris Kamara or Douglas, Quinny, Bambi & Chalkie as a strike partnership compared with Billy Paynter and Charlie Austin. Would probably take Simon Ferry over Lee Barnard though.I think the 1986/7 squad might well win that one as the heart of that squad went onto to prove themselves at a higher level for a number of years. Maybe, just maybe this current squad might go onto to similar success if we make it and might need a late goal from a local lad called Charlie!

Spooky ???

I think the biggest frustration is that we have actually played alright in the last 3 games yet only managed 2 points.

Is it bad luck, bad finishing, bad defending, good opposition goalkeeping, nerves?  I think its all of the above.  I didnt go to colchester but can say from the last 2 homes games that we were the better side and but for some superb defending and goalkeeping (especially the save from JPM's volley on Saturday) we would have won.  We could have played better, but were far from being shit.

Saturday was especially frustrating as we all knew that the other teams were losing. 1 lucky deflection could have put us in pole position for auto promotion.

Yep, some bloke called Mooney decided not to bother tracking Adam Virgo properly = goal........then he missed his penalty........then he signed for O*ford.

A 'nice' ending to what had previously been an excellent season for him.

To add to the conspiracy theories a friend of mine, who lives in Solihull where Mooney was living at the time (a quick trip down the M40 to Oxford), heard that Mooney had a rather expensive summer holiday booked around the time of the play off finals. Mind you Alan Reeves had the chance to clear the ball properly and didn't do so.

I didn't mean that I thought he did it deliberately - just that he fucked up then fucked off to you-know-where.