Thetownend.com

We all love a meaningless poll, right?

I keep reminding myself of 09/10 and what a brilliant job Douglas did as captain after our form fell apart in the last six games of the season picking up 6 points in 6 games, missing out on a potential automatic promotion spot and then totally failing to turn up at Wembley.

So long as Iron Willed Dougie keeps up the fine work, we stand a chance.

and this:

[url width=624 height=351]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67284000/jpg/_67284350_167657333.jpg[/url]

We're going to win.

We will draw 1st leg and lose the 2nd I'm afraid.

Brentford to beat Sheff Utd in the final

Brentford will be down after Saturday, it could go two ways way. They turn up feeling sorry for themselves and we start as we did vs Crewe and batter them and go into the away leg with a lead or they turn up and use what happened to them the previous week to their advantage.

Who the fuck knows is my answer!

Lose by the odd goal at home then get dicked at Brentford.

Dont expect to get past Brentford.

This feels different to every other playoff campaign i've known.  Im not one of the doom merchants on here but im not expecting to go up at all so therefore im not really nervous about it.  My expectations can only be bettered which is a nice feeling in a way.

Im expecting come Saturday the normal playoff excitment feeling will have returned though.

Whoever started that fateful "We've never lost we Wembley!" chant a few years ago needs shooting!  :doh:


I remain cautiously optimistic. In a play off, any team can beat any other. The rules aren't set.

Too close to call

Can't see us getting to Wembley

Lose 1 nil at home to a bradley wright-philips goal. Nil all 2nd leg.

This sums it up for me.

I haven't got the first idea whether we are going to do well.  We're in it, so have a chance of winning.  That's about as scientific as it gets for me.

I have a horrible feeling it will be game over for us after the first leg.

I think Brentford squad is better than ours. Their form is better than ours. Hence they will best us.

But you never know, look at Kiddiminster/Wrexham league finishing positions in the conference, then see which is going to Wembley.

Don't fancy us at all so we will probably win it.

Can't see us beating Brentford from the very little i've seen this season.

Bruce made a good point on the other thread about our defensivel line. BWP and Clayton Donaldson could have a field day if on form. Perhaps Fods will finally get the red card he deserves but our sub keeper (I can't remember his name offhand) will perform miracles in a penalty shoot out!

Hopefully the big crowd on Saturday will spur the players on. Unfortunately I am like most of the others on here, we have a chance, but sadly think Brentford will be too good.

Prove us wrong Swindon!

I can't see us beating them over 2 legs either.

Would love to be proved wrong though.

Considering that by all accounts we battered Brentford at their place I can see us beating them.

That, however, depends on us

A) Turning up

and

B) Not losing the plot and giving away easy goals

Best case scenario - Brentford are still a bit shell shocked by their near miss with promotion at the weekend and we can get a first leg lead at home. Then get a draw at their place to see us through.

The defence is going to have to step up to the level it was earlier in the season but don't see it being totally inconceivable. Brentford will go into the tie rightly favourites to make it to Wembley though.

I went to the game at Griffin Park and believe me in the first half they were truly dreadful.

Minutes after we scored Roberts somehow managed to hit the post when it was easier to score.

Even for the first part of the 2nd half we were far superior. They then got up a head of steam by lumping balls over our back 4 for their forward to chase after - fairly basic tactic but it worked.

If we haven't learnt from that we deserve to get beaten.

Didn't go to the home game so can't comment on that, but from what I've seen it's going to be close.

Bit of luck, good or bad, for either side is going to decide it.

No reason why it should not be us

We played reasonably well in the home match, but they were the most disciplined team I've seen us play this season. Then they hit us with… a ball over the top.

It's possible that our best hope is that they lose some of their discipline in their desperation to put things right after their last day nightmare. If they sit in, we waste our chances and get dragged higher and higher up the pitch, it could all get rather familiar.

This is exactly how I'm feeling. Thought to myself this morning how the playoffs are not dominating my every waking hour as they've done in previous campaigns. Maybe I'm just getting older.

I remember having this feeling years ago against Blackburn yet we won through to play Sunderland who i thought would beat us but did not, Well not on the pitch anyway.

So i am optimistic and not confident like i was about beating Charlton and Millwall.

I'm sure there's an element of that too.  One thing that all of us have in common is that we're all 3 years older than we were the last time this happened.  Older, wiser, a little more grumpy.

At Swindon Brentford looked compact and well organised but didn't particularly deserve to win, and at Griffin Park apart from our eventual capitulation we were probably the better team. Big difference is they have match winner in Donaldson that I don't think we really do.  
If Ward and Flint can keep him quiet then we have a chance but neither our defence nor attack have given too much recent cause for optimism.

Thing is though I don't think Brentford themselves, Sheff Utd or Yeovil are going in to play offs with much confidence either

Another season in League 1 for Sheff Utd is a disaster.

For the other 3, not so much.

I'm really looking forward to Saturday - like tension, me!

If we have a strong ref in each leg who wont take any of Donaldsons diving shit (Sent off at the Blades) then we have a glimmer.

However...we will not and i see us going out at Brentford.

Expect nothing, anything that comes back is a bonus

I'm older and grumpier, definitely not any wiser. I'm quite excited about the games and I think that part of it is because I won't be gutted if we lose, it won't be the bitter kick in the teeth at the last minute in 2004 or the horrific disappointing performance at Wembley in 2010.

After the clusterfuck that has been the last few months, I think we've done very well getting this far and we should just enjoy it without expectations or concerns about next season - we've got the whole summer to panic.

It's a long day boozing on Saturday and I should be off it altogether - which way shall I go?

Think it's simply a case that we just don't look like a promotion team.

This feels different, because the other 6 times we've been in the PO semis, we've either won them , or at least won a leg. This has always been based on having one if not two 20+ goal strikers.  So Quinn, White, Shearer,  Maskell, Parkin, Mooney, Austin, Paynter....etc.

The hope lies in the notion that sometimes in these games, something ridiculous happens...

Agree with you Nemo, Right now I think we'll get beat 2-0 at home and lose 3-0 away. Would love to be proved wrong!

In other news I have booked next Tuesday off, as one way or the other I'll be nursing a hangover-whether celebrating or reflecting on what might have been...

We were on top of Brentford for 70 minutes at Griffin Park, if Roberts could score open goals we would have been 2-0 up and would've won it IMO... As it was a minute of madness from Wes cost us and that got their tails up, we collapsed. At the County Ground they were a well organised united but they didn't deserve to win it.

The playoffs are ridiculously unpredictable. I think if Wes stops these mental moments he's having (thanks for these btw, Fraser) and the defence can hold we'll have a good chance. If I was totally honest, I'm expecting Brentford to beat us but I'm still excited, there's a good chance we could get promoted and I really hope the fans can get behind the team, it would make a huge difference.

Also one thing I noticed over the two games is that Donaldson is a handful, and he also goes to ground at every single opportunity he gets. A competent referee would be nice to deal with him (he's also incredibly petulant - both games I'm sure he ended up squaring up to Ward).

I'm gonna clutch at straws and hope that all the bad luck we've had this season, all the times we've batttered someone only to fail to win and all the shit we've had to put up with will reverse over 3 games and we'll go up. I won't be holding my breath but I'm still looking forward to it!

Collins is just bubbling under with 18 goals and our Parkin/Mooney and Austin/Paynter partnerships didn't help us in 2004 or 2010...

Dumb question time

I enjoyed the sum up of the playoffs on the football league show.

Warnock: I fancy the Blades.

Rosenior: Brentford will have to lift themselves.

Presenter: Yeovil have had a great season..

All: Oh yes, Yeovil are great.....


That was it....like HTV all over again.

And going by minutes played, Rooney is averaging under a goal every 2 games

Time for a hero, then

Strange one for me this time, not so excited about play-offs as have been during previous campaigns.  Hopefully that will change. 
Not expecting promotion but still would not be suprised if we do manage it. 
I don't think any of the 4 teams are in that great of form, therefore anything could happen.
Saying that i feel quite positive of beating Brentford over two legs, I think this would be beter than meeting them in the one-off game at wembley. 
However I do think we need to start fast and get a early goal at the county ground to achive this. 
We get an early goal there confidence will drop and there be thinking what may have been.  But if the game is tight i beleive this will onl help Brentford and they will get more confortable as the game continious.

My biggest fear is Kmac plays it to safe and only 1 up front, if so i think it will backfire.

I got pissed off with that bloody show.  Here's league one.  Donny Brentford first.  Fair enough, then  muff then they start going down the league, yeovil sheff u, oh hang on lets skip over Swindon.  I was pissed off for a minute and then thought oh no were deciding the last relegation place so fair enough.  

But wouldnt anyone who knows anything about tension go, lets play scunthorpe first?  Save a bit of tension to see if colchester lose one or 2 nil they go down.  Not the football league show.

Its a shit programme.

Can someone post a list of our last play off squad and let's compare what we had then to what we have now be interesting to see the comparison of the 2 squads

I'd have Fods over Lucas and Macca over Ferry from last time and maybe Thompson over Amankwaa and Darby. That's it. This squad is significantly weaker and why it probably won't get us up. The hope is still there though due to none of the oppostition being very good either.

Miles Storey back in training tomorrow. if we get to Wembley he could come in very handy

We always knew the division was going to be weak this year.  The team that is least bad in the play offs should win it.

I think most of us were in of the same opinion when we said "We won't get past Charlton". Look what happened there.

I do think though we will need something of a 2-0 or 3-0 lead going to Griffin Park. We need that cushion as I don't expect us to win away.

Fuck, I feel depressed about this reading through the forums, but I went for winning the final because I see no point in adding to the fog of despair that has existed around the latter half of this season.

It was all fun and games until January. Fuck you Andrew Black. I hope you burn in a ditch.

apart from the 10 million he burnt keeping us afloat for a few years

Yes, but I think the equivalent team to Charlton this year are Sheff Utd, while Brentford are Millwall. (In style of play)

Fair point NMH. Tend to agree, hence the reasoning for bagging a few at the CG on Saturday.

Our season now comprises of two games. Anything can happen and being it's Swindon...something amazing/atrocious will happen.

With a smidgen of luck you'll be in there with him

Brentford looked in absolute turmoil after Saturday and rumours that the players had a massive bust up are hopefully going to play in to our favour, as long as we can get a two goal plus advantage from the home leg. All out attack from the off a la Crewe and Stevenage and we get a goal or two, keep it this way in to the second leg. Then defend like beavers, 4-5-1 with Jesus of Navarro shielding the back four, Thompson and Byrne FB's dealing with the pace, we just stand a shot at glory.

I know, I know. This conversation has been done to death on here, and I don't want to start it again, but...

I'm normally in the "He helped save the club, he did a lot for us, it's unfortunate he left us at the wrong time but c'est la vie" camp. I'm just fucking fed up with all the off-pitch bullshit this season and want it to be over so we can get back to League One football. We had our best chance in years of breaking into the 'monied' tier of Football and I cannot forgive him for squandering it. (Yes, I know, we haven't fully done that yet, but with the air of depression and cynicsm around here it's hard not to feel that we've lost the play-offs already)

He did a lot for us, but he truly and utterly fucked up our 2013. Now I have to face the possibility of that piss-poor excuse for a football club/town Yeovil going up, at our expense, and Bournemouth being lauded by all as a fantastic team, superb management, whilst Swindon is accused by others of being 'overspending cheats'. The blindness of that fucking burns.

If we go up though, I promise to never moan about Black again.

I think I agree that we will struggle to get past Brentford - especially based on form.

Having said that if we hit them with a coiple fo early goals ala Tranmere 93 why shouldn't we go through.

We just need to remind the Brentford players rather vocally how they fucked it up.
Get right in there heads from the off from the townend / everywhere and we might have a chance at home. 2/3-0 and park the bus at theres.

Wembley will be a great day out. We will get promoted.

I suspect we'll be straight back down though

The thing that should help us is our superior fitness built up over PDC's era with the 2 games coming with only a days rest, and hopefully get a few of the injured players back for one or both games.

It would be Brentford's pace that worrys me though and our defence playing too high a line allowing them space to get behind us.

I do beleive though if we had been able to strengthen early in January with the original players wanted we would be talking differenly and be more confident

I think it's fair to say that having Wright-Phillips on our side rather than theirs would have helped a bit.

This thread wouldn't have existed for a start!

We would look a bit stupid chanting that

Why would we sing about a Millwall midfielder?

Especially seeing as it was Marcelo Trotta wasn't it?

fuck shit, I'm a cunt

Taunting Brentford could be counter productive. Why don't we focus on supporting our team? Play offs, for me, are a bonus this time round. Got no expectations and if we lose to Brentford it won't be the end of the world.
My expectations of KMac will be formulated next season.

This one feels entirely different to any other playoff year. We're down in the dumps, the players are off form and there's the prospect of an exodus in the summer regardless of which division we are in. For the players themselves, many know that they'll be elsewhere next season. We've essentially for a team full of Billy Paynter's leading the way for us.

You would think that a promotion on their CV and the chance to play at Wembley would be enough incentive. Whether that's enough remains to be seen.

Alternatively, they need to put themselves in the shop window!

We are going to lose at a wimper in the semi's.

Anyway if the whole squad, the backroom staff and the tea man are going to be sold in the summer and replaced with the under 9's as is being said as gospel on here, I don't think I could take a season in the Championship.

I think we will scrape past Brentford over the 2 legs, and set up a west country final at Wembley with Yeovil in which we win 1-0.

However, without serious investment in the playing squad I am certain we would be relegated at the end of the season.

I'd settle for that!

A final against Yeovil is a terrifying prospect for me. I really do not want to face the possibility of losing to them. There will not be a hole big enough for me to hide in from the Scummerset vultures. Not even Cheddar Gorge/Wookey Hole.

I'm confident of a top 4 finish

Spot on

This has the feeling of our Wembly triumph into the premier league written all over it. Followed by a mauling in most matches the following season and relegation confirmed next Easter.

first of all I thought we are fucked... BUT... now the match is getting closer this must happen...

Our home form has been good the last couple of games, we need to get say 3-4 goals like we have recently at home to go to Griffin Park on a high, so say 3 clear goals.

We WILL concede at theirs so if we can get a 3 goal advantage going into the second leg we have a great chance, especially if we can get a goal there too so prediction would be 4-2 aggregate to Town

HOWEVER

I think Brentford will be up for this, our fans will get on the players backs after we go down to an early 1-0. We will be down 2-0 by half time and we ride it out to a 2-0 loss at home :(

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Did you select all the above options?

Play Off nerves are taking right over now.  Jeez...this is how I used to feel before every game.  It's like a flashback.

I actually dreamed of a Tranmere-style, bang bang, 2-goals-in-the-first-5-mins double sucker punch last night.  Hit them hard and fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dRgbBbIu3c&feature=player_embedded

Come on Town!  (Or as George, my 3½ year old has taken to saying on a loop, 'Come on you Swindon!')

Haven't been to a game since Barnet away JPT Semi-Final last year and I'm getting the nerves/excitment for this now, even though I'm not going to either leg. Come on town, don't fuck this one up, it's a big ask, but don't fuck it up.

I am 100% confident that we won't get to Wembley.

I was 16 at that game. I didn't have any energy left after celebrating those two goals. THE best start ever! Same again please....

So you've bet the value of your house at the bookies?

This.

And it's not just saying to to soften the blow if we loose, I genuinley can't see us getting past Brentford.

He lives in a cardboard box

As long as we're still in it going into the second leg I think Brentford will feel the pressure.  My feeling is that we'll go out with a whimper 0-2 at home and 1-0 away.

Lose 0-1 at home, win 2-1 away and then beat Yeovil at Wemberly

That would make it 2-2

Away goals?

Don't think they count

We'll go and beat Brentford and lose to Sheffield United in the final. Much like 2009 with Millwall (beaten finalists the year before).

I'm incredibly relaxed about the whole thing.

5-0 win tomorrow, Ward with all 5.

lose 5-1 at their place. Ward to score a 96th minute goal with his beard.

genuine soapy tit wank at that, well done :)

Nope. After 180 minutes if it's still all square, it's extra time & then Pens  :sherlock:

2.4 In the Semi-Finals, the first leg shall be of 90 (ninety) minutes duration. If the aggregate scores are level at the end of 90 (ninety) minutes in the second leg, extra time will be played. If the scores remain level at the end of extra time the tie will be determined by the taking of kicks from the penalty mark, in accordance with the Laws of Association Football.

http://www.football-league.co.uk/regulations/20110629/npower-football-league-play-off-rules_2293633_2358924[/i]

Oddschecker odds to win the playoffs. Even the bookies don't think there's much in it!!  :pint:

To Win The Playoffs
Brentford           3.5
Sheffield Utd      3.75
Swindon            3.75
Yeovil                5

I'm at work now (Work in Stan James) and our in shop odds are as follows..

Sheffield United - 3.25
Brentford - 3.5
Swindon - 3.6
Yeovil - 4.5

Not that bad considering they're inshop prices and not online.

To Qualify for the final we've got..

Sheffield United - 8/13
Yeovil - 5/4

Swindon - 1/1
Brentford - 4/5

Are you basing this squarely on the law of averages? That eventually, if they play in them every fucking year, they have to get promoted. Because there's NO enthusiasm or optimism up here at all. Six times in the play-offs. Never won. Lot of talk that Wilson walked because he couldn't stand the thought of failing in them again.

Brentford are much the same. Six times in play-offs, never been successful.

Make that 7

Losing finalists?

Gas cunt Twentyman has written us off as he reckons Yeovil and Cheltenham will make it to Wembley and we will struggle.

Cheltnumb will go up as they are the best team in the league.....Yates just said.

Does anyone rate us? Even our fans have written us off  :rain: