Ideal Playoff Route?

m1 a406

 

Badumtish!

Get your coat, your taxi is on its way!

 

Huddersfield or Bolton, don't care which way round. 2 legs will be fantastic against either and the final would be superb either way too.

We got to L1 for games like the above, not games against shite like Stevenage or little Stockport. Bring it on.

 

Opta says we were 97.1% likely to finish between 3rd and 6th, it's giving us a 0.58% chance of 2nd place. It's pretty much nailed on, maybe just a few points will seal it.

I don't really care who we get to be honest? We've not lost to anyone in the play offs this season and even the teams on the outskirts who have beaten us, we've also bested them this season. Fear nobody and see how we role. I've got us vs Stockport and Bolton vs Luton.



I think Bolton do it regardless of who gets in the final. They had what looked a bit of a rough run on paper and so far they beat Wycombe, drew with Stockport, won away at Plymouth. Then they have Cardiff (A), Stevenage (H), Huddersfield (H), us (A) followed by Luton (H). They have so far started the hardest run of fixtures the league will see this season on a really good footing, if they can get through it unbeaten of maybe one loss and a few wins rather than draws, they will be the confident side who know they've recently performed against the rest and win the play offs in my view. Their defence is their only worry, just 1 clean sheet since the end of Jan.

 

As long as we finish 3rd or 4th to get a home 2nd leg I'm not bothered who we get as they are all teams that have got their strengths which will cause us problems but at home I'd back us to beat any of them.

• Bolton: we were outplayed in the first half but much better in the 2nd half. It will be interesting to see how both sides approach the game at the end of month as neither will want to reveal too much. Bolton will be going into it with a lot of experience playing top sides with their last fixtures so that will either give them hope or make them fear top sides.
• Stockport: 2 close games which could have gone either way. They're a very up and down side so you never quite know what you are getting from them. The one thing about them is Challinor has taken them into 2 play offs and failed to get them up on either occasion, they have failed to go up in 4 play offs in the last 8 seasons.
• Stevenage: A very awkward side who know how to keep a clean sheet, they could easily do what Wimbledon did last year and go up with 3 1-0s. The positive is that they are not very good away from home which should help put pressure on them in the home leg.
• Plymouth: One of the form sides in the league, could be a good opportunity to really hurt their play off chances when we play them
• Luton: similar to Plymouth that they are one of the form sides at the moment. On another day we get something from the away game against them so should give us confidence of having a good chance.

 

How many do we take to Wembley? I remember a decade ago we only sold around 24k out of 38k vs Millwall, they outsold us comfortably with nearly 30k there.

 

Only 2 teams in the last 20 years have won the L1 playoffs from 6th place.

 

I think the Millwall factor had a lot to do with that, coupled with the fact that it wasn't that long after the 2 visits in a season under Parky. I'd hope we would take a bigger following if we get there this year.

 

Also price of tickets. Think they were £50 ish last time we were there for level 1 seats. Closer to £60 now which for a family plus travel is a lot.
I think we’d struggle to take more than 25k

add to this we won’t know if we’re in the final until maybe 14th May leaving just 10 days to organise tickets and travel. It’s a tall order to sell many more than we did last time.

 

I've just booked my flights to and from London for the day of the final. Taken a chance but hopefully the Cardiff v Bolton final will be a good watch.

 

Or if not, just pop over to West Ham v Leeds to witness one of them getting relegated.

 

at £85 a pop