Promotion watch (now with Poll)

He’s just not up to that task, annoyingly, as Smallwood been a big player for us and Khela is still very raw.

Today was a huge hammer blow. Not looking to Thursday at all :-(

 

Recent form has been shite. We are at the tail end and 7 points from 21 points is not good enough no matter what spin you put on it.

 

The away form all season is abominable.

we rank top at home - by some distance. 51 pts. AFC Wimbledon second best on 43 pts.

yet away we are 14th. Even shitty Carlisle have won as many away games as us (five).

smallwood’s moment of madness undeniably cost us today, but if we miss out on promotion this year I think the end of season post mortem needs to get to the bottom of why we have been so hideous away from home.

why are we incapable of picking a set up that works?

 

If the one's that come up and go down stay as it looks , league 2 will be like NL+ next season with about half of it and maybe more made up of traditional non-league clubs . Those games a league up are extremely tasty aren't they loads of localish one's I would be excited to look at the fixture list for the first time in about 20 years - hopefully you make it and maybe we do .

 

Good shout.
I said our game was nuts yesterday , several times. Those games are rare but do happen. Even sillier , the entire Divisional top half is and has been completely nuts too, especially since mid January . The consistency is the total inconsistency of performances and results . One minute clubs are garbage, PV versus Barrow springs to mind and next minute can beat anyone ( us! )

 

Salford vs Donny on Tuesday.

Salford need a win, are on decent form, and beat Notts County comfortably. Should have beaten Gillo at least per rhe stats, but only drew.

Game has huge implications for us.

 

Good news we're going up!!

https://www.nottinghamworld.com/sport/football/supercomputer-predicts-league-twos-top-three-as-port-vale-bradford-city-walsall-doncaster-rovers-afc-wimbledon-and-notts-county-battle-for-automatic-promotion-5080859?r=112

I wouldn't get too excited. A 'supercomputer' at the start of the season had Tranmere winning the league. Carlisle promoted and Walsall struggling to survive relegation

 

The only good news if you read the comments of Walsall, Wimbledon, Notts County and even Donny fans - you'd think they had the worst teams ever.

Seriously. Some of their comments, make the most silly comments about GA during the last 24hrs look the height of considered opinion.

Still in our hands. Fascinated, how we're going to cope without a captain when we've rarely done well without him (Salford away - back in Autumn 2022 is the only one I can remember) but with the players we have we should be able manage.

Over to you Graham.

 

Opta stats has us going up with 79 points as well.

 

Looking for positives for us on a disappointing weekend Billy Sharp suspended and won’t be available for three games including against us. And Jake Reeves who does a good job for Wimbledon also suspended for their games. Of course we have to find someone who can do the job of Smallwood for the next three games

 

Doncaster have 5 games left not 4 so can play against city.

 

79 points could do it - particularly if we take points off Donny.

Despite their relatively easy games - I have less confidence that Walsall will get to that number than us.

Yesterday was terrible, but you can't fault the effort and I see them taking that, using it and continuing to protect our record of not having lost twice on the trot and bouncing back with a win.

 

Yesterday was terrible, but we still performed beyond Walsall.

A limp 2-0 defeat to Barrow. 0 shots on target.

I'm honestly not sure they'll win another game. 1 maximum the way they're playing.

 

Looking at the Opta stats, Khela could do the Smallwood role - but it's arguable that Baldwin could do it better.

Mind you, Sarcevic's 'possession won' stats are very impressive - amazing what an all round midfielder he is. But no-one is anywhere near to Smallwood.

However, we are better equipped to cope without the skipper than in his previous absences, but whether it's still adequate cover is another question.

https://theanalyst.com/football/player/sc-538637/brandon-khela/stats

 

Why do swindon always rob us?

did it with Eoin Doyle

did it with Jake Young

did it yesterday.

 

Love your optimism Park.

can you send some my way. Im still floored by those two late goals yesterday!

 

It's more worrying that Opta and the Super Computer have Walsall going up automatically!

Are these systems even paying attention?

They've got "easy games", yet didn't beat any of Barrow, Carlisle or Bromley recently, the sort of teams I suppose you'd want to be playing.

I can see them getting a couple of draws and a couple of defeats.

Could be wrong, of course, they could turn it round - I'm just not sure how that's tracking with what we're seeing right now.

 

Yesterday left me despairing to be honest

 

I think they'll get at least 4 points from their next 2 games. They're definitely still in the race for a top 3 spot imo.

 

Beat Harrogate, draw at Newport?

Doesn't seem that big of an ask, it's literally all about Walsall's form!

Let's see what happens. It's bad news for us if it's down to us, them and Donny.