Two Q's Clarence : where have you been over the past few weeks? The other one is are 'we good enough to achieve making the play offs'. Don't just say yes merely to support your prediction but an in depth analysis preferably after Saturday's result?
I haven't posted in a while but with no reason in particular Evers, just took a bit of a break.
As to my prediction of the team being good enough for the play-offs, my reasons are much the same as they have been all season.
1. Many on here have said that our squad wasn't good enough as it was the same bunch of players that took us down last season. I didn't and don't agree with this as many of the squad who were here last season didn't have a particularly big part to play in our relegation (Taylor and Buchs were the only players in the squad who started over 20 - I think - matches last season.)
2. Under Austin I believed we were massively under-achieving and were in a false position, and that this was largely due to Austin's mismanagement. Turnbull hardly featured under Austin and Pierre also found himself left out at times when he should have been first name on the team sheet. Austin intimated in interviews that players who weren't being picked 'hadn't done enough in training' to warrant a place in the team, even though the team were playing poorly. I always felt this was madness and frankly, incompetence. This has cost us dearly this season.
3. I've always believed at the start of the season we had a good number of players who are capable off playing at a higher level: Turnbull, Pierre, Foley, O'Toole, Morias, Williams, Crooks and KVV. If Curle had been in charge with these players from the start of the season I have maintained since he was appointed we would have been sitting comfortably in the play-off positions several months ago.
4. Since then we have lost Crooks and VV, but have bought in Goode and Sordell who I also feel are good enough to play at a higher level. The other loan signings (particularly Powell) look good and have improved us. Factor in the emergence of Bridge and improvement in form of a few players (Powell, Buchs and Taylor) and overall I think we are stronger now than we were at the start of the season.
5. This division lacks quality. Bar 2-3 teams I have seen nothing to make me think anybody else is better than us. I predicted when KC took over we wouldn't lose many more games this season if for nothing else that we would be difficult to beat. This has proved correct as we have only lost 5 league matches in 28 since he arrived. Only the top 3 have lost less games than us this season and it wouldn't surprise me if we lost no more than 1 other game in the remaining matches.
6. Our run-in looks decent, we really have nothing to fear. Many of the teams above us have to play each other so they will drop points.
7. With 8 games unbeaten we are building momentum at just the right time. I actually think we will get stronger as the season draws to a close, as the team will continue to grow in confidence and we are still to get Morias back into the squad. I also fancy Sordell to make a bigger impact than he has so far.
All things considered I think we have a great chance of nicking one of the last two spots. I expect it to go down to the last couple of matches whatever happens.