The Hotel End

Are we terrible? Yes.

Are there four teams in League One worse than us? Possibly.


I think we're better than Wigan. We've also deservedly beaten Swindon and Shrewsbury this season, both are at a similar level to us in my opinion.

Swindon were hammered 0-3 at home to Accrington tonight whilst fellow relegation candidates Oxford also lost at home. Both good results from our perspective and the table now looks slightly better for us with teams below having fewer games in hand.

Bristol Rovers have also already sacked their manager this season and could be in for a tough campaign - shame we lost to them!

Saturday's game against Burton is HUGE. I'd argue it's a six pointer even at this early stage in the season.

Are there four teams in a worse financial state than us? That may prove to be the most important question.

The Oxford United forum mirrors comments on here to a tee...just the names have been changed to protect the innocent!

KR too stubborn to change...
Recruitment has been s***e...
Back four are absolute " "...
Are there four teams worse than us?
KR needs to go...(polite sample!)

December 15th will be an interesting evening!  ;)

Looks like Shoemaker posts on there as well, are they his second team?? Or his twenty second??

Doomed.

I think we'll finish 2nd bottom.
Its almost pointless coming up to L1.

Just keeping an eye on those around us in the table.....

Shrewsbury use one of their two games in hand on us tomorrow night as they travel to Doncaster. The Shrews have won their last two games under the new management of Steve Cotterill, but Doncaster are quite formidable at home and have won four in a row themselves.

As for Boxing day, Shrewsbury are on the road again, this time to Wigan Athletic. Bottom of the table Burton travel to Lincoln and Swindon travel to Portsmouth so tough fixtures for those two. We are of course scheduled to have a tough game ourselves at Ipswich, this one may fall foul to Covid though. Sunderland have already postponed their games on 22nd and 26th December, and Peterborough lost games on 19th, 26th and 29th for the same reason.
Rochdale face a trip to Blackpool on Boxing Day, whilst 18th plays 17th when Bristol Rovers host MK Dons, and 16th play 15th as Oxford entertain AFC Wimbledon. Plymouth (14th on 22 points) having arrested a run of 6 straight defeats travel to Charlton.
Gillingham in 13th are on 26 points, 8 ahead of us.

 :-\

Another win for Cotterill against good opponents, change of manager has seen them shoot up the table.

What he said.

Shame we can’t afford to do the same.

We won't get out of the bottom 4 again this season...

Anyone who has had the misfortune to see us play this season can surely see that...

Unfortunately, looks like KT will be sticking with KC no matter what...with the hope he gets us back up again next season...he won't!

Two year contract ffs!

Shrewsbury were never too far away from results anyway and were in a bit of a false position having only lost 6 games, the same as Hull who are third. Now they are turning those draws into wins.....

I doubt that Cotterill would have turned our fortunes round as he has at Shrewsbury. He has taken over a club that has been established in division 1 for a few seasons with division 1 players. I think our squad of 18 for the Lincoln game had 7 players who who have played at this level before. Besides if we had appointed him posters on here would be questioning why because he had previously been sacked at clubs x,y and z.

God your a negative fuuucker 😂

Burton already 2 down at Lincoln.

Oxford and Plymouth winning and I can see both climbing the table.

You can now add Mk to that too

But you could say Bristol Rovers are in trouble.

A Will Keane penalty puts Wigan ahead at home to the Shrews...we drop down to 22nd.

Lincoln 3 Burton 0

Wigan 1 Shrewsbury 0

Really can’t us finishing anywhere else but bottom.

I think we will finish fifth bottom above the clubs that go bust  ::) ::)
E I E I E I O
Straight back to league two we go (in a ground exactly the same as the last time we played in that division)

Exciting times

Cheer up! Only 27 games to go.

Lincoln now hit 4 for the second week running.

Shrewsbury now 1-1 against Wigan.

Charlton 2-2 with Plymouth.

A couple of better score lines for us.

That's the spirit Winslow.

Pretty much as we were then after todays results....we stay in 21st and are a point behind two teams above, Rochdale (2 games in hand) and Bristol Rovers (1 game in hand)

Coming up on Tuesday night (COVID permitting), the bottom two face off at the Pirelli as Burton host Wigan. Rochdale are at home to Crewe, Swindon and MK Dons meet at the County Ground, we host Gillingham, Oxford travel to Plymouth and Shrewsbury entertain Blackpool.

The games involving Bristol Rovers and AFC Wimbledon are already off.

Rochdale v Crewe has gone too now, six of the 12 games in League 1 tomorrow are off. Rochdales home game with MK on 2nd January has been called off too.

The fixture list was manic before, another 2 or 3 weeks of this and I reckon that will probably be about that?

Everton v Man City off tonight as well!!

Why is there such a problem in league one? All the other leagues seem to be managing okay with the odd exception.

Doncaster Rovers are the latest side to feel the effects of Covid, their next three fixtures are all postponed including the game at Fleetwood tomorrow.

Premier League: Manchester City. (Arsenal have just had a positive case too)
Championship: Millwall
League 1: Sunderland, Doncaster, Rochdale, Hull City, Portsmouth, Ipswich Town, Peterborough
League 2: Morecambe

My point exactly.

It is due to the observance of severity.

After tonight's games we move out of the bottom 4......

Burton adrift on 13 points from 21 games, Swindon on a bad run with 17 points from 20, then Wigan after their win tonight 19 from 20, Bristol Rovers drop into the bottom 4 on 19 points from just 17 games. Rochdale stay outside the bottom 4 on goal difference with 19 from 18, then us with 21 from 20 alongside Wimbledon with 21 from 19. Plymouth have 23 and Shrewsbury 24 from 20, both suffered defeat tonight, then Oxford and MK who were both winners on 25 points each.

Coming up on Saturday 2nd January 2021, Covid permitting.....

AFC Wimbledon v Lincoln City
Bristol Rovers v Blackpool
Burton Albion v Oxford
Northampton v Sunderland
Plymouth v Gillingham
Shrewsbury v Crewe
Swindon v Wigan

Rochdale v MK Dons is already off, as is Oxford v Doncaster on 5th January.

Nice work once again GPC, just waiting for Bungles post match analysis?

Shrewsbury v Crewe is now off, Covid in the Shrews camp.

Are they now doing regular tests in our league?

At £5k a throw, no...

Defeats for Burton and Wimbledon, a draw for us, and victories for Oxford and Bristol Rovers......

We are three points outside the drop zone but have played more games than everyone other than Burton.

We now don't play in the league again until 16th January....these games affecting the bottom markers will take place before then.....

Wednesday 6th January:  AFC Wimbledon v Wigan Athletic

Saturday 9th January: Gillingham v Burton, Ipswich v Swindon and Wigan v Hull

Tuesday 12th January: Charlton v Rochdale.

It’s getting silly now, Burton have played 22 game’s whereas Accrington have played just 16!

The congestion in the fixture list is going to have more and more of an impact on teams playing catch up? It’s a bit of a cliche but I’d take points on the board any old day of the week at the moment? If they swap some of the fixtures around (no point in 2 teams sitting idle in the current climate) it can only really work in our favour, so fingers crossed? That being said my money is still on the season not finishing at all?

We will be down to 20th after the AFC Wimbledon v Wigan game on Wednesday unless it is called off.

Let’s face it we are in reality 21st, Rochdale are 3points behind us with 3 games in hand add to that their far superior goal difference they only need 1 win, as you say one of Wigan or AFC Wimbledon will also go above us if the game goes ahead on Wednesday.

Wigan's game at AFC Wimbledon called off as is their next game against Hull due to covid.

Just saw it, one of three games off this week!

I am starting to worry that we need to be out of the relegation zone in the PPG table also.

Apparently Portsmouth fans had been accusing Accrington of calling the game off hoping they can avoid harder games and maintain the PPG average. I doubt thats true but it shows other clubs are starting to worry about the season eventually being stopped.

They are not testing regularly in the EFL and so i am not sure how it was ever allowed to continue .
Localised football at amateur level should also have been stopped in November.
it is completely ridiculous why football is treated differently to everything else .

They must have heard you.....
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12175588/coronavirus-all-72-efl-clubs-to-undergo-mandatory-testing-next-week

Burton wining.

Rochdale losing, good for us

In JFH's first game in charge.......(he watched the Oxford game from the stands)

Fair play to him, this was his pre-match statement..... https://www.burtonalbionfc.co.uk/news/2021/january/0801-jfh/

Rochdale level 3-3 against Crewe after being 3-0 down, disappointing for us

Back to being relegated on PPG.  :P

What's the fascination with PPG? The season will be finished by hook or by crook.

I really hope your right mate but I’ve got a bad feeling as the Doc would say.
What worries me is the fact that the efl have now mandated twice weekly testing of players!

I would say that's a good thing but I don't know why  ;D

Swindon winning at Ipswich, that would be a very bad result for us.

Ipswich are fvcking atrocious...shame our game against them got postponed...

Ipswich Swindon now level, could do with an Ipswich winner.

Swindon ahead again.......

3-1 Swindon, a sh1t weekend for us

                      P         Pts     GD
14 Gillingham  21       26      -4
15 Plymouth    21       26      -9
16 MK Dons     21       25     +1
17 Shrewsbury 20       24     -4
18 Bristol R     18        22     -7
19 Cobblers    21        22     -17
20 Wimbledon 20        21     -8
21 Rochdale   19         20     -7
22 Swindon   21          20     -15
23 Wigan      20          19     -14
24 Burton      23         16      -21


Coming up this week.......scheduled at least....

Tuesday           Charlton v ROCHDALE
Saturday          WIMBLEDON v Sunderland
Saturday          Accrington v GILLINGHAM
Saturday          BRISTOL R v Charlton
Saturday          BURTON A v Ipswich
Saturday          COBBLERS v Oxford
Saturday          Peterborough v MK DONS
Saturday          PLYMOUTH v Crewe
Saturday          ROCHDALE v WIGAN
Saturday          SHREWSBURY v Lincoln
Saturday          SWINDON v Doncaster

Cornell comes back to bite us, beaten from a cross and yet again a 35 yard shot.

Nobody blaming Cornell for Twine's 35 yarder. As the commentator said he was absolutely blameless, the height the ball went over him and then dipped into the net he would only have a chance of saving it if he was rooted to his line and most keepers would have been off their line as Swindon's attack was developing. Interestingly looking at the Ipswich forum nobody faults him for the goal with one poster saying "the jolly green giant would not have stopped it".
Swindon's third goal is debatable, it was a bit like Sheehan's free kick against Gillingham which everbody missed and it sailed into the net.

It’s never Cornell’s fault  ;D he just seems to make a habit of conceding from 30 yards + terrible keeper it’s no coincidence Ipswich are floundering mid table with him in goal!

They are 8th, I wish we were floundering around there.

Rochdale winning at Charlton, not good

Rochdale, 3 shots, 3 on target, 3 goals! Only half an hour gone...... really going for it considering they came back from 3-0 down at half time against Crewe in their last game...

now 2-3...... and Trevor Kettle is the ref.....anything could happen!!  ;D

4-2 Rochdale!

That’s 7 goals for them in their last 90 mins of football.

we've scored 7 in the last 8 games.....  ;)

4-4 now!!!

Wow, come on charlton

Charlton down to 10 men as "Whistling" Kettle sends Pearce off...... only 2 minutes plus stoppage time to go.

4-4 FT

I was going to put that game down as both teams to score. I didn't though. Loser!

                      P         Pts     GD      PPG
14 Gillingham  21       26      -4       1.24
15 Plymouth    21       26      -9       1.24
16 MK Dons     21       25     +1       1.19
17 Shrewsbury 20       24     -4        1.20
18 Bristol R     18        22     -7        1.22
19 Cobblers    21        22     -17      1.048
20 Rochdale    20        21     -7        1.05  
21.Wimbledon 20        21     -8        1.05
22 Swindon   21          20     -15      0.952
23 Wigan      20          19     -14      0.95
24 Burton      23         16      -21      0.70

We're down lets face it.
Not even Baldy's bourbon can save us now.

Given we are 3 wins and 2 draws off a play off place does anyone think promotion is still possible?

They say that anything is possible........

:P

Let's go gung ho Ricky style and play for 4 straight wins. Take the brakes off with Holmes and Sheehan, Rose and Marshall, Adams and Watson, Mills and Chuks.
Taking the brakes off with Ricky...
Taking the brakes off with Ricky...
Taking the brakes off with Ricky...

Erm, nope.

If results go against us today we could be down to 22nd at 5pm.
As Rochdale play Wigan one those will go above us whatever the result.
AFC Wimbledon will go above us if they get a point at home to Sunderland.
Swindon can also go above us if they win at home to Doncaster.

FINALLY training at Moulton on Monday?.........hooray!!!

Grim times............ :-\

Wombles 1-0 down at home to the Mackems.....

Also, only one game in our division off today due to Covid....it was six a couple of weeks ago.

Who said that?

He/she did  :P

Mixed bag so far...

AFC lost 0-3 at home to Sunderland
Swindon trail 0-2 to Doncaster
MK losing to the Pish 0-2

Bristol Rovers and Burton drawing their games

Wigan lead 2-1 at Rochdale
Plymouth lead Crewe and Gillingham are winning at Accrington

Down to 20th in the "live" table

Good results for us today with Rochdale v Wigan ending in a draw, loses for Burton, Swindon, Bristol Rovers and Wimbledon

We fall a place, as we were always going to do.....Rochdale grabbed a last minute equaliser to draw 3-3 with Wigan, so its the Dale who go above us and not the Latics.
Rochdales last 6 league games have seen an incredible 35 goals....they've scored 16.

Burton four points adrift, then the next six clubs separated by just two points.

Bring on the PPG!!!  ;D

Correct Winslow. Quite few on here where adamant we'd be in the bottom 4 tonight.  :)

CANCEL THE SEASON NOW....... it would be worth it just for the reaction of yellow forum.. ;D

A great quote from Swindon manager John Sheridan today in his post match interview after losing 1-2 at home to Doncaster, "it was a very even game until they scored". So it may have been but Doncaster took the lead in the 5th minute. KC will have a job to beat that quote.

Having listened to Keith I think he’s got it in him though.

This weeks fixtures involving the bottom dwellers.....

Tough on Tuesday, most are away from home so any points gained by anyone will be good going....

Tuesday
Blackpool  v  NORTHAMPTON
Crewe v BRISTOL ROVERS
Doncaster v ROCHDALE
Lincoln v GILLINGHAM
MK DONS v Fleetwood
Portsmouth v AFC WIMBLEDON
Sunderland v PLYMOUTH ARGYLE  (Nice game for a Tuesday night, 800 mile round trip!!)

Saturday
Charlton  v  SWINDON
Crewe  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
GILLINGHAM  v  ROCHDALE
Lincoln  v  NORTHAMPTON
Oxford v BRISTOL ROVERS
Sunderland  v  SHREWSBURY
WIGAN  v  Fleetwood

Doomed.

So far tonight....

MK are 3-0 up on Fleetwood
Bristol Rovers are 0-2 down at Crewe
Plymouth lead 1-0 at Sunderland
Rochdale holding Doncaster 0-0
Wimbledon trailing Pompey 0-1

The Gills game at Lincoln went the same way as ours......

Even before tonight I wasn’t convinced MK or Plymouth would end up in the relegation fight, so very happy with tonight’s scores with Bristol Rovers, Rochdale and Wimbledon all currently losing.

Crewe throw away a 2 goal lead against Bristol Rovers

FT across League One today.. Bristol Rovers, Wimbledon and Rochdale all losing.
We're saved!

But score a third and hold on to the 3-2 win....now 7th in the league under David Artell.

As for the rest of the games, not a bad evening for us.

Wimbledon lose 0-4 and their goal difference drops to -15. Rochdale fail to score, Bristol Rovers lose too, the only winners really were MK Dons.

What tonights games have done is open a 4 point gap between 16th and 17th, so if you discount Burton who are bottom having played more games than anyone else in the league already, it looks like three from 7 for the remaining relegation spots.

Long way to go yet though......

GPC we will not tell Jimmy that you have already have Burton nailed on for relegation, is it anything to do with the manager?.

Bristol Rovers definitely need a proven goal scorer...Hurry up Harry, C'mon! We're all going down the Gas!

Not a bad set of results really - if the 20/21 season is cancelled before Saturday afternoon we stay up!

These last two match days have been very good for us overall. Still outside of the bottom four, most teams now played the same or more than us, and PPG enough to keep us up should it all cave in. And 3 shiny new players bedding in in training, plus more recovery time for Sheehan and Jones.

looking at the results last night .... and then skipping down the leagues - what on earth happened at Kettering !!
Entertainment at last !!

https://twitter.com/refsupportuk/status/1351656138501206023?s=24
Kettering v Leamington at Leamington. Put his hands on the Official for a caution, then carried on 'talking' for the second one...  ::)
'Apparently' he also beat up the dressing room afterwards ..

I know the feeling, I got sent off twice in a game , if that’s possible, £50 fine 4 match ban 😂for refusing to leave the stadium, I was sitting in the stand if you could call it a stand after being sent off, ref came over again and said I had to go away from a direct view of the playing surface, I refused and he showed me a second red.

Always thought that you were a troublemaker  ;D ;D

  ;D Our manger didn’t see the funny side of it and put me in the stiffs for a few games  :P

To learn the Laws?   8)

We slip into the bottom four after defeat today.....Bristol Rovers lost but all around us who played picked up at least a point. Us swapping places with AFC was the only positional change in the bottom ten.

Coming up this week.....games involving the bottom 10

TUESDAY

BURTON ALBION  v  SHREWSBURY TOWN
Doncaster Rovers  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
Fleetwood Town  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
MK DONS  v  Charlton Athletic
Peterborough  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
ROCHDALE  v  Oxford United
SWINDON TOWN  v  Plymouth Argyle
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  BLACKPOOL

Still outside the bottom 4 on PPG. Stop the season NOW!!

Burton v Shrewsbury postponed because of COVID

I think Burton are done.
I also fancy 1 or 2 more teams slipping down the table like Fleetwood and Shrewsbury.

Not according to JFH, he said they will be OK on the TV today  ::)

i bet he's cursing himself now...I mean, taking on the Burton job a couple of weeks before the Chelsea job became available...... ;D

Burton are on lock down due to covid and are due to be tested again on wednesday to see if their game against Blackpool can go ahead on saturday. Jimmy is complaining that if the go ahead is given his players will be risking injury due to the short preperation time.
Blackpool who we play next tuesday also have covid and injury problems and are likely to be without several players.

We climb back out of the bottom four thanks to the point tonight, and now the teams below have all played the same number or more games than us.

14. Fleetwood   P 24   Pts 31  GD +7
15. Blackpool    P 22   Pts 31  GD +2
16. MK Dons     P 24   Pts 28  GD -1
17. Shrewsbury P 21   Pts 24  GD -5
18. Rochdale     P 24   Pts 23  GD -9
19. Bristol R      P 22   Pts 23  GD -11
20. COBBLERS   P 23   Pts 23  GD -18
------------------------------------------
21. Wombles     P 24    Pts 22  GD -17
22. Swindon      P 24    Pts 21  GD -18
23. Wigan         P 23    Pts 21  GD -19
24. Burton        P 24    Pts 16  GD -22

Coming up this weekend (Covid permitting).... four "six pointers"....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  MK DONS
BLACKPOOL  v  BURTON
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  ROCHDALE
Hull City  v  SWINDON TOWN
NORTHAMPTON  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
Oxford United  v  FLEETWOOD
SHREWSBURY  v  Peterborough

Out of the bottom 4 after tonight on 23 points, the same as Bristol Rovers and Rochdale and 1 point less than Shrewsbury in 17th. However, the really big positive is bar Bristol and Shrewsbury are the only teams from 17th down who have now played less games than us. Wigan have played the same and the rest have played more, so a bit of a turn around on that score?

Our next eight games are very important, six of them are against teams in that frame above. Take a few points off them and things will look a lot more healthy.

Suppose though you could probably say that for most teams, Wigans next three games for example are against us, Swindon and AFC Wimbledon.

20 goals in 23 league games. We're the lowest scoring side in our division. That needs to improve or we'll slip into the bottom four sooner or later.

Edmondson does not seem to offer any more than Smith. Let's hope he has more that he hasnt yet shown us.

He can run mate, that’s a massive upgrade and he seems to have a hard working attitude.
Smith will spend the season on the bench.

We have 10 forwards in the first team squad according to the website. I reckon they're in danger of getting done by the trade description act

All of the teams below us now have similar goal differences to ourselves.

As expected, Blackpool v Burton has gone for a Burton due to a Covid outbreak affecting the Brewers.

That's a pity as it gives Blackpool a full week to prepare for our visit on tuesday.

If the weather forecast is half correct then so will we.

So today hoping for wins for Hull & MK and a Bristol Rovers/Rochdale draw

I never want MK Fakes to win anything ever!

So you would rather we went down than MK beat one of our rivals and we stay up? Personally don’t really care about any other team and would rather any result that is best for us.

Odd day today ...
Nothing to watch on iFollow and cheering for Pish and Dongs to score / win.
Funny old world eh?

No goals in the Dons derby, a goal apiece in the Rovers v Rochdale game, Shrews drawing, Swindon and Fleetwood both behind.

At least nobody is picking up 3 points as it stands, however we are back in the bottom four if things stay the same.

Quickfire double for the Plastic Dons at Plough Lane, Shrewsbury beating Boro too, Rochdale now winning at Rovers....we are out of the bottom 4 again!

Gaps opening up in the table now, we remain in 20th place but are eight points off 16th place MK Dons and 11 shy of Plymouth who are 13th.
Games in hand have a part to play too of course.

Good win for MK today, pushed Wimbledon deeper into the mire, Rochdale grabbed a rare away win which did Bristol Rovers no favours. The Shrews picked up a useful win over Posh.

Tuesday night should see....

SWINDON TOWN v WIGAN ATHLETIC
Accrington Stanley v BRISTOL ROVERS
BLACKPOOL  v  NORTHAMPTON
SHREWSBURY TOWN  v  Crewe Alexandra

Academic now but we are not going to get relegated based on the result of the Mongs vs the real Dons with half the season to play.

KC really needs to manage Sheehan faultlessly from now until end of season. He only needs him to put his boots on when we are playing anyone in the bottom 8. For the rest of the time make him stay at home with his feet up!

Think Sheehan might be the weak link; has he ever played two successive games?

Get the impression that by the way we somehow avoid falling into the back 4 today the gods maybe with us.

It's not just yesterday's results either. It's staggering really that we're still outside the bottom four when you consider we've only taken 5 points from our last six league games and have played far fewer games recently than our rivals. The next few weeks is a great chance put a run of results together and put a bit of distance between us and the relegation zone.

If Fleetwood continue with their current bad form they will soon be in a relegation fight despite already having 31 points. In their last 11 games they have 5 points and only scored 4 goals.

During an idle moment I trawled through past seasons and ignoring last season, as it was not completed, the average number of points required from the previous 7 seasons to ensure staying out of the bottom for is 49.43 points. From the season finishing in 2013 the points required were 49, 48, 51, 47, 50, 51, 50. In the 2012 season a points tally as low as 44 would have ensured survival.
So if we are aiming for 50 points we need another 27 points from the second half of the season which is 1 more win, 1 more draw and 2 less defeats than the first season so far. Given that we have strengthened the squad this ought to be possible but we will need to vastly improve our home record as we still have 5 of the top 7 to play away.

Will be surprised if the 4 relegated don’t come from the current bottom 7

Sheehan the weak link!! Strange comment. He's not been here that long and has improved our defence considerably. Perhaps McWilliams is also a weak link as he has also been unfortunate enough to get injured. I know that Sheehan played consecutive games against Gillingham and Sunderland for starters. I think some of the weaker links have been those who have played quite regularly and gone off to pastures new.

I cannot match your ability to miss the point.

Not so sure about Sheehan being the weak link...
He's your guy!
Hasn't done anything for us since the playoff finals...and not a lot prior to that!

Weak link in as 'only available every few games' - not sure how long KC (or the team) can live with that kind of availability?

i would not call Sheehan a weak link but he is at our club and not playing any higher because of his injury record .
He is essential to us , no doubt .
However , so too was Macca last season and he was released for the same reasons .
There is inconsistency in decision making and with such small squads you can’t carry too many permanently injured players

When you have limited funds I guess beggars can’t be choosers, never mind we’ve still got the likes of BAS to keep us amused!

Mr Superior strikes again! And the point is exactly? I assume it is that he will only be available every few games as that is what you said. This is based on such a long period of time Sheehan has been with us. On this basis there are several other weak links. Playing 1/3 of a game and then being out for weeks/months, for example. 

Swindon the big winners tonight as they won their crunch game against Wigan and move out of the bottom four...dumping us in there as a result.

15. Fleetwood      P 25    Pts 31   +6
16. MK Dons        P 25    Pts 30   +1
17. Shrewsbury    P 23    Pts 27   -4
18. Rochdale        P 25    Pts 26   -8
19. Swindon         P 26    Pts 24   -18
20. Bristol Rvrs     P 25    Pts 23   -17
-------------------------------------------
21. COBBLERS     P 24    Pts 23    -20
22. Wimbledon     P 25    Pts 22    -19
23. Wigan Ath.     P 24    Pts 21    -20
24. Burton Albion P 26    Pts 16    -23

Scheduled games this Saturday....

Accrington Stanley  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
BURTON ALBION  v  Hull City
FLEETWOOD TOWN  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
MK DONS  v  Sunderland
ROCHDALE  v  Charlton Athletic
SWINDON TOWN  v  SHREWSBURY TOWN
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  AFC WIMBLEDON

* Spot on - had he played tonight arguably we might have prevented the first goal.

Looking at the Table above it appears to me all is not lost even after tonight's debacle - what do you think GPC? 

I can’t see us getting anything at Accy and AFC play Wigan so it’s down at least another place in the table.

With 22 games to go all is certainly not lost! As pointed out the upcoming games against Wigan and Burton bring an opportunity to get 6 points on the board which if achieved will make our position look a lot healthier. The flipside to that is that 0 points will mean we are right in the mire.

A lot of twists and turns to go yet......as someone once said!

Swindon are reported as being "on the brink" in terms of finances. Weren't certain posters holding them up as an example of what we should have been doing in the transfer market during preseason....?

Don't know which posters you are thinking of. What I do know, is that Swindon's financial situation has been pretty much common knowledge for some time now...as has that John Sheridan is one of the worst managers on the EFL circuit!

Even if Swindon do go pop, still need another 3 teams to be shi##er than we are...

Burton , Wigan  and AFC ;D - are you serious  8)

If the Cowley brothers take over AFC then they won't be below us for long...would love them here!

I would not want the Cowley brothers here as I dislike managers who are complaining to the 4th official for the whole match. Joey Barton is bad enough in this respect but with the Cowleys you have 2 of them going at it.
They did alright at Lincoln but failed at Huddersfield.

Wins for Wimbledon, Plymouth, Shrewsbury and Burton (!), defeats for Wigan, Rochdale, Swindon and draws for Bristol Rovers, Fleetwood, MK Dons and us!!

15. Fleetwood      P 26    Pts 32     +6
16. MK Dons        P 26    Pts 32     +1
17. Shrewsbury    P 24    Pts 30     -3
18. Rochdale        P 26    Pts 26     -10
19. Wimbledon     P 26    Pts 25     -18
20. Bristol Rvrs    P 25     Pts 24     -17
--------------------------------------------
21. Swindon        P 27     Pts 24     -19
22. COBBLERS     P 25     Pts 24     -20
23. Wigan Ath     P 25      Pts 21    -21
24. Burton          P 27      Pts 19    -21

Some life in JFH's Brewers yet, three games under Jimmy, two 1-0 wins and a 1-0 defeat. Certainly tightened things up.

This week's fixtures.....
TUESDAY

Blackpool   v  BURTON ALBION
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Oxford United
FLEETWOOD TOWN  v  Doncaster Rovers
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
Portsmouth  v  SWINDON TOWN
ROCHDALE  v  MK DONS
SHREWSBURY TOWN  v  Sunderland

How do you figure that they failed at Huddersfield?

They did alright at Lincoln? They achieved two promotions and reached the FA Cup quarter final whilst still in the non-league! You're having a wind up aren't you?  ;D

Also they steered Huddersfield to safety last year as was their remit, and were only replaced as the chairman wanted to have Corberan for his style of play. Most Hudd fans were happy with them. The Cowleys also did an admirable job with Concord Rangers - they took them from the Essex county leagues (step 9) to the conference south (step 6).

You must be barmy to not think they'd be an improvement on Curle?

I sit near him in the West Stand and he is certainly not barmy!

This feels like a season defining week coming up. Two home games against the only two sides below us in the table. Two wins will make a massive difference, as would two defeats  ???
Just where are the goals going to come from?

Our worst ever full football league seasons for scoring league goals were 2002/03 and 1972/73 when we netted a paltry 40 goals in each season.

We might be at risk of testing this total.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Northampton_Town_F.C._seasons

8)

Weird flex when you were wrong.
We did get a result at Accrington.

Ref. Cowleys: Disregarding how you view their success, or lack of, at their previous clubs My point was that I would not want them here due to their questioning every decision and whinging at the 4th official for the whole game. I was also not considering if they would be an upgrade against our current incumbent.
KC always makes the point that a players character is a major factor when signing new players and I believe character should also be a factor when appointing a new manager. Appleton is disliked on here for the silly comments he made about 5 years ago but if it was a straight choice between him and the Cowleys, Joey Barton or similar I would take Appleton every time.

Don't forget that Curle made similar comments about NTFC 5 years ago as well.

Same end result  8)

Urhhh will be hoping for Oxford and MK wins today

Fcuk MK dongs.

Well...... after tonight's results there's a gap opening up..... seven points between 18th place Rochdale and 17th place Shrewsbury, and they Gillingham and Blackpool have games in hand on those below.

So, it now looks like 4 from 7 to go down.....

15. Blackpool     P 24  Pts 34   +2
16. Gillingham   P 26   Pts 34   -3
17. Shrewsbury  P 25  Pts 33   -2
18. Rochdale      P 27  Pts 26   -13
19. Wimbledon   P 26  Pts 25   -18
20. Bristol Rvrs   P 26  Pts 24   -19
---------------------------------------
21. Wigan Ath     P 26  Pts 24    -20
22. Swindon       P 28   Pts 24   -21
23. COBBLERS    P 26   Pts 24   -21
24. Burton          P 25   Pts 19   -21

Coming up this weekend, weather permitting.... three big six pointers!!

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  ROCHDALE
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  SWINDON TOWN
NORTHAMPTON  v  BURTON ALBION
Oxford United  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC

Despite our dreadful results recently, amazingly we're still within touching distance. Which frustratingly gives me hope, despite the fact that tonight's showing was hopeless. We need to pluck out a winning performance against Burton, it feels like do or die.

You do know Burton just beat Hull at Hull!
We’ve no chance.

But, Burton had no chance of beating Hull  ;)

Normally I’d agree mate but I’ve just watched us play!

What is going to change Sat, it will be hoofball again. Fans stating Sheehan will improve it, he’s not going to score any goals is he?

Sheehan is only going to improve it if he's actually on the pitch. The reality is that we've had it in this league with this manager, he (and most of the players) are just not good enough. Thomas must act without delay.

While I agree that the squad is poor with recruitment woeful this year, we are lucky to some extent that there are 5 other terrible teams too, if we had just drew 0-0 last night it would have taken us out of the relegation places. You get the feeling that unless a few of those teams start picking up results we don’t need to improve that much to have a chance of getting safe, can KC achieve this? I have my doubts.

Coming up this weekend, weather permitting.... three big six pointers!!

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  ROCHDALE   OFF
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  SWINDON TOWN    OFF
NORTHAMPTON  v  BURTON ALBION    ON
Oxford United  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC    OFF...playing Sunday

Burton upwardly mobile, three wins in four and signed some good players in the window, and picked up free agent Danny Rowe yesterday.

Damaging loss today, still as you were position wise at the bottom but now Burton are just two points behind us with a game in hand. A month ago we were nine points ahead of them WITH a game in hand!

Oxford v Wigan was called off today, but will be played tomorrow instead.

Not many games on Tuesday.....
Blackpool  v  ROCHDALE
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Portsmouth
Ipswich Town  v  NORTHAMPTON

Due to Wigans game today being put back to tomorrow, they have now put their Tuesday night game back to Wednesday. They play Hull then with a 5.30pm kickoff.

Upcoming games for the strugglers....

BURTON:               H v Sunderland, A v Charlton, A v Rochdale, H v Bristol Rovers
COBBLERS:           A v Ipswich, A v MK Dons, H v Rochdale, A v Swindon
SWINDON:            H v Crewe, A v Lincoln, H v Northampton, A v Sunderland
WIGAN:                 A v Oxford, H v Hull, H v Lincoln, A v Bristol Rovers, A v Peterborough
BRISTOL ROVERS:  H v Portsmouth, A v Gillingham, H v Wigan, H v Shrewsbury
WIMBLEDON:         A v Peterborough, H v Gillingham, H v Hull, A v Shrewsbury
ROCHDALE:           A v Blackpool, H v Plymouth, A v Cobblers, H v Burton

Fcuk Oxford Utd.

;D

After watching yesterdays game my initial thought was I had just seen 2 of the teams to be relegated as the game and both teams performances were nowhere near good enough for division 1.
We have Sheehan and Miller to come back which gives us a little hope but they are only 2 players and I doubt there is enough quality in the rest of the squad.
Burton have won a few games but they were ineffectual up front and I cannot see them scoring sufficient goals to stay up.
Swindon will probably join us as they appear to be just as bad and they have the disadvantage of having John Sheridan in charge.
At this stage I think AFC Wimbledon and Rochdale will do enough to stay up leaving the final relegation place to Wigan or Bristol Rovers.
I really hope I'm wrong but our I cannot see us turning around our lack of goals. We were suppose to be playing "on the front foot" yesterday and for 20 minutes we looked ok against a poor team but we didn't even force a corner in the whole game.

Agree with a lot of this! Sheehan I get but why is everyone going overboard with Miller based on a 35 minute cameo.....?? He may turn out ok, he may not, but it seems strange we're pinning our hopes on a bloke who we've seen play for just over half an hour!
Burton have at least got a bit of momentum now, but they aren't going to score many...seems like they're not conceding many either though, just one in the last four games. Swindon are in trouble and there's nothing to suggest they wont stat there, as for Bristol Rovers i'll reserve judgment until we know who their new manager is. Rochdale score goals for fun, they've scored more than double the amount we have and that should at least see them keep their heads above the parapet. Wimbledon are also looking for a new boss, so again who they get will be important, like us! Potentially three clubs down there who could see a "new manager bounce", and we're only talking about putting 9-12 points on the board quickly for things to look a whole lot different.

For me as it stands I'd put us, Swindon, Wigan and Wimbledon down there come the end of the season, with Burton to survive along with Dale and Rovers. As a great man once said though, many twists and turns still to come this season!

We haven't come close to replacing Goode, Wharton, Turnbull, McCormack, Morton or Oliver. No surprise where we are in a higher division.

Sheehan is clearly very injury prone.

I see the Oxford v’s Wigan game has been suspended because the Kassam is on fire! and they call us tinpot!!

Coolio will have a field day ;D

Apparently one of the candles in the floodlight fell over!!!!

Wigan winning

Not any more. 1-1

Now 1-1

Beat me to it!

Only just mate  :)

2-1 Oxford.

Wigan have just given Oxford United a very close game...nearly all Wigan Athletic first half!

Cobblers, Swindon Town, Burton Albion down I believe, with possibly Bristol Rovers over Wimbledon joining us.

It is ridiculous that after the week we’ve had, we’re still only in the drop zone on goal diff. and a win on Tuesday could take us up to 18th.

Burton certainly on a role. Shrewsbury* have also done well; these things seem to go in cycles. The rule of average is that these two will have poor runs sooner than later. Rochdale are also very much in the relegation picture as are Bristol Rovers, AFC and Wigan. Swindon may not be with us after February.

* Shrewsbury have included although on a healthy 36 points only need to have a poor run and next door neighbour!

Certainly after KC's dismissal  and the recent two home losses things are downbeat and depressing. Am not all confident with JB and would have preferred Sammo and Ricko as caretaker manager. It all depends on the upcoming fixture list of the teams above us as I thought one or two had pretty tough run ins. 
My opinion it is too early to name the 4 as too many games are still to be played. As KC said there will be plenty of ups and downs before the season end. Injuries play a part too.  Again looking at the overall situation and how we are playing it is easy to forecast doom and despair than conjure up a positive outlook. The Players know the situation its upto them to sort it out! Also not sure about sacking as if I was CEO would tell him you got us in this mess so get us out of it. As pointed out by BWills we are still remarkably point or two from temporary safety! It all depends on the new Manager if he steps upto the mark 
instills confidence and a workable system to suit the personnel we should be able to give it a good go. Is JB the man to do this?

Hard to believe that less than two months ago we were 18th with 18 points from 17 games and Oxford were 19th with 16 points from 16 games......we went to the Kassam with them without a win in 6 games and got trounced 4-0. Now they are 16 places and 17 points better off than us having picked up 27 points from 10 games whilst we have picked up 6 from our 10 games!

Doomed..

Doomed.

haha a win on Tuesday... there is 100% no chance that that will happen

After the Burton game I had to call The Samaritans, but even they said we were down.  ???

the problem is we have consistently been outplayed by teams below and just above us .
i’m afraid we need to prepare for the Barrow away trip next season

Decent point tonight and up two places in the table!!
A win for Bristol Rovers doesn't help our cause but defeat for Rochdale is better.....

Still in the bottom four though and we've used up our games in hand..... 18 games to go.

13.   MK Dons     P 28    Pts 38   GD +5
14.   Blackpool     P 25    Pts 37   GD +3
15.   Gillingham   P 28    Pts 37   GD -4
16.   Fleetwood    P 28    Pts 35   GD +7
17.   Shrewsbury  P 25    Pts 33   GD -2
18.   Bristol Rvrs   P 27   Pts 27    GD -17
19.   Rochdale      P 28    Pts 26    GD -14
20.   Wimbledon   P 26    Pts 25    GD -18
----------------------------------------------
21.   COBBLERS   P 28     Pts 25    GD -23
22.   Swindon      P 28     Pts 24    GD -21
23.   Wigan         P 27     Pts 24    GD -21
24.   Burton A     P 26     Pts 22    GD - 19

WEDNESDAY
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Hull City

SATURDAY
Accrington  v  SHREWSBURY
BURTON ALBION  v  Sunderland
FLEETWOOD  v  Charlton Athletic
GILLINGHAM  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
MK DONS  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Peterborough  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
Portsmouth  v  BLACKPOOL
ROCHDALE  v  Plymouth
SWINDON  v  Crewe Alex
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Lincoln City

It’s still all to play for BUT we need a striker from somewhere.

That's the spirit Manny - true grit 8)👍

👍

I know anyone in this league could go on a disastrous Run (Hull!), but are some of these teams in CAPS really relegation candidates? I would have thought Blackpool for example are more likely to be playoff contenders. 

Wigan 2-0 down

Good summary GPC - its helpful to identify potential relegation candidates. Of course some of those in caps may not be involved in the long run. However Teams suffer poor runs, they get nervous and may experience a few critical 6 pointer fixtures.

Wigan lose 0-5 despite having 55% of the possession. Just shows how much having target men is a must that we seem to lack at the moment.

It will all come down now to how the new managers turn fortunes around. I wouldnt be surprised to see Burton crawl out of it and a couple of the other teams from 17th up being dragged in. I'm not particularly optimistic at the moment, desperately need a win and a couple of goals to boost confidence and hopefully give us a spark of hope.

Wigan losing 5-0 at home can’t be good for their fluctuating confidence levels.
Like others, I think Burton will claw themselves out of trouble. Wigan and Swindon both have problems off the field to worry about as well so I’m hoping they are bottom 2.
We just need to get by Rochdale and Wimbledon which makes next Tuesday night huge! We need Sheehan and Miller back for that one!
Before then, Wimbledon are away to Pish this Saturday. Come on you blues!!!

I think that’s the key to JBs first win, if he can get Sheehan and or Miller fit for the Dale.

UTC

I liked the look of Miller when I saw him but expectations seem to be very high considering he's only played 30 minutes for us before getting injured. He may need a couple of games to find his feet.

When you’ve only scored once in over 800 minutes of football I’m afraid new strikers don’t have the benefit of “low expectations”. This is a crisis of striking confidence - we need someone to step up and there ain’t been too many volunteers with their scoring boots on lately!!

We drop down to 22nd after throwing three points away......

Blackpool and Gillingham have both made it to 40 points so they drop off this thread for now....

16.   Fleetwood      P 29   Pts 36   GD +7
17.   Shrewsbury   P  26  Pts 34    GD -2
18.   Rochdale       P 29   Pts 27    GD -14
19.   Bristol Rvrs   P 28    Pts 27    GD -19
20.   Swindon        P 29   Pts 27    GD -20
------------------------------------------------
21.   Wimbledon    P 27    Pts 25    GD -21
22.   COBBLERS    P 29    Pts 25     GD -24
23.   Wigan Ath.    P 29    Pts 24     GD -27
24.   Burton Albion P 27    Pts 22     GD -22

Tuesday night games

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Gilingham
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
Charlton Athletic  v  BURTON ALBION
Lincoln City  v  SWINDON TOWN
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  ROCHDALE
SHEWSBURY  v  MK Dons
Sunderland  v  FLEETWOOD TOWN

Two big 6 pointers on Tuesday, and three coming up on Saturday with 6 of the bottom 7 playing each other. This week is going to be huge.....

This could well be the pivotal week of the season. Minimum 4 points required. Id written us off this time last week but these last two performances have given me just a little hope.

Looking at the bottom seven, a fair few pivotal fixtures coming up.....

Next 5 games for each (six pointers in bold)

BURTON           A v Charlton, A v Rochdale, H v Bristol Rovers, H v Peterborough, A v AFC Wimbledon
WIGAN            A v Bristol Rovers, H v Peterborough, H v Charlton, H v MK Dons, A v Plymouth
COBBLERS       H v Rochdale, A v Swindon, H v Plymouth, H v Portsmouth, A v Charlton
WIMBLEDON     H v Gillingham, H v Hull, A v Shrewsbury, A v Blackpool, H v Burton
SWINDON         A v Lincoln, H v Northampton, A v Sunderland, A v Accrington, H v Oxford
BRISTOL R        H v Wigan, H v Shrewsbury, A v Burton, A v Hull, H v Accrington
ROCHDALE       A v Northampton, H v Burton, A v Hull, A v Sunderland, H v Shrewsbury

It’s going to be an interesting team selection for Tuesday with both Sheehan and Miller seemingly able to start?

For a bit of perspective we are the ONLY team in the EFL L1 NOT to have a win in our last 5 games.

I think a change of keeper for the next two games and we're in with a chance. The current guy looks like he's actively trying to get us relegated. Isn't he on loan too?

A bad night at the office as far as we are concerned, the only consolation was that we didn't lose otherwise we'd be bottom now.

Fleetwood still struggling but they remain far enough away from the bottom seven not to be a factor at present....

18.  Rochdale     P 30  Pts 28   GD -14
19.  Swindon      P 30  Pts 28   GD -20
20.  Wimbledon  P 28  Pts 28   GD -20
------------------------------------------
21.  Bristol R      P 29  Pts 27   GD -20
22.  Wigan         P 30  Pts 27   GD -26
23.  Cobblers     P 30  Pts 26    GD -24
24.  Burton        P 28  Pts 25    GD -21

Coming up on Saturday.....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Hull City
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Shrewsbury
Peterborough  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
ROCHDALE  v  BURTON ALBION
SWINDON TOWN  v  NORTHAMPTON

We cannot afford to lose to Swindon. In fact we need a win. Although we have mustered just one point and no goals from the six-pointers  against Wigan, Burton & Rochdale. Something has to change. We probably need to win half our games, that's 8 wins. And when we've still got to go to the likes of Sunderland, Pish and Hull, these games are so important now.

It wouldn’t be the Cobblers way to stay up by beating the dross around us. No, we’re going to stay up by taking points of the best in the division - away from home.
Who would have predicted the crazy end to last season. Me thinks this season is going to have the same crazy un-predictable ending. We’re not down yet 🤞
NB although no matter how crazy my drug fuelled positivity gets, it somehow stops me seeing Edmundson contributing anything to our great escape.

We haven’t won for 11 games, FFS probability means we are due one soon.  ;D

Disaster weekend for us.....well we've slipped to the foot of the table at least, and on paper tougher games are coming our way.....

18.  Swindon      P 31  Pts 31   GD -19
19.  Bristol Rvrs  P 30  Pts 30   GD -19
20.  Rochdale     P 31  Pts 28   GD -16
------------------------------------------
21.  Burton A     P 29   Pts 28   GD -19
22.  Wimbledon  P 29   Pts 28   GD -23
23.  Wigan         P 31   Pts 27   GD -27
24.  Cobblers     P 31   Pts 26   GD -25

TUESDAY NIGHT GAMES
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Charlton Athletic
BURTON ALBION  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
Hull City  v  ROCHDALE
NORTHAMPTON  v  Plymouth
Shrewsbury  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
Sunderland  v  SWINDON TOWN

NEXT SATURDAY
Accrington Stanley  v  SWINDON TOWN
Blackpool  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
BURTON ALBION  v  Peterborough
Hull City  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
NORTHAMPTON  v  Portsmouth
Sunderland  v  ROCHDALE
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  MK Dons

Charlton had 2 players sent off today so they will be missing on Tuesday  ???

Pointless thread now...We're done!

4 teams go down & we're certainly one of the worst 4 teams & will probably finish rock bottom well adrift...

Sad times but at least we don't have to watch it in the flesh

Who's got what left?

COBBLERS
HOME  Plymouth, Portsmouth, Crewe, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Bristol Rovers, Ipswich, Blackpool    11.38
AWAY  Charlton, Doncaster, Wimbledon, Hull, Peterborough, Gillingham, Sunderland     9.14

WIGAN
HOME  Charlton, MK Dons, Ipswich, Portsmouth, Sunderland, Crewe, Burton, Swindon    11.63
AWAY  Plymouth, Wimbledon, Accrington, Gillingham, Doncaster, Shrewsbury, Hull     11.43

WIMBLEDON
HOME  Burton, Wigan, Charlton, Rochdale, Northampton, Fleetwood, Ipswich, Swindon, Oxford, Portsmouth    15.50
AWAY  Shrewsbury, Blackpool, Bristol Rovers, Plymouth, Accrington, Ipswich, Lincoln   10.86

BURTON
HOME  Bristol Rovers, Peterborough, MK Dons, Shrewsbury, Fleetwood, Swindon, Plymouth, Lincoln, Gillingham  12.44
AWAY  Wimbledon, Crewe, Blackpool, Accrington, Portsmouth, Doncaster, Wigan, Oxford   11.88

ROCHDALE
HOME  Shrewsbury, Peterborough, Swindon, Ipswich, Accrington, Blackpool, Doncaster   10.00
AWAY  Hull, Sunderland, Lincoln, Wimbledon, Portsmouth, Fleetwood, Crewe, MK Dons    9.63

BRISTOL ROVERS
HOME  Accrington, Wimbledon, Swindon, Sunderland, Doncaster, Lincoln, MK Dons, Crewe   10.63
AWAY  Burton, Hull, Charlton, Plymouth, Ipswich, Northampton, Portsmouth, Blackpool   11.88

SWINDON TOWN
HOME  Oxford, Gillingham, Blackpool, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Ipswich     8.33
AWAY  Sunderland, Accrington, Fleetwood, Bristol Rovers, Rochdale, Burton, Wimbledon, MK Dons, Wigan   16.33

The figures in bold at the end of each line are the average league position of their opponents.

Therefore, on paper at least, we have the toughest run in of away games of any of the bottom seven.

Swindon have the toughest home run in, but they only have six home games left. They also have the easiest away run in as the play 5 of the other 6 bottom teams. Wimbledon have the easiest home run in and they have 10 home games left to play, they also face 5 of the other six bottom teams at home.

We only have two games left against the other teams in the bottom seven, Wimbledon still have to play all of the other teams in the bottom seven. Rochdale still have to play every team currently in the top 8.

Very good info
It’s not over yet although some think so!

It is if you have attackers who can’t score and a defence and goalkeeper gifting the opposition goals.

Interesting stats - thanks GPC
Why it certainly isn’t over yet is the Cobblers uncanny habit of fcuking up the easy and over achieving on the difficult.
UTC

At the moment, the points difference to a survival place is 'only' two points (and a few goals).
The way that all of the teams mentioned keep shooting themselves in the foot to varying degrees, it would not surprise me if we survived!!  8)

I think you mean Wimbledon have the easiest home run-in because they still have us to play

There you go you faint hearts cheer up!

Currently a point a game is keeping teams outside of the bottom 4, Swindon have 31 points from 31 games and Bristol Rovers 30 points from 30 games. In the bottom 4 AFC Wimbledon and Burton both have 28 points from 29 games (both have 2 games in hand over us). Therefore if a point a game was to keep us up we would need 47 points due to our inferior goal difference. This is 21 points from the remaining 15 games, 6 wins 3 draws and 6 defeats is there anybody out there confident we can do this?.

I think the important context to overlay is our current form, squad and management team. We can’t have many more games without a win. Definitely not a lost cause and if Burton can turn a corner with JFH I’m sure the highly unlikely can happen.

Oh dear, I sense there is some hope still sloshing around, haven't we not learned yet than to get our hopes up?

I'll have a go...

It's actually better to be bottom now, there's nearly a third of the season left to play yet!!

Nobody got relegated in March (except Sheff Utd maybe) so c'mon lads! It's the bottom four that go down on the last day, plenty to play for.

We will win 10 of the last 15.

(some of these are facts :afro)

 

The six teams above us all have 'difficult' games tonight.
Win our game, with most of those other results going in our favour, we move outside the relegation zone, the doom-ometre swings the other way and JB gets the job...  ;D 8)

I doubt that if we win JB will be given the job after all that would be be 1 win in 6 games and still only 5 points, not exactly a convincing arguement for him getting it even if we wanted him to. I would imagine if KT is considering him he would give it more time.

KT does not give a toss, if he did then some sort of statement regarding the managerial situation would have happened by now...

Other than Brady, who else is going to come in now anyway, only to guarantee a relegation on their CV?

Groundwork should have been done prior to sacking KC, not just letting it continue hoping Brady could sort this mess of a squad out that KC created...

Maybe he does, but hasn't made a decision yet?

No excuse, update the supporters stating as much. Silence is deafening!

Why, what makes you so special?

It's called respecting the lifeblood of the club ie the supporters  ::)

Where have I said anything about me being special? Just want answers like most supporters, but if your happy with no update from KT since sacking KC, then that's your prerogative...others ain't so tolerant

Let's be honest opening up manager selection with the fans didn't work very well.

The damage was done in the summer when we let the spine of the team go (Back 3, Keeper, Defensive mid and both strikers)

Another manager between now and the end of the season isn't going to help the situation, the button had to be pressed in November/December if it was going to happen.

Why do football fans feel so entitled now? 

They can tell the rest of us as well?

Up to 22nd, 1 point from safety.

We have the BEST defensive record in the bottom seven. Crazy.
Lets hope the goals keep coming now.

Burton looking safer with every passing game.

After a disaster Saturday we get a terrific Tuesday....us and Burton the only winners amongst the bottom 7.....

18.  Burton Albion   P 30  Pts 31  GD -18
19.  Swindon Town  P 32  Pts 31  GD -20
20.  Bristol Rovers   P 31  Pts 30  GD -20
---------------------------------------------
21.  Wimbledon      P 30  Pts 29  GD -23
22.  COBBLERS      P 32   Pts 29  GD -23
23.  Rochdale         P 32  Pts 28  GD -18
24.  Wigan Athletic P 32  Pts 27  GD -28

Some tough games on Saturday for the strugglers....points may be at a premium!

Accrington  v  SWINDON
Blackpool  v  WIMBLEDON
BURTON  v  Peterborough
Hull  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
NORTHAMPTON  v  Portsmouth
Sunderland  v  ROCHDALE
Wigan Athletic  v  MK DONS

Back to back home wins make the table look a lot better for us after todays games....

Burton just can't stop winning....

18.  Burton       P 31   Pts 34   GD -17
19.  Cobblers    P 33   Pts 32   GD -20
20.  Swindon    P 33   Pts 31   GD -21
------------------------------------------
21.  Bristol R    P 32   Pts 30   GD -22
22.  Wimbledon P 31  Pts 30   GD -23
23.  Wigan A    P 33   Pts 30   GD -25
24.  Rochdale    P 33  Pts 28   GD -20

Midweek fixtures.....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  BURTON ALBION
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Accrington Stanley
Charlton Athletic  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Plymouth Argyle  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
ROCHDALE  v  Shrewsbury Town
SWINDON TOWN  v  Oxford United

Next Saturday.......

BRISTOL ROVERS  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
Crewe Alexandra  v  BURTON ALBION
Doncaster Rovers  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Lincoln City  v  ROCHDALE
SWINDON TOWN  v  Gillingham

The comparable goal differences look a lot better as well...

I'm surprised there hasn't been any clubs going into admin..

I don't wish bad on anyone but if only the mongs could go pop and drop 12 points.

Think I actually want Burton to beat Wimbledon as it’s beginning to look like there is zero chance of Burton going down under JFH.

I wonder if we could entice him to The Cobblers?  ;)

There’s probably only the Shrews outside that pack who could be dragged in if they go into free fall. It at least feels as though it’s in our hands a bit more and what a massive two results. I’m sure there’ll be some drama along the way but if JFH can string that run together there’s no reason we can’t.
If he hadn’t have got the job this week I’m sure he would have done after today. Despite KC’s dodgy recruitment they are clearly good enough to survive. Couple more really tough tests ahead but must be brimming with confidence tonight.

Burton must have took a massive g a m b l e, the amount of players they have bought in plus JFH

The strange thing there is that his recent recruitment appears to be coming good under the new regime. Even Horsfall of the older recruitment is looking impressive.

Looking at the last games of the season and a trip to Sunderland will be less daunting without a large crowd so that helps.

I'm sure we'll be safe by then anyway and if Sunderland need 3 points to beat The Pooh to promotion or even play-offs, I would expect us to roll over and enjoy the afternoon just as they did at Burton. Lets run out of the tunnel backwards wearing party hats, streamers and party poppers etc. Leave them under no illusions whatsoever!

Should the circumstances be right, I propose we play a team at Sunderland of experience and raw (talent) who have the club through and through.


Team manager. Evers

Club chaplain/guru/yoga mat arranger and sermon deliverer. TFAMH

1.   Alan Carr. Excellent ball handling skills, will be wearing change keepers kit of fuchsia pink.

2.   Baldy. To man mark Charlie Wyke.

3.   Ian Sampson. To shout “run” at Baldy

4.   Defender. As he’s gone awol again.

5.   BackoftheNet. As that’s where he’ll be most of the game.

6.   Manwork04. In for Hoskins.

7.   Jon Brady (Capt.) Day off in the sun.

8.   GrangeParkCobbler. Good organiser, in to keep track of the score.

9.   WasRambo. To lay the bets and ensure a windfall.

10.   Marc Richards. Legend, will be promoting the new Cobblers, “Deck Chair” available soon.

11.   Coolcat. To serve beer to Marc.

Subs.
Deepcut. Knows explosives. For the party afterwards.

Graham Carr. (Penalty Keeper) To shout at Alan.

Marquis. To drive the bus.

Tcobb. To promote Trust membership.

Geema. (super sub) with shades and brolly, will come on if the game is slipping away from us and only 20-nil down (Pooh might need goal the difference)

This month AFC Wimbledon have to play Burton, Bristol Rovers, Wigan, Rochdale and us.

Just to moderate expectations a bit, Burton, Swindon, Wigan and AFC are getting a few good results. We are adrift of the rest of the pack so there is little room for error. I'm just stopping myself getting too stressed by telling myself I'm happy with our improvement and if we go down I shall look forward to the new season in division 2 with optimism.

I would say the opposite at the moment I’ve been amazed how poor our rivals have been, you just need to look at Burton who were adrift at the bottom and according to some as good as down, now they are already out of the relegation places and with a few games in hand. While we can’t just rely on this poor run continuing it certainly helped when we went through our abysmal patch at the start of the year to still be in contention.

I’m just very pleased to have a team that for the first time look competitive and at least look like they have a realistic shot at escaping the drop. I would temper that with a touch of reality though, things change very quickly in football and while it feels nice to be able to say positive things the superlatives thrown by some on here you would think this is the first step on a guaranteed rise up the table.

Unless several of the bottom 7 produce consistently better results I doubt that we will need 50 points to survive. Swindon and ourselves are currently outside the bottom 4 with less than a point a game so we might survive with 47-48 points this season.

What don’t people get? We almost certainly will need 50 points to survive.

It’s the standard aim at the start of every season because it so often proves to be the boundary line in this division.

In fact in the last ten years 50 points has not been enough to stay up as often as it has been enough.

Realistically we need to win six games / win 5 draw 3/ win 4 draw 6 from our last 13. All of those options are a big ask but we are in there fighting.

In the last 10 completed seasons (ignoring last season) the team finishing in 20th position only needed 50 points or more in 5 of these seasons.
In 2011-12 the team in 20th place got 50 points but only needed 45 as the team in 21st place only got 44.
In 2012-13                                      51                                49                                                48.
In 2013-14                                      50                                48                                                47.
In 2015-16                                      50                                47                                                46.
The average points needed for a 20th place finish in the 10 year period was 48.8 points.
When we won division 2 in 2015-16 we had 99 points but we only needed 87 as Oxford in 2nd place got 86.
               

Our Target should be 51pts which should be enough - bit idle to assume that anything less than this might be ok. Just IMO!

The team finishing in 20th position only NEEDED 50 points, but what total did they actually get.

Rerun your numbers with the team 20th place actually got and see what you get.

The years I have listed show how many points the team in 20th place got. The point I was making was that in a number of seasons they would have still achieved 20th place with a lower points total (because of the difference in points achieved by 20th and 21st place teams)  and in 1 season with 5 fewer points. As stated an average of 48.8 points was needed over the 10 year period to finish in 20th place the fact that the average points achieved is higher is inconsequential.
This I why I compared our promotion winning season as we would still have won the division with 87 points although we got 99. Similarly Liverpool did not need 99 points to win the Premier League last season as they would still have won it with 82.
I see no problem in aiming for 50-51 points but I suspect we will achieve safety with a lower points total.

I'd stop using logic if I was you, you might hurt someone.

Emmmm, the problem with trying to linearise something that is absolute is half the time you’ll need more points and the other half you won’t need as many.
Looking at how close it is at the bottom and how just about any team can beat any other (boro vs Burton) for example I’d say this season will be a higher than the mean average, time will tell.

To reach a target of 50 points from the remaining games Burton have to get 1.07 points a game, AFC Wimbledon 1.33, Cobblers 1.38, Bristol Rovers 1.43, Swindon 1.46, Wigan 1.54 and Rochdale 1.69. So 4 teams have to get higher returns than us. Obviously some teams will have easier run ins but there are teams who cannot beat other teams in the bottom 7 but thrash play off contenders.

I suspect you are wrong.

Time will tell I suppose.

I suspect you are correct west stand oap!
If the bottom 7 carry on as they have done so far Burton end up with 50 points, The Cobblers and Wimbledon with 45, Swindon and Bristol R  43, Wigan 42 and Rochdale 39.
Of course it won't work out like that but it will take some improvement from several of those involved to make 50 points the crucial figure.
My guess is somewhere around 47 should do it.

I suspect you are also wrong.

Oh dear Milky Milky, but I have never been know to be wrong in all my life ;D ;D ;D...

Seriously though, I have followed these threads on here over several years when we have had the threat of relegation hanging over us and the safety figures suggested by most posters is usually too high. I am going from memory however!

I have always found, once there has been a significant number of game played, that the current points per game calculation is a more accurate forecast than using previous seasons figures.

As you say we will have to wait and see and I suspect if any of us will care if we are right or wrong as long as we survive!

If you were really bored you could check your theory, take an arbitrary umber of games, work out the PPG, multiply to 46 and check against the final table from last year.

There wasn't a final table last year as the season was cut short so he would have to go back to the previous season.

Good point, you could in fact pick any of the last few year, just not last year!

Splendid idea Manny! Had a quick look at Div 1 2018/19 and my theory is blown totally out of the water. I'm off to sulk..

Big day on Satdee.
Donny lost tonight and we really do need to pick up at least a point.
Wimbledon playing Brizzle as well.
It might be another uncomfortable Saturday night??

👍

So, we've been dumped back into the bottom four after tonights results, Wigans surprising 2-0 win at Plymouth doing most damage.

Just 12 games to go for us now.....

17.  Shrewsbury Town   P 31   Pts 41   GD -1
18.  Burton Albion         P 32   Pts 37   GD -16
19.  Bristol Rovers        P 33   Pts 33   GD -19
20.  Wigan Athletic       P 34   Pts 33   GD -23
------------------------------------------------------
21.  COBBLERS            P 34   Pts 32   GD -21
22.  Swindon Town       P 34   Pts 31   GD -22
23.  AFC Wimbledon     P 32   Pts 30   GD -24
24.  Rochdale               P 34   Pts 28   GD -22

As Jim Hall says, big games coming up on Saturday....

BRISTOL ROVERS  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
Crewe Alexandra  v  BURTON ALBION
Doncaster Rovers  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Lincoln City  v  ROCHDALE
SWINDON TOWN  v  Accrington Stanley

Wigan are without a game due to Sunderlands involvement in the EFL Trophy Final.

Coming up next Tuesday some more biggies as games in hand are used up.....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
Blackpool  v  BURTON ALBION
Charlton Athletic  v  BRISTOL ROVERS

I expect things will look bleaker this time next week. We have not won any of our last 11 away games, gaining just 4 draws, and only Swindon have fewer away points than us. It would be a surprise if we got anything at Doncaster and most of the teams around us have easier fixtures. Then we do not have a game next Tuesday and other teams will be picking up points.
It looks like we will need to win most of our remaining home games.

I said 'Burton, Swindon, Wigan and AFC are getting a few good results'. I think this is correct. Despite our good week we have only taken 7 points from the last 6 games. Only AFC have got less (5). Wigan have 2 more and Burton 8 more than us in these games. My point being that the pack are keeping up with some very good results, and we have little scope for many slip ups. 

Swindon the same as us.

Good old Vadaine doing us a favour against Swindle this afternoon.

A point away from home, not to be sniffed at, lifts us out of the bottom four. However Rochdale went two better with a win at Lincoln.
Rovers and Wimbledon got a point apiece from their game, the Shrews get a point and Burton just can't stop winning.

Just 11 games to go for us now.....

17.  Shrewsbury Town   P 32   Pts 42   GD -1
18.  Burton Albion         P 33   Pts 40   GD -13
19.  Bristol Rovers        P 34   Pts 34   GD -19
21.  COBBLERS            P 35   Pts 33   GD -21
------------------------------------------------------
20.  Wigan Athletic       P 34   Pts 33   GD -23
24.  Rochdale               P 35   Pts 31  GD -21
22.  Swindon Town       P 35   Pts 31   GD -24
23.  AFC Wimbledon     P 33   Pts 31   GD -24

A Tuesday night off for us.....Wimbledon have to make the most of their two games this week.....but whatever happens we will be back in the bottom four on Tuesday night.

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
Blackpool  v  BURTON ALBION
Charlton Athletic  v  BRISTOL ROVERS

Next Saturday

Accrington Stanley  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Charlton Athletic
BURTON ALBION  v  MK Dons
Fleetwood Town  v  SWINDON TOWN
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  Crewe Alexandra
Plymouth Argyle  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
ROCHDALE  v  Peterborough United
SHEWSBURY TOWN  v  Hull City

Can’t see Shrewsbury or Burton going down, it’s going to be 4 from 6

Plymouth are doing their best to join us though..  ;D

We missed our chance by only taking 1 point in the 4 games against fellow strugglers and if we are to stay up we need to make the most of our remaining home games. Our remaining 3 games this month I think will tell us a lot about our chances, Crewe (h) don't have a great away record, Oxford (h) we usually do well in this fixture and AFC Wimbledon (a) have an awful home record and we have a good record there. Take 7 of the 9 points to set us up for a fighting chance.

Problem is they already have 45 points. If they don't pick up another 5 from their last 11 games then they deserve to go down!

Three points separate the bottom 6, increasingly likely the four to drop will be from those 6 teams.....

Wimbledon see their next four games all at home, we play three out of four at home, Wigan and Swindon face three away games in the next four.
Wimbledon play three of the other bottom six teams in those four games. Wimbledon also have NINE of their last 13 games to play at home following the delay to their ground being opened which meant a couple of planned home fixtures early in the season were switched to away games.

Next four games for each......

BRISTOL ROVERS:     Away v Charlton, Away v Plymouth, Home v Swindon, Home v Sunderland
NORTHAMPTON:        Home v Crewe, Home v Oxford, Away v AFC Wimbledon, Home v Shrewsbury
WIGAN ATHLETIC:     Away v AFC Wimbledon, Away v Accrington Stanley, Home v Ipswich, Away v Gillingham
ROCHDALE:              Home v Peterborough, Away v AFC Wimbledon, Home v Swindon, Away v Portsmouth
SWINDON TOWN:     Away v Fleetwood, Away v Bristol Rovers, Away v Rochdale, Home v Blackpool
AFC WIMBLEDON:     Home v Wigan, Home v Charlton, Home v Rochdale, Home v Northampton

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/revealed-how-many-points-do-cobblers-need-to-survive-in-league-one-3166800

How many do we need?  >:D

One more than 4 other teams in the division.

my worry is that we will draw too many games because we just struggle to score goals .
To get 5 or 6 wins , we will have to score fluently and the forwards need to come to the party .
There is a chance Edmo could come good and there is a chance Jones could be the new threat .
Rose , Chukka and Sealo are not the answer . The first is too slow , the other two Brady doesn’t trust .
Hoskins , Miller and Watson have to chip in as fo the centre halves .
Only if that happens have we got a chance .

With Wigan playing Wimbledon tonight whatever the result we are back in the bottom 4

Indeed a draw is the best result, looking ahead to Saturday we probably have one of the easier games amongst the bottom 6.
We need to win both our home games to have a chance, both games are against teams we normally do well against at home, draws are no longer good enough.

Don't start with the easier games.. you might wake cobbler78 up again

 ;D

Artell him if you don't! 78, oh Seeventy Eiight?
😉

Bristol Rovers winning at Charlton
no surprise Burton winning at Blackpool
Yet another goal for Oliver for Gillingham

Wigan lead at the Wombles, Bristol Rovers now 2-2..... we are 21st two points adrift as it stands.

As it stands Burton 10 points ahead of us with a game in hand amazingly only one less than the 11 they are away from the play offs!

I thought about then for the playoffs....if they keep going as they are and get 10 wins from their last 12 games they'll have 70 odd points and be well in! In the middle of January we were 6 points better off than them and we'd played three games less! Now after tonight they could be 10 points ahead of us having played one game fewer!

Another one to think about....we travelled to Oxford on 15th December and they were a place and two points below us in the table, they soundly beat us 4-0 that night and now they find themselves a point off the playoffs and 20 points ahead of us with a game in hand!

Wombles equalise....

After talking Burton up Blackpool equalise

Shall I talk Bristol Rovers, Wigan and Wimbledon up now then?  ;D

Charlton lead Bristol Rovers now from 2-0 down

Ive got a very bad feeling about staying in League 1

Not a bad night’s results really.
I can see Brizzle beating Plymouth on Saturday.
Can’t see Pish doing us any favours against Dale as well.
So .... 3 points against Alex is essential!

Very good night

Good results all round for us, best we could have hoped for especially when B Rovers were 2-0 up and conceded 3!

So managerless Charlton beat Bartons boys, the Burton boys pick up another useful point, and the relegation 6 pointer ends in a point a piece. A decent night for us results wise. We do of course (as we were always going to) slip back into the bottom 4....

Shrewsbury, 9 points ahead of us with three games in hand and Burton, 8 points ahead now still with a game in hand, fall off my table this week....they could still reappear at a later date but for now its the bottom 6.....

19.  Bristol Rovers      P 35  Pts 34  GD -20
20.  Wigan Athletic     P 35  Pts 34  GD -23
------------------------------------------------
21.  COBBLERS          P 35  Pts 33  GD -21
22.  Wimbledon         P 34  Pts 32  GD -24
23.  Rochdale            P 35  Pts 31  GD -21
24.  Swindon Town     P 35  Pts 31  GD -24

In the next seven days....
SATURDAY
Accrington Stanley  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Charlton Athletic
Fleetwood Town  v  SWINDON TOWN
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  Crewe Alexandra
Plymouth Argyle  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
ROCHDALE  v  Peterborough United

NEXT TUESDAY NIGHT
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  ROCHDALE
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  SWINDON TOWN
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  Oxford United

So winning our next two games potentially puts us in better shape. On Saturday we have what appears to be the easiest fixture, then on Tuesday at least two of our rivals will drop points.
If only games were played on paper.

8) Lucky us I think ;D

If they were I’d have won the pools  ;D

Me too! ;D ;D Most I ever won in about twenty years was £38! Beat That!! ;)

Never won a bean mate.  :P

Yes pretty much nailed on any 4 from 6 & likely to be very close - I'd not studied the GD much and thought we were by far the worse - irrespective of the results and some keeper errors JB tactics seems to have stemmed that downward stream and we might even stay up on GD. 

Good job we are in division 1 as we we are 21st on 33 points in division 2 21st team has 38 points from the same number of games as us. Teams in championship also have more points.
Bristol Rovers and Wigan are outside the bottom 4 with less than a point per game, 34 points from 35 games. To reach 50 points they need another 16 from 11 games which is almost half of what they have achieved in 35 games. This is why I don't think we will need 50 points to be safe. If you look at the last 5 games Wigan and ourselves have taken 7 points, Bristol Rovers and AFC Wimbledon 4 points and Rochdale and Swindon 3 points. So from a total of 30 games the bottom 6 have amassed 28 points still less than a point per game, nobody making a major move to safety.
With 2 home games followed by AFC Wimbledon away we have the opportunity of a good points haul to head the group of 6. Let's not blow it like we did  by only taking 1 point from 4 games against our fellow strugglers.

I can't help but feel that the results again
Dale
Swindon
Burton
MK (winning position lost)
Wigan

If we would have got 7 points of them(which we have shown the squad is capable of doing) We would only be few wins from safety

Crewe look a beatable team and I think anything less than 3 points will be a disaster

I think not just us but probably all of the teams at the bottom are able to put together the odd good performance and result here or there but it’s the consistency that matters as well. I also think having those difference makers is also important like a striker that can go on a good run of goals is something we desperately miss, Oliver has 7 goals in 6 which is more than any of ours have for the entire season.

The thing with Oliver was that he was such a handful to mark as well. He must have absorbed so much attention from our rival's defenders that space was created for others to exploit. I can't help believing that Curle put too much faith in Smith coming good.     

Hope I'm not being too optimistic but I predict that we shall get 50 points. Probably end up with similar points total (within 10 anyway) but points will be obtained against different teams.  ;D ;D
Crewe    H 3 points
Oxford   H 1
AFC       A 1
Shrews  H 3
Hull       A 0
Brizzle   H 3
Posh      A 0
Ipswich  H 3
Gills       A 0
Blackpool    H 3
Sunderland A 0

Optimistic...claret tinted specs.....something like that! I hope you are right. However you have predicted we are going to win 5 of our last 6 home games when we have won 5 of the 17 played so far at home. We are also the lowest scorers at home in the division with only 14 goals from those 17 games.

6 of those goals in the last 2. The home form has been poor this season. I'm not feeling as optimistic today.  :-\

But then with the optimistic glasses on you could say that our home form has picked up to the extent that the previous 15 games don't come into it, and if we can gain a win and a draw every two games (like the last two) for the rest of the season we'll pick up 12 points!

I can see us beating Crewe (because we usually do), and potentially Bristol Rovers, I can see draws against Shrewsbury and Blackpool and defeats to Oxford and Ipswich....2-2-2 for the last 6.

Anyone who wants a go at the predictor.....here it is! 

https://thefishy.co.uk/calculator0.php?Competition=3

Just select the bottom 6 teams....leave the claret tinted specs to one side and see how we get on!!

I had us surviving on 46 points.  8)

Just before that happened I won the Euro Millions.

I haven't.

AFC Wimbledon v Rochdale game next tuesday now being played at the end of April.

Bad Saturday for us......loss at home whilst some of the others pick up points...

The bottom six are split by two points now.....

19.  Swindon     P 36   Pts 34   GD -22
20.  Bristol Rvrs P 36   Pts 34   GD -22
-------------------------------------------
21.  Wigan A     P 36   Pts 34   GD -25
22.  COBBLERS P 36   Pts 33   GD -22
23.  Wimbledon P 35   Pts 33   GD -24
24.  Rochdale    P 36   Pts 32   GD -21

Coming up on Tuesday....

BRISTOL ROVERS  v  SWINDON TOWN
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  Oxford United

Next Saturday....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Sunderland
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Ipswich Town

We're doomed.

The remaining fixtures don’t make good reading. I’d say anything less than maximum points against the Wombles and Rovers will see us clutching at straws.

We are down, the inability of the Chairman to manage our club competently has cost us our place in L1.
History tends to repeat itself and the parallels with the JFH and Austin Season are plain for all to see.

Couple of defeats for Burton means they are back in the relegation reckoning....
Huge wins for Swindon and The Cobblers tonight.....both putting a little bit of daylight between themselves and the bottom four.

18.  Burton A.   P 36   Pts 41   GD -15
19.  Swindon     P 37   Pts 37   GD -21
20.  COBBLERS  P 37   Pts 36   GD -21
-------------------------------------------
21.  Bristol Rvrs P 37   Pts 34   GD -23
22.  Wigan A     P 36   Pts 34   GD -25
23.  Wimbledon P 35   Pts 33   GD -24
24.  Rochdale    P 36   Pts 32   GD -21

The pre-Easter games are....

SATURDAY
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Sunderland
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Ipswich Town

WEDNESDAY 31/03
Gillingham  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC

No matches for Dale or Swindon this weekend?

International call ups   ;D

Indeed....it should have been Rochdale v Swindon this Saturday but Rochdale have four players away on international duty....

The game has been moved to Tuesday 13th April.

A statistical comparison......

on the 11th March 2019 (at around the same point as this season in the last full season) the bottom team (Wimbledon) were eight points adrift of the team in 18th place (Scunny). Wimbledon had 33 points with 10 games to play and Scunny had 41.

That season Plymouth went down with 50 points on goal difference from the two teams above them who had the same number of points.

Fast forward to this season and the bottom team (Rochdale) are nine points adrift of the team in 18th (Burton), Dale have 32 to Burtons 41 with 10 games to play each.

The seasons league tables are remarkably similar at this point of the season, which would indicate that 49-50 points are going to be required to avoid the drop. By my reckoning we still need 3 or 4 more wins.

Anyway.....updated "who's got who left to play"....

BURTON ALBION
Home........ Swindon, Plymouth, Lincoln, Fleetwood, Gillingham
Away........ Accrington, Portsmouth, Doncaster, Wigan, Oxford

SWINDON TOWN
Home........ Blackpool, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Ipswich
Away........ Burton, Rochdale, Wimbledon, MK Dons, Wigan

NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Home........ Shrewsbury, Bristol Rovers, Ipswich, Blackpool
Away......... Wimbledon, Hull, Peterborough, Gillingham, Sunderland

BRISTOL ROVERS
Home........ Sunderland, Doncaster, Lincoln, MK Dons, Crewe
Away........ Ipswich, Northampton, Portsmouth, Blackpool

WIGAN ATHLETIC
Home........ Ipswich, Portsmouth, Sunderland, Crewe, Burton, Swindon
Away........ Gillingham, Doncaster, Shrewsbury, Hull

AFC WIMBLEDON
Home........ Northampton, Fleetwood, Ipswich, Swindon, Oxford, Rochdale, Portsmouth
Away........ Plymouth, Accrington, Ipswich, Lincoln

ROCHDALE
Home........ Ipswich, Swindon, Accrington, Blackpool, Doncaster
Away........ Portsmouth, Fleetwood, Crewe, Wimbledon, MK Dons

Really ? I posted that as a joke  :-[

Where did the term "squeaky bum time" originate from?

Does it pre-date Ron Atkinson?

Burton are within reaching distance .... drag them back into it

They're certainly in it, up to their necks if they go down after the JFH spending spree.

I wonder if he'll feel "so at home at Burton" in league two?

I'd be very surprised if Burton go down only needing ten from ten to be safe and I hope they get six of them against Swindon and Wigan.

There's clearly never going to be an 'easy' run in for anyone, especially as we're all at the bottom and many games left to play.
Rochdale will have to perform a miracle to escape.

Our clearest opportunities have to be on Saturday and the remaining home games.
It's going to go to the wire and wouldn't be surprised if we are relying on other results when we face Sunderland, including our own!

Doooooooooom!!

Defeats for us and Bristol Rovers.....crucial! Big point for Wigan....

18.  Burton A.   P 36   Pts 41   GD -15
19.  Swindon     P 37   Pts 37   GD -21
20.  COBBLERS  P 38   Pts 36   GD -22
-------------------------------------------
21.  Wimbledon   P 36  Pts 36   GD -23
22.  Wigan A       P 37  Pts 35   GD -25
23.  Bristol Rvrs  P 38   Pts 34   GD -24
24.  Rochdale      P 36  Pts 32   GD -21

The sooner this season is over the better, we are down.

Even if we stay up, we'd probably have to go through this all again anyway?

Stay up and we are guaranteed more Brady and co.
The best seasons are invariably in the lowest tier.
We should all be used to this by now!

To reach 50 points the bottom 6 need the following:-
Swindon   13 points from 9 games, 1.45 points per game.
Cobblers   14                 8           1.75
Wombles   14                10          1.40
Wigan      15                 9           1.66
B.Rovers   16                 8           2.0
Roochdale 18                10          1.80
So Swindon and Wombles have the best chance of staying up but as we are outside the bottom 4 with less than a point per game I still think we will not need 50 points to be safe.

Fixtures over the Easter period....

WEDNESDAY 31st
Gillingham  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC

GOOD FRIDAY
Accrington  v  BURTON ALBION
Ipswich Town  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  Shrewsbury
Plymouth Argyle  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
Portsmouth  v  ROCHDALE
SWINDON TOWN  v  Blackpool

EASTER MONDAY
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Fleetwood Town
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Doncaster Rovers
BURTON ALBION  v  SWINDON TOWN
Hull City  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
ROCHDALE  v  Ipswich Town
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Portsmouth

We have the easiest assignment on Good Friday followed by the most difficult on Easter Monday...in my opinion! We'd better pick up the three points v Shrewsbury...running out of chances now!

If we don’t beat Shrewsbury then we are getting into the realms of relying on pulling off some really shock results. Probably get decent odds on us getting 3 points at London Road.

Vadaine Oliver doing us a favour.

Gillingham 1 Wigan 0 Full time.

17th goal of the season, had we been able to keep him I doubt we’d have ever been in any sort of relegation battle.
It’s the same every year with contract renewals though, leave it all till the summer, the bad players resign the good ones go elsewhere while other teams tie up their best players early.

Kelvin Thomas.

Spot on mate.

Oliver only scored 4 in 30 appearances for us last season and has 14 for Gillingham. I doubt very much he would have anywhere near as many if he had stayed here as we create so few chances.
We don't know why he chose to leave but I suspect we probably only offered a 12 month contract to see if he could cut it in division 1 whereas Gillingham gave him 2 years. If you believe him he said he wanted to go to a club already established in the division.

He went for the money FFS.

According to Mr Evans Gillingham offered less than we were offering him and I'm sure he wouldn't lie.

;D

On the other hand perhaps he remembered the comments on here when we signed him as most posters were underwhelmed. A journeyman striker who had scored 8 goals in 83 appearances for his previous 2 clubs so you could understand some of the comments. Currently on his best run of form so Mr Evans is getting the best out of him, perhaps we should try to poach Mr Evans at the end of the season.

Him and his assistant were wearing tracksuits on Saturday, they looked like they were wearing blue inflatable sumo suits  ;D

I noticed that Evans was looking rather rotund!!

It must be getting close to the day when he bursts... stand well clear. :o

Mr creosote  8)

Of course he would travel from his Sheffield home down to Gillingham, a round trip of getting on for 450 miles, for less money than we offered him and he could commute when playing for us ?  What a strange decision  :o

And a wise one considering how it's panned out. He could be playing Championship football next season.

Today couldn't have worked out much better! A win for the Cobblers, defeats for Dale, Wombles, Swindon and Bristol Rovers, with a draw for Burton.

18. Burton Albion     P 37   Pts 42   GD -15
19. Northampton     P 39   Pts 39   GD -21
20. Swindon Town    P 38   Pts 37   GD -23
------------------------------------------------
21. AFC Wimbledon  P 37   Pts 36   GD -24
22. Wigan Athletic    P 38   Pts 35   GD -26
23. Bristol Rovers     P 39   Pts 34   GD -25
24. Rochdale            P 37   Pts 32   GD -22

Lets see what Monday brings....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Fleetwood Town
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Gillingham
BURTON ALBION  v  SWINDON TOWN
Hull City  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
ROCHDALE  v  Ipswich Town
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Portsmouth

On Bristol Rovers' Gas Chat they see themselves staying up at our expense .... should they beat us: "Still chance, looking at Northampton's fixtures, if we can beat them I can't see them getting another point".

Big 6-pointer.

Yes, Joey has worked wonders with them since his arrival!  ;D
Also, JFH's Staffordshire honeymoon is over... hopefully his team are going for a Burton!
Need them to get a draw on Resurrection Monday though!

I would prefer Burton to beat Swindon on Monday as they are going to have to badly collapse to fall back into the bottom 4. Swindon's last 3 home games are against Posh, Portsmouth and Ipswich but they also have to visit fellow strugglers Rochdale, Wombles and Wigan.

I agree. I think Burton are out of the mix now and we should look at hoping they do favours for us.

Well we are now averaging exactly a point a game. Keep to that and we get 46 points? Having looked through the fixtures it’s fairly possible that every single game will have something riding on it? As run ins go it is absolutely brutal, so 46 points would be a huge achievement. I’m not sure that’s enough, but Bristol Rovers is massive. I think if fit we need to be playing Sheehan in a back 5 in some of these fixtures? I know that’s kind of returning to the Keith Curle mindset, but we shouldn’t discount it for that reason because it has a place. Pick the games we want to go for such as Bristol Rovers, Blackpool and Gillingham, and hope the clean sheets we have been getting gets us across the line? Jones and Horsfall are going to be absolutely vital for us. Let’s just hope Sunderland turnover The Poo up next and Charlton, and by the final game they may have nothing to play for? Either way, this failing to turn up for games like at the Wombles has to stop because we are out of chances. Don’t mind if we lose as long as the players have to crawl off the pitch on their hands and knees because they’ve nothing left? Last season we were often average until the last couple of games, all we need to do is repeat that?

Back to 4 from 6 again now? Burton won to re-establish a cushion over the chasing pack....
A win too for Bristol Rovers, a draw for Rochdale, and defeats for us, Swindon, Wombles and Wigan.

18. Burton Albion     P 38   Pts 45   GD -14
19. Northampton     P 40    Pts 39   GD -24
20. Swindon Town    P 39   Pts 37   GD -24
------------------------------------------------
21. Bristol Rovers     P 40   Pts 37   GD -24
22. AFC Wimbledon  P 38   Pts 36   GD -25
23. Wigan Athletic    P 39   Pts 35   GD -27
24. Rochdale            P 38   Pts 33   GD -22

Coming up on Saturday, some big games!!

Accrington Stanley  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
Doncaster Rovers  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
Fleetwood Town  v  ROCHDALE
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
Portsmouth  v  BURTON ALBION
SWINDON TOWN  v  Peterborough United

And next Tuesday, we are without a game but....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Ipswich Town
Doncaster Rovers  v  BURTON ALBION
ROCHDALE  v  SWINDON TOWN
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Sunderland

I'm not sure I can cope with this.

Whichever 2 manage to stay up can count themselves lucky. 12 games over easter the bottom 6 managed the grand total of 7 points. We are 19th on 39 points and would be firmly in the bottom 4 in both the championship or division 2. 19th placed team in the championship have 43 points and 19th placed team in division 2 have 45 points.
All teams in division 1 bottom 6 have a goal difference of -22 or higher in division 2 19th placed Mansfield -6, 20th placed Walsall -7 and 21st placed Barrow -3, what a difference.
Today ourselves, Wimbledon, Wigan and Rochdale all failed to have a shot on target.
I cannot see any of the 6 reaching the so called magical 50 point mark as they all now need about 2 points per game. The bottom of the table is so poor it would not surprise me to see a team avoid relegation with a point per game. In all likelyhood we will an extra point as our goal difference will worsen if we have similar results to today at Posh and Sunderland.

The Mrs is always calling me a Drama Queen so, I’ll live up to my un-deserved and inaccurate reputation and say ....
This Satdee is definitely make or break. With Swindon’s tricky Pish game, a win for us against Brizzle will be a huge, and I think ultimately successful, step towards survival!

Donny have lost their mojo though so expect a Wigan 3 pointer on Satdee!

I think it is becoming more and more apparent that something will be riding on the final game. Either we’ll need something and/or we’ll be relying on other results to find out our fate. Good job it’s only Sunderland away  :P

Lost their Manager, Moore...if not Mojo!

To me its becoming more apparent that you won't need 50 points to stay up this season....there no way that four of those sides will get 49!
All those sides below us would need 4 wins each.....and that isn't going to happen (Rochdale would need five!)
Wondering if 46/47 is the more realistic target in which case we need two wins and two draws from our last six games.

Blackpool are on fire at the moment (unbeaten in 13) so that's no gimme, a win over Bristol Rovers is a must now as I can't see where we'd get 8 points from otherwise.

Last day of the season, whilst we are at Sunderland who could need a win for promotion, Wigan and Swindon will meet at the DW......so at least one of them is going to get points.

It’ll be a good achievement to get 8 points from the last 6 games, if that’s what’s needed. Agree on Saturday. If we don’t win that we’re going to struggle.

So 6 games to go for some, and still 6 teams fighting to avoid the bottom four places.....

Going to be tough for Rochdale and Wigan, Swindon not much better off, its still in Wimbledon's hands with five games left at home including two big 6 pointers, Wimbledon and Rochdale have three home games in a row....then they meet each other.

You could look at these fixtures and see where Wigan could pick up 10 points, or Wimbledon could get 12.....I can only see us getting 6 though.....

Here are the remaining fixtures involving the big six!

Saturday 10th April
Accrington Stanley  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
Doncaster Rovers  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
Fleetwood Town  v  ROCHDALE
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
Portsmouth  v  BURTON ALBION
SWINDON TOWN  v  Peterborough United

Tuesday 13th April
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Ipswich Town
Doncaster Rovers  v  BURTON ALBION
ROCHDALE  v  SWINDON TOWN
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Sunderland

Saturday 17th April
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  SWINDON TOWN
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Lincoln City
Peterborough United  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
ROCHDALE  v  Accrington Stanley
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Crewe Alexandra

Tuesday 20th April
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Oxford United
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  MK Dons
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  Ipswich Town
ROCHDALE  v  Blackpool
Shrewsbury Town  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
SWINDON TOWN  v  Portsmouth

Saturday 24th April
Crewe Alexandra  v  ROCHDALE
Gillingham  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Ipswich Town  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
MK Dons  v  SWINDON TOWN
Portsmouth  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Burton Albion

Tuesday 27th April
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  ROCHDALE

Saturday 1st May
AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Portsmouth
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Crewe Alexandra
Hull City  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  Blackpool
ROCHDALE  v  Doncaster Rovers
SWINDON TOWN  v  Ipswich Town

Saturday 8th May
Blackpool  v  BRISTOL ROVERS
Lincoln City  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
MK Dons  v  ROCHDALE
Sunderland  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  SWINDON TOWN

Hmm, not looking good, but you never know, stranger things have happened. Most of the others also have pretty tough looking run ins, especially Bristol Rovers game on Saturday!!

As football isn't played on paper...like you say, you never know.

It could look better if we can beat Bristol Rovers, but they've been a bit of a bogey side in recent times. Here's hoping.

One game at a time for me but I wish we had an individual capable of creating a decent supply of chances or someone who actually looks like a likely goal scorer. We have neither. This team is over achieving to date.

One of our only players that can do that on his day is Mark Marshall, he simply has to start against gas.

Apart from getting the odd good result none of the bottom 6 seem capable of putting together a run of decent results. So far this season they have played a total of 234 games and registered 47 wins, 1 win in 5. Should this be repeated over the remaining 42 games to be played they would manage another 8-9 wins between them.
On current form it is difficult to see 2 teams going on a run to escape and it would not surprise me to see teams avoid relegation with only 46-47 points.

Lets face it, our squad is not good enough for League 1. Our team sometimes is good enough to get results but we have very little "back up" if someone suffers a loss of form.
    Classic example is our keeper, Mitchell has, in my opinion, been poor and has cost us quite a few points, but we have no one else. Edmondson really doesn't look like scoring, but I think we are a better team with him playing. Shaun McWilliams had a terrific run of form around 6 weeks ago, but looks like he needs a rest, but again we have no one to bring in. Rose is more likely to score and wins more in the air than Sammy, but lacks Sam's pace. Sheehan is probably our best defender but we are a better team with a back 4 than a 5 and Jones and Horsfall have probably been our most consistent players under JB.
 So I would be tempted to pick the following team, as I think it's the team most likely to get results

                                                                            Mitchell
                                   Kioso                Jones                             Horsfall            Mills
                                               Sheehan                                          Morris
                                                       Hoskins                           Watson
                                                Rose                                                Edmondson

Maybe bring Mark Marshall on when the opposition are tiring a bit

Agreed. A couple of months ago, given how many were down there I was sure any team looking to stay up would need 50 points. However no one seems to be able to put any sort of consistent form together so I think 8/9 more points may well be enough for us. Hard to see where they come from though. Don’t like to use the term very often but it simply is a must-win given the run-in we have.

That's a reasonable side, maybe start Jones instead of Edmondson? I like the look of Sheehan as holding midfielder.

Jones the striker has had the equivalent of a pre-season with us now. You'd think he could take on a greater burden.

As opposed to Jones the butcher or Jones the Baker? Iechyd da. ;D

Definetly

Attacking Options:

Danny Rose:   0 goals in last 18 appearances
Ryan Edmondson:   1 goal in his 18 appearances for us
Sam Hoskins:   1 goal in last 21 appearances
Mikel Miller:   0 goals in his 9 appearances for us
Mark Marshall:   0 goals in his last 22 appearances
Benny Ashley Seal:   1 goal in his last 23 appearances (papa j’s trophy)
Alex Jones:  1 goal in probably around 45 minutes but apparently not capable of playing more than 15 minutes a game

24 minutes according to Transfermarkt, although with added time it probably could be nearer to 45.  ;)

Surprised he’s come on 4 times I would have roughly guessed around 10-15 each

No, more like an average of 5 minutes each time. Can someone explain why we signed him in the first place if he can't play longer than 10 or 15 minutes maximum?

Give him a chance, what have we got to lose. Start him, take him off when he's knackered. Simple.

Add 15 minutes to take it up to 39, he came on in the 75th yesterday which hadn't yet been included.  ;)

He's building up to a full 90  :o

He's looking forward to a half time cup of tea...will he get 6 minutes on Saturday?

Agree with this except I'd keep McWilliams in and put Sheehan in place of Morris, who has been very disappointing IMO. Hopefully Sheehan can find a few passes that nobody else seems capable of producing.

 ;D

Alex Jones, worth signing even though we can apparently only get 20 minutes out of him, Ricky Holmes not? 2 very different approaches to the same problem and the wrong option if you ask me?

Having looked at the remaining fixtures it looks as though we will need at least 2 wins and 2 draws - I can't see us getting anything from Peterborough or Sunderland and it will be hard going at home against Blackpool. Having followed the Cobblers for over 60 years I know all to well how good we are at blowing it at the death, I fear that we are going to just come up short, possibly on goal difference. I hope I'm wrong. I actually think we will get 1 win (against Bristol R) and 3 draws ( Ipswich, Gillingham & Blackpool), and unless we can from somewhere find a lot of goals against Bristol, goal difference will send us down.

Doomed.

Maybe everyone is going capitulate and we stay up with another 5 or 6 points. Stranger things have happened.
All of the teams have tough run ins and there are only about half a dozen teams who aren't looking at promotion/play off/relegation action.
It may actually be the best time to play Sunderland away!

I still have nightmares about Leeds away......check the scores your going down..........

.

Strange how opinions differ as I thought that goal difference might be the difference in our survival. For instance at least 2 teams currently have worse?

My fear is how many goals we might ship against Peterborough and Sunderland. We have the hardest run in of all the bottom teams.

I definitely have a bad feeling about the Peterborough game

It’s set up for a famous win at London Road and Sunderland will be on their hols by the time we play them.
Hold your nerve!

Now that really is optimism.

It’s all about holding your nerve!

i doubt we will ever play 5 at the back again and so we will at least have a bit of a better chance than before

5 up front on satdee.  ;)

Is that 'from the horses mouth'?  8)

:o

 ;D

If the Brady Bunch can't keep us up, maybe, just maybe...

https://twitter.com/FAspokesperson/status/1379811231402500097?s=19

Bye bye again Burton, with 48 points on the board and still 9 games left you're out of contention for the drop!!

So today, wins for Wimbledon and Wigan, defeats for Swindon and Rochdalem and of course a draw for us and Rovers....as you were, still two points outside the drop zone with five left to play.....

19. Northampton     P 41    Pts 40   GD -24
20. AFC Wimbledon  P 39   Pts 39   GD -21
------------------------------------------------
21. Wigan Athletic    P 40   Pts 38   GD -24
22. Bristol Rovers     P 41   Pts 38   GD -24
23. Swindon Town    P 40   Pts 37   GD -27
24. Rochdale            P 39   Pts 33   GD -23

On Tuesday night....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Ipswich Town
ROCHDALE  v  SWINDON TOWN
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Sunderland

We're no at the point we have to seriously rely on those below us with games in hand to lose them or we are well and truly fúcked.

Big week for Swindon, away at Rochdale on Tuesday and away at Wimbledon on Saturday.....teams below us are guaranteed to pick up points this week.

Toughest assignment is most definitely ours on Saturday......

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  SWINDON TOWN, one or both will get something from the game
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  Lincoln City, The Imps are one win in 10 now and seem to have blown their automatic promotion chances
Peterborough United  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
ROCHDALE  v  Accrington Stanley, Dale without a home win since October and just that solitary home win all season against Stanley who have shipped 23 goals in their last 8 games
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Crewe Alexandra, The Alex have gone off the boil after heavy defeats to Burton and now Oxford mean they have little left to play for.

The games are not taking place at 15:00 Saturday because of the funeral. They are all changing day/time.

Most if not all of them will just change kickoff time as there are so few midweeks to go now....the season finishes in 4 weeks!! Pretty much everyone is playing all the next three midweeks already, and six teams already have a game on 4th May.

There will be 1300 starts and 1600-1700 starts I reckon

If it's early kick offs, we may be in the mood for a funeral by 3pm.  :'(

;D

Let’s just call it a draw and concentrate on the sad day of mourning.

What about Sunday or Friday.  Both ourselves and Peterborough don't have a midweek game this week. So could be any day from Wednesday onwards.

I wonder why it's not to be held on Sunday? That would make much more sense.

We still have a chance although we are making life difficult for ourselves and none of the other 6 are showing any consistent form.
Rochdale-Looked nailed on to go down, have only won 7 games all season, need 2 points a game to get 47.
Swindon-Think they will also be relegate. Capable of the odd good result but have only 6 points out of 27
            from their March/April games. Have 4 of their remaining 6 away including the 3 teams with the worst  home records Rochdale, Wimbledon and Wigan.
Bristol Rovers-Saw nothing testerday to convince me they can stay up, also have away games at Portsmouth  and Blackpool.
Wigan-Have the opportunity to stay up with 4 homes games including Crewe, Burton and Swindon after   Sunderland Tuesday night. but only 3 of their 10 wins have been at home. Also have Hull away.    
Wimbledon-Again have the opportunity to stay up with 5 of their 7 remaining games at home. Great win         yesterday but was it a one off as they had only won 1 of the previous 10.
Cobblers-We now have it all to do. Cannot see us getting anything at Posh. Also unlikely at Sunderland but they may not have anything to play for as Hull and Posh could have the automatic promotion places confirmed by then and they should be confirmed in the top play off spot. If we don't get anything from these 2 games we would need 6-7 points from the remaining 3. Gillingham were nothing special when they came here but we have not won away in our last 14 games. Ipswich are on a poor run and are beatable but Blackpool are in great form on a long unbeaten run.  
Wigan and Wimbledon appear most likely to avoid the drop.                    

It is unlikely to be put back to Sunday as there is a full set of fixtures on the followinf Tuesday.

Posh away now Friday 16th at 7pm...

Please just show up for this Town...

They'll do that...and little more I'd expect!

Seriously though, like Hull City last week, however well Hoskins, McWilliams et-al perform, going to be a huge ask, given Posh's front line to get anything from this game, turning up or not!

More confident we can get results at Gillingham and the SoL!

Sunderland go 1 up against Wigan - 30 odd minutes in.

Wimbledon v Ipswich gets going.

Rochdale v Swindon starts at 7.00 pm.

We particularly need Wimbledon and Wigan to lose tonight.

Wimbledon go 1-0 up 24 minutes in.

Wigan equalise against Sunderland. 1-1 half time.

Wimbledon aren’t losing, 2-0 up and with an extra man

The wombles are tidying up.

Wigan now beating Sunderland 2-1, and Wimbledon cruising in their game.

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

Rochdale beating Swindon in the relegation battle

I think we're doomed anyway, irrespective of tonights results. We'll be lucky to get another point, never mind another win. Hope I'm wrong, starting Friday. Can't see it though. Not being negative, just realistic and no Evers, I don't have an anti club agenda.🙄

Ipswich (especially after today) and Gillingham both in mediocre form and rapidly disappearing from the play-off picture.

There are points to be had IF we show up for them.

Could remain in the bottom four after tonight. Then again it could be the rocket we need!

And we certainly need one!

The trap door is opening.

We are down, relegated with a whimper, terrible decisions from the “chairman “ utterly incompetent, time to leave Thomas.

FFS

Wigan win.

Hard to see how these scorelines could be any worse. Literally.

It's over boys. Blew it by not picking up even a single win from several 6 pointers.

In a nutshell.

Wiggy and Wimbledon will stay up.
The rest are doomed.

Dreadful results for us tonight. Can’t see how we are going to survive now.

As long as we aim for 22nd place next season we'll be ok.

We've been lucky results have been kind up to now. Tonight our luck ran out.

Rochdale 2-0 up on Swindon now.....

I think this is the best way around if one side is going to win this match.

We're going back to where we belong. That's what we do.

In the cold light of day (tomorrow morning) it will look as if we still have a chance as long as we perform in all our remaining games. If only we had goals in us.

Think I would have preferred Dale to lose and therefore be marooned and odds on for one of the four places......this way round everyone still has a chance, Dale have a relatively easy run in on paper and have form for escaping these situations!

Good time I guess for "who's got who left".....

Wimbledon: HOME v SWINDON, home v Oxford, away v Ipswich, HOME v ROCHDALE, home v Portsmouth, away v Lincoln

Wigan: Home v Crewe, away v Shrewsbury, home v Burton, away v Hull, HOME v SWINDON

Cobblers: Away v Peterborough, home v Ipswich, away v Gillingham, home v Blackpool, away v Sunderland

Bristol Rovers: Home v Lincoln, home v MK Dons, away v Portsmouth, home v Crewe, away v Blackpool

Swindon: AWAY v WIMBLEDON, home v Portsmouth, away v MK Dons, home v Ipswich, AWAY v WIGAN

Rochdale: Home v Accrington, home v Blackpool, away v Crewe, AWAY v WIMBLEDON, home v Doncaster, away v MK Dons

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank's a good manager. He's taken Burton from about 8 or so points from safety to complete safety in about 16 or so games and they looked proper doomed. Even we won there.

Credit to Jimmy Floyd. I've slated him on here often enough but Burton are transformed.

Wimbledon were always going to stay up as they played the early games all away hence 2 thirds of the remaining games are at home....Any 4 from 5 Rochdale, Wigan Bristol Rvrs, Swindon and us.

Must admit , I was never his biggest fan to say the least, but he's done brilliant since he's been back at Burton.
Maybe it's just us.

Any 3 from 4 Rochdale, Wigan, Bristol Rovers and Swindon, we can't score, we're down, I'm resigned to it.

played 18, won 11, drawn 2, lost five.

When he took over on New Years Day they were bottom of the league with 13 points having played 21 games, one more than us and were eight points behind us.

Now four months later they are 17th, eleven points ahead of us on 51 having played a game less! Since Jan 1st they have picked up 38 points and we have picked up 19.

We need to win 3 out of 5 games to stand a chance, possibly draw one also.

So, we need to win against Ipswich, Gillingham & Blackpool and draw at Peterborough or Sunderland - take your pick  :P

I take back all my negativity, we've got a sporting chance.🤪

The updated bottom 6....

19.  AFC Wimbledon    P 40   Pts 42   GD -18
20.  Wigan Athletic      P 41   Pts 41   GD -23
---------------------------------------------------
21.  Northampton T     P 41   Pts 40   GD -24
22.  Bristol Rovers       P 41   Pts 38   GD -24
23.  Swindon Town      P 41   Pts 37   GD -28
24.  Rochdale              P 40   Pts 36   GD -22

So, if we win on Friday and Wigan fail to win on Saturday, it's back in our own hands.
 It's looking brighter already🤓

....and yet you still wouldn’t want to have him back in charge. It’s a funny old game.

All to play for then ;D

Chins up everybody

I think it’s got more to do with their chairman supporting Jimmy in the Jan window.

Didn't our chairman support him?

Big earners like van Veen, Bunney, Turnbull, Facey & Richard O'Donnell signed. Success didn't follow though and then we had too many high earners on the books.

That's the spirit. A Friday night win will put immediate pressure on the others to get a result. I've got a good feeling about this..........
Hold up, the doctor's here

The only good thing i can think of about tonight results is that Ipswich & Sunderland are clearly beatable

;D

Your right mate they spunked the Chinese money.

Depends who they're playing!!  Don't know why, but I just can't seem to shake off the negativity. :)

For fúcks sake change the record.

Going to be very tough but still all to play for. Back end of the season always throws up some odd results, let’s hope we’re on the right end of them. The promotion-chasing sides we are playing will have huge pressures of their own, especially the likes of Sunderland and Ipswich who will feel they shouldn’t really be in this division.

No, because he’s taking the p1ss out of the supporters of this club and I don’t like it.

This must be the worst post-promotion season ever mustn't it? 4 points from the opening two games was the high point. We've been a nothing team and the creativity and forward play as bad as anything I can remember and I go back 35 years. Recruitment and budget have played their part no doubt. Who gets promoted and rips up the squad, only us. It wouldn't be so bad if we thought we'd get better players. We haven't and it's been woeful, truly woeful.
So back to League Two. Will we try to creat an identity, build solid foundations, or just muddle our way through with journeymen, cheap cast-offs and loanees? We've had players coming through the academy but rarely get enough game time. I'd rather see us develop a Chukwemeka than play Edmondson.
We need a football man at the top, and also someone with vision in how to take the club forward on and off the pitch because we're stagnating. We're only one bad season from a fatal relegation.

Absolutely bang on and totally correct about a fatal relegation, could easily be next season. Don't criticise the man at the top though, some on here won't like it.

Spot on post Wadey. Summed up excellently, I must admit this is the most downbeat I've felt about the club since the Barnwell era.

So I'm thinking we want Crewe and Swindon (only by one goal though) to win today? Swindon winning today not ideal but it would at least keep AFC Wimbledon in close proximity. I can see Tuesday v Ipswich being a scrappy 0-0 but hopefully a scrappy 1 niller to cobblers. Gillingham will make it an attritional game so can see that being a struggle. Blackpool might be under pressure to get play off points so that could be another tightly contested games. If we can scrap out two home wins then we're going to have to draw at the very least I feel - hopefully by then, Sunderland will have no chance of automatic promotion and rest their first XI after a long and compact  season. Still feel it would be a big ask to beat them, with the pressure that final day of season games can bring - we struggle to score so in a pressurised situation it looks a long shot. Overall though a really disappointing  season as others have mentioned.

Wigan winning
Bristol Rovers losing
Rochdale drawing

If these scores stay the same and Wimbledon win tonight I can see the bottom 4 teams staying the same for the rest of the season

So as it stands in the 1230 games, Wigan are winning, Rovers are losing, Dale are drawing.....

If it stays the same and Wimbledon beat Swindon later, the bottom 4 will be defined and slightly (4 points) adrift of safety......

Beat me again.....great minds and all that.....

Rochdale now winning

Wigan 2-0 up.

Whatever slim hopes remaining will be ended if we don’t get 3 points on Tuesday. I was hoping it was going to go to the wire but a couple of the ‘six pack’ seem to be getting their acts together. Maybe that was inevitable and sadly one of them wasn’t us.

Dooooooooomed

Who in their right mind backs a manager in the Jan window then sacks him a week later?

You forgot 'and doesn't replace him'.
Has anyone been brought in from outside to cover the job Brady was doing or is that also promotion from within?

What chance Swindle beat the Wombles?

Its not looking good; hope the team don't give up. Had to busy myself with scuffs on my car; sort of takes your mind off the unfolding relegation scene.

My take is to focus on winning every remaining game particularly the next one and the next one after that to the end of the season. Nothing we can do about our rivals for relegation now.

Wombles 2 up..

Swindle are pretty much down.
Looks like Wigan and the Wombles will wriggle clear.
We need to win 3 out of 4 Id say.

I don’t think too many would be surprised if we finish bottom now. Won’t take too much.
What a miserable season. Three points on Tuesday may keep a bit of interest but delay the inevitable.
At least the ☀️ is out!

They resemble March Hares to me the way they are sprinting clear of us.

Down by next Saturday 5pm then... :'(

That's because Brady & co will be back in their original posts at the end of this season.

Did he save any money by sacking the manager?

Wimbledon and Wigan both winning 3 games in 8 days and scoring plenty has completely killed us off baring a miracle.

4 points adrift now. Any chance of Wigan getting docked points for their dodgy financial shenanigans? That's the only way I can see us staying up, unfortunately!

If you have enough money to finance it... ;D

Yeah, after being so tight for so long it’s quite a turn of events to get it so close to being wrapped up. Didn’t see anything other than a last match scramble a couple of weeks back. At least we won’t have that gutting feeling at Sunderland!
We do seem to have more enjoyable times in league two. It would have been another struggle next season. Not sure I’m aligned with some that this signals a plummet to the depths of non league. We’re a lower tier yo-yo club. Clearly bigger clubs than us have taken the ultimate drop. This just goes down as a fortunate promotion which has been mismanaged. We’ve never had the owners with the aspirations to turn us into a Championship club, or maybe even an established league 1 team.

That just about sums it up for me.

The updated bottom 6....

19.  AFC Wimbledon    P 41   Pts 45   GD -15
20.  Wigan Athletic      P 42   Pts 44   GD -21
---------------------------------------------------
21.  Northampton T     P 42   Pts 40   GD -26
22.  Rochdale              P 41   Pts 39   GD -20
23.  Bristol Rovers       P 42   Pts 38   GD -25
24.  Swindon Town      P 42   Pts 37   GD -31

As you can see, two teams have a game in hand...the problem is its against each other, so one or both is going to get at least a point.

Tuesday night games....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  Oxford United
BRISTOL ROVERS  v  MK Dons
NORTHAMPTON TOWN  v  Ipswich Town
ROCHDALE  v  Blackpool
Shewsbury Town  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC
SWINDON TOWN  v  Portsmouth

Wins for Wimbledon and Wigan and a defeat for Swindon will see the Robins become the first team relegated....everyone else is safe for at least another week......

The fat lady is exercising her vocal cords, won't be long now.

The bookies were spot on again, favourites for relegation at the start of the season.

 "The European Super League is the inevitable result of greed. Frankly, they can all go ... Everyone moves up six places."

Johnny Nic -365 Mag.

Can we do this calculation please?  ;D

I mean who could predict that BOTH Wimbledon and Wigan would win 4 in a row....not long back people would say we would only need 46 points to stay up...and that would have been only one more win.

Wouldn't you just know it...we put on a decent performance and take the three points comfortably, but Wimbledon, Wigan, Swindon and Rochdale all win. The only thing that changes is we have a game less to save ourselves!

We need at least 4 points from the last 3 games.... potentially though 5 or 6 may not be enough with Wimbledon and Wigan both having to play other teams around us.

The updated bottom 6....

19.  AFC Wimbledon    P 42   Pts 48   GD -14
20.  Wigan Athletic      P 43   Pts 47   GD -20
---------------------------------------------------
21.  Northampton T     P 43   Pts 43   GD -23
22.  Rochdale              P 42   Pts 42   GD -19
23.  Swindon Town      P 43   Pts 40   GD -29
24.  Bristol Rovers       P 43   Pts 38   GD -27

Bristol Rovers as good as down, nothing less than 3 wins and a miracle needed for them, another point for Wigan sends them down regardless. Rovers have the early kickoff on Saturday so will probably be relegated before everyone else kicks off.

On Saturday.....

Crewe Alexandra  v  ROCHDALE
Gillingham  v  NORTHAMPTON TOWN
Ipswich Town  v  AFC WIMBLEDON
MK Dons  v  SWINDON TOWN
Portsmouth  v  BRISTOL ROVERS  (1300)
WIGAN ATHLETIC  v  Burton Albion

Next Tuesday....

AFC WIMBLEDON  v  ROCHDALE

There’s an increasing chance that all 9 wouldn’t be enough! The prospect of potentially going down with 52 points would have been unthinkable a few weeks back.

We need to win all three and even then we are relying on others fúcking up.

McCormack & Ricky taking Southend out of the EFL. Good job we didn't keep McCormack as he has missed half of the season with injury and Ricky has done little for them.

Wimbledon play Rochdale next week, a win for Wimbledon puts them 8 points ahead of us with a better goal difference, a win for Rochdale puts them above us....no win situation quite literally...a draw the best result....and Wigan play Swindon last game of the season.....

Well I'm looking forward to a trip to Plainmoor next season and a long weekend with friends in Brixham.

Plan your quarantine ...have yer jabs..

Ricky only does well for us so we should have had him when we had the chance.

50pts will be nowhere near enough to stay up this season 😎

Bristol Rovers are down.

So are we.

You can add Swindon

Wigan away at Hull next week.
It will go to the last game of the season.

Rochdale went behind in the 90th minute, but an equaliser 7 minutes into stoppage time gives them a glimmer of hope.

The updated bottom 6....

19.  AFC Wimbledon    P 43   Pts 49   GD -14
20.  Wigan Athletic      P 44   Pts 48   GD -20
---------------------------------------------------
21.  Northampton T     P 44   Pts 44   GD -23
22.  Rochdale              P 43   Pts 43   GD -19
R.   Swindon Town      P 44   Pts 40   GD -34
R.   Bristol Rovers       P 44   Pts 38   GD -28

Wimbledon v Rochdale on Tuesday, a win for the Wombles makes them safe......

Next Saturday Wigan are at already promoted Hull, and Wimbledon are at home to Portsmouth......neither of them can win, nor can we lose to Blackpool at home.

If you believe in the Pat it will happen

We won't win at Sunderland on the final day and we now effectively need to. Game's up, sorry to say.

Gilly beat Boro away. No reason we cant beat Sunderland. Mind you we have to beat Blackpool first

Today just prolongs the agony...

Wigan home to the woeful Swindon last game of the season so we ain't staying up...

Let's get planning for next season now...

Dai Cornell, back in the Ipswich first team, saved a penalty to deny Wimbledon today.

He should of let it in, it won’t make the slightest bit of difference.

Sunderland won't have anything to play for against us. They have no chance of automatic promotion bar a miracle and very little chance of not having already qualified for the playoffs. Johnson won't want to risk any of their key players getting injured against us. Blackpool are on a poor run (one win in five) so we must fancy our chances against them at home. We could win both games.

We desperately need Wigan to lose against Hull (that should happen) and bottle it against Swindon.

After KC left some suggested Joey Barton as an option but he’s done an awful job Bristol Rovers. Matt Gray another name linked is possibly blowing it at Sutton too with just one win in their last six.
 

Good man for the heads up

After watching Swindon’s performance against MK this morning, any lingering hope I had of survival has just disappeared.
As always, failure leading to lessons learnt can be a powerful motivator. The big question is, have KT and JB learnt enough from the fiasco that is this season to give us a fighting chance next year in Div 4?

That said, it would be nice to take this to the last Sunday.
A sort of mini success in a crappy year!

Shame that we couldn't all be there... 8)

We are capable of beating Blackpool next week even if they are playing for a play off place. After a long unbeaten run their wheels seem to have come off, losing at home to Shrewsbury yesterday and at Rochdale before that. They have also only scored 1 goal in their last 4 games. Wigan will want to go up as champions and can beat Wigan leaving us 1 point behind them. Blackpool also have to go to Sunderland on Tuesday night.
Onto the final weekend Sunderland have only 2 points from their last 5 games and their home record is not particularly impressive, only 1 more home win than us. They will have their play off place confirmed so may rest some players, they won't want to pick up any injuries against those bruisers from N'pton. So nothing to be afraid of and we get a shock away win. Meanwhile Wigan will be feeling the pressure and although we all think they should win, relegated Swindon playing with total freedom and spoil their party.
Simples.

If you want to change your first reference to Wigan in your fourth sentence to Hull I'll delete this post.

Wigan smashed Hull 8-0 this time last season, lets hope they seek some retribution next week and aid the goal difference.

Swindon is the downer.

We are 1/40 for the drop, so loving some of the the optimism and it’s going to take some miracle for us win both, then Wigan not to get two more points. I guess they could draw both and we overtake on GD. We could also beat one team, draw the other and Wigan lose both overtaking them again on GD. In all scenarios it’s effectively a done deal.
All we can do is win both and get the prayer mat out. 6 points from those two fixtures would be quite some achievement in itself and we’d be going down with a proper fight.
Sadly, just can’t see it and yesterday prolonged the agony.

If Wimbledon lose to Rochdale they've got awkward games against Portsmouth and Lincoln to play. We would then need Rochdale to drop some points as well in their last two games.

A Rochdale win would mean we'd need to pick up more points from our games at home to Blackpool and away at Sunderland than they do with home games against fading Doncaster and an away game at Milton Keynes.

realistically a draw does also.
Think a Rochdale win would be best to at least keep another team in the sights. So many different scenarios left to play out with so few games left. Problem is most result is us going down

realistically, we need to win both games.

we wont.

1.  We need to win both games.
2.  Then we need the other results to be in our favour.

Although always hopeful, I can't see us fulfilling the first part therefore the second part becomes redundant.

Not sure if there are any other records of the pre-season odds...  8)

We are still 40-1....oops 1-40 for the drop  :P

Do we want a draw or a win for either tonight?
Or doesn't it really matter because we still have to fulfil our part of our escape plan?

I’d say it’s preferable if Wimbledon win as they only really need 1 point from 3 games to make it too much of an ask to catch them (due to goal difference).

Imagine how much of a sh1tter it would be if we overtake Wigan only for Rochdale to win all their remaining games and we stay in the relegation zone?  :'(  ;D

A mass brawl at some point in the game with both side's best players sent off with straight reds.

0-0

Both clubs reported to the football league for fielding ineligible players.

The French National Anthem to be played before the game like it was at the 1st night of the proms a few years back after a terrorist atrocity in France.

On reflection a 1-0 win to Rochdale to keep Wimbledon in our sights if they lose their two final tough games. Their goal difference is a tough ask for us to catch up with if we finish on the same points. I'm relying on MK Dons to beat Rochdale.   

I'll go for a Wimbledon win. They are then safe, Dale back in the mire... leaving the small but simple matter of Wigan having their most difficult and (in theory) easiest games, losing and drawing. The Cobblers win at home to Blackpool, before pulling off a Shrewsburyesque miracle, win at Sunderland!

Sunderland hopefully resting players for the play offs

1-0 Rochdale

I would take a wimbledon win though.

I wouldn't. If Wimbledon lose they're still catchable and have 2 difficult games left. We have to win both games anyway and if Rochdale lose 1 of their last 2 and Wigan lose or lose and draw we stay up. Easy.

Unfortunately Rochdale have got Doncaster on Saturday and they seem to have downed tools.  It’s all moot anyway.

Isn't it always?