plymouthram

On 25/03/2024 at 13:07, RoyMac5 said:

Surely Warne will take the unexpected opportunity to go with a four at the back, if so I think we'll get 2nd place. #COYR

He's got no choice, no Bradley or Forsyth and only 2 centre halfs left. lets hope they don't get injured.

12 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

The Gateshead fans are worried and talking about it. This new loan seems a strange move for them unless DB is coming back. Here's a North East football writer, just commenting on how good Brown is:

 

Would love to see him back and be given more than a few minutes to prove himself in League one. I do believe that there was a clause in his loan that he could be called back at anytime after completing 28 days at Gateshead.

10 hours ago, admira said:

There are a few '6 pointers' remaining:

29/03 Stevenage v Bolton

02/04 Portsmouth v Derby

09/04 Stevenage v Barnsley

13/04 Bolton v Portsmouth

13/04 Oxford v Peterborough

16/04 Oxford v Lincoln

16/04 Portsmouth v Barnsley

20/04 Oxford v Stevenage

27/04 Lincoln v Portsmouth

27/04 Peterborough v Bolton

 

 

Stevenage need to find to form, to do us a favour, they have'nt won for 4 games.

Portsmouth might be interested, along with Barnsley and Peterboro.

On 18/03/2024 at 13:56, Chesterfield_Ram said:

The Northampton game is an important one psychologically for us. Win and we’re 2 points behind Portsmouth and 7 in front of Bolton. This could pressurise both teams as 1 slip up from Portsmouth could leave them in second place, and a slip up from Bolton could finish off their promotion push.

Yes they’ll have a game in hand, but there are very few easy games left for Portsmouth and Bolton already have to rely on us dropping points and them gaining them.

Points in the bag against games in hand at this stage of the season are more of an advantage.

On 18/03/2024 at 13:41, Sussex Ram said:

As Dom Dietrich might say, these are “take it or leave it” stats. Below is my attempt at showing the league position of the opponents our direct competitors face on the run in:

Portsmouth- 12 2 17 3 5 11 7- average 8.14

Derby- 14 9 1 12 10 20 24- average 12.9

Bolton- 8 18 13 1 17 23 4- average 12

P’Boro- 24 10 23 6 22 13 21 3- average 15.3

Barnsley- 20 19 16 8 18 1 9 14- average 13.1

I haven’t considered home or away ties, but on the face it Portsmouth have by far the hardest run in, playing us, Bolton and Barnsley. My personal preference would be for them to beat Barnsley and Bolton, let them take the title, and it gives us more breathing space on the final day. But looking at it another way, if we can beat them on 2 April and other results go against them, might we be looking at a title push?? I would love that, for B4 if nothing else.

Peterborough have the easiest run in and face all three bottom teams, although I noticed they are one of only four teams to play midweek before the final game of the season- which for them is a massive 6-pointer against Bolton.

Our games seem to get “easier” as time goes on, whereas others are more mixed. Portsmouth finish against one the form teams of Europe (I’d guess?) in Lincoln. Let’s see if the Imps are still averaging three goals a game by then- if they are, they might well finish 4th or 5th!

Final point- our GD is 4 better than Portsmouth, 7 better than Bolton and P’Boro and 13 better than Barnsley. That could well be the half point advantage that makes a difference come 27th April…

I blogged a while back that goal difference could be  decisive.

6 minutes ago, Gritstone Ram said:

Derby are massive everywhere we go, Derby are massive everywhere we go everywhere we goooo!!

Even in the Championship maybe ?

Hope we are'nt giving it the LARGE one too soon.

11 minutes ago, David said:

If we win all of our remaining games, we are not going to Wembley. Fact.

I can't go anyway, cos I'm on holiday. I've been to every Wembley match (barring 1946) that Derby have made, so lets win all our remaining games.

4 minutes ago, Rich84 said:

1 hour ago, Norman said:

Yup, I think Barnsley have 5 away games left. That's a big ask to go at 2.4 points a game average with that many away games. 

Then Bolton have to play Peterborough, so one of those, or both if they draw, are going to have to go at well over 2 points a game average to get to 90 points. 

4 wins should be enough. 

Barnsley have only lost once on their travels in the league this season......

And that lone defeat was 3-0 at Pride Park and seeing they have to travel to Stevenage, Blackpool and Portsmouth they could at least win the Fratton Park match.

Looking at Bolton, Barnsley and Peterboro forums tonight is interesting, most think they are all destined for the play-offs and Pompey and Derby have got the automatics. Well it's in our hands to make that come true and the same can be said for Pompey. But now most teams have 7 or 8 games left to play, standby for some shock results (it always happens). It's the team that holds it nerve, continues to grind out results when not at their best the will come through. I'm hoping Gayle is not too injured to have a say in our remaining games. I hoping Waggy can get much improved now he's back in the squad. I'm also hoping Collins will be back for the April fixtures.

I'm hoping Wycombe 3 match wins stretches to 4 this coming Friday. I don't think Bolton are out of it yet, but we must equal there results upto the end of April. I also don't think Pompey are home and dry yet. After Wycombe they have Derby (h), Shrewsbury (h), Bolton (a), Barnsley (h), Wigan (h) and Lincoln (a). Our next 4 games will put us either back in the pack or home and dry.

One thing is for sure now, the current top 5 will remain in the top 5 (what order is still hard to predict). I have to agree with Paul Warne's pre-match interview stating if Derby lose against Bolton they could win the next 6 matches, well that can be said about Bolton, Barnsley and Peterboro. The interesting point in this league now, is who will get that 6th spot. Oxford currently have it, but face Lincoln next and still have Peterboro and Stevenage to play.  Lincoln in 7th spot on a 13 match unbeaten run (9W & 4D) have smashed in 27 goals and conceded just 4. They have after Oxford, Orient at home and Pompey at the end of the season at the LNER stadium. The other contenders is Stevenage and Blackpool, with Stevenage still to play Bolton, Barnsley and Oxford to play. While Blackpool have the Rams and Barnsley to play. 

I,m still not sure where we will finish, if we get through the next 4 matches still in 2nd spot going into the Pompey game, I would state either 1st or 2nd.

50 minutes ago, Kernow said:

Don’t see how Lincoln can be stopped at the moment, surprised they aren’t predicted to be 6th. I’d hate to face them in the play-offs, let’s hope after today we’ve taken a big step towards avoiding that.

Hope Lincoln keep it up, they play home to Pompey last game of the season.

22 hours ago, Comrade 86 said:

Below is the form table for the last 10 league games. We just need to match, or better those returns and we'll be away and gone.

Keep the faith!

The top two in this form table have done really well and as good as they have done, I can't see them keeping it up. Pompey have gone 11 matches since their last defeat, a 3-0 home defeat against Orient. But in that time 5 of their wins have been by the odd goal and out of them 11 fixtures, 7 were against teams in the bottom half of the table. They have only played 4 teams from the top half, drawing 2 and winning one by the odd goal, the other was a thumping of Northampton. They have 5 teams to play in the top half of the table in their remaining 8 games and all 5 teams are in with a chance of promotion.  Lincoln's 12 match unbeaten run looks a little better than Pompey's, but only 7 wins (stand out 5-1 at Barnsley) and 5 draws, but only played 4 teams from the top half of the table (drawing 3 of them).

I see Portsmouth game on the 23rd at home to Barnsley is now off because they have 3 called up for international duties. It's rearranged for Tuesday 16th April. That gives Pompey their last 4 games; Bolton away, Barnsley home, Wigan home and Lincoln away.

I want him to get a hat-trick in his next match.

Pompey had another penalty tonight against lowly placed Burton. They managed to win 2-1, they have a few injuries and their next 4 matches are not easy, starting with Peterboro away, Barnsley home, Wycombe away then Derby at home. Peterboro have only lost 3 times at home, Barnsley have only lost once on the road, Wycombe have lost 6 at home, it's going to be the test for them. If they get through them 4 games their next 4 are Shrewsbury home, Bolton away, wigan home and Lincoln away.

21 minutes ago, Sheff Ram said:

Starting to believe we can get autos now. Portsmouth have the hardest run in. And if it goes down to the wire, on the last day we are home to Carlisle, Barnsley host Northampton, Posh play Bolton and Pompey travel to Lincoln. 

Yep, if we are in a good position wanting a point come the last game of the season you would want to play a team already relegated. No disrespect to Paul Simpson's team but I do think they will be long relegated prior to this match.

3 minutes ago, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

I think he’s great 👍

Exactly what we have needed for a very long time.

The missing piece of the jigsaw to our promotion chances. We can't afford for him to get injured in the next 8 games.

Lets keep the best goal difference up right to to the end of the season, cos it could be vital in this current top 5 places.

14 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

I am confident (but not sure. How can you possibly be sure?) hence why I said “unless it’s mathematically certain” but, there are various scenarios whereby we could be going into the last two games with it all still to play for even if we won our next seven. Imagine if Barnsley and Peterborough both won all of their games prior to the last two. They’d only be 2 and 1 points behind. They may be unlikely scenarios but are they any less likely than Derby winning every game? Even if Portsmouth lost against us, Peterborough and Barnsley but won all their others they’d only be 3 points behind. 
 

Essentially, don’t celebrate too soon. 

If Barnsley, Peterboro and Derby win all their games going down to the last 2 matches, that would mean all three would beat Pompey which would only give them a maximum of 89 points (that would include them winning the other 3 games, one away to Bolton). Barnsley would have just Blackpool away and Northampton at home, Peterboro would have Bristol away and Bolton at home. We would be 4 points clear of Pompey, 2 points clear of Barnsley and 1 point clear of Peterboro with Cambridge away and Carlisle at home. The bookies would not bet against us in the scenario.

3 hours ago, archram said:

I’m going to this, my first attempt at an evening game since the brain haemorrhage 4 years ago.

if you’re in the west stand could you keep the noise down please? I’m usually barely awake by 8.30 so I’d be grateful if you didn’t wake me up just to watch a game of football.

Thankyou!

I hope it's the Reading performance that puts you to sleep and the home fans cheering and celebrating that wakes you up.  COYR

I've sat down gone through the fixtures, picked out the wins,draws and defeats for each team. My result (the finished league table) had Pompey finishing 3rd and losing out to a team pipping them on goal difference for 2nd spot. I'm not going to jinx it by revealing the winner or 2nd, but my top 6 teams are all the current top 6.

If you are coming by train, the first decent pub would be the Brunswick, but they might not let you in (security on the door). Just a spit away is the Alexandra, you should get in there. Other pub not to far from the ground is the Smithfield, failing that in the city centre there is lots of good watering holes, including 2 Wetherspooons for cheap beer and food.

23 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

34 minutes ago, plymouthram said:

If we win the next 7 matches and then we only have Cambridge and Carlisle to play, then I would hope Warne would brag we are going up.

I would hope he wouldn’t unless it’s mathematically guaranteed. Even then, I would hope he’d have a bit more class and talk about celebrating at our final home game rather than “brag”.

I am sure if we win the next 7 matches we would be clear of 3rd place team that we could'nt get caught on points. Even if a team in 3rd spot could match our points total, having won 7 on the bounce our goal difference would be out of their range.

If we win the next 7 matches and then we only have Cambridge and Carlisle to play, then I would hope Warne would brag we are going up.