Playoffs

[Tamworthram]

1 hour ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

On our day, we can beat any team in the division. Sadly, that's also true of half a dozen other sides. Oddly, I've become quite indifferent to which league we play in. The Championship would be good as it would allow us to re-build the Academy roster, but it's now a nice to have not a mandatory. I guess nearly losing the club altogether has altered my priorities somewhat. 

Also, I f****** hate the play-offs and would scrap them completely if it were up to me. If you finish 3rd across an entire season, you've earned the slot available on merit. Creating a play-off lottery serves no purpose bar further filling the EFL coffers and as far as I'm concerned, they can get in the bin. That said, if we manage to scrape our way into promotion the way the tree botherer's did, I'll be back to extol their virtues, the play-offs that is, not the feckin gumps.

I know it's easier to say when your team has no realistic chance of making the top three but I genuinely wouldn't scrap them. 

They keep the season alive a lot longer for a lot more clubs. 

[Comrade 86]

11 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

I know it's easier to say when your team has no realistic chance of making the top three but I genuinely wouldn't scrap them. 

They keep the season alive a lot longer for a lot more clubs. 

I can see the pros mate and it's a personal thing really. Seeing the Gumps scraping in and the Rick Parry dining out on the extra coin just triggers TF out of me, is all ?

[Eatonram]

The play offs will be very tough indeed this year. I fear we lack a little pace and toughness that Barnsley showed for instance. We will have a different look next year if Warne can sign players.

[ram59]

1 hour ago, Tamworthram said:

I know it's easier to say when your team has no realistic chance of making the top three but I genuinely wouldn't scrap them. 

They keep the season alive a lot longer for a lot more clubs. 

I've always favoured keeping the play offs but using a format similar to the NFL in the USA. 6th play away to 5th, the winners away to 4th, the winners play the third place team in the final. 

The advantages over the current system are that it rewards teams that finish the highest in the league, also, all play off matches are one off winner takes all, with no playing for a draw in the first leg. Another advantage is that teams are more likely to be fighting for every point right up to the last game of the season, in order to gain an advantage in the play offs.

I'm sure that the 3rd place team would prefer this scenerio even at the risk of having a long break before the final. But this system would allow the season to finish closer to the final and save on fixture congestion during the season.

[TomTom92]

8 matches ago I had Bolton as the dark horses for automatic and Barnsley as the weaker of the play off teams. Fast forward to now and they’ve completely switched. 
 
Think we’ve got a chance whoever we play. The downside is finishing 5th/6th would mean the second leg away. I fear with our away fragility’s that we could witness a second leg similar to Fulham under Rowett.

[BramcoteRam84]

Not been worried about playoffs for a long time and I’m still not now. The teams below the top 6 just aren’t good enough, there are 6 clear teams who are better than the rest. I keep thinking Posh will get going but then they go and lose 3-0 at home to Cheltenham. No way do we have results like that. 

I think due to our small squad and over the course of the season you can definitely say there are 3 teams better than us, possibly Barnsley also but I really don’t rate them - we beat ourselves when they beat us 4-1 nothing to do with how they played and no way was it a 4-1 game.

But it’s not about that in the playoffs, we have the match winners to win the playoffs. We’ve beaten Barnsley twice this season, we took 4 points off Bolton, Ipswich are our bogey team and have a deep squad, Plymouth have beaten us twice, but we could’ve easily got results in both those games, Ipswich away also.

This is absolutely nothing like the playoffs with Rowett, we would have every chance!! 

[BramcoteRam84]

34 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

8 matches ago I had Bolton as the dark horses for automatic and Barnsley as the weaker of the play off teams. Fast forward to now and they’ve completely switched. 
 
Think we’ve got a chance whoever we play. The downside is finishing 5th/6th would mean the second leg away. I fear with our away fragility’s that we could witness a second leg similar to Fulham under Rowett.

Agree apart from the last point, that Fulham team was exceptional and Rowett was extremely negative in that second leg, Warne won’t sit back

[Yani P]

I think we will be in a win win situation. If we get to Wembley and win it will be a fantastic day out and a mighty achievement given our unique set of circumstances.

If we lose before or at Wembley well it just means we have to serve the final year of our restrictions in League One with Warne able to wheel and deal in a few more bodies to make us even stronger next year. If we then went up we would be in the Championship with a clean slate.

Either way I'm not too fussed as we are moving in the right direction, and if we do win the final it will just cap a great season.

[Walkley Ram]

No point going up this season anyway If the EFL won't let us sign players. We'd end up with Andy Carroll and Gary Teale on frees as our only summer signings. If they're going to keep us under their thumb then we might do better with another season here.

[Bris Vegas]

15 hours ago, Rammy03 said:

Doesn't feel like that to me at all. Bolton aren't better then us. Barnsley, really? Even Ipswich aren't massively better than us. We have just as much chance as these sides to win the playoffs.

Even Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth, they're not absolutely miles better than us but they've been ultra consistent from the off.

Anyway that's all irrelevant because the season isn't over yet. We'll finish where we deserve to finish.

I think we are slightly better than Bolton.

But on recent form, plus our game against Barnsley, I think shows they are a better side. They looked far fitter than us, more aggressive and switched on. They have shown they can also beat the better sides, something we have struggled to do.

Our best away win of the season is Port Vale in 14th.

We haven’t beaten anyone in the top half away, while our home record against top half teams reads W4 D4 L1. It seems like we’re flat track bullies with an outstanding record against crap teams but against the teams currently in the top half we have only won 4 from 17 games.

Our overall record against the top half teams is W4 D7 L6. That isn’t good at all.

[Rich84]

30 minutes ago, Bris Vegas said:

I think we are slightly better than Bolton.

But on recent form, plus our game against Barnsley, I think shows they are a better side. They looked far fitter than us, more aggressive and switched on. They have shown they can also beat the better sides, something we have struggled to do.

Our best away win of the season is Port Vale in 14th.

We haven’t beaten anyone in the top half away, while our home record against top half teams reads W4 D4 L1. It seems like we’re flat track bullies with an outstanding record against crap teams but against the teams currently in the top half we have only won 4 from 17 games.

Our overall record against the top half teams is W4 D7 L6. That isn’t good at all.

Be a nice change to win the ones that matter, save it up for the end of season lottery and beat the 2 teams just the once in the season and the rest doesn't matter....

[Sparkle]

1 hour ago, Bris Vegas said:

I think we are slightly better than Bolton.

But on recent form, plus our game against Barnsley, I think shows they are a better side. They looked far fitter than us, more aggressive and switched on. They have shown they can also beat the better sides, something we have struggled to do.

Our best away win of the season is Port Vale in 14th.

We haven’t beaten anyone in the top half away, while our home record against top half teams reads W4 D4 L1. It seems like we’re flat track bullies with an outstanding record against crap teams but against the teams currently in the top half we have only won 4 from 17 games.

Our overall record against the top half teams is W4 D7 L6. That isn’t good at all.

If we have our best players playing in their best positions we can beat everyone 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Sparkle

[BramcoteRam84]

1 hour ago, Bris Vegas said:

I think we are slightly better than Bolton.

But on recent form, plus our game against Barnsley, I think shows they are a better side. They looked far fitter than us, more aggressive and switched on. They have shown they can also beat the better sides, something we have struggled to do.

Our best away win of the season is Port Vale in 14th.

We haven’t beaten anyone in the top half away, while our home record against top half teams reads W4 D4 L1. It seems like we’re flat track bullies with an outstanding record against crap teams but against the teams currently in the top half we have only won 4 from 17 games.

Our overall record against the top half teams is W4 D7 L6. That isn’t good at all.

All means nothing in the playoffs. Case in point we beat Hull 0-2 and 4-0 in regular season, they knocked us out in the playoffs and got promoted. We’ve not played Ipswich at home yet and, having gone to the Barnsley game, they’re nothing to worry about, 4-1 flattered them and it was one of our worse performances of the season, we beat ourselves not the other way around.  Id also argue we played some of those teams early season under Liam or in the Liam/Warne transition which distorts things.

Our small squad means we struggle over the season compared to the top 4, we just need to get to the playoffs and have a go to win them and we have every chance. If not, then with a full summer no reason we can’t do a Wednesday next season.

[Tamworthram]

23 minutes ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

All means nothing in the playoffs. Case in point we beat Hull 0-2 and 4-0 in regular season, they knocked us out in the playoffs and got promoted. We’ve not played Ipswich at home yet and, having gone to the Barnsley game, they’re nothing to worry about, 4-1 flattered them and it was one of our worse performances of the season, we beat ourselves not the other way around.  Id also argue we played some of those teams early season under Liam or in the Liam/Warne transition which distorts things.

Our small squad means we struggle over the season compared to the top 4, we just need to get to the playoffs and have a go to win them and we have every chance. If not, then with a full summer no reason we can’t do a Wednesday next season.

Don’t forget Leeds of course.

They beat us three times that season but we still knocked them out.

I wouldn’t say results earlier in the season always mean nothing but they’re not always an accurate indicator. Current form is probably a lot more important (but even that isn’t always a deciding factor). Barnsley are obviously riding high (although I also don’t think they were significantly better than us. They were worthy winners on the day and there overall form is better than ours but our defensive mistakes that day flattered them) and Ipswich seem to be getting their act back together. I reckon Bolton should be the most worried (if they hold off Wycombe) and we could do with putting together a strong run in.

[Guest]

On 12/03/2023 at 19:26, InstaRam said:

Would be nice to get another swing at Plymouth, it hurts to have been beaten by that lot twice this season and hopefully the squad could use that at motivation. Long way still tough, think L1 have some rocky roads yet to pass.  

This. Leeds smashed us twice in the Lampard season and then when it really mattered......

Has that feel to it if we meet Plymouth. 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Diego

[Gerry Daly]

I don’t understand why people seem to think only the loss to Barnsley counts in the who is better than who issue. What about the two previous games where we beat them, one of which where we played them off the park?

[angieram]

4 minutes ago, Gerry Daly said:

I don’t understand why people seem to think only the loss to Barnsley counts in the who is better than who issue. What about the two previous games where we beat them, one of which where we played them off the park?

They were before rhe end of January and they have brought in better players during the transfer window.

We weren't able to do that because of our restrictions and are already suffering from having such a small, unbalanced squad.

[MadAmster]

18 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Not much consolation when it's the club finishing 6th who scoops the truly massive windfall and you've finished 3rd. That's the point being made.

My reply was to your "filling EFL coffers" remark. The playoffs don't fill EFL coffers as I explained.

I don't argue with your thoughts on "3rd place over a 46 game season" deserving promotion. Unfortunately, for me, I also see the added income for some clubs in the last 1/4 of a season if they are still in with a shout of the top 6. One thing that has always surprised me is that they don't apply the same logic to the bottom 6. Keep interest up at both ends of the table?

[Tamworthram]

1 hour ago, Gerry Daly said:

I don’t understand why people seem to think only the loss to Barnsley counts in the who is better than who issue. What about the two previous games where we beat them, one of which where we played them off the park?

If you're referring to the FA cup game as when "we played them off the park" then they were all over us for the first 20 minutes and it could have been so much different. 

In any event, we're not all pointing to the 4:1 defeat as the sole indicator as to who is better than who. They were better on the day and their current form seems to be better than ours but, that could all change over the next 10 games and into the play offs.

[SKRam]

Last ten games. Incredible, blink of an eye we’ve gone from Phoenix from the flames to our current position, I’d hazard a guess 95% of us are delighted to be where we’re at. Clichè alert……..’All to play for’ and we can predict all day long the games left but remember you’ve clubs playing to stay up and one or two will likely find form from nowhere. So I’ll not say who we ‘should’ beat etc. Just enjoy the run in Rams! 
Disclaimer….. if we lose Saturday my weekend is officially ruined.