Ball is in our court

[Ram a lamb a ding dong]

I've had a look at Boltons remaining fixtures and it makes very pleasant reading. Seven of the next 10 games are away and they play all the top 7 before the end of the season. Throw in Exeter and Wigan away, and that is a grim set of fixtures.

Second place really is there for the taking 

Edited February 19 by Ram a lamb a ding dong

[Jourdan]

The best thing we can do is take things one game at a time.

There’s no use concerning ourselves with Bolton and Portsmouth.

Bolton’s ‘tough’ run-in will be meaningless if we don’t do the business ourselves.

Our only focus should be Barnsley away and grinding out another 3 points and taking one step closer to the magic 92 points mark.

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

1 minute ago, Jourdan said:

The best thing we can do is take things one game at a time.

There’s no use concerning ourselves with Bolton and Portsmouth.

Bolton’s ‘tough’ run-in will be meaningless if we don’t do the business ourselves.

Our only focus should be Barnsley away and grinding out another 3 points and taking one step closer to the magic 92 points mark.

The team should do exactly as you state and I'm sure they will but us fans can speculate surely? 

[Caerphilly Ram]

25 minutes ago, The Scarlet Pimpernel said:

The team should do exactly as you state and I'm sure they will but us fans can speculate surely? 

Absolutely. Leave Warne, his staff and the squad to focus on the pragmatic stuff. 
I’m hoping the pile up of fixtures for Bolton takes its toll as we have a more forgiving schedule (in theory) while they catch up on games in hand. Next 3 away games on the spin for them I believe? 

[TomTom92]

Think at this stage there's not many easy matches apart from maybe Carlisle and Fleetwood at home. 

We've got Carlisle last day of the season but have unfortunately played Fleetwood twice. 

Bolton play 1 of their games in hand on Tuesday so we'll have a better idea after that as to how much of an advantage their games in hand will be for them. I think as long as they don't take 6 points from them we're right in it. 

Portsmouth are going from strength to strength but even they will drop points. Barnsley are the silent killers. Been 4-6 all season, have stolen a couple of wins recently and are now right in it. Personally i'd be fuming if they sneak through the back door and gazump us all for 2nd spot. 

[Mucker1884]

4 hours ago, Jourdan said:

...one game at a time.

🎵 Sweet Jesus.

 

I hear ya, brother!  

 

[Jourdan]

4 hours ago, The Scarlet Pimpernel said:

The team should do exactly as you state and I'm sure they will but us fans can speculate surely? 

Of course we can and I am sure we will.

Personally though, especially after last season, I am taking it one game at a time because so much can change in one half, never mind across 90 minutes or 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 games.

I look back to last season and we beat Exeter away and we all left the ground thinking it was job done. Soon after, we dropped out of the play-offs completely.

I am of the mindset that Barnsley will be a very good test and it will be interesting to see how we measure up but I think it’s sensible to look no further than that.

[Dimmu]

Run-in analysis for top 7.

We have the easiest remaining opponents if the measurement is based on the opponent's points per game, Pompey's rest of the season is the toughest.

 

[CapeTownRams]

Just only need draws min at Pompey and Barnsley (we have great records at those grounds, not) and beat Bolton at home.

Only. 😃

With so many of the top teams playing each other there will be many ups and downs… as others have said , we just need to treat every game as a must-win…

[CapeTownRams]

45 minutes ago, Dimmu said:

Run-in analysis for top 7.

We have the easiest remaining opponents if the measurement is based on the opponent's points per game, Pompey's rest of the season is the toughest.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion we may end up pulling for Pompey in many of these games…. Accept that they will be top and let them damage the other teams going for second place… which we will take 😎🐏

Don’t care if we aren’t Champions…. Just want to escape this league.

[CapeTownRams]

5 hours ago, TomTom92 said:

Think at this stage there's not many easy matches apart from maybe Carlisle and Fleetwood at home. 

We've got Carlisle last day of the season but have unfortunately played Fleetwood twice. 

Bolton play 1 of their games in hand on Tuesday so we'll have a better idea after that as to how much of an advantage their games in hand will be for them. I think as long as they don't take 6 points from them we're right in it. 

Portsmouth are going from strength to strength but even they will drop points. Barnsley are the silent killers. Been 4-6 all season, have stolen a couple of wins recently and are now right in it. Personally i'd be fuming if they sneak through the back door and gazump us all for 2nd spot. 

I agree re Barnsley. I am actually more worried about them than Bolton to be honest. We must NOT lose to them. The only slight consolation is that, like us, they aren’t playing very well at home. But whenever I’ve been there we have been crap and soundly beaten…😳🤷

They play us and Bolton in quick succession- if they win both of those then suddenly they are really looking good….

 

[Bris Vegas]

Barnsley play Bolton in midweek soon. It could be that is Bolton and Barnsley’s game in hand.

If Barnsley beat us both, they will have belief they can pip that 2nd automatic spot.

Pompey probably only need another 6 or 7 wins from their remaining 12 games and they will be promoted.

[hintonsboots]

7 hours ago, Jourdan said:

The best thing we can do is take things one game at a time.

There’s no use concerning ourselves with Bolton and Portsmouth.

Bolton’s ‘tough’ run-in will be meaningless if we don’t do the business ourselves.

Our only focus should be Barnsley away and grinding out another 3 points and taking one step closer to the magic 92 points mark.

Amen to that.

[ariotofmyown]

7 hours ago, Jourdan said:

The best thing we can do is take things one game at a time.

There’s no use concerning ourselves with Bolton and Portsmouth.

Bolton’s ‘tough’ run-in will be meaningless if we don’t do the business ourselves.

Our only focus should be Barnsley away and grinding out another 3 points and taking one step closer to the magic 92 points mark.

Ignoring the game between Bolton and us, if both teams won all their remaining games, they would be 3 points ahead of us. We can take each game one at a time, be awesome and win every game, but in this silly scenario, only can finish ahead of Bolton on goal difference.

It's really important that Bolton's run in is much harder than ours. We just need to slightly better than Barnsley and Bolton to get promoted. It they have hard matches and drop lots of points, it makes our task far easier.

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

9 wins and a draw I reckon.  Tough without a couple of forwards if you go behind.

[Jourdan]

14 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

Ignoring the game between Bolton and us, if both teams won all their remaining games, they would be 3 points ahead of us. We can take each game one at a time, be awesome and win every game, but in this silly scenario, only can finish ahead of Bolton on goal difference.

It's really important that Bolton's run in is much harder than ours. We just need to slightly better than Barnsley and Bolton to get promoted. It they have hard matches and drop lots of points, it makes our task far easier.

I get the thinking, but how often in football do things actually work out like that?

You will see a team breeze through a challenging run in and another team make hard work of an easier run in, and vice versa.

Sometimes teams produce results true to form, sometimes not. If it was so easy to gauge which games were easy and which were difficult, we’d all be raking it in at the bookies.

Look at the last day of last season. Who would have expected Peterborough to go to Barnsley and win at our expense? February to May always throws up strange results.

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of ‘Bolton have to play X, Y, Z. Advantage us!’ but very often there is no advantage at all.

[Foreveram]

49 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

Ignoring the game between Bolton and us, if both teams won all their remaining games, they would be 3 points ahead of us. We can take each game one at a time, be awesome and win every game, but in this silly scenario, only can finish ahead of Bolton on goal difference.

It's really important that Bolton's run in is much harder than ours. We just need to slightly better than Barnsley and Bolton to get promoted. It they have hard matches and drop lots of points, it makes our task far easier.

In that scenario we would be ahead of Portsmouth by way of us and Bolton both beating them.

 

[oodledoodle]

52 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

Ignoring the game between Bolton and us, if both teams won all their remaining games, they would be 3 points ahead of us. We can take each game one at a time, be awesome and win every game, but in this silly scenario, only can finish ahead of Bolton on goal difference.

It's really important that Bolton's run in is much harder than ours. We just need to slightly better than Barnsley and Bolton to get promoted. It they have hard matches and drop lots of points, it makes our task far easier.

We can't both win all our remaining games, we still have to play each other.

Edit, I just re-read what you put, ignore me

Edited February 19 by oodledoodle

[Reggie Greenwood]

1 hour ago, ariotofmyown said:

Ignoring the game between Bolton and us, if both teams won all their remaining games, they would be 3 points ahead of us. We can take each game one at a time, be awesome and win every game, but in this silly scenario, only can finish ahead of Bolton on goal difference.

It's really important that Bolton's run in is much harder than ours. We just need to slightly better than Barnsley and Bolton to get promoted. It they have hard matches and drop lots of points, it makes our task far easier.

Bolton and Pompey play each other so one or the other ( or both with a draw) can’t win all their remaining games 

[ram59]

8 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

In that scenario we would be ahead of Portsmouth by way of us and Bolton both beating them.

 

Correct, both Bolton and Derby would finish 3 points ahead of Portsmouth in that very unlikely scenario.

There are going to be quite a few twists and turns before the end of the season, hopefully ending with us finishing in the top two.

Barnsley are beginning to worry me, they've benefitted from a number of late dodgy decisions this season.