13 wins/Play Off chances PTII merged.

[Deirdre_Barlow]

I think we can certainly make it, but doubt we will... should be looking to win all our last 7 games, play off bottlers in Cardiff, Boro and Leeds who have took nosedives in the recents weeks, along with relegation sides who we should be beating along with ipswich at home, much like Palace... should be a definite win.

Our players SHOULD be up for this, best chance we've had since Clough was manager... he needs to drop the monotone act and drive the players on these next 7 games!

I can see us winning the home games but to have any chance in hell we'd need to adopt a bolder away approach, we need wins not draws, personally I'd rather see us lose by putting on another striker at 80 mins away rather than a Buxton type sub to secure a draw now. I would NOT criticise Clough for going for it at this stage and losing games, infact I'd see it as real progress.

[Bris Vegas]

Not only do we have to win at least 5 or 6 out of the remaining 7 but we need to hope at least 5 teams above us only win a maximum of 3 out of the 7.. Not going to happen, in a million years..

The reason we didn't make the playoffs this year isn't bad luck, injuries, suspensions etc.. It's simply because we aren't good enough.. It's not as if so many games were decided by the odd goal, we've won as many as we've lost, but have a -8 GD suggesting that when we've lost we've simply been outclassed.. And on many occasions we have..

We've become competitive at home, apart from Hull (H) Cardiff (H) and Southampton (H) we haven't really been outclassed at home this season which is huge progress from last year.. Away from home is a different story though, we haven't got to the stage yet where we can give it a go away.. It's more of a case of 'happy with the draw, delighted wth anything else' hence we've taken a few batterings away and have only won 5 away all season..

We're still half a first team away from being a playoff team IMO

[PistoldPete2]

Not only do we have to win at least 5 or 6 out of the remaining 7 but we need to hope at least 5 teams above us only win a maximum of 3 out of the 7.. Not going to happen, in a million years..

The reason we didn't make the playoffs this year isn't bad luck, injuries, suspensions etc.. It's simply because we aren't good enough.. It's not as if so many games were decided by the odd goal, we've won as many as we've lost, but have a -8 GD suggesting that when we've lost we've simply been outclassed.. And on many occasions we have..

We've become competitive at home, apart from Hull (H) Cardiff (H) and Southampton (H) we haven't really been outclassed at home this season which is huge progress from last year.. Away from home is a different story though, we haven't got to the stage yet where we can give it a go away.. It's more of a case of 'happy with the draw, delighted wth anything else' hence we've taken a few batterings away and have only won 5 away all season..

We're still half a first team away from being a playoff team IMO

Oh Bris still goes on... see another thread if we had 2 more strikers like Theo and Steve Davies we would defo be in the playoffs.

Win 6 out of 7 and we will be in the play offs, unlikely but it can happen . And did in 1993 as I remember. Won 6 out of 7 and almost claimed automatic.

[Jourdan]

I echo Bris' sentiments in saying that us reaching the play-offs now is not going to happen. We have left ourselves with simply too much to do.

I think ultimately we haven't had the quality, consistency or guts to push on when it mattered and the next 5 weeks won't be any different.

In January when we'd just put a run of five wins from six together, we needed investment to push on and all that came was Tom Carroll and Ryan Noble. Says it all.

Once again, what stands out for me are the games we've not done ourselves justice in - Derby 1-2 Watford, Coventry 2-0 Derby, Peterborough 3-2 Derby, Millwall 0-0 Derby etc - and really made clear that we just aren't good enough for the top 6.

I don't think we are a million miles away from being top 6 material but Clough will need to sign or unearth 3-4 top notch players in the summer to make that final push, which is a big ask.

I believe we will look back at this year and think what a missed opportunity.

[AndyB]

I totally agree, if the board had made even minimal investment in the summer (as promised) we could have made the play offs.

[Hucknall Ram]

They spent £2+ million, how much was Shackel? Fielding? Robinson? Ward? Bryson? Maguire? How much should of they spent?

[samtheram83]

i'm still nervy about the idea of play-offs and promotion and with such a young squad i feel justified in thinking so. there aren't many opinions on this thread i disagree with honestly but in reality if we got promoted because we had turned a few draws into wins and losses into draws and went on a storming run it still wouldn't leave the squad any better equipped for the prem even with this magical 4-5 "class/experienced/quality" additions people keep mentioning. We aren't going to suddenly become a promotion team and i agree inconsistency is the issue not necessarily lack of quality.

I don't think we will make it this year nor do i want us to. I want to see us go for as many wins as possible out of the 7 especially away at bloody cardiff! 3 wins id 64pts thats about the top 10 which is a great boost for the lads really. Jeff Hendrick has come from nowhere really and has played the 6th most games, frankie the most with brayf, bryson, ward, bailey, theo and s. davies all still the right side of their 20s and ball, bennet, hughes, OB and naylor all very young i would want to see a marked improvement next season.

in conclusion after my ramble no, we won't make play-offs. but i want us to actually go for it any way. and beat cardiff. or at least not get drubbed like usual!

[dabber]

They spent £2+ million, how much was Shackel? Fielding? Robinson? Ward? Bryson? Maguire? How much should of they spent?

It is not a question of money. They made a statement that they would sign six proven championship players to push us to play off contenders, not including the three loaners ((Fielding, Robinson & Ward) who you could argue would not be considered as proven champ players). Glick himself has admitted that they failed to fulfill that promise and as has been documented elsewhere it seems that the investors hesitated on the commitment and the story became that we cant sign more until we move out the likes of Pearson, Bywater and Leacock.

[Bris Vegas]

Oh Bris still goes on... see another thread if we had 2 more strikers like Theo and Steve Davies we would defo be in the playoffs.

Win 6 out of 7 and we will be in the play offs, unlikely but it can happen . And did in 1993 as I remember. Won 6 out of 7 and almost claimed automatic.

What? Crazy talk.. 2 more strikers like them two wouldn't have changed the 4-0 losses to Leicester and Southampton and being outplayed against the likes of Hull, Cardiff, Brighton and Coventry..

There have been games where we've perhaps lost or drawn and come away thinking (we've been abit unfortunate here) ie. Watford (H), Ipswich (A) Peterborough (A) etc.. But there have also been games where we can look back and think 'wow, we were fortunate to points from those' Hull (A) Watford (A) WHU (H) Reading (A) Soton (H) etc..

It's swings and roundabouts, no-one can say that we were unfortnate in some games not to win and then not admit that we were lucky in quite a few others.. Our -8 GD is a huge giveaway to suggest that we win by close wins and we lose comfortably.. That's not the sign of a top 6 team. We're midtable because we have a midtable starting 11 and IMO a weak squad..

Another 2 strikers like Theo and Davies (who incidentally have exceeded expectations this season scoring wise) wouldn't have made a slight difference especially when our midfield has been our weak point and we still ship goals.. Sort out the midfield next season and we stand a far better chance of making the top 6.. Spend all our money on a new striker and we'll have a very similar season to this one.

[Bris Vegas]

Win 6 out of 7 and we will be in the play offs, unlikely but it can happen . And did in 1993 as I remember. Won 6 out of 7 and almost claimed automatic.

Sorry, just once again, not going to happen..

Assuming we win all 3 of our home games (which is a tough ask anyway), that requires us to win 3 out of our 4 away games.. The fact that we've won only 5 away all season.. 2 in the last 15.. We stand a chance against Leeds as we have a good recent record aganst them.. But our record at Pompey, Bristol City and Cardiff have been terrible in recent years..

I'd be amazed if we managed the 3 away wins out of 4.. Let alone a record of 6 out of 7.

[AndyB]

Dabber I completely agree. Hucknall Ram I don't actually think they spent any money. It all came from previous sales and wage bill savings. They should have invested as promised to season ticket holders at renewal time. They're a bunch of liars.

[PistoldPete2]

What? Crazy talk.. 2 more strikers like them two wouldn't have changed the 4-0 losses to Leicester and Southampton and being outplayed against the likes of Hull, Cardiff, Brighton and Coventry..

There have been games where we've perhaps lost or drawn and come away thinking (we've been abit unfortunate here) ie. Watford (H), Ipswich (A) Peterborough (A) etc.. But there have also been games where we can look back and think 'wow, we were fortunate to points from those' Hull (A) Watford (A) WHU (H) Reading (A) Soton (H) etc..

It's swings and roundabouts, no-one can say that we were unfortnate in some games not to win and then not admit that we were lucky in quite a few others.. Our -8 GD is a huge giveaway to suggest that we win by close wins and we lose comfortably.. That's not the sign of a top 6 team. We're midtable because we have a midtable starting 11 and IMO a weak squad..

Another 2 strikers like Theo and Davies (who incidentally have exceeded expectations this season scoring wise) wouldn't have made a slight difference especially when our midfield has been our weak point and we still ship goals.. Sort out the midfield next season and we stand a far better chance of making the top 6.. Spend all our money on a new striker and we'll have a very similar season to this one.

I dont think we were lucky to win against West Ham at home; I was there arnd we battered them.

We are tho where we deserve to be. What I am saying is that the bad results against Brighton at home , Barnsley away, peteboro away etc, Watford at home have co-incided with us having strikers like Theo or Steve Davies absent. If we had more of a goalscoring threat when either or both were absent we could now be a few more points to the good. We are only 5 points off the top 6.

Being battered by Soton or Leicester doesnt mean you cant be in the top 6.

[Hucknall Ram]

Dabber I completely agree. Hucknall Ram I don't actually think they spent any money. It all came from previous sales and wage bill savings. They should have invested as promised to season ticket holders at renewal time. They're a bunch of liars.

Really? Let's say Savage was £12k per week, thats £624k per year, and Varney the same, I wouldn't be surprised if combined shack, frankie, Robinson, ward, maguire, Legzdins and Bryson would be near that, plus singing on fees, granted Varney we got a fee but no where to combined value of the 7 players above, what other sale of players covered that amount

[RotherhamRam]

Don't want to be drawn into an argument and this is an observation.

I personally do not want to go up even through play-offs. I would however like to be in or around the playoffs for the young inexperienced players to take confidence into next season. I may be branded as being crazy, or wearing rose tinted glasses. I am taking a lot of positives out of this season, the young players gaining valuable experience and imrpoving, players like Barker, Brayford, Green, Steve Davies, Bailey missing for 3months+ in the season due to injuries but find ourselves not in a relegation battle like previous seasons when big players out injured, the squad plays together and is developing all the time. Also as the squad is seen by few or many as being weak and poorly led (not my views) the fact we are so close is nice to see as there are still 24pts to play for. This kinds of disprove the theory that squad is not good enough as this league is notorious for teams to suffer when weak or low in confidence. The manager and staff can hold heads up as they have now completely stripped the team and building back up whilst showing massive improvement on last season.

Blackpool went up with 70pts through the play off stage why can we not do the same and Blackpool was written off up to the last game of that season for playoffs why write us off when still possible?

I can see us possibly getting 5 wins Bristol City, Boro (although this will be tight as they are up and down like us on their day and we off pace they will beat us), Ipswich, Peterbrough, Portsmouth. We may get a result at Leeds be it a draw or win. No chance against Cardiff there (lol) as they always do us over.

I would be happy with 60+ points. Shows positive steps. Also the emphasis of moving players out is now changing as the main money earners have now left and players will be coming in.

[RotherhamRam]

Really? Let's say Savage was £12k per week, thats £624k per year, and Varney the same, I wouldn't be surprised if combined shack, frankie, Robinson, ward, maguire, Legzdins and Bryson would be near that, plus singing on fees, granted Varney we got a fee but no where to combined value of the 7 players above, what other sale of players covered that amount

Over the season could be argued Bywater, Pearson and Leacock wagers have gone to off set the transfer monies into the club along with the selling of Hulse and Commons last season where players did not come in to take up their saved wages.

We could debate this for ever and a day but I for one would not state either way as I have no clue what the true story is.

[Hucknall Ram]

Over the season could be argued Bywater, Pearson and Leacock wagers have gone to off set the transfer monies into the club along with the selling of Hulse and Commons last season where players did not come in to take up their saved wages.

We could debate this for ever and a day but I for one would not state either way as I have no clue what the true story is.

the only thing I would argue is that those players wages went after me brought the players

[RotherhamRam]

the only thing I would argue is that those players wages went after me brought the players

True but could also be argued that no more players came in because they expected to sell them at the beginning of the transfer window which would have allowed for the two other players Clough wanted. Shows no real investment and relied upon selling players to invest. We let Bywater, Pearson and Leacock go for nothing. We spent no money in January and one loan player. we are currently 5pts off playoffs could the midfield general, striker have meant we would have been playing to stop in the top 6 instead of battling for playoff place.

This season has still be balance the book job, we will never know on both counts

[GboroRam]

Not sure why people are talking about playoffs. We're 5 points adrift with a game played more than most of the others between us and the top 6. We're 5 points off 16th too, which I would definitely not consider year-on-year progress.

We're distinctly average and will finish solidly mid-table. Always was the best we could hope for, but a good run got everyone excited, until a bad run got everyone worried.

I think I'd be happy with anything between 8th and 13th, and 12th would feel about right all things considered.

[Cisse]

With the team we have we would be totally lost in play offs this season. We are going to finish higher than last season while we have reduced our salaries and managed to give valuable experience for our young lads. Hopefully we get the right guys for the next season so we can challenge for the play offs next season.

[networker1884]

NOOOOO! I don't want promotion!!!

Not because we'll be crap in the prem, no. But because we haven't had a season worthy of it! I want a promotion campaign. I want 4-0 wins, 5-0 nil wins, unbeaten streaks, huge attendances, great atmospheres, great goals, beautiful football, title fights, 2 horse races, 3 horse races, and most of all I want sheer excitement throughout the entire season with the belief that can can really do it!

That...hasn't been this season. I haven't enjoyed this season enough for it to be worthy of promotion. And lets face it. We need it. After the last few years, we surely deserve it. But don't waste it now...