Legod Third Coming

They will, so will we. 85. It's enough on goal difference.

Why don't we just buy all Wycombe's players? They appeared to be able to dribble, run and pass and shoot quite comfortably on that pitch... Our problem is on a smaller pitch... The six inches between the players ears!!!

Here is the plan. Pass the ball to a colleague.

Had us down to draw at Carrow Road and win last night. Sadly all other results went as predicted with Millwall, Swindon and Huddersfield winning. So, still on track but a win last night would have helped... Promotion still not out of reach but we are not making this easy with performances like last night!!

Cobblers. They won every second ball and used the width of the pitch. We couldn't hit a pass, spent all night letting them run midfield and generally aimed everything at Marlow. How can you blame a pitch we didn't ****ing use????!!! There is a reason we drew all right. We were awful. The pitch was too good for our standard of football, that's for sure...

We were not ordinary. We were ffing awful. Player ratings as follows, everyone 0 apart from Kelvin who gets 5 - for making one amazing save but also letting the ball through his legs and nearly into the net. Nothing to do with the pitch and everything to do with not being imposing enough. No energy, no movement, I've seen more movement in a techtonic plate. Hammond must have used more energy putting on his boots, the team bus must have completed more passes. Quite possibly one of the worst games of football I have seen in 35 years. Ordinary? We can only aspire to such grandiose descriptions. That's two hours of my life I won't get back that I would gladly swap for amnesia. In fact, I'd rather have shaved my scrotum with a flymo or ****ged Ann Widdicombe. Seriously.

Any spaces in the car park?

There will be at least me and Goalie66 there Stu, we'll buy you a Bovril...

let's just do wins, that's my view. I keep saying, the team should have ONE objective: Win the next game!

Err, why don't you replace the Ls with Ds and add three points??

Quite right. Although, as a gambler, there is no law of averages... the odds of a coin landing heads ten times are exactly the same as landing four heads and six tails... The law of sustaining victory/success has been proven though. And it goes like this: 1. Victory equals an increase in testosterone levels. 2. An increase in testosterone levels equals an advantage in the next encounter. And so on... This has been proven among male lions where a victorious lion in a fight has a much greater chance of winning his next fight. It's how a team gets 'on a roll'. It's why promoted teams often keep winning even in the division above, at least at first. It comes a cropper when too much testosterone leads to over confidence, poor decision making and too much risk. But let's hope we don't get that far!

Trouble is my friend, I know that you wish with all your heart that we win our games - all of them - and that you would be ecstatic if we make the play-offs. But in your life you have had a let down - several maybe - and you cannot show emotion publically lest you are disappointed again... Your secret is safe with me. Oh, and that's £160 for the therapy.

No, it is my destiny in life to work with the hard of thinking and hard of optimism... we all have our cross to bear!!

"That's why we won't make it"... "That's why we won't beat Norwich...." Christ you're a miserable fecker. Still, thankfully you have all the foresight of Stevie Wonder so I'm content to see how we get on with 17 games and 51 points to play for... For the record, the first ten games resulted in a poor return. Why? We all know why... the next ten games are far more interesting to me as we start to finish the building job. No-one is impressed by foundations...

Include all of December then... or does that not suit your downer on Saints agenda? The form is based on who/where we played isn't it - most of those games were away from home, and included away games at mainly top half, top six teams - Leeds, Colchester, Millwall, Brentford where we performed the same or better than most other top six teams... and Norwich! Just checked and 6 of our last 8 games have been away from home...!!

Depends what results our competitors get there DD. It all comes down to what we do from now on in my view. Win 17, those draws are academic... will we... I have a sneaking feeling you know... our manager has a point to prove!

We have not had a poor run since December. Our form since the beginning of December in all competitions is as follows: WWWWLWWDWWDWDWLW Now, you might say those draws are poor. I proved above they are BETTER results than achieved by the top clubs (with the exception of Exeter which you might say was poor - although of course they beat Leeds and drew with Norwich and Swindon...). So whatever else you say, cut the poor form since December nonsense because that's what it is. You could say take out the cup games, but what were we supposed to do, lose them?? And you would have been the first to moan!!! We lost the gap in the first ten games of the season, not recently.

Our problem is not recent form (save maybe for a draw at Exeter which you could say was our one bad result) it is the first ten games of the season where we dropped at least 15-20 points on Charlton, Leeds and Norwich - and 10-12 on those in the play-off positions. The reasons for this are well documented... But the gap opened then, not recently. Recently, we've just been the victim of bad timing! True, we might aspire to better results at Milwall and Brentford and the truth is that we did enough to win both. Barnard fluffed his lines at the latter, the defence fecked up at the former!!! We'll see how we get on now we can have a settled side and with our new players now coming into form. We might miss out, but I think we're capable on our day of killing anyone in this league. As Pardew said, it's not about what formation we play or what players, it's about our state of mind!! And we MUST believe it's possible. Miss out trying fine. You know what they say: It is not setting our standards too high and failing to reach them, but setting them too low and hitting them which is our tragedy!

Bear in mind when you think like this that... Other teams have to go to Leeds and Colchester where we lost. Norwich lost 2-1 at Millwall where we drew - Leeds lost there as did Colchester... Brentford drew 0-0 with Leeds at home and beat Colchester 1-0, and Norwich 2-1... A lot has been made of our 'poor' form. We'll see when other teams have to play the fixtures we've had to...

By my reckoning it's actually by the 23rd we will know how realistic the chance is. We then have a problem as we don't play until the 5th April and many of the teams above us will have played twice (while we compete in the JPT). This means that come the 5th April the gap could be 12 points again, but we will again have two games in hand... The way the fixtures fall favours us (in terms of who we play) but always makes the gap a potential 6 points more than it could be. If, for example, we were 11 points off Huddersfield right now, with 15 games to play would people feel the gap was so impregnable?? And if the gap were eight points on Tuesday evening?? Because it could be, but that's just bad luck with fixtures or rather our good luck at having two decent cup runs!

Even 15 is probably enough. It's not about the gap, it's about the fixtures. It just happens that we have a decent run-in. We've played Norwich twice now. We've played Colchester twice. We've still to play: Leeds at home Swindon at home Huddersfield at home MK Dons away Bristol away. Many of those teams also have to play each other. It is tough, really really tough. But after Saturday we should have the confidence to believe it is possible. If we don't do it, I will accept the result as long as we give/gave it a really good go. But it is far from over with 51 points to play for!!!

Why are we not winning 17 from 17? If we do, we're in the play-offs. It's a simple equation. Win our two games in hand and we are 11 from Huddersfield. Beat them and we're eight behind them with 14 games (42 points) to go. It's tough as tough can be but if we have aspirations to be promoted next season, why would we accept losing any more games this season?

Huddersfield still have to play: Charlton Norwich Leeds Colchester oh and us... That's why we have a chance. Because many of the top eight must play one another and they can't all win all those games. If we do, we'll be in the play-offs - slump or no slump elsewhere.

They don't have to go on bad runs - they just have to play each other... I've run and re-run the predictor over and over assuming that all the top teams will win all their games - apart from against us and against one another when I have factored in some draws - ie. Huddersfield v Leeds I have suggested will be a score draw? In most cases I have assumed the higher-placed team will win at home. I think I've been really, really fair. In doing this, come 23rd March we are either 4 or 6 points behind Huddersfield... No cheating, no pipe dreams, just assuming we win all our games between now and then... which we could do, are capable of doing and just need our players to believe it's possible!

No, we don't. This is why I did the league predictor on BBC. If the teams higher in the league beat those below them most often, it is entirely in our hands, as long as we WIN ALL OUR GAMES. That is a big ask, but not impossible. Just as we have to play the top teams so they have to play each other - they can't all win all those games. It is not easy, not remotely. But seventeen points in seventeen games - or rather 11 points in fifteen games is achievable (assuming we win both our games in hand). Tough as hell, but achievable.