Play Off Chase

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 minute ago, RedArmy said:

Even if by some miracle we get there we aren’t good enough to win them. 

Why not, Sunderland got outplayed by Sheffield Utd, yet won it. If we win enough games to make the play offs, we’ll be in some run of form. I bet we’ll even be favourites. Crystal Palace did exactly the same thing, kept on winning to sneak into play offs, then won them. 

[RedArmy]

31 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Why not, Sunderland got outplayed by Sheffield Utd, yet won it. If we win enough games to make the play offs, we’ll be in some run of form. I bet we’ll even be favourites. Crystal Palace did exactly the same thing, kept on winning to sneak into play offs, then won them. 

I understand your point but I’m not sure what the relevance of Sunderland is here? 
They didn’t sneak into the playoffs late, they were top of the league until mid November. They lost their last 5 games of the season and still finished 10 points clear of 7th. 
 

It’s not really a thing any more that a team that makes a late charge for the playoffs carried that momentum on and wins them. 
The teams in 3rd and 4th that were in the hunt for top 2 now win the playoffs pretty much every season. 
 

Like I said, our only real hope would be Coventry continue a generational bottle job and we meet them in the playoffs, preferably at Wembley. 

 

[EssEffCee]

I think the play offs have been won by the team finishing 3rd or 4th for about 6 years straight so it'd be surprising if we did win them.

I still dont think we'll make it personally. Don't think we're good enough to go on the huge run needed.

[wild-saint]

On 09/12/2025 at 23:23, saintant said:

Tonda has done an amazing job to get 6 wins out of 7 games. He deserves massive praise. However, I hope he can somehow improve the game management side of things. The second half today after leading 3-0 was extremely poor. Nobody expects us to dominate every game for 90 minutes but hard work is going to have to be done on the training ground to make winning from good positions far less stressful. He comes across as an intelligent coach so let's see what he comes up with.

 

3 minutes ago, EssEffCee said:

I think the play offs have been won by the team finishing 3rd or 4th for about 6 years straight so it'd be surprising if we did win them.

I still dont think we'll make it personally. Don't think we're good enough to go on the huge run needed.

I think people are not seeing how poor the league is this year. As poor as we have been we are still only 5 points  off the play offs. If by some fluke we get there we will be good enough to win it.

[Whitey Grandad]

17 minutes ago, wild-saint said:

 

I think people are not seeing how poor the league is this year. As poor as we have been we are still only 5 points  off the play offs. If by some fluke we get there we will be good enough to win it.

It is a poor league but unfortunately the teams above us all cannot lose every match. No matter how poor they are they will win some games.

[SNSUN]

Swansea now one point behind us...

[obelisk]

Too many teams above us after one play-off place and Saints really aren't good enough to maintain the required winning streak in my opinion. Of course I'll be happy to be proved wrong but it's looking like we'll have to throw the kitchen sink at next season, hopefully with a smaller and more consistent squad.

[SNSUN]

Fixtures this week and my thoughts on play-off contenders:

Monday:

Sheffield United vs Middlesbrough - Sheffield United in decent form but that's a tough game for them. Draw at best, Boro win if not. Keeps Sheff U a little way behind us.

 

Tuesday: 

Leicester City vs Southampton - Saints win of course! But seriously Leicester fans almost unanimously think we'll win. Let's hope we don't go all Saintsy.

Oxford vs Norwich - Would love an Oxford win here to keep the pressure on the teams above, esp. Pompey and Leicester. Norwich in good form though but shouldn't threaten the play-off race.

Birmingham vs WBA - Easy Brum win sadly.

 

Wednesday: 

Charton vs Stoke - Could go either way, I don't expect either to be a play-off contender and suspect both will finish bottom half.

 

Friday:

Blackburn vs Preston - A win for Preston there. Blackburn are woeful right now.

 

Saturday: 

Derby vs Swansea - Tough to call, could be a draw but Derby could edge it at home. Would prefer the draw.

Pompey vs Sheffield United - Another that could go either way - I want Sheffield United to win of course but they are also coming up our rear. Pompey might feel like they can get away from the relegation zone.

Preston vs Watford - Preston home win, possible draw but Watford for all their size and endeavour yesterday lacked quality. I'd rather Watford won this though with Preston ahead of us.

QPR vs Blackburn - QPR win. Shame with QPR ahead of us. Mind you Blackburn can't lose EVERY game, can they? 

Sheffield Wednesday vs Millwall - Another 3 points for Millwall.

 

It's tough to see the play-off chasing teams dropping many points here really. Still we can only win our own games and let fate guide the results of the others.

 

 

[Obstacle1]

We're gonna need some pushbacks

[IFHP]

We aren’t in a play off chase. 

[goodymatt]

3 minutes ago, IFHP said:

We aren’t in a play off chase. 

Please explain.

[IFHP]

1 hour ago, goodymatt said:

Please explain.

To get in the playoffs we will have to out point Stoke City, QPR, Watford, Birmingham , Derby, Bristol City, Preston and Wrexham . 8 teams in 15 games something we haven’t done in 31 games.

We are on a good run 10 points from 12 ( or 10 from 18 over 6 games.) but still 14th in the table. 
 
the lowest points to finish 6th in the last 5 season was 68 so we’d have to at very least maintain our current form (over 6 games) and hope 7 of those teams above us don’t. 
 

And that’s if 68 points will be enough- more and our task is even harder. 

 

Edited 51 minutes ago by IFHP

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

as an aside, aren't bloody Millwall doing well. Fair play to them

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

also, as much as i will always want us to do well, i don't think it's a disaster if we don't go up as i can't see us doing much better than the 12 points of last season. perhaps another season of consolidation might not be such a bad thing - don't think i want to go through another season like that again