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 Sunday at 18:57 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

[ChrisPY]

1 hour ago, IFHP said:

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. 

 

Fuck knows why we tried winning the FA Cup in 1976 when we hadn’t won it in the previous 90 years.

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

3 minutes ago, ChrisPY said:

Fuck knows why we tried winning the FA Cup in 1976 when we hadn’t won it in the previous 90 years.

He isn't saying not to try, just that the odds are against it, just as they are against saints winning the fa cup as your quote of 90 years proves

[ChrisPY]

Just now, Golac's Cunning Stunts said:

He isn't saying not to try, just that the odds are against it, just as they are against saints winning the fa cup as your quote of 90 years proves

‘We aren’t in a play off chase.’ suggests he thinks it’s fruitless if we try.

[goodymatt]

1 hour ago, IFHP said:

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. 

 

It’s 4 points, over 15 games. No matter how many teams are in the mix, you can’t say we are not in the chase. We have many of the competitors to play and they will also be playing each other. 

If I remember correctly we were 8 points off the playoffs before we played Stoke. 2 games later and we’ve caught up 4 points already. It’s in our hands, doesn’t mean we will take it as we have proven to be very hot and cold this season, but we are most certainly in the chase at the moment.

[pimpin4rizeal]

We have every chance of making the playoffs imo only4 points separating us from Wrexham in 6th place and you’ve gotta say we have far the best side out of the teams between Wrexham and us .we just need to be the form team in the last part of the season and we are in the playoffs 

[kchkwong]

8 hours ago, IFHP said:

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. 

 

We took 31 points from 18 games since Tonda took over, around 1.72 point per game.  If he could maintain this run of form we would get around 68 or 69 points after 46 games.  As you said, more and our task is harder.

[SNSUN]

Well Sheffield United probably won't be in the race. 2 down to the new League leaders.

[SNSUN]

Sheffield Utd pull one back...

[Gloucester Saint]

5 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

Sheffield Utd pull one back...

Is Ings injured? Because not in their squad.

[saintwiz]

Selling your top scorer in the January transfer window doesn’t help. 

[Football Special]

1 minute ago, saintwiz said:

Selling your top scorer in the January transfer window doesn’t help. 

Yeah to compensate for that we need others in the squad to start taking their chances, feels like Azaz should score more from chances he gets. Of course we might not need to score as many now we're a team who can keep clean sheets 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

To put it another way to those that say we aren’t in the chase for a playoff place. 
 

If the table was slightly different, and we were 7th, 4 points from 6th place with only a 2 goal difference in GD, would you say we were in a race? 
 

Someone posted points per game for Tonda. During most of those games, we had a hologram in goal, played the wrong system (if that does count), played Manning, an out of position RB and our striker had a conversion rate that would need the maths genius or Rachel Riley to work out. 
 

I would hope now, with the changes made to the squad, our lineup, tactics (no pre planned subs and a better second half recently) and a striker that has shown he has the potential to be the CF we need, that our points per game might increase. 
 

One thing is for sure in that I am now looking forward to watching us play again, rather than dreading it and watching through in a state of utter boredom and anger at mismanagement of our squad. 

[pimpin4rizeal]

Our team is looking pretty excellent now in all positions bar the strikers 

Gk peretz we have gone from  worst save percentage in the league to the best might be a bit dodgy with his feet but who cares exactly what the Dr ordered.

full backs Bree and wellington have been game changers since coming in ,proper fullbacks who can also defend 

Cbs Stephens is alright and ThB good but seem to be forging a good partnership at the minute .

Cm we are blessed to have 2 out Downes Jander and Charles gotta be close to beat in the division 

wingers Scuenza  Fellows  throw in Edozie as back,up again can’t see any one else in the league with wingers as good  fellows could do with chipping in with goals though 

Am Azaz again up with best in the league brilliant vision and can put people in on goal regularly class act 

CF now this is where it all seems to  go downhill.  Is Stewart still what he was before the injuries? we have only seen him in glimpses really, massive fitness risk for lasting the season .Larin great debut but also a big gamble with his recent record everywhere else and again is he fit enough ?  Archer I’m happy to keep actually although maybe doesn’t want to be here anymore  and is probably last choice with the manager I somehow feel like he’s not as risky as the other two but  it’s unlikely he starts .

Overall we seem to have an immense team now for playoff challenge Huge question marks over the striker situation but in nearly all other positions we are stacked with quality 

Edited 2 hours ago by pimpin4rizeal

[Ted Bates Statue]

1 hour ago, Behind Enemy Lines said:

To put it another way to those that say we aren’t in the chase for a playoff place. 
 

If the table was slightly different, and we were 7th, 4 points from 6th place with only a 2 goal difference in GD, would you say we were in a race? 

I like your way of thinking. In addition, it probably helps that a lot of the teams we're competing have to play each other and they will drop points too. In this part of the table teams aren't going to show a relentlessness similar to Huddersfield in 09-10. As long as we get around 10 wins we should be there or thereabouts and other teams will fall away gradually.

The trouble is whether we can set the pace and avoid pratfalls and banana skins against teams we should be beating. 

[Saint Garrett]

WHilst I've thought we've left ourselves too much to do...it isn't impossible...

Next 9 league games below: could easily be 20 points from those.  It would be a big win for us tonight if we can get it.  No reason why we can't beat Charlton, QPR, Sheff Weds, WBA, Oxford.

Then Norwich and Ipswich at home are winnable.

[skintsaint]

It seems that one team always surges up the table from nowhere and gets to the playoffs, so hope it will be us.

[danjosaint]

1 hour ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

 

wingers Scuenza  Fellows  throw in Edozie as back,up again can’t see any one else in the league with wingers as good  fellows could do with chipping in with goals though 

 

Fatawu Mavadidi Monga 

[Turkish]

On 08/02/2026 at 12:59, 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.

Difference is this year the top of league isn’t as strong. The relegated teams usually make up 3 of the top 6 alongside two or three strong championship sides. this year Leicester are more likely to go down and we’ve been crap for most of the season. With the way form has been you’d fancy Ipswich and Boro to get autos then it’s wide open. I bet not even their own fans thought Millwall and Hull would be in with a shout this season. I really don’t see how anyone thinks we can’t beat any of the teams above over two legs or in a one off game. If we do sneak in we’ll Be in a great run of form which can only be good for knock out football 

Edited 31 minutes ago by Turkish

[Toadhall Saint]

On 08/02/2026 at 19:31, Golac's Cunning Stunts said:

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

Good manager