4/5 reasons why we will probably only make the play offs

[jimbo 0]

1. Youseff Safri.

It was clearly evident from yesterday just what an important player Safri is for us. We do not look no where near as good a team without him. He is going to be missing for the next few games and for probably 5 games during Jan and Feb for the ANC. His abscence will likely cost us a few points.

2. Callum Davenport.

Again a very important player for us. His loan expires i believe half way through December. I have heard through a very reliable source that we are going to try and buy him in Jan. However, we are by no means guaranteed to get him and even if we do it could take untill mid to the end of Jan to get the deal sorted which means that we will be back to having Fleming in the centre of defence over this time which will again cost us a point or 2.

3. We have again yesterday failed to beat a side at home whom if we want to win automatic promotion we should beat. Millwall are added to the likes of Crewe, Coventry, Reading and Leeds where we have dropped valuable home points. We now have coming up before the end of the year 9 away games and only 5 at home.

4. Sheffield Utd and Crystal Palace.

These two teams will win the automatic promotion places imo.

We are already 18 pts behind Sheffield Utd who are incidentally already about 10 points clear of 3rd place. They will win the league, and i cannot for the life of me see us overhauling the 18 point gap between us and them.

Palace are now starting to find form and have AJ returning from injury. They are going to take some stopping and will get the 2nd place promotion spot.

We have the players to gain the 2nd spot but for the reasons above i don''t feel we will.

However i could be wrong, and we could still challenge for 2nd place. All of the other teams like Wolves, Leeds, Soton, Luton are not convincing for me that they are good enough to get 2nd, but Palace unless they suffer an injury crisis could take some stopping. We will need Ashton to start firing on all cylinders ASAP if we are to have any chance of grabbing 2nd place, in addition to Dean finding form we will need maybe a couple of more loan signings to cover the 2 abscences discussed above.

Long post i know but your thoughts please.

[gazzathegreat 0]

Jimbo

Agree with you re our rivals for promotion, at the moment Sheff U look v strong and are beating their other promotion rivals and winning at home, they look strong, well led and basically everything we would like to be, should be, but are not.

Safri, completey agree, but we knew about the African Cup and Ramadan before this campaign begun and this should have been addressed long ago - his injury is a shame, but again we should have cover.

Davenport, well, this is in the hands of the Board, be a good signing for the future but I think we have more immediate problems at the moment, if we are in the same league position at the turn of the year then we are going to lose more players than we may gain. 

In my eyes it is not good enough to be drawing with the likes of Millwall at home - if we were true promotion contenders we would be challenging the top and have won far more than we have.

Many issues need to be addressed, and only then will we be able to mount a real challenge on the top sides.  Issues like proper coaching, playing players in their natural positions to name a few. I wish i had your level of optimism Jimbo, but sadly I don''t.  Do I now wait until Xmas, or another ten games, because I haven''t seen enough to convince me that we will do it.

 

[We need a Manager 0]

Will we reach the play offs ? playing as we are at the moment NO CHANCE we are struggling to beat the relegation candidates at home so whats going to happen when we start playing the better teams. We have not beaten one team of any note all season and look a million miles behind the likes of Sheffield Utd , Palace ,Leeds , Reading etc. Change the manager now and who knows , keep him and we will finish mid-table and all the better players will be gone by the start of next season .