Statistically safe....

[Ark 0]

50 points has been enough to avoid relegation in 9 of the past 10 seasons... 8 games still remaining... Great opportunity to build for next season?? Discuss...

[Master J-Do Pur 0]

i would personally like to see lewis and spillane a chance at some point. maybe even eagle. not sure any others are upto scratch.

[Northern Canary 0]

I still think we need to finish as high as possible to give confidence for next season.

[Pyro Pete 2,354]

We need a few more points to be ''statistically safe''. In 2 of the last 3 seasons teams have gone down on 50 and 51 points. But I don''t see us having any problem reaching that and beyond.As for building for next season, I assume you mean should Grant experiment a little with the line-up. Grant has already done that a fair bit anyway. Chris Martin is proof of that.  Perhaps a few of more youngsters could be tried once we are mathematically safe . But in truth, I can only see Chadwick being able to force his way into the starting line-up.

[Ark 0]

Given all the trouble with injuries this season, I wonder if it might just be best to bed in a first choice eleven and see what they''re capable of with that consistency... I think that would put Grant in a great position to decide what he needs to bring in in the summer. Much better, in a sense, than "giving youth a chance" just for the sake of it and probably ending the season on a bit of a wobble.

[FU MAN SHOE 0]

Whether we are statistically safe or unlikely to make the playoffs, that should not be a reason for experiments. We''ve done enough of that already to get to where we are. Now is the time to repay the loyal support by doing our level best to win as many games as we can to provide the entertainment for which we turn up week in week out expecting.

[chicken 0]

Personaly I think that so far so good.

Grant knows his starting 11 next season and where the major problems lie.

I find it strange that Colin was dropped and has not been seen since, for me he was solid and played as well as any other player in the starting 11 and probably was one of the more consistant characters. Since January he has been out of the picture?

However the biggest question comes of the rest of the squad. Thats where the rebuilding needs to be done, you want to have an ideal starting 11 and then 11 others fighting for those places ready to step in should the player infront of them have a dip in form, an injury or off the field problems. At the moment we have very few players that could be considered good enough for that.

To add to that in some positions we have no back up.

Keeper and centre back are the two most obvious. As others have mentioned I think once we are mid table-ish and pretty safe on say 55-60 points we should consider allowing one or two of the youngsters to have a go.

As has been mentioned before Eagle needs a chance to prove he is as good a back up as we need and the same goes for Spillane, either that or that they have enough potential to be kept on the books and possibly loaned out next season.

However going on what has been done so far I think Grant is doing well, the midfield is finaly looking sorted, even though we lost Earnshaw and then Dublin our strike options are scoring goals and with the addition of Lappin and Hughes commitment to right back we seem to have cover there too. All good things.

However another point is - will Grant be happy of mid-table then experimenting or will he be keen to finnish as high as possible to get extra cash!

[Stevie Wonder 0]

I would like to see us win at least 4 of the remaining games and continue the level of performance we have generally seen over the last 2 months. The 5 away games are all winnable and we hae 3 tricky home games. It is important that we win at least 2 of the away games to give the squad confidence that they can win away on a regular basis.

Once we are guaranteed safe then I would like to see one or two of the younger players given games. Cave-Brown, Spillane & Eagle have all shown promise and may take some confidence from the success of Chris Martin.

Any player who is not going to be here next year should not be played i.e if Warner isn''t be signed in the summer and Gallagher is off then I would play Lewis. Likewise if Safri is leaving then I wouldn''t play him either.

Personally, I would look at what system we play too - we need to find a system that can allow both Hux & Earnie to play. We are far too open if Hux plays on the left of a 4-4-2 system. I would play 3 centre backs with wing backs i.e

                                  Lewis

                   Doc       Shackell     Drury

Chadwick              Safri    Etuhu         Lappin

                                  Hux

                        Earnie            Martin

This gives Hux the freedom to play anywhere and young Martin can "drop off" too if he wants.

[Chris Meadows 0]

i don''t rate 3 at the back because you lack width, the wing backs are often reluctant to get forward and when they do they leave too much space behind themselves

[shropshire canary 0]

I think that finding a system that accommodates Hucks, Earnie and Martin will be a key challenge for the close-season - and its key is a solid defensive and midfield platform as the only time we''ve seen it work was in promo season when it was Mckenzie Svensson and Hucks as a 4-3-3.

Assuming this to be the plan then this summers investments and also any experimentation in the rest of this season should be self apparent.

[Shack Attack 0]

I think we''re pretty much safe now. It''s not so much the amount of points we''ve got but more the amount of teams in between us and the bottom three that leads me to believe this.

Personally I''d like to see PG give Joe Lewis a go between now and the end of the season. We''ve not really replaced Greeno since he left (is it four loan keepers this season) and eight games for Lewis before the end of the season would give us a chance to see if he''s up to it.

I wouldn''t like to see too much more tinkering as I think it''s important to try and keep some momentum going for next season, as we''re actually on a pretty good run at the moment.

[megson 0]

I''d rather see a settled first 11 too.

Win some games, get some confidence. Plus the higher we finish the easier it will be to persuade players to stay, and others to come in. We need to make ourselves attractive and look like contenders, and a good finish to the season will do that.

Grant will be able to say to players, "we had a  tough year, some transition but we finished well" to show we can be in around the promotion picture next time around.