Play-Offs

[Bar na bas]

Any statto’s on here know how far away from the play offs we were after 38 games last season? I reckon we are nearer this year.

Here is the table from the BBC Sport website, after match 38 last season (the 2-0 home win against Dorking). This does take into account the 10 point deduction.



As others have said, by this game last season, we had gained 60 points, so gathered 15 points from our last 8 matches - wins against Solihull Moors (A\), Boreham Wood (H), Wealdstone (A), and Fylde (A), draws against (Hartlepool (A), Woking (H), and Ebbsfleet (A), and that last day home defeat against Rochdale.

Our current points total of 56 means we have earnt 4 less points than last year. But matches 39 and 40 last season were both 0-0 draws, so two wins against Boston United and Oldham would put us on the same number of points earnt as last year after 40 matches.

 

[stewart]

if this time next week arrives with us having six points a few trams a around us have dropped a few points I will start believing.

We have some crazy luck with the results going in our favour alot lately. We just have to keep wining and we will be there.

A tall order, but we’re taller……..

didnt realise Southend had trams now ,when did this happen

 

[Bar na bas]

didnt realise Southend had trams now ,when did this happen

Here is a picture of the junction of London Road and Milton Road in Westcliff, showing the tramline. Early 20th century....

 

[Stuart W]

Here is the table from the BBC Sport website, after match 38 last season (the 2-0 home win against Dorking). This does take into account the 10 point deduction.

View attachment 36085

As others have said, by this game last season, we had gained 60 points, so gathered 15 points from our last 8 matches - wins against Solihull Moors (A\), Boreham Wood (H), Wealdstone (A), and Fylde (A), draws against (Hartlepool (A), Woking (H), and Ebbsfleet (A), and that last day home defeat against Rochdale.

Our current points total of 56 means we have earnt 4 less points than last year. But matches 39 and 40 last season were both 0-0 draws, so two wins against Boston United and Oldham would put us on the same number of points earnt as last year after 40 matches.

I am so glad you showed this table. It puts to bed once and for all this idea that we MUST get X points to finish in a play-off position.
I would like to focus on Halifax Town and Aldershot in your league table from this time one year ago.
Halifax had 56 points with 9 games remaining. They ended up 7th with 71 points after W4 D3 L2 of their last 9 games. They could actually have ended in the play-offs with 69, ie W4 D1 L4 would have done it.
The reason it became so much easier for them? The dramatic demise of Aldershot.
5th at the time of your table and 7 points clear of Halifax. They proceeded to W1 D3 L4 of their last 8 games to finish 8th. Difficult run-in? Er, not exactly. They lost to the sides who finished 12th, 14th, 20th and 21st and drew with the teams who finished 5th, 15th and 23rd.
It proves that whatever anyone says, a target points tally is just a bit of fun and has a low confidence level attached to it.
For what it’s worth I believe we will finish 7th with 71 points despite expecting a set-back tomorrow night. And I still think there may well be a couple of points (maybe even three) between us and eighth place!

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I am so glad you showed this table. It puts to bed once and for all this idea that we MUST get X points to finish in a play-off position.
I would like to focus on Halifax Town and Aldershot in your league table from this time one year ago.
Halifax had 56 points with 9 games remaining. They ended up 7th with 71 points after W4 D3 L2 of their last 9 games. They could actually have ended in the play-offs with 69, ie W4 D1 L4 would have done it.
The reason it became so much easier for them? The dramatic demise of Aldershot.
5th at the time of your table and 7 points clear of Halifax. They proceeded to W1 D3 L4 of their last 8 games to finish 8th. Difficult run-in? Er, not exactly. They lost to the sides who finished 12th, 14th, 20th and 21st and drew with the teams who finished 5th, 15th and 23rd.
It proves that whatever anyone says, a target points tally is just a bit of fun and has a low confidence level attached to it.
For what it’s worth I believe we will finish 7th with 71 points despite expecting a set-back tomorrow night. And I still think there may well be a couple of points (maybe even three) between us and eighth place!

 

[Tommy2holes]

How does one get 15 points from 8 games I thought.

Win 5 lose 3 of course - that would answer the quesion of whether we can expect to go unbeaten for the remainder of the normal season.

After that the calculations get a bit more tricky.

Win 4 say (12 points) draw 3 lose 1? Sounds tough.

These are the only two combinations that I can come up with.

If we win 3 (9 points) & 5 draws then that only equals 14 points.

This highlights to me the need for other teams to continue to trip up to give us some "room to manouevre".

Of course I am happy with our current postion but that doesn't stop me from wishing that a couple of those recent draws had been wins.

Win tomorrow night and its in our hands. We will be 1 point behind Gateshead and have to play Gateshead.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I think we can maybe get a point tomorrow night.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

I think we can maybe get a point tomorrow night.

The glass is filling up.

 

[Bar na bas]

The glass is filling up.

I do wonder whether sometimes, our blue-entangled fellow supporter sometimes makes his less optimistic predictions with fingers crossed on both hands behind his back, and legs crossed, for good luck…

 

[united we stand]

We want Tangled to keep repeating his nonsense…..He has a great record on here of proving himself wrong….The club needs him for those vital 8 games

When we make the playoffs I’m looking forward to seeing ‘ I WAS WRONG AGAIN’ from him as many times and on as many threads as he has added the ‘fact’ that we won’t make it.

Can’t believe I’m saying I’m looking forward to lots of posts from tangled

 

[stewart]

Lets see who bottles it the players or the management with there tactics and substitutions You see im still not convinced we will make it ,after all we are Southend United and nothing goes smoothly for us ,lets be honest lost twice to Maidenhead ,got beaten by Sittingbourne, In all fairness i hope im proved wrong,but still not convinced . We hung on for dear life against Eastleigh after being 2-0 up,what their manager said has a ring of truth to me if the shot of theirs had went in and not hit the post we may well have lost that match . Rode our luck in that 2nd half after playing so well the 1st half . Until we start to put away 50% of the chances we create we are a team waiting for Dr Death to come put us out off our misery .

 

[Bar na bas]

The "ayes" are growing in number, but there are still plenty of nay-sayers to keep each other company, as of today.

 

[* ORM *]

Lets see who bottles it the players or the management with there tactics and substitutions You see im still not convinced we will make it ,after all we are Southend United and nothing goes smoothly for us ,lets be honest lost twice to Maidenhead ,got beaten by Sittingbourne, In all fairness i hope im proved wrong,but still not convinced . We hung on for dear life against Eastleigh after being 2-0 up,what their manager said has a ring of truth to me if the shot of theirs had went in and not hit the post we may well have lost that match . Rode our luck in that 2nd half after playing so well the 1st half . Until we start to put away 50% of the chances we create we are a team waiting for Dr Death to come put us out off our misery .

I bet you’re the life and soul at parties!

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

Lets see who bottles it the players or the management with there tactics and substitutions You see im still not convinced we will make it ,after all we are Southend United and nothing goes smoothly for us ,lets be honest lost twice to Maidenhead ,got beaten by Sittingbourne, In all fairness i hope im proved wrong,but still not convinced . We hung on for dear life against Eastleigh after being 2-0 up,what their manager said has a ring of truth to me if the shot of theirs had went in and not hit the post we may well have lost that match . Rode our luck in that 2nd half after playing so well the 1st half . Until we start to put away 50% of the chances we create we are a team waiting for Dr Death to come put us out off our misery .

No team consistently puts away 50% of their chances. We should be more clinical, I agree.

That shot that hit the post was going nowhere until it took a massive deflection, so would have been unlucky if it had gone in, and to be fair Eastleigh didn’t create much else. The longer the half went on the less nervous I became.

Maybe watching on TV was worse as all the action was up the other end, so it’s always more difficult to tell exactly what is going on.

 

[Barling Magna]

Since we are Southend United I can see us having a good winning run going into the final game of the season against Gateshead just needing a draw and......... of course......losing. Finishing in 8th place with 74 points.

I wrote this a fortnight ago. I hope this wasn't an accurate prediction.....

 

[Colchester and proud!]

It could be an exciting week for both of our clubs if we reached the play off finals as we are both in with a shout at present. May 26th for us and June the 1st for yourselves, it promises to be an interesting end to our seasons however it pans out.

 

[Barling Magna]

So, on to tonight's games. This is our game in hand over Gateshead so it is important that we beat Boston.

Altrincham v Solihull - I predict a draw although a Solihull win would be better
Alty have lost their last five games on the trot while Solihull have lost two, drawn two and won one.

Rochdale v York - again I predict a draw although a York win would be better.

Woking v Halifax - I think Halifax will win this.

A very interesting evening lies ahead.

 

[Maldon Blues]

Lets see who bottles it the players or the management with there tactics and substitutions You see im still not convinced we will make it ,after all we are Southend United and nothing goes smoothly for us ,lets be honest lost twice to Maidenhead ,got beaten by Sittingbourne, In all fairness i hope im proved wrong,but still not convinced . We hung on for dear life against Eastleigh after being 2-0 up,what their manager said has a ring of truth to me if the shot of theirs had went in and not hit the post we may well have lost that match . Rode our luck in that 2nd half after playing so well the 1st half . Until we start to put away 50% of the chances we create we are a team waiting for Dr Death to come put us out off our misery .

Kev was being questioned after these results and probably rightly so.

He was quite bullish afterwards saying he won't change his philosophy (or something similar), but actually we have changed our approach since then. There's been changes to the formation and we've certainly been more attacking, especially from the start of matches. So lets move on from those.

We are certainly in the mix now, especially with the form of some around us and our own fixture list and form. Goals conceded, some of which have been a result of a difference in playing approach, do remain a concern so hopefully we can shore up a bit there.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

So, on to tonight's games. This is our game in hand over Gateshead so it is important that we beat Boston.

Altrincham v Solihull - I predict a draw although a Solihull win would be better
Alty have lost their last five games on the trot while Solihull have lost two, drawn two and won one.

Rochdale v York - again I predict a draw although a York win would be better.

Woking v Halifax - I think Halifax will win this.

A very interesting evening lies ahead.

It certainly is:

I would predict the other three games that mean something for us:

Altrincham 2-1 Solihull - Solihull have been on a massive downer since Matt Taylor took the helm
Rochdale 1-0 York - I think the last 2 results for 'Dale will be a wake up call for them.
Woking 0-1 Halifax - can't see Woking winning against Halifax, although a few injured for the Shaymen and Halifax have a worse goals for than us by miles. (they don't average a goal a game, but don't concede alot.

All not in our interest, so getting something tonight is crucial for us if I am right..

As a caveat, I very rarely get any acca in, so if I'm wrong on one or two of the above, no-one will be happier than me, lol.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

One thing is for sure, whatever happens tonight it wont be our play off dream smashed, or achieved. Lots of twists and turns to go.