a view on the play-offs

alpinejoe I think all fans would question if we are using the squad as well as we could or getting the best from all the player we do have at the club and if we failed to make the play-offs you can be sure most will blame that fully on Bucks and he will know that.

Will that change for the second half of the season?we can only wait and see,but I would hope that Bucks will keep picking the team he feels will win the game, but not be afraid to make changes early enough in games that may not be going our way.

Does anyone else have a strange feeling that the league is a bit of a phoney war at the moment? You know what I mean - nothing dramatic really happening, just a feeling that it will really kick off in a couple of months' time.

What I hate about this league is that there is only one automatic promotion place. Congratulations to Burton for their incredible consistency this season (and to Aldershot last season), but it does kill it for everyone else.

I was disappointed at the Weymouth performance and result, but in a funny way I did not feel absolutely gutted. If we had six or seven more points, I would have been desperate for three points to close the gap on Burton. If we had six or seven less points, I would have been desperate to close in on the play-off spots.

I don't take the play-offs as a certainty and we can't afford too many off-days, but I sort of feel deep down that we can and will make the play-offs, whilst we have no chance whatsoever of automatic promotion.

We could win every game from now on in and finish a glorious close second, or we could bump along and scrape into fifth place.

Either way, we would have the same 25% chance of promotion - no more, no less.

I wonder if the same mood has struck a few of our players. It's not the end of the world if we have a bit of a flat period now as long as we keep in the thick of the pack and can pick it up when we have to.

I have vague memories of track cycling on grandstand where all the bikes crawled round at a snail's pace for most of the race - but everyone burst into life on the last lap.

It was a damned sight worse before they had the second place to play off for Jon!

Having said that, until such time that a third promotion place becomes a reality, this is the situation we are stuck with; and until the BSP get rid of old farts like Chairman Brian Lee and bumbling Chief Executive Dennis Strudwick - the all important clubs in the Football League won't be looking to allow any extra chance of being relegated into a competition that allows clubs like Weymouth to unilaterally pull out of a fixture at less than five hours notice, has a very real problem with it's registration systems; and a lop sided and virtually meaningless at the moment league table caused by an appalling laissez faire attitude to keeping fixtures up to date.

Sadly the plus factors of being in this league (the TV coverage the dedicated and extensive press coverage and the commendable progressive attitudes and ambition of some of the clubs) are too easily negated by the minuses.

I don't think "bumping along" will do us any favours, sport in general and football in particular are not activities in which one can come on and off the accelerator pedal at will and IF the players HAVE got it into their heads that Burton are uncatchable (as I believe they did with Aldershot last season) then that would begin to explain the under par performances against Southport and Weymouth recently.

Again, IF that has been the case then perhaps the manager has been taking a very close observation of training ground habits and keeping a very keen ear on dressing room chatter and THAT has been the thinking behind some of his team selections recently.

So it could well be the end of the world to be in a flat period now because I certainly DON'T think it would easily preclude "picking it up when we need to" for what is essentially a consolation cup knockout competition at the end of a season that is too condensed anyway to allow plenty of time for the blazers to enjoy their AGM.

Those cyclists by the way Jon, were not "idling around" before the final burst - they were strategically maneuvering to gain the optimum position to read (and counter) the first break for the line................a discipline where one most definitely does NOT want to be out in front until the final seconds.

Do I think we'll make the play offs? Mmmn..................let's say I HOPE we do rather than I EXPECT us to. I've found it unrealistic to expect anything in football. We most certainly CAN make the play offs whilst on the other hand we might just catch Burton IF they succumb to the phony war you speak of and subconsciously take their foot off the pedal............maybe that showed through when they tried to play the "way football is meant to be played" in the snow at Ebbsfleet the other night and came off second best to a side that played pragmatically and in deference to the conditions.

So if we DID catch Burton we wouldn't need the p[lay offs would we...................and in what is only half way through February for God's sake, I'd rather look at it that way for now.

Another win for Burton tonight and they really don't need too many more points to win the league.

Histon have the second best points ratio 55/28 (=1.96 points per game) which would give them 90 points (and a bit) from 46 games.

Setting Burton a target of 91 points would mean 17 points from 14 games. Put it up to 96 points - a big ask for any other team - and it's 22 from 14.

BBC site has a nice take on it tonight:

Burton Albion boosted their chances of a Blue Square Premiership play-off place as they saw off fellow challengers Wrexham at Pirelli Stadium.

One step at a time....

......but what was that horse called? Devon Loch? Grand National 1956:



And there was Jim Peters, the marathon runner. Empire Games 1954:



No, I won't wish Burton ill. Best of luck to them should they make it. Wonder how they'd do in the league?

I think we’ll be in the end of season shake-up, alongside Wrexham, Histon and probably Cambridge (although Stevenage and Oxford are having a good go at it, I think they were just too far back).

Once there, and it’s a bit of cliché, it really is a bit of lottery. All we can hope is that we play well, and we get our fair share of fortune. If we do, there can be no complaints.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that we avoid Wrexham in the semi’s, they’ll present a tricky proposition in front of a large, partisan crowd. We’ll save them for Wembley…