a view on the play-offs

I can tell you one good reason why they feel more confident in our team than YOU do. Thats because they have seen us play against their own team and if you were to go through all the teams in this league, with the exception of the stumble early on in the season, there are not many who we have played who can honestly say they played us off the park and deserved to win.

Another factor that supports this 'having seen us play' theme, is why the biggest & loudest anti-Buckle poster on this site HASN'T seen us play this season.

On that particular link there were comments from the fans of; Wrexham (played them off the park at their place, they were lucky to get a draw), Cambridge (beat them 1 nil, again at their place), Rushden (Murdered them, at their place) , Oxford (deservedly beat them 2 nil in the cup and a draw in the league game). The thing that links all of these together is that these fans HAVE SEEN US PLAY. They form their opinions on this, much like we have about the opposition we have seen. They have no hidden agenda, no need to be wind up Merchants etc, they are saying it as they see it.

As for me i am VERY confident that we will make the play-offs, and not just scrape in either.

i think i should just point out ,that the first question i ask,was formed from what i hear fans saying while at matchs ,and what i have read on both forums its the vast majoirty dont have much confidence.

i do think the team are in a great postion and think the team will make the play-offs ,like most i am concerned about the ratio between chances created and goals scored just missing to many right now .

having said that ,i was just saying to my son today who also comes to the games with me ,that should we play either cambridge or kiddie in a paly-off semi and put away just half the chances we had in the league games ,the tie would be done and dusted.

Yes we are missing to many and should be scoring more goals than we are, but i would worry far more if we were not creating those chances. Sills needs to work on his shooting that I do know, but he got two goals on Saturday and that just maybe what was needed for him to start putting more away.

benyon always looks like scoring and while its now well know that I'm a Green fan and would want him to start,maybe its time to give Sills and benyon a few games and see how it turns out.

I'm not exactly 100% confident that we will reach the play-offs, but my expectation is for us to do so - if that makes sense! I would say that it will be a total lottery in the play-offs and I really do think that it could be any of the teams that comes-out as the winner.

As TUFC01 says, many of the other supporters of the "rival" clubs have seen us play at our best against them - none of the current top 6 have beaten us in 7 games we have played against them (obviously we haven't played te cream of the crop in Burton yet!!).

Our lamest perfomances have come against Ebbesfleet, Salisbury, Weymouth, Eastbourne and Crawley - only Crawley look like threatening the play-offs out of those teams. It's crtainly better than losing to the play-off rivals.
Perhaps Kidderminster are the only team that has bettered us (in the match towards the start of the season - I thought we looked better than them at the most recent fixture).

The most important thing to remember that we have been through a period of poor form (by our reasonable expectations) and we are still one of the teams that is very well placed to cement a spot if they can turn their games in-hand to points on the board and maintain a reasonably consistent race towards the line.
As we know, it doesn't matter we finish 2nd or 4th - we need to be in good form hitting the play-offs to give us a reasonable chance of getting promotion. Having a "chop and change" for the last few games saw us defeated by Cambridge, Rushden and Crawley and we were faced Exeter short on confidence and despite sneaking the first leg, we showed no resilience whatsoever.

Despite the disappointment of the Weymouth performance in which we got what we deserved ,we have to recognise that there will be set-backs along the way and move-on.
I was non-plussed enough to leave early, but didn't join-in the boo'ing or any cat-calls towards any of the players - this team can play poorly one week but can be vasly improved the next week and that is very much the case for many BSP teams and we just have to accept that this is the case.
We just need to ensure that we regain the momentum we showed up until the Eastborne match and we have as good a chance as anyone.

I disagree that 'the vast majority don't have much confidence'. As i said many months ago with this topic first raised its head, it may appear that the majority have no confidence because they are the ones voicing their opinion. It would be strange, however i am willing to do it, if i came on here EVERY night and said i have every confidence in Paul Buckle, i believe he is the right man for the job etc etc, you would think i was a right nut job, however at the moment that is my opinion, and probably the opinion of the VAST majority.

I do AGREE about the ratio of shots to goals. I have expressed my concern at this over the last week or so. It is more the number of shots OFF target that i would like to see change. However, as someone as already mentioned, i am sure it will be addressed.

For me -

I've had a good look at the position and yes, we could balls it up, but we can but hope and keep the faith. In my opinion we keep behind the team and the manager and we will get there.
My predictions are -
Wrexham
Torquay
Cambridge
Kidderminster

Just hoping the Weymouth debacle does not happen again.

I would, however, not have confidence for the semi-play-offs but would have for a final! How wierd is that?