play-off run in

[slappy]

Well that's been an exciting few weeks.
An unprecedented set of wins 4-0, 4-0 against lower sides, followed by an unexpected 5-0 against Peterborough.
Tuesday night has set us back with the 1-0 defeat to Lincoln, leaving a play-off push mostly in our own hands.
Wins against Stevenage and Exeter will do, but if not other games could go our way.
Stevenage realistically can't catch up our goal difference and are also managerless so may not care anymore.
Lincoln are most likely to take our place, needing to catch up just two points on us vs Cheltenham and Pompey.
Blackpool need to catch up three points vs Barnsley and Reading and goal difference.
and implausibly we could catch up Barnsley by two points with their games against Blackpool and Northampton.

[Kairdiff Exile]

Tuesday was gutting, wasn't it. Lincoln didn't look that great, but they did a job on us. Tomorrow night is massive now if we're to regain the momentum that we want to have going into the playoffs.

P*sses me off that I can't get an audio pass to listen to the commentaries for these games. I can't justify a tenner to pay for the video stream, and sitting glued to a laptop isn't my idea of a good night in anyway; I only want to hear the commentary. I wouldn't use an illegal stream, but I'm not surprised that so many do when the iFollow offer is so unbelievably poor.

[OtmoorYellow]

Tuesday was gutting, wasn't it. Lincoln didn't look that great, but they did a job on us. Tomorrow night is massive now if we're to regain the momentum that we want to have going into the playoffs.

P*sses me off that I can't get an audio pass to listen to the commentaries for these games. I can't justify a tenner to pay for the video stream, and sitting glued to a laptop isn't my idea of a good night in anyway; I only want to hear the commentary. I wouldn't use an illegal stream, but I'm not surprised that so many do when the iFollow offer is so unbelievably poor.

You need a VPN. Then you can listen as if you are not on UK territory.

Lincoln were what has become our poison, very physical, stacks of fouls and time wasting, and rapid closing down. We were a bit lethargic and slow to move the ball, and there was less off the ball movement than v Posh.

[Kairdiff Exile]

You need a VPN. Then you can listen as if you are not on UK territory.

I have a VPN, and I know this option is available, but it's against the law. I'm not moralising about what anyone else chooses to do, but I'm not willing to do it myself.

[slappy]

You need a VPN. Then you can listen as if you are not on UK territory.

I have a VPN, and I know this option is available, but it's against the law. I'm not moralising about what anyone else chooses to do, but I'm not willing to do it myself.

Similarly the hacked firesticks which are going around. For some people it is just a risk of how long they last before Sky etc catch up and they stop working.

[slappy]

Well it's the first of two huge games tonight.
A few weeks ago I had thought that we would be level on points with Lincoln before the match on Tuesday, and that game would effectively be the play-off decider between the two of us. On the basic assumption that teams in the top 8 of the league are more likely to win their remaining games against inferior opposition. Somehow Lincoln drew with Reading and lost to Wigan to leave us still in prime spot with two games to go even after that Tuesday defeat. Arguable who has the tougher run in.
Us with Stevenage and Exeter. Neither have any prospect of play-offs or relegation.
Them with Cheltenham and Pompey. Cheltenham fighting to survive with Matt Taylor back to do us a favour. Pompey already Champions with Mousinho to do us a favour.

[Ancient Colin]

It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.

[Kairdiff Exile]

It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.

Indeed. And after today’s results, I think that’s it.

If I was in a charitable mood (and I am, as I’ve been on the cider to celebrate the first properly sunny Saturday of the year), I’d say that we were in the playoff conversation until the penultimate day, and I think most of us would have settled for that a year ago.

We go again.

[Isaac]

It's clearly not over, we're 11/8 to get into the play-offs according to the bookies, so a bit less than a 50% chance. Could definitely argue we've missed our best chance to do it though, either a win against Stevenage or a draw against Lincoln probably would have done it. It doesn't feel like we have enough for promotion either way to be honest.

I'm fairly encouraged though by the recent performances, it wasn't clear Buckingham had much of a plan previously, but recent games have shown he has and it's a high risk, but entertaining plan. Lack of squad depth is an issue, 3 games in 7 days and the last 20 minutes on Friday it was obvious we needed more energy up front but there was no striker and our attacking midfield replacements were Bodin/Henry who are basically the same, skilled, but pace-less attackers. Harris looked exhausted and ideally we'd have replaced Murphy too.

Fully expect to lose Murphy to a championship club, so the wingers we sign in the summer are going to be key. We'll probably keep Browne but signing Edwards as well feels like a risk too far. Would like another striker too, even if Goodwin gets over his injury problems.

[slappy]

I'm sure everyone else has looked at the games coming up on Sunday. Haven't quite got it worked out yet other than we need results to go our way and realistically we need to pick up a win although there are a few combinations of results where we can get a draw.
Barnsley - Northampton
Lincoln - Portsmouth
Exeter - Oxford
Reading - Blackpool

This will bring back memories of Forest Green away last season when it was almost impossible to get a mobile signal to check other scores. I think that may be the networks getting overloaded with thousands of fans all trying to use data at the same time, as it happens at a lot of grounds, rather than any particularly poor mast. Time to dig out an old portable am radio and listen to five live (assuming they still do match updates during their afternoon sport?)

[Dr Bob]

I know that, theoretically, we could still make the play-offs with a draw or even a loss:
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/sport/2426 ... play-offs/
But realistically, we need to win. Exeter are top of the 6-match form table (followed by Lincoln then Blackpool, as it happens). Our form has been consistently inconsistent. At least Exeter are unlikely to play like Lincoln and Stevenage did. We might even, potentially, get a ref who knows what penalties should be given for. Bottom line - we cannot even take an away win for granted.

I guess the main frustration comes from being in and around the play-offs for so long, regardless of what our pre=season expectations might have been. Next Saturday lunchtime is going to be so nervy.

[Kairdiff Exile]

after today’s results, I think that’s it.

Very happy to have been proved wrong.

I’m not clear from the bits I’ve read on the socials: is the game definitely definitely on S*y Sp*rts? If so, I’ll need to find a pub in Dorset showing it as I’ll be at my in-laws’ for the weekend…

[Isaac]

Pretty straightforward in the end wasn't it.... ok, perhaps not, it's difficult to concentrate on our game while also considering others, but I thought first half we were excellent, 2nd half much less so but actually we handled the last 10/15 minutes reasonably well.

We have a fighting chance in the play-offs, at our best we're a match for any of the other 3, but it's whether we can maintain it over long enough parts of the games. Our 2nd half dips I think are often down to our high energy style (which I'm really enjoying, we're playing some excellent football now), the subs on Saturday helped us manage it.

Both play-off games will be on Sky Sports -
https://www.live-footballontv.com/live- ... #2024May04

Given we've not won live on tv for ages, we must be due a win or 2....

[slappy]

Well Exeter was an eventful day out.
We booked advance train tickets based on a 3pm kick-off, arriving at 12:15.
Then the next day the fixture got moved to 12:30, so had to rebook the outbound train to arrive at 11:11.
GWR had the cheek to charge 4 lots of £10 admin fee for amending the outbound and return, even though only changing the time for outbound. This is for e-tickets so is presumably just a push of a button rather than posting more tickets out.
Eventually got all 4 fees refunded.

Then my "postal delivery" match ticket turned out not to have been posted, and was in the box for collection at Oxford, and by the time I found out, was too late to repost, so had to collect from some unknown point at Exeter.

Anyway, trains all ran on time.
Squeezed a pint in at the Imperial, which is a Spoons with a country house conversion with the Orangery a glass and iron room to rival St Pancras. got to the ground about 12:10 and the away ticket collection was just by the away entrance.

First half I thought we were good value for a 2-0 lead.
Updates were that Lincoln missed a first half penalty to go above us on live standing.

Second half, Exeter gave it a good go for football integrity, and got one back.
Our "pass from the back" was abandoned for a hoof it up, and try and keep possession in the corner.
Pompey got a goal, thank you very much John Mousinho, and we were up to 6th.
Barnsley got a goal, preserving their 5th place, leaving us facing Bolton in the play-offs if results stayed the same.
Not sure what time this was, but Reading scored vs unlikely play-off candidates Blackpool.

So we were left with I think hoping that we didn't concede, or Lincoln score 2.

Kelvin Thomas's Northampton then scored vs Barnsley, moving us up to 5th, leaving (i think) all three matches to go against us for us to drop out of the play-offs.

And so it finished, we face Posh in the play-offs. I'll take that as a two leg SF vs a team we recently beat 5-0, rather than Bolton who also beat us 5-0.

[jfp]

after today’s results, I think that’s it.

Very happy to have been proved wrong.

I’m not clear from the bits I’ve read on the socials: is the game definitely definitely on S*y Sp*rts? If so, I’ll need to find a pub in Dorset showing it as I’ll be at my in-laws’ for the weekend…

I will be in Cardiff on Saturday night, can you suggest a pub that will have the game on?