Promotion Thread

Fenty said last season's we were 17th which he wasn't expecting to be as low as it was compared to the rest of the league. He said this year's is closer to 10th but that was before the "list" was released. So obviously this season's budget is higher but if everyone's increased then not sure how we get up to 10th highest.

It probably is closer to the top 10 but he certainly hasn't been putting money in the last few seasons, in fact the opposite and been repaying his loans to 200k a season.

He did say our budget was spent in the summer and he would have to buy more shares to get around FPP for the Jan window but with Holloway purchasing 100k in shares instead maybe Fenty didn't have to in the end.

Deepcut Cobbler said:

To be honest I wouldn't have had us as high as others have us, I haven't a Scoobie about our finances, but I assume that that is the general perception?
I would guesstimate us to be sort of 10-12th?

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You are joking right? You are easily top 10, probably top 5. How in demand were the likes of Adams, Lines and McCormack in free agency? Did they come to Northampton for the scenic views? A top quality stadium? A massive fan base? To play for a proven winner in Curle?

And then you paid 3 separate fees for players. Ok, I doubt any of them were substantial, but still. Then you consider that you convinced Arnold to drop down a level. You convinced Smith and Goode to trade in L2 football for L2 football. Sure, the idea of being a promotion contender helps, but you think that's it?

Matty Warburton was sure to be in demand after last season, but instead of waiting a few weeks to see what offers materialised, he had signed on the dotted line barely a week after last season ended. Does his agent tell him to do that if that wasn't probably going to be the best financial offer he could possible hope for?

And then we have the loans. Sure, maybe you've swung good deals whereby the parent clubs pay all salaries, but what happens if they aren't and you're on the hook for at least some of it? Or all of it? That bumps up the total.

Adams, Cornell, Arnold, Goode, Williams, Smith, Lines, McCormack, Martin, Turnbull, Hoskins. That's 11 average to above average earners, for sure. Add in the loans of Wharton, Jones and Morton, plus signing Paul Anderson and Mark Marshall recently. Middle of the pack budget? Yeah, no, I don't buy that for a second.

Devon_Lad said:

Fuck me, you're deluded. Do you genuinely think you have a chance of play offs this season? I'm going to dismiss your autos talk as blatant trolling.

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Devon_Lad said:

Port Vale are not fecking promotion rivals you troll.

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Almost a perfect day for us. Now 10 points clear of Bradford in 8th with a massively better GD. 4 points clear of Plymouth in 4th as well. Getting close to the point now where we could lose form and still scrape together enough wins to get in the play-offs.

Got Crawley on Tuesday and then Macc at home and Morecambe away to close out the month. Be huge for us if we could get 7 points from those 3.

Imagine if we could play well for a game or two.

A good day for us. Only 2 points off Swindon now, with a game on hand. More importantly though gaps are opening up behind us. It would take an horrendous run now us to not atleast finish in a play off spot, but we've got to be targeting more than that.

Lucky to get a winner in the 7th minute of injury time. What happened? Somebody died on the pitch or did you just bribe the ref?

Trapdoor said:

Lucky to get a winner in the 7th minute of injury time. What happened? Somebody died on the pitch or did you just bribe the ref?

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Oldham's keeper took 3 and a half minutes to take every goal kick

Great day for us making up the three point gap with FGR and Cheltenham losing and Bradford failing to win... added to us beating Northampton a fellow play off rival we’ve now thrown ourselves well into the mix.

Huge game now at FGR on Tuesday.

We seem to have stated winning more and cutting out the many draws from early season and have won half our games since December 29th, if we can keep the form up we’ve a chance. Manny Oyeleke made the bench so is back after missing pretty much the whole season and Jake Taylor is close to a come back after missing the past month... with Smith now back quicker than expected hopefully things are falling into place.

Most pleasing though is the fact today we’ve equalled our points total from the whole of last season (and beat the year before) with 14 games to spare so the progress has been huge post Smurf!

I do feel if we want to make the top 7 we need to get a consistent run of 3 or 4 wins to try and claw in the top 6 as at the moment our GD isn’t great so have a disadvantage if it was a race for the final spot only with a few sides.

TimeyWimey said:

Imagine if we could play well for a game or two.

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Are you lot not playing well anymore? Classic cliche, but you're picking up points in games like a side that goes up if so.

We're not playing very well anymore either.....

Son of Cod said:

Are you lot not playing well anymore? Classic cliche, but you're picking up points in games like a side that goes up if so.

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Few issues which have prevented us reaching top form in the last few weeks. Some have hit a wall energy wise. Been leaning on the same 7-8 players for most of the season and its showed. That's why we've had to rotate guys like Kirk and Lowery.

Then we've had injuries. Yeah, no different to any other team, but were currently down 3 first choice CBs and 2 first choice CMs. Our 2nd highest scorer has been out for 2 months over the busiest period of the season, we lost our highest scorer and most in form player yesterday in the warm up, our joint top scoring midfielder in Lowery has been battling injuries for a few weeks.

And then it's also the opposition. Now that we're into the final stretch, teams are really starting raise their game against us. We are seeing more teams come at us with a high press style and it does cause us issues, same with most teams I'd imagine.

No surprise that we struggle in first halves when teams come at us, but we come on stronger in the 2nd period when they start to tire. I mean, there is no need to scout us, because we operate the same system each week. There are no surprises when it comes to game planning. But so many teams have devoted all their energy to stopping us, rather than trying to play their own game. It's high praise, but it does mean we spend a lot of games in a battle of attrition.

I know people rip on Artell because he rubs them up the wrong way and comes out with arrogant statements. But what hes done here is incredible. When Steve Davis took over in 2011, he had all the pieces he needed already established. He just needed to put them in the right system and let them fly. Artell has had to slowly build this team over the last 3 years. Hes had to assemble all these pieces himself. Hes brought most of our academy lads into the team and has had to be patient whilst he waits for them to develop. Hes brought in important players like Jaaskelainen, Hunt, Nolan, Green, Porter, Anene, guys with experience that are helping the younger ones along.

He's developed a strong team spirit. The amount of comebacks this season(25 points from losing positions shows that) has been incredible. Hes managed to get savvy finds in the transfer and loan markets. A few duds admittedly, but what manager doesnt.

His most impressive job is the squad hes put together. We've got depth all over the pitch. We've got young lads making their debuts and not looking at all out of place. Oli Finney and Owen Dale were barely involved last season, they've both been very useful this season. Players like Luke Offord and Rio Adebisi have stepped in and coped fine.

We lost Chris Porter and wild card loanee Anene jumped straight in and scored 8 goals. Almost every outfield player has scored. Just so much to be impressed by at the moment. Its an outstanding job by all involved. And what's more, we dont even have the same calibre of talent as 11-12. I doubt any of these players will ever reach the PL. Be surprised if they even reached the Championship. None have the talent Nick Powell did. I truly think this team is better than the sum of its parts. Every player is in a place to play to his strengths.

Yes, it's made easier by the fact the league is very weak. There are no juggernaut teams. This Swindon side is good, but better than some of their last promotion winning teams? Exeter aren't as good as they were 2-3 years ago. Northampton, clearly not as good as their title winning side from a few years ago. Bradford, woeful, Scunny, woeful, Mansfield woeful. So many should be contenders underperforming due to bad management. We've capitalized on a weak promotion race, but who cares. History doesnt remember what kind of league you got promoted from.

Sorry for the long waffle, knowing you you probably dont care. Just thought it was time this team got it's due.

Our game v Port Vale is pretty much last chance saloon for us. Win and we're still in with a shout, lose and it's season over.

Might as well go balls to the wall instead of waiting till we're 1 down before having a fucking shot.

Some interesting midweek games coming up, I expect on balance that Crewe will beat Crawley, but Northampton vs Swindon could go either way, as could Salford vs Argyle. We play Oldham which on paper we ought to win, but Crewe only pipped them with a late goal. Other interesting games too. I personally don't buy into the league being weak this year on the basis there is no-one running away with it, I think it's actually pretty strong because so many are challenging. Some have said Exeter are not the team they were a couple of years ago, we may not be as strong up front but we are definitely much stronger at the back, and have a much stronger squad, which might be the difference between finally getting over the line after being close for 3 seasons.

Sydney Posse said:

Some interesting midweek games coming up, I expect on balance that Crewe will beat Crawley, but Northampton vs Swindon could go either way, as could Salford vs Argyle. We play Oldham which on paper we ought to win, but Crewe only pipped them with a late goal. Other interesting games too. I personally don't buy into the league being weak this year on the basis there is no-one running away with it, I think it's actually pretty strong because so many are challenging. Some have said Exeter are not the team they were a couple of years ago, we may not be as strong up front but we are definitely much stronger at the back, and have a much stronger squad, which might be the difference between finally getting over the line after being close for 3 seasons.

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Crawley have been in decent form recently, they've recently picked up points in tough away games at Plymouth and Salford. So I'm not expecting an easy game for us.

Crewelad87 said:

Crawley have been in decent form recently, they've recently picked up points in tough away games at Plymouth and Salford. So I'm not expecting an easy game for us.

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I did notice their draw at Argyle, but I must admit I've not been paying too much attention to their other games. Out of curiosity, what were Oldham like at the weekend

Sydney Posse said:

I did notice their draw at Argyle, but I must admit I've not been paying too much attention to their other games. Out of curiosity, what were Oldham like at the weekend

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They looked like they've got the makings of a decent team. Fairly well organised and Johnny Smith looks a good player. The downfall was the Uber negative tactics employed by Dino, lots of time wasting, and the keeper is garbage.

JJ1532 said:

And what's more, we dont even have the same calibre of talent as 11-12. I doubt any of these players will ever reach the PL. Be surprised if they even reached the Championship. None have the talent Nick Powell did. .

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Even if they're not ready right now, I think there's 6 or 7 players in our first team who have the potential to reach the Championship. 2 or 3 of them could probably skip League One altogether. Some of these kids are definitely more talented than some players who played a lot of games for us in the Champo.

lordofthepies said:

Even if they're not ready right now, I think there's 6 or 7 players in our first team who have the potential to reach the Championship. 2 or 3 of them could probably skip League One altogether. Some of these kids are definitely more talented than some players who played a lot of games for us in the Champo.

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I agree, I think JJ is massively down playing the talent in our squad currently. I'd be very surprised if none of this crop atleast make the championship.

Just did a quick predictor for the rest of the season, and ended up with this. Didn't bother with goals just purely on win, loss, draw every game. 3 teams with 90+ points seems abit unrealistic though

Crewelad87 said:

View attachment 12531
Just did a quick predictor for the rest of the season, and ended up with this. Didn't bother with goals just purely on win, loss, draw every game. 3 teams with 90+ points seems abit unrealistic though

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That would be 2003-04 all over again!

I did the Fishy and it predicted us 7th Swindon finishing 5th and Colchester missing out so seems to be different every time!

Remove Nick Powell from our 11-12 team and this team would wipe the floor with that one. The 11-12 team never dominated possession like we have done this season or scored team goals of the quality this one has. Like JJ says, that's mostly down to Artell and Lunt and the way they've built the squad. 11-12 was built around 80% Powell and 20% pure spirit.

valefan16 said:

That would be 2003-04 all over again!

I did the Fishy and it predicted us 7th Swindon finishing 5th and Colchester missing out so seems to be different every time!

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Where did you have us out of curiosity? I tried to being as unbiased as I could, but 90 points suggest still probably not quite unbiased enough. I think I had us dropping points Vs Plymouth, Exeter, Colchester, port Vale and Bradford.

Crewelad87 said:

Where did you have us out of curiosity? I tried to being as unbiased as I could, but 90 points suggest still probably not quite unbiased enough. I think I had us dropping points Vs Plymouth, Exeter, Colchester, port Vale and Bradford.

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I just let Fishy predict it and they had you second.

Based on their predictions it has us winning the equivalent of 8 from 14 which is a big ask.

Crewelad87 said:

View attachment 12531
Just did a quick predictor for the rest of the season, and ended up with this. Didn't bother with goals just purely on win, loss, draw every game. 3 teams with 90+ points seems abit unrealistic though

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I dont think that is far off barring Newport maybe

I said after we beat Cheltenham that 10 of the next 12 would be crucial for our promotion ambitions.

Macclesfield D
Scunthorpe D
Orient W
Walsall W
Oldham W

We were absolute dogshit in the games we drew so to get a point from both those games wasn't bad at all. 5 of our next 7 are Crawley, Macclesfield, Morecambe, Stevenage and Mansfield though. Tough trips to Plymouth and Exeter are a bonus in this run but if we got 15 points from this run (a big ask) I'd really fancy us to go into the last 8 games needing to win 4 of those to go up even if most are against sides in the mix like Northampton, Colchester, Vale, Bradford and FGR.

Ouch! Tough run-ins for some.

Easy.

Indian Dan said:

Ouch! Tough run-ins for some.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1226645967765745664

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Swindon should be as good as promoted with there remaining fixtures. Despite the tough looking fixtures I still remain relatively confident we can get over the line. As long as we keep winning our home games and pick the odd won and point on the road we will be ok. The Plymouth game on Saturday is massive, win that and we make a big statement to the rest of the league.

Not a bad run in, once we get this week out the way, at least most of our top half opponents are coming to Vale Park.

Although Vale being Vale i'd rather we had every game against a top ten side left as we are pants against the bottom half!