Official Play-Off Thread

[Caer]

A Thursday trip to Portsmouth, be still my beating heart. Can we beat Portsmouth after 5 attempts? On current form no chance.

 

[K-Win]

A Thursday trip to Portsmouth, be still my beating heart. Can we beat Portsmouth after 5 attempts? On current form no chance.

Hi Caer - did Ross rest many players on Saturday? (Other than the aformentioned McGeady, obviously)

 

[Caer]

Hi Caer - did Ross rest many players on Saturday? (Other than the aformentioned McGeady, obviously)

Not really other than like you say McGeady. I suppose that makes the performance on Saturday even worse.

Cattermole might make a return for the 2 legs but his days of controlling the midfield in this division have been few and far between. Morgan should hopefully start both legs which offers us some pace and cutting edge in a team lacking it.

As a club we are very low for confidence right now, even the usually chirpy owner has taken a break from Twitter. If we don't start well on Saturday the atmosphere could get a bit grim.

 

[K-Win]

Jackett left four first teamers out of the starting line-up on Saturday, but still brought a couple of them on in the second half to try to get the win.

Looks like neither of us are exactly bouncing into the play-offs then!

We were both hell bent on going up in the automatic places. Potentially, that trying and failing has hit both teams hard. Could be a war of attrition next week.

In contrast, Charlton and Doncaster have probably mentally been expecting to be in the play-offs for a while now.

 

[JJH]

You biting the bullet and attending the home leg Bobbin'?

 

[nelsonpfc]

Looking at the 4 teams. Charlton and Donny have the best individual goal scorers in Taylor and Marquis. Sunderland have the most experienced players at a higher level - McGeady, Grigg, Cattermole, Leadbitter, McLaughlin. Portsmouth have more potential match winnners - Lowe, Curtis, Evans, Pitman. Charlton are in form and have a more superier defence. Sunderland have only lost one at home all season, but Pompey have one of the best away records in the country. Donny are a strange side. Seen them be amazing, but they looked awful up at Sunderland the other week, however teams that are 6th generally do well. KJ is the most expierenced manager out of the lot and has won playoffs before. I have no clue how any of the games are going to go. Good luck to all!

 

[Bobbin']

You biting the bullet and attending the home leg Bobbin'?

I’m a mug and have already been to several home games this season so yeah, I’m going.

Got to wait until 9am tomorrow though for an away ticket as I only qualify for phase 4. Should be alright though. The first 2 phases have been so restrictive we’ve only sold about 700. Phase 3 went on sale at 2pm today.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

I’m a mug and have already been to several home games this season so yeah, I’m going.

Got to wait until 9am tomorrow though for an away ticket as I only qualify for phase 4. Should be alright though. The first 2 phases have been so restrictive we’ve only sold about 700. Phase 3 went on sale at 2pm today.

I believe we are going to offer you the full 3,800 although it hasn’t gone down well with some of our lot. Some would give you as little as possible to not give you an advantage. Personally the more of you lot there are the greater the expectation

 

[Bobbin']

I believe we are going to offer you the full 3,800 although it hasn’t gone down well with some of our lot. Some would give you as little as possible to not give you an advantage. Personally the more of you lot there are the greater the expectation

Yeah that’s my concern although we’ve performed pretty well in front of big away followings this season, different kind of pressure all together of course.

3,001 was initial allocation with another 700 should we need it. Think we’ll sell the 3,000. Sold just under a 1,000 at close of play today but they go on sale to all season ticket holders tomorrow at 9 who can get 2 tickets each so that should shoot up tomorrow before going to those with 100 loyalty points and then general sale if anything left.

See we have given you around 3,100 tickets, how are they selling?

Also, saw you’ve only sold 2,000 for the first leg. That’s surely not right?

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Only on sale to Season ticket holders until tomorrow then membership and finally general on Thursday. I would imagine a lot are holding back until Thursday so they can sit together. No idea on away sales I’m working in Ireland so can’t go therefore I don’t particularly give a shit

 

[Bobbin']

Makes sense.

 

[Bobbin']

I believe we are going to offer you the full 3,800 although it hasn’t gone down well with some of our lot. Some would give you as little as possible to not give you an advantage. Personally the more of you lot there are the greater the expectation

Looks like we’re going to need that extra allocation, up to about 2,500 sold after phase 5 opened this afternoon. General sale in the morning. So that first batch might not even last until then.

We’ve only got 1,600 tickets left for the home leg aswell, there’s a couple of blocks closest to the away end currently closed off. The club may need to think about opening them up.

 

[JJH]

Yeah that’s my concern although we’ve performed pretty well in front of big away followings this season, different kind of pressure all together of course.

3,001 was initial allocation with another 700 should we need it. Think we’ll sell the 3,000. Sold just under a 1,000 at close of play today but they go on sale to all season ticket holders tomorrow at 9 who can get 2 tickets each so that should shoot up tomorrow before going to those with 100 loyalty points and then general sale if anything left.

See we have given you around 3,100 tickets, how are they selling?

Also, saw you’ve only sold 2,000 for the first leg. That’s surely not right?

Is that a midweek game? Hell of a following if you manage 3k up there.

 

[K-Win]

I think Sunderland have limited our allocation to the minimum 2,000 due to trouble at the match a few weeks back (particularly the flare-throwing incident).

 

[Bobbin']

Is that a midweek game? Hell of a following if you manage 3k up there.

Sunday 12.15.

We’re at around 2,600 as of about 20 mins ago. General sale tomorrow so should piss 3,000.

 

[JJH]

Sunday 12.15.

We’re at around 2,600 as of about 20 mins ago. General sale tomorrow so should piss 3,000.

Night in Leeds/Sheff before?

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Night in Leeds/Sheff before?

Either would be good but Donny’s a good neet art as well

 

[JJH]

Either would be good but Donny’s a good neet art as well

Never done a night out in Doncaster. Never even been to your ground, or your old one, wouldn't mind you coming up for the day out.

 

[Bobbin']

I think Sunderland have limited our allocation to the minimum 2,000 due to trouble at the match a few weeks back (particularly the flare-throwing incident).

Have you reciprocated?

Night in Leeds/Sheff before?

Minibus at 6am

Would have fancied a night in Sheffield.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Never done a night out in Doncaster. Never even been to your ground, or your old one, wouldn't mind you coming up for the day out.

If we do the unthinkable and win the thing get in touch if it’s a Satdi fixture

 

[nelsonpfc]

I think Sunderland have limited our allocation to the minimum 2,000 due to trouble at the match a few weeks back (particularly the flare-throwing incident).

Its not down to that, its gamesmanship too. One idiotic individual wouldn't cause that. If there were huge riots then fair enough. We have to give them a minimum of 2k too.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Its not down to that, its gamesmanship too. One idiotic individual wouldn't cause that. If there were huge riots then fair enough. We have to give them a minimum of 2k too.

Isn’t that all they give? Seems silly to me when they don’t sell out the home ends, having said that they treat away fans as though they don’t want them there like a lot of clubs. Give away fans the bottom tier behind the goal, create an atmosphere and the whole experience is better for all

 

[SoutheySWFC]

Isn’t that all they give? Seems silly to me when they don’t sell out the home ends, having said that they treat away fans as though they don’t want them there like a lot of clubs. Give away fans the bottom tier behind the goal, create an atmosphere and the whole experience is better for all

They give 3k or so.

They, along with many clubs deemed having away fans behind the goal a disadvantage so shove them in the gods.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Ours is now official:
Only two released: Jordan Williams (the forward version), Brad Inman.

New contracts offered to Matt Done, Jimmy Keohane, Aaron Morley, Kgosi Ntlhe, Olli Rathbone, Brad Wade and Aaron Wilbraham.

Contracts offered to four youngsters - Lewis Bradley, Harrison Hopper, Florent Hoti and Fabio Tavares.

Leaves a squad as follows if they all sign:
GK: Josh Lillis, Brad Wade (2nd year pro)
Def: Ryan McLaughlin, Jimmy Keohane, Jim McNulty, M J Williams, Ryan Delaney, Kgosi Ntlhe, Luke Matheson (16yo but very promising)
MF: Callum Camps, Ollie Rathbone, Stephen Dooley, Aaron Morley (2nd year pro), Dan Adshead (17yo and exceedingly promising) plus Bradley, Hopper and Hoti from the youth team.
Str: Calvin Andrew, Matt Done, Ian Henderson, Alby Wilbraham, Matt Gillam (2nd yr pro), young Tavares.

So if all those offered contracts accept, that's 23 contracted players, including 9 from our youth system. And a large, Ethan Ebanks-Landell shaped, hole on the right side of central defence (if we can't sweet-talk Wolves into letting us have him back, I always quite liked Tafazolli at Posh...)

They give 3k or so.

They, along with many clubs deemed having away fans behind the goal a disadvantage so shove them in the gods.

True but a load of bollox otherwise they wouldn’t find themselves down where they are. I applaud all clubs who try to create an atmosphere and treat opposing fans as paying customers, I might not like Wednesday but to be fair we have never been treated like shite when we visited

 

[K-Win]

Its not down to that, its gamesmanship too. One idiotic individual wouldn't cause that. If there were huge riots then fair enough. We have to give them a minimum of 2k too.

Well, it has been pretty much reported everywhere that this is the reason why the allocation has been reduced from the league fixture a few weeks back. I doubt they would withhold another thousand or so tickets (out of a 40,000 seat stadium) for gamesmanship reasons.

I think they have a problem with the positioning of the extra seats, above the family section? Anyway, it's entirely up to them so fair enough I reckon.

 

[K-Win]

Have you reciprocated?

I think we're waiting to see if Sunderland offer us more - they haven't sold out at the SOL yet. I'm assuming that we will reciprocate if they stick to their guns as we have no shortage of fans desperate for a ticket.

 

[Bobbin']

Sold out for Doncaster who have now decided they want to see how their home sales go before allowing us the extra 800.

Their prerogative I suppose, but that’s a bit muggy I think after saying we could have them from the beginning.

Edit: The club have tweeted that the tickets are actually in our possession but are just waiting for permission. Ridiculous. Fuck 'em, just sell them.

 

[Bobbin']

I think we're waiting to see if Sunderland offer us more - they haven't sold out at the SOL yet. I'm assuming that we will reciprocate if they stick to their guns as we have no shortage of fans desperate for a ticket.

Thought I had read that you hadn’t sold out the original 2k, must have been wrong.

 

[K-Win]

Thought I had read that you hadn’t sold out the original 2k, must have been wrong.

Blimey, I think you're right. I think they went on general sale yesterday and are still available now. So much for us demanding more!

 

[Caer]

Blimey, I think you're right. I think they went on general sale yesterday and are still available now. So much for us demanding more!

The home attendance is looking well below average for this game anyway, be around 25k there.

We do have precedent of not turning up to big games, I remember only have around 30k in the ground for a League Cup semi-final, ~5k of which were Man Utd fans. I'm sure should we get to Wembley for the play-off final they'll miraculously return.