Playoffs 2016

[womble76]

Looking at the playoffs I would be amazed it we are not game A. The Thurs night Sunday evening combo is not such a popular TV slot as the Sat 5.30 and Wed night which they will used for Pompey v Plymouth as the glamour fixture. So we should be home on Thurs 12th and away 6 p.m. Sunday 15th. Please god not in accrington.

 

[JonnyWomble]

You want Oxford in the playoffs?! Are you mad? Bristol please, where the football gods actually give us a chance at winning occasionally.

 

[gary]

Highly unlikely we would beat oxford over one game,let alone two!!.We would have a reasonable chance against Accrington or Bristol rovers.

 

[gary]

Regardless,I think this is a free hit for us.The pressure is on the other play off sides,notably Portsmouth,Plymouth and whoever joins them from the other three.

 

[Gas1982]

Play-offs are normally won by the team who has finished the last six/eight weeks of the regular season off in the best form. Plymouth won't beat Portsmouth over two games on recent form. Afc Wimbledon will have to be better than they have been all season to beat one of Acrington, Oxford or Gas. If it's Gas vs Portsmouth at Wembley one thing is for sure, it will be largest ever crowd for a league 2 play off final. Both clubs could take 40k each! As a Gashead I can't help thinking if we got to Wembley what's the chances of it happening two seasons running. Can't see Accrington dropping points next Saturday but Oxford dropping points at home to Wycombe seems more likely but even that is a slim chance. Then to even have a chance of automatic we need to beat a relegated team who won 3-0 yesterday! What ever happens its a lot better things were two years ago! UTG!

 

[gary]

I agree,but basically being able to rest our entire first team next Saturday will help us.Although Stevenage were nothing special yesterday I can see them getting a draw at Accrington.They are in decent form.

 

[Gas1982]

Let's hope so! Oxfords home form is not great of late either!

 

[Gashead]

You want Oxford in the playoffs?! Are you mad? Bristol please, where the football gods actually give us a chance at winning occasionally.

To be fair, you've beat us once in 8 meetings since promotion to the FL - under the brilliant Mark McGhee where we went to Kingsmeadow and played Adam Virgo up front. Not that it matters, just confused about the comment.

Anyway, I'll refrain too much from posting in here until next Saturday, we still have a chance at top 3. What I will say though is Wombles have been very good this year, over two legs I fancy us against anyone but it's not going to be easy if we do end up in 4th.

From a Wombles perspective I'd want us up and somebody to slip up next week, as we're a bit more mentally prepared for the play-offs, did it last year too etc. I'd argue the other two wouldn't be as prepared.

 

[gary]

The majority of Wimbledon supporter's would rather avoid oxford in the play offs because our record against them is pretty horrendous!! We have never beaten them since returning to the football league,or in the conference for that matter!!.Therefore given a choice we would prefer to play rovers or Accrington,even though our record against both teams is not great either.

 

[WAP]

Tickets for our home leg go on sale this week, standard prices apply. Just wish we knew when they'll be.

 

[ASFC Tom]

I agree,but basically being able to rest our entire first team next Saturday will help us.Although Stevenage were nothing special yesterday I can see them getting a draw at Accrington.They are in decent form.

How about our recent form? 20 points from last 8 games. Unbeaten since 8th march. 2nd in the league. Only team in league football to have scored in every home game.

I love all the comments on here with people saying they would prefer us in the playoffs. Bring it on..... Oh yeah, we are going up automatically instead.

 

[gary]

Didn't beat us this season though

 

[shoddycollins]

This thread can fuck right off... Pack of twats

 

[Wombling Kiwi]

This thread can fuck right off... Pack of twats

Maybe next year you may reach the giddy heights of 7th.

 

[Gassy]

If Accy somehow ended up in the play offs, they'd walk it IMO.

Everyone (including myself) wrote Accy off 2 months ago with their tough fixture list. They've gone and shut everyone up by walking into 2nd place. If I was any other team, I'd want us of Oxford. Probably Oxford on recent form, although, I do think they're a better football team.

 

[JonnyWomble]

To be fair, you've beat us once in 8 meetings since promotion to the FL - under the brilliant Mark McGhee where we went to Kingsmeadow and played Adam Virgo up front. Not that it matters, just confused about the comment.

I'm not saying playing you in the playoffs would be an easy route. Far from it! Whoever we face in the semis, we will be big underdogs. However as Gary has said, Oxford are our bogey team, I'm never confident going into a game against them.
Against Bristol our games are quite competitive, usually decided by a refereeing decision and the odd goal... Against Oxford our players might aswell just bend over before kick off and prepare the lube...

 

[Glasshalffullpools]

As I said on the other thread the only thing to suggest otherwise would be police advice - a Saturday evening game gives a lot of drinking time so perhaps they might want it to be at Wimbledon where it will be easier to police a small crowd.

I want Oxford in the playoffs. Looks like Rovers are most likely though - which is a shame as they looked decent recently and the away terrace isn't great...

We played Bristol C once at 5 -30 for a play off game , giving their fans plenty of time to get tanked up and make idiots of themselves ...different breed to Rovers fans ... good luck to all

 

[StuartD]

Just catching up on the thread and all I can say is that we have already been successful, no matter what happens in the playoffs this season.

I wouldn't say we can enjoy the ride now as once you are in it, you naturally want to compete and win it, however we are going to need a bit of luck to progress.

The positives for us is that we have kept 4 clean sheets in the last 5 but we have lost one, potentially two quality players in Meades and Reeves to injury.

If we don't get through the playoffs, Neal Ardley must be looking forward to strengthening his squad during the summer and attracting the players he has missed out previously due to our poor league position. We will have a strong chance next season of competing for automatic promotion if we recruit correctly.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

I think last season they changed all timings round on all the playoffs as Norwich had to play Ipswich...looking through the leagues there are no ties that would need any adjustments it seems. We seem to be the team everyone wants to play so that could end up working in our favour...but then again we are the team that everyone wants to play for a reason. Second half of the season we've been dire. Fingers crossed we can scrape through over 2 legs against Pompey who seem to have as little bottle as us, and then the final is a one off game who knows!

 

[StuartD]

What's happened to Plymouth since Xmas PG?

They are still the best team to visit us this season and really impressed with McHugh and Carey who are the best midfield partnership I have seen in League 2.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

We had a period of 6 or 7 weeks before christmas where the entire spine of our team was ripped out through injury (McCormick, Hartley, McHugh, Boateng, Carey and Reid) all at once (arguably 6 of our 7 best players too). After that we've never really got firing again and teams have learnt how to play against our 4-2-3-1 that was so successful before said period.

Carey is back now to the way he was playing and that's looking very promising. McCormick has been quite frankly useless since his injury and doesn't look like he can cope with the high ball and players around him. Reid was getting better but now he's injured...again. McHugh just oozes class but again has fitness problems.

If Reid and McHugh are both fit for the playoffs and we play the 3-5-2 formation that has been tried successfully and the fans are crying out for, we will be a challenge for any team in the playoffs. If we slump back to the 4-2-3-1 we will create little and Portsmouth will walk all over us.

Lots of ifs and buts but that's the story of our season. If we had held on at Accrington away before the last 5 minutes we'd have 3 more points and they'd have 3 less. If we held on at Exeter same again. Same at Cambridge on Saturday. We should have been up by now really. But if we play like we know we can then we are the best team in the current playoff positions. It's just a massive if.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Playoff dates confirmed. We will play Portsmouth on Thursday 12/05 19:45 KO and Sunday 15/05 18:00 KO. Who's at home for which date will be decided Saturday depending who finishes higher.

http://www.pafc.co.uk/news/article/play-off-dates-3092833.aspx

Edit: Maybe not... The Football League have now tweeted that we are the Wednesday and Saturday.

https://twitter.com/SkyBetLeague2/status/727454198229508097


Is it really that hard??? Who to believe I wonder...

 

[womble76]

We are the thurs sunday!!

 

[ProfessorGreen]

We are the thurs sunday!!

Nope, unfortunately we are. They've changed it now.

https://twitter.com/SkyBetLeague2

 

[womble76]

jees this is fucked up now we are the sat and wed.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Definitely think influence of police and Sky for ours. Who the hell is going to go to Portsmouth on a Sunday night for a 19:30 kick off when there are no trains back and the drive is an absolute pain in the ass.

 

[womble76]

Its a 6 oclock I thought.
I really wanted the thurs and sunday slot. Oh well all day binge on the sat now followed by hoping its not accrington on the wed.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Sorry yeah it's 6 o clock, same concept still applies.

 

[PrawnSarnyBrigade]

I sincerely hope I'm not posting in this thread come Saturday night.

Portsmouth would be the one team I really wouldn't fancy at Wembley.

 

[JJH]

We played Bristol C once at 5 -30 for a play off game , giving their fans plenty of time to get tanked up and make idiots of themselves ...different breed to Rovers fans ... good luck to all

Was a bit hard not to get excited that game - 0-1 down in the 88th minute, 2-1 up in the 90th minute. Was unbelievable.