Who will be in the top 7

[masi51]

There should be a separate Bolton v Tranmere thread.
Some excellent and amusing posts [and a few not so amusing] that it would be worthwhile letting these sets of fans have their own amusement park.

Krap Notnerp....Is built on a old holiday park that was a copy of Blackpool Golden Mile
They even had a Tower which was a replica of Blackpool tower. Long before people went to Spain for there holidays people came from across the Mersey to watch the donkeys and clowns at Krap Notnerp.
Then the mersey ended up polluted and they built a petrol refinery on the spot where the tower was.
They then built a football stadium at Krap Notnerp. Nothing changed at the football stadium as the donkeys played on the pitch and the clowns watched from the stands

 

[Back in the DHSS]

Those same clowns and donkeys that did the double over the six fingered window licking Dingles from Burnden.

 

[chipmunx]

Other than the two Bolton games, when have you actually watched Cheltenham?

i didn't see either Bolton/Cheltenham game - but you were rubbish against us in December....

 

[Si Robin]

It's amazing we're not bottom.

Funnily enough, 5 of our 8 defeats have come against teams in the bottom 9.

 

[chipmunx]

It's amazing we're not bottom.

Funnily enough, 5 of our 8 defeats have come against teams in the bottom 9.

it'll be 6 of 9 after next Tuesday

 

[Robshep]

Krap Notnerp....Is built on a old holiday park that was a copy of Blackpool Golden Mile
They even had a Tower which was a replica of Blackpool tower. Long before people went to Spain for there holidays people came from across the Mersey to watch the donkeys and clowns at Krap Notnerp.
Then the mersey ended up polluted and they built a petrol refinery on the spot where the tower was.
They then built a football stadium at Krap Notnerp. Nothing changed at the football stadium as the donkeys played on the pitch and the clowns watched from the stands

Apart from the complete lack of geographical knowledge and the usual lack of literacy you are only about 98% wrong. You got the correct river, although it should be capitalised. These 2 and a half days back in school couldn't have come sooner for you. Another 25 years and you might just elevate yourself to idiot level intelligence.

 

[Luke Imp]

Cheltenham have been threatening a promotion for a couple of seasons now. You could see what Duff was trying to do in the second half of his first season and I think I said at the time they'd be one to watch going forward.

 

[Si Robin]

Sorry Luke - we're shit don't you know. A Bolton and Barrow fan said so.

 

[denzel ecfc]

BBC News | FOOTBALL | League throw out the towel

news.bbc.co.uk

There you go - and the quote:

"But when Tranmere are at home the League allowed the club to give each ball-boy a towel to help Challinor - as long as the towels were also made available to the visiting team."

Visiting teams can use our towels, and Vale were doing so last Saturday.

I can assure you, you wont be having the use of towels on Saturday

 

[Robshep]

I can assure you, you wont be having the use of towels on Saturday

Salfford City have used a Towell in 15 league games this season. Should they be deducted points. You simply cannot flout the rules this way. Apart from giving friends lucrative PPE contracts of course.

 

[AldosShimmy]

Updated stats below

Final positions based on short, medium and long term form (PPG+10GamePPGform+20gamePPGform/3)

Top 3 same as last time, just abit tighter and Tranmere above FGR.

Newport out of playoffs and look like being a few points adrift. Bradford need to get back to winning ways. I added Harrogate and Crawley to see if they would be close but they still both need a massive upturn in form as they will be a mile off. I think I'm deleting Carlisle from the database now as they are destined for a bottom half finish.

1 Cheltenham 83.6 points
2 Tranmere 82.5 points
3 FGR 82.1 points

4 Morecambe 79.7 points
5 Bolton 77.8 points
6 Exeter 76.1 points
7 Cambridge 76.0 points

8 Newport 72.6 points
9 Bradford 72.1 points
10 Salford 68.3 points
11 Harrogate 67.8 points
12 Crawley 66.7 points
13 Carlisle 63.3 points

 

[denzel ecfc]

So, Morecambe or Cambridge in the final. Sounds familiar.....

 

[stevowanderer]

So, Morecambe or Cambridge in the final. Sounds familiar....

How come? Don’t remember Bolton playing either of them

 

[masi51]

Sorry Luke - we're shit don't you know. A Bolton and Barrow fan said so.

No your far from shit i had you down as the league winners as near as last week, you are in the play offs as my top 7 stands......will change many times but its that tight at the top one defeat relegates you from the automatics to the play offs

 

[shoddycollins]

Eh? Where's Carlisle?

They've let us jump up into League One early, we're playing Ipswich this Saturday, yes a bit of a late start to the season but a club of our calibre should still be able to get automatic promotion quite easily.

 

[Devon_Lad]

The days of Carlisle being in danger are gone, because now we are THE DANGER.

A team opens its door and gets thrashed, you'd think that would be us, but no..

WE ARE THE ONES WHO KNOCK!!

We've been consistently thrashing teams this season, our match against you was just a blip they do happen.

I mean thrashing teams as in us really pressing teams for the whole 90 minutes not allowing them to breathe, just check the L2 statistics of teams with the busiest attack and quietest defence. We top it by miles and out of all the teams I've seen play in this league this season we are the most aggressive.

I doubt there is any other club here that can touch us on our play, we fear no one as every other team is shit and are either too cautious or try some useless 'philosophy' style of football which just does not work down here.

Ok fair enough, Tranmere as well then, but just on the day because they're in a bit of a rot now all of a sudden and got thrashed today which is something that hasn't happened to us because we're far more consistent than they are and don't forget that we beat Newport who have somehow been top for a bit now after only playing and beating all the shit teams in the league.

I do believe we're the best team in L2 and I think we'll soon be top because I've a really good feeling about this lot and thankfully we're the only proper good team in this terribly shit division.

Finally the BEST team in the league are top.

Despite us having a bit of an injury crisis our fringe players have stepped up and delivered, so I have no doubt now that the L2 title will be ours and hell even our reserve team could win this league since every other team is crap and we're the only good one, a level above by far.

Can you explain exactly how we wouldn't be good enough to stay up in the next division??

Don't base it on that one windy horrible match you played against us.

HA!

What a load of crap, anyway should you not be posting in the relegation thread since Bolton are closer to the drop zone?

Time perhaps (or maybe I just want to becuase we're top) to start representing the promotion race like this. We're not quite at the half-way stage but we aren't far off, and it's still to early for the average promotion points totals to start appearing and I've included the whole table since it's still too close to decide where the cut-off point should be.

39 Carlisle*
38 Newport**
37 FGR*
36
35 Cheltenham*
34 Cambridge* Crawley Morecambe**
33 Salford** Orient
32
31 Exeter***
30 Walsall
29 Colchester*
28 Tranmere**
27 Oldham*
26 Bolton*
25 Harrogate** Vale
24 Bradford*
23 Mansfield* Scunthorpe*
22
21
20 Barrow* Stevenage** Grimsby
19
18
17
16 Southend**

asterisks indicate games in hand over those teams who have played 22 games. Very few gaps, indeed over the whole table, teams are separated by an average of less than a point (23 points separate 24 teams).

What after we've just signed Bennett up for the rest of the season? I don't think so.

If we don't at the very least finish in the top 7 this season then it will either be because of the biggest injury crisis ever or a mad conspiracy of the board not wanting us to get promoted.

Mate, mate, listen..

I never said we were unbeatable I can clearly see that we've lost some games because that's football we can't win them all, but I do believe we are the best team in the league not only because we're TOP but also because of the way we play and there's not one team I've seen us play so far that have looked superior and had us looking shaky apart from Bolton for about 5 minutes.

The teams that did beat us well they either caught us on a rare off day or we had a load of key players out injured or on international duty, yes international duty.

Oh and we've won more games than anyone else by the way and Exeter could easily lose those games in hand and unlike them no one has put 5 past us either!!

Well I think we're so good because we're top of the league and won more games than any other team and no other team scares us, especially you lot who bottle your chances of going up each season.

Plus we don't have to resort to using dirty tricks to intentionally get players sent off if we can't handle them.

Only tinpot teams do that.

We've yet to lose two on the bounce and two of those six defeats were our poor start to the season that I mentioned. Also we have won more games than anyone else. You're free to say that I have no reason to be confident but that doesn't matter to me. I'm not gonna go all HG pessimistic because some Exeter fan doesn't think we're very good.

Like you've never thought Exeter were a good shout for promotion *cough*

Where did I say the only way we'll not get into the top 7 is through a big injury crisis? You seem to be confusing the confidence of fans whose team are top of the league with the arrogance of fans who have already called it, which sounds much more like something you would do.

Like I already said, we've got plenty of reasons to believe that we're more likely to stay in the automatic places than finish outside the playoffs, while you think it's still unlikely we'll get promoted at all. If that's arrogance and delusion to you then I don't really care but I'll happily put on the record that I disagree and whether we go up or not only a totally delusional fan would write off our chances of promotion.

So how exactly do we have one of the weakest squads in the top half?

You've got it completely the wrong way round here. I'm saying that we've a good chance of automatic promotion, nothing more than that. You're the one insisting that we've no chance, rubbishing even the possibility that we could finish top 7.

If we finish well down in mid table, with not even a good chance going into the end of the season, of getting into the playoffs then you were right. If we're still in the playoff mix in the final month then I'm right

What even when we have a Championship level defender in Rhys Bennett playing for us?

Well I wouldn't take a single player from your squad of bottlers. I know we poached Dickinson off you in the summer, but he hasn't even been able to get into our team because it's just so competitive.

So what, we can still win this league with our reserve team and I even believe our youth team is good enough to still get us promoted if they have to be called upon too.

You just have to have more faith in all the clubs players, not just the senior team.

Well maybe they should then, considering we've been top of the league for almost 2 weeks now without even playing.

Enjoy playing the likes of Dorking Wanderers next season..

No and if anything it'll make our title win even more heroic.

The plucky team who won the league and they had nowhere to train!

If it was any other season of recent years I'd have happily put my name forward to register myself as a player and show them how it's done, but since we've actually been playing well for a change I don't think I'd be an improvement.

I told you we were the only good team in this division and I was right.

We're still top after the shitty chasing pack all failed to capitalise, I suppose that they dare not overtake us because it would be a great disrespect to a great team as this is our season.

I hope we don't get promoted because we'll not be able to compete financially in L1 next season with the massive likes of Accrington Stanley and all of our best players will leave in the summer and yet supposedly none of them are good enough to be in the squads of Exeter and Bolton.

No really, after today's win I'm worried if we go up because you made such reasonable points.

Just looking at the L1 table now and seeing clubs such as Accrington, Shrewsbury and Crewe etc gives me so much anxiety.

We'd get crushed off them all 7-0.

But then who's going to want to cherry pick our players if they're not even good enough for average L2 teams such as yourselves?

I felt obliged. Sorry.

 

[stevowanderer]

They've let us jump up into League One early, we're playing Ipswich this Saturday, yes a bit of a late start to the season but a club of our calibre should still be able to get automatic promotion quite easily.

What has actually happened!? Looked so good earlier in the season. Absolutely battered us first half/60 mins at Brunton albeit in horrendous wind. Nowadays I live half way between Penrith and Carlisle and a lot of my mates are Carlisle fans and they don’t know what to make of it. If you win again soon you could maybe put a run together with the games in hand but you have a lot of games

 

[stevowanderer]

I felt obliged. Sorry.

Have you been saving them as they were posted just for that hahaha

 

[shoddycollins]

I felt obliged. Sorry.

What does that prove? Fans of team who have gained the most points in the first half of the table are confident that they will continue to do well?

So your unlikely prediction of us going on a massive losing run from the top of the table came true? So what? That mean you have galaxy brain now? How many other teams have you predicted will collapse over your years of trolling? Eventually if you keep trolling you're gonna be right, but stopped clocks and all that.

 

[HTAFC]

Updated stats below

Final positions based on short, medium and long term form (PPG+10GamePPGform+20gamePPGform/3)

Top 3 same as last time, just abit tighter and Tranmere above FGR.

Newport out of playoffs and look like being a few points adrift. Bradford need to get back to winning ways. I added Harrogate and Crawley to see if they would be close but they still both need a massive upturn in form as they will be a mile off. I think I'm deleting Carlisle from the database now as they are destined for a bottom half finish.

1 Cheltenham 83.6 points
2 Tranmere 82.5 points
3 FGR 82.1 points

4 Morecambe 79.7 points
5 Bolton 77.8 points
6 Exeter 76.1 points
7 Cambridge 76.0 points

8 Newport 72.6 points
9 Bradford 72.1 points
10 Salford 68.3 points
11 Harrogate 67.8 points
12 Crawley 66.7 points
13 Carlisle 63.3 points

Harrogate have got 21 points from the last 10 games, how much of an upturn in form are you expecting?

 

[shoddycollins]

What has actually happened!? Looked so good earlier in the season. Absolutely battered us first half/60 mins at Brunton albeit in horrendous wind. Nowadays I live half way between Penrith and Carlisle and a lot of my mates are Carlisle fans and they don’t know what to make of it. If you win again soon you could maybe put a run together with the games in hand but you have a lot of games

Chris Beech said after the Morecambe game that in January 60% of our squad were ill with coronavirus, so with a squad of around 25 that would mean 15 players ill. He did say back in February that he wasn't going to use coronavirus as an excuse and I can understand why he didn't mention it then.

There were positive tests in the squad that caused the postponement of three games but at the time we just assumed that like with most club outbreaks that just meant two or three players ill and the rest having to self isolate. To publicly say that most of our players had been ill may have sounded negative, like he expected a drop in form and wanted to get his excuses in early, and letting opposition managers know about the fitness of your squad wouldn't be ideal, especially since high-tempo pressing was what we did first half of the season, you don't want to publicly announce that our main strategy might not work any more.

But as the poor form has continued he has come under more pressure with fans blaming him for our lack of form and suggesting he should be sacked, so I can also understand why he decided to start pointing to external factors, as he doesn't want to be the fall guy for this collapse. Of course now he gets pelters for going back on his promise not to blame the events of January for our form and comes across to people as though something that wasn't an issue before is now suddenly an issue. He can't win really.

I don't think we can necessarily continue blaming it for our form, but it's a turnaround in momentum that began with a lay-off and players ill and unable to train and now we can't stop it.

It's been a bit of a perfect storm really, being located far away from where most players live I think we have more of a reliance than most on club-owned player accommodation, we own a few houses across the city where players are able to live with their team-mates, not sure how many other clubs in this division still do that but it's not ideal during a pandemic. We also have a fairly young and inexperienced squad, the stats I read were before we signed Rhys Bennett but we had the lowest combined total of league appearances in the division and we have had the biggest turnaround in players since last season of the whole EFL (more even than Bolton). These are minor things if you're doing well but perhaps a factor in struggling to halt a run of poor form once the ball gets rolling.

So yeah, it's just kind of been a coming together of things that individually may have seen us drop away from the automatic promotion contention but combined have seen us drop away from promotion contention entirely.

 

[Devon_Lad]

Have you been saving them as they were posted just for that hahaha

Nope, I just remember how much crap Carlisle fans were talking and when I said they're not as good as their league position said and I got a load of stick, so went back to regurgitate them all - Took 5 minutes at most. Only made two predictions this year. Carlisle wouldn't finish top 7 and Bolton wouldn't win the league - Also said we'd go up a few times here and there and that may well also come true. Bolton, credit where it's due, have turned things around but still think they'll struggle for promotion unless it's via play offs.

 

[Casey]

Re Carlisle and the loss of form.

Maybe, just maybe as a team that pressed high up the pitch the two games a week and the effects on fitness of a covid outbreak has forced them to roll back on the intensity?

When they beat Crawley their forwards and attacking midfielders were all over our defence like the proverbial rash. Forcing us to clear the ball and not letting us settle. Can they still do that when they have so many games and fitness issues?

As I said. Maybe.

Casey

 

[stevowanderer]

Chris Beech said after the Morecambe game that in January 60% of our squad were ill with coronavirus, so with a squad of around 25 that would mean 15 players ill. He did say back in February that he wasn't going to use coronavirus as an excuse and I can understand why he didn't mention it then.

There were positive tests in the squad that caused the postponement of three games but at the time we just assumed that like with most club outbreaks that just meant two or three players ill and the rest having to self isolate. To publicly say that most of our players had been ill may have sounded negative, like he expected a drop in form and wanted to get his excuses in early, and letting opposition managers know about the fitness of your squad wouldn't be ideal, especially since high-tempo pressing was what we did first half of the season, you don't want to publicly announce that our main strategy might not work any more.

But as the poor form has continued he has come under more pressure with fans blaming him for our lack of form and suggesting he should be sacked, so I can also understand why he decided to start pointing to external factors, as he doesn't want to be the fall guy for this collapse. Of course now he gets pelters for going back on his promise not to blame the events of January for our form and comes across to people as though something that wasn't an issue before is now suddenly an issue. He can't win really.

I don't think we can necessarily continue blaming it for our form, but it's a turnaround in momentum that began with a lay-off and players ill and unable to train and now we can't stop it.

It's been a bit of a perfect storm really, being located far away from where most players live I think we have more of a reliance than most on club-owned player accommodation, we own a few houses across the city where players are able to live with their team-mates, not sure how many other clubs in this division still do that but it's not ideal during a pandemic. We also have a fairly young and inexperienced squad, the stats I read were before we signed Rhys Bennett but we had the lowest combined total of league appearances in the division and we have had the biggest turnaround in players since last season of the whole EFL (more even than Bolton). These are minor things if you're doing well but perhaps a factor in struggling to halt a run of poor form once the ball gets rolling.

So yeah, it's just kind of been a coming together of things that individually may have seen us drop away from the automatic promotion contention but combined have seen us drop away from promotion contention entirely.

Need a win soon. You went on a run earlier in the season so a win could get you going again. I think it would be playoffs at best though because of the number of games in hand playing twice a week every week. And even then that would be some achievement

 

[shoddycollins]

Nope, I just remember how much crap Carlisle fans were talking and when I said they're not as good as their league position said and I got a load of stick, so went back to regurgitate them all - Took 5 minutes at most. Only made two predictions this year. Carlisle wouldn't finish top 7 and Bolton wouldn't win the league - Also said we'd go up a few times here and there and that may well also come true. Bolton, credit where it's due, have turned things around but still think they'll struggle for promotion unless it's via play offs.

Even though you've just posted evidence that our reaction to a good first half of the season was pretty much how all fans react to their team being top around the halfway mark. One of the post of mine you quoted was simply the league table.

If Exeter don't go up can I assume that you'll be coming on here and admitting you're an arrogant idiot then for saying you'd go up 'a few times here and there' seeing as that's apparently not allowed.

 

[stevowanderer]

Nope, I just remember how much crap Carlisle fans were talking and when I said they're not as good as their league position said and I got a load of stick, so went back to regurgitate them all - Took 5 minutes at most. Only made two predictions this year. Carlisle wouldn't finish top 7 and Bolton wouldn't win the league - Also said we'd go up a few times here and there and that may well also come true. Bolton, credit where it's due, have turned things around but still think they'll struggle for promotion unless it's via play offs.

We have to win 8/9 games of the last 12 for automatic I think at least. We have to play several teams around us away from home and that will decide our season

 

[shoddycollins]

Need a win soon. You went on a run earlier in the season so a win could get you going again. I think it would be playoffs at best though because of the number of games in hand playing twice a week every week. And even then that would be some achievement

Yeah it would be a hell of an achievement if we were to make the playoffs. We've pretty much written off the playoffs as a realistic ambition because it would require a total turnaround in form, top three is essentially an impossibility.

 

[stevowanderer]

Re Carlisle and the loss of form.

Maybe, just maybe as a team that pressed high up the pitch the two games a week and the effects on fitness of a covid outbreak has forced them to roll back on the intensity?

When they beat Crawley their forwards and attacking midfielders were all over our defence like the proverbial rash. Forcing us to clear the ball and not letting us settle. Can they still do that when they have so many games and fitness issues?

As I said. Maybe.

Casey

Yeah exactly the same against us at Brunton. They were 2-0 up after 7 mins. All over us. They tired and we scored 86th and 88th minute for a 3-3. But we didn’t deserve it.

 

[shoddycollins]

Re Carlisle and the loss of form.

Maybe, just maybe as a team that pressed high up the pitch the two games a week and the effects on fitness of a covid outbreak has forced them to roll back on the intensity?

When they beat Crawley their forwards and attacking midfielders were all over our defence like the proverbial rash. Forcing us to clear the ball and not letting us settle. Can they still do that when they have so many games and fitness issues?

As I said. Maybe.

Casey

Yeah exactly the same against us at Brunton. They were 2-0 up after 7 mins. All over us. They tired and we scored 86th and 88th minute for a 3-3. But we didn’t deserve it.

We haven't played anything like that since February and I don't think we will again. We had a spell against, I think it was the Oldham game where we started with high intensity but we've been getting overrun in midfield and have resorted to just playing long balls.

Touch wood though, we can recover over the summer break assuming we don't lose too many players, Beech's recruitment has been pretty much on point so far. We'll have that extra season of experience behind us and can challenge for promotion next year.

 

[Holty10]

Updated stats below

Final positions based on short, medium and long term form (PPG+10GamePPGform+20gamePPGform/3)

Top 3 same as last time, just abit tighter and Tranmere above FGR.

Newport out of playoffs and look like being a few points adrift. Bradford need to get back to winning ways. I added Harrogate and Crawley to see if they would be close but they still both need a massive upturn in form as they will be a mile off. I think I'm deleting Carlisle from the database now as they are destined for a bottom half finish.

1 Cheltenham 83.6 points
2 Tranmere 82.5 points
3 FGR 82.1 points

4 Morecambe 79.7 points
5 Bolton 77.8 points
6 Exeter 76.1 points
7 Cambridge 76.0 points

8 Newport 72.6 points
9 Bradford 72.1 points
10 Salford 68.3 points
11 Harrogate 67.8 points
12 Crawley 66.7 points
13 Carlisle 63.3 points

It's such a tight call. I don't even know what I want other teams to do. Do I want Cheltenham & Forest Green/ Tranmere (or whoever) to win all their head to heads? Everyone to draw them? Trade wins with each other?

We still have a few to play, but it would be nice if some have dropped out of contention. Eg Harrogate. They're already looking at needing over 2 ppg. We play them in 6 games time so if results haven't gone their way it could look impossible for them.