Almost there…
Firstly, quick note about last week’s update. Or rather, lack of it. I was busy elsewhere and by the time it came to Monday I decided I’d had enough of doing anything.
I don’t think you wanted to read all about losing to St. Evenage, just as much as you didn’t want to read about losing to Leyton Orient.
There hasn’t been a midweek update for SW19 in many a while, and I wasn’t going to start this week.
But we can look back on Peterborough though. A draw that by all accounts could have been a win, and probably should have.
A quick warning, by the way – I probably use “probably” a bit too much in this writeup. That said, you probably won’t notice…
I often think it’s a good thing hearing that we probably (sorry) ought to have had the three points, without actually getting them.
I’d rather that happened than what happened last Saturday where we sounded laboured and as likely to score as a Franchise fan in a brothel.
Quick thought on yesterday, from somebody who was working at Brisbane Road** and was therefore unsurprised to see the home side win four on the bounce.
** – interesting snippet from Richie Wellens afterwards that may explain a lot – he said that their uptick in form has partly coincided with being to use proper training facilities again…
It’s a point, in a part of the season where they matter most of all. Although I’ll expand on that in a little while.
More of a concern is Stevens, Browne and Hippo going off. I hope that’s just fatigue catching up with them, or something that needs a week or two at worst.
We’ve had a lot of games with a small squad, and we’re all glad of no midweek fixture – both on and off the pitch.
It’s gone under the radar, but the news on Tilley before the game didn’t sound good, and while I hope he is back sooner rather than later – we’ve missed him much more than we first thought.
So to add three of our better players to that list isn’t what you want to have.
Funnily enough, we played well enough to get the win after they came off.
We have managed to end a run of losses, and three defeats in a row can become five or six before you know it.
That’s why it was important not to fuck it up yesterday. Because this morning, you’re still smarting that we didn’t finish the job, rather than reflecting on yet another reversal.
Your editor has long believed that any point is a good point. True, it’s not always the case – chasing promotion, for instance.
But while three is better than one, one is better than zero. Something we collectively forget at times.
There are some pretty tough looking games ahead, although it would be nice to think we can get an unexpected win in one of them.
It would be hilarious if we ended Lincoln’s unbeaten run, for instance. Not just for the party pooper aspects that WFC was famous for, but to see the reactions of those who have them on an acca.
One senses we need one more win or two more points to be in League One next season. We’ve got 50 of them now, which for the middle of March isn’t to be sniffed at.
I’ll be happier if and when we do get them though, and I’d hope we’d be aiming for all-bar-the-mathematics safety before Good Friday.
Chances are, we’re probably safe already.
Yes, that word again. I use it liberally though, because that’s more or less my mindset at the moment – we’re likely there but not fully enough.
Objectively speaking, there’s an eight point gap between us and the fourth-bottom side. Although with goal difference, it’s nine.
For a quick comparison, to save you bothering to look, the team in 22nd is 14 points behind us and fifteen realistically.
We’ve also got a game in hand as well on the bottom four (isn’t that Stockport at PL?), and if that goes in our favour…
So it’s really doing enough to make sure we don’t slump with an 8(9?) point advantage and seven places in the remaining eight games.
And yes, there’s only eight games left. I honestly thought it was more. Time flies.
As usual, you have to expect that there’ll be the usual one team that freefalls. That might possibly be us with the injuries we’ve currently picked up.
That said, we don’t “feel” like a relegation threatened side. I still expect us to pick up the necessary points if we need to, and while we’re going to need replacements this summer – we should still have enough squad wise.
This is where I think having somebody with L1 knowhow in charge (JJ) and decent coaching staff helps immensely.
Remember the last time we were in L1 when it was quite clear Robbo’s avant-garde approach was badly failing, but because he/the club had emotionally invested so much in it that he was almost unsackable?
I’ve just checked THAT statement backing him, by the way, and it’s literally a day before the four year anniversary of that.
We’ve learned a helluva lot since then, which is why we’re in L1 again to begin with, and looking as comfortable as we ever have in that division.
And yes, I still have PTSD from 2022. And yes, I still believe if we’d put in Mark Bowen just a couple of games earlier we would have survived…
The odds are in our favour, to be fair. Don’t forget, teams down the bottom are there for a reason, and not everyone is going to win every game.
Teams are starting to run out of fixtures, and while I haven’t bothered checking I’m sure some of the ones below us have to play each other.
Next month there’s the Battle of the Shite between Blackpool and Exeter, where the loser is probably going to have to play Colchester next season.
Blackpool were genuinely toilet, and Exeter can’t buy a win. Although they’re fan-owned so no doubt can’t afford the money to get one anyway.
I’m sure there’s other similar games in the remainder of 25/26, and we probably don’t need to worry.
But I can see why JJ is pushing for the record placing in the AFCW era. If nothing else, it would be nice to go into Easter knowing we’ll have to face Franchise next season.
Probably…