Good to see.

[RedJ]

Lovely. Can anyone remember where we were this time in our last promotion season?

Also great to hear the fans today - seems we've really unified the fan base this season.

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[eastender]

After 28 games we were 2nd

Swansea Pl 27  57Pt
Rovers   Pl 28   47Pt 

Massive difference

[RedJ]

Let's hope we don't bottle again then. Mind, that league was much stronger back then.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Better comparison is the 03/04 promotion season.

Lots of similarities.

Both sides had a tigerish tenacity and a bit of physical umpty about them. Both sides were able to bounce back from poor defeats to go on decent unbeaten runs. Both were not expected to do owt that season and surprised the fans and punters alike. Both sides just ground on remorselessly as the competitors fell by the wayside.

That 03/04 season was the best in my 40 years watching the Rovers. I thought that was as good as it would be likely to get in terms of dominating a division.

Guess what? After 28 matches that season, we had 55 points. Quite incredible that we are currently doing better than that side did.

[RedJ]

Wow, I didn't realise we were doing that well. This season is shaping up to be something very special.

[1879Rovers]

ten wins from eighteen games may be enough.

[ponte_ricky]

was kinda gutted when tranmere scored their winner at first but actually was a fairly good results because it's put a rather large gap between the playoffs and us. lets just hope tranmere lose their form soon

[BillyStubbsTears]

ten wins from eighteen games may be enough.

No but 10 wins and a couple of draws will.

[EDIT]
Apologies - thought you said may NOT be enough!
I agree - I think 86 points may well do it.

Put it this way, if we get 32 points from the last 18 games, that will be a big drop in form from the previous 18, in which we got 39 points. 32 points would put us on a final total of 88.

What would other sides have to do to catch us?


Tranmere, Swindon and Brentford would all have to do better than 2 points per game from now till the end of the season to match that

Over the previous 17-19 games as appropriate, Tranmere have averaged 1.52 points per game, Brentford 1.95 and Swindon 1.84.

Sheff Utd would need 2.3 points per game to catch us. Summat like 13 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats. No chance!

Bournemouth would need 2.4 points per game. That would be 14 wins, 5 draws and 0 defeats.

It's clear. If we have moderately good form from here on in, summat like play-off form, two of the chasers have got to play out of their skin to prevent us going up. If we continue our recent form, we're over the line by a million miles.

[Dutch Uncle]

Better comparison is the 03/04 promotion season.

Lots of similarities.

Both sides had a tigerish tenacity and a bit of physical umpty about them. Both sides were able to bounce back from poor defeats to go on decent unbeaten runs. Both were not expected to do owt that season and surprised the fans and punters alike. Both sides just ground on remorselessly as the competitors fell by the wayside.

That 03/04 season was the best in my 40 years watching the Rovers. I thought that was as good as it would be likely to get in terms of dominating a division.

Guess what? After 28 matches that season, we had 55 points. Quite incredible that we are currently doing better than that side did.

An excellent comparison BST

Another quality shared in those two seasons is the happy knack of scoring late goals rather than conceding them.

As is well reported the Blades late goals were the first time we had lost any points from a winning position all season. In 2003-4 we lost 2-1 at Darlington after being 1-0 up - and that was the only match all season we lost any points from a winning position.

As for scoring late goals, this season is looking even better than 2003-4 in that this year we have scored more late (after 80 mins) winners (Bury, Tranmere, Oldham, Colchester and Stevenage)  than point savers (Hartlepool), whereas in 2003-4 we picked up late equalisers on 4 occasions, but no late winners.

The stats seem to be backing up the feelgood factor coming from the obvious team spirit and confidence in the camp. As you say - this year could be something special.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

It's clear. If we have moderately good form from here on in, summat like play-off form, two of the chasers have got to play out of their skin to prevent us going up. If we continue our recent form, we're over the line by a million miles.

Can't disagree with that analysis, but somehow the uberpessimist in me keeps reminding me that last season the Blades ended up with 90 points and still missing 2nd place by 3 points. I would like to see 92 points rather than 88, and that will still take a lot of doing. The hope is we have more than the required ratio of those points before our last 5 games. If that could be the case I can see us doing really well in those 5 as well.

[BillyStubbsTears]

It's clear. If we have moderately good form from here on in, summat like play-off form, two of the chasers have got to play out of their skin to prevent us going up. If we continue our recent form, we're over the line by a million miles.

Can't disagree with that analysis, but somehow the uberpessimist in me keeps reminding me that last season the Blades ended up with 90 points and still missing 2nd place by 3 points. I would like to see 92 points rather than 88, and that will still take a lot of doing. The hope is we have more than the required ratio of those points before our last 5 games. If that could be the case I can see us doing really well in those 5 as well.

True Dutch but last season was a once-in-25 years job. Sheff Utd missed out because two rare things happened simultaneously.
1) The division was dominated by an exceptional side. We think we are doing well this season: Charlton had 64 points after 28 games!

2) A second very good side suddenly became even better than Charlton. After 28 games, Sheff Weds had 54 points - nearly as good as us. But they finished the season with a run of 39 points from 18games - 36 of those from the last 42 points available.

If either of those exceptional things had not happened, the Rashers would have gone up. Thing 1 won't happen this season (unless it's US dominating!) Thing 2 might, but it'd have to happen to TWO teams to mean someone missing out on 90 points.

I reckon 90 points willnsealnthevtitle and 86-88  will get 2nd spot.

[RedJ]

Plus the Blades somehow cocked up being 5 points in front with 2 games in hand.

[RobTheRover]

was kinda gutted when tranmere scored their winner at first but actually was a fairly good results because it's put a rather large gap between the playoffs and us. lets just hope tranmere lose their form soon

Exactly right.  We shouldnt worry about hitting top spot just yet.  As long as we are there at the final whistle at Brentford, that is all that matters.

Yesterday's Bees v Trannies result didnt matter - they both couldnt get the 3 points so someone had a kick in the nads.  Either, we went top, or those chasing us had the disappointment.  It will be interesting to see how/if the Bees bounce back from that,

[DonnyRTID]

Agree, Tranmere may've just done us a massive favour there.