League Two games tonight

[Chris Black come back]

Reasonably mixed bag at half time. Walsall 0-0. AFC Wimbledon beating Crewe and they've basically swapped places. Bradford City winning. Stay like this and we are down in fifth, one point off the automatics and on same games.

[mushRTID]

Still got Bradford, Walsall, Wimbledon to play at home.
A run of games now that should secure us in the top 3.
Have to put another run together now.

[drfchound]

Notts ,Wimbledon and Vale all still played one less game than us.

[Alan Southstand]

PV play Notts on Thursday night!

8 wins on the bounce for Bradford.
Wimbledon hammer Crewe
Walsall draw

[Padge_DRFC]

Bad night result wise.

[drfchound]

They can’t all lose, just as they can’t all win.
Not bad that Crewe lost and Walsall failed to win again

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Over the weekend and tonight, the results could have been alot worse for us.

We're still in good position and from now, there's one objective with no distractions.

[Thorney]

PV play Notts on Thursday night!

8 wins on the bounce for Bradford.
Wimbledon hammer Crewe
Walsall draw

Bradford lost 3 games ago against wimbledon

[Metalmicky]

Crewe look to have blown up - taking only two points from their last 5 games.  They also had their regular centre back (Jamie Knight-Lebel) sent off tonight.

[Alan Southstand]

Bradford 8 home wins?

[Thorney]

Bradford 8 home wins?

Just sounded like you meant 8 wins. No mention of home wins.

[ForsolongaRover]

We are well-placed to challenge for the automatic places if we can play like we did yesterday. We have debated at length who might be the best players GM has and many people have doubted until recently whether he knows himself. But that cup tie was probably an excellent test of true ability and may well have provided him with the most reliable yardstick so far. A more settled team will surely now achieve the sustained form we need to get into and stay comfortably in the top 3.

[Ryaldinhio]

We still have to play
Walsall
Notts C
Bradford
Wimbledon
Salford
Crewe
Grimsby

That is 7 out of the top 9 (we are one of them) so only Port fail we don't play again.......this league is in our hands. If we play to our best we will still win the league.

Getting the lads into the mentality of 16 cup finals is exactly the right thing to do. GM knows what he is on with better than us.

[Padge_DRFC]

Andy Cook's injury has really hampered Bradford......

[Chris Black come back]

Some fairly tough games on Saturday:

AFC Wimbledon v Salford City
Gillingham v Crewe
Newport County v Bradford City
Walsall v Chesterfield

[vaya]

Andy Cook's injury has really hampered Bradford......

Looks like Andy Cook was hampering Bradford.

[ncRover]

Some fairly tough games on Saturday:

AFC Wimbledon v Salford City
Gillingham v Crewe
Newport County v Bradford City
Walsall v Chesterfield

Don’t think Crewe are worth worrying about tbh.

Tough game for Bradford as Newport are flying.

We face Newport soon and they’ve added another direct pacy winger in Ajiboye on top of of Kamwa who caused us issues.

[Usher wide.]

In his post match interview after the Palace game, Joe Olowu said as much about the last 16 games in that they were all ‘Cup Finals’, so I think Grant would have hammered that point over to the group.

Starting with the next 3, although 2 are away they’re against sides we should & must get 9 points haul from.

That Chesterfield result has left us little ‘breathing space’ now.

[Butchers Red]

Some fairly tough games on Saturday:

AFC Wimbledon v Salford City
Gillingham v Crewe
Newport County v Bradford City
Walsall v Chesterfield

Don’t think Crewe are worth worrying about tbh.

Tough game for Bradford as Newport are flying.

We face Newport soon and they’ve added another direct pacy winger in Ajiboye on top of of Kamwa who caused us issues.

I was very impressed with Newport at their place earlier in the season and surprised they slumped after that, they'll upset a few for sure

[pib]

In the last 10 seasons (not counting the one decided on PPG), the average points needed for 3rd place has been 82.7, so lets say 83.

Lowest: 79
Highest: 86

So we need probably 31-35 points from 16 games to be almost sure. It looks unlikely that the points required will be at the higher end this season.

Probably need a minimum of 9 wins (plus some draws). Repeating our current 50% win rate would give us 8 wins, which would mean to get to 83 we'd have to draw 7 and lose 1 of the other 8. So a slight improvement in PPG required to meet the average 83 point mark, if that's what is required.

If we win 10 and pick up a few draws, we shouldn't need to worry about the results of others.

Going to be an interesting couple of months!

[drfchound]

In the last 10 seasons (not counting the one decided on PPG), the average points needed for 3rd place has been 82.7, so lets say 83.

Lowest: 79
Highest: 86

So we need probably 31-35 points from 16 games to be almost sure. It looks unlikely that the points required will be at the higher end this season.

Probably need a minimum of 9 wins (plus some draws). Repeating our current 50% win rate would give us 8 wins, which would mean to get to 83 we'd have to draw 7 and lose 1 of the other 8. So a slight improvement in PPG required to meet the average 83 point mark, if that's what is required.

If we win 10 and pick up a few draws, we shouldn't need to worry about the results of others.

Going to be an interesting couple of months!

Up to now only Walsall have won more games in L2 than us.

[pib]

In the last 10 seasons (not counting the one decided on PPG), the average points needed for 3rd place has been 82.7, so lets say 83.

Lowest: 79
Highest: 86

So we need probably 31-35 points from 16 games to be almost sure. It looks unlikely that the points required will be at the higher end this season.

Probably need a minimum of 9 wins (plus some draws). Repeating our current 50% win rate would give us 8 wins, which would mean to get to 83 we'd have to draw 7 and lose 1 of the other 8. So a slight improvement in PPG required to meet the average 83 point mark, if that's what is required.

If we win 10 and pick up a few draws, we shouldn't need to worry about the results of others.

Going to be an interesting couple of months!

Up to now only Walsall have won more games in L2 than us.

That's true. However Bradford, Notts County and Wimbledon have won the same number of games, the latter two having played fewer matches in total.

PPG of the teams currently in the top 5 places is as follows:

1st - 2.00 PPG (92 points over a season)
2nd - 1.83 PPG (84 points over a season)
3rd - 1.77 PPG (81 points over a season)
4th - 1.79 PPG (82 points over a season) (side currently in 4th, Wimbledon, have played fewer games than 3rd placed Bradford)
5th - 1.73 PPG (79-80 points over a season)

So it could end up being that the average of 82-83 points is about right for 3rd place.

All points to it being really close and probably going to the wire. The odd point or GD could end up being the difference between automatics and play-offs, so a slight uplift in points/wins from our current rate could be crucial.

[karldew]

Bradford (h)
County (a)

Those last 2 games could be massive!

[Dutch Uncle]

In the last 10 seasons (not counting the one decided on PPG), the average points needed for 3rd place has been 82.7, so lets say 83.

Lowest: 79
Highest: 86

So we need probably 31-35 points from 16 games to be almost sure. It looks unlikely that the points required will be at the higher end this season.

Probably need a minimum of 9 wins (plus some draws). Repeating our current 50% win rate would give us 8 wins, which would mean to get to 83 we'd have to draw 7 and lose 1 of the other 8. So a slight improvement in PPG required to meet the average 83 point mark, if that's what is required.

If we win 10 and pick up a few draws, we shouldn't need to worry about the results of others.

Going to be an interesting couple of months!

Up to now only Walsall have won more games in L2 than us.

That's true. However Bradford, Notts County and Wimbledon have won the same number of games, the latter two having played fewer matches in total.

PPG of the teams currently in the top 5 places is as follows:

1st - 2.00 PPG (92 points over a season)
2nd - 1.83 PPG (84 points over a season)
3rd - 1.77 PPG (81 points over a season)
4th - 1.79 PPG (82 points over a season) (side currently in 4th, Wimbledon, have played fewer games than 3rd placed Bradford)
5th - 1.73 PPG (79-80 points over a season)

So it could end up being that the average of 82-83 points is about right for 3rd place.

All points to it being really close and probably going to the wire. The odd point or GD could end up being the difference between automatics and play-offs, so a slight uplift in points/wins from our current rate could be crucial.

pib, your analysis is very close indeed to mine of 2 weeks ago in this thread - I also guessed 83 points required for Auto 

https://www.drfc-vsc.co.uk/index.php?topic=293389.msg1371006#msg1371006

[pib]

In the last 10 seasons (not counting the one decided on PPG), the average points needed for 3rd place has been 82.7, so lets say 83.

Lowest: 79
Highest: 86

So we need probably 31-35 points from 16 games to be almost sure. It looks unlikely that the points required will be at the higher end this season.

Probably need a minimum of 9 wins (plus some draws). Repeating our current 50% win rate would give us 8 wins, which would mean to get to 83 we'd have to draw 7 and lose 1 of the other 8. So a slight improvement in PPG required to meet the average 83 point mark, if that's what is required.

If we win 10 and pick up a few draws, we shouldn't need to worry about the results of others.

Going to be an interesting couple of months!

Up to now only Walsall have won more games in L2 than us.

That's true. However Bradford, Notts County and Wimbledon have won the same number of games, the latter two having played fewer matches in total.

PPG of the teams currently in the top 5 places is as follows:

1st - 2.00 PPG (92 points over a season)
2nd - 1.83 PPG (84 points over a season)
3rd - 1.77 PPG (81 points over a season)
4th - 1.79 PPG (82 points over a season) (side currently in 4th, Wimbledon, have played fewer games than 3rd placed Bradford)
5th - 1.73 PPG (79-80 points over a season)

So it could end up being that the average of 82-83 points is about right for 3rd place.

All points to it being really close and probably going to the wire. The odd point or GD could end up being the difference between automatics and play-offs, so a slight uplift in points/wins from our current rate could be crucial.

pib, your analysis is very close indeed to mine of 2 weeks ago in this thread - I also guessed 83 points required for Auto 

https://www.drfc-vsc.co.uk/index.php?topic=293389.msg1371006#msg1371006

Missed that DU - great minds!

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Quite happy if the Vale v Notts Co game stays as it is at 0-0. Otherwise prefer a county win to keep Vale at arms length.

[dknward2]

Quite happy if the Vale v Notts Co game stays as it is at 0-0. Otherwise prefer a county win to keep Vale at arms length.

McCann just been spotted in the stands at the game

Vale just taken the lead

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Quite happy if the Vale v Notts Co game stays as it is at 0-0. Otherwise prefer a county win to keep Vale at arms length.

McCann just been spotted in the stands at the game

Vale just taken the lead

Sh*t. Me and my big gob!

[drfchound]

Quite happy if the Vale v Notts Co game stays as it is at 0-0. Otherwise prefer a county win to keep Vale at arms length.

McCann just been spotted in the stands at the game

Vale just taken the lead

Sh*t. Me and my big gob!

I’m happy that County haven’t pulled further away from us.

[dknward2]

Quite happy if the Vale v Notts Co game stays as it is at 0-0. Otherwise prefer a county win to keep Vale at arms length.

McCann just been spotted in the stands at the game

Vale just taken the lead

Sh*t. Me and my big gob!

I’m happy that County haven’t pulled further away from us.

Same nil nil or the one nil win for Portugal vale pity no one sent off for each team