Going into the last game of the 2011/2012 season

[Colorado Gull]

C Swindon +43 92pts
P Shrewsbury +27 88pts
3 Crawley +21 81pts
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4 Torquay +14 81pts
5 Southend +27 80pts


Southend v Macclesfield

Accrington v Crawley

Hereford v Torquay

It's quite unbelievable that we are in this position! Who predicted us to be in this position at the start of the season? Answer = no-one! This season has been quite surreal.....but it's not over yet. I honestly thought that our promotion dream would be over today, but it's not and we CAN still go up this season. Whether we do is another matter, so what is your prediction? Auto's or play off's?

[coley in stripes]

How many lilelines do you chuck away !! Hereford will be well up the game and Crawley won't sllp up...Ther are still different senarios (A draw at Hereford could be enough) but better to be ahead at this point and knowing a win will clinch it rather than keep relying on favours from other teams,

Realisticaly - Next week....2 draws.

[Popside Joe]

I think we will win at Hereford and go up in the playoffs.

[Modgull]

I seriously think Southend are favourites to get the third auto place. Neither Crawley nor Us will win IMHO.

[HeavenAndHele]

I've only just noticed how Southend have snuck up behind both us and Crawley. We can still do it by getting a better result than Creepy and the same result as Southend (or better), but I can't see Southend losing so realistically only a win will do for us.

Might have to wear gloves next Saturday afternoon or I'll have no fingernails left!

[portugull]

Southend will surely win. Therefore we must win and hope Crawley lose or draw. Simples!!

[Jeff]

I hadn't realised Southend were playing toothless Macc Town. Cannot see anything other than a home win, which puts them right in contention.

As I've said on the other thread, I fancy Accrington and Crawley to draw. Put it this way, if it was us needing something from Accrington we'd be dreading it. Accrington are a horrible side, and if Crawley secure promotion there with a win they'd have deserved it. After all, we have never got anything from Accrington so that's how hard a place it is to go.

Which leaves us. Can we win? Yeah course we can. Possible club record away wins in a season tally against the leagues worst home record. Will it be that straightforward? Of course not. Hereford will be up for it. It's up to us to turn in a dogged performance, keep them at bay and pick them off on the counter.

Lingy says we have a great character in the dressing room. Well let's see it next Saturday - the lads will be hurting after today so let's see them run themselves into the ground to make sure it doesn't matter.

With all 3 clubs in the mix, it's too tight to call. Regardless of today's equaliser, anything less than a win at Hereford would have put us at risk so it changed little. Let's get that win and see what happens.

[AustrianAndyGull]

It really is soil your pants time Bottomesque ala Rik Mayall. Three games ago i was saying that we simply HAD to win our last three games to any chance of automatic yet here we are with a game left still in with a decent chance and we haven't won ANY of those games yet. The pure madness of football.

It REALLY is win or bust at Hereford. I think creepy are getting the wobbles just like ourselves and it is a question of who holds their nerve on the last day. I am confident that Accy can make life difficult for creepy and snatch points off them, after all it is their final game of the season and they will want to sign off in front of their home fans with a good win. I am NOT so confident about us fulfilling our side of the bargain for a third time and can see us being beaten at Hereford. The lads looked so dejected after the efforts of today and need to put today to the back of their minds and go again on saturday. Strange things happen so it will probably be Southend that go up! At least if we don't win on saturday it will make todays result a bit more bearable. Totally gutted to have the three points snatched away right at the death especially with Bobby having saved the pen and them hitting the bar. Sick to my stomach.

[Gullscorer]

I've only just noticed how Southend have snuck up behind both us and Crawley. We can still do it by getting a better result than Creepy and the same result as Southend (or better), but I can't see Southend losing so realistically only a win will do for us.

Might have to wear gloves next Saturday afternoon or I'll have no fingernails left!

This is not me being pedantic, but unless you're American the correct word to use here is 'sneaked'. English is our language and we should get it right, right? After all, you wouldn't say 'puck' for 'peaked', or 'fruck' for 'freaked', or 'luck' as the past tense of 'leak': it would be 'leaked'. N'est-ce pas?

[Northumbergull]

Nice bit of French there, Gullscorer

Cheers

Bruce

[stefano]

It's quite unbelievable that we are in this position! Who predicted us to be in this position at the start of the season? Answer = no-one! This season has been quite surreal.....but it's not over yet. I honestly thought that our promotion dream would be over today, but it's not and we CAN still go up this season. Whether we do is another matter, so what is your prediction? Auto's or play off's?

Not quite correct danny as in a thread started by Richinns on 27 July 2011 together with a voting board 3 predicted we would be champions, 1 predicted top three, and 12 predicted the play-offs, so at the start of the season 28% of those who voted could see us being in this position. I predicted champions but then again I always do as at the start of the season that should be the aim for every club.

Whether we finish as promoted automatically or in the play-off zone is really an impossible one to call. We just have to concentrate on our own game and make sure we win at Hereford - I think we will - and then look at how others have done when our game is over. If it is the play-offs then we would have every chance of winning promotion that way. We were bang back on form yesterday against the in-form team who have stormed in to the play-offs with some momentum and we deserved all 3 points on the balance of play.

It won't be pretty next week against a team battling relegation but Hereford have to win so have to push forward, hopefully leaving us gaps to exploit on the break as we have done so successfully in many away games this season.

It's been a great season and there is even a downside to getting promoted, in that we will miss out on having Plymouth Argyle, Exeter City, and Bristol Rovers on our fixture list for next season. But who cares?

[Plymouth Gull]

When Ling got Orient promoted he relegated Oxford that day, in order to gain promotion. Heres hoping he can do it again.

Though should that happen I'd hope our fans don't taunt Hereford fans, when they saw us out of the League at Plainmoor in 2007 they were gracious, lets hope we're the same (though should we do it, I'd expect most of our fans won't really care!)

[Colorado Gull]

Fair enough Stefano, I should have put only a few fans predicted us to be in this position. Just out of interest I was looking at the table in 2003/2004 season when it was between us and Huddersfield to get that last promotion spot.

This was the table before the last game of the season in the 2003/2004 season:

3. Huddersfield 45 23 11 11 67 51 +16 80 pts
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4. Torquay 45 22 12 11 66 43 +23 78pts


The table this season:

3. Crawley 45 22 15 8 75 54 +21 81pts
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4. Torquay 45 23 12 10 61 47 +14 81pts
5. Southend 45 24 14 13 75 48 +27 80pts


Similarities
We're behind 3rd place, have drawn the same amount of games and go into the last game of the season with hope of results going our way.

Differences
Well there are a lot of differences. We have won more games this year and we have lost one less this season, meaning we have a better points total 81 instead of 78. We have scored 5 less goals and conceded 4 more this year meaning we have a worse goal difference this year by 9 goals! Plus this year 3 teams are fighting for that last automatic promotion spot.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Nickgull is right, we shouldn't taunt the Hereford fans IF we send them down by winning there. If it were Exeter or Leeds or another annoying club then fine but Hereford are a nice little club with generally decent fans.

[Regiment]

whilst i think us and crawley will both win, my alternative prediction is in fact that both of us will draw, Southend will nick third spot, and we'll beat crawley at wembley .