Can We Make the Play Offs?

[Admiral]

I think the best scenario we can hope for now is for Stockport and Wrexham to get out of the league, it’ll still be tough with the likes of Grimsby and Chesterfield in the league but with a full summer window I trust Gary to build a competitive side. A great effort nonetheless!

I can see Chesterfield fighting to hold onto their play off place, besides Dover they’ve got a tough run in and aren’t on the best of form.

[DerekDawkinsJnr]

I think the best scenario we can hope for now is for Stockport and Wrexham to get out of the league, it’ll still be tough with the likes of Grimsby and Chesterfield in the league but with a full summer window I trust Gary to build a competitive side. A great effort nonetheless!

I can see Chesterfield fighting to hold onto their play off place, besides Dover they’ve got a tough run in and aren’t on the best of form.

There's every possibility Oldham will be coming down. I've no idea the financial position of the club, but they're formerly of the Premier League and would consider themselves as contenders to go back up I expect.

[culmstockgull]

I agree Admiral with your assessment on Stockport and Wrexham , however the one thing that you can bank on in football is that you cannot rely on anything.if we had the budgets of either of these two teams we would be getting promoted, next seasons fair play rules will certainly level the playing field to a certain degree, but if you have a club like stockport pulling in over 9000 as opposed to us pulling in 2500 then their budget will still be nearly four times ours on the principle of spending 65 p er cent of your available income.

[Plainmoor78]

There's every possibility Oldham will be coming down. I've no idea the financial position of the club, but they're formerly of the Premier League and would consider themselves as contenders to go back up I expect.

Don't be fooled by the ex-Premier League label. Oldham were only members for the first season and the money wasn't sloshing about then like it is now.
Since their current owner took over in 2018 they have faced two winding up orders in the High Court and were this season under a transfer embargo. Their relegation from the league has been coming for a long time.

[Modgull]

I remember in our first Conference/National League stint we were considered to be a 'big' club and were envied for the backing which the Bristow's gave to the playing budget. Unfortunately we are no longer such a relatively big club.

The problem now is that there are more bigger clubs than us in the division and even some of the smaller clubs have caught up on our average attendance figures. In that sense 'fair play' rules will count against us rather than for us as Culmstockgull explains. Oldham and Scunthorpe coming down will hardly alter the balance, especially if either FC Halifax or Solihull Moors pinched the second promotion place out of our division.

This is why issues such as a new ground (which in most cases boosts attendances) and diversification of the business side of the club are so important.

[standupsitdown]

We very nearly went up last season and we could have made the play offs this season.
Sutton aren't a big club.
It can be done.
We've beaten Notts County in crucial end of season games this year and last. We've beaten Stockport & Wrexham this season.
Hopefully Wrexham will go up as they obviously have more money than everyone else but other than them we've shown that we have as much chance of promotion as the other ex Football League clubs who make up about half of this league.
The difficulty is only two promotion places, one of which as we found last year may not go to the second best team over the season.

[Plainmoor78]

It's a bit of a myth that we can't compete with the high spending sides. Last season Stockport were rumoured to be the highest spending team and we finished above them. Notts County this season are doing no better than previous seasons in this division and Chesterfield have always spent big to no avail. The only side that has notably spent more money than before this season is Wrexham.
Add to that the fact that if our form in the second half of this season had been replicated in the first half we would probably be top of the league by now.

[DerekDawkinsJnr]

Don't be fooled by the ex-Premier League label. Oldham were only members for the first season and the money wasn't sloshing about then like it is now.
Since their current owner took over in 2018 they have faced two winding up orders in the High Court and were this season under a transfer embargo. Their relegation from the league has been coming for a long time.

Maybe they'll continue their slide in this case, but with a 10,000+ seater stadium and the fan base they have the potential I suppose to be promotion rivals. More so one might imagine than Scunthorpe or Stevenage.

[standupsitdown]

So we would have needed 74 or 75 points for 7th place. As suggested at the start of January.

We had a great run but still needed to win 9 or 10 of our last 11 games.
We won four in a row but then only one from the last seven, starting with a 0.0 draw against a horrible Eastleigh team after which with difficult fixtures six consecutive wins was unlikely.
We did well to keep an outside chance of promotion until the last few weeks of the season - and to keep playing well even when that chance had gone.

So a mid table finish. Only four defeats since 1st January although a few draws that we really should have won.
This season had a poor start, a few too many poor results against lower teams but some excellent home wins against the top teams.

Stockport have gone up and hopefully Wrexham will in the play offs. I don't think that either Oldham or Scunthorpe will win the league next season.
We have as good a chance of any if we can hold on to enough key players and bring in some decent quality new ones to replace those who inevitably leave and strengthen the squad.
We have a big asset with one of the best managers in the National League. Hopefully next year will be our year.

[desperado]

Well done Standup you were proved correct with your predicted playoff points total.
Quite a high total this season from 2 fewer games. Let's hope next season we are well in the top seven and don't need to worry.

[Southampton Gull]

Despite all the protestations I think this was a very interesting thread and as I suspected we've proved to be an average side maybe even flattering ourselves with the decent run towards the end. Play off hangover IMHO and just as I expected so hopefully this time around the management have a better opportunity to recruit the right players to have a go at getting back to League football.

[MellowYellow]

I think we knew we were not play off material this year, but still managed to be the 'best of the rest'. Credit to Johnson for moulding a team from a squad of mainly mavericks to give it a go in the second half of the season. It was interesting to hear Johnson talking about the need for players with football intelligence to get us out of this league. That suggests we are going to clear out the young 'wannabes' and bring in the old guard who have already worn the promotion T-shirt.

[MellowYellow]

This is why issues such as a new ground (which in most cases boosts attendances) and diversification of the business side of the club are so important.

You would not promote that statement if you lived in Darlington.

[Dave]

I've tried to look at our remaining fixtures from my head not heart, and I have us finishing on 65 points

Our squad has had a massive in-balance between inexperience and players who have gone a season pasts their best, hoping Gary Johnson has a massive clear out, whole playing squad needs a complete rethink.

Well as we seem to be in the mood for looking back thought I'd revisit this post of mine , so our final points was 66, and at no time did our team ever seriously threaten the top 7 , whilst I step back from calling last season an abject failure, it does go down as failure feels like a year chucked away, the view point that last seasons was average is about right.

No sense in dwelling on that time only now to look forward.