The Real Plan A 2.0?

Evatt said the above in June 2024:

With the appointment of Schumacher, I figured we now have the Real Plan A 2.0.

Q - What do we think about targets for the second half of the season?

Just looked through our fixture list and fuck me, it’s got potential to be spicy!

Upcoming Fixtures:
Sat, 1 Feb – Reading (A) (10th)
Sat, 8 Feb – Crawley Town (H) (22nd)
Sat, 15 Feb – Shrewsbury Town (A) (24th)
Sat, 22 Feb – Leyton Orient (H) (6th)
Sat, 1 Mar – Wrexham (A) (3rd)
Tue, 4 Mar – Birmingham City (H) (1st)
Sat, 8 Mar – Burton Albion (A) (21st)
Tue, 11 Mar – Bristol Rovers (A) (19th)
Sat, 15 Mar – Stockport County (H) (5th)
Sat, 22 Mar – Rotherham United (H) (14th)
Sat, 29 Mar – Blackpool (A) (13th)
Tue, 1 Apr – Wigan Athletic (A) (16th)
Sat, 5 Apr – Bristol Rovers (H) (19th)
Sat, 12 Apr – Barnsley (A) (9th)
Fri, 18 Apr – Wycombe Wanderers (H) (2nd)
Mon, 21 Apr – Lincoln City (A) (11th)
Sat, 26 Apr – Peterborough United (A) (18th)
Sat, 3 May – Stevenage (H) (15th)

I've underlined some of the tougher runs. It starts off fairly chill, so maybe we can build confidence before the Wrexham and Birmingham games. Then from 15 March - 1 April, we’ve got a local derby bonanza (plus Rotherham).

Q2 Are automatics on the table?

14 points off 2nd-placed Wycombe with 18 games remaining!?

I’ve run the numbers, and if Wycombe kept up their current 2.07 PPG, we’d need a ridiculous 2.9 PPG just to catch them—basically winning every game. But factoring in a 10-20% drop-off and leapfrogging the teams below them, we’d still need 2.4-2.7 PPG—that’s at least 14-15 wins from 18.

Doable? Maybe. But it leaves zero room for slip-ups.

Can we finally put together the kind of ruthless run we’ve been waiting for? Or is it playoffs again?

The rest of this season is more about performances and atmosphere for me, rather than results. I've already written it off in my mind - albeit with an outside chance of promotion via the play-offs - but the proper charge starts after the summer. Just hope our fanbase maintain realistic expectations.

To get automatic promotion from this position is unfathomable given that it depends on other teams slipping up on top of us going on an incredible run.

Playoff shootout is doable but even then there is an element of doubt given our GD and games played, but Saturday offers an opportunity to change that scenario dependent on results elsewhere.

We just have to be patient, win our games and hope - because it’s not in our hands. That could change but our focus now has to be solely on what we  can control, one game at a time.

We aren't getting automatic promotion and in my mind I'd written off the season and been thinking about preparing for 25/6 with a new manager and making an assault on League 1. These last two wins of Julian's have us outside the play offs by a fraction so, of course, promotion cannot be ruled out! Look at Oxford last season. Would we be Championship ready if we snuck up with this team? No. Oxford seem to have rapidly developed themselves though! 

As regards remaining fixtures I hope Julian has a little word with SS to say "whatever else happens the fans would love to avenge the 5-0 at Stockport, finally get one over on Wigan and win at Blackpool for the first time since 1977". 

I don't see any reason not to aim to finish in the play-offs

I'll finger my arse on the town hall steps if we don't make the play offs.

 

3 minutes ago, gonzo said:

I'll finger my arse on the town hall steps if we don't make the play offs.

 

You do anyway.

play offs 

and 

WEMBLEY in the cup 

5 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

I don't see any reason not to aim to finish in the play-offs

and win them

No one would fancy us if we had a good run and finished in the play-offs.

Imagine if we were the other teams, wouldn't want us arriving into the playoffs like a juggernaut.

Aim for me very realistic is play offs, ideally finishing 3rd or 4th to be at home in the second leg and then win them.

but not the end of the world if we don’t go up and hopefully with a full pre-season ss takes us to the title next season

We're only 8 points off Wrexham who are 3rd. Lots to play for, but I guess it's better for Schuey knowing that Promotion isn't a complete expectation from us fans after the pure shitshow this season has been under Evatt.

We're joint 6th now so I would aim for us to finish there as an absolute minimum. 

54 points to play for. 

I would be very surprised if we don't make the play-offs with this new chap...

And like has already been said, no one will want to play us in them....

It's going to be a good season after getting rid of that horrible bastard.... 

Plenty of games left, and looking at the reverse fixtures (if I could be arsed) I'll bet there are a few losses we could have got a point and quite a few draws we could have won. If only the shackles had been off.

 

I think we will comfortably make the playoffs even with the run of more difficult games coming.

I feel confident the games we would have previously lost given our form under IE will now become draws and those previous draws will now become wins.  More often than not anyway, he's a decent new manager not the Messiah.

We need to be realistic. It's a deeply flawed squad with no wide players, three forwards who don't fit in the same team and two senior players (Baxter & Rico) who are seemingly on their way out.

Evatt went mad and had to be potted, but the idea he was holding these players back to the point they're now going to get 50 of the next 54 points and go up automatically is absurd.

It'll be a battle from the playoffs and a decent salvage job if we make it. From there who knows.

3 hours ago, jeep said:

I would be very surprised if we don't make the play-offs with this new chap...

And like has already been said, no one will want to play us in them....

It's going to be a good season after getting rid of that horrible bastard.... 

Bloody hell, you've a short memory. So that's just this season then, is it. Or just the last few weeks.

4 minutes ago, waffer cup 07 said:

Bloody hell, you've a short memory. So that's just this season then, is it. Or just the last few weeks.

Think it's like a divorce.

Folk like to pretend it was a pile of shite throughout and hated the man from the beginning.

19 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Think it's like a divorce.

Folk like to pretend it was a pile of shite throughout and hated the man from the beginning.

Good analogy.

Edited January 31, 20251 yr by Cheese

34 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

We need to be realistic. It's a deeply flawed squad with no wide players, three forwards who don't fit in the same team and two senior players (Baxter & Rico) who are seemingly on their way out.

Evatt went mad and had to be potted, but the idea he was holding these players back to the point they're now going to get 50 of the next 54 points and go up automatically is absurd.

It'll be a battle from the playoffs and a decent salvage job if we make it. From there who knows.

Doubting Tom. 3 forwards etc = square pegs squeezed into round holes. New lad to find out our real best team then.

Two senior players etc = neither played nor been missed for weeks. No further action required. 

It will be a battle but I think we're more equiped to roll our sleeves up now that there's nobody going to say 'Oi. Roll them sleeves down'

18 hours ago, Cheese said:

The rest of this season is more about performances and atmosphere for me, rather than results. I've already written it off in my mind - albeit with an outside chance of promotion via the play-offs - but the proper charge starts after the summer. Just hope our fanbase maintain realistic expectations.

Me too.  Just looking forward to games, and hopefully seeing us turn up for some of the bigger games is the target for me.  

Looking at 2nd place is pie in the sky, we saw how difficult it was for this team to beat Northampton at home, the list of fixtures above is full of tough games one after the other.  We've already used up home games against 4 of the current bottom 5 (and dropped points), the only "gimme" I can see all season now is the next home game v Crawley.  Virtually every other game looks tough, home and away.  We'll win our fair share hopefully, but I won't be criticising Schumacher if our position doesn't improve, IE left him with a mountain to climb with his poor points return (and poor recruitment).  

18 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

To get automatic promotion from this position is unfathomable given that it depends on other teams slipping up on top of us going on an incredible run.

Playoff shootout is doable but even then there is an element of doubt given our GD and games played, but Saturday offers an opportunity to change that scenario dependent on results elsewhere.

We just have to be patient, win our games and hope - because it’s not in our hands. That could change but our focus now has to be solely on what we  can control, one game at a time.

How's it not in our hands?  If we win most of our games, we're finishing 5th minimum.   Not that we will, but its definitely in our hands.

1 minute ago, Johnnyrotten said:

How's it not in our hands?  If we win most of our games, we're finishing 5th minimum.   Not that we will, but its definitely in our hands.

Aye 

We still have to play Wycombe, Wrexham, orient and Stockport who are above us and we're outside the top six on goal difference 

It's in our hands as much as it's in all theirs

 

5 minutes ago, Zico said:

Aye 

We still have to play Wycombe, Wrexham, orient and Stockport who are above us and we're outside the top six on goal difference 

It's in our hands as much as it's in all theirs

 

And presumably other teams play each other, they can't all win.  Orient v Stockport tomorrow for starters.

But I really don't care what the others do, they can all win 10-0 for all it matters to us, I just want us to look like a team again.

10 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Me too.  Just looking forward to games, and hopefully seeing us turn up for some of the bigger games is the target for me.  

Looking at 2nd place is pie in the sky, we saw how difficult it was for this team to beat Northampton at home, the list of fixtures above is full of tough games one after the other.  We've already used up home games against 4 of the current bottom 5 (and dropped points), the only "gimme" I can see all season now is the next home game v Crawley.  Virtually every other game looks tough, home and away.  We'll win our fair share hopefully, but I won't be criticising Schumacher if our position doesn't improve, IE left him with a mountain to climb with his poor points return (and poor recruitment).  

That's the point isn't it.

Likely we'll need to get wins at places like Wigan and Blackpool if we are to get in.

But we're all fans, we've got to have hope. 

Team is talented (if a bit unbalanced), new manager hopefully gets them organised better and who knows?

Maybe we'll be that team that goes on a run and sneaks in.

Said before Christmas, might be unlikely but if we get in, we're winning them this time.

14 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

I don't see any reason not to aim to finish in the play-offs

I'm quite sure it is their aim.