League 2 Relegation Thread 2018/2019

[Wooderson]

Holdsworth managed them (in a loose sense) in the conference, as he did us. There were about 4 new players a game, it was like every game was the first game of the season as you had no clue who anyone is.

As for you boys, your managerial appointment is sound, ardley is a good manager and you’ve appointed him at the right time to give him time on who’s good and who isn’t and what he needs in January.

On the other hand, our other friends chesterfield maintained steadfastly that they’d stop up and would turn it around, and never did.

Your problem is hardy. I don’t doubt that his hearts in the right place, it’s just slightly misguided. If he can butt out of things and leave ardley be you’ll be fine.

I think he’s learning his lessons - he has quit Twitter, for one! And I think he realises he has a ‘proper’ manager in Ardley (and Cox) and won’t seek to interfere (plus I don’t think they would let him).

Re the Chesterfield thing - don’t think any of our lot are under any illusions that we are (at the moment) in a battle.

Sounds like Macc’s chances might depend a lot on whether Cameron stays fit? Especially now they have lost Durrell at the other end.

And ah yes, of course it was Tilson. That at least offers us some hope - there may will be another team that gets dragged in.

 

[Dan_Macclad]

We need to sign Cameron beyond January!

 

[Buxton Vale]

Make room for us please. We've forgotten how to score.

 

[valefan16]

Make room for us please. We've forgotten how to score.

We’d scored 11 in 4 before the weekend... but we are teetering on entering this. Failure to win Saturday and we will have less points than this stage last season for the first time!

 

[Dan_Macclad]

I'd be more worried being a Crawley, Morecambe and Yeovil supporter.

 

[Semi-skimmed Silk]

Cambridge scoring late in the early game was annoying, but how have Cheltenham managed to beat MK Dons?!

 

[LongEatonPie]

Well that's one place wrapped up. You can all fight for the other one.....

 

[Si Robin]

Cambridge scoring late in the early game was annoying, but how have Cheltenham managed to beat MK Dons?!

See my post in the General Match thread - we're a different proposition now. We've only lost once in the League since the end of October (to a rampant Bury) and are no longer the pushovers we were for the first quarter of the season.

 

[Casey]

Hi.

From possible play off contenders to the relegation thread. Four points from ten games has that affect.

Casey

 

[Semi-skimmed Silk]

Apparently so, MK Dons are the best i've seen so impressive.

About to find out what effect Sol is truly having with a much tougher run of games coming up, and another potential injury crisis on our hands. Need to sign Cameron up asap, as his effect is clear to see.

 

[JJ1532]

Posts deleted for obvious reasons. Jesus, so much for goodwill towards all men and all that Christmas jazz.

Really intruiging battle down here as we get ready to head into 2019. Notts are in serious trouble, they look like the next Chesterfield, a side that you'd think have the talent to stay up, but either have no cohesion, no bottle or serious dressing room issues. The body language and actions of some of them watching the Macc highlights has to be alarming. You can't self destruct by lunging into keepers or booting the ball at players on the ground. Looks like a massive task for Ardley to clear some of trash out and get some experienced pros in.

Macc are having that new manager bounce, be interesting to see if they can sustain it if they do lift themselves out of the drop zone. Cheltenham are also showing signs of life. Morecambe don't have the quality to win often enough, they'll be in this for the duration, as per. Cambridge look like they'll have to rely on their home form, as per.

Yeovil's money men seem intent on heading for the conference if the rumours about their main sponsors wanting to keep Way are true. The guy needs to go, think even the Alex would have sacked him by now. Crawley are another plummeting towards the floor, think Coiffi is another "foreign manager fails to adapt to L2 football" experiment gone wrong, he could be out the door soon me thinks.

Teams like the Alex and Port Vale will be kept nervous for the next few months every time they have a bad run of form, but should have enough to steer themselves clear by the end. Can't call this one, need to see what happens in the January transfer window first.

 

[jacobncfc]

I think we need three signings right through the middle of the team. They don’t even need to be particularly good, just experienced pros who are going to do some shouting at people and organising. A goalkeeper, centre back, and central midfielder.

We are at least capable of scoring goals, which is often the hardest thing to sort out for a team at the bottom.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

The only way we'll be in here for good is if we have a terrible January like we've had for the past two years here.

Bar a win vs Grimsby on NYD last year and two draws vs Morecambe and Cheltenham the year before, I think we've lost every game in January.

My picks to go down are Notts if they don't sort that terrible back four out (shock, Matt Tootle in a side that concedes goals for fun) and Cambridge.

 

[valefan16]

Vale and Crewe should be ok, both have regularly picked up points ticking them off mixed in with wildly inconsistent performances.

For all our negativity we were five unbeaten prior to Boxing Day and only lost 2 in 10 league games but we’ve had a huge missed chance by bottling beating the bottom sides in recent weeks due to Aspins ineptness to go for blood in those games.

Yeovil were an absolute shambles against us they are probably my tip, the club don’t seem keen to get rid of their manager and it’s clearly not working.

Notts County may go too. It’s ok saying they’ll spend their way out in January but it’s not an easy window to get the right players in as clubs are usually not willing to let good players go.

Otherwise Crawley seem on a massive spiral at the moment dropping like a stone and another outsider who seems to be struggling at the minute as a dark horse to get dragged in could be Newport...

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Our problem is very good home form (23 points from 12 games which is Top 7 worthy) and holding the worst away record in the league.

We know our bunch of soft arses don't like long distance travelling, and a lot of our away games are now local between now and the end of the season, with only MK Dons, Cambridge and Swindon being long treks. So I expect that to improve in the second half of the season.

 

[valefan16]

Our problem is very good home form (23 points from 12 games which is Top 7 worthy) and holding the worst away record in the league.

We know our bunch of soft arses don't like long distance travelling, and a lot of our away games are now local between now and the end of the season, with only MK Dons, Cambridge and Swindon being long treks. So I expect that to improve in the second half of the season.

We’ve actually for once finally sorted our away form out! Then seen our home form slump which is typically Vale! We’ve got an average/above average away form this season (and three of our five away losses were in August!)

We’ve been decent at home but dire travellers for a few seasons now then manage to sort it but I’d somewhat put that down to Aspin being so negative that we are more solid on the road whereas rather than change it to be more positive at home he doesn’t hence invite away teams to have a go by not putting them under much pressure at VP.

 

[GTFCfish]

Posts deleted for obvious reasons. Jesus, so much for goodwill towards all men and all that Christmas jazz.

Really intruiging battle down here as we get ready to head into 2019. Notts are in serious trouble, they look like the next Chesterfield, a side that you'd think have the talent to stay up, but either have no cohesion, no bottle or serious dressing room issues. The body language and actions of some of them watching the Macc highlights has to be alarming. You can't self destruct by lunging into keepers or booting the ball at players on the ground. Looks like a massive task for Ardley to clear some of trash out and get some experienced pros in.

Macc are having that new manager bounce, be interesting to see if they can sustain it if they do lift themselves out of the drop zone. Cheltenham are also showing signs of life. Morecambe don't have the quality to win often enough, they'll be in this for the duration, as per. Cambridge look like they'll have to rely on their home form, as per.

Yeovil's money men seem intent on heading for the conference if the rumours about their main sponsors wanting to keep Way are true. The guy needs to go, think even the Alex would have sacked him by now. Crawley are another plummeting towards the floor, think Coiffi is another "foreign manager fails to adapt to L2 football" experiment gone wrong, he could be out the door soon me thinks.

Teams like the Alex and Port Vale will be kept nervous for the next few months every time they have a bad run of form, but should have enough to steer themselves clear by the end. Can't call this one, need to see what happens in the January transfer window first.

How come my post calling Railway Blue a dick head has been deleted?
Seen much worse not deleted, and it also happens to be true.

 

[devilofajob]

I'd be more worried being a Crawley, Morecambe and Yeovil supporter.

I think we'll finish above at least 2 of the teams currently below us.
It'll be close though.
Although Cioffi is new to the EFL, his assistant isn't. We are at least creating chances, but from what I've heard, our 2nd half performance at Cambridge was dire.
We desperately need Palmer (served 3 of his 5 game ban) and Morais back.

 

[Vanni]

I won't be the slightest bit surprised if the three sides currently down at the bottom - Macc, Notts and us - all manage to stay up. For starters there isn't that big a gap between the sides in 23/24th and those in 16-18th place, unlike previous seasons.

One thing's looking increasingly likely though and this is that around 40 points won't be enough to stay up. If one looks at the table standings around Xmas time for recent seasons one will find that whenever the side in 23rd was on 20 or more points (and this year Macc are on 20 pts), 47+ points were required to stay up.

 

[rudebwoyben]

i think 2015/16 was the last time 40 points was enough to stay up and that was the exception rather than the rule.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Unless you can count Crawley's form as the nose-dive of the season, you can bet your house on someone doing what Grimsby did last season and plummeting from the top half right into the thick of it.

 

[Chris FGR]

Unless you can count Crawley's form as the nose-dive of the season, you can bet your house on someone doing what Grimsby did last season and plummeting from the top half right into the thick of it.

Lincoln.

 

[JJ1532]

i think 2015/16 was the last time 40 points was enough to stay up and that was the exception rather than the rule.

If you want to be technical about it, 35 points would have kept you up in 15/16, given Dag & Red/York went down with 34. But yes, it was the first time in a while the figure was that low. However, there have been a few times its come close in recent years. In the last 7 years, the figure needed to stay up has been:

2011-12: 45 points(Hereford relegated on 44)
2012-13: 51 points(Barnet relegated on 51)
2013-14: 50 points(Bristol Rovers relegated on 50)
2014-15: 42 points(Cheltenham relegated on 41)
2015-16: 35 points(Dag & Red relegated on 34)
2016-17: 47 points(Hartlepool relegated on 46)
2017-18: 46 points(Barnet relegated on 46)

So, as you can see, it swings around a lot. Sometimes 50 is needed, other years 40-45 is enough. I reckon it'll be around 45 points needed again this season.

 

[Wooderson]

Just the 10 wins needed from 22 for us then (4 in 24 so far)... we’re doomed!

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Just the 10 wins needed from 22 for us then (4 in 24 so far)... we’re doomed!

Looks that way sadly

 

[GTFCfish]

I still can’t help thinking that Notts will somehow manage to stay up.

Although I thought the same about Chesterfield last season all the way into Feb/March so maybe not.

 

[Buxton Vale]

we are surely involved in this after the horror show weve produced over the festive season, and we still have Lincoln away in a few days.

 

[valefan16]

we are surely involved in this after the horror show weve produced over the festive season, and we still have Lincoln away in a few days.

Been lucky that the bottom two haven’t really gained on us as yet. The only spark but if Aspin stays based on today and the lack of effort I would say he’s lost the dressing room and will likely drop.

 

[jacobncfc]

Looks that way sadly

Only on the assumption that you need 50 to be safe, which looks pretty unlikely this season.

 

[Buxton Vale]

Im aiming for 46 minimum which means 6 more wins from somewhere. Next week is a free hit as theyve already put 10 past us this season.