Play off race

[Bbrovers2288]

I would absolutely love it if we nicked a playoff place off Coventry after they done it to us a few seasons back, they have done us dirty a few times 

[Lancaster Rover]

Rovers in the play offs and PNE relegated is a cracking double, defo worth a tenner if I can get decent odds

[superniko]

16 minutes ago, Lancaster Rover said:

Rovers in the play offs and PNE relegated is a cracking double, defo worth a tenner if I can get decent odds

About 30/1 I think 

[Lancaster Rover]

37 minutes ago, superniko said:

About 30/1 I think 

Yeah odds checker giving 11/2 and 7/2 on us, PNE so £280ish profit on a tenner. Worth a swing 

[Ricky]

What sort of team do we expect Sheffield United to put out? They can’t move league position so could potentially rest players. 

[roversfan99]

They made a lot of changes yesterday (with a strong squad they still won) but I wonder if they will go stronger to try and build momentum.

[Forever Blue]

If we beat Sheff U there’s every chance we’d play them again a couple of weeks later in the playoff semis 

[lraC]

1 hour ago, Forever Blue said:

If we beat Sheff U there’s every chance we’d play them again a couple of weeks later in the playoff semis 

It’s a lot more likely we finish 6th than 5th if we do beat them, so that’s correct.

I do think they will rest a few like they did yesterday, but still a tough game. 

[Cherry Blue]

8 hours ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

I would absolutely love it if we nicked a playoff place off Coventry after they done it to us a few seasons back, they have done us dirty a few times 

Payback for their keeper Wilson  punching ball in net after coming up for a late coventry corner. 

[Mercer]

3 hours ago, Forever Blue said:

If we beat Sheff U there’s every chance we’d play them again a couple of weeks later in the playoff semis 

The most likely scenario especially as SU will fancy their chances more against Rovers in play offs than against another opponent.

[arbitro]

10 hours ago, DE. said:

Interestingly despite being sat comfortably in 4th, there's some serious friction at Sunderland. Fans booing and having a go at the players after today's 2-0 defeat to Oxford. Apparently an exchange between the players and fans post-match. Granted their recent form is horrendous (four losses on the spin, five without a win), but still surprising to see such a vocal level of discontent and disharmony with the playoffs on the horizon. Doesn't seem to bode well for them.

I was listening to some Sunderland fans as we were walking back to the car last Monday and my impression was that they were worried at the loss of form and momentum going into the playoffs. It appears that worry has turned into anger yesterday.

Not a good sign for them.

[MarkBRFC]

4 hours ago, Forever Blue said:

If we beat Sheff U there’s every chance we’d play them again a couple of weeks later in the playoff semis 

We could end up playing them Saturday, Thursday and Monday.

Sheffield Utd won't rest players, they will want momentum going into the play offs and also won't want to play someone coming in on the back of 5 straight wins.

They are much better than us and will beat us fairly comfortably i think.

[lraC]

43 minutes ago, Mercer said:

The most likely scenario especially as SU will fancy their chances more against Rovers in play offs than against another opponent.

They won’t lose to us on purpose, to try and get us in the play offs and there is a chance we could finish fifth. I am pretty sure they will rest a few, but will definitely not roll over. 

[Lancaster Rover]

I think they will rest a few, been a long old season and Wilder is a smart cookie, he'll rest a few and play a few to make sure everyone goes into play offs having a good spread of minutes so they're all sharp. 

So if we turn up we could beat them, however if we don't we'll get dogwalked like we did at Ewood, there really was a chasm earlier in the season. In fact based on that game I was fairly confident Sheff Utd would win it as they had numerous ways of playing unlike the Dingles and Leeds. I've been fairly surprised by their drop off, that said they've struggled against other 'top teams'.

Really is a crap league this year, making our December to April collapse all the more frustrating. 

[superniko]

43 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

We could end up playing them Saturday, Thursday and Monday.

Sheffield Utd won't rest players, they will want momentum going into the play offs and also won't want to play someone coming in on the back of 5 straight wins.

They are much better than us and will beat us fairly comfortably i think.

Are Thursday / Monday the confirmed playoff dates? What a shambles football has become not having 1 of the legs on a weekend 

[superniko]

8 hours ago, Ricky said:

What sort of team do we expect Sheffield United to put out? They can’t move league position so could potentially rest players. 

Annoyingly they were guaranteed 3rd place a week earlier than we’d have wanted. They rested a lot of players on Friday night so I think it’s more likely they go a bit stronger against us.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

If we play like we did in the first half yesterday we’ll lose. If we play like we did in the second half it could go either way.

[Herbie6590]

@DE. ‘s original post was highlighted as being worthy of an article…I agree…so here it is…

 

https://www.brfcs.com/articles/the-play-off-possibilities

 

Please feel free to do more of this stuff @DE. 👏👏👏

 

Hat tip to @Mike E for the recommendation 🙂

[DE.]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

I was listening to some Sunderland fans as we were walking back to the car last Monday and my impression was that they were worried at the loss of form and momentum going into the playoffs. It appears that worry has turned into anger yesterday.

Not a good sign for them.

I had a gander on their forums and was honestly a bit baffled by how negative the general sentiment was. It wasn't that long ago they were struggling in League 1, and now the expectation genuinely seems to be that they should have been pushing for automatics, despite not having the wage bill or transfer expenditure to make that a likely possibility.

I'm just thinking, lads, try supporting Rovers for a few seasons. Try enduring season after season of catastrophic losses of form which don't just put us in negative momentum, but totally bomb us out of playoff contention despite often being in extremely strong positions. Try dealing with seeing the club sabotage itself in January year after year, whilst watching the playing squad get systematically weakened by cost-cutting despite being in a strong FFP position and supposedly having wealthy owners.

They've been in the playoff positions or higher basically all season. Excluding the parachute clubs they've won more games than anyone else. Better GD than everyone else. Conceded less than everyone else. I get that it's disappointing to go through a bad spell where you lose a few matches on the spin, but jeez, you're already in the playoffs. Even if you'd won all four of those you'd still be 4th. You can't drop down any further than that. It's hard to understand how a poor run of form which ultimately doesn't change anything has turned into a massive FUCK YOU to the manager and players for sections of their fanbase. I also don't see how it helps to fracture the relationship between the manager, players and fans before the playoffs.

This is why it makes me laugh when people try to paint Ewood as being 'a jury' and our fans being overly negative. Try reading literally any other fan forum. Lose a few matches and most fanbases are the same if not far worse. In fact, Ewood is probably very low down the list of grounds where fans turn on the team. Even during some of our most dire runs you generally get apathy rather than outright anger.

[DE.]

5 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

@DE. ‘s original post was highlighted as being worthy of an article…I agree…so here it is…

 

https://www.brfcs.com/articles/the-play-off-possibilities

 

Please feel free to do more of this stuff @DE. 👏👏👏

 

Hat tip to @Mike E for the recommendation 🙂

Well, now I really hope my calculations were correct 😆

[Herbie6590]

1 minute ago, DE. said:

Well, now I really hope my calculations were correct 😆

We can always edit 😆

[Upside Down]

It's not happening. Don't get your hopes up.

[lraC]

We have to just go to Bramhall Lane and win. It’s quite incredible that we are still in with a chance, going into the last game, despite the shenanigans. I would much rather have this tingling of excitement about the game, than have nothing riding on it and us just playing the season out.

I will be in Spain, watching on Rovers TV as usual and definitely have my lucky underpants on.

[MarkBRFC]

41 minutes ago, superniko said:

Are Thursday / Monday the confirmed playoff dates? What a shambles football has become not having 1 of the legs on a weekend 

Yes.

If we finish 6th we play at Ewood on Thursday the 8th May and away on Monday 12th.

If we finished 5th we would play at Ewood on Friday the 9th May and away on Tuesday 13th May.

[Moptop1]

Simply put, Burnley will not care a jot about us when they play Millwall. You know they will let Millwall win.

As for Bristol City, if they lose tomorrow, they’ll need to beat Knob End to stay in Play Offs. If they win at Leeds, do you think they’ll care about the Preston game either?

Sadly, I think it’s all too late (again)!