14pts away from autos, 11 pts away from play-offs.

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

It's do-able.

Not a poll, just my opinion.

What's yours?

 

[Sportbilly /Detroit Blade]

I said all along we wouldn't go down, we still could, but I don't believe so.

I think we will end up comfortably mid table.

 

[Melbourne Blade]

Got some tough games in December & January. Feb doesn't get much easier either! So let's wait until March to decide

 

[Blade In Flame]

It's do-able.

Not a poll, just my opinion.

What's yours?

I'll have a pint of best please BoSS. Nice one, cheers.

 

[bladesince64]

Confidence returning, moving the ball around quicker, getting the fitness and physicality back to the level we should be at and we've stoped making daft errors at the back.

Not the finished article yet but now have a bigger more competitive group of quality professional players.

Why not aim for the play-offs.

A few sides have put together a few wins and have shot up the table.

 

[Valleyblade]

A pig and a pompey does not a promotion party make.

Especially not if our masterplan is to win a playoff final at Wembley. Again.

Let's enjoy winning some games, and get behind the players, who are becoming more likeable again.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

I'll have a pint of best please BoSS. Nice one, cheers.

Yeah, I left myself wide open for that didn't I?

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

Games up until January are too difficult

A good target would be being 6 points off the top half by then

 

[Bell4]

Stay in this div - then start again

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Reality is clubs with our start have never finished above 14th

It's a huge ask

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Reality is clubs with our start have never finished above 14th

It's a huge ask

Good starting point to aim for. Just 8 points away.

 

[lazyfecklessblade]

To get into the 70’s of points by the end of season, we’d need to average 2ppg. Given our start, that’s very improbable

 

[Blades Glory Owls Down]

Lets not get too carried away with ourselves.
I'm an eternal optimist and even I'm not that confident yet......
I havent got any concerns about being in a relegation fight as it was evident that the players had the ability to turn things around if we could get the ball into the danger area quicker and have forwards that made at least some effort to find space, whilst stopping the silly errors that more often than not led to a goal conceded.

There are lots of reasons to have more confidence that we will start moving up the table but we followed up a draw (where we should have got more) with a win against a terrible pig side and a fairly comfortable win against what looks to be a poor Pompey side.

Next up we have Leicester (A) who are struggling a bit themselves, Stoke (H) a side who have had an upturn in fortunes this season, Norwich (H) a side who have had a terrible start to the season and sit below us in the table and WBA (A) who have had some very mixed results.
If we are looking to climb the table and aim for the top 6, we need to get at least 7-9 points from those next 4 games to give us/the players more belief that we have turned the corner. A run of good results up to the new year might give the owners more temptation to loosen the purse strings and back Wilder in January to add some quality additions (likely loans) to push and see what we can do in the second half of the season.

Its a bit cliche, but I'm just taking it one game at a time.

 

[Gavlar]

We aren’t going up this season.
Hope that helps.

 

[NuddysGloves]

Lets not get too carried away with ourselves.
I'm an eternal optimist and even I'm not that confident yet......
I havent got any concerns about being in a relegation fight as it was evident that the players had the ability to turn things around if we could get the ball into the danger area quicker and have forwards that made at least some effort to find space, whilst stopping the silly errors that more often than not led to a goal conceded.

There are lots of reasons to have more confidence that we will start moving up the table but we followed up a draw (where we should have got more) with a win against a terrible pig side and a fairly comfortable win against what looks to be a poor Pompey side.

Next up we have Leicester (A) who are struggling a bit themselves, Stoke (H) a side who have had an upturn in fortunes this season, Norwich (H) a side who have had a terrible start to the season and sit below us in the table and WBA (A) who have had some very mixed results.
If we are looking to climb the table and aim for the top 6, we need to get at least 7-9 points from those next 4 games to give us/the players more belief that we have turned the corner. A run of good results up to the new year might give the owners more temptation to loosen the purse strings and back Wilder in January to add some quality additions (likely loans) to push and see what we can do in the second half of the season.

Its a bit cliche, but I'm just taking it one game at a time.

It looks like you're taking it four games at a time......

 

[Jan Age]

Relegation battle all season long this is a pointless post as nothing has changed

It’s nice to be out of relegation zone and two 3-0 wins.

Still not good enough to finish inside top 10

 

[Blades Glory Owls Down]

It looks like you're taking it four games at a time......

Well played........ I left myself wide open for that one.
Get a result at Leicester and I might start taking it 5-6 games at a time

 

[Lord Eddard Muir]

I think the way this league's been going so far, everyone other than Wednesday is still in with at least an outside chance of promotion. Other than Coventry, who we've already played once, nobody is really looking too good for this level. Boro arguably were for a while but their manager leaving will unsettle them for long enough to drag them back down into the scrap.

For a team in our position it would take one hell of a run of form and almost certainly a new record for consecutive league wins (our current record is 8).

Do I think we'll do it? No I do not. But it's certainly doable.

 

[S64 Blade]

It’s possible but not probable (at the moment). Let’s just take it one game at a time and see where things are in the new year.

It can change quickly though in this league. Derby were down and around the bottom 3 not all that long ago and now they’re flying after a string of good results.

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Yes it is possible, Southampton have proved that by putting a run together. I’m just not sure we’re good enough at the back to do that.

 

[Gavlar]

Yes it is possible, Southampton have proved that by putting a run together. I’m just not sure we’re good enough at the back to do that.

Or upfront, or in the middle.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Got some tough games in December & January. Feb doesn't get much easier either! So let's wait until March to decide

What is a tough game at this level?
The division has levelled down since we entered it after ptomotion from division 1.
Coventry are way sbove the rest as the table shows.
2nd place is wide open ! Although we have too much to do to be in the hunt.
Slight chance we could reach the play offs ! lets not get carried away we arnt out of the woods yet(relegation).

 

[Bladesman101]

Forgive me if this sounds mad, but I actually think this squad somehow out of nowhere actually has more balance and depth than the one last season. I would not class myself as an optimist, but, I think this squad is coming together nicely.

Another thread the other day stuck with me about partnerships. I think Peck and Cannon have not been very good this season, but, the emergence of Riedewald finding form and being the defensive midfield presence for Peck and Bamford being the big man for cannon, has made me realise that Peck and Cannon are decent; but not on their own. Thankfully Wilder knew this when I thought they were both just poor and needed dropping.

Mee and Tanganga have been magnificent these last 3 games, and I actually think Tanganga is the best CB since the Bash-Egan-JoC days. Obviously we’ve played QPR, PATHETIC FC, and Pompey so the next 2 games v Leicester and Stoke will tell us a lot more.

I actually like this team more than last seasons where I think there was a heavy reliance on Hamer and Souza.

Hopefully January is 10/10 and we can realistically charge for top 6!

 

[Stretch]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

When you look at the points tally required and the time left, it always seems doable. But it's easy to forget position and the amount of traffic in the way.

We would need to put perform so many teams from here on in and even at this relatively early stage, probably couldn't afford to lose many more games if we realistically wanted top 6.

And as delighted as I am with the last 2 results, we have just beaten 2 awful teams. I am not detracting from our performances however and by rights we should have scored 3 or 4 more goals.

Make no mistake though, for now the target is 50 points. December's fixtures might also bring us back down to earth again.

 

[BiggerBladeThanThou]

Reality is clubs with our start have never finished above 14th

It's a huge ask

Not even Forest?

 

[1973Blade]

I'm hopeful we won't be in a relegation struggle. However, we don't look like a promotion chasing team, the first 40 minutes yesterday we created nothing.

 

[100% part time blade]

It almost certainly isn’t possible.
6th place invariably needs 70+ points.
To get that we’d need to gain points at a better rate than every single team (except Coventry) has managed so far this season, and maintain it for the next 29 games. We’ve beaten a side that genuinely looked like it belonged in League 2, and a very poor side that were then reduced to 10 men for an hour. I don’t think we have turned into a team that will outdo every single side in the league except one for the remainder of the season.

 

[Rusty view]

It's 2 wins from 2 poor sides. Let's not get carried away. The performances are getting better slowly.

Let's concentrate on pulling away then see.

 

[Klaatu Barada Nikto]

Reality is clubs with our start have never finished above 14th

It's a huge ask

This isn't true.

Crystal Palace after 17 games in 2003 had 17pts, and were 13pts off the playoffs. They finished 6th.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Not even Forest?

This isn't true.

Crystal Palace after 17 games in 2003 had 17pts, and were 13pts off the playoffs. They finished 6th.

Only going off what commentator said last night tbf!

The league is reasonably tight and over the last 10 games we are "only" 4 points off 6th in the form table but we would need a sustained period of being the form side in the league.

That was our second home win of the season.