Do regular season results influence play-offs?

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maxtheblade

maxtheblade

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Was just thinking back to our previous play-off campaigns and how we'd done against our opponents, given that Stevenage did the double over us. Here goes...

1996/97
Semi-final- Ipswich
Regular season lost 3-1 at home and lost 3-1 away
playoff semi drew 1-1 at home and 2-2 away (won on away goals)
Final - Palace
Regular season won 1-0 away and won 3-0 at home
lost 1-0 in final

2002/03
Semi - Forest
lost 3-0 away and won 1-0 at home
playoff semi drew 1-1 away and won 4-3 at home after extra time (2-2 at full time)
Final - Wolves
won 3-1 away and drew 3-3 at home
playoff final lost 3-0

2008/09
Semi - Preston
won 1-0 at home and drew 0-0 away
playoff semi drew 1-1 away and won 1-0 at home
Final - Burnley
lost 3-2 at home and 1-0 away
lost 1-0 in final

Not convinced this teaches us a great deal to be honest!

UTB!
 

Whatever's happened before, let's just sssume that we might scrape into the final, then not show up. At least none of us can be disappointed this time around....

:)

UTB
 
The flaw in your post is starting off saying Stevenage did the double over us :D

Back to the point, it means bugger all, momentum and current form means far more than a game which took place 8 months ago. Stevenage will probably go into the play-offs the most confident.
 
For pity's sake, we've got 90 points. We're clearly superior to any other team in the playoffs. Let's at least go into it accepting we've a fighting chance....*









* Not to be mistaken for confidence. :)
 
JohnDenver said:
For pity's sake, we've got 90 points. We're clearly superior to any other team in the playoffs. Let's at least go into it accepting we've a fighting chance....*









* Not to be mistaken for confidence. :)
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Ah, so Ched got off then? We're as good as up!

:)

UTB
 
JohnDenver said:
Never heard of the fella.

Three games. That's all it needs. Enough with the fatalism please (at least until Stevenage score their fifth).
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It's a defence mechanism JD. I'll be at the play-offs right behind 'em (though hopefully Stevenage away will sell out before I have to find an excuse :)) but my optimism has completely evaporated, along with our goalscorer and our momentum. I'll honestly treat promotion as an unexpected bonus, and I don't really fear staying where we are anyway.

UTB
 
alcoblade said:
It's a defence mechanism JD. I'll be at the play-offs right behind 'em (though hopefully Stevenage away will sell out before I have to find an excuse :)) but my optimism has completely evaporated, along with our goalscorer and our momentum. I'll honestly treat promotion as an unexpected bonus, and I don't really fear staying where we are anyway.

UTB
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Oh I understand all that. It's just best not to let on.

UTB!
 
maxtheblade said:
Not convinced this teaches us a great deal to be honest!

UTB!
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Well, I think it answers the question you posed, and the answer based upon that evidence is that, no, regular season results do not appear to influence play-off results.

In terms of the Ched Evans question, we should keep in mind that he didn't play in our first 7 league games, and that was our best run of the season - P7 W6 D1 L0.

There's been much talk of our poor play off record, but given that you only have a 1 in 4 chance each time, most teams have pretty poor play-off records! If anything, our time is due, and there's no bigger opportunity to do it than being in play-offs in the third division rather than the second! There is something uniquely 'United' about us declaring we're fundamentally no good at play-offs because we haven't won them in 4 attempts, when only 1 team in 4 can win them anyway.

Then there's the oft-quoted theory about the team that finishes 3rd usually doing badly in the play-offs because of the disappointment of missing out on 2nd. I don't think that stats bear that out. Sam Allardyce wrote in the Standard before the play-offs began that quite simply they were the best team in the play-offs - proven over a season - and should go out and prove it. Much to the irritation of all of us, they made a fine start at Cardiff the other night. It's all about a winning mentality, and the fans can do much to give that to the team.

How's that for confidence?
 
>How's that for confidence?
excellent .. but pretty rare round here.. our fans are a bunch of panicking miserable c**ts i reckon :D
seriously.. i'm glad i'm not stuck on Dunkirk beach with some of them
 
Jim Chimmerney said:
The flaw in your post is starting off saying Stevenage did the double over us :D
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Oh yeah! Goes to show that it felt like a defeat then!

I forgot to add 1997/98
Semi-final v Sunderland
League - won 2-0 at home and lost 4-2 away
Semi - won 2-1 at home and lost 2-0 away

Hasn't added much weight to the argument really!

For what it's worth I'm optimistic - surely it's our turn, that's how it works right?
 
you can't win with some poeple.. they are so determined we are going to lose it makes me wonder why they bother..
on the one hand we won't win because we are the third place team .. (therefore the best team) and they never win and on the other we can't win because the team in form never wins.. you are contradicting yourselves in the obsession that we will lose
 
super_pig said:
you can't win with some poeple.. they are so determined we are going to lose it makes me wonder why they bother..
on the one hand we won't win because we are the third place team .. (therefore the best team) and they never win and on the other we can't win because the team in form never wins.. you are contradicting yourselves in the obsession that we will lose
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I would suggest it is about momentum. No wins in three, 2 against play off contenders and another against a relegated team hardly breeds confidence in the fans let alone the players.
 
aah but that is the contradiction.. some people are making out 'it is a one off game, form doesn't matter' .. you can't have it both ways
 

super_pig said:
aah but that is the contradiction.. some people are making out 'it is a one off game, form doesn't matter' .. you can't have it both ways
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You can have it both ways though, people are saying we should win because we're clearly the best team of the four as the League table shows. That may be the case over the last 9 months but we're not playing like the team of a month or so ago and have one vital piece missing. Previous results do count for nothing but the fact is momentum and form are the main factors going into the play-offs and we're not in form that took us into the top 2 and must be low in confidence no matter what the manager says.

Having said that, you can take positives from those three games and we certainly haven't had the rub of the green. I'm more confident with DW in charge than I would have been under NW or KB and I'm hoping that with auto out of the way now, we can just go for it and show some of the football that got us here in the 1st place.
 
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