| Up For Grabs Now! 16:21 - Mar 26 with 3950 views | jayessess |
Plymouth have only 8 left, the easiest fixtures, the most points on the board, the great home record, but are the worst of the four contenders post-January.
Sheffield Wednesday have 9 left, still have the best points per game, the best away record, the best defensive record, and a big squad with a lot of experienced campaigners.
Barnsley have 10 left, also very easy opponents for most of their run-in, are absolutely motoring, but have the fewest total points on the board and basically depend on scoring from every other shot they take.
We have 9 left, the hardest fixtures by a long shot, but look like January strengthened us dramatically (a lot more than it did our rivals).
Anybody's game, isn't it?
[Post edited 27 Mar 2023 10:57]
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 16:42 - Mar 26 with 3777 views | N2_Blue |
‘The easiest fixtures’ with regards to Plymouth??
Why do fans continue to peddle this.
Is today not proof enough that there is no easy fixture at this stage of the season. All these fans predicting 4 sides finishing with 90+ or even a 100+ points is ridiculous. It’s not going to happen.
Going to be lots of surprise results at this stage of the season. The two sides currently with the best form find themselves 3rd and 4th but it wouldn’t surprise me if both ourselves and Barnsley really change things up in recent weeks. Sometimes doing the chasing helps alleviate the pressure that Weds are clearly feeling when everyone said they had won the league in March. Now they could even finish 4th let alone champions! |  |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 16:48 - Mar 26 with 3743 views | Ryorry |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 16:42 - Mar 26 by N2_Blue |
‘The easiest fixtures’ with regards to Plymouth??
Why do fans continue to peddle this.
Is today not proof enough that there is no easy fixture at this stage of the season. All these fans predicting 4 sides finishing with 90+ or even a 100+ points is ridiculous. It’s not going to happen.
Going to be lots of surprise results at this stage of the season. The two sides currently with the best form find themselves 3rd and 4th but it wouldn’t surprise me if both ourselves and Barnsley really change things up in recent weeks. Sometimes doing the chasing helps alleviate the pressure that Weds are clearly feeling when everyone said they had won the league in March. Now they could even finish 4th let alone champions! |
Many of their fans saying that they're useless without Windass & Byers.
I don't keep up with other clubs' ins & outs - are those two injured? |  |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 16:58 - Mar 26 with 3674 views | homer_123 |
It was 'always' up for grabs.
The somewhat defeatist mentality from some Town fans is understandable given our history but top 2 or winners was never ever out of the question. |  |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 17:06 - Mar 26 with 3620 views | clive_baker |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 16:42 - Mar 26 by N2_Blue |
‘The easiest fixtures’ with regards to Plymouth??
Why do fans continue to peddle this.
Is today not proof enough that there is no easy fixture at this stage of the season. All these fans predicting 4 sides finishing with 90+ or even a 100+ points is ridiculous. It’s not going to happen.
Going to be lots of surprise results at this stage of the season. The two sides currently with the best form find themselves 3rd and 4th but it wouldn’t surprise me if both ourselves and Barnsley really change things up in recent weeks. Sometimes doing the chasing helps alleviate the pressure that Weds are clearly feeling when everyone said they had won the league in March. Now they could even finish 4th let alone champions! |
Plymouth have 5 games in 16 days, including trips to Morecambe, London in the Pizza cup, Shrewsbury and a derby at Exeter. I don’t know in what world people look at that and think ‘easy run’ for a side that has 8 points from their last 18 available on the road. |  |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 17:22 - Mar 26 with 3501 views | itfcsuth |
It is up for grabs!
We have the toughest run in in my opinion, some tough fixtures in there and we will drop points along the way.
Forest Green showed anything is possible in this league - and fair play to forest Green, they thoroughly deserved their win today and missed two more huge chances to make 2 or 3. |  | | |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 19:20 - Mar 26 with 3218 views | LankHenners |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 17:06 - Mar 26 by clive_baker |
Plymouth have 5 games in 16 days, including trips to Morecambe, London in the Pizza cup, Shrewsbury and a derby at Exeter. I don’t know in what world people look at that and think ‘easy run’ for a side that has 8 points from their last 18 available on the road. |
The time to get ahead of Plymouth is now imo. Their next 4 league games include those 3 aways you mention plus Lincoln at home who we know can be stubborn as 100 mules. 3 of our 4 fixtures on those corresponding dates are at home where we've been near-faultless for a while. I'd fancy us to pick up more points than they do over that period.
They've got 3 homes in a row after that which are (on paper, although today shows never to get ahead of yourself) fairly comfortable where you'd expect them to pick up the wins then away at Port Vale who are the only team to beat them at home and they could be in a position where they're desperate for a win. In that scenario last season they got absolutely walloped by MK Dons.
Anything can happen of course but I think ourselves and Barnsley can very much smell blood and will probably be the two teams that go on the best run to the end of the season from here. Hopefully that's enough to get top 2. |  |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 19:31 - Mar 26 with 3103 views | jayessess |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 16:42 - Mar 26 by N2_Blue |
‘The easiest fixtures’ with regards to Plymouth??
Why do fans continue to peddle this.
Is today not proof enough that there is no easy fixture at this stage of the season. All these fans predicting 4 sides finishing with 90+ or even a 100+ points is ridiculous. It’s not going to happen.
Going to be lots of surprise results at this stage of the season. The two sides currently with the best form find themselves 3rd and 4th but it wouldn’t surprise me if both ourselves and Barnsley really change things up in recent weeks. Sometimes doing the chasing helps alleviate the pressure that Weds are clearly feeling when everyone said they had won the league in March. Now they could even finish 4th let alone champions! |
It's just objectively true that some teams lose more often than others. It's not destiny or anything, but we can't delude ourselves that every game is equally challenging.
To finish Top 2 we're going to have to win harder games than the other 3. We've got a great chance of doing that because... we're the best of the 4 teams. | |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 19:38 - Mar 26 with 3056 views | NthQldITFC |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 17:22 - Mar 26 by itfcsuth |
It is up for grabs!
We have the toughest run in in my opinion, some tough fixtures in there and we will drop points along the way.
Forest Green showed anything is possible in this league - and fair play to forest Green, they thoroughly deserved their win today and missed two more huge chances to make 2 or 3. |
Don't get me wrong, Forest Green put up a decent showing for a bottom of the league team... but Wednesday were absolute sh!t from what I saw. They'll have nightmares and self-doubt for the rest of the season about that performance.
We will almost certainly drop some points, but I can see us W7 D2 quite comfortably. Don't really care who we play right now, we're on a serious roll and still building confidence on top. |  |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 19:48 - Mar 26 with 3011 views | factual_blue |
This is one for the football section. |  |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 20:43 - Mar 26 with 2842 views | clive_baker |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 19:20 - Mar 26 by LankHenners |
The time to get ahead of Plymouth is now imo. Their next 4 league games include those 3 aways you mention plus Lincoln at home who we know can be stubborn as 100 mules. 3 of our 4 fixtures on those corresponding dates are at home where we've been near-faultless for a while. I'd fancy us to pick up more points than they do over that period.
They've got 3 homes in a row after that which are (on paper, although today shows never to get ahead of yourself) fairly comfortable where you'd expect them to pick up the wins then away at Port Vale who are the only team to beat them at home and they could be in a position where they're desperate for a win. In that scenario last season they got absolutely walloped by MK Dons.
Anything can happen of course but I think ourselves and Barnsley can very much smell blood and will probably be the two teams that go on the best run to the end of the season from here. Hopefully that's enough to get top 2. |
Yeah agree with that, if we’re not ahead of Plymouth by 10pm on 18th April then I dare say we probably won’t be come the end of the season. I really don’t think their next 3 and a bit weeks is easy though, they’ve not looked great on the road and it’s a hell of a lot of football in a short space of time, with long journeys and some stubborn opposition. If we can get our noses in front then there’s no guarantee we stay there given the tricky games in the final month, but to effectively reduce our season to a point where we just need to match them over a 4 game period would be a healthier position that we’re in now. | |
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 03:58 - Mar 27 with 2449 views | itfcsuth |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 19:38 - Mar 26 by NthQldITFC |
Don't get me wrong, Forest Green put up a decent showing for a bottom of the league team... but Wednesday were absolute sh!t from what I saw. They'll have nightmares and self-doubt for the rest of the season about that performance.
We will almost certainly drop some points, but I can see us W7 D2 quite comfortably. Don't really care who we play right now, we're on a serious roll and still building confidence on top. |
Oh yes, absolutely no doubt about it Sheffield Wednesday were horrendous - but I don’t think they are a particularly good side and rely heavily upon individuals class at this level from certain players.
Even against Barnsley, they were far from pretty, but they tend to be very efficient.
FGR had a very good game plan, 4-2-4 press worked really well for them and barely gave any opportunity to use that individual class.
But you are right, Wednesday were so so poor. | | | |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 07:10 - Mar 27 with 2276 views | Cornishman |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 17:06 - Mar 26 by clive_baker |
Plymouth have 5 games in 16 days, including trips to Morecambe, London in the Pizza cup, Shrewsbury and a derby at Exeter. I don’t know in what world people look at that and think ‘easy run’ for a side that has 8 points from their last 18 available on the road. |
I keep reading about Plymouth's record on the road. They actually have the 4th best away record in the division which is often overlooked due to their phenomenal home record. The recent 8 points from their last 6 away games is not that surprising or the worst points haul of the top 4 since January when you consider it coincided with their toughest run of fixtures all season. Ipswich, Wednesday, Bolton and Peterborough away and Pompey, Derby and Charlton at home. They have played all the top 6 home and away now with just the solitary defeat by 1-0 at Wednesday.
The top four all averaging 2 points per game at this stage of the season is unheard of and with Wednesday finally having a hiccup it has suddenly become 2 from 4 rather than 1 from 3 for a top two spot.
From an Argyle point of view I pray our Devon rivals up the road can get something off Barnsley on Tuesday which will make the top 2 very difficult for them or at least that Barnsley and yourselves draw your fixture as neither of you look like dropping points currently.
We suffered badly last season with 4 key players injured for a very tough April run in and missed out eventually on a play off spot with 80 points as our lack of squad depth was exposed. We addressed that this season by signing 5 players in early January. Four 20/21 year olds to develop for the future and to provide more squad depth and also the loan of Matete to give us the Morsy type player we lacked.
It was as well we did with our top player Cooper ruled out for the season and the spine of the team Scarr, Randell and Cosgrove missing for several weeks recently as well as the long term injuries of Grant, Galloway and Bolton.
We have come through it though and still cling on to top spot. Whether we can hold on to a top 2 spot I really don't know. The fixtures on paper at least are favourable but as Wednesday saw yesterday take nothing for granted. We can only aim for 2 points per game which we have managed all season to give us 96 points and hope. Nine times out of ten that would win the league never mind secure second place but even that might not be enough with Ipswich in top form and Barnsley too.
As the thread title says it really is all up for grabs now and it should be a fantastic few weeks ahead with no doubt a surprise result or two thrown in the mix to keep it very interesting. |  | | |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 08:18 - Mar 27 with 2073 views | pafcprogs |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 20:43 - Mar 26 by clive_baker |
Yeah agree with that, if we’re not ahead of Plymouth by 10pm on 18th April then I dare say we probably won’t be come the end of the season. I really don’t think their next 3 and a bit weeks is easy though, they’ve not looked great on the road and it’s a hell of a lot of football in a short space of time, with long journeys and some stubborn opposition. If we can get our noses in front then there’s no guarantee we stay there given the tricky games in the final month, but to effectively reduce our season to a point where we just need to match them over a 4 game period would be a healthier position that we’re in now. |
Or as we call them. Journeys | | | |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 09:49 - Mar 27 with 1859 views | Ryorry |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 08:18 - Mar 27 by pafcprogs |
Or as we call them. Journeys |
Out of curiosity, is there much protest down your way at this?
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| Up For Grabs Now! on 09:59 - Mar 27 with 1818 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 16:48 - Mar 26 by Ryorry |
Many of their fans saying that they're useless without Windass & Byers.
I don't keep up with other clubs' ins & outs - are those two injured? |
As well as those injured, Weds have a somewhat aging squad and a few suggestions that it’s catching up with them.
Lot’s of anger at their failure/choice not to strengthen in the Jan window. Something that has proved a catalyst for us.
I have no idea how this is going to pan out…. | | | |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 10:46 - Mar 27 with 1681 views | pafcprogs |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 09:49 - Mar 27 by Ryorry |
Out of curiosity, is there much protest down your way at this?
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Asking the wrong green. I am in Kent. Couldn’t handle the distances | | | |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 15:46 - Mar 27 with 1152 views | Sawtrich |
Our Plymouth friend makes a good point, it's so so tight now between four teams that an injury to a key player here or there could be the difference. |  | | |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 15:57 - Mar 27 with 1094 views | clive_baker |
| Up For Grabs Now! on 07:10 - Mar 27 by Cornishman |
I keep reading about Plymouth's record on the road. They actually have the 4th best away record in the division which is often overlooked due to their phenomenal home record. The recent 8 points from their last 6 away games is not that surprising or the worst points haul of the top 4 since January when you consider it coincided with their toughest run of fixtures all season. Ipswich, Wednesday, Bolton and Peterborough away and Pompey, Derby and Charlton at home. They have played all the top 6 home and away now with just the solitary defeat by 1-0 at Wednesday.
The top four all averaging 2 points per game at this stage of the season is unheard of and with Wednesday finally having a hiccup it has suddenly become 2 from 4 rather than 1 from 3 for a top two spot.
From an Argyle point of view I pray our Devon rivals up the road can get something off Barnsley on Tuesday which will make the top 2 very difficult for them or at least that Barnsley and yourselves draw your fixture as neither of you look like dropping points currently.
We suffered badly last season with 4 key players injured for a very tough April run in and missed out eventually on a play off spot with 80 points as our lack of squad depth was exposed. We addressed that this season by signing 5 players in early January. Four 20/21 year olds to develop for the future and to provide more squad depth and also the loan of Matete to give us the Morsy type player we lacked.
It was as well we did with our top player Cooper ruled out for the season and the spine of the team Scarr, Randell and Cosgrove missing for several weeks recently as well as the long term injuries of Grant, Galloway and Bolton.
We have come through it though and still cling on to top spot. Whether we can hold on to a top 2 spot I really don't know. The fixtures on paper at least are favourable but as Wednesday saw yesterday take nothing for granted. We can only aim for 2 points per game which we have managed all season to give us 96 points and hope. Nine times out of ten that would win the league never mind secure second place but even that might not be enough with Ipswich in top form and Barnsley too.
As the thread title says it really is all up for grabs now and it should be a fantastic few weeks ahead with no doubt a surprise result or two thrown in the mix to keep it very interesting. |
Fair point around the run of games you've had, but it's not so much the points yield in recent away games as the manner of them. 0-3 at Barnsley (perhaps a result that doesn't tell the full story, admittedly) and shipping 5 at Peterborough prior to that. They're results that would concern me as a fan. I think your final 4 games are favourable, if you can get through the 4 (league games) before that with 8-10 points then I would think you'll do it, and I don't think you'll find any on here that would resent that. Personally I would like an Ipswich : Plymouth 1-2 with a Sheffield Wednesday v Barnsley playoff final, that would be juicy.
As you say it's going to be an intriguing few weeks, and whoever comes out on top will deserve promotion. Nice to be at the 'business end' of the season with 4 teams not just in the running for the top 2 but also the title. This time last year we were pretty much out of the picture for the top 6, so to have that all but in the bag and a decent shot of the title is good progress. | |
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