Our run in

Can't really see where many wins are coming from here.

Salford A
Cheltenham H
Bradford A
Bolton H
Morecambe H
Oldham A
Exeter A
Port Vale H
Cambridge A

I cannot see where any win is coming from.

Some of them teams may have nothing to play for,
maybe 10 points for us.

Not being pessimistic but can’t see any points from that run in 😂😂

Best game to start the wins is always the next one
Salford away no problem

Salford have slipped up recently...

I would say with, maybe the exception of Bolton, there's no teams to be scared of in that run in.
It's been a league 2 of poor quality season, us being the worse obviously, but at the moment we are just not scoring enough goals.
Think if we can beat Salford on Friday we could, and I emphasise could, have a good crack at all those remaining fixtures.
Heart says we can stay up, brain so chance and it's time to Google maps Kings Lynn..

.Salford A  lose
Cheltenham H draw
Bradford A lose
Bolton H - draw
Morecambe H win
Oldham A 0draw
Exeter A lose
Port Vale H win
Cambridge A lose

9 points... Not enough for me

Our chance has been in the last 4 weeks, 6 unbeaten but only 1 win has sealed our fate.

Better at the back for sure, weak in mid field and woeful up front.

Brace yourselves it’s not going to be very palatable and torture to watch.

For me though,

Salford A - Draw
Cheltenham H - Lose
Bradford A - Lose
Bolton H - Draw
Morecambe H - Win
Oldham A - Win
Exeter A - Lose
Port Vale H - Draw
Cambridge A - Lose


The Fenty legacy is well and truly complete.

We usually beat Exeter away so that's 3 points in the bag!  

[tweet]1375874549108121603[/tweet]

Here’s all four threatened clubs run-ins. No-one has it easy but ours is the worst.

People keep saying if we win the next one we can go on a bit of a run, no we can't, that was proven after Crawley and Barrow games. We are simply not good enough to score the goals needed as we are reliant on keeping a clean sheet at minimum. We will win a couple of  games to delay the inevitable for a bit longer but I still believe we will finish bottom of the league with less than 40points  

We have had around a dozen 'winnable' games in the last three months . Games against either teams at the bottom end of the table or teams in dire form at the time (e.g. Newport).  Sadly we have come away only two wins.

Now we face what appear to be much tougher games. But the fact is that for weeks now there have been example of games which have not gone to form. Bottom teams beating top sides.

So I think we should approach every single game form now as winnable, and just go for it. Draws are no good to us at this stage. It seems to me that we still need at least 5 wins to have any chance of safety. That would take us to 47 points, so we would probably need a couple of draws in there too.

5 wins , 2 draws, 2 defeats.  I am trying to be optimistic, but the mountain is looking just too steep to me.    

I wouldn’t read too much into opponents at this stage of the season - things like pressure and conversely having nothing to play for can do funny things.

The reality is though we’re going to need somewhere in the region of 13-14 points to have a realistic chance of staying up, so four wins and a couple of draws from nine. I think that just reaffirms the need to throw caution to the wind and go for it - we have nothing to lose.

I’m still very much of the opinion that we’ve had it, but the kind of form required isn’t quite as miraculous as you might think. Nine games - four wins, two draws and three defeats would probably do it. That’s ‘scraping into the play-offs’ kind of form - way better than we’ve achieved all season but not fundamentally beyond the current side in my opinion.

It sounds counter intuitive given where we find ourselves, but we need to drop the fear of losing.

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

I would say with, maybe the exception of Bolton, there's no teams to be scared of in that run in.
It's been a league 2 of poor quality season, us being the worse obviously, but at the moment we are just not scoring enough goals.
Think if we can beat Salford on Friday we could, and I emphasise could, have a good crack at all those remaining fixtures.
Heart says we can stay up, brain so chance and it's time to Google maps Kings Lynn..

Absolutely agree with your sentiments. A minimum of 15 points needed and I can't see that happening, we had our chance to pick up points from those around us in Feb & March and completely failed.

As Fraser said in Dads Army,         We're Doomed Mister Hurst We're all Doomed

Quoted from Poojah

I wouldn’t read too much into opponents at this stage of the season - things like pressure and conversely having nothing to play for can do funny things.

The reality is though we’re going to need somewhere in the region of 13-14 points to have a realistic chance of staying up, so four wins and a couple of draws from nine. I think that just reaffirms the need to throw caution to the wind and go for it - we have nothing to lose.

I’m still very much of the opinion that we’ve had it, but the kind of form required isn’t quite as miraculous as you might think. Nine games - four wins, two draws and three defeats would probably do it. That’s ‘scraping into the play-offs’ kind of form - way better than we’ve achieved all season but not fundamentally beyond the current side in my opinion.

It sounds counter intuitive given where we find ourselves, but we need to drop the fear of losing.

It might even be more. Barrow, Colchester and Southend all play each other. We need 2 teams to lose almost every game to catch them, or us go on a brilliant run of wins. Maybe if we hadn't had a couple of stinkers of refereeing decisions, then we might have a chance. But I just don't see it. Everybody has more than a point a game except us and Southend, so we're looking at needing about 50 to stay up unless 2 teams throw in the towel.

I don't see where we'll be able to score enough goals to win games. Hanson isn't a goal scorer, LJL is good at everything except scoring, Payne doesn't look like scoring many. Hewitt, Hendrie and Morais were putting good balls into the box when we didn't have anybody with a presence. Since those 3 big players have been in, the crossing has been mostly awful. Set pieces were our threat, but we have Spokes taking them now and they're floaty ones that defenders love.

Quoted from LH

[tweet]1375874549108121603[/tweet]

Here’s all four threatened clubs run-ins. No-one has it easy but ours is the worst.

Interesting run in. The fact they all have two games against other teams facing relegation will be a help to us. There’s some games there that are guaranteed dropped points for some or all of them.

The losses at home to Southend and Stevenage killed us.

I think most fans know it’s over now.

Quoted from Yoda

The losses at home to Southend and Stevenage killed us.

I think most fans know it’s over now.

We didn’t lose to Southend, did we?

It's becoming increasingly unlikely, isn't it?  The only hope I have now is that, because we have no more 6 pointers, no game is a must-not-lose; all of them are must-wins.  Maybe that shifts the mentality towards a less-fearful mindset.  The kind of form we need isn't extraordinary.  A 2018-like run-in would do it, but I just don't see where it's coming from in this side.  

We need 1.67 points per game to get to 47 pts which is play-off form, but with the relegation battle becoming increasingly competitive the cut-off might be even higher.  

After the Barrow win I said to myself that we need atleast 6 points from next 3 games to even stand a small chance, 1 game in and only 1 point so we need to win both of the next 2 games.

I find it very unlikely we will even come close to staying up and I think it will be impossible to stay up in the next 6-7 games

We need to go for wins the problem being if we open up too much we look easy to play against and we've had a lot of our so called creative players injured.

Think the Bradford/Bolton games look hard esp, hope im wrong but think are best chance of survival has gone in last couple of months.

Quoted from thefish

Salford have slipped up recently...

And consequently sacked Wellens and appointed Gary Bowyer this week.

Anyone else think that we play better against good teams because they set up to be positive? There's always coupon busters, where a bottom team beats a top team especially in the run in. Why can't it be us?

Got to go now, nursery has just come in with my medicine. 😳

Quoted from lukeo

.Salford A  lose
Cheltenham H draw
Bradford A lose
Bolton H - draw
Morecambe H win
Oldham A 0draw
Exeter A lose
Port Vale H win
Cambridge A lose

9 points... Not enough for me

Sadly I think you are being a bit optimistic there.

Bradford, Barrow and Port Vale all got a boost by changing manger, but sadly our new manager took fifteen games to chalk up his second win. The dropped points in February and March are what has made our task virtually impossible. If we could just have scraped a couple  more wins during that period, to give us between 4 and 6 extra points we would be in contention  now.

As it is, I hope I am wrong, but I just can't see us overtaking two of the teams ahead of us.

On that amazing day in 2016 I told myself as I left Wembley that we would surely not be stupid enough to ever risk dropping out of the league again.

But then I was forgetting who was running the club.      

Quoted from RonMariner

Bradford, Barrow and Port Vale all got a boost by changing manger, but sadly our new manager took fifteen games to chalk up his second win. The dropped points in February and March are what has made our task virtually impossible. If we could just have scraped a couple  more wins during that period, to give us between 4 and 6 extra points we would be in contention  now.

As it is, I hope I am wrong, but I just can't see us overtaking two of the teams ahead of us.

On that amazing day in 2016 I told myself as I left Wembley that we would surely not be stupid enough to ever risk dropping out of the league again.

But then I was forgetting who was running the club.      

And he still is. Watching us descend into the oblivion of the NL while cashing his cheque.

Nero watched as Rome burnt
and
Fenty watched as Town dropped

The run in has become irrelavent, we are doomed, the damage is done, dropping two points against Wallsall who themselves are in a very poor run was one of the final nails in the coffin, I would love to be proved wrong but fear we will play our last two games with relegation confirmed.

Yes agree we haven’t got a chance now.

No goal scorer has cost us all season and it has never been addressed.

Walsall was the final straw.

I think it's been fated since the beginning of the season. Too many short sighted decisions and terrible recruitment means we never got going and once we dropped to the bottom of the league, we have never recovered. Hurst has steadied the ship but it's too little too late and our lack of a goal threat is going to see us in non league again.

The board that took us down last time, totally failed to address the problems that caused our last relegation, even when it nearly happened again and we escaped by the skin of our teeth. A terrible era in the clubs history is going to end as expected, with more failure.

We could be stuck down there for years.

I've been pretty negative about everything for a large part of the season but I still hold out a level of hope. This weekend we have two tough games, but if we pick up 4 points from those then we're absolutely in it given the fact Colchester and Barrow still have to play each other, somebody is going to drop points. Even if we drew both games, I think we'd be less than 6 points away from either of those teams by Monday evening.

That being said, if we lose both games then our fate is well and truly sealed and my iFollow money will be saved  

The question is will the fan base hold up Hursts teams are hardly an entertaining watch.
I don’t think i could bare us holding on for a 1-1 draw with King Lynn.
And then being told it was a good point.

Quoted from Yoda

The question is will the fan base hold up Hursts teams are hardly an entertaining watch.
I don’t think i could bare us holding on for a 1-1 draw with King Lynn.
And then being told it was a good point.

FFS - let's finish giving him a hard time for this season before we start hammering him for imaginary situations next season.

Quoted from Yoda

The question is will the fan base hold up Hursts teams are hardly an entertaining watch.
I don’t think i could bare us holding on for a 1-1 draw with King Lynn.
And then being told it was a good point.

with Hurst in charge i'll be there

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

FFS - let's finish giving him a hard time for this season before we start hammering him for imaginary situations next season.

To be fair, last couple of games he has "gone for it", and most people pre-match have agreed with the line ups (me included) but sadly the players at our disposal (and not faulting their efforts) just don't seem to have that ability to "change" a game with a flash of quality out of nowhere (a Mendonca type of moment, yes I know that was at a different level altogether   )

Quoted from lee65

To be fair, last couple of games he has "gone for it", and most people pre-match have agreed with the line ups (me included) but sadly the players at our disposal (and not faulting their efforts) just don't seem to have that ability to "change" a game with a flash of quality out of nowhere (a Mendonca type of moment, yes I know that was at a different level altogether   )

You forgot to mention that the players at his disposal are the ones Hurst brought in!

That said he will be the manager at the start of next season, like it or not, so we have no option but to get behind him.

Quoted from lee65

To be fair, last couple of games he has "gone for it", and most people pre-match have agreed with the line ups (me included) but sadly the players at our disposal (and not faulting their efforts) just don't seem to have that ability to "change" a game with a flash of quality out of nowhere (a Mendonca type of moment, yes I know that was at a different level altogether   )

What about "A Connell moment" though. Admittedly that was against poorer oppostion but there were many times I can remember when he'd just pull a goal out of nowhere.

Quoted from DB

You forgot to mention that the players at his disposal are the ones Hurst brought in!

That said he will be the manager at the start of next season, like it or not, so we have no option but to get behind him.

The players he brought in within the constraints of the budget and who were prepared to sign for a club in absolute  freefall.

Quoted from Swansea_Mariner

The players he brought in within the constraints of the budget and who were prepared to sign for a club in absolute  freefall.

Most on this forum more or less agreed that the players Hurst brought in are no better than what we had, Eastwood and Mayenese being the exceptions. Many posts ago it was suggested that Hurst was in a win, win position. If we go down it's not his fault and if we stay up he's a hero.

I was replying to a post about the lack of quality of the team. Can you name the players, as you suggest, "were prepared to sign for a club in absolute freefall"?. I like hundreds on here contribute to player's wages through ifollow. You are suggesting they have come for wages etc. and not the benefit of the club.

If this is the case then Hurst should kick them out NOW.

Quoted from ginnywings

The board that took us down last time, totally failed to address the problems that caused our last relegation, even when it nearly happened again and we escaped by the skin of our teeth. A terrible era in the clubs history is going to end as expected, with more failure.

We could be stuck down there for years.

The astonishing thing is just how many times they have either taken us down, or narrowly avoided it.  In 2009 we survived because Luton had a massive points deduction. Otherwise we were down. The board learnt nothing from that and we were relegated the following season.

Now here we are again, having survived in 2018 with a late Jolley inspired miracle, we are going down in 2021. So in out last 7 seasons in L2 we have been at risk of relegation 4 times. What on earth are the people running this club doing? It is shameful.

I can not wait to see the back of them. I hope none of them have the cheek to ever show their faces at BP again. Watching a successful Grimsby Town team is something they do not deserve to enjoy.  

Quoted from DB

Most on this forum more or less agreed that the players Hurst brought in are no better than what we had, Eastwood and Mayenese being the exceptions. Many posts ago it was suggested that Hurst was in a win, win position. If we go down it's not his fault and if we stay up he's a hero.

I was replying to a post about the lack of quality of the team. Can you name the players, as you suggest, "were prepared to sign for a club in absolute freefall"?. I like hundreds on here contribute to player's wages through ifollow. You are suggesting they have come for wages etc. and not the benefit of the club.

If this is the case then Hurst should kick them out NOW.

Macca - playing better as a result of Eastwood
Eastwood - good capture
Hendrie - playing better under Hurst although the odd poor performance
Hewitt - phenomenal under Hurst
Menayesse - an improvement and Hurst has improved him even further
Habergham - clearly a good player but gamble based on fitness but probably best option available
Clifton - playing for the shirt despite out of position
Morais - playing well under Hurst but injury
Matete - massive improvement
El Mazouni - glimpses but injured
Coke - improvement
Rose - playing better under Hurst
Spokes - seemingly being well coached by Hurst
Lamy - looks to add something
Adams - got some class but not enough minutes as yet
Williams - a bit of Hurst tough love and beginning to look better for it.
Jackson - fits and starts
Hanson - clearly plays for Hurst and taken a few games but looking good
Shop - ok missed half of his chances but has scored some too. Improvement
Payne - yet to be convinced but adds more than Green or Gibson

This team old and new players personal/attitude/resistance/group mentality whatever it is are an improvement.

Quoted from Marinerdeano

Macca - playing better as a result of Eastwood
Eastwood - good capture
Hendrie - playing better under Hurst although the odd poor performance
Hewitt - phenomenal under Hurst
Menayesse - an improvement and Hurst has improved him even further
Habergham - clearly a good player but gamble based on fitness but probably best option available
Clifton - playing for the shirt despite out of position
Morais - playing well under Hurst but injury
Matete - massive improvement
El Mazouni - glimpses but injured
Coke - improvement
Rose - playing better under Hurst
Spokes - seemingly being well coached by Hurst
Lamy - looks to add something
Adams - got some class but not enough minutes as yet
Williams - a bit of Hurst tough love and beginning to look better for it.
Jackson - fits and starts
Hanson - clearly plays for Hurst and taken a few games but looking good
Shop - ok missed half of his chances but has scored some too. Improvement
Payne - yet to be convinced but adds more than Green or Gibson

This team old and new players personal/attitude/resistance/group mentality whatever it is are an improvement.

Performances have improved, and we are obviously harder to beat now. But we don't create enough chances and anyway, the improvement has been too little and too gradual to save us.

Quoted from Marinerdeano

Macca - playing better as a result of Eastwood
Eastwood - good capture
Hendrie - playing better under Hurst although the odd poor performance
Hewitt - phenomenal under Hurst
Menayesse - an improvement and Hurst has improved him even further
Habergham - clearly a good player but gamble based on fitness but probably best option available
Clifton - playing for the shirt despite out of position
Morais - playing well under Hurst but injury
Matete - massive improvement
El Mazouni - glimpses but injured
Coke - improvement
Rose - playing better under Hurst
Spokes - seemingly being well coached by Hurst
Lamy - looks to add something
Adams - got some class but not enough minutes as yet
Williams - a bit of Hurst tough love and beginning to look better for it.
Jackson - fits and starts
Hanson - clearly plays for Hurst and taken a few games but looking good
Shop - ok missed half of his chances but has scored some too. Improvement
Payne - yet to be convinced but adds more than Green or Gibson

This team old and new players personal/attitude/resistance/group mentality whatever it is are an improvement.

Hurst said "It's a mess". Anything is an improvement, too little, too late and "players personal/attitude/resistance/group mentality" stopped after they scored on Saturday.

Quoted from DB

If this is the case then Hurst should kick them out NOW.

Unfortunately as they are all still under contract he can't do that unless the club buys up the contracts which they won't do.

But I think Hurst has already made his choices on who is staying and who is going. You only have to look at who is consistently being left out of the team, or those who randomly appear on the subs bench due to player injuries elsewhere.

Unfortunately Hanson seems to be the flavour of the month currently but Green seems to be one of the forgotten ones. I think even though Williams has made a couple of cameos he will be out the door, and hopefully 'hoofer' Waterfall too

Quoted from WayneBurnettsJockstrap

Unfortunately as they are all still under contract he can't do that unless the club buys up the contracts which they won't do.

But I think Hurst has already made his choices on who is staying and who is going. You only have to look at who is consistently being left out of the team, or those who randomly appear on the subs bench due to player injuries elsewhere.

Unfortunately Hanson seems to be the flavour of the month currently but Green seems to be one of the forgotten ones. I think even though Williams has made a couple of cameos he will be out the door, and hopefully 'hoofer' Waterfall too

Because they have a contract doesn't mean he has to use them, merely they have to be paid. I agree about favourites and it has to be seen who they are. Certainly, he prefers some over others, even those who put a good performance in. As you say Hanson is Hurst's man and I don't see why. No.9 and hardly scored, his 2 goals since January have both been very lucky and needed little if any skill.

Still, Hurst is the consortiums man so we will have to wait and see what happens.

Quoted from Les Brechin

What about "A Connell moment" though. Admittedly that was against poorer oppostion but there were many times I can remember when he'd just pull a goal out of nowhere.

Yes, fair point re Connell Les. I was using Clive I guess as I think he was one of the best I can remember at finding that few seconds of magic to win a game out of nowhere   , to be fair Reddy, quick Mick, Oster, and Ivano are worth a mention too (I’m sure there must be a few others)

I’d expect Hanson to hang up his boots at the end of the season. He’s way way past his sell by date .
As for the rest I’m worried we’ll end up nearer the bottom of the NL than the top with them . Half of them are sub standard NL players and those that are probably just about L2 level are more than likely to leave . There’s only 4 or 5 at best that fall into that category and some of them are loanees anyway .
I can’t imagine it’ll cost the new owners a lot to pay off the rubbish and start afresh .
FWIW I’d only keep Spokes out of the young lads signed last summer . He’s definitely got potential...a big step up showed but he looks like there’s a player in there .

Quoted from DB

Hurst said "It's a mess". Anything is an improvement, too little, too late and "players personal/attitude/resistance/group mentality" stopped after they scored on Saturday.

Hurst did say "its a mess" but we  are in a worse position now than when he made that statement, considerably worse and fast becoming cut off at the foot of the table.

Wouldn"t say we are worse, just in a worse position.  Hurst has had to put a full team together and get them playing, some task given the time he's had in the January transfer window. Look at Bolton, they were just above us at one point, until they got it together and went on a winning streak. It took them the best part of half the season before they started playing and winning. Instant success is a rare commodity in football.

Quoted from Azimuth

Hurst did say "its a mess" but we  are in a worse position now than when he made that statement, considerably worse and fast becoming cut off at the foot of the table.

Many will agree with you,
on the other hand, Hurst supporters will put up a robust case.
This has been debated many times and Hurst will be the manager next season, regardless of which league we are in.