Some reasons why i fear the play off's are the best we can hope for.........

1. Youseff Safri.

It was clearly evident from yesterday just what an important player Safri is for us. We do not look no where near as good a team without him. He is going to be missing for the next few games and for probably 5 games during Jan and Feb for the ANC. His abscence will likely cost us a few points.

2. Callum Davenport.

Again a very important player for us. His loan expires i believe half way through December. I have heard through a very reliable source that we are going to try and buy him in Jan. However, we are by no means guaranteed to get him and even if we do it could take untill mid to the end of Jan to get the deal sorted which means that we will be back to having Fleming in the centre of defence over this time which will again cost us a point or 2.

3. We have again yesterday failed to beat a side at home whom if we want to win automatic promotion we should beat. Millwall are added to the likes of Crewe, Coventry, Reading and Leeds where we have dropped valuable home points. We now have coming up before the end of the year 9 away games and only 5 at home.

4. Sheffield Utd and Crystal Palace.

These two teams will win the automatic promotion places imo.

We are already 18 pts behind Sheffield Utd who are incidentally already about 10 points clear of 3rd place. They will win the league, and i cannot for the life of me see us overhauling the 18 point gap between us and them.

Palace are now starting to find form and have AJ returning from injury. They are going to take some stopping and will get the 2nd place promotion spot.

We have the players to gain the 2nd spot but for the reasons above i don't feel we will.

However i could be wrong, and we could still challenge for 2nd place. All of the other teams like Wolves, Leeds, Soton, Luton are not convincing for me that they are good enough to get 2nd, but Palace unless they suffer an injury crisis could take some stopping. We will need Ashton to start firing on all cylinders ASAP if we are to have any chance of grabbing 2nd place, in addition to Dean finding form we will need maybe a couple of more loan signings to cover the 2 abscences discussed above.

Long post i know but your thoughts please.

Posted By: The Baron, Oct 16, 12:21:46