Making the Play Offs only to lose


Of course I want us to make the Play Offs but theres a part of me hoping we dont. I tell you why.

I cannot see us winning over 2 legs and then a final with all the injuries and the no striker situation we have.

Therefore in the long term , is it best for the team to - just miss out ; get all the plaudits for incredible season ; not have any play off heartache/baggage ; take a well deserved holiday and come back ready for next season with no play off hangover......... OR is the experience and involvement for the players very useful. Your thoughts???

Why can't you see us winning it over 2 legs?

We drew with Luton home and away
We beat Boro at home 2-0 lost 1-0 away
We beat Blackburn at home and they were dead jammy with poor decisions at their place
We drew with Coventry at home and should have at least earned a point away, we were the better side overall imo. Again, a poor refereeing decision favoured them in the lead up to their first goal.
West Brom we should have had the game won at half time, we'll see how we fare against them this weekend.

Nothing to be afraid of regardless of our long and heavy injury list. We've got recent experience playing in playoffs and winning them.
 
Cant wait to tell the grandbairns about the incredible season i witnessed finnishing 8th in the second tier, just missing out to milwall, luton n preston!

Its the sort of shite ssbc types.
and there it is....the supporter who thinks just because we are Sunderland that we are an "entitled" club. No respect for other clubs such as Luton , Preston , Millwalletc. You just think we are bigger and better than anyone else and are arrogant enough to produce a comment like that. Sport does not produce results on reputations as we at Sunderland have had to endure for past 5 years. Them young players this year have given their heart and soul to ressurect some pride for the fans and from where they have come from 12 months ago is a huge acheivement....but you slag them off mate . well done
 
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Injuries are looking pretty bad at the minute, hopefully batth isnt a bad one also. If we made the playoffs ballard could be available which would help out massively. I think we'd give a decent account of ourselves in there with first choice CBs and an improved CM pairing with possibly onien in there
 
I cannot see us winning over 2 legs and then a final with all the injuries and the no striker situation we have.
I’m an optimist. I want us to win every game, but the sensible part of me thinks this. Not that I want us to not get there, but it’s a big ask.

If we got into the play-offs - I don’t think we will - we will do so with momentum.

l

However, there’s always this. We’ll be in form picking up results against good teams.

The experience for the young lads alone would be beneficial.
Then there’s this.
 
I saw this thread last year when there was 3 games to go and it was touch and go whether we'd make the playoffs in league 1, and someone had the audacity to say that they'd rather not finish in the playoffs because of the heartbreak and go for the autos next season.

It's not really rocket science, finish as high as you can - if we finish in the playoffs and get knocked out in the first leg - there will still be plenty of plaudits for a very very good season. The playoff "hangover" this season will be nothing compared to seasons past, just because a small minority actually expect us to go up, whereas last season it was expected by most fans that we needed to go up.

In other seasons I could see losing in the playoffs causing a hangover/heartbreak etc but you've got to push on through it. It hardened us up in 98 as devastating as that loss was. This season is different though - the playoffs would be a massive bonus regardless of outcome. The whole season has been enjoyable because it's been more about the way we go about our football than the usual agonising over how fucked we are if we don't stay up/go up/etc
 
I’ve enjoyed this season and we’ve played some outstanding football at times but it hasn’t been an incredible season.

I don’t think we have anything to fear from any of the sides in the play offs either. If we get there, no reason we can’t win them.
 
and there it is....the supporter who thinks just because we are Sunderland that we are an "entitled" club. No respect for other clubs such as Luton , Preston , Millwalletc. You just think we are bigger and better than anyone else and are arrogant enough to produce a comment like that. Sport does not produce results on reputations as we at Sunderland have had to endure for past 5 years. Them young players this year have given their heart and soul to ressurect some pride for the fans and from where they have come from 12 months ago is a huge acheivement....but you slag them off mate . well done
You strangely don’t seem to give our team any respect….
Why can't you see us winning it over 2 legs?

We drew with Luton home and away
We beat Boro at home 2-0 lost 1-0 away
We beat Blackburn at home and they were dead jammy with poor decisions at their place
We drew with Coventry at home and should have at least earned a point away, we were the better side overall imo. Again, a poor refereeing decision favoured them in the lead up to their first goal.
West Brom we should have had the game won at half time, we'll see how we fare against them this weekend.

Nothing to be afraid of regardless of our long and heavy injury list. We've got recent experience playing in playoffs and winning them.
Spot on
 
Making the Playoffs is definitely best - I'd rather be in with a chance than not at all.

But, the outsider very rarely wins in the playoffs now. I don't think we've won three in a row all season - we'd need six in a row (or five out of six) realistically if we want to go up. We're also coming off the back of a long season, with a very short pre-season, and a group of players who've had to play a lot of football due to the injuries we've had.

It's not really worth getting upset over if/when we don't get in, because we're not actually ready to challenge without a lot of luck or something unexpected going our way over the next few weeks.
 
and there it is....the supporter who thinks just because we are Sunderland that we are an "entitled" club. No respect for other clubs such as Luton , Preston , Millwalletc. You just think we are bigger and better than anyone else and are arrogant enough to produce a comment like that. Sport does not produce results on reputations as we at Sunderland have had to endure for past 5 years. Them young players this year have given their heart and soul to ressurect some pride for the fans and from where they have come from 12 months ago is a huge acheivement....but you slag them off mate . well done

There's nothing wrong with a bit of arrogance and having expectations mate. Based on our vast following and the infrastructure of the club it's a travesty we dropped to league one and yes I agree with the OP, we should be above clubs like Preston, Luton etc. and I'm sure most of their fans will give us little respect.
 
Plenty of teams lose in the play offs and then go on to win autos the following year. The experience/heartache is invaluable. And you never know, once in there, a full house at home, a packed away end in the away leg, and hopefully a Wembley day out, anyone could knick it.
 
It’s laughable isn’t it, the smugness of some fans automatically assuming that we’ll progress next season :lol:
We’ve progressed this season from last
And last season was better than the one before
And we’ve mainly signed young lads who you have to think will be better with more games behind them
So I’d say it’s not really smug to imagine we’ll be better next season again. Seems logical to me.
 
We’ve progressed this season from last
And last season was better than the one before
And we’ve mainly signed young lads who you have to think will be better with more games behind them
So I’d say it’s not really smug to imagine we’ll be better next season again. Seems logical to me.
Is that the same logic that was applied when we went from the Premier League to League One via the Championship in successive seasons?
 
Finishing in the play offs puts us in a better position to sign and loan players and persuade our better players to possibly give it another year.
 

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