Making the Play Offs only to lose


Yes and I would take a bet with anyone on here or anywhere else that said we wouldn't get more than 10 points and that's even with the exact squad we currently have
I reckon we'll beat our tally 19 tbh.. We have some real talent - its all about holding onto them and if we have a very slight glimmer of hope with Amad, we'd be able to reloan him again
 
All part of the highs and lows and uncertainty of being a fan. It would be easy being a fan of a top team like Man City where you are 95% confident of victory every time they set foot on the pitch
 
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???
I think it’s been a decent season given the hopes we all had before a ball was kicked. Now that we are in with a shout however small that is of making the play offs, i for one hope we do and then it’s a lottery. What an odd think to want.
 
Getting into the playoffs, even to lose, would be better for momentum going into next season than falling short.

This is my feeling exactly.

Honestly though, I feel if we make it into the play offs, we will be much more likely to be knocked out in the semis than if we make it into the final. Just a feeling.
 
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.
I don’t know how you remember all those games, I can’t even remember who we played last week.
 
Donald and Sartori sold our entire academy basically for peanuts. They are still heavily involved within the club.

We appear to be doing things on the cheap.

We wont pay £15,000 for a net.

We’ve loaned out key squad rotation players like Matete and Wright that we later needed to save a few pennies.

We’ve got no history as a club nor as individuals of extracting full value from any player sale.

What exactly is there to rationalise a positive viewpoint on this particular issue?
I don’t think either of them are particularly heavily involved. Certainly not Donald. He has a tiny shareholding

Would you have preferred we paid a few more million quid for the likes of Clarke, Stewart, Ballard, Batth, Cirkin? Just so you could say the club was more ambitious? It just seems like good business to me.

At the time Matete and Wright were well down the pecking order. I don’t think many would have predicted we would have so many injuries and both of them would only be getting in contention of getting a game in the last few weeks.
 
It’s been a crazy season. The type of season where a newly promoted team who scraped into the play offs in sixth place upsets the apple cart by beating a team who finished ten points ahead of them at Wembley.

Just try to win the next game and see where it takes us.
 
Still a big ask to get in the top 6, but the fact we have 2 away games will help (we seem well set up for away games). If we do finish in the top 6, don't think we need be afraid of anybody if I am being honest.
 
I love how some people seem to think you can pick and choose when you get promoted.
I choose 2026 to coincide with 60 years since England won the World Cup. It is also a World Cup year, so we can spend the full season having stupid debates about whether we would prefer Sunderland to get promoted or England to win the World Cup. Not a minute before 2026 mind!
 
I remember an interview with John Madjeski, when he was boss at Reading, on what constituted the perfect season for the club's management. He said a good season was finishing in the play-offs and a perfect season was losing the play-off final after extra time and penalties. Go into next season with expectations high, everyone pumped up and a packed ground. The alternate was promotion, high expectations which would be difficult to fulfil and dwindling family support due to bouncings by the big clubs and its disappointment to youngsters and future supporters. The odd "big results" were a bonus but not plannable. In short, he wanted to be the perpetual big fish in the little pond. He could manage the club's finances as a successful Championship club but not at the PL demands for survival.

Much like the present progression to 'State ownership" of clubs. The punter is being squeezed out of it but there's nowt like a Wembley at the end of the season.
 
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If we don’t go up this season, it would be better to have made the play offs and lose than miss out.

Either way they have to go again next season, might aswell have a Championship play off under the belt.
 
has it? with the squad we have albeit without Ross and Corry has made it tougher but we have a very good if a little thin squad capable of automatic if they had stayed fit
Yes it has. We've just come up after 4 seasons in league one. Automatic, with or without injuries, was way beyond anybodies expectations or predictions.
 
Yes it has. We've just come up after 4 seasons in league one. Automatic, with or without injuries, was way beyond anybodies expectations or predictions.


don't be ridiculous we have more than proved that with no injuries we would be up there ...are you KS?
 
Yes it has. We've just come up after 4 seasons in league one. Automatic, with or without injuries, was way beyond anybodies expectations or predictions.

It's deluded this board at times pointless talking sense with people.

No-one expected automatic promotion coming into this season and if they did they're deluded.

I was expecting a relegation dogfight 😂
 
Didn't want play offs this season . Hope we don't scrape in ( it's very unlikely now anyway ). Looking at our injury list and the way Boro destroyed Hull last night , I'd rather we we didn't.
 

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