Race to the tape: 2024's League One promotion campaign

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Thought it was time we had a thread on here for this. Let's face it, it's what we're all thinking about, far more than sex or Rwanda or the Romans.

And let's start with a sympathetic sigh for Pompey, after this news conference this afternoon....
https://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/news/202 ... jury-blow/

Pompey have received a triple injury blow with the news that three players are set to miss the remainder of the season.

Joe Morrell and Terry Devlin both went off during the recent draw at Oxford after hurting knee and shoulder respectively. That was followed by Tom McIntyre limping from the turf in Saturday’s win over Northampton following a challenge with Mitch Pinnock. The debutant defender was sent off for the incident, although that decision has since been overturned.

Blues boss John Mousinho said: “With Joe, there was unfortunately a small piece of cartilage that chipped off his knee, so he’s in for surgery today. That’s going to be him for the rest of the campaign, although the good news is that we feared it could be ligament damage, which would have seen him out for a lot longer. We don’t how the operation has gone yet – and we hope it’s gone well – but he should be back for pre-season.

"Terry’s shoulder injury is a lot worse than we originally thought and he’s also set for surgery after landing on it awkwardly. We’re again looking at three-plus months for his recovery, so that will again take us through to the end of the season.

"There was further blow when we got the news from Tom’s scan that there was a fracture in the ankle and we’re looking at around 12-14 weeks for that. It’s a tough one to take after only just signing him and the fact he went into the challenge honestly, which showed from the red card being overturned.

“You look at every injury and how you can do things differently, with training and the player load, but it’s just down to bad luck.”

[BWFC_Insane]

Ooof too early. Too early.

[knobpolisher]

Wow just shows how quickly fortunes change. Pompey must have been feeling fairly confident in the promotion charge , sorry for them but thankfully its not us.

[knobpolisher]

BWFCI clearly still thinking about Rwanda and the Romans

[sonicthewhite]

BWFCI clearly still thinking about Rwanda and the Romans

What did the Romans ever do for us?

[DJBlu]

BWFCI clearly still thinking about Rwanda and the Romans

What did the Romans ever do for us?

Cambridge Aquaduct?

[The_Gun]

Ooof too early. Too early.

Why is it too early?

We're more than half way through the season, the transfer window is closed, and Bolton are in prime position for the automatics.

[BWFC_Insane]

Ooof too early. Too early.

Why is it too early?

We're more than half way through the season, the transfer window is closed, and Bolton are in prime position for the automatics.

Lot of football to be played. Run in starts mid March….

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Ooof too early. Too early.

Why is it too early?

We're more than half way through the season, the transfer window is closed, and Bolton are in prime position for the automatics.

I apologise if anyone thinks the thread title is presumptuous, but the "campaign" is the whole league, not us. Two teams will be promoted in April, another in May, and we're unarguably in the shakeup: we're 60% of the way through the season, with 58 points piled up at a greater PPG than any other team. The "other clubs" conversation is spilling to various threads and indeed sub-forums so it's daft to ignore it, really.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Lot of football to be played. Run in starts mid March….

So is there no such thing as a "must-win" this month? Thank god for that...

[sonicthewhite]

BWFCI clearly still thinking about Rwanda and the Romans

What did the Romans ever do for us?

Cambridge Aquaduct?

Alright, yeah the aqueduct, I'll give you that. But what did the Romans reallllly do for us?

[Mar]

Don't think it's too early for this thread. I hope it doesn't jynx us. Everything's looking good and shouldn't see us disrupted at all but time will tell.

As for those Portsmouth injuries that's quite shocking. 3 long term injuries only does us a favour. Hopefully it's enough to simplify the race.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

For clarity, this is a thread about who might go up. Anyone who doesn't think we're in that conversation has blinded themselves by superstitiously throwing salt into their eyes...

[BWFC_Insane]

Lot of football to be played. Run in starts mid March….

So is there no such thing as a "must-win" this month? Thank god for that...

Every game is a must win for Bolton in league one. Every point now is one less we will need to get in the run in

[DJBlu]

Portsmouth are pretty unfortunate with 3 long term injuries in a week and they play the league bruisers on Saturday. If there was ever a game where Josh Vela wants to help out .....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Here's who the top 4 are scheduled to play up until the next international break, on Sat 16 March.
If all these fixtures are played, we'll all be on 39 league games and ready for the home straight.
.

Screenshot 2024-02-07 at 20.10.14.png (117.24 KiB) Viewed 2710 times

[jmjhb]

11 games in 35 days!

[DJBlu]

11 games in 35 days!

33 points by 16th of March then?

22 if we continue our current PPG.

80 - 91 points?

Should make us safe from the drop.

[officer_dibble]

That run of games is crazy. No break whatsoever. My gut is we won’t avoid defeat in them - what others do I’m not sure. Blackpool/Wigan/Barnsley as consecutive away days sticks out.

[jmjhb]

11 games in 35 days!

33 points by 16th of March then?

22 if we continue our current PPG.

80 - 91 points?

Should make us safe from the drop.

11 wins and we're up and can take the rest of the season off