Iron versus Wheaterbix. Scunthorpe away, Sat 8th April.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Looked on the Bradford forum. Seems many of their fans think they could still catch us.

https://claretandbanter.uk/threads/do-y ... 249/page-5

Not over till its over.

Like I'm f*cking bothered what them daft c*nts think. For a start, they think it's worth supporting Bradford.

You can shit yourself up as much as you want, mate. I'll stick to the facts and probabilities, and I'm sleeping soundly at night.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I'm not completely sure whether Insano was more negative during last seasons dismal relegation or this seasons determined promotion charge.

[BWFC_Insane]

Looked on the Bradford forum. Seems many of their fans think they could still catch us.

https://claretandbanter.uk/threads/do-y ... 249/page-5

Not over till its over.

Like I'm f*cking bothered what them daft c*nts think. For a start, they think it's worth supporting Bradford.

You can shit yourself up as much as you want, mate. I'll stick to the facts and probabilities, and I'm sleeping soundly at night.

Win at Oldham and we'll have cracked it.

However, I still maintain Oldham is a very tricky prospect. Local derby. They are unbeaten in 7 at home since Sheridan took over, 1 defeat in 10 at home. Taken points off Sheff Utd, Fleetwood and Millwall. No pushovers at all right now. And a tricky pitch.

Lose there and I think we might go into Bury nervous. And we've struggled more at home than away of late. That is all I'm saying. If it goes to last two games with a small points gap, then all bets are off and anything can happen.

[Billbob]

As the bolton lads would say lets concentrate about us and leave thinking about others to others.

[Nicko58]

Looked on the Bradford forum. Seems many of their fans think they could still catch us.

https://claretandbanter.uk/threads/do-y ... 249/page-5

Not over till its over.

Like I'm f*cking bothered what them daft c*nts think. For a start, they think it's worth supporting Bradford.

You can shit yourself up as much as you want, mate. I'll stick to the facts and probabilities, and I'm sleeping soundly at night.

Win at Oldham and we'll have cracked it.

However, I still maintain Oldham is a very tricky prospect. Local derby. They are unbeaten in 7 at home since Sheridan took over, 1 defeat in 10 at home. Taken points off Sheff Utd, Fleetwood and Millwall. No pushovers at all right now. And a tricky pitch.

Lose there and I think we might go into Bury nervous. And we've struggled more at home than away of late. That is all I'm saying. If it goes to last two games with a small points gap, then all bets are off and anything can happen.

Undoubtedly, it's going to be a tough one but just days ago you were certain that they are pushovers. And the pitch will probably be less of a problem for us; Madine's fitness is the key.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

What I usually do, whether it's during a match or looking at a table, is think: how must the other lot feel? I wouldn't switch our fixtures for either of the other candidates (even slightly realistic: if Scunny catch up 9 points in 4 games we've all wasted our time anyway).

BW: Oldham (17), BURY (18), Vale (21), POSH (11)
FT: Peterborough (11), MILLWALL (6), Gillingham (20), VALE (21)
BC: OXFORD (10), Blades (1), DONS (13), Rochdale (9)

By this stage of the season the league table is a pretty accurate meritocracy. Yes, teams down the bottom may be "fighting for their lives" [sic], but that logic applies to Fleetwood's opponents too, as well as to a much better (than the drop-dodgers) Millwall team fighting for promotion. And if you think mid-table teams become pushovers, then by your logic that's three nailed-on points for us against Posh, which means we only have to get two points from the other three games (assuming 100% records of FT or BC, who have to beat the deserved champions on their trophy-parade day).

Seriously: would you swap our fixtures for theirs? If you were 7pts behind?

The three teams we face before the last day have played 125 matches and lost 54 of them. They are demonstrably worse than most of the division and certainly than us. We'll be fine as long as we turn up with the right attitude – and I don't buy for a minute that laxness will creep in just because gobshites like me are pointing out the enormous statistical likelihood of promotion.

[BWFC_Insane]

What I usually do, whether it's during a match or looking at a table, is think: how must the other lot feel? I wouldn't switch our fixtures for either of the other candidates (even slightly realistic: if Scunny catch up 9 points in 4 games we've all wasted our time anyway).

BW: Oldham (17), BURY (18), Vale (21), POSH (11)
FT: Peterborough (11), MILLWALL (6), Gillingham (20), VALE (21)
BC: OXFORD (10), Blades (1), DONS (13), Rochdale (9)

By this stage of the season the league table is a pretty accurate meritocracy. Yes, teams down the bottom may be "fighting for their lives" [sic], but that logic applies to Fleetwood's opponents too, as well as to a much better (than the drop-dodgers) Millwall team fighting for promotion. And if you think mid-table teams become pushovers, then by your logic that's three nailed-on points for us against Posh, which means we only have to get two points from the other three games (assuming 100% records of FT or BC, who have to beat the deserved champions on their trophy-parade day).

Seriously: would you swap our fixtures for theirs? If you were 7pts behind?

The three teams we face before the last day have played 125 matches and lost 54 of them. They are demonstrably worse than most of the division and certainly than us. We'll be fine as long as we turn up with the right attitude – and I don't buy for a minute that laxness will creep in just because gobshites like me are pointing out the enormous statistical likelihood of promotion.

I'd take our position and fixtures over the others. The issue isn't so much who plays who now, as to whether after a brilliant run, the Scunny defeat leads to a bad run and nerves kicking in. As we've all acknowledge, we're a streaky team who've just had an absolutely barnstorming run ended. Again it isn't about likelihoods now. We either get there or we don't.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I'd take our position and fixtures over the others. The issue isn't so much who plays who now, as to whether after a brilliant run, the Scunny defeat leads to a bad run and nerves kicking in. As we've all acknowledge, we're a streaky team who've just had an absolutely barnstorming run ended. Again it isn't about likelihoods now. We either get there or we don't.

If the issue isn't so much who plays who, how come you keep fretting about Oldham and Bury? It'll be reet, champ.

Oh and as for the barnstorming run: we had one of those ended at Peterborough (who went fifth), after five straight wins. But we picked ourselves up and won the next four without conceding a goal. Would that do?

[BWFC_Insane]

I'd take our position and fixtures over the others. The issue isn't so much who plays who now, as to whether after a brilliant run, the Scunny defeat leads to a bad run and nerves kicking in. As we've all acknowledge, we're a streaky team who've just had an absolutely barnstorming run ended. Again it isn't about likelihoods now. We either get there or we don't.

If the issue isn't so much who plays who, how come you keep fretting about Oldham and Bury? It'll be reet, champ.

Oh and as for the barnstorming run: we had one of those ended at Peterborough (who went fifth), after five straight wins. But we picked ourselves up and won the next four without conceding a goal. Would that do?

Simply because one can see Oldham being tricky. And by the time we play our next game our lead COULD be 1 point. Under those circumstances Bury could be quite a nervy game.

All I'm saying is, we've a fair bit to do yet, so no need to count any chickens till it is done.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

by the time we play our next game our lead COULD be 1 point.

Could be. Could also be 10. Or any integer in between (and yes, I've checked).

[BWFC_Insane]

by the time we play our next game our lead COULD be 1 point.

Could be. Could also be 10. Or any integer in between (and yes, I've checked).

Yep. What is our ppg when Madine hasn't started this season? Might have to be enough....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

by the time we play our next game our lead COULD be 1 point.

Could be. Could also be 10. Or any integer in between (and yes, I've checked).

Yep. What is our ppg when Madine hasn't started this season? Might have to be enough....

Not sure but I know we've won our last two games with him off the pitch...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

by the time we play our next game our lead COULD be 1 point.

Could be. Could also be 10. Or any integer in between (and yes, I've checked).

Yep. What is our ppg when Madine hasn't started this season? Might have to be enough....

Not sure but I know our last two wins came with him off the pitch...

[BWFC_Insane]

by the time we play our next game our lead COULD be 1 point.

Could be. Could also be 10. Or any integer in between (and yes, I've checked).

Yep. What is our ppg when Madine hasn't started this season? Might have to be enough....

Not sure but I know we've won our last two games with him off the pitch...

Different when he's been on and at least had a presence up there a bit to hold it up.

If the rumour he's our for the season is true, our ppg in matches he hasn't started doesn't look very hot at all.

[Nicko58]

by the time we play our next game our lead COULD be 1 point.

Could be. Could also be 10. Or any integer in between (and yes, I've checked).

Yep. What is our ppg when Madine hasn't started this season? Might have to be enough....

Not sure but I know we've won our last two games with him off the pitch...

Different when he's been on and at least had a presence up there a bit to hold it up.

If the rumour he's our for the season is true, our ppg in matches he hasn't started doesn't look very hot at all.

I do agree with your general point but bloody hell, he came off after half an hour in one of those matches!

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

If we can't get promoted from the position we're in due to Gary Madine being absent then we have no business being promoted.

[TANGODANCER]

If we can't get promoted from the position we're in due to Gary Madine being absent then we have no business being promoted.

Which is all fine and true A.T., ecept without him we have to stop thinking he's stll there, and play a different style of football.With Long, Clayton and Alf as the point options, Wilkinson is the only one we have big enough to even come close to playing giraffe-ball. I say that rather than set pieces because we can use Wheats, Beevers and Dervitefor those. With Madine missing, sad as some may find the fact, we haven't the players or wherewithall to play that game. Either we play on the deck or be glad of the Machine option. It's a fact....I think....

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

If we can't get promoted from the position we're in due to Gary Madine being absent then we have no business being promoted.

Which is all fine and true A.T., ecept without him we have to stop thinking he's stll there, and play a different style of football.With Long, Clayton and Alf as the point options, Wilkinson is the only one we have big enough to even come close to playing giraffe-ball. I say that rather than set pieces because we can use Wheats, Beevers and Dervitefor those. With Madine missing, sad as some may find the fact, we haven't the players or wherewithall to play that game. Either we play on the deck or be glad of the Machine option. It's a fact....I think....

I still believe we're capable of stringing a couple of passes together to bring the likes of ALF, Long and Clayton into the game. If being big and getting in the way is all we need then we have several of those in defence that could do a stand in.

[BWFC_Insane]

If we can't get promoted from the position we're in due to Gary Madine being absent then we have no business being promoted.

Which is all fine and true A.T., ecept without him we have to stop thinking he's stll there, and play a different style of football.With Long, Clayton and Alf as the point options, Wilkinson is the only one we have big enough to even come close to playing giraffe-ball. I say that rather than set pieces because we can use Wheats, Beevers and Dervitefor those. With Madine missing, sad as some may find the fact, we haven't the players or wherewithall to play that game. Either we play on the deck or be glad of the Machine option. It's a fact....I think....

I still believe we're capable of stringing a couple of passes together to bring the likes of ALF, Long and Clayton into the game. If being big and getting in the way is all we need then we have several of those in defence that could do a stand in.

We're a high tempo physical team with one outball. Up front. Whatever anyone thinks we aren't going from that to a team that can open the opposition up with some quick incisive midfield play.

We've only had two real outlets this season. Madine and Ameobi when he was here. The rest need some way of getting the ball high up the pitch to press and make Vela's running effective.

I don't know why people expect Spearing, Pratley and Vela to suddenly show qualities they've never possessed just because we've lost our target man. But there you go.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

See also Parky's defence of picking Wilko as a poor man's Madine (there's a phrase that would have got you locked up six months ago): “Why would we think about changing something which has brought us five away wins on the bounce? We would be mad."