Relegation Scrap

[Smokerson]

Looks like a 3 horse race now, Inverness and Raith would need to lose nearly every game.

All teams have 9 games left with everyone to play once, we have both Accies and Cove at home. 

Cove seem in the poorest form and are shipping more goals with ourselves and Accies a bit more solid defensively but cannot score goals for love nor money.

 

Who survives, enters play offs, goes down?

[Ye Olde Hamiltonian]

Thing I have noticed with us is that plenty of our players-never mind the loan players who have clubs to go back to - don't appear to have the 'nous' to get a result at all costs.

Cossetted wee boys brought up in Academies who have received a reality check playing against part-time pros with more desire,experience and guys who would kick their granny to secure a point.

Yes,on our day they can play ok, but the other side of the game is severely lacking and if push comes to shove, they will struggle with the pressure of needing a result away at Arbroath last day of the season or in the Play Offs.

Only the on loan Dylan McGowan and Scott Martin show these characteristics which sums up the lack of experience in the squad.

Accies never learned from last season when we were flirting with the Play Offs at the bottom and adding an inexperienced Manager and the Board not backing him(having to play a left back as our back up striker) merely exacerbates this issue.

Still, despite all that I think we will scrape through only to repeat the same mistakes next season when this years under 16-18 will be utilised without the experienced pros to help in their development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CoveRangers1922]

Definitely a 3 horse race (or leisurely stroll) at the bottom. Caley picking up all 3 points at Somerset Park to go with a decent away point at Dens the week before probably has them on the points tally already we are all striving to achieve. Personally I think 36 points will be good enough for 8th. Could even one or two less but I'd hate to bank on that.

Rovers will still have aspirations of getting into the playoffs spots which is still achievable. They will rightly only be looking one way given there has been no pressure from below for a couple of months at least. A quality striker and they'd be in the playoffs already imo. Like their midfield especially.

We took just 5 points from the last quarter of games. 1 win (away to Thistle) and 2 draws (home to Rovers and Arbroath). A hugely disappointing points tally since Hartley's return. Disruption with a change of manager and an influx of players was to be expected to some extent but didn't see it being this bad. Saying that our last 2 signings in MOH and Jackson Longridge are good ones for where we are right now and there are some green shoots appearing. We'll feel we should have secured all 3 points against Arbroath and taken at least a point if not all 3 at Cappielow the week after. 5 points dropped from those positions was tough to take.

If we can get Shay, Scully and Mitch back in the team, all missed the last game, and hopefully Yule back soon we've got a competent starting XI which can compete and get points.

The games against one another will be crucial clearly. Both away for us. Our next 3 aren't easy; QP, Raith and Ayr away so we need to pick up what we can and target the last 6 games for the majority of our points I feel.

Arbroath I've seen a fair bit of lately and they look solid enough at the back, look competitive in nearly all games, just need to do the hardest part and find the net more regularly. Don't see the Litchies going on a long run of losses, certainly won't fade, in fact I expect them to pick up some points in the coming weeks especially their homes games to Morton and Ayr.

Hamilton's run of 13 points in 5 league games was truly impressive and galvanised their hopes. I suspect the Friday night game was one of their poorer performances lately. Not taking anything away from Arbroath who defended resolutely, broke up the game well and still had threat of their own with 10 men. Can Accies get back on the winning trail? Their next 3 look tough, then play us before away to QP. Tumilty, Smith, McGowan and Stephenson all look able signings.

I'm confident our next 9 games will return more points than our last quarter, not too difficult, but whether we'll get enough to finish 8th or 9th I wouldn't like to say or bet on it. I think the bottom 3 places will be fluid in the final quarter. Definitely don't think we'll stay 8th for the full duration that's for sure.

We can't say we don't deserve to be where we are. The teams above us have all look to have either better quality up top and/or tighter defences. Don't think any of us have been out of the bottom 3 in many many months.

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by CoveRangers1922

[ptfc. 22]

Cove (despite taking 5 points off us lol) will finish 10th imo. 9th is harder to predict i think whoever it will be will go down to falkirk /Dunfermline in the playoffs. 

[CoveRangers1922]

2 hours ago, Smokerson said:

Looks like a 3 horse race now, Inverness and Raith would need to lose nearly every game.

All teams have 9 games left with everyone to play once, we have both Accies and Cove at home. 

Cove seem in the poorest form and are shipping more goals with ourselves and Accies a bit more solid defensively but cannot score goals for love nor money.

 

Who survives, enters play offs, goes down?

It's going to go to the wire, we could all occupy any of the spots in the final 9 games.

Obviously I'd love for us to finish 8th or 9th (and survive) given we're almost certainly going to go full time (hybrid) in the summer if we retain our place at this level. Would love to see Aberdeen have 2 full time clubs and for Cove to attract a potentially higher calibre of players and be competitive here rather than just fight for survival.

Going by our recent form many could right us off. 

[CoveRangers1922]

4 minutes ago, ptfc. 22 said:

Cove (despite taking 5 points off us lol) will finish 10th imo. 9th is harder to predict i think whoever it will be will go down to falkirk /Dunfermline in the playoffs. 

If it wasn't for Sneddon's 95th minute stunning glancing header it would have been 7 points!

Yeah many will think we'll finish 10th and could well be correct. Agree 9th have a very difficult task this year to stay up.

Edited March 6, 2023 by CoveRangers1922

[Leicesterlichtie]

2 hours ago, Smokerson said:

Looks like a 3 horse race now, Inverness and Raith would need to lose nearly every game.

All teams have 9 games left with everyone to play once, we have both Accies and Cove at home. 

Cove seem in the poorest form and are shipping more goals with ourselves and Accies a bit more solid defensively but cannot score goals for love nor money.

 

Who survives, enters play offs, goes down?

Did you really need to start a new thread to highlight the current plight we find ourselves in?

[Tattie36]

I feel a tiny bit more positive than I did a couple of weeks ago. Even though we’re bottom and can’t put the ball in the net, the last 3 games have given me a little hope that we can finish 8th.

We have been the better team in all 3 games imo so a bit more luck/composure/bravery up front and hopefully we can turn the decent performances into wins.

Luckily Cove and Hamilton are still down here with us so it could definitely go to the wire. If 1 of the 3 (us hopefully) can put a wee run together then they should pull away.

Edited March 6, 2023 by Tattie36

[Thumper]

Think it'll be Cove and Arbroath for the bottom two, and the way the seaside league is going right now I'd wager on both of them going down.

[Cowshed]

2 hours ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

taken at least a point if not all 3 at Cappielow 

[CoveRangers1922]

1 minute ago, Cowshed said:

Didn't say we would have deserved a point or all 3 as by all accounts we were lacklustre on the day and defended far too deep too early but if you were 1-0 up in a game with 10 minutes to play, you as a Morton fan, would have felt you should have held out for something. 

Instead we gifted you a pen and comical defending from Reynolds and Neill contrived to us getting nothing. Not bitter about that as you need to do it over 90 minutes not 80, fully aware of that.

[Cowshed]

16 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

Didn't say we would have deserved a point or all 3 as by all accounts we were lacklustre on the day and defended far too deep too early but if you were 1-0 up in a game with 10 minutes to play, you as a Morton fan, would have felt you should have held out for something. 

Instead we gifted you a pen and comical defending from Reynolds and Neill contrived to us getting nothing. Not bitter about that as you need to do it over 90 minutes not 80, fully aware of that.

I get you mate, the way it was typed sounded like you should’ve won the game but will say you should’ve got a draw with 10 minutes to go but that’s a Dougie team I’ll always expect if Morton are down with 10/5 left they’re going to keep going and eventually get a result same happened against queens soon as the first went in I knew a second was in coming and that was exact same against cove the second half pressure that day it was inevitable a Morton win was coming

 

I fully expect cove to stay up and hope they do just get they accie c**ts down 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Cowshed

[36-0 Maroon]

I fancy us to finish 8th and quite comfortably in the end for a huge number of valid reasons ️ It’s hard to say who is worse between Cove & Hamilton as up until Friday I would have said Cove but Hamilton are absolutely honking Even when we went down to 10 men we were still much the better team

[CoveRangers1922]

2 minutes ago, Cowshed said:

I get you mate, the way it was typed sounded like you should’ve won the game but will say you should’ve got a draw with 10 minutes to go but that’s a Dougie team I’ll always expect if Morton are down with 10/5 left they’re going to keep going and eventually get a result same happened against queens non stop pressure soon as the first went in I knew a second was in coming and that was exact same against cove the second half pressure that day it was inevitable a Morton win was coming

 

I fully expect cove to stay up and hope they do just get they accie c**ts down 

Don't know when you are beat is a strong trait to have. Was us last year.

I wish I was as confident in us staying up. To see us go full time (hybrid initially) is something I never thought would happen 5+ years ago. Might not work out well for us but still would like to see us try it.

We've got a chance of beating the drop but need our "key" players fit and playing along with being able to see games out.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

14 minutes ago, 36-0 Maroon said:

 Even when we went down to 10 men we were still much the better team

All that game showed was that both teams are absolutely shite.

And i’m aware that we’ve lost to/drawn with all three of these sides in recent weeks. 

[Ro Sham Bo]

I wouldn't write off the 9th place team in the play offs. I wouldn't put it past whichever one of Falkirk or Dunfermline ends up 2nd to make a hash of them. The pressure and expectation on that 2nd place team will be enormous. 

[CityDave94]

Cove would easily scud Falkirk in the playoffs.

[Hank Scorpio]

McGlynn not got what you’d call an exemplary record in the play offs either… 

[Juanjo Nostalgia]

The League 1 / Championship play offs are a lot more open, and therefore unpredictable, than the Championship / Premiership format. Who would have predicted QP coming up last year? If Caley end up ninth (which I don’t think is impossible), I would not be confident of staying up.

[bdu98196]

1 minute ago, Juanjo Nostalgia said:

If Caley end up ninth (which I don’t think is impossible), I would not be confident of staying up.

We are as many points from the top of the table as the bottom. While I'm not a happy clapper we will be more likely to head upwards than get closer to the arse end.

Our season now is striving for the play-off and SC visit to Hampden.