Is the pressure off now? ......it now looks as though Peacehaven will walk away with automatic promotion....ok we are all frustrated and disappointed because we had high hopes that we would be in that position and not have to suffer the agony of promotion by play offs.....however that's how it is now? I wonder if we might see a more relaxed team now and to be fair there is probably not the pressure to win every game....guess there will be 3 certs for 4 places, Leatherhead, Guernsey and Hastings, the final place could still go to a number of clubs....to be honest Id be happy even if we finish in the final play off place as a away game would make us underdogs and take off the pressure ( remember last time those who have been around a while).
We have a good opportunity to kick start our current poor spell on Saturday against Faversham and then at home again next Monday against a struggling Walton / Hersham team ( only one point in last 6 games ). I think Faversham will provide a stern test and note they have had three 0-0 in last 6 games but a point on Saturday and 3 points on Monday will be enough to keep us on track.
Also glad the distraction of the senior cup is over, reminds me of the old hastings cup when no team was really interested in participating but suppose a good opportunity to give fringe players a run out. Lets concentrate on getting out of this league and into the prem where we belong............
Sorry hastingsbuoy, as well as disagreeing with your terrible pre-match score predictions I also disagree with a couple of your points. I think the pressure will be even greater now with the pack closing in behind. I think Leatherhead and Guernsey are certs but no way are Hastings, especially the way we are playing. We had our strongest available side out on Monday, added to the general boost a team always gets from a new manager, and we were still worse than Saturday. We are in a titanic battle until the end of the season with Burgess Hill, Folkestone, Ramsgate and Faversham. I would go as far as saying if we do not get 3 or 4 really decent players in we will not make the play offs.
Judging by the weather forecasted for the next few days, speculating about the score for Saturday's match against Faversham may be a waste of effort.
I do have to agree that it is going to be a hard and long run in until the end of the season. Personally I think Burgess Hill are definitely going to be right in the mix for play off places. I also think it's a bit premature to be touting Peacehaven as runaway winners just yet. Many teams have had late wobbles in the run in ... and we're only just over half way through the season!
I think John is right . If we are to have ANY chance of finishing in a play off Berth, we need players in who can hit the ground running. I don't really think Monday is too much to go on to be honest as we had players out of position and what we had out there was practically our whole squad. If we had more depth we could have freshened things up a bit but we haven't the luxury of that at the moment .The teams chasing us all strengthened in the last two months and that is where we got left behind. The positives are that we are still in contention for play offs and IF we can get a few players in then there's no reason why we can't salvage our season. Big positive in JJ and of course Nigel Kane who I really rated. We also can look forward to Trevor and Ben returning soon.As they say in hospitals " the next few days will be crucial"!
-- Edited by Pat on Wednesday 29th of January 2014 09:09:07 PM
I also disagree with a couple of your points. I think the pressure will be even greater now with the pack closing in behind. I think Leatherhead and Guernsey are certs but no way are Hastings, especially the way we are playing. We had our strongest available side out on Monday, added to the general boost a team always gets from a new manager, and we were still worse than Saturday. We are in a titanic battle until the end of the season with Burgess Hill, Folkestone, Ramsgate and Faversham. I would go as far as saying if we do not get 3 or 4 really decent players in we will not make the play offs.