If we have some faith in the Management Team to make the right decisions and the Team to perform to their ability, we should not write off the prospect of an automatic promotion!
Peacehaven & Telscombe may yet hit a difficult patch and, if we win our game in hand, we are then only 9 points behind them.
That might seem a lot, but 10 of our remaining 17 games are against the 7 bottom sides in the League and only 1 against a Team currently above, Peacehaven & Telscombe!
Peacehaven only have 5 of their remaining 16 matches against the lowest placed teams and some really difficult, at least on paper, matches to come.
We have been in a more favourable position earlier in the season and it is disappointing that we could not ram home our advantage at that time, but I am confident that if we could continue picking up maximum points from those 10 fixtures against the lower placed sides, many of whom will be subject to a worse fixture congestion at the end of the season than we will, we should still be there or thereabouts for the automatic promotion place.
If we can still be in contention come that penultimate away game to Peacehaven, anything can happen!
It does, however, require a consistency in performance at a level approaching that of our best, but there is enough experience and potential talent in the side to put the weekend's defeat behind us, get a good morale boosting win against Redhill on Tuesday and really start our season from NOW!
You make some fair points but as well as Peacehaven we also have Leatherhead and Guernsey both going for it and unfortunately we have seen first hand how good both of those teams are so to win the league would required an almost perfect run in and to hope that the other three slip up which would be great but is probably unlikely ( yes I know that we still have 4 games on Guernsey but they do look very dangerous and I wouldn't count them out )
Personally do feel that it is a Peacehavens to throw away as think their strikers will carry them through as most teams but as you say we have to carry on pushing as if we can win it. Not impossible that Peacehaven will collapse against stronger teams but we can't count on it. Our game against them is so late in the season that we need them to have a rocky period well before then as there isn't much time to capitalise afterwards if the gap isn't 3 points or so by that point.
Just my view based on form and statistical likelihood but fully expect and hope our guys will push the others all the way and finish as high as poss. The squad is stronger than before the Leatherhead game which was much needed and we do have a good squad. The home semi final in playoffs will be important and if the situation with our rivals develops that there is a chance to snatch the league then great, fantastic.
Despite the shoreline there were several positives yesterday, In the first half yesterday we were creating a lot of chances probably as dominant as we've been at home all season and even as we went 2-0 down I was more than confident that we would pull it back as we seemed to be tearing them apart at time, unfortunately we just couldn't get the breakthrough and when Allen produced what was a sensational lone effort ( agree with JohnW that he is quite probably the best player at this level for years ) then the game was done, misleading shoreline regardless.
The longer we can keep the prospect of the automatic promotion up, the more likely the Team will be able to achieve it.
I haven't had a look at the Leatherhead, Guernsey or Folkestone run-ins, but I suspect that they won't be as potentially favourable as ours.
The play-offs don't always fall in favour of the best team, but I feel that if we resign ourselves to achieving a play-off spot, we will be left similarly disappointed as at the end of the 2012/13 season.
Confidence has a huge impact at any level of football. If we aim for the play-offs and make one or two slip-ups, the doom mongers will be out in force and that will only have a detrimental effect on the players.
All supporters are entitled to their opinions, but sometimes they are best kept to themselves if there is no benefit to the Team's performances.
We would not want a repeat of the rocked confidence that certain comments had on the performances towards the end of last season.
The season is played over 46 games and the final positions rarely reflects anything other than consistency, so if we can be consistently good for the remaining games, build on the good features of yesterday's performance and work had to eradicate the less positive ones, we give ourselves the very real prospect of the automatic promotion spot.
Doubtless, the Teams currently above us will be doing their utmost to ensure that spot belongs to them, so let's not lose out purely on the grounds of focus!
