As the season enters its final 1/3, is it not about time that more emphasis and information was available on the play-offs, I know most on this forum understand that winning play offs won’t guarantee promotio. But I would bet quite a few fans up and down the country haven’t a clue. A points per game table should be published weekly so all fans understand where there team is and where they need to be at the start of the playoff. As we already know the 2 teams in the playoffs with the lowest PPG won’t be able to go up. And it’s also likely that the 2 teams with the worst ppg in the playoff finals will not be able to go up. It’s all very confusing and so litle has been published.
Exactly but in simple terms if you are in the playoffs and you are not in the top 5 points per game average across the 7 leagues at our level, you are not guaranteed promotion. So out of the 28 sides 21 are depending on other results and 2 can’t possibly go up.
There is regular summeries of the Points Per Game positions and tables in home programmes which are now available online after games. The last update (to 9th January) had us in 4th position overall.
The three teams above us Aveley, Maldon and Heybridge are all in the same league Bostik North and it is possible that the team 5th in that league Coggeshill, with less than two points per game could win the play offs and still not get promoted. The whole thing is a farce.
Just a quick update on our latest position in the points per game table at at 6th February.
Out of the 28 teams currently in the play off positions we are currently:
13th. HASTINGS UNITED 1.916
Ashford United are Joint 7th with an average of 2.00 with 3 other teams.
It could actually work out that the 7 play off winners from the 7 divisions could all have the same points per game figure so I don't know what they would do then. I don't suppose they have even thought of that senario!
Perhaps it will even come down to Goal Difference after that? we will have to wait and see!
We need to start winning matches as 4 draws and 1 loss in the last 6 games have pushed us down to:
16th HASTINGS UNITED 1.88
In fact we need to win 3 matches in a row to get us back to an average of 2 points per match.
So we could end up entering the Play-Offs (if we are lucky enough) with one of the lowest points per game ratio,so even if we win them we will have to hope that other teams finishing 4th or 5th in their Leagues also win their Play-Off matches with a lower points per game than us!
The Promotion from the Bostik Premier is even more Bizarre as there are only 6 teams coming down from the National North & South (3 from each) and 6 teams being promoted from the 4 Premier Divisions. The 4 Champions and 2 from the Play-Offs, so the 4 Play-Off winners will have to play one of the other Play-Off winners in a so called Super Play-Off to determine the final 2 promotion places!
This all seems to me to make it even harder than ever to get Promotion unless you finish as League Champions.
It's looking more and more likely that we will get to the play offs .. Hope that doesn't jinx things .. But heads up as here are the play off dates for those of you who might need time off work if need be. The semi finals for our league will take place in the evening of Monday 29th April followed by the final being played on Friday 3rd May, of course another evening kick off... Correct me if I'm wrong .. But that's how I understand it. Still away to go buy wouldn't it be nice for a home play off for once ..?
