MK Dons will be there or thereabouts, however he will be managing at a higher level soon, maybe if any Championship jobs come up (Forest and Donny may have vacancies soon), Robinson will go and that could have a detrimental effect on their promotion chances.
Sheff Utd and Huddersfield look like they'll be challenging for top 2 whilst Preston and Wednesday have goals upfront and some good older pro's who have been there and done it.
Brentford could surprise a few and with players such as Legge, Weston and Donalson they have a good mix whilst Hartlepool have had a similar start to Bournemouth last season.
No idea what the other teams are saying about us, but if we keep BWP, Jackson and Stephens fit then we have a fine chance.
I'm pretty sure Huddersfield will be our main rivals. I have a funny feeling that who ever goes up automatically this year will need a larger than normal amount of points. 90 + i suspect
This season reminds me of our first season in League 1.
I think, like everyone else, at least 5 teams are genuine top 2 contenders. Although i'm hoping Preston and Sheff Utd might at some point underestimate this league and hit a major slump around Christmas, like we did.
Id say Huddersfield are genuine contenders....they haven't lost for about 30+ games. Do they really need another defender or two? They have conceded the same amount of goals as us having played a game more, 7 goals in 9 games.
Didn't they lose the play off final or did I just imagine that ?
We are in the lead and we have a game in hand. This league is ours to win; or lose. If we keep on winning, it doesn't matter how good the others are. Our greatest ally is ourselves, but if things go wrong we could be our own biggest rivals. The key is for everyone at the club to get behind the team. If we all pull together, we can be out of this division by April.
the last two seasons brighton + soton and before that leeds + norwich were the stand out teams imo that looked pretty good for the automatics for most of those seasons
this year i can see us, 2 sheffs , udders and pne mixing it up for the top 2 spots for most of the season
teams like hartlepool may do a bournemouth which is to hit the play off spots but they wont be in the top 2 by the end and that's what we're talking about here n aren"t we ?
we all know huddersfield lost in the play off final to the free scoring peterboro
but are undefeated for a squillion regular league fixtures
I think it is fair to say that if we finish above Huddersfield, we will get automatic promotion. Can't say that with the same certainty about the other sides. What we have seen so far, I believe, is that at the top of their game, when the team settles they are better footballers than the other sides they have played -and we carry a goalscoring threat from midfield as well as attack. Where the learning comes in is that when we have asserted ourselves on the game, rather than maintain the play -we will often go into a safety mode which removes some of our threat and allows opponents- who have no option but to chase the game to try to come on to us. This isn't a disaster but it negates oyur footballing superiority and a weaker element to our games is that whilst defensively we are pretty good (much better than last season) we can still be vulnerable to the odd lapse if put under pressure.
I think this is an area where the team will learn and improve on as the season progresses. The other thing that we haven't really tested yet is the strength of the squad. I do believe that we have most, if not all of the positions well covered - but can you replace say BWP if he get's injured. We probably have 2 or 3 key players who really we can't afford to get seriously injured although we can manage without them in odd games as we have already done with BWP (depending on opponents- but outside the teams mentioned by others - we are superior by a decent enough margin to the others. But generally, I am comfortable that we do have players who can come in and not seriously weaken the side. Not sure that many of our opponents will be able to weather this sort of storm as well as us at the point of the season when the injuries start to impact. We won't be fantastic every game though and the crowd will at times need to play its part. We need to ensure that the only players that are intimidated when they play at the Valley, are opposing players - even if the team isn't firing on all cylinders. It is our job to get it going not crash it. So the quality is there for automatics - I believe - but there are also some hurdles for all of us (players, staff and supporters) ahead. But I have the confidence we have it in us to negotiate them.
Weve got BWP. A very valuable asset in this division. Us Charlton fans will be cautious about our promotion chances through the season as we have been so dissapointed in the last few seasons after fairly bright starts.
I think we can finish in automatic spots just gotta take each league game as it comes there cup finals IMO.
Forget the domestic cups at all costs I think, our second team can play those anyway.
I think I got a bit carried away after the Bournemouth game, recent performances haven't been too promising suggesting that the league isn't going to be easy. Preston and Sheffield Wednesday have both got very good managers and will be big threats. Huddersfield have a good squad with a lot of experience in this level and Sheffield United have surprised me.
looking at our fixtures november is going to be a big month Preston (H), Brentford (A) and Hudds (H) six points from that would be brilliant, 4 points good.
Huddersfield will be our main threat without a doubt. Sheff Utd will be up there but I'll give them another season, as for Wed I don't rate them and think they'll get play-offs at best. Preston NE could be a threat and played some alright stuff against us in the league cup against our 'B ' team.
We'd all accept that our opening set of fixtures was not the most difficult - though I'll remind you that last season our 'easy on paper' 10 games against Dagenham, Hartlepool, Walsall, Rochdale & Exeter yielded (I think) just 6 points.
So, we've yet to be tested really. Most of us said 2 months ago: the squad looks good, CP still to prove himself. I think that's still the case - he's got us playing well but the real tests are yet to come. There is evidence that we can be outsmarted tactically - Sheff Wed frustrated us once Megson changed it around, Scunny got their act together, and some Dale fans seem to think they only got close thanks to tactical superiority 2nd half. Whatever, we can see that all the 'big' teams have started reasonably well or better, and are clear threats.
Of the smaller teams, Hartlepool are intriguing, and who would deny them a season where they threaten? Solano is real class still - a shrewd gamble paying off it seems. And the striker Nish may be better than expected - in the Charlie Adam vein a guy who seems to perform better in England vs Scotland.
But it's all about us - if we can take a reasonable number of points off the top teams and hoover up wins from the rest, we'll be in good shape
This is how we are performing versus equivalent opposition over the last couple of seasons.
Like for like we are 9 points up on last season (games against same teams or teams that replaced them) - as we finished 13 points outside the play offs - all we can say is that it is very likely we will make those at least. In relation to the automatics- I think we are good enough but our matches against our main rivals will tell us a lot.
And that is exactly the attitude we should have. I'm sure it will be a case of 2 sides trying to beat each other than one stop the other and when it comes down to football ability, I think we are well served. That is why I was so dispointed with Sheff Wednesday when they came to the Valley to spoil. They could make the play offs but anybody expecting them to be anywhere near the automatics is deluding themselves. At the moment the Autos look like a 5 horse race between us, Sheff Utd, Huddersfield, MK Dons and Preston but I expect a few to drop off the pace reasonably early - just hope (and believe) it wont be us.
Comments
MK Dons will be there or thereabouts, however he will be managing at a higher level soon, maybe if any Championship jobs come up (Forest and Donny may have vacancies soon), Robinson will go and that could have a detrimental effect on their promotion chances.
Sheff Utd and Huddersfield look like they'll be challenging for top 2 whilst Preston and Wednesday have goals upfront and some good older pro's who have been there and done it.
Brentford could surprise a few and with players such as Legge, Weston and Donalson they have a good mix whilst Hartlepool have had a similar start to Bournemouth last season.
No idea what the other teams are saying about us, but if we keep BWP, Jackson and Stephens fit then we have a fine chance.
Didn't they lose the play off final or did I just imagine that ?
Oh, didn't realise that. Just thought they lost and it was about six games ago. My mistake though, it was forty games ago and they won.
I think this is an area where the team will learn and improve on as the season progresses. The other thing that we haven't really tested yet is the strength of the squad. I do believe that we have most, if not all of the positions well covered - but can you replace say BWP if he get's injured. We probably have 2 or 3 key players who really we can't afford to get seriously injured although we can manage without them in odd games as we have already done with BWP (depending on opponents- but outside the teams mentioned by others - we are superior by a decent enough margin to the others. But generally, I am comfortable that we do have players who can come in and not seriously weaken the side. Not sure that many of our opponents will be able to weather this sort of storm as well as us at the point of the season when the injuries start to impact. We won't be fantastic every game though and the crowd will at times need to play its part. We need to ensure that the only players that are intimidated when they play at the Valley, are opposing players - even if the team isn't firing on all cylinders. It is our job to get it going not crash it. So the quality is there for automatics - I believe - but there are also some hurdles for all of us (players, staff and supporters) ahead. But I have the confidence we have it in us to negotiate them.
I think we can finish in automatic spots just gotta take each league game as it comes there cup finals IMO.
Forget the domestic cups at all costs I think, our second team can play those anyway.
I think I got a bit carried away after the Bournemouth game, recent performances haven't been too promising suggesting that the league isn't going to be easy. Preston and Sheffield Wednesday have both got very good managers and will be big threats. Huddersfield have a good squad with a lot of experience in this level and Sheffield United have surprised me.
I'm actually excited for us to play the bigger sides, bring them on is my attitude!