It would be a really Charlton thing to win the next 3 games against our promotion rivals and then blow up against Crawley and Wigan which on paper should be much easier fixtures.
Tbh it'd be better to do that than lose to rivals and beat the lower teams.
1. Birmingham City – They remain favourites to finish top. Their consistency throughout the season, strong squad depth, and defensive solidity give them the edge to secure the title and automatic promotion.
2. Wrexham AFC – Their momentum and attacking prowess, combined with a well-managed squad, suggest they will push for automatic promotion. If they maintain their consistency, second place is within reach.
3. Charlton Athletic – Their current form suggests a late-season surge, which could see them leapfrog several teams into the top three. If they sustain their momentum, they will be a serious playoff contender.
4. Huddersfield Town – A well-balanced team with experience and tactical depth, they should comfortably finish in the top six. While they might have been automatic promotion contenders earlier, their recent inconsistencies mean they are likely to settle for a playoff spot.
5. Wycombe Wanderers – They have been solid all season and remain a strong contender for the playoffs. While their form has dipped slightly, their resilience and squad quality should see them secure a top-six place.
6. Stockport County – Although there are question marks over whether they can maintain their early-season form, they have built enough of a foundation to hang on to a playoff place.
Just Missing Out:
• Leyton Orient – Despite a strong push, they may just fall short if Charlton maintain their form.
• Barnsley – They are a playoff-calibre side, but with Charlton’s resurgence, they may struggle to hold onto a top-six spot.
This places more emphasis on recent form while still accounting for squad strength, consistency, and fixture difficulty. If Charlton continue their rise, they could even push for a higher spot, but at the very least, they now seem well-positioned for a playoff place.
think we need to win 9 from 15 and 1 of those has to come against Leyton orient,
below are fixtures with teams current league position.
Exeter H 17th Orient A 6th Barnsley H 11th Stockport A 4th Crawley A 22nd Wigan H 16th Pboro A 20th Hudds H 5th Mansfield A 15th Lincoln H 10th Cambridge A 24th Northampton H 19th Wycombe A 2nd Wrexham A 3rd Burton H 21st
looking at that its pretty bleak as not only do we play 4 of the top 6 currently but also a few down the bottom that are fighting for survival, as much as people say brum a was a free hit i dont agree should be trying to win every league game.
if i had to pick 9 wins out of that i would go
exeter h barnsley h crawley a wigan h pboro a hudds h cambridge a northampton h burton h
That does look achievable.... but 1) assumes that we only need 75 points when it could be more this season 2) some of the wins will have to be against the main competitors for 3rd-6th to deprive them of points as several of them are performing well and therefore likely to achieve more than 75
Whilst our form is good, some of the others (L Orient Stockport) is better. TTTop20 highlighted Stockport have achieved 1.9 points per game over the last 3 and a half seasons as they have progressed up the leagues.ie they have winning habits.
I think we have to hope that Wrexham stutter, Huddersfield recent wins are a false dawn and Orient become unstuck with their next 3/4(Bolton away,Birmingham away, us Home , Rotherham away) games and lose confidence for the rest of the run -in.
9 wins would give us 77 points.
77 points would've got you into the play offs in every season apart from 1 since 2010. The one season was 21-22 when Wycombe were 6th with an incredible 83 points. Plymouth in 7th got 80.
Sure but we are yet to see how this season pans out- is it a "standard " season or an exceptional one?
We all like the excitement of a win and extrapolating it to a season but lets have a bit of realism here Total season goals "for" recent opposition (home and away) Exeter goals "for" 34 Stevenage goals for 30 Bristol Rovers goal for 33 Shrewsbury. etc 31 Peterborough goals for 48 (but look at the defensive record against 58)
Are you saying this is typical for all opposition? This season they are all low scoring teams. We beat teams that are pony. Higher scoring teams Birmingham goals for 51- we lost Blackpool goals for 48-we drew Reading goals for 46-we drew ie more potent teams recently the results are less exciting. And we haven't even gone into the performances/style of play.
We have beaten some sides recently who have very little threat- don't get me wrong these sides have to be beaten- but it's highly likely that our rivals will as well.
Thats why we have to beat our rivals as well as the lower teams.
So the wins are great for confidence but the real tests are coming.
Looks like Huddersfield are still in a "lull" of results and Stockport losing was a surprise.So maybe there are 2. places up for grabs.
BIB - Bolton have drawn with Cambridge and lost to Reading (and us) in the recent past.
Hudders have lost to Peterboro, Northampton, drawn with Reading.
Stockport have lost to bottom club Cambridge, drawn with B Rovers
Reading have lost to Burton, drawn against Shrewsbury
The reason I mention those games specifically is we have bettered every one of their results against the exact same opposition (okay we equalled the Reading/Hudders result) and they all played them in the same time frame that we have so the evidence suggests that we are actually doing better than our rivals against these sides with "little threat"
I agree we have to get positive results against our rivals too because they are all taking points off of each other and we need to as well, but we are factually beating sides that our rivals are struggling against and it has been that way for a couple of months now which is how we (and Orient for that matter) have managed to catch up to the top 6 in the way we have.
The momentum is with us and Orient which is why Saturday could be a really key game for both teams, arguably more so Orient actually as they could potentially be going into it off the back of consecutive defeats.
It’s generally fair to assume good teams will beat bad teams but as @Manic_mania points out, plenty of instances recently of clubs failing to do that.
And the very pleasing thing is that since the turn of the year, almost none of them have been Charlton getting turned over. And especially not the case at home.
Consistency is key - keep picking up the points at home (1 goal conceded, 10 goals scored in our last five at the Valley) and we’ll let other clubs around us be the ones to drop points unexpectedly.
I've had a feeling for some weeks that we will beat Wrexham at Wembley.
What feelings did you have in our other successful and unsuccessful playoff seasons?
Last time I had a feeling we would win the play offs from about January. The previous 2 I felt we would lose as we weren't good enough. The 98 play offs I was quite hopeful but not overly confident.
I've had a feeling for some weeks that we will beat Wrexham at Wembley.
I've been thinking that too for ages.
One of my mates has been adamant about it since August, even maintained it during our poor run when everyone was laughing at him. Told him the other day he should have stuck a fiver on it
I am very confident we will secure a play-off spot, but who we will play in the final, let's get there first..., i'm not discounting Wrexham leapfrogging Wycombe for the second spot....🤦♂️
Quite funny talking about the Play-Off Final, and I've got the Sheff Utd vs Leeds game on
The Commentator who said vs. Sunderland; "These players... write their legend" or whatever it was when Bauer scored, is the lead Commentator for this game, and his quotes when we won have always irritated me "Charlton climbed the mountain" was another I think, that made no sense... But his voice feels so iconic to that game now.
I've had a feeling for some weeks that we will beat Wrexham at Wembley.
What feelings did you have in our other successful and unsuccessful playoff seasons?
Last time we were in the play offs I was 100% confident we would go up. In fact I was so confident that travelling up to Doncaster I saw a bunch of Pompey fans travelling up to Sunderland at the service station for the other play off game I quietly chuckled to myself that they were wasting there time making the trip because we were ultimately going to win the play offs, nearly told one of them too!
This time round i'm feeling confident we'll make the play offs and may even surge for a top 2 finish on the basis 3rd to 6th could be quite tight and wondering if Wycombe may drop into the mix but ultimately think it'll be beyond us. Not as confident as the previous play offs though as I feel one key injury could disrupt the entire way we're set up to play.
Comments
1. Birmingham City – They remain favourites to finish top. Their consistency throughout the season, strong squad depth, and defensive solidity give them the edge to secure the title and automatic promotion.
2. Wrexham AFC – Their momentum and attacking prowess, combined with a well-managed squad, suggest they will push for automatic promotion. If they maintain their consistency, second place is within reach.
3. Charlton Athletic – Their current form suggests a late-season surge, which could see them leapfrog several teams into the top three. If they sustain their momentum, they will be a serious playoff contender.
4. Huddersfield Town – A well-balanced team with experience and tactical depth, they should comfortably finish in the top six. While they might have been automatic promotion contenders earlier, their recent inconsistencies mean they are likely to settle for a playoff spot.
5. Wycombe Wanderers – They have been solid all season and remain a strong contender for the playoffs. While their form has dipped slightly, their resilience and squad quality should see them secure a top-six place.
6. Stockport County – Although there are question marks over whether they can maintain their early-season form, they have built enough of a foundation to hang on to a playoff place.
Just Missing Out:
• Leyton Orient – Despite a strong push, they may just fall short if Charlton maintain their form.
• Barnsley – They are a playoff-calibre side, but with Charlton’s resurgence, they may struggle to hold onto a top-six spot.
This places more emphasis on recent form while still accounting for squad strength, consistency, and fixture difficulty. If Charlton continue their rise, they could even push for a higher spot, but at the very least, they now seem well-positioned for a playoff place.
Hudders have lost to Peterboro, Northampton, drawn with Reading.
Stockport have lost to bottom club Cambridge, drawn with B Rovers
Reading have lost to Burton, drawn against Shrewsbury
The reason I mention those games specifically is we have bettered every one of their results against the exact same opposition (okay we equalled the Reading/Hudders result) and they all played them in the same time frame that we have so the evidence suggests that we are actually doing better than our rivals against these sides with "little threat"
I agree we have to get positive results against our rivals too because they are all taking points off of each other and we need to as well, but we are factually beating sides that our rivals are struggling against and it has been that way for a couple of months now which is how we (and Orient for that matter) have managed to catch up to the top 6 in the way we have.
The momentum is with us and Orient which is why Saturday could be a really key game for both teams, arguably more so Orient actually as they could potentially be going into it off the back of consecutive defeats.
And the very pleasing thing is that since the turn of the year, almost none of them have been Charlton getting turned over. And especially not the case at home.
Consistency is key - keep picking up the points at home (1 goal conceded, 10 goals scored in our last five at the Valley) and we’ll let other clubs around us be the ones to drop points unexpectedly.
The previous 2 I felt we would lose as we weren't good enough.
The 98 play offs I was quite hopeful but not overly confident.
OConnell OG
Dobson OG
Lee OG
The Commentator who said vs. Sunderland; "These players... write their legend" or whatever it was when Bauer scored, is the lead Commentator for this game, and his quotes when we won have always irritated me "Charlton climbed the mountain" was another I think, that made no sense... But his voice feels so iconic to that game now.
Why write Reading off? They played very well v Birmingham on Saturday. Have some quality, and only 3 points behind us.
Like I said weird.
Is it anymore weird than asking if Lookman is returning as I believe you did the other day on here..? 🤣
This time round i'm feeling confident we'll make the play offs and may even surge for a top 2 finish on the basis 3rd to 6th could be quite tight and wondering if Wycombe may drop into the mix but ultimately think it'll be beyond us. Not as confident as the previous play offs though as I feel one key injury could disrupt the entire way we're set up to play.