Matches Top 6 Race 2023/24

[MustardYellow]

Not sure it’s a great time to play Posh - they basically need to win every game to go up but coming off a Wembley win and probably three points against Vale, they’ll fancy themselves.

If I was offered 5 points from these 3 games now, I’d be tempted. Would fancy us to win at Exeter and get to 78 points.

I agree that we'll beat Exeter. If we lose vs Posh and Lincoln win on saturday it makes Tuesday high pressure. Yet to see if the team can perform under those circumstances

 

[dickwalton1964]

Not sure it’s a great time to play Posh - they basically need to win every game to go up but coming off a Wembley win and probably three points against Vale, they’ll fancy themselves.

If I was offered 5 points from these 3 games now, I’d be tempted. Would fancy us to win at Exeter and get to 78 points.

5 points would mean Lincoln need three wins and a draw - assuming we beat Exeter. Basically, if we win our next two then 2 points from Stevenage and Exeter will suffice and that's assuming Lincoln win every game bar losing to us. I think I've got that right! My gut feeling is that if we can beat Peterborough the momentum and confidence gained from that - and of course the points - will be enough to see us make it. Lincoln will be looking at our fixtures and pinning their hopes on this Peterborough game.

 

[OUFC OX3]

9 points to be obtained at the Ka$$. I would deploy the drums and much more to get any sort of edge. Entitled bothered supporters are gonna suffocate the place. The current atmosphere has less than outta space.

 

[Coffin dodger]

I make it 7 points?

Sorry, you are correct.

 

[MateoCorbo'sTackle]

Exeter's recent form is excellent. We need seven points from the next three.

 

[North Wales Yellow]

For me it comes down to if we beat Peterborough. If we do, the rest of our games are winnable and I can see us getting a result against Lincoln.

If we don't win, I can see Lincoln beating Wigan and the pressure being all too much and us crumbling.

Surely the Lincoln result is more important than the Posh one?

If we lose to Posh Saturday but beat Lincoln then we keep them at bay regardless of their result on the weekend.

 

[MustardYellow]

Surely the Lincoln result is more important than the Posh one?

If we lose to Posh Saturday but beat Lincoln then we keep them at bay regardless of their result on the weekend.

Not beating Posh puts us under a lot of pressure, especially if Lincoln win. Not sure I'd bet on us in a high pressure game, which doesn't bode well if we do make play-offs!

 

[BicesterU]

We’re at the business end of the season. So is everyone else.

We’ve got three huge home games next week that will in all likelihood determine our season.

Inevitably we will all fall somewhere between the two ends of a spectrum that has ‘excited and optimistic’ at one end, and ‘worried and pessimistic’ at the other.

Our own individual feelings will have precisely zero impact on the outcomes of those games.

What will - or at least could - have an impact on those outcomes is the atmosphere we create at the Kassam.

We have to be positive even if it’s not going our way, even if we’re playing below ourselves, even if we’re two goals down.

We can lift the team, or we can weigh them down with our nerves and apprehension.

F’nCOYF’nY

 

[WRox]

Exeter's recent form is excellent. We need seven points from the next three.

They are, but left out five players who aren’t under contract for next season (including Mo Eisa) on Saturday and have three away games before we play them.

Wouldn’t need asking twice if I was offered being one point ahead of Lincoln after 45 games.

 

[werthersoriginal]

They are, but left out five players who aren’t under contract for next season (including Mo Eisa) on Saturday and have three away games before we play them.

Wouldn’t need asking twice if I was offered being one point ahead of Lincoln after 45 games.

Also they have nothing to play for, which can work both ways but is better than playing a team desperately going after something.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Also they have nothing to play for, which can work both ways but is better than playing a team desperately going after something.

I'm not sure I concur with that view about players being on the beach etc. It's their last game of football for two or three months. Most, if not all, will want to go out with one final flourish. A striker, for instance, no way he will want to fire a blank and a free hit game is one of the only times, as a striker, that he can think of himself and be a bit greedy with no team prize at stake. Defenders and keepers will be desperate to end on a clean sheet and start the new season as they ended this one.

I'm yet to see a final game team, with nothing to play for, roll over and have their tummies tickled by a team gunning for a prize. No one likes anyone celebrating in their own back yard and Exeter will be no different. Biggest myth in football - there wont be many last game deciders like this where's there's a 4, 5 nil battering, most of them are tight and explode the myth that the team with nothing to play for just takes it easy.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

I'm not sure I concur with that view about players being on the beach etc. It's their last game of football for two or three months. Most, if not all, will want to go out with one final flourish. A striker, for instance, no way he will want to fire a blank and a free hit game is one of the only times, as a striker, that he can think of himself and be a bit greedy with no team prize at stake. Defenders and keepers will be desperate to end on a clean sheet and start the new season as they ended this one.

I'm yet to see a final game team, with nothing to play for, roll over and have their tummies tickled by a team gunning for a prize. No one likes anyone celebrating in their own back yard and Exeter will be no different. Biggest myth in football - there wont be many last game deciders like this where's there's a 4, 5 nil battering, most of them are tight and explode the myth that the team with nothing to play for just takes it easy.

You give far too much credit to some player's professionalism. It isn't uncommon for teams to 'be on the beach' in the final game of the season. Most of them will be thinking about what they are going to wear at the pool parties in Ibiza!

As fans it is hard to understand but for a lot of footballers it is just a job.

 

[SteMerritt]

I'm not sure I concur with that view about players being on the beach etc. It's their last game of football for two or three months. Most, if not all, will want to go out with one final flourish. A striker, for instance, no way he will want to fire a blank and a free hit game is one of the only times, as a striker, that he can think of himself and be a bit greedy with no team prize at stake. Defenders and keepers will be desperate to end on a clean sheet and start the new season as they ended this one.

I'm yet to see a final game team, with nothing to play for, roll over and have their tummies tickled by a team gunning for a prize. No one likes anyone celebrating in their own back yard and Exeter will be no different. Biggest myth in football - there wont be many last game deciders like this where's there's a 4, 5 nil battering, most of them are tight and explode the myth that the team with nothing to play for just takes it easy.

Although when Barnsley came to us last game of the season in the 90s when they had already won promotion, they were very definitely 'on the beach' when we steamrollered them 5-1. It does happen. And it only has to happen by a drop of say 5% off of normal performance levels for it to make a difference.

Of course it can, and often does, work the other way as well. The lessening of pressure meaning that teams can play with more freedom and have better results as a consequence.

 

[Wallop]

You give far too much credit to some player's professionalism. It isn't uncommon for teams to 'be on the beach' in the final game of the season. Most of them will be thinking about what they are going to wear at the pool parties in Ibiza!

As fans it is hard to understand but for a lot of footballers it is just a job.

Yep - I would far rather play against a relaxed opposition in the last game than one that needs to fight for points. Back in the nineties, I'm sure we won 5-0 at home on the last day of the season against relaxed opposition but still went down because QPR won 6-0 against their relaxed opposition. Two large home wins for previously struggling sides!

 

[werthersoriginal]

I'm not sure I concur with that view about players being on the beach etc. It's their last game of football for two or three months. Most, if not all, will want to go out with one final flourish. A striker, for instance, no way he will want to fire a blank and a free hit game is one of the only times, as a striker, that he can think of himself and be a bit greedy with no team prize at stake. Defenders and keepers will be desperate to end on a clean sheet and start the new season as they ended this one.

I'm yet to see a final game team, with nothing to play for, roll over and have their tummies tickled by a team gunning for a prize. No one likes anyone celebrating in their own back yard and Exeter will be no different. Biggest myth in football - there wont be many last game deciders like this where's there's a 4, 5 nil battering, most of them are tight and explode the myth that the team with nothing to play for just takes it easy.

Maybe they'll come on to the pitch with their kids, like we did last season against Accrington.

 

[OX14]

You give far too much credit to some player's professionalism. It isn't uncommon for teams to 'be on the beach' in the final game of the season. Most of them will be thinking about what they are going to wear at the pool parties in Ibiza!

As fans it is hard to understand but for a lot of footballers it is just a job.

Bristol rovers 7-0 Scunthorpe on the final day is a prime example.

 

[SteMerritt]

Yep - I would far rather play against a relaxed opposition in the last game than one that needs to fight for points. Back in the nineties, I'm sure we won 5-0 at home on the last day of the season against relaxed opposition but still went down because QPR won 6-0 against their relaxed opposition. Two large home wins for previously struggling sides!

I can remember the game quite well, but don't remember QPR being one of the other sides. In my mind it was the season that going into the last game it was either us, WBA, or Birmingham City would go down, but I could be mixing them up.

 

[dickwalton1964]

You give far too much credit to some player's professionalism. It isn't uncommon for teams to 'be on the beach' in the final game of the season. Most of them will be thinking about what they are going to wear at the pool parties in Ibiza!

As fans it is hard to understand but for a lot of footballers it is just a job.

Have a look at some recent final day games in similar circumstances - the results suggest otherwise. I've never seen us take it easy and I genuinely don't agree that players just coast through. Football is a job in terms of livelihood but, lets be honest, it's not a job in the real meaning of the word. Players think of themselves before anything (I've had that from the horses mouth in more than one conversation), so on that basis alone why would their professional pride not kick in?

Anyway, it's high likely Exeter wont be the only supposedly 'on the beach team'. Stevenage will be too by the time that game comes around so that's six points guaranteed from the last two. Just beat Lincoln and we are there. Easy.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Bristol rovers 7-0 Scunthorpe on the final day is a prime example.

And Scunthorpe's subsequent demotions into the footballing oblivion confirm they're just sh*t as opposed to not trying.

 

[werthersoriginal]

I can remember the game quite well, but don't remember QPR being one of the other sides. In my mind it was the season that going into the last game it was either us, WBA, or Birmingham City would go down, but I could be mixing them up.

We beat Stockport 5-0, was it QPR or maybe Palace who won 6-0 to stay up?