OPERATION CHAMPIONS – What Form’s needed from now on?

[uysapie]

Now a mere 9 points off the play offs with 7 months to go..

But it is a step up.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Now a mere 9 points off the play offs with 7 months to go..

It’s actually very tight in League Two at the moment as well. Looking at the table Port Vale who are in 16th (yes 16th) are only 4 points behind Stevenage who occupy the last play off place in 7th.

Then there is a 3 point gap where there is a mini league at the bottom which we are in where Crewe are on 11 points in 17th place. We are one point outside of the relegation places so the first goal is to try and get some distance between the bottom two and what better opportunity than Macclesfield away on Saturday.

It’s not going to be easy and as better as we have been with four games unbeaten we are just keeping our heads above water. So we will need to continue as we are in order to pull away. One small step at a time though and at least things are going in the right direction.

[sidders]

as better as we have been? Are you Stanley Unwin?

[upthemaggies]

We're still very much in the danger zone with a difficult run of games coming up after Mac. Too early talk about a top half finish, never mind promotion. Half of our defeats however were all away to the current top 3 and another at home to 5th, which leaves one terrible defeat at home to Yeovil and a bad away loss at Cambridge. It's been a rotten start, there's denying that, but I think we can claim to have been a little unlucky with the fixtures. After missing out on the play-offs, you need a good start to banish that memory, we didn't get that and it's taken two months to shake it off.

[Bridg4d_Pie_]

Well, I’m sure it’s occurred to many of you, as it has to me, that so long as we don’t get beaten for the next 17 games we are now 3 games into a 20 match unbeaten run. In addition, we’ve also only conceded just one goal in the last 180 minutes of play. Yes, exciting times are back at the Lane, and both of those things are the stuff of Champions, so as Crawley quake in their boots over Tuesday and we ride our recent tsunami of form, let’s see just what’s needed from now on in for us to finish top come May:

In the last 5 League Two seasons the Champions averaged:

Points – 92
Goals For – 75
Goals Against – 42

So, in our next 36 games to match that Championship winning form, we need to score another 63 goals (1.75 goals per game) and concede only 17 more goals (0.5 goals per game). Our current form is to score 1.2 goals per game and concede 2.5 per game so scoring at 1.5 times the current rate and conceding at a fifth of the current rate from now on will sort it.

To reach that 92 point mark that the Champions averaged over the last 5 years, the following perms of Won / Drawn / Lost will do it over these 36 games:

Won 26 / Drawn 8 / Lost 2
Won 27 / Drawn 5 / Lost 4
Won 28 / Drawn 2 / Lost 6

What odds at the bookies could you get on any of those perms for us from now on in?

You're havinga Wet Dream.