The season after a play off failure

[laddo]

Great question.

Ridiculously easy to state who won't finish 1st. Looking forward to Jonnyt1 not ignoring this question when he reads it.

I'm very tempted to back whoever he selects as next season's champions

[magpie_mania]

I'd bet on one of the other ex-league clubs being champions next season. If this season had begun on January 1st, Chesterfield would be 7th, Hartlepool (who turned us over late February) 8th and Wrexham 9th. So that's three decent clubs for this level who will feel they are on an upwards trajectory whilst we'll be licking our wounds.
Stockport might be a dark horse having consolidated well on their return from the abyss.

Forget the play-off disaster, where would we have finished?

[upthemaggies]

Forget the play-off disaster, where would we have finished?

Notts would be 3rd if the season had started on 1st January with the PPG rule.
Without PPG, we'd be 2nd, Hartlepool would be 5th.

Last season Wrexham (4th) finished above both Barrow (10th) and Harrogate (6th), so Wrexham might be a fairly safe bet for a league that's so hard to predict. Barrow have shown it's possible to come from nowhere to take the title, they finished 20th two seasons ago with Orient in 13th.

Last seasons play off losers, Fylde, have just been relegated.

[Bridg4d_Pie_]

Let this be a warning from history. All three previous failures have had a devastating knock-on effect.

1988/89 - 20th by the end of November and relegation only avoided after Warnock was appointed, rallied to finish 9th
1996/97 - Relegated
2018/19 - Relegated

Plus.....
We were also relegated after just missing out on the play off in 1994 under Mick Walker and....
The rot set in the season after Curle missed out on the play offs when Kiwomya was appointed.

We shouldn't expect to get relegated next season at this level but the psychological blow will be significant and will need to be addressed.

Supporters I've $**** on them.