| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! 11:10 - May 3 with 2922 views | STYG |
When McKenna took over we had played 23 games and had 29 points.
Wycombe in 6th ended on 83 points. To have a chance of finishing above them on goal difference we would have needed 54 points from our last 23 games.
To put this into context, Champions Wigan were top in late January with 54 points from 24 games. To get in the playoffs, we needed McKenna to walk in the door and turn us into a better side than the best team in the league.
At the end of January, Sunderland had 54 points also, but from 28 games. Rotherham only had 53 points from 26 games.
We'd have needed, to just scrape into the playoffs, the same points second placed Sunderland had amassed in 28 games, but from 5 games less. Or to have done better than automatically promoted Rotherham did in 3 games less.
The fact that we were unreal before Cambridge, with a long unbeaten run and barely conceding goals and then let off a little bit once the playoffs were done is really not a concern. For large parts of the attempt to catch these teams, we were picking up points akin to an automatic promotion side.
Those 54 points over 23 games mean the equivalent of a 108 point season. That's 5 more than the ridiculous Wolves side that tore this division to pieces (W31, D10, L5) and 2 points more than the laughable Reading side that won the Championship (W31, D13, L2).
We'd have needed to be better than those sides over half a year. To make 6th! |  | | |  |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:13 - May 3 with 2386 views | Battersea_Blue |
Yep, it would have taken one helluva run to get to 83 points.
Even if we'd won our last 6 games that would still have only put us on 82. | | | |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:17 - May 3 with 2360 views | farkenhell |
Joe's point in the other thread sums it up perfectly for me. After the Oxford game (which seems like ages ago) if we had won every game, we would still have finished outside of the play-offs.
It turned out to be a freak season. Onwards and upwards... | | | |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:19 - May 3 with 2303 views | FrimleyBlue |
Would it have taken a miracle tho.
Beat two sides at the bottom end of the league instead of draws and a handful of our last 8 and we are in and around that 6th place.
Was tough to do. But was possible.
End of day it didn't happen and we then finished the last 15 games 10th in form and finishing below pompy ffs.
Now for the rebuild again and we try again next season. |  |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:27 - May 3 with 2273 views | Swansea_Blue |
Quite a bonkers top end this season. I'm not sure if it's been discussed already, but I'd be surprised if it isn't some sort of points record from the top 6. It certainly is for the last 10 seasons, as I've just looked them up (18/19 was a very high point scoring top top 5, but 6th place needed 10 points less than this season).
Ignoring goal difference, 81 points would have claimed 6th spot this year (the target to beat was Plymouth in 7th with 80 points).
So for the last few years, these were the points totals of the team in 7th place that had to be beaten to get in the POs:
20/21 - 74 pts
19/20 - aborted
18/19 - 72 pts
17/18 - 68 pts
16/17 - 72 pts
15/16 - 74 pts
14/15 - 65 pts
13/14 - 67 pts
12/13 - 71 pts
Or to put it another way, our 70 points for 11th this year would have got us into the playoffs in 3 out of the last 9 (fully completed) seasons. Bonkers! |  |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:29 - May 3 with 2255 views | pointofblue |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:19 - May 3 by FrimleyBlue |
Would it have taken a miracle tho.
Beat two sides at the bottom end of the league instead of draws and a handful of our last 8 and we are in and around that 6th place.
Was tough to do. But was possible.
End of day it didn't happen and we then finished the last 15 games 10th in form and finishing below pompy ffs.
Now for the rebuild again and we try again next season. |
The play offs were out of reach on the form of other teams. That’s not to say we could have accrued more points. | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:30 - May 3 with 2247 views | Swansea_Blue |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:19 - May 3 by FrimleyBlue |
Would it have taken a miracle tho.
Beat two sides at the bottom end of the league instead of draws and a handful of our last 8 and we are in and around that 6th place.
Was tough to do. But was possible.
End of day it didn't happen and we then finished the last 15 games 10th in form and finishing below pompy ffs.
Now for the rebuild again and we try again next season. |
It's possible that I'll have a ménage à trois with Scarlett Johansson and Margot Robbie. Tough to do, but possible. | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:30 - May 3 with 2227 views | FrimleyBlue |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:29 - May 3 by pointofblue |
The play offs were out of reach on the form of other teams. That’s not to say we could have accrued more points. |
That's it for me really I'd have been happy with 7th but giving every game a good go and seeing the season out with a good run of form. | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:32 - May 3 with 2215 views | ElephantintheRoom |
And if Burnley had sacked Dyche in August they’d have won the Premier League by now
A more realistic view is that McKenna took over a mid-table team trailing woefully below expectations- enjoyed a brief dead cat bounce. Never found a way of getting a tune from his strikers and made the defence surprisingly watertight. Ending as far from the play offs as when he started. And now folk on here are just as excitable as they were at this stage last season. Bill Murray is taking piano lessons | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:37 - May 3 with 2189 views | Ewan_Oozami |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:30 - May 3 by FrimleyBlue |
That's it for me really I'd have been happy with 7th but giving every game a good go and seeing the season out with a good run of form. |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:38 - May 3 with 2180 views | Steve_M |
Yes, we've dropped a few sloppy points in the last few weeks but that only realistically gets us back to 76/77 points. And all that without a striker who quite fits the role and a bit of a hang up about scoring from set pieces.
I do feel a bit for Plymouth though, very good for most of the season despite a change of manager many thought would hamper them. And then to miss out on the last day. |  |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:40 - May 3 with 2124 views | FrimleyBlue |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:37 - May 3 by Ewan_Oozami |
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You think finishing 7th with our squad and expenditure was wanting to much? Fken ell. | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:42 - May 3 with 2102 views | FrimleyBlue |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:32 - May 3 by ElephantintheRoom |
And if Burnley had sacked Dyche in August they’d have won the Premier League by now
A more realistic view is that McKenna took over a mid-table team trailing woefully below expectations- enjoyed a brief dead cat bounce. Never found a way of getting a tune from his strikers and made the defence surprisingly watertight. Ending as far from the play offs as when he started. And now folk on here are just as excitable as they were at this stage last season. Bill Murray is taking piano lessons |
You get some grief on here. But that's almost spot on. I still don't think it was that difficult to make us so watertight at the back, we didn't have major defensive problems when he came in. What didn't change at all tho was that we couldn't and still couldn't score goals. | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:52 - May 3 with 2032 views | Garv |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:42 - May 3 by FrimleyBlue |
You get some grief on here. But that's almost spot on. I still don't think it was that difficult to make us so watertight at the back, we didn't have major defensive problems when he came in. What didn't change at all tho was that we couldn't and still couldn't score goals. |
He tightened us up defensively with absolute ease, though. It wasn't as if we had to play backs to the wall for the last 10 minutes of games to get by, we were utterly comfortable most of the time.
13 clean sheets in 23 games says a lot, but the way we did it does too. |  |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:54 - May 3 with 2005 views | Illinoisblue |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:32 - May 3 by ElephantintheRoom |
And if Burnley had sacked Dyche in August they’d have won the Premier League by now
A more realistic view is that McKenna took over a mid-table team trailing woefully below expectations- enjoyed a brief dead cat bounce. Never found a way of getting a tune from his strikers and made the defence surprisingly watertight. Ending as far from the play offs as when he started. And now folk on here are just as excitable as they were at this stage last season. Bill Murray is taking piano lessons |
You just got a little pat on the head from frimmers. Career-ending. [Post edited 3 May 2022 11:54]
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:54 - May 3 with 2000 views | STYG |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:19 - May 3 by FrimleyBlue |
Would it have taken a miracle tho.
Beat two sides at the bottom end of the league instead of draws and a handful of our last 8 and we are in and around that 6th place.
Was tough to do. But was possible.
End of day it didn't happen and we then finished the last 15 games 10th in form and finishing below pompy ffs.
Now for the rebuild again and we try again next season. |
So you're gaining 4 points from beating Cheltenham and Morecambe but then suggesting we win a 'handful' of our last 8 (which presumably means not winning at least 2) and we end up with more points?
But still not enough, as in the original post!
You're right. It was possible in the way that winning every match ever is possible. Like needing to be better than 2013 Wolves and 2005 Reading possible? | | | |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:59 - May 3 with 1949 views | hype313 |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:17 - May 3 by farkenhell |
Joe's point in the other thread sums it up perfectly for me. After the Oxford game (which seems like ages ago) if we had won every game, we would still have finished outside of the play-offs.
It turned out to be a freak season. Onwards and upwards... |
That late Oxford goal was the kiss of death in reality, we might have had some margin of error (one draw) in the remaining games, but it was such a tough ask, especially without strikers firing on all cylinders.
We move on. |  |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:01 - May 3 with 1920 views | hoppy |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:30 - May 3 by Swansea_Blue |
It's possible that I'll have a ménage à trois with Scarlett Johansson and Margot Robbie. Tough to do, but possible. |
Have you put a deadline on this? |  |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:05 - May 3 with 1896 views | Ewan_Oozami |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:40 - May 3 by FrimleyBlue |
You think finishing 7th with our squad and expenditure was wanting to much? Fken ell. |
Nope, I wanted us to finish top two, at the very least the playoffs - the fact we haven't done that doesn't mean I'm going to analyse in infinitesmal detail every little interacting reason as why it didn't happen and argue the toss over every little thing that could have gone better.... | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:08 - May 3 with 1876 views | HighgateBlue |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 11:32 - May 3 by ElephantintheRoom |
And if Burnley had sacked Dyche in August they’d have won the Premier League by now
A more realistic view is that McKenna took over a mid-table team trailing woefully below expectations- enjoyed a brief dead cat bounce. Never found a way of getting a tune from his strikers and made the defence surprisingly watertight. Ending as far from the play offs as when he started. And now folk on here are just as excitable as they were at this stage last season. Bill Murray is taking piano lessons |
Bill Murray (or rather Phil Connors, his character) improved at the piano. There's no reason why our performance shouldn't similarly improve. There are passages in that Pathétique sonata which are surprisingly tricky. But Bill managed to master it. We can reach the playoffs. |  | | |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:18 - May 3 with 1814 views | NorthLondonBlue2 |
Very good points - agree entirely.
Also, bear in mind McKenna's record with us:
Played 23, won 11, drawn 8 and lost 4. That's a brillaint win percentage of 47.8% and far better than Keane, Jewel, McCarthy, Lambert, Hurst or Cook.
Extrapolate McKenna's record over 23 games to a 46 game season and we'd have had 82 points. Still 1 point shy of the playoffs but it shows how good he has been in picking up the pieces of an abject start.
There is every reason to be very optimistic for the season ahead. | | | |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:18 - May 3 with 1789 views | FrimleyBlue |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:05 - May 3 by Ewan_Oozami |
Nope, I wanted us to finish top two, at the very least the playoffs - the fact we haven't done that doesn't mean I'm going to analyse in infinitesmal detail every little interacting reason as why it didn't happen and argue the toss over every little thing that could have gone better.... |
Interesting. Nice to see you see such indepth analysis from the below
"That's it for me really I'd have been happy with 7th but giving every game a good go and seeing the season out with a good run of form"
Blimey. Take a lot from that lol | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:30 - May 3 with 1701 views | Ewan_Oozami |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:18 - May 3 by FrimleyBlue |
Interesting. Nice to see you see such indepth analysis from the below
"That's it for me really I'd have been happy with 7th but giving every game a good go and seeing the season out with a good run of form"
Blimey. Take a lot from that lol |
Was that me? Lol! | |
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| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:31 - May 3 with 1700 views | STYG |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:18 - May 3 by NorthLondonBlue2 |
Very good points - agree entirely.
Also, bear in mind McKenna's record with us:
Played 23, won 11, drawn 8 and lost 4. That's a brillaint win percentage of 47.8% and far better than Keane, Jewel, McCarthy, Lambert, Hurst or Cook.
Extrapolate McKenna's record over 23 games to a 46 game season and we'd have had 82 points. Still 1 point shy of the playoffs but it shows how good he has been in picking up the pieces of an abject start.
There is every reason to be very optimistic for the season ahead. |
So, already he's performing at the level of being a point outside the playoffs in an exceptional season, with enough points to finish 2nd - 4th in most seasons and that was without any of his own permanent players, with the introduction of a new system and with no strikers in-form.
Hella impressive. | | | |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:57 - May 3 with 1583 views | RobTheMonk |
Different results from us (wins) would have potentially changed other results due to teams being under more pressure (butterfly effect kind of scenario). We didn't do what we needed to exert that pressure, which to be fair was a tough task. We had some very winnable games that we didn't win though.
A pre-season perfecting the system with some strikers suited to the system, and we could be decent. If come Christmas, we're languishing in midtable then something is not right. |  | | |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 14:14 - May 3 with 1203 views | STYG |
| I knew we needed a miracle, but bloody hell! on 12:57 - May 3 by RobTheMonk |
Different results from us (wins) would have potentially changed other results due to teams being under more pressure (butterfly effect kind of scenario). We didn't do what we needed to exert that pressure, which to be fair was a tough task. We had some very winnable games that we didn't win though.
A pre-season perfecting the system with some strikers suited to the system, and we could be decent. If come Christmas, we're languishing in midtable then something is not right. |
I'm not even sure about that.
I did wonder if the reason why it's been such a record year for playoff points was the number of teams pushing each other. Plymouth missed out, Oxford were close and even Pompey and Bolton were in the mix for a while.
The top 8 though just seemed to keep winning because everyone else around them was. Not sure if it would have eased at all with us doing the same as well. You could argue we'd have taken 2 points off Oxford but they missed out anyway. We were done with Sunderland, Wednesday and Wycombe a while back so we couldn't have slowed them down either. | | | |
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