A Season Free Of Relegation Worries?

[Workerbee]

I don’t want to tempt fate, but ...

With Dagenham losing again today, that gives us an 11 point cushion over both them and Yeovil.

Our expectations might have been a bit higher pre-season, but after the last few years in League 2 even not scrapping to try and survive will be some kind of achievement.

[John Hunt]

Too late. People have already had relegation worries!

[becbee]

Twelve months ago after 16 matches Cheltenham were in 13th place, 10 points cushion over Hartlepool and Tranmere.

[rudebwoyben]

Yeah but Cheltenham made a hasty sacking and then appointed Paul Buckle. Two catastrophic mistakes.

[ealingbee84]

As seen last season the premiership where Leicester pulled there socks up in the last 10 matches, you can never guess after this long in the season. Some injuries and we could have problems, especially if to guys like Akinde, Yiadom and Gash.

I am more relaxed than 4 games ago however I know teams may improve, we have recently and so have Newport. York, Dagenham or Yeovil could do the same.

[Beesting]

I want to look at a league 2 table and look up, not down. Lets get this relegation talk out of our heads.

[genevabee]

I always have relegation worries. I have been a Barnet supporter for a very long time.

[talldarkslim]

Although we need to know the gap between us and the bottom two I have started to look up. We are 6 points off the play-offs and reaching those would be a great achievement.

[BeesKnees]

Newport look like they have turned the corner. Hopefully York, Daggers and Yeovil remain a mess but my feeling is they will do what all struggling teams do in January and get in some decent loanees to try and escape the drop.
If we have 40 in January then I will start to feel safe. We have some big away games coming up that we will do extremely well to pick up points in.

[Itsmeerc]

Newport's mini revival in recent weeks serves as a reminder that it is way to early to write anybody off. While I don't like to be negative and look down the league, if you offered me mid-table now, I would take it. Anything more than that would be a welcome bonus.

[becbee]

We have some big away games coming up that we will do extremely well to pick up points in.

Our remaining away fixtures in 2015 are against Luton & Notts County, both currently only 2 points ahead of us, then Yeovil in 23rd place, then Cambridge whom we are currently above on goals scored. Your comment suggests a lack of faith in us.

[Tuesds]

While I agree with those advising against any assumption that we are clear of a relegation battle at this stage, the season so far has given cause for cautious optimism in a number of respects, especially when compared with our numerous League 2 relegation battles in the recent past.

For example, in our first season back in the League after promotion from the Conference last time around, I think I'm right in saying that we won just one match by more than one goal in the entire campaign, and that was in August. This time around, we've enjoyed four 2-goal victories by the end of October. They are only worth the same number of points, of course, but the manner of these victories (and, to a lesser extent, the sackfuls of chances created in narrow defeat at Carlise and Plymouth) is very different to the grim struggle to grind out victories in League 2 campaigns gone by.

Another feature of previous seasons of struggle has been inexperience of the football league amongst the squad, and also thin squads in terms of real football league quality. And where we did have experience, it often came via players who were a long way past their very best (Hessenthaler, Warhurst, M Hyde...). Last weekend, the outfield players on our bench were Togwell, McLean, Gambin, Nelson, Gash and Bailey. Gash and Gambin may not have masses of football league experience, but they've certainly shown football league quality in the games they have played at this level. The others, meanwhile, not only have roughly 2 gazillion senior appearances between them, but from what we've seen of each of them so far (not much in the case of Bailey, of course), it would seem incredibly harsh to say they look past it.

[ealingbee84]

We have some big away games coming up that we will do extremely well to pick up points in.

Our remaining away fixtures in 2015 are against Luton & Notts County, both currently only 2 points ahead of us, then Yeovil in 23rd place, then Cambridge whom we are currently above on goals scored. Your comment suggests a lack of faith in us.

They are big games, just not the most difficult to pick points from. 3 teams in a similar position and one far behind us. These are the games you need to get points off as it can seriously effect your position. If a team is 2 points ahead of you and you beat them then you go ahead of them but if they beat you then you are suddenly 5 points behind them. Beating Yeovil (depending on how each team is doing in 5 weeks time) could put us miles ahead of one team, leaving only one space to worry about.

To be honest I look at the remaining fixtures for 2015 and see the home fixtures as being more difficult.

[Modernist]

We have some big away games coming up that we will do extremely well to pick up points in.

Our remaining away fixtures in 2015 are against Luton & Notts County, both currently only 2 points ahead of us, then Yeovil in 23rd place, then Cambridge whom we are currently above on goals scored. Your comment suggests a lack of faith in us.

Think you could be right becbee:

These are BeeKnees November predictions for us on the League Two One Football Forum.

Blackpool (H FA Cup) L
Luton(A) L
Morecambe (H) D
Notts C(A) L
Mansfield (H) D

[BeesKnees]

Yep, I think we will have a tough November and I'm not afraid to admit it, we have big clubs away and clubs doing well at home. Notts County have just beaten Pompey and are two defeats in nine, they have a new team from scratch that has taken time to gel, Luton have only lost at home to Plymouth, Portsmouth and away specialists Bristol Rovers. So yes, regardless of their position in the league I think Luton and Notts County are difficult places to go and would be happy with any points we can get from those games.
I could've gone one win, one defeat on the home games, probably beat Morecambe and lose to a Mansfield team that are going well.

I'm much more hopeful for Decembers games. October was an easy month with the Oxford game being the only one not going to form. York and Exeter were both good results against sides on the slide.

It's actually fairly amusing if you look at that thread as no supporter has predicted more than one league win for their side in the whole of November, which shows what a pessimistic bunch supporters on that forum are (Myself included).
http://www.onefootballforum.co.uk/index ... ost-274530
One predicts beating Daggers and the other thinks he's being optimistic.