Post by Amber Aleman on Mar 28, 2010 20:18:25 GMT
Seven league games to go, and everybody at the club must be really pleased at the team's progress in 2010. It's a little frustrating that Dartford were able to build up such a commanding lead before Christmas, but we've now got an excellent chance of finishing runners up. What's more, the eight point gap we've opened up over the fourth-placed team means that, barring a disastrous end-of-season slump, we can anticipate home advantage in the first round of play-off matches.
I said at the start of the season that to get into the play-offs we needed to average at least eleven points from every seven games. At the half-way stage in January (after the home defeat to Ashford) we were on 30 points, three short of the minimum we needed to be on course. But since then a fourteeen match unbeaten run has seen us take 32 points, comfortably more than required. We now need only another four points to be reasonably sure of a play-off place - though of course we're looking to do rather better than that!
Our recent success has been built on a solid defence, now the best in the division, with Jason Goodliffe and Steve Perkins forming an excellent partnership in front of the ever-reliable Kevin Scriven. In none of our last ten matches have we conceded more than one goal. Although our scoring record is only just above average for the division, we've only needed to score once or twice in a match to win.
We're also now six points better off then we were after 35 league games last season.
Five of our last seven games are away, but given our impressive away form that shouldn't worry us. One oddity thrown up by all the winter postponements is that there are two sides, Billericay and Cray, who we've still to play twice. Neither of those can yet feel comfortable about staying up, so we can expect them to scrap for points - though by the time we entertain Billericay on the last day of the season I reckon they'll be safe.
The most interesting of the remaining fixtures is the game at Kingstonian next Saturday. They're one point above us, but with one game fewer to play and a goal difference of +10 compared with our +20. They'll be feeling the pressure. ;D
I said at the start of the season that to get into the play-offs we needed to average at least eleven points from every seven games. At the half-way stage in January (after the home defeat to Ashford) we were on 30 points, three short of the minimum we needed to be on course. But since then a fourteeen match unbeaten run has seen us take 32 points, comfortably more than required. We now need only another four points to be reasonably sure of a play-off place - though of course we're looking to do rather better than that!
Our recent success has been built on a solid defence, now the best in the division, with Jason Goodliffe and Steve Perkins forming an excellent partnership in front of the ever-reliable Kevin Scriven. In none of our last ten matches have we conceded more than one goal. Although our scoring record is only just above average for the division, we've only needed to score once or twice in a match to win.
We're also now six points better off then we were after 35 league games last season.
Five of our last seven games are away, but given our impressive away form that shouldn't worry us. One oddity thrown up by all the winter postponements is that there are two sides, Billericay and Cray, who we've still to play twice. Neither of those can yet feel comfortable about staying up, so we can expect them to scrap for points - though by the time we entertain Billericay on the last day of the season I reckon they'll be safe.
The most interesting of the remaining fixtures is the game at Kingstonian next Saturday. They're one point above us, but with one game fewer to play and a goal difference of +10 compared with our +20. They'll be feeling the pressure. ;D