After Saturday's disappointing defeat to Horsham the playoff picture is once again made a bit more complicated.
With Staines still having 8 games to play by Saturday 26th April of which 6 games are away from home they now have the potential upper hand on 2nd place as they can get 3 points more than us if both us and them win all their games.
The simple indicator is that if we get 7 more points from 4 games we are guaranteed a playoff spot no matter what thee other teams do. In terms of where we will finish is a bit more complicated to calculate but I will try and give it a go: -
As it currently stands the teams we are challenging for playoff spot's are as follows Staines, AFC Hornchurch, Ashford, Horsham, Hendon, Ramsgate and Tonbridge Angles. I have assumed that Chelmsford who only need 1 point even if Staines win all their remaining games will win the league and Billericay who need to win all their remaining games just to equal our current points total wont finish above us.
With us still to play two of the playoff rivals victories over both Ashford and AFC Hornchurch would almost guarantee a home time in a playoff semi-final as Hendon & Horsham could only match our points total.
A number of fellow rivals still have to play each other and therefore may mean that we don't even need that many points. If we are looking to finish second we need Staines to drop points and their current run in looks like this.
| Date | Against | Venue | Date | Against | Venue | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01-Apr | East Thurrock | Away | 14-Apr | Folkestone | Away | |
| 05-Apr | Folkestone | Home | 19-Apr | Hendon | Home | |
| 08-Apr | Heybridge | Away | 26-Apr | Billericay | Away | |
| 12-Apr | Harlow | Away | T.B.A | Boreham Wood | Away |
If they can get through this run they would then go straight into the playoffs the following midweek and a possible final the following weekend.
I will update the situation as it changes.
Two weeks today we are playing the friendly match against Corinthian Casuals at Wembley stadium and a group of supporters have decided it will be a good opportunity to have a nice stroll from Kingsmeadow to Wembley whilst at the same time raising clubs funds.
The distance is just under 15 miles, two people who are confirmed to undertake this are Mazza from the guest book as well as Dons Trust Board member Chalfers, with Chalfers as well Wembley is just round the corner for him but he will be starting his walk at Kingsmeadow as well.
If you would like to encourage them by sponsoring them you can via the pay pal link below, all funds pledged go directly to the trust let's just hope that after they finish the walk they don't fall asleep during the game.
As I am now back in the country a full Matchday Updates will be in operation for out game against Horsham this afternoon. The team news should be posted from around 14:30 and then all the action from Kick off at 15:00 to follow the action please click the Matchday link above.
As I mentioned last week I am away for the next two weeks and therefore wont be doing regular news updates, although I will have my laptop with me so if anything big comes up I will be able to update the site.
At present nobody has stepped in to do matchday updates this weekend for thee game from Chelmsford so if you are able to do them even on a reduced level please contact me by e-mail on paul@itmustbedons.com and I can explain the system to you and it will help fans all over the world keep up with this important game.
If nobody steps in I will do what I can to keep the service running by taking posts from various sites. In the meantime whilst I'm away good luck to the boys and lets hope that when I get back for the Horsham game we are still flying high and even pushing Chelmsford for the championship.
Following last week note on the site about the amazon shop it seemed to generate a larger number of sales than usual and therefore benefits the clubs with additional funds.
If you are looking to buy items that are on Amazon make sure you click one of the links on the site first and then the club is paid commission and it doesn't cost you anything extra.
After yesterday's results it really looks like the championship is now between Chelmsford City and us. Chelmsford currently have an 8 point lead and even if we were to win next weekend the we would need to score at least 5 points and a better goal difference than Chelmsford over 7 games.
The gap between us and 3rd place is 13 points and even if Staines win their games in hand they will be 6 points behind us. The race for the playoff spots is still a very tight thing, if you presume that who ever doesn't get the title between us and Chelmsford is in the playoffs it leaves potentially 10 clubs chasing 3 places this will really go down to the final day of the season.This afternoon we beat Hendon 2-0 thanks to first half goals from Chris Hussey from the penalty spot and a Ramone Rose header. In extremely testing conditions with a strong wind and rain we took the lead on 8 minutes when a Hendon defender hand balled the ball. The excellent Chris Hussey stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way for his first gal for the club.
Our second goal came on 38 minutes and was produced by Daniel Webb who had the ball out wide and with a couple of defenders round him he managed to create just enough space to cross the ball into the box where it was met by Rose to head in to the top corner.
Although the second half saw few chances I think this was a good team performance with good performances all over thee pitch.
This afternoon the top 4 sides face each other with Chelmsford hosting Staines and us at Hendon. I will be bringing live updates from our game at Hendon and you can follow the action by clicking the matchday link at the top of the page.
The Non-League football site has had a redesign and they now have an improved vidiprinter that includes goalscorer, a live league table and will also give you full time scores to view this click here.
After my suggestion of the route to Hendon Last night I have been sent another suggestion and this may work out a bit easier, here are the details: -
"Re-the travel difficulties on Saturday. An alternative option would be to continue one stop on the Jubilee Line from West Hampstead and get off instead at Kilburn. From here (on the same side of the road as the station exit) catch a 189 bus towards Brent Cross, which also passes the ground, and should take about 15 minutes. This has the added advantage of being a double decker. Both the C11 from W. Hampstead and the 189 from Kilburn are scheduled to run about every 8 minutes." Thanks to John for his e-mail.
As I mentioned the other day I am away for the Chelmsford, East Thurrock United & Carshalton Games and therefore unable to do updates if anyone is able to do updates for people (including me) who wont be at the games can you please e-mail me on paul@itmustbedons.com so that I can inform you how the updates work or if you will be using another system so I can post a link to it. Once again Thanks to anyone who can help.
The trip to Hendon at the weekend is usually a fairly straight forward trip with trains direct from Wimbledon, Haydons Road and Tooting to Cricklewood via the First Capital Connect service or a tube all the way up the Northern Line to Brent Cross, but just our luck both these routes are out of action this weekend and therefore we have to make a totally different route involving Tube and Bus routes.
In short you will need to get to West Hampstead on the Jubilee line and then pick up a Bus number C11 heading towards Brent Cross shopping center and stops right outside Hendon football Club. The Bus journey apparently takes around 25 minutes but is also a single decker so it may be worth heading off that bit earlier than planned.
I know this will come as a bit of a bombshell but I wont be able to any matchday updates for the games at Chelmsford, Home to East Thurrock and away to Carshalton due to me being out of the country.
I must admit I thought I would be about for the Chelmsford game but I wont be. I always said I would never do a complete season of games and I have done every game this season, Last time I did my first complete season it don't stop for 10 years! so far so when I booked the break I miss judged the fixtures.
If anyone would like to step in for me and do the matchday updates please drop me an e-mail to paul@itmustbedons.com I would say I would recommend that you have a phone that has a full keyboard as that makes typing a lot easier. I can either show you the simple system at Hendon or send you details by e-mail, and no one will be happier to follow the updates for these games that I will.
Why not use another facility on the site in the Amazon shop, all you need to do is click on any of the Amazon links and then any shopping you do during that visit sees commission earned for the club.
A lot of supporters of Ryman League clubs believe that the championship is now between Chelmsford and AFC Wimbledon and although Chelmsford currently have an 8 point lead we have to meet on Saturday week at Chelmsford so it could go either way over the remaining 9 games each side has.
To help I have put together a quick spreadsheet that also shows a graph of the points difference between the two sides over these last 2 months of the season. All you need to do on this one is enter the scores for each side.
To download this spreadsheet click here
As promised I have finished putting the final touches to the 2008 version of the Final Countdown spreadsheet. This enables you to either enter your own predictions for the remaining games involving the top 11 sides in the Ryman Premier Division.
To run the spreadsheet you need access to a version of Excel so I imagine a few work places may see less productivity on Monday morning. All you need to do is enter the scores that you think each game will finish and the league table is automatically updated and once the playoff positions are confirmed the relevant team is put into each place.
You can then also enter Play off predictions including extra time and penalties to find out who the two teams that will be promoted. If you do input your own predictions make sure you make any changes after the game is played so that it takes your future predictions into account with the updated table.
The only problem with the sheet is please don't sort it as this will muck up all formulas in it, if you come across any other problems please let me know and I will sort them out.
to download the spreadsheet click here
This morning as preparations were under way for this afternoons game we all of a sudden got informed that Frankie Howard plans to be available for the games over Easter had changed with news that he would now be off to New York on The Thursday before Easter so today would now become his final game for us at Kingsmeadow before he headed off.
Everyone was hoping that we would be able to give Frankie the send off he deserved and I don't mean sticking him in goal for the afternoon. Frankie started on the bench and in my opinion as he walked onto the pitch to take his place on the subs bench he didn't seem to be his usual self as he looked around at the ground, as he approached the John Smiths stand he got a brilliant reception from everyone on that side of the ground.
In the early part of the game Hastings had the better of the chances but couldn't make the most of these then on 20 minutes we were awarded a free kick right on the edge of the box and with Chris Hussey, Marcus Gayle and Sam Hatton standing round it we hoped it would just be hit on Target. Sam Hatton stepped up and blasted it through the wall and into the top corner a lovely goal.
Our second goal came on 33 minutes when quick thinking by Rob Quinn saw him take a quick throw to Rose who won us a free kick just by the goal line, once again Sam Hatton stepped up and played a lovely ball in for Robin Shroot to get a touch on and put into the back of the net. and a nice 2-0 lead at half time.
The early part of the second half saw Hastings trying to get back into it and with them having hit the crossbar twice in 3 minutes they had a chance to get back into it but were unable to. Then with just over 20 minutes left in the game Frankie Howard was introduced, replacing Marcus Gayle and he was greeted onto the pitch by a standing ovation by the whole ground.
5 minutes later their was a moment of controversy when we took a corner on the far side of the ground and although it was headed goal bound the linesman waved his flag, it appeared he had awarded a goal and the Hasting players were not happy about this, the linesman claimed it had crossed the line but a number of people I spoke to after the game didn't think it had crossed the line either.
The 4th goal came justs a couple of minutes later with Steve Ferguson scoring a diving header to end up a very good day, this was made even better when the results came in from other games, with only Hendon being the other top 7 side winning.
As the final whistle went Frankie rightly received a great reception from all sides of the ground as Erik said some words of thanks to him and the other players observed the affection that Frankie has with us and then at the Man of The Match presentation Ivor interviewed Frankie as well and both were on top form.
As Ivor said we will miss Frankie but if he ever wants to come back he wont have to ask to hard.
This afternoon we face Hastings in Ryman League action and the Matchday service will be in operation with team news posted from around 14:30 and then all the action from Kick off at 15:00 to follow the action please click the matchday link at the top of the page.
