The thoughts of our relegation rivals

Ahead of the relegation battle and with four games remaining three questions were put to the fans of our relegation rivals, their answers below.

Q: Do you think your team will escape relegation and why?
Q: Your thoughts on the performances of the players and manager during the season?
Q: What four teams do you think will be relegated?

Bristol Rovers

Thanks to Daniel300380
1 - A: I think we should stay up now. Nearly have enough points already. With 4 games to play one more win, should make us safe. Or we avoid defeat in the next 2 games.

2 - A: Summer recruitment was poor, leaving us with an unbalanced squad, lacking pace and width. Since GC has taken over we have found a way to grind out results. Mainly when playing a diamond formation, because we lack width. Tried to change it against Doncaster and got hammered. So we will have a busy summer in the market, if we want to play more than one way.

3 - A: I think Bradford are down. Hard to predict the other 2. Accrington have an awful run in, all games against the top 6, apart from the one against you. Southend and Walsall are in bad form, but they pay each other tomorrow, so if one win, that could give them a boost. 
Hard to call but I will go for Bradford, Walsall, Southend and go for Accrington.

Thanks to TopperGas
1 – A: Yes, we'll have more points than at least 4 team below us.

2 – A: Poor under Darrell Clark /Good under Graham Coughlan.

3 – A: Plymouth, Southend, Walsall, Bradford.

Thanks to NeilV93
1 – A: We've already secured our L1 status because we have JCH.

2 – A: JCH is class, Craig should not be captain, DC is a legend and GC is doing a smart job.

3 – A: Bradford, Walsall, Southend and Stanley.


Gillingham

Thanks to swansgills888
1- A: I think we will just about manage to stave off relegation.

2 - A: The players have been ok but the manager has not be up to the required standard to manage us in this division.

3 - A: I think Bradford, Walsall, Rochdale and Scunthorpe will get relegated.

Thanks to Donut
1 - A: Possibly but not definitely, I fear a loss on Friday.
2 - A:Mostly, abject.
3 - A: Bradford, Walsall, Southend, Wimbledon.

Accrington

To follow. ...

Wycombe

Thanks to Shev.
1 - A: I do think we will escape, as we have played much better than our results indicate, and have generally been in every game. Wycombe love to increase the profits of heart medication companies though, so it may not be simple.

2 - A: The manager has been exceptional as always, exuding both class and dignity, while managing to motivate his players through an awful spell of results. The players have been tenacious, and have always given the sense of "leaving everything on the pitch", to use a cliche. Several players have raised their stock considerably, and the old war horses such as Bayo and Bloomfield have continued to show that class is permanent (the cliches keep coming).

3 - A: I really hate to say, as I don't wish it on anyone, but Bradford are obviously needing snookers, and based on form, Walsall and Southend may be in trouble too. So if I had to say, those three plus one of Rochdale, Scunthorpe or (very unlikely) Accrington. Wimbledon and your lot seem to have too much about them, as things stand.

Thanks to RailywaySteve
1 - A:: I have more confidence that Wycombe will escape than Plymouth will escape.

2 - A: In my opinion it has been a good season, even if we are are relegated, which I think is quite unlikely. Gareth Ainsworth is a good fit for us and is a consistent positive influence. He has been willing to learn. We have a group of players who play to each others strengths and have matched the best in this league on most occasions. I have never been bored at a Wycombe game this season.

3 - A: Bradford for definite, Southend, Rochdale and then Plymouth, which would be a bit sad because I have consistently really enjoyed games at Home Park. That looks a difficult last game of the season for you if Scunthorpe are still threatened. But as others have mentioned it would be funny if Bristol Rovers went down.

Thanks to Chris.
1 - A: Yes, because we are in 17th and only four from 24 go down. Our three next fixtures are all against teams below us in the table, and the final game is home against Fleetwood, one of the few teams with nothing to play for. We've not been in a position all season where relegation looked likely, which is a great achievement from Ainsworth and the team.

2 - A: Given our budget relative to many of the other teams in the League we have done very well. Many thought it would be a scrap all season, so we have largely exceeded expectations. Our last three seasons in League One all ended in relegation.
We certainly had a better first half of the season than second - perhaps because some of our influential loanees returned to their parent clubs in January and were not replaced.

3 - A: Bradford, Walsall and Southend plus one other. Ideally Bristol Rovers but it seems highly unlikely (if not quite mathematically impossible.)

Thanks to manboobs
1- A: 90% we’ll stay up. Saturday was a huge win and with others around us failing to get points I think 4 more points will do it, maybe even 3.

2 - A: The players give their all pretty much all the time. I am saddened when I hear some around me (at away games not where I sit at home) suggest players aren’t trying when things aren’t going so well for them. Everyone can have days when ones’s head isn’t in the game, a lack of ‘flow’, one’s mind being subtly taken from the moment by life’s worries or whatever. One thing I have no doubt of is that the vast majority of Ainsworth’s players want to do their best for him, look up to him and respect him. He is a thoroughly decent guy and I’m sure could do very well at a higher level. His supposed use of the “dark arts” isn’t much worse than many others and his class in front of us, the media and the opposition players and support is evident. He also has excellent taste in music.

3 - A: Bradford are done. Southend I think as well- losing at home to a team with as bad a record as yours is a killer blow- Beyond that probably Rochdale and Walsall as we’ll win that one and may condem them. I hope Plymouth stay up as a good friend of ours joins us at many home games and she’s a Plymouth girl. Be fun hearing her muttering under her breath as we do them again next year.

Scunthorpe

Thanks to Matt.
1 - A: I'm struggling to see where we will pick up another point to be completely honest. Defeats to Wimbledon, Bristol Rovers, Oxford, Rochdale and Gillingham since mid February have not helped our cause and if we go down, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Those games were a big chance to pull away from danger, but every side we have faced in a similar position to us seem to want it more than us, which does not bode well for the run in. 

We now face Blackpool and Charlton over a difficult Easter weekend, so realistically it is probably going to get worse before it gets better. We rarely pick up points against Blackpool (they have some kind of voodoo curse over us) whilst Charlton are flying. Our only hope is that we can defeat Bradford, who will already be relegated and get something on the final day at Plymouth. Josh Morris, who has been involved in a staggering amount of our goals over the past couple of seasons and Matty Lund will return for the run in but they are severely lacking match fitness having missed most of the season and it would be foolish to expect too much from them despite their obvious quality. That said, if we can squeeze a good half or two out of them between now and the end of the season, it may just give us the boost we need. (Yes, we really are that desperate!)

2 - A: I've not seen a poorer side this season. Despite our perilous position the players have not stepped up and do not look like they are up for a battle. There is a concerning lack of passion and fight throughout the whole squad and the football is boring to watch. We rarely manage more than a couple of shots on target - particularly away from home where the football has been terrible. We've only seen three decent performances this year - a 5-3 win over Charlton, a 2-0 win over Peterborough and the recent 4-1 win over Southend. The rest has been utter dross.

The poor season all stems from a disastrous summer. We lost four key players in the summer to Championship sides. Holmes, Wallace, Adelakun and Townsend were always going to be hard to replace, but their replacements were simply not up to scratch. Nick Daws was sacked early doors after a shambolic pre season, in which we had to cancel a couple of games because we did not have enough fit players. The consensus is that he wasted the pre season tour of Austria and the players were not fit enough.

Stuart McCall came in and steadied the ship but we then had a run of eight defeats under him - our worst run of form for over 20 years. Things looked to have picked up after January, but we regressed and McCall was also given the boot. Fans thought it was probably the right call at the time - but you could argue it's been even worse since he left.

Andy Dawson, a fans favourite as a player, has the tough task of steering us to safety and I've not seen anything to suggest he is up to the challenge, despite doing well in previous spells in caretaker charge. 

3 - A: Unless we stage some kind of Easter resurrection, we will be joining Bradford, Southend and Walsall in League Two.

Rochdale

Thanks to aleanddale
1 - A: No Idea but Friday is Huge. win and we will need 1 more win from 3 games. Lose and its 2 wins from 3 games ( two of which are away from home ). In a nutshell win Friday and Yes we will IMO survive - Lose and relegation looks a probability.

2 - A: This would take a book not a paragraph. Our Manager only been in situe for a handful of games and it is so far so good. Its widely acknowledged that Keith Hill ( Rochdale's BEST EVER Manager ) was stubborn as a goat and probably self imploded and turned into a caricature of the real Keith!

3 - A. Bradford / Southend / Walsall look nailed on. Then pick one from AFC Wimbledon / Scunthorpe / Plymouth /Wycombe / Accy / Dale. I will go for Plymouth.

AFC Wimbledon

To follow. ...

Southend

Thanks to Kris
1 - A: My heart says yes but it's highly unlikely. We've not won since early January and we'll need at least seven points from our four final games to have a chance.

2 - A: Our squad has been decimated by freak long-term injuries and in an era where you can only sign players in transfer windows it's killed us. The remainder of the squad have largely under-performed and although I was a big fan of the recently departed Chris Powell, he looked a beaten man by the end.

3 - A: Bradford have virtually no chance of staying up. The other three spots are too close to call but bearing in mind poor form I reckon it will be Southend, Walsall and Scunthorpe.

Thanks to OldBlueLady
1 - A: Ever the optimist - I think we'll escape, they need to get their heads right and I'm really hoping the new management team are doing something there.

2 - A: Never known a season like it for injuries - what is it, 5 ACLs? Broken legs, major hamstring problems, back spasms - unbelievable season. We had a complete 11 of first team players out at one time. Absolutely gutted for Chris Powell, who we all loved as a player and would have loved to succeed as a manager. Kevin Bond is an interesting appointment, and it will be really interesting to see what happens at the end of the season.

3 - A: Bradford are all but gone. I think Wimbledon have a tough run in and I expect them to succumb, but not without a fight. The other two, Walsall and Rochdale.

Thanks to BlueRonRon
1- A: I think will just escape by the skin of our teeth , but lose Friday and I’ll change my mind.

2 - A: Terrible injuries, but also a **** poor manager who become clueless and couldn’t find a system to suit when the chips were down, a legend as a player but as a manager one of the worse to watch his style of football
Kevin Bond not sure, has a task on his hands and if he keeps us up then deserves a chance next season at Roots Hall.

3 - A: Bradford, Wimbledon, Rochdale, Walsall ( But we take their place if we lose to them Friday).

Thanks to Suffolk Shrimper
1 - A: We are shot - no chance.

2 - A: Injuries, with troubles made worse by Powell reacting by being negative tactically and failing to stick to the script that players with limited ability know best (ie. play in position and stick to 4-4-2), then he loses the plot and fails to motivate himself and the players who, with a few notable exceptions, should hang their heads in shame at their lack of effort. The sacking of CP was inevitable and it could have worked but the new appointment was uninspiring as the chairman thought having the King of the Jungle hanging around as a side-kick would work but in reality Harry ends up doing bog all. What we needed by that stage (six games to go) was a gamble with an extreme motivator (but not under any circumstances Evans) to just get us through to the end of the season, the man was there and willing (Big Roy) and he would also have 100% got the crowd going too but his past skeletons and lack of recent experience meant he never got a look in. Such a shame, it could have been wonderful.

3 - A: Bradford, Dale, Walsall and us. Argyle will be fine, but you should still get rid of your manager.
By the way, I never get any points in the Southend prediction league (though this week my 'luck' could change as I've predicted us to lose 21-0) so I'll be wrong, we'll play Brazilian style , murder our remaiing opponents, and jungle VIP Harry will sing 'I wanna be like you' in the centre circle before the Sunderland match on the last day to inspire the Shrimpers to a last second 5-4 win to clinch staying up and send the 11,000 Black Cats in the ground home crying.

Walsall

Thanks to Simon
1 - A: No. Despite being the longest current inhabitants of League One (with 12 consecutive seasons in the third tier to date) this seems destined to be our year for the drop. Sitting in 23rd at the time of writing and on a run of six straight defeats and a solitary draw, there seems little sign of revival unless a momentous turn-around can be achieved in our three remaining games.

An opening day win against Plymouth and a seven-game unbeaten run at the start of the season raised hopes of a play-off push, but the Saddlers have been in freefall ever since a 4-1 home reverse against Doncaster on ‘Match Day 8’.
Our league record following that game reads P36 W7 D7 L22, accruing a goal difference of -24 that will do us no favours in the final reckoning. With no indication that the players can raise their game or overcome the crippling defensive                     

2 - A: The season began with a high-octane counter-attacking approach that made us temporarily difficult to beat both at home and away, but this early momentum dissipated and exposed the lack of ability and (latterly) poor attitude of some players.  
Defensively, this is the poorest team Walsall have had for decades, consistently losing points through mistakes, lack of organisation or simply not doing the basics well enough. The less said about them the better.

In midfield, youngsters Liam Kinsella and George Dobson have held their own in central positions, but the missing experience of long-term injuries Adam Chambers and Joe Edwards hasn’t helped the cause. The sale of winger Josh Ginnelly (arguably our best player) in January was typically Walsall, he didn’t make his debut at new club Preston until a couple of weeks ago.

A re-built strike force of Andy Cook, Josh Gordon and Morgan Ferrier hadn’t made a Football League appearance between them as the current season began and their form has been varied. Cook has contributed 16 goals including two against Argyle, whilst Gordon has showed promise despite limited opportunities. Ferrier however has typified certain members of the squad, making a strong start to the season but since betraying a poor attitude and questionable use of social media.

On the management front, Walsall-born club legend Dean Keates was dismissed following the recent 3-1 home defeat to 10-man Oxford and temporarily replaced by Walsall-born club legend Martin O’Connor (we have a type).

Dean had achieved relative success with Wrexham before his home-coming, but it has been widely acknowledged that the switch from the Conference to League One came too early in his career. Ultimately, a failure to fix our defensive issues and a naïve tactical approach led to what was a belated removal, but like any Walsall manager, a bottom-four budget won’t have helped.
Meanwhile, O’Connor described his first game in charge, a 2-1 defeat at Accrington, as a ‘nothing performance’- so we may have missed the ‘new manager bounce’.  

3 - A: What four teams do you think will be relegated? 
Feel we will scrap in out with Bradford for bottom spot and be joined in League Two by Southend and Rochdale. 

Bradford
Thanks to Mighty Bantam
1 - A: Not a chance

2 - A: Massively under achieved and no manager has got a tune out of them , apart a purple patch in December, maybe one or two looking for a move January, didn't happen so maybe switched off again ,give Bowyer a window to hopefully sort out the crap ,mainly down to the ego Mr Rahic who seriously screwed us over

3 - A: Us , Walsall , Wycombe and Scunthorpe.

Thanks to IdleBantam
1 - A: No chance

2 - A: With odd exception of O'Brien, Caddis and Payne pre January, the rest have been very poor and spineless.

3 - A: Bradford City
Walsall
Wycombe
Plymouth

rsp4":2wdjtz2h said:

How about the stat of how many teams bottom at Christmas have not been relegated? I thought someone on here said it was only 1 team in the last 15 years. I was hoping we would be the 2nd but DA needs to pull it out the bag in the next 4 games

Click to expand...

Strictly speaking we were not bottom on Christmas Day but we were on Boxing Day.

Walsall now added.