Four Into Two Won’t Go

Ed Sheeran loves using mathematics as a way of expressing himself, and perhaps his next album should be entitled four into two won’t go! This equation is what Town are facing in the nine-game sprint to the finishing line. Things are very tight at the top!

The pretenders to the throne involve four clubs but of course, Sheffield Wednesday are still the hot favourites to take the title which leaves, Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town, and Barnsley to battle it out for the other automatic promotion place.

As things stand, the Pilgrims have regained the top spot thanks to Barnsley beating Sheffield Wednesday 4-2, as they won at struggling Accrington Stanley 2-0 away. They were helped by the sending off of the ‘Owd Reds’ Mo Sangare on 51 minutes when he picked up two yellows which equalled one red – if we employed another Sheeran sum.

Plymouth lead with 80 points, but have played two more games than Wednesday, and you would expect them to lead again very soon. Town stays third on 75 points, but have a game in hand on the current leaders. The Tykes make up this quartet.

If you were to ask the supporters and coaching staff of all four clubs, you could guarantee that none of them would want to find themselves in those dreaded play-off places. Yes, it could mean you end up at Wembley in the end but at what cost?  You could end up losing, and that would really knock the stuffing out of you! Look at Wycombe Wanderers. They made it to the final last season only to lose narrowly to Sunderland, and they will do well to make even the play-off’s this time around.

I am a little superstitious, so although I was pleased to see our game with Barnsley re-arranged, we still have to play our next match away at Derby County on April Fool’s Day! I trust that is not an unlucky omen. The Rams have had a mixed bag of results recently, having won two and lost two in the last five encounters which is rather erratic.

As for the run-in, we don’t have it all our own way either, and whilst I assumed that it was Ipswich Town who were the side coming with that late run that we have come to expect from one club every season, it looks as if that club could be Barnsley! They have a phenominal home record, and we can only hope that we can put a dent in it when we visit on the 25th of April, because this could prove to be our saving grace!

The good news is that we are on a roll, and the only side in League One to have won six games on the bounce. With Ipswich excepted, Barnsley have a relatively kind end-game. By contrast, the Blues still have to face Derby, Peterborough, and Barnsley away , so this, on paper, seems like a much more challenging set of fixtures. Plymouth doesn’t have it easy either with away games at Bolton and Shrewsbury Town, and I am still of the view that having a smaller squad might prove to be  their undoing, as we approach the business end of the season.  There are no easy answers, and only time will tell.