Alan Crockford
Well-known Exeweb poster
In an extremely optimistic move, I'm treating myself to a 'balanced scorecard thread' which served us geeks, scarfers and plodders so well during various relegation scrapes in years gone by. It's probably not a thread for dramatic outbursts and revolutionary shoutyness, more for having a nose at upcoming fixtures and placing our occasional triumphs (please God let there be some) into context.
Generally, a season of winning, drawing and losing games in equal numbers would create a failed play-off push - e.g. our W18 D10 L18 record in 2012/13 put us tenth, while last year Dagenham and Mansfield were 9th and 11th with a nearly-balanced reocrd of W15 D15 L16.
If we're only interested in avoiding relegation, then we can afford a few wobbly months, but generally we need to be balancing our scorecard most months of the season to stay away from the terrifying end of the table.
So, starting in optimistic mode, there are two immediate targets to get us back on track:
1) Win our two remaining games in August to settle the month with a balanced W2 D1 L2. Geddon!
And / Or
2) Win three of our next four games (three at home and one at Northampton) to bring the season as a whole back into balance.
If that doesn't come off, we can look again at the games in the latter part of September to try to get that month balanced.
I know this is all stating the obvious - wins are good, defeats not helpful - but personally I've found it a good way of smoothing out the bumps in the season, findiong some motivation for midweek games in the depths of winter and generally providing a calming way of writing off an iffy month without setting mad targets for the subsequent games.
So here are the current gloomy numbers. Please please please let's get a W soon...
2014/14 SEASON SO FAR - W0 D1 L2
AUGUST - W0 D1 L2
D Portsmouth h
L Plymouth a
L Burton a
York h
Northampton a
SEPTEMBER
Mansfield h
Oxford h
Cambridge a
Tranmere a
Bury h
Generally, a season of winning, drawing and losing games in equal numbers would create a failed play-off push - e.g. our W18 D10 L18 record in 2012/13 put us tenth, while last year Dagenham and Mansfield were 9th and 11th with a nearly-balanced reocrd of W15 D15 L16.
If we're only interested in avoiding relegation, then we can afford a few wobbly months, but generally we need to be balancing our scorecard most months of the season to stay away from the terrifying end of the table.
So, starting in optimistic mode, there are two immediate targets to get us back on track:
1) Win our two remaining games in August to settle the month with a balanced W2 D1 L2. Geddon!
And / Or
2) Win three of our next four games (three at home and one at Northampton) to bring the season as a whole back into balance.
If that doesn't come off, we can look again at the games in the latter part of September to try to get that month balanced.
I know this is all stating the obvious - wins are good, defeats not helpful - but personally I've found it a good way of smoothing out the bumps in the season, findiong some motivation for midweek games in the depths of winter and generally providing a calming way of writing off an iffy month without setting mad targets for the subsequent games.
So here are the current gloomy numbers. Please please please let's get a W soon...
2014/14 SEASON SO FAR - W0 D1 L2
AUGUST - W0 D1 L2
D Portsmouth h
L Plymouth a
L Burton a
York h
Northampton a
SEPTEMBER
Mansfield h
Oxford h
Cambridge a
Tranmere a
Bury h