Can Accrington Stanley really make the play-offs? By far the smallest club in the divison with the far weakest squad going into the divison but after an amazing start to the season, despite falling down the table in recent games with five games in the season to go they can actually reach the play-offs as they're currently in 7th place in the league. There currently on 49 points after 33 games, and just goal difference seperates them from the play-offs and they are capable of catching up Shrewsbury Town and Brighton & Hove Albion if they loose form, but if you listen to there manager they don't feel confident of finishing in the play-offs.
"I'd like to say with confidence that we're going to finish in the play-offs, but i honestly don't think we have much of a chance. We've not done very much in the second half of the season and the sides above us like Brighton have so much more quality over us. We've got top of the league Oldham next, and although we'd love to beat them - boost our chances of the play-offs and help out an old mate in Neil Matterson i personally can't see that happening so i'm going to have to stay realistic and not expect a play-off finish. We're just looking to pick up as many points as we can in the remainder of the season and see how we can do next season."
"We've made a lot of progress over the course of the season and aslong as we get a top 10 finish i will be very happy with the season, that isn't guarenteed either as it's very tight around us and if we do loose our next game we could drop to as low as 12th. But regardless of the finish the play-offs have showed that we can beat anyside in the divison on our day, at the start of the season and we've made some massive progress on our squad. We might well loose Jermaine Beckford, Ryan Shotton and Jake Livermore next season, but we've got some great players here permanantly now like Billy Paynter and Shane Higgs"
"Paynter and Higgs are both great players, and are capable at playing at a higher level. We've also got the likes of Michael Dobson, Andy Butler, Mark Randall & Adam Barrett who are all very good players. There far bettter then the star players we had when i took over at the start of the season, Jimmy Ryan was the only player who was actually worth any money and we now have a lot of very good players who make the likes of Jimmy Ryan look like an amatuer.
Accrington Stanley Billy Paynter Recieves Praise From The Accrington Boss
You've got 3 games against teams below you (though only just!) and then the last game against Neil's Bury. Better seal the deal before then, last thing you want it's to need the points against a team that might be still gunning for the title!
ReplyDelete