National League Play offs Thread 2016. Who will win?

[AtaturkOzgutson]

Gotta fancy FGR.

Braintree would be brilliant, if only for shits and giggles. If they got in the league, they'd be by far the smallest side. Probably since Thames were knocking around but anyway, Braintree and Colchester sharing a division would be amusing too.

Aside from that, the fellow BELT vote goes to Grimsby as usual. So the winner of that one will lose to Dover. Oops.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Got my tickets for the home leg and a place on the coach for Wednesday, pay on the gate at Crabble. Now all I have to do is survive how ever many hours without a tab.

 

[Chris FGR]

Looking forward to Wednesday. Reckon we'll do better then last years limp effort.

Going to get there in plenty of time for drinking purposes. Nerves will be shredded. Think we might just do it this time.

It would be epic to see FGR at Wembley again.

 

[Davidimp]

Grimsby have gone to pot in the last month and dont they have a terrible record against Braintree too?
FGR or Braintree for me if Braintree's ground is upto FL standard.

 

[EnglishRed]

Surely Grimsby cant fail a fourth successive time? Even ourselves and Luton only did that 3 times. Four would be too painful.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Surely Grimsby cant fail a fourth successive time? Even ourselves and Luton only did that 3 times. Four would be too painful.

We don't call it failure in these more enlightened times, they'll be "differently successful".

 

[Greenacres]

We don't call it failure in these more enlightened times, they'll be "differently successful".

...or maybe, promotionally challenged!

 

[PaulHaddock]

We've been allocated only 600 tickets for the away game next Sunday. An absolute joke. We have asked for more though.

 

[Gashead]

Grimsby please.

Hadn't seen Braintree's form, fair play to them cos they've beaten Cheltenham, Grimsby, Wrexham, Gateshead over the last six weeks or so.

 

[Greenacres]

We've been allocated only 600 tickets for the away game next Sunday. An absolute joke. We have asked for more though.

This does seem harsh, particularly considering the size of the away support you might be expected to take, and it may not even allow all your season ticket holders to attend if they wished to. However, I am guessing that things like segregation and crowd safety are the major issues and that might be the largest number they can safely accommodate. Oddly it appears we are giving the West terrace, or the open side, to Dover instead of the bigger covered terrace. This seems a bit of a bizarre decision, as usually the visitors get a block of seats in the Main Stand which allows access to the refreshment hut in the corner of the terrace.

 

[pontoonlew]

600 for a side who will comfortably take treble that. Asking for trouble

Given that they've still not managed to sell out a free 57 seater coach yet, Braintree must be judging us by their own standards.

 

[pontoonlew]

This does seem harsh, particularly considering the size of the away support you might be expected to take, and it may not even allow all your season ticket holders to attend if they wished to. However, I am guessing that things like segregation and crowd safety are the major issues and that might be the largest number they can safely accommodate. Oddly it appears we are giving the West terrace, or the open side, to Dover instead of the bigger covered terrace. This seems a bit of a bizarre decision, as usually the visitors get a block of seats in the Main Stand which allows access to the refreshment hut in the corner of the terrace.

It doesn't even allow 1/4 of our season ticket holders to go.

 

[PaulHaddock]

Considering their away terrace can hold over 1000 iirc, I fail to see the logic that they're using. How many home fans are they expected to have after not even half filling the ground on Saturday?

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

Grimsby have gone to pot in the last month and dont they have a terrible record against Braintree too?
FGR or Braintree for me if Braintree's ground is upto FL standard.

That's the general consensus but having just looked we actually have the edge over 10 games - 4 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses. I think that 5-0 loss the first time we met still stings. It seems like they do tend to upset us when it matters though.

I was quite fearful of Braintree the most but having thought about it I think they're possibly the best for us. They don't score a lot so they're probably less likely to take advantage of our sloppy defence and I think with Bogle and Amond we'll have just enough firepower to break through despite their good GA record. Then again they could absolutely dick. None the less I'm confident since we've had the luxury of a rest this weekend.

 

[Greenacres]

It doesn't even allow 1/4 of our season ticket holders to go.

Blimey, I wouldn't want to be the person deciding who should or shouldn't be entitled to a ticket.

 

[Greenacres]

Having watched the Braintree game on Saturday, and seen them play at our place, I wouldn't have been too worried if we had ended up with them instead of Dover. However, having beaten Dover in our last game I am reasonably optimistic that we can do enough over two legs, I am just glad to have avoided Grimsby.

 

[GEORGE]

Surely it must be Grimsby's time. If not I reckon that will be the end of the current team. Wholesale changes in the summer. And I bet Wembley are also hoping they get there. If Grimsby don't make it I would settle for FGR.

 

[Stagat]

Blimey, I wouldn't want to be the person deciding who should or shouldn't be entitled to a ticket.

First come first served?

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

Surely it must be Grimsby's time. If not I reckon that will be the end of the current team. Wholesale changes in the summer. And I bet Wembley are also hoping they get there. If Grimsby don't make it I would settle for FGR.

Yep should the unthinkable happen then Hurst will finally be on his way and most of the squad will follow him out the door. Unless we got a top class replacement I'd imagine we'll drop out of playoff contention for a season or two. We've said this a few times yet managed to hold some stability, but that stability isn't enough anymore.

It's a good job we're as good as up eh

 

[Vanni]

FGR decided they didn't want to go up the moment they sacked Pennock. So there was this guy who knew his side weren't going to beat Cheltenham to the title, so he spent the last month or so tinkering with tactics and the like. Plus obviously filling hundreds of notebooks with important stats on possible future play off opponents.

Notebook one - Amond(GTFC striker), Notebook two - Bogle(another GTFC striker) Notebook three - history of GTFC, Notebook four - Some French side, and so on

Grimsby vs Dover Final, and hopefully, the Fish won't need et and get the job done in 90 mins.

 

[Son of Cod]

Braintree fans in the Osmond end corner and home fans given the usual away end for the first leg. Not surprising really.

Surely Grimsby cant fail a fourth successive time? Even ourselves and Luton only did that 3 times. Four would be too painful.

The only reason you lot only suffered 3 playoff failures is because you stopped getting to them.

 

[GodsGift]

Surely Grimsby cant fail a fourth successive time? Even ourselves and Luton only did that 3 times. Four would be too painful.

Try five, then they'll have my sympathy.

 

[Gashead]

This does seem harsh, particularly considering the size of the away support you might be expected to take, and it may not even allow all your season ticket holders to attend if they wished to. However, I am guessing that things like segregation and crowd safety are the major issues and that might be the largest number they can safely accommodate. Oddly it appears we are giving the West terrace, or the open side, to Dover instead of the bigger covered terrace. This seems a bit of a bizarre decision, as usually the visitors get a block of seats in the Main Stand which allows access to the refreshment hut in the corner of the terrace.

Imagine getting into the play-off semi finals, then giving the away team a much smaller allocation than usual when you won't sell all the home tickets yourself

 

[iron4ever]

We've been allocated only 600 tickets for the away game next Sunday. An absolute joke. We have asked for more though.

Probably because when we played you in the league your "fans" part wrecked the outside toilets after a 0-0 draw, and there were about 400 of you then. Imagine the carnage if we beat you and make the play off final at your expense. 600 is IMO fair.

 

[Iron brew]

Not sure if this is in the right thread, could go under tinpot. ( make your own minds up on that ).
As we are a small ground 2000 makes us look full, as a club on the pitch we have surpassed our wildest dreams. However this side of the pitch its catch up, we take a few strides forward and the team take more. Now for the tinpot piece, as a club we had to allocate 9% of our capacity, take out staff and tv this works out at 400. The club increased this to 600. Bummer I know if you have a large following, myself I would have increased to 1000 as the away seg area will take the same as 600. Not ideal for Grimsby, but better another 400 fans the chance of a ticket. Feel sorry for the fans as these are the games that don't come around to often especially for us. Brief on our ticket allocation Grimsby will receive there tickets Thursday eve, ours Friday eve if lucky, Saturday afternoon more like, as no tickets on the day could be interesting outcome. If this is the outcome and the decision of the board not the fans of this club I feel sorry for both sets of fans. Hope I'm not posting on here Sunday about fuck up ref tickets, only about the football and hopefully a Braintree win and a Wembley place.

 

[PaulHaddock]

The wrecking of the toilets might have been pent up frustration because of Braintree's poor organisation of having 1 turnstile open for 400 fans, meaning many fans didn't get in until 10 past 3.

 

[iron4ever]

The wrecking of the toilets might have been pent up frustration because of Braintree's poor organisation of having 1 turnstile open for 400 fans, meaning many fans didn't get in until 10 past 3.

Still no reason to wreck the toilets though is it?

 

[Iron brew]

Just to clarify iron4evers post, Grimsby can be a testing day, much like large following of away supporters especially at small grounds like ourselves, overall no more then any other. Passion in following your team. As long as the lines not crossed. We have had some idiots of our own.
Reference the away toilets, the hose was attached to the tap to help fill up the water tank, this was forgot to be removed and gravity brought some water back in when fans wanted to wash their hands. People jump to conclusions to soon without facts.
Those fans that are lucky to get tickets enjoy your day.

 

[GTFCfish]

Still no reason to wreck the toilets though is it?

I refer you to Iron Brew's above post sir.

 

[LeWhites]

However, having beaten Dover in our last game I am reasonably optimistic that we can do enough over two legs, I am just glad to have avoided Grimsby.

Yes, because you limping to a 1-0 victory against 11 reserves is relevant