Top 9 teams, Jan 17th 2015

[Ginge01]

Top 9 teams after todays games, Sat Jan 17th 2015

Todays results
Salford........... 3-2 Farsley
Burscough...... 0-1 Spennymoor
Droylsden....... 2-4 Mossley
Northwich Vict 5-1 Padiham
Scarborough... 2-4 Warrington
Darlington....... P-P Prescot Cables
Harrogate R.A. P-P Kendal Town
Ossett Town.... P-P Bamber Bridge


The top 9 in the Evo-stick Northern Premier League First Division
........................ Pd .W D L....W D L...F..A.....GD..Pts
1. Salford .......... 27 11 2 1... 6 3 4.. 52 33.. 19 ..56
2. Northwich Vict. 27 ..9 4 1... 7 1 5.. 48 24.. 24.. 53
3. Darlington...... 22 ..9 3 1... 6 2 1.. 50 13.. 37.. 50
4. Droylsden....... 28 10 0 4... 5 1 8.. 74 55.. 19.. 46
5. Scarborough... 26 11 0 3... 4 1 7.. 50 42.. 07.. 46
6. Farsley .......... 24 ..9 2 1... 5 1 6.. 52 31.. 21.. 45
7. Harrogate R A. 28 ..8 4 2... 5 2 7.. 61 56.. 05.. 45
8. Spennymoor... 23 ..7 2 2... 6 3 3.. 45 24.. 21.. 44
9. Bamber Bridge 23 ..7 2 3... 5 3 3.. 43 35.. 08.. 41


The top 9 games through the remainder of January are,

Sat Jan 24th
Bamber Bridge vs Harrogate
Farsley...........vs Scarborough

Sat Jan 31st
Salford...........vs DARLINGTON

Top 9 Head to Head, updated January 17th 2015
........................ Pd W D L...W D L...Pts
1. Salford City.... 13 5 0 1... 2 3 2.. 24
2. Farsley AFC.... 10 3 2 0... 2 1 2.. 18
3. Harrogate R A. 12 4 2 1... 1 0 4.. 17
4. Darlington...... 08 3 1 1... 2 0 1.. 16
5. Spennymoor... 11 3 1 2... 1 2 2.. 15
6. Droylsden....... 11 3 0 1... 2 0 5.. 15
7. Northwich Vict. 09 2 1 1... 1 0 4.. 10
8. Scarborough... 09 3 0 2... 0 0 4.. 09
9. Bamber Bridge 07 0 0 3... 1 1 2.. 04

Only Darlington, Salford & Farsley are averaging 2 points per game or a fraction from it, are they the 3 best teams in the division?

Comments in current full league table order,
Salford 13 played, remaining fixtures Home to Darlington & Spennymoor, Away at Scarborough.
Great win at Bamber Bridge last week, great win again today to come from behind at home to Farsley, they have just three top 9 games to play, Jan 31st home to us, a game growing in importance(especially for us). Salford appear to getting on track again.

Northwich Vict 9 played, remaining fixtures Home to Darlington, Scarborough, Harrogate & Farsley, Away at Darlington, Droylsden & Bamber Bridge.
Won easily today over Padiham at home, back in 2nd place. Best Top 9 games to play, twice with us, home to Farsley, and at Droylsden.

Darlington 8 played, remaining fixtures Home to Northwich Vict, Droylsden & Bamber Bridge(H), Away at Salford, Northwich Vict, Scarborough, Harrogate & Farsley.
No change today with no game, but the fixture backlog lengthened, the season shortened. 5 tough away games with Northwich Vict and Droylsden at home, we need to maintain our form.

Droylsden 11 played, remaining fixtures Home to Northwich Vict, Scarborough, Bamber Bridge & Spennymoor, Away to Darlington.
Atrocious weather conditions video shown on Droy fans twitter, a pitch that did not look good, a bad home loss to Mossley, falling 0-3 at half time, finishing 2-4. Stayed in 4th as Scarborough and Farsley also lost, Droylsden continue to slide out of the playoff chase, their chances made worse with Spennymoor's win. Top 9 games, one away game left at Heritage Park, tough home games with Northwich Vict and Salford. Droy need to beat Spennymoor to widen a shrinking points gap (2) with Spenny having games in hand (5), also Droy needs to beat Scarborough who are both fighting for the last playoff place at best.

Scarborough 9 played, remaining fixtures Home to Darlington, Salford & Bamber Bridge, Away to Northwich Vict, Droylsden, Farsley & Bamber Bridge.
Home league defeat today to Warrington. Stayed in 5th place in the league, also continuing to slide out of the playoff chase, same reason as Droylsden, Spennymoor with games in hand won. So far, not beaten anyone in the top 4 at home, and lost all 4 away games against top 9 teams.

Farsley, 10 played, remaining fixtures Home to Darlington, Scarborough and Bamber Bridge, Away at Northwich Vict, Bamber Bridge and Spennymoor.
No disgrace to lose at Salford, led twice, had a disallowed goal at 2-3, should move into the playoff 5 soon chasing Droylsden (Farsley 1 point back, 4 games in hand) and Scarborough (Farsley 1 point back, 2 games in hand) losing again. In the top 9 games, they have played very well, almost 2 points per game(18 from 10 games), at home, they have us to play, away Northwich Vict to play.

Harrogate, 12 played, remaining fixtures Home to Darlington, Away at Northwich Vict, Bamber Bridge & Spennymoor.
No game today, no Nathan Cartman. Of the top 9, only got us at home, the away record is not impressive. Hard for them to pull games back on the top teams if they can't play them. A lot of lower teams to feed off to make a playoff push. Probably going to finish the season 8th or 9th.

Spennymoor, 11 played, remaining fixtures Home to Harrogate & Farsley, away at Salford, Droylsden & Bamber Bridge.
Tidy win away today at Burscough, with games in hand, should move into playoff place along with Farsley, as Droylsden (Spenny 2 points back, 5 games in hand) and Scarborough (Spenny 1 point back, 3 games in hand) lose again. Biggest top 9 games outstanding, away at Salford and Droylsden.

Bamber Bridge, 7 played, remaining fixtures Home to Northwich Vict, Scarborough, Harrogate, Farsley and Spennymoor, away at Darlington, Droylsden, Scarborough & Farsley.
No game today, in the top 9 defining themselves, at home now 0-0-3, against the rest of the division at home 7-2-0, unlikely it seems to make the playoffs in front of Farsley and Spennymoor.
Lowest number of top 9 games played, apart from an impressive win at Spennymoor, 5 losses in 7 games, not good, same as last year they have not got results against the top teams. Helped today by Droylsden, Scarborough and Farsley losses, need to beat the top 9 teams or they will finish 8th or 9th by season end based on results so far.


My updated top 5 to make the playoffs, using games to play and including todays results.
1) Salford, rebuilt team coming together, big game at home with us Jan 31st.
2) Darlington, a lot of away challenges and a fixture backlog (see comment below).
3) Northwich Vict, good enough to remain in 3rd but must keep an eye on Farsley and possibly Spennymoor.
4) Farsley, power past other teams into the playoffs.
5) Spennymoor, result today improve their chances of passing Droylsden.
6) Droylsden, best team left of the top 9, likely to be passed in the playoff race.

Comment:
Number 1, I am like everyone else here, a passionate Darlington fan. I believe we have a squad that can match Salford, however since Christmas day, almost no football. Spennymoor showed during our promotion year how a team can run out of steam.

As quakerste said today in the 'Today's games' thread, 'Just looked at the fixtures, there is now 14 weeks until the end of the season with 20 games left to play. We have a free Saturday in March, no doubt a game will be pencilled in meaning we will have five midweek games to play.' This assumes no more Saturday postponements, especially at Heritage Park.

Salford now have a six point lead, we have 5 games in hand on them. If we lose on Jan 31st because we've had little football recently, it's no surprise, and then we have to win 3 of the 5 make up games to catch them. Heavy muddy fields are going to wear the players out unless Martin Gray can add to the squad and rotate players, last year he did, bringing in Ian Ward allowed for David Dowson and Amar Purewal to get rest. Nathan Cartman will certainly help.
Players being able to travel midweek to games may become an issue, what is needed obviously is games played and points gained from winning.
The decision, not ours, to not fix the drainage at HP leaves the team totally beholden to the weather, any rain now appears to sit on the surface, freeze and as also pointed out today, the sun can't melt it, what is needed is a warm front, from Portugal preferably, that can lift the temp to 10 degrees with a 15-20 mile wind to thaw and dry the pitch.
While we wait to play, Salford has regained momentum, Northwich has gained points in the last two weeks, and with two losses for both Droylsden and Scarborough, one for Farsley, its definitely become a 2-3 horse race at the top for the championship (Northwich Vict are not out yet), and Farsley with Spennymoor (two wins in two weeks) moving towards being in the last two playoff places.
Another concern is our outstanding fixtures, Top 9 games at Salford, at Northwich, Home to Northwich, at Farsley, Home to Droylsden, I want to believe we will win them all, that's a lot of tough games, Salford by comparison have only Top 9 games remaining Home to Darlington & Spennymoor, Away at Scarborough.
Northwich Vict have their own list of tough games, this could all come together nicely for Salford, when we play Northwich, Salford avoiding defeat those days is going to be all they need to maintain a lead of one or both of us.
We have to beat more quality teams to catch up to Salford, Salford has a lot of middle and bottom of the table teams to play going forward.
I don't want to be in the playoffs again with finishing 2nd or 3rd at seasons end after last years disappointment, I'm not going to bluster about home field advantage in the playoffs and walking it into promotion, I'm sure this is all becoming a worry for us Darlington fans.
So until we get the opportunity to win games, I'm leaning towards Salford being champs and I'm hoping to be proved wrong.

Next weeks games

Top 9 head to head
Bamber Bridge vs Harrogate
Farsley...........vs Scarborough

Remaining games for the top 9 teams all at 3:00pm
Ossett Albion.. vs DARLINGTON
Brighouse....... vs Salford
Kendal........... vs Droylsden
Prescot Cables vs Northwich Vict
Spennymoor... vs New Mills


Any thoughts from anyone? Tangerine Dream from Salford, you are welcome to jump in and say 'I like it', I'm sure you are today

[Ingleby]

We got this. 5 games in hand and the best GD (+1pt)

I put us second favourites to nobody.

[Ginge01]

I hope so, a lot of games to play still

[Darlogramps]

Three of our postponed games were against the bottom three clubs. That's 9 points we should be able to take, even if we're playing Saturday/Wednesday for a few weeks.

There are still re-arranged games to play against Farsley and Northwich too - not so simple obviously.

All in all, I'm still fairly confident, but the number of postponed games is a concern.

[MikeinBlack2]

The way I see it is that if we can at least draw with Salford and Northwich Victoria then we won't drop any further behind them. We, therefore only need to match them point for point in their remaining games and bag 7 points from our games in hand to win the title. Simples! lol.

[CrazyDarlo]

I'm very surprised to see how quite a lot of us seem to think we won't win the league. Yes we have lots of games to catch up on but that's nothing new to us. With 5 games in hand we could be a maximum of 9 points ahead. The postponed games are against teams like Prescot Cables, New Mills, Padiham those 3 games I'm very confident we will win those and that leaves home to Lancaster who aren't having the best of seasons and hopefully we can get something at Northwitch. In my opinion were in a much better position than some think we are. However if we cannot afford any more postponement so if that means we play somewhere else until March then so be it.

[AndyPark]

We can't play somewhere else. Can't afford to.

[TangerineDream]

OK we might be six points ahead at this stage of the season, but with 5 games in hand you guys are certainly still the favourites to clinch the title as far as I'm concerned. The pressure is certainly more on us at present and that was certainly the case before yesterday's game against Farsley. Knowing that your game was called off meant that unless we won we faced the prospect of being just 3 points ahead of you instead of the current 6. Fortunately we showed enough resilience to come back twice from behind to win our third game on the trot by a solitary goal. Their were 2 were just two former players from Ramsbottom in the starting line up and up to this moment in time the new recruits haven't made significant stand out contributions and look as if they are just acclimatising themselves to their new surroundings with the new management team keeping faith with the players they inherited rather than the ones they brought with them - at least for the time being.
I still don't think we're firing on all cylinders although we appear to be grinding out results with a seemingly familiar pattern of play but I'm hoping that we can regain our early season swagger as everyone settles in. I'd love us to be able to replicate the style of play that I saw from Ramsbottom last season and from Skelmersdale United the season before but I just think the age of a number of our players prevents us from playing in a similar fashion.
Can't wait for the game at the end of the month. If we win then I think you lot will really start to feel the pressure - particularly as we've then got 4 supposedly easy games in February with Prescot (twice), New Mills and Padiham. If you win or even draw then it's your title to lose. Either way the championship will not be decided at Moor Lane on January 31st as I'm sure there a still a few more twists and turns to come before the end of the season. Having said that our playing record and number of games played in Ginge01's table does fill me somewhat with optimism!

[Ginge01]

OK we might be six points ahead at this stage of the season, but with 5 games in hand you guys are certainly still the favourites to clinch the title as far as I'm concerned. The pressure is certainly more on us at present and that was certainly the case before yesterday's game against Farsley. Knowing that your game was called off meant that unless we won we faced the prospect of being just 3 points ahead of you instead of the current 6. Fortunately we showed enough resilience to come back twice from behind to win our third game on the trot by a solitary goal. Their were 2 were just two former players from Ramsbottom in the starting line up and up to this moment in time the new recruits haven't made significant stand out contributions and look as if they are just acclimatising themselves to their new surroundings with the new management team keeping faith with the players they inherited rather than the ones they brought with them - at least for the time being.
I still don't think we're firing on all cylinders although we appear to be grinding out results with a seemingly familiar pattern of play but I'm hoping that we can regain our early season swagger as everyone settles in. I'd love us to be able to replicate the style of play that I saw from Ramsbottom last season and from Skelmersdale United the season before but I just think the age of a number of our players prevents us from playing in a similar fashion.
Can't wait for the game at the end of the month. If we win then I think you lot will really start to feel the pressure - particularly as we've then got 4 supposedly easy games in February with Prescot (twice), New Mills and Padiham. If you win or even draw then it's your title to lose. Either way the championship will not be decided at Moor Lane on January 31st as I'm sure there a still a few more twists and turns to come before the end of the season. Having said that our playing record and number of games played in Ginge01's table does fill me somewhat with optimism!

Mr Tangerine Dream,
My table makes me think it will be very close at the end as you have done so well against other Top 9 teams, we have a lot more of those to play. I posted a final positions post, so I see the two of us neck and neck to the last weekend. We will see how Salford changes over the next 6 games but February is looking like an easy month for you, it should be 4 wins out of 4.