Hartlepool at times have looked better than anyone else, but they aren't better, or possibly even as good as us, player for player. Football is a team game, and when they are together they look good. When they are off their game they get beat and fairly easily too.
Stockport are impressive player-wise, as they should be with the investment they apparently now have available. As a team they under-achieve as much as Hartlepool over-achieve.
None of the teams in the top half of the table could guarantee beating any of their top-half rivals. In fact if you threw a team like Solihull, who can't reach the play-offs, into the mix, could you find anyone who would be confident of beating them?
If we were in the play-offs, which we won't be, it wouldn't be like our last play-off experience playing Preston NE. We knew we'd have to be at our peak, despite a weakened team, against a team who were better than us anyway, at a time when we knew we were losing our manager and half the team were going out of contract ......... This time any of our rivals could beat us, but equally we could beat them.
Whoever just scrapes into the play-offs will be much happier than the teams who feel they are in there because they missed out on automatic. Stockport, Torquay and Hartlepool could all have taken advantage of Sutton's fcku-ups and they didn't and they know that. Stir in the pressure that Wrexham usually crumble under if they reach the play-offs and the high expectations of Notts County, even if it's Eastleigh who make it, if they really want it, they could take advantage of the vulnerability of their rivals.
Stockport are impressive player-wise, as they should be with the investment they apparently now have available. As a team they under-achieve as much as Hartlepool over-achieve.
None of the teams in the top half of the table could guarantee beating any of their top-half rivals. In fact if you threw a team like Solihull, who can't reach the play-offs, into the mix, could you find anyone who would be confident of beating them?
If we were in the play-offs, which we won't be, it wouldn't be like our last play-off experience playing Preston NE. We knew we'd have to be at our peak, despite a weakened team, against a team who were better than us anyway, at a time when we knew we were losing our manager and half the team were going out of contract ......... This time any of our rivals could beat us, but equally we could beat them.
Whoever just scrapes into the play-offs will be much happier than the teams who feel they are in there because they missed out on automatic. Stockport, Torquay and Hartlepool could all have taken advantage of Sutton's fcku-ups and they didn't and they know that. Stir in the pressure that Wrexham usually crumble under if they reach the play-offs and the high expectations of Notts County, even if it's Eastleigh who make it, if they really want it, they could take advantage of the vulnerability of their rivals.