[Amelia Chaffinch]

Hartlepool
Stockport
Chesterfield
Sutton
Notts County
Wrexham
Torquay

---

But my heart says Halifax should be in there instead of Wrexham.

[Lord Snooty]

1. Hartlepool
2. Sutton
3. Torquay
4. Stockport
5. Chesterfield
6. Notts Co
7. Eastleigh

[spireitematt]

Some very interesting fixtures next Saturday.

Wrexham vs Stockport
Hartlepool United vs Notts County
Torquay United vs Weymouth

Sutton are not in action as they were scheduled to play Dover.

We are away at Kings Lynn.

[Dancingwilldoit]

The next 2 weeks should be interesting. There are quite a few top teams playing against each other. On paper, us and Stockport have the easier run ins but we have more games to fit in. Also its easy to screw up a piece of paper and chuck it in the bin.
Theres a bit of a gap developed below us and no matter what happens today and Monday we will still be in the playoffs. Its amazing when you think where we were when JR came in. Yesterday wasnt exactly pretty but we got the result. I would take the same for the next 3 games.

[Devongone]

We could do with Hollis not being badly injured, and, as usual, Maguire recovering (why do we get the injury-prone brother?)

Anyway Monday should be interesting as everyone else involved is playing and they've got some tough fixtures. I wouldn't fancy going to Boreham Wood if I were Hartlepool, or the trip to Solihull if I were Sutton. Halifax might find Weymouth aren't going to be surrender monkeys either when they finally reach The Shay. Bromley having sacked their manager for no obvious reason should be easy meat for Stockport and Woking haven't any pressing need to beat Notts County, but Wrexham v Torquay should be intriguing with both sides having every incentive to win a game, which neither will be happy to lose. If Wrexham lose and Halifax beat Weymouth, then Wrexham slide out of the play-offs, which I don't think is in their Hollywood script.

If Solihull win and Hartlepool, Stockport, Notts County and Torquay do too, we'd be looking at Sutton suddenly in second place and though they'd still look like winners they'd be glancing back at Torquay just 5 points behind and Notts County with two games in hand.

As for SGB lying at Hurst House ........ shows how times have changed, they just trusted us to go back and forth over Sheffield Road, would that happen now? No one got killed. Ever. Major concerns back then seemed to be that you wore your ridiculous school cap in public until you reached the sixth form, and that they made you write out Rule One of the School Rules so often as lines you would still be able to recite it at the age of 68 ............ "Any offence against the dictates of common sense or good manners etc ....."

[SaltergateBorn]

Is Will Evans available for selection or has he been furloughed? I know he doesn`t seem to be JR`s defender of choice, but it looks as though he may be needed some time soon, so I hope he`s still around and available.

I suppose it`s inevitable with so many fixtures left to play that several of the teams in and around the play-off spots still have to meet. We have a few ourselves. By my reckoning we still have to go to Halifax, Wrexham and Hartlepool and Torquay and Halifax both have to come to us; those games could well go a long way to deciding where we end up. Monday is definitely going to be fun, though; watching others take points off each other whilst we sit with our feet up.

Our next game is at the team currently next to bottom and with nothing to play for in reality; the 3 after that are all at home against sides below us in the table, albeit not far below, so I don`t think a target of 10 points from those 4 games would be totally unrealistic, would it? I know they`re still eggs and not chickens ready to be counted as yet but that should put us in a very nice position if we can manage it, bearing in mind that at least 2 of the contenders are going to be playing each other virtually every matchday, as far as I can see, and therefore dropping points.

I don`t think Hurst House would have changed that much between my time and yours, Dev; we would only have been about 3 years apart. There were no fatalities in my day either whilst crossing the River of Death. There were a few close calls, admittedly, although to be fair these were nearly all a result of drivers being distracted by the sight of BOK striding imperiously across it on his way to or from Abercrombie Street with his mortar-board on his head and his gown billowing around him like a Spanish galleon in full sail. It was indeed a sight to behold and God help any motorist who didn`t stop for him. They would definitely get The Glare; you remember the one, I`m sure. He once collared me to carry some books over there with him. The experience scared the shit out of me, to be honest; I don`t think I was ever quite the same again.

I remember the school cap business as well, although most of us abused the rule as much as we dare in spirit if not in deed by perching it so far back on our heads that it virtually defied gravity. I`m sure some of the lads used hair-grips to stop it actually falling off, though I doubt whether any of them would admit it if challenged.

Anyway; there we go. After the last few years doesn`t it feel good to be looking up and hoping, rather looking down and worrying. Long may it continue.

[Devongone]

BOK was a seriously scary man. If he told me to carry some books for him now, I'd do it and be terrified all the way that I might drop one ........ He was unpredictable. I don't know which was worst, his smile or his glare. And I've never got over his comment on my French A Level essay, "A direct route to instant failure. E-"

Mind you when things get seriously bad it always helps to compare them to CHRISTMAS WITH BOK! Aaaaaaaaaaagh!

I'd be happy to see Will Evans play. Nobody liked Hollis much until James Rowe appeared. Evans was a fans' favourite, because of his commitment. And Rowe knew him from Aldershot ............. but the clean sheets achieved do testify to our defensive method ......... so it looks as though Will has either successfully to fit into that, or eventually ship out.

We tend blithely to make forecasts but sometimes one player in or out can make a huge difference. Torquay have got Danny Wright back from a long-term injury, does that mean they'll be back on the winning trail? Altrincham have struggled without Matty Kosylo. Is Adam Rooney a plus or a minus for Solihull? (He's certainly a good player.) James Rowe so far seems to have been very good at covering, and even benefitting from changes in personnel, will that continue with Hollis, or might he even make a miraculous Kerr-like recovery, who was going to be out for the season and played four days later?

[SaltergateBorn]

It`s interesting that you say that about BOK, Dev. As a 2nd or 3rd former, he could indeed be truly terrifying and volatile; I remember in 2nd Form he threw a blackboard cleaner at the lad sitting next to me for no apparent reason whatsoever. Hit him, too – bloody good shot, to be fair – and he`d certainly have been done for it nowadays.

Having said that, if you were in the 6th Form he could be a completely different animal and was in fact a really interesting and amusing bloke to talk to. We actually got on like a house on fire then, so much so that shortly after I left school we bumped into each other in what turned out to be his local and for a few months – until I went off to uni, really - we got into the habit of having a couple of pints together every so often. It was a little pub at the top of Abercrombie Street and is probably long gone now. Was it the St Helen`s Inn? I can`t remember. His wife was with him sometimes – she was lovely – and I remember she always used to call him Barney. I`ve no idea why. Perhaps it was something to do with the Irish pronunciation of Brian; I know Gaelic is a strange language when it comes to pronunciation. (Where the hell is the v in Niamh or Siobhan?) I tried several times to pluck up the courage to ask, but never quite managed it.

The reason I was terrified at crossing Sheffield Road with his books wasn`t our proximity but his being completely impervious to the traffic. God knows what he was like driving. Mind you, I do remember him regaling us with the stories of his time in the Desert Rats during the war, one of which was how he became (in)famous in the regiment for being the only man known to have pranged an armoured car in several thousand square miles of empty desert. That probably gives a clue.

That`s what I mean. Taking French and Spanish I had a lot to do with him in 6th Form and to me he was without doubt the most inspirational teacher in the place. At that age he treated you like a young adult rather than a child and I learned a hell of a lot from him.

The teacher I loathed completely and with an intensity that was visceral was a certain very pompous PE teacher who was universally rumoured to have had an `interesting` relationship with the school secretary of the time. I won`t mention his name – the laws of libel probably still apply even after all this time – but I`m sure you know who I`m talking about. Sadly he was House Master of the one that I had the misfortune to be in and made no attempt to hide both the fact that my feelings were fully reciprocated and that he was completely aware of where the balance of power lay – and it weren`t wi` me! He made sure that I was aware of it too.

I apologise to anyone else reading this. I realise that it has absolutely no relevance to the subject of the thread and that it will be of no interest whatsoever to anyone apart from Dev and me, but having left the area some years ago I don`t often have the chance to reminisce about these things. I`ll shut up now.

[spireitematt]

Sutton United have failed to win again and Hartlepool are 2pts behind them but Sutton do have 3 games in hand on Hartlepool but if they fail to win them then they could be caught. Torquay got a late winner against Wrexham which sees Wrexham drop out the playoffs. FC Halifax beat Weymouth and Eastleigh beat Maidenhead United.

Teams we have to be weary of are Wrexham, FC Halifax and Eastleigh because they could get a playoff spot if we start to slip up. It's a case of we have to keep winning to stay in the playoffs.

[SaltergateBorn]

I always had you down as the optimist amongst us, Matt, so assumed you`d be more worried about what Hartlepool and Stockport are doing, rather than Halifax and Eastleigh. No gone pessimist on us, have you?