[Devongone]

Weeks ago SGB for one thought Sutton were all but home and hosed. Now it doesn't look so certain. Their games in hand have been whittled down to one and they are now four points behind leaders Torquay.

Torquay have managed that most difficult of tricks, to establish a big lead, lose it and then fight back to be top again. You have to admire it, because they certainly aren't the best side on paper. Yet, on Saturday, they avoided the potential banana skin of a trip to Chesterfield with relative ease. Meanwhile Hartlepool were all but blowing their chance by losing at Bromley and putting their fate in the hands of the three teams above them.

Stockport are the side in form. If they could win their remaining 4 games, they'd finish on 83 points and they have easily the best goal difference, so to get above them any rival would need 84 points. That rules out Hartlepool. It means Sutton must win 4 of their remaining 5 games. And top-placed Torquay, at first sight look best-placed with just 2 wins and two draws or three wins and a defeat necessary.

The big buts for Torquay are that first they have Stockport to play, so if Stockport do their stuff, Torquay have three other must-win games, which isn't an easy proposition, and second Sutton's 5 games involve 4 against teams they would have expected to beat until the last few weeks. Their toughest game on paper is Hartlepool, but they may well be preserving their players for the play-offs by that point. So, 84 points ought not to be beyond Sutton's grasp, which would make Stockport's run irrelevant, and as their goal difference mirrors Torquay's the actual pressure would be on the Gulls to win three more times, get to 85 points and force Sutton to win all their own games if they wanted to win it. But, if Torquay can do for Stockport and win their other three then no-one can catch them.

So who wins the National League?

[Lord Snooty]

Ooh, int it exciting.

If Hartlepool votes a tory in today, I hope they fail spectacularly. But then again, they once voted a man dressed as a monkey in, so who knows.

[Devongone]

Hartlepool will vote Tory today, as will everywhere else. I'll be calling for Jeff Stelling to be punished on behalf of the town.

If Sutton don't win the League I don't see them winning the play-offs either. Halifax surprise me, they seem to be able to lose an apparently vital game, and come back next match with a difficult win ...... maybe play-offs will suit them, but do they want to go up?

[Dancingwilldoit]

Dont write off Hartlepool, imo its either them or Stockport, who are the only 2 teams I think we would struggle to beat and looked impressive against us.

I didnt rate Torquay this weekend, I thought they were lucky but its all about opinions. Sutton are on a downer and need a good win to restore some confidence. Stockport? Who knows, its going to go to the last day and if we sneak in the playoffs I wouldnt write us off either.

[spireitematt]

I'm saying Torquay and Stockport will get promoted but who wins the league between them two. I don't know.

[Devongone]

My thought is that it will be whoever wins the League plus a surprise via the play-offs. I don't think one of the failed challengers for the top will come through the play-offs. So it'll be a Halifax, a Notts County, a Bromley, an Eastleigh, even a Chesterfield (if I still believed we could reach the play-offs, which occasionally I do). I realise the teams finishing second and third get a big advantage in the play-offs, but they are disappointed to be there, whereas one of the teams like us would be looking at the biggest lifeline we'd ever been thrown.

The winners? Stockport look as though they'll beat Torquay, but I've a feeling Torquay might get nine more points and win it anyway. Hartlepool remind me of those teams everyone says are too good to be relegated - they mostly go down. Most people would say Hartlepool are one of the best two teams in the National ..... so finishing fourth will be all the more disappointing. But then Sutton's bad run might let them go back under the radar again, which might help them recover.

[Devongone]

Just one game on, Torquay are no longer in charge of their own fate. Borehamwood do their thing properly for once and win instead of drawing at Halifax, to make the home side's position look dodgy. And the ten men of Maidenhead simultaneously wipe the floor with Hartlepool, putting any remaining hopes they cherished of a top three finish in the bin, and sidling, with their games, in hand perhaps temporarily back into the picture.

Meantime with a team which had only Whelan's return to recommend itself to me, Chesterfield got absolutely the kind of result they needed at a depressed sounding Woking. Looking at the table the best hope we have of finishing in the top seven is unseating Halifax. If we are going to do that we need not only to win our next two games, but also to bang in plenty of goals. We need our goal difference to be well better than Halifax's just in case we end up on level points with them as the last game of the season kicks off. I'm not suggesting a situation I'm hoping for us playing the final game for a bore draw, but it does a lot for the confidence if you feel win or draw might do. Hopefully before that game Maidenhead will have met two teams in the next week who'll be too good for them, and will be able to stop Sam Barratt ........ and meantime Dagenham who can't stop winning will have measured themselves against Stockport and also come up inadequate.

So it's three wins, two of them involving the onion bag big time, and then do whatever is necessary at Halifax. Doesn't sound much like real life to me.

[Dancingwilldoit]

First 20 mins yesterday we should have been 5 or 6 up. They get a dodgy pen and its all change. We struggle on after Kerr limped off and looked bloody woeful IMO. The final score doesnt suggest that but if it hadn't been for their defence gifting us goals from corners (like we used to do) they could well have beaten us. Dont remember us scoring from a corner all season then 3 come along in the same game. Sods law.
The next 2 are both winnable and if we don't, we shouldn't be in the playoffs. Our fate is in the hands of others. Lets hope they drop it big style.

[Devongone]

Surely we play Mitchell against King's Lynn? Don't like the swapping of keepers however well Monty did. It shows no concept of goalie psychology and will cost us.

Surely we get Evans out of the box now Kerr is injured?

I don't think we can get above any of the current top seven other than Halifax and they are very resilient.

If I were Borehamwood's manager I'd be very disappointed not to be in in the top three, never mind out of the play-offs. There's something very wrong with their balance to have dangerous forwards to go with a strong defence, and yet to be specialists in the 0-0 draw.

There are a lot of teams at this level capable of pulling off a result against any of the top teams.

[Devongone]

One thing you have to say for James Rowe, he's not predictable. Evans back as sub! Whelan gets three assists on Saturday, benched on Tuesday. Former players are notorious for scoring against their old teams - so we leave Kairo Mitchell on the bench all night against KL; if I were him I'd be fuming (maybe that's the intention and he comes out and grabs a brace against Wealdstone?)

With so many games tumbling over each other, using our big squad to freshen things up is essential but berlimey I'd like to think the side that would trot out if we'd made the play-offs would look like the manager's best eleven ....... and I haven't a clue what that team would look like.

Last night Sutton took a step to confirming SGB's view that they would come out top, but it was only 3-2 against a Woking side who have been on the slide for a couple of months. Dagenham boosted Sutton by holding Stockport to a draw ....... in fact more than holding ......... Stockport took off Madden for the second half! In truth McCallum and Balanta for the Daggers should be the best front two at this level and are causing everyone trouble. I'd like whatever centre back combo we put in against them to have had a full game together against Wealdstone. County started cementing their play-off place by wiping the floor with Maidenhead. So for Saturday, Wrexham will feel the need to go for a win at Boreham Wood - high degree of difficulty there - and Halifax will feel the same about an even more difficult task at Dagenham. Happily Notts County and Bromley can't both win their game and won't really want to play a draw. Maidenhead might just be so stung by their tanning last night they'll really want to prove something at home to Sutton, which would sprinkle buckets full of hope around Edgeley Park for Stockport and Torquay to feast on at Sunday lunch.

For us another three goal margin against Wealdstone would be a dream. With a -49 goal difference Wealdstone do represent a chance for us to sicken Halifax, but they are much better than they've shown in recent weeks. If we give 'em a daft goal we might find they are altogether a different prospect. Defeat wouldn't surprise me!

What hope have we (I) of predicting results when we (well certainly I) can't even get near predicting the team Chesterfield will field on Saturday?