Shrimpsvoices

If you're looking for omens, there aren't really any. Unless, of course, you look at the pattern which would suggest that 6th place will be promoted...

2005 4th were promoted, Southend
2006 5th, Cheltenham
2007 6th, Bristol Rovers
2008 4th, Stockport County
2009 5th, Gillingham

Might be worth a flutter on Aldershot then to soften the blow if we don't make it?

Dagenham in 7th can forget it then. Seriously though, it's a bit cliched but it really is a lottery. I personally thought Aldershot looked very strong at our place and that was without the Morgans. If you put a gun to my head I'd go with them.

It also shows that play off winners don't have much in the way of stickability when it comes to stopping up. Only Bristol Rovers still up there from that list and they hovered just above the relegation places for most of the season.

Whichever of the 4 contenders goes up would have to consider anything above the bottom four as a massive success. Seems to be a lot more difficult than the leap from Conference to Div 2.

I agree. When I saw Keith Hill the other week talking about League 1 he seemed to suggest that although costs were much higher (wages, travelling etc) income generated from League 1 isn't much higher than League 2. The latest deal between the FL and PL would also only give the higher payments for the existing L1 clubs, so potentially, promoted clubs are handicapped from the start. So staying up is the biggest challenge I think.

That said, no one's going to give up that opportunity are they?

No your right it would be a great experience and a chance to play some really big clubs on a regular basis. You just never know who's going to drop out of the Championship and even Bradford might go up a league eventually and to play them again would be massive (ex Premiership you know).

That said I'm personally a lot more relaxed about these play offs than 97 when we were expected to be up there and challenging and the leap into the football league seemed massive. Now that was tense. This time round I obviously want us to do it but the sheer desperation isn't there. If we don't we're still a half decent club in L2, but if we do then bring it on and lets see where it takes us.