StarkMallard

Time passes quickly when you're behind and slowly when you're ahead @theAnticlough. It's what Einstein called relativity! Agree with the above that we should try to control possession and not risk too much in the first leg, especially with it being away. A draw would be OK. Even going back to the NL days, our recent encounters with Chesterfield have been chaotic affairs and we've never quite got to grips with them. We need the playoffs to be different, we need to be in control, so I'd sacrifice some attacking flair for that.

Fair enough @Piethagoram, on PiesPlayer (filmed from the Main Stand) my initial reaction was that he'd gone down too easily. But looking at that it's a stonewall penalty, the defender was nowhere near the ball. Good job it counted for nothing in the end.

Is that the Football League Paper? Shades of Sir Charlie Palmer there, with @Chris playing the role of the glum Florist fan!

There's always next season @Fan of Big Tone!

The results: Bolton Wanderers 2-3 Luton Town Leyton Orient 2-2 Burton Albion Peterborough United 1-3 Doncaster Rovers Reading 0-1 Blackpool Barrow 1-2 Newport County Cheltenham Town 1-4 Colchester United Gillingham 1-0 Shrewsbury Town Swindon Town 1-2 Chesterfield Congratulations to @magpiejue for winning this season's final round! So this is our final table! @william1984 scores a victory that will echo through the ages (or at least until August). After sitting in eighth place at the halfway point, he was by far the strongest player in the second half and won it by a considerable margin in the end. Congratulations! You win pride, honour and a tuft of my hair (optional). @Dan is runner-up and @magpiejue sneaks into third at the death. Elsewhere, @Fan of Big Tone, @nottsnutter and @Megan_Elizax join the 200 club at the death, with @Michael D Pie. just missing out and yours truly just falling short of a play-off spot, like Swindon. Time to put my abacus away for another summer then. Thanks everyone for playing and making this fun, take care and hopefully see you next time!

I think it's great we're having this discussion at all - it's not so long ago that we were struggling to fill 25% of the ground. The capacity is adequate for our needs right now, everyone who wanted a ticket against the cider quaffers got one. All the same, I'd like to see our existing seats filled (and not covered by adverts or tarpaulin) before there are any thoughts about filling in corners. Standing could be one way of doing it. It's possible to have two or three fans per seat in standing areas, so that could add a few thousand to capacity (while hopefully allowing us to offer cheaper tickets). To do that, the club would need to add smaller steps between the existing steps, and I don't know if you can do that for structural reasons. One other issue is the concourses. There might be scope fo expand them behind the Kop, but the Sirrel stand is difficult because it backs onto the street. Even if it can be done, some seats will always be unavailable due to the away block. Our lack of a proper dedicated away end creates all kinds of problems. It's a shame we couldn't use the Meadow Lane end for it as the stand is a perfect size; unfortunately, that's a non-starter due to its location.

After feeling zero nerves in the run-up to yesterday's match, I was a mess for the majority of it. We went in at the break one goal shy of a place in the top three and all of a sudden it felt very achievable. Alas it wasn't meant to be. The way we approached the first half was exactly how I want to see us play in the play-offs too - dominant and in control. Unfortunately we surrendered that control in the second half, which I think is why MP brought Palmer and Robertson on. As for the "winner", Bedeau was offside when the cross came in from the right and was in the process of putting his hands up in a "look, I'm not interfering with play" gesture when the ball came his way. It wouldn't have taken us up anyway (although it would have given our travelling fans an extra trip to Cleethorpes in the play-offs). I agree with @menzinho that the referee got the penalty calls right. Bristol Rovers are an odd club with odd fans, but they've got a very good team for this level who have been playing significantly below their potential for most of the campaign.

Brilliant performance so far, we've really risen to the occasion. Rovers still look handy though, this game isn't finished yet. We have a tendency to overplay it at times. I really like Crewe Alexandra.

Oh no. I suddenly feel hope. And I've suddenly developed a soft spot for Crawley Town.

Fully agree with @Fan of Big Tone, let's give them a massive reception and show them we back them no matter what. This season isn't finished. I'm not nervous at all today. We have a very outside shot at promotion. In the highly likely event of us falling short, we'll get another go. Let's give it our all and hope for the best. Regarding Robertson, I'd put him on the bench and bring him on in the second half for some match practice depending on the situation. If Cambridge or Salford are 3-0 up at half time, we might as well get some minutes in his legs.

Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Luton Town Leyton Orient 1-1 Burton Albion Peterborough United 0-1 Doncaster Rovers Reading 0-2 Blackpool Barrow 0-2 Newport County Cheltenham Town 2-1 Colchester United Gillingham 1-1 Shrewsbury Town Swindon Town 0-2 Chesterfield (joker)

I used to listen to She Sells Sanctuary on my way to Meadow Lane. It didn't bring us luck. Meanwhile, I have relapsed into Nordic power metal.

The final day of the season is upon us again. Here are the final eight fixtures, a last chance for you to gaze into your crystal ball and claim the GLORY of first place / a place in the pretend play-offs / mid-table (delete as applicable). All of these matches kick off at 3pm on Saturday, don't forget your joker, good luck! Bolton Wanderers v Luton Town Leyton Orient v Burton Albion Peterborough United v Doncaster Rovers Reading v Blackpool Barrow v Newport County Cheltenham Town v Colchester United Gillingham v Shrewsbury Town Swindon Town v Chesterfield

Whoops! Of course I meant Wednesday (today), they're about to go online. Posting on Saturday morning would be a bit short notice... This season's almost done now, but it might be worth mentioning it to Chris if the issue persists next season. Several people have had this issue on and off over the years.

So yesterday York won their completely ridiculous promotion race with Rochdale in completely ridiculous style with a 105th-minute equaliser after falling behind deep in stoppage time. The clips are insane, but it must have been heart-stopping for all those who were there! Congratulations to York, League Two will be more interesting and attractive with them in it. It's a lovely city to visit and a new ground. And comiserations to Rochdale - hopefully they can pick themselves up and drag themselves through the play-offs like we did a few years ago. It's high time the NL had a third promotion spot, as finishing second in a 24-team division and coming away empty-handed can be cruel.

This week's results: QPR 2-3 Derby County Stoke City 1-3 Portsmouth Blackpool 1-0 Leyton Orient Bradford City 1-1 Bolton Wanderers Burton Albion 1-1 Exeter City Chesterfield 2-0 Crewe Alexandra Shrewsbury Town 2-2 Fleetwood Town Walsall 0-2 Harrogate Town Well done to @Dan (five correct scorelines) and @theAnticlough, who each scooped 15 points this week! @william1984 is the comfortable leader going into the final round. @Dan goes second, 17 points behind, and is still in with a chance, albeit a very slim one. There's lots of movement elsewhere in and around the top 10 too, as players jostle to write themselves into prediction league history with a fifth-place finish (or whatever). The BUMPER FINAL ROUND is on Saturday, with the final fixtures being posted on Saturday. BE THERE!! (Or be somewhere else.)

Yesterday I sacrified myself by neither watching nor listening to the match, thus single-handedly keeping us in the running for automatic promotion. So the answer is me! I hope you're all grateful for my sacrifice.

I think 60% is quite generous for us, our final-day opponents have won their last eight games! I'd been hoping that, with nothing to play for, Bristol Rovers would already be on the beach by now. Instead it's had the opposite effect. I think we're much more likely to lose than Cambridge or Salford are. I can see Salford slipping up away to a Crawley side struggling for survival. I doubt Cambridge will though, and just a point would effectively take them out of our reach. We've got a chance, but in the same way that someone who buys a lottery ticket has a chance. Stranger things have happened in football, but they usually don't.

It's not far at all @Fan of Big Tone, I used the 0.5 option on my phone so it zooms out a bit. You get a nice panoramic pic but everything looks further away than it is!

As Colchester is a bit far, I headed to Mannheim for the third division match between Waldhof Mannheim and Schweinfurt yesterday. Waldhof are safe in mid-table while Schweinfurt are rock bottom and were relegated weeks ago. A comically bad but nonetheless entertaining 2-2 draw was played out on front of over 9000 spectators, with me standing in my old corner (pic below). A bit of a nothing game but I just fancied going again after being away a long time. In other news, Bayern won the league again, but who cares about that?

With Salford winning last night, the automatics are now completely out of our hands. All we can do is win and hope others slip up. Personally I've written off automatic promotion, but I hope the team don't. A good performance and a win would really lift us after the last couple of weeks, and would all but guarantee a play-off spot at least. I hope and expect that Jatta is back for this one. I'll miss it because I'm abandoning my armchair for a real-life football stadium tomorrow, so it'll probably go superbly well since I won't be watching. Prediction: Colchester 0 Notts 7 (Ness (5), Jatta, Belshaw).

QPR 0-2 Derby County Stoke City 1-2 Portsmouth Blackpool 2-0 Leyton Orient (joker) Bradford City 0-2 Bolton Wanderers Burton Albion 1-0 Exeter City Chesterfield 3-0 Crewe Alexandra Shrewsbury Town 1-1 Fleetwood Town Walsall 2-1 Harrogate Town

I can see why there are rumours - he was there before and is doing well at a top League 2 club. I hope it is just paper talk though. I would be disappointed in him if he did attempt a Burchnall manoeuvre. The transfer windows might not have been great, but we had a strong enough basis to allow MP to rehabilitate himself as a head coach after the near-disaster at Burton. I hope he appreciates that and doesn't bail at the first opportunity.

Eight months before Christmas day, how many points will StarkMallard's elves leave in your stocking? You'll only find out if you play. All of these matches kick off at 3pm, and don't forget your joker! QPR v Derby County Stoke City v Portsmouth Blackpool v Leyton Orient Bradford City v Bolton Wanderers Burton Albion v Exeter City Chesterfield v Crewe Alexandra Shrewsbury Town v Fleetwood Town Walsall v Harrogate Town

Cambridge have lost 2-1 at home to Grimsby. It's absolutely maddening how achievable automatic promotion was (is?) this season. Cambridge are third going into the last two games having won just one of their last six. And of course that was against us! We hava a theoretical chance of third still if we buck our ideas up, but my money's on Salford. If we lose again on Saturday, the race for a play-off spot could just as easily go to the wire.