Getting nervous - Nightmare

I have to admit that I’m starting to get a little nervous. The nightmare scenario is looking distinctly possible.

For me this would involve all teams on my patch either going nowhere or – even worse - getting relegated.

At the moment Bristol City look frail in the Championship, Swindon, Bristol Rovers and Walsall are too close to the foot of the table for comfort in League One, while Hereford aren’t out of the woods in League One.

Wycombe seem to be in a pole position for a play-off place in the same division, but the same can’t be said quite yet for Oxford or Cheltenham.

As a neutral I’d like to see all of these clubs do well this season, but of course the bar has been lowered for some of them.

Survival for Swindon (last season’s defeated play-off finalists) and Bristol Rovers (who were hoping to push for a play-off spot themselves) is now the main hope for fans of both clubs. I’ve got to know quite a few of the players of both clubs and the one thing I can guarantee is that I haven’t come across a quitter yet.

The same can be said for the lads I know at the other clubs as well.

Bristol City have a good manager in Keith Millen and if he can steer them to safety, he’ll have done a good job and have something to build on next term. At the beginning of the season City were also hoping for greater things, but that was before Steve Coppell jumped ship and left Millen to pick up the pieces.

Gary Waddock isn’t getting carried away by Wycombe’s lofty position and, if he’s to be believed, he won’t do so until some point in the summer when the League One fixtures are released. He has a good head on his shoulders and is someone the Chairboys will do well to hold on to if they do go up.

Two other good young managers are Chris Wilder at Oxford and Mark Yates at Cheltenham.

Wilder has the extra pressure of knowing that, even though Oxford did brilliantly to get promoted last year, the fans have been starved of success for so long (or maybe suffered for so long, would be a better way of putting it) that they are in desperate need of more days like the one they had at Wembley last May. If they miss out this time round he’ll be hoping they have the patience to stick with him. Personally I think he’s earned the right. Then again, as I said above, I’m neutral.

Mark Yates probably doesn’t have as much pressure to deal with and any he does have is of his own making.

At the start of the season the Robins’ faithful feared they’d drop straight down to the Blue Square, but Yates has put together a decent side capable of beating anyone on their day and so expectations have risen in the main stand accordingly.

It’s going to be an interesting run in everyone. Try and hold your nerves even while I’m losing mine.

P.S. It appears that I will be spending a good deal of the remaining months of the season in South Wales covering Cardiff and Swansea, but still hope to be able to attend midweek fixtures for the clubs mentioned above.