(25 Mar 2014, 9:14 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Just to pick up on a few points raised.
I don't think Newcastle will qualify for the Europa League.
No idea about Sunderland - the fixtures don't look kind on paper, but they have a habit of out performing better teams on the day.
It will go down to the wire either way.
Hartlepool have a chance of scraping the play offs on paper, but again, not sure how realistic that is in real life.
Saw them a few weeks back at home in a 'derby' versus York and although the attendance was reasonable for Hartlepool,the atmosphere was poor (even with what looked like an over capacity away end).
They have a small squad, full of promising youngsters, coupled with a few older heads - the majority of whom are on loans or short term contracts.
The two youngsters to stand out are Jack Barmby (on loan from Man U) and Luke James. Both are talented players, with an eye for goal, but will not make it, unless they bulk up.
I genuinely fancy Gatesheads chances of going up. Gary Mills has a track record at this level as a manager with York and played at the highest level with Forest.
Like Cooper at Hartlepool, he has brought in some experienced, older heads (John Oster and Jack Lester), who cna hopefully help Gateshead reach the league.
However, the similarities with Hartlepool don't end there, as there is a poor atmosphere (not helped by the stadium) and low numbers coming through the gates.
I am not sure if league football, will improve that - unless Northumbria Police stipulate home games need to alternate with Newcastle's AND prices are looked at.
Hartlepool are not doing too bad in the average attendance department, currently 10th in the average attendance table with 3,665 per game, about 46.5% of it's 7,877 capacity, the problem Hartlepool have with The Vic, they do not own it, the Council does, so I guess there hands are tied when it comes to expansion.
Now as for Gateshead, I hope they do reach the league, the opportunities it opens up for them will be great, but imo they really need to get the wheels in motion for a new ground and they will need to do something about there crowds, averaging only 724 this season which is only 6.1% of Gateshead Stadium Capacity, in League 2 they will need to at least double that, yes York and Hartlepool may travel in numbers to Tyneside for local(ish) derbies, but the likes of Dagenham, Torquay and Burton probably wont.
It might be that Gateshead ask the FA to be paired with Newcastle for the purpose of the fixture list, but if they did that, they would be against Sunderland who already alternate home games with Newcastle, so next if they are in League 2 they will always be at home at the same time as SAFC or NUFC...it will be interesting to see how The Heed will manage if they go up
According to The Footballwebpages site they predict
Newcastle to finish 8th
Sunderland 17th
Middlesbrough 14th
Carlisle 21st(Relegated)
York 8th
Hartlepool 12th
Gateshead 8th
Blyth 7th
Darlington 2nd
Check out that site, it is quite good Football WebPages