A performance like last Sunday will certainly give Workington something to think about. Like Barrow, they'll be coming into the game on the back of a defeat to North Wales. Barrow lost by 13 points at N Wales, Workington lost by 22 at home.
It's a bit of a nightmare trying to work out possible league table finishing positions with the percentage points rule applying. According to the BBC website each team has three fixtures left to play. None of the previously postponed games have any dates scheduled.
The top team is automatically promoted with team two to six in the play-offs.
The current standings are:Workington 79.17% (Pld 12, 19 points)
Barrow 75.00% (Pld 14, 21 points)
N Wales 64.29% (Pld 14, 18 points)
Dons 60.71% (Pld 14, 17 points)
Keighley 56.67% (Pld 15, 17 points)
Rochdale 53.57% (Pld 14, 15 points)
Hunslet 50.00% (Pld 15, 15 points)
Remaining games are as follows:Workington: Dons (A), Skolars (A), Hunslet (H)
Barrow: Skolars (H), Rochdale (A), West Wales (H)
N Wales: Rochdale (H), Keighley (A), Skolars (H)
Dons: Workington (H), Coventry (H), Keighley (H)
Keighley: West Wales (A), N Wales (H), Dons (A)
Rochdale: N Wales (A), Barrow (H), Coventry (H)
Hunslet: Coventry (H), West Wales (H), Workington (A)
If we win our last three games, we'd have 67.64%. We could theoretically still finish top if the teams above us lost their last three games but that would mean (amongst other things) Workington losing at Skolars. Barrow would also have to get turned over at home by Skolars too.
If Barrow and Workington won their games against Skolars but lost their other two, Workington would have 76.67% and Barrow 73.52%. As Skolars are unlikely to beat both Workington and Barrow, the chances of us finishing top with 67.64% look like zero.
Can we catch North Wales for third place? They too should beat Skolars but have tricky games against Rochdale (H) and Keighley (A). If we win our last three games, N Wales would need to win their last three to stay ahead of us. Any loss would mean we would go ahead of them.
Can we get caught by Keighley? They may have to beat N Wales (H) and win against the Dons to do it. Should we lose to Workington and beat Coventry, with Keighley losing to N Wales but beating West Wales, we would need to beat Keighley in our last match to stay above them.
For us to drop out of the top six, Hunslet and Keighley would have to overtake us. If we lost our last three games, we'd have 50.00%. If Hunslet won their last three they'd have 58.33% but that would mean them winning at Workington. A Dons win against Coventry plus two losses would give us 55.88%.
It seems unlikely we'll finish outside the top six but it's not mathmatically impossible.
On balance, the most likely outcome is that we'll finish third or fourth. We'd need N Wales to drop points for us to overtake them, even if we win our last three, they'd have to lose one. If we lost one, they'd have to lose two.
Looking downwards, the home game against Keighley might determine whether we finish fourth or fifth but wins for us against Workington and Coventry would almost certainly mean we could lose against Keighley and still stay above them.
All may become a little clear (or not!) after this weekend's games!
All to play for so to speak. We could have done with the Dons player of the year ( to date) being fit for this run in, guess its time for someone else to step into the 7 shirt and make his mark.
