The Slavetraders v Swindon Town Official Matchday Thread

[Posh Red]

Just had a text from a friend who is a City fan, he was impressed with our Centre Halves, particularly Troy.

[Shaw Rosso]

Going by the City boards they appreciated my thread. They started their one at 4am, fucking part timers.

[JoeMezz]

Good defensive performance, shows team has got a bit of bollocks. As for Pritchard, what a fucking idiot.

[chalkies_shorts]

Just got back. Hallelujah and praise the lord, this team has got some guts. Fods MOM for me and glad he's back. Belford has done nothing wrong but Fods is a very good keeper. Troy and the new lad were excellent. Within the first 5 minutes the new lad was communicating well with the other defenders. Louis Thompson take a bow for the 2nd minute foul that took one of their players out at the knee.  
The first half was pretty crap with Fods making one save and their keeper making none. We started the second quite well until Pritchard turned total fucking bellend and got sent off for a 2 handed shove on their player. He'd been gobbing it off all game as the City players had been nibbling at him. He'd won the free kick appeared to wait a minute and then push the bloke over. If he doesn't get this side of his game sorted he's fucked - a petulant little fucking 5 year old. We then had our best spell for 5 minutes and their keeper makes 3 very good saves. After that they fucked all over us and it was a fantastic rearguard action where the two centre hales in particular were excellent.
More than this though we showed the kind of backbone that has been lacking recently. I'm well chuffed with the point but more so with the spirit we showed.
You could see from the players at the end how happy they were and its good to see Louis pat the badge a few times.

[Summerof69]

Just back. For 60 mins that was very even contest, but the Pritch did his two handed shove which gave all the impetus for the last 30 to Shitty. Yes, the Wolves player got away with doing that on Branco on Tuesday, but we are Swindon and that was always going to be a red.

We then nearly scored from the free-kick, and the corner...but from then, it was backs to the wall, as Cotterill just put more wingers on, with the sole purpose to send the ball in the area. And Troy and Stephens won most of the ball in the area, and for that they deserve joint MoM, with Wes not far behind.

Nice to see Alex Smith make a cameo after 6 months out. At the end, another good point.

[Bob's Orange]

Very pleased with the overall effort today, the whole team worked bloody hard and to get a point after Pritchard's nonsensical red was no more than we deserved.

In fact we could have scored just after Pritchard's red as Harley's free kick was well saved and smith had 2 efforts blocked.

Thought the new centre back was excellent along with TAH and they repelled loads of crosses and corners. Credit to smith for another thankless task up front on his own, he worked his bollocks off (touch still ropey).

Big pat on the back to the whole team for a bloody good shift. Even Barker looked half decent!!

[Dozno9]

Trip to the beer shop now complete and sat on my arse, so my view of today.

It was two opposites for the fans, more than we normally take (I don't know how many btw) and less brizzol fans than normal and the latter seemed to have taken some silence juice. It was the quietest Ashton Gate for some time.

I was over the moon with Ward being dropped as he's been the weak link since Walsall (h) for me and in my mind unable to play and be captain at the same time with the former being our biggest problem for months. It's a shame he's got another year because he should be gone.

Wards replacement was cracking today, vocal and his positioning was superb as was Troy's and it is a shame that the two centre backs from today won't be here next year. My MOTM was Troy and I've seen it many times when we lament our players for knocking it long when the opposition has one or two centre backs who win everything in the air, well today that was us. Superb.

Midfield was well controlled and Louis collecting loose balls and being more direct than usual, similar to the second half of Wolves. Pritchard...now he needs a slap, he's apologised on Twitter but the petulant response to the foul against him was idiotic to say the least. To use a cooper-ism, he's young and will learn but there's places and situations to learn in and a game like this wasn't one of them. He's now out for 3 games and given he's our only threat from midfield or wings it's a big loss.

Up front we lacked anything potent and Smith's pass into the corner when he needed to smack the bloody thing was the only real opportunity but he ran well and chased, he needs some support though and someone with pace alongside him (Storey??). Coopers reluctance to play 2 up top is either because he doesn't like to or because we are short of options, I guess now Miles is back we'll see.

It's great to see players returning from injury and those that previously haven't played much now getting games. It'll be good to see how we do over the final few games and what we do in the summer. Perhaps the Wolves first half was the kick we needed? I think we'll find out Saturday.

[Langers]

Just got back. Decent performance and good to see some commitment from the players for the first time in a while. It seemed to mean a lot to them today.

Fantastic defending after we went down to 10, Wes was inspired and TAH and Stephens look like a good CB pairing. Silly from Pritchard, he needs to learn a bit of self restraint in those situations as it nearly cost us today.

It was a shame we were just starting to look more dangerous going forward. I thought Smith had a decent game but became isolated when we went down to 10, with aimless punts being sent up towards him.

Good turn out from town fans, made some good noise too.

A very well earned point, and as others have said, it's great to see some spirit back in the team.

[TheMajorSTFC]

An enjoyable day out, nice weather and we didn't lose  Credit to our backline today Nath, TAH, Stephens (v composed on debut) and Jay defended extremely well, and add in Wes being back between the sticks I think they could have coped all night!  Hopefully this is the start of a turn around to the end of the season! Pritchard wtf was he playing at? They put the rod out and reeled him in! 'Nice' to meet a few slavetraders on that park near the ground - they didn't fancy it mind!

[woolster]

after a few beers in loyds bar we were police escorted around the entire outskirts of Bristol resulting in missing the first 10 mins, that is all

[Quagmire]

TAH was outstanding today, i would offer him a contract now.
Felt we would have one the game if it was 11 v 11, stupid sending off and Pritchard needs to sort that part of his game out.
Good day and very amusing seeing a few of Swindons 'youth' run city in that park before the game.

[Arriba]

TAH was outstanding today, i would offer him a contract now.
Good day and very amusing seeing a few of Swindons 'youth' run city in that park before the game.

Please elaborate

[Quagmire]

For some bizarre reason, the police took the Swindon 'lads, youth' whatever the fuck you want to call them across that big green close to the ground.
After your usual shouting, chanting and bottles thrown the City fellas legged it the other way when it looked like Swindon had got through the police.
Very amusing.

[4D]

Something mentioned on the city forum, probably something of nothing.

Their forum contributors are quite interesting  , I wonder if they reflect the whole fanbase 

They don't see us as important / a real rival etc. but have a vast number of posts criticising our support,  the town itself, the fact they should have won about 3-0 etc.
For all the city fans who have managed to navigate their way to this thread,  I am from the 80's and 90's generation who live west of swindon,  where the local TV sports coverage was centred on bristol, and the catchment support crossed over. That will explain the feeling of local rivalry from my side of things. For me oxford is nearly 45 miles away and somewhere I have only visited on a few occasions. Bristol is a lot closer, and I had family that lived there (rovers btw  ).

[THE FLASH]

I was quite happy in the end....we need,what? another 2 wins from somewhere before we can quite relax.

I sighed a bit when I saw Smith picked to play lone frontman and so it proved. He ran his bollocks off but looked isolated especially after the dozy red by Pritchard. It was a silly reaction but can it really be right that the city slash tackle gets a yellow...what message does that send out? Just keep kicking people and hope you get a reaction.

It was a bit of a coconut shy towards the end but we held on with an excellent display of guts not seen for quite a while.

Please let's play 442...especially at home...