Thetownend.com

I think Sturrock will regret not signing a striker, as peterborough and today showed if we had a decent striker we would have put our chances away and won on tuesday and today.

Very disappointed that there was not more than 1 signing.

Very hard game at rochdale next week, they have been doing very well lately, hammering Franchise 5-0 and drawing at walsall today, we are going to have to play very well to win and its a game we need to win.

Sturrock needs to make changes next week, i personally would drop pook and roberts and play weston and lukas.

what fucking chances?

we created nothing today and Kontantontopolopopodus didnt have a save to make.

Midfield was the problem today. As tuesday we had nothing in the middle of the park. We won no second balls and the midfielders both sat too deep and didnt offer any attacking threat.

Too often Roberts drops into the channels and no one from midfield gets themselves in the box to replace Roberts who isnt there.

Sturrocks going to have to give them a good kick up their arses and fire them up and make some changes, we need to go on a run again starting next week.

I agree. I feel if we had a prolific striker we would have this league won by now

he will get someone in on loan i think.why get just anybody in? i'd rather wait wait for the right man?

'Prolific' strikers are hard to come by with no money though...

MK have the top scorer in their side and they are below us

It's shocking! we've lost one whole game in the last 8 league games! It simply isn't good enough!! I don't think it's acceptable for us to lose ever again!!! I blame everything on our top scorer Christian Roberts! I used to blame Michael Pook but that's not fashionable at the moment.

a 'prolific' striker wont score goals unless we create chances, we didnt create any today thats why we lost

The problem is midfield not the strikers...

In many games this season we've created loads of chances, yet our strikers havent been burying them in the back of the net.

Looking at the Swindon website, Roberts has scored 8 goals in the league this season.  I reckon Leon Knight (who scored his first goal today), will probaly manage to outscore Roberts by the end of the season.

In which games have we created 'loads' of chances?

Thought midfield was poor today tbh.

Timlins worst game so far and Pooks positionable play was back to his usual standard.

I had a couple of complete pricks behind me blaming Roberts for everything. What a couple of total wankers! On another day we would've scored 2 or 3.

We could've done with Evans in CM today...............................

to be fair on the roberts issue, although i only heard it on the radio every bit of good play ended up with roberts being the last player mentioned before each move ended. it sounded like he had a mare

Maccesfield last week, Rochdale at home, Stockport at home, Palace away, Brentford at home, Accrington away ...................

Macclesfield and Rochdale was down to good goal keeping.

Bar Palace, all the other games were months ago. Plus just because you listed them doesnt actually mean we had 'loads' of chances.

dv you should fucking cheer up.go out and get laid or something!

Yep, it's the end of the world.

We'll just slide down the table now.

Be lucky if we make the playoffs.

PMA.    Positive Mental Attitude.

We weren't outplayed by the form team.... FACT

We are 2nd...........FACT

We have a reasonably good run in.................FACT


You can't honestly expect to win every game.

We haven't been outplayed by any team this season.

Get a fucking grip all you doom merchants!

For the first 20-25 minutes at Peterborough we could have been home and dry if we had only put away our chances .... and because we didn't ... the heads started to drop and we lost the belief .... we haven't really got it back since ..... we need to change it around and not have the same starting eleven next week ... oh and really work in training at putting the ball in the net this week!

Genius.

Are you after Luggys job?

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: .. hence the exclamation mark herthab .... I don't have anything by way of a "stating the bleedin' obvious" emoticon!

There are probably other games where the strikers have had chances to score but have failed.  

Every person has their own individual opinion on the Roberts matter, but mine is that Roberts isn't good enough to play in our current team.  At least with Peacock, you can see him track back, do dirty roles, and just generally throw himself around the pitch.  Sometimes this is beneficial for Town and we all admire his commitment and play, but other times you just bloody wished he stayed in and around the box to do more.  His goals to game ratio isnt great (just like Roberts), but because Peacock does all of the above in many games, and hence why it is understandable why he is in our team.

Roberts is playing as the main striker in our team.  He has the pace to hurt oposition defenders, but dips in and out of games too much.  Last week he did many weaving runs, got into good positions, but then the final pass or shot was usually so piss poor, you'd just wanna pull your hair out.  Hes got potential, but wil never fully utilise it.

I think we should get rid of our top scorer.

He's obviously shite..............

do you watch Swindon? he is shite...

11 is hardly an impressive total anyway. Only 8 in the League.

Peacock is our top scorer in the league, and to me they are the only figures that matter.

3/8 of Roberts goals in the league have come from the spot, (just below 40%).  Fair enough penalties need to be scored, but only 5 goals in the league have been scored from open play (and we've played 30 games this season).  Fair enough he may have missed the odd game here and there,  but Roberts probably averages 1 goal in every 5 games from open play (assuming he wasnt the penalty taker).

Yep I do.

And he's infuriating.

But the FACTS are that he's scored most of our goals.

The FACT is he had the best chance to score today.

We haven't got a 20 a season striker, we've got to make do with what we've got.

Sturrock picks the team and he obviously thinks Roberts is more of a threat than Lukas or His son.

I'd be inclined to trust his judgement a little more than yours............

Roberts has scored 2 more goals in open play than Jutkiewicz

Roberts has started 23 games and appeared as sub 3 times

Jutkiewicz has started 6 games and come on as sub 11 times

I know who id rather have in my starting 11

 :roll: so what if roberts has scored most of our goals, take today for example, 1 on 1 and decides to try and take it round the keeper. He is about as incompitant as an old granny

Be interesting to see next week what Sturrock does.  

Peacock is our best striker at the moment and has been all season.  With Sturrock praising Peacocks contribution to the team over the last few weeks, its hard for Sturrock to drop him

Before Sturrock jnr got full fitness, Sturrock senior could only chose between Peacock, Lucas and Roberts up front.

Lucas played a few games, but i think Sturrock snr doesn't want him playing too many games because of overburn (Lucas is only 17).  Secondly, Lucas and Peacock play a similar style game (eg big target men who lack significant pace).  As a result, Roberts is the only option to play upfront who has any significant pace.

I'm not to sure what type of striker Sturrock jnr is (but sturrock snr says hes a different type to the one the club currently had).  I think he will start pushing Roberts for  first team place from now on however

Flamin' Nora! I can't keep up! Does that mean we have to start hating Pook again? It's just I'm about to draw a beard on my voodoo doll and I need someone to tell me what to think.

Help!

Hes only scored 3 more goals then bloody Sturock Jnr, and hes only played 3 sub apperances     :wink:  (in open play)

Shame you're not the manager then, isn't?

I've got faith in Sturrock. He's an experienced manager and he's been through all this before.

Not forgetting that we can still bring players in on-loan, if things get really bad.

ffs im pissed off with loans, its not going to permanently solve the problem is it !!!

that doesnt mean Roberts is any good.

Sturrock didnt buy Roberts and Sturrock hasnt been given a chance to bring in strikers of his choice.

Now Lukas has had a rest after the xmas period, I expect Sturrock may start him again....and about time to.

Stupedist. Comment. Ever

Maybe Luggy should've splashed some monopoly money around in January and signed an imaginary striker!

Roberts was wank today. But I thought the whole team just couldn't be arsed. It was a strange game as Hartlepool didn't look very good either, but at least they were getting to the ball and picking up second balls/loose balls.

I think Timlin and Pook were rubbish, but not helped by the defenders constant lumping the ball up front all the time. Having said that, both of them didn't offer any help to the defence when they got the ball and if they did recieve the pass either lost it or passed it straight back again.

Zaboub and Sahkes were our only semi-threats and the both got shafted by Sturrock.

The players just didn't seem up for it. Neither did Hartlepool, though I'll bet they were happy with the constant giving of the ball to their centre-backs.

He tried to sign Rogers, and probably some other strikers of the same mould also.  However they didnt want to join for one reason or another.  However in the case of Rodgers, he seems the same mould of player as Roberts,  maybe suggesting he think Roberts isnt up to the task - or that we need better.

If we go up this season, i doubt we will see Roberts being a forst team starter next season - FACT

And if that's what Sturrock thinks, fine.

But at the moment Sturrock is picking him.

So he obviously thinks he can do a job in this league.

The distribution from Williams was shocking first half.

He with his lack of pace and Ifil with his ... Ifilness ... were really troubled by their pacey runners and resorted to the simple panic response of lumping it up the middle.

Doesn't mean that at all.  Roberts is playing as we have two strikers (Lucas and Peacock) who lack pace and hence should not be paired with one another.  Sturrock Jnr has not played due to his lack of match fitness.  As a result, Roberts is the only other feasable solution to play at this moment in time (along with either Peaock or Lucas).  So that does not mean Sturrock thinks Roberts can do a job for him - it means he has to pick him from the resources currenly available to him.  Give it a couple of weeks, and i wouldnt be surprised to see Sturrock and Peacock play upfront (nless Roberts has a purple patch and starts playing well and scoring on a more regular basis)

Don't agree with you at all.

Roberts has shown he has ability.

He doesn't show it enough!

Sturrock will keep him in the side for the rest of this season.

Roberts will be gone next season...

lots of ott comments I feel as a result of the fact we lost a game.

bottom line as I see it, Hartlepool are the form team, they owe us one from their place. they weren't anything special but no team in this league is. its a shitty little league.
first ten minutes apart, their centre backs had our entire attack nullified without breaking sweat. they were a very organised side, two banks of four who offered nothing going forwards but came to close down and stifle us and hopefully nick a goal which is exactly what they did.

We also gift wrapped them a goal on a silver service tea tray.

Andy Monkhouse is a little fucking scrot for that pathetic celebration infront of the town end. I didn't really understand what he was playing at. he was only at this club for five minutes it's not like anyone gives two shits about him. it wasn't as if it was joey fucking beauchamp scoring infront of the town end for fucks sake. (whoever those cunts trying to start "andy monkhouse on a piece of string" in the town end were, embarrassing)

as for the Roberts Peacock we haven't got a striker blah blah blah that is indeed the case, but the bottom line is we've got enough to get out of this shitty little league. I've seen enough to be convinced of that by now. todays result doesn't affect anything so stop crying like it does.

like Sturrock said we will lose games at home this season, so fucking what. we got undone by one goal which we fucking gifted them that is my biggest concern of today not the fact that Roberts is a lazy cunt who drifts in and out of games or the fact we haven't got a 25 goal a season striker, whats new in any of that? the way Andy Monkhouse had time to think about his little celebration whilst he was watching the ball drop onto his head and into the net totally unchallenged is the only thing that is worth worrying about from todays game.

we had an off day, but mainly because we weren't allowed to play by one of the best teams in this league. if not the best. it aint the end of the world folks.

we'll still go up and I'm sure they'll be up with us. and Andy Monkhouse will play ten games a season for them like he has managed at every other club he's been at. That riled me that he felt the need to take the piss like that but he's a nothing player at the end of the day

Who is leading in top-scorer clasification in conference league ? Bring him to the team !!!  :?

Would involve money we don't have Bartek. If you look at transfers for the top players even in that division, they're too high for us. We missed out on Junior Agogo a while back because we couldn't afford the transfer fee.

Sturrock's said time and again he likes his 'steady eddies' - thats exactly what Roberts is not - he'll sparkle one day and you won't see im the next - and the mnore of those you have the more volatile you are, and we need consistency. He'll be fringe next year, won't like it and move to Cheltenham. Shame, because he can be exciting on his day.

As for lumping it from the back - I half blame the midfield - watch a top-flight game and you'll always have someone dropping off and offering the option to the centre backs - Pook, Timlin, weston....whoevers in there has to be doing this all the time - only then can we get it wide and whip it in.

If the team had good balance all over the pitch - and by this I mean positioning wise, Roberts would prove to be a massive asset to us.

But because we're always a but flat Roberts gets isolated. I think his confidence is a bit shot recently.

I blame Andy King for not signing Freddie Eastwood.

nah, his caravan wouldn't have fitted in round here :P

We beat Macclesfield 2-0 - what's the problem there?!

At Palace we did not create loads of chances...that was the problem!! We put them under constant pressure without really getting the ball into dangerous positions. When we did, Roberts missed one of note, Peacock had a half chance and Smith missed the sitter from that corner. Just because we played well it doesn't mean we created chances!

Some stupid cunts around really.second in the league and all od a sudden our striker is shit the midfield is crap  fuck knows how we will survive :-))(

DV Have a look on this site www.imallwaysright.com

there are a lot of comments flying about here after a home defeat which we're all pissed off about so I thought I may as well join!
Most of Roberts' play is done outside the box so he will never get the goals that we all want from him. If you watch him when he drops deeper to get the ball he'll pretty much always end up going sideways i.e. picking it up on the left from Zab and then feeding it out to Shakes or vice versa. What aggravates me, is that he then doesn't show the desire (or the so-called pace that people talk about??) to attack the box and get himself into a scoring position.Luggy likes crosses coming in and they have been a lot better (especially Shakes), but no-one ever gambles near-post which at this level, is where most of our crosses end up. I do believe that Sturrock knows what he is doing, but for me, on Saturday his substitutions were bizarre, which yes, did include keeping roberts on the pitch. The boy Blair has defo got something about him and looks to get in behind the oppos defence which is something none of our other forwards have. Weston & Blair for Pook and Roberts @ Rochdale. On another note, I reckon Ifil has been working on his distribution as only 50% of his knocks forward are now finding row Z :o....but at least he plays to his strengths.

For me we are lacking a fox in the box who can bang in 20 plus goals a season .. wouldve made the difference in a tight game .. such as Super Sammy in the past - until we get such a player the games are always going to be on a knife edge - chances are being created but not taken .. that leads to extra pressure on the defence .. thats my case for a new forward - I suggest a top loanee from a top premiership club is needed perhaps

Agree jimbob.  Blair especially suggested he's more than capable of getting goals at this level, although I'd be interested in seeing the managerial decision on him if we gain promotion.  People become frustrated with Roberts when he over complicates, he's like the best kid in the school playground -  taking the ball on and crossing left footed when Jack Smith was the simple ball, he sometimes doesn't pass when its the best option. I think Roberts perhaps needs to be dropped for a game or two - in the play off season we left out SSP or Mooney occasionally (IIRC) when Fallon was looking dangerous, I feel perhaps that one or two matches out to make him hungary again and give Lukas of Blair a game, wouldn't do any harm.

the current squad have got us to 2nd in the league.there isn't alot wrong with it imo.maybe a little tweaking possibly but nothing drastic is needed

To be fair I don't think we should bother going anymore.

It's all downhill from here.

On and DV, how about Nicholas hitting the post or Roberts clean through on goal? Do they count as chances?

The Roberts one was a fucking sitter Tails and he blew it in an utterley pathetic, so if that's me being overly critical of our strikers then I apologise.

The Roberts one was a fucking sitter Tails and he blew it in an utterley pathetic manner, so if that's me being overly critical of our strikers then I apologise.

Oh no, I agree with you.

DV said we had no chances which was a lie we had a few, those two being the ones that stick out. Apart from that it's hardly the end of the world, we've had these strikers all season and we're still second.

Nicholas one was a shot from far out, so something out of nothing almost...

Roberts was a chance, ONE chance....and he didnt even shoot. Other than that nothing.

1 chance and 1 half chance a game isnt enough is it.

Saturday was the worst our midfield has played in a long long time

A competant striker would have put Roberts' chance away really... I don't know why he has to try and run around the keeper all the time.

But still, we're stuck with what we've got.

Has anyone ever seen Roberts try to chip a 'keeper?

I don't think he has the bottle for one-on-one's. Another example of him being a winger and not a striker.

hahaha

He was about level with the penalty spot not exactly that far out,zaboub should of scored before,roberts should of scored and peacock should of got on the end of across which he did not anticipate...Thats four chances against a very good team..You dont have to be critical for the sake of it we lost 1 game get over it

VD's post per day ratio trebles when we lose

i would like to add sturrocks 2 chances aswell thats 6 chances i can remember

we have not created that many against lesser teams this season

Lets face it, we're shit.

Be lucky to avoid relegation this season.