Swindon Town V Southampton Official Matchday Thread

[kaufman]

I've got to hold my hand up and say before i saw the footage i was blaming Di Canio but after watching the footage, Clarke comes across worse, the problem is there was apparently an altercation between Clarke and the fitness coach before this so I can't blame Clarke without knowing the full story.
However Di Canio was trying to defuse the situation, that's clear, Even the pulling was not malicious, it was more of a "come on lad don't be silly, lets get in and work it out" unfortunately Clarke lost it.
Something is not right and here's maybe the problem...
Usually within a management team there's someone every player can go to with a problem, I'm not sure Di canio's team has that about them and maybe the players only have themselves to talk things out with or failing that.. The chairman.

It's fair to say that "IF" enough players (remember brian clough at leeds) have a problem they'll make it known and Di Canio will have to go.



I don't think we've come to that yet but the media is loving this and it might just make things harder for people to do their job at the club.

edit.... I didn't go tonight but I've seen enough of the side to know things will come good but as i said before I doubt it will be consistant enough for what most supporters expect

[Stef Troll]

Just got back from the game, wasnt going to go but ended up going - what a mistake.


26 Smith - Fucking shocking goalie, cant handle a ball for love nor money.  You could see the defence had no confidence in him what so ever.


03 Kennedy - Fucking useless.  Could not mark his man for shit and was always the wrong side of the attacker.


04 Flint - Did ok in spells.  League 1-2 is his level though.  Has fuck all pace and struglled when any player that ran against him.  


06 Comazzi - Makes Frampton look good.  Positioning very poor and again he is very slow.  Dont think he is the answer to our defensive problems.


07 Caddis - Did ok in spells, but when he had the ball, no one really supported him.  Feel sorry for him as i reckon he would be a decent player in a decent team


08 Ferry - Huffed and puffed but didnt really do much.  Dont really blame him though as Smith in midfield was utter wank


10 Ritchie - Pretty much same as Caddis


21 Gabilondo - Made lots of good runs but no real support from team mates


24 Smith - Absolute garbage,


09 Clarke - Another clueless donkey.  Had a golden chance in the first half to shoot and probably score.  Instead he farts around and did fuck all.  Would prefer to have big Vince over Clarke

17 Connell - Didnt really do much in the game.  Shame he got subbed so early.  Would like to see him and Kerrouche upfront.


Kerrouche - Easily my man of the match.  He chased down everthing, went in for tackles and never gave up.  Scored a nice goal too. Him and possibly Flint are the only players who can come out of the game with any credit.


Saints played well to be fair and were a different class to Swindon.  My main disapointment was the apparent lack of effort from most of the players.  Simple things like tracking the player your marking, and even getting close to the player you are marking were non existant today.  

[Benzel]

Clarke n Donatelli were bumping shoulder to shoulder across the pitch.

[dannywilliamsisgod]

Sorry to have to say it guys, but we are in deep shit.We can't defend for toffee, we can't score goals, our manager is clueless, and we are in for a relegation battle.WTF was the Connell substitution about?, both our full backs are defensively dire, Commazi? no chance, Smith in midfield is Conference standard at best, why was Macca on the bench?Di Cannio plays his right winger on the left, and his left winger on the right, result?, they constantly have to cut inside giving the defenders time to get set to deal with the crosses.Were they playing on their proper wings they could skin the full backs, turn the central defenders so they are uncomfortable, then get crosses in earlier to give our forwards a bit of a chance, not that it would matter much Clarke is shit can't score a free header from 6, or 7 yards, or put away a tap in from 2 yards.Kerrouche- great free kick, otherwise touch of a donkey, clueless in general.Smith in goal? no thanks my old man could probably have saved the second goal, and he's 81.Sorry to be so negative, but that was men against boys out there tonight, Saints knew exactly how to exploit our full backs, and did so.They kept it simple, good shape, and organisation,played the ball simply the way they were facing, and used the width well.League 2 managers will soon employ the same tactics against us, it's going to be a very long season.

[reeves4england]

It's fair to say that if enough players (remember brian clough at leeds) have a problem they'll make it known and Di Canio will have to go.

I don't think we've come to that yet but the media is loving this and it might just make things harder for people to do their job at the club.

Orrrr.... this could all blow over and be one of those "remember when...?" type conversations at the end of the season. It is worrying right now, but I think the temptation to sensationalise and speculate without really knowing the facts will do nobody any good. Let's wait and see what comes out of the bluc tomorrow - I'm sure Wray will work hard to get to the bottom of this and take any necessary action, with the long-term well-being of the club in mind.

[Panda Paws]

outclassed first half. better second half. no shame in losing to that southampton side. Swindon fans general retardness amazes me

No shame in losing to Saints, but all this should stay in dressing room.

These...

Can't be arsed to over-analyse the performance but...

Absolutely no shame in losing tonight, and thought we done ok for the majority of the match, bar Smith throwing in their second. Before the whole Clarke/PDC thing, the only thing that really pissed me off was the complete negativity and general wakerish behaviour from most of our fans, who just appear to be fucking stupid, screaming for us to chase the ball and break their legs and then calling our players every name under the sun for not running around like a headless chicken... I just don't get it at all.

They were always going to dominate possession and when we pressed as a team, and kept our shape, forcing them to play long, we started to get some joy.

On the Clarke/PDC thing, by the looks of things PDC is just trying to get him off the pitch and away from the eyes, but it's backfired and what is in effect a lot of restraining is then all over SSN and the internet... I could be very wrong but convinced it'll all blow over.

Think a lot of the negativity from the fans come from the expectation that we could compete with Soton in the same way we have over the past two seasons, but they're a top-end Champ side who'll be there or there abouts, with a bloody good manager who plays good, and unique, football, while we're somewhere between an average and good L2 side that is completely untried and finding our feet. They were so much better than us, but you'd expect them to be.

I'm still positive, although performances need to become points soon...

[wiggy]

Southampton were simply better than us., Thought all our players put in a good shift. Just a little bit of confidence needed and we will start to win games - but I thought that last season too. Tonights game was never as important as the league game on Saturday.

My one comment on PDC after tonight is that we seem to have quite a lot of fiery characters on the pitch, and PDC needs to calm down a bit rather than wind them up even more.

[Colin Todd]

Yeah, the texts after the game bemoaning a lack of passion were awful. We were lacking in talent, not passion. Smith and Kerrouche could have been sent off about five times between them.

Exactly.

You;d think STFC fans would recognise a lack of passion, fitness and effort after last season.  Nothing like that tonight - we were far from perfect, but thankfully we wont be playing anyone as good as southampton were this season

[reeves4england]

I find it shameful how many people are criticising the performance, effort and passion of the players. Yes, Southampton were much better... they're 2nd in the Championship, get over it. We almost pulled it back to 2-2, which after 90 minutes would have been a fantastic scoreline against such strong opponents.

The performance wasn't perfect, but it was nowhere near as bad as some are making out.

[Batch]

Not a dig at you btw

To be honest I don't care if it was.

The way I saw the first half isn't so different to you. They were getting players goal side of our midfielders with ease on the attack. But we made it far too easy for them to do this. They were indeed a class or three above us. Its not that we lost, its that we were totally gubbed.

[jb]

I find it shameful how many people are criticising the performance, effort and passion of the players. Yes, Southampton were much better... they're 2nd in the Championship, get over it. We almost pulled it back to 2-2, which after 90 minutes would have been a fantastic scoreline against such strong opponents.

The performance wasn't perfect, but it was nowhere near as bad as some are making out.

Totally agree, lots of fight and passion in the second half. Flint was superb, J Smith battled well and Kerrouche was chasing everything down. Very pleased with the second half performance.

[Coca Fola]

What's Malpas up to these days...

[chalkies_shorts]

I find it shameful how many people are criticising the performance, effort and passion of the players. Yes, Southampton were much better... they're 2nd in the Championship, get over it. We almost pulled it back to 2-2, which after 90 minutes would have been a fantastic scoreline against such strong opponents.

The performance wasn't perfect, but it was nowhere near as bad as some are making out.

I'm one of the shameful ones and I'm off to bed.

[Notts red]

Saints will beat a lot more teams in the championship with more comfort than tonight. Yes they were a much better side than us but they didn't look so confident after we scored, I was worried before ko we were in for a thumping and still think the extra game tonight has done us more good than harm.

[Stef Troll]

I find it shameful how many people are criticising the performance, effort and passion of the players. Yes, Southampton were much better... they're 2nd in the Championship, get over it. We almost pulled it back to 2-2, which after 90 minutes would have been a fantastic scoreline against such strong opponents.

The performance wasn't perfect, but it was nowhere near as bad as some are making out.

Jesus Christ, if we are all being honest here, 3-1 flattered Swindon.  5 or 6 nil was a true reflection on the game.  I didnt expect Swindon to win the game, i just expected the players to give it their all.  For me though only Kerrouche and maybe Flint did this.  I remember watching Swindon lose a couple of seasons ago to Bristol Rovers at home (think we lost 4-0).  I wasnt bothered we lost 4-0 as the players gave it their all on that day.  

I swear to many people on this forum have rose tinted spectacles when it comes to making comments about Swindon.