Thetownend.com

The Opponent: Notts County

So, I moved house on Monday. Virgin supposed to connect us today, now not happening until Monday, I want compensation Branson, you wealthy cunt. After forking out this and that for BT Wifi Fon I then discover my laptop screen has been smashed during transit, all of about half a mile down the road.

So no stats, crap and general mis-truths as research has sadly gone out of the window for 1 week. My apologies to those that looked forward to it, both of you.

The lack of thread organisation can only mean we will spank them 2-1, which the lad is in full agreement with. If of course we have anything less than a resounding away win it will be all my fault.

COYR COYR COYR

The late winner last weekend at Coventry/Northampton has left me sorely tempted to go but can't really be arsed with the drive on my own.

So there you go.

THIS is all we're getting...I was looking forward to this, this was going to help be through my night shift.

Thank you very fucking much!

2-1 Swindon 6,541 (6540 from Swindon)..

Well, I guess today our playoff "dream" will die. Not sure we will win, pretty sure Shrewsbury will bend over and bear their ass though.

Would be nice to go out on a high. I've not forgiven Nottm (sic) County for beating us in the cup replay - my lads first game wearing a Town top. He cried. Mind you I cried  (sulked). Plus he was only 4 months old.

4 months and cried!

Should have told him to man up a bit

Two things.

1.  Why does everyone seem to be starting sentences with 'so' all of a sudden?
2.  Are you still a Shaw Rosso, or another kind of Rosso now?

It's akin to my youngest daughter using 'like' in every bloody sentence, sometimes with 'so' as well. "So I was like, yes, but that's not what I meant" etc. etc. This should be in the trivial annoyances thread really  ;D

Anyway, I'm hoping that the Shrews hold Posh to a draw. A very very outside chance but as we are going to win 1-0 today it means it would all come down to the last game at home next Sat.

It's been a good few years since I've seen a Town win at Meadow Lane but am confident we can scrape a 1-0 today with Miles netting late on.6884 with 437 Town fans    :clap:

Closest game of the season for me (55 miles), looking forward to the short trip, Notts could go down today with other results going against them, so expect a tough match.  Fancy Posh to drop points, heart says Town win, but head says 1-1.

Can we keep the season going??! I do hope so!! :)

I think we will win but unfortunately so will Peterborough, Shrewsbury are fucking dire.

Hope the players get the job done and keep Peterborough twitching to the last - we are in good form so 2-0 to the Town.

1.2 town win
Their form is sketchy at best altho they are fighting for lg1 place.
County relegated if they lose AND Crewe, Tranmere & Colchester all win

Shrews are wank but need a win to have any chance of staying up so lets hope they can get something from the game v Posh.
Tho even a win wont see them stay up if Crewe, Tranmere & Colchester all avoid defeat.

Business end of the season  :beers:

Let's just win please lads, it's all we can do. Nice thumping 4-0 would be lovely, but head says 2-1.

Grizzly?   :)

1. I blame it on kids, possibly mine. I found myself saying "sick" the other day. This means good.
2. I remain a Shaw Rosso by name, but by location I have shifted a couple of estates along for the 2nd time in a year. I guess the name sticks after a while.

For the sake of clarity my name isn't Ross either :)

I struggled to sleep after reading this. Once I got to sleep the 9 unbroken hours were spectacular though.

3-1 Town

1-0 to Town

Will be in Istanbul airport hopefully utilising wifi to check how we are getting on.

Reckon a draw today. 1-1. Pritchard to sign off with a penalty.

3-0 to us with Smith, Luongo and Troy to score, Posh to draw 1-1 at Shrews.

Well I enjoyed my 3 hours post night shift and I'm looking forward to 19-07 tonight too!..

Not Constantinople?

Been a long time gone, Constantinople

Why did Constantinople get the works?

That's nobody's business but the Turk's.

player?anyone?

line-up anyone?

Swindon Town

    01 Foderingham
    02 Thompson
    14 McEveley
    03 Byrne
    41 Archibald-Henville
    40 Stephens
    04 Luongo
    24 Cox
    28 Smith
    29 Branco
    11 Pritchard

Substitutes

    17 Waldon
    19 Thompson
    20 Storey
    23 Barthram
    25 Belford
    33 Barker
    39 Gladwin

Same as Bradford but Byrne in for Storey.

Storey was shite last week

Oh and no Ward or DNG on the bench, but Thompson L back.

My been player account been hijacked? Total silence!

Storey seems to be the new Connell: decent but not spectacular, but if he's left out of the team a lot of people get very cross indeed.

I think it's just player being shite.

Switch to the Notts county commentary,  their main commentator is very good.

Isn't he the one that sounds like he is from the 70's? if thats the one then he was awesome on comms for the home game.

Christ, Ronan Murray is still a professional footballer?

That's the badger

Doing well for them recently, he has 9 goals this season so far.

Storey will be gone next year and won't find a league club. That's my prediction anyway.

Must have improved a lot then, didn't expect him to hang around for long when he was here on loan.

Peterboro losing

Good start

Didn't realise that County have won their last 4 home matches.

Was always going to be a tough game today with them badly needing to win to escape the relegation zone.

Fuck me, Shrews 1 up

Come on both STFC's!

Close from County just wide.

Sounds all County so far.

FFS Sheehan...wanker.

Oh FFS

1-0 down

Typical.

Sheehan  :(

Peterboro 1-1

cunt flaps

cunt!

Sounds like Branco is having a shocker.

So Branco wins MOM on Monday and it goes to his head - two errors already, one of which led to their goal.

FFS, just in and saw the score :( Fucking Sheehan as well.

peterboro 2-1 up

Boro 2-1 up

Inevitable.

Scum losing 1-0  :D

Pox go 1-0 down (again)

Oh well. Season was really over a few weeks ago.

Go on Wycombe! League 2 looking sweet.

pboro 3-1 up

Ah well, I'll have to get my jollies with Accy Stanley and Wycombe this afternoon

Don't fucking say "goal!" when it isn't... >:(

Whatever happens, we've still got the Fat Bobby Davro next week.

C'mon Wycombe..

Rooney scores for Aberdeen

Cox booked

dodododo...Miles Storey (someone had to)

Shrews 2 - 3

Rovers starting to look as if they might actually drop off the coupon.  It will take me a while to get my head around that.  Very good news for the Traders, longer term, if it happens.

How much is pay on the gate for the town end?   :sherlock:
Might come along next week

Sounds like we're getting a taste of our own medicine. The bastards have watered the pitch!! OUTRAGEOUS

Their comment'ator is glorious.

Reet Proper.

Lewango is a good new Christian Roberts-ism.

£19 same as whenever you buy
No increase on day

Sounds like the fans/Notts Manager are influencing the ref from the commentary.

pox 2 nil down  :pint:

Oxford double their disadvantage.

Doesn't sound as if we are going to get back into this game any time soon.

Could see Caddis at the CG next season. Currently Brum in the Championship bottom 3.

 not til we bring Storey on ;)

Surely we have to change it (based on radio commentary).

Chalky's enjoying himself!

Thompson coming on

Decent away end as well!

Dont be silly, he's too good for league one, said so himself!

Bugger. Rovers winning.

Boooooooooo

Caddis OG  :D

Caddis scores. Leeds winning 3-0

Brum now 3-0 down...Caddis OG

Almost worthy of being scummy bastards !

Come on Wycombe

plus Caddis own goal............he wants to play in Div 1  :D

Caddis OG puts Brum 3 down
Austin Pen puts QPR 1 up

It's not going to happen is it?

Today's attendance: 6,714 (598 Town fans)

 :no:

Doesn't look like it

Peterborough 4-2. But it doesn't matter

Gay.

TAH sent off.

This Spencer chap sounds like une bellend grand.

TAH might be off.

TAH off. Red card.

oh well thats that then

Drives down his value for next year!

end of a non-era?

Nathan Thompson set off.

Rovers win.
Posh win.

booooooo/

For christ sake!

Thompson gets a second yellow.

Mass brawl and both players sent off are from Town? That seems unlikely.

Louis Thompson Booked.
Michael Smith booked.

Yellow for Louis. What the fuck is going on!

Yellow for Louis Thompson!

Four cards. All Town. What the fuck.

Unbelievable!

2 reds and 2 yellows for town
2 yellow for them
Hows that work out ffs

2 Notts players booked.

 :doh:

Barnsley are relegated.

Fucking ref might as well just pull a card out and do a twirl.

Anyone else want one?

9 minutes of stoppage time.

the ref is racist

That's that then. Pretty good to take it to the penultimate game of the season.

Why? Has there been an injury or something?

'Not very nice from Sheehan trying to be a smart arse!' Chalky White

Apparently Troy punched the bloke clean in the face 8)

That's one trip booked for next year.  I liked Oakwell the last (only) time I went.

Never a red, I think we all saw that from here.

2-0. Game over with Fods pushed up.

Foderingham up for a corner, isn't the end of the season amusing?

I didn't. Fallon scored.

That Bury v Pompey game seems like a good one for the neutral (4-4)

Barnsley Scunthorpe and Rochdale next season
Any danger of any southern clubs into lg1 ?

Two red cards and two yellows within one incident - surely there's more to this?

Well done, lads.  You exceeded expectations for this season.  Gave us something to support for 45 games.  Cooper can look on this as his 'bedding in' season.  We push on (boardroom farce) permitting from here.

And fair play to Rovers.  Massive win for them.  Wycombe losing at home to relegation rivals like that is unforgivable at this stage...& probably deserve to go down for that alone.

Thank fuck that game is over.

Yup.

Stuff Rovers though!

"Dear Match Officials,

The Fuck?!?

Sincerely,
Mark Cooper"

Looking forward to this post-match interview...

And it would also mean that there would be no longer be a League side based in Buckinghamshire.  ;)

Some shit away games next year.

If we get to play Brum will it be the first time since the famous 4-6?

No, it can't be.  Birmingham didn't go up with us that season (1992/93) or the season after when we were back down...so we must have had them again for at least one season in the late 1990s (before we dropped down to Division 3 again).

Correct. I've been there since the 4-6.

Brum have a game in hand. Wigan I think, who are already in the playoffs.

Haven't read back, they still playing, had to leave with 14hrs injury time to go otherwise would have missed my train. Seen some poor refs this season but today's....

Can bans be carried forward to the following season?

I think so

Safe to assume we'll see some youngsters next Saturday.  Overall (on the pitch) it's been a season that's exceeded expectations.

Just listened on the wireless....

For once I want chuckles to have a go...

Keeping the season slightly alive til one game to go with all of the off field ups and downs pre season is something....I didn't expect and many others too.

I will be there August....again...

Yep. For example, Byrne was suspended on the opening day of this season.

At least we can put all our efforts into abusing fat boy next week. The result is irrelevant.

No, there's......oh hang on....see what you did there!

Completely agree Ardiles! Hopefully this boardroom thing gets sorted once and for all in the high court next week, and we can start planning for next season, and push on again.

Jesus, that must have been some rough game :)

+1

Glad I missed listening to most of the game by the sounds of it. If we can hold on to 7th then this season has been a success. We seem to have some motivational issues, having lost to several teams at the bottom. Sort that out and we might finish a place higher next season.

It was indeed.  And although we didn't quite make it you were proved right in your consistent "we're not out of contention yet" line.  A lot of people, me included, thought we'd blow up several matches ago and got proved very wrong.  

Fair play to the players and Cooper.

The away form royally stuffed us didn't it. The home form was pretty good apart from the post xmas dip.

Home W 14, D 3 L 5
Away W 5, D 6, L 12

Particularly away at teams in the bottom 4.   Still the season's just about gone now....sadly what had looked like being a positive close season, now may well take on a different complexion altogether.  :(

Those sort of results remind me of my early days watching around 1976, good at home rubbish away

Town have always beaten those they should lose to and vice versa in all the time I have followed them.

Thought it was quite a niggly contest throughout, not surprised it spilt over. The ref's handling of the game was appalling, loads of wrong decision against both sides. You don't notice good refs too much, this one was front and centre throughout. Took ages to sort out the handbags at the end. Wanted to stay to clap the players off (whether they deserved it or not is another matter) as won't see us again til next season - hold the fat fucker in the middle reponsible for making me miss that.

Yup, it's kind of our trademark isn't it?

Anyway we had no chance today - THEY WATERED THE FUCKING PITCH AT HALF-TIME! AND WE JUST TOOK IT! UNBELIEVABLE! Brentford would never have stood for that. And that's why they're going up and we're not.

Only caught parts of the game on the radio, so can't comment much, but it sounded a bit like so many other away games against the bottom sides this season.

In a way, I'm glad Peterborough won, so there were no 'if onlys'.

I honestly thought that we would struggle this season, so it has turned out far better than I anticipated.

I genuinely think we could mount a serious promotion push next season if we can hold on to key players and build from where we've finished. It will be very disappointing if the off field farce changes that.

Just saw the highlights on SSN. The incident at the end looked like handbags. I certainly couldn't see why Troy got a straight red. Most of the players got involved, so I don't know how certain players were singled out.

Just seen the highlights on goals express
Didnt show start of the handbags but didnt see much to warrant troys sending off
Nathan gets too hot headed and was everywhere so no wonder he got a second yellow
Surprised their players only got 2 yellows as were as much in towns players faces as vice versa

It's always like that though, isn't it? Most of these melees usually involve 16-18 players and they just card the first couple they see as being instigators

Just back! All a bit of an anti-climax after recent performances, but I have to say Notts are a bunch of cheating fairies, I lost count how many times they dived about & moaned at the ref.  Their 1st goal was shocking, we'd had a couple of warnings, but the amount of space Sheehan was given was ridiculous.

Byrne was awful, I've no idea where he was playing and I don't think he knew either, absolute shite!

We were better 2nd half and Smith started to win some headers and get some possession, although this didn't satisfy those around me who continued to berate him & give sarcastic cheers when he did something right?  Admittedly, he frustrates but at least he tries, more than can be said for several others today.

I've no idea what was going on at the end, saw a lot of pushing and shoving & a melee in their box, resulting from yet another County dive.  The 3 officials just stood in the middle for an age & called Troy over & gave him a red, followed by Nathan.  Then 2 yellows.  He then booked a couple of theirs?  This all took about 7 minutes, ridiculous.

Jay played well again, Luongo OK in patches, but really disappointed with Pritchard today, poor game.

Good season tbf, surpassed my expectations, can't make it next week so a bit of a flat end to the season for me.

Given we're going to be missing Pritchard, Thompson, and Troy, I wouldn't worry about it too much, could be a bit of a flat end for everyone

Gee, I was looking forward to it until you posted that.

Someone who went today, please clarify - were our opposition dirty nasty moany diving cheating cunts on a Brentford level?

Am I right in thinking that Tory will get a 4 game ban as it's his 2nd red of the season?

Yes, unless we win an appeal....And we know that's never going to happen.

If we appeal it'll probably get extended to a lifetime one.

To a degree, not necessarily dirty but the rest, yes.

Pitch was drenched at half time with huge puddles around the park, we struggled with that big time, players slipping over & struggled with the pace of the ball.  Another underhand tactic I reckon

Just got back.  Best part of the day was the pre-match pints (thanks to donkey for his recommendation).  The match was shite....as were we, on the whole.  To be fair, the pitch didn't look that bad during the warm-up but they watered it before kick-off (unnecessary) to make it worse, and then saturated it during the half-time break (completely unnecessary) to turn it into a bog.  Bastards!

Not sure anyone was deserving of man of the match - probably Wes, possibly Pritchard, Branco or Troy.  I wouldn't blame Wes for their first goal.  I don't think he would have seen it coming until very late.  He made a great stop in the second half when they had a one on one.

Byrne was dreadful and Cox was woeful.  Luongo was lightweight and ineffectual and I really don't think Nathan Thompson is anywhere near the player he was last season.  By my reckoning it was 85 minutes before we got their keeper to make a save.  Storey had 20 minutes at the end but didn't offer anything.  Before that, Smith played the lone striker role to no effect whatsoever.  He needs to put himself about a bit more.  I lost count of the number of times he ducked out of 50/50 balls.

The referee was another fat bastard who got a lot wrong.  But, to be fair, he didn't get taken-in by County's constant diving for penalties.  County weren't dirty but they were diving and chirping away in the ref's ear throughout the game trying to get our players booked.  The worst offenders were Sheehan (who is and always will be a cunt), Grealish (what a ponce) and their centre forward.

The nonsense at the end was ridiculous.  I thought the ref was using shirt numbers to pick his Lotto numbers for this evening's draw.  Maybe it was a good thing that Yasser wasn't on the pitch or God knows what would have happened.  We really do need to sort out our indiscipline.  Teams now know that we are easy to wind-up and it's costing us.

Pitch also watered before kick-off. Thought that was well out of order, the middle of the park looked to have the consistency of rice pudding. Still, you've got to adjust to the conditions and we didn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtCe9hf2YsY

You're not actually being serious, are you?

I'm with Flashheart

Notts Co are a bunch of cheating,diving wankers and their fans are cut from similar cloth,appealing for absolutely everything. The time wasting throughout was annoying and Jimmy Spencer was a total cunt.Not sure how you pick a mom because we were poor as a whole and it would have been Troy for me but he didn't hit Spencer hard enough

I didn't go, or listen to it but the referee is a cunt.

Looks like Troy can have no arguments from that video. Thompson also goes flying in so can't really complain.

Link it for the lazy amongst us you cunt.

It's on the previous page, you lazy cunt.

Disappointing end - needed some fight but not a fight.......listened to the commentary which made it sound pretty dreadful. I suppose its a good position to end up but I am disappointed that we completely lost our way in the New Year - I felt a play off position was ours for the taking so not too impressed that we haven`t managed it especially as we have done so well against the so called good teams and haven`t performed against the lesser ones. Roll on the World Cup........

Won't be digging out of the attic my flags and bunting this time round. Seems to be so much apathy towards the WC this time.

I'm quite looking forward to the WC but then I don't usually have any expectations for England to do well.

I don't know how you can make anything out from that link.

The footage isn't that bad. You can quite clearly see Troy 'throw' a punch at the Notts Co player after he'd pulled his shirt and it looks like he touches his neck?

If troy punched one of their players in the box should that not have been a pen to notts?

We never looked like scoring yesterday, county fans appealed for everything no matter what! Smith gets abuse for absolutely everything even for overhit passes to him which happened on at least 4 occasions. Why byrne was playing basically upfront when we had storey on the bench I don't know. Little ginger kid was irritating.

Decent day though,  good pubs,  good turnout from Town and even a little partying that we were staying up.

Roll on next season

Agree with all of this, including ginger kid!  Troy is a beast of a man, if he'd actually punched that bloke, he wouldn't have got up!  Suggest it was a bit of a slap & the County player made a meal of it, as they did all afternoon, hence the ensuing melee.

People aren't surprised that Sheehan was acting like a prick, surely?  :eek:

Macari did that v Muff back in the day....Swindon fire brigade I believe...

It wouldn't have been as the ball was already out for a throw.

Just saw the FL show - thought we could have done could have done better before it reached him, but Sheehan could have had a picnic before hitting it with the amount of time he had.

Couldn't see what happened for the red(s).

The second County goal was a gnats dick away from being offside, not that it mattered.

Hi all, notts fan in peace.  This watering of the grass business has been discussed at length on our messageboard too and irritates a lot of our fans.  But one of our directors explained why it was done.  I can't for the life of me remember the whole reasoning, but it's to do with the rugby played on our pitch, the fact one side of the ground doesn't get sunlight and new growth. Oh and something to do with the water table.  I think.  But even if it was purely to irritate the opposing team, surely it would be equally as irritating to us?  Anyway, it's apparently something they have to do!

Hope we'll be facing you next season.

As long as pitches are playable I can't see a problem why clubs  make it difficult for visiting teams by making their pitches more suited to their own game/style. Surely it's part of home advantage.

Alright chaps Notts fan here.

Just a couple of points.

The reason you lost was simply the fact you barely tested our keeper. You must have had 70% of your possession in our half but barely put in a cross of note or moved into a position to shoot with any reasonable precision. We have shipped goals quicker than Fed Ex when put under pressure. You simply didn't have the killer ball to do that yesterday. And we mostly didn't give you the time on the ball to do so.

The pitch wasn't bad, certainly its been worse. Have you been to Crawley or Tranmere this season? Be fair, you'd probably not have commented before it was brought up as a pre-excuse by Mr Cooper. Your manager even dismissed it in his post match interview as being an issue.

As to the ref, he was a bit of a pillock without doubt, pretty poor for both sides. But you can't honestly defend what TAH did can you? Really? I was pretty close to the incident, it was a punch, it connected, it wasn't a push, slap or the usual handbags and raised arms that players fall over from, it was a punch. It has no place on a football field. A deserved red card, not a chance you'll appeal it.

A tense nervy game largely lacking in quality which epitomised the desperation of both teams to achieve the win. Sounds like you've had a decent season despite distractions off the pitch. Be happy about that, we just needed it more than you on the day. It happens.

8 games ago we were 7 points adrift at the bottom, it takes a certain level of determination against all odds to turn that around how we have (winning 6 of those 8), but we have, you have just met us whilst we embodied that determination, despite our definite lack of the quality of a top six team.

Hopefully we'll do enough in the final game to play you next season. If not, that's football, I won't be blaming our pitch or a referee's performance, over a season you end up where you deserve to be.

Oh and thanks for booing Sheehan, he hadn't had a shot let alone scored a single goal in open play this season before you started booing him.

COYP!

As I said...we did it all the time under Macaris long ball tactics...

It's not my fault if people can't take the s out of their http, so it comes up as a link instead of an embedded video.

Fucking lazy bastards.

It looked a lot more as if the centre of the pitch was being soaked to negate our passing game,either end looked fine. Maybe I'm just being cynical!

Highlights up. Looks like we were mullered.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLD4lwesbd8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLD4lwesbd8)

Notts County have been decent at home (and overall, really) recently and look like they will stay up. They've become a bit of a bogey team away from home though, can't remember the last time we got a result there?

I'd prefer Tranmere to go down but I think it's going to be Crewe. Carlisle also have a lot to do.

Crewe vs. Preston
Oldham vs. Notts County
Tranmere vs. Bradford

I saw Tommy Mooney score a late headed winner there in a 2-1 win, from a typically wicked pinpoint cross by Daisy Duke.   Notts goal a dive getting them an unwarranted pen.

I've a problem with Notts....loved the teams of Jimmy Sirrell, afros abounding, Tristam Benjamin, Pedro Richards. A footballer as good as Don Masson, a sort of 70's Pirlo.

But then Munto finance....Sven, Sol Campbell and Kasper Schmeichel. Cheated their way to Div 3 and got away with it, whereas the likes of Luton got hammered.  They really should be back in Div 4.

They played some fantastic football in the late 70's early 80's like John Chiedozie and as you say Masson who was very under rated jockenese player. As well as Trevor Christie, Rachid Harkouk, Brian Kilcline and Iain Mcculloch too, they had some very skillfil players back then and played always with fast wingers and the ball on the ground.

Yeah they were cheats and should have been treated as cheats, I have no time for them recently either.

God those Notts County players were fucking mouthing off like nobody's business. Incident's not on camera either, but unless Troy ran away it's hard to see how he got from where the incident took place to where he was standing when the camera panned across.

That ref was a fat little piggy wasn't he?

They were taken over by fraudsters. It's the conmen who took them over who should be punished, not the club (i.e. players, fans and staff) who had no part in the cheating. And yes I know that's what happened to Luton, but doing the wrong thing twice makes things worse, not better

That is true but they "technically" cheated as a club so really should be punished as a club IMO, I know two wrongs do not make a right but if it was good enough for Luton it is good enough for them.

The fans welcomed all the new signings and the rise up the league(s) and didn't question it but were totally adamant at the time that they as a club broke no rules despite it being almost blatant to everyone else.

But yes the fans shouldn't be punished for the owners of clubs misdemeanour but this is how all other clubs have been treated, from us in the 1st to 3rd debacle in 90, Luton, Coventry, Rangers etc etc its the club itself that benefits from cheating so should be punished as a club.

Thats certainly how the FA seem to feel whether we as fans like it or not, all clubs SHOULD be treated equally from the Premiership down to the lowest of the lower leagues.

But we know that doesn't happen, as was proved to a certain point by Sunderland fielding the ineligible player recently.

Which is why I said I've a problem with Notts....broadly speaking I agree that penalties should be applied to individuals rather than clubs, but once the precedent is set, then failure to apply available sanctions fails the natural justice test....I suspect we'll see all sorts of legal shit if Sunderland manage to stay up by 1 point.

Notts escaped, but because of that shit, I'd rather see them go down, rather than say Crewe.

You must know how the Sunderland scenario will pan out. They WILL survive by 1 point

It can be the only reason why they picked up 4 points o the road at Man City and Chelsea, after Poyet had publicly slagged the players off and Connor Wickham suddenly becomes a late candidate for the WC squad....there being little competition.

Sunderlan didn't cheat for fucks sake. They fielded their own player, it was a paperwork issue. Get off your high fucking horses.

Something obviously irritated you here but let's clear a few things up.

1) we know we were shit and you wanted it more, no one disputes that. You are a shit team fighting relegation and we are slightly less shit team who basically had nothing to play for. Plus we are dogshit away from home bar a slight upturn recently.

2) Your pitch is bad. It's awful. Others are worse but that doesn't mean yours isn't shit. Which it is. It's probably not why we lost, but it didn't help us.

3) Ex players scoring against us is common ground. That doesn't mean Sheehan is any less of a cunt.

4) In true Arsene Wenger style, I didn't see the Troy incident, just the replay where the guy is on the floor and Troy walks away. So it probably was a red, but the random booking of players was a joke. I don't think anyone on here has given that as the reason we lost.

5) You will stay up, almost certainly. And I'd rather you stayed up than Tranmere or Carlisle. You'll end up as one of the most southern teams in the league the way things are going! Although having said that, given your "we wont whine about referees" comment, it would be slightly amusing if a a dodgy decision sent you down... But for your sake, lets hope thats not the case.

You completely miss the point....the FA have a policy for competitions under their jurisdiction,fieldan ineligible player in a cup, get thrown out, field an ineligible player in the league and get a points deduction....happened with the Scum, docked points for fielding their own player Eddie Hutchinson.

You won't get any argument from me about the Munto fiasco.  It was our supporters club chairman who sold us to the fraudsters, saying before a vote that they were the most honourable people he had met and anyway he had a 5 million cast iron guarantee if they didn't produce the goods.  Not only were they not honourable, they were scum of the earth, but they were good.  How do you convince Sven Goran Erikson to come to a club otherwise?  We were in a desperate place and nearly went out of the football league, so obviously our fans grasped at it.

However, there is one great big difference between what happened to Luton, or any other club that were deducted points and that is we didn't go into admin.  The man who took us over paid every single debt that Munto accumulated to the tune of around 8 million.  So every players contract was honoured, no small businesses suffered, getting only 1p in the pound or whatever, hotel bills, flights...yes flights...They actually FLEW a league 2 club down south to play Bournemouth. Taxes were all paid in full.  So no FA rules were broken.  Of course, a lot of those players probably wouldn't have come to us without the lure of 'big money', but strangely they weren't on massive deals apart from sol (apart from Sol.  I can't even type that without laughing).  Players like Ben Davies were on reasonable enough wages, certainly not ones that meant we had to offload them, we kept quite a few of them for next season, and the season after.

I have to acknowledge that it wasn't the high point of our history, and I understand why opposition fans would say we cheated, of course I do.  But we had a transfer embargo which was the punishment for exceeding the wage percentage.  I'm not sure we deserved to have points deducted when our new chairman did the honourable thing.

The FA couldn't deduct league points from Sunderland though, that would be the Premier League's call and they chose to issue a fine instead

Exactly what rules did we break? We overspent above the wage cap and received the punishment for it.

We paid ALL our debts and did not go into administration or avoid our commitments to any debtor.

Unlike Luton we did not come out of administration without a CVA (minus 10) (nor go into administration minus 10).
Nor did we have 15 misconduct charges leveled against us. (minus 10)

The debts racked up by the previous owners were paid by the current owner. And we were then not under the transfer embargo imposed for exceeding the wage cap. Sound familiar?

Luton were screwed over without question, but under the current rules we did only the same thing you did.... and received the same punishment. Unless you think you should have been dealt with the same as Luton of course?

The whole wage cap thing is just a mechanism to keep any club, whether already in the PL Or not, who is not one of the elite clubs forever scrabbling around with no chance of competing.

Not even if a multi billionaire bought us, or any other club, could they use their own wealth to raise that club up to the top table.

Platini and the other UEFA plutocrats need taking out and shooting.

Only those sour grapes chap :)

Sounds fair.


I was with you until "It's probably not why we lost"..... you could have just left that out, but couldn't resist the excuse....

Just glad you could help us.

Even after the video (the fans video), a few on here were suggesting it was ok to punch a player because he was a cunt...... anyone defending that is an idiot. I wouldn't defend on of ours who did so. This was a punch not handbags or raised hands.

If we lose (however it occurs) and tranmere and crewe (and carlisle) all win, no matter how it occurs it won;t be the reason we were relegated. If we're relegated, it happened in the first half of this season, its a miracle we've made it to the last game to be honest.

The wage cap isn't Platini. That's FFP.

The League one and two wages caps were voted for and agreed by, the members of the Football league's one and two......

Haven't seen the fans video. I won't justify any player acting like a cock, especially one who could have been crucial to us had we got a result. I think the thing with referees is that they have been consistently shit for us all season, and we get punished for things that others dont seem to (example, sako getting a yellow for spitting and pushing our player, Pritchard sent off 4 days later for just a push). Our disciplinary record is terrible and most are justified but it's still frustrating.

I haven't really detected any sour grapes, I haven't seen any opinions (well ones I respect anyway) that suggest we were hard done by or unlucky, we didn't deserve to win and that has been widely remarked on this forum and in the press. But then again you were looking for them I think. Our fans moaning about the referee is more likely to be a seasons worth of frustration rather than an excuse. The 'probably not why we lost' comment was slightly tongue in cheek, apologies that didn't come accross.

Yes it is quite an achievement. When you came to us you were lucky our shooting boots weren't on because 8-0 wouldn't have flattered us. You were dreadful.

That's just silly. It wasn't "good enough for Luton", it was completely the wrong thing to do to Luton (and indeed Bournemouth at the same time) and so would also be the wrong thing to do to Notts County. I'd hope that the example of the punishment meted out to Luton would stand as an example of monumental idiocy to discourage that from ever being done again, not be used as a precedent. That's the general case.

In this specific case, Notts County, as their fans have pointed out, didn't go into admin, so it would be especially silly to apply the punishment to them.

Only one club's is worse than ours... Notts County! Although we've picked up only 2 less yellows but have conceded 42 fewer fouls.

That's really bad.

Still ???
Thought we might have the coveted top spot after saturday

Another easy bit of trivia

When was the last game where we had 2 sent off?

Notts County  :)

Smart arse!

That's one thing we definitely need to work on for next season!

Rovers at home? They had 2 off as well...

Those 2 reds took us equal with 7.

Fair comment.

Rotherham beat us 6-0 not so long back, and the nil flattered us on that occasion also.

There's still a game to go, but I feel we might have it in the bag with at least two of your offenders banned and with our worst ones already ejected from the club!

Dont be so sure
Games involving Rovrums fat controller tend to get a lil heated at times

We may snatch victory yet

In theory, the FA is the governing body of the PL, in reality they do as they want. I'd imagine the docking of points for fielding an ineligible player, a Korean, wouldn't have played well in the Far East market, hence the effort to keep it quiet.

At least we have something to play for. We can afford to get players sent off and County can't. lets do this!

What's wrong with their fans? 1-0 up in a crucial game and the opposition has 2 players sent off near the end and they hardly muster a cheer.

Whilst we're pretty shit vocally, we'd have been taken all sorts of piss out of the travelling fans if the shoe was on the other foot.

 :crash:

(http://oi60.tinypic.com/2z81e84.jpg)

Most were probably still shitting themselves. We've lost numerous games this season with better odds.

I however was jumping up and down shouting cheerio, waving, laughing and thinking we might actually win the game......like most fans do...

We don't usually get many fans on here from opposition sides. Except Thor of course.

I work with one of the Towns masseurs, who told me today that when Nathan Thompson got sent off, he had finger marks on his neck.

I think this season's refereeing has been particularly bad.  You should see some of the potentially career ending tackles that have gone unpunished against us.  Bristol City home game put Liddle out for 3 months.  Goodness knows how his ankle wasn't snapped.  I was listening to the commentary on Sat, and as soon as the mass brawl started I was running through the team thinking who we could afford to lose and who we would be completely screwed for Oldham if they were sent off.  I was that sure we'd see at least one sending off.

It seems from your comments that like us, you've had a few bellends.  I've lost count of the number of threads on our messageboard discussing shocking refereeing this season.  Perhaps it's not just us, and it really has got worse.  I'm certainly not convinced it's evened itself out over the course of a season as we usually say.  Well maybe we got away with one on Saturday, difficult to tell!

It's the Notts County results I always look out for after our own, Was a regular there as a small child and the older generation of my family are all County fans whilst the younger ones are Forest ST holders. Been a Town supporter for around 40 years now and wouldn't have it any other way. If I stayed at my birth place of Nottingham I'd probably think the same way about County as I do Swindon.

This is the worse season for refereeing I can remember, definitely. It's the complete lack of consistency that is the worst I think!

Consistency is awful this season.
Watched leeds v forest on tv couple of weeks ago
2 forest players collided and went down, no head injuries but ref stops the game and allows physio on
Then allows both players to stay on pitch after treatment ,
Second half leeds striker hits deck hard after going for a header, ref waves play on then after ball is kicked out of play allows treatment.
As physio leaves the field the ref makes the leeds player  leave too for a couple of mins before allowing back on.

Tis no wonder fans and players get so wound up

I question some of their fitness levels too. We've had some right porkers this season.

If two players get injured in the same incident they don't need to leave the pitch.

Happened to us a couple of season ago at the CG, clash of heads between our two Central defenders and both were allowed back on to defend the corner.

The referee must really have been a wanker for the FA not to do us further:

I'd heard the assessor was far from impressed.

As suspected...

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/03/sunderland-face-legal-fight-points-deduction

You know what, to have a premier league place robbed from them would kind of be karma for nicking our place when we cheated. But our relegation was hardly Sunderland's fault, I know.

More importantly, a points deduction would at least be consistent with the football league punishment. Which leads to a question, what point is of The FA's role in the professional leagues, do they have any power whatsoever.

That said, I don't like the legal action mentality. Where will it stop. If it goes too far will (for example) referees will be too scared to give controversial decisions at key times in case they get sued   

Wasn't the PL, prior to sponsorship,  called the FA Premier League? That tells you all you need to know.

Sunderland rather rubbed the salt in though, so I hate the fuckers, let it rain.

West Ham got away with it for Tevez and Mascherano, so the Premier League are being consistent.