Thetownend.com

....to sum it up that was fucking awful....

Just dreadful, come on then you positive people, you moan that us pesimists are too negative, well find we one positive about todays performance, because I thought it was awful....

Rhys Evans had a good game, saved every thing he had a chance with...

Patrick Collins unfit waste of space...send him back

Ifil unlucky for the first goal, was having his shirt pulled something rotten....good recovery skills, sadly most of them are from his own mistakes

O'Hanlon not his usual self today

Smith...would have perfered Duke tbh

Shakes heard good things about him pre-season, thought he was awful

Whalley looked good wants to get the ball down and pass shame no one else was on his wave length

Jenks...NOT A CENTRAL MIDFIELDER...

Pook...fucking awful...why play him on the left wing when we have two people, even at a push three people who can play left wing on the bench

Thorpe......not alot of service

Cureton......wouldnt have scored if we were still playing tonight

........

Roberts, uninterested, unfit....get rid

Awful performance, too much aimless hoof ball still and even worse hoof ball to sodding midgets. That was the difference, we hoofed it the Barnsley defenders won it, they hoofed it and their strikers managed to get the ball and bring it down. Only Whalley lookeds like he knew how the ball a bloody football....

If we perform like that for the rest of the season I cant see many wins.....truely awful

I know what to make too much on this point, but it was clear to see we missed the Parkin factor, a game like that we would have drawn last season because being out played and being shit we always had Parkin who was more than capable of a bit of magic to rescuse us and give the whole team a lift....


Usless....our team didnt even look like the cared, infact I expect after the 2nd went in the started planning where to go out to tonight... :roll:

So come on you optimistic people.....tell me what was good about today....apart from sweet fuck all

On a side note

Forumwatch: Today I spotted.....Dave Blackcurrent, Kinky Tom, Marie, Dex (I think) and Spencer White (again I think)

to sum up

FUCKING AWFUL

Thanks for your overwhelmingly reassuring post!

All I can say is that I hope it is down to the fact this team has not played together.

Shakes is highly rated so maybe will come good, we all hope we get that new CM soon, and Smith will hopefully prove to us why people think he's a good player.

There's a positive in your post you mong :roll:

Did Shakes play on the right wing/ right of midfield?

Why in god's name did King play Pook on the left wing? :-))(

Perhaps he was thinking Nicolau would have made the side too attacking? Only reason I can think of.

Surely Andy Nicholas would have done a better job than Pook in that position if he didn't want to make the side too attacking?

but we already knew Rhys was good...



Shakes played right wing....

Fuck knows why King played Pook on the left with Roberts, Nicolau and Nicholas sitting on the bench, another classic King thing

A well reasoned piece.....apart from the Parkin bit.....we were fairly dreadful away from home last season and SSP I think only scored 4 goals.

 It took us 24 matches last season to lose by more than a goal......


  I think most sane fans have realised that we're in for a struggle this season, so today was hardly a surprise.....Fallon is the key man...Thorpe and Cureton can't play together too lightweight.....nil point by this time next week aned the knives will be sharpened for King.

Well i thought we were alright, rhys was excellent, ifil was shite, and we passed the ball around better than last season until ifil started hoofing it, the difference3 was they took their chances we didnt.

i feel slightly reassured after today, certainly better than crawley, and shakes could be ace.

tef out in force, sonic yeovil, whits sussex,jmh,kinkytom davem russell,and i met gary stanley and shook his hand!!

If we were still playing now I think Cureton still wouldnt have scored, we managed to miss a penalty, a penalty rebound, two keeperless goals(with defenders) and Cureton (although offside) missed a great big open goal from a yard out....

Dare I say it but Parkin would have taken some of those chances.... :cry: well in my opinion anyway...but he's in the past....I dont want to dwell but as I said the other day his loss will impact us more than most expect

We played Pook on left wing because Roberts doesn't want to play there, Nicolau was poor in pre-season and Nicholas was worse and Pook is less lightweight than Nicolau.  However King admitted this turned out to be a mistake.

Disagree Mex. We were shite. I was optimistic before the game now I am shitting it. The only plus point was that Rhys had a good game.

We need a midfield because without it we're fucked. Barnsley are an average side. A good side would have destroyed us today.

Still, it's only the first game. As I said in a previous post, the season starts on Tuesday.

Did King really expect it to turn out to be anything other than a mistake....with the 11 he picked he should have gone 3-5-2 with Jenks and Smith as wing backs


Worst thing was, at the end the players didnt even seem to care.....

jesus cheer up a bit, it was alright, we just didnt take our chances, that will change, by the way nicolau was fuckin ace at crawley so ben you are talking balls

That was what worried me listening on the radio.
Why is it that King's teams never want it? Surely he must be able to stress the importance of DESIRE?!

i'm not jerels biggest fan when it comes to distribution but most of the time he was actually looking forward and TRYING, altho not very precise, to play balls between the centre and fullbacks. he had nothing else to pass to really. jenkins wasn't really in the game and as a result whalley couldn't get any space when he got the ball.

even when we set up for the first centre, then goal kicks we just looked completely lop sided. shakes was trying to hug the touchline but pook drifted in. he didn't look like he wanted to ball most of the time either, let alone close people down.

i liked what i saw of thorpe and curo, they didn't hit it off exactly but there's definitely an understanding of good football between them. intelligent runs and clever passes etc.

daniel nardiello is now my most hated player in this league, fucking ex manure scum. obviously along with that fuck CUNT that walked infront of the stand at 2:10, arrogant rotund dwarf.


all in all pretty poop, BUT if we can persuade king to play a balanced team and work out who can play where (you think he'd know by now) then we'll do well  :)

I've just got back now :x I'm very dissapointed because I too thought we were bloody awful.I did'nt know what to think of Ifil.On one hand he was a bit crap because he gave the ball away alot but on the other hand he was pretty good and made some brilliant challenges.The rest of them did'nt seem to want it enough and now I'm really not sure on the whole cureton,thorpe partnership.But hey It was the first game of the season,lets give the boys a chance.I think thorpe looked a bit nervous actually,probably cos he knows he is underpressure.
Anyway my first time at barnsley,I thought the ground was VERY nice.
The highlight of my day though was on the way there.We(me and my family) passed a mini bus full of oxford scummers.My dad and older cousin(beefy dude)thought it would be great to get their attention(I was scared but I joined in :oops: )so my dad beeped the horn and my cousin stuck his fingers up!they went mental!!!!tryed chucking bottles at me and my sister and two of the feckers put their arses out the window,and trust me it wasnt pretty!but bloody funny! :mrgreen:

And he was the cunt who won a penalty at the CG last season after a shocking dive in the box!, CUNT!. :evil:

we saw a car with an oxford scarf, so our car decided to do likewise. it mattered not that it was a rover 75 filled with middle age people :D

That was what King said, I guess he was poor against Millwall.

he's just a fucking lump that handles people to the extent that to get near the ball you need to push him a bit, then he falls over etc

reminds me of van nistelrooy when i write it like that, and he's my target for the prem

I think the defence held up ok considering the midfield gave them no protection whatsoever. Same old story eh.
All our problems are in midfield. They do not protect the back four and are not creative enough going forward.

true fucking story. i've said it for years, even when we were winning last season i never really thought we controlled games too well due to our weak midfield.

i'd be inlcined to say our coaching is not as good as it could be (by a longshot). there never seems to be much improvement, cos they must break down what's gone wrong the match before surely?

We all say King has a good eye for a player.....so when then is there still this big awful gap in midfield..

We can moan about our defenders distribution, but they shouldnt be the ones to distribute it.....John Terry's hoof balls are probably as crap as Ifils, but Terry has the option to roll it 10 yards to Makelelelelele

the latter is the point i was trying to make, in a more good way. i'm very tired

I thought that Jerel played better today than I once saw Heywood last season. I don't care what people say about his hoofing cos to be fair he had NO OTHER FUCKING OPTIONS. I thought that Rhys was good. Whalley looked ok but then when he had the ball he was swarmed by Barnsley players and had nobody to pass to. Jack Smith was better than Duke any day. I think that if we had put away the penalty the outcome would have been different but it is a big if.

Not true, despite Heywood being a donkey, he is strong in the air....we lacked that today in my opinion.



Id agree



Again agreed, good player but needs the options



Disagree, Duke is certainly alot better attacking than Smith

 

yeah 2-1 probably

How many supporters did we bring roughly?

It depresses me how negative some of you are being after one game, especially DV85. You really need to talk to a psychiatrist mate.

That said, I agree with Melksham to an extent - we were pretty shite and King's choice of playing Pook on the wing with Jenkins in the middle was certainly the wrong one, drop Collins (who was a waste of space, I'll agree with that) and put Jenkins back where he belongs and give Nicolau a chance, he's better than Shakes.

I thought Cureton and Thorpe looked lively and were both unlucky not to get on the scoresheet. It certainly didn't help them that the defence refused to pass to the midfield and the midfield refused to use any width, choosing instead to play long balls over the top for the strikers to chase, despite the fact neither of them are terribly quick. Evans kept us in the game and everyone else was average but not terrible.

It's difficult to judge after one game, I'd give it until a least 5 or 6 games before writing anyone off. Shame some of you won't give the players a chance.

I do....he said we were shite as well....


I'm certainly not judging after one game, I will cheer them onto the pitch all over again on Tuesday and all the games after that.

However as a paying fan I expect a little more fight & I dont believe that performance was good enough. I think our players are better than what they showed today

Then why are you saying half of them should be kicked out of the club?

I was pretty gutted because we did have the chances to get back into the game but couldn't take them, in the first game of the season with no decent pre-season behind us, it doesn't surprise me.

They'll come good.

I hope you're right Sonic really I do.....

It's okay I'm always right.

Does anyone think King will change it Tuesday?Obviously Migz will come in if fit.Could look something like this Rhys Jenks(RB)Seano Ifil/Collins Smith(LB)Roberts(RM)Migz,Whalley Nicolau(LM)Thorpe Cureo.

Still my major problem is still the lack of fight, no one seems committed enough.

I reckon only the winning team should get paid, then maybe our players might have a little more fight in them.... :D

I think he will adje. King admitted himself he made a mistake with the lineup, if Stef is fit then he'll definitely be in for Pook. If not, I'd hope he'd put Pook in the middle, bring in Nicolau on the left and put Jenkins at right-back.

I sometimes wish King  wouldn't say things like that-makes me think he hasn't got a fucking clue!

What was Ricky like today?

Shit. End of

I agree.the next lloyd opara maybe :( I'm willing to give him a chance though.Only played one game so far.

Give Collins a chance, every single Wednesday fan seems to rate him highly, he has only played about an hour with the rest of the team before today and many of the others haven't played together much so it is not surprising he wasn't at his best.

He took on a player and beat him, that's more than most of them managed.

I'm more dissapointed at you guys getting on the players backs already, it's only been one game.

I only listened on the radio though so I guess you lot are in a better position to judge but I don't think it was as bad as you all make out. Sounded alright apart from Pook on the left/hoofing to the strikers but I think as the team begin to gel things will pick up. Midfield needs to be sorted, maybe Migs & Whalley will do well?? Apparently they were linking up nicely before.

Team for Oldham??

Rhys
Jenkins O'Hanlon Ifil Smith
Shakes Whalley Migs Nicolau
Cureton Thorpe.

Thats not a bad side really, I can't wait for Fallon to get back though as I think he could really be a key player. Roberts sounds like he really isn't interested. Shame, he was great before his injury  :(

Our coaching needs to be sorted aswell, desperately. Thing is it won't happen. Also our board are complete muppets who know nothing on football. If this season ends with relegation I see the end of STFC. Get behind the lads at Oldham, fucking sing your hearts out they respond to it when you do. *sigh*

Still my major problem is still the lack of fight, no one seems committed enough.

and why do you think that is king just sits there smoking and he needs to be keeping the players committed and shouting orders at them!have you ever seen any other managers doing the same?does kings tatics work by siting in the stand??is thorpe and curetona waste of space?? :(

oh dear mate we were shit

I have just read King's comments on the official site, he says 'Perhaps the decision to play a right footer on the left wasn't a good one in Pook, but I thought his strength would offer us more.'

Did he not play David Duke on the left for 3 seasons?

jack smith is mainly right footed aswell. he is a silly man at times

IMO It could have been a lot worse on Saturday considering our current squad situation and the fact that this was the first 'competitive' game that this team had played together.

Excluding Rhys, Ifil, O'hanlon, Jenks there were 7 new players out there playing the first game of the season against Barnsley who are not a bad side and will probably be there abouts come playoff time.

I'm with Mex in as much that although the result was disappointing, the performance by some players (and in parts the team) was pretty encouraging considering that we're currently being tipped as potential relegation strugglers.

In time our 'team' performance will get better and the results will come, although we do need to eradicate the defensive errors to be in with a shout of the play-offs come May.

As i didnt go and only heard it on the radio ... I cant really comment .. but the idea of playing Pook on the left was stupid from the moment I heard it!!

Thorpe sounded like he got in the right places but cant finish .. might come with a few games.

Cureton will be better for missing that pen .. I expect him to go all out to score Tues

Ill be able to comment better on the others once ive seen them on Tues .. but Oldham is gonna be a hard game .. they have a strong squad

PS Hope Michelle Marsh is there !!

Playing away from home, with a team that doesn't really know each other yet was always going to be a tall order on the opening Saturday.

I am fully expecting a decent performance and a result tommorrow night against Oldham. At home Whalley should get more time to play his football, and that should bring the best out of the rest of the team, two good results at home this week, a bit of confidence and who knows what'll happen.

I wish i could be confident, but i can't see us winning for a couple of weeks still, and i fully expect a whole season without a clean sheet.