Thetownend.com

Off

Because?

International call-ups

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2024/march/walsall-away-fixture-postponed/

https://www.saddlers.co.uk/news/2024/march/swindon-town-game-at-poundland-bescot-stadium-postponed/

Call it a draw and don’t bother playing the game due to lack of Interest our end :D

why would they want to forfeit three guaranteed points ?.

Always two sides to the story :D

See if this works!!

So no UGM, is Nanny Injured! bet an Academy player will start

Driving as cant get on the SAS bus as only one going!!  So probably a lot less going thanto original match

2-2 if new general plays, (450 us)

boots filled!

Walsall 1-2 Swindon: Attendance 6,350 (541)

Three on the bounce, Glatzel will net two with Derek Adams watching down with beady eyes in the stands.

Be lucky to get over 5,500 for a Tuesday game IMO.

Cant be arsed to go despite work being 1/2 closer.

I guess they still have a very outside chance of PO, and to be fair we've certainly picked up of late and have no pressure on us. Should be a close one.

Thought they might have a big crowd of 6k for their play off push...

You could well be right, but they just dont seem to have many fans that come out for midweek home games, barely broke 4k once and 4 under 4,700 this season on a Tuesday then add to that only 2 wins in the last 6 including 3 defeats.

Their Tuesday league attendances so far have been 4,515 4,108 5,600 4,543 5,013 and 4,737.

Would be our first run of three consecutive wins all season.

How pathetic this season has been.

Pre match I think therefore I yam yam in The London and North Western.

The match day thread for this fixture a couple of years ago had hit 16 pages before the Saturday.

Ninth visit to the Bescot. Still seems like a new stadium but pushing 35 years old now.
One visit to Fellows Park in 1986 and that was a proper tip.

So, this Zav chappie. When he first came on board I'm assuming that non-executive director roles were not covered by the fit & proper thingy?
Don’t know why the club don’t just come clean if he is effectively in that same role now, albeit unofficially.
Maybe the criteria for fit & proper have been extended to non-exec roles in the meantime.

Anyway, we could hit the giddy heights of 16th tonight, but can’t finish any higher than 12th.
Season 2023/24?
Cor be fookin bovvered as they say in these parts.

It’s a sore point that Saddlers fans got to see STFC cult hero that never was Claude Gnapka play about 20 times.

Got to admire your staying power during this season of drivel.

Fair play WB for that commitment, I have watched every minute of every game but only 2 this season in person, that takes some doing.

Its been a bloody tough season to watch, certainly since October, even just watching games online at times let alone actually travelling the thousands of miles to be there in person.

Much respect to you, but mate, please get a sanity check at the psychiatrist before putting yourself through it all again next season!

 we are going to win 5-0.  Kokolo hat trick. 

Can I have of what you’ve been drinking 😂

A win is not impossible not even unlikely.2-1

50/50 whether I'll tune in tonight. I actually think it'll be an entertaining game.

I do think we'll get walloped though.

Tuning in? You should be going, must be your nearest game  :)

Well,to be fair we've only been walloped once under Gunning so far,so could be due another

Probably would have gone on the Saturday, Tuesday night not possible due to working in the smoke.

McGregor at RB tonight maybe?

More likely just Brewitt straight swap as we have been playing a back 3 in recent games with Elboozy slotting into a sort of RWB role.

Well given that George has been featured in pretty much every photo promting the game, pretty sure bet that he will be starting.

They did the same with Charlie Austin a couple of weeks ago and he was only on the bench.

Good luck to the lad if he does get a start, as good a time as any to blood him from the off.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLTXjvZXcAILV2c?format=jpg&name=4096x4096)

Devoy, McGregor and Brewitt start.

RHM in a surprise benchwarming role.

Harley Hunt on the bench, along with RHM who I thought was done for the season. No McGurk still, something off there.

Hunt is a first year CB I believe, Hart is out on loan.

Thought we’d seen the last of RHM. Good option off the bench though.

Harley Hunt

Harley is a tall athletic centre-back who can carry the football into midfield comfortably.

The young defender only been in the academy since U15 and is a local lad who's from Swindon.

Hunt is another academy player who has graduated through the ranks since a young age, being with the club since 6 years old and will be looking to push for a first-team appearance across the 2023/24 season.

No McGurk or McKirdy ?

Why not when we have several other Mc's ?

Just realised the Saddlers are managed by Sadler. Like us being managed by Mark Robins!

I'd take it!

Not Phil Smith again!

McGregor looking handy so far.

Got away with some shocking defending there.

Some miss from Walsall there after a bit of a defensive fuck up and Brewitt heavily buying a dummy

Story of our season.

Drinan falls over the ball and gives them a good chance.

Oops 1-0

0-1

Bycroft not coming to claim it watched it go in the net.

A lot of pushing and shoving going on there, don't think that goal would survive a VAR check, but our defence need to be stronger.

Maybe being very harsh, but would like to see Bycroft coming out and at least getting a punch on it. Once again, probably incredibly harsh

Great ball from Cain there, who has been bright early on.

Bycroft does not command his area very well thats for sure.

Glatzel just strayed offside though.

I like the look of McGregor but we do miss Dokes mazey runs coming out from the back.

Drinan turns and shoots from 25 yards but its awful high and wide.

He doesn't, but none of our defenders seem to attack crosses either. FBT did last season but seems to have stopped, I do wonder whether it's some strange tactical choice or just players not being that arsed any more.

Think FBT has had a pretty poor second half of the season in general to be honest and has regressed a little in most areas of his game

Absolutely, Peter Shilton never used to come out to claim crosses he always said that was the defenders job to head the balls away so he could concentrait on keeping shots out.

We just dont have players who can head a ball very well it seems so its the worst of both worlds, and most teams exploit that.

Kokolo has a long low shot but its easily saved.

Devoy should have fucking shot and not dived in the box.

3rd time Devoy has given the ball away cheaply in our half but gets away with it.

Some very good footwork and tackle by McGregor, he looks handy.

McGregor looking bright

McGregor is very physical for an 18 year old winger.

Especially a small built one too. A proper little whippet of a wingback.

Bycroft with a low save, good chance for Walsall.

Walsall looking very panicky at the back, not a confident keeper either.

2 corners in a row for Town.

Glatzel flick off the line.

Another corner to Town.

Glatzel, Cain and Devoy having a go in the box but none connecting properly.

Corner to Town again won by Kokolo.

Was a striker through most his academy time, done well at RB in FAYC run this season.

Sounds like we’re making a fist of it.

We look pretty good going forwards but Walsall look a threat every time they attack.

HT 0-1

Actually don’t deserve to be losing. McGregor has looked very promising and we look threatening when we go forward. Ofoborh has also looked good

It's not been too bad really. We've looked alright going forward, albeit it helps a lot that they don't want the ball, had a few chances but the odd bounce hasn't gone for us. We're just not interested in defending crosses at the moment. McGregor and Cain look particularly bright.

We concede a lot of headers.

Good performance so far let down by our "Achilles heel"(or head!) of being undone by headers from set pieces. We can definitely get something playing like this. Oboforh commanding in midfield and Devoy and Cain generally keeping the ball ticking. McGregor having a decent first start too.

McGregor, Cain, Ofoborh and Kokolo looking very good, Drinan and Glatzel grew into the game as did Devoy but those 3 not quite at the quality they were on Saturday.

We look a threat going forwards but without a final ball, yet, but we still look shakey defending crosses as we have all season.

A draw was probably a fair score for the 1st half. Walsall break well but so do we, one poor piece of defending early on has cost us again as it did on Saturday and in other games this season.

Brewitt going off. Possibly.

Brewitt injures himself wrestling, we're going to get Harley Hunt here.

Hunt on for Brewitt.

Walsall getting more of a grip on the game now.

And they miss an absolute sitter from 2 yards open goal.

Particularly down their left/our right, Kokolo looking bright going forward but is having a tough game defensively.

Both Kokolo and Dokes look far better going forwards than defensively in prettymuch every game they have played for us.

Town looking to make some more subs.

McEachran on for Cain.
Austin on for Drinan.
RHM on for Ofoborh.

Not Drinans best game for us.

Fourth official appears to be about as good at operating the board as my nan is at using her iPhone.

Think that's us back to 4-2-4?

Bit harsh on Ofoborh IMO.

3-4-3 it looks to me.

Bit knackered IMO.

Arent we all!

You may have a point.

Does anyone know if Harley Hunt is related to Oggie?

1-1

1-1

Wow what a finish by Glatzel.

What a bloody finish

Cant be hes twice his height!

Exactly my sentiment!

Didn’t see that coming!!

Glatzel is going to get interest in summer, isn't he?

Shockingly brilliant.

Half his width though

Looked a foul on McGregor there as he carried the ball forwards.

True that.

Looks a player does McGregor

Glatzel is immense.

My MotM so far.

Elboozy on for McGregor.

Well done lad man of the match for me.

Fucking diving prick. Should have been a booking.

Wouldn't catch, say, Devoy diving in the box!

Decent tackle from Hunt to push him wide.

Oh Devoy dived but not as blatantly as that dive, Bycroft not even next to him. TBF Devoy should have been booked for that too.

Elboozy fires high and wide from a great break.

Won’t be playing here probably

Walsall needing the three points is making this a lot more fun than it otherwise would be.

RHM chips the keeper and its just over the bar.

Boozy should have done better then

I recon FGR have about ten minutes of league football left.

RHM wins a free kick, he thought about a shot.

Oh well

Walsall seem to have a fiver on RHM scoring.

10 mins too long.

Fecking Cheltenham are winning

Elboozy wins a corner.

If they stay up and Vale come down thats fine by me.

Not least because we never fucking win at Cheltenham

1-2

Oh boo.

They havent deserved that goal.

That's a very free scorer. Probably Hunt's man tbh, but who knows.

6 mins added.

Shame - Looks like Hunt will fit in well! Caught the wrong side of his man who was in acres of space

That's bollocks. Ever been a more undeserved goal? Probably but I don't remember when

If we do lose this its not through lack of effort this half.

Another poorly defended cross though.

No team is every truly out the game against us, as all it takes is one high ball into our box and we shit ourselves

FT 1-2

Good effort probably deserved a draw over the game.

What a fucking weird thing to do with the throw, going back to Hunt with no time left. It doesn't matter, just weird.

Sums up the football IQ in this squad

Undeserved loss, Walsall aren't good enough to make progress in the play-offs, even if they make them.

Hmmmm….

McGregor with a very good debut
McEachran with an excellent cameo. Got us to play.
Glatzel with an awesome strike and 2 other opportunities which on another day he might have scored
Hunt didn’t disgrace himself, although he was caught out of position several times, including for their winner

Walsall very much papering over the cracks with that win.

Didn't think we were that bad. Gave it a bit of a go second half .

Possibly worth a point but defensively not great at times

Missed Dokes for sure.

 Genuinely thought we would win and float up the table on the rising tide.

Seeing as we now have two games left, we will officially finish the season not managing three wins on the bounce at any point (and probably only managing two three times!)

Gunning:
- We need improvements...The physical part does it again
- We dominated for long periods.
- Really happy with the boys today
- We need to be physically better.
- We concede too many goals from set plays
- We dominated when we moved the ball side to side quicker
- Brilliant going to width
- Too many good performances to single anyoine out
- McGregor: Their left back is decent and he did well
- Hunt is only 16 years old. Not too many 16 year olds playing L2. Composure was good. He's going to be a proper player
- McKirdy & McGurk: Niggle and tactical respectively
- Brewitt: Think its hamstring
- Better performance than the last 2
- Go to Grimsby and be positive
- Two youngster have shown they can play
- Hopefully we can get guys minutes. Not just as a token gesture
- Fantastic for the club having 2 16 and 17 year olds playing in defence

It really isnt. Fucking hell he talks some crap.

Congratulations to the stat padder as Mansfield get promoted

Port Vale  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Someone saying Adams was in the stands tonight?

I think he was trying to say that the future is bright as we have very good 16 and 17 year olds that are potentially good enough to play in the first team. If nurtured properly, they could turn into stars of the future.

And be sold at the first opportunity like they always are

*not necessarily for Swindon

Wish we could paper over the cracks and be 3 points off the playoffs 😔

What do you know about this OR?

If Barrow, Wimbledon and Walsall are in the playoff mix this league really is shite.

I didn't rate any of them at all.

Based on what we've seem its hard to disagree.

Wimbledon were totally different at their place though. Absolutely dominant. You'd have to think the same applies to the others

Well my reverse psychology of predicting we'll get walloped falls at the third hurdle and we couldn't manage a third win on the spin. As usual there were good parts and bad parts, but crucially the bad parts lose you matches.

My Ifollow in the first half was ropey and glitchy but I saw enough to know that Bycroft was the busier keeper. Mo Faal missed an absolute sitter before heading home a corner from 2 or 3 yards out. Personally I'd like my keeper to control that area better, especially when our defenders are about as commanding as Gregg Wallace in a 'grow the best perm you can' competition. After a pretty crap start we grew into the game more and played some ok stuff. Walsall to me definitely looked the more dangerous side, but McGregor didn't look out of place and Ofoborh's presence in DMC a positive.

Second half I thought we did ok again and gradually took control. An absolute Exocet from the consistently dangerous Glatzel drew us level and if anyone looked like winning it was the side in Blue. Sadly our Achilles heel came back to bite us in the arse as the lumbering Jamille Matt easily won his knock down and Danny Johnson, with the freedom of the Swindon box finished nicely. The amount of goals we concede from poor marking is horrible, and was the difference between 1/3 points and the square root of nothing.

Fair fucks to Hunt and McGregor for not looking out of place last night, Walsall are no mugs and you wouldn't have been able to tell they were kids still playing academy games. I liked McGregor's tenacity. I thought Ofoborh also played ok, neat and tidy footwork and his positioning was sound. Devoy also worth a mention, the metronome of the side keeping things ticking. There are signs that Shan is having a positive influence. If we can get the defensive side improved it gives you a much better chance.

Would like to know this as well. 

With Hunt's debut yesterday, we've now used 40 different players in the league this season. 48 if you include cup competitions. Madness.

It'll be a good Sporcle quiz come season's end.

Whilst it's a feather in the cap for the Academy who appear to be producing some excellent prospects, it's a black mark for recruitment.

Only six of them are academy kids as well, we've used 34 contracted pros (Minturn and Dworzak counting in the latter group as they're pros) - and McGregor is the only one to play more than 45 minutes total.

Mildly interesting considering how international the lower leagues used to be (before Brexit, I guess, although there are probably other factors) - Williams Kokolo is the only one of the 40 who isn't from the UK or Ireland (obviously Shade plays internationally for St. Kitts but is a UK national).

I don't want to diminish the work of the Academy, clearly they have done a good job as the youth teams performance in the league and cup have proved.

However generally with the standard of our acadamy (tier 3?) they have a greater chance of playing the lower in the league the team is, because the gap between the kids and the first team is smaller.

Att: 4,709 (309 Town)

Small club.

Just had to watch that Glatzel goal again.Maskell-esque!

He does have a similar build and play a bit in the style of Maskell but if anything he has even more of an eye for a goal (in Maskells time with us) and is a bit quicker too.

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqmsxe5Cg14