Thetownend.com

Will we survive relegation then?

Some people may think Its a bit too early to say but I honestly think that we can do it.Gradually I have seen the confidence sneak back in,and we seem to work as a team alot more since kingy left.The players seem less edgy and nervous,but now look confident going forward and I have definately seen a great improvement in the defence.I think Iffy has done amazingly well and he deserves alot of credit for turning it around.You can see he gets on well with the players and I think he has earned alot of respect from them.I know we are still not quite there,but there is now a two point gap between us and the team above and if we win saturday we are back in it again.
I can't see us getting relegated because I believe we are too good for that(and I really mean that),we have some very talented players,a mixture of youth and experience,aswell as great goalscorer and a very passionate manager who I am starting to think is the answer to our problems.

My answer-YES

your thoughts....

i hope we do. i think everyone will agree if we go down we're done for.

Do you mean - will we escape relegation - if so Yes.

If you mean would we survive if we were relegated - possibly not.

I meant will we escape relegation yes.

on the basis of our last two league games, there's absolutely no doubt in my mind whatsoever we'll stay up.

that is all

The only thing thats worrying me slightly is whats going to happen when our loanees spells run out.

i'm certain gurney will stay as i can't see swansea wanting him back.

it would make perfect sense for man utd to let us have heaton until the end of the season as he's improving with every game he plays.

don't really mind either way about mcdermott.

i'm not bothered about heath or collins.

bouazza is the only one i can't see us keeping past christmas and that'd be a huge loss.

Hard to say, we will need some consistency first. If we play like we did against Boston then no, if we play like we did yesterday then yes.

Where is the don't know option, I always go for them.

Best form of defence is attack. Having Iffy as a manger helps us in this way. I think we can survive relegation - Iffy seems to have the players playing with more shapness and passion

Boston aside, weve showed loads of fight in recent weeks and i think Iffy is the man to take us out of the relegation zone.

I think we'll stay up. No question.

We are going up, say we are going up  8)

it can be done. Results are starting to go our way, and the team is starting to gel

Its still too early to tell, as BWB says a don't know option is needed.  There are a few warning signs that need to have attention drawn to them, firstly all our victories have come in home games when there have been fans on the Sratton Bank....so a bit of atmosphere.

  Secondly although a win v Shitty is always welcome in any circumstances they are a very poor side, and apparently that's the best they've played for a while, so aren't much of a yardstick.

 If you take the last season we were relegated from this league...in derbies we beat the scum 3-2, Rovers 5-2, drew with Shitty at the CG and won 3-0 at Trashton and 4-1 at Eastville.....that side also had a 10-11 game winless run in the autumn, and although got back to being reasonable, 52 points was not enough.

  We still can't win away, and are going to need maybe 3 or 4 wins on the road.....we still can't finish a side off, and we still give away early goals at home through slow starts.

  Evidence of some change in these bad habits, is needed before we can relax.

fair comment ! ! ! 8)

Our position still looks bad on the face of it, but I really feel optimistic that we will stay up.

I think Iffy's doing a top job.  I would not have felt this way if King was still in charge. FACT!

I would not have felt that way either if kingy was still in charge ! FACT!

Our first half performance against City was as good as we've seen since the play off games. Even before the sending off, we had so much width and pace and movement that it was just a matter of time before we got real chances. 352 suited us well with Smith and Nicho raiding down the wings. Not many teams will withstand that sort of performance so we should pick up points steadily and climb away from the drop zone...but...

Second half we went 442 and the game changed and we went back to the old edgy Swindon that sits back too deep and starts lumping long balls in panic (Ifilitis)

the first half was championship standards, but the second half we slipped into ways that should never have done, like against boston last weekend

 We played 4-4-2 all the way through.

I don;t think the second half was BAD
It just wasn't as good as the first. To say it was like Boston is a huge exaggeration. We still got the bal down and created a few chances...well...more than City anyway.

I think that survival is more than possible, and we are CAPABLE of reaching 15th or 16th if we can put in good performances more often

yeh, im not sayin we wont stay up, because i whole hearted-ly believe that Town will stay up this season, and now believe we've got our season back on track, and i think with fallon back on wednesday we will beat Boston, and go through to the next round

Apart from playing 352 for the first half.

 Well most of the time you seem to watch a different game to me. (and BWB)

I think City were the worst team we have played this season (bar Stevenage and maybe Walsall), and if they are worried they should be, cos you can only change your manager once in a survival fight. Plus we were lucky with the sending off / Murray injury.

Having said that city were shit, our players showed a lot of guts to come back and fight their way through the game, and showed some good quality too. Good passing football, good goals. Even sewed it up well at the end when you would have expected nerves to come into it.

My head did drop after Port Vale at home because I really thought we would win that. But its getting better and we can beat the drop, no doubt.

Don't be petulant Reg. Agreement with BWB guarantees nothing. Surely a man of your iconic wisdom can see that.

They are getting enough confidence to adjust their formation to suit the game situation. 352 was what they were first half and it worked well.

  Shitty were by far the worst side we've seen at the CG since probably, when we played them in April....that night we should have mullered them by  a sackful.

 I just state facts...you say potatoes, I say pot at toes.  Whereas Dan Quayle would say potatos.

Here's a fact for you.  I spoke to some players out celebrating and they told me it was 352 first half. Next time I'll ask them to check with you first. :wink:

 That's an anecdote....perhaps they'd been celebrating a little too hard or were taking the piss out of you.

My fact is an anecdote? Your original "Well most of the time you seem to watch a different game to me. (and BWB)" was an opinion , not one of the facts you "just state"

Too early for them to be pissed.  As for piss taking, I've had enough of that to recognise when its happening ... and that's a fact!!

 That's conjecture.....

Which bit?

 That bit.

Tee Hee.

Time for some Zzzzz. Fact!!

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Cracked it. Ben Wah Balls is Reg Smeeton's son.

Andy King is Reg's brother.

Fact.

Since I'm on t'other side of the Atlantic then I don't get to see too many games ! I've listened to a few of the games and we haven't sounded too good. Furthermore, it appears that we have ground out a couple of results against average teams, got a couple of wins against mediocre teams and lost alot of games to poor teams. Looking at the league table seems to tell a story to me. If we are in the same position at Xmas then we are doomed.

NMH

santini and reg at loggerheads, fantastic stuff

Glad to be able to entertain you.(get a life).  No vitriolic personal abuse, just amusing banter.

i have to say i thought we played 442 too

I couldn't tell - They kept running around :|

Ha Ha!

Flexibility. Able to change shape to exploit opposition weaknesses without falling apart. Gurney's role and position seems the key to this. He can drop back to make a 3 when the FB/WB bomb forward to support the attack. What a difference Iffy has made!!!!

Not having see a great deal of them this season, the one thing that struck me about Friday's game more than anything else was the (almost) complete absence of the long, hopeful 'hoofball'.  We passed the ball and kept it much better than in recent times.

The big factor for me is who stays and goes in January, and who else we bring in to cover. I think we can kee within touching distance until then.

On the other hand we have only won 1 league game since August. We must pitch up a couple more wins before the Crimbo busy period.

Is wasnt 3-5-2 was it....

I thought first half it was a 4-5-1 when defending

Heaton

Smith
O'Hanlon
Ifil
Nicholas

McDermott
Miglioranzi
Gurney
Pook
Bouazza

Fallon

Then when we attacked Bouazza moved forward to make it 4-4-2

Then 2nd half we went 4-4-2.

I dont ever remember a defences trio of centre backs?

of course we can. friday night showed we can.

  "Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, you were born to do me shame."

Shakespeare liked his whoresons. I would have been the whoreson smoothpate