Thetownend.com

How do we feel?

Certainly don't look like the relegation certs some had us out to be.

We'll be top at Christmas. We'll finish 19th.

Bit more end product, top 10, easy.

We look a lot stronger than last season, better defensively, closing and chasing the ball down better.
Once the strikers kick on we could do very well this season.
Our best first XI are as strong as any in this league I would say.

I think with Ajose & Obika in this side we'd be looking at a play off place!! Mid table for me.

Ditto, still a bit unproven up front for me. If it clicks then that's different

The strikers need a goal, if they can get on a roll between them we could be a playoff team. If not I reckon we will finish 10-16.

Whatever happens we look much better than the flappers were predicting in July

Think norris will come good

After 5 games last season we had 8 points also, so too early to say. 

Williams made the point on interview, that we need to avoid injuries, I know it's seems an obvious thing to say, but we have got a few players with dodgy histories. We take these players who aren't the most physical, because they can play a bit, someone like Conor Thomas an example, looks quality, but held back by injury.

Last year it cost us....this year we do seem to have a bit of depth.  Yaser Kasim is key....he's probably our most important player, last season he only started 24 games...fucking off every so often seems to upset his equilibrium. It's happening again  :(

He is a class act when playing properly.  Hopefully, he'll get a run of games, and now realises he'll need to perform to get a move up the food chain.

The other potential problem is non scoring strikers....Jon Obika is a worry, is he anywhere near fit?   Delfouneso, will need to improve significantly....Norris too early to say.

Too early but shut me up as I thought we would struggle off the bat.

And after 13 games didn't we have 9? I'm expecting more than that this season.

12 after 13 last season.

Knew it was low, hopefully we don't get decimated by injury this year, although we seem better equipped to cope with a few this season.

I'm cautiously optimistic.. think we'll get top 8

Well I didn't judge the season before it started because I'm not a fucking knob, but I like what I've seen so far and I'd say mid table +/- a couple of places depending on the form we manage to find up front. I do think the size of our squad means a good run of form is important (not that it's ever a bad thing, obviously, but consistency could be the difference IMO.) I phrased that terribly.

Watching that yesterday, I didn't feel as though as defensive clanger was just around the corner. I know their penalty was down to a mistake, but I felt as though that was more down to an individual error from a new player than something inherent in the system.

So we have the same number of points as last season, and we then won the next game (which I'd settle for this year ;) ).

However after that we had a run of 2 points in 10 games, which was in the main part due to the lack of depth in our squad, which hopefully won't happen again this season.

Probably the most blatant penalty you'll see anywhere this season but entirely down to individual lack of awareness, was it his first touch as well?

We didn't fuck about with it too much at the back yesterday.

You mean you didn't judge the side before we had began to sign players?
What is this madness!!??

It is a good start in my book - reasonably talented bunch assembled by Williams and Power - defensively looking quite secure - scoring goals major issue at the moment but optimistic at this stage that we will work that one out - I reckon play offs or not for off - hardly exciting times but don`t think we are going down...

I'm reasonably pleased with results in our first 5 games a lot better than most fans predicted with the exception of Chesterfield, I still feel Williams doesn't know his best side as he's not had all of his options available to him. It's obvious to most fans that Kasim is now seen as our best player although if I'm honest I'd say it would be Doughty, really impressed with Thomas yesterday and think given more starts in a midfield role will only improve for me the only weaknesses at the moment are Anton who is the weakest midfielder we have in the squad yes he's improved slightly from last season but he's not good enough to be starting games also the wingback position Barry is shocking when we have JSW and Branco back he surely has to lose his place to Furlong, on the left yesterday I thought BOO looked better in his cameo than Brophy did all game their defender had him in his pocket all game and when he did have a chance to take his defender on Brophy kept cutting inside. I felt sorry for ND yesterday I thought he made some intelligent runs yesterday that weren't seen by our midfielders he doesn't look match fit yet but once he's up to speed think we'll have a great player on our hands we desperately need a poacher like Cox,Ajose,Austin upfront and we'll be ok I like the look of Goddard and thought Norris looked sharp when he came on all in all we have a better squad than last season already and with a couple of additions in January feel we may surprise a few teams I'm going for a finishing position of 6-8 which is a massive improvement

I don't think we do need a poacher.

What we need is a bit of creativity and flair.

Delfouneso and Norris look to me to provide 'endeavour'.
Doughty, on yesterday's performance, provides energy.
Goddard may well be the one who finds space in the box.
Thomas is the workman of midfield (and the closest to being a battler)
Kasim is the most likely to be able to unlock tight defences with a bit of flair.

Obika will go a long way to generating some space for others around him, he's so much stronger than the other forwards we have and will be so much more of a burden on defenses trying to contain him. 

This should lead to more clear cut chances than we've had so far, hopefully we'll put them away.

I agree with that, Obika is a vastly underrated player in our team, we definately know when he isn't playing.

 Anyone changing their mind 6 games in?

Still think we'll be nearer the top 6 than the bottom 6.

Yesterday is no different to the hold we have over Vale in recent seasons. If it wasn't Oxford nobody would be mentioning it.

We are obviously better than last season and I've been impressed overall. Duplicate the 2 defeats in 10 league games and we'll be thereabouts.

We lost at in Burslem in Feb. In fact we last won an away game in Feb, 10 games ago....that will need to change asap, as it's a worrying trend, like the non scoring strikers.

The mid week game is now distinctly strange.....presumably we could play Vigs and Jones, but Henry will need the run out to get ready for the 3 league games.

Similarly, our on going problem is the lack of continuity caused by injuries, call ups, suspensions, so an ideal opportunity to pick the side that will start v Bury and give them a run out, perhaps the strikers might score. The downside is the damage that might happen if we get stuffed....when you consider Chelsea have 38 players out on loan, it should be a proper kids team.

Maximum points at home so far and 2 points from 4 away games.

That form equates to 83-84 points over the season, which is potentially automatic promotion. Of course, such statistics are meaningless as it's far too early yet, but that doesn't stop some from casting prophecies of doom. If they can make such predictions, then so can I.

FUCK YEAH!                                                                                                                           

I'm not overly concerned by what I have seen so far. We look a lot more solid and more willing to mix it up a bit more. My only two concerns are our away form and strikers. None of our target men had found the net yet which concerns me. I'm not confident the Ajose void will be filled if I'm honest.

Out away form doesn't look great. 4 games so far and only 2 points. Two poor showings at Chesterfield and the Pox are probably to be expected as we always seem to lose to them. I guess Gills and Posh are both tough games but we will need to start getting the odd win on the road soon otherwise out home form will become even more important.

After 6 games though we are exactly where I expected us to be....mid table. 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats. That smacks of a 15th place finish to me. I'd probably be happy with that if I am honest.

We're fucking going up.

FUCK YEAH

By my maths on current form we get to 59 points....same as last season. When we our embrace with relegation was more snogging with tongues than casual flirting. 

Then I guess you're not taking into account that we have played 4 away and only 2 at home, it's rather a big factor to omit.

But it's silly anyway, we could go on to win the next 10 or lose the next 10. We just have to wait and see.

By extrapolation then we might as well just ignore the season, wait until May and see where we are. Where's the fun in that?

Dunno about you, but I enjoy following matches. I expect most others do as well.  

What a silly comment Reg, you've missed the point by some distance it seems.

Far from it...at this early stage of the season, I'm looking for signs of progress, from last season's disappointing campaign....there have been some fleeting glimpses, but they're evanescent.

It's no good when most fans go into a game expecting to lose, expecting indiscipline,  defensive errors and shot shy forwards....no progress there.

I expect to win the next 2 games - Bury and Rovers both at home - that would probably see us in 4th.

I don't think you can compare last season to this as, God forbid, we surely can't have 10 or 11 players out injured again.

The reason many fans expected us to lose yesterday is because of late we always lose against them, nothing to do with this seasons form, expecting indiscipline is due to it being a local derby as there are always players that get overhyped for such games.

My thoughts after 6 games are exactly as they were after the first 5, defensively we look better than last season, marginally, with Jones being a better player than Turnbull IMO already and Furlong looking like a good loan.

Attacking wise we look a little poorer than last season when Ajose was in a rich vein of form and Obika was playing well, whereas he hasn't really played this season as yet but I expect us to get better as players get fit and form picks up.

I think we will be mid table this season with some good and some bad games.

No team of Williams(or Powers) is going to score hatfulls of goals and chances will be hard to come by because our build up play in front of goal is too narrow even though we play with 2 attacking wing backs they dont get a decent delivery in the box often enough. We tend to try a short passing move that goes down the middle too often and into a wall of defenders with no shot at the end of it.

The 'Oxford thing' isn't restricted to them. It's the same reason we've been turfed out of the FA Cup by Macclesfield x2 and Cheltenham.

We don't do passion. We are controlled and somewhat formulaic in our play. Our passion tends to manifest itself as rash challenges  and indiscipline.

Good points. It's where the inexperience of the head coach shows itself, there should have been emphasis on not getting sucked into card collecting especially with a noted dodgy ref.

Nevertheless a couple of seasons back we could sucker the Shitheads into an early red and withstand their attempts at intimidation, so it can be done.

We did Passion under the mad Italian, we still got beat by Oxford 3 times.

I'm assuming that all our special fans (not aimed at you Mr Bellend, just some of the comments I've seen on FB) were calling for Di Canio to be sacked when we lost at home to them that season

 So 10 games in, any revision on the season so far from the original 5 game posters?

I'll stick with this. This league is all much of a muchness, no outstanding teams (yet)

FUCK YEAH!

This from Alex Cooke on the Washbag is worth reading on where STFC go from here:

https://thewashbag.com/2016/09/30/how-can-town-find-a-brighter-outlook/

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Not changed my mind. In fact so far we've been a little less threatening/worse quality up front than I feared.

Could still click though.

I predicted 14th place back in July and nothing has changed my opinion of that, we will see some good some bad.

Our good stuff is very, very good. Our bad stuff is horrid.

So far, effective teams beat us by exploiting our bad stuff. We're not effective enough with our good stuff to win or at least not lose games against the effective teams.

If we go on a 10 match winless run we may struggle more than we did last season. I've not yet seen us win this season but I think there is enough in the squad to win a relegation scrap.