The Inquest

[Matchworn Shirts]

thank goodness, horrible smoggie cunts

[horlock07]

No, I want a club to support without hearing the words 'creditors' and 'administration' every few months.

Indeed, just stumbled across this on the net - them was the days!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21047858

[Hoboken]

Thanks to your mosaic and the alley-o chant, I'd say that was the best atmosphere out of the three last visits. The atmosphere died after the 2nd goal went in but I thought we the fans were decent. Just a shame the manager and players were shit.

Agreed. Up until the first goal(!) the atmosphere was great - I smuggled in 200 balloons which people (not literally) gobbled up; the mosaic and the singing all got everyone on their feet and joining in...completely different to the Millwall and the Chesterfield experiences. Such as shame the game itself was basically a carbon copy of disappointment...

[FormerlyPlymRed]

Atmosphere up to the 2nd goal was by far the best out of the 3 visits. Having less day trippers meant that the regulars were more compact. Display looked good as well so fair play jay.

Will be an interesting summer with people leaving/signing but reaching play off final was far beyond what i was expecting before the season started. Yesterday was shit but I've really enjoyed the season we have had, some brilliant performances and since jay's work, some of the best atmospheres for quite a few years (sheffield h/a and vale away). Power doesn't seem like a mug so I'm confident that next season we can kick on. With Preston, shitty and franchise all up, there isn't any team to fear next year.

Enjoy the summer everyone, already looking forward to August

[DiV]

No, I want a club to support without hearing the words 'creditors' and 'administration' every few months.

...well then an ambitionless club is perfect for you then.
Personally I like to see at least a desire to win and go places

[Simon Pieman]

...well then an ambitionless club is perfect for you then.
Personally I like to see at least a desire to win and go places

We were 90 minutes away from getting promotion. OK, we completely bottled it yesterday but you can't say there wasn't a desire to win and go places this season. Budget was irrelevant really.

[kerry red]

On a purely personal note, at least I don't have to visit the tattoo parlour or get my genitals mutilated.

Cooper will be gone

[FreddySTFC!]

This season we've balanced the books, grown one or two rough diamonds into first team players, and built a reputation as a club worth sending young players to. We're also likely to cash in on Luongo, who most people (remarkably) seem to think is a waste of space, with the possibility of making further profit on players like Byrne, Kasim and possibly Gladwin, although it wouldn't surprise me if we kept hold of them. Not to mention the 6 figure sum we'll have made out of yesterday.

With that extra cash, and with our final big earners leaving in the shape of Wes and Andy Williams, there's a bit of wriggle room over the summer. I like the philosophy that Cooper and Power have, and the approach of playing 3-5-2 with young players has brought some great performances and results.

In order to improve, I'd love to see us become able to adapt between 3-5-2 and something more solid like a 4-2-3-1. I'd also like to see a bit of the extra money spent on bringing in an experienced centre back and a decent replacement for Luongo. I don't like the way Preston play - I'd hate to watch it week in week out. But they are good it, and we'll never be able to beat teams like them on a regular basis until we become a little more wily and solid.

Overall, we beat everybody's expectations this season but got sussed out in the end. Plenty of great memories, especially from the semi-final games, and something to build on next year. It's hard to get excited about next season with the lack of attractive fixtures, but the flip side of that is that the league looks very winnable if we recruit well.

That's as good a post I've read on here for a long time.

[sonicyouth]

We were 90 minutes away from getting promotion. OK, we completely bottled it yesterday but you can't say there wasn't a desire to win and go places this season. Budget was irrelevant really.

Indeed. Bizarre to say we've had no desire to win this season

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

This season we've balanced the books, grown one or two rough diamonds into first team players, and built a reputation as a club worth sending young players to. We're also likely to cash in on Luongo, who most people (remarkably) seem to think is a waste of space, with the possibility of making further profit on players like Byrne, Kasim and possibly Gladwin, although it wouldn't surprise me if we kept hold of them. Not to mention the 6 figure sum we'll have made out of yesterday.

With that extra cash, and with our final big earners leaving in the shape of Wes and Andy Williams, there's a bit of wriggle room over the summer. I like the philosophy that Cooper and Power have, and the approach of playing 3-5-2 with young players has brought some great performances and results.

In order to improve, I'd love to see us become able to adapt between 3-5-2 and something more solid like a 4-2-3-1. I'd also like to see a bit of the extra money spent on bringing in an experienced centre back and a decent replacement for Luongo. I don't like the way Preston play - I'd hate to watch it week in week out. But they are good it, and we'll never be able to beat teams like them on a regular basis until we become a little more wily and solid.

Overall, we beat everybody's expectations this season but got sussed out in the end. Plenty of great memories, especially from the semi-final games, and something to build on next year. It's hard to get excited about next season with the lack of attractive fixtures, but the flip side of that is that the league looks very winnable if we recruit well.

Class post absolute class.
It's supporters like you who make me still want to follow Swindon.

[Bewster]

Totally agree with this. Financial stability is an achievement. Its what we do with it. I trust power and cooper to rebuild. Whatever happens though just have a fucking defence next season.

I don't fully trust Power tbh. He isn't an Abramovich/Sheik Urarse, he is in this to make money and make no mistake on that. I just hope it doesn't come at a high cost.

I'd like us to have a team with minimal loanees, players like NT who actually give a fuck.

[chalkies_shorts]

He's the only gig in town at the moment and I think he's done a brilliant job of getting the wage bill down while playing mostly great football and having a number of saleable assets. Two negatives though are the pricing structure. I can't see any games being a 27 game next season. Then there is the matter of agombar senior and junior.

[Wessex Warrior]

Agree with much that's already been said - men against boys, Nathan should not have started, youngsters overawed by the occasion, Preston strong and direct with the star player in Beckford, and they fully deserved their win. So I'll dwell on the 3-5-2 instead…

This can be an attacking formation, and has provided some mesmerising football this season. It was also variations of 3-5-2 that saw us win play-off finals in the 90s against Sunderland and Leicester. The wing backs are great going forward but they do leave gaps. One of the midfielders HAS to be a defensive midfielder to fill in, or come across. Kasim is quality, but he's not a ball winner (just look at the way he waved the Sheff Utd player through for their fifth goal). Teams that have a flat back four still have one even two defensive/holding midfielders (Chelsea a good example). Three defenders is simply not enough to defend with. Need a tough tackling midfielder.

The way to play against 3-5-2 is to hit the ball into the channels, or even better, play three up top. As the season evolved more and more teams worked out how to play us. Bristol City, Franchise and Preston beat us comprehensively in recent weeks, but even the likes of Yeovil and Crawley found a way to foil us once they got their noses in front. The 3-5-2 is a great counter-attacking formation which is why we won so many away games, but can leave too much space behind when we are chasing the game.

Whether it is needing to tighten up and close a game out, or dealing with a front three, Cooper (if he's still here) needs to build some flexibility into this system and have other formations. Against Sheff Utd we should have gone to a back four once we were 5-1 ahead. If defenders are dragged out of position to mark three forwards up top we need a defensive midfielder to fill in centrally. When teams park the bus we need a sweeper who can step up into midfield, like Hoddle did (Stephens better than Thompson at this, but obviously not even on the same page as Glenda).

So if Power/Cooper persist with this 3-5-2, then I think recruitment needs to focus on a ball playing sweeper, and a tackling defensive midfielder as balance to the wing backs.  But we'll probably have 8-9 other positions to fill as well.

[PetsWinPrizes]

Out of interest, where has the 'Cooper is off' school of thought come from?

I'd have thought a top four finish, coupled with fact he's willing to put up with Powers unusually hands on approach and the fact the Barnsley approach was rebuffed would grant him a degree of job security. This could be naive on my part granted.

[Flashheart]

Out of interest, where has the 'Cooper is off' school of thought come from?

The rumour mill. Perhaps from legit sources, perhaps not, although Sam seems reluctant to rubbish it on twitter. It seems to have some legs.