The Inquest

[bullethead]

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.

Been feeling pretty gutted since Wembley but that has given me some positivity, cheers mate, here's to next season!

[bullethead]

Guess it only upset me so much as I knew it will be my little boy crying soon?!

It was horrible seeing my lad cry so much when we got beat by Millwall, 5 years on and at the ripe old age of 11 he was still gutted but so much more positive and able to deal with it. All part of growing up I guess!

[Batch]

thought I'd prepared myself for defeat this time. still feel like shit this morning. lesson learnt, it shouldn't matter this much but it does.

[lambourn red]

I thought I would be over it but still feel angry at the sheer ineptness and missed opportunity, i thought the millwall performance was as bad as it gets but that was to another level

[Reg Smeeton]

I thought I would be over it but still feel angry at the sheer ineptness and missed opportunity, i thought the millwall performance was as bad as it gets but that was to another level

We'd had plenty of notice, that the side had such a performance in them.....look on the bright side we could have lost to MKD on pens.....Mass slipping and missing the crucial kick and doing his ACL, so no sale.

[Batch]

To be honest I think I should just walk away from football for a month or two.

Problem is, its actually quite exciting/daunting/worrying that we will be rebuilding an entire team.

[Samdy Gray]

I suppose we should know by the end of the week who's going and who's staying - the players will want to be on their holidays ASAP.

If there is any uncertainty about Cooper, it needs to be sorted sooner rather than later as well. Player recruitment and a good pre-season are going to be vital.

[4D]

I predicted 5-4 to us, so I was half right.

[Reg Smeeton]

To be honest I think I should just walk away from football for a month or two.

Exactly, OK I know I'm the product of a simpler age, but the rhythm of season ends early May, then you have the cricket season for players and fans to recharge batteries, has a lot of merit.

Ideally we can now forget it for a good 6 weeks or so.

[Costanza]

I suppose we should know by the end of the week who's going and who's staying - the players will want to be on their holidays ASAP.

If there is any uncertainty about Cooper, it needs to be sorted sooner rather than later as well. Player recruitment and a good pre-season are going to be vital.

RE: The Retained List - The players already know, it's just not been announced by the club.

RE: Cooper - Completely agree.

[jimmy_onions]

I thought I would be over it but still feel angry at the sheer ineptness and missed opportunity, i thought the millwall performance was as bad as it gets but that was to another level

Same here, for some reason I am (still) livid about this one....
I think its the fact that I was desperate to have a decent day out, to generate a decent atmosphere for at least one half of football.
All that was pissed on within 15mins or whatever it was.
Watching the Preston fans singing and jumping almost made me physically sick.
When is it our time?
Picture of Nathan Thompson was some consolation though...at least there is one player that really cares..

[Batch]

Picture of Nathan Thompson was some consolation though...at least there is one player that really cares..

That's him first to be sold then

[GL5 Arkells Stand]

On the Thursday before the game, I travelled over to Stroud to pick up my tickets and have a couple of beers with 2 mates of mine, both season ticket holders. Naturally enough, the conversation quickly got round to the game on Sunday and how we thought it would go.
It was summed up pretty early in the piece (and I promise that I’m not just claiming to be wise after the event here): We agreed that the defining factor for the match was going to be how Turnbull & Stephens handled Beckford & Garner. We figured that if they were actually prepared to play like central defenders and commit to attacking the ball in the air (like a Shaun Taylor or Aden Flint would), then we would hammer Preston. If they didn’t, we could be in for a hiding.
We all know what happened don’t we?
I still can’t get my head round it though. It’s not coaching insight of the highest order is it? When you are playing as a central defender in League 1, the most basic requirement of you is that you’ve got to head the sodding ball and in order to do this, you have to jump. Neither Beckford or Garner are giants, but what they will do is actually jump. What did Cooper think Preston were going to do? Did he expect them to turn up and suddenly go all tika-taka on us and unmask the Hovis versions of Xavi & Iniesta?
No, they were going to go route one.
That we weren’t prepared for that is a joke – and the thing is, all of the Swindon fans there knew the same thing. When (the clearly unfit) Nathan Thompson gave away the foul against Beckford, there was an audible intake of breathe as everyone thought the same thing – that this free-kick was going to tell us an awful lot about exactly what was going to happen during the rest of the match……………….and didn’t it just.
At the moment everyone is going on about how bloody wonderful Beckford is. Seriously? When he was five years younger and playing for Leeds he didn’t give us too much trouble did he? Scott Cuthbert and Gordon Greer seemingly kept him pretty quiet, since we beat Leeds 3-0 home and away.
I reckon (I hope) that we can actually improve next season, if we learn from this season. At times, our football has been brilliant, but we do seem to insist that we have to keep the ball for 5 minutes before believing it’s fair to have an attempt on goal.
Of course, there are times when keeping possession is the thing to do, but every now and again, it is ok for us to attack quickly, with pace and try to catch the opposition on the hop at the back. In defence, yes, it’s lovely to have central defenders who are comfortable on the ball, but their main job at League 1 level is to head the ball & be able to dominate the opposing centre forward. Surely it isn’t beyond us to be able to recruit someone who can do that?
One thing that we do have going for us is that Lee Power seems to have his finger on the pulse when it comes to recruiting players. If he’s seem where our frailties lie (and surely he must’ve done – everyone else has) then we must have a chance next season.
We’re likely to lose Foderingham, Williams, Luongo, Kasim & Gladwin.
Foderingham is a worry – he’s the best keeper I’ve ever seen at Swindon. Williams doesn’t bother me as much & neither does losing Luongo who, to my mind, has not been the same since coming back from the Asia Cup – the bottom line is that he seems to think that he’s too good for us now & has performed accordingly. Let’s not forget as well, that Kasim & Luongo’s last game for us before the Asia Cup was the 5-0 hammering at (now) non-league Cheltenham and that we didn’t lose a single game whilst they were away.
With Norwich having been promoted now, there’s a chance that we could keep Louis Thompson & Toffolo for another season and why wouldn’t Southampton want us to keep Stephens & Turnbull for a while? Apparently, they are both seen as midfielders in the longer term, so why not play one of them there next season with the other playing alongside a dominant centre half?
Up front, we’ve still got Smith, Obika & Hylton and if we did manage to keep Gladwin, I’d personally like to see him tried up front as well (he reminds me of Chris Waddle).
The top teams seem happy to lend us their decent youngsters and although, like most people, I’d prefer to have players that we ‘owned’, this seems to be the way of the football world these days – and as previously mentioned, Power does seem to be able to recruit well.
Keep the faith and our fingers crossed.

[stfc1975]

Good post.

[Red Frog]

Fair enough, except that it wasn't in the air that we were dominated. Every goal was due to poor positional play (1 - Thompson / 2 - Stephens & Turnbull / 3 - arguably Turnbull, but I'll give Beckford that one) or faffing in midfield (4 - Ricketts and very nearly 5 - Smith). They ran at us and harried us, and we just buckled.

Agree that Stephens and Turnbull are too similar to play as a pair of centre-halfs though, and one needs to complemented by an enforcer type.