Thetownend.com

The Opponent:   Coventry City

Coventry was the world's first twin city when it formed a twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during World War II. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad.  The city is now also twinned with Dresden, Lidice, Saint-Étienne and 22 other cities around the world.  A part of the city centre at the entrance to the Lower Precinct is named Lidice Place.  Coventry was the only British City to lose a Cathedral during the WWII bombing on 14th November 1940. The ruins of the old one stand beside the new, designed by Basil Spence.

The phrase ‘sent to Coventry’ apparently originated during the English Civil War. It seems that in 1647 Royalist prisoners of war, captured elsewhere in the Midlands, were held in Coventry. In the robustly Parliamentarian stronghold the locals treated them as if they did not exist. Coventry has had its fair share of famous bands. Here are some of the better known ones: The Primitives, The Specials, Adorable, Fun Boy Three, The Selecter, The Colourfield, King, Jigsaw, The Sorrows, and The Enemy.  Individual musicians from Coventry include Delia Derbyshire, Jerry Dammers, Terry Hall, Neville Staple, Hazel O'Connor, Clint Mansell, Julianne Regan, Lee Dorrian, Jen Ledger and Panjabi MC.  Record producer Pete Waterman is also a Coventrian.  With its 310’000 population, Coventry is the 9th largest city in England.

Last Time Out – Saturday 22nd August 2014 – Franchise 0 Coventry 0. Considering the midweek result Franchise picked up against a toothless United reserves (although a team that should of had enough about them to beat the Franchise shit), the away point earned by The Sky Blues suggests they may well know how to shut up shop.  Coventry boss Steven Pressley came out with the normal manager talk, "I thought it was a fair result, and what everybody witnessed was two very, very good sides. I think that today's game was a big, big test for us. I thought w e showed brilliant mentality. The commitment from the team was incredible and I was really proud of their performance and both sets of players should be proud of the way they've applied themselves today”.
Starting XI –  Allsop (crikey!), Clarke, Webster, Johnson, Willis, Swanson (Thomas 45), O’Brien, Haynes, Fleck, Tudgay, McQuoid (Miller). For some reason I thought Tudgay was pushing 40, it appears he is 31.

They have served us both –  Dave Bamber, Bob Woolhouse, Trevor Benjamin, Ady Williams, Leon Clarke, Paul Trollope, Terry Gibson, John Stephens, Paul Heald, Abdul Said, Lukas Jutkiewitz, Ted Peers, Graham Oakey, Brian Kilcline, Jamie McMaster, Lee Middleton, Arthur Beadsworth, Dave Bennett, Jake Findlay, Adam Willis, Danny Ward, Miles Storey, John Smith, Frank Peters, Tope Obadeyi, Alan Moore, Derek Hall, Ernie Hunt, Gary Marshall, Ken McPherson, Kyle Lightbourne, Richard Key. Tyrell Belford, Dennis Wise, Roy Wegerle, David Thompson, Jack Starsmore, Albert Powell, Sam Peers, Lillian Nalis, Terry Merriman, Alex McCulloch, Barry Lowes, Ken Keyworth, Brian Borrows, Tim Flowers, Fred Hawley, Johnnie Jackson.

One From The Past –  February 5th 1994. FA Carling Premiership – Att: 14’635 - Swindon Town 3 Coventry City 1.  Looking through previous encounters between ourselves and Coventry its quite difficult to look past this one. A 2nd win on the bounce, a Fjortoft hat-trick, and the aeroplane celebration is born. I bet most of you remember the day.

The Odds –   Swindon 5/4  Draw 12/5  Coventry 5/2 – A few fans from the social networking world have already declared they won’t be attending today unless we sign another striker so on that basis I’m lumping on Connor Waldon at 8/1.

The Son Says – He has a friend sleeping over tonight. I made the mistake of letting them watch a film called Ted (I’m thinking cute fluffy bears). If his 8 year old friend goes home tomorrow and tells his parents the vulgarity he has been subjected to I’m blaming the wife. 3-0 win.

The Prediction – I’m not really all that downhearted about our exit from the league cup. In my opinion we dominated 90 of the 120 minutes of play and applied ourselves brilliantly, all things considering. We will win this 3-1, 2 goals from Waldon and a late header from whoever is left. 8’546 in attendance with 1765 from The East Midlands.

And Finally – The first ever English Bicycle was made in Coventry. Built in 1870 it was called the Ariel, with a large front and small rear wheel (fitted with solid rubber tyres) it was obviously the forerunner of the penny farthing, though far from as extreme in dimensions. Interestingly the Rover Car Company grew from the family firm that made the Ariel.

COYR COYR COYR COYR

reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet            2-1 us, Turnbull and an OG

Despite our lack of options up front am gonna plump for a 2.1 win
Mainly cos I love the word plump

Attendance is a tricky one as have no idea what Cov are bringing this season

8 hrs old that tho

8450 overall with 900 cov in attandance

2-1 to town, smith with both goals, 8,158 with 860 cov fans COYR COYR

I always associate the word plump, with the show Call My Bluff, circa 65/66 with Robin Ray and Frank Muir.....later Robert Robinson.

Always a bit confused by Ray, as he was the son of Ted Ray, who apparently was a comedian, but I found unfunny. The confusion sprang from the fact that Ted seemed to be a working class norvern 40's 50's music hall type, whereas Robin seemed an educated southern public school toff.

Maybe, there was a bit more social movement back in the 60's, because Alan Milburn's recent social mobility report, shows that the ruling elite have still pretty much got everything stitched up to their advantage.

Unfortunately can see us struggling to win this.

best to hope for is a draw

9100 with 1800

Mrs Audrey going to her third game in a week. After Tuesday she cant wait!

Ha, the Cov game was the only prem game I missed (holiday),  my brother in law had the benefit of my season ticket that day.

3-3 att: 8,145 (1,100)

1-1, Mass, 7,318 (743).

1-1 Turnbull with a late equaliser. 8400 attendance

Draw

Given injuries and 3rd game in a week, I'd take a draw. Our recent record against Cov though is superb. It should be a good game of football and I'd take a repeat of last season's game which was a corker.

A draw would be a good result given our injuries.

Hard to say with no idea of what the team will be but confident of a win so am going for 3-1 with Williams,Walden and Reeves netting in front of 9345 and Coventry bringing 795

Reminded by Shaw Rosso of players who represented STFC and Cov, here is the great Ernie Hunt's famous goal from Willie Carr's now illegal donkey kick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_FxSKczJprI

Don't think there will be more than 7000 Town. There's absolutely no buzz or energy around the Town at all. I know a few lapsed fans and this game isn't going to get them back, which is a shame. Hope I'm wrong.

Going for a 2-1 win today, before our two week break from games.

Amen to that.

8,000.

Cheers SR.

4-1 to us

How are we feeling about a back 3 of Turnbull, Branco and Lelan? I'd imagine the armband will go to Kasim or Luongo?

potentially stronger than with Thompson who has looked alright in the centre but not brilliant.

2-1 win. Crowd 8,951 and 1,043 from Coventry

Sadly I'm missing today as my gran is very sick and so will be spending the day with her in her final hours.

She was never a big fan but would always ask who we were playing and would check the scores etc. I hope today we win so she can go and tell my granddad that his beloved Town won.

According to Cooper Thompson will be the next Baresi!!

Sorry to hear that bob.

Yeah Williams and smith fit

Well, they are playing. I guess we will see if they are fit or not when the game gets going

Not any more it would seem.

Smith is out.

Michael Smith out then, didn't make it through the warm up

Connor Waldon starts.

I wish the bloody tannoy wasn't working, hell's teeth the music's bad. On a positive note, one of the groundsmen is wearing a 92/93 vintage shirt. Good lad.

oh no simeon jackson

Is this the weakest bench we've ever had?

Scum we're winning . . . for about two minutes    :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Not many options there, although I'd hesitate to say it's worse than some of our benches in the 99/00 season. For example, 29/4/00 at home to Barnsley. The bench? Wayne Gray, Alan Young, Paul McAreavey, James Williams, and Bryan Smith.

ha r4e i remember when people raved about Young,McAreavey,Williams and Smith-our future was bright!

Smith came on in the 74th minute, for his debut, which seems to have been his only appearance in professional football!

Sounds as though Waldon's doing well.

Fuck

Arse.

For fucks sake . . .

That stemmed from an absolutely pathetic short corner of which we'd already messed up a couple. 

Clanger from Leylan. fods nearly had it, no foul though, striker went in at same time fods put his hand on it.

Luongo needs to pull his finger out. Really good positions but shocking final ball. Over hitting everything,

Just get them in the box, same crap every match . . .

The guys sat behind me really hate Williams and get aggravated if we make more than two short passes in a row. I want to go home.

Our midfield only got into the game for about 10 mins and we looked dangerous. Otherwise Coventry haven't really threatened and the goal came from a terrible pass by Lelan and not the short corner routine. It looked as if the Coventry player left his foot in and Wes bottled it when he should have smothered it. Belford got changed and warmed up just before HT.

Anyway,  we always score late winners against Coventry.

From what I have seen so far this season,our corners have been terrible

Being pedantic, it was the short corner routine that subsequently led to the awful pass from Lelan  ;)

Why oh why do we arse about with short corners!!!???? :doh:

But didn't lead directly to us giving away posession and conceding.

I thought it did, as did those around me, but might be mistaken.

Why do people text RS at half time with ridiculous knee jerk comments when there are 45 minutes to go.Baffling

Presumably because we are trying to keep the ball and create an opening as we don't have much height in the team.

Whilst Coventry don't look threatening they now have a goal & we don't look that likely to break them down.

We need someone to come on & change the game, unfortunately we don't really have the options on the bench.

Would settle for a draw if it was offered now

oh no jackson

Sounds as though Lelan's having a shocker!

Lelan is having a bit of a nightmare now.  Feel a bit sorry for him really.

Feel sorry for Lelan, he is having a fucking mare since his mistake for the goal.

Unfortunately we don't have any options to replace him

Oh yeah, and the ref is a total cock

GOAL! Branco, the goal machine.

Ranger scores for Blackpool

Yessssssss . . . . .

This cannot be right from the BBC feed?

'GOAL!
Goal! Swindon Town 1, Coventry City 1. Raphael Rossi Branco (Swindon Town) header from more than 35 yards to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Nathan Byrne with a cross following a corner.'

A header from 35 yards?

Came to ask the same thing, 35yards? Iron skull Branco

Settle for that all things considered.

3.5 yards I think.

We didn't play particularly well but remain undefeated at home in the league.

Our midfield struggled to get into the game and unsurprisingly we didn't dominate like we have been doing. Williams didn't look fit and we missed Smith's physical presence up front.

Lelan had a nightmare after their goal and completely fell apart but recovered in the end. Turnbull improving with every game.

Byrne has been our most consistent player this season and has improved on every aspect of his game. Smith looks great and then blows it all with a bad decision or poor cross - is this his first pro season?

Good performance after 120 minutes and a bit of a injury kerfuffle. Two week break will do us good.

Ref was a knob

Think Sonic pretty much covered it. Other than the mistake we limited Coventry to a single shot of significance from which Wes made a great save. So that's positive, though I agree Lelan did fall apart a bit.

We had a 20 minute spell in the second half where we looked dangerous, scored, and just after the goal it looked like we may nick it. But in truth large parts of the game both teams passed it nicely, but without creating much.

Still, satisfied with a point.

Very flat and lacklustre first half - much improved in the second although there were a number of defensive howlers.

Felt sorry for Lelan as his confidence nosedived after his mistake.

Very quiet game from Yasser - which was a shame as his parents were sat in front of me in the Arkells.

All in all happy with a point, all things considered

I thought Mass was superb today, in a similar way that Yaser was on Tuesday evening. We like to keep the ball. It's a joy to watch at times and frustrating at others. I'm not unhappy with a point but maybe we could have got more.

We would have won that if we didn't muck up at the back. We played it so bloody risky at times that Coventry almost nicked it off us a few times. Lelan had a shocker second half, felt sorry for the lad as his confidence was shot after their goal. Shouting at him won't make him better.

Byrne was brilliant once again, tore their left side to shit on many occasions.  Luongo was also good in the second half.

I thought the ref was a bit biased towards us tbh, some of our players when in a spot of bother would just go down and hope for a free kick which duly followed. Saying that, if he thought they were all free kicks then he had to yellow card for persistent. Shit all round from him.

Wow, I though he was hopeless in the first half. Better in the second.

Piss poor attendance again.

Worrying

Agreed, maths was never my strong point but was it 7200ish with 1500 from Cov?

7200 but 800 from Coventry!

7299 and 831 from coventry

Shows how we all watch different games at times I suppose Batch. I certainly can't see  how Sonic thinks Brad Smith was great at times either but maybe I just had a bad day at the office.

Thanks, I didn't think that through what with the Arkells corner not being full!

So 6400ish home fans, pretty poor still :(

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, for me in the first half his final ball was poor, and he dawdled too long when we broke with two options ahead of him. You could of course see it as him getting the ball and trying to play in players, and driving forward.

Brand Smith seemed pretty anonymous to me BTW :)

Its those fucking orange boots, I tells ya.

Both Lelan and Smith wear them

Forgot to add that I thought Connor showed some nice touches in the 60 mins he had today.

Promising for the future

As for the attendance - at least its better than the 4200 The Yellow Filth got

Actually, Smith wasn't that great. Certainly not compared to Byrne. First time I've seen Waldon and he looked pretty useful, certainly fits our systems. I also thought Barker looked a skilful and tidy player but offered no real threat when he came on.

Not bothered about the attendances, I wish a few more would fuck off so I can actually watch the game during injury time without having a constant flow of people walking down the steps.

The first half was pretty crap as a spectacle and we gave a goal away from one of our short corners. Lelan made a pretty bad fuck up but I thought the forwards control made Wes favourite to get it but didn't quite. After that we continued to leave Lelan exposed. He went to pieces but I felt sorry for the lad. one minute he's back to Derby, then he's back here and not given a great deal of help from those around him. Talking of which Connor Waldon had fuck all help from Williams who was very poor today and must have been injured as he couldn't even outrun the fat cunt no 5 who was as useless and slow as it gets - possibly matched by their no 20 who was woeful..
I agreed with Byrne as MOM but Luongo had a very good second half. I have to eat humble pie with Byrne. last season I thought he was crap but he's looking excellent this season and pretty consistent too.
Given everything a draw was a decent result but Coventry were shit and I'm pretty sure with Nate Dog playing we would have won.
Also, the ref was another useless bastard.  
And that was a very poor crowd from both Cov and us.

We need to be realistic here,home fans is not that bad if we are honest. While us regulars will see what the club are trying to do the casual fan will see that we have only signed 2 players all summer and even when we struggle to put a side out we end up calling back a centre half we sent back after not following up his initial one month loan.

I would love more people to come and watch this bunch but frankly the club are not helping themselves at all

Really, I thought his passing and some of his decisions were poor today, particularly in the first half.

Still lots of people on hols, and more I suspect still skint from ones they've had. I do agree with what you said as well though, mix of both Imo.

Sorry sonic.  I blame my child.  When Im there on my own I stay right till the end.

My first game this season (due to work and holidays) and I enjoyed it.  Think we play good football and Im not expecting much so getting a point against Coventry, Im happy.

It's not as if you're trying to get out of Old Trafford though, is it?

I tried to find you at half time to say hello but you'd vanished. Were you sat in the invisible row?

Yes our support is fucking shit.
Do my head in pathetic apathetic moaners.

Row Z.  Back and one along from you.

I consider myself chastised.  I tried to make myself small so as not to get in the way.  But I couldnt.

Another enjoyable game played by two decent footballing sides.
Love watching this style of football. Credit to the lower league.
If we had an out and out goal poacher who knows where we could end up this season.
Very impressed, sure a few mistakes but the effort the lads are putting in full of praise.

Considering Smith has come through the Liverpool academy and played for the first team I thought his first touch was shocking and he is very hesitant when going for the ball.Him and Lelan ( who I felt for today) are definite weak links IMO.

Why do we have 1,000 less every week just because their isn't some mad Italian throwing his arms about?

I sometimes wonder what some people want/expect. I think we've generally played pretty well this season, and at times have been very good. It's certainly surpassed my expectations after watching us pre-season. But to hear some people go on (on here, on social media and at the game), you'd think we were Crewe. We're a bit threadbare and strength in depth clearly isn't a watchword, but we're doing pretty well and largely playing some nice stuff.

You did go to quite an effort losing all that weight.

I was helped by the sudden disappearance of the sweet stall in the DRS.  Where has that gone?  Thats the only reason I go in the DRS, the kids insist on it. 

Sure we had over 9000 last season with Cooper in charge.

Spot on.
Moan at the lack of investment, the high prices, lack of players and no doubt many more excuses.
Maybe we have a bigger out of Town support than from the Town itself now.
What can we seriously do to attract bigger crowds ?
Maybe this is what it is. Sad really as the football on show is excellent.

Apart from the style of football the one thing that really impresses me this season and givens me real hope that we can sustain this is the fact that we bounce back. When we go a goal down we don't go to pieces. Given the age and experience of the team this is a pleasant surprise. We're one forward and one central defender away from a very decent team. As it is we are a decent team. If I was Power though given the crowd I might be a bit loathe to throw more money at it. 

My frustration at short corners aside, I'm happy with the point and I think we are playing some bleeding good stuff at times. Its a real shame more don't  come along but with the matchday prices I'm not surprised. This looks like being a better season than I was expecting, keep it up lads!

I'm pretty sure that it's happening everywhere.  This discussion started off with Audrey pointing out that Oxford only managed 4,200 today...which is shocking, even by their standards.  Us, them, and plenty of other clubs, I'd imagine.

Lower league football still needs to undergo a re-adjustment.  Ticket prices are simply too high and, increasingly, price out all but the completely committed fan.  Charging £27 for a ticket to watch Third Division football is farcical, and has to change.  This is not a Swindon-specific problem, but we are at the sharp end of it because we do charge more than most at this level.  At Championship level, I would feel comfortable paying £25 maybe.  At a stretch.  I will go plenty of times this season, but then I got hooked nearly 25 years ago when a ticket on the Stratton Bank cost me around £8.

Byrne was immense, and has been all season - such a threat every time we get the ball.

I got to feel for Lelan, as he kept on getting some poor balls from Turnbull, as they were prsseed and harried well by the Cov front pairing, who were both replaced on the hour, so that was their game plan.

Short corners are shit...End of.

The officials were cocks, and we should've had a pen with 10 mins to go for handball from a corner after one of the Cov players threw his hand up and deflected the ball away.

Which would be £17 in today's cash. We were second tier then of course so much better value.

I'd like to see the Town End prices brought down to £15 so we at least fill that stand every game and generate an atmosphere.

I don't get the moaning about the prices, ours are nowhere near the highest in this league, and Season tickets are lower than they were 10-12 years ago. Red herring.

Not at all. 25 quid is going to deter all but the most committed fan. Way too high for 3rd division football. Season ticket prices are irrelevant in attracting casual fans back. And the fact that other clubs are also way too high is not going to attract those same fans back either.

This is bang on and somthing I thought poer would want, charge £15 fill it up get an atmosphere, simples. #coyr

Wasn't a great game,  but then again it wasn't crap. I'm beginning to understand why so many people only watch football from their sofas, they don't have to put up with a load of 'experts' spouting absolute shite the whole game behind them.

I totally agree with the main point that prices are too high, but as far any apparent decreasing attendances go there must be far more to it than that. The prices have been the same for quite a few years now but this is the first season there's been any significant drop off - if fact that turns out to be what it is. Still holiday season so I'm not sure its fair to judge just yet.

While that's true the large loss of season ticket holders is damaging.

I put that down to a perceived lack of ambition from the club (lack of cash).

Thing is it is what it is. Nobody is around with an open chequebook now. We are doing the right thing yet remaining competitive (hopefully).

But you can't deny the buzz is gone.

Just looked up last seasons game with Coventry.

9291 with 900+ away fans.

and this on the last Saturday before Xmas!

We have lost best part of 2000 fans game on game..

There is, of course, another explanation - and one I'd prefer not to think too much about

And another comparison

At approx the same time of year the attendance for Crewe was 7419 with 193 from Crewe - not vastly different to this year

Strange

I've always wondered about how they come up with the ticket prices.

Do they just pick a figure out of the air, what they think they can get away with? Or is proper thought given to it?

I find it hard to believe they wouldn't make more money from far cheaper tickets and higher attendances - the overhead costs wouldn't go up by much plus there is the additional revenue from programmes, food, merchandise and so on. Plus more home support would be a boost to the players.

No additional revenue for food as Jed sold it off for the next 10 years

Ive been 3 times this week along with Mrs Audrey.

This has cost us £124 FFS,

Add on a few beers and voddy and tonics I do wonder what else I could have spent that on

Top Man. Wish we had more fans like you particularly from the Town itself.

Crowds are holding up reasonably considering the damage done back in the summer.  Given the current perception of the club off the pitch, it was inevitable that season ticket sales would drop and attendances fall.

The Scum, like us operate on a budget of about 1.5 mill...and reckon they need  about 6,500 at home games to break even, which presumably takes into account the half mill wedge to Kassam, whereas ours to SBC is at least half of that.

So, using that as a back of fag packet calculation, we should be somewhere near Power's break even remit.

Damage? What damage?

Oh yeah, it's not just price as we've seen in previous seasons - just dropping the price alone doesn't get people back. There needs to be, as Batch says, a buzz about the side as well, and that's going to be hard to get back from the clouds hanging over the club in the summer in a lot of people's perceptions. And it looks like it will take a little while to win over even some of those that are still going, even when the football is pretty good, if some of the moaning over the past few weeks is anything to go by. But once the atmosphere turns round a bit, and it will, it needs to be as easy as possible for stayaways to dip a toe back in the water and get back in the habit. And 25 quid is a pretty big barrier to that.

That said, I have a lot of sympathy with Power not dropping the price right down as it's not a simple cause/effect lever - if they drop the price to 15 quid, they might not get that much more on the gate, but lose even more on a price that still isn't enabling us to break even. And it's not like they can count on increased food/drink sales to offset some of that in previous years thanks to JedCo's mortgaging off the catering. Fucking disgrace that.

So I can understand the reluctance to take the risk, not just here but across most of the lower Leagues. The problem is though, it's slowly strangling lower league football.

An summer of uncertainty off the pitch and a lack of recruitment on it, did cause a lot of damage to people's perceptions of the club. A lot of people have started the season in a very negative mindset. Fortunately, that doesn't include the people who's mindset matters most - the management and players who seem to have started it sparkling.

Well not that Jeremy Irons/Juliette Binoche film....keep your clothes on ffs  >:(

It's not an issue of perception but expectation - many of our fans expect big name managers, new marquee signings galore, out and out attacking football and none of these will be found at the County Ground for the foreseeable future. Nobody has any patience in football, we bemoan clubs for sacking managers and the lack of loyalty shown by players whilst the majority are only interested in the extremes - success and failure. Our fans seem to positively revel in our failures, so it's puzzling that those same people haven't found this summer thrilling.

But that does not explain the drop from last season when it was still Cooper in charge with a similar squad.

FFS we are playing better this season than last as well

I'm not sure they would tbh. I'm sure someone'll correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I recall whenever there have been price dips in the past (as there used to be quite regularly under Black/Wray) there wasn't all that much of a corresponding increase in attendances.

We still had the second highest attendance of the day which really does beg questions around the whole austerity measures we are experiencing from Power. Our squad cannot be costing as much as many sides in this league yet we still don't seem to invest in 2 or 3 players who could really make us a strong challenger this year. It was evident again today that a goal poacher / centre half and a winger are required if we can get these in we may well be in for an exciting season then surely the stay always will start to drift back.

I think you're underestimating the impact the "Oh, Christ, here we go again" feeling of the court case had. That cast a significant pall, which would have needed something quite significant to turn it round (e.g. a few big signings). And as you say, that's just not realistic right now. And quite possibly not the right move anyway. But it meant that "Oh Christ, not again" bled into "Well, looks like there'll be nothing to get excited about" (coupled with the "Oh my God we've let some overpaid players go and not replaced them we'll definitely all be chopped into tiny pieces and sold for firewood") and so produced a very downbeat run-up to the season. That's the damage Reg was talking about.

No but then there usually won't be for one-off promotions which was what Fitton/Wray/Black attempted in terms of matchday prices. They gambled on boosting season ticket sales with low ST prices coupled with high matchday prices. Which pretty much worked, but then hit a bit of a (probably natural) plateau. But it then takes more than a one-off price cut to get non-ST fans back in in any numbers - not least because once you stop going for a little while, you quite often don't hear about any one-off price cuts anyway.

Attendances are a tricky business and price is only one of the issues.
The summer events combined with England's poor performance during the World Cup leads to a certain level of apathy. When you look around league 1 & 2 attendances are down accross the board so there must be some underlying reason... Namely sky sports I'd imagine.
Also I don't know what the Saturday league structure is like in Swindon but I've got a season ticket and have been roped into playing at a reasonable standard on a Saturday now so I won't be attending much for the foreseeable future. There must be quite a lot of Town fans who play Saturdays, it was first day of the Local leader season today so could partly explain the larger like for like drop off compared to Crewe.
It all will go back to price however as the primary detergant now however, season tickets now they are at the £350 mark aren't quite as attractive and matchday prices in the side stands have been too high for about the last 15 years. I know people will say even when prices are lowered for some games the attendance isn't much different but these matches are usually at the low end of the scale in terms of attractiveness. It's a shame during the Fitton era when we had the money that a season long experiment on matchday ticket prices.
Lambourne mentions about our perceived low budget compared to teams with lower budgets, I guess this could go back to what money Jed has removed from the club and any contracts we are locked into.... Such as the catering. Will be interesting to see if Power does go after Jed in the courts...

Read the papers, and the economy is on the up, blah blah. The reality is people have less and less money, that's the major factor, myself Included. I cant afford the odd £100 here and there to go any more. If I do 3 games this season it ill be a miracle.

Is it wrong for football fans to expect more than one signing throughout the summer,is it wrong for the fans to be pissed off that no one had a clue who owned the club or expect us to pay the bills on time.

I thought it was a good game of football today.

Of course it's not wrong for people to be thoroughly fed up with all the behind the scenes bollocks but the club is where it is right now and if fans adjust their expectations they will be pleasantly surprised by a superb team of talented players who will provide entertainment and frustration in equal measure.

My point about our fans enjoying us suffer was somewhat tongue in cheek but it does seem like it at times.

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure it's what Reg lives for.

Fuck me, have we turned in to Arsenal?

That's it right there.

Basically, all the stuff that normal people do and need - i.e. going to football, petrol, beer, clothes, paint (yes - paint - £25 for a pot of fucking paint) - has gone up by about a ZILLION %. In the meantime, all our poor employers can give us by way of a pay rise is 2% to 'keep up with inflation'. WHAT'S THAT ALL ABOUT?? THERE'S NOTHING I SPEND MONEY ON WHICH IS ONLY GOING UP BY 2% PER YEAR!

People going on about the people of Swindon being apathetic and not caring, it's fucking bullshit. We're being fucked - IT JUST COSTS TOO FUCKING MUCH. Please try to understand this.

Spot on really. You could charge £15 to get in the TE every game but it won't have any impact whatsoever. Turn up on the day fans are the ones who are being put off, £31 for an adult and a kid in the TE is too steep for most, especially those that couldn't afford a season ticket in the first place.

I took three neutrals yesterday and they all thoroughly enjoyed Swindon Town's performance in the second half. It's a worthless comment but I hate taking friends to games that are rubbish from beginning to end.

We know what we lack. Hopefully the next 48 hours deals with that.

I quite enjoyed the second half and felt confident that we would get the equaliser.

We did and that was that.... Couldn't see us scoring again.

A bit annoying that Ranger is a prick.....with him in the team we could of been sitting pretty.

Overall I'm happy with the start to the season and I was predicting gloom.

Gate was shocking.....I operate a 'guess the gate' sweep and out of 15 guesses only two came within a thousand of the actual gate....all of them including mine far too high.

It did look like more than 7,200 or whatever it was to be fair. I would have guessed at around 8 but in the town end its hard as you don't see the rest of the stand which is normally empty on the left hand side.

First half wasnt great yesterday we passed it alright but had no and it was poor defending for their goal despite Wes' best efforts. Second half was much better though. We had a go and got a deserved goal. I actually thought we would win it from there but we run out of steam late on. Good point against a decent side.

I know a few stay aways who say that their money is hard earned and they don't want to see it in the pockets of a crook. If they could see it in the club then they'd go. Jed was a cunt who switched a fair amount off Town. Power winning the case and saying money left the club legitimises the stay aways as does the stories about bills not being paid.
I think Power may be the real deal. He's done what he said he would do and I think has been extremely honest. The court case didn't help but the scoreboard is working, the tannoy is sorted, the police have been part paid - there may be more reasons than lack of money as to why the full bill has not been paid. Although there has been a lack of signings, we are doing very well.
My glass is half full.

The fans who stay away citing a lack of signings/investment really fucking annoy me. How do they think sustainability works?

Our crowds maybe going down slightly but spare a thought for our yellow bellied friends up the A420 who had 4300 there yesterday

From the DRS the TE and Arkells looked notibaly more sparsely populated than last season. Its hard to judge the stand you sit in, thought the DRS was fairly full on Tuesday, then saw a youtube clip of a goal from the Arkells and the DRS looked practically empty.


They don't care how it works do they?

IMO the only way to win people like that back is to prove to them we are capable of getting promotion. We are doing fantastically well at the moment, but even I'm not convinced this model can provide that.

But they are not fans as such,it is the walk up customer that is lacking at the moment as it's clear the usual hardcore is still there. My point is it is up to the club to get them back. Charging 25 quid a game then banging on about  sustainability  while not paying bills on time is likely to make them think here we go again.

Fans close to the club know the score but talk to anyone else and they are under the impression the club is fucked and a lot of that is due to negative media that the club has got and that all stems from the club not wanting to talk to the press at all

I think marketing at football clubs is generally piss poor and when we do have promotions it is the same people that find out about it every time. What is really done to actively go out to a population 200k+ to get people to fill a 15,000 stadium? Football is mass market and covers all ages, its not like selling cheese to vegans. It should be better

Sitting in the Arkells, you can see  lots of gaps in the DRS that have always been filled in the last few seasons. There are also a number of people who have had season tickets by us in the Arkells for a few years, who haven't surfaced this season.


Exactly and although we've nearly done it a couple of times in recent years, we've been a league 1 team (with a couple of drops down to league 2) for a fair number of years now.  The casual walk up fan is only interested when we're pushing for promotion.  I honestly can't see the crowds improving now unless we do get promotion to the Championship, bringing with it more enticing fixtures.

I agree with Dean, our communications to fans and news outlet is crap - the Adver only prints the negative comments and after the last couple of matches I could not believe what they were even writing having seen it with my own eyes!!  There is so much negativity about and the club is doing nothing to help, sadly comments on the radio about an awful boring game when we comfortably beat Crewe will do nothing to entice supporters back who may be thinking of giving us another try

What tongue in cheek? Nah tongue in other lady body parts maybe.

As I said before given the negatives around atm, I'd say the drop off in numbers, is not as bad as might be expected...what is important is to make sure those who do go, get value for money, which so far on the pitch is the case.

Highlights from yesterday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFo3asU6ELQ

Not sure what the deal is with wearing the training jackets out onto the pitch, a lot of clubs seem to be doing it now.

Highlights look like we could have had more than one!

Regarding matches now falling into different price categories.

I take it with Sheff Utd and Shitty coming up it will be £27 but when we play someone shite, i.e. Crewe wasnt the price supposed to fall to below the standard £25?

Oldham is £23, not sure why Crewe wasn't

I felt kind of sorry for Coventry's ginger left back Ryan Haynes. I'm pretty sure there were two instances where Haynes stayed on the floor looking knackered because he was trying to get himself substituted.

The kid couldn't cope.

On the other hand I was hoping we would try and exploit him a little bit more.

Very poor from Wes for the goal. He'd have that 9 times out of ten - but great save to make up for it after that.

he bottled it which is unlike Wes.

I notice they're persisting with playing 'Glad All Over' when we score. In the history of man kind, probably a million songs have been written, almost all of which are not instantly associated with other football clubs so WTF do we have to use one which is??

Re. the goal, I would say it was not a bottle job, more the fact that Wes didn't want to give away a pen. The defence put him in a pretty shitty position to be fair.

McQuoid overcooked a touch which made it look like Wes would deal with it. I'm just glad he didn't break his wrist or something similar.

The goal music usually disappears around October/November. Normally when it comes on after a disallowed goal.

That was how I saw it too. So you're probably wrong :)

He nearly got it spot on. Looked to me  like the strikers boot but the ball at the same time as wes glove.  Only one winner there.

To be fair, we used to play "Glad all over" after scoring in the mid 1960s when that song first came out. I expect that Reg was one of those who used to kick the perimeter fence along to the tune back in those days.  So I would argue that we are not copying Crystal Palace (or anyone else) but, that said, it's a bit shit - as is the f-ing awful 'shouty man' performance by the announcer!  Both should be dropped!

Not really much you can do when your hand gets crunched by a boot.

re: pricing, Just open the bank and charge a £10-£15. No season ticket sales just turn up on the day, use a membership scheme to keep away Crispy and his mates, jobs a goodun. It'd certainly tempt me back regularly.

Sorry if already mentoned, I couldn't be arsed to read the thread.

Opening up and staffing a new stand doesn't really make sense. They have the TE for the same thing, although it's £19.

Let's face it, if you paid some of them to come they still wouldn't - and then moan about the club!

Very good post. I agree.

It looks as though he's not committed. His body isn't in behind it.... which it should be.. He's gone with hands only, weakly.

Every keeper makes mistakes. We're very lucky to have one where when one happens it's noteworthy. It's incredibly rare. With Griemink, Glass, Talia (bar his POY season) Lanzano et al it was commonplace.

We seem to have reset the supporter base back to the pre Fitton days where gates of 6-6500 were the norm. Remember  the race to 6K which built up the season ticket base and was maintained off the back of the 2009/10 season and then the Paolo promotion season. The end of last season and the court case/low budget news would give anyone wavering the chance to pass up renewing. I do feel the earlier and earlier renewal deadlines for the best deals don't help either.

Once you break that cycle with supporters of buying a season ticket then a £25 walk up doesn't seem that attractive with 3 home games in a week.  Maybe we need to have a few buy 2 league games at full price and get the 3rd game for a tenner or similar as people will pick and choose their games otherwise.

At least it doesn't seem as bad as the Wills/Diamandis days when the to season tickets were ramped up the best part of £400 and the attitude seemed to be 'charge what we like as 4500 will turn up whatever'. Hope we don't hit those lows again soon or that the club take a few they need to sell before the deadline to cover a revenue gap