Swindon Town Vs Franchise Matchday Thread

[DarloSTFC84]

The meltdown on Twitter is fucking hilarious to be fair.

[DarloSTFC84]

Also, I love the differing opinions of the football fan... at one point in my timeline on Twitter, I saw that Gladwin was considered 'total dog shit' - within two minutes I also saw the same player compared to Hoddle.

[Batch]

Also, I love the differing opinions of the football fan... at one point in my timeline on Twitter, I saw that Gladwin was considered 'total dog shit' - within two minutes I also saw the same player compared to Hoddle.

I think both comparisons are correct. That's Gladwin for you.

[Amir]

I think both comparisons are correct. That's Gladwin for you.

A total dog shit Hoddle?

[Batch]

A total dog shit Hoddle?

Absolutely!

You know what I meant. Looks brilliant one minute making the opposition looks stupid. Then sort of goes into a trance where he looks like he can't be arsed.

[Arriba]

I've not seen much of the team at all this season but a couple of observations and queries about them.

Gladwin is decent. impresses me when I see him but I read a lot of criticism of him. the couple of crosses that didn't come to anything were met with groans today. Why is this? I thought he was our best player today. Not everything is going to come off.

3 at the back. Is this to allow Nathan Thompson to run out with the ball from the back, allowing wide mids to tuck in and leaving in theory a spare centre back? All seems a bit head down charging into trouble and then giving the ball away to me. Maybe it works when I've not seen it. Do his runs ever lead to anything positive? Made us vulnerable today in my opinion.

[adje]

nathan's pass completion rate must be very low indeed

[Batch]

I've not seen much of the team at all this season but a couple of observations and queries about them.

Gladwin is decent. impresses me when I see him but I read a lot of criticism of him. the couple of crosses that didn't come to anything were met with groans today. Why is this? I thought he was our best player today. Not everything is going to come off.

I think the groans were more general frustration at putting in a poor ball from a promising position. I don't think there is anything from the fans specifically against Gladwin himself. That said, I do think he could work harder sometimes

3 at the back. Is this to allow Nathan Thompson to run out with the ball from the back, allowing wide mids to tuck in and leaving in theory a spare centre back? All seems a bit head down charging into trouble and then giving the ball away to me. Maybe it works when I've not seen it. Do his runs ever lead to anything positive? Made us vulnerable today in my opinion.

No idea why we are 3 at the back. Cooper seems to like it and to be fair it seemed to be working for 3/4 the season. It has always made us look vulnerable at the back when a team works out how to play against it. Walsall at home last season put in a masterclass.

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

I've been critical of Stephens in midfield and one up top, and we've ground out wins to prove me wrong every time. Until now. Today wasn't a terminal blow to automatic promotion, but it leaves us close to being dropped. I think we will need to beat City and Preston, I think Preston will drop at least 2 points somewhere but even so...

Today Franchise were better than us. That can't be denied. I'll never wish them well, but they deserved the win.

I'm not sure what we set up to do. Cooper says he Played Rickets to counter Ali, then I suppose Stephens was the Anchor man, and Luongo and Swift the attacking options with Smith the loan gun.

But the problem was, although Smith played well, he just isn't threatening enough on his own and is too isolated. Luongo showed moments of class but long periods of drifting doing fuck all. Swift had a reasonable game. Stephens didn't impress me today. Ricketts did OK.

And therein lies the problem, the midfield didn't work together and lost us the game. In the first half it would be obvious from TV that we created a load of chances, they created a load of chances which Wes did heroics to keep out. But what it may not have shown was that Franchise started to dominate in the key areas, and more worryingly got past our powder puff midfield to really put a numerical advantage against out back three. It happened time and time again. And yet I wasn't that worried.

Second half, and it didn't really happen at all from us. Once they scored the game got more and more stretched. And in desperation to get back on level terms we pretty much lost any regard of other duties in trying to score. Franchise are too good a team to not take advantage of such situations. City will be too. If Cooper genuinely looks at it as "it was 1-0 when I made subs and 3-0 after", as he said on the radio, then maybe I've over estimated him. I doubt he does, just taking heat off himself, Smith, and bringing Ricketts straight in.

Call it 'bottling' or stage fright or a lack of motivation, whatever you will, but we never really got going. Franchise did. Lets be honest, our form has been more hit than miss since January. Its results that count every time, but it worries me for the playoffs. Its all so frustrating, we are that close...

Decent summary.
Trying not to get too downbeat after that.
Easy to criticise after a loss but not that convinced when I heard the line up.
Still been a great season and hoping for a win at Bristol, yes hoping but likely the dreaded play offs.
Stick together .... We're used to this.

[JoeMezz]

When we lose, we do lose in style.

[Bob's Orange]

Fods kept us in that. Thought Nathan was rotten today, on a yellow card and then commits anther stupid foul, lucky to stay on the pitch. I though Gladwin did ok. Second half franchise were too good and once they got their first goal it was game over.

[Arriba]

nathan's pass completion rate must be very low indeed

I've not seen enough of him to pass fair judgment.

I think the groans were more general frustration at putting in a poor ball from a promising position. I don't think there is anything from the fans specifically against Gladwin himself. That said, I do think he could work harder sometimes

No idea why we are 3 at the back. Cooper seems to like it and to be fair it seemed to be working for 3/4 the season. It has always made us look vulnerable at the back when a team works out how to play against it. Walsall at home last season put in a masterclass.

3 Can work as historically we've proven(ardiles- toddler eras) not a big fan of it nowadays though to be honest. Some of the defending at the end was schoolboy esq which could equally have occurred in a back 4 I suppose.

[Berniman]

The only player to come out of that game with any sort of positive was Fods from a Swindon standpoint, the rest were terrible..

Branco, Turnbull and Thompson lost us that game today, Smith and Swift didn't ever look like winning us that game today, end of.

Fair play to Dongs, they wanted it more than us, which wasn't hard...  Terrible performance in both halves matched with an OK performance from Dongs produced the inevitable result..

[Batch]

3 Can work as historically we've proven(ardiles- toddler eras) not a big fan of it nowadays though to be honest.

Yeah, I think I'm more of a fan of 4, and I think Thompson is a right back shoehorned into a back 3, but 3 can definitely work.

Some teams have the players to exploit it, and today was one of those days. But I don't think the midfield helped them out today.

On NT specifically, I don't think he's had the best seasons. Definitely committed but he's been caught out a fair few times at the back. But its part of the way we play.  Earlier in the season it was an absolute pleasure to watch, it was some of the best football we've played for years and its a shame you missed it. We've not been that flowing for a little while though, but its not the time of season to tinker to get it back.

[Reg Smeeton]

When we lose, we do lose in style.

Tis true....I'd still rather play this open style, and lose a few heavily than be safety first, ultimately it may see us miss out, but you never know.