Washbag article

[Talk Talk]

Calm up and sober down no good then?

[Talk Talk]

NB only been to one match this season so far although an ST. That's partly through unemployment but more because I have had more urgent things to do. The cats need polishing and my underwear drawer is such a fucking mess...

[Ells]

How do you sober down and polish a cat?

[Flashheart]

If you think this is the worst crisis at stfc in recent history you need to calm down, sober up or both.

Even calling it a crisis is pushing it. More of a drama I reckon.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Don't really think many are commenting on a 'crisis' just that it's so fucking boring these days.

And yer man has it right - many feel resentful that the enjoyment of going to a game has been taken away by a combination of mindnumbingly awful football and little prospect of it changing any time soon.

[Flashheart]

mindnumbingly awful football and little prospect of it changing any time soon.

I don't think we'll have to wait to long for it to change.

[Arch Stanton]

Don't really think many are commenting on a 'crisis' just that it's so fucking boring these days.

And yer man has it right - many feel resentful that the enjoyment of going to a game has been taken away by a combination of mindnumbingly awful football and little prospect of it changing any time soon.

Yeah, this is it exactly!!! Nail on the head.

As I mention in the article I've seen far worse season starts & financial troubles, I had a ST during Beamish, the Trollope relegation plus many others. I was more commenting on the dullness, the lack of atmosphere, the bored crowds, the lack of hope.

[horlock07]

Definitely.

In addition the incessant moaning, there's also too many people that readily accept rumour and speculation to be fact.

Should that not be FACT?

In the pre-internet days nobody had any insight into any possible boardroom shenanigans.

Do we now really, isn't it just a lot of rumour and half truth floating around on the interweb?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Hence the word 'possible'. Pre-internet days nobody will have had any notion of Power's background re other businesses and football clubs.

Not saying there's anything mega shady there just that nobody would have known. People can now skew their personal beliefs on how they want to interpret the information that is out there.

[Benzel]

Missed quite a few games so far this season. Even the fact that I've got a season ticket hasn't always been a good enough reason to go and I'm noticing the 3 hour round trip to the CG much more than I used too.
It's not all down to the football we're playing and it's got nothing to do with Power (I actually agree with his model, although not the way he goes about it). I'm just finding more and more things I'd rather be doing than watching Swindon, which is something I thought would never happen. Even when I do go, defeats mean a lot less than they used; I'm usually over it before I get home.

I feel the same and I live in Highworth.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

I see the US craze of people dressed as clowns has reached Swindon according to the Adver.

Maybe that explains Luke's absence.

[Ticker45]

I am an old ST holder and have seen all the highs and lows over the last sixty years but am definitely falling into a meh syndrome as I just cannot get rid of the feeling that once again we are treading water and very little is being done to alleviate the current situation. Like any good business, leadership from the top is all important and the evidence of that is thin on the ground which is of Mr Powers own making, but it can be an attitude that eventually permeates all the way down.

Yes, there is still time to halt this dangerous little slide but it requires work and the "must try harder" platitudes are not enough by a long shot.

[Tails]

I've felt worse than this about the club but it's really frustrating driving an hour or so, watching us play like we have been recently, and then having to drive home in a foul mood. My mood has definitely picked up though, after the Wembley debacle I was in a football sulk for about 9 months and as such only attended a handful of games last season (although there were other reasons)

I still think we'll be OK this season but the energy is being sapped a little. As others have rightly said, I think the fact that our fans generally conjure up a load of negativity anyway doesn't help. The fact we're on a poor run of form makes it 10x worse.

[Simon Pieman]

I feel the same and I live in Highworth.

I feel the same and I live in the York Road area. I even considered finding the stream so I could half-watch it without leaving the house on Saturday.

There are a lot of problems this season and I think it's a culmination of us taking a lot of punts on manager and player choices and them not coming together in the way everyone probably hoped. Unfortunately there is always going to be an element of that when working under a tight budget.

Just like last season the team isn't playing with fight and with any sort of clinical play. It almost feels like they just turn up and hope something will happen without making it happen. This suggests to me that there is a problem at manager level and when you consider Ling got us playing a lot differently in his short time as manager then there is some evidence to support this.

Obviously there are personnel issues on top of this. Vigs is a decent keeper but the defence is still too fragile despite some additions in this department. The midfield is decent and is stronger following some additions but the lack of fire power is the main thing crippling us. Obika is a good player (but always seems to be injured) but even he isn't going to bang in the goals on a consistent basis as he's just not that type of player. Delfouneso works hard but you can't call him a goal threat and I don't even know where to begin with Norris. Hopefully he gets a confidence boosting performance or goal from somewhere but his past record suggests he isn't going to grab many goals even if he plays at a much improved standard.

The financial constraints do limit our squad size. Could player sales fund a bigger squad? Perhaps, but it's only a sustainable model if we can sell a player or two for a singificant fee each season. I think the only things Power has got fundamentally wrong is giving the job to Williams and not bringing in one or two different types of players in the right areas.

So what's the answer? I don't think the model we are working to is necessarily flawed and could work. We've had two decent seasons followed by a season and a quarter of crap. So this says to me a drastic change like Power throwing money at the team or even stepping away from the club aren't what's needed. Get in a goalscorer or two, get in a new manager and get the team fighting and trying to force the play rather than turning up and expecting it to all happen. Get something to build on for next season and mount a challenge near the upper end of the table rather than the bottom.

[Panda Paws]

It was a good piece - only bit I disagreed with is blaming a lack of investment. That's not the issue - we've got a competitve budget at this level now and spent decent money on players in the summer.

Still think it's a combo or individual errors and injuries, rather than systemic failings, and that we will improve. The lack of atmosphere, the boredom etc would be there if we were this low in the table irrelevant of style.

When this style works, and we've seen it here before, it's certainly not boring.

Either way, pretty sure we've sold out for Saturday. It's 20 mins from my house, day out on the beer, terracing... should be a laugh and certainly won't be boring.