Thetownend.com

Hopefully when people get back from the match they'll get the hint and post in here, I hate having to go through 5 threads saying the same thing...

Anyhoo, from listening it sounded like we were by far the best team from the second half onwards. Evan's goal sounded like it was ace with the build up and was on his wrong foot. From what I can work out Bronlies sending off was from him getting a second yellow for argueing about the first.

evans goal was awesome

brownlie got sent off for dissent over a foul that never ever ever ever was. the ref was a lot kak. however he's a pro and should know not to gob off to a cunt of a ref

we were better, by miles. shoulda won. many many many positives to take from this

If we play like that everygame, then we shall piss this league.

no we won't. cos brentford came here and didn't put 10 men behind the ball. which the indication is that most teams will do to us

gutted :(

fair point. but i think that tonight showed the team had bottle and spirit.  we went 2-0 goals behind, yet the players heads didn't drop, and at the end of the day we could of easily won 4 -2

Fantastic battling back from 2 goals down. Pure quality for Evans goal.  We always looked the most likely to win after that. Shame we didn't quite have the cutting edge/quality to kill it off.

Brownlie was a prize cock for arguing the first (undeserved) yellow. I assume the first yellow was for either diving (he didn't) or persistant fouling (it wasn't a foul). Either way gobbing off is inexcusable. And he clapped the ref after the red, can the ban be extended for that?

How strong was Brentfords team anyway, did they play a lot of 1st 11?

Was a gutsy display after a poor first half. All credit to the (weakened) team tonight and I for one am not disappointed with them.

We were atleast equal and both teams had chances.  Fola should perhaps have scored in ET but lost track of the ball

Brownlie should NEVER have been booked for the first one. NEVER EVER EVER. It was a joke. But his reaction was silly and he got what he deserved

We should have won comfortably. Onibuje was really good I thought, Holgate was immense as was Evans. The workrate, passion and fitness on show was superb.

On another day, we would have won that 6-2. Really good performance.

Bans for sending off can only be increased for rude/insulting behaivour.

The first yellow was for persistent fouling, was unfair though as he had been dragged down.

Over all a good performance and an exciting game to watch. well worth the money.

One thing, when did town last win a shoot out?

Millwall a few years ago in the ldv?

Smith 7 - Good punching/catching from crosses. Not too many saves made

Holgate 8 - GREAT workrate throughout the 120 mins and looked good

Evans 8 - Always involved, a few poor shots but made up for it with a goal that left wanker Nelson stood still  8)

Onibuje worked very hard, Brownlie battled but was stupid to get sent off

Other than that it was just a battling performance and we looked like a better side than against Barnet. Hopefully we can keep this level of play up in the league

Cracking match!
We were by far the better team and should have scored more than the two we did.
Holgate was immense in the centre of midfield. For a player that used to be used as a striker, can't half make a good tackle and track back.
There was no faulting any of the team today. The defence in the first 20 minutes was a little suspect, but once the two goals were scored against us, they handled anything thrown at them.
We were great going forward and the link up play between each and every player, was fantastic.

P.Smith - 7 - Great kicking ability and made one fine stop, otherwise he was very rarely troubled.
J.Smith - 7 - Went about his job well. Didnt have to much to deal with.
Vincent - Wasnt on long enough to judge
Ifil - 8 - Another great performance from Jerel. His distribution has got a lot better.
Nicho - 8 - Good goal and looked solid. Was slightly dodgy in the first 20 minutes, but dealt with anything.
Shakes - 7 - In and out of the game, but when in it, he linked up well with the likes of Holgate and Fola.
Brown - 7 - Did well IMO. Worked hard.
Holgate - 9 - Was tremendous! Rightfully man of the match and got stuck in all over the pitch. His tackling ability is brilliant and has very good awareness. I'd pick him over Pook any day. (Why were people making strange noises towards him in the first half, everytime he got the ball?)
Smith - 8 - Great goal and is a real battler. His set pieces are amazing.
Brownlie - 7 - Unlucky with the sending off and nearly won it for us at the end of the 90 minutes, if that cunt of a defender didnt header it away from the goal!
Onibuje - 7/8 - Had a great first half. Deserved a goal and probably should have scored. Worked very hard and his pace troubled their defence.

Weston - 7 - Solid game from Weston. I prefer him in the centre of midfield, rather than out wide, but still had a very good game.
Caton - 7 - Good to see him back. Had a good game and caused Brentford a lot of trouble.

did evans goal take a deflection, because thats how it looked from where i was stood. I also thought that shakes looked good at right back, and caton showed some good touches.

Great minds think a like  :thumbs:

Surely Evans was man of the match. Hlgate was okay, good but not great, where as Evans was magnificent all night.

I thought Jerel never look troubled and fair point about his distribution.

i thought holgate was a bit of a headless chicken for about an hour then all of a sudden he got into the game and started putting himself about.
pook must be worried  :D

p smith - was much better than i thought and a great number two keeper who i would not be worried if ever called in to play.

ifil was excellent again, really coming into his own now as is jack smith to an extent.

if he stays fit i can see paul evans being player of the year if he keeps this up

 :agree:

Meh, its only an opinion  8)  Atleast the annoucer dude who annouced Holgate man of the match, agreed with me  8)  (Well whoever picks the MOTM...)

ashan was man of the match for me tonight,the fact that he is being moulded into the position and seems to be getting better every game.imo he certainly warrants his place in the squad now.also thought shakes looked good at right back tonight,good to see our players being able to play a few positions

Im sure it went straight in and I was pretty much behind it.

Although if it did deflect it would explain why nelson just watched it go in!

holgate man of the match? above evans and ifil and onibuje and jack smith?

all about opinions i guess

id rather holgate got the chance again than pook though as i think if holgate stops worrying trying to look like a cool footballer and just get on with things he can do a job for us!

Couldn't see a deflection on the Evans goal, it was a cracker.

Evans controlled the game going forward, from the second half onwards he was helped by Holgate playing like a man possessed, especially after he got hit in the nadgers.

P.Smith looked dodgy first half, not so much in technique, more in not controlling the 6 yard box.  Improved 2nd half onwards.

Thought Onibuje was handful but drifted out of it towards the end, as did Brownlie before being an idiot with the 2nd booking even if the first yellow was just a shambolic decision.

Caton looked very good when he got on the ball

Shakes ran all night, if afflicted as always with a poor cross

J Smith was solid, Nicholas was ok but was tasked with marking Heywood at set pieces which caused us problems for about 30 mins and Ifil was as solid as a rock.

Weston and Brown did a job

Overall, I thought the first half we were unlucky to go in behind but bad defending at the start caused us our own problems.  After that, bar the odd scare, we controlled the show and should have won.

On a personal note, I had to move seats after spending 45 minutes listening to the grumpiest bastard I have ever had the displeasure to sit near in a football ground.  He was cussing the corner we scored from before it was even taken.

oh and for arribas benefit i didnt see alot of difference between monkhouse and brown tbh,wouldnt bother me which one we played

Just got back, obviously I'm disapointed about the result, but we should never had gone 2-0 down in the first place, we were dominating possession and both their goals were against the run of play. Evans goal was stunning.
After we got back to 2-2 we were the only team that looked like scoring and we had so many chances that could have gone in on another day.
I was very impressed with Ifil at the back, he won everything in the air and did ok under pressure, he has improved on last season big time!
Also well done to the fans, they were great, particuarly during extra time, I particuarly liked the "Heywood, give us a hoof!" song :D

i think i might have gone to the wrong ground tonight.

overall, i thought the game was fairly even but brentford looked more threatening than us and created the more clear-cut chances. we dominated in patches and so did they, most of the time we cancelled each other out.

P Smith - did alright, not terribly convincing though. looks no better than number two's we've had previously.

J Smith - steady. crap boots.
Ifil - solid in the air, on the ground, improving with each game.
Nicholas - faultless, his first goal at the cg?
Vincent - rubbish, totally at fault for brentford's second as he missed the ball and let his man waltz past him. drop him for saturday and move nicho to left-back.

Shakes - crossing abysmal, otherwise worked hard and looked capable at right-back.
Holgate - woeful first-half, the game passed him by and he looked lost. improved in the second-half and showed some good touches. lacks the size, strength, work ethic to be a central midfielder.
Evans - superb, by far the best signing we've made this season. MOTM.
Brown - impressed me, good crosses, got back, worked hard. wipe the slate clean and all that.

Brownlie - threatened at times, created opportunities and is very inventive. however, he tries to run with the ball into hordes of defenders and often gives away posession as a result.
Onibuje - fucking awful, he's got pace and strength but fuck all else.

Weston - better crosser of the ball than shakes but doesn't stay out wide enough. looked very good when he came on.
Caton - bulked up a bit by the looks of it and was unlucky not to score.

if we'd had a full-strength side out, we'd have pissed that. sadly our forwards let us down far too often.

To be fair SY, i completely agree with all of that, except for the bit about Fola

You must have been looking the wrong way Sonic!  We had two efforts cleared off the line and Fola had a little game of back heels with a defender on the line.

Caton just popped one over, Evans nearly scored direct from a corner (twice, one at either end) and Brownlie was almost straight through on goal before "allegedly" fouling the player who was behind him, although I think the bloke got a lovely smack in the face from Brownlie's heel on is way down.

Brentford threatened at every set piece in the first half but drifted into half chances after that.

Jeeeez!? One of us were at the wrong game.....What chances did Brentford have? I can name three...Two were goals and one was well saved by Paul Smith, in the second half.
Our build up play was brilliant and we moved the ball around really well.
We just couldnt quite manage to finish off our chances in the final third.
Most impressed by Holgate and Fola.

the efforts cleared off the line were barely half-chances, one was a goalmouth scramble and the other was when the keeper went walkabout, even so brentford had two defenders on the line.

Yep, totally agree with this post

surely being cleared off the line (so having beaten any keeper in place) would suggest being a bit more than a half chance?

No they didnt? Are we talking about the one where Fola beat the keeper to the ball, just outside the area and he cut it back to Brownlie (I think it was Brownlie!?) who headed it goalwards, only for the defender to diving head it clear.

neither looked as if they were likely to go in, so i don't think so

I'm yet to be convnced by Vincent, so agree with you there. Nicho should start Saturday, maybe to give him a kick up the backside.

Agree with the rest of the defence - interesting to see Andy Beasley waving his arms about to Phil Smith during the shootout to get him to hop about on his line a bit more - Smith did seem sheepish at times, but doubt many no2s at this level are up to much - improvement on Bulman, Mckinney, Griemink etc etc

Shakes is infuriating - you keep him on because he gets into good positions, but consistently wastes them by skying it into the bank time after time!

Got to disagree completely on Holgate - no work rate?! He was all over the place!! Had the touch to boot as well - ahead of Pook and weston for me.

Brownlie was quiet for much of the game, but when he gotr the ball he used it well. On the ball he reminds of SSP - back to goal a lot and nice lay-offs, sadly the end product isn't there....yet

I thought Fola caused havoc, although sadlyt he didn't finish the job off like he should have. A REAL handful.

Caton def has bulked up - defensively he committed himself a shade to early and it nearly cost us twice - but then he's used to playig up frotn, and that considered, he was decent defensively. Goign forward, he looks to have a lot of confidence, and playing first team doesn't seem to daunt him like many other kids we've had in the past.

i'm waiting for one of his crosses to hit the scoreboard and break it, firstly it'll save me some grief and secondly i can't be blamed for it.

i seem to be disagreeing with lots of people tonight, maybe i did go to the wrong game

Best value I've had for a fiver in ages - cracking game, great atmosphere, bloody hate penalties, love the League Cup. Not sure whether to be happy with performance and having seen a good game or pissed off we're out. Or just glad I'm not a Mackem.

Paul Smith's positioning as the ball was knocked into the box was definately a bit shoddy in the first half, and didn't really have to deal with many more crosses in the game.  Otherwise he did quite well.

Ifil very solid again.

Holgate spent parts of the match not really knowing what was going on.  When he had his head around it he was winning the ball well, and his distribution was good.

Shakes I just don't think will ever be able to cross a ball.  Gets past people with hard work and pace, but his touch is also shocking at times.

Brown worked hard when the ball was coming down the left, which admittedly wasn't very often in the first-half, and his dead ball delivery was superb apart from one wasted free kick.  If he can prove to Wise that his attitude is there then I can see his replacing Monkey at some point.

Fola looked very impressive in the first-half, with virtually every attack involving him.  Think they figured him out a little after that(who would expect a guy looking like that to be skinning people on the wing?), and so was restricted somewhat, although I still felt he did a very good job.

Brownlie didn't show me much tbh.  Obviously likes to get his foot around a ball to strike it, not sure he's an out-an-out striker.

Oh and Evans........he's got a left foot too? 8)

Evans = Legend

thats about the main thing I leant tonight!

 :clap:

I dont get this at all.  We made 6 changes last night to our full squad with a lot of young players out there. Are we forgetting Brentford fielded a very strong line up with pretty much the majority of their first team?

I think we did brilliantly against a team in a higher league clearly looking for promotion this season.

I think theres a lot of potential there and with Wise on the scene they can only improve.

I had assumed you were suffering from PMT :|

im with ladys comment. even though we lost, and to be honest can't really go on about how we played cause it was the reserves pretty much. The fact is, is that they had there first 11 we had most reserves and took them to penalties, that just shows you how much depth we had. I bet the first teamers last night were abit worried about losing places. It should definitely keep them on there toes.

As a performance we played well and dominated the second half pretty much. we deserved the win in my opinion and about the penalites, westons penalty was close to hitting me!  :soapy tit wank:

I was very impressed with Smith last night, he worked hard and looked confident, him and Shakes worked well together moving forward.  Evans was amazing last night, the man doesn't know how to give up.

My thoughts after sleeping on it. Suprisingly not that gutted after getting knocked out. What was effectively our reserve team out played and dominated a team from a higher division.

Oh and Holgate was fantastic, as were Evans and big Fola. Holgates performance just reinforced my opinion on how crap Pook is. Give the ponce a free transfer now and get Ashan in the team

i was far from dissapointed. if anything i was encouraged about the result. its shows we have quality replacement players. Brentford are a good side and for our fringe players to get a draw and at times outplay them is an achievement. just goes to show that if we hadn't got relegated last year we could be mounting a promotion challenge in league 1 under Wise

Fucking quality match, I must admit after 25 mins I thought we were doomed, how I wished Wise had chosen Williams ahead of Nicho.  But an hour later I was in the edge of my seat.  

Late on atmosphere quality, the whole crowd urging our "reserves" on.  Fola, superb, Evans dominant, Caton a cracking player in the making, Brownlie a stupid fucking aussie who should be told by Wise what most think of childish behaviour.  Ifil, reincarnated into a tower of strength, he was actually telling Smith (gk) what to do at times, when did he speak on the pitch last year.

I know we're only 5 matches in but the Wise revolution is gaining momentum, he is changing every aspect of the club, for the better, STFC are going places and I don't mean the travel agents - we're going up as fooking champions!!!

Believe!!!  (especially you Sonic).

:shock: fucking hell Jan optimism!

hear hear Jan! :beers:

Bloody great night out!Got home at 2.00 knackered but entertained.My thoughts; Paul Ince?Forget him and give the No.4 shirt to Holgate-after a slow start,got better and better and in extra-time it seemed sometimes he was the only player on the pitch!Strong in the tackle perceptive in his passing and totally comfortable on the ball-the complete opposite of Pook;Ifil absolutely storming game;Evans-the new Scott Leitch,with goals!Vincent-as I mentioned after the Barnet game-ball watcher.Decent left foot but gets caught out too often(agree with Sonic on that one);Caton was good on the left-abetter bet than Monkfish or Brown in my opinion;Weston the same on the right-better than Shakes;if Roberto and Peacock had played up front we'd have smashed them-more balls into the forwards last night than our first 2 home games put together.It aint gonna happen but I'd be tempted to start with the midfield that finished and bring back Brez,Williams and the 2 strikers with Nicho moving to left back in place of Vincent but then again we've won 4 out of 4 in the league so that might be harsh on Shakesy and Monkfish.Oh and the Town End was superb!

I know I've surprised myself, I am a bit worried about the "Wycombe factor" they started amazingly last year then shot their load way too early, bit I am convinced that Dennis Wise is the best thing to happen to this club since Glenn Hoddle.  He has turned the no hopers we had last year into confident "professional" footballers.

We are going up.

5500 for a cup game also reflects the new found optimism.

i must admit that im loving the optimism at the moment. even people like DV are being optimistic. it's great to see

i know - that was a brilliant attendence ... and the atmosphere was top notch second half .. I noticed you even got the graveyard stand clappin over there lady!

On the other hand, when we won Div 2 (as was) under McMahon in 95-96, we started in similar fashion and just kept going and going. I believe, with the occasional blip, that is what will happen this time round.

Was not there last night but the second half and extra time was the best a game has sounded in a long long time 8)

so whos going on saturday and cranking up the volume then? hopefully we will get 7000 plus for that one

:D  Last night was the best evening match I've ever been to! Far from boring. Alot of good football was played, and the atmosphere was really good too - infact I heard the arkells singing from where I was sat in the nationwide! (and yes I have come to the conclusion that the nationwide is maybe a bit better, cleaner facilities etc) I had some bloke behind me that kept shouting pppuuuuutitwiiiiide! that was funny.

Anyway I thought the youngsters did well, evans goal was brilliant. I think after the second goal they really really went for it and the fight in us kicked in.
Not really bothered that we lost, because the game showed alot of positives and we can concentrate now on holding our top of the league status  8)

I'm in Cornwall on Saturday, so I'll be busy shouting at Jeff Stelling and co on SSNews.

I took a couple of moments last night, during the final stages, to look around the ground, everyone clapping and singing, it reminded me of QPR away, when they went up.  How there was only 5,500 there I'll never know it sounded like 10,000!!

Evans is fucking brilliant by the way!

I can't wait until Saturday.  Its been so many years since I felt midweek excitement about a weekend game.  It sure beats dreading the weekend coming around.

Absolutely nothing to do with me.......you got Spencers lot to thank for that...they were pretty good at getting the Arkells to wake up a bit.

:D  My friends were sat in the away end and said 'that arkells stand has a good atmosphere, some of your fans were getting a bit lary'. I knew it would be sonic and co  :wink:

Usually i always agree with Sonic's assessment of games. On this occasion, i can't.

We deserved to go through.

Caton is my new favourite player.

I can't wait for saturday's game, will be ace.  Shame I am stuck in the boring old town end though  :D

Team for sat? I reckon...

Brezovan
JSmith Beast Williams Nicholas
Holgate (Ince/Weston) Evans Brown (can't believe I'm saying that)
Cock  Roberts

Ashan needs games.

Caton should be on the bench.

echo most of the sentiments, better team, didnt deserve to go out blardy blar.

why is shakes still wank? his only good cross of the season went in the top corner.

no matter what S_W will tell you fola is fucking gash but i still seeing him scoring a few unlike gash strikers of the past like luke nightingale and that bunch.

ifil is brilliant. as is evans.

the two main positives of the game have got to be holgate and caton. holgate is stronger than pook in the tackle, seems to have a better engine but can still use the ball. if pook ever plays ahead of this lad i'll kick ash in the face.

caton looks twice the size he did away at wrexham on his debut.... a real prospect, fair play to wise for giving him a good run out. was a gamble for him and i expected jutkiewicz.

good set of lads in the arkells, still back to the town end on saturday.

despite my thoughts on last night, i still think we're going up and we're going to piss this league.

a few other positives which struck me last night:

the players still looked fit at 120 minutes, some of the same players barely managed 90 last season.

the workrate throughout the game was immense.

the reduced price and optimism around the place led to an excellent crowd for the first round of the carling cup, we got far more than any other club in this division last night and a fair few league one clubs as well.

on reflection, i probably was a bit harsh on our performance and i think we did deserve to win in normal time. however, our penalties were rubbish.

i maintain that fola is rubbish and holgate was nothing special...

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: evans and ifils were excellent penalties hitting them so hard that the keeper could not even get there in time, smith sent the keeper the wrong way.

weston did a waddle and holgate tried to be to cool!

now forgive me but that would mean all of our penalties were not shite

the penalties we missed were rubbish, sort of missed out the key part of that sentence...

Agreed. Weston's went nowhere near the goal and Holgate's was saved the minute he stepped up from the half way line!

Having said that the other 2 penalties were very good

Ace crowd last night, 20 minutes straight of Dennis Wise's BArmy Army killed the arms and throat but hey it was fun!

Or even the other 3

Typo sorry  :?

weston's sailed so high over the bar I hear Rob Andrew's got him in a development squad pencilled in at Twickenham next week...and Ashan lined his up pacing out as if he were Jonny Wilkinson!

ASHAN FOR ENGLAND!

Still can't see how Sonic thinks Fola was cack. He was fucking everywhere last night; left wing, right wing, up front, tracking back. Even Roberts doesn't do that. On another night Fola would've scored 2 or 3.

Have to admit that when Evans signed I thought Wise was a fucking loony signing a player that was left out of the Forest team for a whole season, however I now think he is a fucking legend and will be getting his name on my shirt this weekend  8)

Ashan looked ok, just get Gurney to give him a kick in the bollocks pre-match and we'll be rockin 'n rollin!

Nobody can doubt Folas workrate, it's his quality that is questionable. He should have scored last night. You'd think that Roberts/Peacock would have tucked one away (though it isn't guaranteed).

I'm not on a downer with him. I quite like him. He gives defenders other problems with his hieght and pace. He was 100% committed and he can't do more than that.

can i just say are estimations of are team have gone down hill quick.

1 or 2 seasons ago 2-2 with brentford would have been a bit disapointing for me.

now were seem happy to play the underdog to brentford!

yes we did play well but this stuff about im so proud of how we played?

 :wink:

we are in a lower league!!!!!!!! estimations have gone down because last season we were shite!!

what people are happy about tis the team has fight again and gives 100%
that's all we can ask of our players.
last season they did not do that

I was impressed considering it was a second string i thought we dominated and should have won.Sadly we were always going to go out when it went to penalties cause we deserved to win.I've seen us lose three shoot outs now and we were the better team in each game :cry:

And the atmosphere was really good,when all three sides start singing its so ace :D

Nothing to do with me Lady.

Honestly though, dont call us that FFS. Its no ones lot.

We played a mixture of fringe and first team players against a strong side a league above us.

And can you honestly say last season you'd have been disappointed with 2-2 and deserved to win in those circumstances? I'd have been bloody astonished!

agree with everything you say larwood. With the penalties. i have respect with weston and ashan for having the bottle to go up and take a pen.

i was in the arkels yesterday and ended up breaking one of the shitty yellow chairs  :twisted: the atmosphere was good, but not as good as the town end.

Well done.

thank you  :D

I was taking the piss you spastic.

I did the same last season.Are you a fatty as well dave?

yes. yes i am

Have you been at that window again Dave?

very subtle sussex :D