Thetownend.com

Yesterday before the game kicked off there were the plastic random fans I have never seen before and the whole time they said "so prediction today 5-0 loss?" "bloody Malpas doesn't have a clue hopefully he is gone after this game"

Now I fully expected us to lose 2-1 as Leeds are a strong side however ever since kick off, these same "fans" just winged and complained and the guy behind me the whole game to McNamee "see thats why your got dumped by Watford",  "oh we are so shit and its only been 2 minutes" "Cox your useless" just every single fan apart from my mates around me were SOOOOOOOO incredibly negative.

Now ok our defence is crap but we have got results away from home. I can't help but think, PERHAPS out players now are too nervous playing at home due to the pressure our fans put on the players. YES they should deal with it as they are professionals.

The last 2 away league games (note i excluded Aldershot) we have got a result. No it hasn't been particularly pretty but we got a result. We must win games at home and 2 3-1 losses on the trot are unacceptable.

Perhaps the pressure at home gets to the players due to the moans and groans of our fans. The question is HOW do you eradicate them feeling this way?

This is in no way saying they are all world class players and the fans are the fault we are crap at home but I think once again we made the mistake of saying "the aim is the playoffs" this season. We did the same last year and dropped like a lead balloon? As soon as the management etc. of the club mentions play-offs everyone gets a bit excited and believes that hype despite us being no different than last season really.

Pressure and playoff talk raises expectations and where as I dont expect us to say, we have no chance of doing anything and will just avoid relegation, it appears the current crop of players cannot handle the pressure.

Seriously mate how about blaming malpas and the players

I am blaming the players for not "raising to the occasion" , I think Malpas selected the right team yesterday, they just didn't perform. Maybe after Leeds went down to 10 men you think ah its in the bag then.

and another IF, if Cox had scored the second goal, the momentum shifts and perhaps Leeds don't get their 3rd? Leeds were very clever after that attack to slow the game down by making the double substitution.

When you get beat 3-1 at home against 10 men you have not picked the right team. Leeds are far to good to get beat by the give it to mcnamee tactic

I agree some of our fans are well negative, and if you looked around there wasnt the support there yesterday. We looked totally beaten after the second goal, fans had less fight in them than the players.

But this whole 'talking about the play offs' thing is a complete nonsense Gazza. It was a load of bollocks last season and it still is. Of course were aiming for the play offs. It was just a bit of media backtracking from Malpas. Load of bollocks, should be forgotten about.

The reason we are rubbish is because the defence is a shambles. Were never going to give our attacking players a chance to shine if we make stupid mistakes week in week out.

What attackin "players".mcnamee and cox who else

The point I was trying to make is its much harder to attack when you're always falling behind in a game.

In answer to you question, I suppose Paynter and Timlin (who is supposed to be our ball player).

We created chances yesterday. Could have had 3 easily. Yes, they had a lot more chances.

 Gazzza who's said anything about PO's?

 There has been a set of statements from the new board, which are clearly being adherred  to.

 1. Aim CCC within 3 years....now I take this to be the 1st year.

 2. They wont pay agents fees etc to acquire players.

 3, If a young player can be identified, who could be a financial investment, then money may be found.

 4. Money wont be thrown at this project....funds need to be generated by the business
namely cup runs, increased crowds and youth development.

 My interpretation is that in the summer we added two free transfers to an already existing mid table side..one of whom was a straight replacement for the departing Minge.

 A small fee was paid for Casal, a potential investment player...although Mulgrew clearly was the main aim.

  Before the season started I think the majority of sane posters on here...had us down as mid table, with a hope, top ten might be achievable.

 So in conclusion I don't think our players fail because of expectations from the fans.
 

the players and manager in the run up to the season reg.

Totally agree with all your points apart from the playoffs part...

The players and management have been harping on about the playoffs this season...

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.2432326.0.nalis_sounds_alarm_for_dozy_town.php

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.2430844.0.cheers_not_jeers_will_lift_us_says_mcgovern.php

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.2423952.0.dowie_tips_town_for_the_top.php

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.2420678.0.aljofree_lets_start_as_we_mean_to_go_on.php

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.2419201.0.cox_dont_write_us_off_yet.php

I still dont understand how aiming for the play offs makes us more likely to fail?

Its not as if we expect to be Champions League is it? Are you saying we should be more tolerant of the defeats Gazza? If we play well and still get beaten (like the QPR game) then the fans will stay on side.

If were making mistakes all the time, then no ones going to be happy. We cant tolerate underachievement, theyve already had a 3 month spell of taking it easy, strolling to a mid table finnish. Once was enough thanks.

I've read this thread through and I still don't really understand what Gazza's point is.  In the grand scheme of things, I seriously doubt that our fans are up there with the worst of them when it comes to unrealistic expectations and dishing out abuse.  Relatively speaking, we're pussycats.  If the players can't handle what is dished out at the County Ground (which I doubt in any case) they need to grow some balls.

 With all due respect Gazzza there's fuck all there to back your argument.

 A couple of Adver journo lines about the forthcoming season..Cox saying the pundits who've predicted a relegation struggle will be proved wrong....and JPM saying he'd like to get us in the CCC in the future.

 

Reg they have said it.i dont actually mind they have ambition but playin like twats i do mind

I think you have my point there really... I dont mind losing if we lose playing a good game. Ok we made 3 stupid mistakes yesterday but after Cox had his shot saved by Lucas (great save BTW) we seemed to switch off yet the same players who switched off are the ones who were banging on about the playoffs etc. Nothing wrong with ambition, just back it up on the pitch. As soon a we miss one ball say the fans atleast around me (so cannot say for anyone else) start foaming at the mouth slagging the players and everyone off.

Im starting to catch your drift.

I do think Cryer runs whatever story he thinks will wind up Town fans most.

But end of the day its just a local rag. Its difficult to tell who is really focused and who is a passenger. Ive got my suspicions, sure everyone has.

I guess you are a centre of the south stand man? Its always been a bit like that in there. Only make any noise when they are complaining etc.

  Gazzza I'll say it again...where is the evidence for players banging on about PO's.

  As regards fans moaning about players...this is my 46th season, and nothing has changed....never will.

  When I first started going, large numbers used to get on Don Rogers' case, because he seldom headed the ball and seldom tackled....these tended to be older fans who were used to industrial Div 3 South stuff....they liked players like "Garth"  Hudson.  Rugged, man's man types.

I was at the back of the Town End. Admittedly there were quite a few plastics I have seen before and my mate had a go at someone for being so negative (I believe somewhat like Sonic mentioned in another post)

WE all know Cryer is a City fan and perhaps like most realistic Town fans he knows we wont make the playoffs and therefore he harps on about it as a way of getting one up on Swindon with the fans turning on the team. Probably a stupid analogy but hey... who knows?

Cryer aint even there for fucksake jesus christ these players aint kids if they want to say something they will say peoples ability to accept we were shit yesterday is worrying.stop makin excuses and realise the players and the manager were not good enough yesterday

The players were not good enough y-day totally agree!The manager selected the best team possible. THey chose not to perform. Lets hope Sturrock, Morrison, Allen and Pook get a chance... yes thy are not great however it will give a few of them a kick up the ass

Best team possible? We got beat so possibly not. I admire u stance on malpas but so far you have blamed ,williams,plastic fans and andy cryer but not the bloke who chose to change a unbeaten team. Yes im negative

Ok on paper the best team possible. If you are asking me to blame Malpas because Ifil didn't clear the ball or because Smith dropped the ball as it was heading towards the goal, then no, These are things that the players should do anyway, Surly the manager can't be held at fault. He changed things about, it made no difference. I do think Malpas needs to get a replacement for Williams or someone to work with him.  On paper the team out there was the best team available. Yes maybe you dont change the unbeaten team however knowing Leeds would be a tough ask, Malpas put the best team out there on paper IMO. Obviously not now.

Sorry Gaz, but there is a link between players performances and the skill of the management team. Some managers can polish turds and get them believing they're great.

There's a lack of belief, a lack of team spirit, a lack of fight, a lack of pride. Why?

Any team with JPM in it isn't the best team on paper, grass, or any other fucking surface!

Not sure ofcourse... Some could blame fans who get on their back but YES it is the managers job to get them to rise above it and they are supposed to be professionals. Given your comment though I never really thought of the team spirit part. Last seaosn the players were all saying "this is the best dressing room I have been in etc, such a team spirit etc" This year none of that. Interesting thought.

I don't see Sturrock, Pook or Allen improving the team in a way that will stop leaking goals. Morrison at a push maybe for obvious reasons.

We need to identify the goalkeeper and back four issue and quick sharp.... It's a situation that will decide whether Malpas is here at the end of the season or not.

Reg is right on his points but we also need to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.
Cruel as it sounds, as a club we need those plastic fans to see a great game and come back.....after yesterday will any of the floaters return??

There are idiots that annoy me at matches but most fans will be a little peeved to see a great passing move or mazy dribble from the opposition which results in a goal. However when they see schoolboy keystone cops defending they are pissed off and they rightly put their point across......after all they have paid between £15 and £25 and i n my book they have paid for the right to complain, loyal fans, floaters etc etc.

Exactly - every season the matches against teams like Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest and Leeds United are just as important for business reasons than they are for points

People don't watch Swindon for too many reasons whether it's because of previous regimes or because Hereford at home isn't as appealing as Prem/CCC fixtures.

These are the games that can brings the proverbial bums-on-seats and it's up to the management to get it right... Last time Leeds beat us the CG the attendance dropped dramatically (Huddersfield last season - ok night game and Champions League on tele), I expect the same to happen against Millwall unless we get a result at Stockport.

My main worry is why these mistakes happen. He dont seem to give many defenders a chance 1 mistake and they are dropped maybe thats causing a few issues

My worry yesterday was the not the result just the fact that we made it look like we had 10 men and not them. Shocking show. Can't have many more like that or we'll have be staring at league 2 again come Christmas.

An old cliche - it's harder to play against 10 than 11 and Leeds proved that yesterday.

Leeds didn't prove it. We proved it.

Shit cliche anyway, most teams down to 10 men for 80 minutes would be pressured and run ragged.

Most teams down to 10 men have 10 men giving 100%

Nah, if Leeds had have had 11 men it would have been 4 or 5. IMO.

I'm not sure what other defence Malpas could have picked yesterday?

For what it's worth, I agree with Gazza in so much as Malpas chose the right 11 players to go out there. Ok, so he changed the team. Leeds at home is a different game to MK and Hereford away.
Also, I honestly don't think we played THAT badly yesterday, the main issues were 3 counts of schoolboy defending and a lack of self belief. Had Lucas not made two incredible saves the scoreline could have been totally different and nobody would have complained about the performance at all.

It'll be interesting to see what team plays against Stockport next week now that MM has promised changes. I think what the players need more than anything is a kick up the arse. They could have won the game yesterday and they need to know that. Clearly, for 90 minutes yesterday they didn't.

How can you say that? If we'd played against 11 men it would have been a totally different game.

Yes Dell, but teams that are aiming for promotion have 11 men giving 100% and that we clearly didn't see from Swindon yesterday.

And thats why Leeds won, I'm not disagreeing with you about that.
Just going back to point, sides down to 10 men normally ALL give 100%

Its just an opinion. Keep your hair on.  ;)

Point taken.

we lost yesterday primarily because of individual errors. secondary to that, certain players lacked passion and commitment and we were outclassed by a better side.

malpas has to shoulder some blame, no doubt about that. however i don't think that he can be blamed entirely as some are inclined to do. my main concern is that we'll lose a manger quarter way through the season, go through a period of limbo until we appoint someone else and then have another wasted season with a new man "finding his feet". we've not had a manager in charge for a full season since andy king.

fitton has finally bought stabillity to the non-playing side of the club, can we please just have stability on the pitch? why can't our fans get behind the team properly? why are there such a significant number of fans who go along every week just to moan and not get behind the team whatsoever?

That happens at all clubs Sonic,i never critisize players while there playing,but yesterday was very frustating to watch,we had 4 players in our own half defending nearly all match,when they had one up front,the set pieces were shocking,the defending abysmal......the team froze again with big match syndrome,you cant just keep hoping by giving Mcmanee the ball we will score....the only bright side is Cox and Paynter...they are starting to look good together...IMO Smith is good cover for Brez who should be in goal for every match,and with all the midfield distinckly average the players who have been patient in the reserves deserve a chance,Timlin,Nalis,Easton are just not cutting the mustard.

Sonic, i stated above the reasons.........we all pay money and when rubbish is dished up we complain.

Would you keep going back to a Chinese takeaway week after week if the food was crap!?

We are loyal.......i will never follow any other club......but if the product is poor......its poor!

Would you keep going back every a week just so you could shout abuse at some Asians?

Depended who they played for Ben!....i went for a chinese last night but he was a strong fuker and punched my lights out.

I blame Bart for yesterdays debacle.

Seriously though i did hear alot of in fighting between fans yesterday...some idiots were screaming abuse that a lot of other fans took exception too and fistycuffs nearly ensued.

I think we're one level of consistency from being a pretty solid side.

I've written essays before on how I blame the fans. I won't again because I'm watching Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

MMMM suddenly fancy a chocolate orange.

Yes lets blame the fans ben.

All very well, but considering you witnessed your last game about 2 years ago, your view are seriously outdated.

ooooh bitchy

Not a pop but he is right though sonic

maybe so but nevertheless ben speaks a lot more sense than some on here who do go regularly.

Suppose you mean myself and bart who despite annoying people is being proved right time and time again

no. for example:

leefer who has an inability to see that nalis is a class midfielder.
bart who never has anything worthwhile to say because he is incapable of actually providing reason and logic for his moronic statements.

i've agreed with a lot of what you've posted on here to an extent. i only disagree that malpas is wholly responsible.

I agree about Bart. He merely provides ramblings, which are sometimes proved right, but without any logic they often seem nonsensical.

It's easy to read a lot of opinions and base a reasoned argument based on them though, without experiencing the actual facts yourself. I suppose that's what a lot of this forum is when people comment on news articles etc.

Ben is right, we're one level away from being consistent....consistently shit. We've been quite bad thus far and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded. There have been odd occassions where we've been slightly better, but I can't think of one game where I've been impressed to the extent that I thought we outplayed our opposition.

Oh and Nalis looks sluggish and 10 minutes behind the game when the rest of the midfield is also out of the game.

Great.

utter bollocks

Fwiw i think the whole managment team needs changing

i'm inclined to agree but the management roundabout is getting silly here

It is but only because whenever someone goes we tend to keep one of them here. Imo none of them have any loyalty to malpas and why should they

It's not bollocks. It's just less obvious than negatives about other players. If I mentioned that Ifil punts the ball aimlessley or McGovern doesn't stay out wide when he should, I'd probably have your agreement in an instant.

I'm in no way blaming Nalis for yesterday's shambles. He is a good player when the rest of our midfield (team?) is doing well. He can exploit gaps when they're there and play some good passes and often provides an outlet to pass to. However, when the rest of the midfield (team?) is not doing well he looks slow and unable to do much.

Leeds at home and Cheltenham away are prime examples. Considering we've only played 6 games I think my conclusion is quite sensible. It has plenty of time to be proved or disproved.

I think i know what your saying si he was our best player but still not good enough?

these are irrefutably true.


this is not true. or at least, i thought he was the only midfielder to emerge from the game yesterday with any credit. he worked hard, used the ball well, tracked back when ifil or amankwaah got caught out of position and as usual was the only player who came deep to get the ball to stop ifil's aimless punts.

although our goal did come from one of ifil's punts!

easton had the worst game i've seen him have, which didn't do nalis any favours.but easton will come back and have blinders again.
the biggest worry is the centre backs,they have not got an understanding at all, and even before yesterdays shambles the signs have been there that its frail to say the least.having an ex international defender as boss and an experienced centre half aint improving the back 4 at all from what i've seen this season.

Agreed, I thought that Nalis did well yesterday and one of our only players to think about where to pass etc. and keep it on the ground!

He kept throwing himself into challenges which I admire for his endevour and tenacity. However, he was often late in his challenge. I'm surprised he didn't pick up a second booking. It was quite easy for Leeds to take the ball around him as well. The rest of the team was much the same. But I've seen it happen with Nalis a few times.

What did Nalis do yesterday apart from pass the ball sideways? I think I may be being a bit too harsh because there was a lack of movement for him, but there were times when he (and others) had acres of room to take the ball forward but they ended up doing nothing with it. It reminded me England against Andorra.

I'm not lynching or trying to lynch Lilian Nalis. I'm just being realistic. In fact, none of our midfielders has consistently impressed me under Malpas or Sturrock. I think our best midfielder in the last few seasons was Monkhouse and Sturrock got rid of him.

100% true. Also, I saw Amankwaah trying to organise the middle two a lot of the time. I think this is why he got caught out himself, because he was concentrating on what other people were doing instead of what he was doing.

fair enough. however, i thought his first booking was dubious anyway.

nalis will never bring the ball forward on marauding runs, that's nto the sort of player that he is. he does the simple things well and can control the game when we're on top, admittedly yesterday he was far from controlling anything.

leeds also had an excellent central midfielder in delph. anyone in this division would look poor in comparison.

Cheers babe.

Whilst I'm laying into our players, especially our midfield. Why oh why when 3 players are trying to win the ball off McNamee, or at least in that zonal area of the pitch, are there no players in space trying to exploit the inevitable gap?

Against 10 men this problem seems even worse. Not good enough. McGovern and Easton were our worst midfielders yesterday, I agree when you say Nalis wasn't the worst, he was trying hard and I think if the rest of the team had worked for him he would have done better. Our whole midfield looked slow yesterday. Mainly because there was no movement.

My point about Nalis is, there is no point in having 'class' when it isn't going to win you games. I'm not trying to refute his individual skills. Against 10 men you'd assume there would be more gaps to pass into.

I'm just really disappointed about the game and in fact our season. Games like this and also Cheltenham wind me up. You can hear the opposition's fans taunting us because we're shit. These are games we should have won, not lost by two goals.

the reason we were rubbish, because Leeds are better than us.

They have a better goal keeper, better defenders, better midfielders and probably the best striker at this level. They battle hard and keep the ball well.

Sure, we made it easy for them with sloppy mistakes....but everyone seems intent to blame our players, our manager, our fans, our journo from the local fucking paper - yet no one wants to give any fucking credit to Leeds what so ever.

I am 100% sure that is not the first time a team down to 10 men has upped their game. Remember Swansea last year when Barry Corr stupidly got himself sent off after about 15 minutes against Swansea. We upped our game and played much better than they did. They took the lead they didnt deserve and we got a goal back. They didnt beat 10 men but they didnt blame their players/manager/fans/paper/journo....

Again, its all well and good slating everyone but who would do a better job....who can we play in the middle, who can we play in defence, who can we play in goal who can we get in as manager that will suddenly change everything make us good again? go on tell me.....dont keep telling me you want our manager sacked, tell me who the fuck you want him replaced with...

I really am thinking about whether I want to continue after the 10 games ive payed for. I'm just sick of everything about football and mainly about alot of our own fans....

Our own manager players all said we are capable of beating anyone yet we looked woeful against 10 men lets make our fuckin minds up

I would also add with cox,mcnamee and easton we have some good players ourselves dv

Not denying that. Cox is a good striker and is scoring goals this season. Easton hasnt quite hit the standard we expect of him and McNamee is only good if given the ball.

Either way, Beckford, Douglas & Kilkenny are all better players...

I want a manager who can beat a 10 man team with our 11 players. I don't give a shit what his name is.

Leeds were better, miles better. But they shouldn't have been. That's why everyone is pissed off.

Where was:

*Our organisation.
*Team shape.
*Confidence on the ball.
*Ability to win the ball.
*Marking (especially with an extra man).
*Corner routines that don't look stupid.

These are things a manager can address. The buck doesn't stop at Malpas, but we're looking crap. If the management team (Fitton/Watkins/Malpas) state they want Championship football within 3 years then this is what we expect. We won't be going up this season at least.

If the players aren't good enough Fitton needs to open his cheque book. If the players are good enough (or the squad is one or two signings short) then the issue is with management. In reality it's probably neither of these extremes, but something isn't working if we seriously feel we can achieve our goal of promotion.

I've not felt it fair to blame the individual errors as the reason we lost. Our approach to the game didn't work. If a ten man team can beat us by two goals then god help us. They're Leeds United, not Manchester United.

Totally agree that the players are playing under too much pressure, explains a lot including silly mistakes and lack of ideas.  Once the source of the pressure is identified and dealt with, then there will be improvement.

Do you think there's any significance in a manager that uses the word "pathetic" to describe the team he is responsible for after the Aldershot and Leeds games?  It's not my fault if my team is pathetic, apparently.  They've been bad, I will punish them by dropping them.  

Looks like the team doesn't come close to meeting expectations set by the manager before games.  A manager with a remarkable playing career.  Nothing wrong with setting expectations, but don't paralyse them with fear at 2.55 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon.  

I don't think it is the fans, they come stomach losing, it is the manner of losing that makes them embarrassed and angry.  Effort and endeavour are respected, irrespective of the result. All the fans want is some enjoyment and entertainment for their hard earned cash.  If the team are condemned by the manager as pathetic, why should anyone bother showing up?  

So do I, so does everyone....but again Roberto Martinez' Swansea didnt beat our 10 men when they had an extra man from about 15 minutes in.

He's done alright as a manager though.

I know that they obviously didnt lose 3-1 and they attacked us.

The point is (I think!) that having an extra man doesnt give you the god given right to win a game.

Ok it does not but there is no exuse for no battling.closing down and creativity

And even if we did all that everyone wants, we'd still have had to score 4 yesterday to win because their 3 were all created or scored by us.

It doesn't, you're right about that.

But it should make things a lot easier. Leeds never looked stretched. They played with 1 man up front for much of the game, but still looked more threatening than us. That's disappointing.

Had we played well and lost to a better team I'd still be annoyed, but a lot more forgiving. We were just simply rubbish. If we play like that against other teams we will lose. We even lost by two goals to Cheltenham. They're bottom of the table with a minus twelve goal difference. Other teams are dicking them for fun, but they made us look fairly average.

I wasn't realistically expected a promotion battle, but I wanted progress this season. I've not seen it and I'm starting to worry I won't. If we stay like this we'll end up in a worse position than we finished in last time round.

It's disappointing and worrying.

keegan's unemployed again

asking ifil to pass the ball is a major mistake at the moment.sturrock sorted this out and ifil had his best form for during that period.he has been rubbish this season. yes he's scored goals but the rest of his game has been dire.yesterday was just like the kingy days.awful touch,anticipation and passing.if he looses his pace he is finished as a pro.

i thought Wise sorted that out? he played awesome under Wise, Wise told him to never hit a long ball, just give it to someone who can kick the fucking thing

Whoever it was he aint doing it now

Exactly whats made JI forget that advice, just win the ball and lay it off, it's not rocket science.

Its just hit me how inexperienced our mangment team is

I wonder if AF may look to bring an experienced old head in as a Director of Football? 

not really important but i remember hearing sturrock interviews and he spoke about ifil and his limitations regarding the ball.he asked him to do what i earlier described.wise altered things for ifil slighly by sending him up for corners

I do wonder how forgiving people would be if the previous regime had appointed malpas

That's a bit of a pointless comment DRS because they didn't appoint him and the situation is completely different.

The old board would've appointed a more recognised name perhaps... But we also could be in L2 with minus points or out of business.

No also about it!

Yeah true im just shocked if i am honest at the lenghs some people will go to avoid layin the blame where i feel it should lay

anyone hear the interview with Malpas after Hereford?
he was asked what he will be doing the weekend as Swindon had the game on friday night, his reply was:
'I suppose i should go to watch Leeds but im going to be selfish and see my family then play golf'

I think MM should be blamed such as much as the useless tossers who continually let the club down.  It's becoming a bit of a joke.  MM should have a lot to say after yesterday I think he now needs to come out and show us (somehow) that he's gonna fight to sort this out, it ain't gonna be pretty, some players aren't as good as first thought and changes need to be made.

I can't stick another week of players, assistants, coaches using ther adver as a mouthpiece to spout the normal claptrap that has already been said time and time again.

I predict though there will be an apology from Smith and Ifil taking responsibility, which isn't gonna help really.  Not sure what would help at this time.

god forbid he has a personal life.

anyway, i'm sure thats what scouts are for

I totally agree Sonic, if he cant trust his scouts to give him an honest report fo a game then why employ them. He cant be at every single game scouting the oppo.

its just i would have thought he would like to see 1st hand what hes up against, which he admitted but said he'd be selfish instead

Not bothered if he sees Leeds or not, but why say that in the first place?!

i think we're going to end up with malpas polarising opinion drastically. there are already some who don't think he can do right and some - myself included - who will defend him to the hilt.

it's like kingy all over again

It just seems like a pointless thing to say. I'm all for a bit of honesty from the manager and his is refreshing at times but then you also have to say that there comes a time where tact is far more important.

I want to support him and during the 90 mins i will but after that if i feel that we aint performed i would not mind knowing why

True, but perhaps MM is just not the media darling that the Town fans need, perhaps he has not had much to do with quick thinking in interviews, unbelievably some managers are just thrust into these interviews without any preperation or time to collect their thoughts.

As for Sonics point about AK...it does seem to be increasingly moving towards that black/white love/hate him kinda way, the only thing that is opposite with AK and MM is that fans opinions of AK decreased when they actually met him and with MM opinions improve when they meet him.

its easy saying its always individual errors, but why are they happening? are they low on confidence due to the managers methods? i know they have had serious problems with Malpas' training methods and formations

one thing i would have done different yesterday is this.why when leeds reverted to 1 upfront, and with us chasing the game did malpas leave 4 players at the back?
i would have gambled on 3 at the back and stuck another body upfront.by then we had nothing to lose

i was tearing my hair out Aribba when he didnt take off a defender and stick Peacock up top for the last 5/10mins, and my hair is all nice and everything

That is a good point Arriba, we should have got at them a bit more even if it meant sacrificing one defender to bring on another attacker...even at such an early stage of the game.

 :poofs:

my hair is very gay to be honest

I'd have taken 3 of the back 4 after their second. Probably wouldn't have noticed any difference they were that bad as a unit.

If Phil Smith can in anyway lay blame on training methods or confidence for all but throwing the ball in the net, the world is an odder place than I imagined.

You either pick fewer error prone players, or somehow cover for them - Ifil having Williams next to him helped because someone was literally telling Ifil what to do, he didn't need to engage his own brain.

Should Morisson be given another chance sooner rather than later?

plus we were in league 2 which is terrible

Sean Morrison is not the answer, its back to peoples thinking that who ever is not in the team is suddenly fucking amazing, Morrison and Corr are suddenly going to be our saviours, afraid not.
If Jerel gets dropped, within a few games of Kanyuka or Morrison the same people on here would be saying we need Ifil hes our best centre back

Im not saying anyone is our saviour - read the post.

All Im saying is we are all moaning about our defence so is it worth giving Morrison a shot?!  Could he be any worse?

exactly the same with Vincent at centre back, suddenly hes our next saviour, yet last needed he got battered week in week out on here

When your named manager (because no doubt the Malpas haters will get their way sooner rather than later) because clearly your knowledge is superior to everyone else. What will you do to make sure some of our players don't make mistakes?

Yes! at the moment Morrison is miles behind Aljofree, Ifil & Kanyuka, he has every chance to develop into a player better than all 3, but currently not good enough

Who said anything about anyone being a saviour? Others say we miss Vincent - whether we do or not I don't know but its only suggestions - not saying 1 man is going to come in and stop us leaking silly goals.

morrison has the potential to be better than all of our other defenders.still only 17 so the club needs to be careful

changing the defence wont help because I think our strongest back 4 is Smith, Ifil, Aljofree, Vincent.

Obviously Vincent is injured, so the next best option is Amankwaah, Ifil, Aljofree, Smith.....

Neither Morrison or Kanuyka are as good as Ifil and Aljofree, sure they arent perfect and make mistakes but most players do.

Ifil is still a good player, so far this season hes not been at his best but we've been watching him for 5 years now, we know what he is capable of.

I think we do need a new centre half, but I think we need a leader on the pitch, we dont have one and havent had one since Williams, even a player similar to Williams who is coming to the end of his career and is willing to play for us (thats the biggy) who can help mould our defence on the pitch.

These sort of players are not really (or cheaply, or on loan) available though which is the real problem.

hello luci  :bye:

Stick with the same defence and be thankful that we'll only see Beckford once more this season!

ifil is not a good player on his form this season.thinking about it i'd drop him.

for who? Kanyuka is injured and Morrison was way out of his depth against a poor Cheltenham team which showed anyone with a bit of experience and know how (Hayles) and he will be embarassed all day long

for who?

all of our centre halfs have been on poor form....unlike Kanyuka and Morrison we at least know Ifil is capable of better.

Kanyuka and Vincent aren't fit and with Morrison and Aljofree at the back we'd be as slow as we were with Heywood and Reeves! Nightmare!

i didn't see the cheltenham game so i cannot comment on that,but he will be a fine defender for sure.we should be looking for a loan if the ones we have are injured, shit,or not ready

Arriba, you didnt need to see the Cheltenham game.

They beat us, they've lost their other 5 games and let in 18 goals!

so we have vincent-injured,ifil-garbage this season,aljofree-hardly setting the world alight but should play,kanyuka-sicknote,morrison-not ready,so we are a bit fucked at centre half then.loan market it is then......

or a bit of fucking defensive coaching in training!!

You cant polish a turd.

Peacock at CB it is then!

basically, players who get picked = rubbish. Player who arent picked = good.

thats what fucks me off dan, if they were that good they would be playing

not in my opinion it isn't.

I personally think that the Cock could do a job at CB.

If all else fails....

Mistake aside I don't think Ifil was as bad as people seem to be saying. His distribution is dubious, we all know that. He made a mistake. So did Aljofree and Smith.

Ifil was rubbish tho, at one point JP was about 10 yards from Ifil stood near the half way line and Ifil went to pass to  him and just smashed the ball miles passed him about 15yards away!!

ifil was that bad.he was fucking diobolical yesterday

His passing was very bad, his actual defending less so.

So there!

His distribution was appalling. Every time he won the ball, we were straight back under pressure becasue he hoofed it to one of them.

his general judgement was dire too.i've praised him when its due but yesterday was embarrasing for the bloke.i bet he wanted that pitch to swallow him up.even without the catastophe that led to the first goal his game was awful

Oh well, just me then. Must have dozed off and dreamt a different game!

i think we should forget the league and concentrate on the JPT

By the way i dont hate malpas hate is such a strong word

Mine neither.  But then again assumptions will always be made.

i'm with you on that, we should rest our best 11 and bring them out just for the JPT...this is going to be our year :D

Haha "Que sera sera...................

Leeds in the final?

How very true!!!

it wasn't a statement, was a question.so yes its true he did ask.
i think they would have hung the cunt already(not literally)

Doesnt need to watch Leeds, just all the videos of all the games so far......and tell the defenders.....DONT DO THIS...DONT DO THAT....PLAY IT HERE.......TRY DOING THIS......etc etc etc....

I'd hope he was treated very differently to be honetst. I don't see why it's seen as a bad thing to think otherwise.

Take away the rubbish adver player "lets make a story" talk. The new owners of the club have been pretty honest about their desire too build up a team slowly. Three years to get promoted, emphasis on youth, not willing to spend above our means to have a quick year in the championship.

Malpas may or may not be part of that ideal, it's pretty obvious that he was bought in for his youth experience. Which makes perfect sense when you look at the new board's goals. It's a difficult transition period though. It's quite clear that the likes of Morrison, Chris Allan, etc. aren't quite ready for first team football.

Rightly or wrongly Fitton and co have set themselves up with a club with which they can see attaining  possible self sustained championship football without opening the bottomless black hole of football money. I'm actually pretty dubious on whether it's a possible goal, but fair  play to them for trying.

And that pretty much sums it up. Fair play on them for trying. We wouldn't be fans if we didn't want our club to do better ever year. (And) I also hate the sort of magic-let's-not-offend-the-new-owners vibe which seems to have gone down on here recently. The new board aren't above criticism, but it's the first time in decades that we've got the opportunity to shout at a board which might actually listen. Which makes it more important that it's constructive.

I think we're all very much used to a "Them vs. Us" scenario when it comes to our football club. As long as the current owners can subsitant their goal of building the team up as a whole, then I'm willing to give them a fair bit of leeway.

 I include Malpas in this leeway. Some seem to have judged that he's never going to help us reach our 3 year target. I don't think he's had enough time yet (or even if it's possible). I hope I understand the frustration of watching a team which is "nearly" good. And equally "nearly" bad I suppose. It's that consistent "nearly". But that doesn't matter at the moment. If MM can keep on the path of the new owners - building up the club slowly; then I'll happily not watch mediocre League one football all year, and next year.

Sorry I've started babbling. I'm pretty sure it gets slightly more rambling towards the end. and feel free to dismiss me because I don't go to games if you want.

If Diamandis had appointed Malpas after Wise it would have been fucking savage.

I know we should be patient. We could play the long term thing, but Im not travelling to 300 miles to see a team half full of youths get well beat when were assured a mid table finnish. Theres no passion in it, its too methodical. End of last season was fucking crap to be honest. Least going down we had competitive games and it all meant something.

Having goals of 2 or 3 seasons time is realistic, fine. But it doesnt exactly fire you up to go to Stockport next week. And when you get out of that habit of following everywhere it just seems more like a chore. You find other stuff to do. The less fans that travel the worse it gets. Atmosphere is suffering already.

I went to Leyton Orient last season and I didnt even want to be there. I only did it for the new ground thing, it was a big mistake. I couldnt even feign an interest and left after watching 10 minutes of the game. Exactly the same for a few home games, 15 minutes, then back to the pub, drinkings more fun. The habit was hanging by a thread.

Football is all about the next game, getting on a roll. I dont care what anyone says. I cant be bothered to watch half arsed teams on the promise that things will be good in 3 years time. Do it behind the scenes, because we hardly get a chance to get excited about the players we produce anyway. I want success now, goals the next game, this season, and if were not trying our best to get it then I cant be bothered. See you when youre ready.

No it isn't Gaz. It's the fact we are coached by 3 defenders yet can't defend for shit. I like the way we play football going forward, its nice to watch and we have good players. At the back we are abysmal and it needs to be sorted.

Spence has a point.
Most intelligent fans will be delighted that we are stable off the pitch and a three year plan is great and shows more stability in the future.
However we do need to see the team put in good shows and im not talking about winning every game but 'trying'.
If it seems the players cant be bothered.....then why should the fans, after all, they are not being paid to be at the County Ground or Colchester on a wet Tuesday night........

Spencer White has just summed up my feelings at the moment, good post

Nice post Spence.

I'm going to go a bit Bart on us here, for me the jury is still out on whether the management team can hack it. Though I am hoping they can, and I am certainly not going to jump on anybodies back. This isn't based off the Leeds result either , but on the season thus far.

I want to see improvement, but I also want to see us win.

The squad looks a little stronger than last year in terms of depth, overly so with the like of Pook and Sturrock picking up wages for doing nothing (not their fault). On the pitch we seem to be trying to play a more attractive style of football, which everyone seemed to want. But we also have regressed in the obvious areas. Mainly defending (as a team).

At the moment we seem to be as inconsistent as last year = no progress made.

So are we just seeing bad luck and individual errors creep in, something that will right itself over time? Or are we just not good enough? Or is the lack of motivation and understanding down to the coaching?

Truth is, I don't know. I guess we'll have a clearer view by Christmas.

Truth is, I don't know.

I'm at that stage too Batch, and that's the dilemma for me, I just don't know what the answer is, what the problem is, who the problem is.  Without over reacting time is the only thing that will give us these answers, problem is how much time to we sacrifice to the wait and see point of view.

This isn't an anti or pro MM post really, as you said I just don't know.

I fully agree with Batch on this.

I want us to win games, I want us to play good football, I want the best for our club.

I HOPE MM is the man for the job, I want MM to become the best manager in the history of the club, it is far too early to judge him but come Christmas we will know much better how the season is panning out.

One home defeat to what is probably the best team in the league is not a disgrace, defensive errors and calamities happen in football all the time, its just so rarely that it happens 3 times in a game.

MM does make some unusual tactical decisions in games, but if these come off then he is hailed the new mesiah, if they dont come off then this whole argument comes up again questioning his managment style.

Personally I think that it will take a long string of poor performances, not just one or two off games, and not just string of individual errors, which you can only prevent by replacing the players that have them...which at the moment we cannot as we dont have the strength in depth that we obviously need.

Is it time that Mr Fitton breaks the wage structure with allowing MM to bring in a couple of better players on loan? he seems very strict that he wont so the idea of us actually being able to get players in that are better is an impossible dream.

MM's hands are tied by the squad he has at the moment, he cant and anyway seems unable to add to the squad without offloading first.

So it must all come down to coaching, morale and the ability of the players to act upon tactics to improve performances.

If any one of these points is not acted upon then it will be a very long season with a fight against relegation, if they come together then we can still easily get to the play offs.

It is finely in the balance, lets hope it falls more towards the positive side for us.

I will probably get slated but i am losing confidence in malpas, i was prepared to give him a chance but just cannot help feeling that he is not the right man for the job.

He just does not seem very good tactically, with leeds going down to 10 men we should have been looking to win the game and even pushing people up but you would have thought that we were the team with 10 men, leeds were quite comfortable.

Before malpas was appointed fitton did say that he would appoint a manager with a proven track record, malpas has not got a proven track record, he has only had one job and he did so badly there that there was a fans petition to get him sacked, doesn't say alot for the man does it?

The way things are going i think alot of fans won't bother paying the second installment on their season tickets because if we keep playing like this every week and carry on making the same mistakes week in week out then people are not going to want to go and that is going to hit the club hard, fitton is a businessman so if that happens and attendances start dropping alot then i think he will be forced into doing something about it.

I honestly think that if we lose at stockport and at home to millwall then he will be gone, i am going to stockport on saturday, i don't know why i am bothering after saturdays disaster but i don't feel like going at the moment because i fear it will be the same old thing again but let's see what happens.

I think malpas and the coaching staff are just not upto it, Byrne was a youth team coach, i personally feel that he should not be assistant manager, all he seems to do is shout abuse at players and make them low on confidence by constantly slating them, ady williams (what does he do?) he is no good at a coach either i don't think, also the goalkeeping coach granville cannot be doing his job properly, these two keepers who used to be great look terrible this season, why?

Malpas and the coaching staff just cannot organise this team and cannot sort out the defence and cut these constant errors out and it is getting beyond a joke now and alot of fans are getting fed up with it.

Also i would like to point out that the fans have never once sang malpas's name, the first time ever i think for a swindon manager's name not to be sung, it says something about malpas.

I think time is fast running out for malpas, things must improve quickly otherwise i feel he will be out of a job.

No.

The one thing I am sure is that we must never again risk the future of STFC by spending money we don't have. Even if it means relegation.

I am aware things take time, budgets are in place and so on, and STFC is a long game. So I guess one more question is am I being too quick in expecting a turnaround by Christmas?

Yes

You won't get slated by me - good post. I was prepared to wait until X Mas before judging Malaps but Leeds was the last straw for me on top of other crap displays. The players appear to have zero confidentce and we are falling down on basics. I think he's going to have to do one hell of a job to still be here at X Mas.

I agree we should have looked to capitalise more on leeds' predicament, but to say the fact leeds looked comfortable with 10 men was soley down to malpas is ignoring just how well organised leeds were and how good a team they actually are.

To be fair, unless you watch the team train then i would find it hard to slate the coaches. The only thing im worried about is the apparent lack of team spirit in comparison to the wise and sturrock era. We looked much more together then, and is probably for me the biggest let down so far this season, and has probably led to quite a few of these sloppy goals we've conceded.

The fans have sang malpas songs at all three away games.

That wasn't necessarily an anti-you post, for the most part i would agree with most of what you are saying. But if we could compare with play-off winners last season, most doncaster fans were screaming for o'driscolls head as late as october / november. For much the same reasons as we are now. Now obviously malpas doesn't have the track record o'driscoll has, but its something worth bearing in mind.

I feel that granville is not a good enough goalkeeping coach, something has happened with our goalkeepers, why do they seem to be so lacking in confidence and making so many errors this season? it just seems like something is not right somewhere, are playings arguing with each other, is the dressing room split or has malpas lost the players support? i don't know but it seems there are big problems somewhere.

I constantly hear how the coaches are constantly out on the piss, Byrne & Williams the main culprits, mackey too but he's not a coach, obviously they are entitled to do what they want when they are not working but it just seems to happen too often.

Also i think Byrne demotivates players with his constant rambling, he really does shout some abuse and some players may feel deflated?

On saturday Mcallister was on the touchline shouting, pointing, firing his team up whereas Malpas just stayed on the bench and didn't do anything, he just doesn't seem to have the personality and doesn't seem to fire the team up, maybe it is just me who thinks that?

The way i see it is Malpas firstly cannot organise this team properly, his tactics are very questionable, he doesn't seem to react when teams change their style or formation, also he plays some players in wrong position i.e mcgovern in the centre etc, him and the coaching team are just not making it work, it's not happening for some reason, i wonder if the players have a problem with malpas and don't want to play for him? obviously that's just a possiblity but this team has been turned around from a fairly decent team to a team that cannot defend and makes constant errors and does not seem the same team.

Malpas turned motherwell from a decent team into a very poor one and almost got them relegated, is he doing the same thing here?

I just think unless things dramatically improve and soon then he has to go whether he resigns or gets sacked, this just cannot keep happening every week with just one good performance now and again.

I wouldnt really moan at dick mackey for going out on the piss. All he has to do is rub people down with a sponge doesnt he? I wouldnt really moan at williams and byrne too much, unless they were doing it every night.

I'm not going to slate malpas for not jumping about like a loon either. Byrne does it, yet he gets moaned at? The one thing i am slightly concerened about is the apparent lack of team spirit, something wise acheived brilliantly, and sturrock kept going.

I agree, there is no team spirit but malpas sometimes comes across as boring and as though he cannot generate a team spirit.

Would we be better if we got rid of the coaches and got new ones? i don't know, i think malpas is the problem though, being an ex defender himself he should be able to sort this defence out yet he cannot do it, the thing is though why can't he do it?

He reminds me of Andy King when he slags the players off but after all these mistakes they do need a good bollocking and a kick up the backside.

I am just wondering if it's going to be any different on saturday, i will be going and hope they will play alot better but at the moment i am not confident.

I wont have a go at him for being boring either. Sturrock was hardly a wild party animal.

Going back to the granville point, it does seem a bit odd how both keepers form seems to have dipped. How much of brez's 'problems' are down to wise leaving though? and mental demons after his broken arm. And could smith be 'struggling' because league two is in fact his natural level?

i noted gggggg granville,byrne and williams all telling something to awankwaa all at the same time saturday.are they all saying the same thing or fucking confusing players?
i've said for ages that eventually malpas will get the boot.purely because alot of fans have not taken to him at all.only results will turn that around and he aint really getting them.

Aren't you contradicting yourself here? When McAllister's on the touchline shouting and pointing he's "firing his team up", but when Byrne does it he's "rambling"? Can't have it both ways.

The keepers seem really bad, it could be down to what you say or it could be the coaching, smith used to be a very good goalkeeper but he has made alot of mistakes recently including at hereford and on saturday, maybe league two is his level but it seems very odd.

Ifil looks terrible as well this season, i know he has got 2 goals but his distribution has got worse and he looks nervous on the ball and made that terrible mistake.

Mcgovern is another player that i believe has played awful, why does he continue to get picked? only the strikers, mcnamee and jack smith are playing ok, the rest of the team are letting them down.

I think someone else should be made captain, aljofree is another one who has been poor and made a bad mistake for leeds 3rd goal on saturday, he shouts at the other defenders even when he makes a mistake, i think someone else should be captain, that's my opinion anyway.

The team is not playing together as a unit and seem clueless and unmotivated, if malpas cannot motivate them for a game against leeds then what hope do we have?

The last two home games against leeds have been disappointing with very big crowds.

Sorry i did contradict myself but byrne just rambles on and i think deflates players sometimes, i have heard many people moaning about his shouting.

As byrne is a youth team coach i still think he should have stayed as youth team coach and let malpas have his own assistant, maybe things would be better if malpas brought in his own coaching team?

Our last two big crowds saw us draw 1-1 (with ten men) and win 2-1. Both against teams that got promoted

Sorry i meant to have said both leeds games.

we played well last time we had leeds at home iirc. we just played them at a time we couldnt score for shit

That's exactly what i mean with the coaches, things just are not right.

And i agree with what you say about malpas, he isn't going to last much longer at this rate.

Ok we won at Franchise with a last minute penalty, we won at aldershot on penalties, we should have beat them in normal time in all fairness, as for hereford we should be winning games against teams like that, hereford are a very poor team yet we can only manage a draw, we have only played well against tranmere in the league this season, the other performances have been terrible to be honest.

malpas was an international defender,williams was a second tier centre half.so if they cannot see that aljofree and ifil are not playing well together,or they cannot bring someone in on loan,or they cannot get them to improve, then they will all be out of a job by october.there are other minor problems wth the team but the centre backs are the main worry by a country mile

Aljofree, ifil & even kanyuka have been terrible this season and just cannot defend, it is comedy defending, mcgovern and the goalkeepers are the other problems in this team imo.

Arriba you said exactly what i said malpas was a defender and so too was williams so why cannot organise the defence? even if they brought in someone on loan i doubt it would make a lot of difference because the organisation is just not there.

Does it matter if people "moan about his shouting"? It doesn't matter shit if you, I or 5000 others do or do not like his shouting. What matters is whether its effective in getting the players to carry out the instructions they have been given. On Saturday that clearly wasn't the case (as I assume he wasn't shouting "Drop the ball in the net, Smithy"), but they seemed to respond pretty well when he was caretaker. It looks like you're lashing out in all directions, looking for someone to blame, but of all the various things going wrong atm and possible causes of them, I suspect the assistant manager being a bit shouty during games is probably pretty low down the list

As i said i think byrne's instructions do not have the desired effect that is just my opinion.
Why doesn't malpas get off his backside and try and inspire the team for a change instead of just sitting down and leaving it to byrne, he's the manager, he has to take the responsiblity!
I feel that byrne, williams and granville must be doing something wrong, why the constant mistakes? why can't they sort the defence out?

I think i'll try and warn you oaf (tee hee) you do seem to be making the same points in most of your posts. Valid though some of them are, you are going down the bart route. And then sonic will shout at you.

Agree on the defensive organisation though. The back four always look as if they've never met each other untill 5 minutes before kick off

surely there is an experienced centre back at a championship club unable to get a start but good enough to come here?
maplas cannot just leave it as it is.

Fucking hell, honestly I thought we were worse against Colchester then we were against Leeds!

This is just getting stupid now.

Malpas cant motivate a team because hes boring, what the fuck? that makes no sense what so ever. Wenger, Ferguson, Benitez are dull as dish water in front of the camera. Now im not saying Malpas is a good manager but being boring doesnt make him a bad one.

Next of all Malpas is a rubbish manager because he doesnt stand up and shout, then Byrne is a rubbish assistant because he does stand up and shout?!?! McCallister stands up and shouts and he's firing the team up? What? complete contridiction. I could understand your point if you sat by the dugouts and could hear what gets said, but that hasnt been mentioned?

Our centre backs were good enough last year.

The team isn't working as a unit and the defense is the biggest problem area in terms of organisation. Has a lack of motivation forced a fair number of individual errors in the early course of this season? I really doubt it.

The team needs more concentration, discipline and organisation. That's what's gone wrong. It's starting to remind me of the Andy King days in that respect.

Could it also have something to do with the fact the defence arent being protected by the midfield as much as they were last season?

We were worse against Colchester, but Leeds had 10 men. No matter how good Leeds are (and they were good, their defending was awesome and that Delph fella made McNamee look like Ricky Shakes) to let a team that has 10 men have that much space all over the pitch was criminal! Not only that, but we still insisted on having everyone back for corners! It was unbelievable, defensively I just don't think some players know what they are doing and as I said earlier in the thread, when you consider that our Manager and his assistant are both defenders, it is really mind boggling.

I think we are OK going forward, Leeds defended well and restricted us a lot. Lucas made an excellent save from Cox that would have made it 2-2 and then who knows? I also think Beckford should have been off, he got away with a lot and if he'd have gone they've lost their main man.

I think we will turn teams over this season, I really do. We have quality going forward and I'm really enjoying Cox and Paynter as a partnership. Some teams will come here and sit back and we'll pass it round them, a bit like Tranmere. Malpas and Byrne are encouraging good football, but it's sacrificing the most basic of defensive tactics. We need new coaches in, I can't see them changing it.

If we can sort out the defence we will be top 6, no problem.

Fwiw these are the reasons i dont think he is the right man and feel free to shoot me down.

1)Appears to have made the defensive unit worse, coaching or not it is his responsibility.
2)Continues to swap everything around all the time.
3)No confidence in players one mistake and they are dropped instead of supporting them through bad times they get dropped.
4)Lack of ideas when mcnamee is marked out the game.
5)the whole managment seems to have no experience in managment and byrne has openly stated he would like to manage the club,can that be healthy when in affect he is basically waiting for malpas to go.
6)Seems to be too clique with certain players ie Aljofree,vincent
7)saturday no sub when we had one left against 10 men


Now i know some people dont agree and no matter what you think im not a malpas hater these are just genuine concerns.The board are going to have a very tricky situastion on their hands soon.As i have said i believe that a fair few people will not bother with the 2nd installments and more worryingly at the end of the year 442 and ourselves can get out of the sponsorship deal so financially if Malpas does not do well it could be very bad indeed.

DRS I actually completley agree with you on pretty much all your points

My boyfriend is considering not getting the 2nd part of his season ticket

Even a crap goalkeeping coach wouldnt turn a decent keeper into a bad one.I really believe that Brez's injury(which was an horrendous one,let's not forget)has robbed him of confidence.

I have the same concerns, although I do think we have other options than Macca.. long ball to Paynter, or straight into Cox's feet. Nalis was drawing markers away from McNamee as well on Saturday.

Oh i agree with tails but we just dont seem to do it.

I agree with DV on his points, good posting Dev.

Also...

"Malpas turned motherwell from a decent team into a very poor one and almost got them relegated, is he doing the same thing here?"

Has anyone got the full facts on this Motherwell tale?  As I heard that Motherwell were up against it severely during MM's reign and if player's livlihoods at at risk that has a huge effect on performance.

MM is boring - Who cares, so was Sturrock yet people were happy enough with him.  Also MM is at least trying to get us playing the right way.  When Sturrock's team were getting beaten he'd rarely get out onto the touchline screaming and ranting, it's not his style, and it ain't MM's either.

Goalkeepers - Whatthe feck is going on here.  If you have a superb keeper behind you the defence breeds confidence which then goes through the whole team.   Problem is both keepers are struggling confidence wise, which in turn means our defence are a bit more nervy than usual.

I wouldn't be confident as a goalkeeper if I had Aljofree in front of me to be honest... My opinion of him is getting worse and worse as the season goes on.

He was the better centre half on Saturday (I know that's not saying much).

Also, on the defence side of things - it could be your classic 'players that arent playing will save us' type post that JCP78 loves so much....but Im starting to think (although I havent convinced myself fully yet!!) that Lee Peacock in midfield added alot more to the team defensively than Nalis, Timlin or Easton do & we miss it!

Only because he was mental and ran after everything! He was caught out a lot.

Nalis does a good job I think, and I like him. I'm just really not convinced by Aljofree as captain at the moment, would be better off with Nalis as captain.

but he doesn't want to play there dv.unless he was just giving a bullshit interview

The cover in midfield hasn't been great, I fully agree. But watch who the players are marking. The back four are all over the place and so are the midfield. I don't think putting Peacock in the middle will amend this.

I could be wrong, but Peacock strikes we as the type of guy who would do whatever you ask of him and tell the fans what we want to hear.

Last season he kept saying he loved his new midfield role, then when he moved back up top he said how much he loved being back up front.

As I've said, I personally perfer him in midfield

I don't think I'd be confident when your captain cocks up and then gives you a gob full of abuse as if its your fault. There is something very wrong with Aljofree this season. Last season he was OK - no more, no less. He just seems to be permanantly carrying an injury - unfortunately whilst it does affect his game it doesn't affect his tongue.

Easton can do the job, I don't think he's fully firing 100% on all cylinders yet.

I've said it before and I promise I won't say it again until next time. I think the bad defending is not just the defences fault. I think the midfield loses shape/discipline too often and lets the opposition get in the hole between out midfield and our defence. This causes confusion in the defence on who is marking who.

The midfield was the problem when we went down a few years ago, as they'd never break up any counter attacks, hence that awful goal against ???? FC when their lad ran the whole length of the pitch without be tackled or pressured once.

so do i dv.but i dont think the midfield is a problem really,easton was non-existent saturday but that was out of character for him.the fact that peacock cannot get a game for us only highlights how bad our defence has become.we are stronger upfront and midfield this season but so disorganised at the back.

I'd imagine he was giving Ifil a gobful for not covering him in that situation in case he made a mistake. They must have been working on covering each other all week. I'm sure we are *trying* to tighten up.

I don't think it was justified in this case mind.

I reckon Aljofree's been sleeping with Jack Smith, Ifil (his old FB) has found out and since then finds it difficult to trust Hasney.  This is just a slight conspiracy theory, based purely on fiction.

brentford? paul brooker?

For me, Saturday wasn't a failure of motivation, personality, or how much someone shouts. It was a couple of horrible errors coupled with lack of thought - be that from the players or from the bench. Playing against ten men is surely all about dragging the opposition out of their set positions. That means players moving and the ball moving quickly and simply from one flank to the other.

Key to that is getting the full backs to overlaps and support the attack - not blindly but at the right times. After the opposition can't double up on the wingers and protect the back four with a shield as Leeds did. Okay so Smith is on the wrong side and can't go forward as well as he'd like - also McNamee didn't use him as he should. But Amakwaah? He looked terrified of the ball and clumsy when he had it to feet. He failed utterly to get beyond JPM and Marshall or support them at all. Instead he hovered in no mans land.

As for the subject of Ifil being given the ball, Leeds let him have it. Whenever they closed the back line down, Beckford and the blonde lad who hit the floor a lot, would drop of Ifil ensuring that he was open for the pass. It is something that we would all recommend doing if we were scouts watching Swindon for another side. Okay so he made it worse but it was a pretty simple strategy...

What all this means I don't know but I guess ultimately I have to blame the management - something I've been fairly loathed to do so far.

Apologies for length and girth.

The ability to go from one flank to the other on Saturday was lacking.  One time Macca was in acres of space, think JPM had the ball, it took us 5 passes to get the ball to McNamee by which time Leeds had closed him down.  We are not dynamic enough.  Pass and move....

My two penneth...

We're only 6 games into the season and it's far to early to start judging. Yes, we're lacking in some departments but we're by no means rubbish. The same team you lot are moaning about tore Tranmere to pieces 5 weeks ago.

By Swindon standards, we've only had two poor results this season - one against Colchester and another against Leeds. I can't really comment on the Colchester game because I wasn't there, but as for Leeds I really didn't think we were collectively that bad as a team, we we're punished for stupid individual errors by one of, if not the best, team in the league - even if they did only have 10 men.

As for the players, yes, Smith made a bad howler on Saturday but it was only a couple of months ago people were harping on about how we had the best two 'keepers in the league. IMO, Ifil is just being Ifil. He goes through spells where he just seems utterly brilliant and then he'll have a patch where he's utterly shit. I also don't understand all the abuse Aljofree gets, I thought he won his fair share of headers and tackles on Saturday.

IMO it's the result of one game that's got lots of peoples backs up and got the likes of Bart (and others) back to their moaning again. It's one defeat against a very good team after a bad day at the office for two of our players. I'm certainly not going to start worrying yet and I won't judge Malpas or anybody else until we go on a proven losing streak.

A Gent Orange, that's a different view and a good one. We had to wear them down, we didn't. Of course conceeding sloppy goals knocked the stuffing out of us too.

You have to credit Leeds too. When we did start to get on top in the second half they countered by bringing off Blondie and going 4-4-1. They tightened up and took control again

Blaming the management is easy (not a dig at anyone), they may have told the players to do it but been ignored. Oh wait, I guess that's not really effective management :)

very possibly Dev, I was disgusted at the time!

Jay Tabb wasn't it? Went to Coventry a couple of weeks afterwards.

I remember screaming at Nicholas to just bring him down and take the yellow card - alas, he didn't.

Nicholas set up all 3 of their goals that game. Im sure I remember it being a Paul Brooker hat trick....

nicho had a mare that day.but matey who's name i cannot remember who had a 3 year deal but rarely played got outrun for one of the goals too

The goal scorers were Paul Brooker, Marcus Gayle and Callum Willock!!

Brooker got the goal because the goal scorer was white! He didnt get a hat trick, hat trick of assists for Nicho....

Whalley

Is it wrong that i'm still totally deflated by our defeat at Cheltenham? I can't believe we lost to them... that annoyed me far more than the Leeds game.

Totally agree with this. We were far from good, but were nowhere near as bad as some have suggested.

Take the 2 shocking goal costing errors out and Leeds didnt create a stack of chances, whilst Cox had a couple of good efforts stopped by superb goalkeeping.

Ultimatley the management do have to take the blame, as do the players.

The management could and should have changed tactics to react to leeds when they went 2-1 up.

The players should have enough about them to realise what A Gent Orange has said: that the ball needed moving quickly to pull people out of position. They still had 2 men on Macca at times with 10 men FFS! 

I do credit Leeds. They were far better than us and utterly deserved their win. And McAllister got almost of his subs and tactics right too. They also knew when to kick us and take the cards.

I'm not trying to play down quite how sloppy we were - I'm just formulating these arguments as I type because on Saturday I was too furious/pissed to think them through. All I could do was sulk into my beer and fume with impotent rage.

I was properly angry on Saturday evening, really annoyed me the way we were let down.  Chilled out a bit since then not sure if I'll make the Millwall game due to family commitments but hopefully I'll be there.  Really need to see a decent Town display to make me feel better about the current goings on.

I've still got a right cob on even now and I would say I'm much calmer than Saturday. The biggest problem is you know that the majority of players would take their wages and be out on the beer Saturday night not caring one bit about the result and knowing they'll get picked again against Stockport.

i think players generally dont care about the team they play for as long as they play well individually.i'm sure a few were mighty pissed off with themselves saturday night

After reading the TEF, and a couple of other forums for a couple of days here is my tuppence tuppence worth.

Clearly the problem is at the back, why are so many mistakes being made in defence???

I clearly remember people saying how well vincent talks Ifil through the games. In my opinion Ifil is experienced enough to know what he is doing, but if he needs to be walked through it then so be it because we all know how good he is. But Ifil right now is crap.

And now he (Ifil) is partnered with Aljofree whom by all accounts shouts and screams at players for the slightest error. What is that going to do for a player like Ifil who is clearly a confidence player? It is just going to make him more nervy and more prone to mistakes right?

An honest question: Has Ifil ever played well alongside gobby Aljofree as captain? And am I right in thinking that Jerel plays 1 million times better alongside Vincent? I might be wrong if I have got my players mixed up.

This has a knock on effect to Brez/Smith who are not confident with the back line, they seem to lack leadership/organisation skills themselves and so therefore must be well nervy when the opposition attack.

And the full backs, what full back would get forward knowing the is is exposing 2 very shaky CB's?

This also has a knock on effect to the midfield. I.E.: Despite playing against 10 men they did not have enough confidence in the back line to go forward. On another forum the majority of Leeds fans have said that were not that bad but, we just didn't "Go for it". Again, perhaps the midfield had one eye on the defence.

One comment from a Leeds fan was that he looked up and noticed 4 town players around Beckford, if true then there were at least 2 players who should have been elsewhere (More forward), which again amounts to a lack of confidence in the defence from other players.

By all accounts Cox, Paynter and McNamee have doing well, although McNamee has been quiet due to a lack of service (From the nervy midfield). These 3 attacking players have few, if any defensive duties and so therefore can concentrate on their own job rather than having to worry about what the defence is up to, maybe this is why thyhave been doing well.

It's hardly a trade secret that a solid team advances from the back line, but we clearly do not have that.

If the 2 CB's are failing then the puts pressure on the full backs and goalie, which then means that the midfield are not confident in going forward. What midfielder is going to make a forward run when he is concerned that the opposing midfielder next to him might intercept the ball, resulting in a break for the opposition that the defence just can't handle?

.......................................

To summarise I think that.

1) Ifil needs to grow the fuck up and to stop having to have his hand held for every match. He is experienced enough after all.
2) I am confident that vincent coming back will help immensely (Unless I have my players mixed up)
3) we need to buy/loan an experienced replacement for Aljofree or Vincent to partner Ifil or whomever to organise this shit.
4) Nallis should be made captain, maybe if he plays deep enough then he could organise the back line
5) Malpas is a useless Scot's cunt who should be sacked yesterday.
6) Or none of the above. (BR is wide well wide of the mark)
.....................................................................

Something else that I noted is somebody else posting about Phil Smith not getting a "Pat on the back" after his howler, which I think is a very good point. OK he fucked up, but the only thing that will help him to play better is some moral support, again this makes me think that the captain may well be part of the problem.

Regardless of what the orders may be from the general, it is up to the captain to rally the troops.

Anyway.

STOP FUCKING ABOUT AND DO WHAT YOU/WE KNOW YOU CAN DO.

Good post Red....but dont agree with you on keeper Smith,he isnt the same keeper,he looked nervous before his howler and he wasnt any greay shakes at the Dons,lets face it....it wasnt a small gaffe....a sunday lge keeper would have stopped that.

16 pages?? we could have ended this in 1 post!

Our manager is shit and our coaches are shit, they have fuck all experience between them.

It’s not too early to judge though. Malpas has had loads of games in charge now and I’m afraid these defensive issues have been ever present.

It would be too early to start calling for Malpas’s head but definitely not to criticise shoddy play.

I think that’s where the frustration has come from – people have seen this for ages but Malpas can’t seem to change it.

People are pointing to our centre backs a lot, but they have not changed since Sturrock’s time but they are looking worse.

Good post si

It's more evident now because we have tried to open up our game a bit, as people wanted, and from time to time pass it around.  Both the previous Managers went with the keep it tight approach - Wise played narrow and pushed the side of the pitch the ball was like Wimbledon, and Sturrock just got rid of flair for the most part, hence moving Peacock back etc.

Once you expose the backline to work as a unit on themselves, the errors begin to cost us more and become obvious.

The answer is therefore a change in personnel (difficult) by getting in an old head who can organise them all, or a change in approach to build confidence back up - which may mean 4-5-1 or reverting to the much criticised use of Easton on the right of 3.  Right now I'd say we can't have our cake and eat it with the squad as is.  We either accept games like this will happen as we continue our quest for attacking passing football, or we accept me might need to be a bit more negative again to allow for individual incompetence at times.

I really feel that's where Malpas' responsibility lies.  He either somehow gets more out of the team playing the way we are, or bites the bullett and changes things to protect our deficencies like the last 2 did.  Either way, if he does that it should help, but we as fans must also accept we might not be "entertained" the way we have demanded.

Agree with that and to add to it what about Ady Williams? Isn't he just a liability and a complete waste of space? As defence coach he obviously isn't working wonders. I'm wondering if it's worth getting rid and getting in a proper defence coach. Might do the trick. If not then we know MM must be at least partly to blame for such comical defending.

Wise and Sturrock both done well here, they brought their own coaching staff in, blackley is was quality here by the way. Malpas takes over and gets given Byrne and fucking Williams! i bet Malpas couldnt believe his luck getting the job here so when Fitton mentioned Byrne and Williams staying around Malpas didnt question nothing, unfortunatley these are the results, SHIT!!

To be fair though MM did say he would judge Williams before making a decision on him so he has obviously seen something in him. I certainly haven't though.

 The main difference is that the club couldn't actually fund the coaching staff of Sturrock and Wise...OK they may have been decent...but clearly AF isn't going to do it like that.

 I'm sure part of the reason why MM got the job was because he was prepared to work with  Byrne and Williams.

 Nothing wrong with that at all....Ardiles was prepared to work with John Trollope.

  Even McMahon was  prepared to work with Andy Rowland to start with.

 

my mate said to me earlier apparantly vincenté will be playing for the ressie tonight. good news

it defo isnt at left back, yinka playing with Kennedy left midfield, Vincent staring centre back i just got told

We are losing 1-0 at the moment.

which keeper is playing?

Mark Scott.

Do we??? Pretty low on my priorities. In my experience all Swindon fans care about is winning. That why some well established fans were enraged at the supporters back end of last season. We played some good stuff, but the supporters (myself included) just didnt get excited about it. Ive got to be honest, I loved it when Wise was here. The football was nothing special, but the team spirit was exceptional and we had installed in us a tremendous determination to win. Just had that mission statement that made us worth following.

There is a lack of leadership on and off the pitch. Were drifting. Absent minds.

But the defence is shit, thats the main problem. This is not an irrational despair. People are getting seriously sick of this.

Mark Scott according to the OS.

Who is the lady in your Avatar Rich?

Tina Fey of 30 Rock and SNL. Or as Dave and FB would argue, it's a cow!

Disagree Spence, the thing I loved the most about the Ossie and Hoddle days (and Gorman to a certain extent) is that we were winning (well not under JG but you get the picture), and we were winning playing superb football, on the deck, decent attacking football.  Winning is obviously important but playing the right way is a very close second.  I love the fact we're trying to play footie the right way, just hope MM can get the consistency sorted.

We had players capable of that though.these players were bought by wise and sturrock with the intention of totally different football

Agree Jan..thats why i think Corr will struggle to get a regular slot,Corr would almost certainly be route one,though the thaught of him getting on the end of McManees crosses is a plus.

Yeah, it was fantastic, Janaage. But it had to be, we were gunning for top flight football back then.

The other thing about those teams was that they were full of true leaders of men.

We are spineless. Sometimes pretty, but flimsy. And to be honest, take out McNamee, which one bad tackle could easily do, and there's a lot else on the great football front. Everyones got their own priorites.

Going back to the mentality of Swindon fans point. The football was still good under Gorman, but our support melted away. Its been said before, but Swindon fans can be a bit thick. Seen us boo a team off half time loads of times at half time when weve played well, but weve gone a goal down. All Town fans care about is winning. Im just as bad, when you get absolute blindo you miss the bits of skill anyway, but you still get the goals and the blood and thunder tackles.  ;D

I haven't seen enough of him to be able to comment with much weight, however i did go to Bournemouth away last season and the goal he scored was far from route one football.

However, one strike does not maketh the striker. Arrieta scored a corker, as did Royce Brownlie...

Never mind Bournemouth and Yeovil. Without Barry Corr we'd probably still be in League 2!

I notice Blair is not playing in tonights reserve match

Which is a shame because Jimmy Quinn was in attendance tonight, maybe he was watching Corr.

Point is Spencer hes played 17 matches in 3 years!....scored 8 goals a good ratio sure...but the club arnt going to keep paying good money for a player who cant stay fit....the fact that MM was even considering loaning him out tells me hes down the pecking order,Joyce deserves a chance on his pre season efforts as well.

Was pook and joyce playing

Swindon Town: Mark Scott; Nathan Thompson, Andy Westall (Evans h/t), Jamie Vincent, Yinka Casal; Mark Marshall, Chris Allen, Michael Pook, Callum Kennedy; Lee Peacock, Barry Corr

Substitutes: Callum Antell (GK), Sam Morris, Jake Hyde, Tom Evans

Cheers rich, strange no joyce he must be injured.i take it evans did not impress then. Can see pook on loan soon

Peacock playing and Blair not. I guess its to keep Peacock sharp, no chance of Blair being on the bench Saturday is there?

I meant evans trial at lincoln btw

Great to see Vincent back in the mix. Think we need him and at CB as well.

I think they wanted to loan him out so that if he did suffer a reaction of any kind then they could keep it low key.

The bloke is football gold if he stays fit.

You say we arent going to keep paying him. But weve paid Christian Roberts for 4 years, despite him being the architect of all his own downfalls. He was a complete pisshead when he arrived for fucks sake! Weve paid him through being a mental alcoholic, a manic depressive, a compulsive gambler (allegedly) and a coke head (allegedly) and crashing his car pissed up(allegedly). And he aint been cheap, we signed him off the back of being City's top scorer. And still people cant understand why we are FINNALLY cutting our losses! Barry Corr has dont nothing wrong, and yet gets totally the opposite. Hes only young and hes a tall lad. It doesnt suprise me one bit hes had back trouble, but his upper body strength looks much better. That shirt isnt flapping off him in the wind like it used to.

Town fans should have some loyalty on this one. He was the one who got us over the promotion line 2 and a half years ago. A key signing to not getting on that slippery slope that is League 2, ask the scum. We will be rewarded with loyalty. Attitude - spot on. Great headers, both feet, great determination, good strength, desire to do well for Swindon, not just himself. Yes the injuries are a massive worry, but if he can just get 4 or 5 months injury free under his belt he will be away. As for Joyce, fucks sake, no way mate, not in the same ball park.

It finished 1-1.

Corr with a penalty.

Cheers, he has to be on the bench saturday

Spence, my point about fans expectation was in response to the countless times I hear people complaining about being direct, or hoofball as they so intelligently put it.  We were direct as shit under Macari and it worked, but I think the Ardiles and Hoddle period spoilt a fair number and the younger generation have seen too much top flight football so expect the same style down here.  I think Malpas is trying to go for more "football" but it's not quite working and has left the defenders exposed, so much so that individual errors are really costing.  He has the choice of closing up a bit and playing a less attacking style (and yes, I admit it's only glimpses right now because it's not really worked too often yet).  That would probably mean accepting limitations, dropping one winger or a forward and not using the ball on the deck quite so much.  If people were willing to accept that and not constantly whine when the defenders play it long and too the channels, then fair enough.  I just think a fair chunk, you and a few on here aside, want everything.

I think the defensive errors can be covered by numbers, it's what we did for the last 3 away games.  Games that weren't pretty, seemed a little less threatening because we only have an option on one wing, still look shaky at the back but managed to eek out results.

Christian Roberts has scored 65 goals in 300 odd career matches...not bad for a man with the ailments youve listed Spence,hes scored 21 in 111 for Swindon.....i want to see Corr playing and scoring,but i dont want to be waiting another 3 yearsfor another 17 apearances,and more importantly nor will MM.

In this league you can't just play a game one way and expect it to work week in / week out. If we're playing the way Malpas wants us to play and the opposition are snuffing out are main points of attack (Ie, McNamee and Cox) then we'll need that other option to get forward. I think Corr is better with his feet than his head anyway! He's got a huge job to get Paynter out of the team.