Thetownend.com

Exciting!

We'll either win, lose or draw this game.

FACT!

I agree.bring the gangsta rap blud

Safe.

The first match I've had work during for two seasons.

It'll be odd not listening to the radio or going to the match at all.

*Walsall

I predicted we'd lose in the prediction league thread, but I'm actually feeling mildly optmistic at the moment.

Oh and it's going to be fucking freezing. Maximum temperature in Brum today is 2ºC, yikes!

I'm still very drunk.

Can someone bring me breakfast please, I've no food in the house.

Or it will be called off due to permafrost.

Let's hope none of them have got notes from their mums then. Won't be happy if I get 10 mins away and it's called off again

Equally as annoying is the fog that is supposed to linger all day in the midlands.

They'll probably decide about 5 mins before KO that no one will be able to see the ball.

Hope not, I'm going to this!

  Interestingly our overall record in league games with the Saddlers, is exactly even with 29 wins apiece....we've played them 80 times. Quite a few but not the most league games against the same club...historically that used to be Watford who we've met a 100 times in league games, but this season it was surpassed by Sarfend who we've played 101 times in league games....I wondered why I've started to develop a bit of a dislike of the Shrimpers.

 Other notables....Bormuff 98 Brighton and HA 96 Cobblers 93 and Reading 92....there may be others but bit hungover so haven't researched properly.

 I for one will be disappointed to see Bormuff in the Conference next season...

i'm going.

why?

Im going to the Walsall area today but not the game.

Top fan eh?

1 change then, Mcnamee on the bench and Easton brought in for a tighter midfield

No striker on the bench either....Corr obviously still injured but Joyce must have done something wrong to not make it as a sub unless he's injured as well

Oh great to see Easton back in-but not at the expense of MacNamee.

Who is playing left side then? JPM, Peacock, Pook, Easton?

Or it is 4-3-3 with Easton, Peacock, Pook with JPM, Cox & Paynter upfront?

I don't know if you can read much into it, but W is the second letter in Swindon and the first letter Walsall.

Walsall play with a narrow midfield they don't push wide so it was to tighten the midfield with a bit of strength, I suspect JPM will play down the left with Easton on the right

"soon someone's going to get a good hiding"(David Byrne)-hope its not us

lets hope it is

Corr's continued absence is a major worry

Is that irony,Deev?

unfortunetly he get's fit for a few weeksand then injured for a few weeks...don't look good for his future if it continues

I'm bored.

Our fans are happiest when we lose!!

Corrs continued absence is nothing new is it.

It wasn't even vaguely ferrous.

He seemed to think his injury worries were behind him a week ago!

he's clearly not very bright then...

Not sure if this has been mentioned but bbc swindon on the net hardly ever blocks the commentary now. so people can listen to it online more often now.

That pun was a bit rusty Ben.

Bloody hell-I paid £35 for that!

yes-I'm filing a complaint

Aljofree handled with his chest, free kick resulting in goalkeeper possession.

Ricketts just missed a sitter with no marker.

They have done today

1-0 ricketts...yay

fuck it

PEARCE OUT

Im sick of this crap

Poor marking, they are not doing Byrne any favours.

Oh well-Morrison and Ifil next week

Sounds like the choice of central defenders wasn't the best.  Easton on the left, McGovern on the right?

Ling's winning

sign him up

You only Ling when they're winning.

one off the line

Bloody hell Colchester are winning-it just keeps getting worse and worse

Just in case anyone missed this, I can confirm it IS working today.

ah sorry, I'm listening on a mac with a bbc radio widget (If that makes sense) and it works fine for me.

Works for me on my laptop...

Charlie Griffin scores for Salisbury.

Sounds like Paynter is finding gaps and making chances for himself

Jack Smith's brother has scored-sorry,I'm bored

Pox losing-its not all bad

Torquay 1-0 Oxford Utd: Benyon (41) , I'm bored too.

I'll take 0-1 at half-time. When you go one down it's always important to hold firm. Also it sounds like we've come to life a little bit even if we did struggle to get on top of the game.

bit of flight of the conchords at ht.

i feel asleep

Zaaboubs been warming up, bring him on!!

The gloved one has entered the arena

think its about time we bought on our own black inconsistent left winger...

What's happening?! Timlin? Brown?

timlin's 5th yeller

Timlin suspended for next game, great

Sunderland 4-1 down to Bolton.

Keane out of a job soon?

KEANE 4 SWINDON!

King would bring on Ifil and put him up front.

It's on BBC Radio Swindon but not BBC Wilts??? Don't tell them tho' ...

McMahon would bring on Brez and put him up front.

Supermac on-15 minutes too late DV?

FACR2: Abandoned Chesterfield 0-1 Droylsden , Abandoned due to fog at half time

cox disallowed

we are going to score in a minute.

Come on Town-nearly!Hello Mex

That jinxed it completely.

nah. we'll have some extended pressure. Then they'll score on the break. Then we'll give up for the last 5-10mins.

2:0 would be my guess, poor marking kills us again.

we're going to win 2-1

Just like what happened against Leicester? Oh........ ;)

Come On Town!

Don't you use that patronising winking yellow cunt on me.

Haha!  :D

We're battering them! 2-0 coming up?

It's got the feeling of one of those games.  

Don't think we are going to score today.

an hour too late.

Nails on for Timlin.

goal keepers been given motm he's bound to conceed now

well a fair few saw that coming

Bollocks

Ho hum....

Budgie Out!

Crap!

And there it is...

told you so.

hahahah Paynter.

now we fucking score

2-1

Typical

Yay.

Come the fuck on! 2-2 anybody?

GET IN

Why didn't that happen half an hour ago.

just a shame they scored first

2-2 coming up? lets hope

2-2 would be about right!

How long left?

1 minute

Final Corner.

Phil Smith to Score

game over.

Corner.....

Handball?

No?

Gayyyyyy

Fuckety Fuck Fuck

Fook sake.

we're on a road to nowhere.

We NEED a win

Need a new manager this week really.

Bollocks. Table does not make good reading.

Sadly for Budgie, that could be his last game at Swindon.

We must be in the bottom 4 now?

Agreed we cant allow this to go on-another place dropped.New manager by next game is essential and must not be Byrne

MALPAS OUT BYRNE OUT WILLIAMS OUT GOAL KEEPER COACH OUT BREZOVAN OUT SMITH OUT SMITH OUT ALJOFREE OUT KANYUKA OUT TIMLIN OUT VINCENT OUT IFIL OUT MORRISON OUT CASAL OUT AMANKWAAH OUT JON-PAUL MCGOVERN OUT NALIS OUT PEACOCK OUT POOK OUT EASTON OUT MCNAMEE OUT MARSHALL OUT ALLEN OUT COX OUT PAYNTER OUT CORR OUT STURROCK OUT JOYCE OUT WATKINS OUT WREY OUT FITTON OUT

Luckily not, Most L1 teams are still in the FA Cup so didn't play. we are 1 point of the relegation places though!

Need to get out of there ASAP. Christmas is coming up. Not a good time to be in the relegation mix.

Na. Only other League One game today Colchester won, but they weren't in the Bottom Four at kick-off. We're bloody close though.

STANLEY OUT

not quite-Brighton between us and the bottom 4

Swindon    18    19    -5    29    
Brighton    18    19    -5    21    
Yeovil    18    18    -10    15    
Hereford    18    12    -17    11    
Cheltenham 18    12    -22    19    
Crewe    18    9    -21    21    

That's depressing.

I make that 17 correct shouts there DV

yeah we should be top 2 by now.

ADJE OUT

I think getting rid of EVERYONE will help us loads.

Cheer up! It's not that bad.

New manager = Sort out the defence + Climb table


Physco (Pyscho?) by Wednesday hopefully.

:D

I didn't want Malpas out!

our league form had just picked up under him when he was sacked

FITTON OUT!

Also, we would have beaten Walsall under Malpas on a Wednesday evening.

FIX!

Walsall should be docked points.

I think you've been deducted some points.

Tuesday evening....

I dont think I had any points to start with.

"If we could get the defensive bit right we'd be ok"(David Byrne)

You are a bit round

Take another look at the table Messrs Byrne and Hadwin!

To be fair, he is right.

are you calling me fat?

seconded

Yeah of course he is right. Be nice if he actually did something about it though.

easier said than done though, beast!

True. I think maybe i was a tad harsh on Byrne there. Most of it still carries over from the Malpas days.

all been down hill since Sturrock left and took his coaches with him.

vital the new manager has his back room team with him

I just thought it went without saying,personally-you know,a bit obvious

The next 5 games are with teams 18th or below and should a new manager be appointed in the next week or so should have a decent start to their tenure. Note: should.

yeah, if he doesnt win all those games he should be sacked imo

A bit harsh, but hey fuck it why not.

Don't be silly. He should only be sacked if we win less than 3.

DV what's wrong with you?! Cut down on the sarcasm dude!

Im having a bit of a break down plus if I get all this crap out the way it will annoy me less when Bart spouts it later because he will.

In the last year we've gone backwards. I think its best for all parties if Fitton puts the club up for sale.

DV's gone mental because he's fat.

And enough of all this 'he', I think we should appoint Victoria Coren as mamager.

right im off to throw up because im not FAT!

Our new manager better be a good one, some of the names being listed as wants is in some cases fucking stupid. On another forum someone said they wanted Ruud Gullit. He's probably never even heard of Swindon.

It'll be someone low key, we'll all be dissapointed and no one will he happy from the start and we'll be right back where we were this time last year when Malpas was appointed

I await a thread on thisis "how many games do we give the next manager before he is sacked"

3

2 more than MM was given on thisis then?

I just suggested the highest number I thought the people on thisis could count to.

I think im going to stop now I've had my mini break down

Eating some cake will calm you down.

 Whoever the new man is, he's a difficult job on his hands. We've been told there is no money for new players because we're over budget, so he has to work with what we've got.

 What we've got, is a squad maybe just about good enough to stay up, but it could easily be screwed by injury or Jan sale....it would be good to get someone who could give the place a lift, unfortunately the downside of another low key appointment is dangerous...our fans reacting like a spoiled child who hasn't got what they wanted for their birthday.  :cry:

Another low key appointment causing upset would be understandable though Reg, seeing as the last one was a bit of a disaster

nice avatar edit ben, although I have more hair than that.

Reg is right though, we should be getting prepared for League Two next season.

I was going to animate it but I got bored.

nothing would make me happier than having an animated avatar of me eating cake like the fat bastard that I am.

I've just read this whole thread... DV you're one weird fucker

 Well at least, I've enjoyed our last two seasons in Div 4, bit worried that Rochdale may go up this year....it just wouldn't be the same without them.

WE ARE STAYIN' UP SAY WE ARE STAYIN' UP!

Well I had nothing else to do.

Quite. If we went down and Darlington went up I'd be beyond gutted.

We wont go down this year there are at least five or six sides worse than us, maybe next year if we dont get into the loan market we we will.

Just got back.

Had a laugh in the Bescot morgue, but we were pretty shit.

Helluva strike from Paynter though. Top class but too little too late.

Just got back.Walsall were there for the taking today. Dont think the players realised until the last 25 mins and then it was a bit too late.I also think Byrne got the starting 11 wrong.Easton is not a left midfielder,Peacock is not a centre midfielder and Pook ..................well,baffles me.

I was meant to be at the game today but because of illness I could not make it, if Pook had a bad game, then move on, he has been superb recently.

Byrne imo is a very negative guy, just like Malpas he picks a team not to lose instead of going out and winning the game, when plan A goes tits up, we are fucked.

i couldn't work it out for the entire game.

today was awful, walsall were little better. cox and paynter worked tirelessly and were unlucky on a couple of occasions but the rest were poor.

smith got so much stick from some of our fans for a goal he couldn't really do much about.

That was absolutely awful today, Mcnamee should have been brought on alot earlier.

Pathetic performance, Walsall were poor but we didn't threaten them enough, great goal from Paynter though.

Walsall were absolute garbage and the fact we never really threatened to win up there makes it clear just how desperate we need someone to come in and turn this around quick. As has been said, our squad should be good enough to stay but we need an appointment t0 lift the place, put a run together and go into the summer on a high.

Paynter was by far our best player today, the front two weren't to blame at all. We just cannot defend and had absolutely no width until Macca came on. He lifted it a little but only put one really telling ball into the box and Cox was unlucky not to score from it. Cox's goal, I want to see it again 'cos I think he's on but never mind. We need someone in this week and to put a little run of results together before we get sucked in big time.

In other news, their fans are the worst I've experienced for a long time, and I'm still cursed, having not seen us win this season!

Poor crowd watched two poor sides slug out this result.
We looked quite good at times without being good enough in the final third.
Smith was at fault for the first goal. If a keeper makes his mind to come racing out of his goal to get the ball then that what he has to do, not stop at the last second and back track, he should of flew in with his feet and cleared.
That fat tub of lard Ricketts couldnt believe his luck and despite taking some banter from the fans i couldnt understand how he wasnt booked for standing poking his tounge out at the fans...not subtle at all.
I was quite confident we would turn them over after halftime but we huffed and puffed until McNamee came on and although his contribution was'nt great (corners and a few crosses) his very prescence seemed to panic Walsall and he was a great outlet on the wing in a game that was all down the middle.
We needed to score when Walsall seemed to be on the ropes but our half chances and scrambles came to nothing and a goal on the break was a nail in the coffin.
Billys great strike was like Johnny Mathias said "Too much, too little, too late!". :peace:
Disappointing as Walsall were there for the taking today.
A bit more luck and we might of got three points but looking at the table tonight does not make pretty reading and a relegation dogfight beckons.
A new manager can hopefully make us midtable after a few wins......fingers crossed.

smith perhaps shouldn't have rushed out for the goal but he got back, saved the first effort and was unable to save the second. if our defence had managed to clear it - which they had ample opportunity to do - we might have got something from the game.

yeah but everything Smith doesnt save Brezovan would have definitely saved because he was mega ace two seasons ago!

people started singing brezovan's name straight after the goal. if we bought brez in, he'd only get dropped as soon as he made a mistake because the fans would get on his back.

We had enough chances, and didn't take them. Dissapointing really, as someone else said Walsall seemed to be there for the taking.

In Smith's defence, someone had to go to the man who was played through. If he'd gone to ground he most likely would've fouled him, conceeded a penalty and walked for it. Thought criticism of him today was very harsh (tho he wasn't brilliant, flapping a few times at crosses).

Also, the point of Nalis? Still not sure. That was a very poor choice of sub I felt.

Last season we thought we had two class keepers, it looked good business to sell Brez for decent money and Smith as an able deputy.
Brez has been nowhere near as good since his injury 18 months or so ago, Smith on the other hand is great shotstopper but that is it, the basics like catching the ball when it is hit straight at you, coming out for crosses or not coming out for crosses as the case maybe.
From reports I've read this evening, he sounds like he stood in nomans land instead of totally commiting himself to clear the ball, I wasn't there so am making my assumptions for the Walsall game from the reports.

End of the day - we need to sign a keeper pretty damn quick.

(taking mini drawing break)

I only listened to it, but a lot of the criticisms seem to be a bit hindsight based. Formation for example, the tighter set up has done us well away from home in the past, so not complete random thinking. The Nalis substitution, he came on for Timlin didn't he? I got the impression that it was because he's bigger, and it was at a time we were getting set pieces/crosses in, and to fill the midfield to keep the attack going sort of thing.

Saying that, it does seem like a game we could have won. But I'm not sure it can be completely pinned so much on tactical decisions. Not that I think Byrne should be given the job, just that with hindsight anybody could be a genius manager.

the fact that our defence has been so shit has shown up the flaws with both keepers this season.i dont think we need to replace them.a left back,centre half,centre mid are needed more so

I dunno the defence is a tough one, we have the players they just dont work as a unit.

Wingers are the problem. We only really have two and if they have an off day thats it. I mean it seems we started with Craig Easton on the left fucking wing today.

You dont need hindsight to see that wasnt going to work!

Also, no striker on the bench at all....why?

It is hard to know what should be changed in the defence, I agree, but there's no argument that something needs to happen and quick. Also, and I can't say this for sure having not seen us recently, could it be that our poor defending is down to being left in difficult situations by the midfield?

If I had to try and put my finger on it I'd say we miss Vincents leadership skills. Then also the pace and recoverability (new word there!) of Ifil and Comminges

I figured that Easton wasn't being played as an out and out winger, more in the left midfield roll that Timlin and Nalis have played away from home. Tightening things up as I said before. In which case no, it doesn't matter so much that he's right footed.

As I said before, hindsight. You fat bastard.

Both keepers Arriba, especially Smith have been very average, just cast your mind back to the calamity goals we have let in this season.
Defensively I have no confidence with our middle, Ifil should be back in the side without a doubt, he had a bad patch, now is the time to bring him back, class on his day and he has pace.
As mentioned before it does not help when we have such a woeful midfield, Pook has done well since he came back to the starting eleven and has shone out, well I suppose that says it all.
We have no flipping midfield ball winner or a midfilder who can change the game either.

Shit we are in trouble.

fair points dell,but i am confident we will be nowhere near relegation.

If I hear one more fucking mong moaning about Phil Smith or Hasney Aljofree at a game I'm going to stab the fucking cunt.

And DV, you want to have a word with yourself mate.

As sonic said, don't see how you can blame Smith for the first - yes, he shouldn't have come charging out like that unless he's definitely going to get it, but that's easy said - James seems to have made a career at the top of English goalkeeping despite continually doing that. But having not claimed it, he recovered well and got back to make a good save, he's then on the floor when the second shot comes in from which they score. Now, even if he'd stayed rooted to the line, there's a good chance he's still going to be on the floor from having saved the first shot, so still unable to save the second. The fault is in that no-one picked up Ricketts, he shouldn't have been left unmarked to pick up the rebound at all.

It's hardly rocket science to point out our defence has been shaky all season and has been our undoing, specifically the centre-halfs. What we need is a leader and we don't have one - it's pretty much taken as read that Jerel needs an experienced boss figure alongside him to perform, he hasn't had that and hasn't peformed. It's all very well people saying "Bring Ifil back in" but without that leader figure to play alongside, he's a shadow of the player we know he can be. Similarly, Morrison has done fantastically well in stepping up to the plate in the way he has done but when all's said and done, he's a 17-year old kid, he needs an older more experienced head alongside. Bring in that experienced leader in the centre half position and our defence will look a hell of a lot tighter. Stop conceding the silly goals through basic defensive errors and those draws that should have been wins mean 3 points instead of 1, or 1 point instead of 0 for the losses where we should have held on.

I'd also agree we need a Kavanagh-esque centre mid, but it's not so much of a priority as that experienced centre half IMO. That's what's killing us, there's little wrong with our attacking play, we look good going forward, but we're dropping too many points through defensive errors.

I totally agree with the last 2 posts!

Spot on Sam!

Nice to meet you today Paul!

And your good self sir. Sorry we didn't get chance to say goodbye, Joe rushed down the front for that final corner then when we got back to our seats and reassembled all our detritus, everyone had gone.

No worries! I made a sharpe exit when they scored their second and missed our goal anyway! :D

Forgot to mention earlier on, I thought it was a nice touch of Budgie to come into the crowd and get Dick Mackey over to see to the fan that copped the ball in the mush before the match started.  He certainly didn't see that coming and it nearly took his head off!  I think it was Brez that kicked it because he looked concerned.  The blokes face came up like he had a grapefruit stuck to his cheek!

See, Budgie did one good thing today! ;D

i still get nosebleeds after i took a shot from you in the face, berni.

erm, i should rephrase that but i won't.

Was Joyce injured?...how can a manager start with a player one week,then the following not even have him on the bench,if he is injured then i take it back,if not then IMO its not the right way to treat a young striker....Byrne is like alot of other lower lge managers,always tinkering with the system,more worried about how the opposition play the game,if you have players who can adapt thats good...we havnt.

I disagree there leefer. Young players have to learn that they aren't going to be in the squad just for the sake of it. If Byrne didn't think he didn't need another striker on the bench (not saying he's right on that) then there's no point putting Joyce in just so it doesn't hurt his feelings.

=======================================================================

I disagree, for a start there are only 5 sides below us now, and I would question whether some of those are worse or at least much worse, after all we lost to Cheltenham and couldn't beat Hereford.......who I still think are the worst side I've seen in this league so far.

The new manager has a big job to get some belief into most of the current squad, January will be interesting, he either has to get loans in or Mr Fitton needs to release some cash, as far as outward moves go, I think any clubs looking at our players would only be interested in Cox.

I think Morrison does. I mean Tozer and Lucas did didn't they.

 Its an old adage, but you need to build from the back....it's quite conceivable that the new man might wish to start his rebuild by getting in a new goalkeeper + back 4.....if the sale of Morrison could fund this then all well and good, if not it may have to be Cox.

Totally agree with Reg - Its no good Coxy scoring hatricks and conceding three goals at the back....draws do not keep you up or get you into the playoffs.
Reality check - the defence is poor and i am looking to January to try and get 'a' player or maybe two at the back.
It would be ideal if we do a sell out and loan back with Cox ala Lucas with Everton, that way with have a fighting chance to stay up.

Quite, it's a professional football club, not a teenage girl's 14th birthday party

We don't need a whole new back four though, an experienced centre half leader would do it. Although Reg's point was not so much whether we need a new back four as whether a new manager would want to bring in a new back four. Which is slightly different

 If Cox does go though he'll be playing....a CCC club will have a punt to try and get them up to the Prem, someone like Burnley.

Regarding the back four, I can't have this Ifil only plays well when he has an experienced defender alongside him, he is an experienced defender.
Morrison and Ifil have been our best two centre backs this season, so play them.
One great in the air but a bit slow on the ground, but can play the ball well out of defence.
The other fast and great man to man marker who in the past has recovered from mistakes quickly in games.

Perfect combination, job done.

I would disagree that Ifil has been one of our best this season. I think he is a great defender but hasn't shown it yet this season. I think Kanyuke is getting better each time I see him.

Ifil was wank when he was playing earlier this season.

kanyuka was inconsistent yesterday, flashes of excellence then some moments of lunacy. i think steve(?) summed it up well when he said that kanyuka is prone to rushes of blood to the head when he does something well.

my thoughts are that rather than bring in an experienced centre-half to play alongside either morrison or ifil, why not play both? the impact vincent has on our defence from left-back is notable and either timlin or smith are dispensable, so an experienced full-back could be a worthwhile option as we could at least play our two best central defenders.

or go three at the back(!)

it's no coincidence that ifil's form reached a peak under sturrock, with proper defensive coaching on a daily basis he is one of the best in the division. williams, despite his influence on the pitch when he was playing, has seen some of our defenders form get steadily worse under his coaching.

therefore - stick with ifil & morrison, bring in a proven defensive coach (bring back blackley!) and if neccesary an experienced and vocal full-back to help keep ifil in check.

I think you should think again about not rephrasing it, otherwise people will start talking!

 :D

Has Williams been doing defensive coaching though?

I dont think Kanyuka could rush at anything, he seems in a daydream most of the time, he has a bit of talent but at the back he is frightening for me.
We have goalkeepers who seem to drop the easiest of saves and centre backs who must give goalkeepers heart-attacks with not doing the basics for what they are on the pitch to do, defend.
Ifil started the season well and then I agree was pretty terrible in a couple of games.
He should be hungry to return to the team and the replacements like Kanyuka have not done the business.
I cannot warm to Aljofree anymore, he does not have the ability to organise the defence let alone captain the side.
It has got to be Morrison and Ifil in the middle, Kanyuka might be able to do a job a little bit further forward.

REF to PAULD...in reply to your comment about it not being a childs 14th birthday.....that sounded like a 14 year olds response,,,,its ridiculous in my eyes that a player starts one week then dont get a place on the bench the following...if one of the strikers went of injured yesterday we didnt have one front man on the bench....Joyce is being fuked around and Byrnes got history of doing this....i cant wait for the new man to come in and hopefully bring his own men in......let him go back to bollocking the youths.

But it was a different type of game. Away from home for a start, Bryne obviously wanted different sub options than from a home game.

Weren't we away to Rovers?

Wait we played Tuesday didn't we. I've confused myself.

I thought he was talking about Peterborough home when Joyce was on the bench.

maybe. I might be confused.

We was away at Rovers last week AXS.when Joyce started?

Home or away it doesn't matter, it shows how negative Bryne has become in trying to keep the job for himself and not looking to win games just wanting to avoid defeat. I totally agree with Leefer's comments about the youngster, if he was fit, he should at the very least be on the bench as an attacking alternative.
With subs yesterday such as McNamee, Nalis, Brezovan, Ifil, Amankwaah his only option in replacing an injured forward would be pushing Peacock up front and Nalis to come on - jobs for the old brigade.

Because Cox wasn't available - I'm sure Joyce didn't expect to picked ahead of him when available.

Which is what happened.

I'm not saying I agree with it, just trying to convey that Byrne wanted a different game plan and that affected his choice of subs. Don't think it was anything personal to Joyce.

Correct..but a place on the bench surely when we have no other front men as subs?

Not when you plan to play defensively and peacock as a forward if necessary. Putting Joyce on the bench would give him one less defensive option.

this joyce argument is pointless - it would have had no bearing on the game whatsoever.

he's young and is last in the pecking line for strikers. if he was poor at rovers, he should expect to be dropped.

I know what you saying, but why have Ifil on the bench, it seems he has no intention of bringing him back into the team.
By all accounts the game was there for the winning yesterday, but we lost, four points from five matches is real relegation form, draws are not good enough right now.

I don't think we lost because of who was on the bench and unused though.

and we never stood a chance of winning the game given how poor we were.

Time will only tell Axs if Joyce is good enough...personally i dont think he is....but to start with a player one week,drag him off after 32 mins cos the manager has messed the tactics up....then not even give him a place on the bench the following week...well it isnt a great messege to send a young striker IMO....but its all about opinions eh.

but he was on the bench for the following game!

It's not an ideal situation but the manager has to do what's best to try and get a win. If that means telling Joyce he's not in the squad then so be it. Whether he is right or wrong is a different issue.

I'm sure that is 100% correct.

I haven't missed a home game this season and in my view apart from Leeds we could have won all the rest if we had gone out to win the game, but at the end of the day we have lost more than we have won because we have not finished off the opposition when they have been there for the taking, along with the appalling mistakes we have made at the back.

I absolutely agree.  Let's see what the new man can do.

Maybe with a bit of stability the youths and reserves will find more consistency in the way they are treated. Still would support a manager who dropped someone from the squad if it was in the best interests of a win though.

my opinion on some points raised in the last couple of pages.......joyce isn't good enough.ifil and morrison as partnership would do neither player any favours,nor the team imo. byrne has been trying to win games too,until yesterday we have been damn unlucky not to win under him.

Ware always unlucky though....we wernt unlucky vLeicester or yesterday?

or Bristol Rovers!!
Thought we deserved a draw against Leicester on the first half performance and of course the late rattle at the end.

 Fuck me even axs is at it now

Sorry Reg. You have my humblest apologies.

You can have it or not but it's true. And yes he is experienced and I'd be inclined to agree that at his age and with his experience he should be able to step up to the plate and play the senior pro. But he's shown he can't, and all the shoulds in the world don't change that.

Oh put your toys back in the pram. The point is that we can't go picking the team on the basis of whether or not we upset youth players, we should be picking the team to win against the sides we're going to be playing. Otherwise, let's just give JPC the manager's job and have done.

pauld i agree.i reckon you can only play ifil or morrison,not both.infact morrison plays more maturely and has beter composure at 17 than the "experienced" ifil

I cant believe Byrne also dropped Corr after two goals in two games.

If we brought on Corr for Peacock i am sure we would of got something yesterday...(if he was on the bench)...

It's the old do you play your best players or your best team argument that has so bedevilled England for so long? When you have Cox back, he's an automatic, and he has developed a very effective partnership with Paynter whereas he's hardly played alongside Corr at all. From that point of view, I can see the logic that Cox and Paynter are our best partnership up front. And Paynter played well yesterday to be fair.

Ummm did you just answer me seriously Paul?

:) Spent the morning watching Joe's U7s playing in freezing rain verging on sleet and I don't think my brain's properly thawed out yet. I consider myself thoroughly reeled in. Have another slice of cake.

Thought he was injured?

Did Dell just delete his post or are me and deev dreaming?

Now I'm seeing things.

Ha ha, yes, then DV deleted his ...

Good to know I'm not cracking up.

That DV shouted at me in CAPS, is he a bit of a hardnut?

what you talking about willis? I mean axs?

Yes









........erm, no

yeah, it's all the cake he eats.

is corr ever going to be fully fit?

Yes, for a maximum of two games at a time

How did the next Frazier Digby do?

Kept a clean sheet when he was in goal but the most difficult thing he had to cope with was seeing what was going on at the other end of the pitch through the rain/sleet stuff - they didn't get in our half. Played at the back later on and gave away a free kick for a tackle from behind. My boy don't take no prisoners!