Thetownend.com

Apparently we're no. 43 and Pox are 76 (if they get through)

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/page/TicketNews/0,,10341~1824325,00.html

  I don't think we want any more non league teams for a while.  :(

We've got the one for this decade out the system now!

We're ok till 2010!!!

bring on the scum!

Shrewsbury away is my guess.

I'm worried that a new century may bring a new sequence, namely 2 defeats per decade :(

My worry is we'll draw the scum in round 3 and lose

Leeds away.

Number 74 please

Unless Thurrock win

Can honestly say Thurrock is the worse place ive ever delivered to....its dismal.

Hmmm no. Hayes and staines are both the closest places to slough on that list, so i'd prefer that number ball please

Surely we want 78

Worried about this without Douglas.

Blyth Spartans...........................away  :(

Tooting and Mitchum, Stevenage, and Histon.................................we are not due, but Oxford United at home would be tasty (I was at the last Oxford win at the County Ground, that was some time after World war II ended).

Oxford. Away! please  :D

1st choice - Scum for obvious reasons
2nd - Bath away - easy away day
3rd - Dover away - nearest we can get to Europe this season.

Rovers or Southampton at home, for me.  Failing that, Rovers or Southampton away.

Home or away tho? That is the theoretical question!

...I've actually never considered we could ever play Bath. That would be a real novelty. :D Would have to be away for maximum fun tho really.

If Eastleigh get through tomorow would be nice if we get them for me....my dad played for them many moons ago.....if not Leeds.

Actually, scrub that.  I'm hoping we draw Farnborough away after they beat Salisbury tomorrow in the 4th qualifying round.

Not fussed really although the smell of that creosoted fence gets up yer nose after a bit. Mind you it does mask the smell of Blackbird Leys !

Probably away to avenge the debacle that was our last visit there !

oxford would be ace.loads of the old skool boys would turn out,and it would get very naughty i think

Ha ha, that made me laugh.

I think we beat Bath 6-4 in the cup once.

I want Gloucester City away.

Oxford City are odds on at home in their game today so we could double our chance of playing an Oxford team (assuming the other mob get through)

How weird would that be?!?! To be drawn against Oxford City. Confused emotions/policing etc.

Oxford home or away  :D

Oxford are drawing 0-0 at half time in their game.

Both Oxfords through. 

I'll take anyone at home.

Oxford or Rovers at home may inject the spice back into the season.

are Oxford City still in it?

yes yeovil

I'd rather not Oxford at the moment, considering we are Douglas lite, and them being in decent form.

Just to remind folks this is life on the box around 1ish.

The Pox, Pox City, Paulton Rovers, Bath City, FGR, Salisbury, Gloucester City all within 40 or so miles for a nice local game, lots of others well within easy travelling distance too.

Even if we arent fully on form I would still plump for the Pox either home or away as my no. 1 draw.

Are the matches on 6th November?

The 40 first-round ties will be played on 7 and 8 November, with the 48 League One and League Two clubs involved.

Oh dear. Shit boring tie please

Is the draw on the Box?

Bath City away, right on my doorstep :D

eastbourne away please

ITV 13.00hrs

Many thanks

I reckon we will get one of the top four at home, and have TV coverage for the match.

Stop pissing around and get on with it ffs. I've got a chest of drawers to build.......

Here we go...

Oxford.  Please.

What number are we?

43

Scum at home to 48 yeovil

bastards

Oxford v Yeovil . Booo

Bastards......Yeovil got the scum

home to woking

Home v Woking

Home to  woking

http://www.wokingfc.co.uk/

Thet didnt hang about!

meh

Dull draw.  Should at least get through though.

just seen nicky nicolau plays for them

Interesting tie.  Almost local.  Their fans should turn out in numbers for this - should have at least as many away fans as we do for a normal League home game.

played them in 96 didnt we

Chief and Bodin?

we'll struggle in that game i reckon

Adver headline - "Play Your Cards Right" or some such.

95/96 daniel san iirc

06-01-96

We seem to have a phobia of Non-League sides.  Would be great if, for once, we could simply play as if we are three divisions higher than them and give a non-League side a proper pasting for once.

pedant

i was going by the season :)

I know what you mean, i want a 6 or 7 nil victory

....and who do you think is going to get the goals?

Austen.

shame it wasnt woking away.

easy. easy.easy.  :)

The groundsmen.

No seriously my man Billy will be back on form by then....

Wasn't hasselbank linked with them a few weeks back?

yes dave

Conference South                 

                               Pl     GD     Pts

1     Newport County     13     19     31
2    Dover    14    13    29
3    Thurrock    13    12    28
4    Basingstoke    15    1    27
5    Bishop's Stortford    14    7    24
6    Woking    13    6    24
7    Braintree Town    13    2    22
8    Maidenhead Utd    15    8    21
9    Bromley    13    1    21
10    Havant and W    13    3    20
11    Chelmsford    13    -3    19
12    Staines Town    13    2    16
13    Bath City    13    0    16
14    Hampton & R    13    -3    16
15    Eastleigh    13    3    15
16    St Albans    13    -6    14
17    Weston-S-Mare    14    -8    12
18    Worcester    13    -3    11
19    Welling    13    -9    11
20    Dorchester    13    -10    11
21    Lewes    14    -10    10
22    Weymouth    15    -29    6

The reality is we have players who are little better than Conference South, and many of them may find themselves at that level sooner rather than later...hence it will be a close game.

Seems a little harsh, but who do you have in mind?

Any of our strike force.....I'll reserve judgement on Austin, not having seen him play.

There was a time that I respected your opinion Reg. However I'm going to choose to ignore it from now when it comes to footballing matters.

We are not good enough at left back, left midfield, and obviously lack a goalscorer.  I would argue that we either sell Macca and stop trying to accommodate his apparent defensive frailties or sign a strong left full back (yes that was tried and failed by Malpas who ended up with Yinka).  Weakness on the left nearly got us relegated last season.  As for the strikers, Tope and Hutchinson don't give much hope, and are temporary anyway.  What I have seen of Revell, we may as well keep Paynter.

So when you look at it,  we have improved in other areas, have not solved the left-sided weakness and have lost a 32 a season goalscorer.   

Austin won't be able to play in this one having already played for Poole in the qualifying rounds.  Have to wait and see whether Bolton will let Tope play too as it will be the penultimate game of his loan spell

That's just laughable. Reg seriously cheer up mate.

I'm starting to see what Ironside used to bang on about, seriously now Reginald shut your noise.

 All of which may leave us marginally stronger than last season, which soon became apparent was going to  be an anti relegation battle....atm we've 1 win in 8. The stats don't lie, we don't score enough and can't keep clean sheets, which tends to be a recipe for a difficult season.

You obviously dont watch a lot of lower league football Reg. Yes they will raise their game but we should win this with ease.

A Woking board if anybody fancies some 'banter'

http://www.cardsboard.co.uk/cardboard.mpl

Seems they aren't over enthused but not overly negative either. I liked the fact they remembered the weather last time with

Let's see last time was Histon, but they knocked Leeds out.  Before that it was Morecambe, and they deserved a replay.

Even though it's a league lower than the BSP, Reg is going to be proved right, it's going to be a close game, 1:0 or 2:1.  

....thats what we all said about Histon.

I do not class Conference as non-league.
I've seen them this season and they are dire, if we lose to Woking I will run across the pitch naked on my hands.

I'm glad its a home rather than away. We should be OK if the weather behaves itself, though clearly nothing is guaranteed.

Woking fans are really disappointed with the draw, but believe they can win it.

I honestly didn't know Woking had a football team until today so its fair to say I'm less than enthused about the draw too.

They think that our goalie in the last match was Perry Digweed.

Who the fuck is Perry Digweed?

Fraser Digby I suppose

Good journey for them and at least they will be covered in the Arkells stand. Our home record isn't good and their away record is. They have a good chance and should be a good day out.

Digby, Culverhouse, Bodin, Ling, Seagraves, Taylor, Robinson, Allen, Thorne, Allison, Horlock: McMahon, Finney, O'Sullivan

the only player from our forwards who might be a conference south level player is austin.time will tell but i dont really hold much hope of him being good enough for us.the loanees aint for sure.

wilsons weaknesses are now coming to fruition.poor tactics week after week, and not getting the best out of the squad.
he has most of them playing for him for sure,but i dont think it is ever going to be enough to deliver what town fans want.
most of expected a mid table finish this season and i think thats what we will get.for me that isn't enough as we are not pushing on.
i have not changed my mind about wilson from day 1,he is an ok manager but not good enough to get us promoted.

You missed out FGR, who very nearly took us to a replay at The Lawn, which Barnet duly did in the next round with predictable effect.

I still maintain that the difference between many L1 players and Conference South players is quite small.

Hence an outfit like Havant and Waterlooville, currently just below Woking, could a couple of years back go to Martinez's Swansea, who at the time were flying, draw and see them off in the replay.

They will have a number of players who've been in League club's academies and maybe played the odd game, who for a variety of reasons haven't quite made it...whereas some of their peers have just made it into a pro career; could be because size, pace etc.

Take a player like Revell, he found his way to Braintree, now just below Woking, but managed to get back out because his effort convinced someone to take a punt on him.

Given his lack of goals, it's very easy to see him heading back to that level.

Our problem is that although we're a bit better organised then at the same stage last season, we don't know how to win games. Last season we had the goals to win games but not the organisation.

Played in goal for Brighton.

one of the Woking players is the identical twin brother of an Oxford player...

Who's going to check whether they have switched for a game, could be a Poxford ringer in the line-up.  I would contact the F.A., but they would say it was frivolous.

I'm impressed with your knowledge, young DV....Woking always seemed to manage a 0-0 at the Scum, when they were in the Conference, think the old perennial of financial problems dragged them back.

Forgot about Fleetwood playing for FGR, probably wanted to.  Corr and Fleetwood at Exeter City, looks more dangerous than what we've got.

Peacock is now no better than non league. I can see Reg's point, Hutchinson, Revell, Tope, Austin, Peacock, none of them would look out of place in non league.

We do have some class players, Douglas, Cuthbert, Greer. But goals win games.

I would have been pretty worried if we had drawn Woking away. Because at the moment 1 goal for the opposition will usually be enough.

Just get through this game. If we can play the exact same team that won at Franchise we could do something good.

Werent they also managed by JPMs dad back in the late 90s as well?

Bit hard on Austin after only 20 mins.

Hutchinson and Tope don't appear to give a shit, hard to tell, but send 'em back as soon as possiible.

Revell can't score.

At the moment it looks like Austin with either Revell or Paynter might be the best option in a month or so (assumes that Austin can score in League 1).  But if the 4:5:1/4:3:3 stuff continues, it'll be Austin in for Tope, possibly; Macca on the right; and Revell in the middle.

I hope Wilson decides to play 4:4:2, and plays Macca and JPM/O'Brien in the wide midfield positions.

I think back to fellas like Steve Finney...who is still only a little older than Lee Peacock, a striker of his calibre would walk into our current side, yet despite being a bit of a cult hero for us, soon found his way back into non league, then out of the game altogether, probably before he was 30..

That was, at least partly due to his broken leg, no?

Only 35 now. Peacock turned 33 start of this month.

peacock would do a good job in league 2.i also think he is an ok squad player at our level.
not good enough to see us progress as a team mind

Before his injury I would have agreed that he'd be an ok squad player and I do think at times last season we missed him midfield - but after 9 months out and being moved back as a striker I'm not convinced.

Said it before, but Tope isnt that bad. He shows promise. Wilson has been playing him out of position in quite a few games.

Hutchinson was on for the last 10 minutes yesterday and he still couldnt be bothered to chase anything down. A complete waste of space.

 :emo:

Charlie is cup tied, he played for Poole Town v Willand Rovers in a Qualifier. Poole lost 1-0 http://www.willandrovers.co.uk/Home.html

Exactly. FFS lads lets at least wait until we lose the Woking game before we all reach for the barbituates and Scotch, shall we?

Mcmoan made and ended his pro carear. Don't fall out with Mcmoan, as Culverhouse, Allison and may more found out.

Tope is going to fuck off back to Bolton next month, and plays left in what looks like the Rapid Vienna away formation (Celtic vs. Rapid Vienna, Oct 1, 2009), but he doesn't appear to quite know what his job is.  Interestingly, to make the formation work, Rapid Vienna have a centre forward powerful enough in Nikica Jelavic.  It would be a better idea to play Macca in that position with O'Brien on the right (when he is fit enough and when Tope has fucked off) if the narrow three of Douglas, JPM and Ferry are to be continued with.  What that leaves is a center forward that has enough nous, and is good enough in the air.  This is a problem with this formation, and why possibly all the strikers are being tried out.  So what have we got:

Paynter, hasn't worked for him so far, doesn't seem to be the solution.

Revell, as above.

Hutchinson, can't be arsed.

Peacock, threat in the air, but needs to be pushed around on casters.

Austin, can we pin our hopes on a raw talent, but looks the best prospect for the central striker role?

I've seen the odd BSS game this season, the standard is absolutely dire. We have nowt to fear

But Paynter did great in the lone role, it was only when Revell arrived that he lost his mojo

They'll put 10 men behind the ball. Will we be able to break them down?

the other side of the coin, Reg, is that a number of premiership teams have players who wouldn't look much out of place here...

I should bally well hope so. They're a BSS team for a reason

Through making several posts on the forum. I think I am beginning understand what Wilson is trying to do, and why he is making the comments he is making, especially after the Norwich match about keeping working on it.  So what's not happening?  Macca is effective, he gets crosses in.  Tope doesn't seem to fit the role; and most importantly, where it is needed most the central striker whomever it is does not have the confidence to make a nuisance of himself.  Norwich will be considered a one-off, and the same team will be out on Saturday at Tranmere.  Wilson made an excuse for the striker(s) on Saturday, they didn't get any service.  

There is a plan, there is a system but Douglas being injured and Tope and Revell not providing has shown up the frailties.  Eight of the team are functioning correctly, but until Douglas comes back, and there is penetration from both left and right, the central striker is going to be marooned.  Once there is service from left and right, that will show who should be central striker.  It would make sense with the extra work to be done for the central striker to play one player for each half, plus subs obviously.  This is the position with all the competition.

When O'Brien gets back and Austin has got fully match fit, there are more options.  When Tope goes, Macca can switch to the left, and there are three of them to fight it out in the middle, as Hutchinson can't be arsed.

The 4:5:1/4:3:3 formation might explain why the offer for Macca was not taken, but two rules are being broken for two positions.  Don't ask a player to do what they are not capable of (Cloughie) and play to personnel (Andy King stated this many times).  So there has to be a change in personnel in January.

part of me agrees with what you've put crozzer but part of me thinks you might be over thinking it.

It could as simple as our strikers arent good enough.

Our team isnt that different to the team that lost at Histon 12 months ago.

Team look mentally fragile without Douglas. If they have a good 10 minutes at the start of the game I could see us crumbling, like we did vs Hartlepool.

If you include the two wide players (presumably midfield/strikers) and the central striker as "strikers" as simply being not good enough, possibly I am over thinking it.  4:4:2 would appear to be the way to go, but we look weak down the left.   

Look, cut all the bullshit. We just need a fucking striker.

We currently have a posse of players who 'might' do the job, but are struggling for whatever reason. I don't include Austen in that posse as he's an unknown. The rest of em though clearly are not up to the job we need them to do.

Whoever said that about eight of our players are usually firing on all cylinders, was spot on. We have been indifferent lately and we deffo miss Douglas.  We're still a decent side though. If we can start scoring goals again, the rest of the side will sort its self out.

Quoting Rapid Vienna's starting line up against a second rate bunch of sweaties god knows how many fucking seasons ago, does not give me a hard-on. Ditto all the other smart-arsed 'interesting facts' that bear fuck-all relevance to Swindon Town's current lack of goals.

Keep it real, for fucks sake! 

True....there are always players who must have done something right once when a scout was watching or something, who aren't in fact very good. Then, of course, there is the "corruption" in football exposed in the recent Keegan thing, whereby Wise got a player signed as a favour to an agent, he wanted to keep sweet.

I've often wondered why Everton signed Lukey Dukey...was it a Scottish football mafia thing?

The classic example of this type must be Paolo Vernazza who is still only about 28, but gradually went from Arsenal in 2000, and England U21, to last season Woking, via a number of gradually smaller stepping stones.

The point made by Wilson on Saturday was that the team were getting into good positions and not getting the ball in the box.  He felt sorry for the strikers not getting any service.  We could have Michael Owen up front but somebody has to give him the ball.  Cureton was golden boot in the Championship and he couldn't do shit for us and we got relegated the season before.

We are playing some weird formation which is like a defensive 4:3:3, just wanted to know the origin of it.  Yes, this all too complicated and elaborate for a bunch of sweaties, a decent striker would be a good start, but usually they work better in twos at this level.  If you are going to start with one striker and two sort-of strikers on the wings who fuck-off back to midfield and don't get the ball, you'd better have a bloody decent striker in the middle who can go get it.  So you need three strikers with this set-up two of which can play wide midfield as well.  If we haven't got one decent striker, then perhaps you have to think about doing something different.

Missed Oxford by a whisker.......hopefully we can scrape past Woking..

Same as - dire is being kind. They will raise their game, all non-league sides do when they play the pros, but we have more than enough to see them off with ease. We could have caught a cold by drawing Oxford Utd away or similar but we haven't we have drawn a side who have been on a downward slide these past three years. They are pretty well supported for a side in there division and will bring more than enough to fill there section of the Arkells. Can't think of a better draw for us to get into the second round.

Fola Onibuje plays for Woking or at least he did when they beat one of my local teams Hythe Town in the qualifying rounds

Paul Weller came from Woking.

It would appear according to Wiki he's moved onto Grays already.

Oxford away would have been a disaster at this moment in time,ex slave trader and now scummer clist would have more than likely scored against us.

Woking is a great draw for us along as our players go into it with the right attitude and not the attitude of thinking it will be an easy game where they can relax a bit.

I was one of the 10,000+ who saw Woking at Swindon back in '96. I recall their goalkeeper Laurence Batty being one of those podgy non-league keepers and Clive Walker still doing a good job at a decent level, he must have been close to 40 back in '96.

does anyone know when the tickets are going on sale and how much?

Didnt Charlie Griffin have a good spell there?

See linky......

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/page/HomeTickets/0,,10341~1838133,00.html

Charlie Griffin did indeed play there several years back.

So did Tom Jones - who played alongside Clive Walker but not, as far as I remember in the cup tie against us.

If you go back still further, we had a competent but rather dour but effective midfielder Glen Cockerill who was not disimilar in managing Woking until 2 years ago. 

Since when Woking is on its 5th manager and has slipped out of the Conference.  Phil Gilchrist ex scummer achieved the relegation as manager.

Tom Hutchison, a no nonsense Scot central defender has a twin brother, Eddie, at Crawley Town who was at the scum last season.  He will have seen plenty to match out strikeforce in the Conference.

Giuseppe Sole is a local born striker (big Italian community) who is usually lazy but may choose not to be against us and his two goals against Hendon on Saturday were topped by Harry Arter's hatrick (Google Translator required here?)

In fairness we should destroy Blue Square South oppo at home but to do that someone in red will of course need to score goals.

I think this is a good draw for us. I think that hopefully we should come through this unscaved and maybe with either a good draw in the second round we can make to a possibly money spinning third round tie. Or we could perform dismally against woking, go out and be the laughing stock of the country.

Be warned, it happened against Tooting & Mitchum.  Note the late conceding of goals has been going on for over thirty years.

Roy Dwight was Elton John's cousin, the national press and that pompous know-all fucker David Coleman on MoTD were all over it. 


Their (Tooting & Mitchum's) best ever run in the F.A. Cup came in the season 1975-76 when under the guidance of Roy Dwight they reached the 4th Round proper. After beating Romford and Leatherhead they had to travel again in the 3rd Round to Swindon Town and soon found themselves 2-0 down, but a dramatic fightback saw Tooting score twice in the last four minutes to force a draw.

In the replay at a packed Sandy Lane Tooting scored a great 2-1 victory with Alan Ives scoring the winner after a great solo run.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2008/01/15/nl_tooting_feature.shtml

dosn't nicky nicolau play for woking?

Yes, mentioned a few pages back.

Was there.....not quite as bad as Dagenham,but nearly.

I was at Hendon for the tie before, it was like being at the South Pole.  Although we were shit, Dixon scored a penalty for the winner(the official record is Moss), I couldn't celebrate as I was frozen to a crash barrier.  The other bus got it's windows broken.  Happy fucking days.

I see Reading got WBA at home.  Chance for Coxy to line up against his former employers....heres hoping he puts a few past them if given the chance!

Southampton v Portsmouth could be a bit tasty - assuming Pompey manage to stay in business till 13th Feb to actually play the game!

Funny old game isn't it? It wasn't long ago that Saints were the ones on the brink.

Yeah, the tie is almost a microcosm of everything that's gone wrong in English football because of the Prem. Not that long ago we used to compare clubs by their team sheets, not their balance sheets.

The only good tie.

Big dissapointment that Chelsea were drawn at home again.

The F.A. Cup is Chelsea's to lose.

Afternoon chaps.

Well it seems our little run will come to an end at home to West Brom. We never do well against clubs from our league in cup competitions.

(Go gentle with me)

Now that's just asking for it...

Oh now come on... play nice.  ;)

There isn't much hate between us two, just a desperate 30 odd mile attempt at a rivalry. Anyhoo, it's Oxford we both detest. But that's another thread altogether.

Hug?

I imagine a certain Mr Cox may well come back to haunt you if he plays.

Agreed. We should never have let him go. At the time, we were struggling in the Premiership and couldn't score for toffee, but Coppell was guilty of being too loyal to the same old faces. Shane Long, utter waste of space and sadly a sign of the times is he's now a 'key' striker. Shame he doesn't 'strike' then.

Wrong thread for it, but how are things at your place? Good to see Danny Wilson end up at your gaff. A decent manager, and one that I felt could get you back to the Championship.

The Swindon/Reading rivalry dates back years before Oxford even existed, so I'd love to see it back in its proper form.  You're right...it's not what it once was, but I'm convinced it will grow when we start playing each other again on a regular basis.  Big crowds, cracking atmosphere.  Just a shame someone decided to build your ground on a soulless retail park several miles from the nearest decent pub.


No.

But it is true to say we are no Aldershot. Still looks like the plastics and the Shots are trying their hardest to meet next year.

Totally agree about the pubs. Something we all grumble about! But the buses to the ground aren't expensive, and it's less than 10 minutes. Sadly that's new stadiums for you. I'd sooner be back in a redeveloped Elm Park.

Not so much on the souless tho. It does take a few years of being in a new ground for it to become home, and develope a heart, but the atmosphere in there is decent; more so when there's a good away following. Again, a fixture against you knuckle draggers would be welcome  ;)

Re the rivalry; well yeah maybe. Even dating back to 94/95 it wasn't as tasty as it used to be, and both clubs could do with the rivalry again! "Steve McMahon, baldy headed c**t"... good times.  ;)

I genuinly hope you get promoted this season, and we stay up of course.

With respect, for the last 6 years we have had a steady average at home of 16,500. That's pretty much the county ground isn't it? Sure we get clingers on when you get to the top flight, you did; where are yours now?

Same boat... we're back to the 17,000's of a few years ago, but there's little plastic about that level of support.

Little rods catch little fish.  ;)

I'd have thought that the snipe at your league position was more of a concern.

I lived in the area for too many years, plastic by name, plastic by nature ;)

You're growing on me. I'm not sure if it's the tea cloth on your head, or the kind words  ;)

If you gents ever want to upset a bunch of retarded RTG's on our forum, the link is in my signature. Just click on latest discussion and sign up. Graham usually needs an email to prompt him to accept new accounts, as he gets a lot of requests a day, but it's a good board and you'd be welcomed in time  ;) PM me if you need his email addy to get the account hurried.

Since our trip into the unknown, I've actually grown to hate the game. Football is all about money now, money and greed. I can't even tell you the league table. I just don't care. Sad really. At one point I used to drive 850 miles a week to see us play sometimes, never miss a game. Now I'm back home and can't be bothered to make the 2 mile trip.

The Premiership changes everything. Players change, personalities change, ego's develop, fans expectations, everything. It's not the game I fell in love with.

Ahh, I miss you guys!  :soapy tit wank:

I like him

Don't think you are the first or last to say that.

I have a friend in the Reading area who is a Chelsea fan (have you seen him down the Bridge :)). Said pretty much the same thing. Went for years and years home and a lot of away. This year he's been to one game. Fact is, Prem success doesn't necessarily = more enjoyment. Does beating Bolton at home really mean more as a Chelsea fan top of the Prem than winning against Stockport as a Swindon fan in the playoff places. No.

But despite being 'tin pot' and 'shit' in some peoples eyes there is a lot to be said for being able to rock up and get a ticket on match day without the need to mortgage your house to pay for it. Its not like the old days, but its a better approximation than the Greed League provides.

Try it yourself next year!

Well if we're relegated or not, we'll still be forking out £23 a ticket minimum. Difference is, I'd probably go more if we went down. Real football grounds and real fans, I miss it. Although you can't fault the Championship.

There's a huge sense of frustration here still. We finished 8th in the Premiership, and tight arse Madejski think we can pull off miracles every year. It just doesn't happen. Even the Bolton's and Blackburn's have to invest to remain there, albeit through the skin of their teeth.

Madejski is a business man, and we're in good nick, can't fault it, but he ripped the team apart with all the sales, and very little reinvested. Although £2m in the summer on Matt Mills was a shock, but a lot of that is based on promotion (lolikely). He still spouts crap about getting back to the Premiership though, and I that's what really p**ses off the support. Fair enough admit it's a time for change to restructure the books and keep us making money, but we wont be anywhere near a promotion outfit for years unless a new investor comes in.

Rumours are that an American and Mexican (don't laugh) are fighting it out to buy us. Hopefully something to happen in the next few weeks. All very cloak and dagger... That isn't always good news though, as we see every day now (btw, soapy tit wank @ Portsmouth).

Here's hoping we somehow stay up and you can come up too. It'd be good to have you back.

I'm feeling there's every chance though that we will meet next season, but in League 1, sadly.

And that is why you are plastic. Bemoaning a guy who has bankrolled your club for 10 years. The mind boggles.

Maybe I'd feel the same if I was in your position, but from the outside looking in he did the right thing. You can't put the club at risk chasing the dream.

In fact we did that and to some extent it nearly killed us, albeit several years later. Although I'm guessing Madjetski might have a bit more financial scruples than certain previous Swindon non-directors who definititely didn't ru(i)n our club.

He hasn't bankrolled us though. He loaned us money, interest free, and we have all but paid that back to him now. Largely from the mass sales recently. He's entitled to do that, of course, but he's only hurried it because he wants a buyer, and he knows the value of the club has dramitcally dropped from the £100m he wanted two years ago, to about £25m now. The club has been running at a profite for some years, allowing us one big signing a summer, and clever additions to go with it.

Plastic? You move to Yorkshire and drive to every home and away game still, I did. No plastic here, just someone that has released the real value of money, and I choose to pick and choose when to part with my own.

I love the club, but I don't love football now, that's the change.

Agreed.  We could do with a token Reading fan to keep Oxford fan company. 

Would offer plenty of scope for threads about biscuits.

It looks like part time plastic would be more appropriate. Go to Yorkshire and become as tight fisted as the wippet fuckers.

Its not the same. Take a walk from the station to the County Ground through the alley ways and you remmember where football came from and what it was originally all about.

I feel so proud to walk the same steps that Swindon fans have been taking for over a century.

Im looking forward to playing Reading again.

Huntly an Palmer biscuits...crunchy tonight..crunchy tonight.
Huntly and Palmer have a museum in Reading....with stories of biscuits past.
Wasnt it Peak Freans in older days Reg?

Ooh good name there Leefer..apparently Peek Freans were a London company who amalgamated with Huntley and Palmer in 1921.....then you had Jacobs...

My father used to play bowls v Huntley and Palmer....definitely Railwaymen v Biscuitmen back then, friendly rivalry...he just hated Bristhole.

You sound fit, what you wearing?

Fat bastard trousers and a shirt that makes me look like Winnie the Pooh - and old git slippers.

 :soapy tit wank: You're too good to be true, I expected lower standards of riff raff in Swindon. Do you only have the 8 fingers and 2 thumbs?  ;)

Yup, just 8+2 and no webbing in between either. Did they play the Undertones "My Perfect Cousin" at your wedding?