Thetownend.com

The Opponent: Franchise FC

Since their club robbing status began some 10 odd years ago we have met this lot on 16 occasions in total, the record between us reads like this. Won 6 Lost 6 Drawn 4, Scored 18, Conceded 18. I’m sick of the sight of this parody of a football club, their mentality of “no one likes us, we don’t care” is cringeworthy and to top it all off, Milton Keynes is a cunthole full of cunts. The most exciting things that have happened in MK in the last 48 hours? Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, paid a visit to some purple rinse coffee morning and a new 24/7 drive thru Starbucks has just opened!

Former STFC trainee and now the current Chubster in charge of Franchise Karl Robinson has quite a lot to say about the game and Swindon in general - “This is a cup final. What a ding-dong of a game. We have put ourselves in a position to go and beat Swindon at the County Ground. It could be our biggest win of the season. It’s a massive afternoon. With Walsall playing Wolves - if we win, we could go seventh. What an incentive that is, one place outside the play-offs.  And if we do, we’ve got to have a serious look as a football club - do we bring players in and do we go for this? It’s as simple as that.”

He goes on to say, ““Swindon has a special place in my heart because it’s where I grew up, I’m going to meet the family I lived with on Friday, I’ve not seen them for many years. I got signed when I was 15, and I lived there for three years as a YTS and a young professional, but I got injured and didn’t play for a long time. Some people there really looked after me. For a young boy from Liverpool, not to play football for 13 months was very difficult, but they helped me through it.  It’ll be nice to see them. One of them is my ex-youth team manager’s wife, and the people from the digs. It’ll be nice because I’ve still got some of my best friends in Swindon. I always enjoy going there. The results haven’t been overly favourable, if I’m being honest. It’s a nice place for me, but it’s a difficult place for the club. But regardless of my feelings, they’ll have no relevance come 3pm. They’re very similar to us, they’re very unpredictable, they can blow teams away. We know how difficult it’ll be, and the County Ground is a tough place to go”.
Sad thing is Karl, you are still the manager of Franchise.
 
Weather or not? – Phew what a scorcher, well maybe not quite that hot but looking good none the less. Highs of 13 degrees today, bit grey first thing but the sun is going to burn through the clouds to give us a decent dry day.

Where the opposition gather –

http://concreteroundabout.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10124

The other one, moocamp.com proudly has the home page banner reading, “Were keeping The Dons – Get Over It”. Er, no, Fuck off.


Last 6 – WWDLWL (2 away wins out of 3, currently 8th).

They have served us both – Paul Ince, Ryan Harley, Gareth Edds, Danny Wilson, Sean Off To A Bigger Club O’Hanlon, Alan Navarro, Albert Jarrett, Jimmy Gilligan, Paul Mitchel, Dave Hockaday, Dave Partridge, Sol Davis, John Paul McGovern, Junior Lewis, Anthony McNamee

The Odds –  Swindon 8/5  Draw 12/5  Franchise 7/4   Michael Smith is as short as 9/2with Skybet for the first goal, pretty poor value when there are better prices elsewhere. McLeod and Bowditch are both 6/1 to open the scoring.
 
The Son Says – Plumped for a 2-0 home victory, his confidence in our defending is admirable.

The Prediction – I’m confident, no idea why but I’m backing us to crush them 2-1 with goals from Smith and Tijane Reis. Will be interesting to see who becomes the early runner for March scapegoat of the month. 7’433 in attendance with 278 franchisees and 1 drum.

And Finally – in 16 meetings between Swindon Town and the Franchise Club Robbers there has never been a single penalty.

COYR COYR COYR

2-1 town win

Shaw rosso...sorry but I believe there has been at least 1 penalty. I think it was away at the national hockey stadium in '04-05 when grant smith had a spot kick saved in front of the Swindon fans. Correct me if I am wrong. I remember that 1-1 draw being particularly hard to stomach given the penalty miss

I wouldn't mind if a 24/7 drive thru Starbucks opened near me.

0-1. Penalty to the made up club.

They are all that is wrong with football,  prawn sandwich munchers but in lower league form. Plus it's a shit town,  just to cap it off.

At least we had the decency to stick all our roundabouts in one place instead of spreading them around town like fucking chlamydia.

2-1 to us, Karl Robinson to get knocked out by the linesman smacking him with a flag.

McCleod missed a penalty for them against us on NYD 2007. Think Smith also missed one for us two seasons before

2.1 town
7661 overall
288 of their lot and that fucking drum

1-1 with Smith scoring, 7,133 crowd with 322 plastics and 1 drum.

Exciting 3 - 1 for us 7,467 with 363 and at least 1 drum from them

Smith, Byrne and Murphy to score

2-1 win. Murphy to run riot today and smith to net with one off his arse.

Can't see past another draw,0-0 or 1-1 but if we could start taking our chances then we could get a much needed win. 8058 with 317 franchise

Nice write up.

1-1.

FFS, forgot about the drum. Any chance some of you thuggish TE types can intercept them and persuade them it's not worth bringing it into the ground with a Stanley knife slash in it?

Fancy our chances today, 2-1, goals from Luongo and DNG with a very annoying drum.

a win today please!!!

1-1 we go one up, sit back on it and they get a spawny penalty to equalise. Cooper pleads bad luck, the fans plead for some football. In other words, business as usual.

if pritchard is back 1 nil town, if not 0-0

How many homes games in a row with a drum will this be. I blame this for the recent run of non victories

February good time to go on holidays - glad to have missed the last few weeks. No Ranger now, :pint: so struggle for goals until the end of the season. My predicting this season has been way off - 1-1. Nice day for it......hope the guy I met in the Caribbean will be at the game today.

Is'nt it about time STFC banned these drums and what better non-club to make an example of than today's upstarts.

I saw during the week that Hibs had done it to whingeing Motherwell  'bout time!

Would happily sacrifice the Crystal Palace anthem as a quid pro quo (though I will be happy if there is cause to play the Dave Clark 5 rubbish today).

Why cant we just post a drum sniper at the top of one of the floodlights.

3-1 Town

I think stewards should be given knives and told to slash the drums of any fans as they enter.

Or just slash the tendons in their fingers so they can't hold the sticks.

I agree with that. I just don't think we're going far enough to be honest. Maybe kidnapping their families could motivate drummers to not attend football. Certainly some long term emotional scarring could go a long way to improving the quality of football noise.

Better idea. Let drummers into the ground, but have someone standing behind them with a shovel. Every time that person hits the drum, they hit that person in the head with the spade.

I would say axe, but the cleaning bills would be horrendous.

Cheers

Snare the drummer.

Told myself that if I completed my run this morning, we'd definitely beat the Filthy Franchise.

It's in the bag, fellas.

(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2010/10/14/1287054125472/Pete-Winkelman-006.jpg)

Happily continuing my record of never having seen a game involving the Franchise as well.  Which is great because they are not a proper football club and neither do they really exist.

2-0 win

Awful game of sideways passing and single tempo dross.
Franchise to good to allow us the space we need to compete.
Hopping for a draw but can only see an easy win for that shit. Double pisser.
1 3 to them 6,500,

Cheers for that chuckles.

Belford; N Thompson, Archibald-Henville, Ward, Byrne; L Thompson, Harley, Kasim, Luongo; Pritchard, Smith

Subs: Bedwell, McEveley, Branco, Gladwin, Murphy, N'Guessan, Barker

I've got a good feeling about this! 2-1 Swindon COYR

Apparently our injury list is down to 4, but I make it at least 5, what happened about Andy Williams? he has another year left on his contract doesn't he after this season?

Also is Navarro still trying to sue the club as was rumoured earlier in the season?

Two mins in and some dickhead in the DRS is already complaining about us passing the ball across midfield. :(

Get in Smith!

Yes! Smith.

WAYYYYYYYYYYY!!

Just got home from work covered in dog shit and the like. Not amused as is the son  :(

Still, we are winning, the sun is shining and I have crumpets.

Sounds all us so far.

Is sonic on the scoreboard? When we scored it said Swindon 1 bury 0, briefly.

not for many years

We need to score a second with all this pressure.

I would miss what sounds like one of our better performances.

Horribly familiar so far!

Right back in the playoff game as things stand... More worried about Sheffield United than Peterborough though.

What's happened to Reis? I haven't seen his name mentioned recently......is he injured again just has he just been dropped?

Poor Pox losing 2-0 at home to Burton, and Shitty now drawing 1-1.

We need to score another while its mostly us.

Just caught up, feeling good then I came to this. I know I shouldn't but ... how? The poo I mean.

HT 1-0 a good first half by the sound of it.

It got better after we scored. Up to that point we looked a bit ropey and franchise looked like they'd get at us down the wings

But now we are pressing them more and look more likely to score.

A decent game of Football, MK look suspect at the back as they try & play the ball out.

Just feels like an end of season game with nothing on it, a complete lack of atmosphere.

What ... No Drum ...........

On T'internet there was virtually no audible cheer, I did wonder if it was us or them who scored as the cheer was very dulled.

just a quip at your previous exploits :)

Agree with PRs post season friendly feel though

FFS

Typical.

Is that their only shot on goal?

We've let a lot of leads slip in the past few months.

They've had 8 shots to our 5.

On goal?

I can't remember Belford having a save to make.

3 on target to our 5 according to the notoriously reliable BBC stats.

 if only we had Storey to bring on! ;)

Double FFS

Fucking hell.

Loan window closed? We desperately need a striker.

shit on me!

Fucking abysmal

Let the meltdown commence.

Oh fuck off

I'm going down to the Winchester.

I take it the playoff optimists will finally pipe the fuck down anyway

Fucking useless.

Apparently another game we should have won.RS will be interesting!

Good goal, they didn't deserve it, but in a "must win" game we didn't go for it. Mk are shit at the back too.

Think he's done ok this season, but Not impressed with cooper today.

The Cooper out people have already started on facebook.  :facepalm:

That was fucking embarrassing, this whole attractive football thing that Cooper bangs on about is a myth. I think it would be in everyone's interest if Cooper leaves at the end of the season, he just doesn't have any tactical nous is reactive rather than proactive. We need a proper head coach. 1 win in 12 is it now, people won't take much more of this....

I am fully behind Cooper but think new tactical ideas or motivation needs to come from somewhere or someone. Maybe get in somebody experienced to assist Cooper in that department, not to mention a loan striker & defender too.

Fucking shit.  Cooper fully deserved the booing aimed at him at the end.  If this is what the future looks like under him, no thanks.  Utterly fucking clueless.

I don't really care who is in charge. We haven't got the money to build a squad that'll sustain a promotion/play-off push and that's the sum of it really. We're a lower league cash strapped club who have to rely upon unproven or inconsistent players. Shit happens. This season has panned out far better than most predicted and it's unsurprising that those who predicted the worst last summer are now the most vocal in their moaning about our supposed failure.

And no, I didn't go.

Not being funny but what should he have done different today?

Woeful....for those that didn't go....its fine to say never mind....to those that did...it was shit.

So we spend £400,000 on one player...some teams dont get that to spend on an entire squad....not forgetting the money payed for Smith it has got to be over half a million...not bad for a lg 1 team you reckon havn't got the money to push on.
Hardly cash strapped compared to other teams.

Admire you Sonic for your sticking up for your team but passion often fails to see the real story.

hear hear!

Luongo was a fucking good buy-and just because we are on a bad run,that fact remains unaltered

Agreed.

.

It was obvious we needed a second goal to kill the game.  It didn't look like coming, so why not change things?  Instead he waits for the equalizer before taking  Kasim off (who struggled throughout) and bringing Murphy on.  Why not bring N'guessan on at that point and throw him and Smith up front together?  It was worth a bloody go.  Franchise were pretty shit defensively.

....besides,if we could have kept Ajose we'd be even closer to the play offs,in my opinion. The only criticism I have is that maybe our general fitness could be better.

Didn't say he wasn't...but the fact remainds Cooper...well Power has spent more on players than most other teams in the division....just reminding Sonic that is hardly being cash strapped.

fair point.

Cooper -

Dropped to deep, Kasim tired.

We tried to win the game and left ourselves exposed

We should have killed the game off but we are not quite there yet, should be sat here with a few more points.

We haven't thrown the towel in (play offs) but we have to be realistic, finish as strongly as we can.

Wolves great game for the players, sure Wolves will travel in their hordes. Desperate to give the home fans a dominant performance.

N Thompson tweaked his groin, out Tuesday. Murphy loan extension not yet discussed.

Planning for next season, see who is available.

Message to fans, we are were we are, not quite right yet, 8th in the league and we need to finish the season strongly to be ready for next season.

We arent good enough for play offs and we will finish mid table. Not looking forward to the raping we will by wolves on Tuesday but will be there anyway!

Would have bit your hand off for mid table at start of season, cheer up all its the weekend!  :pint:

A nice bit of attractive passing football had many convinced we were going up, the same people are now showing what unrealistic expectations they had.

I'd be very surprised if the initial outlay was anything close to £400,000, far more likely closer to £100,000 but you make a fair point. I'd be interested to see how our overall budget compares to Orient, Brentford, Preston et al.

I still maintain my belief that if we hold on to the core of players this season we will be much stronger next season and with the young players gaining experience we've got an excellent platform to build on. Fewer squad players, fewer loanees and some more experienced individuals will make a massive difference.

I clearly watched a different game to Cooper as cant remember us having a shot after they equalised!

He was referring to the stage in the game when we were 1-0 up and playing reasonably well.

Yes, I did think we'd struggle this season and it did start off far better than I expected.  Now, however it's pretty poor and not particularly good to watch.  I think the majority of people who've attended recently would agree with that.  You only had to look at how empty the Town End was today to see how many people have lost interest.

If we lose or draw by giving it a real go, so be it.  That hasn't been the case for weeks at the County Ground and that's my issue.

I'm sorry Sonic but personally my views of today's game have fuck all to do with my expectations at the start of the season. 'Its better than expected' isn't a defence of todays performance/tactics. FWIW I'm behind Cooper, I just have a different opinion to him on what we should have done today.

Two words to sum the game up . . . . fucking awful!!

If we are a passing side why is it we cannot pass to a team-mate?  Very poor decision making, poor atmosphere and a poor performance. Cannot accept what Cooper was saying, I thought we were second best up until we scored, last 20 minutes of the first half we were the better team, not in it properly after the break.  And to those who were comparing Smith to Cox or Parkin . . . . no contest!!

Good points...it's a shame we couldn't have hung on for the point today, because we've got a lot of losable games coming up and getting to 52/53 asap has to be the aim, as long as Cooper can do that he's done OK, and should be here next season.

Oh good. Reg agrees with me.

Someone that talks sense finally!

Here's how I saw it.

Plus points: From the goal to the end of the first half we were in control of the match (but struggled to create that many chances). The ref was good up to the 80th minute when presumably he needed to up his fuckup count (but was at least the same for both teams).

What is increasingly blindingly obvious is Smith can not play as the loan striker with much success. He tries hard but can't hold up/win the ball. That's OK if the midfield join in the attack to some extent, but he became increasingly isolated and moreover the options up front for the midfield to hit were non-existant.

Sometimes this is fine, but the opposition today were shit at the back. Really shit. So we tried to push Luongo as the forward midfielder but he was fucking woeful at that, seemingly tuning into trouble at every opportunity rather than put a simple pass wide. Because that's the way we play.

Which is what frustrates me. Because while it is all well and good having a way you want to play sometimes you have to adapt. I've no idea why we didn't stick two up top and bring Luongo deeper again. It may not have worked, but how will we know i we don't try. Particularly given CG pitch is understandably not in top nick, passing through the middle is hard..

In what Power described as a "must win" match, Cooper seemed content to let our attack fizzle out and let the Franchise attack us with no outlet up front.

That said, they didn't deserve the win either. It was a hell of a strike for the winner.

FWIW, I thought we did OK for the first hour or so, albeit we should have killed the game off in that time. But we didn't and games last for 60 mins not 90 .....

Gave the ball away for too often esp in midfield,
Decision making is fucking awful at times no matter who the player - 3/4 times in that 2nd half Pritch was in acres of space on the wing only for the ball to fuck about sideways/back/sideways etc before finally being played out wide by which time they had numbers back.
Defensively they were shocking and the same could be said offensively too.

Town end was devoid of any atmosphere, I looked around at nil all and ppl were sat ( yes sat ) playing on their phones or betting.
 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Wolves WILL tear us a new one Tuesday as will Preston/Sheff Utd/Brentford and Rovrum.
Not looking forward to any of those games.

Was it a fitness thing? Did we look tired at the end, or just switched off?

Seemed that way to me, tired, and possibly lost focus a bit because of that. But it was more like the last 15-20 mins not just right at the end. Which is poor, really

Meh, the majority wanted a midtable/relegation free season and that is exactly what they are getting. So why all the outrage? Our manager is Mark Cooper and we are 8th in the league.

The Franchise winner was inevitable and deserved. They should have scored minutes before when Belford saved from Bowditch.

Fair play to them, they wanted to win the match and showed attacking intent which they were rewarded for.

I slated the bloke after Crawley and he was just as bad today - Smith is not a League 1 footballer going on what I have seen of him. Hilariously out of his depth. He cannot even do the basic things.

City next weekend will be interesting should it end in disaster...

The number of injuries could point to a general fitness issue as well but that should be something that can be addressed over time. As much of an issue this season has been silly bookings leading to suspensions.

Both of which can be easily corrected for next season.   Hopefully.

Predictable shyt. Only a few more home games and I'm free.
It will be a shame to see my club, a club I've supported since 1969 go down the swanny.
Not only have the new owners lost the Decanio goodwill factor, they've alienated some of the regulars.

I'm not in the best of moods about today's game, but why?

I bet we didn't,  board just came out with it to keep fans happy I suspect, I bet it was 100k tops with a sell on

I can't imagine you'll be missed by anyone

Would happily see the crowds go down if it meant we saw the back of people like you. Plus the townend would be empty every week (the elephant in the room) so we could start the new stand now.

8th place "down the swanny(sic)"? where were you when we were twice in administration?

I am sure Jed said at the time it was £100k up front with £100k after set games/goals/promotion/sell on % etc rising to a possible £400k.

Some people  ::)

If you want your team to win, week in week out, then go and support Man U...... Oh, wait.

Pah, another one of those bandwagon-jumping glory boys... ;)

Yet another pile of dogshit. Because we are incapable of putting the ball in the net, Crawley did it for us and now the Dongers keeper did his best for us. Despite this yet again we dropped deeper and deeper and the inevitable happened, they equalised. It was the only corner in the game I remember beating the first man and their unmarked guy didn't have to jump to head it in. They should have had a winner a few minutes before they did but their guy fucked up one on one with Belford who saved well. As for their 2nd goal, we backed off and backed off and the bloke could hit it wherever he wanted and struck it beautifully but there were no fucking challenges.
When it was 1-1 when attacking we regularly had 4-5 players back against their one. Like other home games recently we always have so many fucking players behind the ball or doing fuck all.
We are a very negative aside and how Cooper says we lost the game trying to win is beyond me. We lost the game because we were boring and negative. If their keeper hadn't fucked up we would have been there all night and tomorrow and still not scored.
Franchise were a very ordinary team but they didn't need to be anything else. Again, we are so slow on the ball its easy for them to regroup and their defence was fucking useless.    
The whole match day experience is fucking crap at the moment. The St readers on the gate were down again. There is no get up and go about the place. There is no buzz and the quality of football is bollocks and on a par with Hart / Malpas.
I'm going to renew the ST but only because its what I do but I can see a lot that won't.
If we're going to keep the "system" then heaven help us next season. STFC currently are better than any sedative.  

He didn't?  ???

Cooper -

Dropped to deep, Kasim tired.

We tried to win the game and left ourselves exposed

From shaw Rosso

Game should have been sewn up after an hour. Poor decision making in and around their box, too many times we ran into blind alleys.

I expected Smith to push after his goal but he fizzled out, one opportunity in the second when Pritchard was wide and you would expect him to be busting to get in the 6 yard box and he's outside the penalty area. Not sure he's suited to our passing game and would be better in a more direct side. There were some other reasonable performances but we badly ran out of ideas and legs.

Cooper seems to be clutching at straws with his tactics. Try this for a couple of games, then something else. Next year he needs to be stronger in his own mind, focus on a good pre season fitness wise and establish discipline and responsibility on and off the pitch. Can't keep using the kids response week in week out and they need to grow up at some point.

We should have enough to grind out some wins along the way. Results don't always go as expected (otherwise we'd all win football accumlators every Saturday)so we could easily turn over some of the promotion chasing teams. Not all doom and gloom quite yet!

The words of Cooper

"We dropped too deep and conceded too much ground, Saying that, we concede from a free header from a corner and we try to win the game and leave ourselves a little bit exposed.

"We're not quite there yet. We should have killed the game off at the start of the second half but we didn't have the killer instinct to finish it. We should be sat here with a few more points but we're not."

The game plan all season has been to to have a target man capable of holding the ball and bringing our group of midfielders into the game around the opposition's penalty area. When the current incumbent has the first touch of a trampoline, attacks are always going to lack fluidity and possession surrendered. Becomes particularly obvious when players are getting tired in the second half and have absolutely no outlet.

Frustrating second half and result but the writing has been on the wall since the end of January. We are a top half team but simply don't have the personnel without Ranger (and an on-form Mason) to be anything more.

On the bright side, Louis Thompson has kicked on this season. Thought he was decent again today.

But the players we have bought in are Coopers Powers choices and if they arent good enough then why the fuck are they here.
Its obv that Smith isnt a Ranger so why persist with a game plan/style that requires a Ranger  ::)

Unlike you im there every home game so my money will be missed even if im not.

You been taking post-match coaching from Andy King?

Good point

It doesn't really work claiming 45 years of loyalty if you're going to throw it all in on the basis of a narrow loss in a near meaningless game.

My opinion is that the financial model of the club depends on relying on loans and freebies from Premier League clubs. PL clubs will want to send or recommend players to go to clubs who play out from the back and suit the strengths of the style of young players being produced by their academies. I think we only got the likes of Mason and Pritchard, who could surely have got a Championship season loan based on their technical ability, on the assurance we wouldn't be whacking the ball over their heads and into the channels.

On that front, this season has been a transition one to prove to potential transfer contacts that we will play in a way that will suit their young players and give us the first option on them. Have heard that we are close to securing a link with a second PL club that will give us first option of loaning their best young players.

Think we can only judge whether Power's strategy is actually working at the end of next season.

Just got back to Peatmoor gia the shit hole that is the woodlands edge pub. Well i have not read any posts so i doubt i can add anything but we snatched a defeat fom the jaws of victory.

Having renewed the family ST Mr. Power, you'd better serve up something more palletable next season.

This year is IMHO a holding year so get it right next season please.

We'll lose to Wolves on Tuesday and it will be game over i feel for 2013-14.

I think Spurs may have been watching us too closely.

Exactly and as both Ranger and Mason (and Pritchard) are unlikely to be here next Swindon, what's currently on show as replacements is what we're left with.  It doesn't bode particularly well.

That's on the assumption that we don't sign ANY replacements for those three!

On the positive side the Scummers lost again and their regular post X Mas fuck up appears to be in full flow again.

Mason and Pritchard have been widely criticised anyway so will they be missed that much?

Ranger could well be here next season but if not we will at least be compensated.

carlisle at home was our last decent performance (not result ) and I'm bored.
It's crap football pure and simple and in all that time I've seen some crap to compare it too.

I know he's carrying an injury but did J-Mac look totally immobile to anyone else? I rate him, sure he has his off days but today he looked plain injured.

Maybe it was just me.

Nope, we all said that too. Was poor when he came on, but that's Cooper's fault for bringing on a player who's plainly carrying an injury, not the player's for trying his best when clearly not at full fitness. Wasn't he supposed to be going in for an op?

No he didnt look 100% or anywhere near it

Odd he was even on bench as plainly not ready to play

Agree with that, got chucked on with no warm up into the sharp end of a game and clearly struggling with injury having to defend against a pacy winger. Cooper admitted Jay needs knee op at some point. Shame for him, as when he's fit, he's a capable left back.

Or the player overstating his fitness, I think he's fairly competitive and wants to play. Or the medical staff OK'ing him. Damn, now I'm sticking up for Cooper :)

Point is, with Nate out, and possibly J-Mac, we have a problem for Tuesday (Barthram and Byrne for me).

Well if we could all see he wasn't 100% from a few minutes of him coming on, I'd hope that the professional coaching/medical staff would be much better placed to see that for themselves from having seen him all week in training (or in the physio room, as appropriate)

And based on the quality of players that have been brought in over recent weeks, that doesn't bode well either!


Said the same, he ran awkwardly across the pitch when he came on.  Don't think Kasim should have been playing either to be honest.  He looked knackered from about 20 mins in.

Why not give Matty Jones a go at left back. Byrne is no left back. Pitch him in for 3-4 games and see whether he can make the step up. In fact, as long as we get to 52, pitch a few youngsters in and drop all the players who won't be here next season.

Can't really say anything that differs from what I've read on here. So here's this video to cheer you all up

http://www.mamamia.com.au/rogue/benny-hill-rave-dancers/

What,like they did in the away games?

Hasn't he just gone out on loan?!

Well at least that will shut the silly play off dreamers up. I will read back in a minute.

That was shit..not the pure shit of blades, Gills etc.....but shit all the same.

Be fair they pissed all ore us until we scored a gift goal....i don't know what the keeper was trying to do..parry it up in the air and catch it?

After that it was all us....but we never looked sharp in the final third.

The second half was an abject disaster.

Franchise bossed us about....we broke on occasions but still never looked like scoring, including the Byrne 'miss'.

Goal from a corner...FFS...

Keeper mad some good saves to keep us in it.

The Franchise winner came as I was hoping for the final whistle.

Overall pretty shit.

Cooper changed it after conceding (again). Danny brought on for a disappointing Smith although he did win a few headers......84 minutes??....and why not played together? We are at home FFS..

My biggest groan was Luongo jumping for a header in the box and he bottled it whilst looking at the defender....it bobbled back to the keeper....that fucks me off....

We might get dicked on Tuesday and then get thumped at the slave traders playing like that...that will put the shitheads 6 points behind us....wonderful....

Now to read back...

Our form since those games has plummeted
You cannot compare the team that played for town today to that which battered wolves ( even tho we lost when should have won ) or rovrum ( despite the fact rovrum could have been 3 up inside 20 mins and we rode our luck ) .
Preston hammered us away when we were playing decent.
Sheff utd were crap when we played there and we still lost with a complete bollox of a performance, since then they have had the new manager effect and are unbeaten in 8 league and cup.
Brentford we could have easily won there but didnt so yeah not expecting anything from those esp after our latest epic fail showing.

Yep to Supermarine
Scored one and set one up today

we will see.

(http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/29523886.jpg)

God knows how Jack Barthram must feel.

I see Reckord has disappeared without trace.

Has he returned to Molina .... Molyne ....Molinu...... Wolves.

Reckord was Fola Onion Bhaji bad.

Having read most of this thread this is far and away the most accurate description of the game I watched yesterday. 

Only things I'd add on the Cooper debate are:
1. I can't see how a competent manager could have brought on McEveley when he was clearly injured.
2.  Whatever the quality of players you are given to manage, you can at least ensure that they are fit and most of that team clearly can't last 90 mins.

That was my third game of the season, and I think the most notable thing was how the entire team seemed to tire really badly towards the end. MK saw this and took advantage. Looks increasingly like the season will fizzle into mid table obscurity, but its not the end of the world. Keep the core here next season and add to it, maybe a better chance next year.

First half was OK. Second half was dreadful.

Lets hope they all buck their ideas up or Wolves will smash us.

Was in Luxembourg for the weekend so just catching up with this thread, depressing :(

Our recent bad run of form is made slightly worse given the recent fixture list, especially at home. We've been mediocre to dire against not very good opposition at home (Oldham, Colchester, Franchise) and we've only played Orient away who would be a team that I would 'fear'.

Something is going to have to change as we have Wolves, Preston and Rotherham coming up who are all in great form and if we get pummeled in all those matches then serious discontent is likely.

Smith is not a very good target man, as others have said he has a heavy touch which often sees the ball given back to the opposition and we seem to not want to play 'raking' balls to wingbacks/wingers in space, rather passing 5 yard balls sideways until the ball is given away.

That said, when Smith has had a chance in front of goal, he has generally taken it (2 against Shrews, a good header at Walsall and what sounds like a poachers goal on Saturday). I understand the way we are trying to play, but what is the harm of having a plan B, getting people in behind and crosses into the box for Smith to attack?

I mentioned it on another thread but fitness sounds like its a problem as well with us fading badly at Crewe and on Saturday. Wolves tomorrow is a very tough match and we will need to up our game, dramatically.

Haven't commented until now but that 2nd half performance is turning into deja vu at home, and whilst not as bad as the Hart regime, I felt resemblances in that there was hardly any attacking threat and we got deeper and deeper as the game went on. Standing in the Town End, I'm not sure the amount of action I've seen us have in the past 3-4 home games attacking our end - probably minimal!  Need to buck our ideas up - a big 2 games ahead this week!

Nouha Dicko is going to bum fuck our defence into oblivion.

Smith is normally the only player in the box. I feel sorry for the lad.

I don't normally comment on football matters as I am unable to go.

All I ever wanted when I could go, was for the team to give 100%, give it a go and at least be fit enough to last 90 mins - from what I can glean from the comments on here, we seem to incapable of most of these.

I felt a bit sorry for him at Orient as well, ok his touch isn't good but when he did have the ball under control he had nobody in support to pass to and was often alienated. The one chance he created, reckord took it off him!!

and therein lies the frustration as currently at home we fail on all three - its the second one that does my swede in. The fitness can be accounted for the fact a lot of players are in their first full season.

Really? He comes out wide too often for my liking.

Sorry, I meant that if someone got to the line then if they looked up to cross only Smith would be in the box ( unless as you say he's out wide also ) as the other players are around the edge of the box waiting for the ball. Getting to the line and crossing would be useless as a plan B unless we were going to commit players to the box, which we don't.

We were the better side in the first half- just shading it. The second half, they started at a higher tempo and we never caught up.

The long ball to Smith is a workable tactic as he regularly outjumps the defender and nods the ball on- to space devoid of a Town player :doh: We should be ready for that and getting bodies into the area around their 16 yard box so that Smith at least has somone on our side in the vicinty of the ball.

Their winner was a sublime strike, I was sat right behind it in the DRS pit lane. Lovely strike and curl preceeded by too much backing off by our defence.

Yeah agree, but tbf no other fucker is out there as Pritchard seems determined to either run sideways or skin his man rather than get to the touchline and get the ball in.

I like Smith though, bad first touch but he tries hard and he seems to get himself in the right places. He'll get better as the years go on, I remember Jonathan Walters playing against us for Hull and despite scoring, he was woeful. Look at him now, living the dream at Stoke!

Pritch spent a bit of time looking pissed off on Saturday as he was in acres of space on the wing, flailing his arms about calling for the ball- ignored.

The first time he got the ball on the left wing, he did his magic, cut in and shot, the parried save setting Smith up for his goal.

He spends a lot of time away from the wings cos he doesn't get passed to when he is out there.

What about the 5+ times he did 300 stepovers and lost the ball because he did get the ball wide and decided against putting the ball in? Wont deny he did extremely well for the goal, and I won't dispute the fact he is ignored, but he is greedy as fuck when he does have the ball. Sometimes justified, but extremely frustrating for such a talented player.

While we are pointing out his weaknesses, he's got a great free kick but takes a shit corner. Plus he has a good shot but 8/10 seem to trickle back to the keeper.

Those stepovers were class. Like me in my prime in the playground :)

McNamee has left a legacy picked up initially by Gladwin and now Pritchard.

Smith for me is a striker that needs a partner, he isnt the type of player to wait up front for the ball to come to him, he likes to go out and get the ball himself pass it out and then go and try and get in position to receive it and to strike.
But he seems to go to the ball and all to often there is no one in the box when the ball is played in there as he has gone looking for the ball and as he is theonly one up front nobody else can be bothered to get up there.

One thing from the Di Canio days at least we knew the players would be 100% fit and would be able to last 90 mins without puffing and panting, and, most respected the manager even if they didnt like his methods

What the fuck has Di Canio got to do with this? He fucked off and we've had 4 people in charge isnce then.

The fact that the DeCanio era squad maintained a better level of fitness perhaps?

Correct

Not on Saturday he didn't - they were lumping balls up to him all afternoon and he was routinely beaten to it, think he only won one or two that I saw.

I think I saw more than that but, given that you are right, how many of those two or three times did he have a team mate ready to pounce on the second ball?

There may well have been, but he seemed to me at least to routinely get beaten to it. However, your point stands as he had bugger all support so even if he had won it, there was no-one there to capitalise anyway.