Thetownend.com

Oh go on then, sod it. If no-one can be arsed to start a MDT by 10.15 on a matchday, then this calls for the mighty unbeaten Frog. I hate to think what Shaw Rosso, and even the deposed noble Suggwillsugg, would think of the state of apathy this forum has fallen into. It's like the Phoney War - we all know it's going to get nasty soon enough, and we're worried that we may not have re-armed sufficiently for the forthcoming hostilities.

But in the meantime, there's Colchester. Garrison town since Roman times, and, um, that's about it. Again, don't know anyone famous who comes from there, though I was delighted to see a loco in the station yard a few years back bearing the name-plate "Joe Strummer".

Expect we'll lose again tonight, which would be a shame because I think a team as few people care about as Colchester deserves to be at least a division lower than L1, but I would be heartily consoled if our defeat instead contributed to Crawley's demise. Result 2-0.

 Colchester history is amazing.  Not something you'd guess from a visit to Layer Road in the past; not been to the new one, but by all accounts even less inspiring.

 It was the site of Camulodunum, an Iron Age oppidum, reckoned to be the biggest in Britain....although I'd have thought the Belgic site at Wheathampstead runs it close.

Camulodunum was the stronghold of Caractacus, who fought a guerrilla war against the Romans, before being betrayed by a woman and some norvern types and handed over to the Romans.

Fascinating period of our history, the transition of Iron Age Britain, into Romano-British culture and then the so called dark ages of the Saxon intrusion.....

We're going to win tonight. 3-1 Gladwin, Obika and Kasim. (345 away fans)

You'd imagine they might get more than the usual 3000 tonight for a game they have to win. I don't think we'll be as up for it as they are and so another 3-0 defeat.

I would on behalf of those with season long bets, ask that we get 3 points from this (but I'm not holding my breath).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchester#Notable_Colcestrians

We will lose 0-3

Been twice. Once to Layer Road and the other I was a military escort for a comrade who had been sentenced to 6 months in the military prison there

Oh yeah, we have a game.

1-1.

I've never been to Colchester as far as I can remember. Doubt I ever will. Not even its Roman history would pull me there, Cirencester is a lot closer for that

Hopefully a strongish team to get the players back to focusing on football rather than resting

Back 3 of Stephens, Thompson & Turnbull though please give them time together again before the PO's

The history of Bagendon, and the Dubonni is interesting....Bagendon was clearly a major oppidum, which may or may not have been the Dubonnic capital. Dubonnic territory stretched at times to what is now North Wilts, where it bordered on Atrebatic territory, whose capital was Silchester.

Been once, never again. By far the worst new ground in the country.

(http://www.internationalbeveragenetwork.com/specialreport/ricard/images/image_dubonnet_new.jpg)

Is it any surprise that we won the Dubonnet Cup?

I have not been (inside) of the new ground but went to Layer road a couple of times in the 70's.

Had to have been one of if not the worst league ground I have been to. You could stand at the back of the away end and reach the person stood in the front row.

I went there when we were a few points away from claiming the promotion in the 4th under Macari on a chilly Friday evening at the end of March, we came away with a draw in a game we dominated with 1,700 Town fans there in a crowd of 3,000, you could not have crammed another Town fan in that awful away end that night.

I do not miss Layer Road.

Been to Layer Road once, a night game that we won 1-0 with Michael Reddy scoring the goal.  That was the only high point unfortunately.

I'm hoping our play-off 'campaign' will start tonight. Win the last two games of the season, get a bit of form under our belts ready for the run in. It wouldn't be the best preparation to go into the play-offs not having won for 4 games or whatever it is.

Sounds like we'll be close to full strength so don't see why we shouldn't give them a bit of a hiding.

I am listening on the radio, so it will be 0-0

Att: 3,412 (212 away)

3-2 win. Hylton, Gladwin & Byrne.

Got to be a 3 0 defeat. It seems to have a ring about it. I base this on, finding it hard to score from open play and not being able to keep a clean sheet.
Could be wrong, usually am.

The M4's closed at Reading for the rest of the day so doubt many Town fans will make KO.

Hopefully the players will make it.

Letting the train take the strain. :)

 :) Well fair play to anyone going. Yes, hopefully the team are staying nearby!

They travelled up today, one of the journos tweeted they passed the team bus but t belford later tweeted they were 40 miles from Colchester whilst said journos were still stuck in Reading  :suicide:

Official club account has since tweeted they are at the soulless dump.

Playing at The Kassam?

 :clap:

4 sided soulless dump complete with drummer

Looks like the first team tonight then

TOWN STARTING XI (3-5-2) Foderingham; Stephens, Thompson N (C), Turnbull; Byrne, Kasim, Luongo, Gladwin, Toffolo; Williams, Obika

Probably our strongest 11.

Starting 11 for the play offs tonight then.

Orient, Crawley, Notts County, Crewe and Coventry would have all had something to say had we started with a Prestonesque XI.

I can't believe he's risking our first XI. Cooper out.

good team, rest them again Sunday please.

Cooper did say a few weeks ago that he would look to play the side that would start the first leg in the play-offs in the last couple of games.

bench anyone?

Subs: T Belford, Ricketts, Branco, Rodgers, Swift, Hylton, Smith

Strong bench.

There you go sir :)

Just seen the line up. Definitely almost spot on matching my Play off squad. Buzzing to see such a strong side again! Bring it on.

wow,total commitment!

Let's hope they perform like a play off side then or its getting a bit worrying. Rather we relegated this shower of shit than Orient who lets not forget relegated the Scum to the Conference a few years ago! Rather liked them ever since.  :D

Just remember that Colchester are going to be majorly up for this...

And it will make the franchise twats cry a bit more seeing that side

Yep   :nod:

It's a bit early for that  -  they're not even on the pitch yet...

LOLz

Fucking hell.

We're so shit it's unbelievable  :D

Hahahaa

I'm not surprised.

Was Jacob Murphy the one we had on loan?

fucking hell the ex player syndrome

 :suicide:

Christ, that's play-off form!!

Yes!

cant see the funny side

 :-[

sorry, but I don't see us doing anything in the playoffs at all

I spoke too soon?

Calm down dear.

oh dear-willo misses a plum

37% possession. We can't even keep the ball any more.

Bring back the kids...

Jesus wept, just saw the goal on Sky. Toffolo totally loses the run of his man. Turnbull doesn't close content to watch him cross and Byrne seems* to let his man wander in front of him and lets him tap in.

We are shite at defending. I blame the strikers.

* I couldn't see where he started from

What's gone so wrong...

Persisting with 3 at the back for a start.

We've played like that all season and it's been largely successful, why change it?

I used to disagree with anyone saying the system is wrong, but recently I'm starting to think that may be the case. B'mouth went up playing 4-4-2 most of the season... Saying that, we haven't got the right players for a 4-4-2.

When it's not been successful for 3 months it might be worth changing it

Disappointed.

Because teams know how to get the better of us now?

Even the shite ones

For someone who's relying solely on this MDT, the comments are great but for fuck sake can somebody post the score? Thanks.

4-1

May get slated for this as it's one upfront but I think 4-2-3-1 would be only formation that would suit us if we went to 4 at the back.
Fods
Thompson Ricketts Turnbull Toffolo
Kasim Stephens
Byrne Luongo Gladwin
Obika

Swindon are 34-4 after 15 overs, with Byrne missing a conversion and Obika receiving a formal warning for running on the pitch.

I blame Tom Bassam, he loves Swindon misery :)

I'm a big fan of 352, it makes for an entertaining side. It also goes hand in hand with Power's philosophy on attractive football.

Its a bit late to change it now, but the ease at which opposition score past us is a massive worry.

9 goals scored against by MK, City and Preston (normal defence), 2 at Rochdale, 1 tonight.
Not all of that is down to the back 3, the midfield have been pretty dogshit in defending for ages too

That said, this is nothing more than a training session. Nobody wants to get injured/knackered here.

I should've known better than to ask you lot.

49% possession now. Getting there.

Yes, but winning football is good too  :)

Another thing, we always get players who are utter bollocks on loan and then go on to do well at other clubs (Chris Martin). Murphy was utter wank last season, gave it away for P'boro's equaliser in JPT area final, and he scores after 37 seconds.

1-0 Colchester. They scored just under 40 seconds in.

Not joking.

I'd settle for Chelsea's ruthlessness rather than Arsenal's passing game from hereon in.

Me too :D

Sorry Sam. This ^

For me the strikers are the real disappointment, I expect the defence to be ropey when we play the way we do but our strikers simply haven't scored enough goals in the past few months. Have Obika/Williams/Smith even managed 10 between them in the past 3 months?

Sheffield United will be fisting us if we play like this on May 7th

8 in 2015 I think

There lies the problem.

Therein lies half the problem.

At last some consistency-Nathan Thompson gets booked

(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9fomxPU2L1qfxgsd.gif)

Certainly has been very poor on that front. I've advocated Hylton and he's definitely been impressive. Just a shame he's not been given a decent run of games to net more.

Get Hylton on.

Whose got money on a sending off

I'd say let's hope that the half-time 'rocket' will work.

Do we have someone who can dish out a half-time 'rocket'?

Not being funny, but if we are relying on Hylton at this stage of the season to drag us out of the shit, we have problems..

Our set pieces are abysmal as well.

Williams gets his first strike on target this year.

H/T

(http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--6sGrU7yX--/185wsu7f62b33gif.gif)

 :D Was meant in jest, but when was the last time Williams had a shot on target? Must be a while.

Somebody needs to find form... and quick.

Shocking. Shame we can't change all 11 at HT.

(http://i.imgur.com/K7g0WKE.jpg)

She's something special, isn't she?

I
Goals have been coming through that gap for a couple of months now but after 1 minute is just ridiculous. 

Watch out for further goals just before or after just half time

Indeed. What we need is Luongo and Kassim pulling their weight, and I don't just mean for 20 minutes here and there.

Nope, not really.

(https://media.giphy.com/media/4wMlW2RcOCVCU/giphy.gif)

For the second consecutive game. How can the same shit happen to the same club twice.

Tonight's attendance is 4,395 with 343 making trip from Swindon. #stfc

There was a facemerge of Natalie Dormer and Emma Watson going round Reddit the other day. It was rather distracting.

I guessed 345 and 3-1. I guess I'll take 343 and 2-1.

branco booked. shock.

Ha ha - Branco booked after 15 seconds on pitch

Boom, Branco straight back in with a booking

 :suicide:

Turnbull already headed one off the line

Pathetic support from Colchester


Swindon Town FC ‏@Official_STFC 16m16 minutes ago

Tonight's attendance: 4,395 (343 Town fans) #STFC

goioooiooooooal. gladders

Gladwin again  :D

Yay! Glad Benwin

Just going to leave this here...  :D ;)

glad all over!

2 out on the away attendance. Very good.

WE LOVE BEN GLADWIN
HE CAME FROM MARLOW
WE LOVE BEN GLADWIN
HE'S TALLER THAN YOU
WE LOVE BEN GLADWIN
GO AND GET US A GOAAAALLLLL

(repeat)

Hull 1-0 Liverpool
Rotherham 2-0 Reading

 :)

You smile, but if we fuck up the playoffs we will have to play Millwall ( 'orrible cunts) and Wigan (wanky northern rugby cunts) .

thats us playing millwall next season then :nod:

Fuck that London Bridge lark again

Astounding.

Simon Cowell and the Britain's Got Talent Team will be knocking at your door.

Millwall might be our nearest game  :(

 Rotherham United 2 ( L Frecklington 58 ) Reading 0

2. nil rotheram :suicide:

At least Millwall are southern (if Town are in L1 next season).

But you wouldn't exactly call it a day out....

As our local derby will you be registering on their forum?   :D

Its a shame Reading weren't just a little bit more shit.

Hylton sounds impressive again

(http://thatmarriedguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/nod.gif)

Assuming we don't progress through the playoffs.

Coventry are deffo staying up so they will be nearest. If Wycombe come up from D2 they will be closest.

Millwall will be either 2nd / 3rd closest depending on where Wycombe end up.

I got excited. I won't do it again. ;)

God I hate than moronic "everywhere we go.." chant.

No Worries J. I'm a miserable old cunt and if being honest slightly Jealous of your youthful exuberance.

People wanna know

Hahah. No worries. I'm well aware that coming up with good lyrics for footy songs isn't my strong suit.

Got to be better than that Aden Flint one Town fans were singing at Preston

We are trying our best to concede a second.

No, not the Brownie chant, the "making the noise" one.

Think of it this way... our last two games have been practicing coming back from behind for the play offs ;)

:) Optimistic tosser! :) Like it.

We're pretending we're really shit for the playoffs only to lure them into a false sense of security and be 3-0 up at Bramell Lane after 10 minutes

Saturday we'll go one further and practice coming back from 2 down. 

I'm not sure we have conceded 1st then gone on to win a game all season. Sure we must have. Just cannot remember.

The one thing I think Cooper got wrong today is taking Willo off. Its up to him to prove he's up to it true enough, but he is clearly a confidence player - showing a bit of faith in him is more likely to get his head down.

Other than that, he's picked our strongest team.

Bradford away? Doncaster?

Sunday...

Doncaster

Taking optimism to an inter galactic Level  :)

luton away

I was thinking league games only ???

Yep, Should have remembered Luton. I was there.

sorry joe

Thought we'd scored

As it stands, we're losing 4 southern teams in League One. Damn. We need to get promoted...

Karl Robinson: "Swindon have riled us in the last 48 hours and I'd love to batter them at Wembley."

Who would you have played instead Woolster?

FT. Sounded shit.

Result 1-1

not all confirmed but some massive relagations this season. Wigan, Leyton orient and tranmere.

It'll 'do'.

Wouldn't be surprised if Cooper played 3-6-1 in first leg, sorry fellow TEFers

Millwall down and Wycombe up with us staying put and losing to Orient at the weekend and favourable results to allow Orient to stay up. We will be just one less than we were this year.

I don't care what formation he plays as long as we win  (3-6-1 won't work though).

the team that played tonight, thats the worry

Decent point tonight considering it was a dead rubber for us.

Oh I see, humph. It'll be OK in the playoffs, it'll be OK in the playoffs. I've goy my fingers in my ears, I can't hear you. Lalalalala.

can someone post what Cooper says please? not listening to these texts. morons

This was pretty much a friendly for us, the next game will be as well.

I'd expect another scratch team Sunday, though perhaps Swift, Hylton and Smith may play.

We'll be ready

Coops not too impressed.
Said we didn't pass it enough and too much end to end

Why do I feel like we're not even in the play offs?  Maybe it's because the last few games have been a damp squib, but I'm not excited about them in the slightest at the moment. I'm filled with dread.

We need some big performances right across the team to have a chance and I just don't feel positive that we're going to get them if I'm completely honest.  I so hope I'm wrong and I'm doing the team a big injustice.

Hylton pushing for a start

Coops:

- Another one ticked off towards the playoffs?
No, didn't think we did well tonight. We conceeded the early one, game became end to end. Players must have run KMs tonight. Ran when we should pass, etc. But we dug in and got point
- We are a better team when we control game. We don't have the boys to fight end to end..
- Need to make better use of ball.
- re Thurs: Things crop up and things change. Hylton had good game and is pushing for start.
- re Sun: Will have a team of players who need more minutes, and some who played tonight.
- re goal: Let 'em run wide, striker unmarked in box - we work hard on marking in the box so dissapointing
- re Gladwin: A totally unlike Gladwin goal. He normally drives and smashes, but that's 2 headers - good for development.
- re Rickets: 7 games in 22 days. Got to be careful with him as he's not played much until now.
- re Toffolo: dead leg, Thompson: whack on foot. Should be fine. Obika : Back problem, probably due to how much he's run.


Paraphrased and missed bits.

I'm a little bit meh about them. Thinking today about not even watching the first leg to save the stress( I'm sure I will watch, or even go :)

Cheers Batch.

Horrendous first half, much better second.

Byrne tremendous, Hylton lively again. Branco an absolute donkey from the moment he came on, at least he gave us a laugh with his ineptitude!

Probably for all the wrong reasons, I feel as though Branco is becoming somewhat of a cult legend. (The clothesline against Flint was almost legend status worthy in itself)

As much as I don't want him playing, it's inevitable that he'll end up scoring the winner at Wembley, that's exactly how football works.

And another foul throw I heard. Must drive cooper and the coaches insane.

It wasn't that bad overall I thought.

When you consider that you had 'Team Fighting For Their Lives' v 'Team With Nothing To Play For', it was never going to be a classic from our point of view. I wouldn't say the first half was horrendous (although I did miss their goal which I heard was a bit shit from us defensively) I just thought it was pretty 'meh' really. Second half was much brighter and we could have gone on to win although to be fair, they could say the same thing. So all in all a draw was a fair result.

I think anyone who is on the brink currently should definitely put the razor blades away for the time being at least. I firmly believe this team will come alive for the play offs.*



*Fingers crossed!

They should be playing for their places in the playoffs, but that's a bit unrealistic given a) the depth of our squad means the nuclease must play and b) you can't play if you get injured.

Byrne seems to be our only in form player right now

With nothing to play for a draw was a reasonable result last night. I expect orient to beat us on Sunday. Next Thursday is all that matters.

Gladwin surely? 6 goals in his last 4 games.

I really don't care how we play til Thursday, so long as we don't get any injuries. I'm sure we'll be fired up for the play offs, if not then we don't deserve to go up any way.

I can't wait to get started.

I'm not gonna lie and pretend I'm not concerned with how bad our defending has been in the last month... It really does worry me. I don't think its through lack of trying or urgency, teams are slicing through us so easy atm it's almost laughable. We don't track runners, we don't mark players tight enough and we give attackers running at us at least 3 yards of space without ever really trying to make a tackle.

This needs to be addressed in the next week or else the strikers are gonna have to quickly rediscover some form.

We know we give sides a chance.....I'd imagine both Blades and Chesterfield, will be trying very hard to finish 5th on Sunday.

Key for us is  ensuring we're still in the game for the second leg....and that does mean going out to score a few, as I think attempting to take a defensive stance would be pointless.

The defence has been very poor and has really cost us. Blaming the strikers for getting absolutely no service is wrong imo. Apart from Williams who does tend to miss a few sitters no one else seems to get a chance recently. Too much pissing about with the ball and no one will get it into the penalty box.

I think the lack of goals from the forwards is the biggest concern going into the playoffs. The top scorer is out of form and we are not putting the ball in the net enough from that department recently. We are bound to concede goals  it's the outscoring of the opposition I am worried about.

Agreed, he's very much the new Lescinel Jean Francois for me

LJF, had to have 6 bad games to have a good one..

I can see the comparison..

I would say nearer 4 to 1 ratio but your point is very valid.

Its a double failing:

We only conceded 10 league goals in Nov, Dec and Jan (13 league games), scored 22.
We've conceded 20 league goals in March and April (12 league games), scored 14

Its madness to think its just down to the strikers.

Highlights are up
Complete with weird audio

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xXZ5GbydxiE

Yeah, not a fan of the sound quality. Like the sound track was duplicated and moved 0.0005 seconds out.

For me it’s all about the midfield. Kasim showed touches and glimpse of what he is capable of in the second half last night which reminded me of just how damned good he is. To me, he is every bit as good as Luongo and we all know what Gladwin is capable of on his day. If Cooper can get the three of those mother fuckers firing on all cylinders by next Thursday, we will win the play offs. Write it down.

FACT! (and yes I agree, btw)

I love this bit.

But if you dont take your chances, it puts added pressure on the defence  not to screw up, and at our level at least one or 2  screw up's a game happen, then it depends on the other sides strikers being as off colour as ours for us not to lose, and that hasnt been the case recently. If we'd scored first at City for example, the game would have panned out different and we wouldnt have been chasing it, and leaving our defence short.

Perhaps it's the dodgy defence that is stifling the midfield to gamble that little bit to provide the strikers with the chances

If we are to win the play offs the side is going to need to be bang at it in every department really.
The reason I mentioned the forwards is that the majority of key match winning chances will more than likely fall to them. The current form from that department (which wins games)isn't filling me with confidence. A forward in form can take pressure off a vulnerable defence. Hopefully they're all on top top form next Thursday and any concerns are proven wrong. On our day I'm sure we're capable of doing the job.

Sounded like HTV dubbing back in the day... 5000 at Rovers with FA Cup final cheering when they scored.

Of course - There is no point in the midfield playing out of their skins while the forwards and strikers  play like a bunch of cunts, they have to perform as well but I just think the real difference makers are those midfielders. I think they are a class above anything in L1 on their day as a unit.

Having watched seven minutes of highlights on  STFC player I have opinion that our players are have the playoffs on their minds and are making half hearted tackes ensuring they do not get injured .

Parp parp . . come on Ken.
Crowd went wild when there was a throw in.
Archie Stevens,Smash and grab(bum +suck)Roger Malone . . .

I got this impression from the radio, too.

Cooper has certainly played an unusual game, with his approach to the end of the season, and it'll be interesting to see if it works....

There's an interesting piece in the Adver today, a chat with Ossie, well worth a read......in it he says about going into the PO's in 90, that experience of big matches, he'd played in a WC final, told him that players didn't want to hear this was the biggest game of their life stuff, but rather just another game.

Cooper's approach certainly seems to fly in the face of the classic every game is important, and you take each game as it comes philosophy.  I'm not convinced that you can just turn on the necessary intensity needed in any game like a tap...but we'll see.

I don't agree with MC's approach either. At the end of the day though, if we win the play offs he will be hailed as a genius. if not he will probably get slaughtered.

If we don't get anywhere in the playoffs, Cooper will be slaughtered. If we were to win the playoffs, all of the credit will go to Power, no doubt.

He doesn't deserve to get slaughtered, as it's wholly understandable, what he has been doing given the circumstances. 

However, Blades have been faffing around around now for seemingly weeks, having long given up on an auto chase, and seemingly settling for 4th or 5th....it strikes me that they have one massive advantage over us....namely that Nigel knows they can raise their game for one off cup ties, something we've not got in the locker.   For this reason, I'm hoping that Spireites, can turn them over on Sunday.

Maybe not. Doesn't mean it won't happen though.

And Ossie did pick his best team week in week out for nearly 30 games. No resting up for those boys or mucking about with the tactics. Pass, Pass, Pass was Ossie's mantra

We also had the epic 4 games LC tie, v Bolton in that lot.

 I suppose the counter argument would be that it was another season where we got into autos in March, but tailed away to finish 5th, with only 3 wins in the last 12.

I

I for one won't slaughter him. He's fucked up a few times but not enough that would result In us missing out on autos...
A young side that at times doesn't turn up at times.
We will see if this calm approach works ... I fucking hope so because its been a great season!!

This must be our best Third Tier points finish since 95/96? Upon his appointment, we were all bracing ourselves for the worst.

If promotion is not achieved, I think history will be rather unkind to Mark Cooper. As a side, I often wonder if Power has one of his buddies lined up to replace Cooper but the relationship seems to have worked well.

I thought the same for a while, but then again Power seems in for the long term and doing things the right way, and I'm not actually sure he'd want Sherwood or another friend as manager. Can you imagine having to fire your best mate if everything went a bit wrong on the pitch? Probably better off just having a good relationship for loans and what not.

You're probably right. My use of buddies was more in reference 'industry type' contacts than former roomies.