Thetownend.com

The Opponent: Chelsea

The day has finally arrived, I have been looking forward to it for a while, watching endless middle class rugby followers stare at the matchday ticket like its a pissed on winning lottery ticket, wandering round the noble Town End like its the opening of a new branch of Ikea, and you can almost guarantee that the anoraked version of  The Swiss Family Robinson will be sat in my seats, the same fucking seats I have had for 12 years. I am quite looking forward to the football too. I don’t have many pre match beers it must be said, but work allowing, I shall partake in a few this evening, bit of a long shot but does the cricket club open up at all? Most of the talk has been about what kind of team will Jose put out, Torres? Terry? Lampard? Mata? Who knows apart from the manager formally known as The Special One.  For me, I would rather the few hundred that make the long journey to Preston on Saturday bring the 3 points back with them than a win tonight, although I wouldn’t grumble if we could manage a City/Chelsea/Preston treble.

Now Chelsea have a squad, we all know the household names, but such is the depth of the squad at Mourinho’s disposal they currently have 11 of them out on loan (Moses and Lakaku to name but a few), and some 14 of their academy players, including Patrick Bamford, currently plying his trade for Franchise. Roman Abramovich has now owned the club for 10 years, and last year’s accounts showed the first profit Chelsea FC plc had made under his ownership, totalling £1.4 million. It is said Abramovich has lent Chelsea nearly £800 million in interest free loans and has played a major part in turning Chelsea in to a global brand during his time in control, although its funny that they can’t get a better shirt sponsor than us. Taking a look through Chelsea’s player of the year list it does make impressive reading, names such as Bonetti, Drogba, Gullit, Lampard (3 times) and the fantastic Gianfranco Zola stick out, however, in 1998 it must have been a poor year by Chelsea’s high standards, following the decision to award that boss eyed little turd, Dennis Wise, with the accolade. The winner of the award for the last 2 years, Juan Mata, seems to have issues with The Special One, having found himself dropped frequently, The Telegraph alleging  that it is simply down to Mata’s dashing good looks pissing off Jose somewhat!

The Last Time We Met At – The County Ground -  New Years Day, 1994, just over 16’000 squeezed in to the CG to see us beaten 3-1, with our only goal coming from Andy Mutch. One of the players to score for Chelsea that day was the aforementioned Wise.

They have served us both – Glenn Hoddle, Sam Parkin, Rhys Evans, Alan Mayes, Duncan Shearer, Gus Poyet, Dennis Wise, Tom Jones and Micky Hazard. Adi Viveash has been the youth team coach at Stamford Bridge for the last 2 years.

Where the opposition gather –

http://www.theshedend.com/topic/24554-swindon-v-chelsea-lc-240913-ko-1945-gmt/page-2

“With absolutely no respect to Swindon whatsoever, we should destroy them. I won't accept anything less than a win by a margin of at least 4 goals”.

Chelsea Last 6 – WWWDLW (Currently 4th in The Premier League)

The Odds – Swindon  9/1 Draw 7/2  Chelsea 2/5 (William Hill). First goalscorer – Eto'o/Torres/Ba all around 7/2, Lampard/Hazard/Oscar/Mata around  6/1, Ranger/Ajose/N’Guessan around 9/1 although shop around and N’Guessan pays a more generous 20/1.

The Son Says – Its the first time he really has had to make a decision with more than just his heart. Even the wife chipped in with a 2-1 win prediction. At first he said 5-0 Chelsea, then realised the importance of what he said and opted for a 3-3 draw, lord only knows what happens after that.

The Prediction – I would love to be bullish about this, rouse the troops etc, but this is Chelsea for fuck sake. 2-1 Swindon, Nile Ranger scoring a late double in front of 14’671 with around 2922 from the leafy suburbs of Surrey. We are going to pass it round them, displaying our total football credentials. Di Canio will appear on Sky Sports News on Wednesday saying it was all down to him.

And Finally - Stamford Bridge was designed by the noted football architect Archibald Leitch, who had also designed Ibrox, Celtic Park and Hampden Park. Most football clubs were founded first, and then sought grounds in which to play, but Chelsea were founded for Stamford Bridge.

COYR COYR COYR

I don't generally make predictions, but Ward is going to look slow. Very very slow.

Couldn't care less about the score tomorrow... City on Saturday was what following Town is all about. Just hope we don't embarrass ourselves, play some good stuff, and get stuck in.

8-0 Maybe near the mark if they score early and we go to pieces.

So for me no more than 0-3 and I'll consider that a moral victory. 15302 with 3020 from Sloane Square. As an Islington boy the ghost of Arsenal hopes we stuff them too.

Shall enjoy a quiet evening sat watching this on the tellybox with a couple of ciders. Couldn't get the day off work to make it to Swindon, so will just have to shout at the telly instead.

Heart says 2-1 Swindon, head says Rugby score Chelski (something around 5-0 probs). Near full house, somewhere around 14,987.

What's our capacity now, out of interest?

I'm really looking forward to this, I've got a mate that I met last winter in France coming, I've turned him into a bit of a closet Town fan since he watched Yeovil with me.  He's looking forward to it almost as much as I am and may even buy a shirt.

I'm hoping for something to cheer at least, a score of 2-4 wouldn't be so bad, especially if we get a few spells where we actually demonstrate what we're all about.  A good atmosphere is a must tonight, let them know they're in a cup tie and we want it more than they do.

I wonder if Mata will try to impress Jose or whether he'll not bother turning it on as he knows he's not in his plans at the moment.

I've got a couple of mates I've converted. Last season I won the lottery in my football club at uni as to who gets to choose the shirts, so everyone had to buy Swindon ones. One of my team mates was from Oxford and was disgusted by it.  :D

As a visiting fan been looking forward to this game since the draw.  Reckon it'll be much closer than many might think, afterall  despite sitting 4th in the PL our form has been haphazard at best, played very well against probably the best club side around in the Super Cup Final, absolutely dreadful against Basel. And we were fortunate to escape from Griffin Park with a draw last season too. The inevitable amount of player changes also make this hard to decide which Chelsea will turn up, literally.  Luiz is likely to start so there's a goal potential for Town right away. Visited Swindon last year and passed by the County Ground.  Seeing 'proper' floodlights again brought back happy memories of descending on unfamiliar towns and citys and looking out for those landmarks in years gone by.  I'll take quality banter and 2-1 for us right now.

you'll take it up the arse like all all good visitors - welcome to the TEF you cunt

Morning gents and ladies!

This is a bit of an odd request and I hope I get the response I'm after but I'm not holding my breath! As a lifelong STFC fan living away, I struggle to get back to home games and as I live near london have to wait for the 5/6 games a year in and around london, besides away games are generally more fun, except of course Orient, why can we never score????

I didn't plan on coming to tonight's match as the clamber for tickets was always going to make it difficult for real town fans, especially distant ones to enjoy this one.

Here, however is my dilemma...... As a barman in a quiet local with many regulars, I managed to get hold of a ticket without having to pay more than the face value of the ticket. Unfortunately, my ticket is in the Chelsea end. Are there any chelski fans out there with a town ticket that would like to swap. I would even sit in the north stand!!!!

If I fail to get anywhere with this plea then I will be watching the game VERY quietly, but at the very least I will be watching one of the biggest matches of our recent history, well, since Saturday!!!!

COYR!!!!

:gay:

My wishlist for the game is

No injuries
No sending offs
No trouncing
Score a goal

Haha love it. Great write up as always SR.

1-3 tonight I reckon, just hope the crowd doesn't go too quiet if they start dominating us early on. Looking forward to the evening immensely though, not often we get to welcome teams of this calibre to the CG lately and it's a chance to show people what we're about - even in likely defeat.

C.O.Y.R

10-0.

To us.

I'll be happy if they score less than 5 and we score at least one.

Mourinhio sides don't do trouncings, so we've got that going for us

Not fussed whatsoever about the result so long as we don't look like rabbits caught in headlights which is a very real possibility with this squad IMO

We won't win but in all honesty that doesn't really matter as long as we play good football and don't get embarressed by them.

Hopefully we can win some new fans and followers along the way either in person or from being on sky then that would be brilliant, all fans have to start somewhere.

Good stuff SR, If they score early 1-6 if we score early 2-6    ;) looking forward to it regardless of the result anyway.

As long as we get something to celebrate. A goal while there's still hope would be nice. RV Corcoran's Fbg St Antoine for the Paris chapter.

Somehow I have to manage to work through the night with sky sports 1 on in the background and then get through until 8am when I can watch the recording, without finding out the result!

I've seen Chelsea live quite a few times over the last few years, the last being against a Scandinavian side (can't remember their name  :-[ ) and David Luiz was superb that night. Torres got a couple of goals that night, too. Chelsea rarely make a mistake and they like to pass it around. I know you probably see all this on the box, but when you're at a live game you see everything else off the ball, the runs etc. Should be a good passing game, I hope we give a good account of ourselves.

Head 1-4
Heart 1-0

I have two hopes for tonight.

1.  Score a goal.
2.  Keep the margin of defeat to within 3 goals.

Still hunting around for a decent pub in the area that will be showing the game.

I have a good feeling about this.  2-1 Swindon COYR

The key is not conceding early, if we do then we could end up getting a good thumping.  Keep them out for the first 30 mins and we could keep the match competitive and give a good account of ourselves.

I'll go with the 2nd possibility and it will end 1-3

We have beaten them before at the County Ground and we could do it again, I know its been posted recently but for a pick me up how about this a nice 4-0 win against them in the mickey mouse cup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wP05VxOM21c

I'm going to boldly predict 2-2.  I did however in 1969 predict I'd be living on the moon by now.

As long as we score and do not get totally embarrassed than that will do for me. 3-1 Chelsea.

With no disrespect to the cockneys we are playing tonight we've never lost to them in the LC before and I just can't see it happening tonight.  We are a team on fire at the moment, we played Wolves off the park just over a week ago and they are a team full of internationals.  Lampard and Eto'o are past it, Mata will be unfit from not playing this season and don't get me started on Torres.

5-0 to the town, Nile Ranger to score all of them

We'll go 3 down in the first half hour. Then, Luiz will see red for a professional foul on Pritchard. We pull 2 back but just can't find the elusive 3rd goal.

Like it. I'll have some of what you're smoking  :sherlock:

As long as we can celebrate a goal and dont get battered I'll be relatively content. I dont think there's any question we'll play well, we always play well and I imagine Chelsea will be happy for us to have a spell on the ball.

I'm gonna go for the probably slightly ambitious scoreline of a 4-2 defeat.

The lady on pop master this morning on BBC radio 2 was a Swindon fan called Pauline wishing Swindon luck tonight against Chelski! nice :) tis a good omen I hope.

Pauline Wright has just lost on pop master before wishing the mighty Swindon the best of luck against Chelsea tonight,would have felt better if she'd manage to win so 2-1 Chelsea and it will all be Pauline's fault. 12 points ffs

What's popmaster?

Maybe Shaw rosso's name is Pauline?  :hmmm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PopMaster

Radio 2 stuff

Would take that. Good game and a goal or two to celebrate please.

Looking forward to this. Hope we put in a decent performance.

Like others have said, if we get a goal and don't concede too many, I will be happy. I'm going for 1-4.

1-4 tonight.

We'll pull it back to 1-3 with 10 to go but they will score a harsh 4th late on to put 'gloss' on the scoreline.

I am looking forward to tonight, whatever the score. This season has evaded me so far, bar listening to a couple of matches on the radio, so to have tonight off and be able to watch it on Sky is great.

Fairytales happen, magic of the cup, blah blah....

Really looking forward to this...time seems to be going so slow at work today!!! As long as we score I'll be happy, so I'll say 1-3 to Chelsea in front of 15,200 with....Ranger to score! C.O.Y.R!

I haven't got a scooby as to how I think it will turn out tonight- we have been embarrased by smaller teams in the cup games before and have done the embarrasing of the bigger teams.

All I do know is that, if I can still talk tomorrow morning, I haven't shouted hard enough this evening!

I love evening cup games under floodlights.

I have arrived at work an hour early so I can slope off an hour early. This means SWMBO and I can hit the road from Marlow, blag a convinient parking space then enjoy our fish and chips from the chippie accross the road, either in our seat in the DR or, as I'm a real smooth romantic, sat on the bench outside watching the traffic on the Magic Roundabout :I'm a complete mofleakin Deak

COYR!

0-4 with Mata scoring the first.  This will make me feel much better about the town loss for obvious reasons :)

They'll win six nil

Will they fuck.


(They'll score that in the first half).

Where abouts do you work in Marlow? I'm on the business park just off the A404. Also looking forward to this. Working from home today so can leave by 4pm to get down!

I live in Marlow- work in Maidenhead.

So you're on Globe Park?

Ha! I'm the other way around. Live in Maidenhead, work in Marlow. Yeah on Globe Park. Whereabouts in Maidenhead do you work?

I'll be happy to score.

1-5.

Next to the fire station  ;)

Hitting the boozer just after 6 with Mrs Kerry Red - I'll have to restrict her intake as she gets a bit punchy.

Unlike myself who gets immensely paunchy.

Mata, Luiz et al will be thinking 'Fuck it and fuck The Special One - I aint lifting a foot'

2-1

Anyone know of anywhere I can find a stream for tonights game

You fishing?

Think we'll get turned over easily. We try to be a 'footballing side' but we'll get out footballed tonight.
I'll go for 0-3

Ah ok

Prediction for tonight. 1-3 Chelsea with it being 1-1 at half time.

As I enjoyed Saturday so much I'll have another 3-2 please  :nod:

A nice ride to the nick from home every morning followed by a generally nice ride home again.

Mirror reckons this will be the team tonight:


Mark Schwarzer (free); Cesar Azpilicueta (£7m), Tomas Kalas (£5m), David Luiz (£25m), Ryan Bertrand (£125,000); Michael Essien (£24.4m), Marco Van Ginkel (£8m); Willian (£30m), Juan Mata (£23.5m),Kevin de Bruyne (£7.2m); Demba Ba (£7m). Total: £137,225,000.

I wonder how close this will be I expect them to put in Torres and maybe 1 or 2 players from Sat

Fuck me, Karl Robinson would have a heart attack if that team had to play Franchise.

Just arrived at the station. Judging from the train the average Chelsea fan has a 22" neck

Also plenty of those dreadful half and half scarves on sale in town.

Will be watching this from the comfort (??) of a Leeds boozer. Reckon I can get the whole pub behind us tonight - they hate Chelski up here. Any abuse, though, they get both barrels of 6-0 on aggregate. Enjoy the game and COYR!!

Why anyone wants one of them is beyond me?

Unless it shows the two clubs you support  ;)

Who the fuck supports 2 clubs?

Jed?

 :sherlock:
Porn shop then....

Thank fuck am there and not watching on sky

Fatbury, dv, major stfc ,hertha, mystical goat :)

Could be worse, you could be watching SportKlub Serbia.  :(

Me, sort of.  Greenock Morton a distant second, but I think I get away with it because they're

(a) not very good; and
(b) Scottish.

Two giant killings tonight is all I ask.  What are the odds?!

Our leaky defence will be exploited by chelsea tonight, but they'll give us some time on the ball so can put a few moves together to snatch some goals. With that in mind, i'll go conservative...2-5.

Bit worried about my ticket now, done a print at home job but it doesnt have a seat or row number on it, although it does have a barcode. Luckily i printed out the confirmation page after purchasing which has the seat details and confirmation on it...but i didnt initially get an email confirmation and e-ticket...had to get it resent from the transactions page last night. something not quite right.

I must have walked past 5 blokes selling these on the way to the ground.

Anyone buying one is an utter cunt (unless under the age of 10)

Off to pub! Got 3 neutrals (although one went in the townend in his kilt last season at the coventry game so more red than blue) watching so please don't be embarrassing tonight Swindon!!

hope everyone who is at the match tonight has a night to remember.

Reminds me of when we played Sheff Wed in the Milk Cup in 1985 -- I became a Town addict that night, hopefully it starts a new generation of Townies.

BREAKING TEAM NEWS

Swindon Town v CHELSEA: Schwarzer; Azpilicueta, D Luiz, Cahill, Bertrand; Essien (C), Van Ginkel; De Bruyne, Mata, Willian; Torres

Subs: Blackman, Terry, Ramires, Baker, Schurrle, Ba, Eto’o.


BREAKING TEAM NEWS:

SWINDON TOWN v Chelsea: Foderingham; N Thompson, Hall, Ward, McEveley; Kasim, Luongo; Ajose, Pritchard, N'Guessan; Ranger.

Subs: Belford, Barthram, Branco, Wood, Thompson L, Storey, El Gabbas.

come on then lads! sock it to these dirty chavs!

Anyone got a linkage to the game ? 

Thatsa bloody strong second side!!

2 man midfield with 3 attacking midfielders? For both teams?!

How European!

Our bench wouldn't get in their ladies side.

just go to the pub who has sky sports you tight arss

Or google 'swindon chelsea live stream'.

Darren Ward vs. Fernando Torres.

Interesting.

The Chelsea starting 11 cost them a total of £180m. Scary shit.

Subs bench cost another £46m. More scary shit.

If I wasn't in the middle of the sticks, I would !!

Thanks.   :D

Ours probably cost 180m.....................





















Zimbabwean Dollars.

These two entries have just been posted up on the BBC live text feed:


I think they might be taking the piss.

It's going to be interesting to see who plays in midfield in place of Thompson. Pritchard or Ajose, assuming N'Guessan will still form part of the front 3.

Chelsea have no commentary on STFC player.

How fucking tinpot.

I'm going for Chelsea 8-0. If we're lucky.

Bit quiet on here. Is everyone apart from me at the game? :(

Nope cooking tea and listening to radio....

Boo.

My daughter appears to be the only Town fan watching the game at Cardiff Uni....... a few Chelsea though. .

Far too many blue shirts in the home stands for my liking.

Fuck beans... 0-2 now... Unbelievable finish from Ramires for the second though...

Good effort from Kasim.

Spoilt for choice tonight .
Local radio,5 live or Sky sports.Plumped for 5 live until i heard the dulcet tones of Steve cunting Claridge.

am i the only one who thinks we can get a goal or two back here?

This made me chuckle from the BBC feed...

GOAL Leicester 0-1 Derby - Chris Martin (42 mins)Nobody said it was easy for Leicester, asChris Martin gives Derby the lead, the former Norwich man scuffing a shot into the corner.

Nice but non threatening passing from town. Chelsea obviously a bit better in final third! Only really started to create half chances after 35.

Would like to see a bit more bite and getting the ball in a bit quicker from wide.

Still not humiliated yet :)

Played ok without looking very threatening. Hope we can step it up a bit final third 2nd half. Btw that is one big fuck off screen in the corner!

Watching it in some dodgy stream. Commentary just goes, blah blah Chelsea, blah blah Chelsea blah blah Jose, blah blah Torres, blah blah Chelsea oh hang in swindon let's say something about them, erm, er, Egyptian midfielder.

Fucking twots.

Some good feeds on Wiziwig...
http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=221524&part=sports.

Angus og is not bad if you've got StreamTorrent.

Swiss chalet will be empty tonight then :)

We'll win the second half

3 shots to 6 is respectable. Let's hope the 2nd half is equally respectable.

Ranger off :(

Never offside.

I am unsure whether to be quietly pleased or offended about how chelsea fans seem to be creaming themselves about how well they are playing against little old Swindon.

We've been playing some very nice football, particularly the first 20mins, but its not really been stellar. Chelsea aren't exactly looking their 180m price tag.

And I fucking hate the Lino with the solid yellow flag. He can die in a ditch somewhere. We're the underdog, we're allowed one offside goal per match.

Dennis Wise can stuff his fucking head up his stubby little arse too. He shouldn't be allowed within a mile of the ground.

Is N'Guessan the new Chalky?

If Jed or Steve Murrell want to finally win the fans over throwing Wise out the ground or landing one on him should achieve that!

These officials are pretty shit in general. Decking Pritchard from behind is fine but winning the ball in a fair tackle is not? Suck my balls.

We have had more of the run of the second half so far, primarily because Chelski are letting us. Not really that threatening though, whereas whenever Chelsea have got the ball forward they have been so. Gary Cahill is a dick.

End communication.

14924 (3433)

Banter with the Chelsea fans I've been watching with at the Thatched Cottage in Farnborough is that we've given a good account of ourselves.  I'm happy with 2-0.  Town End gave a good account of themselves on TV as well.  I'm happy.

Congratulations Town.  We'll have won a few new fans tonight.

STID.

63 off, I'll take that.  :toocool: :toocool:

A very, very, very respectable scoreline.

Happy with that, gave a good account of ourselves.

Proud.

That is all

Comfortable for Chelsea. Should've scored more and probably had several more gears to go through if needed, whereas we had to be on top of our game throughout but that was to be expected.

Thought Luongo and Kasim gave a good account of themselves in midfield. I can't remember the last time we had a central pairing that looked so comfortable on the ball.

Overall I'm just pleased that we stuck to our passing game and didn't just resort to lumping it long when we went two-down.

Play like that on Saturday and we'll create plenty of chances against Preston.

Did very well, without really stretching them much. Didn't realise Chelsea hadn't been "killed for almost 25 years. Two overriding things that struck me. 1) sort out the fecking corners! and 2) Chelsea got sold a 30 million turkey with that willian bloke.

Great effort and endeavour. Proud.

Did any of the players swap shirts -- if they didn't do it on the pitch, fair play.

Players can be proud.

Do sky realise there were two teams playing? Oh and Wise is a cunt

Yup.  Decent enough.  Hope Ranger is allright for the proper stuff on Saturday.

Nothing game really. They never got out of first gear, we gave a fair account of ourselves without ever really threatening them.

Cash the cheque, and move on to the games that matter, starting with PNE. Fingers crossed Ranger's ok for Saturday.

Good stuff town, proud is the word !!

Chelsea fan just texted me. It just read. " We were shafted, we fucking bought Will.I.Am by mistake :)

It's 5am here in China, managed to feed the baby get her to sleep and watch online just in time for kick off.

Kasim, what can I say.  He seems to be getting better, totally in control whenever he has the ball even against Chelsea.

Pritchard tried a bit much to steal the glory, however, so happy we have him on loan this season.

Jmac, impressed against MK and also tonight, vast improvemnt on what I saw last season.

All in All Mark Cooper has impressed me a lot.  This is the best team to watch that we've had in donkeys years, especially considering the average age of the majority of our team.  Really like what Cooper says in his interviews and don't think I would take any of those touted for the job over him given the chance right now.

Our highest home crowd since 97/98.

I liked the "Cooper's red and white army" - quite deserved IMO

Just back. 2-0 is not too shabby, but I just wished we gave it more of go after they fell asleep in the 2nd half. Decent performance from Fods and the defence this time. Oddly, I thought MOTM Pritchard had his worse game in a Town shirt.

Their no 22 was shocking.

So Luongo was 400k, Byrne 100k, how much was Foderingham?

I see we had more possession than Chelsea. Now that's impressive!

Think they have signed Will.I.am not Willian

What was the att

14,924

Didn't disgrace ourselves in the slightest, thought Chelsea were just a touch sharper and faster than us and probably should have scored a couple more, although they created the chances and didn't take them.  Thought we showed them a bit too much respect in the first half hour and we didn't get going until we were two down.  Ranger has done something to his thigh apparently, hope it's not too bad.

Thought we were alright. Someone teach N'Guessan the offside rule for fucks sake

That was a stronger Chelsea side than that was expected...and every sub they made, it got stronger !!

Most of that Chelsea side were playing when they won the Champions League 16 months ago, so when you take that into consideration, a 2-0 defeat is very respectable.

Anyway back to the bread and butter. Byrne is back, and here's to 3 points on Saturday.

Hopefully Wes will last more than 21 mins this time !!!

I enjoyed the game thought we were alright ,nice to see such a full ground. Plenty of bellends about.The irony of the "Swindon" fan in half /half scarf going mental at some Chelsea twat in the Arkells wasn't lost on me.

oh and the Ground seems tidier,how long as there been a giant screen at the County Ground?

Think that came this week or maybe last week

I thought first 20 mins we held our own, but Chelsea had a bit more quality than us and based on the teams the scoreline was expected. That being said, I'm a proud Swindon fan tonight, we played well, weren't scared of them and could have nabbed a goal! If that N'Guessan goal stood, who knows! I like the make up of the side, we're growing in experience as a team and I'd like to think we can do fairly well the rest of the season...still have the JPT/FA Cup to come as well!

Fans were excellent tonight, Town End was buzzing!

Fuck, you've jinxed it now, he's going to break a leg or something. You cunt.

Is it just me or did we look better after Ranger went off?

Very timid first half but very good first 20 mins of the 2nd half.

Kasim is just pure class - no matter who he is playing against. My MOM for Swindon by a mile.

Pleasantly surprised at the performances of JMac lately - bit of a Brucie bonus.

Is Nathan Thompson banned after picking up another yellow?

Excellent evening

Going to give a report that I guess some will not enjoy. Its difficult because the context is that we were playing Chelsea not Chesterfield.

I thought we passed nicely, good quick crisp passing, yet I came away pleased we'd done this but also disappointed. Disappointed we didn't really have a proper go. Sure we had a couple of half chances and a (rightly) disallowed goal. But a lot of our passing did no damage whatsoever. I understand keep ball is our new game, but for the first time today I got a bit frustrated by it as time ticked on.

I'd also like to have seen us get stuck into them a bit more. But I guess we don't have that type of player anymore.

It was a bit too comfortable and Chelsea could have scored 5 or 6 in the end.

Unfair and unrealistic expectations. Probably.

Having said all that Luongo and Kassim impressed tonight. Luongo was running the midfield for us and looked to get involved in everything.  N'Guessen has a nack of getting offside :), wasn't as impressive as Saturday. Pritchard was overly greedy at times and needs to improve his decision making, MOM my arse. Ranger wasn't his overpowering self, well marshalled but possibly hampered by injury. Ajose got into some good positions and looks useful but sometimes needs to shoot rather than pass. The Egyption didn't get chance to impress. Louis Thompson did well.

I thought the back 5 were largely excellent. Wes was back to himself. I feared Hall would be overwhelmed but he wasn't, was quite impressed really. Thought Ward was going to get skinned a lot, but he didn't and had a very good game. NT was also good, he has a bit of bite about him too.

So it was kind of satisfying, yet frustrating. That's how I would summarise.

Was actually there from the end of last season  ::)

Decent game - rarely troubled them tho which was the worst part
If only we could clone N Thompson to play as the other FB
Jmac been solid defensively since coming back but going forward he seems to lack ideas. remaining static after cutting the ball back and not giving an out ball

I walked straight out the TE into a herd of Chelsea - one of who proclaimed worst away match he had been too - had more fun at an arsenal v spurs game
Sums them up really
They didnt wake up till they were 2 goals up then fell asleep again
Town end made some noise and atmosphere wasnt that bad - thought would be shit after saturdays

PNE next and 3 points pls

Oh did they say on TV why Ranger didnt start 2nd half ?

Thigh problem

I don't wish to cause alarm but on 76:11 Kasim misplaced a pass....

Agree with that. There wasn't the urgency that suggested "you never know...let's give this everything", but that's a plan B that perhaps we're in the process of developing. Saturday showed glimpses of it, but then we weren't up against Terry and Cahill. Overall, nothing to be ashamed of tonight and much to admire, but compare it to say, Leeds away (the Robinson game), and it's not amongst our tip top recent displays against Premier League opposition.

Something "popped" in his thigh according to Cooper!

Lets hope he is back for the weekend
Mason also has a mystery thigh problem too
 :hmmm:

Byrne is back but I think N Thompson now banned ??

According to Coops Ranger felt something pop in his groin..
----
And now my view on Chelsea.

They clearly have quality, but tonight they didn't really amaze me today. Maybe that's because they were comfortable, maybe its because Mourinho teams are efficient not spectacular. I expected more.

I've always considered Torres a really good player low on confidence rather than tow the popular view that he is a past his sell-by date donkey. Based on tonight's showing I'm not sure I was right.

Another unlucky card. He got the ball but slighty after the Chelsea players foot

To concur with others, we played some really good football at times without really threatening.  Some of the players seemed reluctant to have a go when they got into a half decent position, which was a shame.  We tried to walk the ball through the Chelsea defence on several occasions instead of getting a decent cross in or shooting.  Everyone put in a decent shift, although I totally agree with Batch about Pritchard's decision making not being great at times.  He also needs to practice taking corners.

However, considering the Chelsea starting 11 cost approx £175 million more than ours, it wasn't too bad.  Unless Willian improves significantly, from what I saw tonight he's going to find life in the Premier League very tough. And Torres really should take more of his chances than he does.

It's a shame Thompson will miss Saturday and Ranger must be a doubt as well.  I never thought I'd find myself rueing his absence..

Was surprised Cooper didn't bring on a final sub just to give them the opportunity for a few minutes against Chelsea if nothing else.  Does anyone else get the impression that he maybe he doesn't rate Storey?

The boys did well tonight but gotta agree with Batch...  frustrating...

Oh and though I am glad he is here, and think he will improve and be a big player for us, that is 3 times I have seen Pritchard now and MK goal apart, he has disappointed me so far considering what I heard about him before he came.  When I said that after the QPR match I got pelters (albeit from some that know little about breathing let alone football) but he was never MOTM tonight, Kasim by a mile for us...

Encouraging for us for the rest of the season though with style, quality and possession, but Chelsea treated it as a warm down for most of the game tonight.

Kasim outstanding again, many positives to take from tonight. Wes kept it respectable with a couple of great saves. Not convinced with Jay Mac, never been a great wing back simply because of his inconsistency getting the ball in to the box. Wasn't that Ritchie fella playing left back a while ago?

Fair play to Chelsea for putting out a decent team, my lad was a bit star struck when Torres was in front of the Town End but soon treated him with the same respect reserved for League 1 strikers, bless him. The irony of hearing a fantastically fully voiced Town End (best atmosphere for a decade) singing about plastic supporters did give me a chuckle. If we manage to get over 8500 for the Tranmere game a week Saturday then tonight will have been worth so much more than the undoubted hundreds of thousands made on the night and the short term feeling of pride that we took on 1 of the best football teams in the world and didn't disgrace ourselves in any way.

Well done tonight one and all, players, board and fans.

COYR COYR COYR

Can't complain about tonight, the boy(s) done good.

My only gripe after seeing both tonight and Franchise on the TV and Wolves in the flesh is that Jay McEveley is the weak link in our side. He's steady and hasn't really let us down but so many times tonight he was useless outlet on the left and hindered us in building an attack. Sadly, it doesn't seem as though Byrne is the answer either judging by people's comments.

Mark Cooper: take a bow.  I'm starting to be impressed.  Please keep it up.  Potentially, you've started something here.

Well we were not humiliated...for that I'm happy. But unlike the Villa game I did not walk away from the TE feeling we made the work.....far from it.

We never really gambled....taking too many touches when we broke free...and never crossing the ball early...Luis and Terry might as well sat in arm chairs.

Get the fucking ball in.....make em work.

It was a reluctant joy to see Chelsea on the break...sublime at times...

The boys deserve applause or the dispatch of QPR and the chance to bring one of the best sides in the world here....I just think we could of made them work harder than cruise control.

Personally I've been impressed with McEveley. He's not as attacking minded but a much better defender than Byrne and provides whoever is playing left wing a solid base. In my view he isn't a weak link.

I know it doesn't really matter much in the scheme of things but I like the way he talks to the media - he speaks a lot of common sense, he's understated and is just a likeable bloke. Bonus is that he's building something special.

As Lester Freamon said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8OHLy0CIPs&t=1m57s

Good defender, poor attacker.

It's probably a good indicator of the quality of our recent displays that I was slightly disappointed by that performance.

Far too measured/sensible.  Open another beer!  We did well this evening.

Hate the patronising bullshit on sky, Pritchard first half got a shot away with limited options but was labelled naive. I'll give you naive, 2nd half, Torres shoots and misses £50m + Will.i.am shoots and misses £30m = £80m. No class, what a horrible bunch of cunts.

Enjoyed last night. Was impressed with our performance, just lacked the final ball.

Luongo and Kasim were the stand out performers. Hope Rangers injury isn't too serious. Not overly impressed with chelsea, I'm sure they didn't get out of first gear but even so their finishingwas awful.

Good atmosphere as well, well done town.

Some northern cunt in the legends bogs before the game said Foderingham was a shit keeper and if we replaced him we would be up there for promotion.

Oh how i laughed.

Fuck off.

What a great evening`s entertainment - first time I had been in the Town End for many years...it took me back to my youth. Reckon I will be watching from that end in the future - thanks to everyone around me who contributed - loved it especially the bloke towards the end of the game who shouted out as loudly as he could ` Terry is a Twat` doesn`t read as funny as it sounded...brilliant. I was never really expecting a win so like others have said on here it is a bit weird feeling ever so slight disappointed we didn`t score but their control in the final third mattered when it came to creating and scoring....I thought the team really played good skillfull football so won`t want to pick out anybody for didn`t play particular well. Great stuff....... :clap:

Fully agree.

A beautifully controlled performance (51% possession against a £180 million team with Kasim my MOM) but so often the very first option that presented itself on the counter was the best and the early pass or cross was spurned too often

Chelsea were great on the break with fantastic forward movement (and interestingly either side of the offside line) and also some great runs from deep

I agree that we didn't really give them a game - but I do think that had we had run ourselves ragged we would still have lost as Chelski had many more gears left.

Personally I think as we knew once we had gone 2 down the game was all but over we probably decided it was more important to be fresh and uninjured for the Preston game. And that is a far more important game than last night.

Completely agree, often an under rated player in my book. Certainly not a weak link.

Add me to the 'agree' camp on J Mac. Think he was rusty after being out for an extended period, but thought on Saturday and last night he was excellent. Yes he's not the greatest going forward, but at the end of the day he's a defender. Does cross the halfway line to provide an option for the midfield anyway, even if he's just giving it back rather than providing end product himself.

How can he be steady and not let us down and yet still be the weak link?? I'm confused  ???

Completely agree with this. They could have killed us off any time they wanted, they seemed more interested in the exercise of seeing if they could play on the counter with Luiz and Essien holding rather than anything else. We played well but there would have been little point flogging ourselves, they could have put the two goal cushion back at any point.

Well I enjoyed that, after 20 mins of the 2nd half we had 70% possession against one of the best 10 sides in the world that cost a total of £185m according to Sky, our team was put together for less than 1/185th of that.

Yes Chelsea could have steped up a gear but we wouldn't let them, we harried them and chased them round the pitch and at times outpassed them.

Kassim is fucking brilliant and was by far my MOM Pritchard looked lively but is too greedy and wasted a lot.

Jay Mac needs to sort out his freekicks/corners and then could be a good player but gets caught out of position a lot, but weak link in the team? not sure about that.

For me the weak link is still the centre backs, Ward and Hall.

Both good players but neither have any pace when being run at, a great centre back can get away without pace if they can tackle and head the ball and concentrait and mark their man, something isn't quite there with them yet but they could improve as a partnership I hope as both are good players just not so much together currently.

Thompson at right back also gets caught out of position a lot but has the pace to get back and sort it out if he stops lunging into silly tackles.

If we get a better quality of final ball to the striker/strikers then we will score loads, Luongo although he is a brilliant player, overplays it a bit too much when a simple ball would do, if he can change that then he will be at least a championship quality player sooner rather than later.

Shame about Ranger going off but we looked more comfortable playing 442 when he went off, not sure why though because we have barely played it this season and the players know exactly how to play the 433/451 well.

Overall I was really proud of them and think we made a few new fans along the way, and we didnt roll over and let moneybags Chelski run the game, well done Cooper and co, really well done.

From a watching brief on the Tellybox I feared the worst when Chelsea scored 2 in a short space of time. Brilliant from Torres and a quite brilliant finish from Ramires.

However, second half we kept the ball very well. It looked like Chelsea could step it up at any moment but we plugged away despite never really looking like scoring. If only N'Guessan could stay onside, as his headers were the 2 best chances we had.

My man of the match was Kasim who was composed the whole match. I also thought Luongo played quite well. For me, Pritchard was busy but tried to do too much.

Chelsea are clearly a class side, but Mata looked below par and Willian on that showing is very very overrated, he was an embarrasment.

Lots and lots of positives to take from last night, shame about Ranger getting injured.

Chelsea did what they came to do, let us play a bit, then finished off the game in the 1st half with two goals. After that, it was "We'll sling Terry on at the back, let them play in front of you, snuff it out if they look dangerous, no need to hammer them, let's show some respect". Fair enough. While we passed it around quite nicely, didn't really look like scoring, but kept the scoreline respectable while playing some nice stuff, job's a good 'un, everyone goes home happy.

I think this sums it up pretty well.

If they wanted to, I think Chelsea could have walloped us, they played the second half a little like a training excercise.

Defensively solid, yes, but when going forward he is a hopeless option at times and we squander a lot of chances and opportunities to build an attack as a result. I'm not slating him as it's obviously not his fault that he's being asked to perform a role unsuited to his abilities but I can't help but think he's a weak link in attack.

Saying that, he does link up well and is good at overlapping. Delivery can be deadly.

Lost by 2 goals, gave a good account of ourselves and stuck the ball in the back of the net. I'd have taken that before the game!  :pint:

Getting more impressed by Kasim every game. How that guy struggled at Macclesfield is beyond me!

And as much as I didn't expect to say this when his name was first mentioned, really pleased Coops is in charge. Appears to handle the players and media excellently, and clearly communicates his thoughts and the teams strategy win lose or draw post match.

All while working within a sustainable budget, exactly what a club in our position needs. Di-who?

1 other thing, our corners last night were diabolical.

Is that good deadly or bad deadly?

The free kick that N'Guessan 'scored' from is a pretty decent example of what he can deliver, he's just far too inconsistent. It's either good deadly or awful deadly, nothing ever in between

I always think that we need a person on the other side of the pitch for the more often than not times he overhits

Agree with most of whats been said. A decent performance but like a late night channel 5 film, just lacked a bit of penetration. We played a bit too much in front of their back 6 and rarely looked like breaking them down, but thats understandable given the quality of player we were up against, and the fact that Joses teams are often set up not to concede rather than score loads.

Couldnt tell really how we set up in the second half, we seemed to lose a bit of shape as we either had no width on the left or McEvely, Pritchard & Louis all within a few metres of each other. Hope Ranger is back for Saturday as athough he didnt get a lot of joy against Cahill, he was still the best of the Swindon players at holding it up and getting others involved.

Also agree with the comment about there being plenty of bellends about. I'm not a regular at the CG by any means, but cocks who think its fine to have 8 of them stood in 4 seats, consistently blocking peoples view and even falling on top of people, then giving abuse to my 11 year old "gloryhunter" supporter son as he walked out after the match (not me or even the wife, just my youngest!) dont exactly make you want to turn up every week. If people really want to stand up and every other word is a swear word despite there being kids around, I can cope with that as we know its going to happen, but these guys were just embarrassing

Well, Chelsea came, Chelsea saw and Chelsea conquered. To paraphrase their fans however- "You've had your day out- now fuck off home!".

For a starting 11 that was valued at between £175 million and £185 million, they were'nt overly impressive. I know they probably didn't really get out of third gear but we gave a good account of ourselves against them.

Yes, there were flashes of brilliance- the goals were well taken and things like Torres chasing the ball down into the DR/ TE corner with a cheetahesque sprint from the half way line (ish) shows what premiership quality is but, premiership quality also reveals such foibles as the fact that a bunch of fucking jessies took a tumble at the merest waft of a passing Swindon kit.

Cahill- Terry- how the fuck do you manage to be such great defenders with one appealing arm permanantly in the air waving coyly at a lino? Cunts.

Well done Town- you did yourselves proud.

Well done Jed and Co. Opportunities to increase revenue with things like the marquees on the cricket ground were well taken.

Lee Power interviewed on the radio  :eek:

In those positions that Jay Mac is weak, Byrne is the answer. Now if we could just make some kind of Jay Mac/Byrne hybrid, we'd have a decent left back!

Getting fed up with people in the wrong places too. There's a lad in the TE who insists on standing in my place even though I'm a ST holder and myself and the other ST holders around me don't really know him. Politely asked him to move last night but am rapidly losing patience with him.

This is where we missed Mason last night, Mason sees that pass before the ball has got to the guy that's going to pass it to him.

DV saw that pass 3 months ago

I think we did well, but most of what we did, Chelsea allowed us to do. Still, you have to have the confidence and ability on the ball to play when given an opportunity, and I think it will have built confidence even further. Ajose was the only player for me who was below par, and their two goals highlighted the lack of positional awareness and pace between Hall and Ward. Won't happen as easy as that in L1, but the weakness is there to be exploited by the better teams.

I wasn't too sure what formation we had, starting Pritchard instead of L. Thompson. I'd have liked Prichard to stay on one wing, Ajose the other side, N'Guessan up top (once Ranger had gone off), but hey ho.

Yasser and Masser did really well in the middle, I ruddy love the pair of them... and Wes' save one on one vs Torres (back to his best was he, Claridge?!) was superb.

Oh, and Willian was shockingly bad.

A few comments from the Chelski forum that does show them up as a bunch of arrogant wankers.


And a few slightly more complimentary ones...

If that first quote is true then its a valid observation IMHO

That first quote has it down as 'First sell out of the season'...He could have added 'First and probably only sell out'*.  :D

(*should we reach FA Cup 3rd round and draw top opposition again then I imagine we'll sell out again).

"It takes a particularly c**ty set of fans to sing about Chelsea fans being plastic, when they've made the trip up to some sh*thole in Wiltshire on a Tuesday night..."

Well, if they have mad the trip UP to some shithole in Wiltshire to follow their London based team, it just proves the point doesn't it :doh:

They are all here 18 pages of moaning pretty much :D

http://www.theshedend.com/topic/24554-swindon-v-chelsea-lc-240913-ko-1945-gmt/

To be fair to them, the ones who got tickets in the away end would be die hard fans as I think they sold out before general sale. It's the local Chelsea fans sat in the home end seats that are the shitty plastics.

Agreed, why would a plastic chelsea fan turn up? They would be watching on sky surely. Sound like the one on the train home may have had issues which might have made them grumpy. Lots of our london based didnt get home until between 1 and 2 am.

Yep, because every song sung at football must be a wholly accurate reflection of the literal truth. We should all be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves.

Enjoyed the 18 pages of moaning on the Chelsea forum. I really do feel sorry for them having to watch all those internationals every week. The heart bleeds.

Understand the frustration of some, but I think that was a truly fantastic advert for what we are trying to do this season and anyone who isnt sold on it after watching that might be watching the wrong sport.

Fucking hell they are not happy are they. Thats one of the issues I have with top level teams and their fans - their expectations are so high - unless they win every game, the league and the CL they are not going to be happy.

As for us ? We are just happy we still have a club and are playing good football.

Can't argue with that.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned, and I noticed this on Saturday as well -

Who the fuck gave Rockin' Robin a drum?! The feathered fucknugget was using it to try and get singing going at the start of the second half. That wants nipping in the bud, sharpish. The CG has been, and should remain to be, a happily percussion free zone.

A few rousing choruses of "You can stick your fucking drum up your arse" over the next few games should see that off. Or tweet Jed that real fans don't use drums, they've got the ROOOAAARRRRR

I saw this against City and thought the same.

Agreed. The sooner the drum goes...the better.

Anyone who brings any instrument to a game deserves having said instrument put where the sun doesn't shine....

Give him a kazoo instead.

Getting rid of him would be even better

First chance I've had to get on here after a late night on the M6!

I was fairly disappointed with Chelsea in a sense. Their keeper looked inferior to Wes, sideshow Bob threw himself on the floor at every given opportunity, their captain similar. The little number 10 showed a few touches but the game largely passed him by. Their number 22 was dreadful. Number 9 looked alright, perhaps could do with a spell out on loan - he'd look decent enough in a lower-end Championship team.

All joking aside, I guess they never really needed to get out of 2nd gear. That said, we played as well as could be asked. Wes was solid, I was impressed by Nathan Thompson. McEveley was decent at the back, but far too slow to make decisions or play passes in attack. Luongo and Kasim were class in the centre of the park. First half I thought Ajose and N'Guessan were a bit absent, though the latter did come into the game more after Ranger went off - shame he couldn't grab a goal. Finally, a mention for El Gabbas. He didn't have much chance to impress, but one thing he did well was to run across the backline into space - something that nobody else had done much of all match, and that really could have helped us have more of a cutting edge.

Great to see the CG full again, and with the extra seats too. The atmosphere was great, the new screens look smart.... but more importantly, the performance on the pitch gives us plenty of hope for the rest of the season.

See you all at Preston ;)

Heh.. Was thinking this as well..

Swindon Town Team Statistics Chelsea
0 Goals 2
3 Shots on Target 10
2 Shots off Target 5
1 Blocked Shots 1
4 Corners 2
12 Fouls 18
6 Offsides 1
1 Yellow Cards 2
0 Red Cards 0
87.18% Passing Success 85.74%
22 Tackles 27
81.82% Tackles Success 77.78%
52.65% Possession 47.35%
53.52% Territorial Advantage 46.48%
546 Total Passes 491
574 Total Passes (All) 515
9 Total Crosses 12
55 Recoveries 53
476 Successful Passes 421


Great stats for us.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Managed to complete a night shift without hearing anything about the game. Just got up and watched it, whilst feeling v tired. Thought we looked assured without threatening on the ball. Chelsea didn't seem to get out of second gear, but picked up the pace on the counter. Torres looked very good!

- Disappointed that that Ranger picked up a knock.
- Shame N'Guessan couldn't stay onside more.
- Pritchard looks best when he's out wide.
- Kasim is a modern day Ray Wilkins. We look vulnerable when he is caught up field.
- Couldn't see what El Gabbas brought to the team when he came on - Camera not catching any off the ball work that has been mentioned.
- No threat from us up front.
- Tried to play it too narrow down the left in the last 20 mins.
- Poor corners.
- Too much shooting from 40 yards.

The thing was missing for me, was that in a Cup tie against higher league opposition, you need a bit more urgency and a bloody and guts approach. We didn't show that.

Yeah the blood and guts thing was mentioned by some of my friends watching last night. They were surprised we didn't really get in their faces more.

I think we tried, we're clearly just not as good as Chelsea believe it or not

There was only the odd good hard tackle. We aren't that type of team now.
.

And when we did come most of the time it was blown as a free kick regardless of how much of the ball and little of the man our player got. Classic premiership favouritism and it's pointless losing multiple players through suspension through it.

That can't possibly be the case or otherwise we wouldn't be able to sing that "We're by far the greatest team/The World has ever seen" (at least not without one of the Chelsea literalists picking us up on it).

Half the midfield are also skirting on the edge of suspension so that might have had an impact.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:
Am sure that could be put to use

Just watched the tv rerun
N'Guessen offside by a yard easily on the "goal" and the diving header

Oh and as for inaccurate songs
" Champions of europe, we know what were are "

Ummm no

Very confused about how calendars work?

Any one help me? I was interviewed on points west before the game yesterday. Frightened the shit out on my colleague who lives near WSM and was on his settee dieing of manflu.

Anyone know where I can get to see my 30 seconds of glory?  Not available on iplayer sadly.

Just watching the recording. Fuck me the electronic ad machine thingy is bright, especially the bet 32 ad.

Seriously impressive stats.

We had a lot of the ball, but were kept at arms length from the Chelsea goal. We beat them on corners though. Shame we didn't get a good delivery in!

Mainly due to FGW's inability to get a train (that usually takes 1hr) to Paddington in 90 minutes. I was on 2334 from Swindon that even if it runs to time somehow is scheduled to take 74 minutes when there's not too many trains out. Last night 74 minutes became 94. Ridiculous.

Apart from the one that decides the outcome, sadly

Chelsea let us play around with the ball where we weren't a threat. The total shots we had on target show how much of a threat we were.
Be interesting to see how much possession we had in and around Chelsea's area. Enjoyed the night, but let's not pretend we on a par with them.

Analyse League 1 teams' games against Top 4/5 sides and I doubt there'll be many (if any) games with passing/possession stats like that.

I didn't say we were a threat, just that the stats were impressive.

Only 5559 at Tranmere Stoke tonight!

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: Have to say that this made me laugh out loud when I read this during my lunch break at work today! My colleagues were very keen to know what I was chortling about - sadly I don't think they'd have appreciated it as much as I did.

7500 at Brum vs Swansea. We'd of done better than that.

I suppose it's not that long ago that Birmingham were playing in the Premier League, and their fans are still boycotting a lot of games due to how the club is being run etc..

Tranmere have no such excuse though..

This....

I rather us have a go and go down 4 or 5 : 1.......

We could still be out there now and not score. But it's gone now....roll on a tough game at PNE.

Enjoyed the build up and night and the club made some money....even got a 50/50 scarf for my daughter for £2 in the County afterwards.....

A sad note from the game.

I thought van Ginkel looked to be in trouble.

Out for the season- (http://www.offthepost.info/blog/2013/09/chelseas-marco-van-ginkel-out-for-the-season-with-cruciate-ligament-injury/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+offthepost%2FTLAa+%28Off+The+Post%29)

People are over analyzing the game. Forget the stats, the game went as well as could have been expected.

It was one of those where you shudder as you see the replay. His knee was bent all over the shop.

He's having a scan on it today. Looked a bad 'un so fingers crossed for him.  As a Chelsea fan the game went pretty much as expected.  Knew we'd still put out a pretty strong side despite all the changes from the weekend. Very impressed how Town stuck to their principles right to the end and not simply lump balls into the channels. Those passing stats, both in number and percentage, are indeed commendable and although you're playing at a lower level, your team actually seems more advanced and proficient at this style of playing than we currently are in our own league. By that, I don't mean you've got better passers, just that the movement off the ball and anticipation of the pass seemed more 'in tune' than us. Just more fluid. Some have mentioned that we seemed to be in cruise mode for much of the game. I wouldn't go so far. Think apart from that short spell when we showed some urgency and scored, the game was highly competitive in the first half.  Got a bit feisty early in the second as Luiz was moved into midfield but as the game wore on we looked more content to sit deeper and counter-attack. Thankful to see that offside flag go up. Could have ended very differently had that goal stood.  Excellent atmosphere and agree, no need for drums.  Trust you don't play awful tannoy music after goals either,  Naff imo.  Anyway, lively banter in both the ground and Merlin pre and post match.  All the best for the rest of the season.

Thanks Bovis, good to have some intelligent opposition fans on board. Decent review of the game.

How do you take disappointment?

In my day you made your own entertainment after goals. i have a bad back and some shin scars to prove it*.

*I don't, but for the purposes of internet illustration...

Yeah we play that crappy Glad all over song like Crystal Palace, it really needs to go.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but the consensus of those watching in the pub thought Mata deserved at least a yellow card for his foot-up challenge in the second half.

Agreed.

I don't recall that one, but I do think he was lucky not to have got a yellow for persistent fouling.

I thought that as well. High and late, and you could argue a worse challenge than Byrne was sent off for against Franchise.

Dave Clarke 5

Agreed its a bit americanised playing music when we score a goal, just let us behave like animals for 2 mins, get over the hysteria and get on with it, we dont need music to know we scored a goal!

At least Palace have a connection to the song, we've just copied them which makes it that much worse IMO

XTC or nothing.

Nothing then

"Stupidly Happy"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpwDK7KFvuc

senses working overtime would be ace. and all the world is football shaped.....

"molten memories splashing down
upon the rooves of Swindon Town"

The XTC link, and 'Senses Working Overtime' or 'Red Brick Dream' in particular, has been mentioned several times on here in recent years.  If someone close to Jed were to suggest it, he might just go for it.  Can't really articulate why, but I think it's the kind of thing he'd welcome.

PS  'Red Brick Dream' would win it for me, simply because (other than Kramer's 1993 promotion effort) it's the only song I know that contains the words 'Swindon Town'.

That change and the nickname changed officially to the Moonrakers and I could probably die happy. Make it happen Jed Luc Picard :)

Nah XTC just dont do it for me
Maybe cos saw too much of them when they stood in for non show punk bands at local gigs late 70e early 80s
Maybe cos they are shit  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

And yes altho Red Brick Dream contains the words Swindon Town its not very lively is it
Senses is a lil more upbeat but still meh

I liked the way Wolves worked Hi Ho Silver Lining
Music stopped before chorus and crowd belted that out

Something catchy is needed methinks

I hate that :)

I also heat German substitutions where the announcer says the first name and the crowd parrot the surname.

XTC are not shit. They're fucking brilliant

Nah they deffo shit

Thats the problem with music
Very rare everyone will agree on it so finding a tune to replace what we have wont please everyone

You're beyond wrong

> Hates XTC
> Big fan of Hi Ho Silver Lining

(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo1rp0nUAX1qbcq69.jpg)

He didn't say he likes high ho, said he liked the way wolves sang it, ever listened to a xtc album :suicide:, yeah they had the famous senses& making plans for Nigel, but the majority was dire IMO

Indeed
All 4 stands belt it out

Could no sooner steal/sing that as glad all over

Partridge & Moulding were far better songwriters than those Scouse dickheads.

scouse dickheads ?

Lennon & McCartney.

Anyone responsible for writing Hey Jude should be shot

where the fuck did they come into it  :no:

Tho have to agree with you as the beatles did nothing for me

That should bring a few more comments  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

I like tangents.

XTC really are brilliant but can understand how they may not appeal to everyone

Xtc still get airplay on radio 2 so must have got something right I suppose. Always one of two songs though. To me they are listenable but nowt special.

The dukes of stratosphere their psychedelic spin off band were fuckin ace too!

But what is the point of music after a goal anyway.

Do people need some sort of audio hint when to celebrate a goal? I don't really care it gets played (though Glad All Over is shit and belongs to Palace), I just don't get what it brings.

Spot on. It seems to be one of those developments that is largely because a lot of other clubs do it so we must, rather than if it's the right thing to do.

It is very embarrasing when the music starts to blare out then cuts off cos the DJ sees the lino flagging for something :doh:

I think it must be bloody annoying to have to sit through for the away fans - but yeah, it's sh*t for everyone.

Agreed. Music after goals is shit and totally unnecessary.

Hi Ho is good/loud when Wolves do it before the game but even that's not unique. Sheffield Wednesday do it too, although I'm not sure who started it.

Just be thankful you're not Ice Hockey fans. Music every. single. break. I do like the goal horns though. I'm sure someone on here once told me we used to play a train horn when we scored, or am I imagining that?

I used to get the horn when we scored - although that was in the dim and distant past.

I can just about raise a smile nowadays

Jed seems to be open to suggestions, so can we not write to him and ask him 1. not to play music after goals.  2. source a loud train horn  3. have signs on the gate explaining that all drums are banned and therefore all drummers can do one.

...and an XTC tune pre-match.  We need something with a Swindon connection.  Something that's us and no-one else.

Why not Billie Piper then?

I love XTC and the idea is brilliant for a local famous bands song playing pre game etc but I am not sure if any XTC songs are upbeat enough to give the crowd a lift before the game if I am honest.

Because she's shit.

Did I need to add that XTC would also work because they're quite good?   ;)

Supertramp have some strong Swindon connections.

Also the Moody Blues (Justin Heywards mum was my cookery teacher).

I'm not so sure.  'Senses Working Overtime' would work really well over the tannoy.  Quiet intro section, but with a good beat nevertheless.  Then you get a sudden lift with the 'And all the world is football shaped' bit, and then it kicks on again with the chorus.  Some of that (but not all, I know) is quite singable.  And even if no one does join in, I think it would fit in just fine at 2.50pm in the build up.

And there are others.

"Senses" is a cracking pop song and probably would fit the bill best of all the songs of theirs, gotta be better than what we have now anyway.

Instead of music playing when we score, why not a blast from the old railway hooter.

I think that is one idea that most would agree with.

+1 for that :)

For the uninitiated...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0invUXXsRAQ

And for the other uninitiated re: the hooter....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb7FVHsnEEc

Sounds like Mex after a few beers and a jalfrezi.

Nice to see some love for XTC on here. The wife wants to move to Swindon because of her love for Andy & Colin. Although Red Brick Dream is the only track to mention Swindon Town directly, a lot of other tracks are written about the town - Ermine Street is mentioned in Chalkhills & Children, I Remember The Sun is based on Colin's childhood memories of Penhill (I think), English Roundabout is obviously inspired by the magic roundabout...

Generals and Majors would be quite good, no doubt someone like Si Pie or jayohaitchenn can come up with an excellent song to go along with it.

Another Swindon connection would be this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgsdquC8YUM

Does he still have a season ticket at the Amex?

Ball and Chain is about the house in Read St. (I think) where the family refused to move while they knocked down the houses around them. Don't think we'd get away with "No Thugs In Our House".

Strange fact, that I'm sure could be discovered by someone searching hard online, but Orbital's "The Brown Album" was recorded, in part, if not in full, at Meat Manifesto's house on Dixon Street. (My mate lived on Dixon Street and knew the bloke.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_XI_290cfw

This x 1,000,000. Bit of history and something that is our own as opposed to the crap we have stolen from Palace now

"No Thugs In Our House"?....oh,wait a minute

It's doesn't have to pre-match even but why oh why can't us Town fans sing the first two verses from Red Brick Dream... It's unique, by a Swindon band, mentions Swindon Town by name and plays on our Industrial heritage. Not all songs have to be upbeat to catch on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdUoQOgfl5M

"Red brick dream
Windows scream
As the rusting North Star shines above
And drops its iron beams
Crashing down upon the rooves of Swindon Town

I heard the engine's dying breath
Castles and kings all starved to death
I dropped the Coronation cup
Sshh, please don't wake them up from
Red brick dream"

I also think the "Sshh" lyric would go down well in a similar way to how Town fans always accentuate the deep D in the "S...W...I...N...D...O...N" song. My only major concern is that you'd need to hand out Arsenal style lyric sheets in the programme for it to catch on!!

the winner, the whole town would have to pause from what they were doing (shopping, gardening, mugging etc) to just daydream a few seconds about what it must be like to be in the County Ground when Town have just scored.

Inside the Ground, the hooter would merely accompany the main event, ie the unique County Ground celebration that follows a goal, whether arrogant or joyous, relieved or hostile, perfunctory or mental depending on the opposition, the away support, the scoreline, the timing, the season, what is at stake, how the game was being played etc.

"Glad all over" is a pathetic Palace rip off but any music after a goal  is like a straightjacket that homogenises everything that is special and unique about the moment, about the goal. 

What about using, from Senses Working Overtime, "one two three four five, Swindon's gonna win this time", or something similar??

I agree, no use bottling it all up.

That's a corker!

Better yet, why don't we all just cheer and sing faintly mocking songs at the opposing team/fans?

What a plonk :)

Sums things up perfectly. Make it stop.

Would absolutely love it if we brought back the train horn after goals (not that I was around when it was last played!).  It would be unquestionably original and ‘ours’, something that is extremely rare in the world of football™ 2013.  How do we go about asking Jedster?  I’m not on that there twitter, so will have to quill him a letter/email

Twitter is the way forward my man

Woah man, just hold on a second. My brain cannot comprehend this idea.