Thetownend.com

Town starting XI: Belford, Ward, Stephens, Trialist, Barthram, Reeves, Gladwin, Rodgers, Randall, Barker, Waldon

Live feed here: https://twitter.com/Official_STFC

Waldon scored 10 minutes in!

The QPR trialist you would assume is one that is available for transfer so we are taking a look at him with an eye for January before anyone else gets a look in

Barker has scored.

It was a penalty.

He needs a good game as by the seems of it he is not really rated if Power / Cooper want to replace Obika with someone else straight away without giving Barker a chance ot prove himself upfront

Barker won the penalty too which says more about it. At least he's running into the box looking for the goal!

Tom Smith, Callum McCormack and Lee Marshall are subs.

Darren Ward playing i see?
Surprised they just havent come to a settlement and paid him off to be honest.

2-0 up, now 3-2 down.

Useless.

Cooper out!

Boooo rubbish.

Unbelievable.  :suicide:

I'd rather use up our losses in the Capital One Cup & Developmental games though... that's how it works, right?

Who's in charge of the development team? Williams? Pitman?

To be fair, Oxford are something of a bogey team for us these days.

Another cup final for them. Will they have to get some new badges made up.

I'm looking forward to the half and half scarf for this one

I once witnessed a 5-0 win for us at the Manor Ground in a Development game, but we called them Reserve games in those days.

True story, folks.

It sounded like first half we ran the show, but second half Oxford stepped up and stopped us playing and got their rewards. All from defensive lapses by the sounds of it, not surprising with Ward playing at Centre Back.

Also Gladwin played about 60 minutes which is positive news.

In the very early 70s I saw Swindon Res v Chelsea Res and I'm pretty sure the attendance was about 7000.

For sure, we were away at Leicester that day and won (I think)

Our record at Leicester is pretty dire, so probably means it was Jan 70.

Might have been flogging tickets for FA Cup 4th round

I think the marvellous Arthur Horsfield scored at Filbert St

Get a dvd with a special 10 minute interview with their manager like the other ones.

Tbf Ward did well to last a whole half without letting one slip by him.

Yep Dobbin brace....can't recall ever having won another game there.

Any idea, Reg, why the reserve league at the time was called the Combination League?

Good question...I'd guess because, you had reserve teams from Div 1,2,3 and 4 in it.

Sounds feasible

:D

@andrew_FLICW: Goal! Oxford 1-2 Swindon Town - hesitant defending by Ward allows the Oxford striker though who's shot hits the post before going in #stfc

Half time 2 nil up we took off Reeves,Stephens,QPR lad (who apparently looked good) and shortly afterwards Gladwin and replaced them all with kids who Oxford then bullied for the whole half.Tom Smith youth player stood out even though he was playing in defence (midfielder).this was all from Twitter.

Was proper nawty before the game apparently

With Conference written on them.

Feel sorry for Ward getting criticism on here!! He was hardly going to be 100% fit given his lack of gametime and is always likely to make a mistake given the style of football we now play. As all who saw him play last season will testify he looked very uncomfortable with the ball at his feet which is unsurprising given the fact that he was unaccustomed to playing in this style. I think he'd probably still be involved in the playing side of things if we were playing typical League 1 style football as although his legs are gone he's still a half decent defender and is pretty good in the air. Hope things work out for him esp as he took a pay cut to stay here. Would be decent coaching material given that he seems to be the model pro but probably best for both parties if he moves on (will prob see out the rest of his contract here though).

Darren Ward is done at this level.

For as long as he's asked to play out from the back thenn I agree. A massive example of how a change in ethos can make a player look like he's never played the game before. Wardy has a yard in the head but would have to play alongside a very quick CB to continue to perform at L1 level.

I just feel really sorry for him.  A model pro who has stayed on a little too long.  Even the macro-biotic diet couldn't extend his career indefinitely.  I'm surprised he's still knocking about in the stiffs and not moving on to a coaching role or something else with a future.

What level ?

Against kids from a club that is looking doomed to the conference ?

I was at that game. My memory tells me we won 6-2 in front of c9,600. Any way of finding the stats?

Top bloke wardy.

Spent force....great attitude.

Hope he starts coaching.

Forget Ward. I'm more amused by the fact that a strong Pox side only just managed to beat our reserves/kids. Worrying times for them.

I hope thats true, i hadn't seen their lineup and my initial thoughts after seeing our line up was that we should be winning that game easily.

Most important thing is time under the belt for Stephens and Gladwin. I suspect we'll bring in Sendles-Wright as a straight replacement for Lelan, although we've already got 5 centre backs in the squad (counting Nathan T as a CB).

I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing his badges whilst being paid for it. Plenty of spare time, and he has a lot of goodwill, so my guess would be the club are helping him do them. If not he/they should be really.

Bloody hope so because from the outside we are treating him and Harley like shit.

I am not saying they should be near the team mind, and the reality could be different.

I've just asked Andrew Steele-Davis of FLIC Wiltshire to ask Cooper this question later in their pre-match presser.

I thought this was stated when the penny pinching Luton one got him signed up to that new deal? I thought there was coaching involved in the contract.

Have I missed something here? As far as I can see Wardy is past it and Harley is fucking useless - are you saying we should be releasing them (and paying compo) or perhaps play them?

Yeah I thought this year was coaching
Mind it was Jed so anything is possible

I don't believe anything he said. But Darren wouldn't have signed up on a reduced rates contract if he didn't get something out of it. So it could be somewhat true.

I just remembered the days when we thought Wardy was god in defence. But then I remembered it was Flint. Darren and Flinty worked amazingly together.

I hope he stays around because he is the father figure of the team. He apparently mentors all our players in looking after their money (which a lot of football players never do) and he helps them with their diets. So he could be a great figure to have in the back-room team.

Except at Oxford away...

Update on Wardy

https://twitter.com/andrew_FLICW/status/517673469501534209

He was worse that night than any game last season!

Wasn't that his debut too?

Yeah him and Coke

Giles Coke was utter utter shit. How he is still playing in the championship is beyond me

I still can't quite get my head around how someone called Giles ended up playing football.

Because he's not shit. A bit like Chris Martin...

And he played with an undiagnosed foot injury when with us.

yes, he's doing ok for Derby - what could have been!!!

You see, i always thought Chris Martin was decent, just needed to score a couple and his confidence would have gone sky high. Didnt help we played him injured mind.

Coke was just shit :D

Whatever happened to Giles Barnes?

Giles Barnes who played for Derby? Currently plying his trade in the MLS for Houston Dynamo apparently

Oh right! Was supposed to be one of the next big things early on in his career!