Thetownend.com

In the absence of shaw Rosso il try and continue a previous unbeaten total of 3 match threads. Tough game tomorrow and hopefully we can get an early goal to open the game up. Be interesting to see how we cope with Danny N'Guesson, thought he had a tough time at the end of his stay here and put in a good shift.

We always beat them well at home and I can see this continuing, 3-0. Williams, Byrne and smith.

Always like to read a few betting reviews for a laugh from people all over the world. Il throw in a bayern Munich fan and QPR fan.

Swindon Town are 3 position with a total of 44 points or 1 point behind the neck of the leader. Port Vale are at position 12 in the table 29 points. The home game is very stable lately especially at home while guests are extremely volatile. I think that will be a problem for the hosts as they struggle to-head position in the table and should not be confused anywhere especially games at home

swindon have scored in ten of the last eleven home games and port vale have conceded in all their away games this season. it may take time but swindon will find a way through.

Please let this be on!

 I'm confused here....I always think of home games v BPV, as dour affairs, the likely 0-0 draw while it pisses with rain, howls a gale or snows, punctuated by Vale nicking a set piece. However, their last 3 visits have seen us score 16 with 2 in reply..given that it had taken us 11 games to score that many previously....who knows?

You'd imagine BPV, will definitely try and park the bus...I'd like to think Mass will want to produce a virtuoso show as a valedictory.

Is valedictory the same as a Vale dicking or a Vale victory?

You haven't been listening to Homer Simpson's subliminal word tape have you, Reg?

Anyway, we'll keep the goals for average going against Vale with a 5-0 tonking.

Smudge hattrick, Turnbull and Williams.

9678 with 443 potters

I'm confused, too. Do you think we will win, lose or draw?

For the record, I predict a 2-0 win.

If we score early I can see us running out 3 or 4-1 winners,Smith,Williams,and Byrne on target.

Blimey!  That's the most positive pre-match post that Reg has made in ages.  We're doomed!   :(

Reg has been on the happy pills all season  ;)

Hopefully we can score inside 3 minutes and it will be an afternoon of fun, frolics and goals. If not, it could be another Doncaster  :crash:

I will go for something somewhere in between...

2-0 with goals from the League's most generic strike pairing - Williams, Smith.

Blimey!  That's the most positive pre-match post that Reg has made in ages.  We're doomed!   :(


Not really, he thinks Mass is leaving us

N'guessen is a handy player when he can be arsed. I bet this is one day he can be though.

That said I see no reason why we won't go above city today. 4 1.

He is, he's off to the Asia cup.

To be fair he's probably the most likely to be off should we need to sell, which we may - who know.

Vale have played well in their last 2 games i think, will be a tricky game. They will park the bus and try and counter like everyone else, a scrappy 1-0 win

Really looking forward to this. Had to miss Walsall due to fucking Spurs loving in laws and have my nephew tell me repeatedly how shit Swindon are despite him being born and living here all his life.
It would be nice to see the year out with a win and I think we will. Regardless of result this has been a fantastic season far outweighing my expectations ( which Reg like are normally quite low ).
I'll go 3-1 win with Williams, Smith and L Thompson getting on the scoresheet. I would have driven Williams to another club pre season as I never thought I'd see the day he was fixed wearing a Town shirt. Glad to be wrong.
Lastly, hope Shaw Rosso is ok although singiiiffy is doing a sterling job.  

Clearly finding it easier to play away rather than having to force the pace at home.  Key is to get an early lead to settle the team and the crowd.  If not then I fear a frustrating (and cold!) afternoon.

1-1

We are going through a patch of conceding at least one per game. They will try and catch us on the counter and Danny N is a good player on his day.


So going with the tradition that ex players have a blinder against us, I'm going for 2-1.

Willo and Mass for us.

Danny N for them in front of  9739 {501 from up north)

Important game today.

Win and next week's game at Fleetwood could see us go top as the other 3 are in FA Cup action.

Of course, we could go top today!

3-1. N'Guessan will score.

3-0, don't care who scores or how.

Few trains cancelled at Paddington so on the earlier 10:33. Anyone know what time the glue pot will be opening today?

Their website says 12 o'clock.

Works for me! Thanks Sir Pissalot

Well I was totally oblivious to the fact we have a game today until my dad just rang to confirm we're going.

Looks like the house clean up and present putting away will have to wait another day!

Hope we had the frost covers down.....we know what happens to the south side after a heavy frost   :(

a tough 2-1

 See that Sheff U v Scunny has gone....pitch fine... elf and safety in the the grimy norvern streets though.

Has there been a bad frost in Swindon?  Cold but no real frost here.  Setting off at 1230,do I need to check beforehand?

There was a pretty hard frost this morning. I don't know about other areas of Swindon, but it appears SBC forgot to send the gritters to Freshbrook last night.

Frost in Highworth but the sun's doing a good job. Will be fine.

My second home game of the season, come on Town.

My first home game, and it's my birthday. Hoping for a repeat of recent performances against Vale. I made 5 or 6 home games last season, one of which was 5-2 against Vale :D

3-1 win - Smith, Obika and Stephens to score! Hopefully an 8k+ crowd today!!!

Just tried booking tickets online and am struggling to find two next to each other in a decent position. Looks like a good crowd. First home game in months so looking forward to this. 4-0 Williams (3), Stephens.

No Nathan Thompson today, uh oh.

Foderingham; Branco, Stephens, Turnbull; Byrne, Luongo, Gladwin, L Thompson, Toffolo; Williams, Obika
subs:Belford, Barthram, Bell, Rodgers, Reeves, Barker, Smith

2 changes.

no kas?

Thompson injured and Yas is with Iraq already.

oh

We already knew Kassim was flying out straight after the Walsall game - Luongo flies out tonight!

"danny done great"

It's a bit busier normal than getting in :)

Any news on players coming in ....

MK are 1 down

 Player player player :cry:

Port Vale commentary is perfect.

It's fucking shite. Every game FFS.

Standard, breaking up all the time.

Up to 2nd  :)

The problem is not with player, I think. The problem is with BBC wilts. Other commentaries are nearly always perfect.

This is true, I often listen to the opponents comms and they never break up.

Doesn't really matter whether it's the fault of Player or BBC Wilts that the commentary is so crap - it's Player who take our money so they should do what is necessary to offer the service paid for. It's fucking annoying having the same shit service every match.

City are 1 up

Off the line from a shot by Williams...

Playing OK, the fookin ball won't go in though.

2 minutes of additional time

City 2-0 up

HT 0-0

That was about as one sided a goalless half as you'll ever see.

Someone needs to teach Rossi Branco the throw in rule at half time though, his efforts have been flagged twice and it could be ten.

For all our possession, we've lacked that cutting edge.

Need to make the dominance count in the second half.

Parkin on the pitch, being asked to 'get 5 balls in the over 16s hole inside 30 seconds' to quote the announcer. Might want to reconsider that wording when there's an under 16 participating...

Gills pull one back

Argh we lost BBC Wiltshire...

Obika goal disallowed

Yesssssssssssssss. Williams 1-0

(And fucking glad all over)  >:(

WILLLOOOOOOOO!

City 3-1 up now

One more lads then we can relax (a bit)!

9248 attendance today. Not too shabby.

Franchise two down now

Ha, 'Club Stealing Cunts' trailing 2-0

Preston aren't winning either. *Touches wood*

Whatever works for you, I just cross my fingers myself!

Preston losing

Preston drawing

francise 3 down.

Oh marvellous

5 mins of additional time

Blow up you bastard . . . .

FT 1-0 Get in - 2nd

Fucking great work by Crewe and. even more so, walsall. Franchise lose 3-0 at home. Marvellous.

Good result and far more satisfying for Franchise and Preston dropping points. 7 from 8 now? Keep grinding them out Town.

15 points clear of 7th...  impressive.

Attendance was 9,248 according to Sky.

That's pretty decent  :clap:

Get in town  :pint:

Roll on 2015

Great performance from the team up until the last 5 or so when we gave them a sniff they should never have had. Luongo outstanding, had their midfielders on toast.

Don't want to dwell on one of the few negatives of that performance but Branco had a dreadful afternoon with ball in hand and at his feet- decent in the air though. Hopefully a one off.

Big crowd but quiet again- not impressed with TE silence after DRS asked them for a song, followed up by we'll sing when we want. Stick sloop John B away and get the Red and White Army going

Another grinding 3 points! vale looked competent without having a shot on target (that I remember).

Obika had a goal chalked off for offside and the. Williams scored a header and then we stopped playing and soaked up some pressure. 3 points all that matters.

Luongo was sublime and deservedly man of the match. We are going to miss
Him badly in January. Nobody else shone or was terrible. Gladwin was much improved and great to see toffolo back who played well.

Good performance that - going forward anyway. Anything they got we gave them but to be fair Vale looked a better prospect than Donny.

If they had had the bollocks to play 2 up front from the start they may have got something - but faint heart never fucked a pig.

Branco needs to go to throw-in school.

Luongo is going to be a bigger miss than I thought, although maybe Louis could do it.

Still not convinced by Gladwin from a consistency point of view - languid describes him at times.

Hopefully we can grind out another win at Fleetwood and go top while shitty play in the cup next week. They will have to give up their bus parking at home which will suit us.

Let's see how shitty handle that psychologically after being top for so long.

After a slow start we controlled the game in the first half with plenty of possession and numerous chances too. While Vale weren't exactly a 'park the bus' team they did have 6 or 7 in defence at times which obviously made it hard. However I thought we worked the ball well and got into wide positions from both sides of the pitch, but couldn't find the way through. Just.

Second half we started off just as brightly, and were eventually rewarded when Byrne jinked his way to the byline and stuck the ball up at the far post for William to finally power home. And so there we have t, Vale had to attack us now and leave gaps for us to inevitably punish them. Except that's not quite how it worked out. Vale did come out their shell and sort of had a go. I wouldn't say we were stretched multiple times, but we became ragged, conceding ground and conceding stupid free kicks, one or two caused a bit of panic inside the box as a half chance here and a ricochet there went unpunished.

While the last 15-20 turned into a damp squib, we were worth the win.

Luongo has hit good for at just the wrong time - transfer window open and off at the Asia cup. He had a fine game with surging runs and good skills passing. Byrne was also a MOM contender with his normal busy nature down the flank. Toffolo too, but with less quality in the final ball/shot.

Williams was pick of the strikers, though Obika had a great first half showing strength and wiling. Disappointed with Smith's cameo though.

At he back Turnbull and Stephens had fine games. Branco probably didn't. Good one minute, scary the next!

But all in all a great result, and an enjoyable first 70 minutes. Now we hit the tough month, personnel wise.

Decent crowd, decent 3 points, excellent from Luongo and great wing play from Byrne finished off nicely by Williams. Branco was a bit of a worry. What position was he actually playing in the first half?  Vale just seemed determined not to let in another 5 rather than actually attempt to beat us

Another ground out win. We had enough chances but we managed to hit the keeper quite well including Williams effort which hot the keepers arse as he was prone on the floor. Vale didn't look too bad an outfit and we had to be patient. After the goal we then did everything we could to fuck it up. The defence today - well mostly Branco - were fucking awful with not a great deal of tracking back by Gladwin or Byrne. The midfield, however, worled really well and Luongo was a deserved MOM followed not that far behind by Louis who made some great driving runs.
Another 3 points and the table looks good tonight as does the prospect of plenty beer.  

Glad we're away for the next couple of games as we're so much better when the opposition are set up to attack not defend. Luongo was immense, Smith and Branco weren't. Good 1st half, just missed the chances. Thought we were pretty poor in the last 10 minutes, in fact we weren't that great after we scored, but 3 points is all that matters.

Good crowd but no noise and a poor effort from the Town End.

Good to hear Macdonalds and PNE dropped points. So a great chance to go top next weekend, but knowing Town it won't be straightforward.

I completely forgot we had a game today, this was a pleasant surprise!

A workmanlike win. Unfortunately Vale, like a number of away sides at the CG, put plenty of bodies behind the ball trying to get a point. Luckily enough, we got the goal and held out to get the 3 points.

And what topped the day off was Franchise getting beat 3-0 at home by Walsall, which makes our result on Friday at the Bescot look even better.

We've got a big month with no Luongo and Kasim, and a certain transfer window opening up.

And for Reg...we are now only 5 points from the safety target of 52 points !!

This bit is funny as fuck from the vale forum:

A Swindon fan I know has just said we played well and is probably the first team to actually push for a win.  Normally sides come and park the bus.  Said the game was good and we looked like possibly pushing for a play off slot.  Neal was brilliant for us.

I'm hoping the "swindon fan" is just trying to make his mate feel better or I watched a completely different game

I agree. They actually had a bit of a go but were utterly toothless.

We shouldve been out of sight really but it was a nervy ending.

How does the Asia cup work? Everybody has been saying a month, but how long is the group stage? If Australia or Iraq get knocked out early, perhaps we'll be seeing our two back sooner than we think.

Rochdale have been the only team I can think that had a go from the off. We utterly dominated. Had too many free kicks to defend late on but no attempts on goal game from those nervy minutes. Is Branco the first league defender to take 2 foul throws in a matter of mins. Jesus Christ he may be a raw diamond but he is looking terribly raw at the moment. Cracking 3 points in front of a decent crowd

Group games from 9th-20th Jan

http://www.afcasiancup.com/schedule/en/

Final 31st Jan

Apparently the games are on Eurosport

Totally dominated from start but didn't take our chances, stopped pushing forward once we got in front and consequently had a unnecessarily nervy last 15 mins.  We played well but need to grasp that if we don't keep going and finish teams off then we're going to throw away points in the run in.  Vale were useless yet in the end we were the ones shouting for the whistle.

We'll miss Luongo but hopefully Gladwin can step up in his place.  Someone earlier described him as languid which is spot on, he has the skill and vision but needs a sense of urgency.

We're a very pleasant team to watch as long as you don't care too much about the result.  

Massimo Luongo is the most talented footballer we've had since Simon Cox, and I can see him having a similar type of career

Quite an enjoyable game, got to ground at my usual time of about 20 mins before kick-off only to find the DRS queue back to the town end, seems about six queues trying to get into just two turnstiles - and not a steward in sight.  Got in just as we were tossing up for choice of ends, my companions missed the first minute of the game!!  Should have had a lead by half-time and gone on to win by thee clear goals, instead we started to defend too deep in the last 15 mins and nearly paid the price.  Thought Massimo had a great game as the holding midfielder, Williams put in a great shift, Smith must have been miffed to be on the bench and never really got into the game when he came on.  Where do i start with Gladwin, a much improved performance after the Donny game - he seems to have a lot of talent that needs harnessing but for a big lad he doesn't seem to be able to quicken and inject a bit of pace into his game, few nice tricks though!  Nobody played badly - although I thought at times Branco looked a bit dodgy - but a solid performance from everybody.  When we defend with eleven players we have no outlet upfield, surely somebody must realise that and leave Byrne in the centre circle for corners and set pieces around our box.  Don't know if he was told by the management to sit deep for the last 10 minutes.

What about Austin and Richie?

Austin was a great goalscorer, but was a very raw player (who has clearly continued to improve since leaving). Ritchie is a good shout, but lacks the same je n'sais quois that luongo has IMHO.

In my (admittedly short) time watching town, I've never seen a player as good as running with the ball. He just bounces off players. Whenever he gets the ball, I feel as if something can happen. When he's one on one with a defender, I back him to run past him. His final ball is a little slack at times, but I love him nonetheless

I like Gladwin, he's a decent player with a lot of talent but fuck me when you have an attack with impotus and he slows it down, it is one of the most frustrating things about his game.

Branco also had a shocker today. When he lost a header to Mark Marshall on the half way I completely lost it with him! Some of the mistakes he made were embarrassing. Hopefully its out of his system now.

Port Vale coms were raving about Gladwin and were surprised he didn't get MOM

Ground out result.

Great gate and disappointed that this wasn't discussed with Power on the radio after the match.

Not a classic match but a great result.

I made the point about Gladwin's lack of urgency earlier in the season but having seen him play over the past couple of months, I'd revise it to say that sometimes he just has a habit of making it look like he has more time on the ball - in much the same way as Ian Woan (when Woan was just about our only competent footballer under King...).  We have to be patient with him. His rate of improvement is frightening. He has the potential to be one of the best midfielders in this divison and enough for the Championship if he continues - but let's not expect him to have the whole lot right away.

How did he end up at Marlow? He must have come through a league club and been dropped. Which one?

Reading. He was too small, apparently (before he grew to about 6 foot 3).

Released by Reading..

Massimo was unplayable today.
Reckon we will miss both him and Kasim.
Decent crowd as well today.
A good day at the office with other results going our way.

Any of you fountains of knowledge know how many games we have list when we have been without our two internationals?

Predicting it now, we get them in the cup next year, he scores the winner with a screamer at the Town End in the last minute, jumps into stand.

Corrected for you.

I don't get the open criticism on Gladwin from the stands. He's a young, talented kid in his first proper season as a professional. He makes some mistakes, granted, but he is one of a handful who isn't scared (despite the miserable cuntish moans from the crowd) to try his luck with a trick or two.

Sometimes they work - and look sublime - and sometimes they don't. I don't think I've seen him cost us many goals when he's made a cock-up, but he's had a hand in quite a few goals already.

To his credit, he persists with the tricks and smart passes - despite the wankers getting on his back - and he'll probably go on to carve out a decent career for himself having learnt his trade with us.

Mass will be missed on today's performance, but no disrespect to him - he's a bloody good player - he doesn't often turn in an outstanding performance like he did today, so I'm guessing that Gladwin will be a more than adequate deputy, with Thomson coming back in to balance things up.

We're certainly giving the slave traders something to think about by both grinding out results when we have to, and raping the opposition when we're in our comfort zone.

As others have said, January is a big month for us. Power has done well on the pitch so far, but will really earn his corn by getting in good replacements for anyone he feels that he cant refuse a decent offer for in the transfer market.

Whilst he's no doubt loving the way things have gone so far this season, I suspect that we're probably a year ahead of where he thought we'd actually be at this stage of his ownership. If that's the case, I hope he doesn't need to rake in too much cash right now, as selling on more than 1 or 2 of the side could impact on everything - on and off the pitch, and in the short and long term future.

Interesting times indeed  :nod:

Prosaic.

A January cold snap with some frozen pitches and subsequent postponements wouldn't go amiss, I think missing our international midfielders is the biggest threat to an automatic spot at the end of the season, an enforced winter break could be really helpful. Being second with the budget we Have = dreamland. Coops our best manager of the last 10 years at least. Let it snow.....

Where do you sit?  I ask because in the middle of the DRS where I sit sometimes people can be frustrated when we have a chance to break quickly with men over and he seems to dally on the ball, but I've never heard people getting on his back.

In fact it was heartening yesterday that the crowd seemed to be trying to encourage the team even when a potentially good move broke down ; i.e. Toffollo made a couple of good runs in the first half, got picked out with great through balls, chose the wrong option or mis-controlled but got applauded back to the halfway line for trying to make something happen even if it didn't quite work.

Great performance from Luongo in his last performance in a town shirt. That run he made in the second half was incredible.

Branco reminded me of Cibo with his throw ins yesterday

Didn't they say the same thing about Austin as well. Great eye for a player there it seems.

It shows the utterly bonkers attitude in youth football that you can coach skill but you can't coach strength and athleticism.

Shit Tans has spoken, goodbye Mass...

I would love it if we bought Toffolo. He's about 10 times better than Bell.

People talking about Gladwin not releasing early enough but our best chance in the second half was from Byrne. All he had to do was release the ball quickly and (I have forgotten who it was) we would have had a one on one. Instead he tried to dribble and the chance was lost. Although Byrne was back to somewhere near his best yesterday so can't be overly critical.

:D

this!

Not just Reading either - Southampton, who all the pundits fawn over as having some kind of golden recipe for youth development, rejected Tyrone Mings because he wasn't big enough. Now being linked with multi-million pound move to Arsenal.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/18/tyrone-mings-ipswich

VIDEO: @MassLuongo's skill takes him past three defenders #STFC http://t.co/yC7kGyO26o

Full highlights here

http://m.youtube.com/watch?list=UU0AktHYTM_3ck3ND-ecdTcg&v=9yuiTETvyQI

Disappointed that we are set to lose Jake Reeves, with Mass and Kasim away he seems to be an ideal replacement and what we are now on the look out for. Spoke to a cabby/Brentford season ticket holder recently who said they were sad to see him go and that he could of played a part in the Championship for them. Surprised that Cooper didn't bring him on yesterday, he only made one change, as the players were obviously tired after two games in such a short space of time and a perfect opportunity to show that he will get game time in Jan.

Power was interviewed before the game, saying Reeves was going back, so it would have been too late, the player's made his mind up and wants to go.

And to be fair, when Kasim and Luongo were unavailable for the Bristol City game, Reeves was an unused sub, which suggests that Cooper doesn't see him as an ideal replacement. I agree that it's a shame he's going though.

Only my second game of the season yesterday. The first was Rochdale, so this was a marked improvement in terms of result and performance.

I did worry when N Thompson was ruled out through injury but in hindsight my concerns were misplaced. Whilst Branco didn't have the best of games, Stephens was sublime and between them the back 3 seemed to have everything under control for the vast majority of the game. It was also good to see the development of new tactics to create space - the balls from Wes to the centre circle and the clever short goal kicks being prime examples.

Luongo was truly immense. He won tackles, he made space, he turned attack into defence (edit: defence into attack!), and he pulled that witchcraft out in the dying minutes to leave three Vale players in his wake. Thompson also impressed with his movement and direct play. Gladwin wasn't on a par with them, occasionally making the wrong pass or not getting the ball away quickly enough. Far from a poor performance though.

Up front Williams was a different player to the one I'd got used to seeing. He used his pace well, ran at defenders, and carved out two or three opportunities including a strong header for his goal. Obika worked hard with little reward.

It was also a great surprise to see over 9000 in the home end. I was in the Town End, and whilst it was far from back to its best, it was a lot livelier and noisier than on my last few visits. That said, it wasn't the kind of game conducive to a great atmosphere, with the action on the pitch being more like a game of chess than an action packed spectacle, and as for the turn out from Vale, well the less said the better.

Very much looking forward to Fleetwood and Coventry having finally got a taste of the side that some of you lot get to see on a regular basis!

I watched the FL72 show at lunchtime and they showed the goal and the disallowed goal. Obika didn't look offside to me, although he didn't complain too much.

Sell him :)

Oops!