Thetownend.com

Back to winning ways today. Crawley as a club have peaked, the slow decline back to their natural level has already started.

We're due to give someone a dicking, I hope we see one today.

2-0 Smith, Williams

WIN YOU FUCKERS...

4-0 Swindon. Crawley are hopeless and we need to put them so the sword.

Hylton to get off the mark.

I think of Crawley and still see Steve Evans' fat fucking face.

1-0 win.

4-0, maybe 5-0

This!

A win is a win.....I don't care.....I want one today.

Must win game  ;)

Although I'm bringing 5 non regulars with me today so we will inevitably lose 0 - 1.

Hope not!!  Wouldn't it be great to re-create that atmosphere the night we dicked them 3-0 and Fatboy Slim Evans blew several gaskets!!! :D :D

Hopefully,we'll start taking our chances again so 4-1 with Smith,Gladwin and a couple from Hylton

Hard to say with Crawley, just put five past Barnsley (ok, not that hard) and before that conceded five to MK. Hopefully they'll be up for coming and having a go, which would suit us better.

Course they wont, they'll park the bus and hope for an 89th minute penalty.

There is no doubt about this whatsoever.

Yeah my bad, thought they'd beaten Barnsley away.

Reckon we'll grind out a 2-0 - Luongo and Smith.

Any win will do.

Win all but needed today, I feel fairly confident though. Meanwhile, Bath City have an FA trophy semi final against Ferriby, the final is at Wembley.

Have seen this lot twice this season and they are shite. Sounds like their defence is in disarray so think this might be our first thumping of someone this season. 4 or 5 today.

I think our bad run will continue for a couple of games yet, so 1-0 loss today.

Are you pissed?

no, just think we're overdue a blip to get everyone worked up into a sense of panic before we go undefeated for the remainder of the season and finish 2nd.

We really need to win this, draw or defeat wouldn't be acceptable!

They signed a centre back on loan from Rovrum to shore things up at the back.

Over the pub last night and the consensus is that this is a "must win" game. Just hope that the atmosphere in the ground is positive from the start as apart from the TE it takes one hell of a lot to get the rest of the crowd going and players definitely react to raised support.

When we played them at there's they were totally gash. We Lost. Still cannot work out how to this day ...........

That's still only 3 available defenders, one of who doesn't know his teammates' names yet.

It's either going to be a totally frustrating 1-1 or we're going to piss all over them 6-0.

Just need a win, even an ugly 1-0 with a penalty to get back on winning ways after 2 defeats.

Won't be more than 125 of them their.

KO might be delayed.

Sam Morshead ‏@SamMorshead_ 5m5 minutes ago

Swindon Town tell me power currently off at County Ground due to an electrical fault. Engineer on site at 1.15pm. Further update at 1.30pm.

Powers played hardball with Southern Electric :)

Chuck everybody in the Bank and the DRS. First come first served. No segregation needed, it's Crawley. Light a few candles in the changing room for light. Job done.

Power back on now

Its back on...

But if it hadn't been, stfc player might not have worked..

Corrected ;)

Exactly

Coup averted. Power has been reinstated.

Sam Morshead ‏@SamMorshead_ 47s47 seconds ago

All working. Expect gates to open shortly.


Right, I'm off.

No hot food due to the powercut. Not sure anyone will notice the difference.

Still no Mass

Foderingham, Stephens, Thompson N, Turnbull; Byrne, Kasim, Gladwin, Swift, Toffolo; Williams, Smith

subs: Belford, Barthram, Branco, Rodgers, Thompson L, Hylton, Obika

Like the look of that team.

even without Mass and Louis that's a helluva midfield

Personally I would liked to have seen Hylton start and get game time against a slow defence.

Glad to see he's moved Stephens to CB and brought Swift into midfield. Bit surprised that Louis is on the bench. Just giving him a bit of a rest perhaps??

Think he's gone Swift and Gladwin over Thompson, because Cooper is expecting Crawley to sit back, and Swift is a fantastic dribbler and will get between their defence and Gladwin is similar and also has a good strike from outside the box.

what did he say?

intermittent power cuts on player!

Crawley will sit back that's for sure. Hopefully it does the trick :hmmm:

Which proves its not the feed from the CG its after it leaves the BBC before it gets to us. Sounds to me like its Player and not a BBC problem for certain.

Peacock has got a horrible accent

It is a wierd mix between jock and yorkshire, top bloke though.

Well said, Nathan Thompson in the programme....we get behind the team, not abuse them.

Sam Morshead‏@SamMorshead_·8 secs9 seconds ago London, England
Crawley in yellow and blue - that won't go down well in these parts.

City one down already/

colchester winning

Dongs 1 nil up

FFS 1-0 down

Oh FFS!

Fucking hell.

Borrocks

 :cry:

shit on me

FFS.

Ngggghh

who can we blame?

Close by Swift from a free kick.

Plenty of time don't panic!

not really clicking yet, to state obvious

All to do now.  We need to sharpen things up.  Crawley can just park the bus now.

Ref blowing up constantly as well.

Keep it going Colchester

Oh dear oh dear.

City 2 down

Shitty two down now  :clap:

City 2-0 down. We NEED to capitalise.

Sheffield Utd down to ten, come on lads cash in for fucks sake!

This is dross.  Too slow and passing is rubbish.

Crawley starting to reverse the bus up. better possession, no real pace or cutting edge though

Score please lads. Please.

Shitty three down now.

cant wait for Cotteril's meltdown

Already happened according to the BBC, was going apeshit with his players from the touchline.

Dongs 2 up

It'll rival our own fans reaction if scores stay the same.

Sheff U 1 down

brilliant

Come on for fucks sake...

Charlie scores again for QPR

Can hardly tell that Williams is playing from the commentary.

We've gone from being lethal going forward to impotent in just a few games.

we dont seem to be creating as many chances as we normally do

To be fair he's getting no service.  This is poor.  Too many players having an off day and looking totally disinterested.

This is where Coops earns his money, sort this shambles out for fucks sake.

Get Hylton on with his pace and take it to them.

Dongs 3 up

Boooooooooooooo...  Sort it out Coops

Don't worry the stats will show we had most of the possession and thus say we dominated. That's all that matters....

I want us to dominate goals scored :)

Crawley look more dangerous in their now sporadic attacks. we have no real cutting edge whatsoever, and look nervy in defence.

we can still do this though.

Swift could do remembering he's not playing for Chelsea under 20s and stop trying to beat everyone.

Crawley are not good but have put enough men behind the ball after scoring to stop us playing.

Get Hylton on for a whole half.

Louis on in place of Toffolo.

Gladders to LWB then. Did well there against Notts.

sheffield two down

Keep the faith, we're going to batter them.

Williams misses ANOTHER sitter.

Preston one up shit

Yessssssss....Williams

get in WIllo!

Stephens you fucking genious

Fucking finally

Halle-bloody-lujah.

City back to 3-2.

MUST WIN GAME COME ON

Tope Obadeyi scores for Kilmarnock, name from the past if I remember rightly

Yep, bolton loanee.  All speed and skill, no bloody brain.

De Vita scores again also north of the border

Loads and loads of ex players scoring today!!!

Preston 2 up

Flint  ::)

bloody commentators-I keep thinking we've scored

FFS I thought we had scored there...can someone tell radio commentators we can't actually see what's going on.

At Bath vs Northampton for friend's birthday.

Body in Bath.
Head in Swindon.
Heart in Swindon.

Come on Town!!

Blades back to 2 each, Murphy 77 and 80.

Come on town!!  2-1 will do

Oh just fuck the fuck off

Wow. Fucking hell.

Bloody hell

fucking shsmbolic

(http://i.imgur.com/A2IhQ7o.jpg)

This is turning into more than a "blip"  :crash:

That's all, folks.

Gutted.

Clearly don't want it. Fuck off.

Fuck it we don't want it do we?

I meant 2-1 to us. Ffs, the slide is now happening

Utter fucking shit.

3 points out of the last 15.  We're going nowhere folks.

Let's hope our form returns for the playoffs. Strange we did better without our internationals....

Our time will come.  So disappointed we're not making it happen in 2014/15.

I fucking hate football.

We'll never ever get promoted out of League One.

Well would have settled for play-offs at the start.

This is more than a blip now it's outright shambolic. It's bsck to last seasons backwards sideways football. Some of those players don't seem interested, plotting there summer moves already?

FT lose 2-1

Utterly dejected.

 A home defeat to Crawley is fucking embarrassing.

try to keep a level head men.

Us or the team?

both?

piss poor really. bye bye autos. not mathematically, but mentally and performance wise we look shot. still a bit of work to do to cement a playoff place

Seconded.

Some of you need to look at the table. We are still well and truly in the hunt for automatic promotion, it's nuts that you even have to be reminded of that. We have not suddenly become shit. Teams do lose form. It happens. Good teams also get back into form, that happens also.

Not going with the "Cooper out" gag today then?

We did so well in Jan.  Players return from Asian Cup (Mass admittedly injured for now) and we collapse.  Gutted.

With 3 points from 15, only way back now is run of 4 or 5 wins.  Has to be our time soon.  Despite what some of our more pessimistic fans will say, has to be our turn soon.  Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brentford, Yeovil.  Fucking sick of thos.  Fuck me, I hate rugby fans.

Cooper out is a given.

Most frustrating thing .... Crawley really were shit. Any injection of pace of pace and they were helpless, instead we just played at walking for all but a 10 minute spell in the 2nd half. The defending for the 2nd goal summed it up ...

Those around us aren't exactly on fire at the moment either* All the top teams seem to have sketchy form at the moment. 2 or 3 wins, which we are more than capable of, and I reckon we'd be sitting back in 2nd.

*Except maybe for Sheff U.... but they lost today.

What a shower of shit. Swift pathetic. Crawley have done the double over us, crawley ...fucking crawley

That was shockingly bad. Anyone witnessing that must realise the autos are not likely.

The first half was indescribably bad - Toffolo and Byrne shocking.

2nd half was an improvement but Crawley are hopeless and we created very little.

Byrne improved, Stephens was very good but Gladwin had a full 90 minute nightmare.

Always looked vulnerable to the lump forward as per the bad old days.

 Can see no reason why we are likely to improve in the near future. Hope we've got enough in the tank to make the POs.

sheff u drew, 2 down with 10 men.

we have suddenly started playing shit as well. we need to turn it around immediately.

Sorry, FH, but that's what has happened - we have suddenly become shit.

Ooops. I thought they lost

Yes and they've taken 6 points from us this season.

We're a shadow of the team we were a month ago.  

So the players we have that have been playing so well all season are suddenly not good players any more?

Performance wise, yes.

4 defeats in 5 bears that out

I'm not denying that. It's just not been good enough lately. But poor form does not mean that a team has suddenly turned to shit. Form can be, and often is, turned around.

A good win on Tuesday and you lot will be singing a different tune.

Abysmal first half, one-paced and that was fucking slow, improved a bit after the break but too many players fannying around - Swift and Gladwin in particular - and then caught by a sucker punch when we turned off at the bank to defend a free kick.  Didn't deserve to get beat but not a good performance and the ref was a total cock, although not responsible for the defeat.

Out of form would be a better way of putting out!!

Well, yeah. That's what I've been saying.

I blame Tenerife

(http://i.imgur.com/aXBcvTi.gif)

Right.  Think Im off.  Im away from home for 3 weeks and slightly depressed because of this anyway so Im not sure its safe for me to read the wrist slashing thats going to happen here in the next couple of hours.

Have fun.  

I have a different theory. I reckon the recent penalty misses from Smith and Willow have fucked with their minds, causing goals to dry up which has affected the whole team's confidence.

Poor today.

Its OK for cooper to set out his stall but when it doesn't work you have to change your plan.

Even when we scored I didn't think we had played well enough and I think that goal fucked us. We carried on as usual and they picked us off....

2 chances and two goals...FFS...

Things change quickly in a season. Our form has gone from very good, to very poor in the blink of an eye. It can change back again, but if we are to remain in the auto race it has to start Tuesday.

Unfortunately nothing I saw today makes me think its going to, but then, you never see the change coming..

We started off fairly poorly, first 10 minutes of a game can be like that I suppose. But when a poor (Thompson?) pass was picked off, the ball was played wide an Yasser was absolutely murdered for pace by their attacking man who squared for a smart tap in.

As the half went on we gained more possession and Crawley retreated. The problem is, a couple of Toffolo fluffed crossing opportunities aside, we were utterly one paced and lacked an urgancy and a cutting edge. Williams worked very hard, but was ineffective. Smith was starved of service, but was ineffective.

But my biggest concern was how jittery we looked at the back. Every punt and scramble in the box caused us issues. They weren't that frequent thankfully, but they were there. Its really odd, because I don't recall Turnbull, NT or Stephens being shit, but ....In any case Stephens put in an Alan McCormack like performance today :)

Midfield flattered to deceive. Kassim was sub his normal standard. Gladwin has talent but my Mrs makes her mind up on what to wear quicker than he decides what to do with the ball. Byrne tries hard, didn't get much joy. Swift has good technical ability but is utterly disillusion in his percieved talent v actual talent. Pass the fucking thing, just because your contract has Chelsea at the top doesn't mean you can beat player after player.

Second half we upped the pace of everything. You can't say we didn't want it, even if peppering their goal didn't really happen. It took a Stephens run from defence and a great ball to free William to slot home. At this point we were bound to win, it felt like Northampton away under Di Canio. Except we didn't. A free kick (??) into the edge of our box left Wes with a difficult 'come for it or retreat' decision. He retreated but they smashed it in off the underside of the bar.

If all this had happened in December/January, I'd have put it down to a bad day at the office. The fact its happened in 4 of our last 5 games its something altogether more serious.

The first half was the shittest I've seen this season. Gruffalos and Byrne saw plenty of the ball but cut inside every fucking time. Our first cross was on the stroke of half time. The goal we gave away was criminal and their no 7 managed to go unmarked for the 45.
The first few minutes of the second half was better and a great run from Stephens set up a good finish from Willo. Then we went back to fucking around and trying to walk the ball in the net. Swift was the worst offender particularly with a couple of minutes to go. Their second goal was even more criminal.
Stephens was a no brainer for MOM.
The defence is a total fucking shambles and we're now getting punished.
Its difficult to be positive after losing to a team who were total shite and there for the taking. The problem is that we're there for the taking as well.

FWIW I was quite impressed with Willo today. He worked incredibly hard, scuffed one shot but there was no sign his head was down.

Lack of service or not, Smith may as well have not been there. Wonder if we'll see Obika on Tuesday.

Concerned that once again Cooper did not see the need to change things. We are chasing the game and still could have used Obika and gone three up front but no it stays the same and all our possession counts for sod all. Have had a horrible feeling recently that play offs are our only method of going up and it is often the last third of the season that counts, not the first two thirds unfortunately.

apart from the change he made at half-time?

That was utter utter cuntslop.

Thats all i have to say.

Did they say if that was tactical or injury induced?

I'd imagine it was all about bringing Louis on.

Main reasons we are currently bottling the auto's
1. The pace of our play, we are trying to win games by walking it around the pitch... it isn't going to happen
2. I will get slated for this but I genuinely think the return or Mass and Yas has disturbed the side, we have too many quality midfielders than we can handle with and don't know how to fit them all into the side
3. Our strikers confidence has seemed to be knocked, Smith and Obika's goals have dried up.
4. Teams are starting to punish our mistakes, at the beginning of the season we were getting let off for our mistakes but now teams are really punishing us.
5. Our wingers are trying to beat the same player 9 times, Toffolo, Byrne and Swift are quality players but sometimes after you have beaten the full back once you just have to put a cross in, not try and beat him and the center back another 5 times.

Resigned to play offs now but that's definitely not a bad achievement for this team, I just can't stomach them again.

I want to see a replay of their first goal, it looked to me like it was a real half hearted effort by Kasim to keep up with the player who got the assist.

Now is a real test of Cooper's managerial credentials, he has performed superbly up to this point but now is the time to go on a run and put us right back in the mix or filter away into the play off pack with the inevitable end of season heartbreak.

Our lack of January strengthening has cost us recently but with now almost a fully fit squad I think we will finish strongly so we are in with a shout entering the home straight.

I thought it was an injury. He took a knock on one of the occasions he completely failed to get a cross in and spent the rest of the half feeling sorry for himself. If you were doing a tactical change I think Byrne would have been off as he was woeful and let the ball roll under his foot for a throw more than once.

Needs a massive shake up for Tuesday, lost that one and we could be 4th.

If anyone can come up with a reasoned, evidenced reason why Luongo and Kasim coming back would possibly make us worse, I'd like to hear it. Otherwise the two events coincide, but no more.

Just read Cooper's interview and I really hope what he says in the press and what he really thinks are 2 different things. To say we played "quite well" is a bit of a lie. Having lots of possession doesn't necessarily constitute playing well especially if you don't do anything with it, also yes the ref wasn't great but he didn't have any real influence on the result so why moan about him.

Still though, I am confident we will put this blip behind us

I think its a mixture of a sudden loss of confidence, an increase in pressure, and good fortune deserting us in defending.

To be honest, today's starting 11 wasn't a million miles away from what I'd consider our best available starting 11.

Kasim got rolled too easily for their winner and instead of trying to cover the space, left their man free and Wes with a decision to stay put or come out. It didn't end well!

It's funny.

We've lost 4 in the last 5. The 4 that we lost, Luongo played no part in. The 1 that we won, he did play in.

Yet.... Them coming back is to blame?

He played and scored against Oldham

I think what it is, is that when they were gone people didn't expect us to do as well without them, when things didn't go right there was a bit more understanding. Now that they are back and our run of "easy" games, people expect more from the team

Haven't read all the way through yet, but to reiterate what someone has said already; Crawley.....Fucking Crawley.

That said, I thought I was in a bad mood before coming on here, but I'm nothing compared to some on here...fucking hell you lot get a grip. Plenty of football to play yet. Yes autos is looking further away than it was a month or two ago, but we're still in the hunt and there's no reason why we can't get back into the groove.

I'm not one for slagging players off usually. But fucking hell Swift. Undoubtedly a player with great skill, but being a goal down in the last minute, in the oppos corner with a team mate with you and players in the box waiting for a cross....stopping and holding onto the ball for 30 seconds, doing precisely fuck all with it and then just running it into a crowded box where it's inevitable that you're going to be stopped by 2 or 3 players.....that's just fucking criminal.

Back to basics for me on Tuesday. Get the 3 in the middle that bossed the first half of the season, Swift and Gladwin on the bench.

Yup.

Would you stick with Smith up top too?

Doh!

I reckon you were right....I think autos are now unlikely, which isn't totally unexpected, given small squad inexperience etc.

We do need now to concentrate on staying in the PO, and avoiding a loss to a Bradford side very decent away from home would be a start.

In some ways it's better to drop out of the picture now, rather than later, as less disappointment if we do make the PO's.

Not going to comment on the performance, as it's all probably been said. I'd just like to say to the fucking idiots that were screaming to the ref to book their player for daring to have the cheek to celebrate their winner in front of the DRS; you sad, pathetic cunts.

God that's a depressing day of football. Unusually I was confident we'd win easily today, how wrong I was. Crawley score from the first attack and then hibernate in their own half. We have so much possession but do naff all with it. Toffolo has the most space with the ball but it just wasn't going for him and I think Louis for him was the right change to inject a bit more urgency and we started the second half much better.

Will finished well from a fabulous Stephens run and pass and it looked like we would go on to win. Only we then played possession stuff again without too much of an urgency. I felt like we missed Luongo's energy today as Gladwin for me was lazy and Swift needs to try and not take on half the opposition.

I'll not be at the game on Tuesday so we'll probably win.

It's odd how our defenders keep getting man of the match awards at home. I though Stephens and Turnbull were excellent today.

Poor against a well drilled defence. Gladwin and Swift both guilty of dwelling on the ball and then doing precisely fuck all with it. And although it's been said many times please stop with the fucking short corners .

Fuck you,  I've reported him to the police.

Ha, in the second half when it was clear we were going to go short the whole crowd making a 'for fuck sake' type huffy noise made me laugh!

I'm not necessarily agreeing it's linked, but Kasim does seem to slow the game down in midfield.  There were a number of occasions today where a quick pass was needed.  Instead he turned a full circle before passing allowing them to get all their players back.  

However, he was not alone.  As mentioned Swift and Gladwin had poor games and Byrne has had a massive dip in form from early season.  

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Herthabs just grumpy he couldnt have his two sausage rolls..

I don't want to play the "I was there you weren't card" (genuinely) but if you were at that game I can't believe you would be saying we are in the hunt for auto.  As someone else has commented, hopefully we have enough of a lead to stay in the playoffs.  

The first half was unbelievable.  Absolute fucking disgrace.  The second half we picked up and started running at Crawley with pace and they immediately started panicking.  As soon as we scored, however, we returned to type, passing it nowhere whilst they sat back happily.  The second goal was a sickener but the real point is that we got back into the game and then completely surrendered the initiative against a truly dreadful team.

Williams tried hard and took his goal well.  Turnbull and Stephens were ok.  The rest were appalling but with Swift totally in a class of his own for a gutless, self-absorbed no-show.

Our problem is not a loss of form that can turn around, it is that the players and Cooper seem to think that teams will lose to us simply because we are the "better" team.

It does amaze me how many opposition attacks have come from our short  corners . I can understand trying it sometimes , but all the time?

You would think with Stephens, smith, turnbull and to some extent Williams we might have some threat from corners. That said it only looks like we practice the short version.

Unfortunately it's not just short corners, our outright refusal to put crosses into the box infuriates me. Why bother playing Smith up front as with his touch he's just going to lose possession with the tippy tappy stuff.

after calling him a cunt and flicking the v's no doubt.

This reminds me of someone's rant on here a few years ago saying that their son had been abused and singled out by a player who scored. All that player did was run past our fans with his hand cupped to his ear. People see what they want to at football.

Shite result today. Certainly making hard work of it.

Dare I suggest the side lacks a touch of experience? 1-0 away at Scunthorpe you try and see out the game but instead we fold like a pack of cards.

This current run is a big test of our mental and physical character. Bradford will come and try and beat us up on Tuesday, big test.

You've completely missed the point that I was making.

Sure, we were poor. I'm not denying that. We've been poor for the last few games. Does that mean that we are suddenly incapable of playing well again? Does our recent form mean that we will be poor for the rest of the season?

Agreed. The conditions today with the wind and sleet and then bright sunshine (all in the first half) , we should of been firing the ball in the box at every opportunity.

What's wrong with that?  I pay my money I should be able to abuse a player as much as I want.  But he could of caused a riot with his inciting behaviour after the goal.  :badmood:

Did you go to the Bristol City home game? :D

At first I thought that comment was tongue in cheek, now reading on I'm not so sure.

At the risk of being whooshed, did you actually report him to the police?

I'm hoping its tongue in cheek....

Today I was expecting a man city, but we got a man utd, long way to go but results need to pick up for automatics. Coyr

 :D :nod:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/jamiethon/hi-5_zpsdscaayti.gif) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jamiethon/media/hi-5_zpsdscaayti.gif.html)

The only positive I can think of was the Stephens/Byrne show down the right in the 2nd half.

Stephens is too good a player to be playing CB.

The attendance was shite as well

Pile of crap that was

Does seem odd that since that break our form has gone off the boil

 I reckon we need to find 6 wins from the final 15, or 5 wins and 3 draws to make the PO's ....doable, but something will need to change. I suppose a fit and slightly refreshed Luongo offers some hope...a draw on Tuesday wouldn't be a bad result.

Be worse Tuesday
No doubt today would put some off aside from those working etc

I think you've missed mine.  Our issue is not simply a poor run of form, that can indeed turn around.  Our problem is that we have a set-up and a mentality that is counter-productive to achieving results, even against poor teams like Crawley.  That will not naturally turn around.  Teams know how to play us.  if we don't adapt we will plummet.  That was the lesson from today and the past two months.

I think this is perfect for demonstrating that stats are irrelevant except the 1-2 final score...  :doh:

so is this a theory you've conveniently developed in the last month or were you spouting it as we marched to top spot.

I think Cooper said post-match that he hadn't seen the possession stats but...as you say that has little to do with anything.  We had all the possession in the world in the first half and were ponderous and showed some appalling "first touches"  and never looked like doing anything with it.  We needed to vary the pace by mixing in more first time passes and even the occasional long ball forwards. 

Not sure if injury prompted, but Cooper's halftime tactical change in taking Toff off and moving Gladwin from central midfield to the left brought an immediate improvement.  The intensity dropped after the equaliser however and whilst the vital 1-2 statistic was unlucky, the performance was imo down to us rather than Crawley's performance (who nevertheless deserve some credit for a well executed first goal)

Better to have a blip now than say the last 5 games of the season. Bring on Bradford. COYR!

Hopefully Mass will be fit for Tuesday and we can go back to the midfield of him, Kasim and Thompson which got to us to where we are now.

Yes this is a theory I've conveniently developed in the last month or so.  

In the first half of the season our intricate passing/ball retention style achieved a lot of success, helped by it not being a style that 3rd tier teams are used to playing against.  As our success grew in the latter part of 2014, however, clubs started taking more notice of us and visibly adapted how they play  against us.  Crawley were a typical example; they're a poor team who played within their limitations to counter us by dropping deep, working hard and avoiding committing themselves in the challenge.  We kept getting into good attacking positions around the penalty area and then, faced with a passive massed defence, turning away and re-cycling the ball in order to keep possession and avoid giving the ball away.  As a result we dominated the territory and possession stats but created nothing, particularly in the first half.  It improved for a while in the second half when we were more aggressive and started attacking them with pace but once we equalised we reverted to possession football with no real penetration.

Your comment suggests that you think we need to keep our nerve, keep playing the way we were when we were successful, and this blip will end and we'll start winning consistently again.  You may be right.  

I think even poor teams have now learnt to counter our play too effectively and we need to refine our tactics to become more aggressive in the final third; encourage the players to take the defence on and deliver more killer balls into the box, even at the risk of conceding possession.  Otherwise we are going to keep dominating games but dropping too many points against crap teams.

I had forgotten something from yesterday.

Nathan Thompson's ridiculous booking for a superb clean tackle in front of the DRS. Sometimes you think refs are just their to annoy the crowd.

I think my idiot friend in the DRS may be starting a comedy world your soon. When Turnbull got booked he came out with the classic 'did he call you a bald cunt ref'! Oh how we laughed!!

Ah, the olde 'we've been found out' card that gets rolled out from time to time.

Here's a crazy idea. Perhaps, maybe, our players have lost form and aren't playing as well as they can? Bah! What am I thinking, that's just nuts. It's not as though such a thing happens to most teams every season.

Everyone expected an easy win yesterday. Crawley scored after their first attack of the game which wasn't part of the plan clearly as our players produced the most mediocre football we've witnessed all season. 2nd half much better with the type of attacking football that put us at the summit of the table. The goal inevitably came and from that point only one team should have won. Yet once again defensive errors have proved costly and somehow we've managed to snatch defeat from the claws of victory against Crawley. Fucking Crawley. A team who at no point ever looked like winning. They really have mugged us off this season and shows why we can't afford to risk the playoffs. Over the 2 games against them this season we would have lost 3-1 to them on aggregate despite whatever the stats show.

Plenty of work to do to make the PO's...if we get there, then who knows.

Just seen the goals again and they look even worse than I thought. How the fuck did we conceded the second one. Cooper can say it wasn't a free kick as much as he wants but who the fuck scores from that starting position. Our defence was always ropy but we covered well, got luck and got some good blocks in now its a total fucking shambles.

Certainly appears our defence has been the problem during our slump.

We're back in the position where we need to score 3 to win a game.

The fact that our defeats - Blades apart - have been against teams that aren't really much good is worrying, too.

I don't think this notion that opposition teams "aren't much good" helps. Generally most teams in Div 3 are reasonably similar, unless you get a Prem fall out like a Wolves last year, or a basket case for financial reasons....they're likely to be made up of a few Div 3 old hands, some own youth players and a clutch of loans from Div 2 or Prem sides.

Outfits like Scunny and Oldham who've beaten us recently, have prob lost 3 or 4 more than us over the season so far.

Over the course of long attritional season, it will be the sides with that bit extra in terms of squad strength, know how and impetus at the right time who make the top 2.....atm my money would be on Franchise and Preston.

The club, top to bottom just isn't mentally tough enough to see in a successful promotion run in, out of this division.

Same thing happened two years ago (for many different reasons) and we are starting to do exactly what we did under Wilson in 2010.

We haven't got the stomach for high pressure games any more. Just can't get over the line in the play offs.

Agree with your general point, but the Wilson season was a bit of a curio, given that from memory any of 5 teams could have got auto going into the final game...that side in this league would probably go up.

No, we're doing OK to maintain Div 3 status, given the circumstances around the club....the season so far definitely a pleasant bonus, from the expected struggle.

Really poorly defended from Turnbull, and no cover..

Can only hope the inclusion of grass on our pitch will confuse Bradford.

We got to top spot then had home games against Walsall and Exeter (from memory) we didn't win either when we really should have. Did all the hard work to get there, could t hang on when we did...

Perhaps we're actually better chasing?

On reflection I think now is where we are really suffering with a lack of experience on the pitch and within the coaching staff. We just seem to lack game management skills on and off the pitch, I like Nathan Thompson but is he really a captain, I think there is a lack of a presence on the pitch who can manage the game and organise things. You just need to look at how weak we are at set pieces to see we lack someone to organise things.

On the pitch very few of our players have played a whole season of pro football let alone been in this position before. As is to be expected from youth a combination of arrogance plus mental and physical tiredness has kicked in. Some of the players have listened to the hype and believe they are better than they are and can just get through games without doing the hard work. Personally I can't help but think some have also been tapped up as well and their minds aren't entirely on the job at hand here.

Within the coaching staff let's be honest this is the highlight of Coopers managerial career thus far. He's good when things are going well but as I've said before he struggles to turn things around when things aren't going so well as it's often been said he lacks a plan B. He has a tendancy to tinker but on the flip side he seems slow to change things during the game with subs often not being made until it almost seems too late. Cooper also comes across as slightly arrogant and doesn't seem able to accept criticism, I found it quite bizarre for him to say he though we played well yesterday...
I can't help but feel we lack someone on the coaching side who's been there and got the t-shirt either as an ex-player or manager and can offer a bit of advice.

This seasons going to be a huge learning experience for everyone involved regardless of what the final outcome turns out to be...

We went 2nd after beating Leeds 3-0 away and then fell apart with the results you mention and a 2-2 draw away at pretty much relegated Wycombe wasting all the hard work. Norwich ran away with top spot.

Think we got to 2nd after winning at Leeds, and then beating Tranny, but fucked up at ColU, then failed to win the 2 home games.

We just lacked any aggression after our goal back. I'm sure if we had a right good goal you would of seen a flurry of free kicks or even a penalty.....its was tip tap tip tap...pass, pass and then lose pocession. A good fucking old fashioned sprint to the line and a cut back would of yielded a bit more against a team who haven't won away since the opening day.

If teams want to sit back, you have to make them commit into tackles and use more width to attack them. We just plodded on and hoped for something to happen.

Cooper is right In that we played well. That is with all our passing but there wasn't enough threat in the final third to make them panic.

Crawley just let us run about passing made a tackle and tried a quick break....failed and then started again.

I'm sure Crawley would of been delighted with a point.....the last goal was a right result for them.

we've given away two soft goals and had very little in the way of making clear chances.

that isn't playing well.

This is becoming my major gripe. Does having the majority of possession and just the passing the ball about with no real threat really constitute playing well. I think some, Cooper included are getting blinded by stats, passing and possession isn't the be all and end all if you don't create anything. The majority of our possession yesterday was at walking pace between the centre backs or in the middle so just wasted really.

I can't help but feeling that if we are going to do it, it has to be this season. This is one of the best chances we have had in a long while and with the sort of teams that might be coming down next season, can see Wigan doing a Wolves and walking it.

I don't think it helped that the fans were as quiet as church mice after we scored. It was the best atmosphere for months at the start of the 2nd half, the players looked motivated, we scored, then silence. Very odd.

We have started giving away 2 goals a game since Sheff Utd and that's the main problem and at least a goal a game has been from sloppy passes out from the back or back passes, Nathan being the main culprit. When we were dominating teams and blitzing them away with goals the games were killed off quickly but at the moment we aren't taking the chances we were to blow teams away.

If we can cut those out then we'll be alright. We went through a similar spell in October and then a clean sheet against Preston got us a win and we pushed on from there. Need to grind out a clean sheet on Tuesday and go again.

I think I would, or give Beaker a run. Save Hylton as an impact sub at 60 mins if things aren't working out, or just to rip the legs off the oppos back line if we are ahead. Looked very handy when he came on yesterday.

I can't understand why we are so reluctant to try and slide a ball through the oppos defence or a little knock over the top. The moment we did try it Willo was on to the ball in a flash and slotted it away nicely. He nearly got one at the end of the first half too after a ball was put between the centre back and left back, he just didn't get enough on it to beat the keeper.
I wouldn't expect it to come off all the time at all, but at least it has potential to cause mistakes and chaos for the opposition. We've seen Willo out muscle and out run defenders that have got their legs in a tangle after having to turn towards their keeper plenty of times. I'm sure hyltons pace will case similar issues for defenders too.

Surely from a defensive perspective that's a much more difficult way of defending compared to being able to face up to the attackers and organise yourself whilst they try and jink past a couple of midfielders or wing backs.
Undoubtedly we'd lose the ball more, but I don't think our defending from open play is our main worry.
I really don't think we've become a bunch of shit players over night or have lost our bottle already. Plenty of time to refocus and pull it back. Hopefully getting Massimo back on Tuesday will see a few more moves and balls through the heart of the opposition defence. Although Bradford will be tough...very tough.

I made the choice to come over for this one rather than Tuesday, thinking we should score 4 or 5.  Hahaha.  1st half was awful, as everyone has said.  I enjoyed the 2nd half.  Gladwin was actually a lot better on the wing, Byrne and Stephens were working well, and there was actually a bit of running to the line and crossing.  I was sitting right in line for the free kick which led to their 2nd, and it simply wasn't a foul.  In the 1st half it seemed like the sun was getting in the ref's eyes the whole time, and he blew up just in case (and that affected both teams to be fair).  No such excuse could be made in the 2nd half...the linesman was close by and didn't signal... But Crawley took the kick quickly and our defence were left behind, so whoever it was who scored was virtually on his own in the 18yard area.

The two problems to me (and they have been recurring throughout the season) seem to me to be:

a)  The final third.  I had a neutral visitor beside me, who came to the Chesterfield game and said it was the best he had seen for a long time.  His judgement was that the Smith/Williams pairing does not provide enough movement off the ball...and in the 1st half it was noticeable that no-one was getting into space around the edge of the area.  The only one who did from time to time was Swift, and he seems to have no idea what to do with the ball except to run up and down beating players, until he doesn't!!  (Reminds me rather of a more skillful Luke Rooney) That was complemented by Toffo having his worst game that I've seen.  Once Williams woke up in the 2nd half and Stephens started playing right through the field, it got so much better.

b)  We do not seem to have any answers (and sometimes not even any questions to ask) for teams who have no intention of trying to win.  The ones who come to play football and to win, we can and do do well against, because there is space to play. 

I've had a chuckle and even an 'oh my God what the fuck is he talking about' moment reading this.
 
We're Swindon, we will fuck up a good position in the division, whether you like it or not. Been there, done it.

We have no right to get promotion, we earn it or eat shit.

Swindon Town will always do whatever we do, whether that be promotion or relegation, in the most painful, long drawn out process possible.

Our natural level is division three whether you like it or not. We could be division 2 but facilities are important and are a whole different conversation.

We're having a good season. It's not over. Stop coming across like self entitled Leeds fans.

I still believe we are well in the mix for automatic promotion and until it's mathematically impossible, you can fuck off.

There does appear to be a sense on here that failure to make the autos means the end of the promotion dream.

The POs have already been dismissed as a route to the Championship - God knows why.

Someone has to win them!

The last 3 PO efforts have seen our fans emotionally scared....therefore hardly surprising that nobody wants them.   Unless our form recovers the players will ensure no trauma anyway, by missing out.

Same goes for Blades, Preston and MK - serial PO bottlers.

At least we have tasted success via the POs.

I honestly cannot envisage us remaining so poor as to miss out on the POs at least

We have great players who can shred defences, sometimes we need to "go for it " and be more direct. If that is what will win us the game then just do it.

2 years ago, we were top with 14 games to go....just made the last PO spot, with 16 more points accumulated, something similar would give us 73, maybe enough, that season we ended on 74.

I use it as an example of what can happen, when for whatever reason your form drops off....that was 4 wins 4 draws and 6 defeats.....that is averagely shit, we're easily capable of worse atm.

Past playoff success/failure will have zero effect on the current players, mangers, etc. The only people the history affects are the fans who think what happened in the past with a totally different group of players matters in the slightest.

Therefore if we end up in the playoffs the past history will have little, if any, effect on what happens on the pitch for us and all the others teams involved.

Amen to that.

Ask any fan, though, and most would say promotion following a Wembley win is the way to do it

and if those with some faith credit Reg with being right about the automatics (MK & PNE) but utterly wrong about the POs, what better way of going up than putting to the sword those serial underachievers the 82ers at Ashton Gate or Wembley?

Going up vis the playoffs would be the most exciting way, but fuck that... too risky.

Autos please. Let's just get ourselves up first and let the others scrap it out for the playoffs.

Could have happened in the Kingy PO season....but we handed Brighton the opportunity to do it instead....btw, I'm not saying we won't make the PO's just that it's not a given, and we have to improve on present form....as we know when there it's a lottery.

Conversely we're also easily capable of much, much better.

Stop it with your pesky logic!

Very fair comment - you are right to make clear that it is not about automatics v POs. 

I guess it's down to the reasons for the present slump....is it something major, or a number of smaller things aggregating? 

Tuesday night will be a good indicator....

I think we're being punished for mistakes more than start of the season. Earlier in the season, teams wasted chances gift wrapped to them, yesterday Crawley took both of theirs.

I blame the knackered scoreboard and faulty floodlights.

My money is on a very tense and nervy night with more dropped points. I'm however taking a different route to the ground so here's hoping.

Yes hopefully that will do the trick.

 I personally am going to wear my unlucky pants as a form of reverse psychology

Well for various reasons my first game this season will be at Crewe next week. Unfortunately my previous away games haven't seen us win since the 4-0 at Stevenage whenever that was, and I did do a fair few from that, so the signs aren't good boys and girls.

This has been a terrific read.

The comments boil down to two main points of view:

1. We're still right up in the mix.  Form is temporary, class is permanent.  Grow a pair and stop panicking.

2. It's not where we are, its the direction we're heading.  We need a plan B.

Given that Cooper is clearly in camp 1 lets hope that's the right one.

This thread is hilarious. Reminiscent of Waccoe circa 2010.

Im not going back to read it.  Was I wise to run away?

It's quite traditional for our season to swerve off at a tangent around this time of year. Never boring  :)

Last year this time we played 4 or 5 real shite games then won 8 on the trot.

Repeat please

I can only imagine what has been written over the past 9 or 10 pages. I daren't read back through. The fact is, it's still in our own hands given our game in hand and the fact we have MK still to play.

And Bristol City, And Preston.

Between 16th Feb and 9th March in the 2012/13 season Bournemouth's form completely collapsed and they lost 5 on the bounce, including 3 at home dropping out of the PO zone. After that they went unbeaten for the rest of the season winning 8 games straight and drawing their final game to finish 2nd.

Reg I'm sure will point out that over the same period Tranmere dropped from top to 4th and then kept on falling until the finished their season in 11th. So it depends on whether you want to walk on the sunny side of the street or not.

Too many games left to play for anyone to be sure of anything, but we're still in a better position than all but two clubs.

As I pointed out t'other day....Bormuff now to fringe of Prerm, Tranny to Conference.  A lot of this shit is about perception, it was fairly obvious that Bormuff were chucking money at it, which in the minds of players and agents creates a sense of something happening....they could nick Ritchie off us an the cheap, as we imploded which in turn created the sense we were no longer serious.  Tranny got involved in a betting scandal.

Cooper's bit on Linksport today is interesting, where he calls for the fans to be nice to the players because they've done well this season, admitting that as a club we're very much a work in progress.  Most of these lads rightly have won recognition for performance and individually have already or will be rewarded at season's end.  This could have the benefit of taking a bit of pressure off, or might induce a bit of complacency.  You can tell what opposition managers think when they say....we've just beaten the best team in the league...

Cooper calling for the fans to be nice to the players is fair enough. They seem a good bunch and have produced some wonderful football this year, as well as being ahead of where many of us thought we'd be at this stage of the season. They'll get a warm reception from me on Saturday, that's for sure. I reserve the right to be pissed off if we lose, though.

If the team puts in the hard yards and plays well, they will get the applause they deserve. I don't think there was too much booing on Saturday was there?

FWIW, I don't think we were dire on Saturday, just played at too slow a tempo for too long.

Was a bit at the final whistle, but to get the fans excited and noisy you have to produce more than the crap they produced in the first half, the atmosphere was good in the second half but dropped off after we scored - as did the performance.  Perhaps he couldn't hear the fans because of the yawns and snoring from the Arkells and that fucking drum!!!