Thetownend.com

After three straight wins against Sheff Utd, Peterborough and MKD,Gillingham have faltered slightly over the last two games picking up just one point.Keep Cody McDonald quiet and a 2-0 win is likely, Willo and Hylton sharing the goals.Yellow and red cards to a minimum please

Let's get a win over the old pikeys...

They will bring 150 tops..

Its their cup final, so I would say nearer 180.

It's a long way to travel. They set off over two weeks ago.

I just purchased my tickets online. I don't think I've ever seen so many unsold seats, so unless there's a late rush I doubt there will be more than 6k there tonight.  :(

I got a few tickets for people at work and the Town End is empty. Really, really disappointing. Hopefully we'll get a good number of people buy at the gate.

Anyway big game for me, good mate and a guy I work with is a big Gills fan so could do with some bragging rights. I watched them against Bristol City a few weeks ago and they weren't great, but they've picked up since then. A good performance should see us through.

A lot of lucky heather sellers in town today, the caravans have rolled in!

Although I'm pretty much resigned to missing out on automatic promotion this really really is a last chance saloon game .  Must win  however scrappy.

Gonna be a different team tonight with injuries / suspensions,  might just benefit us to have a few changes. Hopefully 2-0 COYR.

Not really a surprise is it, in fact par for the course after a little blip. It has never taken much of a downturn to prompt the stay aways.

Lock up your cars and make sure all keys are hidden well away from entry points if you live in Swindon!

We should really beat them, they've been playing clodball this season but who the fuck knows how we're going to do after the last few weeks.

Optimistic 3-1.

I would have expected it for the Bradford game after 3 defeats, but we've picked up 4 points from 6 since then. I think it's more likely that Notts County on Sat is a more attractive fixture.

2 games in 4 days. Cost me the thick end of £100 yesterday for both and the same last week for Creepies/Bradford.

Disgraceful really

Taken a half day from work for this one (have to realistically given trains from London) so hoping that we repeat the first half showing from last Tuesday and give Gillingham a bit of a going over.

6 points from tonight and Saturday would be lovely.

We are going to batter them.

Gillingham fans have arrived early for this one

(http://www.qlocal.co.uk/pictures/rov/banks-westerdale_gypsies07.jpg)

Oh, the old jokes are the best  ;)

 At least they haven't parked up in the lawns like last season...

(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y154/Reg__Smeeton/pikeys_zps5bf4382e.jpg)

Gillingham FC @TheGillsFC  ·  10m

Supporters coach just leaving Priestfield. #UptheGills @TheGillsFC

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I have had a half day of work to sort out some stuff with Social Services.

Finished early, so now coming to the CG tonight for what will be my first game of the season - keeping one of the boys off football practice.

3 points and a joyful reaquaintance with the York Road chippy awaits. (at least one of those will be true).

Nice excuse for some casual racism yay!

It's ok 'pikey' isn't a racist term. It's derived from turnpike and was/is associated with itinerant travellers and thieves (Google is my friend). Which means we can abuse gillingham to our hearts content.

Looking forward to this. Was there in 79/80 when it all kicked off. Going down there the season after was fun. Think Queens Drive will be a bit quieter tonight. I hope they come to give us a game and not park the caravan. I can see those around us dropping points tonight so a win is vital. Hopefully Yasser will be on his game and that Swift remembers the ball isn't attached to his toe on a bit of string and realises there are 10 other players in red.   

Pikeys Diddicoys Gypos Knackers

Take your pick

2-0 win i hope

Twitter always delivers

Gillingham special passing didcot
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 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Foderingham; Branco, Thompson N, Turnbull; Byrne, Kasim, Swift, Luongo, Toffolo; Williams, Smith
Subs: Belford, Barthram, Rodgers, Ouldridge, Gladwin, Hylton, Obika

Ou est Ouldridge?

With that team we should hammer the pikeys, #coyr #stfc

School boy apparently  :clap:

Sur le banc.

We have a new penalty taker on the bench ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXZwYAa9DSY

Isn't that called a panenka or something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO-Q8seyktw

He is at St joes

Good on him. I bet he'll have a fucking great day at school tomorrow.

Very quiet down here this evening...

Antarctica?

Come on Swindon!!!!

That was a laboured applause if ever I've heard one!

and coincidentally I've just reached this exact fixture in my first season on FM15 as Swindon... currently losing 1-0 after 5 mins

You reds.

I can't log in to player. 'Your login attempts been exceeded'

Interesting, I am currently on 24th Jan vs Bradford City, top at the moment, will try and reach the Gills game before todays match is over (8 matches away).

Damn Julie ;)

Orient winning

Julie is back-up. There's another I usually use as well. (Neither are working)

Sounded a good chance for (http://www.treasureislandsweets.co.uk/product_images/c/756/toffo_original__19913_zoom.jpg)

Sounding like the Gills are taking the game to us.

Preston one up  :doh:

82ers drawing at the O's.

Bristol sport equaliser

Won 4-2 in the end, brace from Obika and a goal each for Willo (pen) and Swift in front of a crowd of 10,500.

I'm 10 points clear at the top after 34 games, I reckon that even Reg would be optimistic...

I was doing great until New Years day was flying 8 points clear and now the last 4 matches has been 2 defeats and 2 draws, cannot get a 352 formation that works. All I can make get results is a 442. Luongo and Kasim are always injured in my game.

Obika is currently on 21 goals but Willo is the next highest on just 8, Smith is awful for me.

82ers winning 2-1 now.

Fucking Flint!

We sound like we are finally getting into the game.

are you on the new patch? I'm playing a 4-1-2-3 and Smith has scored 23, Willo 19 and Obika 15

Yeah 15.3.0

FFS

cunts

Ffs

Buckets of shit.

We've got from invincible to rubbish.

Play offs then. Fucking Bollox.

oh dear. soft defending and a fucking back heel. on the plus side we aren't playing well but look like we can score

FFS.  Here we go again.

We've had a couple of decent chances and not taken them.  Their first chance and they score.

MK dongs winning too, cone on lads.

Same old shit

That commentator wants shagging,sounded like we went a goal up.

Standard.

(https://i.imgur.com/reVgzvz.gif)

This is all going a bit wrong. Sure I just see Fodders telling someone in the Town end to fuck off

Swift is trying to be too fucking clever.

This is utter rubbish.  Devoid of ideas and passing is shit.  Byrne is fucking awful, can't get past the player or get a decent cross in.

No shots on target for us and one for them  ???

Apparently he told the BBC he heard boos when we were 2-1 up vs Bradford, maybe that affected him and its still in the back of his mind.

If you were Cooper would you be tempted to do something radically different at half time? Bring on Hylton? Play 3 up front? Anything but another 0-1!

Bring on that Aldrige kid.

What did they actually do in Tenerife?   :sherlock:

you can talk about still being in it mathematically and all that jazz, but this team is currently 'gone'.

we may get it back, who knows but at the moment championship football seems as likely as a blow job off the queen

Yet still slightly more appealing.

No point in going up if we can't beat shit like Crawley and Pikeys at home!

Had a game of spoof ?

there is always a point going up. even to come back down

Keep this up and Reg's optimism of the play offs might be ambitious

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

It's OK everyone. I've just managed to log in to player, this means that we will definitely win. #omens  #hashtags

Yeah see it on twitter. Something definitely not right as after it happened hes just been banging it up the pitch.

Not very inspiring.
Jills go forward with a lot more confidence than us. In fact they're more confident all over the park.
Even though they're not that good.

Working for them

Couldn't agree more with Batch. Something is not working at the moment and if I'm honest there's a few players who no longer look as committed as they did.

Foderingham clearly unhappy with shouts and groans coming from the crowd.  It's only going to get worse if we carry on like this.

Sorry to go all Regesque, but I'll be surprised if we're not completely out of the running for autos by Easter weekend.

Maybe this was the point in the season we needed a wise old head or two to get us through the winter period. Hindsight and all that, but they just seem to have lost their mojo. Still hopefully we can find some form for the play offs. Still all to play for but it feels the second place spot is between franchise and Preston. Hope it's Preston if it ain't us.

(http://i.imgur.com/Yvkd7QC.gif)

This is shit. The end

^^ ha ha. I missed that comment initially, SY

Cast-iron, faultless logic.

No chance of a win. The gills confident and playing well, more likely 0-2 than anything else.  We seem to have forgotten that the idea is to score goals, no shots on target with all that possession is shocking.

Nothing on the bench to really change it, fed up and cold.  What off a waste of a Tuesday n in the warm.

First abuse for cooper for a while.  Still only one or two though.

Thanks to the bloke behind whose giving a running commentary of goals from elsewhere. Just watch the fucking game or stay at home and play on your ipad.

(https://i.imgur.com/PSZbA8o.gif)

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0-2

Ho hum

(http://media.giphy.com/media/yoJC2PM3UL4FPMkNB6/giphy.gif)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/jamiethon/slide_zpsc4k1nwfq.gif) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jamiethon/media/slide_zpsc4k1nwfq.gif.html)

Get some gifs you luddite. 

(http://media.giphy.com/media/81WOO5BLJBC7K/giphy.gif)

sorry coops, think it needs a chance if formation. this isn't working

This team vastly exceeded everyone's expectations during the first half of the season.  To their credit, they performed amazingly over 25 games.  Maybe just unrealistic to have expected them to sustain it over 46?

Other than (bizarrely) our two Asian Cup heroes returning, I can't put my finger on what changed at the start of February that caused our form to turn.  Maybe our young squad has simply run out of steam?  It's disappointing but, with hindsight, not an enormous surprise.

Still, there is time to regroup at least.

http://youtu.be/V6xqgWVgAok

fuck me cooper that's bpllocks. it's not the front 2 that was the issue

We've gone from poor at the back to suicidal, and from fantastic in attack to utterly toothless.

Byrne was absolutely running games in the first half of the season, but now seems to have faded badly.

Its all so, so disappointing.

COME ON HYLTON.

Hatrick hero.

Cooperman needs to try and take the pressure off - still in a great position to make the play offs

Fucking joke substitution by Cooper and large sections of the crowd have told him so.

Utter shit.

I just don't understand how things have changed so dramatically. No injuries,  same squad. What the hell is going on? Grrrr.

(http://i.imgur.com/e2T8SlT.gif)

Not mentally tough enough and no experience to show the way.

NIL shots on target. Wtf?

And people scoffed at Reg. You don't diss Yoda.

[insert hilarious gif]

(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a92/Kamakeahale1/Paka%20Pics/yoda.gif)

(http://i.imgur.com/jbvZ4SI.gif)

Sounds like if anything the next goal will be for them.

Fuck the fuck off.

Why are  we so shit at corners?

Bollocks,  I want Preston and Sheff Utd to catch the top two now.

Just got back. Decided I'd seen enough when the second went in.

Dongs drawing = G Roberts

Hope you look stupid later.

Sheff U Drawing

Just got back home. Left when the second went in. Did not want to go tonight but I made the effort.

Red and not so Proud then?   :D

Look on the bright side, we have enough points to stay up :)

so do I.

Sheff U 2-1 down

What we miss is a bit of experience in the team, if Mackay hadn't got rid of Harland & Rogers we would be walking this league.

And I'll be back on Saturday with my season ticket seat.

We've been found out.

Preston drawing

I think this quite true, we have one way of playing and several teams have sussed that out so now its time to change our plans and surprise teams again.

Oooh, you bitch.

Sounds really poor,at least Sheff Utd are losing as 5th place is looming now

Sheff U lost.

Great night for Shitty, we fucked it up, so have Sheffield, Preston pegged back and MK drawing too.

You wouldn't have to talk to yourself if you hadn't left early.

No plan B

Its Swindon Town ffs . . same old.

The players are too busy feeling sorry for themselves, utterly spineless when things go wrong. I'm still at the game but it's all a bit embarrassing especially our 'defence' ....

Preston losing
Dongs down to 10 men

pne losing-scant consolation

Preston losing too, only one side is consistent and that's why they are ten points clear.

0-3

As it stands we can still go 2nd Saturday...

Chill the fuck out guys...

gladders off the bar

Over and Out.

Goodnight.

We'll be lucky to stay up at this rate

0-3

Still no shot on target. No excuse for that stat.

Yeovil can still theoretically get 66 points....

Thanks reg  :D

We're fucked then.

soft soft defending x 3. good improvisation on the goals but..

Guessing you're not here.....

This is Swindon, we are either very good or dogshit. We've had both this season.

if we play like this we could still be playing Saturday and not score

Well played Gillingham,they made us look poor and we've missed Stephens and Louis tonight

Bit if a wake up call tonight for Coops, got  to come up with something different soon.

nil shots on target at home.must be a first this season

No, but I've been to 30 years worth of shit performances to know that no matter how bad it was you would still rather go and see that rather than a Malpas or Hart performance...

It could be worse, you could be a Pox fan..

preston equaliser dons concede.unbelievable

  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Last 8 games

W2, D1, L5 Pts 7/24.   F7, A13

Last league game we played that badly anyone?

Crawley?

I'd put tonight on a par to them to be honest with not a shot on target. My point was though if you were there tonight you'd see this team is completely lost at the moment.

That was piss poor.
Strikers get no service, so the first 2 subs?
Take them off and replace like for like.
I havnt seen a good game since Sheffield utd away.

That was a fucking shambles from start to finish, from GK to CF.

There's not one of them deserve any credit.

Special mention for Branco, Toffolo, Byrne, Kasim - fucking shite.

And Branco has the fucking nerve to go down the tunnel in a huff after getting subbed.

We are mentally shot - when our game is based on confident passing, without that we are nothing.

And I know that come Saturday it will be more of the same - misplaced passes, caught in possession, giving the ball away and worst of all - no fucking effort.

Thompson N looked injured to me throughout - lacked any pace tracking back.

Walsall at home last year was on a par with this excuse for a performance.

An awful, awful performance, never got going, no pace at all and constant sideways play.  No shots on target and we were the home side!!  Got to give Gillingham credit, they were far better than us - although I didn't think they were that good a team!!  No mom announced, perhaps they couldn't find one - I would have been hard pressed to name one.  Too lightweight tonight, easily pushed off the ball and when a player like Branco is pushed off the ball you know there is something wrong.

Well fuck me we really are throwing this chance away aren't we. Utterly clueless on the pitch and off the pitch tonight. How long will it take for Cooper to realise all the goals we concede are from down the right side or from a long ball over the top. Smith is so low on confidence it is ridiculous to play him right now, once he is in the area he does not know what to do with it. Byrne needs to get back to basics. At the start of the season he was beating his man on the outside every game so why suddenly stop doing it?
Branco, Luongo, Swift and Smith did not turn up tonight and changes need to be made on Sat. The only one out of those four that deserves to stay in the team is Luongo based on previous experiences.

I wonder what crappy excuse Cooper comes out with tonight? How about taking a look at the team and coming up with a plan B? Try 3 upfront just have something up our sleeves so teams aren't playing us knowing exactly what to expect

Probably in the top 5 worst games I've seen from Swindon in 25 years. Paul Hart would have been proud of Cooper tonight.

We look shot and I'm not sure we can recover from this.

Coops just said we went four upfront,  two at the back  ???

Just as well we got those points early doors - unless Power freshens things up it looks a long road now.

Well if we did, we still never got a shot on target!

Who were the other 2 strikers then? Saying that makes his subs even more bizarre...

Hate to say it but they had 100 less for Morecambe at home and their season is over.  Perhaps we need to look at ourselves?

Some points from the guy sat behind me:
- "Go on Byrne" when Smith was running down the line
- "I think I'm going to go back to Anfield next season, much better than this shite"
- "No, he's never played a game before, he is completely new, we have him on loan from Norwich everyone knows that, he joined last week" as Hylton came onto the pitch

For me Swift kept coming inside where it was too crowded, get Toffollo on my the outside and get some crosses in. Having said that, Toffollo has lost the ability to cross.

Clueless upfront, lacklustre in midfield, kamikaze defending and a goalie who doesn't seem to have any urgency at all.
Not one player tonight should be happy with their performance.

All credit to Gillingham. They didn't park the bus, or come for a point. They came for a win and wanted it more than us.

Shit night.

I guess what he means it Obika and Hylton and then gave licence to put Toffolo and Byrne further up

Well and truly embarrassed both on the pitch and in the stands - the pikeys took the piss and they loved every minute of it.

I know we have quite a few fans who suffer from an inferiority complex and will see the season as a great success even if we missed out on the play offs (we won't) or lose in the semis (I hope not) but we are not over achieving by being up there.

We have the league's best keeper, top scorer, some top young players on loan and a first choice midfield trio worth around £4 million between them. it would be a travesty if we were not up there.

Plenty of time left and I would begin on Saturday by dropping the clear weak link - Branco. Thankfully Stephens is back. It's also time for Obika to get a good run over Smith.

Worst performance of the season. Lacklustre sums it up as well. Looked as if we didn't want it at times tonight.

Coops need to change something. We have become too predictable. Gills has their tactics spot on tonight. We are a shadow of the team from a few months ago.

Is he actually capable of changing things though, I remember last season and the same old no plan B arguments. Plan A has just worked better this year!

That was shite. I couldn't pick a MOM, everyone was shit but take a bow Byrne and Swift. In a team of shit performances both of these excelled. After an absolutely barnstorming first three months Byrne appears to have lost every aspect of being a professional footballer. He's now on a consistent run of bollox performances. Swift, yet again showed how good he is on the ball and how utterly abject he is at finding a red shirt. Our decision making around the box is totally shot to pieces.
Then we get to the defence who recently might as well come out in red noses and clowns outfits. Yet more shit goals given away.
I've now given up hope of a top 2 spot. I'm not sure where the leadership is on the pitch.
I will, however, give the Pikeys credit. They didn't park the caravan and came at us from the off. Tactically they played a solid 4-4-2 but got men behind the ball. They worked bloody hard and they showed class in front of goal when needed. Given Edinburgh's job at Newport and here, I might well have a cheeky little punt on them next season. I also believe Edinburgh is our shortest tenure manager at one day.
Its still been a good season but we're shit at the back, ordinary in midfield and the front 2 are getting fuck all service.

Firstly some credit to the Gills, they hassled us well and defended well. They improvised finishing of two of their goals very well.

That was comfortably the worst I've seen from us this season. Favourable results elsewhere should not mask the very poor performance tonight. There was absolutely nothing there.

The back 3 (4 with Wes) are shocking at the moment. The simplicity and ease at which we are being opened up is really embarrassing. Hoofs over the top and we shit ourselves. I'm not saying they are bad players back there, but the nerves or whatever it is are killing them. Cooper can bleat all he wants about possession and not scoring, but it can't be more fucking obvious this area is even more of a concern.

The midfield was not driving the game at all. Byrne was terrible, nothing came off,  but at least he tried. Toffolo the same.  Kassim isn't at the level he was at earlier in the season, but was OK at times. Swift is frustrating. I think he tried to pass more, but it didn't really work for him. Luongo may as well have stayed at home and watched the TV.

Up front Smith put in a good cross, which Willo could have done better with from a very difficult angle. But other than that is doing absolutely nothing to justify keeping a starting place much longer. Willo is off form, but is a shit load better than Smith.

But what I really don't understand is like for like changes of the front two when 2-0 down. IT WASN'T WORKING FOR FUCKS SAKE. TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Go 4-4-2, Stick Swift just behind the front 2, something. It may make it worse, but given we were absolute bollocks you have to try something. Cooper for the first time angered me by sticking to his guns hoping it would suddenly work. Apparently we went to 2 at the back when Branco came off. It sure as hell didn't look any different to me.

I'm not saying the system that served us so well up to now should be abandoned. No way, but if something has utterly failed to work for 50-60 minutes why persist.

Lastly Obika looked twice as good as Smith, Hylton did alright, too early to know if he's an Austin or a Connell. Gladwin was Gladwin.

I blame gladwin

Fucking shit. Too slow, not enough shots or urgency when we are losing.

Swift - pass the ball quicker, stop taking 30000000 touches.
Toffolo - attack the fullback and whip a cross in, stop taking the easy option!
Smith/Obika - win a fucking header and hold the ball up
Kasim - stop slowing play all the time
Byrne - sort out your crossing
Fods - time and a place for short passing, sometimes it needs to just go long but not to our shortest player (byrne)
Branco - where was your head tonight?

Even after this abysmal performance, only 1 point further off 2nd place and still the same clear of Sheffield. Win on Saturday and hopefully kick on

Sorry he was February's scapegoat I remember now

Can I just ask, who would play LB, RB, RM and LM if we played 4-4-2? Just wondering as I think we don't have enough wide players at the club to make that viable.

Oh and by the way, if we had Cody McDonald we'd be top 2

He said when branco came off we went two at the back, a diamond midfield and four upfront. That was plan B.

No no no no no, absolutely not.

If this team wants to accept mediocrity and missing out on promotion they can fuck off now. I'm not having that. A chance of promotion is a rare thing. We can't afford not to give it our all. This team needs to stop hiding and grow a pair right now. Because it IS capable.

Oh for an Alan McCormack now.

Byrne and Willow on the Wings, Kassim and Luongo in the middle. Or Gladwin in a wide or central position if you prefer.

You don't need out and out  wingers to play 4-4-2.

Actually today would have to be something like (with either/or)

                  Wes
Thompson   Branco Turnbull   Gladwin/toffolo
Byrne    Luongo   Kassim/Gladwin  Willo/Gladwin
           Obika/Smith  Hylton/Willo

 I don't get the negativity on here....we've a small squad of inexperienced young players who've done wonders so far this season....and still a very decent chance of making the PO's. 

Saturday's game now is very important....Notts have been falling away badly, going from the PO fringes to relegation candidates, over the last 2/3 months....however they put a brake on that slide tonight. Need a reaction. 

Going to be awfully embarrassing when Sky turn up for the Dongs game if we play like that!

Lucky that most of the rest slipped up......we are on borrowed time at this rate.  Cant believe we can still get into auto places by the weekend.  Everyyhing has hone pear shaped since our 'Sunshine break' b4 the Sheff Utd match.  Still keeping the faith.  Preston were in our current position 8 matches ago.
'

Power had them lobotomised because we can't afford to go up. I heard it down the pub.

One positive from tonight. We can't possibly play any worse than that again.

And a friend of a friend's father who happened to be passing the Railway station heard it from a taxi driver who spoke no english!!

Don't tempt it, as bad as tonight was it was nowhere near as bad as some away games I've been to over the years. We looked as likely to score as they did for the first 25, and we hit the post - unimaginable luxuries in some of those games.

But we mostly knew how shit we were then, this time I know we are not shit, we are just playing shit.

It's the end of the world as we know it , Reg is the most optimistic on here.

The most worrying thing for me is the divide between players and crowd at the moment

That performance from Branco was utterly terrible. I would be interested to see the percentage of goals that we concede down the right when he is playing.

Keep going Town. Second is up for grabs. Just find your collective mojo and find it fast! We are better than this.

Yes it really bothers me too. How long would you say it's been going on for ? I dont recall it being like that under de canio. But prior to that ??

Just to add my piece of doom and gloom. We are on the verge of a raft of suspensions due to collections of yellow cards. Since we are 'cheats', maybe it would be wise if Coops/Power arranged these over a period of time so as to maintain some semblance of a backbone to the matchday squad ?

Ok....I'm sat up in my hotel room.....just got here.

Will post this and then read back.

It was awful tonight....the worst in a long time.

Cannot blame cooper for the performances of every single player tonight....it was woeful....but he has to carry the can for taking Williams off for a forward....chasing the game at 2 zip? Sorry, that's shit.

Midfield utter shit...each and every one of them...looked like they had run the London marathon and then gone a drink and drugs binge...three yards slower than the pikeys in all departments.

Pikeys were good value tonight....worked their bollocks off to shut us down but really, they didn't have to try too hard did they.

Zero shots on goal/target at home is shameful.

I heard steve white on the radio post match before the signal died and he commented that perhaps the lads should be given a couple of days off and then dissect the game and game plan.....fuck that, I would have the fuckers in tomorrow...not so much training but a big open and frank discussion.

The biggest disappointment was seeing a mate of mine go when the third went in....I have never before seen him do that in 20 odd years.

We are NOT shit but that display was and deserved booing....

Not a great advert for STs or the match on Saturday.

Fucking hell it was dire.

However...we are still in the mix....just about.

It really doesn't get much worse than that.  For the first time since the Malpas era I left a home game before the final whistle when they scored the third goal.

Pretty much everything has been covered.  It was shit across the board.

There's a number of players who haven't  been playing well for a sustained period of time.  I honestly can't remember the last time I saw Byrne, Smith or Kasim have a good game.   The fact the rest of the team were playing well carried them to a degree, but now others seem to have followed suit and we've fallen to pieces as a team.

I honestly can't see where the turnaround is going to come from.  Some of the passion and desire that we've seen seems to be drifting away from the players.


Totally agree.  Can we really have over achieved in 2010, 2013 and this season?   I think not.

If we don't get promoted this season, we all know we'll pretty much be starting next season from scratch and another chance will have been missed.   I'm getting sick of being one of those teams that is always up there, but can't quite get over the finish line.  I think alot of supporters feel the same hence the frustration coming from the stands at the moment.

Re your wise last sentences - Hope someone will take the trouble to point them out to the players and the management
to try and take some of the sting out of the situation.

But it's a modern disease I think, when looking at the growing numbers of clubs who are getting this kind of reception at home. Even at the top end (liverpoo, chelski, arseall, spurs) there's increasing silence at home games.

Consumers, not supporters :-(

But that said, there are still grounds where the idea of support still holds good. And it'll be interesting to correlate the success of teams in the future with the active support or otherwise of their home fans.

We'll come good again, this is just a blip. A couple of back to back victories to restore some confidence and we'll be flying and people will wonder what all the fuss was about.

Didn't mourinho moan about the lack of atmosphere at Chelsea earlier in the season?. Agree with you about the lack of it at the CG currently though.

Jeesh......just woke up and had a terrible nightmare.....

Oh hang on...

I left at half time and went back to the pub.

Superfan me.

Totally agreed. His movement all game was excellent and he did a lot of tracking back. He also  showed real instinct / intelligence for his 2 goals. I didn't think Marquis was too shabby either. Saying that our defence is a total shambles and I think even Shaun Close would look like Messi when up against our 3 who look likely to concede a goal every time the ball goes wthin 30 yards of our goal.

As a football club, we just don't have the mental toughness to get ourselves over the line. It's almost like we play catch up, get there...then when the though of promotion becomes some what realistic we crumble.

This season is starting to feel a bit 2010 isn't it?

I've not read through so apologies for any repetition...

One of the most inept all-round performances for ages.

Fair play to Gills, they made a village idiot first xi look like a village idiot second xi.

The Gills fans must have been laughing all the way back to Medway.

Cooper's inability to act pragmatically when needed is increasingly worrying. Having said that, the individual player performances were so bad last night I doubt an early change of formation would have made too much difference.

Free kicks on the half-way line ending up with Wes kicking aimlessly under pressure - ffs.

What we are missing is a group of players who have been through a situation like this, collectively they have very little experience of turning round a slump. Mr Cooper hasn't much success in halting a slide either from what I can tell.

The formulaic pattern of football we play and keep trying to play no matter what the season or  match situation Is no longer  getting the rewards it was and no one appears to have the on or off field experience to adjust.

City have experience in bucket loads and haven't faltered and Preston have turned their slump around nicely. We obviously need to do the same but don't appear to have the players capable to do it or at least they haven't shown it.

Let's hope they learn quick and can deal with the challenge

Is there an argument for 4-4-2 saturday? I'd say so.

Every side in the division we've yet to play will be watching the video of last night. I'd imagine even Notts County would be rubbing their hands with glee if they see us line up the same on saturday.

:D
No, just sensible I would say.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. We're so set in our ways that we almost play like robots, unable to react to what's actually happening on the pitch. We lack a leader, and that can only come from an experienced pro.

8)

I didn't make the game last night as my dad had a fall and ended up in Great Western (thankfully nothing serious), but we must be the easiest team in the league to play against. Scouts probably don't even bother watching us anymore as they all know we only play a slow 3-5-2 and never ever change.

It sounds like Gillingham played us perfectly.

City are going to piss the league now. Thankfully second place is still up for grabs if our dismal form can be overcome. It is worryingly dragging on now though. Momentum is huge in football and we have none currently.

If there is one thing from last night that summed up the exasperation the fans feel is in the first half we had the ball down by their corner flag - 4 passes later it was back with Wes.

When our way of playing isn't working it is excrutiating to watch - it's like watching a car crash about to happen in slow motion.

You know what's going to come but there's fuck all you can do about it.

When Yaser played the ball back to Wes from an attacking free kick in their half when we were 2-0 down, I could have run on the pitch and bitch slapped him.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cc1MXQiHFhY/TN8fTdn-VSI/AAAAAAAAAAM/WkvhG4HV8Ws/s1600/oddballkellysheroes2T1.jpg)

No change over night then.....that is probably the first game of the season where we've been completely hopeless....not bad after 34 games, and certainly no reason to change the style of play, and we can't realistically change much in the way of personnel anyway.

Although it's tempting to extrapolate, how the table might look towards the end of the season....it's still too early. 

And Sensible Glenn selflessly used your season ticket. We gave him grief for that :D

Hope your old man is ok.

Yeah he is good thanks Jayo, at first I thought he'd had a heart attack but thankfully he'd just fainted and ended up on the floor! I've never been so relieved!

soapy tit wank @ Glenn! Better view of the dross served up last night from the DRS!

I sat in the DRS last night..for a change. I was genuinely concerned the bloke with white hair, right of the TV gantry, teeing off at Cooper after every misplaced pass, was about to have a heart attack. Is he always like that? It was the best entertainment on offer all night.

You were very lucky, that was probably the only entertainment on view last night!

There was a blissful 5 minutes this morning after i'd woken up, where i'd forgotten all about the match last night.

What annoyed me the most was after all of us saying teams come to the CG and sit back to stop us playing. The Gills front 2/3 come and chase the ball between our defence and midfield, yet we still couldnt find any space behind them to exploit.

But we've got away with it with the other results and are more or less in the same position as we were yesterday afternoon. Get our heads together, learn from the mistakes, move on. Hopefully.

We are so good at playing sideways and more importantly backwards, why don't we face the opposite way from the kick off and see if its what we need to make "plan A" work.

Not the best 'fans' to use an example but worth highlighting with Wes getting all precious.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2978006/Manchester-United-manager-Louis-van-Gaal-demands-fewer-backpasses-team.html

If the ball goes backwards too often fans at whatever level are going to vent some frustration!

Just seen the highlights on Player. Two superb strikes from Macdonald. Branco loses the ball at one point and makes no effort to recover position as the oppo race goalwards.

After Crawley I didn't think it would get any worse. Wrong. From a Swindon team perspective, it was like looking at one of those Prem Under 21 matches, all 'style', postering and haircuts, bugger all hard graft and desire to get the 3 points.

But then when most of the players are picking up a steady £75k - £100k a year, and will be moving on to more in the Championship with whoever next year, is it any wonder? A few years of no hassle bench-warming in the Championship and they're set up for life, if they've been sensible with the money. So why bust a gut here in front of a few thousand moonrakers?

Amazingly we've still got a great chance of the 2nd auto position. Let's hope someone can throw a Fergie-style boot at their collective arses, soon.

genius, it's all so obvious now..

Its a young group of players, never been in this position, lost a few games and dont know how to deal with the pressure of the expectation and frusration of the crowd so they are scared of making a bad ball and the crowd getting on there back., it happens crowds moan it forces players to try and play 'careful' football which does not work.

Let's hope we can get this phase out of the way so we can get back to form and ensure we are on a good run going in to the play-offs - confidence breeds success

A lot of teams challenging at the top of all 3 leagues are/have  struggled to find consistency.

Muff won last night - first win in 6
Derby lost again last night
MBoro won after losing 2 on trot

Then there's us and MK - so it's not all down to having young players.

Anyway, recent history tells us that the runner-up in L1 does better in the Championship than the winner

On a bright note, the chips from York Road last night were  bloody lovely.

Except some of them have

March 7th last season v Franchise, a match had we won would have taken us into a playoff spot iirc

Belford; N Thompson, Archibald-Henville, Ward, Byrne; L Thompson, Harley, Kasim, Luongo; Pritchard, Smith
Subs: Bedwell, McEveley, Branco, Gladwin, Murphy, N'Guessan, Barker

Stephens came in as well, along with Willo being injured.
OK Loius was out for tuesday

Not exactly sure the reasoning for our recent demise but can't keep using the young players excuse

In fact in light of Tuesdays effort and following comments the franchise thread from last season makes parallel reading.

http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=53899.0

For what's worth, why can't we have a go at 3-4-3 - pushing Luongo up with the 2 strikers.

Worked for Liverpool who started 3-5-2 and then changed

I'm not sure the fault lies with the formation. Whatever the reasons we seem to have lost a lot of the fluidity to our play, a few weeks ago ago the only way a team could get anything against us was to defend in numbers; if they tried to play attacking football we'd generally win. That's not the case recently and I don't believe it's down to the opposition 'sussing' us out (if that was the reason we'd have been having problems from October onwards).
One of the things I've noticed recently is the increase in unforced errors, particularly poor passing, together with an overall lack of good judgement. Swift is a prime example of this, ignoring good opportunities to lay the ball off and instead going on mazy runs down cul de sacs, although the poor judgement is spreading to all of them.
From a team that could keep the ball with ease we've become one that gifts it to the opposition time and again, not because we're pressed, but because we make the wrong choices.
In regard to the players being affected by the crowd there may be some truth in it, but if these players, technically adapt that they are, can't handle a few hundred in a crowd of a few thousand voicing their displeasure they really should think of an alternative career choice.
Last nights performance was as poor as I've seen for a long time. What made it worse was the apparent lack of desire and urgency throughout.
I don't know the reasons and I'm not close to the players like the management team are, but Cooper needs to sort this out before our blip becomes a collapse.

(I'm now going to think happy thoughts and put the memory of last night into my shit box of woeful Town performances).

Personally I think its simply a confidence. I'm not sure why its drained so quickly, but it has.

I think it would be foolish to change our default formation, but when things are going as badly as last night it also seems foolish not to give a change a go for 25 minutes.

I'm sure the team do not deserve to be booed, but I was proper pissed off when Cooper took off Williams and somehow thought two like for like changes up front was going to magic a change in our midfield/defence being shit. But as you say, its a minority that do it.

Wes would be proper snivelling if he witnessed a proper hostile crowd.

The starting formation was fine, and we created planty of good positions in the first half.

What was frustrating was the seeming inability or reluctance to change the shape of the team to push in the second half.

Probably won't be popular but I think we need a few games of 4-5-1 just to solidify things a bit and take the pressure off the defence. We keep getting done down the wings at the back so with a back 4 it would give a little less space. Don't think it'd make too much difference in terms of attacking as Smith has been anonymous for weeks and Luongo will push on anyway.

Something like:
N Thompson Turnbull Stephens Toffolu/Branco
Byrne Gladwin Thompson (Swift if not fit) Kasim Luongo
Williams

Other teams keep flirting with 3 at the back and abandoning it as it leaves them too open, I think we need to do the same as we are far too open which if we're not scoring we can't afford to be.

People seem very quick to load the blame on Cooper. I'm fairly sure you could have played whatever formation you wanted yesterday - our players were shot. It happens year after year at this stage of the season. All depends now on whether we can get our second wind.

No..  not 4-5-1 for me.. not with our current forwards, certainly not at home. We could barely pull it off with Ranger, who was far more handy as a lone gunman. Away from home last season it didn't work at all.

Yes you could be right. We could even have been worst (yes it is possible). I'd just like to see us have given it a go. We'll never know.

I'd be tempted to drop Byrne and put Gladwin on the wing. I'd also look to get Swift out of the team. Since the turn of the year we've been exposed down our right where Byrne offers fuck all cover and if Swift plays on the right is defensively even more useless so whether its Stephens or Branco they are totally exposed. The opposition can either hit it into the space or do what Dack did last night and just run with the ball. To be honest, at the moment, just put the ball anywhere near our defence and they'll do the rest. All the opposition have to do is to be ready to pounce or just guess correctly.

Problem is name another team that plays 3 at the back? There must be a reason others don't... It leaves you too open especially when your form dips.

bristol city. they arent doing too bad.

They've got proper defenders though, we've got the complete opposite and is it actually a back 3 as they play Mark Little every game and he's a full back as it was him Peterborough wanted to replace with Thompson in the summer.
The traditional 4-4-2 is out of fashion now but a back 4 remains a constant for pretty much all the top teams! In the last 8 games were conceding on average 2 goals a game that to me says we are too open, even when we were in form let's be honest we rode our luck at times.

So then the defenders are the problem and the not formation?

Think it's a combination of both. 3 at the back is fine when you have the fear factor as teams are scared of you and don't really want to attack as we've seen earlier in the season. However at the moment we've lost that and teams are starting to catch on and have a go at attacking us. This is now highlighting our lack of physical strength, leadership, organisation and possibly even defensive ability.
I keep going back to the same point the likes of Mourinho swear on a back 4 and there's a good reason for that, very few teams persevere with a back 3!

People are reading too much into formations, and the like, we hit a bad patch. We thought we might be out of it we aren't yet. We will get out of it, and hey, at least If we don't we wont be going to Accrington or the like next season. (No disrespect to Accrington)

 :nod:

Sorry if already posted/never wanted to see them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htOqje4sX1M

I owe Turnbull an apology, it was Thompson that got done on the last one.

3 damn good goals really. I'd be well pleased if we'd scored them.

Really good finishes, still think our defending was a little soft.

Yeah I meant finishes really, 3rd was a shocker defence wise.

Last night I seriously considered not going to the Notts County game on Sat, but now I'm feeling positive we can turn our form around. A draw between Franchise and Preston and a two goal win for us and we're back in 2nd place, which is completely mad considering how bad we've been.

But apparently we were playing 2-4-4 by then.

2nd goal was criminal. 27 seconds into the 2nd half and we had the kick-off as well!

Stephens for Branco at the back, Gladwin for Swift, Obika got Smith and things will look far better than Tuesday.

I think his team is mentally exhausted - bunch of young blokes who have been at the top of their game until about  month ago. This sort of tiredness takes rest and a break from the game to get over. Kasim and Mass should have had at least 2 weeks off - we were fine without them. What`s happened to Obika? he can`t be worse than Smith at the moment......N.T is seemingly carrying an injury - Easter is the crunch time so Cooper has a short time to get it sorted - missed Tuesday night but booing won`t help - let`s save that for the end of the season if at all. Bunch of young kids out there who need to be cheered for efforts so far....keep the faith ffs

The problem is we need Stephens in midfield. It would also be nice to give Byrne or Toffolo a rest but would I like to see Barthram and Gladwin as fullbacks? Probably not.

toffolo had a rest when he was dropped.

I don't agree we need Stephens in midfield, but each to their own.

Toffolo frustrates me a little. His form has dropped too.

I wish he would try and get to the byline more rather than cut back and play the simple pass inside. There were signs against Crawley that Swift and Toffolo worked well but more often than not the final ball or swift dwelling on it too long would end up with us losing the ball.

Also his crossing has gone to shit as well.