Thetownend.com

2-1 win 

Lets get back to winning ways!

COYR

Reckon we will win 3-1 but Port Vale will score first

We haven't done so well in the last couple of seasons in mid week home matches or league cup matches.  Only won 2 of 8 in the league and 1 of 3 in LC. I'm discounting the odd Friday game as not "midweek"

This season we've already seen the trend v Grecians......I put it down to young players finding it difficult to play 2 games in 4 days.

You'd like to think that midweek travelling for norvern monkeys would be a help, and certainly our 2 wins have been v Preston and Bradford...yet we couldn't see off Oldham or Rochdale.

So tonight has all the makings of a very difficult game, getting a point maybe not the worst of outcomes, given where we are atm.

Poor midweek form but a very good recent record vs Vale.

I reckon 1-1, Robert with 6,952 in attendance

I can see a 0-0 here. All they have to do is kick smiths ankle first minute and we dont have any forwards.

Indeed, nearly put 1-1, but my head went with a 2-1 victory.

Will be a very tough game tonight.

I did predict a 3-1 win last week but I am much more pessimistic now after our slow starts in all games this season. Reckon we'll lose tonight, but clearly hope I am wrong.

I'm hoping tonight is the turning point for us putting an end to the slow starts of late...

Drissa Traore will start and help shore up the midfield and defence.

Fuck Yeah!

I think we should see them off quite easily even with limited strikers, our attacking midfield will be too much for Vale to handle.

I would say 3-0, 6,500 attendance.

I don't think he'll start as he hasn't played yet. He'll probably come off the bench.

You're confident....does this mean we'll be allowed 8 subs?   :smugfu:

Only 10 players? Are we accounting for an early sending off?

Think Jay sees Ormonde Ottewill as two players, an easy mistake to make.

Indeed, I can imagine it's quite costly getting that name on the back of your shirt.

Especially in Town's current climate  :soapy tit wank:

No doubt whatever happens we will concede a stupid goal in the 4th minute!

Perhaps Town hoping that BOO shirt sales will help finance a new player?

Aren't Vale in a similar scenario as us this season, with a much reduced wage budget? - think that was one of the reasons Pope left to Bury.  Also, Bodin went up there and has been suggesting they should copy our model.

Like to see Rodgers given a start.

Suppose if Byrne is 'injured' it's bye-bye time.

Don't care what our problems are, home to Port Vale is 3 points every day of the week.

Rodgers in, Branco out. Jordan Williams back into the back 4. Stewart, Kasim and Rodgers then Robert and Byrne doing whatever the hell they fancy behind Smudger.

2-0, Smith (pen) and Robert, 6868.

Hope they stock more Balti pies in the DRS this time, the other stuff is pretty poor.

I can see Smith and Robert scoring tonight.

Would anyone know the prices for tonights game?

I can't get on the main website at work!

Adults in the DRS £23.
Town End £19

Thank you

Arkell's is £23 too, sorry. Left that out.

Has to be a win tonight or this season is going to be pretty average which I don`t believe after the two league games played. I have faith in the management it`s a pity more fans don`t bother turn up to support the local team. 2-1 maybe 3-1.

I'm going to say 0-1 after four minutes, they miss a penalty on 20 mins, we come back and salvage a draw or even go on to win. Oh. Wait   :doh:

If the pattern keeps going we'll all be Nostradamus and the bookies will think something dodgy is going on at the club.

Anybody seen Ajose yet?

I heard he was at the Bury game.

I'm strangely optimistic because we're overdue a good first half. 2-1.  Looking forward to watching us come out of the blocks like a team possessed. 

Never realised Paul Bodin is at Vale now.

Just leaving for the game now, going to grab some food in town.

Many of you guys coming along to the game?

I'm still on newborn baby duties. I'm hoping Newport away will be my season debut.

3-1 Town. Robert, Byrne & Smith.

I don't know about Burslem, but Stoke's twin town / area is Erlangen in Germany. How exciting is that? Lemmy was born in Burslem though.

0-0 tonight. Only positive being a clean sheet.

7,128 (204 Hairy Potters).

somehow i dont think we will ever know.2-1 (kasim,stewart)

Bringing my seven year old to her second game, first one she fell asleep at half time but we won 2-0. If she can stay awake we could win by even more!

COYR

Sam thinks Storey on bench, Rodgers to start which he deserves TBH.

Storey hat-trick in the last 10 minutes then.

#StoreyIsOurSaviour

Time to head for pre-match beverage(s)

Agreed. Hope he does himself credit.

Town XI: Vigouroux, Thompson (C) Branco, Turnbull, Ormonde-Ottewill, Williams, Kasim, Rodgers, Byrne, Robert, Smith

Subs: Belford, Barry, Brophy, Traore, Stewart, Marshall, Storey

He's going to come on and score, isn't he...

Yes, yes he is

Leading to the most deafening 'told you sos' from certain sections of social media, followed by increasingly hysterical demands that he starts every match

Interesting - would suggest it's not a contractual issue that has kept him on the sidelines.

Nice to have a bit of pace to bring on towards the end whatever position we're in.

Oooh we have goth legend Robert Smith up front. Cmon you lovecats.

I can see him scoring.

It's nailed on that he will score.

out he'll come in

or he'll come on and not score leading to a deluge of "see, told you he wasn't good enough, it was obvious"..

my money: unused sub

I'm all about Town winning, regardless of goalscorer.

Storey to get over head kick hat trick...

A win would be nice....stuck in sunny Cornwall tonight...

Tuesday,Im in love

"Tuesday, Wednesday breaks my heart"

ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!

Not many there tonight, should be easy to spot Ajose in the crowd!

Confident 3-2 win today  ;)

Well, it's five past kickoff time.

Are we a goal down yet?

;)

Bury scored in the 4th minute again

BOB! Get in.

UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY!!!!

really bright start from town.

SHUT UP BATCH

typical town fuck up. overplayed it in a dangerous position, lost it, 1-1

fair point

pesky overplay

Silly error and now we're looking shaky.

back to tippy tappy shit

@SamMorshead_: First shout of "FOOOORRRWWAAARD" from the Arkell's man this season.

Classic Branco forearm smash on the Watford loanee

vale falling over cheating, time wasting at every opportunity

cue radio wilts fan idiocy

It'd be fucking hilarious if the diving cheaty guy got booked/sent off for cheating. Oh how we could laugh at Teflon Don (some of you know who I mean).

Vale are anti football, dirty, niggling cheating fuckers and Ikpeazu is an absolute head case. Frustrating half

Yes I know the cunt.

started off very well. looked lively and controlled. chock  up I think by rogers let them back in. yasser nearly did the same. that aside we were comfortable but lost our way a bit. nice safe possession football. but last 10 vale resulted to falling over to get the game stopped. this seemed to gee us up a bit.

the ref is a weak cocknocker

But if you check out that particular forum he's already saying he doesnt like him and doesnt approve of him anyway.  Sanctimonious twat.

He's a div

What a fucking horrible team Vale are.

How the ref and officials have let them get away with it is mind blowing

Bring him on. He will score.... many.

Barry Corr notches again.

Yep...

Goal king Rodgers!

Get the fuck in, Brendan Rodgers' son.

Get in!

good lord

soapy tit wank  :soapy tit wank:

R&R again. That Cooper man, he hasn't got a clue about tactics....said 90% of the Swindon Town Fans page on FB.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

and of course all the 'Luke Williams is the real brains behind the success' nonsense

Just over 7k crowd

7026, not bad for a tues night and the opposition.

what the fuck ??????

penalty my ass

whats going on

Port vale score penalty.

MADNESS (According to the radio)

deary me

what was it for??

Nobody knows.

Tom Bassam ‏@Tbassam  · 3m3 minutes ago 
It looked like a handball from a Vale player but Malone awards them the spotkick.

Very bixarre end....

how queer

Tans ‏@tansstfc1983  · 33s33 seconds ago 
Im not there, but the ref let them take a corner before awarding the penalty for a previous offence from what im reading?

Tans is on the powder again :D

96 minutes...fuck off!

we do concede a lot of pens

I think this explains it better

TheWashbag.com ‏@thewashbag  · 28s28 seconds ago 
Am I right in thinking the town player handballed because he thought the ball wasn't in play with the player down?

yup, every game so far, at least some consistency :crash:

90:00 +6:06 Booking
Booking
Jordan Turnbull (Swindon Town) is shown the yellow card for hand ball. 90:00 +5:38 Goal scored
Goal!
Goal! Swindon Town 2, Port Vale 2. Sam Foley (Port Vale) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the top left corner. 90:00 +5:00 Penalty Port Vale. Ryan Inniss draws a foul in the penalty area. 90:00 +4:52 Penalty conceded by Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill (Swindon Town) after a foul in the penalty area.

Seems BBC Sport haven't got a fucking clue either... :clap:

Turnbull picked the ball up to give to give to them for a corner as Thompson was down injured and the ref gave a pen and booked turnbull very bizarre

Penalty that nobody even saw. Thompson was blatantly pushed over, but a corner was given to Vale in the lead up to it.  Fucking joke of a referee.  Feels like a defeat to be honest.

Well Ill be interested to hear Coopers version of it.  In fact Ill be interested to hear Vales view of it.  It sounds like no one has a clue.

So, had the whistle for the corner been blown before this alleged hand ball?

Turnbull picked up the ball for an injury or something....so Jutty tells me...

If somebody could summarise Coopers interview I would appreciate it.  Fooking knackered and off to bed :D

Night night

No outfield player should ever touch the ball with his hand in the area. Schoolboy error, whatever the precursor to it.

Right. I'm beginning to envisage it I think.

Technically the ref may correct. But he's a jobsworth cock-juggling cock-womble.

What an outrageously ridiculous way to drop points.

that cunt just cost me my night's winning bet.

 :blowup:

play "babies" and they tend to do babyish things.

https://twitter.com/_tomseward/status/633742604199325697   :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Out for a corner, so play stopped.  BOO needed and asked for treatment, everyone stopped as play had stopped.  Ref waved the corner in, with about three players playing on.  Ball came into the box and I think our defender was trying to get the ball to give it back to the corner taker as the restart wasn't clear (as shown by nearly every Vale player having stopped as well).  Ref gave a penalty for handball, Turnbull booked for clapping him a little later with a few choice words no doubt.

I can understand a ref playing on the dying seconds if he thinks it's a ploy but the game had stopped.  Not 100% on the rules, but would imagine at this point the ref has to allow treatment as the game has naturally stopped?

I mean that is objectively quite funny but what the fucking fuck!

So was BOO (injured player) still on the pitch when the corner was taken?

apparently yes

Well then the corner that led to the alleged penalty should never have happened.

Whoever their No. 9 is it was the most disgusting individual performance I have ever seen.

4 times he pretended he had been elbowed and his only intention was to get one of ours sent off.

That fat, useless cunt of a ref did nothing. I can understand teams roughing us up, but that cheating lump wants offing.

As far as the game went it was a case of same old same old. It's hard work watching Town play.

Smith put a good shift in, Byrne and Kasim out of sorts, Branco played very well (again).

The players seem reluctant to get the ball out wide to BOO. Robert is one classy dude. Thompson is far more comfortable out right instead of a CB.

Vigorous had fuck all to do. Rodgers set up one, scored one, at fault for their first and misplaced a number of passes.  A real mixed bag.

One notable thing - Cooper and Luke Williams spent a lot of time stood together directing things. Never saw that once last season.

That's referring 101. What a fucking cunt.

Yes and clearly asked for treatment - which the ref then allowed once he awarded the penalty and he eventually hobbled off, so not even blatant attempt at time wasting.

If it were 'actually' a handball, should Turnbull not also be give a red for deliberate handball?

Plus the fat cunt had blown up two or three times for a non-injured Vale player to get treatment while we were actually attacking. Not a dead ball, not a head injury, attacking..

Useless twat.

This would suggest that the Ref is indeed a cunt:

Injured players
The referee must adhere to the following procedure when dealing with injured
players:
• play is allowed to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is, in the
opinion of the referee, only slightly injured
• play is stopped if, in the opinion of the referee, a player is seriously injured
• after questioning the injured player, the referee may authorise one, or at
most two doctors, to enter the field of play to assess the injury and arrange
the player’s safe and swift removal from the field of play
• stretcher-bearers should only enter the field of play with a stretcher
following a signal from the referee
• the referee must ensure an injured player is safely removed from the field of
play

Given play had stopped and BOO requested help he has a duty of care from that wording to ensure he allowed to be removed from the field for treatment.

I think he actually diverted into the path of a Vale player.

Also I'd agree with Audrey's summary, other than I thought Smith was shit for 90% of the game. Guess his 110% effort isn't enough.

Mind you Kassim's slow play was even more frustrating at times!

Totally unrelated to his level of competence, I would be amazed to understand how he has ever passed a fitness test.  I have never seen such an out of shape Ref at this level before, he could barely walk.

On the game I thought there was room for improvement, but we were the better team and probably deserved a one goal win.  If we can add one or two and people gel then we might be in for another fun season.  I could be wrong, but don't see us struggling.

The players are all tweeting its a disgrace so they'll probably all get done by the FA now as part of a cover up...

Agree with this. We won't struggle. Should have enough in us for mid table.

My understanding of it was whoever hand balled (Branco?) thought the referee had blown his whistle to stop the corner for the treatment of BOO? No excuse to handball but my first thought was the whistle was to stop play I assumed that's what he thought too...

On the game I thought we were way too slow in midfield, we NEVER run into space just always look to pass, Williams especially frustrated me tonight, yes he keeps possession, but he never looks for another outlet, it's always back to the defence and more slow build-up.

Brendan Malone is the fat fucker, and even his pictures online have him a few pounds lighter than he was tonight.
Sent Sakho off for Wolves last season for getting pushed:
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/03/wolves-watford-sako-red-card

This compared to the Bradford game - in the second half v Bradford we were far better. But today we were far more consistent for 90 minutes.

I think that's an improvement!

Malone used to ref me in the salisbury league a few years back...

Disappointed sat watching the box in Cornwall..... Thought we had the points in the bag...

Unbelievably shit refereeing. How can you allow a corner whilst the defending team have an injured player lying on the pitch? We didn't particularly deserve to win but thought we had done enough to kill the game for 25 minutes to do so. Rarely seen a player lose his rag as much as Vale's number 6 managed to do about 3 times. Happy with Robert's performance tonight. Classy goal and some real stand out moments of skill and vision.

The linesman was also flagging for play to be stopped, but the referee ignored him.  As he's clearly not adhered to any of the above, can the club put in a complaint to the FA? Not that it will give us 2 points back, but might stop the overweight twat from refereeing at this level for a while.

He was completely inept from the start.  Vale's no 9 should have been booked far earlier than he was, too many niggles weren't dealt with yet he stopped play for Vale play acting.  Disgraceful.

Cooper suggests that the ref will be sent to Winchester until all of this has blown over.

It was almost as if he was acting out of spite at the time, and I'd say the same as a Vale fan because he was equally easily wound-up by their players.  I can fully imagine them being full of rage had he not had the final minute that he did.

I presume that's THE winchester? What else did he have to say?

Well no, the quote was that he'd be reffing Winchester Town next week, but it amused me to change it.

He thought we did tremendously tonight and the young players are gelling well.  

He also said we have the lowest budget in League 1.  Is that really the case?

It's possible we are down there - our revenue is limited as we sold off the catering and unlike a smaller club such as Fleetwood we don't have someone pumping in equity.  I'd imagine we've lowered our expected revenue as well this season with even more Northern teams and no games like Bristol City to increase the average gate.

In fact, looking at the league and the financing of some clubs, you could have us in the bottom 6 or so.  Vale are similar to us this year, they publicly suggested as much and teams like Colchester and Rochdale may be the same, but there are some "smaller" clubs with decent money being chucked in on top of gate revenue, like Peterborough and teams like Crewe get decent youth funding.

Bury, Scunthorpe and Fleetwood are all having external funds pumped in so we probably are near the bottom in terms of budget.
With catering sold what is are turnover, £2.5m from tickets, and another £500k from sponsorship and what not. Budget can only be 50% of turnover is it so that means we top out around the £1.5m mark which would be amongst the lowest....

Thoughts on the game.....
-
They didn't look capable of creating anything for themselves, and only scored with help from us for both of their goals- got to stop gifting them and giving away penalties.
- a reasonable performance, at least turned up for both halves and some slick passing moves BUT thought there was far too much backwards-sideways backwards-sideways passing and all too often slowed down play far too much after promising breaks. I'm in favour of possession football but it has to have a purpose, an end product.
- We were far too negative after taking the lead and defended too deep. Against such poor opposition we were more than capable of extending our lead and saving us from having to defend and sweat it out for the last 15 minutes,  with the resultant outcome !
- Robert was by far the best player on the pitch and looked class. Rogers was both villain and hero. Smith huffed and puffed but did very little of note (400 K ? Kerching !!) 
- I'm getting tired/fed up writing this so will end by saying the Ref was a complete Tosser BUT punching the ball like that was ridiculous, should always play to the whistle - gave them a very undeserved share of the points - Gotta learn from that and finish teams off to prevent crap from happening !

Thought we defended well as a unit last night. Sure, there will always be those now familiar individual mistakes but we weren't all over the place generally.

Great to see Branco really upping his game - no stupid fouls and, I think, no bookings. Very impressive.

Their player did go straight through him for the goal though.

http://www.skysports.com/footballleague/championship/video/9955856/swindon-2-2-port-vale (http://www.skysports.com/footballleague/championship/video/9955856/swindon-2-2-port-vale)

Looks like Williams with the handball.

According to the PV forum, Radio Stoke had it down as a definite penalty for a push on their player who ended up in the side netting.

But I thought that was precisely what clubs could not do these days? How does that work? If they are still able to do that, it makes a nonsense of the 60% of turnover rule (or however much it is).

Re. the penalty, regardless of the referee's parentage, the most basic of schoolboy errors is to not play to the whistle which is what has happened there . And never touch the ball with your hand unless you're taking a throw in. Simples innit!

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

Alas, this one appears to be a learning curve for Jordan Williams.

Don't forget the £4 million we received in player sales for Gladwin\Luongo. Which as a result should mean we have one of the larger budgets in the division.

I'd like to know where this money has gone and why we are not in a position to sign any more players until someone else has left. We seemingly have a smaller playing squad and with big earners like Ward, Foderingham & Williams all released our wage budget should also be smaller. Financially we are in a much better position than 2-3 years ago so why is Power as tight as a ducks a***?

I'm not saying go crazy and spend every penny we have but we should surely be able to match the squad size we had last season???

You missed all the money we're spending on a new training ground then? That's where the money received is going (which also won't be all up front etc. etc.)

We are a selling club. Most L1 and below clubs are. The money we get goes into running the club.

It annoys me when people think that cos we sell a player for x million, we should have x million to spend. Get a reality check.

It's not a 4m lump. And if it were then it would have been sunk into the new training ground and repaying Power for the hunks of money he has had to throw at the club since taking over. That is fair enough to me.

We're operating on an even, stable keel. That is more than we have been for god knows how many years. If it means a season of mediocrity before we can build the team again then I'm happy with that. Our early form is convincingly good enough that I don't think we're going to be worried about a bottom half finish. Frankly if we cut out some of the silly defensive mistakes and stop giving away posession cheaply we could well end up in the playoffs again. We need a couple more signings, true, but Power is not the guy to throw money away. He'll bide his time and wait for the right player at the right price.

I can't even be bothered to answer such questions.

Play the whistle...

Head the thing out....

Did He get booked for it? Deliberate handball. Could have been sent off.

Bollocks last minute goals always bring back nightmares of times when we seem to let them in nearly every game - penalties have to be stopped but definitely enough class in this young side - Power has based his budget on 7k so he should be happy - football is entertaining so hope this continues but it is Swindon... - Smith needs to be off loaded for as much cash as possible - keep the faith - I am....

 I cant believe people are so uninformed. It's like the Internet and the radio doesn't exist.

That was the worst display of refereeing I have seen...not that he got big decisions wrong (apart from the whole mess in the last minute), but he simply was not in control of the game from the outset.  In different circumstances, with different teams, it could have turned very nasty.  As has been said, nothing was done about Ikpeazu until far too late, and after several ridiculous, encounters with our players, beginning with the outrageous attempt to get Branco sent off, which happened right in front of the managers (and where I was sitting), I don't think Branco even touched him - if he did, Ikpeazu was backing into him, and he suddenly through himself on the floor clutching his eye.  The referee did nothing, despite the linesman drawing his attention to it.  But there were a lot of other niggling incidents - including one of our players falling over, and us getting a free kick....enough to outrage both sets of fans, which could have set off crowd trouble...I certainly heard stupid ones outside the ground going off to 'meet' the Vale fans.

As for the game....moments of excellence, yes, but even I (and I believe in the system) reckoned we were without the creative genius in midfield....Rogers, BOO and Williams all too quick to pass sideways and backwards, and Rogers especially guilty of trying to be too clever in dangerous positions.  He used the 'outside of the foot' pass several times, once or twice successfully and imaginatively, but too often (including for their first goal) really poorly.  BOO showed when he was let loose going forward how dangerous he can be, but too often he was statuesque on the wing passing straight back when he received the ball.  The problem with all that is that it doesn't give others the time to get into potentially creative positions.  Smith especially suffered from that, I feel...he just wasn't in the right place most of the time.  Robert seemed to be the one who really worked hard to get the ball and use it; and most of the incisive attacks came from Branco's moving forward with the ball and distributing well.

But it certainly wasn't a boring evening.....

Danny Wilson's sides specialists in this....the worst ever being 2-1 up at Charlton v 9 men in the 95 minute, and conceding to the centre half scoring from open play, another at the end v Wycombe at the CG, ending up 1-1, could be argued cost us automatic.

I believe in the bottom 2 leagues equity injections are allowed to be counted, and maybe even loans from directors - it's how we got by in 2012-2014 really, so we can hardly complain.  I don't really have any issues with equity investments being allowed as they don't saddle a club with immediate debt, and I am also content with our approach at the moment being a sensible one.  the fact we are talking with Glentoran about a cash purchase pretty much kills dead any notion that we won't invest when it is worthwhile.

As for the comments from someone else about vanishing money - it already vanished, over the first 2 years where Power put in that amount and took on a £2m+ debenture for Black.  We lost around £2m in the year before last alone!  I doubt we are even debt free yet.

Should pin that, that should stop the same old rubbish being spouted.

I blame the internet. People get their daily news outrage quota from Facebook.

I remember when I was on Facebook and people were sharing a post about Jamie Bulger's killers likely getting released to Australia. This was about a decade after they'd already been released. Yet the outrage and petition signing to prevent their release was in full flow.

BOO kept cutting inside and going nowhere. would be useful to use his pace occasionally. Is that unfair?

or do you mean giving him proper shit.

He's come from Arsenal where he would have been encouraged to cut back to keep possession and come here where we're encouraged to keep possession.  A little bit of coaching will soon see him knocking the ball past the full back and getting a cross in.

The two things that annoyed me last night were, as you say, Boo refusing to even try and take his man on and bomb it down the wing. But this could just be a confidence thing. He just needs to do it once and he'll try it a lot more.

The other is Smith's new-found-laziness. Last season he'd chase and chase the ball when their defence had it to keep the pressure up. Or maybe even run the length of the pitch to help defend if he hadn't seen the ball for a few minutes. That seems to have gone. Smith was relatively invisible.

Pretty simple explanation really.

A proportion of our fanbase are cunts who seem to go to games with the sole intention to slag off cooper and/or some players.

People are idiots.

It's my new motto in life.

I suspect with the best will in the world, its going to be an aspiration not to get injured before the window closes, he has made all the right noises but if he does want to head back north no one is going to buy him if h is injured.

Yes but also teams may cool on purchasing him if he hasn't scored or contributed effectively during August.  They'll simply lose interest, especially if some strikers in league two start showcasing themselves (who was the Exeter lad that impressed against is in the LC?) He's in danger of not getting his move, which if the case come Sept 1st, he should be busting a gut to then engineer a move in January.

I'm over the result now. I've just seen all the abuse that @official_stfc is getting. Jesus, it's too funny.

See the whole lot here:
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%40official_stfc

Or my highlights:
http://www.twitter.com/jaybox325

As far as 'disappearing' money is concerned have people forgotten the days when cash on the gate actually did  disappear on a weekly basis.

The times we spent estimating the attendance to then hear the 'official' number was always 2000 less than what it was.

I'm sure on last seasons goals return will get him a move - he's a proven L1 goal scorer

Oh i'm not disputing that fact, based on stats yes. Then again, you're only as good as your last match. I'm just saying if he knuckles down and chips in with a few goals then he'll get his move regardless.  Looking back at the images from last nights match he seemed to be enjoying himself,stranger things can happen in football.

The hand ball was even more ridiculous that I had imagined to to be, why the hell did he handle it!

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11758/9956085/controversial-decision-at-swindon

But my god that referee is one chunky unit!

It IS ridiculous, and of course he shouldn't have done it, but the complete ridiculousness of it underlines that he was obviously trying to take it out of play....totally bizarre.

It's nice to see a few quite balanced comments on the Vale fans forum, after a load of rubbish!!

I suppose you could say it was quite unsporting of Vale to take advantage of such a blunder, given most of their players seemed to acknowledge BOO requiring treatment.

It was unsporting for their player to take the corner kick in the first place.

I'm trying not to dwell on it too much as some decisions are bound to go in our favour, so these things should even themselves out. It could even be that poor decisions this season favour us overall and help get us over the line (whichever line that may be).

Yep we'd take it for sure if it was the other way round. I'd actually be delighted if we got that lucky after losing 7 on the trot to someone.

The fact that none of the Port Vale players even shouted for handball sums up the ridiculousness of the penalty award. 

It's a shame they couldn't have shown the same sportsmanship as Doncaster did to Bury the other week after they unfairly scored when passing back to the Bury keeper.  However, would we have done the same if the roles were reversed.  I somehow doubt it?

Port Vale at home is usually a nailed on 3 points though.  The last time they took anything from the County Ground was in 2005.  No wonder so many people had us on their accumulators.

Regarding the Adver "Sun-like headlines",  "Town in storm against Port" was one of the better ones of late.

Coops on Talksport about last night soon

Ref told Cooper he thought our lad was feigning injury.  Linesman has called for treatment, hence players confusion.  Regardless whether the ref had any right to think it, as the all is already dead, he really had no other option than bring someone on to assess the injury - last time I checked he wasn't a medical professional.

No if he was I suspect he would have advised himself to cut back on the fatty foods

To be fair Brendan Malone is probably well versed in medicine, fat bastard probably needs medical treatment every time he does the referees fitness test

I used to like Malone - it was him that denied Shrewsbury a stone wall penalty at the CG in 2012 when we beat them 2-1, the match when Graham Turner lost it afterwards.

28 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlevtG7BK5g

I miss Turner, he really dislikes us for some reason.

Turner's intense hatred of us was a marvelous thing to behold.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

When you're playing up front on your own (on the basis Byrne and Robert were wide) you can't close down in the same way - you need to hold your position that much more and leave it to the others to close down.

To be a little fair to a Smith, he's not a 100 percent match fit yet, did not play more than 45 mins during preseason, therefore think he was not chasing a awful lot, especially as he knew he was likely to be playing the full 90 mins

Frigby is spot on. He closed when it was realistic to do so but the lone role demands that he stays central and stops anyone playing straight through the middle. Also, pressing on his own would be moronic stuff, even Vale's cb could play around him.

Well worth watching right to the end!