Thetownend.com

So I'll probably get shot down for doing this on the day, seeing as it being done the day before worked last time... but.......

2-1 Town, Ajose & Beeks.

Town is their real danger man today. We need to stop him scoring.

3-1 to Swindon

 8)

I was going to do it last night but I fell asleep.. we are doomed  :no:

Ah, so it's your fault for NOT doing it, rather than mind for doing it.

I did the last 2 matchday threads so yes.

If we lose, I shall retire from posting matchday threads.

Was in the gym this morning on the rowing machine and Keith Hill walked past me.

True story.

1-1

Keep the mini unbeaten run going.

I like Hill, wouldn't mind him here.

To Branco or not to Branco, that is the question.

It's all about attention to detail. If you can't be bothered why should the players. This is going to end badly and it will ruin my Christmas and it's all down to you and your sloppiness.
4 - 0 to Rochdale.

Ahhhh. I thought he meant the referee Keith Hill. No idea why!

0-2

442 with Turnbull at left back and Branco in for BOO apparently.

I feared this. Can see the logic, but there's something to be said for sticking with a winning team. Jordan is no left back....Mendez-Laing is lurking   :(

No Kasim then hopefully

2-0 win

Agree with Reg, BOO can be OK with a decent run, Turnbull is our best CB. Shouldn't have changed that back four.

              Vigeroux
Barry  El Abd  Branco  Turnbull
               Kasim
        Thompson Robert
             Gladwin
           Obika Ajose

Attacking line up

Not bad on paper.

Must be bloody frustrating for Wes Thomas.

Not a bad line up that. COYR!

Seems quite even so far according to the BBC, not much in it

we have floodlight upgrade visual... this is not a drill, this is not a drill

Does anyone have a player account I can use for the game? Cheers.

Rochdale down to 10

I thought he'd sent kassim off! not sure what it was for, a stamp maybe?

Yep, Kasim made the tackle and the Rochdale player followed through onto his leg.

On the plus side Kasim has been getting stuck in so far

1-0!

Great team goal apparently!

2-0!

2-0!

Fucking hell Town, get in!

Get in, 2-0! Was worried this was going to be a frustrating 0-0/0-1 when they went down to 10. Dale still dangerous when they go forward

Massive deflection. Is the luck changing?

disappointing performance by the floodlights. bright in the middle, dimmer towards goal. no consistency

Just picked up talk talk. He is pretty fucking light tbf

I mean there's a shadow by the town end goal flickering as the floodlights wobble in the wind . it's not terrible but a disappointing signing

Is it a shadow of our former team?

2-1

Looked like we were trying to play out time, woeful

Oh dear. I have a bad feeling about this. :-(

Does Gladwin realise that there are other players on the pitch

Get in, 3 wins in a row, 4 from 5 in the league.
Easy this football malarkey.

That was nervous!

Wrong scorers, but I'll take that..

Now only 9 points of the playoffs  :wink:

Seriously though, decent turn around in form!.. Remember when the Matchday Threads had more than 4 pages at full time?!

Another 3 points on the board. Lovely jubbly.

Wow it was a win but it feels like a defeat that. On the ropes against 10men

Four pages! Is that a record?

Table looks a lot better than a few games ago, good stuff.

Shopping?

Well, that was like pulling teeth!  A poor game not helped by the wind but we were poor, credit to Rochdale they never stopped coming at us but we were our own worst enemy, struggled to pass and our strikers were well shackled by the much larger defenders.  I guess frustrating is the word I am looking for, we lost possession so often and I lost count how many times we lost possession from our own throw-in!  They were quite happy to foul us to stop us and the ref could have been a bit harder on them but considering they played with 10 men for 80 minutes I guess we were slightly fortunate to get the win - and but for a howler towards the end when their guy shot over the bar when through they would have got a point!  A win is a win regardless of the circumstances but we will play a lot better for no reward I fear!

Yay

wat

We aren't going to win any awards for style and grace. In truth it was a slightly disappointing performance against 10 men.

But ultimately, given our recent league position, 3 points is all that matters. We have to be careful not to take our foot off now - the escape job ain't done yet.

When you're in a relegation battle, a win is what you want, and you can't really expect it to be pretty, especially in difficult conditions.  We're giving ourselves a chance of getting out of the mire, still a lot to do.

That was terrible watching - really poor stuff.

But you can't argue with another 3 points. Thought Dale were a real bunch of cloggers and if memory serves, they were the same last season, too.

Ajose and Obika were dreadful today. Gladwin looked classy a couple of times and at least Kasim put some effort in. I'm changing my mind about Barry - convinced he was the new Agombar but he has got some quality.

Must say I like listening to Lingy - honest appraisal of the game with no bullshit.

Playing badly and winning is a good thing to have

Great win today, 9 points in 3 games under Lingy. Thought Kasim was superb today, well worth his place in the team on that performance.

That was an abysmal performance against 10 men. Three points shouldn't gloss over the fact that we were outfought and outplayed in the second half.

Not denying it was a poor performance, but if not for the red card we may have won with a good performance. It is, as they say, a funny old game.

It baffles me that people aren't happy with us winning because we played poorly. How desperate to moan are you people?

In the past when we've played brilliantly but lost the same people have moaned that we're not winning.

Indeed. We're four points off the drop zone after our best run of wins all season/most of last. Think where we'd be without those wins. It's hardly like we're not playing well and 2nd. Any win will do. Well done Mr Ling. Long may it continue.

Only Two points away from mid-table, Four off relegation. Almost unthinkable when Ling took over. Might not have been pretty but we're winning games again, not to mention how poor we were after every 2 week break we had last season. Incredible cynicism to be anything other than delighted at this stage.

Wow. I did next expect all these comments and reaction. I thought we played the conditions superbly today. First half hour was an utter snooze fest but I wouldn't say we were bad. Just not able to find the forward pass to unlock. 2nd half the intensity to get the ball back was brilliant, thought although edge f the seat stuff the back 4 passed it round brilliantly, I could only count 2 defensive pass errors all match. We should have scored more on the break 2nd half but the last pass wasn't there on numerous occasions.

Best game I have seen Brad Barry play, thompson was class. Against the wind the only way to play is on the floor, regardless of 11 or 10 men it's a hard task when they are fighting for the draw. We deserved to win and another massive 3 points.

Thought Thompson was poor today by his standards. Agree with point about Barry though

I think the frustrating thing was that we spent the first 10-15 mins of the second half not even trying to expose a team with 10 men, and the they scored.

That said, we won & the three points are what really matter

It wasn't pretty, but we're in a relegation scrap.  We did what we had to and beat the team in front of us.  I was expecting a slightly easier task after Rochdale went down to 10 men.  Until we scored, the 1+ advantage was barely noticeable.  But I did think that over the 90 mins we deserved the 3 points.

No special mentions from me.  It wasn't that kind of game really.  But the team performance, to my eyes anyway, was far from dire and a huge improvement on what was being served up a few months ago.

I do wish people would stop saying we're in a relegation scrap. We're just 2 points adrift of 12th place. Does that mean every team up to 12th, which includes a team in the top half, is also in a relegation scrap? Or does the extra 2 points make all the difference? We might be in a relegation scrap toward the end of the season but then, considering we're just 9 points of the playoffs and it's not even January yet, we might also be mounting a promotion push come the end of the season. or maybe we'll just be looking at mid-table obscurity.

Bah, what am I thinking. It MUST be the negative. There can be no other option (although there really is).

We are only 4 points above the drop zone, you always seem to look towards the positive, some look towards the negative.

Did you miss the bit I mentioned about mid-table? We're just 2 points adrift from that. Do you think Sheff Utd fans, with just 2 more points more than us, think they're in a relegation scrap? Why does it always have to be so black and white?

Concentrate on reaching 52 points first. See where we are when we reach it then maybe mount a playoff push. Survival is most important first hand IMO

9 points off as it is, so quite possible really coyr

Within 1 or 2 games we could be closer to the playoffs than the relegation zone. If that were to happen, would we then be in the promotion race, or would people be saying "there's a long way to go yet"? Personally, I'd go for the latter.

Fucking hell. We weren't world beaters but that's why we are where we are in the table.

Admittedly the second half was far more nervy than it should have been, but I've seen a lot, lot worse this season. We actually put some decent moves together and I like the way Ling's got us playing. His subs made sense and I think individual errors cost us more than anything - shout out to Kasim who wasn't as bad as he has been but was probably the first player I've ever seen turn his back on a throw in.

Things didn't come off for Ajose today but I thought Beaks was a real nuisance for them, can't believe he's getting criticism.

coyr

Why?  We are, and will be until we get 52 points. What happens in Jan when we lose Louis and possibly Gladwin is going to be crucial. 

Sheffield United fans will be mindful of no win in 6, needs to turn around pronto, otherwise they'll continue to slide into the mix.

Lets see where we are after the Christmas games. If we can keep this sort of form going against the likes of Gillingham and Burton, get past 30 points ASAP then look further up the table. January we have got home games against Crewe, Barnsley and
Southend and away at Port Vale and Sheff Utd so will have a big say on the direction of our season.

And until the playoffs is out of reach, we're in a promotion race?

Which is more positive than a relegation scrap.
For what it's worth, I agree with you, but some people like to panic.

Burton and Coventry haven't reached 52 points either, should they be worried about relegation?

Oh dear couple of wins and the big balls come out. We're 4 points above the drop zone, I'd say its a bit premature to say anything about upwards. And I'm always more the positive. Lets see where we are in 7-8 games time.

That's a strawman, nobody has said anything about 'upwards' other than it might possibly happen at some point in the future.  And why is it not premature to say anything about 'downwards'? Not being pessimistic does not necessarily mean being optimistic. There's this binary attitude among football fans that simply baffles me at times.

Not a dig at you personally.

This time last season we won 3-0 at Meadow Lane, Notts were happily in the PO spots, with a couple of games in hand on most. Went down.

Same shit, different year with him, you know that.

Can't comment in the context of today's game but the recent good run has clearly brought us some albeit limited breathing space. A few weeks back our net take required from the remaining games to get to 52 points was c40%, we're now around a 1/3rd so healthier. We've hauled ourselves out of the mire of October so I don't think we're in a relegation scrap at the moment, ie, we're not fighting for our lives as we were beginning to six weeks ago, equally there's not really any room for any return to a concerted run of bad form.

Anyway can't argue with the direction of travel over the last few games, don't see why we should fear taking on anybody in this league based on what I've seen thus far. So for these reasons I've taken 13/2 on us to finish this season in the top half. There, that's us fucked then!

Probably my comment that sparked this, and I stand by it.  We've put a nice little run together since Lingy took over, but - as W Yorks says - it's bought us breathing space, and that's it.  Three or four games ago we were right in amongst the bottom four, and in another three or four games we could be back there.

Give me a 10 point cushion over 21st place and then I'll stop worrying about the relegation scrap.  Work in progresd, but not there yet.

You're not in a relegation fight in December, although a few weeks ago we looked down already which contradicts that I suppose.
Awful division this year so mid table is achievable. That said, I think the squad is poor so we could still go the wrong way.
A few wins or losses on the bounce can make a huge difference either way.

One thing is for sure, this is the worst L1 for a while. I don't actually think there is a good team in it. Most of our sides last 5-6 years would be miles out in front by now if they were playing here and now

The team we had last season would piss this league.

To be fair, if Burton were called Wolves/Norwich/or even dare I say City (ok maybe a step too far) then we'd probably be saying what a good team they are. They're 5 points clear so deserve a bit of credit. Ok, they might not stay there but have to give them credit for what they've done so far. Stuffing the Pikey's today shouldn't be sniffed at either.

What the f is the point in watching football if you've already decided on some sort of statistical threshold for success? I can't think of anything more boring.

Sport is supposed to be unpredictable, and Blatter/s aside, it usually is. Surely that's the whole point. I'm happy when we win, I'm not consulting a spreadsheet.

Haven't read back.

A win is a win....after the shit luck we have had... I'll take that today.

Should really of destroyed them....fluffed chances and in the end we hung on.

Cant bear Rodgers but he had a great game last week, so disappointed to see him dropped for Kasim.

Super John went a bit missing today, I think he should of gone off for Hylton.

Special mention to the utter shit officials whose only praise is that they were consistently bad for both sides.....obvious free kicks being ignored.

Roll on Shrewsbury. Four in four?!

We're going up as fucking Champions!!!!

Job done today. One of those wins that we'll look back on when we go up and say that we had to win ugly sometimes too.

Joking aside, if you discount their goal and Andrew's miss, they didn't trouble us. We could have had more - Gladwin should have buried his chance after his run in the second half. Obika should have scored from a similar position. I thought the back four looked comfortable, Robert deserved his MoTM and Kasim did put himself about, even if we didn't quite see the 2014/15 version (who wouldn't have played the through ball to Calvin Andrew, for example). Very quiet performances (at least on the ball) from Louis T and Ajose. Maybe there is something in what Ling said at the end - we were poor on the ball, but a lot better off it than we have been. That goes largely unseen.

Most importantly though, the first replacement of the floodlight lamps since 1992 (apparently) - maybe they looked at them shortly after that Tranmere game. The middle of the pitch was a lot brighter. It's just either end that has stayed in the gloom. Maybe they'll replace the rest of the lamps in 2038.

Blimey, their manager wasn't happy with the referee was he?

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/35013733

Then again he said we were an outstanding team so what does he know.....

I had a look at the Rochdale forum earlier and I think they all agreed it was a straight red, and that their manager was wrong for thinking otherwise.

Thankfully I saw the game like someone else. Also agreeing with the off the ball work. 2nd half we chased absolutely everything and forced them into mistakes time and time again. I lost count how many times we either intercepted, tackled or forced them into a panic long ball which went out for a goal kick. The lack of tenacity drives me up the wall but today could not fault it and everyone even kasim put in a shift.

Btw, don't know if it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but what was said when Andrew came on? "Don't know who that is"? Or something? Decent.

He said, "I don't know who's come off".

We made hard going of things in the second half, but 3 points is all that matters.

During that run of defeats if we had only managed to be poor instead of abysmal we would be in shouting distance of the POs.

As it stands the Jan window will be important for us. Need a permanent CF - love it to be Wes, but doubtful - sign El Abd on permanent, bin a couple of loanees and try and get Jordan Stewart some game time.

We're still not great but it'll do for mid table

So in summary of the last few pages, we're challenging for the play offs but also not clear of relegation. We played poorly, but played well against the elements. Have I missed anything else?

It would be hilarious from a Sheffield Utd perspective if young Nigel took Burton up from here. Mind you his 'long standing media commitments' prevented him from taking charge yesterday???

At the end of the season this result maybe largely forgotten. Even the best teams in the PL win "ugly" or have "lucky" wins. Whoever the team is the consistently successful teams mix it up during the season with the results they get and the manner in which they were achieved. As has been said it's 3 points. Three more towards the magic 50 to avoid the drop. Lets face it before Ling took over the doomsters amongst us were the most verciferous,mnow hopefully you can breath a bit more easily.

For much of the second half we were better without the ball than with it, which in a way isn't that worrying when you have a lead.

Really frustrating giving the ball away so readily when it looked as though we were capable of scoring a third.

Kasim had a very good game and got stuck in, but nearly blew it with a lazy backwards pass towards the end.

Pleased that Barry is looking more like a div 3 player.

Another three points and importantly putting another side between us and the relegation zone. Feeling a lot more positive than a few weeks ago, and thankfully this division is full of average to rubbish teams this season.

Building a solid base and making us difficult to beat was always the priority when Ling came in. Fluid attacking play can wait until we've built a safer cushion for ourselves from the bottom of the table.

Off-the-ball movement when we don't have the ball has definitely been a vast improvement, though off-the-ball movement when we do have the ball still has a long way to go.

For some reason, I've noticed, whenever we start to pass it around defence, all our midfielders and forwards drift irresistibly away to line up like statues along the opposition back-line.

Only my second game of season, despite being a season ticket holder.  Real mixture of a game, hence I think the widely varying reactions.  The above is probably the best summing up for me. 

Can see why Hill was so annoyed about the sending off.  I expect the highlights will show he went in with studs up and the ref was technically correct but it wasn't a malicious or even reckless challenge, the ball was pinging around in midfield, people were sliding in and he just got unlucky.

Wouldn't be surprised to sign El Abd. But also wouldn't be surprised to sign Ling's son from LO. As for CF, I suspect Michael Smith and 'Him' may come back into the fold.

Think Barry deserves a bit of credit, he's still got a lot to learn, and is prone to a mistake, but at least she's shown that he can do some decent things as well....so isn't, as was feared, this years Agombar.

I was hoping for a clean sheet yesterday, given their reduction to 10 men and  recent lack of goals....we haven't had one at the CG yet this season.

I must of been at a different game. We looked like the side with 10 men. The crowd was getting very frustrated in the second half and letting their feelings show. So where all this positivism is coming from, Lord knows?
Still to much pissing about. Get the fucking ball and go for it. Stop the Nancy boy stuff.

We were playing fast triangles at the back like it was a training session. They looked full of confidence and weren't making mistakes. The crowd can't handle that, begging for it to be hoofed and then with the wind it comes straight back or out for a throw in to dale. If anyone thought 2nd half would be easy they are just not understanding the game. In open grounds like the county ground the wind can win or lose you a game. If we played the opposite way round and the halfs went the same I think everyone's view would be the complete opposite. I don't care it if it was against 10 men if you have the wind in your face and the opposion pumped for every ball it's hard. We managed very well, had numerous counter attacks which is the only way to play it and should have scored more.

When under pressure from attackers pissing around with it in the back in those conditions was asking for trouble. Which Kassim nearly provided. Much rather a hoof even if it goes out of play.

Pissing around with it at the back when 2-0 up, against 10 men and little pressure from attackers is just sensible.

There were times when we did both.

Yes I got that wrong (Agombar). Still no idea if he'll make it as I don't see the defensive side of his game being that good. But he's definitely has a good couple of games going forward.

Can't see 'him' ever coming back into the fold
I'd assumed he'd done something after the challenge. A stamp or something?
Then again I first though he'd sent Kasim off!

Although it was crap from Kasim, what was Rodgers doing play a ball like that inside in the 89th minute. As a cm I wouldn't want that passed to me, should have just lobbed it down the line.

You are ever so strong and manly John  :girlgiggle:

Just seen that on the highlights. Gladwin gets stick for appearing to be lazy but he produces some magical moments as well. The run was utter class.......just a pity the finish let him down.

should have passed it though.

Could someone paste a link cheers. For some reason sky website keeps hanging on me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPOC-Z0pSQs

Good first half. We tried out best to lose it, but held on to the 3 points.

Good enough for me 😊

I nearly stopped going because of the lack of commitment, but yesterday I was well pleased with the fighting spirit shown. I agreed with the team selection, and there were a few excellent pieces of skilled slick penetrative passing which I hope we see more of.  Altogether a satisfying day.

Andrew's miss at the end was satisfyingly awful. Amazing he's still playing at this level.

1 thing that is starting to piss me off is Kasim continually taking free kicks in shooting positions. Would much rather see Gladwin have a dip. Kasim's track record is poor. Crewe at home & Chesterfield away last season are the only one's I can remember him scoring & the latter of those was down to shit goalkeeping!!

Rodgers is our best free kick taker.

Maybe a ground out 2-1 will be better in the long run than if had pushed on from 2-0 and repeated the Chesterfield score. If we can tough it out in those conditions then that should help us pick up points. I noticed our pitch is in really good nick compared with those Oop North on the Sky highlights so grinding out results in bad conditions will be crucial.

Got to agree. Whoever looks after our pitch deserves an award. It's a fantastic surface.

No doubt about that but hopefully he won't be in the side often enough to take them.

It's a shame you can't just bring him on to take them, like the set piece guy in gridiron.

What was the general consensus on the new floodlights? Clearly they are much improved on what we had before but I got the impression that the centre of the pitch was much brighter than the goalmouth areas. Although I couldn't decide if this was how it's supposed to be, lights not in correct positions or just a trick of the light (excuse the pun).

I think my son was up on the gantries on Saturday morning. I put up a brand spanking new three LED spotlight thingy in his room on Friday afternoon when he was at work. Set it up perfectly for lighting his desk/computer, bed (for reading) and sofa (for wanking probably). Looked in this evening and they are now directed into useless areas.

in some ways the new lights were worse than the old ones.

there was slight shadow, definitely dimmer in the town end goal area. when the floodlights swayed the shadow flickered. either this never happened with, or was masked by the  dim nature of the old ones!

the centre third of the pitch looked good though.

wonder if the new ones can be further adjusted, or if that's it - you'd think they'd have done it already.

Centre of pitch was great, appear to be shadows in both penalty areas - just need a tweak or two I guess, but a definite improvement on the old ones - Reg will will be pleased . . . . or not!

Final adjustments to the floodlights are being made this week apparently - they now exceed championship standard requirement.

oooh, good stuff. just in time for our late charge ;)

Very happy Ronnie  :)  I love the floodlights. I'd like them to be listed, as there can't be many left.

Completely agree Reg, I think that they are great.

Here's some more for your delectation:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/tagged/floodlights (http://www.geograph.org.uk/tagged/floodlights)

I see this thread becoming as epic as the trains thread.

Ooooooh, that reminds me. Thanks FH  :)

Like every other thread on here in the last year or so then

Is that why the lights were on tonight?

Nobody's home.

Oh god what have you done..

I kicked off the trains thread again  :wacko:

Sorry

I was genuinely excited about the new lights when I heard about it on the radio pre-match. It's a bit like the dimmer switch has been turned down in each penalty area, but it'll be great for turgid midfield battles.

Don't suppose anybody has ever considered multi coloured, disco ball style floodlights. Could really add something.