Thetownend.com

How many games have been worth the entrance fee this season?
Me  1     V Bristol Rovers and it got called off at half time.

And then had to pay again ;)

If you buy a ticket to football demanding entertainment value football is probably the wrong sport for you!

I'm not sure 'entertained' is the way I'd explain expectation.
Winning is what counts.
This year has been the shittest I can remember. Fact.

Its also fucking pointless supporting a club who are happy just to exist. I need hope. Give me some hope Power, you cunt.

Your not wrong

It's a sport not a soap opera - not such why anyone would expect entertainment or go for that reason

Well i'm watching Newcastle v Leeds and am entertained.

Go and support Newcastle then

You don't really get the idea of supporting a football team do you?

Fucking patronising idiot. I watched today's game. Was I entertained? Subjective TBH. I watched some of the NUFC v LUFC game, was I entertained? Subjective.

I could answer yes to both and no to both. I could answer yes to either one and no to either one. My loyalty is to STFC. From about '73, have I been entertained at every home and away game I've paid to see? Does not stop me watching other clubs play dies it? If your answer is yes then why do I and millions of people subscribe to skysports?

Go to the back of the class and write a 100 lines.

One can support a club and watch another and be entertained by the club they are not ficticously married too.

If you're treated like fans, and allowed to act like fans, then the entertainment comes on it's own.

If you're treated like a customer, then act like a customer, then it's not unexpected that people start questioning the £20+ a pop shite 'entertainment'  and spend their money elsewhere instead.

This entertainment thing seems to be a new thing that has come into football in the last few years.
'The Swindon Way, The West Ham Way, The Derby Way' all statements I've heard on the last couple of seasons that never used to exist.
Fans used to go to football to watch there team win, no one cares if it was route one or total football. Yet in the past few years I think sky or other tv stations have convinced supporters there is a certain way to play and win.
There isn't.
It's about winning, it's about the result and the 3 points.
The sooner fans start to remember this, the better.

Football is first and foremost about winning but I think there are then two schools of thought - it's ONLY about winning and it's about bringing something EXTRA such as winning with style.  That battle of ideas was nowhere more evident than the battles between STFC and Cambridge United back in Hoddle's day.  The West Ham way is virtually copyrighted and has been in existence since the 1960s. I happen to like the Swindon way but this has turned into too narrow a belief in sterile possession for the sake of it that achieves neither style nor results.  The idea that you go to football and expect entertainment and value for money is ludicrous for the fan.  Drama is a real bonus, sure, if it goes your way but not knowing what you're in for is part of it.  Style does not necessarily produce more drama or entertainment but over a season it is something I like to see STFC try to produce. Yesterday was more than ever about the result and nothing else.  I would have been delighted with the soul destroying spectacle we endured had there been a first minute or97 th minute winner

Interesting points,i maybe should have swapped entertainment for interest.I've seen plenty of poor football over the years but the whole matchday experience is at an all time low for me.The slow pace doesn't get the crowd going so there's little to no atmosphere from which is one of the larger supported clubs in this division.
I've been watching since 1979 as a regular,saw a few games before eg.v Fulam with Besty so i think Theakston's response is a bit wide of the mark.
When i go to games i want to get the impression that the players are lucky to be that gifted to be able to play football for a living.Sadly most of the time i think they haven't got a clue and i could do better myself,i'm 53.

I don't think it's a particularly new thing, I think it started with Wimbledon.

The media turned their noses up at the success they had (for a small club) because of their style.

Same was true of Cambridge under Beck, those old enough to remember will recall how much we  took the moral high ground over them when we had Hoddle.

As has been posted, football is about winning. Being a good coach/manager is about finding the best way to win the players you have.

Sadly, I don't think our players are actually gifted enough to be playing football for a living. How some of them still do is beyond me.

Why did I think of Nathan Thompson after reading that.

If you don't go to football for entertainment then what do you go for?
Even if the meeting up with friends, having a beer etc is what it's about for you, you're still going for entertainment.
If you're not enjoying it then do something else.

If we play shit on Monday & sneak a winning goal in injury time I will go home happy.

If we play great football & concede a last minute goal to lose us points I will go home grumpy.

Have a word

Seriously? Cardiff and Leeds have scouted Thompson this season so he must have something there, he does make a fair few silly errors of judgement but you can't fault his commitment.

'Entertainment' is a subjective term. If I'm watching a game as a neutral, entertainment would be observing some great, passing football, lots of incidents and goals.

If I'm watching my team, I'm more entertained when we win. I would suggest that most supporters of lower league teams aren't entertained as much as they'd like by their teams; does that mean we should all give up and follow the top half a dozen in the premiership? Following a team, properly following them, is as much about the lows as it is the highs. Not fucking off when the 'product' doesn't meet your expectations. Personally I know I enjoy our (relative) successes more, as I've been subject to our abysmal failures too.

Thompson is one of the few players you feel should be playing football for a living.

Barry, Boo, Thomas, Brophy and the like less obvious

This.

I have never gone to a Swindon game for entertainment on the pitch, I go to watch us get a win, if we play well then great but we rarely do, even under PdC it wasn't great entertainment but it got results which is what I want most.

Arsenal fans finally showing entertainment isn't enough on its own, and rightly so.

I want effort and commitment.... Too much to ask this season.

Football clubs will never keep everyone entertained/happy as there's always the loser fans who doom-monger their way through even the best of times.

I do think that football fans are more demanding these days and I also think that football clubs, especially the lower league ones, struggle to cater the needs of the modern football fan ('modern' doesn't equate to young, the mentality spreads across the age groups).

We have the upper hand and clubs like Swindon Town can no longer shrug their shoulders and say 'you'll be back' because people aren't coming back anymore. They're not as committed to one club anymore, they're going to other games or watching football at home/pub.

Not sure if there is any substance to it, but I've heard mention that Thompson has already agreed to join Sheffield United this summer.

If Nathan Thompson goes to The Championship then he'll be back in L1 within a season be it with us for someone else.

He's within his right to give it a go, obviously.

Not sure hes Championship quality but with better coaching and better players around him he could well still improve.

Wonder where Kasim will end up

Forest Green. He can sit on the bench with Traore and Robert.

I was going to bite at the initial derogatory comment about Thompson, but thought better of it. This one has much more scope for proper deiscussion.

Thompson probably makes the same amount of mistakes as every other 3rd div defender, but the way we've played most of the time during the last couple of seasons (building from the back) has meant that everything has gone mainly through him first, with little cover as the other defenders are spread wide. So any mistakes he does make are far more noticeable and sometimes costly than most. Ask any other defender in this league to play the same way, shouldering so much responsibility, you'd probably get similar results.

To say that League One football is above him is totally ridiculous and indicative of the frustrations of following a team in the relegation battle. Everyone gets labelled as total dogshit. Don't get me wrong, some of our lot are, but not all of them. I'd put Branco down in a similar category (although he's much more limited than Nathan). He's a pretty bog standard League One defender, the last 4 matches where we've stopped fucking about at the back, kind of bears that out.

I should imagine NT will slot in nicely into a lot of team's back 4's next year, maybe even a league higher.

 The entertainment value at the CG this season has been very poor to say the least.  Of the 22 league games, only in 4 games have more than 1 goal been scored by Town, for a total of 11 goals.  The other 18 games have also totalled 11 goals for Town.

With us ??...Nathan Thompson could well be retired before we see league one again.

Yeah absolutely, he can play at a higher level although I am afraid it won't be with us, if we do indeed go down then he will easily find a L1 or even Championship club.

As you say he a lot of our moves do indeed start with him, for me his major fault is that he is a bit hot headed in tackles in the box which I think it wouldn't take too much to get out of him doing certainly with better players around him covering, as with us he does tend to be our last man.

He should move on regardless of our relegation/survival. He needs to see if he can do it at a higher level/better prospect club.

Unless he stubs his toe.
In my opinion,he is a tadge overrated.