Thetownend.com

Is this the latest ever on a matchday that the matchday thread has started?  It says a lot about the general apathy surrounding our club these days.

Apparently, Ian Dury, founder member of The Blockheads, attended the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe in the 1960s, while comedy star and tax-dodger Jimmy Carr was there alongside rugby player, general irritant and Question of Sport team captain Matt Dawson. Lauded poet TS Eliot taught at the school in the early 20th century, while we're on the subject. Not to be outdone, John Hampden Grammar School there boasts inventive chef/annoying prat Heston Blumenthal and legendary fantasy author Terry Pratchett among its pupils.  Well screw them because we had Billie Piper at Braden Forest!!  :)

Our dismal home form may be affected/assisted by "Storm Brian", so I'm going for 0-5 at half time and 5-5 at full time, with both keepers getting hattricks.

If we score first, 2-1 Swindon. Otherwise a defeat

3-2 for a wind-assisted Town

21/10 for a home win. Wycombe 5/4 favs. Sad indictment, but I’ve taken some of the 21/10 with the hope we surely can’t carry on being turd at home.

Scrappy affair 2-1 town

Wycome are 6 games unbeaten with 4 wins and 2 draws, only suffered 2 defeats in the league all season, unbeaten away from Adams Park so far with 4 wins and 2 draws.

We have had 2 wins and 3 defeats in the last 6 home games.

I don't think we have enough about us for the win today, 2-1 defeat in front of a paltry 5,524 fans.

3 games in a week and on current form at home, can't see it being very positive.

Now that the thread is back in its rightful home there will only be a nailed on victory. Please be more careful next time, the домовые were not happy last Tuesday.

Harry Smith starts

4-1 Town

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMqd-XSWAAEn70v.png:large)

2-0 Town (Goddard,Lancashire)

Yay, Harry Smith

Yessss!

Poor game, good goal.

That’ll do nicely :)

Not one for the purists!  Smith will be valuable in the second half holding it up if he can against the wind.  Very scrappy but we have had a few clear cut opportunities nearly all involving Smith.  He doesn't look as busy as Norris but he is a handful for a defender and our hit it long style makes good use of him.  For the first time we have also seen some flick ons which give Anderson a chance of getting in behind.

good goal, unsurprisingly shit game in wind. Smith should have put us 2 up

Well fuck me there's only a few handfuls in the Town End and how many have Wycombe bought? 10? (I know they don't travel too well) Decent goal. Relatively dour game. At least the sun's out there now and again. I know there's not a lot to shout or cheer about but we are winning so I'd like to hear our fans getting behind the lads to push on in the 2nd half. COYR!! :pint: :pint:

7114 isn't a bad gate considering. COYR

yessss!  good win,  crap game. who cares.

good work from Anderson after a disappointing Tuesday too.

Into the playoff places too.

Good defensive effort under the wind, restricted them to far less than we managed.  Not sure on McDermott, he seemed to be marking Anderson and he dwells for far too long on the ball.  He also loses his position.  Shame because you still think he is a whisker away from creating something.

Smith did what we have been missing, acted as a target to aim for.  He isn't great as a player but it sticks from time to time and creates a better option for the other forwards.

I'd call that a very good gate...considering half term, inconsistent form etc.

Why are we always one of the last games to finish?

I find that really surprising.  Form feels way too inconsistent right now to challenge for promotion.  Something to be said, clearly, for our very low tally of draws (or draw).

And somehow 4 points off the autos!

Kid a quid boosted the crowd today

I was thinking the same thing. A bit of consistency and who knows?

Yeah much better win lose win win lose than loads of shitty draws. Just feels too inconsistent though

Currently in Australia.  Debated staying up to watch on ifollow, but was too tired.  Woke suddenly, checked the time and wondered whether to check the score for fear of then lying awake feeling peeved.  Glad I did and I can now go back to sleep happy. 

Was it a good/rubbish game?

Cos the ball is always out of play?

Jack Rider and the Coconuts...Gareth Ainsworth on vocals, DF on tambourine  8)

Good win for Town.
I thought Smith did well considering the wind, took his goal nicely. Linganzi came into the game more as the game broke up, I didn't notice Dunne too much. Preston was awesome at the back and Anderson put in a great shift.
I thought we'd use the bench a bit more than Mulling for McD, but WW never reeeeeally looked like scoring. Gape was a diving little shitbag with a penchant for foul throws, El Abd was physical and the ref was a mentalist.
I particularly enjoyed WW's outrage at some time wasting, given that was their game plan for the first half.

Hardly one for the purists but the caveat is that the weather was abysmal.

We had the wind first half and Smith scored a great volley in off the post from a Taylor centre. Their keeper then made a couple of decent saves as we turned the screw. I've never seen a team time waste so much in the first half as Wycombe but the wind was playing such a part that you can understand why they did it.

Second half we were pushed back but defended really well and Charles Cook kept them at bay. Wycombe had one shot on target that I remember. Akinfenwa with a shot well saved.

Thought Anderson deserved his man of the match, he was excellent and ran himself into the ground, as did Smith. Preston played well and we defended brilliantly.

Not going to feature much on the end of season DVD but 3 points is 3 points.

  A big win. Something we haven't had for a while, is a side, who you feel might grind a result in adverse conditions.

As autumn turns to winter this might prove handy.

Great to get the win against a team with such a strong away record. Looking forward to Port Vale next week, although they've now won three in a row including away at Exeter today!

Win one lose one gets you very close at the end of the season and we have won two more, so we are on target for about 77 points, which would be more than enough for play offs.

Hopefully their new manager bounce will finish next week.

As in previous games, we worked very hard to compete and get back behind the ball quickly.  I like the style and it makes us very hard to beat with the latest lineup.

1) You've got that the wrong way round
2) It wasn't quid a kid, it was U11s free with S/T holders
3) It had an impact (600 I think they announced) but gate was still OK even allowing for that. Wycombe brought a fair few, mind

Don't know the weather had much to do with the "not one for the purists" bit (although it clearly affected the game), that's just how we play down here. And it's kind of effective, thought we were good value for the win, on another day could have scored a couple. Best (only?) bit of skill from either side was Akinfenwa doing his juggling seal act and getting a decent shot off second half, good job keeper was alert to save it as it would have been a good goal.

Thought we really battled and fought for those three points, something that has been missing at home recently.  Smith and Anderson gave their defence a torrid time, should have been 3 up at half time, rode our luck a little in the second half but overall were deserved winners.

I thought we defended well, but were dire (again) going forward. Smith took his goal very well but offered fuck all else as a target man - I liked andersons movement but he was never going to be able to cope with the long balls up to him

In the context of this season this will end up being a good 3 points, but miserable me still feels it was a rubbish performance

It's been a while.  Carlisle away, first game of the season, when I last put pen to paper to share my thoughts.  I'm not going to lie, it's been tough, this League Two lark,  But now, now, I have acclimatised: I AM MATCH FIT.

So this acclimatisation: my enthusiasm has been such that I couldn't even take in the short hops to Forest Wherever or Cheltenham, I've not read every post in the TEF every day, and sometimes I don't even know who or where we're playing until like, days before.  So at last I understand, aided by AN Other's description of this as 'roulette football' - there's basically nothing not left to chance.  Smash the ball into a massive bundle of players and at the end of 90 minutes, someone has won a header or something and it's all 'great togetherness' and 'fantastic organisation' until the next spin of the wheel, when it's probably a 'microwaved process' or 'long term losing mentality'.  This week it's been suggested elsewhere that pole dancing could be an Olympic sport.  If that's so, say I, surely League Two football is worth a shout?  There's more difference to this keen observer between games played in the Premier League and our humble basement level home than there is between the entire codes of Rugby Union and League, so why not?  Maybe a rule or two would need formalising - every set play must start with a fifty yard kick or throw of the football, and must be headed by the next player, in competition with a minimum of three other players, for example - but I see no issue there.

Oh sorry.  I always start with the intent to write about the game, but then forget and go rambling off somewhere else.  So the game, and there were a few minutes there today when I did genuinely forget I was supposed to be watching.  The ball was over the other side, intermittently disappearing into the pack before shooting back into the sky, and then getting lost by the steward or someone fell over or...you can see why I drifted away.  It was minutes before it inadvertently appeared again in the vast green space over here, before the hunting pack chased it down again.  In the last few days, we've had the pleasure of hosting the Cowleys of Lincoln, those terribly bright young things, and the long-lasting if less lauded Ainsworth of Wycombe and my-oh-my, if these are the future of football, take me to the pole dancing.  Such terrific exponents of the dark arts - Lincoln, blocks, borderline thuggery and 'game management; Wycombe, time-wasting from the off, feigning injury...doubtless we're not saints either (thank goodness after the limp and putrid Williams reign), but hey, this is my piece and partisanship rules.

Already the game, such as it was, is confined to the great junk folder in my head.  Another poor game made worse by the wind.  Or, entirely optimistically, maybe the conditions ruined what might have been an absolute classic.  Interestingly, we adopted an extremely narrow 4-3-3, with McDermott popping up here and there in what looked a more fluid approach, and at times we certainly had more players seemingly capable of anticipating where the ball might eventually land than of late.  The goal was wonderful, a high loopy sort of cross characteristic of the enthusiastic Taylor, and Big Harry got in front of his man to then land a speculative volley in off the post.  To say he missed three or four better chances would be harsh on him, and their keeper, who otherwise smartly saved what was thrown at him.

Credit too where it's due to the defensive performance, largely keeping Wycombe at bay, and for showing the sort of desperation to keep what we've got, that has been sadly missing from the DNA for a wee while.  I'll stick my neck out and recognise that Purkiss did relatively well given what was thrown at him, but genuinely, there was plenty to applaud from a yes, teamly, togetherness and resilient perspective.  Despite the x-rated style and performance, we're in the top seven, which must be the absolute minimum expectation: if ever there was a case of the end justifying the means, this must be it.  If we don't find a way to get promoted, please don't expect me to talk nicely to you come May.

And to the best bit, Flitcroft on the radio afters.  I have never heard a man so delighted to have beaten Wycombe Wanderers 1-0.  This coldest of hearts melted as he regaled us with tales of Professor Funk, of his tinpot band with Gazza (the Ainsworth one), and of his utter joy for his team.  This is a good thing, although I'd prefer it if he moved on from his obsession with that Lincoln defender and his mentality just about now.  This is what winning games means, this is what we've missed.  It matters. 

This is why we need to get behind our roulette football and ensure that if League Two football does make the Olympics, we're the ones watching it rather than competing in it.  Three pages on the match day thread indicates we have some processes to microwave before we're all on that page.

I think that post should be pinned to the home page Christy!

Take a bow, Christy!

Christy  :thumb:

Would be interesting to know if the stats indicate that this is a "first goal wins" league.
Seems to be so, in the main, as far as our games have gone so far.

Always good to watch Akinfenwa in action.
Takes the abuse in good humour, has obvious limitations as a player but does what he does within those limits very well.

That was like reading one of them there posh newspapers Christy. Good work   ;)

Great "report". I put the absence of comment on the match day thread down to the absence of anything to analyse during a match (on the limited evidence I've seen this year).  Christy's roulette has it spot on.

I just marvel at how the output on a Saturday supposedly requires performance analysts, data vests, international fitness coaches and microwaves. It's all a big scam isn't it? I reckon they just play golf during the week.

Brilliant Christy. This forum has been seriously lacking good match analysis for a while now so an excellent read. On a side note as much as I always fear Akinfenwa when he plays against us from memory I don't think he's ever actually rippled the net. Or can somebody correct me?

Played better on Tuesday and lost.

true, but conditions were poor yesterday so wasn't expecting much from the game.

I thought there were glimpses of a decent team finally gelling. The weather obviously played it's part, although both teams insisted on the ball being in the air for most of the game. But when we did play it on the ground there was some decent link up play and some decent passing. Not everything came off, but it was nice to see there was intent and thought involved.
With the amount of top flight football available on tv it's sometimes difficult not to negatively compare what we see at the CG to the top tier, which is one of the reasons there's a large amount of miserable moaning bastards around! I'm pretty confident that we haven't seen the best from this team and I'll predict a top 4 finish.

Our form since the beginning of September....
LWLWWLWLWLW
Talk about consistency

Before yesterday, The Beast had played 12 games against us for 6 different sides, scoring 5 goals.
Last one was in 2009.

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/PlayingRecord.asp?Type=Opponent&PersonID=akinfenwa_saheed_adebayo_1982

Thought that the defence coped with him pretty well yesterday but he still won most of the headers.

I agree. I was tearing my hair out when Taylor/Purkiss would just get the ball and whack it aimlessley forward. Pointless in the first half with a 40 mph wind behind and the ball would drift out of play. Second half it would hold up and so was a better tactic, however as the game wore on, more of our players would take the ball down and look for a red shirt by playing the ball on the ground. I wish we had done this more as I think Wycombe didn't expect it and at times we did look dangerous employing this tactic.

I do like how we don't piss around at the back anymore but a bit more football at times wouldn't go amiss.

Overall at least this side seem to work hard and play with a bit of desire, not afraid to put heads in where it hurts etc which we didn't have last season. And really that's the minimum you can ask from our players.

I'll go with that  :nod:

One would like to think this side has an extra gear, that maybe around the festive period into the new year we'll put the foot down and put together a decent winning run.  I'm not so sure though....one of the pleasures of Div 4 is that it's a level playing field, apart from the norvern mudheaps and sandpits, meaning quality is low, so players and coaches compensate by emphasising the physical side.  Consequently wins are hard fought, and anybody can beat anybody on a given day. My guess is that we'll continue to stumble along with the win one lose one type form, probably seeing a reverse of the win away lose at home syndrome.

Who asked about "Why are we always one of the last to finish?"

I thought that had been put to bed with the reason: "The referees look at the Rolex Watch Clock on the SB, which is a few mins slow." They set it to this, thus we finish playing late. Added time aside.  :hmmm: :hmmm:

I've always assumed it's a directive from the FL/FA, especially when we're a goal up and hanging on, give the oppo 6 or 7 minutes Fergie time, to get an equaliser.

Either that or the CG is in a sort of time vortex, where the passage of time is slowed hence nothing changes very quickly.

None of this accounts for why Scottish games that ko at 3, always seem to finish at 4:45

Several years ago (can't remember exactly when) half time in England was extended from 10 to 15 minutes (I move I absolutely detested and still do - 15 minutes is way too long). The Jocks stuck with 10 though, hence the earlier finishes.

I always assumed that the 10 mins to 15 change went across all football. Would account for Sweatie prompt finishes though, I thought it was probably something like how Bristol used to be in its own time zone, 10 minutes behind London, until IKB built the GWR.  Hence the clock with 3 hands to show time oin Bristol and London

(http://www.ssgreatbritain.org/sites/default/files/styles/hero_general/public/blog/corn_street_clock.png?itok=H4KDTCPD)

I seem to have just disproved my own theory.

Competition rule G12 of the rules of the SPFL state - "In all Official Matches the half-time interval shall be fifteen minutes."

I swear that I remember reading once that they had stuck with 10 minutes and I don't know how else the early finishes can be explained because it does happen every week. :hmmm:

So you don't think my theory that Scotland is stuck in the 19th Century holds any substance....  :hmmm:

No, that's definitely worth considering 8)

What more can you say other than "good result, shit game" (or "shit result, shit game"). League Two is no place for the wordsmiths.  Can we hear the Christie sing?  Oooh and up pops Christie to slot home after a well constructed move.  Well done, mate.

I recall being told it had something to do with the second half kicking-off at 4pm no matter what time the first half finished. Can't find any reference to that though.