Thetownend.com

Another victory please.

2-0.

Att 6,120.

:COYR:

It's now become accepted that this is the kind of game we lose this season. Therefore we'll win. Maybe.

2-1 Town

We’ll score three. How many we concede is the real issue.

0-0 (This probably reflects my lack of enthusiasm rather than the likely score)

4-0 Town.

It could happen eh?

January always seems to drag and after the mid-season break it's good to have a game again.

We'll have just enough protein to edge this one.

Won't be pleasant out there if FGR have been on the legumes.

Hopefully our players will have been fed red meat... FGR, red lentils.

2-0 win to set us up nicely for Coventry next week

My first game of the season. I'm hoping to see us win for the first time since pre play-off final, so apologies in advance if I jinx it   :D

1-1

My joke question:

What are you on?  Can I have some of that?

My serious question (step forward the TEF's own Paul Plowman, Sir Reg Smeeton?):

When was the last time STFC won at home by 4 - 0

PDC era at home to Pompey I guess

According to the ticket office an hour ago when I dropped by to get ours the chlorophyl munchers had sold a massive 100 tickets in advance...... I find that hard to believe but that’s what he told me.

Jan 5th 2013 v Carlisle,  Pompey was 5-0 just before.

We did beat Crewe 5-0 the following season, when poor old Ryan Mason scored a hat-trick.

Banks for Linganzi - not on bench either. Brophy sub. Otherwise as per

Pretty shit. They have had most of ball, we have had one shot.

Excitement.

It was never gong to be best "Derby" match. As always, match hangs in the balanc.

So, how has Banks looked?

6 mins added time. Must've been a fair injury. Banks looks like he can make good checks and tackles in regulation....

Take Dunne off, bring Gordon on. Banks has been involved, probably Town should have scored in the latter stages of the half.

Last 3 minutes or so we pressed and looked ok. Rest has been pretty naff.

Woolery has looked a threat, Dunne anonymous, Norris not much better unfortunately. Iandolo has done alright as well.

For all the ball they have had I don't think RRC has had to make a save. Their keeper has made 2 decent saves.

To be fair their keeper has made two really good saves from Anderson.

Can’t remember Charles-Cook making a save of note.

Banks looks more lively than Linganzi, more interested in going forward.

injury looked nasty but as with head/neck injuries it may have been precautionary that he was immobilised and didn't look to be moving.

we've been slightly better than them. Anderson should have buried his first and the keeper made a good save. not a footballing masterclass exactly but ok.

Awful.  Norris gets worse every time I see him play.  It's amazing how often he is exactly two yards from where he needs to be and he is lucky not to have been booked throwing himself to the floor twice and hanging a stupid leg out when the keeper was clearing the ball.

Banks is a bit meh so far.  Might be ok, gets forward onto balls but seems to be made of air at times when people run through him.  Dunne is also lucky not to have a booking for trying to kick a guys head off.

Injury looked a very bad one, not even sure he was fully conscious when taken off.

On the plus side they are terrible and we will probably win this.

Some very limited ability footballers on display this afternoon on both sides.  An advertisement for how shite League 2 football is.

Norris is lazy and spends far too much time whingeing at the ref trying to get a foul when he's been brushed off the ballŕ.  The only decent thing he's done is put the ball through to Anderson and the keeper made a good save.

Dunne did manage to get himself booked just before half time.  Think he said something to the ref or one of their players. 

Hope their player is ok.

dear god this is not a great start to the second half

And it hasn't got any better.  Absolutely awful.  Make a chsnge Flitcroft for fucks sake.

fucking awful

on the face of it, wrong subs

Fucking rubbish subs.

right subs on, just wrong players coming off.

soapy tit wank

Norristinho!

haha, inspired subs....Flitcroft is a genius  :soapy tit wank: :soapy tit wank: :soapy tit wank: Fucking Norris!

Useless, lazy donkey

7,062 surprisingly

Haha, yeah that Norris, never scores from open play...useless.  :soapy tit wank:

He offers nothing except for goals, useless :-)

That remained awful for the entirety.  A shit game won by an Under 8's comedy goal from about 1 foot out in the end.

I pity everyone of you who pays to watch this live.

Still, I continue to maintain we will be in the play off mix, such is the level of the teams we are competing against.

Absolutely, he's total shite that topscorer of ours  :D :D :pint:

I stand by my assertions.  Personally would have given MotM to someone like Preston, but Banks was in the running for sure.  That is how bad it was.

Norris was bloody awful today.  The goal that won the game was befitting of it.

Norris was OK today, and he scored, no complaints from me - you're of course entitled to your opinion but think the treatment of "Nozzer" is harsh.

The trick is to be slightly less bad than 17 of the teams, and I think we are probably above that line.  Even Luton are wobbling a little, but they can pull out a thrashing.  Everyone else I have seen is within a shit goal of each other in most games.

I do think Knoyle could develop as a player, some glimpses in him of knowing how to play the position.  Not saying he was good, but you could see he'd grow into it with games.

Any news on Rawson?

That was utterly tedious.  Zero entertainment value.

Hope their guy is ok.  I know people are cautious with a head injury but he lay very still for a long time.

That goal deserved to win that game - it was dreadful with absolutely zero football to it, like the game. That was bad.

I agree entirely. A mixture of hoofball meets keeps uppy meets kick boxing meets tag wrestling (70’s style) and a little bit of association football thrown in.

In all fairness if their keeper hadn’t mad two great saves then 2 or 3 nil would not have been unfair. However, he did and 1-0 it was with as you say a goal that summed up the game.

Not to mention the penalty we should have had!

Just wanted to write a medium overview of the current state of things, based on stats only. We know the "football" is turgid in the main but Town just need to get out of this rubbish division. If you want to skip my analysis, a paragraph in bold can be found at the conclusion of this.

Below is the Town last five since Dec 23rd:

23/12 Crewe Alexandra 0 Swindon Town 3
26/12 Swindon Town 0 Luton Town 5
29/12 Swindon Town 1 Notts County 0
01/01 Barnet 1 Swindon Town 2
13/01 Swindon Town 1 Forest Green Rovers 0

Luton aside (who subsequently got beat 2-0 at Chesterfield today), 3 clean sheets, 2 HOME wins, 3 wins on the spin. 2.25 pts per game form. Can we say Town have handled the festive period quite well? Can we say Town have turned the pre christmas corner?

With Coventry up next that becomes a massive game to break back in to the top seven. I hate games in hand but the closer that gets and if the gap has been closed, that match against Accrington becomes even more crunch. A proverbial six-pointer. Town could well be looking to switch places with the "Milk chuggers" come Feb 6th. What can we realistically expect to see, points wise between now and then? This is an extremely volatile league with teams beating teams all over the place. There are very few trends other than volatile results. FWIW, basing on current form, here follows my "reserved prediction" on the next four matches.

20/01 Coventry Away ~ Lose
27/01 Crewe Home ~ Win
30/01 Stevenage Away ~ Win
03/02 Lincoln Away ~ Draw

7pts from 4 would put us on 51pts

Accrington also have three wins on the spin but in the last five, have lost the previous two. They play;

20/01 Vale Home ~ Win
27/01 Crawley Away ~ Lose
03/02 Stevenage Home ~ Win

6pts from 3 would put them on 52pts.

Feb 6th could be an absolute battle for automatic spot.

Why am I concentrating and putting so much emphasis on this "game in hand"? Well we're the two teams in automatic contention to have three league wins on the spin, currently. Crawley also have identical form to Town but they aren't quite in contention, however they could sneak a play-off position if they continue. Similarly, Accrington don't do many Draws too.
Conversely, I think the outcome on Feb 6th will be a score draw, possibly 1-1. Leaving Accringtron in 3rd and Town in 4th.

The defence played very well today, and usually everybody tackled back well. I thought the midfield/ attack did a lot of good hard approach work but nearly always the final ball was poor. Despite that two very good saves from the FGR keeper kept the score down for them, they never had a decent shot. A well deserved win and there was a little bit of football at times. Woollery was very fast and dangerous, worked very hard,  and he was my MOM although his finishing did not come off today, there's potentially a very good player in there.  

An extra goal would have been good to settle the nerves.  I don't get the negativity from some... just imagine how you'd feel if we hadn't beaten FGR twice. Arguably an historic low point... we didn't lose  :pint:

To show the current nature of Div 4, Cov dropped from the autos out of the PO's on the back of losing at Exeter.  One thing about the Ricoh atm is that because of the egg chasers, the pitch is not very good.  Hopefully his should suit us, looking at their goals for and against record, it should be attritional, unlike sometimes in the past we're capable of dealing with this.

Completely agree. Much though I hated watching the way we played today, I will take a whole season of that right now if it gets us out of L2.

Indeed. Quality referee today.....

Not sure what negativity you see?  The game was shit, played by two shit teams one of which was shitter and would have probably struggled to create a chance given another 90 minutes.

That's not being negative, because we won, and we improved in the chase for promotion, something I believe will be very possible even allowing for the shit football.

On the other hand, you'll be convincing everyone soon that we are just a loss a way from being drawn into a battle for the clubs League status.

It is entirely possible to be Positive about the clubs probable direction points wise and also hate the football being provided in doing so.  This season IS about getting back up straight away, for that we have sold our soul and it can feel a little dirty, but we'll all take it in June.

oh, and I think everyone agrees we deserved to win.

As suggested above, we were worth the win, but that really isn’t saying much. A bit like FGR away. They’re lucky not to be adrift.

Mullin made his usual positive impact, he gets a very raw deal out of Flitcroft.

The most frustrating thing for me is that Flitcroft cannot see beyond a result. Against Notts, fair play, 3-5-2 was ideal and helped to deal with their big men up front such as Stead. But I really don’t think it’s the right call today. I recall Coventry having some pace and width, so you have to wonder whether it’s the right call up there - Robertson got skinned alive when we played them here. But I think Flitcroft is too blind to consider changing anything on the back of a win. I hope I’m wrong.

Here’s a stat. Only Luton have won more games than us this season.

My first game since Newport and I actually quite enjoyed it. I thought both wing backs were good, also thought Woolery and Anderson played well.
Thought Norris and Dunne were poor again, they would be 2 positions I would be trying to strengthen alongside another centre half.

Yep. I believe it's them with 16 and Exeter, Notts County, Accrington (funnily enough), and ourselves with I think 14? Call this a stupid statement but "teams that win the most games tend to win the division" it's obvious. Even with a higher ratio of losses if the win rate is high enough the the "Draw specialists are unlikely to catch. It's all elementary but the "Win" stat mentioned by yourself is an important factor come the end of the season. 10 more of those and we'll be somewhere between 2nd and 6th.

Of the top ten we’ve also lost the most 10, two have lost 9.

Here’s a quote from a Lincoln fan about their game with Notts today

‘Two sides with no interest in playing football this afternoon. Ball smashed up the pitch, set piece, take set piece, ref blows for a foul. Repeat. All game.’

Not just us, it seems.

Whilst all games are important at any stage of the season the next criticle and final phase is Easter. If we are there in the mix then we can start to get either really excited or thoroughly pissed off.

Team that gets the most points wins the division; regardless of the number of wins, draws and defeats.

Happy to help.

Shit game, good result. Will gladly take a few more of them. Two home wins on the spin no goals conceded. We look a lot more solid. Thought banks looked decent. Very promising debut. Thought Preston was back to his best today after some dodgy games. If I was flitcroft I'd sit down with woolery and go through his second half performance with him. Very selfish. It was good to see us closing the game out. Most of this was down to mullin who must have shit in flitcroft chips not to be getting a regular start. He's quite an intelligent player and I would try him in the Anderson role.
Can't really complain today. We win, scum and traders lose. Top Saturday.

For some reason draws have become a thing of the past. We’ve drawn 1 of our last 31 in all comps, and haven’t drawn an away game since November 2016.

But given that DDDD all season would often lead to relegation, whereas WLWL all season could just about be enough for the playoffs, it can’t be too bad.

Very poor game, conference footy played by one side who brought us down to their level and controlled by a ref who really needs to go back to sunday league reffing.  Deserved to win without a doubt, but really need to improve before I will get too excited.

I don't know, you better take it up with DV Canio, he seems to think that it's irrelevant how many games you W, D, or L   :soapy tit wank:

*I'll add we're better than WLWL (which would give us 39pts/1.5pt per game) by a factor of 5pts: P26 W14 D2 L10 Pts44
Currently at just under 1.7pts per game after 26 games. Interestingly, DF's win ratio on league matches for us is currently at 53.85%

Very profound, however contradictory. One simply cannot lose every match and expect to win the division.  :pint: :)

Not contradictory in the slightest.

Team with the most points wins the league. That is a fact.

You can win the league without the most points.... as happened in 68/89, when Watford won it from us on goal average.

Dreadful game.... great result

Shit game, as per

Anderson the only decent player on the pitch, not sure how he didn’t get motm. Hope he stays

Woolery has the pace and the effort, but is so so raw and unrefined and my fear would be that, at the age of 23 and having been at a number of clubs already, he will ever be much more refined than he is right now

Norris is shite and slow and always three steps behind the game.  We’re always going to play with a lump up front, so we need to sign one who is half decent

Banks had a decent touch on him, and at least looks to do something positive once he gets the ball

Back three looked very solid. For the first time Ian looked like a centre mid being played out of position

Just back from a celebratory steak. Miller and Carter was nice, good service, bit pricey for what it is though. Plus you can't help but think "harvester" in the back of your mind.

The game was shit. Norris was Norris. Anderson was shit, the Mrs even commented "he's like Chris sometimes". Chris is my son, he gets the ball and then the cogs start turning as he slowly decides what to do! Woolery worked hard but felt the occasion of playing against a former team affected his decision making, over played instead of passing.

Midfield did OK. Thought as debuts go that Banks did OK, not MOM. Dunne is fucking useless when he has the ball, but he did OK sometimes. The defence were good, would have been a toss up for any of them (including full backs) to get MOM in my vote.

So shit match. 3 points. That's the way it is these days. Its enough, getting out of this arsehole league is all that matters.

Oh, and we need a striker and possibly a wide man.

oh, and on the FGR player this was the last post from their official Twitter:

INJURY UPDATE: Farrend Rawson went straight to hospital this afternoon after being knocked unconscious during the first half of today's game. He was conscious when he left eh pitch and was taken to Great Western Hospital to be checked over. We wish him a speedy recovery.

cooper post match

https://youtu.be/kyImqoe_5sY

Is he trying to get the sack? Also looked very "twitchy" in that interview...anxiety or something else?

So, Doidge dived twice rather than shoot? Wasn't shown on the highlights:

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/league-two/11207110/swindon-1-0-forest-green

I can’t remember the first one, but the one where he went down in front of the town end was shocking

The first part of your statement is true, which is the profundity of the fact. However you followed it with a semicolon stating "regardless of number of wins, draws, and defeats" That is the contradiction. Fact in the first part, fiction in the second. Except you decided to ignore that part of the statement afterwards. I'll happily accept the whole statement as true when I see a team lose 46 matches and be crowned champions.

Cooper was being sarcastic. Said as much to the reporter. Described the ref as not getting anything right all afternoon.

Mark Cooper looks to me like a man containing a lot of pent-up anger.  I guess he's worried about his job but I heard that he's on a £200Kpa 5 year contract so he won't be signing on at the jobcentre if he does get the sack.

If a team wins 18 matches, draws 2 and loses 18 they will have 56pts
If a team wins 15 matches, draws 20 and loses 3 they will have 65pts

The fact the first team have won more matches therefore becomes irrelevant

to be fair to the hippy, he seems to have backed Cooper with a fair few signings. Think Cooper has a bit of time yet

In the admittedly little I've seen of us this season, Mullin looks to me to be a hungrier, more tenacious version of Anderson.

Probably looking for the lee power posse hit squad in the stand :D:

Cooper moaning about the ref today is nothing compared to Darren Ferguson, I suggest you all listen to his interview. He suggests shooting the referees.  :D

For that particular scenario, yes it "becomes irrelevant" but the second part of your statement is claiming that;

 "If a team wins 0 matches, draws 0 and loses 38 then they will win the league because "the number of wins, draws, and losses is irrelevant." "

The second half of your statement is flawed. Had you just said "The team with the most points wins the league" then there would be no question. I stated "The team that wins most of their games, TENDS to win he league."

 :D :D :D

They were the highlights? :no:

If a team lose 36 games they won’t have the most points. Therefore won’t win the league. Simple really.

The team with the most points will win the league regardless of what ratio/combination of W, D and L they have whilst picking up the most points.

Heard this earlier, brilliant. Long ban for him i reckon

I think we both are "right" in our own respective battles. For reference I think, since three points has been introduced, only one professional team has won a title by drawing more matches than wins. If I remember it might be Bologna or maybe Brescia? We could probably chat about it all night and still be on the same stance. I understand your stance but even Reg stated the "Watford season".

If anything we've both been pedantic.  :pint: :pint: :pint:

It won't help his course if he is the owner of a firearm either  :D

Nah, DV is just right. If you've got the most points, it doesn't matter how you got them. That's all he was saying and he said it correctly.

Shades of David Brent in there. Reminiscent of many an interview he had here. He must be a very difficult man to live with.

To win when we’re poor isn’t a bad thing. Bizarre league table - 11th is 5 points off automatic. Get the signings in this month and we could just do it.

Elephant in the room

Maybe FGR need a decent meal inside them ?

Amazing how fans see things different. Thought Norris did well, held the ball with good movement and created chances. Anderson had 2/3 good moments but otherwise I can't see what he brings. Preston is a class act, 1 on 1 with any player and you know he will will the ball off him.

Cooper (and the forest green interviewer) different planet. They had 1 shot, 1 shot! And they deserved something from the game? We played shit for the majority but it was still comfortable and we created 11 shots some of which forced very good saves.

Penn claims? Having a laugh. I wouldn't say dived but went down far too easy. Cooper saying when through on goal,we always had plenty of men behind the ball the whole game. In fact the only critism I had today was the midfield and forwards.

Happy with the win. Still not happy with the personel and formation. Nothing seems to click very much a team of individuals on different wavelengths. So many times space is created and can be built on with a fast first time ball. Take too long and either pass to the opponent or go backwards after a promising opening.

Always love mullin playing. The little spark that we lack without him in the team.

Is that a mowhawk or mohechan?

I hate having to stick up for DV but bamboonoshoe is a fucking cretin. If you lose 46 games you aren't going to have the most fucking points are you? Idiot.

Blimey,if there is such a thing as a shit goal,that was it!

Did Flitcroft say where Linganzi was yesterday?

quad injury. not likely to be back within 2 weeks.

FGR guy was ok, that's good news

BBC in ´failure to identify sarcasm´shocker!   :doh:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42678543

Cheers Batch. We're not getting much luck with injuries at the moment. You could probably make a decent case for Hussey, Elsnik, McDermott & Linganzi to all be starting when fit. At least in Flitcrofts eyes.

FWIW I thought norris did ok. He gets through a lot of unglamorous  work and  is one of those players that  players like but fans dont. Anderson should have buried his first chance and was ok, no more. Woolery is work in progress. You can see he's trying to use his body more but in the second half was very selfish, which is ok if you deliver but he totally shanked two shots where he should have passed. Preston was my mom.

from the FB group:

Just chatting to Linganzi at half time. He has a severe tear on his thigh and expected to be out for upbtk 6 weeks. Not good but factual

You would think he would have better things to do than piss around on a motorbike.

Oh fuck off. If you read his original statement he was originally incorrect (in the second part of it). I agree with his first part but he simply tweaked the second part. You'd be good in politics son, I hear they love a bit of spin!! I claimed "The team that wins the most matches TENDS to win the league." I have never changed that and DV decided to pick up on that one statement and change it to "The team that wins the most matches wins the league."

Considering fucking Bologna are the only team to have won a title with more draws than win, since the incarnation of three points per win (Serie B 1995-1996). Shows my statement to be accurate. The team that wins the most matches tends to win the league.

Now fuck off will ya.

The Bologna bit has no relevance as you’re only taking into account their results which isn’t the point. It’s the amount of wins compared to the other team.

Perfect example is us. There are teams above us who have won less games but have more points.

DV is never wrong.

Hmmm, you're as stubborn as I.  Bologna is relevant though because it's the only team that has ever (with 3pts per win) won a title with more draws than wins.  It is the only time your "formulae" has executed the result.  Anyway, fuck it there are far more important things in the world.

I’ve checked every Premier League table and my theory works every time.

The team with the most points wins the league.

Using that equation, I have checked out all the TEF posts and deduced that those with the most posts are the biggest wankers.

true

For anal circular arguments, I still prefer Reg.

Woohooo I'm not even on the first page of wankers

 :clap: This made me laugh. used to drive me insane with cooper/williams. even if there were no options short they used to force it and be under pressure. you can see why the great teams want to keep possession but you need the tools to carry it out

You're onto something here

Which is weird as i was always under the impression those tactics were forced upon him

Statto

Is anal circular like a ringhole?

In Froggy's dreams....

Odd one this, Cooper accusing his own striker of diving:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42678543

Apparently its sarcasm.

See Page 7.    :wink:

Ah, OK, that makes a bit more sense. TBF, seems to have gone over the BBC reporter's head too, as it's not reported in that way.

Sorry, my bad, I think I skipped over pages 7 and 8 before I got lost in DV and bamboo's anal ring or whatever it was :)

Managed to get to the game between trip to hospital waiting for the birth of my granddaughter.

Haven't read back yet but...

Game was pretty shit, FGR were very shit, we weren't a lot better, the goal was shit but we won, The match won't live long in the memory at all.

Their keeper made a few good saves, Lancashire still makes a couple of mistakes, Robertson and Preston look solid enough but still at times hoof the ball into touch when there is a red shirt free and fairly close, but its better in the stand than fannying around as we did under Williams.

FGR never really looked like scoring, Doidge and Reid, 2 of the highest rated strikers (allegedly) looked like they didn't know what the ball was at times, Reid especially so, they offered no threat.

Everybody did fine but nobody really excelled, Anderson made some good runs but still turns a good position into blind alleys, his final pass and shot are quite lacking but I think he will come good.

Woolery just needs to add finishing to his armoury and he will be class.

Norris is not fit, yes he scored but over all his play was very poor IMO, as was Dunne, probably the best game I have seen him play but he still leaves his foot in tackling, argues with the ref and offers nothing, I heard Hockaday raving about his performance after the game, I just don't see it.

The new lad Ollie Banks, solid, big, can tackle and head a ball, can pass fairly well, he will be a good signing in this league, he is a big presence on the pitch and likes a challenge. Was better than Oldham fans suggest, by a long way.

He did remind me at times of Mickey Hazard (albeit a foot taller!) sticking his bum out and turning on the ball before making a shirt pass to a team mate when he looked like he could be in trouble, played well and probably shaded MoM for me.

A win is a win and that earlier in the season could easily have turned into a single goal defeat being hit on the break against the run of play as happened a lot, a professional win.

Oh and the ref was shocking.

What was lacking in Anderson's shit, roughage?  :hmmm:

Oh how a single vowel change can make such an impact!

At times he did run like he was a man suffering from acute terminal explosive diarrhoea looking for a lavatory which was located far off to either touchline near the corner flags.