Thetownend.com

Let's hope I keep my 100% 17/18 MDT starting record going...

It's only one game obviously but it will be extremely interesting to see what XI Taylor puts out and how they react and will give some indication as to how the rest of the season may pan out.

Some would have you believe we have no chance in this fixture purely based on our rather poor, to say the least, record against  Cheltenham over the last few seasons.

This theory will be exposed today for the superstitious bollocks it obviously is with a resounding 3-0 win (I hope). Goals from Richards, Woolery and Mullin.

An outpouring of Matty Taylor love precedes a 5-0 mauling in front of 7002 with 685.

Get behind them today, you fucking morons!

Would like Matt Taylor to stake his claim and we thrash them but I can't see it with our injuries and only 14 fit players apparently.

Bring in Moore for RCC who is lacking in confidence, bring back Woolery up front alongside Richards and hopefully Lancashire is fit enough to play most of the game along with Elsnik, I would play Iandolo in the middle to run at them as Taylor is our only other fill in for Banks and I don't think managing and playing CM will be good, certainly not on his legs.

Twine will be on the bench after his recall so could offer something later in the game, hes been doing well at 'nam but it is a massive step up in quality and pace of the game, I would have recalled Smith if I were boss and was able to recall him.

Its going to be tough, Numb have drawn their last 2 games vs Notts County and Luton so will have some confidence, they have been beaten 4 times in the last 10 games and they were against Wycombe, Lincoln, Accrington and Mansfield, all doing well but they have drawn 4 of those games and both their wins were good wins a 4-1 away at Colchester and a 5-1 home demolition of Port Vale.

I think it will be a 2-2 draw Richards and Elsnik scoring in front of just 6,598 with 485 Numb fans there.

http://www.robinsnestforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24711&sid=e5134f75b5aba0b999e7f3a342535a33

Oh and this thread is frankly utterly embarrasing :no:

http://www.robinsnestforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24701&sid=e5134f75b5aba0b999e7f3a342535a33

Looking forward to this.

Don't think that there will be much of a noticeable difference in approach today.
Just a case of working harder and doing the basics better than before might be enough.


2-1 with an added time winner.  :)

we need to win this as we are in danger of falling out of the playoffs, that said I can see us losing  1.2

I see they have Scott Flinders in goal who always seems to have a worldy of a game game against us and has never conceded more than 2 in any game against us in his 8 games so far with 4 clean sheets.

We played Hartlepool in 2009 he kept a clean sheet with several amazing saves after one of these great stops I we heard from the depths of the Town End a shout of "Stupid Sexy Flinders...DOH!"

(https://s10.postimg.org/oef5ko4i1/stupid-sexy-flanders_fb_1009833.jpg)

I'm sure Matty isn't naive enough to change much, beyond those enforced by lack of personnel.  I hate games v Cheltnumb.

Corrected ;)

We'll batter them

Is this a "must win" game?

Moore comes in for RCC

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DX7pv-mW0AA9lCd.png:large)

Hussey returns too.

big call! is Moore any good?

Not according to Luton fans, Basingstoke fans thought he looked handy, Barrow fans were not too sad to lose him.

We will soon see!

Basingstoke, Barrow, oh FFS!!

time will tell..

You should do the half-time team talk. Or better yet, a Delia style half time revving up of the crowd :)

RCC’s head has gone. Moore had to come in today.

The crowd looks a little sparse.

Kicking off attacking the Town End.

Great cross from Taylor and Norris falls holding his head like hes been snipered.

Gone for the ifollow option today.

Decent start from town

1st corner to the Town.

2nd corner....Norris misses by inches.

1st touch for Moore in a Town shirt.

Town started much brighter than them, another Swindon corner.

Assured kick from Moore when under pressure.

4th corner to Town.

Poor finish from Norris when under no pressure.

Our defence split open, Cheltenumb claim a penalty, it wasnt.

"He's paid to fall on his arse"

Decent game this.

Numb coming back into it a bit, we still look pretty shakey at the back, Roberston looks like hes treading treacle when he runs.

Mansfield 1 nil up

:D

End to end after our early domination, 2 poor defences, several chances.

Wasn't it? Looked a stonewall from where we are.

Anyone seen Phil ‘Charlie’ Brown watching this one?

It looked like he fell over his own feet.

I know we are down to bare bones but sometimes Robertson scares me!

OMG the ref nearly gave me a heart attack showing a red to Dunne but laiughing and then booking him!

Great saving block from Mayo.

Norris down in our box with a serious head injury, not moving much.

Norris up but looking groggy.

https://twitter.com/jiff1967/status/972496110714580993 (https://twitter.com/jiff1967/status/972496110714580993)

Unusual getting a ref with a sense of humour, hes doing ok too TBF.

not a good half

Lots of Elsniks passes falling well short of their target today.

and just got worse

good free kick mind

0-1 cracking free kick top corner.

Fuckssake

we are playing shit.

Too many of our players having off days so far, nobody has done that well really.

Game started ok but has got worse and worse.  Continual fouls being given away and struggling to find a red shirt with a pass.

What a fucking sack of shit we are! Just shows how wank we are losing at home again to a very poor side who,  however look better than us!!!!!

Elsnik off the bar.

1st 15 mins we were all over them, but we let them come back into it and they got a great goal probably not really deserved on the run of play, we should be drawing really Cheltenham aren't any better than us, but we don't look any better than them either!

Poor passing so and far slow defending, not creating enough chances.

Awful half of football.  I know a new Manager with only a week of prep is unlikely to change much but I fear Taylor has played this too safe and just carried on with what we were doing before.

Norris has been a barometer for our performance.  He actually looked ok for 10 mins but has since turned to a sack of shit too busy trying to niggle defenders to watch the game and worry about getting into good positions.

Elsinore looks drugged up to me.  Maybe on something to manage his injury because he is playing in slow motion.  The class is there but the brain is not.

Keeper did ok under some good crosses.

Dunno remains and awful footballer.  He is no loss in midfield so you may as well play Landalo.

I still so no reason to play the back theee when they all look awful on the ball.  You do not need three cloggers playing behind a Dunne.

good opening 10, degraded and degraded into nothingness by 45. pretty poor stuff to be honest.

Well the Taylor based optimism didn’t last long.

Poor half from us, apart from the scramble at the end don’t recall us having a shot on target

Will Taylor make changes at half time

I agree especially when Numb are playing pretty much with one striker, get Robertson off and push Purkiss to CB with Mayo, let Knoyle keep running at them down the right but give us more attacking options like give Woolery a free role to run with the ball at them, Dunne has given Taylor 2 hosptial passes and still does little when he has the ball.

We are a lot better than this, as Rob says we are playing it too safe and too similar to the way we were.

Damn, and I had high hopes for Taylor.

Still only 1/2 time, though. 45 minutes to keep the job, Matty, sort them out.

Norris, Elsnik and Dunne don't really seem up for it, Richards is also a bit off the pace today too.

Oh my word, Moore comes to collect a cross and it fall through his hands, luckily the rebound goes over the bar or that would have cost us.

0-2 poor defending and keeping.

Piss poor

Too many players having off days, I don't think we can win this now.

Gordon on for Knoyle.

Really can't be fucked with this! I'm going to head off home in the hope that I'll miss 3 from town and we'll get the points.
I don't like writing managers off early doors but nothing has changed. Perhaps Taylor isn't the man we need, but to shit can him now for a journey man would probably see him pack his bags!

Taylor out

this is super shit.

2 good saves from Moore.

Kept us in this

Their number 6 Atangana is winning everything in midfield today, we are poor.

Flitcroft has left us in a bit of a mess.

And unbelievably other scores are being kind at the moment

Poor miss from Richards with an easyish chance.

Harsh. He couldn't get any purchase on that.

9 games out of 10 I think he would have buried that TBH even if the ball was spinning, its not going our way today.

Norris off Woolery on.

Norris has been awful.

Just shows what a cunt he was. Knew he’d fucked things here so bailed at the first opportunity.

absolutely deserved #stfc

0-3 easy goal.

Absolute thrashing, the players look really low in confidence today.

Poorest performance since Luton for me.

Game over

Can't decide whether am happy saved £18 or pissed off spent a fiver :hmmm:

Taylor looks knackered...take yourself off! :)

That Christian prick on the Facebook group will be please

Sounds shite

doesn't quite cover it

Its marginally worse than that.

We look poorer attacking with Gordon on the pitch than we did with Knoyle.

6650

The problem that I see Flitcroft created and left is that we lack a basic structure.  It seems it was as simple as chuck some players on a pitch and hit it long, then rely on set pieces and the odd individual effort.  With the right players fit, it can work, but as soon as we go down a few we look utterly clueless.  It will take weeks to train it out of them and build a proper unit.  Up until now I had been confident of the play offs because we could chuck enough good players on for this league, but now some of those are injured we look nothing more than a bunch of cloggers.  There was nothing to fall back on.  All season we have looked less than the sum of our parts, we now have an issue where even the parts combined aren’t good enough.

If Anderson could stay on his feet when taking people on he would be a far better player.

He is

Well my crowd prediction was only 60 off, I was way out with the score though :(

I don't think any of our players can come out of this with their heads held high today.

...and to make things worse..Coventry go 1 up

I never thought I would ever see the day that I would take almost every Cheltenumb player over our own players :(

I know its come at a bad time for whoever takes over with injuries and suspensions but I really did hope the players would lift their game for Taylor today to help him stake a claim for the job full time, that didn't materialise unfortunately.

Poorest we have played since Luton with no good performer today, even the ever reliable Taylor, Elsnik and Richards had off days.

FT.

I’m home before the final whistle.

Worse than the Barnet and Crawley games. Devoid of any quality, effort or game plan. Truly dreadful.

Robertson carthorsed around, Anderson sauntered with his thumb up his arse, new keeper looked just as poor as Cook.

Only player who was half decent was Mayonnaise. Norris didn’t deserve to be hauled off when 3 or 4 shitehorses stayed on the pitch.

This season is a write off. Elsnik looked well off the pace and was dreadful.

Phil Brown it is then (presumably)

he wont be able to polish this turd :suicide:

Well, you partially took the words out of my mouth. I say partially in relation to Brown, because there may be a hitherto unknown dark horse whom may have applied for the role. That said it depends wether Power feels we can still achieve promotion. I’d imagine if he does then he needs to act now and the new bod needs to have a solid plan to do it, unless it is an interim shit or bust appointment. If he doesn’t then it would save him four months wages in appointing someone in the closed season. The latter is the worse option for me but it’s not my money to gamble with.

Really good first 10 minutes, intensity movement all great.

The next 80 was woeful. No one deserves credit today, all were shite. Funnily enough, I thought Norris did alright, no worse than anyone else.

Our defence and central midfield is a huge concern. Their number 6 and striker pissed all over them, was embarrassing.

New manager has a hell of a job whoever it may be.

It’s nothing to do with systems or game plans. The truth is, simply, the players today were nowhere near good enough - highlighted by the absentees.

That is our defence for the rest of the season, fffs.

Flitcroft sadly has assembled a right hotch pitch of lower league shite.

The new manager is going to have a job doing something to somehow get us up.

Has Matt Taylor given a post match interview yet?

Did I mention that I hate games against Cheltnumb  :(

I think this season probably went with Preston and then Lancashire going lame soon after.  May have been partly why Flitters jumped ship.  The good news is we're not going down, so Power needs to think what his strategy is for next season... we've got to get the recruitment right, so give the new manager the rest of this season to look at it and sort over the summer.

If he thinks Taylor has potential give it to him.... the danger now in a Brown is that people will expect him to come in and get us up, which is unrealistic. 

Honestly, do you see us going up? Personally the best we can hope for is the PO’s. That said I don’t think we’re strong enough to get to Wembley, do you? I know I’m sounding defeatist but I think maybe we should be bracing ourselves for another season in the doldrums.

If we have Phil Brown as manager we need to get those flourescent advertising boards from the Jed era back, could save some money not having to use the floodlights.

If he has or does then I am guessing the phrase "I have to apologise to the fans" or "I am sorry" is in there often.

Not his fault he has inherited a bunch of under performing players, I just feel sorry for him because I thought the players would rise to it for him to get the job, they didn't.

As stated above I thought it was one of Norris's better performances other than his early miss, you could have picked anyone to go off and be replaced.

There is one common denominator in our decline- Power!

He is on course to take us out of the football league. Simply not good enough

Well, that was fucking awful, first 10 aside.

There are absolutely no positives we can take from that whatsoever.
Defense. Shit.
Midfield. Shit.
Attack. Shit.
If that was us with the shackles off, put them back on quickly.

Cheltenham were plain better than us all over the park.


PS.RCC has wrist injury. They probably all do. Wankers.

One bonus, if we don't get promoted then the Pox could well be relegated only 4 points and 5 positions outside the relegation zone.

Not a hope. I have seen us about 10 times this season and the standard of play is in the doldrums. If we somehow nick a play off spot I can’t see us doing anything at all. Most likely outcome is to lose 3-0 at home and win 2-0 away.

Certainly we're well on course for our lowest finish in about 35 years, and as such the good work that Flitters did in stabilising the slide, starts to look temporary. Certainly we've seen how the likes of Oxford and Rovers can head that way, so no room for complacency or any delusions.....

Sadly, despite the Flitcroft having moved on, we are still stuck with the moron’s shite players. Robertson, Dunne, the goalkeepers, none of them have ever been any where near good enough for team with aspirations of promotion.

15 defeats by early March. It’s just disgraceful. And certainly not deserving of promotion.

lets hope they don't come down, that would be like having a 6 point deduction  :( :wink:

Did you message this in to BBC Wiltshire? the chances of 2 people repeating the same thing and being fucking muppets I find slim.

terrible terrible terrible. not sure if Taylor or just players but a huge lack of structure to the team. absolutely no width. the worst that I have seen this season. get hussey, McDermott, mullin and woolery in the 11. play a 442 with width and start making the most of the personel that we do have and try and get some goals.

We only need 1 win to be back in the playoff pack. the reaction is quite ott but that is what happens in the short aftermath of a really shit performance. no point writing off the whole season yet

I know we've been hit by injuries lately, but these 'turds' have been good enough to get us there or thereabouts.

It's relative, our turds play against other turds mostly. A turd polisher doesn't have to get them gleaming, he just has to get them shiner than the other turds.

I think though we are down to the turdiest of turds.

or, if you prefer, the injuries and suspension really have knackered us. i know you acknowledged them - but I'm struggling to see how we get through this period..

still, it's a funny old game

The main problem was our midfield in my opinion.  Dunne was terrible and Elsnick made many unusual mistakes. Anderson was poor and kept losing the ball with bad decisions. I didn't think the defence was that bad, especially Mayonnaise, but nearly every time their clearances were snapped up by our opponents in midfield.

Well, that was bad.
The sarcastic cheering of the Norris sub was pathetic, he was actually one of the better ones today.
Now, where is that Chinese menu?

I'm not impressed with Meyanese myself.

I think Mayo was easily our best defender today IMO even though he was at fault for one of the goals, he made a few great saving tackles/blocks.

I still think Norris looks better defensively than as an attacker.

Whoever becomes manager, I hope they can get a tune out of Woolery. Beginning to fear we’ve bought a lemon.

Personally, I’ve now written off this season. Next year, with Preston and Conroy as CBs should give us a much needed improvement defensively - as that’s where all our problems stem from. And if Vigs cannot be reintegrated we need a reliable keeper, too.

Preston isn't under contract for next season.  Conroy, is inexperienced and coming back from long term injury, anything can happen with him.  I assume Lancashire will be under contract.... he's probably good enough for Div 4.

I’m assuming we’ll extend his contract. Won’t get much better at this level.

Go on Reg, get next seasons relegation odds up.

Well I think (and hope) that’s as bad as it gets.  When we needed a decent performance, we’re served up with that utter shit.  Based on the fact, Power stormed out of his seat when the third goal went in, I think it’s safe to say Taylor won’t be getting the job.  I feel really sorry for him when the whole team put in such a poor display.  Attackers and midfield non existent and the defence must be one of the worse I’ve seen in Swindon shirts.

Whatever anyone says, Flitcroft is a complete wanker.  He knew we were going nowhere with the rubbish he’d assembled, so jumped at the first opportunity to take on a team that had been built by a far better manager.  He’ll probably scrape Mansfield over the line and take all the praise.  

As you all know, I err on the side of pessimism, but up until today I genuinely thought we were still in with a shout. That feeling has now gone.  Power has made two managerial mistakes in Williams and Flitcroft.  He really needs to think carefully about his next move.

That was a Wembley-esque performance.
No desire, no shape, nothing that resembled a coherent football team.
Clapping Norris off was a disgrace. As if he's going to become a better player for that.
I need wine.

yeah the Norris thing was wank from the fans.

Plenty worse than him today

Where do you start with a performance like that. The lack of movement was particularly bad. All areas of the team were shit. I couldn't pick a MOM. The young Rovers lad is pretty crap but he's here to make his mistakes and is no worse than Robertson who had 50p boots today. Dunne was Dunne and Elsnik put in his worst performance for us so far.
Amongst many things that fucked me off today was the number of times their keeper came and collected crosses unchallenged with a Town player nowhere near. Clatter the fucker, rough him up.
The other major thing was as Robert T said the lack of a basic structure. i've prattled on all season about a lack of a midfield and today was a prime example. Their no 6 totally ran the game. The third goal was a fucking joke.
I feel sorry for Norris. He put in as many defensive headers as our back 3 today. I'd put him well ahead of Woolery who has been greedy and crap so far. 
I'm not sure where we go from here. I dont want to panic appoint someone and find we're stuck with the fucker next season if crap.
I dont think Taylor was the problem today. I think he's been unlucky taking on a team that was on the slide with a lot of injuries and no basic structure.
Although I want to get out of this division I'd be inclined to stick with Taylor and take our time and appoint early in the Summer to build a team for next season.
I know it sounds a bit sacriligeous but I'd rather finish 8th than 4th. 

Cannot disagree with most of what has been written.  Apart from the first ten mins we were second best all over the pitch, even their 600 or so supporters were far louder than ours.  Football is a simple game, win the ball and pass purposely to a guy wearing the same colour shirt as yourself, then move and make some space.  If you lose it immediately go and try to win it back.  Sadly we were seriously lacking in that today.  Most teams come here and look fitter than us, Cheltenham were no exception but with no structure or heart in the team we handed it to them on a plate.  And don't get started on defending corners or free kicks - everybody pulled back into our penalty area so if we do win the ball there is no outlet other than hoof it down field only for it to return!  No pace, no structure and no passion in our team today.  If any prospective managers were looking on I would expect them to have left, indefinitely, after 70 minutes.

Thought we looked decent for the first 10-15 minutes, then utter shite after that. Far too many playing for themselves not the team, Elsnick clearly not match fit, not blaming him, but he should have been subbed at half time, he was blowing with about 10 mins of the 1st half left and it was affecting his decision making too. Anderson should get some kind of special award for managing to not only be shaped wrong for pretty much every time he received (so he then had to turn, usually straight into a Cheltenham player who just plucked the ball off him) but also to make completely the wrong decision on the very rare occasions he actually managed to retain possession beyond his 2nd touch. Not surprised Norris was fucked off at being subbed, there was plenty worse than him left out there, although understand what Taylor was trying to do in having Woolery and Richards up front.

After the 1st 10-15 there were only two moments of entertainment, their player having a massive every toy out of the pram tantrum when his shout for a pen was turned down (tbf looked like a pen from where we were, but probably got turned down because he made such a theatrical meal of diving), and then when the ref did the red/yellow thing.

Don't blame Taylor especially, but I think today shows what a massive job needs doing here in putting anything at all together out of this collection of players. I suppose Flitcroft deserves some grudging respect for managing to paper over the cracks of the crumbling edifice for so long; immediately discounted because he built it and fucked off to leave it to fall over on us. Wanker.

And how many of that shower of shite are still contracted for next season? Maybe that, and the need to recruit better, lends itself to a more experienced manager.

I see the Mansfield fans are picking fault already 

I said a few days ago it's now about the time of season to start looking at contracts etc for next season.... I've lost track.  We do have some players who look good enough for Div 4.... some who maybe will need to be moved on, some like the loans who'll likely leave anyway, freeing up slots. 

Ideally the new man, and if it's Taylor then fair enough, can have these ten games to have a look at what we've got and make some decisions about what we need by the 1st week of August, when the window slams shut.

Like shooting fish in a barrel, though

Forgot to say, fair fucks to Accrington. Winning at Luton and going 2 points clear.

Haven't read back yet...

Easily the worst showing of all season bar the first ten minutes and that includes the Luton dicking, easily could of been 5 or 6.

Two shots on target and the second of those in E.T.

Found out today....top ten maybe...go up? Nope..

Fucking state of affairs when posters think Norris is one of our better players!
In my mind strikers are supposed to score goals, that twat doesn't even get a shot in.
Fuck off the lot of them.
No more games for me. My £19 (Town End) will go towards my pension where I can sit at home and watch the paint dry.
Oh and by the way Fuck off Power.

Keshi Anderson 4 goals, 32 games,
Kaiyne Woolery 4 goals, 35 games,
Luke Norris 12 goals, 34 games.

I don't think Norris is great, but he's fucking Mo Salah compared to the other two! (if you ignore the fact a fair few were pens).

20 goals between them in over 100 games  :sherlock:

That wasn't an especially high bar today.

Even though stats never tell the full story goals per minutes would be a fairer indication of how prolific the 3 of them have actually been.

I know most of our fans would put woolery ahead of Norris but I can't understand why. I'd put mullin ahead of both but certainly put norris ahead of woolery.
I think people overlook the graft Norris puts in as well as all the defensive headers and blocks he does.
I don't think he's that great but he doesn't deserve the shit he gets. Woolery so far has been utter shite.
I'd also pick Norris above Anderson.

true Freddy. I'd imagine then that Anderson would be judged least effective.

Correct..

I'm sick of this Norris Scape goat bollocks.....not great....like the rest..

One v one, I'd agree with you, but I don't think it's a case of people directly preferring Woolery/Anderson to Norris. Leaving aside the "anyone but Norris" contingent (and I recognise there's a lot of them), I think it's more a case of people saying that Richards is our best striker at the moment, so it's who is best to go alongside him? Norris' big asset is his ability to hold the ball up and bring others into play but he doesn't have Woolery's pace or Anderson's creative trickery (although tbf, increasingly neither does Anderson). Given that Richards is himself pretty good at holding the ball up and bringing others into the attack, that slightly negates Norris' USP and maybe makes Woolery's pace a more attractive alternative. Certainly, if you're looking to make a sub to change things around up front, then all things being equal you keep Richards on, and maybe a bit of pace gives you something different. Doesn't justify the barracking of Norris on the sub, though

No depth in the squad has cost us now that injuries have kicked in. Not going g to make it this season . Will manage top half finish.

Getting back to Norris. Did anyone else notice the number of times when the high ball was in his direction he actually purposely ducked under the ball. Was that some sort of tactic or a can’t be arsed manoeuvre?

In another thread he bicycle kicked two of those into the top right corner.

Leaving in added time allowed the opportunity to admire the Ferrari and Aston Martin in the car park.
Also noticed a Merc with Irish plates. Fenlon maybe?

There's a Toy & Train Fair at the CG today.
This might be a more enjoyable use of the venue than hosting football matches. :(

The first 10 heralded a new dawn then someone hit the 'turn to bollocks' button.

Cheltenham weren't in the game then became the team I'd like us to be: when they didn't have the ball they closed us down in numbers and forced errors (though we were quite capable of making mistakes without any opposition on the pitch), and when they had the ball they always had passing options and moved forward quickly and with purpose.

Felt sorry for Taylor but my immediate feeling was that we need a fresh pair of eyes from outside in order to have a chance of the play offs, which seems a little harsh as I thought the starting 11 and formation yesterday was fine considering the players available.

Brown would be the right man for the job then. 💩

Right now a top half finish is looking unlikely.... we've Cambridge coming up and if they win and they're very strong at home, they'll be 4 points adrift of us. Presently they're 14th.   Of the others just below we've got to play Carlisle, Newport, Crawley and ColU. 

a new manager may get a dead cat bounce. it ain't over until it's over. Even if it feels over right now

Think we’ll find out soon enough. Looking like a Brown Monday.

Where you see that mate?

Power did say that he hoped to appoint a new manager at the start of the week after the Numb game, and I understand Brown was there yesterday watching as he watched Cheltnumb on Tuesday too.

I still have a feeling (and that's all it is) that it could be someone else. I know I've said Rosler but how about we throw Simon McMenemy into the ring?

Not a name I have heard of before TBH, unlikely, more a possibility of an Aussie boss with the Power connections over there and Axis funding the appointment....maybe ;)

Perhaps we could poach Harry Kewell....

Simon McMenemy has been featured on the BBC website. I dare say that’s where he got the name from...

I won’t read the following 20 paragraph response/rewrite from his wiki page  telling me that he’s been following his career keenly since backpacking around south east Asia around 8 years ago.

Some of our recent managers have been over easy.

I would be more impressed with Kevin Muscat TBH.

Well he was born in Crawley...

You're totally 100% correct.* Fuck me, how did you guess?!




*Unfortunately haven't been to South East Asia yet and didn't even know he was on the BBC site. Read a FourFourTwo article on him last month though. My friend Seth, who wrote a book about his time playing football in Brazil, knows of him though.

Good to see this being taken seriously
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43364042

Any idea what was said? When one of their players rolled around for a creative couple of minutes after being brushed off the ball, I heard one of ours tell him to "Get up, you pansy." I imagine it would have to be worse than that no?

Not in this day and age. That’s 10 years minimum. Now if he’d broken his legs he could have expected a suspended sentence and fine.

Flash quite likes him.

Yeah yeah...

You were probably cheering as he trudged off..

hmmmm not sure that is a fair comparison when you look at their roles in the team

Anderson: run at opposition give the ball away? I just still don't see it. Maybe with better players and a bit more time to gain consistency, but right now...

Woolery has the excuse of being sub a lot  and played to work the channels.

wouldn't bet on any of the three hitting the net to be honest.

Regardless I know it's opinion, just think Norris is performing to the same level as them right now and didn't deserve the stick

Of course he doesn't, but many fans need a scapegoat, atm it's Luke.  They haven't got Flitters now.... it did amuse me, that having called for Flitters to go,many of them then slag him off for taking their advice.

My scapegoat is Power

Poor old Norris was even lambasted on an episode of the BBC comedy 'This Country' the other night.

Ha ha, good shout

Been thinking the same myself for last week or so, seen plenty of fans doing that

I shrugged my shoulders when he joined and I shrugged them again when he left. The only concern I had is that Mansfield could take our manager. Maybe all the shoulder shrugging I'm going all gallic. I fully expect to shrug my shoulders at the next appointment.

There's no contradiction in being glad he's gone and recognizing he's a dick for bailing. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Exactly.

You wouldn't get half the contradiction had he walked in the summer.

 :shrug:

 As Futcher pointed out just before they jumped ship, he felt they weren't getting the credit deserved for halting our slide given the situation in the summer.  Correctly calling it in my opinion.  His use of Chesterfield as comparison, should give food for thought.

Consider how many similarities there are to us, yet differences which should work in their favour.  Similar crowd sizes... Sat we had 300 more, despite being in a PO slot and they're in the relegation slot. We played the FLT final in PdC's first season. They got to the Div 3 PO's like us in the Cooper season. 

They came down last season with us, on the back of hanging onto Danny Wilson for too long something we know about.  The appointment of Gary Caldwell seemed reasonable, he'd done OK at Wigan, but proved disastrous, and then the classic mistake to compound it, a rookie former player, popular but no experience.

When you consider they're further forward in having the tidy new ground, with community facilities for hire etc, on a scale appropriate for their size... it does show the importance of correct managerial appointment.

Power has to get this right... if he doesn't there is no reason why we can't emulate Chesterfield next season.

That pretty much sums up my attitude to STFC and football in general at the moment...

Who do they think they are if that is the case, gods?

On the question you raise - true, equally, if he gets it right there is every chance we get promoted this season or next.

Flitcroft built this team to play a certain way, most players will probably struggle if they are asked to suddenly start playing football, as we saw on sat when some decided they needed to be passing the ball more and failed at it.

Our current 'success' has been playing one way to change that style now would surely be suicidal

I think we may need someone from outside I think at this time it is to big a risk on Taylor and for him personally if he has ambitions for the future it may have an effect, sadly I know Sat was only 1 game but we cant afford to be sure that same wont happen again next week.

We cant wait on Power to make a decision as long as he took appointing flitcroft, there needs to be a quick appointment, hopefully Rosler is interested, but failing that we didn't see the appointment of Flitcroft until he was announced so maybe just maybe Power will take that route and not appoint someone who has been mentioned.

Power got it right with Flitcroft, accepting to bin the player development model, and get in someone who knows how to operate in the muck and nettles of Div 4, with a promotion on his CV. Further opting out of player recruitment and allowing a more sensible model of journeymen Div 4 pros, with one or two who might have a bit of potential.

I think we have to follow that again for next season.... I'm torn by Brown, certainly has the experience, but does he still have the fire in the belly, something to prove.  I noticed he's on the 3rd wife so probably needs to work, but could probably fall back on media work.

I see no reason why Rosler is the sort of thing we need.  Brown would be a better fit.

I'm of the opinion that the management is ultimately pointless at the moment. Our injury list is so bad, particularly defensively, that everything else just compounds a bigger issue.

We're conceding 2-3 goals a game routinely because we're playing with our 4th, 5th and 6th CBs, 2nd choice FBs and a goalkeeper who was released from Barrow.

If we have a mentally fit Vigs/RCC and can pick a back 5 that includes Lancs, Preston, Conroy and Hussey more often than not, we're in the automatic race. Robertson is possibly the worst CB to have played regularly for us in my lifetime.

Hard to disagree Panda, though part of me doesn't want to admit it to myself. 10 conceded in 4 league games backs up your thoughts.

Don't want to leave it too long mind, got to start building for next season whatever happens.

On the plus side, its funny watching the Pox sweat after sliding down the league in 7 managerless weeks. don't think they'll go down, unfortunately.

Maybe pointless for this season, but an opportunity to take stock of the available players in the squad, and then make sure recruitment is done ready for the pre-season friendlies.

I'm assuming that Flitters will take Mansfield up then he'll look to sign up Preston, Hussey and Banks for The Stags.

As much as injuries have created a problem, we are not far from being able to out a similar team to very early in the season, where we were wining one and losing one still.  I think the 3-5-2 was stumbled upon and then made to look like it was a super tactical switch, it has begun to unravel as it really shouldn't be about shoving three players out to play centre half.

I'd revert the current available players back to a four at the back, which is what they'll be more used to anyway.  As Reg often points out - at this level keeping it simple works best.  He also pointed out a while back that a back three works with a ball player, it does not work when you just throw defenders on in numbers.  What we see is a complete lack of understanding at times - on where they need to be positioned and who is responsible for what.  Hoddle, McLaren and Culverhouse all worked in the role in the middle because they were not there primarily to defend, although Culverhouse clearly could.  Same with Thompson more recently - his job was to burst into the midfield, and we didn't then also have a Dunne in front of them, cluttering it up even more.

So, I think some management could help here, just making it all easy for them.  On the whole, they are no worse than more than a couple of the teams in this league, even with the injuries.

 The 3 at the back was tried after the Luton fiasco, we beat Notts, and had a run of 4 or 5 games mostly winning apart from Cov, who we by most accounts outplayed. 

So trying it and sticking with it was not really a problem, until losing your 2 first pick centre halves. It's true we're no worse, but we're also not much better..... over a season it's the fine margins which aggregate.

Going with 3 also provided a chance for Knoyle, to show if he's up to it, after an injury lay off.  Jury out on him.

I think Knoyle is a far better option than Gordon, better defending and far better attacking and he can cross a ball, I have seen all of his games for us and almost all Gordons and I think Knoyle is far better.

Hes better than Barry last season but he has to be allowed to run at defenders which playing at right back in a 4 Purkiss does better.

Knoyle could be played at right wing with Purkiss behind him in a flat 4.

I still don't think Robertson is good enough though and even Darren Ward and Brian Borrows, both much older, had more pace than him but they could read the game better.

Re Robertson, think he was Flitters first signing.  Obviously brought in as an experienced squad man... who knows Div 4.

He probably wanted to look at Conroy to see if he was good enough, and when Deon went lame, he drafted in Preston as it was obvious Robertson wouldn't manage 46 games.  However, over the course of the season, you need players as cover, who maybe won't start every game but you can rely upon, to give you something if they do.  Ideally you want better, but when you're in Div 4 with a reasonably limited budget, quality is hard to find. 

Not sure if he's a 1 or 2 year deal...

As the transfer window closes early from next season then we cant really leave it until the end of the season as a manager (or head coach) will need to know what he (or she) has got and where needs to be strengthened

True, whoever is in charge for the end of season needs to be in charge for next season.  We should be in betters shape than last season, insofar as we have a core of players who are OK for Div 4.  A lot depends on contract length, which I lost track of in the summer because of the quantity. The new man/woman needs to augment what we've got with some a bit better, as we're a bit short of promotion class.  Going to be difficult as Power will likely trim the wage bill as lower income will kick in.

Nope,      Can't agree with that, not with him or any other player. Certainly not going to improve his confidence.  If a player is just not good enough,  then he's just not good enough,  as long as he gives 100% that's good enough for me. He is a trier, but unfortunately at the moment just seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.