Thetownend.com

Big game. 0-0

Tuning in from Denver, Co. Fancy us if we can get 75 out of Hussey again.

1-2. 349 Town fans. Pray for the lost one.

Surprisingly easy win. 0-3.

Piece of piss

Hope we win & don't score too many, I've got tickets with the home fans and not too sure I could refrain from celebrating too often

I'll look out for you

2-1. Almost a good point, but not quite.

Far too optimistic on here today.

11 away wins so far this season including 3 goal victories at Luton and Mansfield.

No reason to think we can't make it 12.

2-0 Richard, Woolery

6-2 defat

Pre match glass veering between full & empty in The Imperial.
Should have worn a rugby shirt with collar upturned to blend in with all the student types here.

The Grecians have a couple of Troys in their ranks.
They should leave, it's not going to end well.

Well, that sunny day in August when we played these at home seems a long time ago now.
A similar work ethic to last Saturday with Dunne stepping it up against another of his former clubs would be good.

"Clean sheet mentality"!!

2-1 defeat with Richards scoring a penalty, 350 Town fans (plus a few in the home end) in a crowd of 4,143.

A thumping 6-0 loss, with many giving up all hope of going up, and Reg predicting consecutive relegations in the coming seasons. Only for us to then go on an undefeated run for the rest of the season, with us sneaking into 3rd of the last game of the season, and with Reg predicting consecutive relegations in the coming seasons.

Been raining down here for 24 hours, Torquays home game has been called off already due to a waterlogged pitch, it has just stopped raining in the last 15 mins though so hopefully the drainage is ok.

New manager honeymoon period...

 Exeter City 0-3 Swindon Town
                        Richards 32, 41
                        Woolery 78

 Att: 4,147 (350 away)
 Plus a few Town fans in the home end.

Quite like the area around the Cathedral.
Prime location for the rough sleepers.

Good to see a lot of familiar faces wandering around.
Might be a fair few lurkers in the home end today.

will happily take a draw

Exeter home this season    - 11W 3D 3L 24F 14A +10GD
last 6 home games WWDLDD 8F 4A

Swindon away this season - 11W 1D 7L 35F 23A +12GD
last 6 away games WDLLLW 10F 10A

Fairly well matched TBH.

The pitch looks pretty awful as they suggested on their forum.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZDrOGPX0AEog3b.jpg:large)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZDk995XkAAcKZV.jpg:large)

Be great to have a standing terrace again

The "Big Bank" end is a nice stand, similar would suit the Town End if standing was allowed, its 3,900+ capacity would be fine for us IMO. Almost double the TE size we have now mixed with safe standing would be good.

Moore; Purkiss, Robertson, Menayese, Hussey; Mullin, Dunne, Elsnik, Taylor; Woolery, Richards (C).
Subs: Henry, Knoyle, Linganzi, Gordon, Anderson, Twine, Norris.

Woolery looked handy when he came on last week lets see if he can take his chance with both hands, he scored a great goal vs Exeter at home and glad Mullin keeps his place too, he was MoM last week probably for me.

Suprised to not see McGivern on the bench, weak defensive back up.

Win 1 nil Woolery

Phil putting the cones and vests out. :)
Lack of minions?

Did the fitness guy go with Flitcroft?
Looks like someone else taking the warm up,

Like that team a lot, have a tenner on 3.0 so here’s hoping.

Don’t worry.

Be Happy!

I've polished the crystal ball and come up with an interesting prediction. Not sure I can believe this, but it gave me a 4-1 win to the town over exeter. Oxford to loose 2-0 and mansfield to get beat (no amount of polishing my orb gave me that score line). But I'm very happy and very relaxed at the moment.

Think we’ll nick it 2-1 today. Richards and Taylor.

Poor shot by Robertson from a good free position after a free kick.

Another good chance for Woolery missed.

Exeter looking shakey as hell at the back.

Town putting Exeter under a lot of early pressure, we are first to every loose ball, Exeter can't string 2 passes together and look very weak at the back.

Exeters first shot, well over from 25 yards out.

Cynical foul on Woolery clean through on the wing.

Taylor hits the resulting free kick against the post/keeper from 30 yards out.

Exeter still can't string 2 passes together, they are lacking in any quality, all the passing from us but the ball is up in the air too mcuh, partly due to a terrible playing surface.

Sounds like Woolery causing them problems

Woolery just blocked taking a shot inside the box only the keeper to beat, good chance.

We are passing the ball well now, the players are throwing themselves into every tackle.

They are really slow at the back, they can't cope with Woolery or any player running at them, as poor defensively as any side I have seen this season.

The cross just wouldnt fall for Taylor inside the box then or it would have been 1-0.

Purkiss looked a little lucky to get away with holding their striker in the box.

Hussey runs at them but passes to Taylor when he should have shot, Taylor fluffs his right foot shot froma  great scoring position.

1-0 Woolery

Woolery,
Woolery..

Ball crossed in, Richards swapped between his feet but lost it and the ball finds Woolery close in who whacks it in the bottom corner from 12 yards.

Get in Woolers have that df!

Hussey and Taylor linking up well down the left, Elsnik and Dunne winning everything in the middle, Mayo getting his head or foot to every ball thrown into the box.

Richards and Mullin not quite at the races yet.

If she don’t cum, I’ll tickle her bum with a lump of Woolery

1-1

STill 1-0

balls

disallowed

no.. disallowed. ball went out. phew

Cross was badly dealt with and headed in, looked ok but ref gave a free kick for pushing it appeared.

1-1

1-1

Again the cross in not dealt with and whacked in at the far post.

Gods sake.  The warning was there with the disallowed goal.

balls. 1-1.

we looked vulnerable down their right for a few attacks before then

bollocks, we seem to have gone to pieces  :crash:

Exeter started coming back into the game when we scored, seemed to wake them up, we have stopped doing the simple stuff.

Another cross not dealt with but the header is straight at Moore...luckily.

mayo is terrible in the air. get up lad

We really are rubbish defensively.

Hussey not defending well today, looks ok going forwards but not defensively.

I know you aren't a fan of his but I though hes our best defender so far by miles.

no I'm actually not anti him. he just can't head

Robertson gives away a silly free kick in the middle of the park.

FFS

pen to them. Silly tackle.

penalty to Exeter ffs

2-1. was a pen, don't think he meant it

2-1 totally needless and he did make a fucking 3 course meal of the dive.

Classic Swindon

game over

Another fucking pen

Didn't see who gave it away but it was a poor misstimed tackle.

That's fucking early, aren't they supposed to have 2 halves?

Sky said it was Taylor who also got booked.

Taylor gave it away.

Naa it's only HT :)

There wasn't much connection, looked like it was Taylors chest but the Exeter played dived like he had been snipered.

Well, still in it but Exeter finished the half much the stronger. Big 45 coming up.

We should not be going in at HT losing, Exeter were terrible until we scored, one o fthe poorest sides we have come up against, but they have seen our weaknesses and playing them well, getting in lots of crosses that we cannot deal with.

Robertson having a go at Taylor and Elsnik at the end for not clearing the ball fast enough.

We could easily till win this and by a few goals.

To be fair we have had quite a few for us this season too.

Not sure if it's just poor refereeing or just that they players in this division just aren't very good/smart

For me Mayo is out best defender, Robertson still off the pace of the game and can't head the ball or pass it.

Mullin and Richards well off the pace, I would bring on Knoyle for Mullin to add defensively and who will run at a very poor Exeter defence.

Woolery scares the shit out of them every time he has the ball, he is working the right channel well but again his fiial ball is not quite good enough.

Dunne again having a pretty good game against another of his former clubs, Elsnik started well but faded.

Taylors dead balls have been really poor in the main and he is linking up well with Hussey when we attack but both look poor defensively today.

Taylor has that habit of mainly providing poor delivery but every game will always put in one or two beauties. Let’s hope he finds them in the second half.

Not really worth a card but it was a pen, unfortunate pen but a pen.  Came from Dunne(?) getting in Elsnik's way as he would have been able to drive away from the box following a break down in an Exeter attack, instead a hurried clearance was made and they came forward again from there.

Still time to get into it again, hopefully Brown can remind them what they were doing right until we scored.

2-4 is 28/1....

If there is one thing PB has in his locker I believe it's the ability to change our tactics/strategy/shape and turn this game around. As Batch said, big 45 now. As you say PV, we could easily go and win this by a couple, hence 2-4.  :D

Richards skies a shot about 40 yards high almost over the stand from 20 yards out.

Hospital pass from Mayo to Dunne.

Richards and Mullin both still passengers, Elsnik not at his best again either.

Woolery felled in a good position in the angle of the box just outside.

Poor resulting free kick shot from Taylor over the bar.

I don't think we are playing any worse than last week at Cambridge, and Exeter are certainly no better than Cambridge but we created more chances last week than this week in the box.

I've a feeling we'll score between now and 75mins.

FGR winning

Norris on for Woolery, Elsnik off and Linganzi on.

A bit unfair on Woolery TBH I would have taken Mullin off and pushed Woolery wide.

I popped it on the other teams thread. Cov 2-0 up also. Fine balance.

mayo flattens an Exeter player. he's headed something at last (only joking Venks).

2 Physio on though, hope he's ok

yeah, all good

How the hell is Exeters Hirem Boateng a footballer? all he does is kick people.

Yep, seems a pretty heavy one. Probably just taking precaution. My data initially said Swindon player injured! Thought Norris had rolled his ankle :)

Him and Robertson haven't had that much to deal with this half TBH.

Very good move from Mullin, Dunne and Purkiss deserved a goal.

Linganzi lovely long range shot beaten out by the keeper.

Excellent tackle by Mayo.

Exeter inviting us on and happy to counter.

Town looking much better with Linganzi and Norris on.

Stating the obvious, but we need a goal.  As it stands Exeter are currently 4th on goal differencefrom Notts County.  What a shite League this is.

What the fucking fuck is it with Robertson who can't pass a ball but every time he has it hoofs one up to Norris or Richards?

Exeter sitting right back, the game is there for the taking.

Gordon on for Mullin.

long ball from us now.

not looking like scoring despite having lion's  share

Lingani looks eager when he has the ball, made a big difference in midfield from the tired looking Elsnik.

FGR 2nil up over Mansfield

Gordon on for Mullin.

Mansfield now losing 2-0.  We need to capitalise.

Gordons first touch is to kick the ball out for a throw in 1 yard away :(

Archie-Henners on.Come on Town!

Poor effort from Hussey after a good move, well over the bar.

It really is saying to Town....come and beat us. They're tactically rolling over and almost wanting us to score. Come on Town!

Come on Town!! Got a family member in the Exeter side, can’t be dealing with that tomorrow.

The more I see of him the more I think Gordon is not good enough for this level.

It's not going to be our day is it?  :cry: :(

Nope. 3-1

I think I just predicted that 3-1 ffs Town :/

Good claim by Moore from a cross.

game over...3-1.

another 3 conceded, showing why we won't go up. bollocks

Very poor defending again, game over.

Beaten by another pretty poor side despite us having most of the possession and passing.

My Exeter mate said before the game they'd be there for the taking, I told him not to be so sure.

I hate football.

I know how Harry Smith feels

Phil Brown will be a genius to work with our current fit defenders.

To be fair he was right, they were.

Sounds obvious to say but 16 defeats is way too many. Probably need to win 5 out of 8 to get into the play-offs, maybe 6?

Had a look at the defence Flitcroft was assembling in the summer and thought it could be our undoing. Just not good enough.

Didn't create anything other than a half chance for Richards though.

Sums up the season for me. Conceded too many. Lost too many. Relied on set pieces too much. Close but no cigar.

Yeah , I think so. And we just haven't looked anywhere near that consistent. Hate to say it, its mathematically possible but I think its over. Probably. Ask me again Easter Monday

Our goal difference is a quite dismal 1.

Our defence is killing us at the moment. Key players out at an important time.

Easter is a bit make or break now.

Did he score

Indeed, effectively 4 extra points needed. 8 to go...

Exeter and Cov the big gainers in the promotion hunt.

Wycombe and Lincoln both draw

Town and Stags both lose.

Still plenty to play for but we're making it more difficult for ourselves. Coventry looking like the form team in the play-off spots, they may well be the team to sneak 3rd. Mansfield had Pearce sent off and Agent DF seems to have had a cracking start up there; I make that 4 games, 3 draws and 1 loss. They seriously are on track to drop out of the play offs. Trouble is, we could easily do the same. No new manager bounce for them. Frustrating for us today as a cheap penalty (karma from last week maybe?) has cost us. Only ourselves to blame really though. Exeter behaved like a Labrador pup for the last 20mins and still managed to bad another goal.

Good Friday is a favourable set of fixtures with 4 teams in the play off hunt playing each other. We really need to win that or slight auto's will be over ad concerns will mount for missing out on play offs. GF will be PTP's biggest test for us. Time to knuckle down and see which players are really up for the fight.

Exeter was massive. Now Easter is really massive.

Robertson was never good enough, hence why he was replaced.
The problem is that with the injuries we have had at CB we now have to rely on him to play.
I thought he did OK at Chesterfield, but he's never going to be consistent enough to play every game at a decent level.

Missing Conroy & Preston for so long is what is ultimately going to cost us.

Banks back on Good Friday. Imagine PB has been desperate to use him but of course he's been suspended. I'm certain he'll slot back in. I know defensively we have suffered but that Midfield link has been weakened too.

That + Banks suspension + Elsnik looking like he's got burn out.

But ultimately, conceding 2 goals a game is going to cost you. Its not over by a long chalk. But carry on like that, it may as well be.

Realistically the season went with Preston then Lancashire. I said when Brown came on board that hopefully Power is saying get in the PO's in public, but in private he's saying look at what we've got and stay on for next season to build a side.... sort out contracts and recruitment in the summer.

I fear however that Brown is hoping to do a decent enough job and so put himself in the window for something better in summer..... which could leave us in a very dangerous place for next season.

Brown's interview full of common sense and harsh realities. If he was here next season I could see him taking us up but I don't think that's likely.

Dunne's interview. Always thought he was a funny looking chap......but what a funny voice!

No, doesn’t get many

7 wins minimum out of 8 needed for automatic.
5 wins from 8 probably needed for play offs.
It’s going to be interesting, can’t see it tho.

Form can turnaround quickly at this stage of the season in either direction when the pressure really kicks in. Long runs of form can suddenly disappear and easy games on paper can become tricky.

Remember 2009/10 we went second in the table with 6 games left after the 3-0 win at Leeds, Austin and Paynter scoring for fun and we finished 5th with only 2 wins after the Leeds game. Despite not being the 'form' team we made the play off final.

We will just have to see how the next 2-3 games go and then see if we are in touch.

Our run in, compared to others, is favourable. 5 at home too, where we’ve been good since the turn of the year. This ain’t over and under Brown, we’ve got a chance.

The CBs are a disaster though. That team but with Lancs/Conroy/Preston fit all season finish top 3.

That’s the difference between a team that will and a team that could get promotion.

Putting together a good late run of games is very, very difficult.... we managed it in 88/89 in Lou's last season winning 5 and drawing 3 of the last 8, to get in the PO's before losing to Palace in the semis... the only time we've lost at that stage in regulation time, as opposed to pens.

However that was a very good side, who the following season would gain promotion to the top flight.

Most Town sides stumble a bit towards the end of a season, fatigue, knowing they'll be off soon, and a desire for the beach being the reasons for that.

It just isn't going to happen for these boys.... at times we've approached getting fully into the mix, but have just come up short in the key games, or failed to dispatch a struggler. 

There's no real reason to think that will change. I suppose having Banks back, Linganzi fit and Hussey seemingly OK, provides a slither of hope, but really it's no more than that.

are you ruling out a playoff finish or just auto?

Have to agree with this.

The auto ship sailed after Wycombe and Accy away.  A PO finish is now looking unlikely our poor GD at this stage is worth a point deducted. Of course it's still doable if we win the games, but it would take a highly unusual finish.

That match was a symbol of our season.

Played some really good stuff and it was a hair on a gnats arse that the ball never really fell for us in the final third. Eventually got the goal but never kicked on.

Poor yet again in defence and didn't need the get out of jail card when their goal was disallowed, I didn't see much wrong with it.

Conceded again and a defo pen for me meant we went in 2:1.

Second half epic fail. Exeter weren't too interested in pressing forward and it became very clear that they had done enough already to win the game.

Third was miles offside in the build up but that sort of made up for the disallowed goal.

Nobody really shine yesterday and even mayonnaise had a shocker at the back.

In short...quite good but just not quite good enough.

I would even say the POffs are a big ask.

Whoever the manager is next season, he will have enough of a spine to build with but I fear it will be in L2 again...

I've asked before but to no avail, but which players arre contracted for next season? 

Players contracted for next season: Vigouroux (not sure about Moore and Charles-Cook), Lancashire, Conroy, Dunne, Anderson, Woolery, Richards, Norris, Mullin, Young

Bit harsh that, thought he put loads of effort in, ended up trying to cover for Robertson and Purkiss who were both poor.
Overall I didn’t think that we played too badly but no cutting edge.
Thought Flitcroft was still with us when Woolery got subbed 🙄

Right. So the new gaffer will be OK for front men, assuming they all stay, but will need a more or less complete overhaul of defence and midfield.

I thoughy Mayo was easily our best defender but thats not saying much, Robertson, Purkiss and Hussey were all terrible defending.

Probably the worst perfromance by Purkiss in a Town shirt for me, Hussey is good going forwards but he can't defend and Taylor hindered more than helped at the back.

I thought Woolery was unlucky to be subbed but he did the best of our forward line, Richards and Mullin both off key.

One bonus was Linganzi coming back who looked quite comfortable and passed and ran well, Dunne again played quite well against his former side.

The season is far from over but we need to defend as a team and not rely on the back 4 who are not good enough, the midfield has to protect them and we need to create chances which we didn't yesterday.

If Richards is not playing well we don't look like scoring.

The run of poorer form has coincided with Elsniks drop in form too, he looks totally burned out, he didn't do the simple stuff like run with the ball and pass to a Town player.

But the biggest thing is that he is not shooting from distance any more, hes not making their keepers make saves that are finished off by Richards in the 6 yard box, he used to bang in shots from all distances....he hasn't done that since he came back from injury.

I think we miss the breaking pace of Anderson running out with the ball, yes he often chooses the wrong end product either shot, pass or fall over but he gets the ball out of our defence quickly and turns it into attack, especially when we are counter attacking, which we didn't do yesterday as Exeter invited us to come attack them, which we did but with no end product at all.

It was more Mayo's passing that stood out as bad for me.

I had completely forgotten about Anderson and Banks! Are they now both back for the run in? These guys could be key now for us. PV has touched on Anderson’s pace and Banks’ has the best vision in the side. If we can integrate them back and get Elsnik back to his best and we have a real chance.

I keep banging on about it but our defence is killing us. We basically have to do without 3 of our best defenders and our back ups are not up to it. Interestingly Exeter are also without their best centre backs also, but are managing a bit better unfortunately. This from some Exeter fans-

‘Swindon as a side weren't bad, could see why they're up there. The big CB you had, Menayese, was awful.. How does he get into the team? Struggled to kick a ball, as did the keeper. Poor distribution, and being an Exeter fan, we're all to used to poor distribution.’


‘Strangely enough we have our 3 CBs out too. Sweeney is a right back and Storey is a kid who started the season at Dorchester. He looked fantastic today though. Another big tick for our youth policy.’

Mayos passing started fine but got much worse as the game went on, but thats certainly not his strong point, he got his foot or body in the way of a fair bit though, and TBH I thought Robertsons continual hoofing of the ball up to Richards/Woolery when he had it in good positions was the worst crime.

Instead of passing to a midfielder to create an attack he just belted it, usually with little accuracy up to Richards or Woolery and thats not a strong point of either strikers game, he turned defence to attack back to defence again inside 10 seconds.....but did this all the time!

We will struggle defensively until we get new bodies in, like Ryan McGivern who didn't even make the bench yesterday....is he injured?

He’s been chucked in the deep end, for sure. I’m certain the plan for him didn’t include being a permanent CB game after game.

Saying that, I imagine that being a lower league defender, whether old hand (Robertson) or newbie (Mayo), being able to clear crosses is a basic requirement. Of course, the midfield seemingly unable to stop the crosses coming in is another problem.

The all piss and panic defence seems to be a permanent feature of our sides recently.

It’s why, after a totally dominant first 25 minutes, we needed to score more than once as we are always liable to let in at least 2.

One redeeming feature is, though, there are a number of 6 pointers over Easter for the other teams. If we can’t put both Morecambe and Creepy to the sword to take advantage, then we don’t deserve the POs.

Spot on in all points in my opinion.

That’s the issue with the vast majority of league 2 defenders. They have zero composure and I’m sure it’s drilled into them to get rid at all costs which cause them to snatch at the ball when it comes into the box causing miskicks, rash challenges etc.

Mayo's passing is never going to be great. his strengths are his strength and looks ok in a tackle.

his weaknesses are sometimes his positioning, lack of real pace and, as I've mentioned his total inability to head when up against a player he has to jump with.

he's young though. I think he'll be a reasonable lower league defender. I think he's already better than our other centreback

Paying? Heading?

Help!

oh FFS. fixed it

Admittedly my opinion is only based on the highlights but that penalty was bollocks!

Keshi has been available, just dropped to the bench.

Banks being back should be a help, as he'll be playing for a contract somewhere.

Playing to get a contract somewhere for lower league journeymen is much more of a focus, than what is happening in the league at this stage of the season.

I heard McDermott and Preston could be in contention too

That was mentioned by BBC Wilts as "some people are saying" and then laughed off. If its true then it surely improves our chances!

McDermott is a good bench filler, Preston back would be massive if he is up to a good fitness level.

Surprised to say the least.

If Preston is back I doubt Power would have signed McGivern.

McGivern is essentially a left back who can fill in at CB so perhaps hes not sure that Hussey is fully fit yet too. He certainly didn't look fully fit at the weekend, but then neither did Taylor or Elsnik.

Ripped his arse

‘Swindon Town Boss Phil Brown has provided the latest on defender Ryan McGivern, who missed Saturday's 3-1 defeat to Exeter City because of injury.

"He just tweaked his Rectus Femoris in a game on Tuesday," Brown said.

"Fingers crossed he should be okay and I'm hoping that one or two others come out of the treatment room as well.

"If that's the case then we'll have a stronger team, a stronger squad and the mentality that needs to improve."

Saw this and thought of Reg....

https://twitter.com/LoathedStranger/status/977590774933180416 (https://twitter.com/LoathedStranger/status/977590774933180416)