Thetownend.com

Plymouth and Newport in our group with an undecided u21 team

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2018/july/towns-checkatrade-trophy-group-decided/

Undecided whether they can be arsed? I know I can't.

Not been to one since they dragged the academy sides in.
And don't plan on changing that.

Same

Same.

Which is a shame as I could easily make a trip to Newport.

Yup.

Same here.

My personal boycott continues.....shame...I miss it.

Whilst the “invited” teams are still in, I’m out.

With you all so far,  as long as this stupid reserve team cup continues,  count me out.

Any one know how much it is to go? My young ‘un has expressed an interest. The club site wants you to go through ticketmaster (not a chance) and if pushed I will drive up later and get a couple of ticketsunder duress.

Why not?
It is free to print at home or collect at club.
Heck, it was only £1 per order to post for the league cup game ..

Adult £8
Student/under 18/Over 65 £5
U11 £2

Only the Arkells and the Arkells side of the TE is open BTW. Should think you will get a ticket on the gate :)

Down the pub for me tonight, rare child free evening.

 Although boycotting, having the game this week isn't such a bad thing, insofar it's a bit like an extra behind closed doors pre-season friendly. PB can take the opportunity, to try out a few things.

Did I read somewhere that these games are on iFollow this season?

No booking fee?

Gonna be a bumper crowd by the sounds of it!

The best result will be no injures, this is a friendly as far as I’m concerned

Let's set ourselves a challenge of seeing how long we can go before discovering the result, a la 'The Likely Lads' episode of yore!

Last season the games vs FGR and Wet Spam were shown live for free, they haven't said yet if they will be showing it yet or not though.

That was a classic.... made even more so by the fact I'd done something like it myself for an England game in Italy, must have been mid 70's we still lost and failed to qualify for 78  :(

I'd still kind of like to watch it, not going, no way and don't care about the result but if it's on iFollow I'd be keen to see a few of the more peripheral players in action.  TD should get some minutes, Nelson should play etc.

@L-L - no booking fees for league cup game, correct.

I've not followed through on tonight's but it's got to be the same, frankly I'd rather go watch Oxford than this ;)

When you say you are boycotting, based on past record I assume we can expect a full match report later then?  :hmmm: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

I concur for the same reason as you state, interested to see how we match up and set up in formation etc and see how the new boys do but don't give a fuck about the result etc..

They’ve got a Luke McCormick playing as well

I didn't include him on purpose  :)

The Advert is showing a possible Chelsea side for tonight's game and names Feruz as main striker. Is that the same one who was brought in by Tiger Tim to save us from relegation two seasons ago? Supposedly one of the brightest young prospects in the game and a big money buy from Celtic. He didn't play too many games and was out of his depth when he did. I'm amazed he's still there if it is him.

Yep thats him, not a "big money" move as such but £300k. I am surprised he hasn't been moved on he wasn't much good when he played for us TBH.

£300,000 you say? I thought it was a lot more but yes, he never impressed me either. Interesting to see if he makes more of an effort in tonight's game. I hope we give Twine, Edwards and Romanski a run out tonight.

Ha. The best trolling of this competition would be for us to put out an U21 team for each game.

Do they use those silly rules for this one, where you have to field say 5 of your previous starting 11 in the tinpot cup squad?

I think so but also you have to field a certain amount of U21s too I think in that total.

Maybe not the number of U21s that I thought.

Didn't a team get a fine (or threatened with one) for putting out youth teams last season, didn't the manager of the fans say they would pay the fine if necessary?

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/16/efl-checkatrade-trophy-under-strength-fines

https://www.lutontown.co.uk/news/2016/november/club-statement-on-15k-checkatrade-trophy-fine/

That's ridiculous - Luton beat Gillingham and West Brom and were still fined for breaking the rule.

Yeah they did, its a farce, if they had lost I could understand it.

of course it's a farce.

keshi Anderson is suspended for tonight's game as he was sent off in a checkatrade last season, but red cards don't count towards any other competition.

how much more of a 'friendly'/farce do you want!

Let's have red card rollerball tonight then.

Well i’m going with LL junior. Picked up tickets a while ago after getting a text from his bedroom to the lounge where I am sat doing some accounts, lazy fucker. I did try and point out it was just a friendly match in all but name. “Dad, these are professional players and it is a cup game, there are no friendly games when you are a pro” what could I say to that? He has a valid point. Besides after Saturdays nail biting finish which we had to miss out on he has got the bug back after a three year hiatus so I have to nurture his pick up in interest.

Bit ironic when youth teams enter it?

It really is, the whole competition needs banging on the head, or why not play it in the pre season instead of friendlies.

Pre season is a cracking idea for the group stage.

I think it makes sense all round for the group stages and maybe the 2nd round knockout too, so 3 or 4 games.

No news on any availability of this match "live" - ie in the UK and without vpns or ifollow etc  ?

IFollow says the game is not available in the Match Centre

Nothing as yet, not on ChelseaTV either as they are covering the friendly with the 1st team.

When we had this game a couple of yeaers ago... SSP was doing the commentary on ChelseaTV.

He was, it was a very good game too, I remember watching it that night and we won :) .

McCormick; Knoyle, Nelson, Conroy, Romanski; McGlashan, McCourt, Diagourouga, Iandolo; Twine, Adebayo

Isn’t that a fine?

I make it 5 outfield players from Saturday isnt it?  Knoyle, Conroy, Mcglashan, Dave, Adebayo. Only has to be 4 doesnt it?

Dave didn't play saturday

Depends if they could starting line ups or played, if its starting line up then theres only 4.

Hope Conroy makes it through.  Wouldn't have started him, personally.

Ok.  Still 4 though innit?  Isnt it 4 outfield players who started the match on Saturday have to start today?

Looks like Romanski at LB then.

5.

It seems to be "4", so we should be ok.

7.3 Each EFL Club shall play its Full Available Strength in and during all Matches. Full Available Strength means the EFL Club must include at least four Qualifying Players in the ten outfield Players named in the starting eleven on the Team Sheet.

7.4 Qualifying Player means any Player who:

7.4.1 had started the immediately preceding First Team Fixture (as defined below);

7.4.2 subsequently starts the immediately following First Team Fixture;

7.4.3 is in the list of ten Players at the Club with the highest number of starting appearances in First Team Fixtures in the same Season;

7.4.4 has made forty or more starting appearances in First Team Fixtures or international equivalents (and not limited to the same Club or Season); or

7.4.5 is on standard loan from a Premier League Club or any EFL Club operating a Category One ............

Personally don't give a shit about the game,  and come to think of it,  if it was on the tv I'd probably turn it off anyway.

Had anyone used www.onlineradiobox.com before? Listening to bbc wilts on it, wondering if it’s going to cut out when the game starts

0-1 Knoyle off injured

0-2

Hopefully tactical... give Dunne a run out.

oh FFS, injuries. wanky shitty competition. 
the sooner we are out the better

That’s my thought. Gets around the rules.

Knoyle went off injured, sounds like maybe he'll be out for Saturday judging by comms, didn't see the injury itself as logged in to see him on the floor.

2nd a pen, watched it a couple of times, right decision.  Chelsea's kids look very handy.

Meaningless game but I am interested to see how we have set up.

McCormicks kicking very good, hasn't had a shot to save yet as he had no chance with the first goal and the penalty.

Knoyle went down under an innocuous challenge, hopefully the injury isn't bad, Dunne has come on and looks ok as right back fill in.

Conroy has made some good challenges but gave away a penalty, which looked like a weak one to give away.

Nelson looks far better than Lancashire, can pass a ball and head and tackle but he hits too many long balls to no one when under no pressure, that said he launched a couple of great long range passes.

Romanski looks quite handy at LB has won a few good tackles and had our best shot of the game after a run.

Adebayo is our best player, winning everything in the air and set up a couple of chances for others.

McGlashan looks fairly good but hasn't had a lot of the ball, swapping between wings but with no end product as yet.

Twine looks way out of his depth, had one shot from a great position that went 30 yards wide, has given Romanski no cover and looks like hes out of position on the left wing.

Iandolo has run around a lot but not completed many passes and fluffed one good chance, doesn't look ready for a centre midfield slot yet, looks better on the wing.

McCourt made a couple of challenges and passes but is off the pace a bit and not ready for a first team slot yet.

Dave Toums has looked like hes just turned up and got a game, no pace, his passing is awful and has given the ball away 3 or 4 times in bad positions, nowhere near ready for the first team yet.

The style of play is totally different to Saturday, we have no defensive cover in midfield, the passing is awful and we are hitting too many long balls to Adebayo, Chelsea are running the game in midfield with Musonda running the game.

Poor half from Swindon, 0-2 down and don't look like scoring.

Definately not tactical, he hobbled off after a kick on the ankle.

Did TD have a pre season at Fleetwood? If not, it’s not surprising that he’s off the pace.

Don't think so, PB has said hes behind the rets on fitness, its not his fitness that looks the issue he just isn't in the game and barely made more than a couple of tackles or passes to completion.

Guess Toums won't be playing on Saturday then.

he moved about 10 yards in 20 minutes v pompey too.

going to be a month or so before we see him proper I think

1569 in attendance

1569 to many.

We look very poor dealing with crosses.

I would take Charlie Brown, Lamptey and Musonda any day.

Lamptey is one footed but what a good right foot, quick winger with a great cross.

Young has come on and is flattened already, looks a bad challenge.

Young was on the pitch about 3 mins and is off injued, Pryce coming on for his debut.

Adebayo carrying an injury now.

0-4

Positive points.....Adebayo looks good but could be injured, Nelson is better than Lancashire.

Negative points.....almost everything else.

If Lincoln are scouting this match they will think that they will walk it against us, totally different style of play than we had against Macc and a poor performance by everyone else.

Sol Pryce had a decent enough cameo.

fucking injuries. fucking useless competition

So 0-4, three (or is it four?) injuries, Diagouraga way off the pace... that went well.

So a pointless friendly largely for the benefit of Chelsea's kids leaves us with 3-4 injuries including 2 likely starters for Saturday, potentially set back Jordan Young's return in front of our 3rd lowest gate since the war. Thanks a fucking lot, Football League. The League have killed their own competition, they should accept defeat and put it out of its and our misery

How many of Chelsea's kids were even English (or kids)?

I don't mean that in a Tommy Robinson way, but is the 'reasoning' for this not that it's supposed to be good for the national team?

yes that was part of the reasoning. clearly it's worked as England got to a semi final ;)

However, Nelson, Lancashire is a tidy enough replacement for Preston, Lancashire.  Nelson even had a FL team for 10 years.

I suspect Elijah might be a bit delicate for such a big lad, he's still basically a boy trying to make a way in men's football. The real worry is Toumani, if we are to do anything this season then he'll need to be a big part of it..... at the moment he's lookng a bit Nalis

I think Mr. Brown summed it up nicely, beaten by the better team. Reminded me of our PL season.

I logged in not wanting to see injuries...and it looks like we have.

What a load of shit.

Once a bit of mid season fun had turned into a hindrance...

1500 odd too many IMO...but I respect those that did go.

I might be wrong, but it seems like in the last few seasons we have picked up quite a few injuries early in the season in double game weeks.  I was wondering if generally players are more susceptible to injuries earlier in the season when fitness is perhaps a bit lacking? 

Any updates on the knocks?

I haven't seen him, but if Diagouraga is as far off the pace as people say, have we been sold a pup? Why should he be so far out of condition? Did we sign him with an injury, or is he just going to pick up a wage while swinging the lead?

Toums may just have had an off game, but if he did it was a bad off game, he won a couple of tackles and then lost the ball within seconds of winning it, his dribbing was poor and his passing terrible.

Nowhere near ready for a first team slot. He looked slow tracking back too which is one of his best qualities apparently.

Disappointing to say the least.

It does look that way, but I think a long standing cliche of managers down the years is that they hope to get through pre/early season unscathed, as it's a time for picking up injuries.

The other thing is I hope we don't have to rely on Twine and Iandolo in midfield yet, both had very poor games, Twine looked better when playing as a striker late on but was lost on the left wing and Iandolo was not at the races.

Romanski looked the pick of the youngsters playing as a left back but was ran ragged later in the game by Lampety who looks a good prospect on right wing, Pryce came on, played as a right winger, made a couple of runs and crosses but got pushed off the ball a little too easy at times.

Nelson got a lot of good tackles and blocks in, and yes he does throw himself about with diving headers etc, his long distribution is poor and was at fault for the first goal at least. For me though he still looks better than Lancashire. Dunne looked ok as a fill in right back, got beat for pace but so did every other player on the pitch against a very fast Chelsea team.

McCourt was nowhere near good enough in that midfield, no creativity at all from the centre 3/4 but then it was bypassed almost entirely by our long passes out from the back, we were totally over run in midfield with an entirely new midfield who did not work together at all.

It was an interesting experiment, but sadly one that didn't work at all against a footballing side, Chelsea had 3 or 4 excellent players on show in this glorified friendly fixture.

We don't know what his (Dave's) instructions were, Brown might have been trying something out. Players are prone to looking poor or disinterested when asked to do something they're not used to.

I know Brown has publicly said he likes this competition, but he's hardly going to come out and say the opposite. He made as many changes as he could, which suggests he isn't taking it that seriously.

fair questions, I know medicals aren't fool proof but surely it would have picked up major injuries.

it's not great he's not fit, but thankfully it's an area of plenty cover.

adebeyo is surely more of a concern

Brown definately didn't put out a team to win yesterday, the game/side was almost entirely an experiment as the way we set up and played was unlike anything PB has served upa t all, it was much more like under Flipflop.

Without EA, we've nothing resembling a target man, unless I've forgotten someone... Richards could do some sort of job, but he's still a while away apparently.

Fitness seems to be a problem generally in English football, we as a team seem to have been unable to play two games in a week for the last 2-3 years, whilst the England team seemed to struggle to last 60+ minutes in the world cup.

Not sure who the co comms was yesterday along with Shaun Hodgetts, he kept calling him "Steve" but it certainly wasn't Steve Whiet but he did have a West County/Swindon accent and know a fair bit.

I did wonder if it was Steve Hale maybe? he was very very uncomplimetary about the Cowleys at Lincoln, saying he thought their actions in the technical box were very unprofessional.

Yeah it was Steve Hale

Any updates on the injuries? Any mention in post-match?

Cheers, he was very deriding of the Cowleys, both of them.

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Looks like Knoyle will be out for a bit with a hamstring problem.

We have needed, and still do need, a proper back-up full-back on either side, especially the right, don't want Dunne anywhere near right-back. Hopefully this forces Phil Brown's hand.

Fucking stupid competition. Bunch of cunts.

1,500+ seems like a good gate to me compared with last year.   Won't be long before we start being told what a success the competition is.
Still won't entice me whilst the format stays the same.  Useless,  Pointless competition.

The worrying aspect is the injuries and those we have specifically picked up.  I happened to think that young Knoyle played very well on Saturday, so that will be a loss. 

Taylor, on the other side, whilst always a threat on set pieces and delivery into the box, looked like he is struggling for pace and may be vulnerable (I thought the same about Greer when he moved on to Brighton, mind)

Still won't entice me whilst the format stays the same.  Useless,  Pointless competition.

So if the format changed back you’d go? If so then it isn’t a Useless, Pointless competition, is it!? Just a format issue?

So while I try and understand your dogma, intransigence and hankering for not changing anything let me counter you with this. As it stands, I went with my lad and put £14 in the till including the pimped up fixture wall chart programme contained within to a game the club has to play and pay for. Secondly, it was a chance for all who did go to to a) see some fucking excellent football played by b) players who should be making a name for themselves at the highest level in the future. C) encouraged my DNA to want to go to a league match ASAP, thus putting more money into the club and d) getting a younger member of the community to continue at some level to support the club. INMH not a complete waste of time.

That's a big shame.  We really do need proper fullback cover. 

Oh FFS, Knoyle and Adebeyo were my two stand outs from Saturday. Injured for fuck all. Brilliant.

They already have. Some dribbling jizz-baton from the FA/FL last season told us that it was a success because attendance were up. They were, but what he somehow conveniently failed to mention was that the new format now means more games are being played, hence the 'higher' number of people attending. In reality, attendances at individual games were significantly lower than before.

And no doubt many people were just lapping the bullshit up.

It seems Knoyle might be available for Saturday and there are no other injury concerns. Even if Knoyle doesn't make it Saturday, it certainly seems as though it is not a long-term injury.

Still a fucking stupid competition, though.

Yes, In the format it is, I stand by  my comments,  it is a useless, pointless competition.
 You chose to go, thats up to you, you have a choice and so do I, I will not help finance a competition that was designed to allow a lower league club the opportunity of the chance to play at Wembley, it has been invaded by premier league clubs encouraged to use the competition as a youth training exercise (ie U21/U23 teams), and before you say it, it does not IMO, bring through future England players, and does not do what it was originally intended to do, give lower league clubs a chance to get to Wembley.
So if you choose to support this tinpot cup then feel free to do so, I and several thousand others will not.

I support this opinion... With no disrespect to those that go.

I went to see if my lad was ready for the proper football.

He isn't. And I won't be going to any more games in this competition.

 I'm not altogether certain about this, but Newport are 2-0 up on Plymuff..... I'm guessing that puts us out. Impressive start by Wellens out the Boycott before kicking a ball  :)

I knew he was the wrong person for the job. shocking appointment.

Wellens out!

See West Brom used the opportunity to give promising youngsters boaz myhill and Gareth barry a run out last night va Macclesfield

What a farce

tbf, he's already gone up in my estimation getting us out of that shit show

Wellens for Mayor!

We should give him the freedom of the Borough and allow him to herd pigs across the Magic roundabout

Just to reinforce my comment, my DNA on questioned whether he’d like to see how the new manager performs on Saturday informs me that he is already going with his mate from school. This after going to see the dire performance against York in the cup and the whooping dished out by Chelsea youth. So in this instance it has paid off.

utd and liverpool kids next year

Plymouth, Bristol Rovers and Chelsea U21.

Don't get much variation, do we!?

Blimey, how exciting.

No announcement on dates or even who we're playing home/away. Talk about dragging things out...

No dates....Home or Away!? ....shambles..

I need to plan for the games im boycotting!