Thetownend.com

Need to bounce back tonight.
Not feeling overly confident about this one.

Will feel like a friendly with only two stands open but hopefully a few more than 1,500 will turn up.
At least the views of surrounding countryside and townscape are good from the Arkells.

Never realised this about the Caribou Cup

Extra-time has been removed in all rounds up to and including the semi-finals, with ties being decided on penalties

Getting closer and closer to that winky wanky Cup.

Going to see if we can repeat the Maccy style going forward or the Lincun Keystone Cops defending.

 FGR have never won a LC game.... we've won it and been in the semis twice.  We'll need to raise our game to avoid a similar outcome to last year's Boycott tie.

Chance for Brown to see a couple of fresh faces get 90 minutes. He can’t mess about too much as this is a game we really need to win, I reckon.

1-2

FGR currently unbeaten this season after a win and a draw in their first 2 games.

They have only beaten us in a single semi competitve match in last seasons Boycott Trophy otherwise Swindon have won each of the other 3 matches between the sides, 2 league and 1 FA cup tie.

They will be confident and Swindon fans less so.

Its our 50th anniversary of winning this cup so lets try and get a few rounds further a least this season, can't see there being more than 4,500 or so there tonight.

A win would boost confidence, a loss would not be the end of the world but a huge amount of our fanbase would think that it was.

Have a feeling we will play 343 today with Vigs; Lancashire, Conroy, Nelson; Taylor, Doughty, Alzate, Knoyle; Anderson, McGlashan, Adebayo.

That said its almost impossible to 2nd guess PB and his tactics at the moment, he may blood Toums for his first competitive start.

No idea how seriously both teams are going to take this.  Personally, I don't care too much if we lose tonight and wouldn't play a lot of the first teamers as playing double gameweeks early in the season seems to result in injuries (well, to Swindon anyway).  Will be a chance to see how Toums's fitness is progressing.

PB needs a result Cooper less so. Ordinarily they might rest a few, but Cooper will very much want to win this and so put out his best side. We'd be very happy with Reid and Doidge up front.

Funny you say that, I don't think either are as good as Richards/Adebayo when fit and on form.

I know not many will agree but last season when we played then Doidge was marked out of the game by Lancashire and had 1 chance in the 2 games against us, massively overrated but he has apparently been interesting sides from higher leagues and he did score 15 league goals, 2 more than Norris.

Reid whenever I have seen him looks slow and overweight and at times disinterested. Was a bad influence in the dressing room at Yeovil which was why they got rid of him.

I fully expect both to score against us tonight now.

Doidge 47 in 78 including Conference... decent figures. Reid more a journeyman, but they got him in Jan to haul them out the mire and he contributed to achieving that. Be interesting to see if they both start and how it works out.

There seems to be a big step up from Conference to L2 for scorers, I prefer to count only goals scored against league opponents.

According to the FGR forum, Reid is the provider for most of Doidges goals and they do have a good partnership if you believe their fans. We will see later I am sure.

Neither are blessed with bags of pace but will give our defence a good run around today if they are on form and our defender not near the mark.

You do get players like a Paul Benson who are Div 4/Conference scorers but struggle higher than that.... think the days of a Steve Bull type are just about gone, although I suppose Vardy has managed to go from Conference to Championship then Prem.... bypassing Div 3 and 4

More
Your #STFC Starting XI:

Vigouroux, Knoyle, Lancashire (C), Nelson,Romanski, Taylor, Diagouraga, Doughty, Smith, Anderson, Adebayo

Ah well. Never liked the Caribou Cup anyway

Taylor in midfield. Fuck me

On the bench tonight:

McCormick (GK), McCourt, McGlashan, Alzate, Iandolo, Twine, Pryce.

hopefully Conroy is just being rested. any news of that on the radio?

Looks like 3-5-2.

Assume Conroy has a knock not to even have made bench.

Not many can make a leap of 2 divisions after scoring in L2/Conference though, Omar Bogle, Eoin Doyle, James Vaughan and several others it didn't work for.

Looks like there is no iFollow video option tonight UK or overseas.

Better than playing him at fb surely

Looks more like a flat 442 to me with Romanski at LB and Taylor LW. Romanski sat behind Taylor so they can't exploit his defensive play as easily.

Town will win on penalties.

Looks like a 3-5-2 to me as well.

Nope - they sold the rights to overseas companies for the games on TV, so they can't compete.

There'll likely be a stream somewhere then

Unlikely - they have two games live I think from tonight's list, it's those ones that are being screened to other countries.

Thats a bit shit, ah well.

Definately not being streamed.

Goals being shown on sky sports news

how are we not winning this.

it's Macclesfield again

Reading text updates is certainly not like watching the game!

Text suggests all us and we have hit the woodwork, could be utterly wrong though.

Better than being Lincoln all over again.........

very true!

Any ideas how we have set up?

we really are all over them, they've had one attack.

but...

0-0.

another good save just made by fgr.

oh, and I think Anderson is playing very well. I never usually think that

back 3
TD just in front , with Smith
knoyle and Taylor wingbackish
Anderson on right/forward
adebeyo on left/forward
Doughty just behind front 2

I think

It's Romanski at LB, Taylor on the wing.  Should be winning this, can't say anyone looks out of place at this stage, JR very steady so far.

Sounds like it is a flexible 442 as I suggested. Should be winning but that's football. Hope it's not a classic smash n grab.

how flipping annoying. Only one team in it on the pitch. no way will we be that dominant in the second half.

But 0-0 it is.

Morfuni on the radio talking about the stadium redevelopment plans, not sure if this is anything new, but:

- Done in stages, always able to play football on the pitch (no pitch rotation)
- Start with the Stratton Bank roof
- DRS next mostly corporate boxes, some sort of hotel where the shop is now (talk of 120 rooms, which doesn't sound like it it would fit)
- Arkells last
- Hoping to complete sale by January, building by summer of 2019
- Target capacity around 20k


(okay read the other thread, seems like it was played at the weekend too. But in case anyone hasn't seen it.)

defensive fluff (nelson), 1 chance 1 goal for fgr

cunts

Seems like we are doing a sterling job highlighting our issues early season - great with ball, can't score for toffee and defensive liability.  Brown won't be able to hide behind any sort of arguments about takes a while to see where to focus, we are like a BBC repeats channel.

lost it now. FGR look likely to add second.

At least we're not playing for points tonight.

Meh, we really don’t help ourselves do we? New season optimism quickly dwindling already.

Brown really isn’t a very good manager, is he?

Hmmm, if you have 9 shots on target vs 1, and get beat 1-0, and you can only bring in one key player, would you go for the defender or the forward?

Half these cunts not fit to wear the shirt.
50th anniversary of 69 cup win season and they bomb out to Forest Gump in the first fucking round.
Wankers

Just how much more do we have to sink under this owner for people to wake up.

It’s farcical now.

How did Dave and Nelson do?

proper pissed off, will report back when home fh

If it’s any consolation that’s their first ever league cup win.

Well, he had a bad run in at the end of last season. Now we've continued with the same form. Unless there's a massive turn around soon LP could be looking for his, what 5th or would it be 6th mananger in 4 years. The problems at Swindon run much deeper than a manager, there's been good players given away on free transfers and some proper sh1te signed as cheap replacements. I take no pleasure in make this statement as a life long STFC support but are any of us surprised by our poor start?

I have to be honest, I didn’t see a great deal in the time he was in charge at the end of the season which gave me much confidence he was the right man for the job.

At the moment it seems like we’ve got another season of mediocrity and struggle ahead.  It really is shit.

Can't defend and can't score. Same as last season. Boring narrative. A shit one, too.

I'm a little worried to my reaction to another defeat with "oh well"
I mean I am a Swindon fan so I am not expecting wins all the time but it is more of the "meh" that feels like the love is dying somewhat

Which means another season of suffering your drivel in every matchday thread, you make Reg sound like a happy clapper at times!

I know it’s only the 4th game in etc but it’s just so hard to be positive. Problems we had last seson just don’t seem to have been addressed.
Conceding goals still and 1 goal from open play in 4 games. The crowd could be low Saturday unfortunately.

:popcorn:

I’m going on Saturday. Not that I’m particularly looking forward to Mullin scoring 2 goals hopelessly unmarked at the back post!

Well, that was Macclesfield over again - without the happy ending.

Could/should have been 4 or 5 up by half time, then our usual howler and it degenerates into a stumbling shambles. No semblance of organisation after going 1 down.

Make no mistake, FGR were terrible and yet, here we are. Nelson can fuck off back to Millwall if that’s his level. Dave was OK but didn’t look too mobile.

Adebayo will never be a goal scorer no matter how decent he is in holding the ball up and laying it off. None of our problems from last season have been addressed at all. Brown has spunked whatever budget he had on a pretty good midfield and that’s about it.

All fur coat and no knickers, that’s us and I’m fucking pissed off with it.

To answer your Q FH

Hissing Sid Nelson - OK, not outstanding, bit like Lancashire tonight. But made the mistake that produced FGR's goal. Stretching to bring down a high ball he had to intercept, he didn't get enough of a connection on it and knocked it through to let their man in 1 on 1 (who showed how to finish with ease). Does not look anything other than a backup player to me though.

Dave - showed flashes and put some robust tackles in to make me think he'll be the player I think he is when he gets fit. Why the fuck isn't he fit. Naturally faded.

Who are these mythical players we let go on a free?

Cheers

Will Richards coming back add what we need?  If so, you'd have to say stop the leaks at the back?

Without seeing today's game, and going on the stats, you'd have to say at some point, with Richards added and maybe Woollery???? that we score from time to time, but you can't keep giving up goals and hoping to get promotion.

I think Flitcroft's reign is giving me too much of a need to see it turning around under Brown, a person I would not have countenanced without that shit gong before him.

Maybe it will all be better at the weekend - surely............

Preston, Nathan Thompson, Obika, Kasim would all walk into this side and all left on free transfers (some due to relegation mind).

None of them were let go though, they let their contracts run down, we didn't release them or sell them for nothing.  We offered terms on a couple of them as well.

Natives getting restless already.

Sooner we get Richards out there the better. Sounds like we're going to need someone to take our chances as we're unlikely to keep a clean sheet any time soon.

Too early to be in 'must win' territory but Brown will start to feel some early pressure if it doesn't go our way on Saturday.

Appears we look a little short of requirements in both penalty boxes. Unfortunately they're also the most important areas.

Work to do before the end of August but must keep the faith.

And I wouldn't take Obika or Kasim right now - neither would add.  Preston is turning into Shaun Taylor with every passing game - I'd have offered him more to stay here, we certainly should have got a replacement in.  Thompson you'd clearly take in a heartbeat, but he's not for this league.

Vigs is not a good goalie is he? He should be let go at the end of the season....

Game of two halves. We won the first on paper they won the second by scoring. It was Vigs fault they scored, he should be let go at the end of the season.

On to the match, what a frustrating night. And now worryingly its looking like Groundhog Day, particularly where the Macclesfield game is concerned. But the late loss of composure and running out of steam happened at Lincoln too.

Fact - you can say what you like about luck, and there is something in it, but to if you can't win a game like that (and nearly v Macclesfield) then you are in deep shit.

Can we turn it around? Is it a bit of bad luck we can't score, and can't keep a clean sheet - or just bad. Truth be told I don't know. I hope Richards can hit the ground running because I have my suspicions.

Onto the game,

First half, and lets be absolutely clear here, was a positive in terms of chances created and control of the match. In that aspect I'd give us 9/10. We created chances, hit the post when the keeper fluffed a kick and Smith chipped it, and limited FGR to the sum total of fuck all. Dominant. Doughty pulled the strings, the rest of the midfield chipped in. We looked good. But...but..we should have been out of sight (again)...it should have been game over. But it was 0-0 (again).

Second half, you knew what would happen. There was absolutely no way we could be that dominant. And so it proved. FGR didn't really batter us, but we saw a bit more attacking intent. And we coped with it until the mistake from Nelson and the goal.

Ok if you don't take chances, you end up in these situations. But what happened next was the most concerning bit. Goals change games, true. But we simply fell apart. We couldn't string 2 passes together and posed pretty much zero threat on the FGR goal. Absolutely hopeless. And Brown must have had a snooze for 20 minutes, because for reasons only he will understand he made subs as late as the 80th minute. The Swindon game was dead on its arse for ages. Far too late.

Brown can blame the ref for fouls in their goal (didn't see it myself, not doubting it) but the simple fact is the real issue is another defensive mistake and another goal shy performance. Sort that out, stop whining on.

Yeah, good job we got a good goalie though.

Utter utter bollocks.

I assume I am being wooshed?

Ultimately Swindon have never been a really good defensive team (maybe excluding when Di Canio was  in charge).  Most of the seasons where we have done well is because we have two strikers banging the goals (Mooney and Parkin, Paynter and Austin). If Richards comes in and starts scoring goals it may help us defensively as teams will have to open up if they are losing.

If Tranmere have any sense, they just need to keep it calm at the back and try to minimise any stupid mistakes. Swindon will gift them 1-2 chances in the match and they just need to convert them.

The only way I can see Swindon doing well this season is if they take the Brazil approach (you score 2 we will score 3). It’s just a shame we don’t look like scoring one goal yet !

Ah yes, single out my one comment on the thread and ignore everyone else's because they’re all brimming with positivity.  You really are a complete dick and now I remember why I don’t post on here a great deal anymore.

So which bit in the games so far makes you think what was said was wrong?
Ok its a but early, but in all 3 proper games we've struggled to score, and can't keep clean sheets. Like last year.

Unless we revert to 442 I really don't think Taylor fits into that starting 11 anymore.

Dreadful second half capitulation...right up there with one of the worst I have seen.

Gifted a mediocre team a goal...again and then had zero guile to then turn it around.

Deep shit....really deep...

One of the biggest concerns of this season for me is that we have so many players that don’t seem to fit into any sort of system at present. I can’t think of many formations where we suddenly don’t have round pegs in square holes.

 Tonight wasn't exactly a surprise... we look significantly weaker than last season.  FGR finished a point above the drop line last year and didn't look a whole lot better this.... in fact I assumed Cooper put out a weakened team. 

 Still early doors... it's not all doom and gloom, I like Smith he does give the ball away all the time but mainly because of positive intent (except the corners) and Lancashire looked happier in a 3.

 You can see us winning a few games this season... when have we got Morecambe  :hmmm:

We played a back 4 not a back 3.

Bit too early for a lot of this melodramatic nonsense. Two league games in, a win we we deserved and a defeat we deserved and we're not even out of the window yet.

Six to eight games in, with a complete squad, and I'll start having an opinion about this side.

Nothing has changed expectation wise. Lower than 7th is failure.

This.

Why don’t you ever post after games we have won?

There's a handful that only post when we lose. That's one of the good things about winning... we don't get to hear from them.

Just saw the goal on sky sports news. Looked like Lancashire put Nelson under pressure with a poor header and then Nelson’s attempted clearance went more or less straight to their striker.

I actually think we will find ourselves in the top seven come the end of the season, I just look at our midfield and forwards at present and struggle to see how to piece them altogether.

Was the elbow to Lancashire very clear from the highlights? He certainly needed treatment but I didn't see it.
--------
it's true the window isn't closed, but we've had long enough to address the issues. he may pull one out of the bag, but the concern is legitimate.

In truth I'm not sure if I'm encouraged that we'll settle as a squad, and will tend towards the normal being the team that played the good stuff in the first half .

or whether we will continue with this team that is almost but not quite at the races due to two obvious departments being not quite good enough.

based on the two games I've seen, it's feeling a bit Danny Wilson second season.

but yes, as I've always said, judge them in November/December.

Finding the excessive doom and gloom pretty ridiculous.  Defence is the priority.  More relaxed about our goal scoring threat.

newmarket red being a case in point. I don't get how some seem to enjoy it when we get beat.

Processed Beats is another. Very dull.

When are we going to play him ???.

Not sure, need to as Plowman or Phil Brown. However, I thought our goalie last night was going to get DVT for having fuck all to do for 95 minutes other than bending over to pick the ball out of the net, which probably saved him a trip to the GWH for a slug of rat poison.

LL, what the heck are you on about?

Who the fuck is Plowman? Is it missing from his cheese sandwich or summat?

I think it wholly reasonable that posters like Jo, like to have a vent after a game like that.... they do go and do care.

It's also fair enough to take issue about how they view things. 

There was enough there last night, to suggest that we should be OK to retain FL status, but little to suggest upward mobility.   We know that Richards coming back provides a goal threat, as long as he is provided with chances.  Evidence so far is that difficult to judge Elijah as although he hasn't scored he hasn't missed a sack load either as not many chances have come his way.

Interesting.... at one point I thought it a sort of 3 1/2, the kind of thing Malpas used to go on about.  Either way there was a massive gap between Elijah and the rest.  Which is fair enough as we need to be more solid, I guess without the usual rick at the back we could have got a clean sheet.

yeah it seemed a bit unorthodox at times, Romanski was lb.then he was in the centre.. Couldn't really work it out.

Same with Anderson, who was wide right one minute, a bit more central the next

Got to say that like quite a few others on here I am concerned as to where we are heading.

On our first half display there was only one team that was going to win, then came the second half and the longer it went on FGR saw that we were inept in front of goal and saw the opportunity to up their game. Accordingly we lost our impetus and they gained theirs, scoring a soft goal once again (albeit by the way of an arm in Lancashire's face not picked up by another iffy ref.).

What was our reply? basically sod all, compounded by substitutions by Brown far too late to have any affect, (shades of Williams two seasons ago). We got away with the Macclesfield result, nothing against the Chelsea kids, nothing against Lincoln and nothing last night which was probably the harder one to take, and it does not look good.

As said elsewhere, a better idea of where we are six to eight games in might be a better pointer to our season but currently I am not filled full of hope and dearly want to be proved wrong.

LL has got a bee in his bonnet that Reg is actually Paul Plowman, the club historian. He's not and LL has been told that repeatedly. But he seems to be a little hard of thinking and is struggling to process the message.

You don't know what your doing, you don't know what your doing. etc etc! I guess this is known as being 'fluid' in football manager style games.


Not sure we are ready for that kind of play, our plodders are a bit fick for dat.

Playing well (or OK at least) and getting nothing has been the story since Brown got here.

It's still a fuck ton better to watch than last season.

Concerns are fair but a tad dramatic by some.

Playing well and losing is not a good habit...... playing badly and winning is.

to be fair, it may just be me specifically that couldn't work it out!

whatever we did, it worked very well in the first half.

Yeah it sounded like we were all over them second half. I did say on a watsapp chat after half time and reading that we were so dominant that we would lose 1-0. Fucking annoying to be proved correct.

We did that under Flitcroft and the fans hated it so...

It was definitely 442 in the first half but that was due to us having all of the ball, in the 2nd it looked more 352 as Taylor shifted to WB with Romanski shuffling over to CB when we didn't have the ball.

There are shades of Luke about this.... in 16/17 we were way too easy to beat, teams could just sit in, we'd try and play some fancy triangles to no great effect, then a defensive error would present the points. That was in Div 3 mind with 4 down.... this season only 2 down, so a bit more leeway.

Fans under Luke....  too much football, get it forward. Same fans under Flitcroft..... play some football, too much forward hoofball

PB can play all the decent football he wants but if we lose to Tranny and Crawley, there will be calls for his head, results are all that matter.

I didn’t go last night, so won’t comment on the performance.

But still agree with the comment above.

To give some perspective, we won 2 of our first seven games under Paolo & only three of the first 10 in the season we were champions under Macari. (Including cup games).

I know the world has moved on, but the fans in general seem to be much less able to cope with defeat now.

Also, I guess it helped then that there was generally a more optimistic feel around the club

We've been on a slow but very definite and steady decline for 25 years. Doomygloomy's is all we know.

It’s not really that, though. At least not for me. It’s the fact that the personnel changes but the outcome remains the same. Whether it’s Luke or Flitcroft or, now, Brown our fundamental defending at the very simplest level, is dreadful.

I remember saying after Macclesfield that at least we wouldn’t be making such glaring defensive mistakes week after week, yet . . .

I understand your point but you also need to appreciate that someone like me who is in their thirties that last season was the lowest league finish i can remember since i started going.

I have been one of the ones who has tried to stick with Power but it's now getting to a point where irrelevant of people shouting about he is a crook and milking us i actually just care about the football and to be honest it has got shitter and shitter under his ownership and i can't see him changing anytime soon so he should go.

Not at home we didn't to be fair

Can't help it, pessimism isn't a choice :)


True, but he did have a few advantages in the transfer market that Brown won't get :) Incidentally and shamefully (sorry CS) the  first time I actually came away with a bit of optimism that season was the 2-1 home defeat to the Pox. I looked it up - 21st of August, much earlier than I thought. Can't believe that was 7 years ago now.

I was not a proper follower back then. Did the squad change much, did a key player come in, or did it just "click"? Genuinely interested in this, a bit of weight to add some optimism is always good.

The key difference is that in those 2 seasons the home form was formidable, even if at first the away form was sketchy.

We've been mostly poor at the CG for the thick end of 3 seasons now.  Flitcroft looked like he'd turned that tide when we won 5 in a row, then promptly fucked off.... result get stuffed by Chetnumb.   

We're currently rated the 79/92, so don't think too many expect us to be able to compete in the higher levels, but would think we should be able to compete with the likes of Numb, FGR and Yeovil.  OK last year we won the Somerset/Wilts/Glos mini league, but don't think too many would put money on it happeneing this year

Ahhh, we'll be ok then. Can't do any better than the 3 points out of 3 we've managed at home this season. :-)

Ha. The JPCheckatrade is a points league. In your face FAKE NEWS boy.

We scored three on the opening day....I’ll be waiting until the month is out and our transfer business is complete before my wrists are in any danger.

Two (deserved) penalties, deep into injury after missing multiple chances in open play.

Your last point is absolutely fair enough, but come on. We've gone out of a cup in the first round, again. And we should have scored a load. Again.

What kind of reactions do you think you'll get straight after a game, one that we fucked up?

Or do you think we should only comment on fact after waiting and seeing, and not give opinion' on where we are today? If so, can we have an official TEF 'number of games before being allowed an opinion please?

Haha. Fair dues. At least there's no relegation to worry about though thankfully. Phew!

Joe Romanski seems to be getting on well.  Anyone reckon he should be starting ahead of Taylor at LB?

He looked okay, but would rather see him go out on loan and us bring in a natural LB with Taylor on the bench at the moment.

Yeah be able to the money on a new goalie.

have you had a breakdown LL?

Just had a quick look on the FGR forum & one of their fans seemed to think Anderson was our best player last night % was amazed when he got taken off!

You may have noticed I'm not his biggest fan, but I thought he was quite good in the first half.

Second half it all turned to poop, and I started to see the things I don't like about him again.

Thing is, the above could be applied to a lot of the team.

The melodrama is laughably over the top at times.

Some chappy on twitter seems to be suggesting it's a deliberate ploy by Power to divide the fanbase. Quite what the point of that would be I just don't know.

Win Saturday and it'll all be good again... until we lose again.

As others have said, if I was the owner I'd struggle not to bait some of our fans as some are just totally irrational.

So that’s how it works over the course of a season? We win some and lose some.
Someone should let our fans know.
Some of the reactions are so over the top, it’s almost like they don’t realise they support a mediocre lower league team.

I'd create a whole department dedicated just to trolling the fanbase. Oh, the fun I would have.

I think he's a good footballer with a poor football brain. He makes the wrong decisions and is easy to defend against.

I feel that a decent coach could make a much better player out of him.

But it would be so much better if Power went, Sendles-White was our central defensive rock as he is a club legend...we want our Swindon back

(I say that off course from in jest, summing up the facebook/twitter twats)

I suppose you'll have to make do with the TEF  for now....

Is it really much of a surprise that platforms like Facebook/Twitter etc, which seem to be about the "me me" culture, attracts fantasists and narcissists. Trump being a classic example.  

What was the attendance for the FGR game, please?

Don't be so tough on yourself  ;)

😂😂😂😂😂