Thetownend.com

Well I will give it a go at starting a thread the day early this time.

Crawleys Top scorer is Ollie Palmer on 12 goals as who is a big lump of a striker standing at 6 foot 5 who was quite successful for Lincoln last season as a big target man.

They sit in 17th place 7 points worse off than Town but have scored more goals than us but also let in more.

Crawleys recent league form is been LLLLDWWLLL

In matches between the sides at the County Ground its P6 W2 D1 L3 F10 A9

Crawley have won on their last 2 visits to the CG, a 3-0 win last season and a 2-1 win in 2015, the previous game they drew 1-1, before that we beat them 3-0 twice and the only other game between the sides was the infamous FA cup defeat of 2010 when Crawley were in the Tampax Premier Southern Division or something similar.

Crawley fans are not happy about their current manager Cioffi with several fans calling for his head after some poor results and strange tactics and substitutions recently, they lost recent signing Vincelot to Shrewbury on a free this week and not replaced him as yet.

They have a pretty experienced side that just have not clicked much this season with a few 30+ year old players and Dannie Bulman aged 40 still playing regularly in midfield.

In the away game earlier in the season Crawleys attack was as toothless as parrott who only grabbed a draw thanks to a 98th minute softly given away penalty after playing almost the whole 2nd half against 9 men after Dunne and Toums were sent off at a time when Town were cruising at 2-0 up.

Since 2012 the safety cut off points wise has been 45, 51, 50, 42, 35, 47,46 so we are pretty much 2 wins away from guaranteed safety so we can relax and start to look forward to at least keeping our league status next season.

Wellens has added some decent players so far this window and has us playing some very good pressing attractive football with just 2 defeats in the last 11 games.

2-1 defeat with Anderson scoring in front of 6,255 with 102 Creepy fans there.

Digging a manager out of lower league French, Italian, Portuguese etc football is an option we haven't tried yet. Probably just as well.
I suspect it won't end well for the guy at Crawley.

The two wide players looked to be their main threat in the away game.
Not sure if one or both still feature.

Yes Nathaniel-George down the left and Morias down the right both ran at us a lot and put a few good crosses in the box but we dealth with them pretty easily, just the silly foul by Richards cast us the win.

Both those players played at the weekend so I would expect them to play against us again tomorrow.

Not seen them play since the Italian Gabriele Cioffi took them over but if you read their forum the fans are not overly impressed.

Am going for a thumping win,  on nothing more than it's about time we had one
 :pint:

I was at the away game and will be there on Saturday.

The positive Bob says 3-1 win, the realistic Bob says a disappointing 1-1 draw.

Haven’t Crawley only won one game away all season, or something stupid like that

Away win guaranteed

3 points, please.

Should I go?
4D current form since Preston Wembley shambles (included)

P   W   D   L   F   A
4    0    1   3   0   8

A momentum building, convincing home win. At last.

2 wins 1 draw 11 defeats, scored 8 conceded 23 only Notts County are worse away from home in this league.

I have a similar record, thankfully for you all I rarely get to games beyond those in northern outposts!

Crawley have the worst away form and only 7 points from away games so far this season. 2-0 town win with Richards and Broadbent. 6,120 with 95 from Crawley.

No!

Same away points as Notts County (7) but have won 1 more game than them but lost 2 more.

2nd'ed.

Crawley 10/3 for the win, got to be worth a flutter.

Dog shit away form for Crawley

L 1-0 v FGR
L 3-1 v NOTTS
L 3-1 v COLC
L 5-1 v TRAN
L 1-0 v GRIM
L 2-0 v MACC
L 2-1 v CAMB
D 0-0 v NEWP
L 2-1 v STEV
L 1-0 v MANS                                       

Yeah,   all records are there to be broken.
Can see a stomping win for the Town.  (Hopefully).

Need to win this if we do have realistic PO ambitions. 2-0 for me.

They are shit away but they did win 1-0 at Lincoln prior to that run and also won away at Cheltenham too, something Swindon have never done in a competitive match.

No game is a breeze these days even if pretty much all of the indications point that it SHOULD be a home banker.

But yes as Sutton says we do need to start winning consistantly at home if we are to stand any chance of reaching the play offs.

Play offs, for me, this season are gone. (Yes I know it's still possible, I just don't see it happening). I like what Wellens is trying to do and I'm quite excited for next season.

We should win tomorrow,  but we all know what can, and does, happen....

4-0 Town !

FUCK YEAH!

We’ll win, and then we will beat Forest Green and Franchise

FUCK YEAH!

RRROOOAAARR

Big win, close the play off gap again and everyone starts to get excited at the prospect of this season still being alive.

3-0
Richards, Woolery, Broadbent.

Colchester, Franchise, Carlisle and Forest Green all play away tomorrow while Exeter face the unpredictable Cambridge United.

I predict we'll be 4 points from 7th come 5pm tomorrow with a big game to come v the vegan clan next weekend.

I'm full of the same mindless optimism as everyone else.  Really looking forward to game, think we're finally going to totally stuff a team.  Even going by train so I can have a proper session.

4-1 in front of 6255.

All this positivity is fucking worrying.

I'm drinking the Kool Aid too - what the hell...

3-0 Richards, Anderson, Woolery

4-1 Swindon.

(https://media1.tenor.com/images/02f832287f4f404c1382bfb3f4174827/tenor.gif)

Feeling positive, 3-1 Richards, House and Taylor

Just roll with it until about 15:30, until it passes.

Where do you collect pre bought tickets these days please? I usually just pay on the day but today is a family affair.
I'm happy to take full responsibility if we lose as every time the daughter has watched we've lost.

(https://media3.giphy.com/media/vNpyUS9pyCh8oKMCBF/giphy.gif)

Half way up on the outside of the Town End.

That long??  ;)

Thanks, is that the little window on its own?
I often wondered what that was for.
As for all the positivity, it is refreshing to read however I won't make a prediction as I am wrong all too frequently.

Yeah I think its either a single window or 2 windows but its not the block of 4 windows near the shop, its on the left of the main Town End exit.

In recent years we've been a charity for teams on bad runs or with previously poor records here, such that today's game would be a banker for an away win.

That has to stop.

Musing about still making the PO's? Then it's a must win today.

Absoultely 100% on all of that Bob.

Thanks again PV.
Has to be a convincing win, a scrappy hard fought win may get us 3 points but doesn't bode well for better sides on the horizon.

Let's hope it's still there come 5:00...

I swear we have far far more than our fair share of manic depressive fans than a club of our size should have, one extreme to the other.

(https://media.giphy.com/media/fR1Tc8D70fazldELwg/giphy.gif)

Can we watch this on iFollow, as an FA Cup weekend, or is that just for international weeks?

The bad news is I am going today so my winning radio is not in use.
The good news is its an early unbeaten thread.  A draw however will not be needed today and its going to be a comfortable 3-0 win. just for a change. yes a clean sheet

Leave it on at home when you go to the match ;)

Just use a VPN. You can always watch on ifollow.

That’s what I thought and managed to watch the Grimsby game. Now it says I’m not allowed to watch even when logged on via VPN. I’m in Poland this weekend and will try to watch on a local laptop but don’t have Polish bank details to pay with.

Lots are being closed down now, ExpressVPN is no longer usable as is NordVPN and Private internet access and most Windscribes servers too.

See above post.

You don't need a bank in the countyr you are watching from, any UK bank details work.

Thanks, Nord VPN were the beneficiary of this as I paid them. I will see what happens when I try to buy a match pass later.

NordVPN were one of the first to be blocked back in December, others are available I understand ;)

6-1 town

Happy Birthday Canice Carroll who turns 20 today.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dx13p7ZWsAAcpWU.jpg:large)

Same starting line up as last week.

Exactly the same 18 players as last week.

Crawley make 3 changes from the side that lost at home to Port Vale last week bringing in the very inexperienced 20 year old fullback Sesay for only his 6th 1st team appearance.

Otherwise they have an average age of 29 with the oldest being Bullman in midfield who is 40, probably the oldest registered outfield player in the football league.

To put that into context, thats 3 years older than Sam Parkin!

Tried that many a time. Still tells me I can’t.

Thats because 99% of them are now blocked.

Giuliano Grazioli at the County Ground today, been doing some scouting and other work for Hull City for the last season or 2.

Are there any that work?

Not free ones but some paid for ones do apparently. Sorry no idea which ones work or not now though as every one I have tried has not worked, some other members may be able to assist.

Follow working for me ATM. I did pay for the season though...

Considering the wet weather of late the pitch looks lovely, as always, well done to Marcus Cassidy and team.

Not many fans in the Arkells today yet.

Crawley to kick off with Town attacking the Bank 1st half.

Is it windy at the ground? Very strong winds where I am

Anderson hacked down on the edge of the box.

Doesn't look it mate. Breezy but not windy.

BBC Wiltshire keep pulling the lead out.

Poor free kick from Doughty.

Crawley look shaky at the back and their keepers kicking so far has been awful.

Doughty given the ball away a few times so far but looks more eager than of late to run.

Richards gives away his 3rd free kick.

Crawley set up with 5 defenders and 2 defensive midfielders, I think its obvious they have set up to get a draw today, Richards marked by 2 or 3 all the time so its down to Woolery and Anderson to run with the ball at them as we should overload them in midfield.

Doughty nice twist and cross but can't find a Town player in the 6 yard box.

Woolf easily outpaces the diminutive winger Gambin up against him.

Is Knoyle still injured? He's a better RB than Carroll.

One slight criticism I have of Wellens is that Carroll does not look comfortable at right back at all, Knoyle at RB with Carroll in midfield is a far better option for me.

You beat me to it!

Good free kick from McCourt and Broadbent nearly gets his head to it.

Richards having a mare at the moment.

Anderson brought down right on the edge of the box.

McCourt powerful low free kick inches wide.

Broadbent bad touch while running out of defence nearly costs us as they hit us but can't finish.

Doughty has been quite poor so far.

The wind is definately getting up more now and affecting the long passing.

Corner to Town.

Not a bad corner but nobody attacking it, Dunne give away a really poor pass in a nice attacking position.

Game is devoid of pretty much any quality except for a few runs by Anderson.

Carroll is not the outlet that Vigs needs, he is far better in midfield.

Another poor pass by Carroll while breaking from defence, thats the 4th time hes given it away when he was under no pressure.

Carroll looks well out of his depth at RB today. I'd swap him with McCourt and bring on Knoyle.  

Crawley gaining some confidence at our own inabilty to string 4 passes together.

Woolery makes a good run but Richards can't connect in the box.

Ditto.

We need to step this up.  Wouldn't be surprised to see Carroll subbed at half-time, he's having a mare.

Richards having one of his worst performances in a Town shirt today so far, a yard off the pace and giving it away all the time.

Carroll way out of his depth at RB and needs mopving to the centre, Woolery given no service and only had the chance to make 1 decent run, Anderson made 2 or 3 good runs but up front we are being marked out of the game.

Doughty hardly had any input in the game so far.

Crawley coming back into it a bit after the first 25 being all Town with Crawley starting off to spoilt the game.

Loiki looking more solid at the back than last week but offering nothing going forwards so far.

All of our long balls being mopped up by a massive centre back trio of Crawley.

Good low free kick from McCourt which their keeper fucks up totally but Woolf can't make a good connection at the far post.

They're doing a job on us so far, but we're in complete control. Don't panic, keep moving the ball.

Knoyle will offer more natural width than Carroll. That'd be my first change.

Woolery being climbed all over and the ref doesn't see it, Koiki good run down the wing cynically brought down 30 yards out.

Absolutely on all counts, Crawley are they to be beaten, they have little quality. I would take Dunne off and move Carroll to midfield with Knoyle on at RB. Dunne has given the ball away a lot today, but then so have all our players.

Nice cut out by Woolf when they cross into a dangerous area.

1 min added time.

0-1

Couldn't clear the ball from the corner, bundled in.

That was coming. We're just not with it today

Normal service is resumed.

Knew that would happen, absolutely typical!!

Sounds shite.

Nobody is playing well so far, we look poor but Crawley are awful too.

And we go in losing at half-time again! Bloody awful.  Wellens needs to change something for the second half and give them a rocket up their ass.

They'll no doubt go 11 men behind the ball for the second half.

We're going to have to grind this one out.

Well that was shit.
Playoffs ?
No chance
 :suicide:

Fuck me that was shite. They are atrocious and we have been fucking shite today.

Carroll is not a right back, get Knoyle on.

Sloppy slow and shite performance so far.

Fucking annoying goal. Completely avoidable and completely unfortunate at the same time, weirdly spinning in off Broadbent.

So, positive momentum continues with a fight back win, or confirmation that this side is nothing but a middling, inconsistent L2 side. Big 45 coming.

well, that was shit

Home and away we look 2 entire different sides

Home form has cost us top 7 at the moment

We have created very little so far, I would take Dunne and Richards off asap, get House on and Knoyle as we look disjointed all over the pitch, only Woolf coming out with any credit really that half and he was at fault for the goal heading the cross straight back to their player.

Vast improvement needed.

It baffles me how a team that put in 60-70 minutes against Tranmere can then be so fucking shit this week.  Dunne is utterly pointless with McCourt, all he has had to do is get hold of possession and that is clearly not his thing.  Doughty has been marked out of the game but is doing nothing to pull the player around with him - he can go the whole game without a touch if need be, but if the player insists on following him then pull him out of position and make some room.

The wind is playing havoc, but the players let themselves get frustrated far too early on and it then just adds to the poor touches and over hit passes.  I think Woolery may have had one pass to him, which ended up in a good cross.  I'd make a change at half time and get Dunne off with someone in the middle who can pass the ball.  They are going to get lots of time.

Agree here Carroll not comfortable there at all. Today

Absolutely abysmal. Why is Carroll playing right back, he’s done nothing decent all game!

So so bad all over the pitch.

So, thinking about it a bit more, what do we do in the second half?

I'd sacrifice Doughty - they are marking him out of the game anyway, see how they cope without him.  Get House on for Richards who is about as far away as a player can be described as having any presence upfront.  Bring Knoyle on for Dunne and move Carrol to the middle with Rose being the player for Doughty.  Maybe make that one last to see if switching out Dunne and moving Carrol inside gives us some better possession and gets Doughty moving about a bit.

Just watched the goal back.

We look under no pressure at all right up till Woolf keeps the ball in play when it could have been left to go out for a goal kick but he manages to head straight at their player who doesn't even know where the ball is and it deflects into an empty net with Vigs sat in the goal flapping at the ball.

Wellens needs to be ruthless this half and we need to not keep kicking it up to a totally inneftive Richards who is having an absolute mare as he did when he came on at their place.

House and Knoyle to come on ASAP and keep the ball down and get Anderson and Woolery to run at them as they have no pace at the back at all.

Could be a long half if we play the same way as Crawley will soak that up all day long.

Yeah I agree pretty much with that Rob. Doughty, Dunne and Richards are a waste of a team place today, Carroll is way out of position and will never be a right back.

No changes at HT give them 5 to 10 mins then change it when it still doesn't work.

We still look shit.

Corner to Crawley.

McCourt fucks up a clearance, another corner to them.

Another corner to Crawley.

Woolery wins a header but Doughty loses it just in their box.

Nice pass to Anderson who sets up Koiki who crosses well but a bit too close to the keeper.

McCourt fall over his own feet and gives them a great chance in our box. They shoot well wide luckily.

Carroll leaves a foot in on Palmer, dangerous tackle.

Defo Carroll's fault. He's got to be subbed. Now just got away with one too.

Palmer and Carroll handbags, Palmer looks very pissed off!

Carrolls pass to McCourt did put him under pressure, yes.

Bringing Twine on.  Why?

Another good cross from Koiki in the danger zone but Crawley clear it.

Thats a wrong choice for me.

Pamler is a moaning old fucker.

Twine on for Doughty? WTF?

Don't get that at all.

Dunne good deep cross but Richards way off missing the header.

Shit sub.  I don't think Wellens likes Doughty.

I really don't get Twine on for Doughty, even if Doughty is injured push Carroll up and get knoyle on surely?

Ah well lets see how it pans out.

Yet another corner to Crawley.

BBC saying sub due to injury

Anderson wins the foul.

He didn't look injured TBF but we don't know for sure of course.

Good break by Town, good tackle by Dunne who gets the ball up to Woolery who wins a corner.

Get Carrol off, or at least put him in midfield. 

Fantastic turn by Woolery who cant quite make his own long pass.

This, and House on for Richards.

Koiki gives the ball away and we nearly get caught out at the back but Woolf wins it.

Terrible long pass by Twine puts us into a lot of pressure but saved at the last minute with a tackle by Woolf.

Woolery great run and shot but its deflected inches wide.

Twine loses position outside their box and they hit us on the break but their finish is woeful.

We can't seem to find a red shirt. 

This is crap

Carroll is terrible. Knoyle can't be 100% to persist with him at RB.

Stop fucking hoofing it up to Richards and Woolery.

Rose on for McCourt.

Has to be this or Knoyle has called Wellens missus slag.

Utter utter shit.

Richards fucks up a great attacking position.

FFS this could well get worse before it gets better.

Are they pissed or something?

Twine heads a ball back into our box instead of out and puts us in a lot of pressure at the back.

Its totally chalk and cheese from last week.

House on for Richards.

Lets see what you have got then lad.

This is as bad as last week was good. Both teams deserve to lose.

Another corner for them.

How the hell has Carroll going to get 90 mins?

A draw would be the best we could hope for. Crawley are as bad a side as I have seen, but they have done a job on us stopping us pressing them and defending in numbers and they got the break with quite a lucky goal when Woolf should have left it.

We seem to have forgot how to do the basics, like a simple ten yard pass. Awful.

Crawley started their time wasting.

House has won one more long ball than Richards did all game....so hes won one ball.

Woolery brought down 40 yards out.

Lovely long free kick from Rose Town can't win the header theo and out for a corner to us.

Nice corner from Rose ball comes out to Twine who finds House but his shot is blocked.

Rose can take a decent dead ball.

Twine wastes a chance from 15 yards when he chose to shoot rather than set up a player in a better position. Nice play from House to set him up.

More time wasting by their keeper.

Off to the turbo trainer. Will come back later in the hope we score a couple. (Worked Vs Lincoln)

We need to put some pressure on they and they will concede, they are awful, we are awfuller.

We score, I think we'll get another in quick succession. Wrong selection/tactical changes today. HT should've seen a shake up.

Pen to Town.

Wasted €6 on this pile of shite.

Got to be the worst football I’ve ever seen. Clueless lumping, unable to pass 10 yards to a teammate and how the fuck Carroll is a footballer?

Not a shot on target.

Anderson passes to Carroll who fell easily in the box.

Anderson to take it.

Saved.

Fucking rubbish penalty.

Sums the day up

Ha, ha terrible pen. Sums it up today.

Great corner from Rose House cant head it in tho.

Ah fuck

This has been as bad as it gets.  I knew he was going to miss.  Fucking pathetic. Just when you think we're turning a corner, we get served up with this shit.  

2nd worst home performance of the season for me after the Carlisle defeat.

Crawley were awful, we are at least as bad.

Absolutely rubbish all round, almost no decent performances.

Rose and House look pretty decent in their cameos the rest were pretty shit TBH.

Lots of boos at the final whistle and rightly so.

Poor team selection can be partly blamed and took too long for Plan B so Wellens could've done better today. Players were shit though maybe not too much better.

We are so average.

Abysmal

Bring on next season. This has gone. Not because we can’t do it mathematically, but because our home form is pitiful when the odds are stacked in our favour and this lot clearly have no (consistent) cutting edge. One week ok, one week off isn’t good enough.

Season over in one game.

Dribbly keyboards being fired up as we type.

That was bizarrely shit. I'm not a fan of boos, but I think the players deserved it after that. What the fuck was that all about? We are capable of so, so much better yet today they couldn't complete even simple passes. Decision making was shot as well. Baffling. I'm angry at them after that. Were they nervous? Hungover? No idea.

I don't know how much you can blame Wellens for the players today, but what is it with playing Carrol at RB? It's clear he's not comfortable there and is so much better in midfield. We have a perfectly good RB in Knoyle.

Tossers

7 points adrift.

Buggar, chance to drag an "undeserved" point from the match. Can't win them all (we haven't). Still 7pts away. Other teams around also dropped points. Big winners today were Crewe who moved above several including us with a win.

Not going to get despondent and lose my shit. The table is tight as a Nun's Chuff and I still believe we CAN achieve play off. RE Knoyle, do you think RW isn't playing him so no one can buy him in the window? Either that or he's been poking his wife. a clear option is Carroll at DM and Knoyle RB. We're making Candice look like a right cunt playing him out of position. Not fair on the lad.

Too many players playing badly today to carry them, poor decision by Wellens playing Carroll at right back unless Knoyle is badly injured.

Richards looked lost all game and did not win one header.

They marked Doughty out of the game and it worked a treat.

They got lucky with their goal as Woolf should have let it go out of play and Vigs was already on his arse in the goal so couldnt keep out the rebound which hit their player.

We offered nothing much going forwards, we have Anderson and Woolery who will out pace any defender in this league yet we didn't play to those strengths.

Really bad day at the office after such a good one last week.

Woolf reminds me of Ifil as he plays 95% brilliantly then makes one faux pas every game and it often costs us a goal.

The penalty by Anderson was embarrassing.

Play offs all but out of reach after that, lets build for next season, there will be a fair few casualties I feel.

The fact that nobody bar Anderson wanted that penalty is a telling sign about the fragility of some of our players, and maybe explains the up and down nature of our performances.  Anderson would be the last person I'd want taking a penalty, you just knew he'd try and pass it in.

The fact that Vigs didn't have save to make in the game, yet we lose it 1-0 is telling as well.  How a team can manage to lose a game like that is beyond me.

Mid table mediocrity is our bedfellow for this season, and a raft of people can take the blame for that because despite what Reg may say later, we have enough about us as a club to be further up the table.

Nothing like a shit performance to keep your feet on the ground  :pint:

On the plus side, Oxford and Rovers are in the relegation zone 👍🏻

I've already seen "Power out, his lack of spending is a joke"
Jesus

Too many players who don't really do anything. Woolery, Anderson, Richards as our attacking 3 had zero effect on the game. Doesn't really seem to be any sort of pattern to our play either. Not been to many games this season but the Lincoln game was similar.

We seem decent off the ball and poor with it. Just some brainless decision making.

Well, Wellens cocked that up (changes wise). And now he's claimed Carroll is good on the ball.

Bad day in the office RW.

He's good on the ball?

Play him in midfield then.

This. Simple.

exactly

I don't think he's a bad player. just a bad right back.  imo he was poor against Lincoln there too.

also, doughty isn't a number 10.

and starting 1 up front at home against Crawley....

Very frustrated

Yep, ridiculous comments.  Irrelevant of how he played last week, he was awful today and should have been replaced by Knoyle. I also don't agree with his reason for taking Doughty off. He's our top scorer and the one player who is likely to create something.
Other players were far less effective.  Complete waste of a sub bringing Twine on and not for the first time.  Taylor would have been a far better option.

Nothing positive to take from today, absolute rubbish.  End of January and we've won 4 games at home.  Shocking.

That performance was beyond terrible.

Why did Wellens play carroll as RB? Why take off Doughty?

Also playing 1 up front at home against as side that have not won away in 100 years . FFS Wellens

that just nearly word for word repeated my Twitter moaning!

Just in, trudged home in the rain!!  Awful performance.  One of the worst visiting sides for a few seasons at the CG and we made them look like Barcelona at times. And Carroll needs to be sent back to Brentford, cannot pass, cannot defend and cannot tackle.  I think we do need to look at the back four, must be the most inexperienced in the league.  One up for a home game is a shocking indictment of where we are1

Also, the Crawley no 5 won everything at the back.

I wasn’t there, so I can only speculate, but I would have thought shifting Doughty about to where he could be effective, or overloading the area where he was being man marked, with another creative midfielder, would be better than taking off our best hope of a win...

You should listen to the manager, he talks a lot of sense.   This was before the game, he's been saying he isn't thinking of PO's, as given our position lose 2 in a row and we're out of it, therefore he's building for next season.  More or less an admission we are where we are because of the poor state of the club. As I've pointed out, we're a broken club at a historic low ebb, that will only be put back together by small incremental steps, and it won't be easy. 

Further he pointed out as I said in pre and early season, relying on loan kids in key positions isn't a recipe for success it's too much to ask of them.  You need your own players in there of the requisite standard.  Again the need for experience like under TT was flagged up for the window... we got more young players and loans.  Rose an experienced player,  has played one game in a year.

The discussion in the week with Ferret on the Tranny thread, highlighted the poor home form going back 2 and half years, and so there really was nothing we've seen under Wellens, to suggest we've got to grips with that, apart from the get an early goal strategy, which worked v Stevenage and Newport, but can't be relied on for all games. It remains the case.

However on the credit side...  the home form over the season is bad enough to put us in the drop mix, but with the couple of wins and some decent away from we've managed to get a mid table perch from whcih we should be able to build from next season without worry.

The small aims like finishing higher than 83/84, at least equalling last year's finish, winning a home game by more than a goal and wining at Whaddo Road are still on.

As has already been said, shocking performance all round.

I think carroll might be a half decent player but he is shit at RB. Why is arguably our most consistent player in Knoyle not fucking playing.

Midfield were shit, attack was shit.

Every pass we made seem to be overhit, the amount that were passed out wide and went for throws was ridiculous. So many times we cocked up on the ball giving an awful Crawley side the chance to attack.

Really pissed off after that shower of shite.

Not defending anyone, but I don't get the "1 up front" moans. The interpretation of formations is basically pointless. "1 up front" could be used to describe Man City or Liverpool.

Our shape wasn't negative at all, but our individual execution was, very. .

is mcGlashen injured?

Said that at the time. Needed somebody buzzing around between their defence and midfield to give them more to think about.

Had McCourt and Dunne sitting deeper with Doughty man marked for an hour.

Hardly surprising he struggled to find any room or meaningful positions.

ok, you have a point on execution. but I think we need to be consistently pushing two onto the Crawley defence whether that's 2 up top or 1 of the two behind Richards pushing on.

I prefer 2 up top as it's simpler for players to know what their role is

No idea.  He last featured when he set up the goal at Macclesfield.  Was on the bench for the Lincoln game, not been seen since!

incidentally, can someone tell me what, if anything, happened in the following:

- the Townend shouting 'wanker/cheerio'. when I looked over a ballboy was being escorted away :) I assume it was at a steward (thought it was just nomal stuff at the keeper at first)

- did something happen with Wolfenden and the TE at the end? may be nothing bad but he looked quit close to the fans

Still so fucking annoyed by that today. If I thought we are just a bit shit, I think I'd just be a tad miffed about today's result. We're not, though. We're actually quite good. That just makes it so much worse. We could have been 4 points adrift. We should have been 4 points adrift. There's no reason why we should not have taken all 3 points today.

And then they go and play like that.

Fucking knob-jockeys.

You're not pissed, I blame you.

Sorry.

I was going to sum up the game but you’ve already said about all I could. Only positives I can think of are the 2 centre backs. Doughty, to me, looked like he gave up putting in any effort after about 20 minutes. Rose on his cameo looks a better bet.

Any mention of Diagouragas fitness pre match? I would imagine RW is looking to move him on.

that was fucking dismal.

carrol at rb, i blame wellens 100% for that. he looked so uncomfortable it was unbelievable. the more he patted his head the worse he became btw. what a way to destroy a 20 year olds confidence- get him off ffs and put the actual rb of the team on in his place.

everyone else bar the two cb had a mare. anderson gets credit for trying to create. the same report for today can be copied and pasted for the majority of home games over the last couple of years. just shit. im done for the season this time, they hooked me back in with a bit of hope last 3 games, does that look like a team fighting for a promotion?

we will probably win next week and close the gap to 4 points or something. hope will be back then lost then back then lost and then just fizzle out. bring on 2019/20 and we go again

This to me was the issue today, setting a tone that strangled us for the rest of the game as we got frustrated.  Against the team we played today, there was no reason to have Dunne and McCourt together sitting in front of the defence.  Compounding that issue was the fact they man marked Doughty.  Some basic intelligence is needed in that situation - move, pull the player all over the pitch if he wants to hold hands for the entirety.  Then layer in that the wings may be an outlet but you have Carrol feeling about as comfortable as a man laying on a bed of nails playing wide right and we just didn't have a way of gaining a foothold.  That created frustration and we never got our heads straight in the first half.  You then concede an idiotic goal and now you have to make tactical decisions which don't allow you to fix the underlying problem.

I get that you want some consistency, and you look at last weekend thinking it all worked well so don't change it.  But, we should have tweaked what we had before the game - no need for Dunne, play a bloody right back at right back.

Doughty, for an intelligent guy, had a dim witted game.  Take some personal responsibility and test the 40 year old's willingness to follow you about for 90 minutes.  Create gaps for others - it's not always about being the show boat on the ball.

I don't blame Anderson for missing - it was inevitable and I'd bet he misses as many as he scores even in practice.  He just shouldn't have been near it.

Such a frustrating watch that one - not because we were shit, but because it was a win waiting to happen that we let slip too soon and too easily.

Wellens gets a chunk of blame today because some of his decisions created the problem, but the players need to ask themselves how they let themselves fall apart so easily.  Take some responsibility to change things without needing to be told what to do - Doughty, looking at you here.

Reg - we are where we belong and Wellens is right to build for next season.  Brown clearly fucked this up by tinkering for far too long after tying his own hands with the types of players he got in the door - he didn't recruit many bad players for this level, just didn't create a squad, gave himself no options and then kept trying to shoe horn options in rather than settling on a way to play.  It's tough for Wellens to change that around sufficiently, and he has minimal margin for error as a result, for this season.  There isn't a player in the team , maybe Dunne aside, who couldn't do a job in a team in the play offs - they were just put together poorly.

Was in the DRS and it was obvious that the steward had upset a few in there.  Walked through the TE on the way out - to avoid the swimming pool by the shop - and asked a guy what had happened and he claimed that the steward had swore at a couple of the young fans and it got out of hand.  Also heard two stewards talking, it would appear that the police were involved and the steward would not be returning to the CG.  All hearsay I would add, but the steward got a bit of a send off!

thanks!

Haven't read back.

Dogshit.

Nearly got a point we didn't deserve.

Season over.....let's get behind Wellons for a fist of 19/20.

Completely agree. I can't tell if he's a bad player or not because I don't think I've seen him play CM, but he's clearly a shit RB. And he knows it too, looks so uncomfortable there, and gets very frustrated. Not his fault, he's being asked to do a job he's clearly not suited to

What annoyed and depressed me most was the awful quality of our passing. It seemed that nearly every pass was either overhit, underhit, or given to an opponent.  This is so basic that I couldn't believe it.The worst game I've watched this season, even versus Carlisle.

Agree with that, when we did pass it went behind our player who had to check his run and turn to collect it.  Tendency to argue amongst themselves on the pitch also which doesn't exactly fit the stories we are told about how much the dressing room is together and wonderful team spirit in the squad.  And don't get me started on how bad we are with our throw-ins!!

Now you say the players are good enough for PO's yet 3 weeks ago when we won a key game..... this was your analysis of them......


I don't get it.... there's less consistency in your views than Town performances.   The only constant is the Flitcroft obsession, when all the evidence is that he's at least a competent Div 4 gaffer. I'm sure he'd have been proud of the win at Macc, a clutch game, against an outfit who've revived somewhat under Campbell.

I was talking about performance, not potential or ability.  Just like today.  It's what makes it more frustrating, because individually most of our players have something about them for this level.  It's the fact that we dithered for 20 odd games and got ourselves into a bit of a mess.  Doughty is a great example - he is better than this league, yet he goes and has a game like today, lacking intelligence - something you know he has in abundance.  I think you'll find my views are pretty consistent, but not fixed, they can be changed as our team evolves, or doesn't.   I still think that not reaching the play offs will be a failure this season and Brown can saddle most of the blame for that.  You think we are a smidge off being relegation fodder, which is fine.

I don't dislike Flitcroft based on his win ratio, or points per game or anything sensible like that.  I dislike him because he created a team that played the worse football I have seen (not your life, mine) from a Swindon Town by design.  I consistently didn't like King, through good and bad and I wasn't keen on Brown before he came, but Flitcroft's football just happens to be something I hate about the game.

Oh well, finishing top of the bottom half sounds better than finishing bottom of the top half.  :(

For every glimmer of hope there is yet another low point to endure.

A word on Carroll, a one man wrecking machine at right back.
He mentioned that he likes a tackle, but forgot to add the bit about it being a red card waiting to happen.  :no:
If the selection is a kind of try before you buy experiment to see what he's like as a backup right back (with a view to squad building for next season?) then that's fine.
If he is genuinely seen as a better option than Knoyle then that's a bit worrying.

It's all about salvaging something for next season now.
Aiming to go unbeaten at home for the remainder of the season would be a start.
Looking at the contract situation of the current squad then another major rebuild looks likely over the summer.

I've had enough, for the next 6 days anyway.
Hopefully the prospect of a ferocious local derby will warm the cockles of the hardy 6,000 next Saturday.

For those that play Football Manager regularly, has anyone ever managed to sweep all before them using a 4-2-3-1 formation?

I thought the windy conditions were quite a factor in the poor standard of play by both sides.  That should usually be an advantage for us in terms of familiarity and how to adapt.  Perhaps we had, relatively a few too many new players as well as a new manager?  There was also a wet, skiddy top in the first half which also hampered execution.  I thought we were the better side in the first half, even though it had evened out by half time, with Doughty man marked and Richards and the Wellens' "press" out of puff.  To concede at the death gave the opposition a rather lucky boost.  The second half was never going to be pretty but I thought we were out fought and out muscled.  The ref was lax on blatant two handed pushing but then we just had to get stuck in similarly.  When it came to calm thinking and precise execution, we just lost it.  Carrol, who had looked mediocre against 9 man Lincoln repeatedly turned counter attack into defence and should've been subbed for his own protection.  I was pleased for him personally when he earned us the penalty before wondering who would take it.  No 11th goal for our top  striker.  The likes of Knoyle, McGlashan  and Taylor along with Doughty should, if fit, have been on.  They are familiar with the vagaries of the CG swirls.  I wonder if Rose may turn out to be the foot on the ball, controlling midfielder we so lack?  Woolf meanwhile, although implicated in their goal, had a great game and has really matured and with Broadbent alongside, I thought we looked sound in the heart of defence.  I shared the sponsors' mom choice of Woolf.

Similar result next week and I'll reluctantly be joining the playoff naysayers  :).

not relevant to yesterday but I so agree with you there.

Got that one completely wrong (again).
Totally inept performance with both players and manager to blame.
Only our centre backs come out with any credit.
Terrible perfomances already highlighted. Subs were either poor or too late or both.
Agree with the sentiment that we have individuals totally capable of better at this level.
God it knocks the stuffing out of a fan.

Weirldy yes I have, a season totally unbeaten using that formation.

One of the problems was that using that system our main focus of play uses Doughty, Anderson and Woolery as outlets for fast breaks, all 3 players were almost marked out of the game yesterday by Crawley who had done their research on us, also they did play the Italian way of keeping it tight at the back and offer little going forwards, again which they did well.

Our only other form of attack was a long ball hoofed to Richards who won nothing all game against a huge centre back who mopped up all the long balls played up to Richards.

We didn't use either fullback either until the last 10 mins, Carroll who is totally reluctant to cross the half way line it seems and Koiki who looked better in defence but offered little going forwards, which is his strength, we didn't get the ball to him often enough again until the last 10 mins.

You shouldnt be playing Dunne and McCourt as 2 defensive midfielders at home against a side that wanted to shut up shop early doors and aim to grab a goal on the break.

That works in away games where teams pressure us and we can hit them on the break, at home it won't and didn't work and hasn't all season at home when we have played it.

Rose looks very good from a dead ball, his free kicks and corners when he came on were placed perfect for us to attack the ball but we don't have a striker currently that will do that and thats not a strong part of Broadbent or Woolfs game either.

I would rather Rose got game time rather than Dunne or McCourt, drop either in home games as they both had a poor game yesterday and offer little going forwards, I still hope Toums will get fit and play in that role as he is better than both those players put together.

Basically we played too defensively in our tactics set up to create much and Crawley killed the game and marked our dangerous players out of the game, job done, it wasn't pretty but it got them the points (fortunate or not).

For the away game at FGR next week I would prefer us to play a pressing game and line up with

               Vigs
Knoyle Woolf Broadbent Koiki
              Carroll
       Doughty  Rose
Anderson           Woolery
              House

I think House showed enough to start ahead of a totally innefective Richards, Carroll must play midfield and not RB and Knoyle must return.

Rose added some classy passing to midfield and can either play in a more attacking role alongside Doughty or in a more defensive role alongside Carroll if Wellens sticks by the 4231.

Yep. AML & AMR overlapping and cutting in, AMC pushing on ahead of the striker, too.

Its early and I am still pissed off with them! thats my excuse! TBH I had forgot we played them at home already :D

As normal I post a few comments from the opponents forums, this is from the Creepy forum.

Read back on all the post match views and pretty much agree with everyone's comments (apart from Reg of course) but this one probably sums my thoughts up best of all.

Wouldn't have wanted to be sober watching that game.

Thanks for the clarification.  I guess I'm more simple soul, I judge performance by winning and If not at least drawing.

Same with managers... how you play is optional, I'd rather something ugly which wins rather than something sexy which loses.

As regards players, most of them at this level are pretty similar.... insofar as they will have a certain amount of talent/natural ability, and the sieve which is the football struture will have shaken them to Div 4.  However within that will be some with potential for better, and some who are peaking at Div 4 and can fall away rapidly.  Of our own players, I'm not fully convinced that there's many with potential for much higher.... and that is a worry.

We've been on the cusp at times this season of something very unpleasant, but even though it's new to us (Div 4 nether regions) we haven't quite been bad enough for a full blown panic attack.  We've seen enough in recent years with Oxford, Rovers, Chesterfield and this season Notts, not to take anything for granted.   

We'll now be relying on the new management structure to sort out something from the remains of this season, and another rebuild for next season, whereby a proper tilt at autos will be the aim.

I was well pissed as usual .. still miffed.

Is it me or have we conceded a load of goals just before half time this season? It seems like we have but I've not really been paying attention...

Went yesterday, terrible and bizarre all at the same time.  Yesterday just confirmed what I already knew, I hope Wellens learnt something out of it.

Koiki good going forward, less so defending but much better than last week - Worth sticking with, think that he will turn into a perfectly capable left back at this level.
Woolf and Broadbent are by far our best CD partnership at the club, stick with it.
Carroll is not a RB - Get Knoyle back in.  He had a nightmare from minute 1 to 90, but I believe he should be in the team, just not at RB.
Dunne and McCourt too similar and don't bring enough quality when they play together.
Doughty has had enough, sell him - Rose looked better when he came on.
Keshi and Woolery can run teams ragged, but have zero impact in front of goal - Keshi is not a Pen taker (I think most people would have called that before he stepped up)
Richards is ineffective - Time to move on.  However House is not going to be the saviour either, he is too young and raw.
Twine in nowhere near ready yet for the first team.

This team will not achieve anything until we find somebody that at least has the bottle to shoot and the quality to hit the target.

Having said that, I still like what Wellens is saying and I like the plan that he trying to put in place, but, he had a nightmare yesterday tactically, and with his decision making.

Wellens has made it clear that he has no intention to bring a striker in this month, so this match can finally put any hopes we have of a play off place to bed.  We just do not have the personnel to score the necessary goals required.

I went to Carlisle and thought it would not get worse...  I will not be returning to the CG again this season until it is mathematically done.  Hopefully then they will start to play more freely and Wellens with start testing his tactics for next year.

Team next week needs to be:

                    Vigs
Knoyle, Woolf, Broadbent, Koiki
          Carroll, McCourt/Dave (if fit)
         Woolery, Rose, Keshi
                 Richards/House (depending on training this week)

We concede early, too!


https://www.soccerstats.com/timing.asp?league=england4

Wish I'd taken more notice of your advice.

Wolfeden took exception to a few of the Town fans that were booing in the Town end, then gave it the old come on then if you want some. Not an ideal scenario.

ah bugger, like you say, not ideal. thanks.

Oldham at Franchise on Tuesday, not easy but Newport have PV at home.... a win for both, drops us back to 14th.  You'd have thought a Newport win would see your top of the bottom half come into play.  The 17th in 83/84, is the benchmark to avoid, we're currently a point better off than that season, 30 games in.

Fucking give it up.

I'm not sure what you want me to give up.... if you mean providing reasoned factual analysis in favour of the sort of ill grounded hyperbole that you favour then the answer is no.

We've enough in the tank to avoid a relegation dogfight I'm sure...

Play offs ain't happening...so we build for 19/20

I'd hazard a guess at being a boring old cunt but I think that ship has long sailed.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

we probably only need 3 wins to be absolutely sure. if we don't pick up 9 points by the end of the season my flabber will be truly gasted.

I think the Macc game, put relegation fears to bed, and then 4 points from the next 2 enabled a look upward, but to make that into something of substance yesterday was really a must win.  It's quite unusual for us to have a largely meaningless final third of a season, apart from the little targets.

Going back to 83/84, which in some ways is similar.... once out of the cup in the 4th round, and with no relegation and no PO's, the season was effectively over in late Jan.  It was partly this sort of situation which brought about the PO's in 86/87, so that clubs could have something to play for in the final third of the season.

The PO's have been regarded as such a success, that there was talk a few years back, of taking them down to 8th for Div's 2 and 3, so presumably 9th for 4.  Not sure whatever became of that.

I don't do personal abuse.... I'll by all means engage if you keep to the facts, should you regard them as contentious, otherwise it defeats the point of a forum.

Pertaining that the play-offs was (still is, long way to go) a reasonable target to achieve is not ill grounded hyperbole. Constantly droning that our fucking "Football League status, is seriously in doubt" and that nearly every single match is "a clutch tie" or "a must win game to avoid further doubt" is the kind of scaremongering akin to a government that is desperate to retain control.

I talk a lot of shit but I don't try to take the moral high ground, while presenting a model of instilling your own version of "Project Fear" and dress it up as pure "factual analysis". If anyone is doing "ill grounded hyperbole", it's you. You've done it since you left the womb one can imagine?  :hmmm:

Have a lovely afternoon  :pint:

Clearly I wouldn't use the term clutch tie.... cup ties, league games.  It's quite simple although all games are worth 3 points, nobody will ever win every game, therefore some games are more important than others, as they set back a rival, break a poor sequence, keep a manager in his job etc. Further it's partly about psychological impact, so for example had we lost to Lincoln, would the impact have been as damaging as losing to Crawley?

Of course much of this is speculation... we don't get to make the decisions, and I'm sure if Wellens knew the answers to our poor home form he would rectify it.  But it's this speculation which for many fans is the bread and butter of fandom.

This. especially the tactics and decision making.

Unfortunately another season ambles by in a Division where there is not a single club really head and shoulders above any other and a Division where I thought that we could/should be doing far better. Building for next season is all very laudable but the basic flaws have currently not been acted upon, too many loan players, (75% of the back four and 50% of the outfield team for the last ten/fifteen minutes of yesterdays game!), no really effective forward(s) signed and too many midfielders of a similar calibre.
 
Unless we are to become a run of the mill Divvy 4 side (balls to it being Division 2) which we currently are, then there is a lot of work to be done and for the first time in many, many years I will be seriously considering whether to renew my season ticket and take each game as it comes.  :frustr:

All the above is correct, when I read that Wellens was making signings with next seasons pomo push in mind. It was obvious that going up this season was never an option. We are staying in the middle of Div3 for sometime unless the club gets taken over. The summer will be full of potential signings and last minute loans, that's how its been and going to be with LP running the club, so long as season ticket sales don't drop, why worry we could have 2 massive local derby's next season.Those who think that we'll be any different next season are deluding themselves, the clubs run on a shoe string with large gates for this division must be making a profit of some sort?

Take it your fishing trip down the res didn't go too well this morning, Sir Dred?

Getting back to the match itself - having just watched the short highlights, aside for how inept we were at passing the ball, the biggest question I have is how fucking monumentally shit - and arrogant - was the pen by Anderson?  90th minute, perfect chance (and probably our only real chance in the game) and he decides he is Lionel Fucking Messi. :suicide:

I guess it is a positive that he got a shot on target for once, but fucking hell, what a shit, arrogant, cockish way to take a pen at that stage in the game.

Not renewing mine next season. Niece works at nationwide so a tenner a game and pick and choose. Wouldn't have watched some of the games I have this season if didn't have an ST. 4 home wins  :suicide:

One of the few things to enjoy from yesterday is on the "highlights" the effects mike inadvertently picks up some amateur crowd commentary on Anderson's pen (about 1min 45s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdHwRrxuM9Q&fbclid=IwAR3Zeb2afboW930iqo9CF3gH5ZkY9uKuftEu6H0cUCs4qTGBC0PiFvPnpSk

if the nationwide offer is still on next year . Had that been confirmed?

it's a good deal if it's still on
---------
ps. should say when I said 3 more wins, was talking about mathematical certainty. we aren't going down

 :clap:

I don’t really have much to add. Wellens failed badly by trotting out the same 11 on autopilot. Having pace up front and a pair of DMs makes perfect sense away to Tranmere. Not at home to Crawley. That is not a difficult conclusion to reach.

Withdrawing our biggest goal threat was not clever. Yes he was having a poor game, but he was in good company there. If his attitude is really posing a problem, fine, leave him out of the squad. But don’t keep playing silly games with him. I’ve been patient with Anderson, but enough is enough. Surely Doughty does not have a worse attitude than him.

There’s a time and a place for Dunne... and it is not at 0-0 at home to Crawley, let alone 0-1. It’s the day on which we needed someone like Taylor on the pitch. Yes, he has plenty of failings now, but there’s a fair chance he’d have produced 1 or 2 of his magic moments from one of the many free kicks - even if he’d shanked three quarters of them into the first man or the stand. Plus you know, for sure, that the guy is a winner and will put a proper shift in.

Don’t bite at the whole Reg Smeeton malarkey. Just leave him to it and talk around it.

To be fair to Wellens, Doughty deserved to be yanked yesterday.  The timing even suggests he was given a chance to find a solution to the man marking problem he was faced with, and the few early minutes of that second half showed he wasn't changing anything about the way he was playing.  It's annoying, because you know he is indeed the best player we have.  It should not take more than 20 minutes or so to figure out that you have a shadow.  Just staying in the same area of the pitch and letting him follow you is dumb.  The guy is 40, run him into the ground if he is going to try and track you all game.  His issue, I think, is a desire to be seen as being on the ball, of making a difference.  I can understand why when he probably knows he is better than this. BUT, yesterday was a game to realise you could sacrifice yourself from the game and create the space for others.  He didn't, he simply got frustrated (fell over a few times trying to get a free kick).  Wellens' mistake was putting Twine on in his place.  he had the opportunity to fix two problems at once by bringing on Knoyle and moving Carrol into midfield.  Carrol was having a disaster of a game, and you can argue he shuold have come off as well.  However, I think moving him into midfield would have made Crawley re-think what to do with their man marking effort while also fixing the right back issue for us.

I thought 'cunt' was a term of endearment on here?? & surely you aren't taking umbrage to being called boring or old?  :hmmm: :hmmm:

No idea, am hoping so.

I'm sure it won't affect your decision, but thought I'd ask.

Shame we are losing regulars, but it's to be expected with how things are. hope you get the mojo back in the future

I don't disagree with the changes you propose, but listening to Wellens post match he seemed to be saying he was playing Doughty as a No 10. I don't know that Doughty thought he was doing that and if he did, he didn't do it particularly well. But from that perspective maybe the Twine sub makes more sense as coming on as a No 10? If so, the failure is to stick to the system rather than rejigging it to better suit the players available. Although either way, taking your top goalscorer off looks bloody stupid when you then win a pen late on that the Poundshop Pogba fluffs at the keeper.

"Pound shop Pogba" Love it that's the quote of the season.

I think the point was it didn't matter where he was supposed to be playing, he should have been bright enough to just keep floating all over the pitch and drag the marker with him, until he runs out of legs, or to provide space for someone else to attack.  That is where having Dunne an McCourt was a problem, it needed someone more dynamic and attacking in there to take advantage.  Crawley were not sending many players forward and would have had a big gap if they insisted on following Doughty.

Yup, completely agree. As I say, if that was the role he was supposed to be playing, he didn't do it well

+1


I said earlier he took that pen thinking he was Lionel Messi - I got it wrong, he took it like Lionel Blair!!!!!

+2. In awe of "Poundshop Pogba".

as it happens, messi is not a very good converter of penalties, so maybe you were right first time.  Whatever, the actual pen was unbelievably poor for a pro footballer.  Anderson really needs a psychologist to get inside his goal-shy head

I thought Anderson's overall performance was ok.  He was working very hard with virtually non-existent creative support.

I've seen worse taken penalties by professional footballers. Can we at least give the keeper credit for making a decent save. Yes it was close to him. Anderson went to put it in the bottom corner and misjudged. The pace wasn't so bad but it was way too close to the keeper.

No debate.  It was a shit penalty and it looked like it would be a shit penalty before he took it.

er no. the only good thing you can say about the penalty was it was on target.

I'd be disappointed if an u10 keeper didn't save that.

This. It was up there with the poorest pens I have ever seen from any Swindon player, but at least as Boo says it was on target, the keeper could have dived and got up again and redived before the ball got to him.

It was a poor penalty. Not that I was at all surprised by it.

His whole demeanor as he walked up to it was wrong, his body language showed he was reluctant to take it, plus points for being the only one confident enough to do it, minus points for the actual exectution of the penalty.

You are priceless  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

 :D :D It was a bright point in a shitty day (Although had a horse come in at 8/1 as well). Never ever underestimate STFC's ability to bugger it up against a team they 'should' beat!

Keshi shouldn't be anywhere near pens - guessing he's at least third choice behind Doughty and Richards, but Woolery has bagged before and Danny Rose looks good over a dead ball.

McCourt could probably absolutely wallop a few to the point where it takes the keeper into the net with the ball, too.

Absolutely. Keshi wouldn't even be in my 5 for a shootout.

Weirdly I said to my dad during the game that Anderson reminded me of a very very poor man's Jessie Lingard.

Anderson has to be our most frustrating player, he always seems to work very hard, he has good pace and is tricky but when it comes to doing anything useful his decision making is woeful. He can't shoot and he gives the ball away a lot. I don't really know where his best position is, maybe used as an impact player off the bench?

Given time to mull over Saturday I'll add my take on Saturday.

After a good lunch we made our way into a sparse County Ground. Unfortunately we got our timing off and had to tolerate the insufferable Rockin Robin dance. Interestingly the people around us were speaking about how much they were looking forward to the game 'New beginnings', 'play off chase' etc. Crawley kicked off and we immediately won the ball. First 20 minutes we harried and pressed hard, forcing a Crawley side, who looked Sunday league at best into numerous errors. After that it just all seemed to go to pot. We continued to give the ball away, the culprits mainly Carroll and McCourt. Caroll just couldn't seem to find a red shirt and kept banging his head in frustration. I did feel a bit for him, it was like the harder he tried the more he did wrong and it was affecting him. He's clearly not a Right Back so I can only assume Knoyle is not fit enough. The other frustrating bit was Michael Doughty's performance. I thought he started brightly and looked up for it, but after about 30 minutes his workrate dropped and it was almost like he gave up. I hadn't realised he was being man marked by a 40 year old so that makes his (lack of) effort even worse!! I said to my dad after half an hour "this game has 1-0 Crawley written all over it"

And so it proved. One good bit of football at the end saw Carroll and Anderson (I think) exchange passes down the wing, Carroll was pushed over and it was a pen. As others have said when Anderson stepped up we all new what was coming. Shot saved and the points were gone.

Final shout out to the Crawley keeper for classic trolling. He literally had nothing to do the whole match and about 10 minutes to go went down with a mystery injury (frostbite, pneumonia?) that required 2 minutes of treatment. Ordinarily that would have fired up the Town End for some 'classic' abuse, but there was none of that, nothing. To me it feels like a lot of people at home matches have given up. Gone are the days of "come on you reds" ringing around the CG when we swing in corners.

3 years of being shit at home. That has to change or we are never going to challenge to get out of this godforsaken league.

I will say this though, was the penalty taker choice the managers decision, Anderson's, or did he get it by default because nobody else stood up. It'll be fixed for next time. I'm sure he's off duty now.

It wasn't the missing that annoyed me, ok it was a bit. Its split between it was the silly jink in the run and the lame shot, and him being in the position to take it in the first place.

But deep down we have to admit that a draw at home v Crawley still wouldn't have been enough.

Looked as if Anderson was given the ball once the pen had been given, so I'm assuming that he was the designated penalty taker.

"Don't fuck it up" was the thought as he strode up to take it.

Surprised that more of Doughty's efforts haven't been saved.
Passing it in always a risk, but most keepers will oblige by diving out of the way before the ball is kicked.

If Keshi had that bit extra, he wouldn't be a Div 4 player.  Most players at this level have some ability, but the reason they end up in Div 4 is that they cannot display it often enough, or that at their peak performance it's as good as it will ever get for them.

So you can see why Keshi ended up in non league, but you can see why Palace thought there might be something more in him, and then accepting there wasn't.

I think we need to accept he probably will never get much better, but with some decent management and appreciation from the fans, despite the frustration mentioned, he could be useful in a better all round squad looking for auto next season.

So tell me what appreciation I should show what ability does he have that fits into a team structure. He's too much of a show pony who dribbles into dead ends.

A side should be able to carry one free spirit... and at our level, they will often make wrong decisions, but you want them to still keep trying in the hope that you'll see something come off, more regularly. Keshi's play under Wellens has been a bit better.... and for us it's about small steps he isn't suddenly going to become wonderful... but he could become a more reliable player.

We seem to have 2, Woolery and Keshi.

Woolery isn't the same type of player, or a free spirit. He's a head-down racehorse and a decent finisher. Not creative at all. The highlight of the game Saturday was LV's 70 yard kick to Kaiyne who just gassed everyone before putting in a decentish ball.

In terms of players who might yet have a 'breakthrough' season in them, then yes.
Hoping for much more from both of them next season, if still here.
Plus, some players seem to pull their fingers out when it comes to the final year of a 3 year contract.  :hmmm:

True, you can see what Wellens is thinking.... here's from the post match...


I guess he thinks Doughty might be that clever player, who can free up Keshi and Kaiyne, but although interesting is risky.

Flitcroft was a bit more sparing with using them both as starters.... but when he did got some decent away wins like Luton, Yeovil and Crewe, along with some defeats like Grimsby. At home we did beat Cambridge.

Which kind of backs up we're better away than at home with the available personnel, like last season. Wellens task for the remainder of the campaign is to put the home form right starting on Saturday.

OK we know FGR have a bigger budget etc.... but Town fans are not going to take kindly to losing the big derby match with ramifications for the mini league.

But only if you have players who can cover up the fuck up, blind alleys, lost possession nearly everytime which we don't. Thing is over more than half a season he hasn't even remotely approached becoming a reliable player.

Wilfred Zaha is a free spirit as was Matt Ritchie maybe even Dave Bamber.

As for Saturday, I wouldn't expect too much, FGR are pretty high scorers on the road and we are very poor at home.

Fuck that. I expect an immediate response to Saturday's shambles. We're a decent team at this level so these cunts had better start performing at home.

I did actually feel a little sorry for Keshi after the final whistle had gone. Clearly the whole team had played badly but he took the brunt of the abuse from the DRS. He was evidently devastated and held his hand up to apologise a number of times. At least he didn't skulk off down the tunnel and had the balls to applaud the fans after the game.

See what you mean but I'm always a bit ambivalent about players applauding the crowd when they've played badly. Personally, I just find it even more irritating, I wish they'd just fuck off down the tunnel. But then I do get that they can't win as for some reason there seems to be an expectation that the players should always applaud the crowd these days. Christ alone knows why, seems a load of bollocks to me tbh

All I ask for is a 100% effort, and 100% commitment

I think there are very very few players in our history that can say they were 100% commited and 100% effort every game, Shaun Taylor being one of them, not many others though.

Matt Ritchie, was/is the exact opposite. Bamber yes.

We tend to play better against the better teams. Its the 8-2-1 formation cloggers we cant fathom out.

My old man who first attended in the late 1940's says even from that date we have always beat teams we should lose to and make a habit of losing to teams we are strongly expected to beat.

I wonder how true that really is, though. I agree it appears to be that way, but I suspect some statistical analysis might reveal it's just confirmation bias, or something.

Having said that, and I'm going to contradict myself now, we do seem to spend a lot of our time as a big fish in a small pond. Even in the league above we're generally a top 10 team (or should be). I wonder if that would give our opponents more impetus to take a 'big' scalp. I dunno, it may be bollocks.

Very difficult to do statistically, as how do you define a team you shouild beat.  Sat throws up a classic example... people think we should beat FGR, village team had 1800 for a big game last week, yet reality says something different.

What you can verify is that we've historically been better at home than away, and that some seasons at home have been very strong, occasionally we've put together runs of a few years.  Further we've never gone through a season undefeated at the CG but have only lost the once on 4 occasions I can think of. 

The best run would have been 68/69, 69/70 and then 70/71.   Those 3 seasons we lost 4 home games.... 68/69 to Watford who won the league. 69/70 being the nearest to undefeated as lost to MBoro in April, they finished 4th to our 5th, then 2 in 70/71... Leicester who won the league and Brum.

You would say an average season at the CG should see something like 12 home wins 6 draws and 5 defeats.  We could still do something like that by winning all the remaining home games.  We've had the discussion about why the home form has turned to shit, and everything has been debated from 4D's underpants to Beversbrook. (I made the bit up about 4D, but perhaps time to ask  :hmmm: ) and are none the wiser.

Especially with 11 outfield players ;)

Doh

So this is why we've been struggling? The opposition are using more players than we are?

Shouldn't be allowed.