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Shame we don't have a game, we're on a hat trick of wins.
I shall be car tinkering.
You going to Gosport Chalkies?

Hopefully boozing. I've earned it this week.

Can you please wait until we've got a game?  :)

That we don't have a game is partly the reason I'm going out.

I will actually be in Swindon ironically all places Saturday afternoon visiting the granddaughter.

I am going on holiday, the grand total of 18 miles from home......

 I was going to this, so it's a bit annoying.  No news of the rearranged fixture yet.  Am I right in thinking there are no replays, in the 5th round of the cup now  :hmmm:

 In which case Newport and ourselves are free on the 26th.

Nope but enjoying the supermarine experience. May well do Weymouth and have a half of shandy. Seen a few town at games.

Given Newport  (and Cheltnum) is the closest to where I live, and it's rather a nice day, I'm disappointed!!! No doubt the rematch will be a freezing Tuesday in March. Still, will have my two little granddaughters here 😊

I will be going to the tip because after loading the car up with a load of shite we need to get rid of and driving over there on Wednesday lunchtime, I then discovered the council have decided to close the tip on Wednesdays. WTF? So instead of a quick trip midweek, I can spend my Saturday afternoon in a fucking massive traffic jam with the rest of Swindon. Wankers (the council, not the rest of Swindon)

I think Thursday is "late night" opening.

Edit: Nope - 8 to 4 every day except Wdnesday. Great

Why no rearranged fixture? Is there an issue?

You lot are spoilt, our opening times are 8am to 4pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday only!

I did wonder about the Welsh Cup... but it's all change these days, gone are the days when the old Bristol City would win it, the sides who play in England don't appear to compete.... futher the egg chasers don't seem to have any midweek games, imminent.

Just been there - it was empty. Give me your car keys and I'll do it for you. How much is your car worth?

Yes, no replay, settled on the day,  extra time then penalties if needed.

Might go to watch Farnborough (who are on a nice little run at the moment) vs Harrow Borough.  Either that, or paint my banister rail.

Yes Thursday late nights is only in the summer, fortunately I checked this *before* I loaded the car up again when I got back from work last night. Wankers

This time last year, less than the rubbish I was taking to the tip! Since then got a lease car though so will have to decline your kind offer :)

The tip off junction 17 is open on a Wednesday ;)
If going to the Swindon tip you can check the live camera feed to see if it's quiet or busy, and don't forget to take your driving licence for proof of residency.

Bugger. Although tbf given the whole idea was to go in my lunch break, that might have been a bit of a schlep. Will remember next time though

Probably do the round trip plus dump in a lunch hour.

Maybe, and given I didn't need a dump, that would have given me time for some lunch too! :)

you sure the j17 tip isn't asking for proof of address these days?

I remember when you only needed fake id so you could get into clubs underage. Somehow, needing fake id to go to the tip doesn't have quite the same air.....

Weirdly I was thinking of going to this too!

I'll be getting rid of some old shite too, replacing my toilet bowl etc. Won't need the tip though. Luckily atm there's a building site next door and one of the builders said today I can throw the old bowl in their skip ;-)

I went on a Saturday afternoon a few weeks back and there wasn't a queue, in fact there were more spaces than cars!

Pays off to get there just before it opens usually.

They shut the tip 3 miles from us, fuck knows why, it was always busy, i suspect it has to to do with the toff cunts living in the village nearby. Our nearest tip is now in Warwickshire unless i want to travel over 20 miles each way. Piss taking bastards.

Always look forward to getting asked for proof of address at the Warwickshire tip, never happens.

Brummie tans  :)

is that the one that David Cameron had shut down claiming it posed a security threat to himself and his friends?

Yeah he lives in said village

Good job we’re not playing today. According to the records we’ve not won a game on Feb 16th since 1907! One famous defeat on this day was at home to the Villa in ‘92, when I seem to remember the temporary tv studio, housing villain Jimmy Hill, was pelted with missiles. Hilarious!

I'm going to a spanking club in London.

Hoped you booked, most of the london reds are there already

Is that so?  So it might be a good thing not playing..... I suppose looking out for all the other results, gives some sort of amusement. 

I’ve just been to a donkey sanctuary near Sidmouth. The rest of the afternoon will be spent drinking, gaming and eating.

Those donkeys reminded me of that Jock player - plays for Celtic, can’t remember his name. Dead ringer.

Im going for a run, having a bath and then making tapas for dinner.  Just as soon as this episode of Friends is over.

I am a very exciting person.

Good lad.

Only just saw this.  I didn't go in the end

You know, if we did manage to creep back up this season, there would be some great away days waiting.  Reading (possibly) and Ipswich (definitely) to name just two.

Decent set of results for us today despite dropping 4 places.

If we had played and won today we’d only be 3 points of the POs.

COYR

well, to state the bloody obvious, Saturday has suddenly become massive.

nice to see pox still in the relagation mix.

and who woke up Notts County. All of a sudden Yeovil look very vulnerable

Ever since that Notts chairman got his cock out they’ve really picked up.

Power- it’s over to you!

6 off 7th with a game in hand. Most certainly all to play for.

In the spirit of RW saying fans have a part to play perhaps that is what he meant. Next home game all fans should get their parts out and wave them to guarantee promotion. It will be nailed on (promotion, not the part). Unfortunately due to sanctions I won't be permitted to take part join in.

The GD is worth a point off atm.... so effectively 7

We were always going to drop a few places today, what it does do however is bring a certain number of clubs into the mix who previoiusly people hadn't really considered, like Oldham, Crewe, Stevenage, Grimsby... all of whom we have to play.

The bottom line is still we have to win the next 4 in a row to get into contention.... as we'd need 2 wins and a draw to get into the top 7 if nobody else played a game.

Don’t really have to win next 4. Just accumulate enough points in the next 14 games to make 7th. Doesn’t matter when you win those points.

you don't, but with 2 home games coming up we need at least 4 points out next 2 imo

In theory. However that takes no account of the psychology.... it's very difficult to win games towards the end of the season when fatigue and pressure start to take their toll.

Let's imagine that 72 might be enough for a PO spot... win the next 4 we'd be on 58 needing 14, that would be very doable, and leave a bit of room for say the line being 75.  If say the next 4 yielded a win a loss and 2 draws... that would leave 7 wins from the last 10, very difficult and you want find many seasons in our history with such a late season haul.  Now is the time to do it, starting on Sat v in form Grimsby, not easy.

So if we were to only get say 10 points out of the next 12 then it’s all over?

Just checking

Yep, no chance whatsoever with 3 wins and a draw. Don’t be so silly.

That would be a decent return... but history tells us even in a very good season the haul from the last 10 games averages out at 17 points as a mean figure, or median figure.

I'm basing very good season on achieving promotion or a PO finish.  We've had 14 of these in my time.... so from 56 points with 10 to go, 17 would give you 73, which could be enough or not, that remains to be seen.

From the 58 point position the average good season finish would yield 75 points which was good enough last year.

To give a further indiator of how hard this is.... our 3 title winning sides from that era, 85/86 got 24.... 95/96 got 20..... 11/12 got 20  and 68/69 got 21.  7 of those sides got < 17,  2 got 18 and only the final Macari side, did the strong finsih for 21.

Ha, I did pretty much exactly that albeit I preceded it by going to the tip rather than watching Friends. And I made pasta rather than tapas but that's an anagram so it's more or less identical.

I made tapas for half of fucking old town last night. Fucking amateurs.

I looked at league games in my time of attending which is back to 62/63.... and found only 3, all away from the CG. Loses to Forest 0-1, Grimsby 0-2, Millwall 0-3.

I guess there has to be a date which is statistically the worst for league games.... and conversely the best.  Is there an easy way of working it out? In other words how did you find this stat?

As always,

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/OnThisDay.asp?date=2019-02-16

Ooh never noticed that.  Certainly 16th Feb, has never been a happy day for STFC league games.... so probably just as well we missed Newport.

Touch wood you’re not supasticious.

 Newport getting back into contention tonight.... they'd need to score a few more than the current 4 to get above us.

3 points separating 15th and 9th. Win our game in hand (against Newport) and we're 3 points off Carlisle ready for when we go up there....

Have we announced when that game in hand is going to take place?

Carlisle are at Col U on Sat, 6th v 7th. A draw would be handy, but none of it means much if we don't win our next few games.  It certainly feels like much more than just over a week since we last played.

No. There's never been a reason why it shouldn't have been listed for next Tuesday, but Wellens has openly said he wants to leave it for as long as possible, and Newport appear to be in agreement.

The whole FL requirement for it to be played ASAP is clearly a load of bollocks which nobody ever looks to enforce.

He'll have his reasons, I know, and he's the expert etc.  But I am slightly surprised at this, just as we seem to be building some momentum.

 :hmmm:
 I'd imagine given the state of Newport's pitch the thinking might be leave it as late as possible

Yes, it might have been the phone in where he mentioned sun shining and grass growing.

More importantly, next Tuesday would have presented a logistical problem with getting into the pub as early as possible.

That’s a fair analysis and if correct it shows some ‘outside the box’ thinking. They’d still need to run it by the EFL & or the FA though.

Problem is when you've a shit pitch I'm not sure there's ever a good time to play on it.  Remember a game at Donny a few years back season PdC had just gone.... not a blade of grass to be seen, so the ball just bobbles about.

You used to get it March/April at the CG.... bare pitch hard and bobbly, chuck in a some wind and it was like playing with a superball.

Speaking of superballs, what great fun was to be had in the schoolyard with one of those. Invented in the US 1965, so I guess around when they came to  UK.  Lot of physics involved as well... which is what I used to tell the teachers who worried about things getting broken.

And not only that Newport have been playing two games a week for the last three or four weeks,  they looked fucked after the Man City game,  IMO now would have been a great time to play them.

Maybe they will be some sort of end of season symmetry. We got relegated there - be nice to get promoted there, too.

But they won 4-1 at Notts, who were on the back of a couple of good wins, so can't have been too knackered. I reckon they got a lift after a good show v Man City, despite losing.  THe knowledge that County made some $, so there could be some decent contracts about for next season may have stirred them.

The run of games coming up through March make or break the season for us - win most of them and we get the benefit of gaining on sides as we are playing them.  Lose and they open up a gap.   The signs have been positive, but even if we miss out (which still seems most likely) we look like we have someone in charge who could set us up better for next season.  Yes there will be some further rotation of the squad, but that is the way of life down here these days.  When was the last time anyone got a 5 year contract (coaching staff aside :-) )

Agree with this. Think where we were when Wellens arrived, with a serious lack of wing backs and wide players and little attacking threat. Obviously the squad isn't perfect but the January transfer dealings and performances/results since suggest Wellens knows which direction we need to be heading in. Whether that pays off this term remains to be seen but I'm much more hopeful than I was in October/November.

I thought we were in danger of going down when weekend arrived.

I knew see a very slim chance of making the playoffs.

can't really ask more than that

Although things are a bit better than they were, that's mainly because we are around a historic low, so grateful for small mercies.

didn't say I was satisfied, just that Wellens has done well under the circumstances so far.

got to take some positives and hope into next season

Luke Williams ???.

Of course circumstances have to be taken into account... when he arrived we were 16 th, 7 points off 7th and 10 off the drop zone. We're now 14th, 6 points off 7th, but a pleasing 17 off the drop.

So if you like the first job was to halt the slide to non-league and that has been done... and by so doing it keeps the season going for a bit longer.

However to get the club as presently constructed moving in a serious upward way is going to require something more than OK, but Wellens has shown that given time, support etc he could get us back to our natural Div 3 place.

Pretty certain he was classed as coaching staff, don't remember him playing much.

Rearranged for 9th April

That's when the England women's WC qualifier v Spain was due to be played at the CG:
https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2019/february/lionesses-to-play-at-sn1-in-road-to-france-series/

Has that been cancelled then?

Newport is an away game....

:D

:) FFS, I'm an idiot! I just remembered the date stuck in my mind for some reason. Thanks Reg. What a numpty!