Thetownend.com

I guess you are all boogieing at the Trust party, so just in time I'll get this going. Just in time because it's almost midnight here.

3-0 to Town in front of 7258 nostalgic supporters ... be good to hear Danny Boy from all.

I'm going for 2-1 in front of 6917.

I’m hoping the band creating some foot tapping/stomping are called ‘Salubritas et Industria’  !
3-0 Town !

My mate is running the line tomorrow.We'll be fine!

Port Vale are bobbins at our place as a rule. I dont think I've ever seen them score here in about 15 visits since the 70's. Seen multiple 3-0's and up to 5 or 6-0. 1-1 draw it is.

Last three games i've seen against Port Vale have been 6-0, 5-0 and 5-2 so something similar tomorrow would be nice. Looking forward to seeing the 69 legends at half time.

Last time I saw Port Vale it was the end of season 5-0 mullering and a scrap off county road. I'll go for 3-1 att. 6,441

Last time I saw us at home to the Vale I headed the ball.  I've never headed the ball at Vale Park,  although I've seen us play there at lot more than I've seen them play at our place.

Weather will make it tough again today, can see a 3.1 win coming.
6568 there, not sure too many will make the trip from Burslem

I’m going which means it’ll be shit.

That said I’m feeling good about today. 3-1.

Haven't seen Swindon score in my last three trips to the CG.

I'm going today.

You have been warned.

Gave up on the PO's after the Crawley game.

Hopefully it's an enjoyable occasion today.
My STFC journey was still a few years away in 1969, but I'll stick my neck out and say that none of todays starting XI would have made the first team of 50 years ago, had they been playing then.

3-1 with Woolery scoring the third in added time with a run from the half way line.

We'll win 2.9-0

2-1 defeat with Anderson scoring.

Big occasion.

We’ll lose.

Port Fail currently sit in 21st place int he table 8 places below Town but have won their last 2 games at home vs Mansfield (2-1) and the poor Yeovil (3-0).

Their current form is DDLLDLDLDLLLLDWW with just one of those wins coming in an away game vs Crawley in January.

In total away games they have won 4 times drawn 7 and lost 7 times, Scoring 11 conceding 14.

In the away game it was Wellens first win (his 2nd game in charge) a goal from Bayo deciding the game a game we totally dominated but couldnt hit the net (sound familiar?) Vale fans helping the Town by getting on their players backs as soon as we scored (in the 11th minute) we controlled the game that day and McCourt went off with a dislocated shoulder. The game being probably the longest I have ever witnessed.

(https://i.postimg.cc/rp5TQyqK/Untitled.png)


PV have only beaten us 2 times in the last 14 meetings home and away.

At the CG Vale have only won once in the last 9 meetings with Swindon winning 7 of them scoring 25 times and conceding just 8 times in those games, which include a 5-2, 5-0 andd a 6-0 win. Vales last win at the CG came 8 games ago in 2005.

If you go back a bit further PV have only won at Swindon 6 times since 1960, 6 games finishing level and Town winning 20 times, giving Town a win rate of over 62% since 1960.

Their leading scorer is big old lump Tom Pope on 9 goals.

They have ex Town short term loanee Cristian Montaño on their books, signed after the allegations against him for match fixing and rape were dropped, was always quick but not exactly the most skilfull player despite hime being with West Ham at the time, PdC sending him back for his lack of comittment for STFC he only played 209 mins scoring his only goal on his debut at Accrington Stanley.

Jak McCourt, Marc Richards, Chris Robertson and Theo Robinson have all spent time playing for Vale.

2-1 defeat with Anderson scoring©  in front of 6,506 with 175 Valers there.

That should be put on our club crest in Latin.

Magnum perdere nos occassion.

That flows seamlessly!! :)

Is that right? Only 25 goals in their 18 away games to date? If that's so I'll revise my 1-1 to 5-5

We've just passed the 18th anniversery of our last game at the manor ground, that fantastic double turbo 2-0 win. Whoever was responsible for the Oxford programme at that time mispelt Port Vale as "Pot Vale".

A harbringer of portents and omens.

Yes easily the lowest total goals for and against in away games.

P18 W4 D7 L7 F11 A14 GD-3 Pts19

They are the 2nd lowest scorers in the division too with just 32 goals in total, 1 goal behind Crawley who are the lowest scorers, and they have conceded 3 less than us over all.

it does doesn't it!

3-1 Swindon with Smart and Rogers x2 scoring

I am pretty sure Rogers is out with a hip injury :)

Thanks for the stats.

Am I being thick?  DDLLDLDLDLLLLDWW  and they've won last two at home and one away at Crawley in that sequence despite there only being two Ws ?

1-1

Oops Yes I put a D in instead of a W sorry :)

 DDLLDLWLDLLLLDWW thanks for spotting my mistake.

Broadbent benched!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1yOBjQX0AAbyoI.jpg:large)

Broadbean must be carrying an injury.

Very attacking line up!

Sent from my Mi A1

Increased segregation measure in the Arkells.
So now there an aisle, some netting over seats, some empty seats, another aisle, a section where the seats have removed and one more aisle.
Next step will be to remove the seats in the 4 central blocks of the stand.

Darren Drysdale is ref, why do I know that name?

The infamous Bristol Shitty game, sending off the shithead player with Toffo celebrating.

What does it matter if people can't be arsed to turn up

Ah, that’ll be it. More of the same please.

Lots of watering of the pitch pre game.

It’s been like this for a while now to be fair.

Yeah he sent of Wade Elliott after 3 mins and gave us a fair few decisions too that day, let the game flow otherwise though. Has sent off 10 players and made 104 bookings in his 30 games so far this season.

Conroy named captain in the absence of Broadbent.

Nice to see Knoyle back at RB and hopefully Koiki can rip their fullback to peices with his left wing play.

The wind is very strong and will change the game, Town have the wind behind them 1st half.

I can't remember ever there being so many games played under such strong winds as we have this season, must have been 6 or 7 games with very high winds affecting it.

Silly handball by Bennett.

PV get the throw when it blatantly came off their players foot.

Their keeper hasn't managed to take a goal kick longer than about 30 yards so far facing the wind! can't be that intelligent if he can't figure that out!

Bennett gives the ball away twice in a row in good attacking positions.

Lovely pass out from defence but Woolery couldn't quite meet it in the box with the wind .

Koiki first touch lets him down on the wing while attacking.

Anderson at pace is felled 40 yards out. Yellow for the vale player.

Bennett taking a few risks inside our box but gets away with it.

wind ruining this game

The wind isn't helping but our passing so far has been awful.

Bennett wont fucking cross the ball when hes ina  great position, just wants to repetaedly beat him man, Koiki also not crossing it.

Bennett gives it away again in a great attacking position.

Bennett nice shot defelcted for a corner. Theo arguing with the centre back, handbags.

Good corner by Bennett but its cleared.

Really poor game so far playing against a very poor team the wind ruining any attempt at playing football.

This game is a dead rubber so far down to the wind..  no football being played at all, not all their fault, but they aren't helping themselves..

Anyone but Bennett touching the ball?

Bennett shot but its deflected for a corner.

Not really! Rose a couple of nice passes but its poor so far. Bennett the only one who seems to have a grip on the wind but even then hes not playing that well.

not sure playing long balls into the channel is working this half ..

Robinson gets on the end of a hoof and puts in a good cross but Bennett coulsnt get to the cross, corner.

Thats an understatement! even Hoddle would struggle with long passing today.

This is rather rubbish.  Too many passes going astray.

The coverage on TEF is far superior to the Adver reporting today. Bring back Moreshead please.

Town fans getting the backs of the players.

TBF there isn't much to report on! its been dire.

Carroll, Bennett, Anderson and Rose all guilty of taking too many touches in shooting positions rather than having a shot with wind assistance.

Bennett has a shot from 25 yards over the bar.

HT 0-0 very poor game, easily forgetable.

That was awful.

Conditions and Port Vale's spoiling tactics combining to ruin this as a contest. We're not doing too badly given the wind, but not sure how we go about winning this bar a scrappy 1-0.

A special mention to our ludicrous fans ironically cheering shots and booing the players off.

Some half time ska:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtESlTKBa4s

A half that shows the players have the footballing intelligence of a gnat.

Awful conditions, awful decision making, awful game of football.

What the fuck is the point of Bennett?  He is utterly anonymous, again.  Anderson thinks he's on some skills show clearly, because he can't think you play competitive football like this?  Running around and finding dead ends, refusing to shoot with the wind behind you.

Conroy's turn to think he is some sort of Hoddle, although he's clearly on for a bonus for the most amount of long balls into the Sratton Bank.  How thick do you need to be to not figure out you have to take some pace off the ball when a gale is behind you.

Got to hope the wind makes us play football in the 2nd half.  The worry will be Vale getting a goal after we fuck up defending against the wind though.

Absolutely. idiotic.

I'm usually the first to feel embarrassed by our fans but our players are showing a complete lack of footballing intelligence. To have a wind like that behind you and not have a pot shot for 45 minutes is bizarre.

Fucking morons.

Wind causing havoc and we’ve struggled to adapt our passing with the wind behind. Wouldn’t surprise me if we’re better off playing into the wind 2nd half, being able to put balls in behind the PV defenders that will actually hold up for the attackers to run onto rather than just racing in to touch. Would have been nice to see a few wind assisted pot shots though.

I'm going to guess the players have more footballing intelligence than you or I. Every shot from distance would be out of control and fly over. Much better to move the ball, get Keshi dropping off and running at them which is what we're doing.

Personally think we're doing as well as can be expected.

Excellent welcome back to halftime ska time.

My contribution is from my old band featuring Rhoda Dakar on guest vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19ZZcBbwLk

A very different take on the classic, made for the childrens cancer trust.

What you mean like the long high ball that went out for a goal kick everytime? Get a shot on target in this wind and you've a good chance of scoring.

I have a feeling that Port Vale will sit back and hit us on the break and win the game 1-0.

personally I don't think we've done very well at all.

I think it'll be a bit easier to unleash pace down the channels this half as the ball holds up more.

can't see vale using the ball less intelligently than we did with the wind in their favour

Conlon is a dirty little bastard.

Corner to Town, more intelligent passing.

Nice move by Town after the corner, Bennett down injured.

Bennett back up but he doesn't look good.

Great ball to Robinson at the angle from Conroy but Robinson shoots well wide.

Woolery flattened at speed, yellow for the left back.

Dirty little fucker Conlon fells Conroy.

6,322 with 222 from Vale

Nice turn by Woolery beats his man but only wins a corner.

Good corner by Rose but Woolf gives away a free kick.

Vale have their first shot from 35 yards, easily saved. Only took then 56 mins.

Woolery beats his man skips a challenge but his shot is wide with Robinson in a good position.

Town getting to grips with the conditions much better this half and look a much better team.

Vale player Hannant lucky to get away with a stamp on Knoyle. Bad decision ref.

Town showing a lot more quality this half.

Koiki wins a corner.

Lovely corner by Bennett right under the bar.

Conlon AGAIN fouls Carroll.

How some of these Vale players are stealing a career in football is beyond me, they are awful, Conlon and Clark especially. Vale are up there with the worst teams I have ever seen.

Lovely move down the right between Rose and Woolery ends with the linesman giving them a free kick for nothing.

Vale get the ball in our half!

Woolery wins another corner for Town.

Anderson crosses the ball, another Town corner.

69th minute who ground applauding the legends. Nice.

Good cross by Koiki, bennett hits it and another corner for Town.

Another good bennett corner but its headed out from under the bar.

TBF to Bennett and Rose, they have both put more decent corners into the box in 1 game that Taylor has all season.

My God I wish Woolery could cross a ball.

Vale win a corner.

Woolf puts it out for another corner.

Conroy saves Town off the line!

Woolery on the break but his cross is almost a shot and ends up being neither.

Decent tackle by Conroy in the box.

Robinson has been pretty much anonymous today, I would like to see Woolery and Bennett swapping wings and cutting inside the fullbacks.

Another Town corner.

Richards on for Bennett.

Rose good delivery but Woolf cant head it towards goal.

Another corner to Town.

Rose onto Robinsons head but its up in the air and saved.

Richards gives away a pass in a good position.

3 mins added.

McCourt on for Rose.

FT 0-0 poor game against a very poor team, we were better 2nd half but still not very good.

That definately ends any play off hopes.

Along came Burslem Port Vale
And fucked the season up.

Wonder if we’ll be singing that in 50 years’ time?

You may not even get past 50 mins with that one mate ;)

I'm pretty sure a dire 0-0 against Port Vale was the first game I went to.

If the games have been that bad recently does it mean a total clear out again at the end of the season?

FWIW I thought nobody played terrible, Robinson and Anderson were very poor for them we just had no creativity in the final third, Bennett looked good at times awful at others. Woolery was our best attacking option but his crossing and shooting was really poor. Rose looked good in midfield, Carroll good and bad, Woolf and Conroy had little to do and Knoyle and Koiki both looked ok but better going forwards. Vigs had nothing to do all game other than 2 standard catches from weak shots.

We need to create more, without Doughty we have nothing through the middle creating chances, hes badly missed.

The wind did its best to spoil it but we definately had the better of the chances and possession/corners etc we just did nothing with any of it.

Our play off hopes evaporated when Doughty got injured. We create so little without him in the side.

Utterly dreadful.

If Wellens said we need 7 wins to have a shout surely nothing has evaporated until 21 points (now 20?) are not attainable.

Has he done his post match interview yet?

poor game mostly down to the conditions.

a bit brain dead in the first half, we did better in the second. But it was never going to be a classic, and vale didn't get enough of the ball to worry us.

what were the late subs all about? pointless.

Jesus that was fucking awful to watch. Had a lot of time for Wellens but don't know what he was doing today, a game that was the stalest of stalemates crying out for changes to be made and he did nothing until a few minutes left and when he did, the changes were hardly going to inject any change into the game. Felt sorry for Bancroft too, stripped and ready to go on before it went into injury time, Wellens just left him hanging, no way to treat a 17 year old. If you're not going to bring him on fair enough, that's the manager's choice, but don't get him ready to go on and then just leave him. Kid looked crushed at the end

yeah, only caught end. something about needing players that can head when we get a corner. And the something happened in Broadbents personal life and that input into giving him a rest today

Utter Dross, they may aswell parked their fans coaches in their half as they wasn't interested in playing any football, as for all towns possession we looked clueless, fuck the playoffs we ain't good enough for them, roll on next season

TBF, there hasn't been a time this season when we've seriously looked like challenging, a little flirtation with something unpleasant under late Brown, which Wellens put right with 3 on the bounce, and we've been pretty steady mid table since.

Wellens has done OK, made some modest improvement.... but still a lot to play for this season, in our lowest ever finish season in 83/64 we were a place below the current 13th and 3 points worse off after 37 games. Wellens needs to make sure we finish better than that, otherwise much of his credit will evaporate.

Everything's great and we're going to do the double

(I may have been off my tits on E for the last couple of days)

fuck am all. you have to look at these performances and say do you want promotion? Had hospitality today and had to bite me tongue in front of Anderson during the mom award. get back in that changing room and ask everyone what you at playing for and do you give a fuck.

fed up of seeing such shit home performances. I'm turning on Wellens soon as when he came in he said about his playing style and I see absolutely nothing. and when your looking at absolutely nothing I look to the manager to see if he can provide inspiration from the bench.

fuck all. no attempt to change formatuin/style of play etc. play offs were just about in reach. no they aren't. after yet another shut display.

For a lot of them, they won't be here next season due to loan or being out of contract, so it's highly likely they're not over fussed.... further there's been nothing from the close season up until now to suggest the club has been properly serious about going up.

That is the challenge for Wellens next season, to create the sort of feel that we're serious... sadly the most common way for that to happen is spending some money, and given that Power reckons it's cost him 6 mill to get us to 13th in Div 4, it's hard to see that route happening.

what I can't understand is the lack of motivation. a promotion on a cv counts for a lot. doesn't it? personal pride? ambition? start showing it!! after seeing so much league 2 football I just don't understand

Havent read back...

What a load of dogshit...

The dreamers can stop...

Shit gate too and i dont see many turning up for next week... turgid.

More free's and loans in the summer will keep us where we are, whilst that debt grows. We are right and royally fucked under our current ownership. We have a team to support but when LP wants his money STFC are finished and he will want his money.

Well it looks as if we're stuck with Power, and as the could be worse thread shows, he might not be the best, but there are worse out there.

Also Div 4 is generally an even league so it is possible to get out of it, using frees loans etc, if you've got astute management.

At least you got a lot of free booze by the look of it!

Kind of thought that myself.

I might go to the last game against Notts County ;)

Today was tedious. I still don’t think Wellens quite knows what to do with the personnel at his disposal.

That said, what was all the last minute substitutions about?

Match appearance bonus?

13th in league two is as Wellens said about where we are right now.

Regarding Power if we finish any lower than 9th this season it will mean that for 4 seasons in a row our league position has deteriorated year on year. So much for his 5 year plan

Just got back.As someone who saw the Stevenage debacle I thought the changes were right and proper and although the performance was poor it was a marked improvement from Tuesday.Rose and Carroll were miles better as a midfield pairing than Toums and Dunne and Woolfe went from a shaky full back into an assured centre half alongside Conroy.However our problem as I see it is a complete failure of our attacking players to make the right choices.Bennett from what I've seen just floats around like an empty crisp packet on a windy day with little or no effect.Woolers and Anderson have some pace and skill but show very little sign of possessing a football brain.Something that annoyed me was our unwillingness to attack what were I thought several decent Rose corners.Keeper under no pressure under his own crossbar and defenders having free headers.If anyone had attacked the ball like Revell did the other night we might have got something.Oh and the MOM award is a farce,Not just today but always seemingly picked by a bunch of pissed up mainly non football types

As someone who was also there today and at Stevenage I think everything you’ve said is spot on Adje.

Also any significance of the clock being stuck on 11:35?

Why cheer when we win a corner?

We had fucking loads and wasted each and every one of them.

Can only agree with most of the comments already made.   Today was shit, how fans seem to think Wellens is going to lead us to the promised land next season is a bit of a mystery to me.  All the talk of building a squad for next season,  as already said many out there today will not be here next season.   If Power thinks freebies and loanings are the answer to winning this division then he needs to look back over the five seasons he's been here.  Sorry but unless things change I can only see next season being another same old, same old - hope I'm proven wrong.

It's been noted, that as things stand we've had a season on season drop in final position under Power since 14/15. So the first thing that Wellens needs to do is to arrest that slide.... he doesn't have a magic wand.  He'll need a bit of time and support from the fans, as this isn't easy.  So far he's done OK... therefore it isn't beyond the realms of possibilty that he could continue to do OK... let's see who he wants to keep from the present squad and if the additions suggest something beyond last summer's obvious mid table recruitment

the conditions weren't conducive to good football.  However, they were conditions that are not uncommon at home in winter months and I've rarely seen us take advantage of them.  They really would have encouraged some long shooting from 30 yarders in the first half.  We seemed to cope much better, tbf, in the second half with punts forward being held up and knocked out wide but just lacked any quality or even steadiness in the final third.  We shouldn't really have to be so exposed by Doughty's absence.

Cannot disagree with most of what was written, poor, very poor.  The side is not set up correctly, he moans about teams coming to defend but for most of the game we played a 4-5-1, leaving Theo totally isolated.  Thought Carroll was poorrr and too prone to moaning at his team mates.  Oh and it was a shit journey down the M5 last night.

I thought it was one of Carroll's good games. ah well,

Agreed. I thought he showed some good flashes of what he is capable of.

Yeah each to their own!  Just thought he gave away too much possession and his passing was not up to scratch.  Don't like the way he thrown his arms up in the air when something goes wrong.   Still young so will learn.  Personally I would prefer to see McCourt and Dunne in the engine room and play with either Anderson or Woolery right up front with Theo.

he certainly does like a moan at everyone

He seems to explode roughly every 10 minutes at his team-mates, the opposition and himself. Seriously needs some anger management practice.

I like him. Offers more than Dunne/McCourt for me & looks as if he gives a fuck. He's only a kid aswell & will get better with the right coaching.

I'm 50/50 tbh, but it can't help his focus if he keeps going off like a Party Popper every few minutes

I am probably 74/25 in his favour but at times he is like a ticking timebomb. All it will take is one player to kick him and he will go off like a grenade.

Conlon got so close to lighting the fuse on Saturday with his constant niggling of him but TBH he kept quite calm but he is easily distracted from his own game by fixating on revenge when he feels aggrivated by the opponent.