Thetownend.com

So an extra £100 a week assuming we offered him 2 years then, pretty standard stuff for lower league player negotiation.  They pushed out the boat a bit more as they wanted him more than we did.  Fair enough.  We likely paid Tyler roughly the same as what KK had been on for the past 2 years so if he works out it will be seen as good business by RW, squeezing as much as he can out of the budget he has been given, which is what we all want surely.

It's a fair enough strategy, but a big element of risk.  Reid, will be like Knoyle 2 years ago, firstly concentrating on trying to show he's good enough to make it as a pro, which is fair enough, but ideally you want someone, who's already there and can concentrate more on the game winning stuff.

I guess it's inevitable when the budgie doesn't stretch to getting the necessary quality from 1 to 11.

A post littered with impoderables* hurry up signings and new season

*no more than anyone else in this thread.

There's an easy way to check if the strategy of having a RB with next to no experience of league football pays off... let's look at our promotion seasons and check the level of our usual RB that season, I've seen them all.

So 62/63, Maurice Owen had played 550 odd games for Town.
    
    68/69 Rod Thomas was in his 4th season.

    85/86 Chris Ramsey... 2nd season at Town having played a couple for B and HA, including a Cup Final
    
    86/87  ditto  + Dave Hockaday (highly experienced)

    89/90 David Kerslake (several seasons at QPR)

    92/93 Nicky Summerbee probably the least experienced but had a couple of seasons around the squad, playing a smallish number of games (35)

    95/96  Mark Robinson... vastly experienced.

    06/07  Jack Smith... had played 2 seasons with Watford and then a season at STFC

    11/12  Paul Caddis... a season with STFC after a couple of seasons at Celtic and Dundee United on loan.

    Straight away you can see that having a RB with at least a couple of seasons experience tends to pay off.... Knoyle had that. Tyler has 3 starts for Newport.

   As with a lot of these things just because the evidence points that way, namely you're better off with a RB with at least some experience, it doesn't necessarily mean it can't work. It's just an indicator, and that's what we're looking for at this time of year.

Shall we wait and see if Tyler Reid is our first choice right back before trawling the archives for stats are irrelevant?

Just a hunch but could you not pick almost any position and come to the same conclusion?
You also want to start a young 20 year old goalkeeper over an experienced seasoned pro.
Do stats of promotion favour a young keeper with 5 league appearances?

you have already said
does this change on player position? as goalkeeper over rb is where i would want to see my game winning stuff

A good shout i think. Also, there's no way in the world any of Summerbee, Jack Smith or Cadds could be described as experienced. There's even an argument for lumping Kerslake in there too given he mostly played midfield for QPR i believe prior to joining us. I do appreciate he had some games under his belt though.

Pointless post

Derby seemed to do alright this season playing a right back with little or no previous experience  :hmmm:

Didn’t we bring a young striker in some 10 years or so ago with no league football experience, I’ve forgot his name...Charlie something?

contradiction of the highest?

If you been around playing first team football for a couple of seasons somewhere, then you have just about got over the first hurdle of having to show you're capable of making the step up. 

This is the point being made, Knoyle has now done that in his career, ideally if the budget allowed, you'd have wanted to keep him, but we know Wellens reason for not wanting to use a chunk of his budget on a RB, preferring presumably to use it in spine positions.  It's understandable and may not be a problem, but the indicators are it's not ideal if you're serious about auto.  This isn't a surprise.

I remember a young keeper of Henry's age coming in never having played a game, and winning promotion at the first attempt, and then doing so in a further 3, having had faith put in him.   Fraser Digby.

Mike Turner custodian for 62/63 had 7 league games under his belt.  These came at the back end of 61/62, which was the season after Sammy Burton had retired.

Phil Smith, who played most of 06/07 after Brez got injured ahd 5 league games to his credit at Millwall, Wise brought him in as number 2 as he knew him from there.

Wes Foderingham who kept goal in 11/12 had similarly to Digby not played a league game when he came, and went on to aid a promotion side in this case a Championship wimnning outfit.

These keeper's presumably negotiated your "first hurdle" rule despite "the indicators" then?

Who would have thought it.

Not sure what your point is, but to go back to Iffy, the stats show that there are 4 seasons where the keeper has either had no league previous games or a handful.

So for me would indicate, that if Henry gets a chance and can show he's up to it, we could do OK.  Of course te showing he's up to it bit is key.

:) some of this thread has got massively waylaid.

So, if I've got this right, according to Reg, it's ok to play a young goalkeeper (almost certainly the most vulnerable position in the team) with little or no experience but the RB has to be someone with bags of experience..... :hmmm: I'm glad he's not our manager.

When I used to train kids, many years ago now, I was told by the more experienced coaches that the best place to play the least experienced players was RB or LB. Simply because it was the position where the players almost always had the play in front of them so they could see what was going on and if they fucked up it was the least vulnerable position to fuck up in (defensively speaking).

Sorry chaps. I'll never learn not to argue with Reg.

Seems to me he's doing a good job of arguing against himself in this thread.....on the one hand he thinks one position should be filled with an experienced player but on the other hand one of the other positions should be filled by a player with no experience.

Derby didn't go up, neither did we in CA's almost season.  I'm looking at seasons where we went up.  

Ideally for an auto season, you want to have a core of experience and then some kids or inexperienced players  who come in and do a job for a fairly small number of games.  Such examples would be the 17 year old Don Rogers in 62/63, Brian Wade in 85/86, Fitzroy Simpson in 89/90, Lukas Jutkiewicz in 06/07, Billy Bodin in 11/12

He's excelling himself today that's for sure. I can't be the only one he's lost on this one.

There was me thinking your ambition for the season was to retain FL status....

Indeed, have we looked at who was in goal for relegation seasons?  We need the full data set.

Reg, isn't Wellens doing what you asked fro a year ago - investing in the spine, loaning in the "lesser spots",  Pretty sure you had right and left back down for those we could take a loan player in.

 :clap:
fantastic trolling today  :clap:

you have gone back to 1963 to prove that sometimes experience helps and sometimes doesn't. since 1963 let's say roughly 56 years x 3 divisions with promotions x 3 promoted teams = 504 promoted teams but let's focus on Swindons 9 and use that all as a reference to suggest we won't get promoted with a young rb but have a chance with a young keeper  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

At this time of year it's about looking for indicators, nothing more. In that sense we're better off than 2 years ago, insofar as we've a manager who's been in place a while and hopefully has been able to develop some sort of plan, for an improvement on 13th place.

As I've pointed out on many an occasion, the stats show up trends, no more than that, therefore don't offer proof.  They offer no more than indications, feel free to ignore them, but I do think it important that they should be brought to light, as there are some who might want to consider them and debate in a serious fashion.

So our chances of getting auto now hinge on us signing a vastly experienced RB (Caddis and Commingues are available) and no longer on 4 x 5 goalscorers?

As they say, 'you can't win nothin' with kids.' or can you, or can't you?

Way too many crossovers today Reginald. You can say an inexperienced keeper will work and an inexperienced RB won't but I highly doubt you'll get much understanding to come from that. Shock.

 :jawdrop:

It's almost as though he does just it to get a reaction...

(https://media1.giphy.com/media/O5jlcW4tjOhQA/giphy.gif)

Our first relegation season of 64/65, was notable for a problem with the keepers, Norman Oakley broke his arm in the opener at Gigg Lane, and Tony Hicks came in, Swindon boy from the youths, did OK but not great.  Oakley came back, but had lost confidence... so Bert  got in 9 past Haffey, who saved a pen on debut in a storming win, but then struggled, it was assumed he was on the piss, then it was back to rotating Oakley and Hicks.  Both Oakley and Haffey were experienced keepers.

Our next 2 had Jimmy Alan in goal, an experienced custodian, the drop out of Prem was another characterised by several keepers getting injured no consistency, but the next season drop was mostly with Fraser in goal, and experienced keeper.

The last drop from Div 2 another characterised by churn... Talia, Glass, Mildy, Bart G.

05/06 had Rhys Evans and Tom Heaton  10/11 Phil Smith and David Lucas.

Then Vigs for the last one.

I'm not sure what it shows.....

I've said it's a reasonable strategy, but the FB's don't have to be kids, although in these days it seems that way. 

Take Koiki as an example, you can see some ability, but he wouldn't be one you'd put money on delivering an auto consisent season, but he might give you a dozen games at some point.  When Lou Macari needed a FB in 85/86 he got in Paul Roberts an experienced player on a short contract... Robbo basically kicked people... his win rate is probably the highest of any Town man with more than  20 games, he was never going to be good enough for Div 3.

See title of thread....

So in essence your argument is based on what someone told you years ago when involved in kids football, as contradicting  what both Lou Macari and PdC showed in real football. Doesn't hold up for me.

I am getting bloody confused this close season?

Do we need a  striker who can score 20+ goals or not - was that ever definitively decided or are we still waiting for the stats from 1912 to be fully analysed and spun to fit the argument being made today??
We need a vastly experienced right back or do we based upon our great performance in the 1933-34 season, but only when we played on Tuesdays?
We can play a kid in goal but can he score the 20 goals and also play right back?

Any others?  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

I am not convinced that you really know what contradicting means?  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Unfortunately, when you talk a lot there's a good chance you're going to contradict yourself.

I think Mr. Wellens is the key to this lock.

I haven't put forward an argument. I've merely repeated some advice that I was given and pointed out the apparent lack of logic in your argument as it isn't clear from your increasingly incoherent ramblings whether it is better to go for experience over novice or vice versa.

Incidentally, in what way has what I said contradicted what Macari and PDC showed in real football?

Oh and in the Div 4 championship season, Macari brought in on loan a novice full back called Nicky Coleman....played pretty well as I recall and I'm sure Macari would have loved to have kept him given the chance. He also brought in a vastly experienced goalkeeper in Kenny Allen.

Di Canio also brought in a relative novice full back, Liam Ridehalgh, on loan from Huddersfield. Also performed pretty well.....

Also a semi decent, unknown Italian LB who I liked. Alessandro Cibbochi. Wasn't the best but was an absolute gentleman in person and he was one of those rare ones in football today, a bit like Risser, gave 100%. Liked it mattered.

Can't believe he only made about 20 appearances which leads me to...

Which ex Town player (loans included) has made the biggest positive impression on the fans with the least amount of appearances. Apologies if done before but I guess this could throw up some interesting names. I'll mention Cibocchi again because he even got a decent song out of his time here.

It's quite simple... both Macari and PdC favoured an experienced RB, experienced meaning at least 2 or 3 seasons under the belt not trying to "hide" a novice in a position we're the game is played in front of you.  They both won the Div 4 title with a 20 year old keeper who had never previously played a league game.  I fail to see how you can argue against these facts.

Both keepers Digby and Foderingham were good enough... we don't know about Henry, and can only find out by giving him a chance.

Macari won the  Div 4 title with Kenny Allen in goal.....

Ha ha....so only the RB needs to be experienced. Doesn't matter about the LB then?

The fact that in 4 of our promotion seasons we've had a keeper with little experience, doesn't mean that in order to go up we have to to have an inexperienced keeper, it just means it can be done....

In the same way you can have an inexperienced full back like a Coleman or Ridehalgh to give you say a dozen games, but ideally for the long season haul you need a bit more nous... which is why Macari went Roberts and PdC went JMac, eventually.

No it's not. Now you're just making stuff up to back up your argument.

Macari went for Roberts because Millwall wouldn't extend Coleman's loan deal. Similarly, he got Mceveley because he couldn't extend Ridehamgh's deal. Macari wanted to keep Coleman and Di Canio wanted to keep Ridehalgh.

The fact that we won the Div 4 championship under Macari with a 37 year old in goal also shows that it can be done with an experienced keeper. And, of course, your statistic is bollocks because by the time Digby won his second promotion with Town he was considerably more experienced. I make it that we've had an inexperienced keeper in 2 of our promotions (in the time I've been following Town).

He got Nicky Coleman in first, a young, inexperienced full back. He only got Roberts because Millwall wouldn't extend Coleman's loan. Nothing to do with needing an experienced kicker. I remember both players well and, probably like most Town fans at the time, much preferred Coleman.

Ever thought of going in to politics? You'd make an excellent spin doctor.....

Wellens better be at home tonight studying his 1930’s STFC football history, crucial knowledge can be gained despite that era of the game being barely recognisable to today’s game

Fine margins and all that

THe talk has been about Knoyle a RB... we haven't got a LB atm, so no point in talking about that yet.

Who knows how Coleman or Ridehalgh woukd have played out, it's not uncommon for young outfield players to have a good little spell, especially when they first start, but then fade.

However you want to dress it up, the facts show that both Macari and PdC went from inexperienced to experienced in their LB picks.

If they'e good enough chances are they'll come again with time, hence why I say for most young players, in a sucessful season it needs to be cameos

It will be interesting to see if Wellens goes the same route at LB and gets in another Koiki type, or goes for experience.

Personally I'd like to see a bit of 2 season experience at least.

Our highest league finish in 20 years was achieved with a 20 year old and a 23 year old at wingback

You're always banging on about facts so let's look at some of the "facts" you've stated in this thread:

1. Macari won the Div 4 championship with a 20 year old in goal. Wrong. He won it with a 37 year old.
2. 4 of our promotion seasons have been won with inexperienced goal keepers. Wrong. Only 2 have.
3. Macari preferred an experienced LB (Roberts) in the Div 4 championship season. Wrong. His 1st, and thus preferred choice, was Coleman, an inexperienced FB. Roberts was signed only because Millwall wouldn't extend Coleman's loan.
4. PDC preferred an experienced LB (McEveley) in his Div 4 championship season. Wrong. Ridehalgh was 1st choice. Again, McEveley only signed because Ridehalgh's loan wasn't extended.

I'm not dressing anything up. I'm simply stating facts. You are the one dressing things up, suggesting that Coleman and Ridehalgh weren't up to the job and that they may have faded after a few games thus forcing Macari and PDC to revert to more experienced players. You know as well as I do that if their loans had been extended both would have been the preferred choice at LB and neither Roberts or McEveley would have been signed.

I can, because they aren't facts. See above re the 20 year old keeper. We know that neither had a preference for an experienced LB so logic would tell us that the same would be true for the RB position......and it could be argued, in any case, that the RB position wasnt filled by an experienced player. Caddis had only played 1 season prior to PDC coming and Chris Ramsey had only played 30 games before joining Swindon.

Although I concur with the title of this thread, the timing of the cut means that my post is first in the list intimating that I am talking more crap..

For that I say fuck you FH :D

Apart from that, carry on..

1. Promotion was won with Digby in goal, 86/87
2. 62/63 Turner 7 games, Digby as above, 06/07 Phil Smith post Brez injury 5 games, 11/12 Fods no games.
3. Macari may have wanted to sign Coleman... he didn't. He did sign Robets an experienced player... we won the league, perhaps we'd have done with Coleman, we'll never know.  Thereforer speculation.
4. PdC didn't really know what he wanted at LB, but after trying Callum Kennedy, Cibocci, who apparently was experienced in lower league Italian football and Ridehalgh, he ended up with J Mac.

To me Coleman looked a very good player, Ridehalgh, OK, no more than that. He never really got a gig until Tranny and promptly played 2 seasons dropping from Div 3 to the Conference, but has hung around for their revival, so fair play for that.

Your point about Caddis and Ramsey is bizarre, I've emphasised with young players, you want them to have a couple of seasons where they come in and out the side to get a taste, perhaps play 25-30 games as both Caddis and Ramsey did at a decent level.  Sometimes your young player is just so good, that's it they're in, but there's relatively few of those and they tend to be highly desirable in the market.  More often, they might just not be quite good enough for that level so drop down, as both Ramsey and Caddis did, then had a full season, to gain that bit more, before contributing to an auto. Caddis was captain.

Let's return this to the OP from Berni... who makes the very salient point about Wellens and his prioritising of the budget, or "squeezing" as Berni termed it.  I pointed out there's an element of risk to this, and still maintain that to be the case.. risk, needs to be viewed in terms of what I take to be the aim for the season of automatic promotion. If you and others think, there is no risk, then fine.

PS you do think that auto is the aim for this season?

Having looked back through every promoted team in football league history. I have come to the following conclusion.

1. You are more likely to win games if you score more than the opposition
2. You are more likely to win games if you concede less than the opposition
3. You are more likely to achieve points 1. & 2. if you have more talented & better players than the opposition

Therefore, the secret to promotion is;

Get better players in than your opposition. Age, experience, height, weight, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, hair colour & the car the drive are all irrelevant

Tactics, inspirational manager, luck, injuries and suspensions?

Managers know the sort of thing they want, but recruitment is about the sort of thing you can get. I'm sure Wellens knows that ideally he'd want to go out and sign proven Div 4 quality.... let's look at the PFA Div 4 side of the year for guidance, the 2 full backs Eardley at Lincoln... 300 league games at 30, and Harry Toffolo, as mentioned before would have been a good indicator to have signed him last season. 

However, he's not in a position to do that so a different approach is required.... and that's the problem.

As I've said at this stage it's about indicators... we all want to see intent. Last season ws a classic example... Doughty Diagouaga in theory looked tasty, and people expected the sale of Mullin and Norris to mean alongside the Flint windfall we'd see a proper Div 4 striker.... didn't happen. Therefore the intent after the recruitment looked mid table and so it proved.

I'm looking for the intent being auto....

Now we’ve signed Adam May I was racking my brain to think of any other Adam to have played for Town.

Willis.

Rooney.

El-Abd.

Whatchu talkin' bout?  ;)

They mentioned this on the Loathed Strangers podcast. I think there are 4 prior to Mr May

I just had to check. The other being Adam Hogg, a Scotsman who made his single appearance in September 1956. Thank you to the wonderful swindon-town-fc database.

 How many Adams have played for Town ? ... Steve Adams.

1st Tyler however!

Today I learned that Ty Gooden was christened as such. Always presumed that was short for Tyler...

Hogg, Willis, Rooney, El-Abd.

Surprised we've only had one Adams though. Would've thought the Victorian or Edwardian era would've given us a couple.

Who remembers Carl Tiler?   Thought not. Carl was something of a great white hope, when moving from Barnsley to Forest, but then got injured. John Gorman got him in on loan, as he was trying to get back up to playing again... we'd been leaking goals.

Something of a last roll of the dice for dear old JG, a derby at Trashton, and we were trash.  On paper a decent looking outfit, but JG had brought back Ross MacLaren, who was clearly not fit. 

Poor old Ross, I'd watched them training in the week, which consisted of runs up and down the hill in the Lawns, he could hardly move. Retired a week later.

 Incidentally always thought doing runs around the Lawns was good, as provides a lovely view of the CG, and how it commands the centre of Town, a good way of players understanding its importance.

 I digress, after about 20 mins at Thrashton, Killer Kilcline went off with what looked like a desire to spend more time on his narrowboat, Robbo went alongside Tiler, to form an ex Barnsley pair of stoppers... Mick Mccarthy it wasn't.
We shipped 3. The Chief having a field day abetted by Junior Bent, who was an annoying little shit whenever we came against Shitty.

JG was sacked, and Carl Tiler played te next game and then returned to Forest. He carried on for some years, as someone who looked potentially excellent but kept getting injured. Killer played 2 more before he was gone.
 

So, keeping on the theme of names, and in the close-season spirit of More Crap, who (without looking at s-t-fc) are the four Waynes to have played for STFC?

Wayne Allison is one

Wayne O'Sullivan, Wayne Gray

A veritable host of Wayne Kerrs

Along with the occasional Juan.

The final Wayne made 12 loan apps (2 goals) in 2001-02.

When you get him, I've got another question ready.  :zzz:

The last Wayne's surname has been in TEF news in recent weeks...

Smeeton?

Carlisle.

I had to google it and I have to confess I do not remotely recall the guy, I will leave it for now until someone guesses it...


I used to drink with a lass in the pub in Witney who had got it on with Wayne O'Sullivan....

 I thought Wayne Carlisle was quite useful.... completely forgotten him, mind.

Well done TEF. Next close-season time-waster: five Craigs, three regulars and two minimals. I reckon only one of them should prove a bit tricky.

I'll start with easy one Craig Farr

Good work Smeeto. Now delve back into the the archive of crapness for the other obscure one.

Well ooh Craig Taylor, and Craig Maskell

Easton, which presumably leaves one deemed obscure.

Craig Easton, Craig Maskell, Craig Taylor

Craig Moores?

As a naïve young lad I was expecting great things from him as a replacement for Animal.
It wasn't to be.

Indeed. Signed from Bolton. Left for Congleton. Sums him up.

Well done TEF. Tired yet? Sticking with names modern enough for everyone to know all the players, find me four Kyles, all from this century.

Good shout, got him from Bolton played the opener in 81/82 when we stuffed Wombles 4-1,  then never started agin.

The obvious one that has just left, Mr Knoyle.

3 others? Not got a scooby.

Bennett

One more a well-known lower-league striker in on loan, and the the other a brief stint from a former youth player.

Lightbourne on loan?

And Lapham was the youth player i think?!

Kyle Lapham. Only remember the name from the quiz that Nemo did a while back.

Lightbourne the other one? A somewhere in the Caribbean international from memory.

Hoping for a Chesney to appear one day.

He'd be the One and Only

Point of info.... don't think Bermuda is counted as Caribbean. 

A somewhere in the North Atlantic international then.  :)

Although that makes Bermuda sound like a cold place.

Christ you would think I have alzheimers the fact I can't remember someone who played the last dozen or so games with us last season!!

Easy to get lost round Bermuda... speaking of triangles, how many to be seen here?

(https://i1.wp.com/mindyourdecisions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/bollywood-math-problem-how-many-triangles-problem.png?w=660&ssl=1)

I can see 18 at first glance

 :no:

I counted again, and then googled it. It is 18.

Yeah. 6 per section

Let's see if someone else wants a shot at getting it right.

I can only see 16 - now 18.

Ah, 19 if some devious git includes the word "triangles".

I only deal in facts

https://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2018/04/10/bollywood-loves-this-math-problem-how-many-triangles-are-there/

 So do I, in which case you should be able to see 2 more triangles in the capital letter A.  I think Froggy's word triangle, would be harsh as it's just a word.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: Ha ha, crafty!

Typical response from Reg and perfectly highlights his reasoning when asked to commit himself. 3 possible outcomes, all of which could be correct depending on the criteria considered.

There's all sorts of interpretations you could find here, but really just a bit of fun.  Jayo, Audrey and Froggy wanted to play, others didn't.

Classic Reg.

Shall we go back onto safer territory? I'm going to list the clubs of a number of players who made at least 50 appearances for STFC. Name the player. Here's a softish one to start you off:

SWINDON TOWN
Manchester City
Sunderland
Bolton Wanderers
Manchester City
Nottingham Forest
Leicester City
Bradford City
SWINDON TOWN
Tranmere Rovers
Tamworth

Sir Nicholas Summerbee i assume

Well done. Now that's got you into the swing, try this one, 173 apps:

Queens Park Rangers
Watford
Northampton Town (loan)
SWINDON TOWN
Chelsea
SWINDON TOWN
Carlisle United
Newport County (loan)
Blackpool
Wycombe Wanderers

 He's here he's there he's every fucking where... Alan Mayes Alan Mayes

You're warming up. Let's go slightly more obscure (119 starts):

Liverpool
SWINDON TOWN
Chester City (loan)
Rotherham United
Mansfield Town (loan)
Barrow
Vauxhall Motors (loan)
Vauxhall Motors
Marine
Warrington Town
Marine

 Andy Nicholas

 Here's one (84 starts)

 
Reading
Luton Town (loan)
SWINDON TOWN
Millwall
Bristol Rovers (loan)
Bristol Rovers
Hereford United (loan)
AFC Bournemouth
Havant & Waterlooville
Gosport Borough
Bognor Regis Town (loan)
AFC Portchester

Not really stretching you am I. Let's open it up a bit (46+18 apps):
Modena
Sora (loan)
Real Jaén
FC Brussels
SWINDON TOWN
Walsall
Southend United
ES Sétif
Union Sportive Madinet Annaba

 The Boob.

Yours is Sammy (where's my toe?) Igoe. Who's this then (75 starts)?

SWINDON TOWN
Torquay United
Cheltenham Town
Gloucester City
Barry Town
Highworth Town

 Brian Hughes.....

How did he ever get 75 apps? This is too easy for you, isn't it. 58 starts:

Malvern Town
Nuneaton Borough
Huddersfield Town
SWINDON TOWN
Bury
Rushden and Diamonds (loan)
Sheffield United (loan)
Worcester City
Hucknall Town
Evesham United
Bromyard Town
Bromsgrove Rovers
Malvern Town
Archdales 73
AFC Heenans

Darren Bullock?

Welcome to the party Donkey. Yep, smashed it. Next one has a thin CV. How he got to 109 starts bemuses me:

Bristol City
SWINDON TOWN
Cheltenham Town
Wealdstone

It's gone a bit quiet. His name describes the way he, and indeed we, played at the time.

Kevin Baddeley

If only he'd played for Evesham instead of Wealdstone, he'd have spent his entire career at "The Robins".

What links one of Williams’ Wonders (Danny not Luke!), 2 x 21st Century Town managers and a current Town player?

Well done Cowley. He was pretty awful at a time of awfulness that eclipses the present day, I would say.

I was gonna say Gavin Shite.

It was a toss-up between them ( :eek: at the thought)

Right, if no-one's going to guess Audrey's brainbuster, here's another fairly aptly-named Swindon player, who made 134 starts:

Wycombe Wanderers
SWINDON TOWN
Gillingham
Canvey Island

Ty Gooden

Bien sûr, Bob l'exilé. Let's see if this one's a bit trickier (92+2 apps):

Arsenal
Bristol Rovers (loan)
Peterborough United (loan)
Aberdeen (loan)
SWINDON TOWN
Plymouth Argyle
Reading

Nicky hammond

Is nothing hard enough for the TEF? What about this, 119 starts?
SWINDON TOWN
Chesterfield
Exeter City
Yeovil Town
Bath City
Salisbury City

Ooh! Ooh! I know...Paul Batty...

How did you people get this good? And are you equally effective at work? Don't answer that. Answer this, 47+7 apps:
Swansea City
Huddersfield Town
Birmingham City (loan)
Cardiff City
Notts County
Peterborough United
SWINDON TOWN (loan)
SWINDON TOWN
Worcester City

Steve Jenkins

Damn you all. I'll get you yet. An unlikely 115 starts:
Nottingham Forest
Kettering Town (loan)
Ipswich Town (loan)
SWINDON TOWN
Havant & Waterlooville
Farnborough Town
Cirencester Town

Bobby Howe!

sexy football

I will beat the TEF. This one squeezes in with 42 + 28 apps:

Tottenham Hotspur
Brentford (loan)
Bristol City (loan)
Barnet (loan)
SWINDON TOWN
Rotherham United
Reading (loan)
Reading
Colchester United
Luton Town

Kevin Watson

TEF get a life. This’ll sort you out (55 apps):
Hull City
Sunderland
Derby County
SWINDON TOWN
Huddersfield Town
Tranmere Rovers (loan)
Scarborough

One of my favourite players. For all the wrong reasons.
Some people on the Stratton Bank took the piss out of me for holding arms aloft in anticipation as he took aim from 25 yards, only for it to go flying over our heads.

Roy Greenwood.

How do you people do this? I wouldn’t get 80% of these. Greenwood was terrible, and looked like something out of Dr Hook.

I won't give up till I've broken the TEF. Had no idea this one made as many as 46+27 apps:
Woodlands United
Belstone
Broadfields United
Edgware Town
SWINDON TOWN
Leyton Orient (loan)
Leyton Orient

Got to be James Brophy...

Of course it is.  >:( This'll shut you up (79 apps):
Laxey AFC
Sunderland
Swansea City
SWINDON TOWN
Torquay United
Rochdale
Exeter City
Merthyr Tydfil
Newport County

That'll be David Cole

Damn you Fraser you're doomed. Have this, 73 starts:
Liverpool
Norwich City (loan)
Manchester City
Bolton Wanderers
SWINDON TOWN
Barrow
Runcorn

Mark Seagraves?

It is indeed Mark Seagraves.

Just one appearance. Probably a common Town trivia question so maybe not too difficult.

Glentoran
SWINDON TOWN
Barnsley
Aston Villa
Tottenham Hotspur
Toronto City (loan)

Danny Blanchflower.

Yep.
I wonder if any fans who watched in the 45-46 season are still going.
Someone born in 1940 say would be pushing 80 now, so maybe a few still try and get to games.

My Dad is, although his first game was in the 47-48 season (he can't remember which one understandably).

I haven't given up. Get this TEF. Contrary to some previous entries, I thought this one had more appearances, 57+33:
Preston North End
Manchester City
SWINDON TOWN
Cambridge United (loan)
Carlisle United
Leyton Orient
Gretna
Barrow
Chester City
Altrincham (loan)
Altrincham
Chester City

There’s only one, Steve Finney...

But of course.  >:(  59 starts, anyone?
Bolton Wanderers
Bristol Rovers (loan)
Bury (loan)
SWINDON TOWN
Brentford
Ebbsfleet United
Kidderminster Harriers
Boreham Wood

Ricky Shakes!

How do you retain this stuff? I will beat you. 89 apps:
Crystal Palace
AFC Bournemouth (loan)
AFC Bournemouth
Huddersfield Town
Portsmouth
Walsall (loan)
Derby County
Millwall (loan)
Yeovil Town
Millwall (loan)
SWINDON TOWN
Walsall
Aldershot Town
Didcot Town

Vincent, Jamie Vincent.

 :cry: Are you googling this? Get this then - 100 apps:
Ipswich Town
Tranmere Rovers
SWINDON TOWN
Carlisle United
York City
Cardiff City (loan)
IFK Mora FK

Scott Endersby☺️... time to let go I think... just admit you are no match for the collective, geekis
h, obsessive might of The Town End Forum😉