Thetownend.com

So thoughts on this game? Anyone going, any predictions for the game?

I am thinking 2 - 1 to town with May getting a goal from range.

I was talking to a Chelsea fan, on Saturday who's going.  He didn't quite understand when I told him no right minded Town fans would be there

I’ll stick my iFollow nose in.

I've chosen to work late instead.

That should tell you everything

If last season's Chelsea turn up again we'll do well to get anything from the game.

1-2 them and move swiftly on to Saturday.

Not at all interested in the game, but I am interested in Wellens saying he's going to rotate players.

What are the rules now? Does it maybe mean we're willing to take the fine (if there is one)

We need to play 4 outfield players that played Saturday or will play this Saturday I believe.

Has that been reduced from last season?

Anyway from wiki

The way round that is to say, for example, Curran would be playing next Saturday but unfortunately picked up a niggle tonight and can only make the bench.

After the spanking last season I think we’d go again tonight purely for the footballing lesson rather than any expection to win. That said can’t make anyway which is a shame. Hopefully make it for Saturday especially if we do win tonight, nothing like building a bit of continuity.

If Charlie Brown plays and scores a couple again, would Chelsea consider a loan request involving peanuts in lieu of paying a chunk of his wages.

I have window of opportunity so I'm going.

Sweet solitude.

Not overely bothered by the game or result but may well have a look on iFollow to see how the new signings are as I am sure he will start with Reid and DJ as well as Henry, Ballard(maybe), May, Curran and Twine.

I think that will give us a chance to see how they perform in a first team environment.

Also we will see if we are going to play a counter game at home this season as Chelsea will come onto us if they play as they did last season.

I think he will play.

                    Henry
Reid    Broadbent  Curran        Hunt
              Lyden  May
Anderson                                DJ
              Twine   Woolery

You doing your usual tonight, PV?

Have we moved on from a knacker inspection yet?

Very important. Just move your hand down a bit and there they are!

My boys asked to go when we were in the club shop earlier... I said no, ha!

Hopefully Aud, will be missing the next few games though.

As somebody once said, “boycott means boycott”! That is all.

Rotate the whole squad, check Kehsi's twitter feed, fine him for it (there's bound to be something), use that to pay the fine for rotating. Job done.

Assuming the paperwork has gone through I would have thought we'd play Sanokho to have a proper look at him.

Wellens said the deal was yet to be finalised on Saturday but that he was going to sign, but that could be a chance he will play 90 mins, we will see.

Its about time that in these fixtures you can choose whatever team you like, that you don't have to play a certain amount of players who started the previous game.

It is to all intents and purposes a reserve/youth fixture.

I know its probably the FL trying to stop clubs devalue it but not that many teams actually start out looking to win it so if clubs don't want to win then let them play whoever they want.

they already devalued it themselves quite handsomely when they turned to the u21 teams...

They don't need any help from the clubs to do that. They are doing a damn good job of it themselves.

Exactly.

If you fluked some early wins, then the final stages of the Johnsons could hold some interest.  

Playing kids in nationally recognisable kit as seen on tv to the echo-ey but shrill background of Premiership-worshipping kiddie chants, in return for fuck all - not so much

[No disrespect to the kids themselves]

Its only ifollow for £10.

It costs £8 to attend.

Dropped a bollock there

They did, I bought it for £5.76 so I win :)

 :D They’re factoring in petrol and catering. Clever ploy.

I paid €130 for every single game - league, Caribou and Winky Wanky Cup.

That’s a minimum of 50 games. Bargain - €2.60 per game!

A paper bag over the head plus a bit of stealth to avoid Reg's flying picket line should be enough to get into the ground.
 :-[

I won't do that yet until a). I can make sure I can watch them all (or even 99%) and b). when I can afford to!

Very few fans have to watch the entire season, my sympathies for you, welcome to the club.

Better than the near £100 it used to cost for actually attending a home game.

2 x £23 tickets and pre- and post-match beverages. And after watching some of the garbage at home it was wearing thin.

I didn't think the League Cup was shown though?

I looked at upcoming matches on the website and it had ‘visit Match Centre’ next to the Colchester cup game.

Wasn't last season.

Just had another look. Says Live on iFollow.

To be honest, based on our recent history, not going to miss many games even if it wasn't showing the cup live!!

I am not here for it so I don't mind if its not on!

Again, the pitch looks amazing.

Diagouraga starts!

McCormick, Reid, Ballard, Broadbent, Hunt, Iandolo, May, Doughty, Diagouraga, Anderson, Isgrove.

Henry, Curran, McGlashan, Woolery, Yates, Graham, Twine.

Stronger starting line up than I expected.

Still awaiting clearance on Sidy and DJ not in the matchday squad, which is disappointing as I would have liked to see him getting 90 mins under his belt.

Chelsea -

Cumming
Guehi
Mola
Maatsen
Lamptey
Gilmour
McEachran
Castillo
Uwake
Anjorin
C.Brown

Subs-
Ziger
Lavinier
Wakely
Broja
Lawrence
Lewis

Only heard of Charlie Brown, McEachran, Castillo and Gilmour out of all of those.

9 of that squad were in last seasons squad vs us.

DJ?

Diallang Jaiyesimi

I am guessing we will line up as

           McCormick
Reid   Ballard    Broadbent   Hunt
           Diagouraga
Isgrove   May    Doughty  Iandolo
            Anderson


No recognised striker I am guessing Anderson will play very deep, like a false 9.

Completely forgot about him

Fucking cunting iFollow. Paid for the game and all I get is a message to upgrade my account. Wtf

1st 9 mins, Chelsea passing it well, they just missed a sitter fro 6 yards out after Ballard missed the cross totally.

Ballard distribution and positioning is really poor so far, Iandolo is useless and Toums looks one of the fittest players on the pitch! he has made 3 or 4 really good interceptions so far too and not put a foot wrong.

Mays long passing is poor but his short passing good, Anderson has won nothing so far up front on his own.

0-1 poor defending by Broadbent, saved by LMc and the rebound firedpast 2 players on the line from 15 yards.

oh well

Isgrove made 1 good run so far, Iandolo has done nothing, Anderson looks lost up front and Doughty not really looking interested yet.

We have absolutely zero attacking threat.

soapy tit wank, 2-0 apparently

0-2 poor defending by Reid, we cant cut out the cross with Ballard and Broadbent both yards away from the scorer.

Both scored by the beanpole striker Anjorin.

Can't explain how much I hate this competition.

1-2 long free kick from Doughty good header by Ballard, pushed up into the corner from 15 yards out.

What is the point of this? No good for us or Chelsea’s kids.

Defence all over the place at times, Reid, Ballard and Broadbent can't seem to play together so far.

Ballard seems to have forgotten what colour we are playing in.

Good

I hope they treat the game with the contempt it deserves and avoid risking injuries. I'd hazard a guess that Wellens told them not to push themselves too hard after his comments on the game.

Isgrove nice low 25 yarder saved by their keeper comfortably in the end.

Doughty just flattened a Chelsea player who had to go off injured.

The only real benefit of the game is to get 1st team experience for the fringe players, a chance to show what they can or can't do when uder some pressure.

More negatives than positives so far for most of them.

Hunt looks to have taken a knock while fouling a Chelsea player. Hes up but limping.

Long free kick from Doughty, Ballard wins another header who heads accross to Toums but his header is inches over from 6 yards.

Dave should have scored from a header just under the bar.  Ballard looks better in the opposition area than he does in ours..

Lovely long pass from May down the line finds Isgrove who dribbles into the box and the keeper saves it with his feet.

Indeed.

Hunt lovely cross but Broadbent misses a bit of a sitter in the 6 yard box as hes inches away from connecting while sliding in.

Town making some excellent attacking moves to finish the half.

I actually think it's a good watch this game.  They are tearing us to shreds at times.  It is utterly no use for the league campaign though, we wont play another team like this all season.  They are so precise going forward, not a hint of a league two Akinfenwa type.

We've looked pretty sprightly going forward as well, not quite as good as them, but creating a fair bit.

Ballard can't quite head the corner on target, hes won almost every corner thats come into the opposition box.

Ballard could have scored again

I agree, its actually quite entertaining, any Chelsea player would walk into any side in our division.

Maybe he is the target man we have been looking for.... ;)

1-2 HT

Their 55, who I think missed an absolute sitter before getting the goals, he's a handful.  We should lock him in after the game.

Isgrove a classy player. Dave has played well.

The rest, meh - but not the sort of players they would face regularly in L2 for sure. Again very little threat up front.

I think it was obvious in the first 15 minutes that we don;t play against this type of attack very often!  They were running rings around us.  We've not really tightened it up too much, but we've managed to settle into the cut and thrust of the game a little and started to impose ourselves more, getting quite a few good chances.  If this has any positives by the end of the game, it may give us some practice in attacking and will certainly ut some miles on the legs to build the fitness and stamina.

17 year old, even though he looks the same size as Loftus Cheek.  I don't think we should put our goalscoring hopes for the season in a 17 year old.

How many more chances does Iandolo need? hes not good enough IMO.

Ballard defensively at times has looked suspect, Broadbent is a shadow of the player that we first signed.

Reid is better going forwards than defending, Hunt looks solid at LB as well as RB.

May given a few balls away but has also put some great passes in to our strikers.

Doughty is Doughty, looks a bit disinterested then pulls out a classy pass every now and again.

Toums looks pretty good TBF for a player with so few games under his belt, won loads of tackles and made a few nice passes, only slipped up once defensively.

Iandolo is poor.

Isgrove started poor but has come on well in the game and our best attacking option.

Anderson looks lost and has been caught offside 4 times, he is not a striker but we know that now.

Isgrove does indeed look a real threat.  Anderson is clearly not much kop at leading the line., but I think he'd have a good game if he was dropped deep or out wide against this team.  I think it would be tough on any of the defenders to place much emphasis on their performance in this game.

I agree, replace Iandolo with Woolery, push Woolery up front and play Anderson wide.

I do like the way that Ballard is as much of a threat to them in their box from corners/set peices almost as Shaun Taylor used to be, hes winning every ball thrown into him, shame the same can't be said at our end of the pitch.

Very impressive for his age then.  if that 45 minutes is a true reflection of where his game is at, him and Yates together would be worth a shot.  A certain Michael Owen wasn't bad at 17 (he's not that type of player, obviously).  The lad alongside him seems intelligent as well, Brown?  If that is him, he scored two against us last season didn't he?

Not that we'd have a hope on getting any of this Chelsea team I doubt.

Absolutely, they deserve to be playing higher up the ladder, both Anjorin and Brown are a massive handful against us, Anjorin playing the number 10 role despite his height and ability to win the ball.

They have such a high degree of confidence in their skill set - the last time I saw a team of youngsters with anyone near as impressive was Everton in a Youth Cup game when they had Jeffers upfront.  I told an Everton supporting mate that I would not be surprised to see him go on to play for England one day.  He maybe didn't hit the heights in the end, but just to give some context to what we are up against.

Passing accuracy 79% to Chelseas 85%
Attacking passing accuracy 68% to Chelseas 76% in the attacking 3rd
Chelsea have won 100% of defensive tackles, we have won 90%
Swindon 7 shots, Chelseas 6 shots both teams 3 on target.

Iandolo off Yates on.

2-2 May from 20 yards

Ballard wins another header from a long free kick who heads out to May on the edge of the box, low into the corner.

Good strike..

Anderson sat behind Yates and is immediately looking far more comfortable.

Excellent save at the near post by LMc.

It's relentlessly end to end

Anderson falling backwards misses a header from a couple yards, difficult ball to take.

I know it's the silly cup, so really just a friendly, but it is a damned good watch.  This would do my heart in if it was a competitive fixture though.

2-3 Brown great finish.

I am really enjoying it, real end to end stuff.

Doughty down injured.

Doughty struggling?

Back on and running it off.

Good save by LMc.

is doughty ok?

Anderson 25 yard curler in the top corner flicked over by the keeper. Good save.

Yep running better now.

McGlashan on for Anderson.

Woolery on for Isgrove.

Shop window time for McGlashan.

Yep running better now.[/quote]

phew

Toums winning lots of interceptions and tackles and his passing looking pretty good too. I would keep him if he plays like this.

too expensive Venks, it's that simple I reckon

You are probably right mate, if he played like this he would be playing every game though. Silly to pay him and not play him.

When Chelsea get the ball, their movement is so good.  It's making our defenders look very ordinary as a result.  Tough game for them..

Toums seems pretty fit, could be stuck with far worse players if it comes to it.

Isgrove is not doing Iandolo any favours, just shows what you can get in terms of quality vs. some of our youth "talent" I'm afraid.

indeed, unless he's on appearances bonus.

Signing Sanokho would suggest there’s no way back for him. But if he does go elsewhere we still have to cough up the difference between what he’s earning now and what he’ll go onto.

This could well be the last time we see Iandolo and McGlashan in a Town shirt. Toums...if he has impressed Wellens then who knows.

Fuck knows whats wrong with Broadbent, hes gone from our best defender to one of our poorest in a few months, something isn't right with him, his concentration seems way off.

I think it's more t do with their movement tonight, all of their attacks are running at us, pulling defenders away, playing behind etc.  There is very little up to a front man.

Nice move by Town, McG turns inside the defender in the box but his shot is awful.

How long has this commentator been watching Swindon?

On Saturday he mistook Woolery for Anderson 3 times, today he got Broadbent and Ballard mixed up twice and Doughty mixed up with May twice. Poor stuff.

That was Ballard winning a header not Broadbent...again!

Town pressure right at the end.

Ballard pushed up as a target man wins the first long ball played up to him.

(c) Kingy

He keeps on getting Yates and Hunt mixed up too

For a meaninless game I have enjoyed it. A few good performances and a few poor.

Chelsea played some good football as did we at times.

It's been very watchable.  Yates in the second half has shown he is a very willing runner upfront.  The defenders will be having nightmares after that game, someone just needs to show them pictures of the L2 strike forces and calm them down.  Would have been good for fitness that game, especially for those who didn't play the first game.

ft.

yay, injury free

got to remember the likes of Broadbent haven't had much pre season game time

I think that goes down as a very productive friendly match in many ways.  Good workout - now just chain some of the Chelsea players to the dressing room.

Forget the competion, forget the result, you nailed it with ‘goes down as a very productive friendly match in many ways’ Wellens would have I am sure got more from that than the result suggests, even if we had won. Look at it as a behind closed doors exercise, only someone left the doors open.

No injuries, so great result in my book..

I've obviously missed something but watching the goals I see we have moved the away dugout down the touch line, any reason for this or just keeping the away manager away from the 4th official?

Lad from Norwich injured in training and wearing a protective boot. Hopefully nothing too serious.

Good game.

TD can still do a good job if he remains & is called upon.

Do the Chelsea shirt numbers reflect expected weekly salary for the next contracts?

Chang mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, when I first heard about it..... I invited him to explain, but thus far he hasn't. I was interested as to whether his ezplanation was the same as what I heard.

I had heard it was to stop the visiting team being able to constantly go at the 4th official.

RW said it was to minimise distractions for himself and his staff.

Yep, he said that on Saturday.  He requested it be moved further down the line.

Good goals scored(ditto the weekend) dreadful defending for the goals conceded.

So TD (salary apart) viable, Iandolo and McGlashan not?

Not sure why Henry didn't play?  The game seemed an ideal opportunity to give him 1st team match practice.

Wellens is after that fourth goalkeeper and if that happens there's no point playing Henry as he'll be number 3.

I read it more as a "cheap" way of putting one of the four first teamers  out to minimise risk of injury/tiredness.

Though, to be fair I haven't checked on whether we only had the minimum four required out at the start of the game.

That Chelsea team would probably make most teams at L2 level look immobile, but TD looked decent. Didn't think he had it in him, but would still expect him to find another club this month.

Yeah, was expecting Henry to play.
Either not trusted by RW or being lined up for another loan if the trial keeper is signed.

Looks like same again next Tuesday for the selection. A shame as would like to see us progress in that competition for a change.
But, understandable given 8 games to get through in August and league should be the priority.

Genuinely struggle to see what people see in TD last night. He was poor imo

Think we can assume that the Broadbent thing needs to be sorted out.

RW made his feelings on the game pretty clear:

“I’ve learnt nothing from that really,”
“My concern is Carlisle at the weekend"
“If I could have played the youth team tonight then I probably would have,”

Broadbent has not had much game time since the end of last season, so I'm sure once he regains his fitness he will be back to how he was playing

I don't think Wellens rates him and that is why he has had no game time. Wellens has literally said in todays article he is 6th choice. I would not be shocked to see him go on loan somewhere

I think you're right. It's just a shame that Wellens gave him a 2.5 year deal 6 months ago.

Its all a bit odd how he came in, did a pretty sound job, disappeared from the team towards the end of last season and is seemingly now an outcast.

Not saying its wrong/putting out a conspiracy theory/etc. In Wellens we (mostly) trust

I can recall when Curran signed that Wellens stated that this deal was already in place before I came in. Wonder if the same applied to Broadbent, even if it involved Wellens having the final say and thinking at the time that there was enough quality in Broadbent to make him a worthwhile signing.

Broadbent said that Wellens had persuaded him to sign by telling him that he would play him, so seems unlikely that he's not a Wellens signing. I'd suggest this may have more to do with the 'personal issues' that led to him being dropped at the end of last season, and perhaps his head is in the wrong place.

Conversely it could be argued that sticking out a Saturday starting XI and trying to win the game, could have been useful in terms of the need to improve the home form. Saturday is a biggy.... Wellens has a 100% losing record v Cumbrians and that needs to change asap.

How difficult in terms of actually winning is shown by the fact that in my  57 seasons, in only 7 have we won the first 2. 63/64... 90/91... 92/93.... 95/96.... 97/98... 02/03 .... 06/07  of those 3 were promotion seasons, 3 turned to poor but not relegated and 63/64, fell away to lower mid table.

I’m sorry, Reg, but what happened, or didn’t happen, in years gone by has no impact on the future.

You were predicting similar impending doom before the Scunthorpe game based on previous disasters.

Similarly, if we do win against Carlisle it doesn’t presage a promotion. Every game is its own little bubble.

Outcomes are the result of circumstances.... in this case football matches played between usually the same number of players on a pitch usually roughly the same dimensions, at the same level. These will be the base circumstances but there are of course then variations, different players, different gaffers weather etc.  As a result historical outcomes tell you something, in this case how difficult it is to win the first 2 games. That's all.

Further if you look at the gaffers who achieved 2 opening wins, you find Bert Head, achieved promotion, Ossie Ardiles achieved promotion (sort of), Hoddle achieved promotion,  McMahon x2, achieved promotion, King had one good season, and Wise/Poyet, whose good initial run set things up for promotion.  They didn't necessarily achieve 2 wins in a promo season, but it is suggestive of competence at least, and interesting that some of our less successful gaffers never achieved it.

Indeed beating Carlisle wouldn't mean promotion.... but it would be a small indicator of possibly better times ahead, nothing more at this point.

Surely the only variable is who those 2 teams happen to be. It’s no more difficult, or easy, to win any combination of 2 games throughout a season than it is the opening 2 games.

Just as losing to them will not be the end of the season nor a harbinger of doom.

On a completely different tack. iFollow say 70% of the money spent on watching your team via them goes directly to the club.

Always wondered.

Bloody hell Reg, are you feeling ok ?.

The first games have a novelty value... new players, bigger crowds, sense of occasion etc. 

At towards the end of last season I pointed out, how difficult getting points at the end were, so for example Lou's record breakers were the last STFC side to win the last 2 games.

Statistically speaking, I'd wager a bet very few teams over the course of their history have much better than a 50% win ratio, therefore, it is actually against the odds for ANY team to win two games on the bounce, regardless of when in the season it occurs (a couple of Prem teams are defying those odds in recent seasons).

It's a fair point... interestingly I've some all time stats on this, from the early days of the internet when such things becoming easily available was exciting and don't suppose it's too much different now, so there were 19 teams on over 50%, several only just and perhaps below it now. We were on 48.7% and ranked 49 on the all time list, roughly 5th in Div 3.

This was nearly 20 years ago so we've fallen a bit since.  I'm looking at first 2 games because that's where we are, and still think that if we beat Carlisle, it would the sort of start which could indicate a promising season, no more than that.

I am liking what I see from Rob Hunt so far - how rare is it to see someone who can play with both feet.  He seemed fairly comfortable at left back and seemed pretty solid at right back at the weekend.

Tbh, as far as L2 squads go ours has to be right up there - if Hylton is, indeed, a goer.

Whether Wellens can pull them all together for a consistent season remains to be seen - but that’s his job.

Nailed on draw then

Apologies Reg, I must have missed your previous response.

If the explanation you were given involves a certain STFC owner and a wish to improve the view from his seat, then yes!

It isn't, but I like the way all the explanations are slightly different.... I heard it was to avoid our staff wanting to lamp the opposition lot.

Avoiding arguments makes sense to me.

Are our current coaching staff especially more volatile than the previous incumbents down the decades such that we now need to have a DMZ between them and the opposition dugouts? Or have the opposition become significantly more provocative?

PdC was pretty volatile.... I used to take my Bulgarian lady's grandson (10) when he was over and he preferred watching PdC smashing up the dugout and ranting at the 4th official to the football.

Indeed, and yet even he didn't need the dugouts moving. Presumably back then it was the opposition who wanted the dugouts moved, away from him!

Even with the away dugout being moved, Steve Evans would still get in the way.