Thetownend.com

Can't see beyond a 1-1 draw here.

Att: 5,654 (35 away)

Is this available on Ifollow in the UK?

Trying to swap shifts at work, I'm meant to be on until midnight, but I'm a prick and didn't realise my boys half term starts Wednesday, the chance to introduce them to floodlit football is one I don't want to miss!

Yes. Cheaper through VPN though and ArkVPN still works for me.

Thanks - I'm not sure exactly how it works but doesn't some of the the £10 Ifollow fee go to the club? Does VPN mean you basically don't have to pay this fee and get it for nothing?

Basically, a VPN connects your device to an overseas server - thereby fooling iFollow to allow you the stream. Still have to pay though.

Ah so you pay the £5 fee as its thinking you are abroad?

Audrey is abroad  :)

Yep. €6 if an EU server. When in the UK I was VPN’d in Seattle so paid in dollars.

Enjoying 27C as well!

Doughty's back in tomorrow.

Why is this one available to stream in the UK then?

5-0 win tomorrow with a crowd of 6254.

Ah! Midweek games usually are so far this season. Forgot that.

Not sure of the rules exactly but midweek games, and during the International Window games are available to purchase.

3-1

I've correctly predicted the correct score of the last 2 games.

Hoping to get the hat-trick here. 2-0

0 - 0 is the most likely outcome in my view.

Interested in how you come to that conclusion given we haven't had a goalless draw this season?

Stevenage on the other hand have had 3 0-0 scorelines.

I have a vague recollection that Stevenage have not scored many against teams in the top 7 and I suspect that they will set up shop for a point.

All they have to do is look at the Northampton and Colchester home games.

Zakuani being rested and Broadbent set to start

Northampton was a miscarriage of justice, in football terms. Colchester, correct but are St. Evanage as good as Colchester and could they execute a game plan as well as them or for as long? I'm not so sure  :hmmm:

Let's hope it's the Broadbent of yesteryear.

I reckon Wellens' might have seen something in training to start him.

Yeah a unicorn probably.

I didn't realise RW had started taking synthetics....I had him down as a mushroom man ;)

Stevenage have picked up 6 points from their last 5 games, whereas we have only picked up 5. The form guide would suggest this will be a struggle.

If you ignore the fact that in that spell we've played three of the top three and nobody in the bottom half of the table, it looks worrying.

Their defensive record isn't terrible but they've only scored 11 in 14. Take one chance in the first half to make sure they can't park the bus and we should win this one.

That's not true is it r4e. We've only got 4 from last 6 I think :)

v Colchester (h) L 3-0
v Cambridge (a) W 1-0
v Newport (h) L 2-0
v Bradford (a) L 2-1
v Plymouth (h) D 1-1
v Crewe (a) L 3-1

P6 Pts4 F4 A 11

But when we play teams bottom of the form league like we are, I always assume we'll lose to them. So tonight the worm will turn

My apologies sir, you're quite right.

However your point is correct, on form they're better than us.  Throw in a Tuesday night game and the obvious lack of fitness of many of our players and as you say it could be a struggle.

The players need to put it in for Wellens tonight, as another lacklustre showing could spell trouble for him.

Current form has led me down the £10 Ifollow route as opposed to the £30 train fare and 1am return home. A money well spent 2-0 victory beckons against my nearest league team.

Annoyingly I think we will lose this one tonight, we haven't quite hit rock bottom yet and I believe losing tonight will get us there or thereabouts.

Good thing about rock bottom is the only way is up.

The one thing I can't get is that a lot of our players are quality individually, and initially they were a class act and showed the fans what decent football at the county ground can look like. We were feeling of "when we score" not "If we score".
What's happened to the players? yes a few injuries but the ones that are left should be more than capable of playing for 90 mins and getting a result.

Against a lot of other people's opinions I don't think it's Wellens that's at fault, he has shown how he wants his teams to play, but the players for some reason or another are really letting him down. I also don't think another new manager will save us or do any better. You can't keep changing the manager expecting it to magically be solved.

t'was just a tongue in cheek observation that we are worse than you thought! I had to print them out as I started doubting myself.

It will be a struggle. The only positive is that a lot of the last 6 were against higher placed teams. Ignore Colchester on a Tuesday night under the lights...oh.

Just win you cunts.

That is all.

Other than a couple of WTF substitutions I'm not sure I would have done anything differently.

In stats terms, Wellens win % isn't much better than Brown's, and certainly less that Flitcrofts 50%.

Maybe that's why the finger pointing has started in some circles

The difference to me is it feels like we are trying to build in the right way, play the right way and do the right things off the pitch too with fan engagement. It feels like we are gearing up to get some momentum. Just not sure when it will pay off with promotion..

We've had this style of play debate for several seasons now.  For me decent football is if you win, or perhaps get a useful point. How you do it is somewhat secondary.

Got to admit, my finger is starting to point towards Wellens. How does an entire team go to shit all at once. The injuries covered it up t begin with but this squad is full of quality players who are almost all underperforming.

I can’t forget what an Oldham fan said ‘He’ll get you playing like world beaters for a short while, then, for no apparent reason, it’ll all go downhill rapidly’.

Christ, we shouldn’t be playing like this.

I can't see that our style of play has changed. When something has stopped working, surely you should change your approach instead of hitting repeat each game?
Earlier this season we had good possession but went forward well, now it seems to be sideways and back.

Crewe had 21 shots to our 3, they made 453 accurate passes and ours was half that. Something is badly wrong at the moment, I'm actually going to change my score prediction for tonight to a 1-0 defeat.

No wonder you liked Flitcroft so much. uggh!

I'm going so it will be a comfortable defeat. Apologies

Like doesn't enter into it... it's about can I see what the gaffer is trying to do here? Is it working?  If not what can he do to change it?   Flitcroft just about managed to keep us there or thereabouts, when it got a bit shit he generally managed to change something to get an important result, occasionally we'd play really well, often not, so a different appraoch needed. 

That's div 4 life, you'll not sparkle every week whatever the intention so need a back up.

ATM Wellens is struggling with the back up.... so this becomes a test of his mettle.

Well, tonight I presume it’s Doughty for Lyden (suspended), maybe DJ or Woolery for Anderson, Isgrove needs replacing atm but God knows who with.

Is Sidy ever going to get fit? Is he still here?

Unusually its already been announced (BBC Wilts, not sure officially) that Doughty will be in for Lyden and Zakuani will be rested.

Can't remember the last time news of that nature was released a day early.

Left that Facebook group so feeling a bit more positive tonight than usual.

As games go to get out of a slump, no better than bottom of the league. I hope a solid home win and performance to lift the players' confidence.

3-0 win with under 6000 in attendance.

They need some support, which they are unlikely to get on mass.

A narrow win hopefully

Morshead with the Ranger shirt tweet? ;)

3 points please, restoring confidence and a return to form. Also Broadbent to shake off whatever he is struggling with and get back to his brilliant best.

Hodgetts definitely found a horses head in his bed this morning.

What he gets up to in his own time is no concern of yours, Mr Judgy!

Will take a scrappy 1-0 win but think the game may end up 1-1.

Hoping Doughty is selected (as Wellens indicated) as I think he can add something different to the team.

3-1 win for Town, they'll score first though to bring panic amongst us all.

I've given up going to evening matches, though I have a ST.

If you look at current form, Stevenage have now only lost once in 6 games in all competitions, although only 1 win in the league, it will be far from easy tonight.

They have ex Town players Cuthbert, El-Abd, Timlin and Parrett playing for them.

They don't favour possession in games, and have a very experienced side with several players over 30 who have been there and done it, even though it hasn't quite clicked yet for caretaker manager Mark Sampson the former England womens team manager even though results have improved under him.

Sampson has been caretaker since 9th September when Dino Maamria was sacked after a winless start to the season.

They don't seem to score many but don't concede many either, no defeat for them has been by more than a 2 goal margin.

I can see this being a poor game with several changes to the starting line up with Doughty, Broadbent, DJ and Rose all vying for a starting slot. With Anderson injured, Zakuani rested and Lyden suspended.

Could be difficult to call the starting line up today but I would guess at....

                      Benda
Hunt        Baudry   Broadbent      Donohue
              Grant         Rose           
Isgrove            Doughty              DJ
                      Doyle
         
Swindon 0-0 Stevenage in front of 5,895 with just 32 Stevos there.

I know I should,  but really can't be arsed tonight,  after the recent performances I've witnessed I really can't be bothered,   however will still listen on the radio and cheer loudly when we triumph 2-0.

Hopefully a shit drive from Norwich to get back in time for the big game tonight will have been worth it.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHgBcn-XYAU-oDS?format=jpg&name=medium)

Fryers, Doughty and Woolery come in.

No Rose in the squad.

Who would get subbed if Sidy was to come on?

Slap in the face for Broadbent,too.

On paper that's a pretty decent team so we should batter this lot.
I'm going to go for it and predict a 5-0 hammering,Doyle hat trick.
We're due to dish one out on some poor,hapless team. Stevenage would fit the bill perfectly

Sidy is a central attacking midfielder so probably Doughty.

If everyone turns up and plays like we know they can, then we should batter them.  The last month or so makes that seem potentially unlikely.  If we get August Isgrove, and with Doughty back in starting xi, we are in with a shout, but who knows.

Gonna be optimistic and say 2-0 Town, Yeats due a goal so Anytime scorer for me.

Just remembered Stevenage are wearing that abomination Burger King shirt tonight  :suicide:

FFS Hockaday is on commentary tonight,

:crash:

Dave "Mr Negative" Hockaday....oh lovely.

Town have started quite poorly, playing lots of long aimless passes from defence.

Yates first couple of touches have let him down, giving the ball away cheaply.

Isgrove makes a good run the gives the ball straight to the Stevenage player right in front of him.

Corner to them.

Doyle wins Swindon a corner.

Poor quick corner by Doughty.

Doughty plays a quick cross thats headed out for another corner.

Not a bad corner to the near post but they get it clear.

Woolery inches away from beating his man down the wing but gives away a throw.

Grant gives away a free kick 40 yards out, not a great challenge, yellow for Grant.

Wheres Wellens?

That could have been a red with a different ref.

Benda comes out to claim it, drops it but picks up on the bounce.

This ref is going to completely ruin this game, can see it becoming all about him. Everything he does is over exaggerated and basically on complete power trip.

Town have had the better of the last 10 mins after Stevenage started brighter.

Doughty plays a 60 yard pass but it goes striaght to the keeper.

Baudry brings the ball out of defence, and beats 2 men then passes straight at their player...they break and have a shot from 25 yards well over and wide.

Yates caught offside, looked very close.

Fair point can't see him in the dugout.

Sacked.

Poor clearance from Benda well over Woolerys head out for a throw.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Stevenage are compact, we can't seem to find a way through yet and are happy to play about with it in defence...

and as I type we nearly break

Terrible pass from Hunt to Grant puts us under pressure.

More of the same old insipid, clueless, half arsed shite.

Really poor pass from Doughty to Woolery in a good position.

Isgrove loses the ball in the right back position, hes not with the game so far again. Hes like a shadow of early season Isgrove.

Fryers gives the ball away just outside our box but Grants tackle saves us.

Great cross from Isgrove to Doyle but his header is easily saved.

Baudry leaves a through ball and misjudges it but Benda makes a good block to save us.

Doughty passes far too high for Woolery again witha  30 yard pass.

This is crap

Doyle wins the ball in their half but his pass was poor to Yates in a good position.

So far each of our defenders have given the ball away cheaply, Doughtys passing has been pretty poor in the main.

Not a great game but Town have has near 70% possession so far.

Donohue great cross to the near post and its an awful miss by Yates from 5 yards.

Should have been in

If that was Doyle it would have been 1-0.

Not sure why Woolery has started ahead of DJ today. He has offered very little so far.

Isgrove twists and beats his man but the cross is too close to the keeper.

Decent long pass by Doughty to Woolery down the left but his cross is poor.

Doyle beats his man but the cross is behind Yates, nice move.

Isgrove has picked his game up in the last 10 mins.

Stevenage have their first cross for a long time but its way too deep.

Stevenage win a corner off Woolery.

Deep corner straight onto Cuthberts head but he heads it just wide unmarked from 6 yards.

Still too many wayward passes from our defenders today.

Doyle makes a good run and cuts inside but his cross cant find Yates.

Even I can't sugar coat this, this is absolutely dreadful. We are devoid of ideas.

Cagey game so far. Two teams lacking confidence. To be expected really. First goal crucial here.

Lovely cross after cutting inside by Isgrove but it just misses Doyles head.

it's improved a bit as the half went on. very difficult to break them down

Nice cut out from Benda after a break by them.

Boring and rubbish.

negative twat :)

We have the ability to break so well, so why are they passing it sideways between them just after recovering the ball?

Solid if unspectacular half after a pretty poor first 15. They're really deep, and we're not moving the ball quick enough but have created 2-3 good chances and are completely dominant.

Grant and Fryers very good. Doughty....weird. Very slow. Benda very tidy in everything he's been asked to do.

Keep getting good balls into the box and we'll win this.

Not a great game 0-0 HT.

Grant controlling midfield and Doyle running around and chasing down stuff, Yates really poor as is Woolery, I would take one of them off and bring on DJ.

Doughty has been 50% good 50% awful with his passing, Isgrove started badly but has grown into the game in the last 20 mins and putting crosses in but its hard to break down the 3 large centre backs.

All our defenders have given the ball away cheaply at the back but Benda has kept us in the game even though we have had 70% possession.

So far 70% possession, 303 passes to their 101. Each side has had 2 shots (both of ours in the box). This is a continuing issue. Same old.

Difficult to see who is bottom of the league. Even if we eke out a win here, the performance slump continues.

Piss poor.

they are the form team. comparatively. never easy when a team makes themselves hard to beat.

Not there tonight - first home game missed this season.  Am beginning to worry "this" (above) may be true - but I sincerely hope not.  We looked like world beaters in Aug/early Sept, am at a loss as to what has changed so much.

Yes very difficult to break down a team with 5 defenders and 2 defensive midfielders who only want to hit you on the break.

Something we need to overcome as it often happens, teams know our weakenesses.

I almost forgot -- some half time ska.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i71NC9-s__A

Wellens up in the directors box watching and talking to Hunt during the game apparently.

You havent posted one for ages...since our last home win ;)

So - our dip in form is Flashearts fault.  Now the Ska is back - put the mortgage on a Town win!!!! :clap:

Very similar to Danny Wilson's career...with us & other clubs.

Donohue takes an elbow to the face.

People are being a bit premature with the doom. OK, we have lacked a bit of urgency and the final ball’s let us down, but we’re nowhere near as bad as some of the talk here. Hold your nerve. We can certainly win this.

Woolery breaks into the box and falls over his own feet.

Good cross from Isgrove but Woolery cant connect at the far post.

I agree, we have been way better than we have been in the last 3 or 4 games. Keep the pressure on and get crosses in and we can win, easily.

we went to sleep there

A better pass and it would have been a goal to them.

60 yard run from Isgrove straight through them all and he fell in the area at the end, great move but he should have passed TBH.

Doughty long pass down the left to Woolery who beats his man and gets a cross over for Yates who fires it a few yards wide.

An improved second half so far

Nice move by Town ends with a cross from Donohue onto Grants head but its over the bar.

Definately better, nice moves and runs I still want to see DJ get a decent amount of minutes. I would bring him on for Yates who has been pretty poor despite having our 2 best efforts.

You can tell hes an ex Lincoln keeper...the length of his kicks have been enormous.

Handball in the box but the ref doesnt give it.

We should have had a penalty.

Stonewall pen

Fryers yellow for a poor challenge on the wing.

Some nice attacking movement by Town.

Ex Town player Parrett comes on.

DJ on for Woolery.

Didn't do much at Crewe. Got a bit more time today

So they've gone 1 upfront and we've gone 3.

TBF nobody other than Grant came out of that game with any credit.

Good low save by benda from a Parrett shot.

Town having all of the ball and Stevenage sitting right back and defending in numbers, has a similar feel to the Northampton game. We all know how that ended.

Is that Michael Timlin come on?

Parrett should have done better after a mistake in Town defence, poor effort.

DAFUQ happened there?

It is.

Hunt goes down too easily in the box, not a penalty.

Why the fuck did Doughty no shoot from 20 yards when he had the chance.

DJ has a shot from 25 yards straight at the keeper.

Fryers with an awful 40 yard pass accross pitch goes out for a throw.

Doughty gives the ball away 25 yards out, Parrett should have done better.

Isgrove passes down the line to Hunt in acres of space but its a poor cross.

DJ easily pushed off the ball while breaking.

DJ hacked down running past the defender, yellow for his fouler.

DJ poor delivery into the box.

Good early cross from Hunt but its a bit far from Doyle.

Despite what Stefpol says Stevenage are going down very easily looking for free kicks and buying time.

Timewasting wanker.

Doughty named sponsors MoM? really?

Swindon still with 70% possession.

Professional play. If only Swindon did the same against Brighton all those years ago in the playoffs.

Stevenage willing to soak it up and are doing exactly that so far.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

And 3 times the amount of passes, but are behind on shots. Are we attacking the DRS or the Arkells this half?

Its the hope that kills you   :(

That looked over from DJ.

Very close to over the line.

Too fucking often we are not helping eachother.

Attacking the Town End.

1.0 get in

Fryers with a timely interception in our box, DJ felled again.

1-0 Doyle.

Ultimately the emphasis is on Swindon to attack and to try and win the game as they are at home. Stevenage would have taken a point before the game started. If they showed a little more ambition then they could have taken advantage of Swindon’s recent poor form. Laugh all you want but you know it’s true.

1-0 Town

Great break down the right the ball crossed to Doyle who buries it in the corner from 16 yards out.

 8) never in doubt.

How much extra TAO?

Oh yeah!

Of course I would want Swindon to do the same in the same position....but it stillmakes them timewasters, my point still stands whether you think we would do the same or not!

Fooft.

7 mins.

Please don't do our usual and concede a soft equalizer within 2 min.....

Sign him quickly

Free header well over by them.

A win is a win. Hopefully it lifts the morale of the team and we go onto a winning run. Big result as well as a few teams above us have slipped up.

Isgrove off for Zakuani.

Wow

Stevenage keeper yellow.

Yeah Stevenage have been timewasting a lot...even if we would have done the same thing!

Doughty fouled 30 yards out.

Nooooo surely not.

3 mins left.

FK to the corner flag, Town win a throw.

Zak with a great interception.

1 min to go.

Fryers pushes the Stevenage player 30 yards out, FK to them last minute.

I don't care what people say. we won. that's all that matters

Parrett FK well over the bar, phew.

1-0 great result under the circumstances, 70% possession and way more shots and passes than them, but it won't be enough for a few posters.

Our first Tuesday night win. I can return  :)

Job done. Performance wasn’t great but that was to be expected based on our reason form. 3 points in the bag and hopefully pointing towards a change in form and results going forward.

Maybe a small sign of improvement. DJ looks handy. Isgrove bit better.

Can we build on it?

In a way 1-0 last minute the best result we could have got. A confidence builder and shuts people up who say our fitness/training isn’t up to scratch. Build on that with a win at Crawley and things are looking up.

A poor first half but a much improved 2nd half and a deserved win overall.

I'm useless at spotting tactics, but I do notice at times that we just don't seem to help each other enough. When we came out in the 2nd half we were supporting each other more, coming to help players under pressure and making more runs etc. We stopped doing that again after 1/2 hour or so in the 2nd and things got harder for us.

Regardless. A win's a win and hopefully this will restore some confidence.  

Oh, and we won at home. On a Tuesday night

I've clearly been slacking in my duties.

A win is a win, we deserved it just with the way Stevenage played, they were anti football, really hope they go down. That twat that kept gong down with 'cramp' every couple of minutes was an embarrassment and the ref just lapped it up.

Unfortunately didn't put the mortgage on it....

Genuinely thought that was never going to come. We need to be much better at breaking teams down. We seemed to look at our best down the wings - no idea why we didn’t try and utilise that more.

Glad to finally break that bad run. Need to kick on now.

‪Wellens taking our fans to task, and absolutely bang on too. So many negative fools. Every single fan should listen to that interview and take it on board.

"Six points off top and it's doom and gloom, grief from the side lines,  it's got to change".‬

Wellens:

- Good win. We should have carried on putting more crosses in
- Crowd a bit tentative, sensed the edginess in the stadium
- We kept stretching them, thought Isgrove was brilliant, Doyle and Yates outstanding, Doughty back to old Doughty, Donohue a bit off the pace but I understand why, the two centre-halves were outstanding
- Spell between 75 to 85 we lost some belief, they got a chance or two but they've only had one shot on target
- We need more from the supporters, we're six points off the top so it's all doom and gloom, this is rubbish. Come on give us some support, drive us on.
- We weren't at our best, but we were decent and it's all doom and gloom, give us some support, something needs to change, come on, give us some credit
- When we have our strongest team, we've won 8 out of 9. When you take these elements out, we have to keep changing everything. We lost against 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Please, I'm begging supporters, give this group some help, it escalates the performances tenfold. We need to do better as a club.
- I had fans next to me saying that was rubbish. We had 70% possession, what do they want?

Pretty shit again, but the win will paper over the cracks (the central midfielders sit too deep and the left side of the team is dogshit going forward, leaving the front line isolated)

I think he's being a bit liberal with the truth there we were better but there was some really odd decision making on that pitch, even I got frustrated by the fact our defenders didn't seem to realise you can't be offside from a goal kick as the ball sailed over their heads.

Sorry Wellens but it was a very dull first half. You aren't going to get people jumping up and down with that. That's not to say they should get stick, far from it.

We got better as the game went on, Stevenage ARE a difficult team to play against. We won and that's all that matters.

Agreed. He was over egging the performance to drill home his point re the fans I think.

I will also mention that I watched the game, with HD image and live commentary, on my phone in a small restaurant in Rome. (I know, I'm a terrible person.) This may sound like casual name-dropping to some, but for me, I still can't quite get over the distance the world has travelled since I first moved abroad in 1983, and I'd have to wait until Thursday lunchtime to go down to the station kiosk to sneak a look at a Wednesday UK paper to find out the result of a Tuesday night match.

I only dreamt I'd be able to do this one day, without actually ever thinking it would be viable. Kids take so much for granted.

Couldn't agree more - I am totally in awe of the everyday technology we have at our fingertips :nod:

Oh and Benda should have been man of the match, him being quick off his line saved the defenders from complete fuck ups a number of times.

I used to have to update my abacus. Silly pair of old cunts 😀

Great result.  Big relief, we needed that.

Get where Wellens is coming from but it's not always that easy. 

We had a 10 minute spell in the first half when Doyle and Yates had their chances, other than that it was was a poor half. Second half though we were deserved winners and despite how long it took, we held our nerve and worked a good opening and scored an excellent goal.

Sent from my CLT-L09

Att (burger flippers)?

I have finally seen a goal and a win on a Tuesday night!

Doughty sits way too deep and has forgotten how to shoot. I seem to recall him scoring some screamers when he first came to us and I thought he could have had a couple of goes tonight.

Our forwards really work hard - no doubting their fitness. Grant also gets everywhere. I also thought Donohue looks a good addition.

Wellens sounded a bit petulant - it is easy to have 70% possession just going sideways in your own half.

Number 15 for them, biggest twat I've seen in years. 30 minutes of him going down with cramp ever 5 minutes!

Off to Crawley sat. First game since Orient. Can we break our recent bad run there? I think yes

Wellens mentions 70% possession but doesn't mention only 8 shots against the bottom side in the division, at home. They managed the same number of shots with the remaining 30%. Scraping a result in the last minute. We have not been great at home, and that can be said over many seasons. Perhaps understandable that the crowd is edgy. Some more shooting to capitalise on the possession required.

Let's be honest, if we played like them none of us would bother going to a game they made a Flitcroft side look like Barcelona. We gifted them some chances by fucking up at the back or letting high balls bounce, they didn't really 'create' anything in the true sense of the word. They were more intent on time wasting and disrupting the game and it almost got them a point, a horrible team to watch and play against I'd imagine. I do hope they are the team that goes down.

 I agree to some extent with RW - Stevenage (and their brand of anti-football) deserved nothing from that game, they set up to try to protect the point they began with (0-0), with 9 men in two banks just outside their penalty area. Every time we built up bit of momentum, somebody feigned an injury and the ref was complicit in their time wasting. Their main attacking threat was the keeper booting it to the edge of our area - mind you, some of the “forward” brigade behind us in the Arkells seemed to admire it.
This type of game is tough if we don’t score early - and we need to accept that sometimes we need to grind out a 1-0 win. How many times in recent years have we lost that type of game (or got in front late on, only to concede soon afterwards - as we did v Yeovil last season)?
The pleasing things tonight were - in no particular order
1. A win and a clean sheet.
2. Some players coming back after time out got some decent game time - Fryers, Doughty.
3. Benda looks a good keeper.
4. DJ is fit and looks quick.
5. We kept our shape and passing game throughout, and sought to use the width of the pitch to get behind Stevenage  - rather than reverting to planting long hopeful balls on the heads of Cuthbert and their other 2 centre backs which is generally futile. Also some good croisés at times, but an area we need to improve on.
6. Another well taken goal from Doyle.
7. Grant was immense again.

Things to improve on
1. Passing was a bit predictable and laboured at times - too many square passes - partly necessary because there was a big gap between Doughty, Grant (who both were quite deep) and our attacking players.
2. There were times when Doughty could have run with the ball but he seems reluctant to do so.
3. Quality of crosses was poor at times - Hunt, Woolery, Isgrove and Donoghue all guilty at some point in the game.

Finally, I thought the referee had a mixed game - first half in particular he seemed to want to let the game flow. Second he got taken in by the time wasting, and how neither he nor the linesman couldn’t see that Isgrove’s cross from the right (70 odd minutes in ) was blocked by an outstretched arm remains a mystery. Stonewall penalty from our seats in the Arkells.

Three points at Crawley on Saturday and we will be looking upwards again. As RW says, we are 7th, only 4 points off the automatic promotion spots after a difficult run of games and some key injuries. It’s a long season and there are 31 games to go.

Please don't hate  me  :headhurts:

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/clayton-donaldson-out-for-two-months.3174/

I am fucking fuming tonight.

Did you actually pay money to witness that dogshit tonight? I did....

That has to be one of the worst fuckfests I have ever witnessed at the CG.

Stevenage are bottom at the end of October (not August) for a reason....because they are a fucking poor football team..fact...

We dished up a pathetic performance.  That's a fact, end of.   We got away with it big time and I went fucking mental when we scored...what a relief!

So, happy as Larry...got away with it and all that...until I hear that the manager isnt happy with some stick he gets from supporters near the dugout....Boo Hoo..

Tonight, it's a shit sandwich that's better eaten quietly...

Better own up that we were shit and got away with it, than have a dig at some fans that had the cheek to actually pay the admission fee and have a justified pop at the man that is in charge of team affairs, at a poor performance.

If he starts that shit, he will be going down the same path as Mr 'Not my fault' Cooper...

Put your hands up, state we were lucky, comment that fans weren't happy and disappointed with some of the understandable negative comments and talk about Crawley.

PLEASE PLEASE do not turn into Cooper...

But our fans are ridiculously negative, it's even something ex players have commented on. We were bang average tonight but we did deserve to win. I don't for one second doubt that Wellens reads social media, he has twitter and what not so probably reads the crap people like Kostiuk write. The clubs PR guy had to go on the Facebook group at the weekend to put them straight after they started a rumour Wellens is only part time so I'm sure that got back to Wellens and some of what he says is based on that. Some of our fans needs to be put back in their place, paying money doesn't mean you can just act like a complete fuckwit.

Not really much to hate on there Brigg. The first mention of Doyle on that is at around comment no.40....of about 50 comments. That tells you how much he is at the forefront of the Bantams fans mind.

Your post makes it seem like the thread is full of "Get Doyle back here in January", "We need Doyle back..." etc. Almost like one of those clickbait posts "You'll never guess how much this Wiltshire woman made with one simple trick?"   ;)

Was interesting to read that even though they have a recall option on Doyle, we would have to agree to it too. I think we've got him all season.

Talking shit on social media should be water off a ducks back to anybody with a pair of bollocks....the FB threads on STFC are an embarrassment more often than not...

Bitching about comments during a quite obvious dogshit performance against bottom the league at home is another story....

Suck it up.

Disagree, when it gets personal and people deliberately make up fake rumours that the club has to step in and address it is crossing the line. Its clear that some 'supporters' have their own agenda and actually want to undermine the club and for it to fail so they can say they were right. Wellens is probably working his ass off and to seemingly have his integrity questioned has probably proven to be the tipping point for him.

think you need to have that word with yourself. the moment a team sets up a deep playing 4-5-1 it represents a problem for the majority of all teams.

one question; did you listen to wellens interview in full? because reading your post i could almost guarantee that you didnt.

one thing you can't fault wellens for is his honesty in interviews. if we are shit he calls it and vice versa.

the only thing i shouted at the radio for was when he claimed that crewe won because the crowd were behind them. they won because they were a million times better than us and it was one of our most disjointed performances in many a year. to have gone to crewe and then this home game they are truely incomparable.

Nowt wrong with that tonight.
Win on a Tuesday, clean sheet, stayed patient and solved the problem of the parked bus.

We've missed Doughty and DJ is a lot livelier than Woolery.

pretty much word for word my thoughts on absolutely everything.

Fucking hell FLASH are you on your period mate?!

Stevenage may be bottom and we STILL beat them. Yet they are a very difficult team to beat. Look at their results. They have not been hammered. They have drawn a lot but they have only won once. So they get beat, because they clearly set up to DRAW matches. I'll drive it home again - so they are quite difficult to beat...or even better...to unpick. 8 teams have managed to 'unpick' them, 6 haven't and had to go away scratching their heads with a point. One team didn't even manage that, Grimsby (to be expected maybe). An even better side in Port Vale only came away with a point just last match. Vale beat form side Bradford 1-2 away tonight.

Only 2 sides in this division can boast the '2pts per game' elixir that is, promotion form. They're 1st and 2nd placed currently and respectively. Newport come close to the 2ppg as it stands.

On reflection, especially as Steves drew with Vale last match, who in turn beat Bradford. I would say tonight's win, whilst playing "shit" was an even better win than maybe some are giving credit for.  This was a great win. Imagine how many new arseholes we would have torn them if we were firing on all cylinders/fully fit squad?

I think you'll find that Exeter losing 3-1 to sCUNThorpe was a shit result. Well for them anyway.

Indeed WB. Quite a few ghosts (see TWD thread :) ) put to bed tonight in TEF Folklore. Especially that elusive Tuesday night home win. Well worth the drive back from Norwich ey?

6 points off top, 4 points off Autos and it feels like people think the world is crashing down. We are in touching distance despite a dip in form which coincided with a number of injuries.

Also, Wellens is correct. We do have a winging moaning fanbase that is quick to jump on anything negative and blow it out of proportion. Agree with him completely.

Good result against a team that is hard to beat, only 11 conceded in 8 away games despite being bottom.

Good 3 points.

I never thought I'd find myself saying this, and I do have to put a massive caveat in first that pretty much undermines everything I am about to say and classifies me as a cunt for doing so, but the atmosphere at games in the MLS is pretty impressive (my caveat is they do seem to have a lot of drums).  Granted the attendances are a bit higher, but they seem utterly oblivious to the game at times, taken a very Latin approach to it (next caveat, they don't tend to swear much).  Watching tonight's game I was wondering if it was just bad audio, or the insanity of Hockaday, but the game could well have been played behind closed doors.

The win was deserved, it wasn't impressive.  That about covers the actual game.

Liked the look of Jaiyesimi.  Woolery is counter attacking threat only I think.  Might be worth switching them around in the line-up.  Jaiyesimi did the one thing the game needed, he tried to take players on - when they set up like they did you have to take players out of the equation.  Passing was struggling to do that, he made players miss or have to get an extra man as they were worried about his movement.

Ok - Let's all carry on being over negative and continue with the toxic, unsupportive atmosphere at home. That'll defo help the team.

So you don't find our play frustrating from time to time?

I agree that a negative attitude helps no one, but Wellens is deluded if he thought that performance was any good.

We won from a bit of individual quality (the movement, control and finish of Doyle). Without that the exact same criticisms that have been labelled against the team for the past month or so, and they’d have been valid

I get we’re in a good league position, and I get the sky isn’t falling in. The concern is the ongoing trend of samey football, that’s increasingly easy to defend against and shows no sign of being addressed

We beat Stevenage because we had a few more talented players, not because we were the more talented team. And that’s not sustainable in the long run

I don't really have a problem that we struggled last night. it was always going to be difficult, but we got there in the end just about.

I think fans that directly have a go at the manager (if that is what happened) should be called out.

But having a go at a fragile fan base for not vocally getting behind the team is stupid from Wellens.  To liken it to our early season play is stupid too. we are nowhere near that level.

He'll have to get used to our unrealistic (?)  expectation of competing for the top 3.

In any case it's only October. Let's get out form back and kick on, then all this type of stuff will be forgotten.

Spot on.

Note to self - to save embarrassment, don’t write your post match views whilst sat in the Glue Pot.

I hope your headache isn’t too bad this morning  :D

Bradford have been hit by a raft of injuries and lost at home to Vale last night.

Just shows most teams just don’t have/can afford squad depth. Exeter have lost 2 on the bounce 7-1 agg.

If Crewe suffer the same or lose players in Jan they’ll stutter too.

My worry is that now with a virtually fit squad we’re still not producing a decent performance.

Would prefer to see us play 433 or 4312.

So limited playing 442 without a proper left mid

What did people think of DJ yesterday then. It was my first time seeing him play live.

Looked raw but committed to me. Will be interesting to see how/if he develops. Didn't think Woolery shoed a lot yesterday so its good to have a bit of competition for the spot while Anderson is out.

Agree with your assessment - can see why Norwich took him. Raw, but the ability to change a game with direct wing play.

Of course I do. The wider point is our home support is unnecessarily negative and rarely get behind the team when we're in a spot of bother. Ex players have admitted as much.

We can either accept that, and accept we might be able to play a part in turning our home form around or we can carry on moaning and groaning and giving our players/staff undue grief. I know what I'd rather.

As a wider point - I go to football to enjoy myself. It baffles me that people can moan so incessantly about a leisure activity. Don't enjoy it? Don't come. It's not obligatory.

Some people are literally their happiest whilst complaining.

I think, having watched yesterday, that DJ  should be a starter ahead of Woolery.

I think he's going to offer more in that left Mid /wing position

Agreed - so long as he's back to 100% fitness and we can get 60-70 good mins from him.

I do always support the team until the very end of the match.  Cannot stand the moaning.  I would so rather have Paul's MLS druimming than the sighs and moans and "Get it forwaaards".

BUT

If you go to football to enjoy yourself, may I suggest Anfield or even the Nou Camp may be a happier hunting ground?

Unless your idea of enjoyment is more akin to attending a Smiths or Leonard Cohen concert?

We really do have to squeeze the tube hard to extract any pleasure these days.

The unexpected pleasure and relief of a Doyle 90th min winner didn't exactly come at the conclusion of 90 mins. of "ole's!"

Yours in misery but also hope.

Woolery as a counter attacker, away, perhaps.  

His speed and even finishing has on occasion excited me but his wider skillset is rather average and, from his point of view, a move may be healthy.  

Great to have him on board as part of the squad for the season though.

Delighted to get the 3 points last night, really didn't think it was coming! Loved the determination from Doyle to get into the box and score after passing it out wide.

I've been to the last few Crawley away games and haven't got on so well, not chancing it on Saturday i'll listen on the radio  :D

Hopefully kick on now and get a run going COYR.

For the 1st half hour of the second half I think we looked closer to where we should be. The game was not good overall but nowhere near as bad as some are making out. Comparisons to Flitcroft? - behave. That, and we were playing against a team sitting very deep with all men behind the ball - context and all that. That's also only Stevenage's 2nd loss in the last 7 games.

Regardless, a win's a win and this will hopefully give us a confidence boost. There was one point when we won the ball back in defence and there were 3 of our midfielders stood almost next to each other passing sideways. Why? two of those should have been sprinting forward. My guess is that they were afraid of losing.

I think most people want the team to succeed, but in the last 25 years we have had one or two great seasons, a couple of good seasons and the rest forgettable. At the start of the season there's always renewed hope/belief. Swindon always have a habit of quashing that by the Winter.

Flasheart - if a team is sitting so deep how come we have just 8 shots, equal to their tally. We should be peppering their goal, adjust to their set up and not try to walk it in.

Nail on head there, FH.

It’s the overall lack of confidence that’s done for us lately, preventing players doing what was instinctive earlier in the season.

Come on - you know it doesn't work like that.

Honestly, I enjoy watching any football. Just as happy watching Watford as I am Hornchurch. Neither matter, compared to STFC though.

I get frustrated, I get disappointed, but I still go because either way I enjoy it. I enjoy the away games with no one there like Col U in the cup where I can sit with my own thoughts and watch a game, and I enjoy away games like Orient where I can go with 12 mates, drink 12 pints, be part of something bigger and generally make a tit of myself.

Yes, I am strange.

Absofuckinglutely, we wont win every game, we wont win playing good football every game, thats lower league football.

Fucking hell I have watched 45 years of it at Swindon and its always been the same, some great, some good, some average but more often than not pretty shit, often bordering on abysmal.

And even then it can fuck up for the big teams at the top, look at Man Utd this season.

Never have truer words ever been posted on this forum.

Stat on iFollow during the game

Last night’s game was the 100th home game since the PO final.

We’ve won 38. Fucking shameful, that.

The whole purpose of a team sitting deep is to prevent the opposition getting shots off other than from distance. We possibly could have "peppered their goal" with 40 yard hit-and-hopes, which might have made the stats look better, but who's actual effect would have been to surrender possession cheaply. I'm not suggesting what we did instead was great, it was incredibly frustrating to watch, but I think FH has a point

Who'd have thought that one relegation and three seasons of League Two football would conjure such a negative stat?

I thought he lifted us, although given he came on for the ineffective (yesterday rather than generally) Woolery, he may have looked bright in comparison

Wonder what the L2 100 game average is?

I don't know if that's massively low even if it feels like it. the fact we've lost 37 is telling though.

Makes it even worse being in L2 alongside all the other dross.

 As suggested patience was required and rewarded.  A massive result, in the short term.

No good will come of Wellens moaning at the fans.... he needs to  :zipped: that straight away.  Our fans still turn up in reasoanble numbers for Div 4, especially as we've been poor at the CG for a while including cup games etc.

I get that he's under pressure and it makes you do funny things, but it's part of the job.   How a gaffer can make himself popular is a tricky one.... I'd suggest a basic point would be living and being seen around where you manage.  Wellens gives the impression of being temporary and therefore semi detached.

He should probably have made a bit more of the Donny thing in the summer....

Absolutely, we could have had loads of long shots but the only time I was truly frustrated was when Doughty was 20 yards out with a clear shot at goal with nobody between him and the keeper and he passed it sideways. He has a brilliant shot on him but his confidence must have been so bad that he decided if he shot and missed then it wasn't worth the risk.

Yates missed 2 fairly easy chances, ones which if they fell to Doyle he would have done better with and Doyle had one early header straight at their keeper so it could have been better margin with better finishing.

Stevenage finishing was shocking, Parrett missing a couple of clear cut chances and Benda made a couple of very good saves too, he was vying for MoM for me along with Grant and Doyle who were both excellent again. Donohue looks way more solid an option at LB than Fryers or Iandolo but still made a coupel of mistakes, as did the whole of the defence.

For me a win is a win, we mostly controlled the game even if it wasn't pretty to watch, isgrove got more into the game and set up a few good chances after a slow start.

Lets just get back to back wins again and go from there.

AFAIK, he is doing just that, living away from his family and in return getting a load of shit rumours from certain elements on Facebook that he's part-time. Thought you were a bit better than to repeat such unsubstantiated smears from the usual suspects who's only joy seems to be hating everything about the club. Unless you know better of course ....

It's worth a reminder that we're currently a pretty average Div 4 side and are therefore alongside clubs of similar status.

We haven't got any major advantage over those around us.  It's a direct correlation with Power's sustainable model... in the past when we've done well, it's been largely on the back of spending money we didn't have, and then having to deal with the downsides.

Div 4 is a pretty even league and if we are to get out of it, then it will down to canny management of our resources... recently the likes of Accy and Wycombe have shown it can be done.

A lot of what those cunts come out with is downright libellous. I reckon the club would have a right to sue the pricks over some of it, only doing so would be a bad PR move for the club.

Doughty's been on the end of part-time accusations as well, and the striker from Northampton whose name now escapes me. All accusations made without a shred of supporting evidence but that doesn't stop their witless followers from lapping them up.

Idiots, and arseholes. Fuck them. I also couldn't give a flying one if anybody is offended by that. If you fall into that category then you are deserving of all the criticism that comes your way.

And part of the crowd 'problem' is an expectant fanbase believing that we should be in a higher League given our average gate compared to some.

But it doesn't work like them.

striker from Northampton=Richards

That's the badger.

This is clearly why Wellens is pissed off, the fact some so called fans made up a rumour that he was part time and the club had to step in and say they were blatant lies is an embarrassing reflection of our fanbase minority or not.

Wellens all summer has been going on about how he understands why the fans are like they are at the moment. Year after year we have been dealt with shit and and he rightly said he gets it, it's more that after we have a poor spell and the fans get uptight he is out the blocks having a dig. How about saying I know it's not great lately but fair fucks for 6k of you lot still turning up. I'd argue his management style could be seen as equally negative on the sidelines and the way he hangs out players to dry.

Then say that? That's not what he said though

And embarrassing that "some on here" (to coin a favourite phrase of "some on here") seek to perpetuate the snidery.

We're all a bit strange :)

I enjoy Woking because although I get behind them when I go the result is but one of many factors in my enjoyment.  

The result is a much higher factor where STFC is concerned.  The other significant factor is the atmosphere of the support.  On both counts, the County Ground experience has, imo, lagged in recent years.

Beer can also be a factor and, truth be told, I'm rather envious that you can put away a dozen on a match day.  Not done that for decades.  Heaven knows I'm miserable now  ;)

I haven't the first clue about the FB stuff other than what gets mentioned on here.  As usual I make observations and then analyse them.

It seems to me that a manager like say Macari, moved his young family down from Manchester.... his kids went to local schools. He explained how he understood fans by standing on the terrace at Parkhead. When he was sacked the fans got him reinstated.  Someone like Sturrock although not around for that long, would be seen and heard of around Town....PdC also to some extent.  It is of course something you can spin... it's highly likely that Wellens just doesn't have that sort of personality, which is fair enough you are what you are. Wellens is more head coach, but in the summerwe heard about fan engagement.... perhaps I've missed something, but I'm yet to see it.  Perhaps you could educate us?

He said he was getting abuse from the stands during the game and that will have been the straw that broke the camels back after all the other shit that a minority element have been saying about him. I just don't get why people make shit up and revel in negativity, it must make life rather shit.

What has he done that gives the impression of being temporary?

Why should he not try to change to the culture of the club to something more positive and successful? The club have made strides off the pitch since his appointment, and he would have been part of that. To suggest he should not speak of such things is weird.

So I was sat right above the directors box where Wellens was and there was two old boys behind me who did not stop complaining the whole game. One of them berated Anderson for being lazy, despite the fact he wasn't even on the pitch. Wellens would've definitely heard them, and it got to the point where even I lost my temper with them.

But generally he is right - our support is terrible. Has been for as long as I can remember.

and that's fine but it is not the reason we are shit at home. Our form at home is the reason our fans are morons. The same as any club, I fact no... We get around 2000 extra than most fans. He bangs, on about being honest so call out the 2 fans not a whole fanbase who are putting up with the shit we been offered over the last 10 years

Back to the game - I don't think enough credit is being given for the goal.

Doyle had more space than he should have been given, and we did well to create that space against such a negative team. He bought it down nicely and also turned nicely to hammer it home. He also played his part in what was a sweet build-up.

I agree, at no point has Wellens or Power suggested that Wellens is not going to be with us long term. Other than the fact that all lower league management seems to be shorter term appointments due to the demands of fans wanting instant results, more so than ever before.

I think he's well within his rights to moan at some sections of fans, if you give out shit to people then be prepared for the take shit back, something too many people seem to forget now in this society of social media.

They think they can say what the fuck they want to who the fuck they want at any time, without any implications or retribution, you can't.

Also nobody is beyond criticism but at least back your criticism up with facts and not fiction.

Haven't any stats but I believe that on average there will be a correlation between attendances and league position.  TV money has had a significant distorting effect but only higher up the tree.  I believe that Fleetwood, for eg, is overachieving and that STFC is underachieving.

We had 4 or 5 really good moves prior to that that came to nothing with the final ball or good defending by them.

Doyle is a really good goal scorer and his running and chasing down balls has been a part of his game you don't normally hear about. Bradford fans say he didn't work hard enough and that in their opinion he plays best with a big target man alongside him, thats blatantly not true.

He runs his legs off every game chasing defenders and even playing the channels, hes not that fast but he can read the game well, hes a massive asset, to state the obvious.

Grant as well, I would say he is one of THE best defensive midfielders I have seen for the Town, he chases everything down, his tackling is incredible and his work rate is unfaultable, his passing is rarely more than 10 to 15 yards but he almost always finds another Town player.

Also like the fact Doyle and Grant seem our most committed players despite all the moaning about loans we see.

See above post ;) I agree totally.

Right so you have no evidence whatsoever that Wellens is part time or that he doesn't, as the club has stated, spend his whole week down here working with the team, leaving his family in the Northwest. So no basis for your snidey digs then. If you want to criticise the bloke for his tactics or how he works with the team, fair enough, but stick to the facts. Repeating snidey smears is, or should be, beneath you.

Consistency too.  Grant seems to play well regardless of the overall team performance.

Bit of a Makelele or Kante

He is absolutely our most constant player since he has joined us.

A player that hardly any of "us fans" thought was necessary when he signed, myself included, and yet he is easily the first name on the teamsheet now.

Which is exactly what you want in midfield - a player that can win the ball and then pass it to somebody else more creative.

Several times last night, folks around us remarked that Grant seemed to be everywhere, especially in the last 10 mins or so. His appetite to work hard for the team is superb

Even chased hard to get in on the goal celebration  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Absolutely, we have plenty of creative midfielders but nobody else does what he does, Lyden is the closest but Grants short passing as far superior to Lydens.

Talking of passing, I thought 50% of Doughtys passing was superb yesterday but 50% was awful, we still look a better team attacking wise with him on the pitch though even when you are only getting 50% of his ability in games.

The only minus point with Grant is he very occassionally gets the red mist. But without that he wouldn't have the same commitment.

He brings so much to the team.

That yellow he got yesterday could easily have been a red.

Another bonus for me was the performance of Benda.

After his debut vs Plymouth in the Mickey Mouse cup he did not look anywhere near the level of LMc.

But he has come on in leaps and bounds and probably saved us yesterday with his massive fram blocking a one on one.

His command of area is not as good as it should be for a keeper of his size, he rarely comes out to catch crosses and never tries to get to corners and his kicking a times is pretty wayward but he looks like he could turn into a decent keeper with games and in time.

Another loan player making an impact.

This is my main issue with this. The fans are no longer split in 2 parts. There are 3 sections now but unfortunately me doing what you say above here gets me lumped in the same section as the facebook lot. Anyone who knows me knows how supportive i have been of this club i have had the arguments regarding Power etc Frankly to put all that aside everything about the club is total shite for the last 10 years and every time we go through a rut like we are now it without fail gets turned round on the fans are too negative.

The fans have been the same all season you can't pick and choose when you think it effects the team.  

I don't think so, looked worst than it was. It was just short kick from Benda that Grant had to win and didn't see their player, his eyes were only ever on the ball.  All stemmed from laziness from Baudry with an awful pass back, him and Fryers are very sloppy at times and people have to bail them out.

I was actually excited when he got the ball. Nice to have wingers on both sides.

Sent from my CLT-L09

At times Baudry and Fryers looked very good but they both have several mistakes a game in their arsenal.

Hunt as well made a few poor passes which is unusual for him.

I think he'll be better than Vigs by the end of the season.

Sent from my CLT-L09

I just don't think that's true mate, at least not from most. (There's always some bellend)

Most of us on here are balanced, pointing out the good as well as the bad. That FB group, however, is something else. They actually make up shit to be negative about.

The highlights here.

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/teams/swindon-town/11842736/swindon-1-0-stevenage

How the hell did that run and double shot by DJ get stopped!

A special mention again for Doyle who managed to control the ball on his chest and fire it low and hard into the net with 6 Stevenage players around him! brilliant finishing.

Agree, he also seem very keen which is a good trait. He's also getting increasingly quick with his distribution and has decent short passing which when combined with his speed off the line has put him ahead of McCormick. The command of his area will come with experience as this will be his first season playing alongside experienced pro's so will take some time to gain the confidence to order them around.

Really different on Twitter than on here though buddy. I can't win tbf, i was slated for being a fucking happy clapper the last 10 years now the opposite :-)  

I can imagine. I'm selective about who I follow on there.

Misery clapper?

I've no idea about smears.... as usual you don't answer the question... how is the promised community/fan engagaement looking?.

I've said before how having the training out at Calne doesn't help the feeling of engagement, and will always refer back to Sturrock and his thing of the importance of CG as base. 

All too often you conflate observation with some sort of malign intention.... it isn't Wellens fault we train at Calne. It isn't Wellens fault that say the old Study Centre was closed, an initiative where players/staff could interact with local school kids It isn't Wellens fault that school safeguarding makes it more difficult for things like the FC to interact with schools.

However back in the summer, I suggested a fan's forum would be a good idea. I know that for the club, they're a bit loth to organise things as the beer sales went west with Jed. It all adds up...

It's telling that a happy-clapper is not necessarily somebody who is always positive, but just somebody that is not persistently negative. I can only think of one person in recent memory who always had a positive spin on everything STFC, and he was pretty much hounded off the TEF. (Mainly by 'happy clappers').

Pot ... kettle. I asked you to back up your wholly unevidenced repetition of the fake facebook rumour that Wellens doesn't live in the area, you, as per usual, ducked the question and responded with a completely different question.

But I'll answer it anyway. The club have done a fair bit on community engagement since the summer, it's been remarked on by plenty of people on here as well as on other forms of social media. Aside from the FanZone, there's been plenty of schools initatives, including 100s of free tickets given out, players and Wellens going into schools to talk to the kids, take training sessions etc. We've got the "Junior Reds takeover" coming up for the Walsall game, lots of engagement on social media etc etc. I know you ignore most of that because all you really want is the Fans forum you keep going on about (and FWIW, might be a good idea to have a bit of an old school QandA in the Legends although I can see why the club might feel it could backfire), but it doesn't mean those other things aren't happening, the club do seem to be making a real effort with it.

Push comes to shove though, the club can do all they want with community engagement, this that and the other but if the results aren't going well, people will be pissed off. And even if they are. some people will still find reason to be pissed off (not a dig at you btw thinking more of some of the FB/Twitter trolls with that one)

That's why we've missed Doughty.  The insistence on playing 2 or even 3 holding mids has been getting on my tits for years and even more so now that we have Grant, who is more than capable of dominating that area on his own.

Being Rose's or May's workhorse is just wasting his talent.  

I was going to respond as well, because it may be the joy of following from afar, but there has been obvious signs of better community engagement in the past few months.  They've been out to schools, they've set up the Fanzone and sent players to that who ware not part of the squad that day, they've made a big song and a dance about biging up the away following, the upcoming Walsall kids takeover etc.  So delivering exactly what they said they would, oh and the open day thing they did as well didn't they?

And you always see players at the football in the community hub.

A last minute win and a critique of the fans from Richie Wellens:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07rrs4p

On that note, I'm not sure I like Doughty playing quarter back. I felt we needed that someone to unlock the front two from midfield a bit more.

But on the other hand if you push him forwards, you risk a deeper playing Grant not being as affective.

Who'd want to be a football manager.

Oh, nearly forgot. Did "cramp man" (#14?) have the worlds smallest shin pads?

I just go by what Wellens said in his Loathed Strangers... still horse's mouth evidence doesn't seem to count with some.

If as you say these things are happening then the club needs to be doing a bit more to big it up.... the Adver for example will print any old shit if you get in touch with them. Further with Swindon schools having such a bad rep, you'd think they'd welcome a bit of up beat publicity.

Maybe they can't because of the safeguarding minefield.... the players would need DBS clearance, and I'm not sure all ours would get a clean bill of health.

PS, the Wellens podcast might not have been LS, but perhaps something similar.

All the initiatives I listed have been covered in the Adver, on the club website, on social media and on here. Short of Wellens dropping round your house and shouting through your letterbox, not sure what else the club can do? Just because you weren't paying attention, doesn't mean it didn't happen
Clearly not, because the visits did happen and were well publicised, despite your failure to notice them. This is pathetic.

#15.... yeah he looked a right state. I've got in trouble with Stevenage fans for criticising him as apparently it was his first game in 2 months. Going down with 'cramp' every 5 minutes from 55 minutes onwards is entirely normal apparently and in no way time wasting!

tbf, that's probably more his manager's fault than his. He signalled to be taken off several times, but the bench ignored him until eventually the phsyio had to come one. Once you've got cramp in a game, it can always reoccur

Can you post up some examples?  I know back in the summer we had  a head's up and I've seen the bouncy castle, but the other stuff seems to have passed me by. 

I've given loads of examples, as did Rob T. They were well covered. Google is your friend, you lazy sod.

and refs have clearly dropped the 'nearest touchline' criteria for exiting the pitch.

FFS, I'm in Atlanta and know about it - I can tell you now, my eye sight is not that good that I can see from here.

On one occasion he walked as far from the bench as he could and then sat down. Based on their 'tactics' last night I'd be very surprised if it wasn't at least part of a time wasting plan to disrupt us.

The Plymouth one was due to it being a Cat C game apparently, so police advice, player safety etc.

But otherwise, yes, not been much consistency with this so far.

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/17800086.rob-hunt-zeki-fryers-inspire-next-generation-swindon-footballers-association-stfc-community-foundation-deliver-skills-session/

I've noted the Walsall day, and the club again saying they will be sending players staff out etc into schools in advance, but for example schools are now on hols until that game. If they wanted to get in before then plans must have been done well in advance. Schools can't just drop stuff now to accommodate the local FC.

I kmow FITC do stuff and have done for years, but they are separate from the club.

The club are sending players to FITC events

FTIC.... nothing new.

There were a few schools that got a mention, one on FB but I can't link to that on a work laptop :-)

They had an article covered in early July about giving 200 season tickets to kids for this season at schools over the summer.

Presumably you removed the other as it was school hols.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2019/october/junior-takeover-day-walsall/

Not sure if the activities themselves will get much of a reporting in the local press, but it is not just tickets or popping to a school or two.  I actually saw this on LinkedIn first.

No the link went to the wrong article for some reason, it doesn't matter when it was, it's been a trend over a few months, during the time Wellens has been talking about it.

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/17823661.swindon-town-set-launch-fan-zone-county-ground-ahead-first-league-two-fixture-season-carlisle-united/

I know this one got cancelled, but there is then a tweet about a later one (again, Twitter is not my friend at work).

You have the tweet about the Mascot thing the other day, some kid asking to be mascot who was saving pocket money.  Again, that found it's way to me before it was posted on here.  If you want to see or hear about it, you clearly can.

Stop it Rob with all your evidenced examples. Just leave Reg grumbling into his aptly-named bitter in the corner. He doesn't need your facts. He's got more than enough of his own.

All the things Rob has posted were flagging stuff up, apart from his FITC example.  Yes we saw these back in the summer, I just wondered if anything had actually happened..... the Walsall thing is waiting to happen.

Davis and Rob seem to think there's been loads of examples, so I just wondered if they had any to share.

Certainly the new facility at the back of the CG offers up a chance to improve matters, and remember it is the club who have admitted a shortfall here.

A good example of where that might lead is Plymuff.....

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/how-argyle-community-trust-become-1650400

Which we both did. I'm not sure there's a lot more people can do to answer your original question tbh, if you choose to ignore or discount all the examples folks have given of community engagement, although it does make you look a bit silly.

Yeah, but reg works scientifically.

How so. the examples given are flagging up things back in the summer which were said would happen, like players and staff going into local schools and doing coaching etc.? Presumably this has happened and there's stuff about showing it. I don't know, just interested.

I believe there is a Q&A with players/management at the upcoming Loathed Strangers quiz night

Indeed which calls for evidence.... I've taken advice and looked on the official site, and found back in the summer some players went into Croft, in order to divvy out 200 ST's. That's it though, now it could be they just haven't got round to updating, all the examples that others know of but I don't.

Interesting they went to Croft, I wonder if any of the players or staff told the little un's that their school is sited on one of STFC's early grounds?

Now we're talking, is this the same as the Supporter's Club Quiz night I flagged up t'other day

I guess so

Sexy beast then.... the players should put in a team Doughty must know shit.

Back in the day the TEF could field a quiz team, but I always reckoned it's participants were more interested in JFW than the questions.

http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=33226.0

10 years ago now.... tempus fugit.

https://twitter.com/DrovePriSchool/status/1186754206490877954?s=20

https://twitter.com/DrovePriSchool/status/1183069841655246848?s=20

Good stuff.... but again FTIC and not any of the mentioned players in schools coaching that was flagged up, and Davis and Rob said was happening, but I'm just too pathetic to have noticed (that's Davis not Rob)

What was the attendance last night?
Cheers.

Talk about dying on a hill. You need to get down the res more often. These fishing trips on the TEF don't really work any more  :fishing:

was the attendance announced, can't remember it?

looked quiet so 6k or less is my guess

Interestingly (or not) last night from confirmed attendances;

Bradford  14,345 (I think their long term season tickets are still in operation?)
Plymouth   8,810
Cambridge 4,898
Mansfield   4,170

All the rest were;
4 at 4-3k
2 at 3-2k
1 at 2-1k

I assume we had more than Cambridge but less than Plymouth. Even 5k would be a "good" gate for L2  Tuesday nights. Discounting Bradford, makes us 2nd highest gate. Considering we don't win on Tuesdays, are shit and spiralling into capitulation; that's not bad at all  ;)

I'll take a punt at 5.5k

Definately not been announced by the club, but I would guess around 5,800 with 100 from Stevenage at most.

Some of his starting positions were really good, he definitely earned us those points as much as Doyle did last night.

Sent from my CLT-L09

Very encouraging.

Three things:

1 - how the fuck did this thread become about a quiz night however many years ago...
2 - Bottom line is this - we took three points in a mid-week game. Cause for celebration
3- No one kills a thread like me - I expect this to be the last comment on here given my previous experience

1 - Bollocks talk
2 - Agree would take a shit 1-0 anyday of the week
3 - It seems you have to post early and often and talk about anything apart from the game on the matchday thread to continue or provoke conversation.   I'm ok with the 80% Bollocks by the way, but it is a matchday fred ffs....

Are you a Pokémon/Michael Pook hybrid being? Would be interesting to see. What type of Pokémon would a Michael Pook hybrid be? Snorlax maybe?

Also, "match day" and "any day" are separate words :)

I watched the game on Ifollow and it was a turgid affair. But we got the 3 points with a last minute goal. If that can't spark something in this squad, then we have a problem.

Second half we clearly had a kick up the backside during the break as we played with a bit more pace and tempo versus the first half where I thought we passed the ball without much 'zip'. No idea why Doughty played left back for a time, but he was better in centre midfield.

I like the look of DJ and Anthony Grant at the moment is a monster for us, and works bloody hard. It would be amazing if we could somehow get him permanently to replace Toums.

An interesting tactical thing they had obviously worked on. I would imagine they want Donohue higher when we're in possession for his crossing ability, which against a low block leaves a big gap for MD to exploit and build from deep.

Its a similar tactic we have played in some games when Rose fills in at left back while Iandolo forges forwards, its obviously a thing that Wellens likes his midfielders to do, thats the bonus of having both Rose and Doughty as natural left footers.

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1187322593080033287

I haven't really seen enough of us this season to appreciate that, so thanks for the responses. Doughty doesn't look quite 'right' at the moment, I didn't think he suited LB at all on Tuesday night and was much more comfortable in midfield (as you would completely expect). There is no denying he is a class act, but hopefully much more to come from him.

Except for most of the first half MD wasn't building through midfield but attempting long passes to Woolery a lot of which were missing their target.

Also his being that deep means that with Grant also sitting deep, a big gap develops between Doyle/ Yates and the midfield. If we then try to play balls into the forwards feet the ball is more often than not lost.

I'd prefer MD to be playing more central and more in contact with Doyle but I guess as Conroy isn't available he's charged with starting off moves

I remember Wellens referred to it as offset wingers earlier in the season. When the ball is on the left Anderson (normally) moves in field and supports the front two and the fullback pushes on to add the width with the CM covering between a usual LB and CM position. On the right for example look at how many times Hunt is ahead of Isgrove and Isgrove is sat in CM, with Grant covering.

Not sure its worked great in truth, but i think its an attempt to get Anderson in a number 10 position and still play two forwards (something wellens wanted to do). Looked better to me when Anderson was actually playing 10 and we only had one forward.

That's brilliant stuff by the club. Considering a recent query from someone demanding evidence of fan engagement...  :hmmm:

Bottom dollar, that experience will live with her for a very long time, so another generation of a Town fan nailed on.

The only bad thing about any of that is the font used in the letter.

That is excellent!! Well done to the club.

The query came to be about the claims...



I get abused for admitting I've missed this, beyond the season ticket give away... yet have still not seen any evidence.

Have you seen anything ?

It didn't. You tried to narrow it down to this because you'd been shown to have no evidence for your spurious claim that Wellens didn't live in the area and then to be wrong when you tried to distract from being wrong about that by wrongly claiming the club hadn't engaged in community engagement.

https://www.facebook.com/events/415728982683919/?notif_t=event_calendar_create&notif_id=1571924804147503

(https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/74897643_2808747159165111_7679722483859062784_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_oc=AQlkQu1zriK3yMAl8foysZADjXB3pVGZpKwdJ0QBbGFHyHXfkMU-wLZpBvIFvsrW25o&_nc_ht=scontent-lht6-1.xx&oh=8b6714159745c051c33a9236df5ceeee&oe=5E1E4740)

You seem to be infected by fake news at no stage have I said Wellens didn't live in the area.  He said in the podcast that he has an apartment that he goes back to, but doesn't do much.  Family though still up north.

Further I'm aware that stuff was flagged up in the summer, which seemed to include as you said Wellens and players going into schools doing talks coaching etc....  this interests me. You suggested it was happening and I'd missed it, can you name schools, players etc.  

This is reaaaaaally tedious guys

You don't remember posting this then?


Which certainly implies that you think he doesn't.

I'm aware he has a pied a terre, I made the comparison with Macari, who moved his family down here.  That gave LM a sense of throwing his lot in for the longer haul in management terms.  Personally I don't really care how a geffer sets up his domestic arrangements, but understand how if trying to become a legacy type manager, having the perception of living above the shop helps. 

However, it's wholly understandable given the short termism of football

That and 30 odd years on from LM joining managers wives may have meaningful careers themselves, much more likely now.  

You may suggest that his wife may not have needed to work given he'll have made decent money throughout his career but, and I could be wrong, we don't know either way.

Kids might be at a terrific school, point is it's not solely about the man of the house these days.

Snorlax is a bit harsh - Slowpoke is probably the most apt
Oh and apologies for writing whilst pissed on my phone - why you chose to spoil a perfectly decent conversation point with some twatness only you will know. 

Well I'm a cunt of course, so that's pretty obvious  :D  Slowpoke? Isn't that a female variant of the vinegar strokes?

Also "Chief Feather Ruffler" may give you an indicator. No harm done :)

Will people stop providing evidence for him btw. He's clearly grabbing each billy goats gruff as they trip-trap across his bridge. Let the cunt do his own research, if it is such a burning desire to know what the club are doing RE: Fan Engagement.

If Michael Pook was a Pokemon 100% he’d be a Slowpoke.

So this would be a Slowpook?*




*Res is shit but it's just a fuckabout

Good effort and he does look like he's doing few vinegar strokes. :D

:soapy tit wank:

Is it any coincidence we are now top of the league after I started posting half time ska again?

#factz

It's nothing to do with that. Clearly we are top of the league because we have finally signed an experienced right back. How many points are we off the 53 we need to secure safety from relegation?