Swindon Town v Exeter City Official Match Day thread

[Nemo]

 I'd fancy Leeds over 2 legs

12-0 on aggregate! 12-0 on aggregate!

[herthab]

After tonight we could be 4 points behind millwall, 3 points behind leeds and level with Charlton, with 4 games to go.

While I don't think we'll secure 2nd spot, to write us off is fucking ridiculous. All the teams around us have potential banana skins to navigate and all of them will drop points.

It's building up to be a exciting final day.

[Samdy Gray]

I'm really not understanding the Sheehan bashing. Scapegoat anyone?

Poor distribution?! At least he put the ball in the fucking box rather than some of the flicky fanny stuff our midfield were trying. And touch of a rapist?! I certainly don't remember him losing the ball at all. Sheehan was our out-ball and did a fucking good job of getting up and down the left flank I thought.

[normy]

Sheehan's distribution was poor. He had lots of time and space because of their formation most of the game, but wasted a lot of possession with poor passing as I see it. And he should have at least worked the goalkeeper with that late freekick just outside box. We didnt get on his back, round where I sat, but it was obviously an off day for him, and we just muttered in frustration.
With Darby doing nothing going forward, our wings were ineffective and we bunched up in each others way in the centre approaching the box very often. Amankwah had a point to prove and made a big difference when he came on.

[LucienSanchez]

My problem with Sheehan is related to expectation. He's meant to be our best set-piece taker and has been known to be a good distributor of the ball, yet in recent games I've watched countless corners hit the first man, direct freekicks trouble no-one but the ball boys, and poor decisions in open play. Crosses either go in too early from far too deep (and therefore a hopeless angle for our front 2 to do anything with), or he delays too long and our players runs have all ended and they've been picked up. Last night he was playing balls straight down the middle in hope rather than invention.

Knowing that he is a capable player, yet witnessing that, is frustrating, and for some that is displayed by calling him 'shit', I guess...

[nevillew]

wrong, he was solid, put some decent crosses into the box, was unlucky with his free kick and never once got beaten defensively, if anything ward was a let down.

pericard put himself around and it was he who helped the goal, its kind of good seeing whose views are mental on here for furture referencing.

I agree with the Pericard comments.

I thought Sheehan had a few good touches, and got involved more in the second half, but felt that he didn't combine with Ward at all well in the first half.

In fact, I think Ward has been the biggest disappointment in the last couple of games (by comparison to his earlier run of form). Lost count of the number of times he failed to get a cross in on Saturday, and of course has missed two good chances in those games. Maybe it's him that needs to be rested.

Ferry was the pick last night I thought ran himself into the ground, but really needs to be confident enough to shoot as an option, not a last resort.

The difference in impact between Darby and Amankwaah was significant and I'd play the latter from now on in unless we need a really good defensive performance in one of the playoff legs.

[DiV]

Can't believe we didn't win that.

Just my opinion but we should have 3 up top earlier and gone 4 up top for the last 10.

Was Pericards shot going in?

My problem with Sheehan is, he seems to be taking all the set pieces at the expense of JPM.

JPM should take most of the corners (not fucking short corners) and the free kicks. I'm fed up of Sheehan wasting all the free kicks.

[jayohaitchenn]

Sheehan stats from the top of my head.

Corners: all short and wasted apart from one which hit the first man.
Shots: 3 from open play, all off target.
Direct free kick: over the bar.

Hardly passed to Ward even when he was in acres of space, and kept losing the ball. I've been saying he's shit since he came back from that injury.

[DiV]

Plus, he kept cutting inside onto right foot, why?

[Frigby Daser]

He wasn't as bad as people are making out, but what he and Darby did far too little of was overlap - one thing Kev does so well. We needed crosses in behind from the byline turning the 3 centre backs. Instead we had a barrage of balls in from deep which were, with one or two exceptions, simple for the back 3 to deal with.

Credit to exeter for the last-ditch defending, but any other day that performance was an easy win for us.

[LucienSanchez]

I also agree with the comments regarding big Kev; he and JP are such a good attacking force together that unless we're hoping to purely not concede, he should play every time.

[Colin Todd]

My problem with Sheehan is related to expectation. He's meant to be our best set-piece taker and has been known to be a good distributor of the ball, yet in recent games I've watched countless corners hit the first man, direct freekicks trouble no-one but the ball boys, and poor decisions in open play. Crosses either go in too early from far too deep (and therefore a hopeless angle for our front 2 to do anything with), or he delays too long and our players runs have all ended and they've been picked up. Last night he was playing balls straight down the middle in hope rather than invention.

Knowing that he is a capable player, yet witnessing that, is frustrating, and for some that is displayed by calling him 'shit', I guess...

Agree. I like Sheehan but last night he saw a lot of the ball and didnt achieve very much other than lump a few hopeful balls into the box. He's better than that.

Other than that how the fuck didnt we win? 

Credit to their centre backs, they were immense - especially their no 48.

[Ardiles]

I have nothing really to add to the comments already made about the match.  It wasn't our evening, was it?  Excellent build up play in the first half, but without the final delivery.  (We used to say that about Hoddle's sides!)  Second half a bit flat.  We all knew that 3 points were needed to maintain the automatic promotion push, so the late goal didn't really do us any favours.

And it was good to see so many faces at the Railway Tavern on Liverpool Street last night.  I think there were about 15 of us there.  Big thanks to PJ for organising.

The Positive Bit
Here's the silver lining.  Automatic promotion is now out of our hands and, in a strange way, I'm actually quite comfortable with the situation as it stands.  After 42 games, we know that - barring simultaneous slip ups by 2 or 3 of our rivals - we're heading for the play offs.  Danny can now start planning for this.  He can rest players, he can experiment.  He can start preparing the troops for what is, effectively, a cup competition.  There's also the added bonus that we can go in to the Millwall game knowing that it's likely to be much more important to Millwall than it will be for us.  If we are able to throw a spanner in the works and bump them in to 3rd place on that day, they will be seriously agitated at the prospect of possibly having to meet us in the play offs.

I would far rather go in to the play offs with this kind of build up - instead of having narrowly missed out on automatic promotion on the final day.  We could still be licking our wounds by the time the first semi final came around if that happened.  Glad we've avoided that eventuality.

[jimmy_onions]

Second half a bit flat? Not sure about that....frustrating yes, but flat no.

[Ardiles]

Not the best choice of words, maybe.  I didn't think we were as fluid as in the first half...that's all.  We seemed to be camped in their half during the first half; seemed more mixed to me after the break.