Swindon Town vs Rochdale Official Matchday Thread

[Dozno9]

 Mr RobertT, spot on.

[leefer]

Since when were we a club that spent fucking money anyway.  It's bizarre to criticise a policy when the only difference to the past is that we now do spend some cash on players.  Whether we like it or not, the club is not a charity, it has to find a way of coming at least close to break even.  £3m losses each year end up in companies going bust eventually, please see the current state of Plymouth.  It makes sense to only spend cash if you think there is a half decent chance of getting some back, especially given the amount of players who run their contracts down these days.

Benyon has played over a hundred games, in non league and league two.  He started at Shitty, so was originally thought potentially good enough for this level, and his experince over the past 4 years is showing that is being realised.  That to me is a decent amount of experience and we paid cash for him.

It beggars belief that people think the transfer policy is an issue.  We've purchased more players in the past 2/3 years than in many seasons before.  We got an experienced central midfielder after years of whinging by fans on forums about how we needed one.  We've had two belters upfront, we may have another.  We had the best defender since probably Culverhouse here, and granted, we didn't replace him quickly enough.

Our problems are not about transfers coming in, it's one or two that went, for understandable reasons and realising that they were hard to replace with the same quality.  That and not having a settled team.

It's been a shitter of a season so far, make no mistake, but we've signed a shed load of players.

Yep...you put a load of shit on display in the shop window....you wont get people walking in the door.
Fact is.....Henshall,Greer,Paynter,Cox,Morrison,Revell,Marshall...all been released in just over a year...yes we have signed some players...but only to replace what we have sold...but dont kid yourself we have more or better players this season...we dont.
Bad luck and injuries dont get you down the bottom....other factors do.

[Stegenfreud]

The idea that we lack experience just isn't true. Lucas, Smith, Amankwah, Frampton, Rose, Sheehan, JPM, Timlin, Douglas, Prutton, Pericard, Dossevi.

All have plenty of league experience.

Add to that Danny Wilson - one of the most experienced managers at this level.

for me the problem is Danny has lost the dressing room, there seem to be big divisions in the team and no matter the experience or quality the players are not playing for themselves or the manager. This has to change in order for our results to change.

[Benzel]

Where are these divisions in the squad? I keep hearing this and I just don't get it.

[Simon Pieman]

Yep...you put a load of shit on display in the shop window....you wont get people walking in the door.
Fact is.....Henshall,Greer,Paynter,Cox,Morrison,Revell,Marshall...all been released in just over a year...yes we have signed some players...but only to replace what we have sold...but dont kid yourself we have more or better players this season...we dont.
Bad luck and injuries dont get you down the bottom....other factors do.

Henshall was not near the first team...we don't miss him at the moment.
Marshall may have been liked by some but he never performed with any sort of consistency.
Revell was not good enough for us last season. Charlie Austin came in and proved he was better than what we had.
Morrison was never Mr Consistent. He hardly made our defense good this season.
Paynter had decided to leave. There is no way with our crowds that we can afford to give one player £8k a week. Our only mistake is thinking Dossevi could replace him.
Cox gave us two great seasons and deserved his shot at a higher level. He left with dignity and not with the Austin/Beckford-esque lack of class.
Greer is the disappointing one. Never replaced and it was expected of Morrison to step up who couldn't.

[STFC-4-LIFE]

The idea that we lack experience just isn't true. Lucas, Smith, Amankwah, Frampton, Rose, Sheehan, JPM, Timlin, Douglas, Prutton, Pericard, Dossevi.

All have plenty of league experience.

Add to that Danny Wilson - one of the most experienced managers at this level.

for me the problem is Danny has lost the dressing room, there seem to be big divisions in the team and no matter the experience or quality the players are not playing for themselves or the manager. This has to change in order for our results to change.

Can't argue with that, If he has lost the dressing room there's no way back and things won't improve until he has gone.

Some of the players must be really pissed off with Wilson, For example Ferry, He can't even get on the pitch, Players keep getting dropped and switched around and there's way too much tinkering, I bet it has damaged morale and caused divisions in the squad.

[Batch]

Fact is.....Henshall,Greer,Paynter,Cox,Morrison,Revell,Marshall...all been released in just over a year...

To be picky Cox's goals were replaced by Austin and Paynter. Henshall never played for us, Marshall was sub standard and Revell was surplus to requirements (last season).

Its the Paynters and Greers (and Wards) that we haven't replaced. But things seem to go a bit deeper than that. We rarely play a settled side, chopping and changing. Key players from last season like Sheehan, Lucas, JPM and Ferry can't recapture their form of last year or are being frozen out.

In short this has been a dogs dinner of a season.

(But I still think we have looked better in recent home games in that we seem to be forming a solid base to build on. We just need to balance that with a cutting edge that has clearly been missing).

[Arch Stanton]

Is there any evidence of this 'damaged morale' and 'divisions in the squad' though? It keeps getting mentioned, mainly on thisis and I think its now snowballed into the arena of accepted truth.

[Don Rogers Shop]

My main issue is with who he tries replacing players with. He has dropped players left right and centre this season then randomly throws them in and expects them to slot straight back in.Off the top of of my head

Lescinel
Cuthbert
Morrison
ball(scored a couple on the bench the following 4/5 games)
Rose
sheehan
Kennedy
Amankawaah
Timlin
Ferry
McGovern

That's 11 players ffs 6 of them a key factor in last seasons success but for one reason or other Wilson has seen fit to swap and change them week in week out.

Wilson and us fans moan we want some consistency but we won't get that if we swap around every week.

[Don Rogers Shop]

Is there any evidence of this 'damaged morale' and 'divisions in the squad' though? It keeps getting mentioned, mainly on thisis and I think its now snowballed into the arena of accepted truth.

Not really sure what sort of evidence could be provided really although i suppose one win in ten may be enough evidence in terms of damaged morale

[Arch Stanton]

Not really sure what sort of evidence could be provided really although i suppose one win in ten may be enough evidence in terms of damaged morale

Dammit, that wouldnt stand up in a court of law! I need hard facts...

[Oaksey Moonraker]

for me the problem is Danny has lost the dressing room, there seem to be big divisions in the team and no matter the experience or quality the players are not playing for themselves or the manager. This has to change in order for our results to change.

I heard that the unsettled dressing room relates to back to the Charlton away play off game. Wilson tore into Greer for getting sent off and the players couldn't believe he did that after they had battled to get to Wembley. This contributed to the flat performance in the final and that the dressing room hasn't been right since then.

Of course there are other factors, not replacing Greer and Paynter adequately and trying to accommodate all his summer signings Prutton, Ferry, Caddis etc and other players dropping their performance levels on last season. The chopping and changing hasn't helped and has made the inconsistency worse.

[PHIL!!!!]

You came up with a couple of gems today bennett.

Keep it up

I particularly liked the 'YOU'RE WEARING TIGHTS!' comment towards Dickinson, that Bennett said. Made us all chuckle.

Can't beat his 'Fuck off.....purple!' comment from a few weeks ago though....Pah! (You had to be there...)