The Opponent: Franchise FC
Since their club robbing status began some 10 odd years ago we have met this lot on 16 occasions in total, the record between us reads like this. Won 6 Lost 6 Drawn 4, Scored 18, Conceded 18. I’m sick of the sight of this parody of a football club, their mentality of “no one likes us, we don’t care” is cringeworthy and to top it all off, Milton Keynes is a cunthole full of cunts. The most exciting things that have happened in MK in the last 48 hours? Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, paid a visit to some purple rinse coffee morning and a new 24/7 drive thru Starbucks has just opened!
Former STFC trainee and now the current Chubster in charge of Franchise Karl Robinson has quite a lot to say about the game and Swindon in general - “This is a cup final. What a ding-dong of a game. We have put ourselves in a position to go and beat Swindon at the County Ground. It could be our biggest win of the season. It’s a massive afternoon. With Walsall playing Wolves - if we win, we could go seventh. What an incentive that is, one place outside the play-offs. And if we do, we’ve got to have a serious look as a football club - do we bring players in and do we go for this? It’s as simple as that.”
He goes on to say, ““Swindon has a special place in my heart because it’s where I grew up, I’m going to meet the family I lived with on Friday, I’ve not seen them for many years. I got signed when I was 15, and I lived there for three years as a YTS and a young professional, but I got injured and didn’t play for a long time. Some people there really looked after me. For a young boy from Liverpool, not to play football for 13 months was very difficult, but they helped me through it. It’ll be nice to see them. One of them is my ex-youth team manager’s wife, and the people from the digs. It’ll be nice because I’ve still got some of my best friends in Swindon. I always enjoy going there. The results haven’t been overly favourable, if I’m being honest. It’s a nice place for me, but it’s a difficult place for the club. But regardless of my feelings, they’ll have no relevance come 3pm. They’re very similar to us, they’re very unpredictable, they can blow teams away. We know how difficult it’ll be, and the County Ground is a tough place to go”.
Sad thing is Karl, you are still the manager of Franchise.
Weather or not? – Phew what a scorcher, well maybe not quite that hot but looking good none the less. Highs of 13 degrees today, bit grey first thing but the sun is going to burn through the clouds to give us a decent dry day.
Where the opposition gather – http://concreteroundabout.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10124The other one, moocamp.com proudly has the home page banner reading, “Were keeping The Dons – Get Over It”. Er, no, Fuck off.
Last 6 – WWDLWL (2 away wins out of 3, currently 8th).
They have served us both – Paul Ince, Ryan Harley, Gareth Edds, Danny Wilson, Sean Off To A Bigger Club O’Hanlon, Alan Navarro, Albert Jarrett, Jimmy Gilligan, Paul Mitchel, Dave Hockaday, Dave Partridge, Sol Davis, John Paul McGovern, Junior Lewis, Anthony McNamee
The Odds – Swindon 8/5 Draw 12/5 Franchise 7/4 Michael Smith is as short as 9/2with Skybet for the first goal, pretty poor value when there are better prices elsewhere. McLeod and Bowditch are both 6/1 to open the scoring.
The Son Says – Plumped for a 2-0 home victory, his confidence in our defending is admirable.
The Prediction – I’m confident, no idea why but I’m backing us to crush them 2-1 with goals from Smith and Tijane Reis. Will be interesting to see who becomes the early runner for March scapegoat of the month. 7’433 in attendance with 278 franchisees and 1 drum.
And Finally – in 16 meetings between Swindon Town and the Franchise Club Robbers there has never been a single penalty.
