Swindon Town FC vs Crawley Town FC Official Matchday Thread

[THE FLASH]

We just lacked any aggression after our goal back. I'm sure if we had a right good goal you would of seen a flurry of free kicks or even a penalty.....its was tip tap tip tap...pass, pass and then lose pocession. A good fucking old fashioned sprint to the line and a cut back would of yielded a bit more against a team who haven't won away since the opening day.

If teams want to sit back, you have to make them commit into tackles and use more width to attack them. We just plodded on and hoped for something to happen.

Cooper is right In that we played well. That is with all our passing but there wasn't enough threat in the final third to make them panic.

Crawley just let us run about passing made a tackle and tried a quick break....failed and then started again.

I'm sure Crawley would of been delighted with a point.....the last goal was a right result for them.

[Batch]

we've given away two soft goals and had very little in the way of making clear chances.

that isn't playing well.

[theakston2k]

Cooper is right In that we played well. That is with all our passing

This is becoming my major gripe. Does having the majority of possession and just the passing the ball about with no real threat really constitute playing well. I think some, Cooper included are getting blinded by stats, passing and possession isn't the be all and end all if you don't create anything. The majority of our possession yesterday was at walking pace between the centre backs or in the middle so just wasted really.

[CalRed45]

I can't help but feeling that if we are going to do it, it has to be this season. This is one of the best chances we have had in a long while and with the sort of teams that might be coming down next season, can see Wigan doing a Wolves and walking it.

[Gnasher]

We just lacked any aggression after our goal back. I'm sure if we had a right good goal you would of seen a flurry of free kicks or even a penalty.....its was tip tap tip tap...pass, pass and then lose pocession. A good fucking old fashioned sprint to the line and a cut back would of yielded a bit more against a team who haven't won away since the opening day.

I don't think it helped that the fans were as quiet as church mice after we scored. It was the best atmosphere for months at the start of the 2nd half, the players looked motivated, we scored, then silence. Very odd.

[Oaksey Moonraker]

we've given away two soft goals and had very little in the way of making clear chances.

that isn't playing well.

We have started giving away 2 goals a game since Sheff Utd and that's the main problem and at least a goal a game has been from sloppy passes out from the back or back passes, Nathan being the main culprit. When we were dominating teams and blitzing them away with goals the games were killed off quickly but at the moment we aren't taking the chances we were to blow teams away.

If we can cut those out then we'll be alright. We went through a similar spell in October and then a clean sheet against Preston got us a win and we pushed on from there. Need to grind out a clean sheet on Tuesday and go again.

[WEBBERhyde]

Yup.

Would you stick with Smith up top too?

I think I would, or give Beaker a run. Save Hylton as an impact sub at 60 mins if things aren't working out, or just to rip the legs off the oppos back line if we are ahead. Looked very handy when he came on yesterday.

I can't understand why we are so reluctant to try and slide a ball through the oppos defence or a little knock over the top. The moment we did try it Willo was on to the ball in a flash and slotted it away nicely. He nearly got one at the end of the first half too after a ball was put between the centre back and left back, he just didn't get enough on it to beat the keeper.
I wouldn't expect it to come off all the time at all, but at least it has potential to cause mistakes and chaos for the opposition. We've seen Willo out muscle and out run defenders that have got their legs in a tangle after having to turn towards their keeper plenty of times. I'm sure hyltons pace will case similar issues for defenders too.

Surely from a defensive perspective that's a much more difficult way of defending compared to being able to face up to the attackers and organise yourself whilst they try and jink past a couple of midfielders or wing backs.
Undoubtedly we'd lose the ball more, but I don't think our defending from open play is our main worry.
I really don't think we've become a bunch of shit players over night or have lost our bottle already. Plenty of time to refocus and pull it back. Hopefully getting Massimo back on Tuesday will see a few more moves and balls through the heart of the opposition defence. Although Bradford will be tough...very tough.

[RWB Robin]

I made the choice to come over for this one rather than Tuesday, thinking we should score 4 or 5.  Hahaha.  1st half was awful, as everyone has said.  I enjoyed the 2nd half.  Gladwin was actually a lot better on the wing, Byrne and Stephens were working well, and there was actually a bit of running to the line and crossing.  I was sitting right in line for the free kick which led to their 2nd, and it simply wasn't a foul.  In the 1st half it seemed like the sun was getting in the ref's eyes the whole time, and he blew up just in case (and that affected both teams to be fair).  No such excuse could be made in the 2nd half...the linesman was close by and didn't signal... But Crawley took the kick quickly and our defence were left behind, so whoever it was who scored was virtually on his own in the 18yard area.

The two problems to me (and they have been recurring throughout the season) seem to me to be:

a)  The final third.  I had a neutral visitor beside me, who came to the Chesterfield game and said it was the best he had seen for a long time.  His judgement was that the Smith/Williams pairing does not provide enough movement off the ball...and in the 1st half it was noticeable that no-one was getting into space around the edge of the area.  The only one who did from time to time was Swift, and he seems to have no idea what to do with the ball except to run up and down beating players, until he doesn't!!  (Reminds me rather of a more skillful Luke Rooney) That was complemented by Toffo having his worst game that I've seen.  Once Williams woke up in the 2nd half and Stephens started playing right through the field, it got so much better.

b)  We do not seem to have any answers (and sometimes not even any questions to ask) for teams who have no intention of trying to win.  The ones who come to play football and to win, we can and do do well against, because there is space to play. 

[Ironside]

I've had a chuckle and even an 'oh my God what the fuck is he talking about' moment reading this.
 
We're Swindon, we will fuck up a good position in the division, whether you like it or not. Been there, done it.

We have no right to get promotion, we earn it or eat shit.

Swindon Town will always do whatever we do, whether that be promotion or relegation, in the most painful, long drawn out process possible.

Our natural level is division three whether you like it or not. We could be division 2 but facilities are important and are a whole different conversation.

We're having a good season. It's not over. Stop coming across like self entitled Leeds fans.

I still believe we are well in the mix for automatic promotion and until it's mathematically impossible, you can fuck off.

[kerry red]

There does appear to be a sense on here that failure to make the autos means the end of the promotion dream.

The POs have already been dismissed as a route to the Championship - God knows why.

Someone has to win them!

[Reg Smeeton]

There does appear to be a sense on here that failure to make the autos means the end of the promotion dream.

The POs have already been dismissed as a route to the Championship - God knows why.

Someone has to win them!

The last 3 PO efforts have seen our fans emotionally scared....therefore hardly surprising that nobody wants them.   Unless our form recovers the players will ensure no trauma anyway, by missing out.

[kerry red]

Same goes for Blades, Preston and MK - serial PO bottlers.

At least we have tasted success via the POs.

I honestly cannot envisage us remaining so poor as to miss out on the POs at least

[4D]

We have great players who can shred defences, sometimes we need to "go for it " and be more direct. If that is what will win us the game then just do it.

[Reg Smeeton]

Same goes for Blades, Preston and MK - serial PO bottlers.

At least we have tasted success via the POs.

I honestly cannot envisage us remaining so poor as to miss out on the POs at least

2 years ago, we were top with 14 games to go....just made the last PO spot, with 16 more points accumulated, something similar would give us 73, maybe enough, that season we ended on 74.

I use it as an example of what can happen, when for whatever reason your form drops off....that was 4 wins 4 draws and 6 defeats.....that is averagely shit, we're easily capable of worse atm.

[Abrahammer]

Past playoff success/failure will have zero effect on the current players, mangers, etc. The only people the history affects are the fans who think what happened in the past with a totally different group of players matters in the slightest.

Therefore if we end up in the playoffs the past history will have little, if any, effect on what happens on the pitch for us and all the others teams involved.