Swindon Town v Rochdale Matchday Thread

[Ells]

What the f is the point in watching football if you've already decided on some sort of statistical threshold for success? I can't think of anything more boring.

Sport is supposed to be unpredictable, and Blatter/s aside, it usually is. Surely that's the whole point. I'm happy when we win, I'm not consulting a spreadsheet.

[THE FLASH]

Haven't read back.

A win is a win....after the shit luck we have had... I'll take that today.

Should really of destroyed them....fluffed chances and in the end we hung on.

Cant bear Rodgers but he had a great game last week, so disappointed to see him dropped for Kasim.

Super John went a bit missing today, I think he should of gone off for Hylton.

Special mention to the utter shit officials whose only praise is that they were consistently bad for both sides.....obvious free kicks being ignored.

Roll on Shrewsbury. Four in four?!

We're going up as fucking Champions!!!!

[Flashheart]

We're going up as fucking Champions!!!!

FUCK YEAH!

[Frigby Daser]

Job done today. One of those wins that we'll look back on when we go up and say that we had to win ugly sometimes too.

Joking aside, if you discount their goal and Andrew's miss, they didn't trouble us. We could have had more - Gladwin should have buried his chance after his run in the second half. Obika should have scored from a similar position. I thought the back four looked comfortable, Robert deserved his MoTM and Kasim did put himself about, even if we didn't quite see the 2014/15 version (who wouldn't have played the through ball to Calvin Andrew, for example). Very quiet performances (at least on the ball) from Louis T and Ajose. Maybe there is something in what Ling said at the end - we were poor on the ball, but a lot better off it than we have been. That goes largely unseen.

Most importantly though, the first replacement of the floodlight lamps since 1992 (apparently) - maybe they looked at them shortly after that Tranmere game. The middle of the pitch was a lot brighter. It's just either end that has stayed in the gloom. Maybe they'll replace the rest of the lamps in 2038.

[Exiled Bob]

Blimey, their manager wasn't happy with the referee was he?

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/35013733

Then again he said we were an outstanding team so what does he know.....

[Flashheart]

I had a look at the Rochdale forum earlier and I think they all agreed it was a straight red, and that their manager was wrong for thinking otherwise.

[singingiiiffy]

Job done today. One of those wins that we'll look back on when we go up and say that we had to win ugly sometimes too.

Joking aside, if you discount their goal and Andrew's miss, they didn't trouble us. We could have had more - Gladwin should have buried his chance after his run in the second half. Obika should have scored from a similar position. I thought the back four looked comfortable, Robert deserved his MoTM and Kasim did put himself about, even if we didn't quite see the 2014/15 version (who wouldn't have played the through ball to Calvin Andrew, for example). Very quiet performances (at least on the ball) from Louis T and Ajose. Maybe there is something in what Ling said at the end - we were poor on the ball, but a lot better off it than we have been. That goes largely unseen.

Most importantly though, the first replacement of the floodlight lamps since 1992 (apparently) - maybe they looked at them shortly after that Tranmere game. The middle of the pitch was a lot brighter. It's just either end that has stayed in the gloom. Maybe they'll replace the rest of the lamps in 2038.

Thankfully I saw the game like someone else. Also agreeing with the off the ball work. 2nd half we chased absolutely everything and forced them into mistakes time and time again. I lost count how many times we either intercepted, tackled or forced them into a panic long ball which went out for a goal kick. The lack of tenacity drives me up the wall but today could not fault it and everyone even kasim put in a shift.

[Ells]

Btw, don't know if it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but what was said when Andrew came on? "Don't know who that is"? Or something? Decent.

[joteddyred]

Btw, don't know if it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but what was said when Andrew came on? "Don't know who that is"? Or something? Decent.

He said, "I don't know who's come off".

We made hard going of things in the second half, but 3 points is all that matters.

[Skinny Pete]

During that run of defeats if we had only managed to be poor instead of abysmal we would be in shouting distance of the POs.

As it stands the Jan window will be important for us. Need a permanent CF - love it to be Wes, but doubtful - sign El Abd on permanent, bin a couple of loanees and try and get Jordan Stewart some game time.

We're still not great but it'll do for mid table

[Jimmy Glass is an Alien]

So in summary of the last few pages, we're challenging for the play offs but also not clear of relegation. We played poorly, but played well against the elements. Have I missed anything else?

[Oaksey Moonraker]

To be fair, if Burton were called Wolves/Norwich/or even dare I say City (ok maybe a step too far) then we'd probably be saying what a good team they are. They're 5 points clear so deserve a bit of credit. Ok, they might not stay there but have to give them credit for what they've done so far. Stuffing the Pikey's today shouldn't be sniffed at either.

It would be hilarious from a Sheffield Utd perspective if young Nigel took Burton up from here. Mind you his 'long standing media commitments' prevented him from taking charge yesterday???

[Red and Proud]

At the end of the season this result maybe largely forgotten. Even the best teams in the PL win "ugly" or have "lucky" wins. Whoever the team is the consistently successful teams mix it up during the season with the results they get and the manner in which they were achieved. As has been said it's 3 points. Three more towards the magic 50 to avoid the drop. Lets face it before Ling took over the doomsters amongst us were the most verciferous,mnow hopefully you can breath a bit more easily.

[leftside]

For much of the second half we were better without the ball than with it, which in a way isn't that worrying when you have a lead.

Really frustrating giving the ball away so readily when it looked as though we were capable of scoring a third.

Kasim had a very good game and got stuck in, but nearly blew it with a lazy backwards pass towards the end.

Pleased that Barry is looking more like a div 3 player.

Another three points and importantly putting another side between us and the relegation zone. Feeling a lot more positive than a few weeks ago, and thankfully this division is full of average to rubbish teams this season.

[BruceChatwin]

Building a solid base and making us difficult to beat was always the priority when Ling came in. Fluid attacking play can wait until we've built a safer cushion for ourselves from the bottom of the table.

Off-the-ball movement when we don't have the ball has definitely been a vast improvement, though off-the-ball movement when we do have the ball still has a long way to go.

For some reason, I've noticed, whenever we start to pass it around defence, all our midfielders and forwards drift irresistibly away to line up like statues along the opposition back-line.