Swindon v Rochdale match day thread

[inept and tiresome]

could anybody that went tonight, confirm that we were more direct than normal?

If so, is this an admission that pussie football doesn't work?

Well done to the team. I didn't think they had it in them.

[Ginginho]

Great performance from a young and enthusiastic side.

Iandolo, Brophy, Vigs, Smith and Delfouneso were excellent, Murray ran his socks off.

We played with desire, urgency, broke forward with pace and took our chances well.

Great finish by Furlong for the first, superb through ball by Thomas for the 2nd.

Enjoyed that, surprisingly! 😄

[chalkies_shorts]

I didn't see that coming bt that was a cracking performance. 4 at the back and a lot less fucking around at the back made a big difference. Combine that with a midfield that put in challenges, fought for the 2nd ball and had energy and hey presto. Smith was bloody excellent today. Him and iandolo in the first half made a massive difference from the shit served up so far. Both of them, bags of energy, putting their feet in and generally being a pain in the arse with a bit of skill.  Fonz has got an engine on him and good finish for his goal. Furlong looks very strong on the right and a great finish from him. Vigs just keeps getting better. He was a goal every other game fuck up for most of last season but he looks excellent. Nobody had a bad one today.
Life is looking a bit better today and roll on Saturday.

[Batch]

Well, well, well. That was unexpectedly enjoyable, a brilliant win.

Firstly the back 4 were excellent, Thomas has his best game for us that I've seen. But equally importantly the midfield showed some bottle.

It may have been his first league start but Smith showed some bite, Llando ( ) too, in fact all of them competed for the ball in a more physical way than home games of late.

Up front I've talked about the Fonz previously poor goal record. The guy absolutely ran his nuts off tonight for 90 minutes. You couldn't ask for a more committed performance, and he got his reward with a well taken goal running onto the through ball. I dislike one up front, but tonight it worked well. It looked to suit him and he revelled in the role. What do I know!
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Oh yeah, our "mong idiot fans", they must have stayed at home tonight, because although most were fearing the worst there was a general positivity around the place tonight. Amazing what a good performance can do.

Obviously Rochdale had a spell in the second half. Great save from Vigs from the penalty to touch it onto the bar, but we competed well. And when Furlong kicked their player taking a throw in, the retaliation was always going to end in one way if the lino saw it.

Actually to be honest the ref blew for everything, and was a bit of a homer. So we got protection and a few lucky free kicks which helped. But to say he was Rochdale's downfall would be a massive disservice to an excellent team effort.

Have we turned a corner, far too early to say that. But its a good night for sure.

If it were me, 4 at the back stays. Being more direct stays.  Kassim can watch and wait to earn his place back. Ditto Branco. They've earned it.

[FreddySTFC!]

Any news on the whereabouts of BOO?

[Batch]

Any news on the whereabouts of BOO?

I thought he was injured (unspecified)?

He posted on twitter post match

Brandon O.O
‏@brandon3_O

Solid performance from the boys tonight🔥good win! #stfc

[Tails]

Very surprised. Everyone fought hard to get the ball back and the effort was rewarded. Murray and Fonz never stopped chasing. Smith equally so. You could tell though as they looked knackered after 65 mins so fitness is clesrly still an issue.

Rochdale are technically terrible. Very much a kick and rush team which we have really struggled with this season so nice to see us deal with it and get a very good win against a team in form.

Use it to kick on now!

[suttonred]

That is a nice piece on him, never heard of him before TBH.

Manly Utd always makes me chuckle

Nice place Manly, great ferry ride from Sydney Harbour. Not heard of him before either, better do a bit of utubbing or whatever it is.

[theakston2k]

Would be foolish to change from 4-5-1 after tonight, clearly the right system for our players, left the in form team in the league resorting to trying to kick lumps out of us.
Ultimately as well as Thomas has played if we get Jones back in alongside Thompson to dominate in the air a little more then we suddenly look a much more solid unit with the 4 and seems to suit Thompson as well. Almost back to the McCormack/Flint style that worked well under PDC.
Kasim is now the big question mark, tonight highlighted to me how much he slows the game down as without him things did move forward a lot quicker. As good a technical player he is, he's very difficult to fit in a team.

Finally said it before and will say it again Vigs is best keeper in the league by a mile and as a pure keeper i.e. Shot stopping and command of his box is in my opinion better than Fods, agility wise Vigs is second to none. Obviously Fods had good distribution as well which is where Vigs needs work.

[Quagmire]

Took a mate today who hasn't been for a couple of years, on the way up I told him to expect a slow paced, boring game, with a defensive error gifting Rochdale a goal or 2, I really sold it to him.
Brilliant to be proved wrong, great performance, everyone worked hard, especially Delfounseo. Good to see Smith and Iandolo get stuck in.
My only criticism would be there were probably a couple of times an earlier pass would have created a 1 on 1 opportunity.
Hopefully Williams keeps the same system this weekend, keep Kasim on the bench. It would be nice to get a few wins on the bounce.
Vigeroux is getting better and better.
A good evening.

[Super Hans]

Forgot what a home league win feels like. Great effort from the boys.

Same again Saturday would be fantastic.

Pleased for Fonz. Worked hard every time I've seen him with his runs off the defence never paying dividends as we never tried to play him in with our tendency to over complicate.

[WEBBERhyde]

Very satisfying win. No one had an average or below game.

Vig's form is off the chart at the moment.

Chalkie's knows what he's doing Saturday morning now.

[Super Hans]

Ajose unused sub tonight...get him back to the only club he appears to do well at.

[johnritsons toupe]

Shame its taken massive pressure from the supporters to bring about the changes that Williams made to the formation and style of play tonight, but better than that than a continuation of the dross that has been served up for so long.

Good solid performance tonight. We looked comfortable in all areas and beat an outfit that have been doing the business for weeks on the trot, so it's a good night for all.

[nigel grays a postie]

Hadn't clicked till saw bbc stats that we went whole gamw with no corners. Also that a free kick led to a goal. Well finished by Nathan T from good Thomas free kick.  Delfonso was superb tonight. Some superb skill and absolutely worked his nuts off. After Furlongs neat finish opened the scoring it was like watching a different team. You could literally see the confidence flooding back. Not sure whether we looked less like a team who had lost the last 4 league games at home than they looked like a team who had won the last 7 but after Vigs saved his 2nd penalty in 4 days they really lost it. One of those rare days when things went for rather than against us but after a slightly nervy start a thoroughly deserved 3 points