Swindon Town vs Forest Green Rovers Official Matchday Thread

[Pax Romana]

That was utterly tedious.  Zero entertainment value.

Hope their guy is ok.  I know people are cautious with a head injury but he lay very still for a long time.

[pauld]

That goal deserved to win that game - it was dreadful with absolutely zero football to it, like the game. That was bad.

[Legends-Lounge]

That was utterly tedious.  Zero entertainment value.

Hope their guy is ok.  I know people are cautious with a head injury but he lay very still for a long time.

I agree entirely. A mixture of hoofball meets keeps uppy meets kick boxing meets tag wrestling (70’s style) and a little bit of association football thrown in.

[Legends-Lounge]

That goal deserved to win that game - it was dreadful with absolutely zero football to it, like the game. That was bad.

In all fairness if their keeper hadn’t mad two great saves then 2 or 3 nil would not have been unfair. However, he did and 1-0 it was with as you say a goal that summed up the game.

[Ells]

In all fairness if their keeper hadn’t mad two great saves then 2 or 3 nil would not have been unfair. However, he did and 1-0 it was with as you say a goal that summed up the game.

Not to mention the penalty we should have had!

[BambooToTheFuture]

Just wanted to write a medium overview of the current state of things, based on stats only. We know the "football" is turgid in the main but Town just need to get out of this rubbish division. If you want to skip my analysis, a paragraph in bold can be found at the conclusion of this.

Below is the Town last five since Dec 23rd:

23/12 Crewe Alexandra 0 Swindon Town 3
26/12 Swindon Town 0 Luton Town 5
29/12 Swindon Town 1 Notts County 0
01/01 Barnet 1 Swindon Town 2
13/01 Swindon Town 1 Forest Green Rovers 0

Luton aside (who subsequently got beat 2-0 at Chesterfield today), 3 clean sheets, 2 HOME wins, 3 wins on the spin. 2.25 pts per game form. Can we say Town have handled the festive period quite well? Can we say Town have turned the pre christmas corner?

With Coventry up next that becomes a massive game to break back in to the top seven. I hate games in hand but the closer that gets and if the gap has been closed, that match against Accrington becomes even more crunch. A proverbial six-pointer. Town could well be looking to switch places with the "Milk chuggers" come Feb 6th. What can we realistically expect to see, points wise between now and then? This is an extremely volatile league with teams beating teams all over the place. There are very few trends other than volatile results. FWIW, basing on current form, here follows my "reserved prediction" on the next four matches.

20/01 Coventry Away ~ Lose
27/01 Crewe Home ~ Win
30/01 Stevenage Away ~ Win
03/02 Lincoln Away ~ Draw

7pts from 4 would put us on 51pts

Accrington also have three wins on the spin but in the last five, have lost the previous two. They play;

20/01 Vale Home ~ Win
27/01 Crawley Away ~ Lose
03/02 Stevenage Home ~ Win

6pts from 3 would put them on 52pts.

Feb 6th could be an absolute battle for automatic spot.

Why am I concentrating and putting so much emphasis on this "game in hand"? Well we're the two teams in automatic contention to have three league wins on the spin, currently. Crawley also have identical form to Town but they aren't quite in contention, however they could sneak a play-off position if they continue. Similarly, Accrington don't do many Draws too.
Conversely, I think the outcome on Feb 6th will be a score draw, possibly 1-1. Leaving Accringtron in 3rd and Town in 4th.

[normy]

The defence played very well today, and usually everybody tackled back well. I thought the midfield/ attack did a lot of good hard approach work but nearly always the final ball was poor. Despite that two very good saves from the FGR keeper kept the score down for them, they never had a decent shot. A well deserved win and there was a little bit of football at times. Woollery was very fast and dangerous, worked very hard,  and he was my MOM although his finishing did not come off today, there's potentially a very good player in there.  

[Reg Smeeton]

2-0 win to set us up nicely for Coventry next week

An extra goal would have been good to settle the nerves.  I don't get the negativity from some... just imagine how you'd feel if we hadn't beaten FGR twice. Arguably an historic low point... we didn't lose  

To show the current nature of Div 4, Cov dropped from the autos out of the PO's on the back of losing at Exeter.  One thing about the Ricoh atm is that because of the egg chasers, the pitch is not very good.  Hopefully his should suit us, looking at their goals for and against record, it should be attritional, unlike sometimes in the past we're capable of dealing with this.

[pauld]

We know the "football" is turgid in the main but Town just need to get out of this rubbish division.

Completely agree. Much though I hated watching the way we played today, I will take a whole season of that right now if it gets us out of L2.

[Legends-Lounge]

Not to mention the penalty we should have had!

Indeed. Quality referee today.....

[RobertT]

An extra goal would have been good to settle the nerves.  I don't get the negativity from some... just imagine how you'd feel if we hadn't beaten FGR twice. Arguably an historic low point... we didn't lose  

To show the current nature of Div 4, Cov dropped from the autos out of the PO's on the back of losing at Exeter.  One thing about the Ricoh atm is that because of the egg chasers, the pitch is not very good.  Hopefully his should suit us, looking at their goals for and against record, it should be attritional, unlike sometimes in the past we're capable of dealing with this.

Not sure what negativity you see?  The game was shit, played by two shit teams one of which was shitter and would have probably struggled to create a chance given another 90 minutes.

That's not being negative, because we won, and we improved in the chase for promotion, something I believe will be very possible even allowing for the shit football.

On the other hand, you'll be convincing everyone soon that we are just a loss a way from being drawn into a battle for the clubs League status.

It is entirely possible to be Positive about the clubs probable direction points wise and also hate the football being provided in doing so.  This season IS about getting back up straight away, for that we have sold our soul and it can feel a little dirty, but we'll all take it in June.

[RobertT]

oh, and I think everyone agrees we deserved to win.

[ferret]

As suggested above, we were worth the win, but that really isn’t saying much. A bit like FGR away. They’re lucky not to be adrift.

Mullin made his usual positive impact, he gets a very raw deal out of Flitcroft.

The most frustrating thing for me is that Flitcroft cannot see beyond a result. Against Notts, fair play, 3-5-2 was ideal and helped to deal with their big men up front such as Stead. But I really don’t think it’s the right call today. I recall Coventry having some pace and width, so you have to wonder whether it’s the right call up there - Robertson got skinned alive when we played them here. But I think Flitcroft is too blind to consider changing anything on the back of a win. I hope I’m wrong.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Here’s a stat. Only Luton have won more games than us this season.

[Quagmire]

My first game since Newport and I actually quite enjoyed it. I thought both wing backs were good, also thought Woolery and Anderson played well.
Thought Norris and Dunne were poor again, they would be 2 positions I would be trying to strengthen alongside another centre half.