Swindon Town v Macclesfield Town official match day thread

[Flashheart]

Said without a hint of irony.

[FreddySTFC!]

Said without a hint of irony.

He's made a forum career out of raking over old coals. His rake must be like Triggers broom.

[Nemo]

He probably has no coles left to rake over because Thatcher closed the mines (sorry)

[pauld]

Now I've calmed down a bit, some things I was proper chuffed about today:

1) We look like a side that actually has some genuine skill. At times today we played some cracking football, of the kind I didn't expect to see in League 2
2) It says a huge amount about the mentality of the team that having got back to 2-2 with a minute or so left, they didn't just hold on, they went for the winner. That bodes really well
3) I think there's a lot more to come from Adebayo and he could be a very exciting player for us this season
4) The sweet sweet justice of the Poison Dwarf Arthur conceding the winning penalty. After we went 2-1 down, I'd joked that we'd equalise and then him score an og for our winner. Not quite, but that was close enough

And a couple of moans/concerns
1) Lancashire - don't like scapegoating a player, it happens far too often here, but he looks the weak link in defence. Wouldn't have been surprised to see him leave, if we'd managed to get a decent CB in, but instead he's captain?
2) Why was Alzate subbed off when he was? Looked our best player until then and we seemed to lose impetus when he went off
tbf, both the above are Brown's decision and his prerogative to make them. Given he sees these players every day in training and I don't, and that the positives hugely outweigh the concerns, I'd be minded to suspect he knows what he's doing and I'm being a bit dim

[Reg Smeeton]

Now I've calmed down a bit, some things I was proper chuffed about today:

1) We look like a side that actually has some genuine skill. At times today we played some cracking football, of the kind I didn't expect to see in League 2
2) It says a huge amount about the mentality of the team that having got back to 2-2 with a minute or so left, they didn't just hold on, they went for the winner. That bodes really well
3) I think there's a lot more to come from Adebayo and he could be a very exciting player for us this season

And a couple of moans/concerns
1) Lancashire - don't like scapegoating a player, it happens far too often here, but he looks the weak link in defence. Wouldn't have been surprised to see him leave, if we'd managed to get a decent CB in, but instead he's captain?
2) Why was Alzate subbed off when he was? Looked our best player until then and we seemed to lose impetus when he went off
tbf, both the above are Brown's decision and his prerogative to make them. Given he sees these players every day in training and I don't, and that the positives hugely outweigh the concerns, I'd be minded to suspect he knows what he's doing and I'm being a bit dim

Assumed Alzate, might have had a niggle or been struggling a bit with the heat, only a kid.  Clearly likes a ball at his feet. Lancashire should be good enough for Div 4, his injury sounded dodgy, what with being advised to retire, so I'd imagine might take him a while to get fully confident again.

[RedRag]

Never. In. Doubt.  

[pauld]

Assumed Alzate, might have had a niggle or been struggling a bit with the heat, only a kid.  Clearly likes a ball at his feet. Lancashire should be good enough for Div 4, his injury sounded dodgy, what with being advised to retire, so I'd imagine might take him a while to get fully confident again.

Yeah, probably right on both counts, although Alzate seemed to be darting about well enough just before he was taken off, but you're probably right. Like I say, me being dim

[Flashheart]

Oh, and a 7k+ attendance today. A promising improvement over the end of last season, more games like that should hopefully encourage more to return as well.

[Batch]

Away fan view:

https://fansonline.net/macclesfieldtown/mb/view.php?id=182643

Bad result, though a mostly enjoyable game. I've not seen any of pre season, so this was my first time seeing the new lads. We always looked the underdogs but gave a decent account of ourselves for about 101 minutes of the 104 played by my count. I don't recall ever seeing a game with so much injury time - at least 14 mins in total.

Swindon scored three, hit the bar four times, and Taylor made a couple of great saves in the first half. It could've been a cricket score. I'm not being harsh, but both sides looked at their best when attacking rather than defending.

Swindon pretty much always looked dangerous, had most of the ball, and were quicker and stronger in most positions.

Only Taylor kept the score 0-0 at half time, making a couple of great last ditch saves.

Quick free kick from Danny W to Koby Arthur saw us take the lead straight after HT. But then we went to sleep, allowed Swindon to attack straight away down he right, and conceded immediately after scoring.

Our 2nd was an error by Swindon's goalkeeper. Caught messing about by Danny W and Arthur, who chipped in over the keeper's head. Swindon GK really deserves a special mention. Absolute rubbish. Couldn't kick, and couldn't save even tame shots without putting it out for a corner. Not comfortable in possession. At fault for both our goals. Didn't seem like a professional really. If he's their number 1 and regularly plays like that, then any team has a chance against Swindon.

Credit to Whit and Arthur though. We looked better 2nd half when Whitaker was further forward and closer to Smith and Arthur.

At 2-1 up Swindon were always going to throw the kitchen sink at us. The first penalty seemed controversial at the time but I've just watched it back on Sky and it seems pretty nailed.

Second penalty looked to me like Arthur made a rash challenge. Lack of composure.

On the whole, a few encouraging signs though also a few negatives.

We gave a big scare, away from home, to a side that will be aiming to go up this year.

We took our best chances, and created a few more that on another day could've gone in.

Koby Arthur - bit of an enigma. Not really in the game 1st half. Took his first goal well and then looked well up for it. His 2nd was lovely finish. But after that he didn't make great use of the ball. Is he really a winger? looks like a he struggles to know what to do with the ball when in a good position out wide.

Grimes and Kelleher - looked a bit shaky, especially in possession. Could be just down to being a new pairing. Though they did have a lot to do today. Generally in defence we looked a bit slow.

Smith - won his headers mostly, some good touches, didn't get much chance to threaten goal.

Subs - A lot of people will probably say we lost this because Yates brought Lowe on for Rose and played him in midfield. I don't agree with that. I do think centre mid looked a weak point at times though.

We gave the ball away too easily in midfield at times. Also lacked a bit of composure in defence.

Good performances from Danny W, Taylor, Fitz, Marsh. Considering the summer we've had, if this teams gels a bit more, we can stay up.

Overall we need to write this one off - 98th minute penalties aren't going to happen every week - and take the positives. I'd like to see Lloyd start assuming he's fit.

Swindon seem to have a bit of that big time charlie syndrome you see in clubs that used to be much higher up the leagues. We don't belong here, etc. They look about top half L2 level to me.

We know this season will be hard and staying up will be a good result. On today's showing we can do that. I didn't expect a win today. The way we lost shows how tough things may be. Not every team will have the resources Swindon have, and all of them have to come to the Moss.

BIB - are we? I guess we are a bit, I don't feel we belong in Div 4, but we most certainly deserve to be there, and we most certainly will need to deserve to get out.

[Batch]

Oh, and I didn't really notice Lancashire being that dodgy. But I'm not very observant.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

The added time was because of water breaks in addition to the usual extra. 3mins is standard, so add on 2for water and there’s your 5minutes. The first penalty took an age to sort out - another 2-3 mins. A couple of theirs went down like a sack of shit for no good reason, too.

Next week will give a decent indication to our worth - Lincoln were not particularly impressive today and Cobblers thought they deserved 3 or 4 goals.

And for whatever faults Vigs may have, I’d still take him over RCC any day.

[horlock07]

Oh, and a 7k+ attendance today. A promising improvement over the end of last season, more games like that should hopefully encourage more to return as well.

Must have been a relief for the club, what with so many long standing supporters making a big song and dance vowing to stay away.... Perhaps it's not like the holocaust after all? 😕

[Flashheart]

Vigs wasn't that bad. I think his fuck-up rattled him and he did have a 15-20 minute spell when his distribution was shot, but he wasn't that bad.

[Batch]

Vigs wasn't that bad. I think his fuck-up rattled him and he did have a 15-20 minute spell when his distribution was shot, but he wasn't that bad.

Blunder aside his handling and shot stopping was absolutely fine. His distribution wasn't best and dissapointed me a bit. Mainly because v Pompey he was pinging it about like Beckenbauer from the back.

[Sippo]

So first game in, are we fucked?

Honest opinions please.

Win is a win surely?