Swindon v Mansfield official match day thread

[hefty toe]

Quite worried about how the fluency of our play early on in the season has gone.  It's just hoofball now.  We don't have strikers who can hold the ball up so our defence needs to play it out from the back.  I find Brown's persistence in playing Lancashire and Richards pretty odd.  Richards offers absolutely nothing in open play.  He's so slow that opposition centre backs can push right up and he doesn't hold the ball up. 

[Sir red ken]

Quite worried about how the fluency of our play early on in the season has gone.  It's just hoofball now.  We don't have strikers who can hold the ball up so our defence needs to play it out from the back.  I find Brown's persistence in playing Lancashire and Richards pretty odd.  Richards offers absolutely nothing in open play.  He's so slow that opposition centre backs can push right up and he doesn't hold the ball up. 

Hefty toe how dare you state the obvious. PB will not be questioned! Even when your right and he's wrong.

[Reg Smeeton]

  I find Brown's persistence in playing Lancashire and Richards pretty odd.

It's not that odd... you need a couple of old heads to help the kids along. When Bert Head won promotion in 62/63 he had Maurice Owen and Ken McPherson, to help the 8 or so local lads.

Power went for a team of kids and no experience, both in playing and coaching staff a couple of years ago and got badly burned. Had he drafted in Taylor and Richards, rather than Feruz and Dabo we probably wouldn't have gone down; Cobblers didn't, until they lost that experience the following season.

[DiV]

Yes but it’s not much help when the old heads are terrible footballers.
I’m 33 but there is no benefit to putting me in the side for my experience is there?

[Wobbly Bob]

An engrossing game in it's own way and we managed to grind out the 0-0 against the 10 men in the end.

LV looked to be heading towards the referee at the end or one of their players who was near the ref.
Regardless of target or reason, he doesn't appear to have learnt the lesson, which isn't great.
A pity, as he had a good game and kept his first clean sheet of the season.
Wonder if he'll be played now with a view to attracting some interest in January or he might even have agreed to sign the contract?

One goal scored in last 5 league games shows where the ongoing problem has now shifted.
Defence is doing ok, midfield need to pull their fingers out and start finding an accurate through ball.
Woolery for Richards should be the next bit of tinkering for Phil.
PB needs to find his best starting 11 and stick with them.
Trouble is that the squad looks much of a muchness and whoever comes in doesn't look as if they are going to be a significant improvement on the player being replaced. (Richards aside maybe).

Pressure is on PB. Six wins in 24 league games isn't good enough.
I'd give him the January transfer window, but going out to a non league team in the FA Cup should be a sackable offence.

[Peter Venkman]

You really don't like him do you

I think he offers very little now and defensively is a weak link, if he played as a wide midfielder who didn't have to track back then IMO he would be ok, why is he always the last defender back when we are attacking and always gets caught out for pace, something many people have noticed and not just me.

If he had a decent LB behind him doing the running back and actual defending then there may still be a place in the team for him, but he has been very poor this season and nowhere near as good as he was last year.

Its not about not liking a player, I don't not like him, I just don't think he is good enough.

[Reg Smeeton]

I'd give him the January transfer window, but going out to a non league team in the FA Cup should be a sackable offence.

Draw for the Cup is tomorrow.  Think it depends on the opposition and circumstances.... for example we could be without a number of the loan players, and atm there won't be too much difference between us and a top half Conference side. 

For that reason I wouldn't expect us to win, as we haven't against that level opposition in recent years.  Last season Dartford who were going well in Conference South at the time, were more suitable opponents.

[Peter Venkman]

Feared the worst was about to happen when Elsnik squared up to Nelson....

So did I, Nelson is known for his aggression and he went into it keeping his arms down, which impressed me, I love his aggression and defending and think if we could we should try and sign him in January.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Draw for the Cup is tomorrow.  Think it depends on the opposition and circumstances.... for example we could be without a number of the loan players, and atm there won't be too much difference between us and a top half Conference side. 

For that reason I wouldn't expect us to win, as we haven't against that level opposition in recent years.  Last season Dartford who were going well in Conference South at the time, were more suitable opponents.

I see the magic of the cup has got to you, Reg! It seems to matter not who we play, where in the pyramid we happen to be, what sort of form we are in - cups just ain’t for us.

And we used to be so good at it!

[REDBUCK]

I think he offers very little now and defensively is a weak link, if he played as a wide midfielder who didn't have to track back then IMO he would be ok, why is he always the last defender back when we are attacking and always gets caught out for pace, something many people have noticed and not just me.

If he had a decent LB behind him doing the running back and actual defending then there may still be a place in the team for him, but he has been very poor this season and nowhere near as good as he was last year.

Its not about not liking a player, I don't not like him, I just don't think he is good enough.

Well for starters, you can't have a left sided midfielder that doesn't track back how does that help any LB. He plainly isn't always the last defender back when we attack as often the team play goes through him and when  he takes set pieces someone fills in for him. And to say he doesn't defend is non sence, although the backing off from players running at him does worry me.

I agree his distribution from open play and set pieces have been quite often poor this season and last season to some extent and I would say the team rely on him too much, in fact they often look for him even if a more  attacking forward ball is on.

As for not liking him, maybe not but your one line match updates give the impression of a anti Taylor bias and it gives a false view IMHO obviously

[Reg Smeeton]

I see the magic of the cup has got to you, Reg! It seems to matter not who we play, where in the pyramid we happen to be, what sort of form we are in - cups just ain’t for us.

And we used to be so good at it!

A few years back the Beeb used to have a stat in their website on 3rd round day.... top ten winners of cup games by %.  As you'd expect Arsenal, ManU etc were top, but we were in it.

I wasn't too bothered at our demise in recent years as it seemed to coincide with the cup losing its prestige... now though there's a chance of making serious money.  Sometimes you can argue, well we don't need the distraction, if you're a promotion seeking outfit. However this looks an ideal time for a little cup run, we look a mid table outfit, so generating some cup excitement would give the fans a lift, it's what we used to do.

[hefty toe]

It's not that odd... you need a couple of old heads to help the kids along. When Bert Head won promotion in 62/63 he had Maurice Owen and Ken McPherson, to help the 8 or so local lads.

Power went for a team of kids and no experience, both in playing and coaching staff a couple of years ago and got badly burned. Had he drafted in Taylor and Richards, rather than Feruz and Dabo we probably wouldn't have gone down; Cobblers didn't, until they lost that experience the following season.

That's not necessarily true re old heads and you can't say that had we had Taylor and Richards (in their current state) we wouldn't have gone down.  It depends how good the old players are.  Ultimately, taking your logic to an extreme, you could say that in the absence of any old heads we should Phil Brown and Neil McDonald to offer 'experience' on the pitch.  You have to draw the line somewhere.  I would suggest that Richards just isn't good enough anymore.   Have you been to games recently and seen him play?

[Reg Smeeton]

That's not necessarily true re old heads and you can't say that had we had Taylor and Richards (in their current state) we wouldn't have gone down.  It depends how good the old players are.  Ultimately, taking your logic to an extreme, you could say that in the absence of any old heads we should Phil Brown and Neil McDonald to offer 'experience' on the pitch.  You have to draw the line somewhere.  I would suggest that Richards just isn't good enough anymore.   Have you been to games recently and seen him play?

Agree you have to draw a line somewhere, but both Taylor and Richards are contracted for another 6 or so months. Last season which ended 5 months ago, Richards scored 11 in 20 appearances Taylor 6 in 38 and was PotY.  

Armed with that evidence in the situation that Brown inherited, he would have 2 options trust that he could squeeze a bit more out of 2 proven pros, or bin them like what happened to Ward and Harley, where they sit around getting paid to do nothing.

The Ward/Harley situation was helped by the calibre of loan player we were getting from Spurs/Soton at the time, which isn't currently an option.

If Brown had opted for binning, then the budget wouldn't stretch to finding a couple similar experienced replacements, so you'd just have a team of kids, which is what got us to Div 4 in the first place. No manager worth their salt would take the reckless action some on here recommend, you'd need to be a someone like a Luke.... and you can guarantee he'll never manage at FL level again.

[diggers]

The criticism on here seems to focus on Lancashire, Richards and Taylor. I can’t argue with that as all 3 have either been poor or below par based on last season. The thing that bemuses me is how the performances of others seems to go under the radar due to the focus on these 3. I know we all see a different game and that’s the beauty of football that the difference of opinion sparks debate, a forum would be dull as fcuk without it, but yesterday I thought there were worse performances on the pitch than the 3 current scapegoats.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

It doesn’t matter how old a player is or how experienced he may be - he’s either good enough or not. We have better alternatives for Richards and Lancashire.