Swindon v Notts County pre match chat and match day thread

[Sir red ken]

Maybe Sol Campbell is actually a good manager.

Great job, they were nearly dead and buried

Better than flip flop.

[Wobbly Bob]

Good to finish with a win.

Not keen on that ref.
Not every bit of physical contact has to be given as a foul.

[pauld]

Good to finish with a win.

Not keen on that ref.
Not every bit of physical contact has to be given as a foul.

He looked like he was just trying to give County every chance to stay up until it was clearly beyond them, then started giving us a couple of soft free kicks as counterbalance.

Feel really sorry for the Notts County fans, no sympathy whatever for the team who got exactly what they deserved today and if they've played like that all season, what they deserve from the season. Real shame for the club though, much rather it was Macclesfield who are a proper non-league team

[pauld]

Oh and WTF was that about playing in their away kit? Their last game in the Football League and they don't even wear their historic black and white kit. Says it all.

[Red Frog]

Oh and WTF was that about playing in their away kit? Their last game in the Football League and they don't even wear their historic black and white kit. Says it all.

Thought exactly the same.

[Reg Smeeton]

So what did we learn today?

Nothing much, that wasn't already known.... it does put the lid on a few things though.  I wouldn't say a disappointing season, as that would imply expectations in the first place.

So for example... the recruitment and pre season, seemed typical muddled, in keping with the Power era, suggestive of a vague hope for 7th place, rather than a strategy for winning the league.

That needs to change, and at least Wellens appears to recognise that, as to whether he can do anything about it is moot... I note the deadline for recruitment between Div 3 and 4 has been extended until the end of August for next year.

The home form continues to be an issue, to which Wellens hasn't fully found a convincing answer, even though the wins at Franchise, Bury, and Tranny were suggestive of perhaps a side developing, which proved a false dawn.

Back in Nov when PB went and Wellens came in, I flagged up how stats showed how difficult it is after about 17 games to move too many slots up the league... we were 17th and finished 13th, consistent with Wellens doing OK, and needed, Yeovil were just above us at the time.

 Similarly going into the home straight of 10 games to go I pointed out how rare it is for Town sides to finsh strongly.... pointing out the mean acccumulation for even auto and PO sides is 17 points, skewed by the 20's of auto sides, the sort of numbers we'd need playing catch up... we got 14, again reflecting a mid table outfit.

Wellens confirmed the feeling that we just don't have the right sort of player to mount a serious challenge, although acknowledging as individuals they might have an occasional decent game... you need more than that.

THis is why Wellens threw his toys, going from building organically with the players who won at Franchise etc, to binning off anything that moved... at first it looked like perhaps a motivating tool to try and get a Newport style ending, only for it to backfire.

It will be interesting to see if Power shows any intent during the coming close/pre season.... it would be welcomed.

[Peter Venkman]

So what did we learn today?

Notts County showed the league that you can spunk a decent budget in this league and create a team of absolute shit.

Robinson is a tease - he is almost what we need, but maybe not quite, not when we need it most?  Useful though.

Woolery - one trick pony, can we get that trick played often enough?

Anderson - lots of tricks but a donkey when he puts his head up.  Head down creating circles around players he is classy.

Bennett - very hot and cold as a player, worth signing I think.   Better version of Anderson.

Doughty - not a central midfielder in a two man midfield.

Carroll - I'd have him back, but maybe the Aussie has something about him as well.

Koiki - too many rough edges to polish without having a more reliable left back in the squad.

Knoyle - competent - he does need work on his crossing, but he's ok for this level.

Conroy -steady, half decent pass on him at times, I still think he loses concentration too often to be first choice - I'd have Nelson alongside Broadbent who I think will be good next season.

McCormick - steady and we've had some flappers in recent years so I'll take that.

Bless Taylor, still has a wonderful left foot on him, shame the rest of the body has given up.  Done well for himself and fair play for dropping back down the leagues to keep pulling on a shirt.

Overall, this game summed up our season.  It wasn't great, we were playing some dross, we showed glimpses of something and plenty of nothing.

Pretty much exactly as I saw/see it TBH almost word for word.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Nobody can really not admit that, on the whole, we’ve been shite all season. A few chinks of light soon snuffed out by another dire performance.

And yet, we finished 7 points outside the final PO spot. Very easy to look back at games where 1 point should have been 3 and 0 points should have been 1 - and I know a few clubs can probably say the same.

Even a slight improvement should see us there next season - although POs should be the minimum.

Glad of a 3 month break from it and I already feel next season should be the one.

[Reg Smeeton]

Nobody can really not admit that, on the whole, we’ve been shite all season. A few chinks of light soon snuffed out by another dire performance.

And yet, we finished 7 points outside the final PO spot. Very easy to look back at games where 1 point should have been 3 and 0 points should have been 1 - and I know a few clubs can probably say the same.

Even a slight improvement should see us there next season - although POs should be the minimum.

Glad of a 3 month break from it and I already feel next season should be the one.

In the scheme of things 7 points is a lot... as I pointed out above about final 10 games we got 14 points, so on that form if we had an extra 5 games we might bridge that sort of gap, if nobody else played.

Have to say I preferred it back in the day, when the season ended you could switch off for 6 or so weeks, focus on cricket and forget football.... now with social media etc, very difficult.

I remember back in the early days of MoS, wondering at season's end as to whether it could be kept going during the summer, due to lack of football.. yep, easy, lots of bollocks to spout.

[Peter Venkman]

From the County forum.

Swindon fans can **** right off as well. We have no history with them, no rivalry whatsoever, and they celebrated Macc's goal like it mattered to them, and then taunted our fans. What a bunch of pricks.

TBH what did they expect? "come on County you can do it" said in a back slapping kind of way?

Plucky oldest pro club saving themselves from going out of the league etc etc

Its football, deal with it.

[DiV]

Pretty shitty thing to do.

We’ve suffered enough relegations to sympathies

[Quagmire]

Don’t sing ‘Swindon’s a shit hole’ and then take offence when the game/games turn and you get given a bit back. It’s football, it happens, fans take the piss out of one another.

[Peter Venkman]

Don’t sing ‘Swindon’s a shit hole’ and then take offence when the game/games turn and you get given a bit back. It’s football, it happens, fans take the piss out of one another.

This.

[Oaksey Moonraker]

Maybe Sol Campbell is actually a good manager.

Great job, they were nearly dead and buried

Paul Ince did the same at Macclesfield a few years ago, moved on to Franchise and then got found out when he took the Blackburn job.

It's a good start and admirable to drop to that level but a long way to go before he proves his managerial credentials.

Sent from my HTC U11

[Legends-Lounge]

Paul Ince did the same at Macclesfield a few years ago, moved on to Franchise and then got found out when he took the Blackburn job.

It's a good start and admirable to drop to that level but a long way to go before he proves his managerial credentials.

Sent from my HTC U11

Interestingly it raises a question that I have had over the years with a number of football fans from various clubs in different divisions. That being, could a pep or Jose type of high profile top tier manager in our country or any other European country make a success of being dumped into a bottom tier club at the bottom of their league and make a fist of it?