Exeter v Swindon pre match chat and matchday thread

[JBZ]

It's great to be excited and I am as pleased as anyone with the current start to the season.  However, I assume that most of us on this forum are adults and should know from experience that you shouldn't read too much into a handful of games.

[swindonmaniac]

Some good indicators... but that's all.  However that should be enjoyed..  going back to 17/18, looking at the Crawley game, you saw us top them bottom and think we know what happens here, but Accy played on the Friday night and took top spot which I regarded as a good sign... made fuck all difference we still lost 3-0.

Cobblers will come and no doubt sit in and try and spoil the game, if we can find a way round that and win, it would be a very good sign.

Every team is going to try and make it difficult,  that's the name of the game,  but opposed to 17/18 I think we have  a much better manager and a much stronger squad,  as you say, time will tell but I'm more confident than I have been for many seasons.

[Reg Smeeton]

Every team is going to try and make it difficult,  that's the name of the game,  but opposed to 17/18 I think we have  a much better manager and a much stronger squad,  as you say, time will tell but I'm more confident than I have been for many seasons.

The difficulty thing becomes more of a problem as a season develops if you look a strong side.... McMahon's 95/96 side had it  at the CG, loads of draws and some pretty dire games, offset by very strong away form.. It's dealing with that which sets a side apart, find a way. Tuesday is an early tester of this

[FormerlyPlymRed]

Really enjoyed the game yesterday, thought we should have been 3 up in the first half. Played them off the park at times, second half started the same.

Game changed when then took Ajose off and put another midfielder on, we didn't get to terms with it. For whatever reason we went more direct and couldn't string passes together like we had for the previous 60 odd minutes. Final five minutes we started to play again and get the deserved goal.

No poor performances although Fryers does get beat a bit easy down the flanks at times.

Thought Exeter were poor for the most part, definitely compared to when we have played them the last two seasons.

Overall it was a good atmosphere, good performance and a decent point.

[RobertT]

You may be getting a bit carried away... there are some good signs atm but no more than that. Tuesday will tell us a lot.

You don't need to go back too far to find us top of Div 4 after 3 games, on GD from Exeter, having drawn 1-1 with them, with the equaliser being scored by a debutant (17/18) also beating Carlisle.   We then had what looked on paper 2 decent home games against poor looking sides... Crawley were bottom, Barnet went down and we got stuffed in both. This told us we were likely a bit short and so it proved.  However 3 of the 4 propmoted teams Cov, Luton and Accy also were in the top 7, so their start indicated something good for them.

Cobblers have made a poor start, and look ripe for the taking just the sort of thing we've struggled with of late.... getting something at Whaddon Road mind, will probably guarantee auto.

I think the two seasons are chalk and cheese.  17/18's start was oft referenced against a backdrop of turgid entertainment.  Not sure anyone was getting too excited back then.  It feels different this season, namely the games have been enjoyable as well as getting good results.

Crawley and Barnet followed, as you reference, and in both games Flitcroft made huge tactical blunders, but for large portions of those two games we played the same way we had in the first three.

[Cookie]

Another entertaining game yesterday, long may it continue. I don't know whether I'm now accustomed to Div 4 footy but it's pretty good innit. Lyden is a player, a real joy to watch him break up play and spray it around with relative ease and a world apart from the dross of the past few seasons in that position. What worries me is we're only ever a couple of injuries away from being shite again.

Regarding formation, I think we're better with Doughty in the attacking midfielder role, he's wasted further back but would mean dropping Anderson who's been decent so far so not sure, good to have options I suppose. I'm still worried Fryer isn't good enough, his defending is suspect.

[Old_Town_Red]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Anderson on the bench and doughty further forward when rose is back fully fit

[suttonred]

Never change a winning team unless forced to..

[Reg Smeeton]

I think the two seasons are chalk and cheese.  

No 2 seasons are the same but results can be compared to give some context... in this case a start of 2 wins and a draw, was good enough to be top in Div 4, but rapidly unravelled on the back of a couple of terrible home games, and we never quite recovered.  I'd say a minimum of 4 points from the next 2 would indicate this season might have a bit more substance. Can we do it  

[river monster]

Fair play power for pushing the Doyle deal through. Wonder when we'll score in the first half (in the league). Early goal could do wonders for our counter attacking play

[Legends-Lounge]

Fair play power for pushing the Doyle deal through. Wonder when we'll score in the first half (in the league). Early goal could do wonders for our counter attacking play

It would. Bring the opposition out of any containment tactics especially at SN1 and leave them open to outer developing attacking prowess.

[Shrivvy Road]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Anderson on the bench and doughty further forward when rose is back fully fit

hope not. Doughty has been a revelation playing deeper with Lyden. As our most intelligent player it also allows him to get forward into some great spaces

[singingiiiffy]

some people just need to step back and enjoy whats CURRENTLY happening. to stop looking for patterns of why our good start could stop and just enjoy the good start. almost every other team in our league would swap our position for theirs. As an example- you can't say that no two seasons are the same then keep looking back at previous seasons for similarities.

Some decent teams in this division go on really long unbeaten runs. im always jealous of those and i want us to get into this habit of not losing. half our issue with atmosphere at the cg is the scars of the fans from years gone by. never getting too excited in case of failure. concede a goal and think here we go again. i believe wellens is changing the mindset. negativity breeds negativity. fucking enjoy it. we are top of the league!

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

some people just need to step back and enjoy whats CURRENTLY happening. to stop looking for patterns of why our good start could stop and just enjoy the good start. almost every other team in our league would swap our position for theirs. As an example- you can't say that no two seasons are the same then keep looking back at previous seasons for similarities.

Some decent teams in this division go on really long unbeaten runs. im always jealous of those and i want us to get into this habit of not losing. half our issue with atmosphere at the cg is the scars of the fans from years gone by. never getting too excited in case of failure. concede a goal and think here we go again. i believe wellens is changing the mindset. negativity breeds negativity. fucking enjoy it. we are top of the league!

Yep, let's not overthink it and just enjoy how things are going

[Anteater]

Really enjoyed the game yesterday, thought we should have been 3 up in the first half. Played them off the park at times, second half started the same.

Game changed when then took Ajose off and put another midfielder on, we didn't get to terms with it. For whatever reason we went more direct and couldn't string passes together like we had for the previous 60 odd minutes. Final five minutes we started to play again and get the deserved goal.

No poor performances although Fryers does get beat a bit easy down the flanks at times.

Thought Exeter were poor for the most part, definitely compared to when we have played them the last two seasons.

Overall it was a good atmosphere, good performance and a decent point.

When I read this I thought I’d written it !!!! Totally as I saw it 👍

Whilst clearly everything should be taken in context there is no reason to dampen the enthusiasm that has been created by Wellens and the team. We may well be top of the league at Christmas and end up 16th at the end of the season but that is no reason to not enjoy the moment. If it encourages the momentum for noise and numbers of support and in turn performance absolutely carry on enjoying it !