Swindon v Lincoln pre match chat and matchday thread

[BambooToTheFuture]

If anyone is really looking to blame anyone regarding the GK situation, blame Richie Wellens for his ridiculous recruitment. Signing one young keeper...ok, a chance to develop and ease into more game time. Signing two inexperienced keepers (lets face it, Fryers season worth of apps over three years was negated by his two year lay off) pretty much suicide.

Spouted bollocks about not being able to afford Baxter (who looked the best available option during preseason) and opted for Kovar. All because it was likely Scholes said he'd let Wellens finger him up the bum if he took him on loan, or because "well... ee's from You-neye-todd inney. Yoh only get qwol-a-teh from them." or something.

The stubborn Norvern Cunt!

[RedRag]

I have no idea, kovar could be brilliant in time. Tom Heaton was useless for us and he's had a great career.

it's just the present day I'm concerned with egg l though.

I don't think any posters are making Kovar into a boo boy or scapegoat.  We all want him to do well.  But if we don't replace him with an experienced keeper soon, he could be the difference between retaining or losing our difficultly regained L1 status.  IMO.  

Compare the present keeping situation to last year.  A very sound no. 2 comfortable in the first team and a scratchy loanee who developed and commanded his box and spread himself mightily for one on ones.  

Otherwise a great performance with a barebones bench.  It was inevitable that we would fade physically.  Joel  G never got going and Kovar barely merited even rating so little did he have to do.  Otherwise some great shifts with a sound, even creative Broadbent edging MOM for his improvement.

[diggers]

It’s clear we need an experienced keeper - but have we got the money to go and get one and is there a decent one ready to sign? The one bonus of having no fans in the ground is that I can’t help but think Kovar would be struggling even more with the pressure from the stands. Maybe...and it’s a big maybe, if we could get all our players fit we might stand a chance, even with a suspect inexperienced keeper. We also have a big hole up front - it can’t be overlooked that if you are sticking the ball in the net, you can get away with the odd balls up at the back.

[BambooToTheFuture]

Thinking about the other end of the field where we unfortunately and just as importantly, didn't score...I bet Sheridan hasn't a fucking clue who Welsh Burlap is, even though he's banging goals in for fun at Old Quay County.

[theakston2k]

Looking back at the goal it’s very similar to the 1st against Shrewsbury. We’ve seen 2 completely different approaches by keepers to a similar cross, Fryer just stood on his line and waited for them to head it in and Kovar thought he could wave the wall away. Both completely inept in whatever they were trying to do. I’m not sure what I prefer, one not doing anything from crosses or one constantly coming and missing....

That said repeatedly letting players score free headers from a few yards out continues to raise questions about the defending.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Well, the 10 outfield players didn’t deserve that. Even if we had our 6/7 injured players back they couldn’t legislate for the keeper.

We have zero threat going forward as well.

What a time to be STFC fan!

Can only presume that the poor recruitment by Wellens was somewhat forced on him by Power not wanting to spend much prior to selling up. Thought a decent keeper would be a no brainier, though. What on earth they saw in Fryer during training God only knows. Probably thought they could easily replicate the BFG signing with Kovar - sloppy, lazy recruitment.

[Nomoreheroes]

Kovar isn't a scapegoat - He's consistently shown he's not good enough for L1 yet. He was a cheap option.

Fryer isn't a scapegoat - He too and shown that he's not good enough for L1 yet. I suspect that he is on a pittance and signed a short term deal in the hopes of getting back into football after injury and earning a better contract elsewhere or whenever the club is sold.

Wellens isn't a scapegoat - He wasn't given the money to get anything better. If we'd been the supporters of another club, we'd have viewed his departure as leaving a 'basket case'.

It will be interesting to look back on this period in a few years time when what has been going on behind the scenes eventually becomes public - I assume there are a lot of skeletons in the closet.

[DiV]

It’s clear we need an experienced keeper - but have we got the money to go and get one and is there a decent one ready to sign? The one bonus of having no fans in the ground is that I can’t help but think Kovar would be struggling even more with the pressure from the stands. Maybe...and it’s a big maybe, if we could get all our players fit we might stand a chance, even with a suspect inexperienced keeper. We also have a big hole up front - it can’t be overlooked that if you are sticking the ball in the net, you can get away with the odd balls up at the back.

Can we afford not to sign an experienced keeper?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

If Power is, indeed, selling up there’s not much incentive for him to spend anything - hence the cheap looking summer recruitment. Let the new owner put his hand in his pocket. Whatever is happening behind the scenes it needs to be sorted before the January window cos there’s only one place we’re going at the moment.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Serious question...could Mildenhall actually be better than what we've got? I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be worse...

[horlock07]

Serious question...could Mildenhall actually be better than what we've got? I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be worse...

Reading the comments on here I suspect Sam Burton could.

[RedRag]

Lincoln Forum

On the game

Their style of play, if they actually had one, was pretty crude. None of this passing nonsense, just get the bugger forward.

To be fair to them, it almost got a point. If their keeper hadn’t made a mess of coming for that cross it would have done.

It might not win many fans, but if it wins points then it’s successful (I know it wasn’t today but Kovar really messed up that corner.

Can you imagine the meltdown if they had scored that sitter at the end and their keeper hadn’t flapped to gift us our goal. It was our worst performance this season against a very poor side

On the commentary  

Listened to the away commentary for the first time, was excellent. They knew all the players names, although occasionally getting them wrong, and knew a fair bit about our season. No in-jokes and no wafferling about random irrelevant trivia.

Same here - thought it was excellent and very fair (despite the dig about the way we've played in previous visits).
If anything they were over-complimentary about the Imps.

Best comment of the night: ... and in the early kick off, Gillingham are now beating Wimbledon 2-1. This is because Gillingham seems to be in a different time zone to the rest of the country.
 (Possible MOM award for Hawes and Hartley ?  )

[Peter Venkman]

Lincoln Forum

On the game

Their style of play, if they actually had one, was pretty crude. None of this passing nonsense, just get the bugger forward.

It might not win many fans, but if it wins points then it’s successful (I know it wasn’t today but Kovar really messed up that corner.

And this coming from a lot that had the Cowleys as managers for years! fucking irony!

We had a team patched together with....
a right back playing in central midfield
4 players (Kovar, Smith, Stevens and Odimayo) with about 40 league appearances between them
no recognised striker
a defender starting his first game for almost a year
9 missing 1st team players
3 U18 academy players on the bench
a manager who took over just over 1 week ago.

How very gracious of them.

[Arriba]

Staying up will be a decent season for us. I think that will be achieved just about.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

And this coming from a lot that had the Cowleys as managers for years! fucking irony!

We had a team patched together with....
a right back playing in central midfield
4 players (Kovar, Smith, Stevens and Odimayo) with about 40 league appearances between them
no recognised striker
a defender starting his first game for almost a year
9 missing 1st team players
3 U18 academy players on the bench
a manager who took over just over 1 week ago.

How very gracious of them.

We’ve proved that with the current players available we cannot, and should not, attempt our usual expansive style. Leaving mistake laden defenders even more exposed by pressing forward with no striker available to convert whatever chances we may make is suicidal and entirely counter productive.