Crawley Town v Swindon Town pre match chat and matchday thread

[DiV]

yeah me too DV.

then I heard Gladwin was at Crawley ...

But then Garner says Gladders is weeks away, and Hawes mentioned Tomlinson

Hopefully a few more now we’ve got a two week break…

[Batch]

I thought Garner had said both Tomlinson & Barry were close

oh I missed Barry. too busy moaning in Twitter

[WEBBERhyde]

Just looked at the table. Was expecting us to be further away from autos than we are. 2 points off, plenty of mileage in the season yet, so shouldn’t get too despondent. Just so frustrating when you know that you don’t have to stretch your imagination too far and we’d be in a much better position. Gah.

[4D]

This is Swindon. Nearly but not quite.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

When when fuck up we do it very well

[NotHarryAgombar]

Just got back from Crawley, and still struggling to fathom how we lost that.

The surface was poor - very uneven - which impacts more on us than Crawley because of our preference for passing. We also thought the wind may have impacted a little. However, we should have own that comfortably - we were on top until the defence nodded off on the first goal - the man who crossed had acres of space because we gave the ball away, and giving a free header on the six yard line is criminal.
Second half we dominated, and at 1-1 had enough chances to have been out of sight. McKirdy ought to have had a hat trick and Williams and O’Brien also had good chances.
At 2-1 JML should have equalised too.
Both the second and third goals came from us giving the ball away - so individual mistakes in both penalty areas cost us today against a limited Crawley team.

I share others’ exasperation with the ‘diving’ , and we do make a meal of some challenges. however I don’t think it is a binary thing - while I thought it wasn’t a penalty when Williams went down as the defender won the ball, I also thought it was Williams momentum which caused him to go to ground - so not a dive either. The trouble is that referees (and fans) seem to forget this middle ground.

Finally, musical instruments have no place in a football ground. The constant thud of that drum was incredibly irritating- at least those watching on iFollow could turn the sound off!

[adje]

What a blown chance that was. First 25 minutes I thought we were gonna win comfortably. That Williams chance goes in and we'd have strolled it. Then,through shocking defending,we concede and collectively droop. Second half we started as we did the first,equalised with a quality goal and dominate for 20 minutes again. So many chances missed McKirdy forcing a point blank save but really should have scored. Davison with his hold up play and perfect lay off sets up the best chance of the game. Unfortunately it falls to JML.What a soppy effort that was. McKirdy then misses another great chance and then we gift them a third. Didn't understand all the  subs to be honest,JML came on to audible groans.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Hat makes it even worse is they had more players out injured than us.

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

Just got back from Crawley, and still struggling to fathom how we lost that.

The surface was poor - very uneven - which impacts more on us than Crawley because of our preference for passing. We also thought the wind may have impacted a little. However, we should have own that comfortably - we were on top until the defence nodded off on the first goal - the man who crossed had acres of space because we gave the ball away, and giving a free header on the six yard line is criminal.
Second half we dominated, and at 1-1 had enough chances to have been out of sight. McKirdy ought to have had a hat trick and Williams and O’Brien also had good chances.
At 2-1 JML should have equalised too.
Both the second and third goals came from us giving the ball away - so individual mistakes in both penalty areas cost us today against a limited Crawley team.

I share others’ exasperation with the ‘diving’ , and we do make a meal of some challenges. however I don’t think it is a binary thing - while I thought it wasn’t a penalty when Williams went down as the defender won the ball, I also thought it was Williams momentum which caused him to go to ground - so not a dive either. The trouble is that referees (and fans) seem to forget this middle ground.

Finally, musical instruments have no place in a football ground. The constant thud of that drum was incredibly irritating- at least those watching on iFollow could turn the sound off!

Agree with most of that.
Should have converted a few more chances and wasteful at times.
Struggled to penetrate their midfield that simply set out to stifle our play. Thought our passing was a little off the pace this afternoon.
All led to a disappointing day but nowt we can do now, onto the next game. Most Depressing thought of today thinking we may have to go back to grounds like that, bastard drums en all.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

I still think it’s a collective problem defendively. The defenders are being tasked with being quasi midfielders with initiating attack’s as their primary job not actual defensive duties. It’s fairly obvious by now that there is very little defensive coaching, everything is geared for getting forward. All very laudable but it produces results like this even against very limited opponents.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

All very laudable describes things well but it's also our downfall when yesterday a 0-0 boring defensive display was what was needed just to get points on the table.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Well, that’s what we are going to have to accept under Garner. Stoic defensive displays aren’t in his playbook.

I’m still convinced yesterday’s defeat was down to missing a host of chances then the defensive frailties. Pop one of those early chances in and it’s a game changer. Pop one of those chances in at 1-1 and we win the game.

It’s all very frustrating but when you’ve got CBs marauding forward into the opponent’s half it’s always going to be a precursor to a defensive howler vis everybody is out of position. It is what it is.

[jimbob]

I know we have personnel issues at the minute, but this is why 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 works better than 4-4-2 for me. You’ve simply got more bodies centrally. Both in an attacking and defensive sense. The amount of times we don’t have someone in the centre circle looking for the ball when playing 442 astounds me but with a narrow 3 ideally reed Payne Iandolo that wouldn’t happen. More options from a throw in too as we rarely retain the ball in the opposition half. And don’t even get me started on the high line we try to play when the opposition has a free kick-keep doing that and we will concede again and again. Trying to head it away when running backwards is a lot harder to do than running onto it. Any oppo doing their homework on us, could easily undo us with a set piece in our half with a bit of intuition.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

It seems not an easy watch

[DiV]

I know we have personnel issues at the minute, but this is why 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 works better than 4-4-2 for me. You’ve simply got more bodies centrally. Both in an attacking and defensive sense. The amount of times we don’t have someone in the centre circle looking for the ball when playing 442 astounds me but with a narrow 3 ideally reed Payne Iandolo that wouldn’t happen. More options from a throw in too as we rarely retain the ball in the opposition half. And don’t even get me started on the high line we try to play when the opposition has a free kick-keep doing that and we will concede again and again. Trying to head it away when running backwards is a lot harder to do than running onto it. Any oppo doing their homework on us, could easily undo us with a set piece in our half with a bit of intuition.

Reed is always in the centre circle looking for the ball. It’s what he does all game.
Not yesterday obviously.