Thetownend.com

Few games that involve teams around us. I realise we have to do our own thing but would be nice if some results tonight go our way. With the takeover possibly expected to be ratified tomorrow it could be the start of a good week.

Brentford (6th, 4 points behind us) v Stevenage - Hadn't realised how far down the table Stevenage had fallen! Home win here I reckon
Bury v Sheff U (5th, 4 points behind us) - Bury on a little bit of form, could be a draw
Crewe v B/Muff (4th, level on points) - B'muff not winning would be lovely. Crewe are no mugs
Donny (2nd, 1 point above us) v Franchise - Dons distracted by cup, probably too much to ask for a result from them here
Hartlepool v Pompey - Doubt either team can catch us.
Scunthorpe v Carlisle - Got 0-0 written all over it
Yeovil (7th, 4 points behind) v Preston - The Glovers are on a great run and creeping up on us. I think they'll get another win tonight unfortunately.

I'd agree with all of that, but I fancy Bury to beat Sheffield U.

With most teams playing Saturday as well by the time we next take the field we could well be out the play off spots

I don't understand how we haven't already got loads of games in hand on everyone with all the games we have had postponed already this season.

Because we just played them all...

Because other teams have had games called off to

Because the FL is against us

Bornmuff play twice before we have a game. Need some favours tonight!

Pack and Benno for Cheltnum and the Pox one down too - lovely! :bye:

As it stands the top 6 are separated by just 3 points.

Oxford meltdown. 2-0 down at home!

Fuck all to do with League 1 though fella, as amusing as it is.....

I know but still!

B!muff take the lead. :(

Crappy set of scores in L1 tonight  :badmood:

Ritchie wins the Muff penalty.

Diving cunt.

Think you've mistaken him for Tom Daley

Yeovil come from behind to lead. Crap set of scores.

Crewe equalise against Bournemouth.

Crewe equalise.

That didn't last long  :badmood:

Franchise have took 13 fans to Donny apparently !

That's awful......

But Donny did drop 2 home points tonight.

Now top 7 seperated by 3 points.

Wouldn't worry about it, I don't think its them we're chasing down.  They will go up this season with there 35 man highly paid squad.  We just have to hopefully get the new guys in, get a few more players to augment our 'massive' 25 man squad and make sure we're up there with them.

Crap results elsewhere though

Bad night results wise!!

Good set of results those. What its done is finish of Crewe, notts co, dongers, crawley and stevenage, now a breakaway group and as we play them all bar bournemouth in our hands

Yup.  Just win our games.  Take one game at a time, concentrate on our own performance. Take points off of the other and rely on our huge goal difference.

Ive been playing FM recently.  Can you tell with all these cliches?

It does look as though Bournemouth have bought won the league. Just a shame Sheff Utd seem to have picked up again - 6 teams fighting for 2nd place!

Yep.  I really hope those 2 points dropped to Hartlepool on Saturday don't cost us further down the line.

5003 at the 3-sided shithole. Going down faster than Monica Lewinsky

Yep,not forgetting the missed penalty at there place that cost us another two.

Didn't expect any favours to be honest. How many other promotion chasing teams sell one of their best players.

Looks like 7 teams now in the mix.
We have some tough away games. Unless we get at least 3 decent loan signings that can fit in very quickly I see play offs at best.

Makes Saturday vs the Monkeyhangers even more disappointing.

Still Benno and Risser scored tonight (Risser own goal).
Oxford always help cheer me up though.

Hate to say it but that's not a bad attendance for a Tuesday night league 2 fixture

This same statement was written many times about us on various forums of rival teams last season

Brentford had 7,022 tonight against Stevenage, decent crowd.

What is disappointing is that come saturday we'll probably be 6 points off top spot and that cunt claridge will be on the FL show saying how amazing eddie howe and bournemouth are, not mentioning the defining fact in their rise has been a very very big and well paid squad.

To be fair the FL show probably wont be on on staurday.

This is my real fear.  If this ends up being the case, how many of us could honestly see us going up?

Supporters could pay what they wanted

Bet that won't be the case when we go there!

Was this the re arranged game with the pay what you want promotion?

Yeah it is >:(

Bastard Bournemouth winning again! Thought Crewe might be able to take a point off them! Not sure Westley will be in charge of PNE come a week Saturday after they lost again! Frustrating to know we could be 6 points behind the top spot come Saturday...I'd rather us play and have points on the board than play catch up personally!

Still think we will win it....Bournemouth will have a blip,Sheff Utd are favourites in my opinion seeing as it looks like they are getting over there bad run.

Fair play to Bournemouth - unlike us they showed a real statement of intent in January and look like reaping the rewards.

I don't think we'll make the play-offs. I'm drinking out of Reg's glass tonight!

What a bunch of moaning...

We're three points off top with a game in hand and the biggest GD in the history of English football*. It'd be nice to have the points on the board but we're not exactly out of it. As far as I'm concerned, one result elsewhere going our way each week is plenty. Thank you Franchise for getting something right for once.

Ordinarily...I think most would agree, but these are not ordinary times...don't think anyone knows wtf is going on.

I'm not so sure they will have a blip Lee.  They're doing pretty much what we did last season and we saw it through.

We've dropped too many points at home to lower down opposition.  That and selling Matt Ritchie is potentially what will cost us going up automatically imo.  The other question is have we had a real blip ourselves?  Have one of them and like Gnasher said, we might struggle to even make the play offs.


I know, I know.  I'm not sure why I feel so despondent tonight to be honest.

If you wanna see despondent check out the pox forum, they have got the razor blades out on there.

At least we ain't quite that shit.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Bloody hell, Yeovil have lost 11 games to our 6, but are only 1 point behind us.  Sometimes it really does pay to just either win or lose rather than draw.

I don't thinking could take another Wembley defeat.

Incredible, innit.

Thanks to Donny dropping points we are actually in a better position than before the games kicked off tonight.

This is where I think we'll just miss out come the end of the season. By my reckoning we've dropped 8 points from games we really should have won - Sheff  Utd, Doncaster and Hartlepool at home and Orient away.

Whilst by themselves they haven't cost us too much as we're still very much in the mix, what it has done is put pressure on the really tough slate of away fixtures we've got left.

Had we picked up a few more points from those games we've dominated but not killed off, then there would be less pressure when we travel to all those sides around us. As it stands I think we'll need to win 3, maybe 4 of the games at Donny, Sheff U, Coventry, Brentford, Tranmere and Yeovil. Certainly not impossible, but maybe made it harder for ourselves than it needed to be.

Having said that to be having this discussion at all given the recent turmoil of takeovers, Ritchie's sale and 3 men benches is a testament to the spirit in this squad.

Do you think the team under Hart would be unbeaten in 11 given all the goings on?

Yeah fair play to Bournemouth for over spending more than anyone else in the league.

I'm a little unconfortable reading the throwaway comments about Bournemouth buying their way out of the league.

Isn't this more or less what we did last year?

Pot and kettle anyone?

I think most people would be sensible about Bournemouth if they hadn't bought Ritchie. Especially for the pittance they got him for.

I was including ourselves in that thanks Dave. Anyway i can take the moral high ground - their losses must be bigger than ours. Nanananana!

Just in case nobody has seen this. This is their chairman talking about the Pack deal.
He seems confident it will go ahead.
I think this deal is more important than most people suggest. If it's a permanent deal at the end of the season drawn up in the contract then Pack will want assurances he's not going to only get 3 months with Dicanio.
Many managers do leave not long after signing players but it will be interesting.
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Cheltenham-Town-video-Web-chat-highlights/story-18117856-detail/story.html#axzz2KWyRwU72

To an extent I suppose you could argue this, however our income is probably treble that of a lot of league 2 clubs. Plus we didn't exactly spend a fortune on players did we? Think Connell was the only one over £100k.

We certainly spent last year, but have to agree with this.  We were a bit of an anomaly in League 2 last season.  Revenues from ticket sales were 3, possibly 4 times that of a large number of other clubs in the division.  We spent more than anyone else, but we generated a lot more revenue as well.  You cannot argue that with Bournemouth.  They are, at best, an average sized League 1 club.  The effect of the owner's cash on their fortunes is much more significant.  Not a black & white issue - but one that has many shades of grey.

It's not as simple as buying players though is it? How many contracts did we pay up last year? In most cases you're looking at a substantial loss for the club for those, as you don't even get the benefit of having a player available anymore.

I don't think Bournemouth are living within their means by any stretch of the imagination, and I hate the cunts a little bit, but unless something crazy happens, its probable they'll finish above us. Even so, we're only 3pts off the top, and we can bet on Paolo working up te players for the run-in. It's still all to play for, especially if we get Pack/BWP/Green in.

(I think Eddie Howe has been following my FM career too- I often buy rival teams' star players for shit and gigs. Even if they're not in ky division...)

Ardiles pretty much summed up the point i was trying to make. Yes i have no doubt we made a loss last year (and no doubt will this year), however i expect 90% of the clubs in the bottom 2 leagues will too. That seems to be the way of modern football. I bet Bournemouth's loss will be much much higher though and going back to why i questioned the original poster, i fail to see why they should be congratulated for "their statement of intent".

It's still a pretty big "pot and kettle" situation to critize B'mouth however theirs and ours spending figures can be spun.

Are we no longer allowed to criticise Crawley either then? Bugger!!!!

 We should be grateful to Bormuff, for taking Ritchie off our hands...clearly there were no other takers and the alternative was admin. Had that happened, and I suppose it still might, although the runes all seem to say the takeover will go ahead, we would have got something between the 17 point deduction that Bormuff got and the 30 that Looton got.

People forget that the FL wanted rid of Bormuff...much the same way as Looton, but they turned to Howe, as there seemed little alternative and he worked a minor miracle.

Always allowed to criticise them, isn't so appealing to me since fatty left mind you

Yeah i'm grateful Reg. Just like i feel like we still owe Blackburn a favour for taking that Shearer bloke off our hands 20 years ago. The way they bought him, hardly played him and then offloaded him 6 months later means will always be in their debt i expect.

Bournemouth may have spent big, but they spent the lion's share of that cash under the previous manager and were fucking shite. Eddie Howe has done a brilliant job there (again).

Bournemouth should be well clear at the top with the squad they have, it is only due to to the poor management before Howe that they aren't.

FWIW we are in a very good position to be able to kick off and achieve promotion once the takeover is sorted.

I'd be happy for us to do the same if it meant promotion.

We have seen first hand what a shoe string budget leads to in League 1, a season like 10/11.

I'd hardly call our 10/11 budget shoe string when it was approximately £4million budget with nearly a £1 million on transfer fees

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Go on then, who was that spent on?

Ferry, Caddis, Flint, Ritchie, Benyon.

It won't be far off a million.

£937,200 to be precise (according to a site I just looked at)

Oooh.

Cap in hand CHRIS_STFC?

This is one of those face palm moments.

£300k for the pair of Caddis-FerryI seem to remember, nearly £700k on the rest?  :hmmm:

Was it that much?

I thought:

Ferry and Caddis - 350k
Flint - 100k
Benyon - 75k
Ritchie - 100k

If there are official figures that state £937,200 I will hold my hands up - but my point still stands, Bournemouth have shown ambition and will surely go up because of it.

The figures I've come across are:

Ritchie - £264,000
Flint - £154,000
Benyon - £149,600 (bargain  :eek:)
Caddis - £184,800
Ferry - £184,000

That seems about right, plus Ferry and Caddis had add ons to make the deal come to a possible 600k in total, oh Andrew and his add ons

150k for Benyon? Fucking hell i need a lie down

The accounts for that season were released and I'm sure the total was about 800k. Think it might be on the washbag somewhere.......

On several sites the fees are reported to be £500k (£250k each +add ons) for Caddis & Ferry, £135k (+add ons) for Flint, £140k for Benyon and £150k (+add ons) for Ritchie.

I recon the figure of £937,200 is probably about right.

I have no confirmation as to exact figures from the club but I am sure its not that difficult to find out (that is except for the add ons which are not alwasy disclosed in that years accounts until the add on is triggered).

Still more than us disgraceful cheats have spent this campaign.

Plus the wage bill was quite high (apparently)
That season was not done on a shoe string. I'm sure we would have made additional signings in the January transfer window, but Wilson could not persuade anyone to join.

Yeah. And if their benefactor fucks off they'll be where pompey are heading.....

Found it.....


http://thewashbag.com/2012/04/24/counting-the-cost-of-failure/

Oh, and Chris_stfc, these figures were taken directly from official figures released by the club.

This is true.

The likes of Dossevi (Dovessi!), Pericard, Rose, Andrew, N'Dayie, Grella, Obika, Prutton and Frampton did not come cheap despite their utter shitness!

Add to that a large squad excluding loans of at least 22 full time pro's and 7 loanees as well as several yoofs, makes expensive reading with Douglas, Sheehan, Cuthbert, McGovern, Lucas, O'Brien, Sheehan, Ferry and Caddis all supposed to be on well above average wages for this league we must have spent a lot more on wages that season than this one.

I think I started off this bit of Bmuff bashing but to be honest I have no issue with other teams doing the lets go for broke thing, we've done it and will probably do it again.

My issue is more with the opprobrium and moral outcry that has faced us which seems ignorant of the fact that we are not doing a Bournemouth and despite the difficulties caused by a major backer pulling out, we are performing well with a small, but well paid squad.   

Clubs cant be forced to cut their cloth accordingly if backers are allowed to spunk money away.  Financial fair play and wage caps are ergo a nonsense.

Oh Im just babbling now.  It doesnt matter.  Its only football.

Just wait until we can sign players again: "They've just been in admin yet they are spending again", "Those cheats spending money they don't have". etc etc....

Nah. I'm a Swindon fan, which means it's perfectly acceptable for us to do anything, but not other teams. Logic and fairness has nothing to do with it...

Damn right Herthab, with you on this one. Means Bournemouth can do one. I'm still bitter about Blackburn for fucks sake.

Yes i have a long memory.

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeearerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So we spent £700k?
Still don't think that's comparable to Bournemouth

They spent over twice that on 3 players (Tubbs £800k, Grabban £350k and Ritchie £550)

Good luck to them. As a fan I'd quite like to have continued investment like that. If only it didn't come back to bite you on the bum later....

They also bought an Aberdeen winger for 400k as well. Good luck to them, hope it doesn't come back to bite them in the ass further down the line. As fans you can often be blinkered by the shit or bust approach, to some extent we have seen it, poo pooing the warnings from Other fans that things will go wrong down the line.

Their demise time will come, a bit like ours but will be much more massive with bigger consequences IMO leaving them well and truly in the shit financially.

I just wish our investment had lasted a bit longer than it did.

The money being pumped into Bournemouth is in the form of loans and IIRC correctly, they are not interest free. They do appear to be soft loans but there is no saying when the loan may be called in, plus interest.

I won't pretend to know much about the intentions of their owners because I don't but charging interest in the loans suggests that they may well have the intention of recalling the money at some point.

Don't forget £300k for Pittman too.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Bristol-City-receive-300-000-Brett-Pitman/story-17768527-detail/story.html#axzz2KlWbPfC4

Looks like their spending on wages will carry on increasing as they plot to sign a left back on loan from QPR, that is unless 'Arry does a deal in which they don't pay much in wages....fuck it QPR can afford £100k a week for Samba they can afford to write off £15k a week loan wages.

Paolo should be tapping him up.

I haden't though of that! good idea, I am sure QPR have a few fringe players that could do a job for us.

Depends on whether he values a loan to "his club" Boremuff or to "his mates club" in Swindon.

And don't forget the compensation they paid to Burnley for Howe...reportedly £1.25m !!!

Given where they were and where they are now, thats probably the best £1.25m they've spent in a long time.

Well given where we were when pdc took over and where we are now that 700k was money well spent then wasnt it.

Shrewsbury v Trannies tonight. Shrews have signed Chris Porter on loan from Sheff Utd who is a decent lower league striker. Fancy the Shrews to win this one and continue the Tranmere slump.

After Tuesday where almost all the results went against us, we could do with some favourable results tonight/tomorrow

Looks like another crap pitch at Tranmere, especially in the goalmouths.

Tranmere down to 10 already.

Looks like another Tranny player suspended for Tuesday.

Tranmere down to 10 men after 5 mins.

poor challenge really. lino had it as a definite red. i'd have to agree

Come on shrews

Is this on tele?

Sky Sports 2

ha ha ha well done shrews

Haha! Get in Shrews!

Some top goal keeping there.

And Tranny keeper has just given Shrews the lead

Fantastic! Another sending off and an injury or five please.

Always rated Fon Williams, but that was a clanger.

Dodgy keeper!

(I know he's not)

Ta.

Bollocks, fucking o2 venue Im at seem to be blocking it.  Wankers.

Tranny down to 10

Are you listening to it on Tranmere Player?

Have the Shrews scored yet Adje?

1-0 shrews

Thanks Adje.

2-0 (sorry to spoil it Adje)

2-0 !

2.0 and an injury

2-0. Sweet.

I've got to say, the pitch is playing a hell of a lot better than it looks, which should suit us on Tuesday.

Games here
http://www.firstrow1.eu/watch/169202/1/watch-tranmere-rovers-vs-shrewsbury-town-.html

Just wait for the ads to finish

If we can beat Tranmere on Tues the league will be ours to lose.

majority of their players are looking downhearted and know they're in a mess. the keeper is having a mare so will be nervous as fuck come tuesday. it's our game to lose surely

Not looking forward to the Town having to play on that pitch. What a state.

I agree.

People are on a bit of a Debbie Downer at the moment, which I can understand...

Selling Ritchie to our promotion rivals for a perceived paltry fee
Deadline day moves for 3 players breaking down because of the ownership saga
The seemingly endless wait for the above mentioned saga to be resolved
Uncertainty about Di Canio's future
Uncertainty about the credentials of the prospective new owners
Not being able to name the full quota of subs
Not beating the bottom side at home

In spite of all that bollocks, the table is looking pretty damned good, we've got a very, very good (albeit relatively small) squad of players and the manager aint too bad either (I'm pretty confident he will be here until the end of the season at least). If Jedward finally takes over on Monday, we get a few players in and get 3 points at Trannies on Tuesday, everyone will (quite rightly) be looking at a top two finish again.

I disagree. As I said previously, it doesn't look great but the ball is running fine on it. It's actually not a bad surface.

If Bournemouth didn't exist I would agree with you. It's theirs to lose.

One could argue we have played better on shit pitches than good ones in the most recent past.

Anyway we'll do them regardless of pitch based on this performance

I have a good feeling,i reckon we will win it.

Going on Tuesday.....and i can't wait.

Same here.

This has a feeling of Southend away last season.  A cold midweek night away to a promotion rival where we send a message to the rest of he league.

If it stays dry then the pitch isn't such a problem.

Exactly. It doesn't look too pretty but if it stays dry it will be absolutely fine. If it pisses down...

...they'll call it off!

I agree with this man......

2nd is ours to lose.

...then Crawley mark II. In terms of pitch quality, can't remember if it actually rained that day or not.

Meh....1st, 2nd....it's all good. It means I get to see us back in the Championship before I die of old age 8)

Probably.

A draw wouldn't be the end of the world..they will be up for it no doubt so it is time for us to shine.


http://www.myweather2.com/Football/United-Kingdom/Tranmere-Rovers-FC.aspx?sday=4

The weather looks darned good to me! :D

That makes at least 3 of us going.

Sheeted it early doors but was dry from about 10am

I will be in attendance, with 6 others.

I have been thinking this OST.

Bournemouth was the worse...freezing rain all fooking day.

Except a small window of brightness in Christchurch.

Fuck that back to back Champions

Need Preston to work a miracle tomorrow. If they do beat Bournemouth I reckon we'll go top on Tuesday.

My glass is half full tonight!  :pint:

That's the spirit.

I've changed my mind...... Fuck off Bournemouth, you'll have to settle for second chaps.

Bournemouth -1 is 13/5..

Do you really see us getting a few players in though?  I'm pretty sure it has been confirmed on here that the new consortium has no money, plus Paolo will leave and we won't win another game between now and the end of the season.

Ah, no. Must have missed that. In that case..... :suicide:

Preston doing us a massive favour

I can't see Doncaster winning at Crawley on Monday. Top spot will be ours on Tuesday.

Top 7.....tighter than a nuns fanny

As long as they water the pitch :)

I'll be a Crawley fan for the day then.

Some slightly better news, Crawley beating Doncaster.

Never mind.

 I started watching it, got excited when Crawley scored, and then thought who fucking cares after what's happened today.

well its level now but that'll do

Bournemouth, Tramere, Yeovil, Brentford and at a push Coventry...

f/t 1-1...I will say if we win at Tranmere tomorrow we go top of the league...after everything that has/is happening! You couldn't write this shit!  :clap:

Oh, Donny drew, so we can go top tomorrow, even though nobody cares at the moment.

Its all a fucking soap opera.  Tomorrow we will go top.  Im fairly sure thats the twist the writers have put in place.  Paolo will probably be pictured in the shadows looking on whistfully as the eastenders drum beat plays when the final whistle goes. 

Can we class tomorrow night as a 6 pointer or must win game?

Brilliant!

 :clap:

Madness. Has a top of the league side ever been managerless?

Us in L2 when Wise left maybe?

I mean proper top of the league (after Christmas). Not 5 games into the season.

Well, get the takeover done and go top tomorrow then maybe just maybe we can find a suitable replacement that'll take a chance that its not going to go all tits up here in the summer.

Were we actually top when he went?

Nope, 3rd