Thetownend.com

missed it today
if someone would be kind enough to give a balanced review i would appreciate.

Smith - 7 - Two good saves, nothing else to do

Smith - 6 - Solid as ever, didnt get forward that much. Didnt need to
Ifil - 7 - Typical Beast, their strikers only got past him about twice and when they did he got the ball back anyway. Some good passes as well, yes I said Passes!
Williams - 7 - Solid as ever
Nicholas - 6 - Got better at the game went on. Looked shakey to start with I thought. Very good going forward

Shakes - 8 - I honestly cant believe this is the same Ricky Shakes, seems you really can polish a turd. Good running and some great crossing. I hope he keeps this form up
Pook - 7.5 - I got slated for slating him last time, but much better today. Got stuck in won alot of the ball. Passed it around. Clearly grew in confidence and tried other things..some worked, some didnt. Good showing
Timlin - 6 - Quiet by his standards, still pretty good though
Zaaboub - 6 - One of his quieter Town performances, played well its fits and spells. Could have had two if it wasnt for the Macces keepers

Peacock - 7.5 - Played well up against 3 fucking huge centre halfs. Held the ball up well, good control. Ace free kick, didnt know he had that in his locker. Opened up the body, side foot round the wall into the bottom corner. If he can do that it makes me wonder why we've let Roberts blast so many straight at the wall.
Roberts - 7 - Much like Zaaboub fits and spells....just a few more of them. Unlucky not to get a goal

The Ref!
I thought the ref was good today, yet our fans got on his back. Peacock was pretty much fouled every time the ball went up to him. Ref gave loads....but if we kept the ball waved play on which was good to see. He let it flow and the game was better for it.

No idea who the ref was, but thought he was quite good

Smith- not alot to do, tidy handling- 6

Smith- quiet game but no major issues, the number 14 got in behind him a few times but never made us pay- 6

Ifil- outstanding member of the back 4 today, never looked like making a mistake and got forward a bit- 8

Williams- their strikers were big bruisers with no pace which suited his game well- 7

Nicholas- gave the ball away a bit early on but improved, should have had a goal- 6

Shakes- gave the number 14 a horrid afternoon, crossing very improved and took his goal well with his left peg- 7

Timlin- quiet game but moves the ball about so well- 6

Pook- thought he did well, put himself about and full of energy and a couple of cracks at goal- 7

Zaboub- Anonymous for an hour but kept going and finshed the game strongly, final ball poor- 6

Peacock- really well placed goal, still loses the ball too softly, his first touch was superb but he used the ball poorly when he's killed it- 6

Roberts- the sublime and the ridiculous in equal measure, needs to lose the attitude problem towards referees- 6

cheers fellas.pleased for pooky and shakes especially and glad peacock netted

The ref was the first one we've had this season that actually gave most decisions Peacock's way, rather than against him.

He was the same ref we had at Accrington, so i'm told....

zaboub should have scored twice. and i mean he REALLY should have scored a couple.

roberts' penalties are always low and to his left?

Pooky was fantastic today. but MotM has to be our Ricky Shakes. Great finish and he really does look a different player. and long may it continue

Spot on you racist !  :wink:

I thought he created headaches all round for the Macc Lads today !

Have to say you are having a laugh. Was in the Arkells stand and the linesman on our side and the ref were piss poor today. Bad enough that I was going to post a separate post but I'll make my point here. Officials at this level as piss poor and I'm sorry but these morons deserve EVERY piece of stick that they get. How the hell was Roberts onside when he was the only player in their half and the ball was passed to him?...and how did we get a handball decision in our box when the guy their played was about a yard away and it was clearly ball to hand.

Sorry, appreciate how difficult the job is but that doesn't mean that we should have to put up with the dross decisions every week.

dv i dont mean to slate you over this but u have overated pook, he wasnt that good 2day, no1 was

Probably because when the ball was played Roberts was in his own half.

So he didnt get everything 100% spot on, he let the game flow which makes a change from free kick after free kick after free kick



Steve, I dont mean to slate you over this but you talk complete and utter rubbish all of the time. We played well today. Much better than at Wrexham and Notts County

is stfc steve the skinny lad with the burberry hat?

i thought  peacock was motm today. held up the ball well, linked up play well, and took his goal well, despite slipping over.

Roberts hussled and bussled, and created problems in the maccelsfield defence.

Zaboob had a poor game i thought. gave away the ball too often, and too many misplaced passes. Everyone else was average imo.

Fair play to macclesfield for coming here and keeping the ball on the deck. Some of their play was the best i've seen from any team this season including ourselves. Thnakfully we stepped up  gear in the second half, and should have scored more, if it wern't for their keeper

Peacock was voted mom by the radio team, by Paul Sturrock and by the sponsors!

He was stood static a yard in their half, and all of their players were in our half.

Pook did well, got caught on the ball once but apart from that everything he did was pretty much spot on.  Shakey is a new man and Peacock was superb today, if only he could cut out the diving and silly fouls.

Their goalie was motm today - we could have won about 6-0 if it was for him. Especially with that header from the corner

no i am not the skinny lad with the burberry hat

No, that's Steve.

i was seriously impressed by swindon today, dominated from the start to the finish and on another day it could easily have been 5 zip

ince has obviously macclesfield well organised but apart from 3 or so well worked attacks in the first half they offered little

i thought roberts was fantastic today. when he got the ball the ball he ran at the defence with such pace and control that they didn't know what to do. whenever he got the ball he looked as though he was going to create something and for me his performance more than warranted a goal

im not entirely sure how anyone can rate pook above timlim today. they were an excellent partnership but lets compare and contrast; pook ran about like a headless but effective chicken for 90 minutes, timlin sat back won the ball then actually looked up a picked out a player, instead of the routine hoof.

timlin's cross field ball in the first half was sublime. noone else on the pitch had anywhere near the ability to do that

adi williams is an absolute rock at the back. whilst jerel will cut out attacks with an excellent tackle, williams doesn't even let an attack develop because he reads the game about half an hour before everyone else

swindon certainly got the rub of the green when it came to the ref, but that's football and who's gonna complain. looked a dead set pen for macclesfield in the first half, i was stood right by it

How can you be a 'headless but effective' chicken? When you call some one a headless chicken it means they have run around a lot but have been ineffective. You can't be effective and run around like a headless chicken. They are opposite ends of the spectrum.

I am confused :shock:

he runs about a lot not really knowing what he's doing and doesn't produce any play of note but yet by harrying and rushing the oppo it still has a role to play

I didnt think any particular player played amazing, but my man of the match would go to Peacock.  In the second half, he finally decided to stay in attacking positions as apposed to staying in midfield.

I thought Roberts had a pretty poor game.  He can run with the ball well, but never ran into decent positions.  When he was 1 on 1 with the goalie in the first half, you knew he wouldnt score.  If he had the finishing aspect to his game, then he'd be a good striker.

Shakes played well in the first half, Zaboob in the second.  Defence were generally solid, and Maccesfield rarely troubled Town.

Overall it was an ok performance, but i get the feeling that if we played like that in a higher division, we would struggle

:? Ask the macc defence if they enjoyed playing against him today.IMO that was the best peacock and roberts have played together this season.Peacock recently has really changed my opinion of him he looks a totally different player

I dunno, i must have high standards. However Roberts had a number of good chances to score, and he never looked like burying them.  With the amount of chances we create in games in this season, im just surprised he doesnt have more goals.

P Smith - I shit myself when Murphy took him out, I had a nasty feeling he'd seriously injured himself. Solid as ever and brave to boot. 7

J Smith - Not his greatest performance, didn't get forward much and struggled to keep tabs on their left-winger. 6

Ifil - Aimless hoofs aside, absolutely spot on. One moment where he went walkabout and got caught out of position but that's forgivable. Excellent. 8

Williams Solid, dependable, influential. 7

Nicholas Defended admirably, attacked superbly, unfortunate not to score with that thumping header. 7

Shakes Remarkable improvement, some good crosses, some excellent runs, better first touch and a superbly taken goal. Nice moves as well. 8

Pook Struggled to get into the game in the first half but improved as the game went on, whenever he had the ball he used it wisely and showed some flashes of skill. 7

Timlin Much the same as Pook, his lack of a right foot infuriates me though. 7

Zaaboub Disappointing for Sofi, only turned it on for the last 15 minutes. Saw nothing of the ball in the first half. 6

Roberts Tortured the Macc defenders with his runs on the ball, bit too greedy at times but that's how it is with him. Decent penalty, wish he'd just thump it though. 7

Peacock Worked hard, gave the defence some problems and showed some good touches at times as well. Took his goal well. 8

Macclesfield won't go down.

Roberts gets a 10 from me just because he flicked the away fans the bird before he took the corner leading up to our goal and then turned around and clapped them when we scored  :mrgreen:

Seems like roberts gave them the finger today
 :D
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Tommy played a belter and saved us from worsening our goal difference which may prove important! He crowned it all by saving from Christian Roberts much to our absolute delight. I'm sure you'll read more about this winker later on ... especially if he gets done for giving us the stiff-finger!

All in all their defence was just too well organised for us and we made little impact in their area.

Plenty more left to win though.

Amen brother


was sat with a mate in a different part of the TE and I was impressed

beat you to it  :P

I was too busy watching Roberts wind them up to see Shakey's dance.

2nd time you beat me to something today..did you have the last chocolate bar in the garage

nah it was a milky bar, is that chocolate? i'm not sure  :|

Shakes - 8 - I honestly cant believe this is the same Ricky Shakes, seems you really can polish a turd. Good running and some great crossing. I hope he keeps this form up

I've been banging on about Shakes forever - glad he's showing good form at the moment.

From most ratings he's the Man of the Match today then?

i don't post on here as much as i should but i feel the need today probably as it was such a good performance

P.Smith - 7 - Did'nt have "loads" to do but did what was needed of him well apart from one incident at the town end where he went wandering as the ball was drifting towards byline only for a macclesfield player to put it baxk in and get a corner

J.Smith - 6.5 - Still not the same player after his ban, looks nervous on the ball and tries to offload asap instead of running, defended well in patches needs to talk to shakes more

Ifil - 8 - Did nothing wrong, strong in the air and distribution on the whole was a lot better apart from 2 incidents i can remember

Williams - 7 - an improvement on the last home game in which he was dire, looked a lot more confident and strong

Nicholas - 7 - didn't put a foot wrong really, distribution was good, needed to attack the wings more

Shakes - 8.5 - outstanding, has grown in confidence after Palace game, touch is excellent, harries defenders and makes a general nuisance of himself down the wing

Timlin - 7.5 - Distribution was spot on, tackled well but drifted occasionally

Pook - 7.5 - went quiet like Timlin but when called upon, played well, seems a lotmore confident with Timlin next to him

Zaaboub - 7 - very quiet today, apart from one run i remember, should have scored 1st chance

Peacock - 9 - Touch was perfect, his distribution ideas are usually always right but other players don't seem to be able to read what he's doing, lovely free kick unlucky not to have the matchball really, should do better in the air on goal and overheard kick was cracking, actually got some decisions today for once, still not enough though as he is manhandled every game, gives as good as he gets now though

Roberts - 6.5 - flatters to deceive, i know the talents there, he just doesn't seem arsed unless it's at his feet which is fine but you've gotta put the work in in other areas, chase down, harrie defenders JUMP! dire penalty, but there keeper was on fire

So based on your ratings zaboub,pook and timlin were better than roberts yesterday

Thought we played well yesterday, Macclesfield were no mugs, and played some decent stuff untill we went 2-0 up, at which piont they had the look of a beaten team.

P.Smith - 7 -

J.Smith - 6 - Still looks slightly out of sorts to me, but was far from terrible.

Ifil - 7-

Williams - 7 -

Nicholas - 7 -

Shakes - 8 - Some good crosses, good finish, and all the ususal hard work. In a shoking development, an STFC management team might actually be coaching one of our players to be better:shock:

Timlin - 7 - didnt reach the heights of some of his other performcnces, but still good.

Pook - 7 - battled well. dont think he was as good as some others have stated, but he was still good

Zaaboub - 6.5 - didnt come alive til the last 15 mins

Peacock - 9 - MOTM. his best performance in a swindon shirt? Ball constantly stuck to him up front, won loads of free kicks and some great touches. good shot in 1st half, but was a bit lucky with the free kick tbh.

Roberts - 7.5 -  Caused them problems. a couple of really good runs. Still loses the ball when he shouldnt, and still makes bad decisions, but you have to take the rough with the smooth as far as he is concerned.

Spot on. Good post.

Were you there then spazoid?

Yes. In my own special way.  :(

Down the front with a helper again?

Oi. Leave the vegetable rack out of this.

As has been said before, their keeper was man of the match. Dissapointed not to have racked up a bigger scoreline, but Macclesfield allowed us to do that because they came to play football instead of comming for a 0-0.

Shakes was much better today. At Boston he was hopeless and looked out of his depth (yes he looked out of his depth at Boston). I still dont rate him, and I still dont think he should be starting.

Thought Roberts was excellent today. Town fans seem to be harsh on him because you see him dribble as he does and you think he should get 30 a season in League 2. He made good running, played off good balls for other players and ran at their defence as much as he could. He did fade (as always) but it wasnt as bad as some games. I could see the pressure he was putting on himself to score that penalty. But in hindsight that was a fantastic save by their keeper.

I think Swindon fans are in danger of making the same mistake with Roberts as we did with Brian Howard. Sometimes he does infuriate. But he is a quality footballer. Keep it in perspective.

And the ref was fucking shit. Stiffled the game in the 2nd half. Whistle every 30 seconds. Bloody rubbish.

from what i saw yesterday i couldn't agree more. by far the most creative and dangerous player on the pitch

Thirded Roberts was very good, and I cannot believe their centre half (the black one) didn't get booked and Roberts did.  He studded CR down his calf Roberts gets angry about it and the ref books Roberts.  Those kind of tackles are season ending tackles roberts was right to be pissed off.

The same defender was constantly fouling the Cock all match and made another three or four fouls which should have seen him end up in the book.

Ref and lino (who nearly cost us a goal by giving Macc a free kick when it never was) were terrible.

As others have said only one MOM on Saturday - their keeper - superb!!  WANKER!!!!!

The whole wanker thing at their keeper was fundamentally flawed though.

Roberts played on to try and score when Shakes was down, he gets tackled then we expect their keeper to throw it out when he is in possesion of the ball. :shrug:

Exactly what i said ...Although i still called him a wanker but thats because he is a pikey...

Funniest bit of the game was when he saved nichos header.A young lad runs to the front lee looks at him and the lad says

"Fucking Great Save You Fuckin Wanker"

of course you're right but since when have football fans ever applied simple logic