Thetownend.com

could be an interesting game, Casal not playing, Aljofree is left back with Ifil & Kanyuka the 2 centre backs

Wooohoooo! We should be in with a shout then :)

what the fucks up with casal?  Is Imawanka fit these days?

will you be making an apperance Pook? oh sorry JCP thingy

i will be there, but i will not be meeting up with u and doing some of the things that u sent me in that PM

How can this be the official matchday thread?  Matchday is not until tomorrow!

ssshhhhhhhhhh

not surprised if casal has been dropped.he was ropey as fuck against tranmere, and looked at fault for the first goal at cheltenham from the footage i saw.

Have they got a good right winger ?

Mark Yeates!

That a real shame as I wanted to podge loads of Swindon players and catch dieseases

u would catch nothing cos i would have my crisp packet handy :)

Glad Casal is out, he been dog shite so far.

Not convinced Ifil and Kanyuka in the middle will work though. Good players but not a natural leader between them.

What about the midfield....is Easton going back in?

how do we know the team already?

Pook told us

Casal has been bad because he has been covering for are shoddy centre backs.Any player with mcnamee in front of them is going to be exposed anyway

No, Casal has been bad because he dives it, get turned to easy, doesnt stand his man, doesnt show him down the line, drifts inside, doesnt mark his man tightly and gives away stupid fouls on the edge of our own box.

his heading is poor too

i think he might possibly be the worst player we've ever had at swindon. in fact, he's so rubbish he can only get worse.

It's not a fucking Matchday!

it is for Southend

www.shrimpersonline.net

fuck off and start one there then.

no i want it here

Aljofree at LB? Oh dear. Vincent there please.

oh, in that case...

glad thats all sorted x

Albert Jarrett

aljofree played loads at LB for plymouth.

i've always wanted to see him there... recon he'll do a job.

Still too early to judge ... very naive in the first few games, lets give him another four or five before we judge.

Commigues was fucking useless at the start of last season give Yinka a chance.

I also think Casal wasn't as bad as the other defenders against Tranmere.

Casal hasnt been very good, neither has Hasney neither has Morrison

To be fair, not as bad as casal has looked so far.

I'll give him a chance, but on first two performances alone he looked poo. I'd probably do a better job! He must have somehting about him for us to actually spend money on him, and that dutch team interested in him, so i trust he'll come good eventually

myth.

that didnt happen at all. when was Comminges ever 'fucking useless'?

he wasnt DV, miguel impressed me everytime he came on as a sub in the early part of the season

It's all about opinions. And my opinion is that at the start of last season Miguel was gash.

Your opinion is invalid becouse you're a beardy cunt and JPC82's opinion is invalid because he's just a cunt..........

Edited..........

Neither has the whole defence.

kinda my point Si :)

That's better.......

Nice use of examples, which games?

He came on against Northampton on the left wing for 20 minutes and was probably our best player. After that he pretty much played every game

....and believe it or not im actually clean shaven at the moment, very rare indeed

he was good at Cheltenham away coming on and playing right midfield, nearly scored his 1st goal that day except Higgs pulled off an absolute worldy!

I went to nearly every game last season, but don't expect me to remember who we played when!

My recollection is that at the start of the season he was poor.

You're getting confused DV. That was a different Comminges.

your recollection is wrong then hertha

haha quality ben

.....Comminges is white bald reserve goal keeper right?

Jack Smith has been decent in the 2 games I've seen(not Cheltenham)

Jack Smith has been our most consistant defender so far this season.

He's been decent going forward, I think he's been caught out of position an awful lot. In essence I think the defence needs to learn how to man mark. At the moment it seems they're losing their own men too easily and trying to cover for each other, thus compounding the problem further. We're just not defending as a unit and it showed against Cheltenham.

in fairness the last two games we've been missing our 1st, 3rd & 4th choice of Centre Backs (Ifil, Kanyuka & Vincent)

We'll be better off with Jerel back in tomorrow if KFC28 is right with the line up.

I'd like to see someone else at CB with Ifil. Aljofree is not playing very well at all.

It's a part of our game which I expect Malpas will sort out. We've looked more dangerous in attack than we have for ages so if Malpas can get the defence organised we'll be a force to be reckoned with I feel.

it is a bit ironic that a management team with over 70 caps between them has moulded a good attacking team, but a seemingly poor defensive one

Still reckon part of the problem is inadequate cover from midfield.

That said, it's more entertaining to try and outscore the opposition by scoring and letting in several goals than nicking it 1-0.

I think that was the case against Tranmere, not so with Cheltenham as highlighted by both their goals were in our box.

I totally agree with you herthab, i used to cringe every time he was passed the ball at the start of last season.

I cant be arsed to go tomorrow.

Quickest midseason cant be arse slump ever.  :D

Easton still on the bench for todays game

I agree. It's amusing how people have forgotten, or failed to see his shitness in the first place.

When he first started playing he was the only player who really fucked me off. Crossing good. Pace good. Getting caught out of position Good. Failing to ever pass the ball to a member of his team good. Giving the ball away in stupid places good.

And PMT83, just because you do a bit of cottaging with the yoof, doesn't mean you've the only valid opinion.  :bookread:

"With Miguel there was always the possibility he was going to do something crazy. Because he was foreign sometimes he was caught out of position and could sometimes try and smash the ball across the face of goal."

Those are Christian Roberts' thoughts on this debate.

"Because he was foreign"

Ace. That Vidic chap is shite, aint he.

Anyone be in the merlin pre-game? I might be wandering by.

Roberts is foreign too.

yep. come see me x

What country is he from?

He's not from a country, he's from a principality.

Well first time I've used PTV for a while - nice to see it "works" just as well as before. Is the audio dropping out as much for everyone else as for me?

Doesn't World only kick in at 3pm? I'm listening to Radio Swindon over the net for the build up.

It's certainly working at the moment on World...

Ive got wold, but everytime i try and listen to the game i get the following error message

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
   
   Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.
 
 

Anyone has this experience before ?

Nothing happening then?

The last person has left the site  :bye:

Zero-one

What a load of crap 2-0 down at half time.

Glad I decided to stay in bed late instead.

Drinking Cider in the garden and listening on the radio is the cheaper more relaxing option.

sort it out malpas, this is going to be another crap result.

oh dear

Very dissapointing

The defensive rot set in at the QPR game and now we're running out of answers-apparently no improvement with Ifil and Kanyuka back,that's worrying

what was the score?

ah I saw.

I wonder why the word "decisions" is red in the OS match report

I had more fun putting a futon together........from 3rd to 19th in a week............

the defense was poor for the 2nd and the 3rd goal. shit 1st half. 2nd half got better. Marshall looks quick but he is very raw. Disallowing a goal because the keeper takes out his own player. mind blowing.

fuck me, where do i start?

1st half, just write it off, we were dogshit. freekick against paynter for daring to challenge the keeper for a ball, what the fuck was wrong with that?

2nd half, when we actually tried to play football and get it down the wings we got some pressure on them. i cant understand why the goal was disallowed, their keeper gets munted by their player, then another of their players hits it against a town player, it goes in. fucking ridiculous.

i cant think of one player that played well really. tho if i see mcgovern start again any time soon i will be fucking livid, he's a prize cunt, exactly what this club does not need. makes up excuses before the match in the media, then shock horror, plays a fucking stinker. and aljofree, i dont want him in the defence. complete non-entity as a captain, does nothing but whinge and shout at players when its mostly his fault.

so pissed off right now. sigh.

What I have found from today:

I actually like Malpas, 1st half was diabolical and didn't wait until 10 mins from the end to change it.  Most of us would have picked the same squad for today so can't really blame him for the players not turning up.
Marshall - looks a good prospect and you can tell he wants to be here, can see him and Macca causing problems.  Should start next week ahead of JP
JP - Slate me by all means but I still do not think this guy is good enough
Paynter - Couldn't really do much as everytime he won a ball the ref gave a free kick
Brez - Hmmmmm....Maybe Phil Smith deserves a chance?  Wasn't impressed
J Smith - Ok he made the error for the second goal but definitely not a reason to penalise him and get on his back.  Honestly think hes been one of our better players and amazingly, one of the only ones trying to play it on the ground today.
Ifil - Poor distribution but did ok
Easton - Did well when he came on, think he should start next week.

It's all very well me saying it now with the benefit of hindsight, but Easton HAS to be among the first names on the team sheet. The debate is whether it is Nalis or Timlin that plays alongside him.

Mostly individual errors cost us today, but I must say that Colchester look a good side to me.

I thought it was a Col U player that took out their keeper as well. Did anyone other than the ref see anything different?

Totally agree with you there, I was gutted for him and it was clear that he was as well. Ironic that his footballing sensibility is what gifted them a goal - put your boot through it lad.

Toothless first half display, and be absolutely clear (it's not sour grapes) that make me say Colchester looked distinctly average. poor defending for the first and an absolute shocker of a mistake by Smith for the second, at least he sort of recovered.

Again I think the problems came centre of midfield where we had two players who are more than comfortable with the ball, and about as effective as a blamanche at getting it back again. Also, they fail to get back quick enough allowing the oppositions central midfield to get beyond them and outnumber our defence.

We were much better in the second half, more fight and urgency. No idea if that was solely down to the substitutions, half time bollocking or what. I can at last see that Marshall shows promise, needs more work but we knew that.

The cocknocker ref had a shocker, there was no foul in that 'goal'. He lost it a bit then and started to go with the shout.

We got back in it and I always felt Colchester could be pegged back or even defeated. The clock was running down and then poor defending and a shocking keeping error by Brez ended he match.

It isn't great, but it isn't a disaster yet. I can see we could do OK but we need to sort the issues out now.

hopefully after Marshall's display it will mean the end of McGovern for a while

Marshall was good, I genuinly think the rest of the team were shit. maybe when I sit down and review the game again I will change my mind but FFS grow some balls. Our defence is shocking. Fair play to Malpas for dropping that waste of space JP McGovern at half time.

Christ-Nick Holmes,what a boring fucker!

100% their man, no doubt about it.

Jack Smith was just on the radio saying the ref told him there was a push on their guy before that. Didn't see a push myself, woud need to see a replay to be sure.

If there was a push it was minimal!  Ref screwed up and tried to dig himself out of the hole he buried himself in.

Shot ourselves in the foot in a game we should have won. Colchester were nothing, they just battled harder than us. Two unforgivable mistakes (both culprits should be ashamed) and a terrible ref cost us big time. Nowt wrong with the disallowed goal and I truly believed had that stuck we would have gone on to get something.

Ah well, haven't learned anything new about the team. Defence is crap.

JPM - If you don't want abuse, start being good at football. His delivery, back-tracking and positioning was shite.

Ref was terrible.

Paynter may as well have sat on the sideline - he was raped evry time he went for something, and if he had the audacity to actually win a ball, was pulled up for some kind of non-foul.  Knowing that this was the cae though, we probably should have stopped knocking it high and long to him.

Bad bad mistake by Smith, but that happens. Brez looked shakey once again, and cost us another goal. I wouldn't be adverse to seeing him dropped.

Conceeding 5 goals in two games is unacceptable. 

 burn them!

...Or get someone other than Ady Williams to coach the defence.

i fucking hate losing at homes on saturdays, proper fucks up my night.


oh, JPM, fuck off please. heres hoping mr mcgovern will be warming the bench at most come mcdongs.

We lost to the better team. They were better first half, they sat back second and allowed us to come at them, as soon as we scored they just stepped up a gear again.

Today pretty much proved why nalis and timlin cant both play together. Easton did more running than both of them combined.

Comedy of errors for the third goal. Kanyuka pansying about like a fairy, brez fecked up big time. Apart from that though had a good game i thought. Smiths cock up was hilarious, though apart from that he had a good game i thought, my motm.

The ref was rubbish. How is it a foul when a defender impedes his own keeper? And why was ifil booked for winning the ball in a clean tackle. Nearly as bad as the huddersfield ref of of last season.

i thought marshall was quick but really didn't have a good touch. overhit several crosses and seemed to run out of ideas when confronted with opposition players. did better when he switched to the left and would like to see him get more match time, just not the finished article right now.

overall we were poo.

Oh yeah, and cox missed some right sitters. Wont play for liverpool missing them son

oh, and i thought ifil did ok, give him a couple of games to get into it and he'll be class again.

sitters? were you watching a different match? i cant remember one sitter for us in the entire fucking game!!!

he missed two from 6 yards. If he wants to play a higher league he should be scoring them

the one after the header that hit the bar he should have buried.

Yeah, but that Peacock was it not?

meh.

first half was one of the worst performances i've seen from a town side in a while. utter shambles. fair play to malpas for making decisive changes, we looked much better in the second half - their goal came against the run of play and after we'd had a perfectly good goal disallowed.

colchester were very one dimensional, long ball over the top to platt or vernon - nothing else. we should be able to defend against that with ease but made hard work of it at times.

smith's mistake was unfortunate, as was ifil's - neither had a bad game imo. marshall looks good, a little over eager to impress at times and somewhat raw but i'd have him in the side over the useless cunt JP.

the back four and brezovan concern me - brez looks awful and i wasn't impressed with kanyuka at all. aljofree did very little and offered macnamee no support whatsoever. smith recovered well from his mistake and ifil was his usual self.

i had the misfortune to sit near two racist cunts in the town end in the second half - back row, seat 100ish. pricks.

errr. i tend not to be too good at remembering things like that.

cox had the chance that should have scored but keeper tipped round the post. He missed another first half too i think. Its a shame because his all round game other than that was pretty good

It was Peacock running in, but it came back over him . He had no way of knowing it was going to hit the bar or where it would land.

i forgot peacock came on.

we're fucked if paynter or cox get injured.

woooo its another lets all blame JPM thread....

First goal was school boy stuff. Midfielder arriving in the box, no one tracking him and he scores from left edge of our box. JPMs fault.

Second goal was a huge mistake by Jack Smith he didnt get his body in front of the ball and let it run to their striker, who obvioulsy scored. JPMs fault.

A couple of times Paynter and Cox and got in behind the defenders out wide and had no one in the box to aim for. JPMs fault.

Paytner rises above the keeper in the first half and heads it towards goal, ok it didnt go in but if the ref hadnt of blow his whistle im sure Paynter would have got their first to tap it in. Didnt see too much wrong with it myself. JPMs fault.

Colchester Goal Keeper and defender bump into each other and some how the keeper gets a free kick for fuck that JPM is a useless fucking cunt isnt he. His fault.

Kanyuka and Brez both fucked up royally for the last goal. I swear Brez came out and completely missed it. Why he went in with his foot rather than his hands and body I dont know. JPMs fault.

We got out battled again in central midfield. Timlin and Nalis dont offer us enough bite in there. We miss a battler. JPMs fault. Easton looked a bit sluggish when he came on and looks like he'll need a game or two to get back to his standard JPMs fault. I thought Peacock won more in midfield when he came on than Nails or Timlin did all game. JPMs fault.

In conclusions, its all JPMs fault.

who blamed JP for anything?

i only said he was useless. which he was, along with the other ten players

Just awful first half, managed to win 4 corners in the first 4 minutes, but stunk after that. 2-0 half time was the least they deserved, they knocked it around well, although we gave them plenty of opportunity.

Much better second half, the two substitutes were very lively and we started showing the urgency and passion we needed from kick-off! Could have been oh so different had the ref not inexplicably ruled out the rebounded clearance. Having said that, i'm not sure our penalty should have been given, and i'm pretty sure Jerel handled in the area later on.......

I honestly don't think the ref would have given us that penalty had he not disallowed a perfectly good goal.  He seemed to take an eternity to give it.

Lets just forget the first half, complete non-event for town, superb decision by MM and DB to make a double substitution at the break.  Nearly turned it around and I would be very surprised to see Brez start the next match, personally I'm not sure if he should or not, but he really bottled it for there third goal, looked like he didn't want to get stuck in.

Suddenly the next three games look tough.

Well I thought that JP did alright first half!

Some lovely distribution.

 8)

He should have given both.

Both were clear as day. Cosidering the Colchesters players arm was above his head and stopped Kanyukas header actually going in the top corner I think he should have been sent off as well.

He should also have given them a penalty for Jerel's handball.

the one where he slid in at the end?

Going for a tackle and having the ball brush your arm as you follow through is a bit different to having your arm in the air and blocking a goal bound header.

Unless I've missed a handball earlier?!

from the rubbish view in the TE, that looked like a brilliant challenge from jerel. a couple of years ago that would have ended up in a penalty and red card - tis a measure of how he's improved

 Suddenly the whole fucking season looks tough....we scoffed when various pundits had a us down as relegation fodder...not looking so silly now sadly.

 When you just ship soft goals week after week, then you end up down the foot of teh league....

 I been saying it for a while, but Phil Smith must come in....Jerel and Kanyuka can't play together, as they both repeatedly give the ball away...I'd go with Sean Morrison over PK.

  Midfield needs sorting getting overrun by the likes of Jonny Jackson and Kem Izzet at home should set the alarm bells ringing....hopefully Craig Easton can provide a bit more substance here.

  I suspect a couple more defeats in a row and AF will come under pressure to change his manager....

No I'm talking about the same incident DV, you must have had a different angle to me, becasue from where I sat, just behind the dug outs in the Arkells, he approached the ball like a scrum half smothers the ball in rugby, you condescending knob jockey.  Get off your high horse ffs, the I'm right and everyone else must be wrong attitude that you seem to posess is less than endearing.

And I never said that the ref shouldn't have given us a penalty I said he seemed to take an awfully long time to give it, which made me feel that if he hadn't just ruled out a perfectly good goal for us, he may not have given it.

there's already a cunt who sits behind me and shouts 'Malpas Out' and 'What a load of rubbish' whenever anything goes slightly wrong.

twat.

I don't want Malpas forced out.  He picked the best team available to him.  If this lot can't perform then give the likes of Kennedy, Allen and Joyce a chance.

With regard to Ifils handball, from where I was sitting, it looked like he was pretty much hugging the ball!

But DV's always right - didn't you know that?

Tbh Sonic, everyone around me in the Arkells seemed to hold their breath, as it were, when he slid in, cos it looked a dead cert of a pen, just the general view could be worng, but if it were the other way round in a tight match I'd have been livid that it wasn't given.  The yellow he picked up was a wonderful challenge that should have been applauded, superb strength, he won the ball brilliantly.

Heh heh! It's about time someone socked it to Dee Vee :)

it's cos DV is a realist. and he plays football, so he obviously knows more than us mere mortals jan.


christ, you weren't fucking joking either. what a twat.

Did no one else hear that the FL has instructed referees that for any teams in red with an sw in their name to get a free kick the player has to be repeatedly bludgeoned over the head bundled into the boot of a car driven into a forest and buried in a shallow grave before they get awarded?  Or is it just the cunt who officiated today?

Mind you we were shit against a bunch of cloggers.  Couldnt defend against a route one first goal and 2 shocking defensive mistakes killed us.  And the ref.  Can I say cunt again?

Had to laugh during the first half DB was shouting at Timlin, and some fan shouts out "sit down shut up Budgie" so Db turns around and looks in the general direction and tells him to fuck off, then after a couple of minutes thinking about it, he turned around again and just swears under his breath, as if he'd just spent the last couple of minutes thinking about what the fan had shouted, I think you had to be there.

I think he went with the shout, realising he had the perfect opportunity to cancel out his mistake. Except it was a penalty anyway so that doesn't work.

VD, our display was not solely JPMs fault. nobody is blaming him for us being utterly shit, he's not at fault for that.

what he is at fault for, regularly being caught out of place, not taking on his man, passing to jack smith, putting his hand up to jack smith to tell him not to pass to him, then meandering into space, perfect for a pass from jack smith. you cannot seriously be thinking he had a good game? he was a bag of cock, and with his comments in the adver in the week, it makes him look like a prize cunt.

at the end of the day we was poor and deserved to lose, end of!
All that really matters is that i was right about the team selection :)

fucking dire first half.the centre back pairing doesn't work and i was amazed it wasn't changed at half time.kanyuka had an absolute nightmare,and ifil despite making a couple of decent challenges was a liability.man of the match(not a fucking chance)
aljofree did fuck all major wrong really but we need him central and vincent back in the side.
jpm did nothing to be dragged off for imo.timlin and nalis were awful first 45.macnamee was in the right backs pocket too.
lets be honest they were all shit until the break.but paynter was the pick of the lot until then for his effort.

second half was eventfull to say the least.cox looked pulled back for a pen,perfectly valid goal disallowed,and a stone wall pen for colchester after ifils handball,also he was rightly booked for the two footed lunge after a diobolical misplaced pass seconds before.marshall was a gamble that didn't really bring anything better than jp could have done.but at least we had a right go at them and bringing peacock on in cm was right,and at the right time imo.

yeates was class and colchester looked a decent side to me overall

I'd be very, very suprised if there isn't some wheeling and dealing this week. We need more wheat and less chaffe!

Colchester are a better team than us, but we've got to do better at home.

It's still only game 3. Christ knows what we can expect next week, me thinks it won't be pretty.

A rubbish day.

We were shit (apart from 20 minutes in the second half)

They were average

Ref was comical.

That should do me.

ain't no one what wants our chaff though...for sure, for sure.

the wheat harvest has been ruined by a very wet summer anyway

Seems it was just me and nemo that thought Colchester were average and there for the taking had we 'clicked' going forward.
-------
What did JFW end up wearing to the game?

I never said JPM was good, infact he was bloody awful today, he certainly wasnt alone in that.....however I think he is far from useless and offers this team something.

However, he is some what of a luxery player. When we are playing well and dominating the middle of the park he will see more of the ball out wide and deliver some good crosses.

When we are getting over ran in midfield and not passing the ball about he adds nothing to the team.

To me, McNamee is exactly the same. When we get the ball to him - he will use it well. When we dont get the ball to him at all, he might as well not be playing.

Against Tranmere we dominated in the middle and passed the ball well and both our wingers played well that match. Since that game we've lost the battle in the middle of the park and apart from 5 or 10 minutes here and there are wingers havent had the same impact as they did against Tranmere, both of them.

Wingers are the type of players that need service in order to produce their goods and today (esp in the first half when JPM was on) we didnt give either of them enough supply. Apart from the god awful corners JPM but a few decent crosses into the box in the first half but it was rare we gave him or McNamee the ball.

Looks like a long hard season ahead. Our defence and midfield look totally inadequate.

Dont have the confidence that Malpas can get the right players in- he seems to have an issue attracting players to the club

I'll wait until the deadline - but he has a tough task this week... I don't blame him for losing out on Betsy, Jones and Mulgrew but yes, we need an inspirational move or get the money out.

there's a shock.

Anyone know what Malpas had to say after the match today? Cant find his interview on the bbc site.

well that was a bit of a disaster, if Aljofree or JP start again in the near future I won't be at all happy. Ifil effectively had to play centre back and Left back due to Aljofree's what looked like lazyness. Every time he got caught out of position he just slowly jogged back so Ifil had to make the challenge to save him. He needs to be stripped of the captaincy and removed from the team.
JPM well I've had enough of him, he's not very good and has a shit attitude, there was a lot of frustrated supporters today when it was 2-0 so there was some criticism levelled at him from the front of the DR stand and it looked like he mouthed off again, all the other players seem to be able to ignore it.
Smith needs to play in goal in the Paint Pot trophy to see what he looks like as Brez is out of confidence already, and Easton needs to be in the starting 11 EVERY week.

I fear for Malpas I really do, our next 4 matches are MK away (on form) Hereford away (shit form but hard place to go), Leeds (need I say more?) and Stockport away (hard place to go and we don't travel well). It is far from certain we'll get anything from those games and if we don't then Malpas will be under some real pressure. Too early to start panicing yet but it could be a very difficult period for MM.

Roughly what they put on the OS, however the "flat atmosphere" bit left out where he said "because we didn't give the fans anything to shout about"...

http://www.swindontownfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Interview/0,,10341~1372040,00.html

the bloke is doomed and it's only a matter of time before he's gone.not my want to have him out but the crowd turned early today.alot are waitinbg for the earliest opportunity to slate the bloke.
had one absolute prick in the arkells boo the team when they came out after half time,then when the twat on the mike said "swindon town" he booed again.also went beserk when ifil was rightly booked for his lunge.we have quite a few pricks like that so called supporting stfc sadly

First half was awful.
The ref having a mare brought the ground alive.
Cant belive that goal was disallowed, hit the bar, and of course the penalty.
Depressed first half, but I actually enjoyed the second half, so we lost to a poorish side, but I'm going to look at a positive.

Marshall, doesn't know where he is going at times, but I enjoyed his enthusiasm and pace, yes pace to burn, I think we have a winner with the lad.

someone tell me why aljofree is getting so much stick? he looked the only one in the back four who didn't have at least one major fuck up today.

If we're thinking of the same incident then this happened just after he blocked a Colchester through ball and the ricochet ended up in the stands, it looked to me like JP was apologising to whomever he hit?

I thought Aljofree was ok as well, Kanu was diabolical, the man would never beat anyone to a jump in a brothel.

Nah this was when he miscontrolled a ball just before half time.

Thanks for the link. Makes fucking grim reading though.

Malpas and Byrne must be shitting themselves after two such awful performances this early in the season. I would be very concerned.

I saw passion from Malpas on the line thid afternoon, now that is a first, tactically we got it wrong in the first half, second half I think Malpas got it smack on.
If Lady Luck had been on our side we would have at least secured a point.

Because he's captain and should lead by example. Instead at Cheltenham he heaped the responsibility of looking after Hayles onto Morrison and today Ifil time and time again had to cover for Aljofree as he just jogged back. I would expect the captain to be busting a gut to try and get back in position. Also people criticise Ifil for his distribution but my god Aljofree's is shocking every ball is just hooooooooooof!!!. He's been crap in the centre, crap on the left and therefore that must = bench.

My only problem with Aljofree today was he hasnt got the pace to keep up with the quick wingers. Alot of the time he tucked inside whilst one of Ifil or Kanyuka went to the ball.

I did think Kanyuka wasnt very good and to be honest I still dont understand the hype this lad is getting.

Everyone desperately wanted to see an Ifil/Kanyuka partnership but me, not so much. I think I'd rather see an Ifil/Vincent partnership.

  Hereford is teh key game in there...they look like strugglers along with Cheltnumb and we've already lost to them.

 It will be a test of AF to see how much faith he has in MM, but it seems AF does like to be quite hands on, and can probably work out for himself...we are poor at the basics.

  Of the available managers to bring in, Ian Holloway must be a possibility.

At the moment I'd also have Ifil/Vincent and either Vincent or Easton as captain.

Ifil is must in the centre, Kanyuka is not good enough, Aljofree is a jobs worth pro (does a job), I have not seen Morrison play, could he be the answer?

too young I think. Good player and will have a good career but sadly Ifil still needs that expirenced head along side him. Its a shame injuries took their toll because the best central defensive partnership we've had in years was Williams and Ifil.

I still think our best back line is.....

Smith, Ifil, Aljofree, Vincent

Kanyuka has looked good before so is worth persevering with. He got bullied by Platt today though, who was just a real pain in the arse.

When I say "persevering with", I mean, as in, "not be totally written off after one poor display"

I hope the fans give MM time to turn it around though (as most people on here seem to be doing).  Even if performances fail to improve immediately, Fitton will not be rushed into making a rash decision...so calls for the manager's head will only cause friction between the fans and the Chairman.  And we don't need that.

We're just 3 games in - one of which showed some real promise.  I think I'll hold fire on giving my opinion until the end of next month (by which time I'll have seen a game!)

I am giving him 10 games- first 3 must do better

Does no-one else think we looked better second half may be down to the fact colchester tried to shut up shop?

 I'd think MM would be hard pressed to survive another 4 defeats in a row, and looking at the fixtures and having seen us play all matches it's a distinct possibility....

 Who do you fancy as replacement Bart?

Right a few things after reading this. Aljofree surprised me and i thought he was OK at left back. He wasn't great but at least he was solid enough. Granted he's not a LB and he lacks pace and offers little going forward. But what do you go for? That or the opposite of that in Casal?

Jack Smith i thought was poor. He is so poor in defence it's unreal. Going forward he's OK but he needs to learn to stick to his man and actually stay tight at the back and not make pathetic school boy mistakes like the second goal.

Overall we were OK. I only say that because we were good in the second half. Shit ref (and he was) or not you cannot expect to play for 45 minutes and win a game. Thought Nalis and Timlin offered us nothing. In fact, funnily enough, i thought we looked much better with Peacock and Easton in the cente just like the Sturrock days. Marshall looked good when he came on and Macca played well as did the front 2. Where we really fell short was the CM pairing and the back 4 (or 5 if you include Brez). So we need to show more urgency and get the defence organised because Colchester were not great today but they had something we didn't. A solid defence. With MK and Hereford coming up on the road i'm less than confident. I won't be getting on MM's back though. Wasn't his fault today. At least he and Byrne gave them a good shouting at half time.

First half was woeful, I enjoyed the second half, on another day could easily have won a point. Nounce of a third goal for CU, upset but still see many good points from this game.

I'd love to be as confident as others, but so far i've seen little to inspire me greatly this season

First day was very good. Second half today was good as well. Chin up. FFS it's 3 games in anyway.

haha i know i sound as bad as bart. but if we cant keep a clean sheet we do nae have a prayer

Maybe you're right mate. But don't panic yet. If we get to November then panic. After all what's the worst that can happen? League Two on tour again whooooo hoooo.

Ah So your Milan Mandaric's brother?

Its all well and good trying to be a footballing side in this division but you need work rate, commitment and effort.

The current team is a much better passing side than last season but I do think we lack that Sturrock steel if you will, that battling quality Sturrock built his teams around

so do i

10 games is fair imo.

we're not supposed to agree, fuck off arriba!

:nod:

 :D


we dont agree alot of the time, but today we do.
dont worry it wont last

if we lose to hereford we are doomed

anyone else think yeates was quality?
the bloke ran it for them today, and had a couple of great crosses first half that should have had better headers on the end of them.
for me i dont reckon you'll see many better players in div1.apart from tttttaaaaaaayyyyyyyllllooooooorrrrrr maybe?

Nope. I thought Col U were average tbh.

Glad I took a week off and painted my room!

A sign of getting old there. Ready to settle down.

JPM go now. MM has shown more in two camos than you have in a year. Yet again kept drifying into the middle and was found wanting when Smith needed help. Brez needs to be dropped. Aljofree was wank. Forgot he was a left back and drifted into the centre meaning the Beast had a lot of gruond to cover. Alos forgot he was captain yet again. Needs to be dropped. Kanyuka was crap but has shown enough previuosly to be given another chance.
Col u won virtually every second ball and our dead ball delivery is pure dogshit. its alright having a load of corners but virtually all of ours are shit and our free kicks even worse.
Ref was useless beyond belief but he didn't cost us the game - we did that ourselves.

sorry chalkies but that is mostly bollocks.aljofree tucked in to cover the centre backs who were getting ripped apart.and jpm has created plenty of chances for others including today.i dont mind people getting slated when deserved, but some get slated when not justified

Arriba, lets agree to disagree. Hopefully with Vincent back soon it will settle the defence. I won't be at Franchise as I refuse to hand any of my money over to that shameful shower of shit but thnigs must get better.

to be honest, i thought col u were distinctly average - wouldn't have any of them in our side...except maybe the left-back ;)

out of interest - if we do get rid of malpas, who would we bring in to replace him?

personally i think we need stability. we've had an usually high turnover of managers in the last few years, not one manager has had an entire season since king. malpas' record is pretty poor, no doubt, but he took over in shit circumstances last season and i don't see what good another season in limbo would do for us. we'll probably struggle at times and i can't see much more than midtable but changing manager so early in the season would be hasty imo

We'd be stuck the the unemployed merry go round of managers.  Great, probably one who'd get us playing long ball bollocks.  MM is trying I just hope it comes off.

I don't agree with some of Malaps team selections but there are a number of players who don't give a shit about their performances. I don't think that Malaps is the major problem and I'm not in the anti Malaps camp. I'd certainly give him until Christmas but he really needs to shake up some of these complacent wasters.

Im actually speechless (typless?)

why? you mean you disagree?!

I think he does SY.  I think he does.  Which is fine btw.

why, do you agree?

i actually have no opinion whatsoever on anything ever.

Nah just fucked off lost 10-0 last week, dont mind losing but its how you lose.  Coupled with a pricey day at Cheltenham and decided to take a few weeks off playing and watching.  Saying that im off for a hot choclate and bed!

Bloody hell Ash, you appear to have aged about 30 years since I last saw you!!

Whats the deal with the 10-0 defeat, who were you playing. Same team for you next year?.....are you still the goal keeper?

Think that's the effect a good woman has on you DV, although I could be wrong.

Poor team performance yesterday, nobody looked on their game.

After listening to Malpas on the radio, I think the players are in for a world of shit on Monday.

Three games into the new season (I'm only counting league games) is way too early to judge anything. Didn't Swansea have a poor start last season? Orient were flying this time last year and where did they finish?

Let's keep a bit of perspective FFS. Disappointing? Very. End of our season/start of a relegation battle/let's look for a new manager/which players should we get rid of? Don't be silly......

we were poor ,realy bad first half but then again i quite enjoyed the secound half-untill they scored their third.the ref was pants so many bad decisions how did he not give them a pen? why did he diss-allow the secound of our two .All in all we have to be a lot better all over the park and also play for 90 mins if we could do that we should finish well up the table.
I also think they should get fans back in the town end it,s like a library at the county ground at the moment.

The TE was better yesterday but only in the second half when the ref was being a cunt. It's almost like we need something to spark the crowd really.

Indeed DV I am getting old.  Yeah went in goal as our new keeper didnt turn up but went out on pitch second half.

Back to Swindon, we are a good team but need to become consistant, need to get more hard to beat instead of trying fancy footy all the time! Keep the faith

 I'd agree on keeping perspective, but already there are a number of indicators that suggest we should be worried...

 Swansea had an average start from 3 games a win, a draw (Forest) and an opening day defeat....ours not a lot different except the nature of the defeats.

 Losing to Cheltnumb is an indicator of problems.....I think they'll struggle to stay up. fair play to them, they make the most of small resources. The problem is we know the away form is patchy at best....does anybody expect anything other than losing at MKD?
 A draw would be creditable, and be an indicator of a competitive team.

 Losing at home to ColU is also an indicator of problems...OK last season they were in the CCC, but that was their first away win since Jan 1st....they've lost a few players and brought in a couple of newbies, but its a lot of the same fellas, so they're not exactly bristling with confidence on the road themselves.

 In essence they were gifted 3 points by basic incompetence....

 Now the perspective bit, is that it should be evident to the management team where and what the problems are, so that they can be rectified and not revisited. Now to my mind that is their job....if they can do something about it, over say the next 4 or 5 games, all well and good, if not then they should be sacked, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Looking at the upcoming fixtures with the majority away,including a JPT game at Aldershot,
if a losing streak continues,the home game with Millwall at the start of october could be D Day.

Oh dear, are we talking about sacking MM already?

Poor MM   :cry:

 Roll over Leeds and an awful lot of shit can be forgiven...

I don't think anyone is yet calling for his dismissal.All that's being said is that the pressure on
him will increase significantly, if we get into a endless run of defeats.Hopefully we can scrape
2 draws at MKD and Hereford,but with our defence anything is possible.

Yesterday showed we shouldn't make scapegoats. We were a shoddy team in the first half and an improved team in the second. The whole of the back four was poor. You can slate Casal (per his previous games), Aljofree or yesterday make an example of Smith, but nobody knows who they are marking - it's poor. Much improvement needs to be done in that whole department and a leader is needed. It's not individuals.

I know he made a crucial error but Smith should not drop his head when there is still a game on. He ran it to the byline at one point and you could visibly see his head drop when he only won a corner. Which I felt typified the performance - apart from Cox who was fired up? The CM pairing bottled it and I was much happier with Easton and Peacock in there. However, I do feel we were given far more room to breathe in the second half when the opposition tried to hang on to their lead.

We are committing some very basic errors which can be solved. They were present from day one of this season and perhaps the pre-season (in part). These issues need to be addressed ASAP or we will be relegation fodder. There is plenty of time and it's so early on that there is not a need to panic. In fact, cool heads would benefit all on and off the pitch. 10 games on and if I'm stil venting my frustrations week on week then I may conclude then something more drastic needs doing.

I must admit my view for the second goal was poor, so I didn't see Jack's mistake, but I really hope he doesn't, as you say Si, let his head drop.  He was the only defender yesterday who, constantly looked for the short ball from Brez, and whenever the ball came to him off the ground he looked to get it down.  The other three were happy hoofing it forward.  People are me weren't too impressed with Jack, but I do think he was looking to play the game at least.  Kanyuka looked pretty ropey, but I'll put that down to a lack of first team action.

Jack Smith was getting plenty of support from our section of the ground thought he was best player from a bad bunch in the first half, terrible mistake though.
Kanuyka, I was so disappointed with this guy I'd heard so many good comments, he can't jump, and is a carthorse (I could beat him in a sprint) and thesafety first tactics really piss me off, lets see a bit of football knowledge and skill, not once did he try to lay the ball back to Brez when pressed by a forward when caught out wide, just nodded it or kicked it straight into touch.

i thought smith recovered well from his mistake, which i think was partly due to the fact he was carrying a knock. he didn't shy away whatsoever imo

Definitely, Smith was left pretty exposed as well by JPM.
I think he always gives 100%.

as much as i dislike jp, i do think he usually works quite well with smith. i guess neither are spectacular flair players but steady eddies, so they compliment each other well.

i like smith - he's got the right attitude, a true professional and is more than adequate at this level. we need more players like him.

Apart from the time when he jumped and got a very good header that hit bar  ;)

If he could have jumped he would have put it under the bar!! ;)

....and Craig Easton

I hate it when keepers come out feet first-they're in goal for a reason-namely that they're shit at tackling!

Thats what I though, why didnt he go in with his hands and body. Im no goal keeping expert but surely you've got more chance of trapping the ball with your body behind it than your legs.

just seen the goals, dear or dear jack smith & brez!!

Yeah, woeful and totally preventable. Basic stuff that must be sorted out - as we've discussed in depth during the last 48 hours.

ok sorry rich :(

:) - I always seem to write as if I am having a go at you JCP - I apologise!

How close to fitness are Vincent and Amankwaah?

Amankwaah is fit and ready to play, Vincent still isnt fit though

wouldnt be suprised if Amankwaah started at MK

I'd like to think a new signing, perhaps a loanee could be in the proverbial mix by Saturday.

You should never go in feet first as your asking to be sent off if you get it wrong and it negates a goalkeepers main advantage........being able to pick up the ball. If you go in feet first the ball will rebound off somewhere unless your lucky and it sticks under your body whereas if you go in with your hands you always have a chance of being able to grab the ball. The only thing is it goes against all your natural instincts to protect yourself and you will always pick up a few knocks to your face.......last season i had cuts all over one side of my face after getting raked by someones studs for example.

Unfortunately I think both our keepers are overrated and it just seems when Brez is in goal people want Smith, and when Smith is in goal people want Brez.

Brez is prone to the odd mistakes and his decision making is nervous and gets him into trouble, I'm sure his injury still plays on his mind when going for crosses too and he severely lacks confidence.
Smith is equally as dodgy, I've never seen this command of his area that people describe he flaps at crosses to the same degree just look at the Cardiff friendly for example. When he was our regular number one we shipped in endless numbers of goals from crosses (especially set pieces) which was our achilles heal which doesn't suggest commanding his area to me. He is also prone to getting beat from distance partly due to his lack of footwork and positioning and partly due to obviously having a far shorter reach.

There's not much between the 2 really and don't get me wrong were lucky to have 2 keepers with some experience at this level but neither remotely deserve a billing as 2 of the best outside the Prem as some people used to say.

Also I've said it before and I'll say it again I don't think Mr Granville does much to help matters as he barely had any experience as a football league keeper and doesn't seem to be sorting out the basics for either Brez or Smith. He got let go by Wycombe as part of a 'cost cutting' exercise which shows how much his expertise was valued at the time.

Maybe....still I dont think the players are the problem. On paper we look to have a decent squad. Its getting them to play as a unit. Still if I were picking the team for Saturday...

Phil Smith

Kevin Amankwaah
Jerel Ifil
Hansey Aljofree
Jack Smith

Jon-Paul McGovern
Craig Easton
Lee Peacock
Michael Timlin
Anthony McNamee

Simon Cox


Subs: Brezovan, Kanyuka, Nalis, Paynter, Marshall.

I generally hate 4-5-1 and see it as a formantion for teams that are shit and cant win. Which sums us up perfectly away from home. No point trying to run before we can walk and a point at Franchise would be more than good enough.

Go there pack the midfield battle hard, hopefully having a middle 3 may give our wingers and bit more space. Cox will put the work in up top on his own. If we can still be in the game with 20/25 minutes to go then take off one of the middle 3 and throw Paynter on and go 4-4-2.

Ideally I wouldnt have Jack Smith at left back....but who else have we got? Vincent is injured and Casal so far has been awful. Aljofree did alright there Saturday but big Pat didnt convince me in the middle.

...but...I dont pick the team and Malpas does, so it will be something completely different to that anyway, so there was no point in this post at all really...

Brez is class end off, all keepers make bad mistakes, overall id say he has saved us alot more points than he has cost us.

I like Brezovan - I don't think he's class because we simply would not have been able to keep him. He's got that potential I grant you. This is where we must ask questions of his coaches as, if I'm honest, he seems to be going backwards as opposed to going forward.

Smith's handling scares the hell out of me.

If he was class he wouldn't be here end of.........he has the POTENTIAL to be class but at this moment in time he is miles away from the polished finished article.

For what it's worth I do think he is our number one and is the better keeper but at the same time that is as much to do with my own opinion that Smith isn't as great as is made out by alot of people.

 Brez is dodgy and has been for some time end of.

And so is Smith which is why both play for us...

brez doesn't command his box and lacks communication.i think he is the better of the two keepers purely on his abilty to make brilliant saves and has good handling.smith is a pretty good allround keeper,but is no frills.

 For my money Smith is steadier, kicks the ball better, is better on one on one, and can make saves...crosses not so good, but Brez for a big fella is poor as well.

going by the keepers who have played for us over the last few years, Phil Smith, Rhys Evans, Bart Griemink, Andy Lonergen, Tom Heaton, Brezovan is better than all of them, at the time they played for us i mean, Heaton looks alot better now than he did when he was here

Smith better one on one? give it a rest Reg, u on a wind up?

We've not a had a genuinely great keeper since Sir Fraser of Digby... Brezovan, it can be argued, is our best keeper since... this doesn't make him class though.

Agreed but lets face it, Rhys Evans was garbage and lived off a reputation of being at Chelski, Griemink was a cheap shot stopper so did a job, Lonergan was recovering from an injury, Heaton had no experience, was very young and in an awful team. Brez is the best out of all of them yes by far but he is not a 'class' keeper........Buffon, Cech etc are class.

Brez is a way reminds me of Rhys Evans - looked pretty handy when he came here but has got worse rather than progressed.

I mean for Rhys he obviously had top class goal keeping coaches and Chelsea and then dropped to Swindon where we didnt have one.

No idea what Brez had at his old club. I know the injury played a part but any co-incidence that his best spell was when Wise, Poyet and the bald goal keeper coach whos name I never knew but he also fucked off to Leeds, I wonder if hes still there now Wise and Poyet have gone...was here?

alright i wasnt putting Brez up there with Buffon and Cech! im talking in league1 terms, Brezovan is class, like people say how amazing McNamee is, yeah hes good cos hes playing in league 1, stick him up against Micah Richards or Gary Neville and see how he gets on!

He is still working for Leeds under the McAllister regime.

 You have your opinion, I have mine.  Football is a game of opinions. Some poster's opinions I respect some I don't...let's leave it at that.

Making comparisons of what was here before is pointless.
Out of the two keepers we have Brez imo is better than Smith.

Smith is an able replacement, goalkeepers are not our problem at the moment.

same here, some peoples posts i dont read cos they ramble about subjects nothing to do with the previous posts, and about what happened in 1935 :)

It's all relative though isn't it? I would say Simon Cox is class - but for league one. Obviously he'd be out of place amongst the best strikers in the world.

Which is partly why the attitude that we can only get average players in because we're only Swindon Town frustrates me - I've seen this written a lot recently. When we had our play off year we had some players who were class for this league. Parkin, Mooney and Howard are the notable examples. Just because we're Swindon Town doesn't mean we can't get the odd really good player in.

Cox
Reg isn't that old I dont think,

Fair point and Wise's coach was Andy Beasley who I always thought was pretty good. Granville just seems clueless and a bit like a sports teacher.......shouts and points alot but isn't actually very good at the sport and doesn't really know what he's on about.
Maybe I'm being unfair and he may be a brilliant coach but the regression we have seen in the form of both Brez and Smith would suggest otherwise.

if even you can spot Granville isnt very good then why is Malpas allowing him to destroy our 2 keepers?

The manager himself has said it though as we've struggled to sign our targets so it stems from the very top.

I'm just basing it on what I've seen, I have no first hand knowledge that he is useless and I may be being harsh on him...................you may have more info of course.

dont know fuck all about Granville

I think we simply spent more money that year. Players aren't necessarily going to better teams than us.

Hey! Leave Granville out of this!

He is a good man, and thorough.

or was it that Kingy could spot a player better than Malpas?

Kingy was good at spotting players, no doubt.
I really cant have all this negativeness about Malpas, I have enjoyed the football on offer this season so far, ok we are not setting the world alight but at least we seeing a manager who is trying to play football.

Yeah it probably was. Kingy's ace.

 I read everybody's posts, unless of the "if you're not interested don't read it" sort, if somebody takes the time to post I'll take the the time to read it.

 1935 was a shit year, Ted Vizard should have gone after 2 seasons of no improvement, but we weren't a sacking club....his predecessor Sam Allen, was gaffer for 31 years.

haha top man Reg

Spotting players Si he was good, man management and tactically not so much!

Kingy's scouting was based on what his mates told him... receiving favours and doing them too, so we got Mooney, and we also got Ben Martin. We have a proper scouting network now and from what I've been told Ken Ryder works tirelessly in looking at options in PL/CCC youth and reserve sides as well as abroad too. It will come good, just quite often a signing is down to timing.

Kingy was ace.

Hmmm, for every Parkin there was a Lloyd Opara, for every Mooney an Eric Sabin.

Andy King is probably our best manager for over 15 years.

All hail Kingy!

Christ - I go out, have a few beers, have a nap and then I wake up in a parallel universe!

Nah the TEF has always had a hardcore King fanclub.

Well me and another guy(argh I cant think of his name,like Peter Crouch and wins lots at Poker..someone remind me)

Ben wah Balls. Doesn't seem to be about much any more.

I always liked kingy too.

thats him

Malpas is the best manager we've had this season.

 BWB posted just the other day....think it was about some beat combo or other.

Simple fact is we are not as good as people want to believe we are.

No shame in it. we are a one trick pony,when mcnamee dont turn up we dont get a result