Thetownend.com

i for one try to be positive and i know DW inherited a shit squad from MM but this team is not good enough for league 1 if we draw to Cheltenham.

thoughts??

Oh you'll get them.

But not from me.

No no no no no.

We all know it wasn't good enough. I know the doomygloom  gloom is inevitable, but keeping it away for 10 mins so I'm not tempted to buy some fags from the shop when it closes would be nice.

Relegation form.  Pure & simple.

Those are my thoughts.

We need a miracle at the moment, i think we got a bit rose tinted after the Leicester Millwall games, and we're now proving we aren't very good, not giving up yet but it's not looking good.

We don't 'need a miracle' at all, it's all in our own hands. Despite all this shite, we've actually gone up a place today. We're still not in the relegation zone. IF, and it's a big IF we start winning games, we'll be fine, because the teams below us are even worse. We NEED some players in on loan now though, or we won't win any games.

I am starting to think SkySports were right to predict us at 23rd in the table,good on them i say,at least they will be positive about that.

The miracle being a decent midfielder and a decent striker, i cant see us getting either.

yes, bring on the negative. we're gash, allowed ourselves to be outplayed again.

Loan players will help, but after tonight's disappointment:

FIND OUT WHO WANTS TO PLAY INCLUDING POOK AND STURROCK AND PLAY THEM. 

DON"T EVEN GIVE THE REST A RESERVE GAME.

Amankwah (sp) is more likely to score than Peacock, turn him into a striker.

too late for negativity

thats it...

also being negative won't make a blinding bit of difference. Best not to put yourself through it.

  Been doing it for most of the last 30 odd years, another one wont kill me (probably)

Out fought and outplayed. Again.

Absolutely no bottle that lot. I will now only go to games this season if i can't make other plans, i just cannot be bothered to watch my team any more this season.

Does anyone know the directions to Burton Albion.

And please God don't let Histon get promoted, I really don't want to go there again.

Its close to the train station i know that as I passed it on the way to Forest on the train!

Simply not good enough

Wilsons record:

Played 11, won 2, drawn 5 and lost 4. Thats 1 point per game. Yes he inherited shit but Sturrock had similar players and got them to play.

Most upsetting is that the players just do not sem to care, honestly think we will struggle to sell 2000 season tivkets in league 2. The silence from the boardroom at the moment is deafening......

Welcome back :D

We should have paid Big Sam the £500k that he wanted to take over.

Bart, can you please explain you last comment

'the silence from the boardroom at the moment is deafening'

what exactly are you expecting Fitton & Co to be shouting about? would you like to see them on the pitch Dellia style? lets be 'avin ya'

BART: Do you think Wilson should be sacked now?

Gazza no, what would be gained from that? I am just pointing out that when ou look at his points per game ratio- it is worse than Malpas. Although he has inherited shit- he hasnt at this stage been able to turn crap into anything like good enough for league 1 level.

What worries me is that the players do not even seem to be fit- which is showing through more and more now with the 2 games per week.

Atleast give Wilson the Summer. I dont think many blame Wilson for our current problems. I think it may come down to the back room staff really. They have all been around since we became shit again so.... who knows. Perhaps its time for Wilson to bring in his own men, but to their credit, they have turned the defence around so.... who knows what the problem is. A clear out in the Summer may solve it?

so what are the board supposed to be doing about it?

For a start they should have let Wilson bring in his own backroom team-  their is only one consistant thing through all this and that is Byrne

And the squad.

Byrne was also there when we won promotion from L2 and finished 13th the following season in L1?

Yes but he wasnt assistant manager tho

don't forget the fans.

i blame the fans

well we are shit.

Whilst Byrne might not be brilliant at his job I am not going put down our players getting worse and lacking bottle under different managers down to the bloody assistant manager.

thankfully i am looking for a scapegoat and will be blaming david byrne for everything

good idea

my life is shit and axs called me a beardy cunt

I blame dave byrne!

Rockin Robin was here too.

Probably his fault.

Go with Ifil I say.  His ability to be so remarkably stupid on a football field used to be sort of amiable, especially given his equal ability to put in cracking man marking displays.  However it is now sending me round the fucking bend.

This team isn't good enough because we lost to Cheltenham? But we've beaten Scunthorpe, Franchise and got pretty impressive away draws at Leicester, Millwall? For as long as I've been a Town fan, we've ALWAYS lost to the shittest teams in the league. We just seem to be really good(!) at it. On paper yeah we should all be whinging and moaning but it won't help anyone. Some people were on the teams back after 10 minutes last night, how can a team realistically expect to achieve anything with such fickle support?!

We won't go down this season, even though we didn't play great yesterday when we bothered to get the ball down and knock it around we looked pretty decent. Keep the faith.

i don't think you can say fickle support nathan...we're just above the relegation zone...we're not beating the teams below us which is a stfc thing to do, it doesn't justify it.

the draws away seemed to rely on the other team missing 16 chances and us popping one in at the other end so i don't think they're all that an indicator unless wilson is training them to shout "boo"

Spot on.

As you say we cant honestly just say “oh its ok to lose or draw to shit teams because that’s what we do” Whilst that is reality that doesn’t mean we have to accept it. Cheltenham had many injuries, rooted to the bottom, financial problems, We should have won, it may not have been easy or pretty but we should have won. I refuse to accept “it’s the STFC way to lose to shit teams”  If that was the mentality then we may as well not bother going to see us play against shit teams as we will lose anyway.

We are incredibly lucky that the teams below us have been even worse, its a miracle we havne't slipped into the bottom 4.

A massive clearout is required whether we stay up or go down; Paynter(one of the worst strikers I have had the misfortune to watch),Corr,Peacock,Sturrock,Pook,Nalis,Phil Smith,Casal,Jack Smith,Marshall,Easton,Aljofree all out just not good enough for L1 ,that coupled with the inevitable departure of Brez and Cox in the summer could make for an interesting summer.

Inevitable departure of Brez??!! Why? HE. ISN'T. THAT. GOOD.

Re Paynter - I am guessing you never got to see the legends that were Mark Maccamon, Trevor Benjamin or many of the useless loanees we have had over the last 8 to 9 years or so?

He has his bad games like most players but one of the worst strikers you've ever seen?

out of contract and no attempt to re-sign him  has been made and also his agent is trying to engineer a move, I do agree he is overrated but inevitable is more to do with him wanting out rather than being snapped up for a fee

i would fuck them all off except greer and cox.

I certainly have I have been going regularly for 30 years and I stand by the fact Paynter is one of the worst he ransk up there with shaun close in the shitness stakes

Oh. Sorry, I thought you might rate the flappy twat.

Agree, and maybe Morrison and Kennedy but they are not first team regulars anyway.

 Pretty sure Paynter signed for 3 years, so he has a while left yet.

He's talking about Brez

That's about brez I think.

I was talking about Brez, Paynter has a year left maybe he might learn to Jump, Head a ball, Pass and shoot in that year!!

Oops, eyesight test needed, Paynters had 20 years of time to learn those basic skills, aint going to happen in another 12 months.

I feel pretty fucking negative this morning

Before last night there were 4 clubs who would rather be in our position........ Now there are 5. The draw IS dissapointing, but I bet Nam are more dissapointed. That result did nothing for them at all. As long as we stay out of the bottom 4 we will be ok.
As for the players I think it's a mental thing. I also think the fickle section of our fans make it worse. Their nervousness, transmits itself to the players... even Cox is missing goals he'd have scored earlier in the season.
Players like Paynter, Brez, Jerel, Jack Smith etc don't turn into rubbish overnight. They DO lose confidence though.
The results will improve overnight if the fans start getting behind the team 100% from kick off til, full time. That's why our away record isn't so bad.

We've every right to be nervous, the team's playing like shit and performing like they couldn't give a shit. It's not fickle, it's the fear of another season in dogshite league 2.

Brez has not turned rubbish overnight, its taken a good year

Fow which I blame the goalkeeping coach.

Personally I blame Brez for Brez being shit.

Paynter the worst striker of all time, come on....he was shit yesterday but he's chipped in with 9 goals this season about 10 last season that alone makes him far from the worst striker we've ever had.

...and Tails, draws against Leicester and Millwall are worth fuck all if you cant be Hartlepool and Cheltenham at home. Thats why we will go down, whilst we draw with Leicester, Millwall, Cheltenham and lose to Hartlepool and end up with 3 points the teams around us will lose to Leicester and Millwall but beat Cheltenham and Hartlepool and end up with 6 points.

I'd rather Leicester stuffed us 5-0 but we beat Hartlepool and Cheltenham.

Don't you think that its a bit strange that both our keepers have turned shit?

Brez never looks confident to me.
Maybe the broken arm has really fucked him up.
Creaky defence, weak midfield, Paynter up front, I have just realised why Brez is so fucked up!!!!!!

Yes, but the goal keeper coach was here long before they turned to shit though...

I'm starting to think Brez's good performances were the blip, and his dodgy form the norm.

That is my point. They're obviously not getting the right coaching. As Brez is dodgy on crosses and not coming to claim them, then surely they should be training on that and looking to irradicate the fear.

Well Cheltenham and Hartlepool are part of a group that consist of teams around us, so while one of them gain points the other is losing points, which kinda evens itself out. Thing is even if we don't beat teams like Crewe and Hereford at home, getting points off them means they aren't gaining any on us. So while it isn't ideal, it's not the end of the world. We'll be fine.

I think Brez has been alright recently tbh. You can't really judge him too much on yesterday considering it was stupidly windy and raining heavily.

Brez was good in League Two in a promotion winning team. As was Smith. League one however is a different kettle of fish altogether. They've been found out, as have our defence. Basically they're all fucking shit and we need an overhaul in the summer.

Am I the only person who likes Jack Smith?

I'd keep hold of Greer as well. Alongside another decent centre back he'd be ace.

He gives away needless fouls by trying to contantly turn the defender, gets caught offside far too often, is very slow and seems to either shrink his neck or not get more than an inch off the ground when going for headers in fact there was an ironic cheer as Paynter won his first header of the night late on in the game last night.

which still doesnt make him the worst striker we've ever had.

He doesnt play like that EVERY week...

I dont think having no replacement for him on the bench really helps Paynter either - he seems to put less effort in

I agree, the first few games were clearly him playing beyond his level.  He's seems quite consistent at the moment.  It's not shocking form by any standards, just nothing out of the ordinary, which is a bugger when the defence is prone to leaving forwards to their own devices.

He's not been awful, but he's not been any good either.  Last night the wind could have cause dproblems, but his worst error was just simple basic technique - managing to drop a cross and letting it go towards the byline.  If he'd been 2 yards closer to the post it would have gone in.

Brez- Cracking shot stopper, Crap kicker, Dodgy at catching the ball.

I dont think he's a cracking shot stopper either to be honest

Maybe we do have the right to be nervous. But I'm convinced that if you had the crowd behind them in full voice we'd get a better performance.
How is booing your own players during a match gonna give them confidence ???

Nope. I think he's fine at this level and our most consistent performer this season. And I have to say I  haven't noticed him "being unable to tackle" at all.

Personally, I think Vincent and Smith are on par - not going to play at a higher level but not total gash either.

smith is one of our better technical players-ie he can pass the ball and his touch is generally good.but he gets caught out of position and gets skinned regularly.how many times do we see smith tucking in and sweeping up behind the centre backs?good right backs do that.
vincent isn't as good with the ball, but is by far the better defender.horses for courses and all that.

Smith has been one of our most consistent players this season imho...agree arriba that you don't see him sweeping up too often, but I wouldn't say he got skinned regularly....you gotta bear in mind who has been playing in front of him the majority of the season....answers on a postcard

His positional play for a defender is awful, he stands 2 yards off of a winger.  No doubting his attacking ability has been good as has his distibution at times.

The handful of games I have been to I have been impressed with Jack Smith and his consistency. He is the only defender I feel relatively confident at him having the ball at his feet as he appears to be the only player at the back looking for a pass to feet. The guy with the ludicrous long hair who looks like some celebraty wally whose name I can't remember who sits near where I sit hates him.

That said I haven't seen Greer or Vincent yet so this could change.

That the guy who looks like Rick Wakeman, comes from Cirencester, goes by the name of Ernie!

I only sit a few seats from Ernie

He comes across as a bit of a negative Wallydinho to me. This was especially noticeable when MM was in charge.

His two mates are normally the real negative ones that i've heard when i've been sat near them, he's normally been the quiet one.

Tbqfh, i couldnt care less whether jack "stand off the man" smith looks comfortable on the ball on the ball or not. As a defender he is fucking shocking

Back peddles allowing the cross/shot every time.
Not many good attacking crosses either.
Yes, he is crap.

During the 2 - 1 win at Trashton Wakeman and his two friends were complaining constantly and loudly about one Sam Parkin. Mainly that he didn't score enough! They carped and complained so much that my friend turned around to make the not unreasonable point that Parkin might actually be a decent player having scored 20 the previous season only to get told that his opinion was only valid when he'd been to over 800 games.

I've avoided them at every game since.

And yeah I've got to agree, J. Smith stands off far too much and really doesn't like heading the ball.

Wakeman and his gang are fuckwits.  Sits about 4 rows behind me in the DRS.  It was those guys who slated Given in the warm up against Hull back in 1996.  Shows how much they fucking know about football no matter how many games they may have seen.

I think i sat near them at Franchise and told the prick to shut up

Didn't Wakeman aka Ernie nearly get involved in a fight with own supporters at Hartlepool?

Spot on. :thumb:

i sit behind those cunts. one day im going to bring some scissors and cut his hair.

Right pair of STFC Bart's!

Do you mean Rick Parfitt and not Rick Wakeman?

In these current times Jack Smith is the best passer of a ball in the side-central midfield perhaps?We,ve tried most everyone else.

so, he stands shirt tight to him and what happens??? with his lack of pace, the winger will get round the back of him and the ball gets put in the great big hole between him and our centre halves....that to me is knowing his strengths....with none of our back line being the quickest(Jerel has the pace but not the greatest reader of the game) the last place you want the ball being played is in behind you...I really do despair sometimes that a consistent 6.5 out of 10 player like JS gets slated, yet folk wank over JPM

Who the fuck wanks over JPM?

folk.

Sorry, who the folk wanks over JPM?

die volk?

DW doesn't

What a load of bollocks its easy enough playing a yard off which most full backs would do against a quick winger but he does it against every player he is playing even the slow ones.  Plus when you play a yard off your supposed to still stop them getting the ball in which he never does.  You look at how many goals this season that have come from Jack Smith's side or when he has been directly at fault.  Today we had a much more solid look to us and a big part of that was down to Ifil and Jack Smith not playing.