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Since Gillingham we have only conceded 2 goals in the last 4 games, obviously including the 120mins away at Wolves. We are yet to concede a goal at home this season.

Reason for optimism I think! Whatever Wilson's been doing defensewise it's been working.

Just thought I'd start a positive thread.  :D

120 minutes against Wolves.

I'm trying to discredit your thread before it gets going.

Yeah its 15mins each way for extra time isn't it.

Even better then! That extra confidence from those last 10mins will give us the edge Saturday.

Will we play with the same defensive unit do you reckon? I'm kinda hoping the return of Jean-Francois won't be delayed too long. Do we know if he's cropped for a long time?

still very early days

He has/had a "slight hamstring problem". Hopefully we will find out tomorrow if he's gonna play. It'd probably be good to play him as he will be fresher.

but very promising no?

After last seasons lack of clean sheets anything is an improvement, but good signs.  At the Southampton game I didn't feel as nervous as I would have done last season only being 1-0 up.  I reckon Douglas is the main reason for improvement, beyond Greer's impact towards the end of last season.

Think i am right in saying last year we had 5 clean sheats. We have 3 already this year

yeah, 5 clean sheets in all competitions last season.

Everyone was calling JFL a useless cunt a few weeks ago and suddenly he is our defensive saviour.

For the record, I've always rated him.

I didn't see Gillingham so I didn't really make any comments like that as such.

I thought he looked like he couldn't be arsed last season, I think it's just his chilled out Haitian way. I think he's learning the game pretty quickly, Comminges wasn't the best defensively when he first turned out for us.

I'll admit I did say I thought he was crap. Not necessarily on here but to my mate I said it. To be fair he wasn't playing well at the time.

Its the same with Greer and Morrisson, what happened with their lack of pace which a good few people were bitching about (especially when we let Ifil go)? I haven't heard any mention of that over the last few games.

I think everyone thought the Norwich board were twats for firing (the) Gunn after one bad result, but I don't know they are that much worse than some of the people here. Its football, shit happens and we've got a pretty good defence for a shit League One side.

Bollocks. No one on here was calling for the managers head. After the pikey game most people who witnessed it were fucked off: we had just lost 5 - NIL!! The team that day played crap, they knew it and so did we. Since that game they've improved massively.

It's not being fickle to to get pissed off when players don't perform, it's natural.

That because he was playing like a useless cunt.

Yep. And while I wouldn't call him our 'defensive saviour' yet (and I'm not sure that anybody else has), he's certainly improved and is showing some promise. He looked pretty composed pre-season, fell apart for Gillingham, and managed to get back on track after that. Pretty much the same story for the rest of the team no?

We all know Jerel Ifil is our defensive saviour anyway.

after watching Kennedy and Cuthbert on Tuesday against Wolves i have to say defensivly we are very strong. Kennedy impressed me seeing as he is still young. Cuthbert aswell was solid.

we have a fine set of defenders at present which is definitely encoureging. With Lucas shouting at them through the game we have got a lot of leaders out there all helping each other.

just hope payneter can get some real support up front with the new scotish lad

He's English!

Not from Nova Scotia then?

So he's more our barometer, really? That would be a great nickname for him "The Barometer"

That's a shit nickname.....I think it should be "Voodoo Chile" definitely not child.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85zp1zVVDAQ

Some would consider that racist...

he comes from a scottish team so therfore is scotish.

just ask steve mclaren what nationality he is.

Then they would be wrong....

Boo! Think of the merchandise spin-off potential. They could sell barometers with his face on them in the club shop. What are you going to do, sell branded voodoo ritual equipment? Just not thought it through...

In the days of the internet...how many homes have a barometer?  They're as redundant as a bit of seaweed...whereas there could be quite a market, for effigy figures with STFC pins to stick in them...

I'm sure we could draw up quite a list on here...

Isn't that a bit unfair to A,B,C,D,H and all the others. Kick alphabeticism out of football!

Not now maybe but that's because they haven't had the opportunity to buy one with a Swindon Town left-back's face on it. What about joining the two ideas - a barometer that doubles as a ju-ju stick? We could have a cult hit on our hands here!

I see where you're coming from...the same territory that convinced Clive Sinclair to invent the C5...if its magical meteorology you want, then how about the STFC rain dance mat, complete with Ricky Shakes footprint dance steps, or the fun cloud seeding STFC sherbert crystals...complete with helium balloon for delivery into the atmosphere?

I see another thread has gone shit again. Must be the new posters

Must be because it's clearly bollocks, that our defensive reord is better so far this season.

Last season after 4 league games we'd conceded 7 goals...this season after 4 league games we've conceded 7 goals...the only difference under MM we had 6 points under Wilson 5.

We had 1 freak result i would wager any amount you want we end up with a better amount than last season

The fact that we have kept 3 clean sheets from 6 games proves we are better defensively this season, it took us 36 games to get 3 clean sheets last season!

I think the 5 we conceded at Gills was a one off, bad day at the office, game.

Depends on how he reacts under pressure ?

He won't rise to that one.

Fair weather supporters.

Come rain or shine, he'll weather the storm

millibars.

Our team has that Scottish 'grit' now. Greer, Cuthbert, JPM, Easton, Peacock (maybe not so much) and Ferry. With some Irish aggression chucked in the mix for good measure in O'Brien and Douglas.

It's also nice to have a big, vocal keeper screaming at the defence and coming out and punching the ball. I have felt alot safer with Lucas in goal.

Happy days.

Also noticed we have only picked up 5 bookings in the lge...2 of those fom Lescinal..hopefully we can keep it to one a match or therabouts...discipline will be a big factor for us come the seasons end regarding playoff hopes.

our defenders seemed a bit reluctant to roll the ball to lucas on saturday.on a couple of occasions it was kicked out for a throw rather than back to him.
has this been the case in other matches?

No, we've used him quite a lot really. I think what they want to avoid is forcing him to punt it upfield. Southend were, at times, pressing our backline a lot when we were in posession, so it wasn't as easy to slow it down and build from the back.

That's my explanation anyway.

I reckon that's just a sign of a decent defence. If you're not 100% sure put the ball out. Simples.

another clean sheet

Well done. You kept the condom on.

No - one seems to have mentioned the obvious

Peter Shirtliff

I get the feeling he's sorted the defensive coaching at the club at long fucking last

I thought you were dead.

Busy. New job. No more work laptop, no easy tinternet access at the office and the eldest being back home hogging the home desktop.

Both kids have their own places now so I can get back online every now and again.

We also no longer have the liability that is Jerel Ifil at the back causing panic and mayhem. I know a lot of fans rated him but personally I thought he was fucking useless.

He started 28 league games last season. Our problems ran deeper than Ifil.

He's doing ok for Aberdeen