Thetownend.com

1 - Phil Smith. Won his place back and performed really well, but must look in front of him on the pitch and feel a little piece of himself die inside.

Er, that's about it......

Nope, no one else....

Phil Smith is a bit of an enigma.

Although he doesn't appear to make as many mistakes as he used to (although I do recall him dropping the ball onto the post/bar a couple of times, he's got away with them), he doesn't inspire confidence.

There seem to have been quite a few occasions this season where the opposition get one chance & score, whereas the keepers for teams against us seem to make those important saves to keep their team in the game (Joe Lewis springs to mind).

The other thing with Smithy, he doesn't come & deal with crosses. Take Rovers third goal on Saturday, now it wasn't the keepers fault it went in, but had he come out and cleared the cross they wouldn't have scored, but he doesn't do that which does put more pressure on the defence to deal with those situations.

I think the defense is missing Lucas bawling instructions at them, Smith is a decent shot stopper you can not hear him communicating like Lucas does.

Most of the games I've seen this season Smithy pulls of at least a couple of fantastic saves. He might not be the best in the league, but he's the only player in our team that is performing consistently.

How anyone can doubt the confidence he inspires is missing the point: how much confidence can he have in the fucking wide open barn door in front of him?

None of them, they have easy jobs compared to most.

No, Smith just saves shots, unlike Lucas at the beginning of the season.

Lucas has a big mouth, great. His shouting hasn't helped much when he's played this season.

Here's a novel fucking idea, why don't we get some defenders who don't need to be told every 5 fucking minutes where to play, or what to do?

What like Greer ( holds head in hands and ducks)

My head is about to explode

Kids at the academy who will have to go if these fucking wankers get the club relegated

That's the one. Youth Team are doing very, very well but they've got sod all chance of getting a chance in the first team whilst we're in a relegation scrap.

Sorry isn't the right word, but its a shame Ferry and Sheehan haven't had the kind of game time they signed on to get.

That said, Rose did well when he kept Sheehan out for a bit, the rest is down to injury/suspension for him.

ljf for me.he's better than many seem to think he is.
also gets the majority of blame from fans for collective mistakes

I've seen far more where Smith's had to make two or three good saves to keep us in it (until the tide of defensive fuck-ups overwhelms him and renders the good work pointless). Such saves are usually met with total silence from the crowd, then about 5 minutes later he'll slightly miskick a clearance and you can hear the howls from Cirencester. And as hertha says, the fact that opposition keepers are able to make one or two good saves and have that make the difference for their side is probably more to do with them actually having a defence worthy of the name in front of them, a luxury denied Smith. He just seems doomed never to get the credit for what he does right - he's one of those players our fans have a blind spot about.

And like Ginghino says, did Ferry shit in Wilson's slippers or something?

I feel sorry for all of them, I really do.

Having to train for a whole 9 hours a week. Working on a Saturday and the occasional Tuesday night. Getting paid a princely sum for something most of us would do for peanuts or for free.

My heart bleeds for them.

I think a lot of you are taking this thread an incy wincy bit too seriously.

agree with that.

Dougie. That's pretty much it. Far too good for the bottom half of L1 let alone L2.

And I know I go on about it a bit but Smith and LJF are so average it's unbelievable the amount of credit they get. It hurts my head sometimes when I try and figure out how any could rate Smith as better than a fit David Lucas.

But, like someone else said, I don't feel sorry for any fit and healthy person who plays football for a living.

Vince-he reminds me of the Fjortoft situation,what was it,22 games before he scored?Maybe if he had had a run of starts at the beginning of the season,he could have been banging 'em in by now.....or maybe not.Obviously its too late now.

As most fans are on his back, and very vocally. It'd take a hattrick every match til the end of the season to win them over, I feel.

Callum Kennedy, has done OK the handful of times he has played.
Behind Rose and Sheehan in the pecking order.

Jordon Pavett.

Massive weight of expectation when Austin goes and he will always be compared to Austin because of the builder/plumber thing.

Dean Ashton. Been doing well training with the club for a couple of weeks but won't get a deal unless Austin leaves.

hahaha you tease

Callum Kennedy

How he get cant get a game ahead of Rose and Sheehan I dont know.

Kevin Amankwaah

Sure, he started the season off really poorly but so did alot of players. It seems every player has had alot of chances to prove themselves again. Where as Kev hasnt, since he went out the team injured he's played what, one game against Crawley. Pericard, Dossevi, Ball, Timlin, Sheehan, O'Brien and even Simon Ferry have all had more 'chances' then Kev has to win their place in the team.

Caddis hasn't warranted being dropped. I know that's contrary to a lot of other people's opinions.

Caddis & Ferry - They signed up expecting great things to happen and we turn out crap

Agreed. He hasn't been outstanding or really poor. He's been a constant performer. I think in a team high in confidence he might flourish.

Agreed with Smith. And Panda Paws attitude above sums up perfectly what he has to deal with from the fans... Smiths performances this year have been better than Lucas', but gets widely overlooked. As a rule I try and ignore everything he posts as its always wrong, but it just annoyed me today.

I agree with you 100%.

Smith was getting grief from some around me at the Crawley game, ok he made a mistake for the goal but for me it would have been a lot worse if it wasn't for him.

He has his flaws but so does every L1 keeper. The save against Peterborough at the townend this year was one of the best I've seen at the CC.

On reflection, fuck the players, it's us I feel sorry for, having to watch them

You season ticket holders are such amateurs. Any real Swindon supporter knows it's much less depressing not regularly going to games.

Charlie Austin......

will evans. 1 gd performance against saints then having to watch useless center back partnerships ever since.

He played center mid against Saints didn't he?

yes he did

JPM...quality player.

Never had a good run in his favourite position.....runs his balls off but always seems to be running backwards...tracking back.

The team should be getting the ball to him further forward so he can get quality into the box.
As for Smith he makes great saves...but dosn't command the box enough...punching is weak and so is his kicking....we play to deep,especially at home......the goal v Yeovil was a case in point.....Smith should have been on the edge of the box...the defence 15 yards forward.

he's forgotten how to play a simple pass this year, but yeah on his day he's amazing

yeh but he is a center back and has been overlooked none the less

Except Jan, even when he wasn't scoring, still looked like the one of the most skilfull players in the side. I doubt many fans would say the same about Vince.

In all seriousness, the only one of them I feel sorry for is JFL.