Thetownend.com

 :hmmm:

Its not a foregone conclusion. But based on the last month yes we are. I don't think the defensive frailties have been solved an I don't know whether Benyon and Obika can provide enough goals .

Things can change quickly in football though.

It's looking very very very very very very bleak.

Yes, that's quite bleak.

Down.

Very pessimistic about our chances, erring on the side of DOWN  :no:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpKhf86sItM

No matter how bleak the situation, there is no excuse for posting that Samdy!

:D

If we dont win against Exeter then I think its curtains.

I think we will put a run together at some point (yes, I know we have to do it pretty damned soon - I'll save you the task of  pointing out the totally bleeding obvious) I'm not being blindly optimistic, I know there is a very, very real chance of going down but I'm fucked if I'm resigning myself to the hell hole that is Division 4 just yet. I saw enough yesterday to think we've got enough about us to stay up.

Without a doubt... we're either rubbish, or play well and get nothing; the hallmark of a doomed team

Relegation would be disastrous for us.

 Does a bear shit in the woods?

Not necessarily....the CG being hit by a meteorite, with a full house inside would be disastrous.

i think plymouth could go down instead of us,if we can put a few wins together.

It has got to the stage now where it is out of our hands - we need other teams to do worse than us, but given our current inability to get any points teams can't do any worse than us.

The team has been awful lately, but luck goes a long was as well - how many good penalty shouts haven't gone our way lately? The last one we had, Charlie missed it.

The full house bit might do us some favours.


Sanch hit the nail on the head, we have all the hallmarks of a doomed team. If we do stay up it'll be because of other team's failures.

I still think we can survive the drop and like arriba said plymouth is our light at the end of a dark tunnel.

It's not looking good!

On balance, I think we're more likely to go down than not.  Maybe a 20% chance of staying up at this stage...simply because I can't see where the required 21 points (or thereabouts) are going to come from at the moment.

I think we'll need more than just Plymouth - we need at least one maybe two other teams to get dragged into it. Yeovil?

If we have any hope of staying up, we absolutely HAVE to beat Daggers and Walsall at home. I can't see us getting fuck all on the tough away trips. Very dark days at SN1.

The board should get some drastic promotions in. tickets for a fiver lets get some atmosphere back into that fucking ground. I dont enjoy turning up at the moment so no doubt those useless cunts dont either

Performances are at least improving. 4 points from the next two games and we might stay up, 1 point and we're down.

One thing I do know. It's not a great time to be launching next season's season tickets

It should be an interesting phone in on that fans forum thing on friday night.

unless we get david beckham as player manager i think we'll lose 2k of season tickets holders.

i bet fitton wishes he never mentioned his 3-5-1-5 years plans

Im not so sure so im hoping season ticket sales are based on the stability of the club these days aswell as what league we are in. I would expect us to lose a few but 2k ? I would like to think we had a good hardcore of die hards who will stick by the club.

I didn't sleep last night, no sleep at all. All because STF fucking C was running through my mind.

A grown man having sleepless night because of football is ridiculous, wish I could switch off.

Depends what type of bear it is.

I'd like to think we have a hardcore of 4,000 who will buy season tickets regardless.

We have something like 5,800 this year don't we?

Unless the prices go up I will buy a season ticket for next season regardless if we are league 1 or 2. If for no more than the sad fact I will go to pretty much every home game anyway.

I have already resigned myself to League 2 football next year. If we do stay up it will be a bonus.

I'm looking forward mainly to working myself into a needless lather over whether Club Red members get the opportunity to pay over the odds for a replica shirt two weeks before I do

polar bear.

I have to agree that we have probably gone past the critical point. But a win next week could put things back in the balance.

Me too. Regardless of what league Swindon are in, I'll still go. Mainly due to the fact that I look forward to matchday all week. The whole experience, drinks in the pub beforehand, the match, then getting home to look at the league table and watch the goals and intrerviews.

I'll be going no matter what league we are win. As Si says i'll probably end up buying an ST as no doubt i'll be every home game anyway.

L2 obviously wouldn't be great but it would be a chance for us to really set things in motion. Keep most of the players here that we have now so getting some stability and most of them should be good enough to get us out of that league. Then get the ball rolling on the redevelopment and we're looking healthy again for L1. That's the ideal scenario. Of course that will probably not be the case.

If we go down well see the opposite of stability. Wilson will rightly be gone. Half the player will want out too. :(

more than andy kings missus

Losing the players makes little difference, it's now more or less a revolving door anyway.  Further we've a lot of players unsuited to Div3 let alone Div4.

I've done 40 years of wtching them ,whats another one. I'll renew my ST but I don't look forward to matcdays any more. I agree with arriba I can see ST sales down 2000 and with fewer visitng fans we'll have to have a good clearout of players, which is no bad thnig.

That's not been a particularly enjoyable experience for most of this season then?

I'm really not 100% sure whether I'll renew yet, it depends on whether the price rises significantly and whether Wilson is still in charge to be honest.  For some reason I've got a sneaky feeling that if he remains for the rest of the season, he'll still be in charge next season even if we're in League 2.  Fitton will probably give him the opportunity to bring us straight back up.

My genuine fear for going down to League 2 is if we aren't able to get straight back up like we did last time.  We could lanquish down there again for a number of years or heaven forbid end up in the Blue Square. 

Given our record of appointing new managers even if we sacked him now we wouldn't have anyone in until the start of the new season.

The worry is that we haven't got that goal scorer who you know would score in most matches - Cox kept us up in 08/09 along with a decent input from Paynter.

I'm not writing off Benyon or Obika, but it would help if we had a proven striker as that would probably save us. Similar to in 05/06, if we kept Fallon we probably would have stayed up - we are no where near as bad as we were then though. Dark days.

Even is we stay up, something will have to be changed to ensure we sell a decent amount of season tickets in the summer. Be that the manager or sizeable investment in the squad.

agreed, it took far too long last time, and they didnt see a problem with it.

Evidence suggests otherwise....05/06 we had 34 points from 31...and were much more in touch than now. This is possibly the weakest side in Div 3 that I've ever seen.

:( :badmood:

Probably won't renew my season ticket next season. I should start uni in October so the looming student debts, coupled with the probability that we'll be playing League Two football and I'll be in some far off place studying means the likelihood of me renewing is looking less and less likely.

As for the thread, I can only see us going down right now. We just haven't got the grit or determination to carve out results and, even when we're playing particularly well, we're not getting points on the board.

Man for man I can't think of one player in our side in the second half of 05/06 that I would have here now...Bouazza and Fallon the exceptions who were gone in January. Wasn't aware that we were better off that season and have to say it surprises me.

I have far more confidence in our chances of survival this season than back then.

League 2 would be a disaster, no matter what anyone says. No way can it be turned into a positive. Would undo all the great work that has been done by the club.

I'm in pretty much the same situation next season with uni and that. Don't think I'll renew if we're in league 2.

I'd take Evans, Gurney, Ifil, O'Hanlon, Paul Smith (if fit) Lee Peacock and even that little shit Cureton.

No... we've never been this poor in Div 3 in all the years of my support. L2 is L2, it's where we'll play our football next season, the club will still go on, most fans will still go, and we might  even win a few games.

Hahaha

 This season most reminds me of 75/76, insofar as we nearly went down staying up by a point, that season followed a decent season 74/75 when we nearly went up. We got knocked out of the FA Cup by a non-league side and sold our best striker on deadline day Peter Eastoe.

With 15 games to go we were 3 points better of than now, and Don Rogers returned, although struggling with injury, he gave the place a lift, and we managed to win 6 draw 4 and lose 5 of the final 15, which got us in by a point. This season we'll probably need something as good as that as a minimum......realistically it isn't going to happen

Just cannot see us staying up. Cant believe we have got into this state so quickly. I have supported DW but utlimately the decisions he has made has got us here. Fitton must do something...although I think he is a good businessman I dont think he knows much about football matters. He thought Malpas was a good idea and there were some good applicants at the time. It is just so depressing to be even thinking about going down.....new manager...spend the Charlie Austin money on some half decent players BUT dont let Wilson do it, he`s had his chance....it wont stop me from going to the games though... :cry:

At that stage in 05/06 we had been on a mini revival after being 27 games and 25 points after the 3-0 Gills defeat in Jan. That revival was stopped dead by the Rotherham defeat and then getting slaughtered 7-1 at Forest killed us and we never really recovered until a late spark in the run in. There' still a lot to be played for this season and we need to pick up points fast but things can change rapidly. The games in hand the other teams have might work against those with smaller squads coping with injuried and suspensions and remember how Rovers blew their games in hand in 2000/2001.

It is ridiculous, get a grip of yourself man

League 1 that year was the one of the weakest I can remember. Southend and Colchester for automatic and apart from Barnsley and possibly Swansea it was such a weak League. We were dreadful that year but it was no surprise because of the way the club was run.

I can't see us going down. I know the famous last words are we're too good to go down, but we are not a shit team.
We are however a very unlucky team at present. Wec always seem to get shit refs, & I am convinced that if the goals at the CG were 1/2 inch bigger, we'd have twice as many goals for.

We seem to be playing well, & I can see us getting the points needed. There are currently 3 teams worse off than us & plymouth too who are really in the shite.

And how a season ticket renewal can be based on what league we are in beats me. As far as I am concerned I support STFC. Not STFC but only if we are winning. If that were the case I'd support ManUre or another bandwagon team

There's many on here who wouldn't be affected...

I'll renew. I'll only go every week anyway.

But mainly because you've got a 5 year ticket (how many years left ?)

It was.

Southend won it with 82 fucking points, the same amount we got last season!

Colchesters 79 points for second would have seen them finish 7th last season.

Very poor season and we could have stayed up if we'd kept hold of Fallon.

3 seasons left.

I've been a season ticket holder since 1989 though.

100%  :nod:

yeah

yep.

And if we're going down we might as well do it wearing silly hats.

I was optimistic pre-transfer window. Having seen Austin's replacements we look fucked.

I still think we will stay up.  Don't ask me why, blind optimism maybe but i refuse to believe that we are going to fall

do you know something we dont :no:

We're fucked.

Obika looks like a faster and leaner Pericard.

I thuoght he looked like a slightly better Onion Bhaji

I wouldn't say he's that good.

I think your being a bit harsh on the lad. It's his home debut so i would imagine he was a touch nervous but the poor bloke spent most of the time having the ball lumped up to him.  

First half he was sharp and caused the defender problems he struggled 2nd half when danny fucking mourinho went 1 up top allowing the 2nd defender to drop behind and sweep up.

I thought Obika played well, good touch, good control, pace, got in behind, some good skill.

Two poor shots though, only thing that let him down was his finishing! which is a shame because thats what matters most.

To compare him to Pericard and Onibuje is laughable. Almost as laughable as RJack thinking we will stay up.

This would be the tactic of one up top when you're 1-0 down at home, desperately needing a win and having called for the crowd to get behind the team and roar them to victory. I may well be wrong but it looked to me that both Benyon and Dossevi were fucked before they actually played - Benyon with his hamstring and dossevi with his side.

I think that summed up his performance to me too. Half decent, yes. Likely to score enough goals to keep us up, no.

Bit tough on him given I've only seen him play once!

Thought Obika played well...his first touch was brilliant..good player without a doubt.

Obika offers more threat up front than all of our other striker put together. Did show some bad touches as well as good and obviously missed a good chance in the second half, but he had to do most of the work by himself.

Benyon was definitely holding his hamstring from about 2 minutes in.

Dossevi got injured on the pitch we all saw it.

What with only 1 striker is was difficult to go two up top.

We looked better 4-5-1, up until the Carlisle box anyway.

I thought some of his off the ball running was a bit headless chicken at times, and he didn't seem to be aware of what other players were likely to do. I'm well aware though this may come with being in a new side, i'm confident he'll pull through

Dossevi has a bad side?Bit like DW then.

Or, he wasn't aware of what they were not going to do. The unmistakable sideways pass.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12517643

just as well we don't play in the Guatemalan league otherwise we'd have a dead manager and Charlie Austin would be in pieces!!

Its always been as dodgy as fuck down that way. Remember Adres Escobar, killed for scoring an OG that knocked Columbia out of the '94  (?) World Cup?

His killer was freed last year:

http://jockpost.com/guy-killed-andres-escobar/

Fucking hell. Makes a bit of booing at full time seem quite tolerable really :)

I have spent some time in the city of huehuetenango and its proper shady. never really felt 100% safe there. it was one of the main centres of the civil war where literally thousands were killed and is very very poor.

I don't want to be thinking negative but, I can't see any way out of this hole we have got ourselves in to.

I am now resigned to Div 2 football next season (but I will still be going).

Any Great Escape is going to need serious input from the teams around us and I dont think that will happen.

If it does, fooking bonus mate.

Been thinking about this a bit this morning and thought I'd give my two penneth.

This recent run that's landed us down the bottom of the table hasn't actually been that bad. (Hear me out)

We did have a couple of shit performances (Yeovil and Wovers) but since then can anyone honestly say we've played terribly in any of those games?

We've started to shore things up at the back - particularly at home (1.43 conceded per game in the last 7 vs 1.69 for the season as a whole) just a couple of individual mistakes have cost us in close games.

Going forward we've had the better of the play in many of these draws and losses, just seem to be lacking the cutting edge in front of goal.

Clearly, and has been discussed ad nauseam, this points to the failure to adequately replace Greer, Paynter and Austin as the difference in our ability to pick up wins.

I concede that the centre back issue was not properly addressed before the season and the blame for that lies at Wilson's door. But he brought in Benyon to provide the goals and its hardly his fault that Benyon hasn't really had a chance to prove himself yet through injury.

I know some of you are sick and tired of Wilson apologists but my point is merely that I do still believe we have a good side, with just a few (admittedly crucial) shortcomings.

The defensive side of things seems to be improving and If we can find some goals I see no reason why we shouldn't still stay up.

I'll have what he's having.

all good stuff, sadly the Race to 52 thread is where the tale is told. Sadly we are playing "well-ish" and losing, whereas those others in peril, aside from Plymuff, are playing well and getting a couple of results.

Personally, I dont give a monkeys about playing well, I will take ugly wins every time at the moment to get us limping over the 52 line

Didn't really mean it in terms of playing good football as such, just that we are creating chances.

In the seven games since Rovers we've had a total of 70 shots, our opponents have had 65.

All I'm saying is with some better finishing and a few less errors at the back we'd be a lot better off points-wise.

Obviously football is about fine margins sometimes, and maybe better teams can capitalise on those marginal differences.

Just trying to put a positive spin on things and show that all hope is not lost  :)

LR, I like your positivity, but this squad of players has been ahead in 1 league game in just about 3 months...in that time we've played a range of sides from in form to hopelessly out of form.....decent to mediocre, and it's made no difference we still don't look like winning a game.

Coupled to a record low points total for this division since its formation in 1958, at approx the end of Feb, I think it's safe to say this is the worst squad in Div 3 in living memory.

A comparable season would be 55/56 when the Board decided not to appoint a manager, but pick the players and side themselves...resulting in 24th and an application for re-election.  We are currently 3 points better off than that side at the same stage.

Yes it has

 
No.

That's where you lost me!

Could probably have phrased that better. Was just trying to say that although results have clearly been unacceptably poor, there were positives to draw out, and tried to back that up with what I thought was a rational argument.

Sorry for trying to glean some hope out of a dire situation, won't make the same mistake again.

Please carry on as you were.

I've found the accusations that the team haven't shown any passion or desire recently quite puzzling. Because we have been and it's not like we have done all season. So that is a positive and I know people bang on about how we need results more than anything now - and they are right - but it gives me more hope that these results will come when the team look like they want it, rather than not.

I still feel that we were worse under Malpas, even though I know the stats for the season don't bear that out.Despite our home form being decidedlt ropey, it hasn't left me with the feeling of doom that I had when we kept losing 3-1 at home under Malpas.

It almost feels like the Board are keeping some sort of balance sheet for Wilson, where last seasons overperformance against his targets is being offset against this years woeful underperformance. I suspect that if we go down he'll still be here in August, with very demanding targets for getting straight back up and likely to go very early in the new season if we're not sat at the top of league 2.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here.  It really does seem that the board still feel indebted to him for last season, which some may say is loyal, but imo it's foolish given our current predicament.   I also have a feeling that he will remain in charge next season even if we are relegated, but that could really backfire on the board.  How would any supporter genuinely feel happy about a manager who got us relegated still being in charge?  I think a proportion of supporters would feel strongly enough not to renew season tickets for that reason alone.  The other concern would be that if it wasn't going well next season, too much dithering would go on again before he was given the boot.  We'd also be in the situation of having to pay out compensation, because he'd be on a new contract.

IMO

We were.

Lucky for us we had the best striker in the division.

My opinion is that sacking a manager after one bad season is becoming the norm....the club need stability on/off the pitch....feel that Fitton and Co have made a few mistakes this season but lets face it they are fairly new to this game at this level.
I take my hat off to Fitton for his loyalty.
I understand peoples frustrations,i feel the same but for me Wilson is an OK manager,last season showed this.....for me the players should feel the brunt.....ie

Charlton away.............win 4-1.
Wilson keeps the same team a few days later and they get dicked at Oldham......yes the buck stops with the manager but for me its the players i feel more angry towards.
Prutton,Douglas.JPM etc are good players who have been no where good enough.
For me Douglas as Captain is a mistake though.....not nearly loud enough on the pitch.
So for me though not over the moon with events by any means Danny Wilson wil get my backing.

Woa Leefer - aren't you the skinhead with the swastika tattoo on his forehead? 

Surely you should be a bit more radical?

You've just summed it all up there.

No....radical for radicals sake?.....leave that for the lefties.

I do have some tatoos though..........OVE and ATE............on account of only having three fingers on each hand :D

We will win Saturday.............Obika double. ;D

Last years performance was not remotely an overperformance, making tha play-offs in this league is pretty much the minimum this club should be achieving.

We've had more money to spend than most, a bigger wage bill than most, and the likes of Bournemouth, Rochdale and Carlisle who are getting by on probably half what we are, are fucking miles ahead of us.

My grandads pants have started to resemble Swindon Town. Piss up front shit at back and elastics gone so they are struggling to stay up.!!!!!!

Fitton's perception of that would depend on the targets that were set for Wilson for last season. On the basis that we'd had a pretty shit season in 2008/09, the squad needed reconstruction and we'd just sold the only thing that had kept us up to West Brom, I would be surprised if they had wanted any more than mid table consolidation.

It was pretty clear play offs was the aim last year and promotion this year. Fitton and Wilson have stated that publicly. I think the Board have a pretty realistic/conservative management style, I can't see Fitton making those statements to fans unless they were the true aims.

I'm with Smeeton on this..
Nobody is saying Wilson is a bad manager. He clearly isn't.

But I would say that this season DW has delivered the worst managerial performance in the club's history.

On the back of a squad that made it to Wembley.. All problems solved off the field and we are stable for the first time in ages. He's had good money to spend on players. 5th highest home attendance in the Division. And most would agree the Division is weaker this season. (Bournemouth are second).

Not just the pitiful league performances leaving us looking likely to go down but exits from the cups at home to 3 decidedly average teams.

Can't understand how Wilson has lost the plot on such a huge scale.

He didn't have the squad that got to Wembley.

Are you old enough to remember Ken Beamish. He'd have had us down some months ago.

Really? The worst in the past 132 years?

Is this season much different from MM's last season?  ???

Yes, majorly different!

That season, sitting just above the relegation zone and out all the cups we sacked our manager and lived happily ever after

This season, sitting just above the relegation zone and out all the cups we backed our manager, sold our top scorer and got relegated to league two.

Hahahahahahaha.

At the time we would have had to have had Pawel Abbott, James Hayter, Cunty Lambert, Karl Hawley and Izzy McLeod.

Cos you cant seriously mean Fallon.

He was on about Cox  :doh:  ;D

Oh dear.

Don't you look the total dick...

Possibly.

Not being a complete sad case I don't really care about this lark as much as you Daniel, whatever gets me back on your ignore list asap is a blessing anyway x

Glass of wine Dave?

I think your spot on. I think last year was all about consolidation and this year and next year was the aim to get promotion.

So why were we told play offs last year? What a silly thing to do

If the oh so hilarious mods didnt keep fucking about with my list than you would be.

Always got time to point out someone who clearly makes a total cock of himself though.

I only did it the once!

So whatever way you look at it, we've failed miserably this season, as a relegation fight clearly wasn't in the equation?

Fitton did say 'in or around the play offs' before the season started. At the time there was a bit of discussion about whether this was a genuine aim, or just a statement made to give the club a bit of a lift before the season started. I'm personally inclined to think that it was the latter.

We'll probably never know for sure exactly what Wilson was told he had to achieve, but I'm struggling to find many other reasons why this season's failure hasn't seen Wilson sacked.

 :nod: :suicide:

I agree with you, of course it wasn't.

walsall will be in good spirits going into saturdays relegation battle :(

Back in the relegation zone thanks to Walsall.

Walsall have dragged themselves up in recent weeks....fair play to them, their players have shown some fighting spirit...I expect them to have far too much for our sack of shit on Saturday.

We is fooked. Lose or draw Sat and it's good night Vienna.

I hold on to a little bit of hope even if we win but that's evidence of years of following town where you hold onto the slimmest opportunity at every turn.

Means nought on Saturday.......Southampton was in good spirits going into the match tonight.

Up to us to dampen the spirits a little.

Walsall have done alright since they sacked their manager.

Subtle hint.  ;)

Nothing subtle about it.

Spot on. With Hutchings in charge they would have already been relegated. They've turned things round brilliantly with their new manager (not sure who it is mind!)

As opposed to Rovers, who have remained spectacularly shit.

Which goes to show appointing managers is an inexact science...we even got one, who looked quite decent for 18 months, then built the worst Div 3 side in our history.  It's a funny old game..Saint

Rovers may well be the exception, in recent years at least.

Norwich's transformation was pretty much over night when Lambert replaced Gunn. Slade at Orient. Grayson at Leeds.

This season - as somebody already mentioned Walsall look like they have improved with a new man in charge, as have Liverpool, Ipswich, Leicester, arguably Notts County and Crystal Palace. I'm sure there are others..

How Wilson has kept his job defies logic.

Who knows, maybe Walsall winning last night has persuaded Fitton that that is the way to go and Wilson will get the boot before Saturday.

Um yes, perhaps.  Have you seen the news?

a point maybe on tues, a win against daggers on sat,is my way of thinking, then its 2 very hard away fixtures, :no: cant see us getting out of this mess

Is it better to go down and try and come back up stronger with momentum, or to just scrape it and stay up?

Its not a fair question. If we go down we may not come back up. For that reason we must scrape it and stay up.

daggers 1 nil up at orient :eek:

FFS.

everyone esles has picked up the odd win to give them hope... not us though! our boys thought better and decided to make sure we definitely went down at the earliest possibility

At least we're doing it in style.

WTF happened to Charlton's season? Yes who cares I know, but I though they were around the playoff places!

Looking at the stats Chris Powell happened. Sadly as I've always liked him as a player

Daggers 1-1

Dagenham gave away an injury time penalty!. What goes around comes around!

a good result for them

On another note,Torquay dont seem to be missing Benyon too much.

They're just putting on a brave face, they're crying inside really

Teams seem to do alright after we've signed their so called best players - I don't recall anyone suffering as badly as we have after selling Greer!  I've put it down to the fact that we seem intent on collecting dead wood!  :insane: :crucified:

Rovers beating Peterborough.

:doh:

Wurzel's 1-1

Walsall 1-0 up at Franchise

Oh FFS. One of the rare ocassions I actually want the club-stealing cheating bastards to get points and they can't even manage that. Tossers

 :D

Fuck off fucking fuck season from hell.

Posh down to 10 men aginst The Gas (HT) 1-1

Franchise equalise 1-1

10 man Posh 2-1 Wurzels  :)

:beers:

Posh 2-2 Wurzels  ???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKCnHWas3HQ