Thetownend.com

What the hell, my insomnia has got me up at this time so I may as well start the thread.

Its not like I can jinx our season any more than it already is.

Sorry but 3-1 Brighton.

Ooooh, well played... i was after my first ever matchday thread!

A surprisingly close 2-1 defeat. They've been a lot less impressive recently (ruining a few of my accumulators...!) but we're still really shit.

We'll lose and so will England.

To Wales? Really? WALES. I think not!

If we lose to Wales, I'll change my name to Dane Bowers*



*Forum name, that is. this isn't legally binding... is it?

It is if someone quotes it.

I always thought you had to have a deed poll to officially change your name but you don't. I think you should do it regardless :)

Just woke up for this! Should be a good day out.. anybody else going down to it?  :pint:

Well I still havent got a ticket so fuck knows how im going to get in

Gone for a sneaky 1-0 to us. Couldn't give a rats arse about the other lot

Not going, but I think we will win. 1-0.

So will England in the football and cricket. Beers all round tonight.

1-1.....Greer own goal and to be sent off. :D

Seriously i think we will sneak a draw.......Andrew to register his first for us.

Blimey - there's optimism for you!!

Oh and a 2-1 loss

This game has parallels with the away game at Charlton in March 2000 (that was mentioned on here a few months ago).  We were bottom on 23 points (and finished bottom the following May); they were top on 77 points.  So, naturally enough, we beat them 1-0.

Now that it hardly matters any more, I can see us winning this.

I'm not sure I like these early kick offs. Going to be a long, boozy day - hopefully punctuated by a 2-1 win for the Town down on the coast. Grella and Andrew the scorers.

Imagine we should take care of the Welsh afterwards in the footy, not so confident about the cricket though.

I predict a brave battling performance which ends up in a heartbreaking narrow loss, compounded by other results not going our way.

Yep, very optimistic today.

A bookie busting football special today from Swindon! You REDS!

Heard they have a few players missing, Barnes, El Abd and potentially Bennett out with Wood with New Zealand.

Still can't see us getting anything, 3-0 defeat.

4-3 to Town JD in the 93rd minute

Best result we can achieve today is 0-0.

Must win at Exeter though.

I have a nice 12-0 Town down on the TEf Predictometer.

Can't see us winning or even drawing, can't even see us getting a goal. 3-0 defeat.

He's not joking!

I admire your optimism/stupidity.

We will win 2-1 but lose on penalties

4-1 rogering by the gayers, but a good pre-match enjoyed by around 50 Town fans in Kemp Town, where most of the pubs sport rainbow flags outside

Seconded

I have a little sneaky feeling we might pull off a cheeky 1-1 today....

We will WIN 2-2

All we can do is hope.

Good luck Town!

Watch from the hill-same view!

I would love to ruin brightons party and football lore is littered with shock results like this but why should a disappointing season  improve today of all days.
Best we could do is 0 0 in reality 2 0 to the Queers.

Swindon Town: David Lucas; Alan Sheehan, Scott Cuthbert, Andy Frampton, Kevin Amankwaah; Matt Ritchie, Paul Caddis, Jonathan Douglas (c), David Prutton, Mike Grella; Calvin Andrew

Substitutes: Phil Smith (GK), Lecsinel Jean-Francois, Michael Timlin, Michael Rose, Alan O'Brien, Alassane N'Diaye, Billy Bodin

I would not be shocked if we lost to the Taffies.


Re. Our game, I will say 2-0 smash and grab. Grella, Andrew.

is Benyon injured  again? 

Interesting....4-4-2? Caddis right mid? Ritchie left mid? No JPM or Benyon on the bench either?

2-0 defeat

We'll win this. We'll look out of it at half-time like we did here 2 years ago in a similar situation and then come back and win it 2-1.

Ritchie and Jonathan Fucking Douglas!

We will play just as we did last week, and every week so far under Paul hart.

Hope to keep a clean sheet & try to nick a goal from some where (anywhere will do)

Unfortunately Brighton's scoring record at home is somewhat better than Huddersfield, and so I can't see us keeping them out for 90 mins.

If they score early and we chase the game it could get ugly.
I think we may just hang on to 0-0 for an hour & then concede, and probably end up losing 2-0.

If we do somehow manage to score, you would imagine it will be Ritchie

Okay then folks...

Here we go.

A shot by Ritchie in the first couple of mins!!!!

Big drift on Brighton on Betfair pre KO 1.52 to 1.71  :hmmm:

Old Matt Le Tissier said it was very close.

I'm watching Soccer Saturday for the first time in about 5 years today.

Vic sounded stunned we'd actually got a shot in. High hopes for today!

Ooh it's started. I hadn't noticed and I have the radio on.

Yeovil winning!

Yeovil winning 1-0.

penalty

Penalty

Oh FFS Penalty

Peno Brighton, Frampton brings down Noone.

Fucking hell.

Brighton penalty. Frampton AGAIN.

Brighton bickering over penalty taker.

Scores 1-0

FFS 1-0 down, we sounded on top until then too.

Oh Dicker.

Story of our season. Shot ourselves in the foot. Down.

Sigh.

Fuckin brilliant! I give up.

Scored. Puts us bottom as things stand.

Just got up, losing already. Standard.

So the negative 4-5-1 get a 0-0 game plan is out the window already.

Paul Hart is fucking useless.

ffs. Curtains

That is where I think we will finish the year.

Considering he isnt playing that formation DV pointless comment

Careful, he might lump you one.

FFS. Fucking fuckers.

And Orient are down to 10 men and losing against Yeovil

dont be a tool.brighton are top unbeaten at home and cruising the division.
anything today would be a bonus and totally unexpected

So is Benyon injured again?

And Orient down to 10 men v Yeovil  ::)

I expect he encourages the players to give away penalties in training. 

I dont expect us to win.

We have to win though.

Dagger 0-1 Wendies

Yeovil 2-0

Yeovil 2 up. Wendies winning though against daggers. Its not all shit.

I hate Football.

Playing a negative 4-5-1 away against the team who are top of the league is understandable.

However, doing it against Dagenham & Redbridge at home is not.

The problem with Hart is that his first (and so far only) instinct is to defend.
Unfortunately for him (and us), eight 0-0 draws will not ultimately be of any use, so in some of these games we have to try & win

OK he's on the bench. I got duff team info :)

Am i right in thinking thats ther 2nd? maybe even 3rd penalty Frampton has conceeded in the what 10 or so games he's played for us? Why he's seen as the solution to our defensive problems i'll never know, ropey at best and seems often to the be the guy that needs steering through the game, as opposed to doing the steering he was brought in to do.

Was never expecting a win, but conceesing a pen in the first 10 minutes is fucking useless.

Bang on.

Not in our position it isnt.

+2

I think I've got man flu.

WHAT A GOAL

Goooooooooooooooooallllll I think. Prutts.

PRUTTTOTN!!!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

JEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSUSSSSSSSSSSSSS

PRUTTON GOAL.

Hahaha shut the fuck up..,. oh and it's 4-3-2-1

Haha. False hope?

Get in!!!

Prutton!!!!

Its very simple really, winning 1 and losing the other 2 (i.e only turning up and playing for 1 game = 3 draws (i.e riding our luck that our backline dont excessively dick around our 18 yeard box and get us caught out, whilst maintaining a formation that will drive centre forwards potty.

OK, so how many seconds do we manage to stay level for :hmmm:

WHOOP!

30 yardeeeeeeeeeer.

I finally feel justified in having carried this avatar around all season!

Got to love it havent you.

Haha take that DV you cunt.

Aint the commentary shit? They never make it clear who's scored

Eh What? FFs went to get me pot noodle and missed the goal

C'mon Prutton!

Frampton is absolute dogshite- how may penalties is it he has given away against us now?

This is the main problem- players (Greer, Paynter, Ward, Austin) just have not been adequately replaced.
 

Here we go! Told you we would win this! Told you we would escape relegation! Told you Prutton was brilliant!....Ahem....I'll get back on the steps I just fell off when Prutton scored and carry on putting my blinds up!

Proves that pot noodles are bad for you.

of course it is.

I wonder how many attempts Prutton has had like that this season without scoring...

Unless I'm forgetting one somewhere, wasn't the other one the one that Austin headed straight into Frampton's arm? He could hardly be blamed for that one. Not the answer to all our defensive problems, but better than what we had before. Narrowly.

Got 3 more in the cupboard may have to have them all

we all know this by now bart.
clearly some people on here still have no idea about team formations.i have given up trying to explain it

You could almost forgive the unfruitful attempts to replace paynter, i feel ritchie was as goos as we could get repalcing ward, but the galringly obvious is no greer. With flint, minsun and frampton comming in and all 3 are gash!

Get another, see if we score again

If we score every time you have one I will send you a job lot for the rest of the season :)

Colchester away as well.

Go back to bed

If we score every time you have one have em all!

Have you seen Minsun (sic) play?

Just a teeny-tiny bit unfair on Flint and Misun.

I wasn't even sure if it was a goal.  They sounded reasonably excited, but they do that a lot.

"End to end" says Le Tissier.

The length of his nose?

Satire.

PS I have absolutely no idea why thats quoted above what im saying......

Noted, gash was a generalisation based on what I've seen of frampton, the other two i take back, but replace gash with absolutely fucking pointless given our current position, surely all this long term-thinking is the reason we're struggling. The £££ spent granted may return greatly in the future, but what could it've bought us in terms of a ready to CB to help stop pissing last season into the wind and wind up in L2 again......

On a positive note, maybe just maybe Prutton may live up to the hype, if only for today soapy tit wank

Exeter lose Tully to a professional foul. Is he any good and does that put him out of Tuesday? I suspect not.

3-0 Yeovil

All bans are immediate these days, no?

I wasn't 100% sure. My memory is failing!

A hat-trick from Shaun MacDonald, currently on his fifth loan spell at Yeovil!

HT

Sounds like a good half.

So is anyone else going to spend 5:00 - 5:10 this evening willing the Oxford boat to sink? I will, irrational but true.

:nod:

Survived the first 45... You Reds!

Every year

When was the last time one of the boats actually sank?

I always want Oxford to win the boat race (albeit in a couldn't-really-give-a-shit kind of way)

Is there something wrong with me? :hmmm:

  :nod: Seek help

1984

Just as Orwell prophesied.

sinking feeling

I'm just amazed that after all this time, and with so many Universities, that it's always the same two in the final!!

Oh, and yes I will even though I'm sure a lot of Oxford fans absolutely hate the posh nobs that inhabit their city centre.  It's the bloody principle!!

Please do tell me you aren't being serious.

It's just not acceptable to support anything from Oxf**d.

I even found it difficult to want (oxf**d united supporting) Tim Henman to do well at Wimbledon, I always maintained the reason he always lost in the Qtr/Semi Finals was that being an Oxf**d fan meant he was used to bottling it right at the end when it mattered :D

Yeovil 4-0    Talk about defiance in the face of adversity. Andrew Welsh scored! Ooooh, spooky! Is that an omen  :headhurts:

Especially against ten men.

Sounds like Orient are having one of those days.

Yeovil doing their goal difference a world of good.

Oh yes, I don't know if some one's mentioned it already but they've not switched off the commentary on the Beeb website.

Thanks for the heads up

Oxford City losing 2-1  Re: all things Poxford, I hate that outfit too!

Another penalty to Brighton.

Fucking Prem refs!

ANOTHER FUCKING PENALTY.

FFS another penalty

Penalty again :(

Bollocks

:D

TWO pens? FFS >:(

Town players not happy.

MISSES!

save!

SAVED

SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVED

SAVED. GET THE FUCK IN.

Saved!!

LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCAS

Saved................Good on you Lucas

Nice one big Dave!

yesssss

justice done

Cool Hand Lucs  :toocool:

Mark Halsey is it today?

Wahhhaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

karma

This

crossbar?

Grella hits the bar!

Grella hits bar...Swindon pressing. Andrew pushed over in the buildup, Morgan reckons it was a stone dead pen.

Fucking come on Town lets fucking do em

Thanks for the heads up on the radio, been ages since I have listened to a town game.

Thank fucking god Lucas saved

Come on Swindon!!!!!! We deserve this..keep it up lads

Think we're going to win this.

fuck 2-1

Shit 2-1 down

Cocksucking fuckwank cuntslop.

Fuck.

Oh cock. 2-1.

Cunts

Bollocks

This aint over

Fuck it

I lay the blame entirely at your feet!

Couldnt of put it better myself  :badmood:

Curses!!! Gods ain't looking pretty upon us this season :badmood:

Take a bow Ben you cunt.    :suicide:

fucking karma

Wow. My slight optimism got rewarded in seconds. Magic.

I just hope we don't lose our heads now.

YOU REDS

Although we've done well at this stage I'd bring on Benyon and go for it.

DBR.  Get yourself another pot noodle a bit sharpish would you!!

Another Exeter man sent-off.

Exetrr down to 9

Scott Golbourne who is a decent player.

Fucking come on town!

Come on you Reds! You can do it!!

Colchester 4-1 now

Penalty and then goal for Dagenham & Redbridge.

ffs

That's us then!!! No way out of this (stating the fucking obvious!)

Benyon coming on.

Benyon coming on.

3 mins to go and he brings on Benyon. What is the point. Hart hasn't got an attacking bone in his fucking body.

What a fucking depressing season.

I think he's already proved that his fists are quite attacking.

allegedly

Grella replaced.

Benyon for Grella. Does Grella get a bonus if he actually completes 90 minutes or something?

 :D

:) That lifted my gloomy mood.

Yeovil winning 5-1.

pot noodle being done now, think i may have left it too late though

See you in League Two come this august, fellas!

The Collossus coming on.

N'Dyiaye or however the fuck you spell it coming on for Ritchie.

N'Diaye will love it he scores.

Looks like the story of our season repeated again.

Play well..............Don't Win
Play shit..............Don't Win

Reduce it down for you...

Full Time.

Full time. Meh.

Here's to winning all our remaining games :)

.......

What I expected - but we played better than I expected too.  :(

I hate being right. [sigh]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!

BBC have just turned the commentary off :smugfu: :smugfu: :smugfu:

Ha

They just turned off the beeb internet commentary.

I think somebody forgot to check the time of the match today!

That's that then.

As Posh said, Hart has turned us from cannon fodder that gets tonked to a more solid team that draws or narrowly loses. Net effect is much the same.

As Bart said in another thread. When we go down I hope Fitton has a plan that is communicated to us on how to get us out of division 4, and how we'll attract the manager and players to do it.

6 points from safety now.

Down bar a miracle.

we've drawn away at the team in second,and narrowly lost to the side walking the divison.
if wilson had been sacked sooner then we might have just had enough.
a catalogue of errors has been made this season.

Its potentially far worse than that. The 3 teams just out the zone have 2, 2 and 3 games in hand over us.

Oh and according to the beeb, its 7 points.

What's the run now without a win...16 games?  A whole one third of a season.

There's a record out there somewhere feeling nervous.

like i said-just hope they come out and apologise publicly-its the least the fans and town deserve-i also want to see a clear action plan to get us where we need to be

It's not looking at all good now, even I'm starting to lose hope that we'll get out of it

Tonked? We've lost 17 games this season, only 4 of them by more than 1 goal. We're not conceding as many goals now as we were in the first half of the season but that had already changed before Hart came in.

Replacing Wilson was never likely to be a miracle cure especially given the likely calibre of his replacement.  

OK shipping goals not tonked. We were still doing that away under Wilson, but he shored up at home without going to a negative formation like Hart.

Agree with Bart. But then he does seem to be able to sum up things when STFC are going badly than when the club are doing well.

what bart said is right,but has been mentioned ages ago by others anyway.

We played them off the park today at.times, deserved at least a point.

I fucking Kobe you Swindon! Xxxx

It's difficult to knit this into a positive, but the valiant effort they've made in the last 2 games is to their immense credit. Difficult to front up to the fact we're in DIV 2 next season, let's be real, it's a done deal. Last time around I was ever so certain we'd come back on the bounce, but I fear we're down there for some time to come  :no:

 One tiny glimmer was provided by Exeter getting 2 men sent off and therefore presumably suspended for Tuesday.  When this was postponed the second time, there was just a feeling that it might be of help, perhaps we'll get a win as result.

None of us have the first idea how we're going to line up next year, or even if Hart is staying as manager.  If you want to predict how we're going to get on next season, you might as well put on a blindfold and throw a dart at a dartboard.

How people arrive at the conclusion that the club is in a long term downward spiral is beyond me.  We do not have big financial problems and we're one of the better supported clubs at this level, let alone League 2.

One thing is for sure, the summer will be very interesting.  Its never dull being a town fan.

I think it's based on the idea that despite these off field advantages, we're terrible on the pitch. There has to a reason for this, and the factor most folk alight on is the player sales and recruitment policy.  Which will not change, leading many to think we're just as likely to struggle in Div 4 as do well.

 :( :( :( :( :(

Point taken.  I think my answer to that would be that only a moron would not learn from this season's mistakes regarding player sales and recruitment.  And I don't think Fitton's a moron.  Far from it.  I think he's a very smart operator who's still on a steep learning curve when it comes to the football side of the business.

Just got home.. Brezza is a Swindon fan!

Totally agree, but I fear a lot of the problems stemmed from him stating the obvious about agents, we do not seem able to recruit as we would wish - and as much as we all hate them agents buy and sell players!

Your point seems to me to be a very valid one.

From a Brighton fan's point of view, I'd say that was one of the best performances by an away side this season. You started better and were working hard to chase us down and prevent us passing it around at the back. I can't comment on the first penalty as I was up the other end but it came at the end of a mesmerising run from our lad, Noone. You had a few chances on goal but were long range efforts that skewed wide and then - bang - that Prutton shot hit the net. He hit it so sweetly and had one of those wicked curves on it that completely foxed our keeper who got a hand to it but the shot was too good to stop.

You finished the first half the better team but by Christ you lack a decent striker. If you had Austin still, you wouldn't be in half the mess you are in. Second half started even stevens but I felt we started to impose our passing game a bit more and then we did get a soft(ish) penalty. It was one of those where as a home fan you scream blue murder at the ref and as an opposing fan you hold your head in your hands and wonder how it was ever given. We've got a bit of a phobia about penalties and your keeper did well to get a hand to a scuffed shot. Straight down the other end and you were all over us. BAMMO - you hit the bar and it fortunately bounced straight back out.

We managed to scramble it clear, catch you on the break and Murray did what he does so well. From thereon it was game over as you ended up chasing lost causes and we wound down the clock with (for you) frustrating passing around the pitch.

I've not come on here to rub your face in it so apologies if it seems like it - I've also not come on to suck up to anyone but a lot of Brighton fans really have no idea how you got yourselves into this mess with the way you played today. You've got a good passing game with players who look comfortable on the ball but you lack an end product.

Thanks oldboy old boy. Didn't come across as rubbing our faces in it. You spotted one of our issues - not replacing Austin (and Paynter). The other was leaking goals left right and centre. That seems to be resolved but at the expense of creativity.

Hey ho. I'm sure you'll enjoy your new league next season more than we will ours. Shame we had to suffer the shithole Withdean while missing out on a tip to you new ground :(

How many times have we heard that this season having come away from a game with nothing?  Unfortunately the majority if us would rather we put in an awful performance but got something from the game.  It's amazing how the majority of supporters of every team we've played are able to see that our problems lie with not adequately replacing players - shame the people that matter couldn't!

"You've got a good passing game with players who look comfortable on the ball but you lack an end product."

Pretty much summed us up over the last 16 games, I think most Town fans new deep down that once Austin went we would find it difficult but I don't think many expected the level of decline we have witnessed.

I don't think we've played well away from home until recently, not from what I've heard or seen anyway

B'mth fans said exactly the same

I would have thought a non-moron would have learnt from their mistakes by January.

Clearly not.

No disrespect and all (you seem like a well-balanced chap with a reasonable perspective and gave us plenty of credit), but I am so fucking sick of hearing that. Enjoy Division 2 next season, while we enjoy League 2

It's a shame that our improvement in the performance department hasn't seen us add to the win column. Looking at the table I think it's fair to say we're as good as doomed now barring some form of miracle. Mind you Brighton were in a similar position to us 2 years ago and managed to pull it off so you never know.

The Dagenham players desire to stay in the 3rd tier will see us down. Whatever we do from here.

I think daggers have shown for a while that they will fight their way to safety.

It's Wednesday that I'm looking out for

We'll wjn a couple of games then get relegated at wednesday

I just wanted to say a couple of things. Firstly, Swindon were the best team to visit Withdean this year. Our home record is P19 W15 D4 L0, so make no mistake, not many teams have come and given us a game. Most just roll over. But for long periods of yesterday you guys were the better team. We never get overrun in midfield, but we were yesterday. And it wasn't long ball stuff either, you actually outpassed us for long periods. Well done on playing decent football is all I can say.

I can't believe you look like going down. Two years ago we were 8 points from safety with 8 games to go and we stayed up by winning 5, drawing 2 and losing 1 (against Swindon, I seem to recall). It shows it can be done. You've got a very good set of fixtures and if you play like yesterday you'll do it.

As mentioned above it is getting a bit frustrating being told how well we played by opposition fans as we keep coming away with nothing to show for it.

However having seen us play Brighton twice this season I struggle to see how they are 46 points better than us. I suppose it's a case of over the course of a season when even if the balance of play is often even, when you consistently don't take your chances when you're on top and continue to let teams in with all too frequent defensive lapses these couple of decisive moments a game will add up to a 16 game winless streak. Seems depressingly preventable to me.

Oh, and briefly I don't think Frampton deserves too much stick for giving away that pen, Noone should have been tackled about 3 times before Frampton had to put in a last ditch lunge. Poor challenge, but shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

Know it's blasphemous to say but was shocked by Dougie's performance. Was solid in the tackle but gave the ball away far too often, hopefully just a bad day at the office.

Fwiw thought Sheehan played well, and liked the look of Andrew. Would like to see him here next year.

Ardiles, if we go down the youth route we will be down there for ages.

Hats off to you guys that went.....

Judging by the message above its the same old same old with us....

See you at Exeter.....

Oh make no mistake about it, we've been phenomenal this season, the best I have ever seen us. You've just caught us on a couple of mediocre days. For large parts of the season at Withdean it's been like watching Barcelona take on Morecambe, such is the gulf in class. And even recently when we haven't been playing the flowing football that we were up until February, we've still ground out SEVEN wins in a row and have taken 21 points from 21 in March. So yes, we're unbelievably good and we'll be near the top of the Championship next season.

So, going back to my original point, the fact you were actually one of the first teams all year to deal with us so well makes it all the more incredible you're in such an awful position. This is a poor league, it shouldn't take much to stay in it, and from what I've seen Swindon have got more than enough. Total mystery.

To be fair you've only seen us twice too. We have areas where we have quality. BUT not the key areas. Defensively we have been woeful up to selling Austin. But we were scoring them too. Since selling Austin we have tightened up at home and with Hart away from home. But now we don't score enough goals due to formation deployed and due to having gash strikers (Andrew and Benyon excluded).

Conceding too many goals = struggle
Not scoring many goals = struggle.

In short we never found the balance between attack and defence. And now we will pay for it.

Make no mistake about it, we've been fucking bilge this season, some of the worst I have seen us. You've just caught us on a couple of half-decent, let's pretend we're actually professional footballers days. For large parts of the season, it's been like watching Morecambe Girls Second XI against reasonably well organised League One sides, such is the gulf in class.

Sorry but :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Is there any truth in the rumour we are loaning Pericard to Morecambe Girls Second XI? They are a decent standard I believe.

I think that answers your own question.

Oh and point of order, his full name is "ex-Juventus striker Vincent Pericard". Please stop with your abbreviations.

Or more accurately:

Sorry. Has this fucker just compare his team to Barcafuckinglona?

Not really -

'For large parts of the season at Withdean it's been like watching Barcelona take on Morecambe, such is the gulf in class.'

Its merely an analogy stating how much better they have been than some teams in the league this season. Nowhere does it suggest that he thinks Brighton are as good as Barcelona.

So, you are probably quite right to apologise.

Yeah probably.

I have  been to all the away games at brighton recently and let mesay they were bloody awesome.

We were in the POs (play-offs) last season and I respectfully state that they would have wiped the floor with that team as well.

Aside from getting beat by a better side, the trip to the seaside has always been marred by our 'so-called' hardmen being mouthy at the game but then being embarrassed by the locals who are a really nasty lot!

It's far to early to understand what the fuck you are on about.

Is that better...