Thetownend.com

Just for NMH  :)

Copied from the other thread then.....


Good save by Foders from Bale.

Spurs then hit the bar from Defoe.

Going to be a long night.

I still seem to have no idea who a lot of our players are.

Blimey we attacked then...woohoo!

Hurrah!!!!

Swindon corner to celebrate!

8 of our starting XI plus 5 of the subs played for Swindon last season.

;)

I meant the new ones  :)

0-1. Bale.

cracking goal too apparently.

TEF went down as Bale scores a corker from the edge of 18 yard box - 1-0 Spurs

Cooper out.

They are showing the goals as they go in on SSN. Cracking finish from Bale.

We're doomed, the season's over  :D

Fuck sake Williams, your still shit!

I RECON IT WILL be 7-1 TOTTENHAM :pint:

Shaw Rosso, hang your head, you should have fucking get your arse in gear and made a matchday thread.

Lloris seems rather slow.

From the twitter/texts its not completely one way traffic. Spurs clearly the better team though.

No!?!

Unbelievably they are! Until we bring agombar on that is!!

7:45pm

42 minutes: Foderingham turns on the exhibiton stuff to flick the ball away over Bale. The crowd liked that one.

We've had a couple of chances. Not as bad as it could have been.

Now, lets hope there is an interview with the chairman at half time.

From the commentators:
Pritchard most visible. Running at defenders
Alex Smith impressed in centre midfield
Haven't seen much of Hall, but he has kept Defoe quiet.

Sounds like we are doing quite well even if Spuds havent got out of first gear yet.

Pritchard free kick off of the post.

Storey off. Barthram on.

Barthram RB and N Thompson & Luongo CM

Spectacular save by Friedel from Luongo

that COULD work, Thompson can tackle and pass and has a bit of pace...if he doesnt rush into challenges that is.

Collins on for Alex Smith

No comment from Chairman tonight on the managerial situation.

Francis on for L Thompson

Byrne for McEveley

Hmmm? Wonder why I am bothering with this?

Bloody hell! We nearly scored!!

We did!!!!!

Williams !!!!!! 1-1

Cooper in!

We are going up :)

Suprised much.

Just showed it on sky sports as we equalised as reporter was speaking. Heavily deflected over the keeper.

N Thompson off for Connor Waldon

Fods injured?

10,465 a good crowd.

Obika playing up front for Spurs - Commentator says that he hasn't noticed him. Suggesting that he hasn't had much service, but hasn't done much to get in the game.

Fodderingham with an ankle injury. Bedwell on.

FT 1-1

I know it was only a friendly but thats a far better result certainly than I anticipated.

They are even scoring our goals for us now.

Nowt more than a decent workout provided by our glorious overlords. All hail!

(http://dorkshelf.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/hailants.jpg)

...especially as we've got such a long wait before our next pre-season friendly...

Earlier in this thread somebody said - mention no names - Williams you are still shit!!

Cooper:
- Very pleased
- Players were brilliant
- Sucker punch but then after 15 mins the players were magnificent
- Not spoken about being the manager, I'm just pleased with the players
- Watching Bale was brilliant
- Players deserve every bit of credit
- All the units were good. Wouldnt single out players
- Midfield were full of energy & running
- Talked about lack of numbers (at the moment)
- Fodds was precautionary
- Told not to involve Caddis tonight
- Same squad for tomorrow night against Brum
- No news on players coming in
- Devine and Sofiene SNU still on trial
- Players looked fit tonight
- Will recover well
- Sure that there will be comings and goings before 3 August
 

Cheers NMH. I had sswitched off the radio so the write up was welcome.

Just back, a good evening, BUT what annoyed me was the lack of communication, No PA didnt get any names of subs ETC, No names on our shirts :headhurts: all a bit confusing, a good work out and maybe some confidence, Pritchard was very good, as was wes, great attendance

Williams
- Talked about different formations they had tried in training
- Prefers to play down middle than left or right
- No idea about manager

McEveley
- Worked hard in preseason.
- Didn't expect to play tonight but was pleased to get 20 mins
- Spent couple of months in gym working on strengthening muscles around knee
- Spent time in gym with Troy
- Looking forward to battling Byrne
- Can play left centre half too

N Thompson
- Happy with 70 mins
- Great playing Spurs
- When you play against the likes of Bale you forget who they are when they are on the pitch
- Prefer RB but will give 100% wherever he is picked
- Have to crack on despite what has gone on
- Players dont know if future manager was here. Players know nowt and just get on with it
- Put fridays game behind them. Moved on. Cool down tomorrow and get ready for Brum. All is geared toward Aug 3
- KMac fantastic manager and was great with youngsters. Sure his replacement will be just as good

Enjoyed that!  :)

Foderingham made a few decent saves during a couple of goalmouth scrambles in the first 15 minutes where the back four seemed a little disorganised, after their goal though we seemed to settle down and game some composure..

The midfield was full of running, it was good to see L Thompson, Luongo & Smith constantly pressing to try and win the ball back and then making runs off the ball when we had it.

Pritchard was probably our best performer, he looked a tricky little player and reminded me of Ritchie slightly coming in from the flank, had a good free-kick on him too.

In all, it was a pretty good performance for a pre-season run out, the players looked to be full of running and effort with some flashes of quality. Think we could do with a center midfielder to shore things up amongst the young lads, but it is quite difficult to judge how good/bad the squad actually is at the minute, personally I think the squad need some proper direction and organisation, if they get that then we should be OK.

Quite enjoyed that, and yes pre-season means nothing but it wasn't a bad performance from us considering.

Luongo looked good. Pritchard looks skillful with the slight criticism that he did a bit much at times. Ward and hall looked OK, not going to judge Byrne because he was against Bale. Williams worked hard.

Collins played in midfield and only for 30 mins??!

Interesting about Byrne I thought he had a brilliant game, easily the best he had for us. Jumped in a couple of time against Bale but with the pace and power he is up against standing off isn't always the best way to go.

I thought Bale had the beating of him, but then it is Bale. He did OK though, I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

Here in lies the rub, for all the moaning one here or happy clapper slapping, and on the flip side back in the days of Diamandis the venow we can outpoor, the vast bulk of our fans don't visit internet forums, probably barely pay attention to the adver back page and just turn up and watch games.  From my experience they do their moaning at the ground and that moaning generally has little to do with whether things are going well or bad either off or on the pitch.

I think I'm saying that several hundred of us whip each other into a frenzy, like this is all really important, when the vast majority of the fanbase ignore us in our own little world.  Gits, it must so much simpler.

That was me and it was supposed to have been a tongue in cheek comment, trust me!!

This.

Liked the look of the centre back pairing as well, the new guy Hall looks a footballer compared to Flint and eventually settled in well. Got to say that Byrne is definitely not a left back no matter what people might think. His natural tendency is to play the ball with his right foot if at all possible and I cannot see him replacing Nathan Thompson at right full back on tonight's performance.

I actually thought Byrne looked very good

I think we're going to be hearing the phrase 'pass it to Pritchard' a lot this season.

Nothing wrong at all with a right footed left back. Byrne for me is much more of a threat than mceverley, obviously for some games where we need to keep it solid he wouldn't be favourable but thought we had some cracking tackles against one of the best players in the world

TBF when I seaw it was you who posted it I wondered why??  Trouble is a certain element of our supporters do not need any encouragement to get on player's cases - and despite last night's result I think they (the players!) are going to need all the encouragement they can get this season.

There was a thread last season basically about Andy Williams being shit, which carried on into some of the match day threads last season and my comment was supposed to be a humerous one relating to this.

For what its worth, Andy Williams misses too many sitters for me, but it was good to see him get on the scoresheet. He's the kind of player who once he gets one, will go on and score goal after goal.

Had a quick look on a spurs forum and the consensus was that Spurs never got out of second gear and we barely troubled them. Of course they played a much weaker team in the second half but some of the comments sound a little like Premiership arrogance.

I liked this comment though -

Thanks to the Swindon stadium operations manager Mark Isaacs who ....on a very stressful day arranging a massive match for their club took time out to get it sorted for me. Rob Johnson one of the co ordinators should also get a big up as he was really switched on & helped massively because it nearly didnt happen.

There was a road accident & a traffic diversion that made us an hour late & if it wasn't for Rob who took our plight seriously it wouldnt have happened. You know how it is when sometimes you get the 'busy treatment' ....well he was far from that, he was all ears and really wanted my lads to taste the thrill of the meet and greet thing on such a great friendly match day.

Ill be honest Im still pinching myself now & cant believe it happened ....... sometimes football & the football people just feel like giving kids a treat & in this instance I asked at the right time & it just fookin happened man

I feel like Ive swallowed a coat hanger as I cant stop smiling so fook knows what my kids are feeling.

Priceless & rare memories I will forever cherish ..... thank you spurs & thank you Spurs B team (Swindon soapy tit wank)

I think that although he tries hard, Williams is terrible. Even his goal last night was lucky.

This is something that has always been aimed at the more skillful winger, the same was said of George Best at times (no I am not comparing him to Best!) it was also aimed at Macnamee and before that David Moss and Bobby Barnes as well.

You take the rough with the smooth with nimble footed tricky wingers, one out of every 2 or 3 times they will beat their man but also can frustrate the odd occassion. I like having players in the team that other teams are scared of running at them and get the crowd excited whenever they get the ball.

Very true...doesn't take much though for some of our fans to get on their backs (see Batch); being near the crowd, also means that they'll hear it more. The dribbling winger has largely disappeared from the game, for the reasons you outline...will be interesting to see how Jesus Navas goes at Man City this season, as he's decidedly old skool.

The goals for those who haven't seen them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLGodjdH8jk

From what I hear our right winger from Portugal Tijane is in a very simlar mould, have we ever played with 2 tricky wingers in the same team before? I can't remember it if we have, there is nearly always one being slightly more defensive winger than out and out wingers which Pritchard & Tijane appear to be.

Back to the 60's and bits of the 70's for that....Mike Summerbee/Don Rogers, through to Tommy Jenkins/David Moss, with bits in between like Eric Weaver/Bruce Walker/Peter Leggett/Don Heath/Chris Porter/Steve Peplow...I remember Trevor Anderson as being more of insdie forward who sometimes played out wide. By the time of Ian Miller, it seemed to be just the one, with an Animal Williams type more defensive wide man.

I only really started going regularly in the 76-77 season so I havent myself seen any of the players mentioned other than Trevor Anderson, Miller and Williams.

Williams/Miller was my first and as you rightly state Williams was more of a wingback/winger with Miller being an out and out winger, the same could be said with Pritchard/Barnard was the same with Barnyard being more defensive.

Can two out and out wingers work? I guess seeing Rogers/Sumerbee there says it can do?

Yeah, but it doesn't make me wrong!

Not sure if you really took at as a criticism, it wasn't.  It was an observation.

I saw enough of his running, enthusiasm and most of all touch and technique to know that if he can translate it into the league he'll do very well indeed. I think Ritchie and Danny Ward started off a bit 'too much' at first too. Didn't take 'em long to settle.

My one genuine concern is physique. If he good enough to avoid the cloggers and bruisers he'll occasionally meet in league 1. I don't think its a major concern just yet :)

Very poor :fishing: for you Reg

McNamee and the other one, right sided but slightly shitter version

I think it's ideal and provides balance if you can get them. Just more often and not you only seem lucky enough to have one in the team.

I was pleasantly surprised with some of that. Thought Ward looked poor and slow, but Hall looked assured and good on the ball as well as in the air. Luongo was the same as ever, busy and productive. Wasn't massively impressed with Smith, and thought Byrne did okay (aside from still using the outside of his right foot to control the ball instead of trusting his left instep - almost got him in trouble yet again). Pritchard looked tricky, and takes a nice free-kick (as does Barthram).

Despite the positives, I am still concerned that we're missing players in key positions. Having to play Collins in midfield and Thompson seemingly everywhere (he's ruddy ace), shows we are missing a few players still, and I hope this is being communicated to Power.

I don't agree with your description, but do you mean Mark Marshall?

We clearly still miss some experience in the squad as well. Aside from Ward, the rest of the team are very very wet behind the ears.

With say 2 more players coming in, do we think we have a big enough squad? Is the Caddis sale, bringing in circa 200k and getting another high earner off the wage budget the end of the players out?

At no point did I suggest you were wrong Batch and certainly never took it as a criticism of him at all, I was just saying how I see it, and pretty much how it has always been.

All wingers by nature will play well in patches of games as they are possibly the most gifted players on the pitch and rarely the hardest working but very often go missing with tracking back and workrate making them look lazy and disinterested at times.

I love having a real winger in the team...if not 2 of them it makes football more exciting to watch.

They still had at least 4 International players on the field in the second half, and they were fresh, as all our players had played the whole first half.

Obika was shite for them, and I don't want him back here.

On t'radio they said he looked like he has built up a lot of muscle since he played for us....did he look like that? I personally didn't rate him here or when I caught him up the road from me in Yeovil but their fans loved him, maybe he has something but I struggle to see it.

How did Nathan Thomspon play when he was moved to midfield? as I think he could be good there as he has strength can pass and tackle as long as he doesnt rush into tackles. Also how did Louis play? and what about the elusive Agombar, how look when he came on? not much mention of those players at all on here (apart from the complimentary one about Nathan from Lucien earlier).

From what I have heard I think he will be gone by 3rd August.

I thought Obika looked strong, big, quick, and threatening. Interesting what different people make of the same players.

Well he looked strong and fairly quick but certainly wasn't threatening at any point in the match although he had little service.

I wouldn't mind him here, a different option upfront and better than having Storey and Waldon as back up.

When we getting Jason Roberts signed up as a replacement? This one's taking it's time.

Reliably informed that the departure of K-Mac has scuppered any potential deal.

Haha. Good response. As long as it's nothing to do with his long term injury then i can understand.

Did't think Kmac had anything to do with transfers anyway. Still, you learn something everyday.

What you mean is you've just read the rumour on the shit Football Rumour website that Collins is off to Rotherham

No, wasn't aware of that.

Collins will not be joining Rotherham.

Who is he joining then?

Who knows. I was only told that he wouldn't be with STFC for much longer.

Hes wanted out since january, hates it here apparently

I heard this too from several sauces.

Jesus, all you've got to do is look at him to figure that out.

Or read this forum and Twitter as it's been mentioned for months

Wouldn't blame him.

He's been our best striker since he set foot in the club yet 2 managers decided he should spend almost as much time on the bench as in the starting lineup.  It's only pre-season yes but I imagine the fact he spent some of it in centre mid probably isn't getting his pecker twitching either.

He would start every week for almost all the other teams in the league and he knows it.

Not saying he will but they wanted him 4 wks ago so wouldnt rule it out

The Collins in midfield scenario is annoying really,he is being played there because he wants out so we may aswell play our strikers with eachother instead of him playing upfront when he does not want to be here

Yeah...I pointed it out 3 months ago.

http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=51338.0

I'm no Chang mind, as I thought we'd have problems shifting Roberts

We're getting a new manager in, who might yet rescue the Collins situation. Anyone know if it's just sitting on the bench he hates, or does he hate it here because of other reasons?

He's proven himself time and again as a good player. I never really understood why managers won't start him.

i would be dissapointed to let collins go, given a run in the team he showed he scored a lot of goals. hopefully a new high profile manager can persuade him to stay. i am guessing the reasons behind him wanting to leave were management reasons?

He took a lot of abuse from some of our fans during a couple of games and think it stems from this. I think not starting and our club being like a soap opera probably doesn't help either.

Can't blame Collins. Has scored a lot for us given the actual amount of minutes on the pitch, always puts the effort in but still rarely starts, then gets some cunts giving him dogs abuse on twitter.

Agree with this,he misses a few sitters but has quality up front.

1-1 then eh? Here's Bale's goal in case anyone missed it?

https://vine.co/v/hmzH7Bbzna2

You took a long time to get home, did you walk?

When are Spurs giving us permission to appoint a new manager?

:)

do you think Les is going to come over to the West then?

We''ll do as we're told by our lords and masters