Thetownend.com

The Opponent:  Stevenage

We move on from all matters off the pitch and a weekend off for all concerned as we entertain Stevenage (The football club previously known as Stevenage Borough), battling for a place in The JPT area final. Now we have got this far it would be great to have another pop at it. Granted, the Chesterfield defeat was nowhere near as painful as the Millwall play off game, but it would be great to have our moment at the new Wembley Stadium. First things first though. Stevenage will have the same hopes and expectations as us. On paper, we should win this, but our home form has been a little patchy, and if the rest of this season thus far is anything to go by, it could go either way, but we really should have enough to book ourselves a place in the area final. Our JPT record against Stevenage is consistent it must be said, having paled 1 and won it, although the less said about the FA Cup record the better. Oddly enough, our highest scorer against Stevenage is none other than Aden Flint, having scored a double against them at The County Ground towards the end of last season, in a 3-0 victory, the other goal coming from jug eared winger Gary Roberts.

Making the front page of the Stevenage local rags at present is the football match fixing scandal that was broke by one of Murdoch’s gutter press on Sunday. It seems Blackburn Rovers striker DJ Campbell spent a season with them and he is the latest person to have the finger pointed at them. Another dramatic headline read, “Police called as car ends up in a ditch in Hitchin”. Who gets paid to think these things up?  It is easy to write Stevenage off as another soulless new town, and to make stereotypical remarks about it as a place to live, as countless unthinking and lazy commentators have done, so I will keep it easy, as that is pretty much what it is, even if you do look at the town of Stevenage from above and it is a pretty much perfect heart shape, it doesn’t make up for a place that has seen its population expand like rabbits at a swingers party. If you ever find yourself ‘fortunate’ enough to be in Stevenage (much like TV’s Saxondale), then they have their very own answer to insomnia, The Stevenage Museum. This small but totally unfascinating museum is a real gem in Stevenage and acts as one of the few links between Stevenage's past and present. It tells the story of Stevenage before it was a new town, which is a time most know very little about and after it became a new town. Inspiring stuff really.

Where the opposition gather – 

http://www.borochat.co.uk/forum.jsp?article=255815

What an exciting bunch. Still, back to White Hart Lane on Saturday.

Last 6 – WLWLLW

They have served us both – Jamie Slabber, Oliver Risser, Paul Peterson, Lloyd Opara, Graz, Jimmy Gilligan, Tony Thorpe, Alex Smith, David Preece

The Odds - Swindon 4/6   Draw 14/5  Stevenage 4/1  Yaser Kasim to finally pop one in the back of the net? 20/1 with Bet 365. No doubt plenty of you took my 11/1 winner with Luongo scoring the first goal the last time we met, although my minimal £’s are backing Dany N’Guessan at 5/1 with most outlets.

The Son Says – He remembers the pain of Chesterfield, his first visit to Wembley and like me, believes now is our time. 3-1 win.

The Prediction –  Home win here, a confident and classy performance will see us win 3-0 with goals from N’Guessan (2) and a late Pritchard free kick. An unenthusiastic 5’297 will be in attendance, with 291 from North London.

And Finally – Once King Miguel of Portugal (1828-1834) had enough of being the regal sort he chose to move to England and found a house on the high street of Stevenage. Of all the places.

COYR COYR COYR

I feel it in my piss...we are going to win the thing......

Have to say the King Miguel thing, is possibly the best thing I've ever seen on the TEF.....must be some spotty kid messing about on Wikipedia.

I've got a good feeling about this! 2-1 Swindon COYR

Tight game expected here, could go to pens.

Damn good thrashing handed out

4-1

For some reason I think this will be one sided and I hope in our favour.

3-1 win. (Pritchard, Ranger, Luongo)

1-1, it will go to pens.

With an hour and a half drive home and an early start tomorrow I fucking hope not.

Hmmm, how much is it to get in tonight? I might actually go to a game. Can you still park at the firestation?  :sherlock:

No extra time though so I'm sure you can spare an extra 10 minutes if needed. :-)

£15! Yep to the fire station - that's a fiver!

I think this could be our only chance of glory this season. I hope the players are up for it and perform on the pitch!

We'll meet Chesterfield in the final! 2-1 tonight.

Forgot about no extra time. Still be more than 10 minutes though!

Unspectacular 2-0, Pritchard and a Pretty Polly og,he owes us that at least

Always stated we'll win this one this year, so I'll say a nice and comfortable 3-0 win! Ajose, Ranger and Pritch to score in front of 5810. C.O.Y.R!!!

Probably with all the faffing around they do. I'm sure you'll live though, as long as we get through.

I'm pretty good at my obscure players but who the hell is Paul Peterson? Does even Reg remember him?

http://www.mightyleeds.co.uk/players/peterson.htm

I would imagine even Paul Peterson barely remembers his Swindon career...........

Yep....think he played 1 game for us and maybe 1 game for Leeds.

Back, when McMahon was in charge, there was a fella called Dave Hollister, who used to run social stuff at the CG, he used to do a quiz, Brain of STFC, where all the questions and there were lots, were all STFC related.  Talk about pigs in shit, there was proper good competition.  He also did just general football quizes as well.  Knowledge of the likes of Paul Peterson, not essential, but it helped.

If it was updated, there'd be some right obscurities from the times of King and di Canio.

I did notice a quiz is being held at the CG in February, charity fund raiser in aid of NSPCC...the TEF has put out some teams in the past for quizzes, and this is a good cause.

Lived opposite me and families became friends. He came here as a left back under Dave MacKay's "managership" and on Don Revie's recommendation not knowing that John Trollope was a permanent fixture in that position, so never got a chance. He originally came from Stevenage and moved back there to play and then managed them early days just before they began to move up the pyramid.

Feeling shit - back end of sickness bug so want a good performance as payment for dragging my sorry ass up to SN1.

A win will do no matter how it comes
2.0 town both sides putting a decent side out as its the only chance of glory

4900 attendance with 288 coming to watch the spurs players borough stevenage

Didn't Graham Westley play really ugly direct hoofball football last time he managed Stevenage, assume they play like that again now,  we always strugle when team play like that again us and are prepared to get in our faces - I can see this being tougher than some people are predicting tonight

Ah that explains it. Before my time. Thx.

Get outta here! They're a pile of shit.

We'll hammer them!

Yeah they are a dirty bunch!

Ah. I didn't know we had a game. Whoops.

No Ranger anywhere again?

Belford playing instead of Wes. That can only mean Wes is in Bournemouth  ;)

He's not in Bournemouth tonight as he's on the bench

Dam.

I wasn't paying enough attention.

Fixed it for you

Sighting of Harry Agombar on the advers paint pot challenge video..

Player not working at all for me. Anyone else?

Working for me.

And the BBC don't even have the rights to broadcast this free to air? #tinpot.  :badmood:

Don't even think the bbc text is working

mine is unusually good tonight

You'd have to be really desperate to follow on there. From Sam's texts it sounds like another special needs ref.

BBC Wilts have a reporter live in the town end.

That's a brave move.

How long before someone shouts cunt while they're speaking to him.

Peterborough are already 1-0 up.

Fleetwood and Oldham are also 1-0 up in the Northern ties.

Yay.

1-0!

Sat in the baraset restaurant in stratford on Avon. Shit job but someone has to do it. Reports please as much as possible.

Ref sounds like a bellend.

68% possession, not far off Barca territory.

Who scored? Beeb not saying

Ajose

Lucy sounded quite the pundit!

Didn't she just!

She's right though. Stevenage should let us score more goals than them  ;D

they are so far!

Cheers WR

Never been to a football match before and the thing that's impressed her most is how much possession we've had... Right...

What's all this about us scoring in the first minute but the goal being reset?

The goal was literally re-set.

fucking armchair fans

Looking a bit dodgy at the back but worth the 1 0 lead. Back 3 again :(

Yeah, sofa fans are much better.  :sofa:

Will he still get paid when he keeps missing training etc?

think he's just not in the match day squad today probably due to only 5 subs. Not sure he's missed any more training

Radio seemed to suggest he'd gone awol again.

Seem to be setting up shop with those subs...

Oh ok, must have missed that, I was going by info from adver site , which said don' be alarmed at he's absence as it's just team selection?? Who knows?

Draw your own conclusions!!

  
  


 Nile ranger (@NilePowerRanger)

09/12/2013 21:12

Ima WRONGAN.... Any advice ??





 Nile ranger (@NilePowerRanger)

09/12/2013 13:55

HEAD GONE

My conclusion is that he can't spell or punctuate.

Balls

oh fuck

Well it's been coming

soapy tit wank

think we may lose this in 90

Oh dear.

Wembley is shit anyway

Posh 2-0

Ajose hits the post.

Argh!

Really? Not from my seat he didn't. Oh well.

Why do they play the worst ever version of "wise men say". 1-0 stevenage

we're only on Pritch

1-1 Pritch

Belford Saves!

belford saves!

Gabas scored!

2-1 Elgabas

Over the bar from Stevenage!

miss!!

3-1 Town.

Kassim!

Epic :headhurts:

Belford!

Into the area final.

We win !!!!Belford saves

Belford you beauty

Brilliant Belly. Thought only we blew up like that at shootouts.

No Ajose in the next round I s'pose...

Wes who?

We play Posh for a place at Wembley :pint: :pint:

Good news  :)

Rooney 90th minute for Oldham.Id love a Swindon Oldham final

Wembley is great. Never in doubt.

;D

Peterborough   :(

Shhhhh.

Chesterfield v Fleetwood, Northern Final

Now we can really start talking about singing sections, can't we?  :no:

Ooh, if we meet Chesterfield in the final, can we go all billy big league on them? Pleeeease?

No Ajose against Peterborough, unless we sign him permanently. No Pritchard either.

Why no Pritch?

Somebody on the radio texts just said that Cooper should resign.

3rd and 17th February Area Finals, some way off.

i know that the BBC need to present a balanced case, but fucking hell. just don't read that sort of lunacy out

He's off to a Championship club.

On what basis?

You do realise that there are 2/3 Oxford fans who text in every week without fail?

On the basis of poor decisions by him leading to a 'poor' second half.

Is that definite then? It looks like we won't have Ajose, Pritch, Fods or (probably) Ranger after Jan. Hmm, season of two halves...

Would have preferred Newport as it was my only chance for another new ground this season.  However, Posh is local.

Well that was a struggle!!  Played superbly for 25 minutes, beat them all over the park with pace and precision passing, then dropped right off and allowed them to get into our faces.  Sloppy for the whole of the second half, although we did hit the bar.  Allowed them to push us back and a goal was always coming.  Awful ref again, how come we get the absolute crap that the league has!

Well that was a game off two halves - literally and yet another shit ref

Still - we are thru

Play like the second half v posh and they will tear us a new one

Are the area finals televised  :hmmm: be some cash if are, 3800 odd was a bit poor as was the 79 travelling fans

I know there's some stiff competition this season for the shittest ref but this fucker takes the biscuit.

Not saying he was pro-Stevenage just awful for both sides. Where on God's earth do they get them from?

Good 60 minutes under the belt for Mason. Thought both N'Guessan and Ajose worked their bollocks off throughout. N'Guessan especially noticeable tracking back all game. Well done them.

Second half we didn't seem to want to put in a challenge and it smacked of a misplaced sense of superiority. Truly awful.

The new fella, Gladwin, did some nice stuff but also lost possession a couple of times but looks a possibility.

Yet again, some Keystone Cop defending in the 2nd half and a better team would have punished us.

Still, whe. It comes to knockout games the only aim is to get through, so mission accomplished.

Officials shite again. How can neither spot the two handed push on Ajose as he's about to head the ball in from a yard, but instead takes the net with him as he's pushed into the net?

And could've had a couple more for handballs, but I did think, as soon as we scored, we thought we could coast the game.

Hey, we're into the area final...two games from that place in London.

The clear push on Ajose early on where he ended up in the back of the net, breaking it in the process, was - according to the ref - a case of him throwing himself into the net!!  N'Guessan was booked for diving, so why wasn't Ajose?  And their guy in the second half threw himself to the ground in the box after a challenge yet the ref took no action other than to wave play on!!  An absolute bell-end who allowed them to get away with heavy challenges all game, yet books Barthram for his first bad tackle.

Considering that he was a yard out and an open goal...what was the point of diving into the net?

sums it up perfectly.

For me mason and Luongo didn't work hard enough. Good on the ball, not interested off it. Guess that's why cooper eventually replaced them.

Looked dodgy at the back. Even with Barthram playing more traditional rb.

Keeper didn't play as well this time out. Looks to have been coached to always play short. But Stevenage closed us down too quickly second half so he had nowhere to go. Sometimes long is the only option. Hero in the shootout though, no question.

Has ranger gone full retard again?

Did Hertha get home on time?  :)

The decision not to award a penalty when Ajose was shoved in the back on the line has to be one of the worst decisions I've ever seen.

Same as most games I've seen over the past month or two - we fall to bits when teams pressure us and close us down effectively. We need to sort that out urgently.

We brought/bring the pressure on ourselves though. We dominate, score and then turn to shit.

I lapped up the early play and my brother attending his first game of the season....living in Cornwall was also impressed.

Fucking joke decision that no penalty was given for the push...you could see it from space, ref was a total dick for both sides throughout. Booking one and not the other for identical challenges.
I still think a header from that position should be a goal anyway.

Keeper was flappy at best....if it was a friendly or last game of the season then so be it but this isn't, so I judge him on his performance 'in play'....and I didn't like it. What he tuck was he doing for the goal.

Second half was woeful....they just seemed to want it more than us.

New boy showed promise although caught in pocession a few times.


I decided to miss the pens.....I just can't seem to bear it...and fucked off early. I hear the keeper redeemed himself a bit...hope that lifts his spirits.

SO....through to the area finals (I really wanted Newport as I reckon we would of taken quite a few).

Where do the away fans go at Posh now? Can see me working at MK HQ that night!

Nice to see Fatty Evans knocked out up north.......is the rematch on?

I feel it in my piss...we  are going to win it....

Away 1st leg, home 2nd leg in Area Final!

Away fans are now housed in the stand to the right, if you were stood on the terrace looking.

We had over 10'000 at the County Ground for the Barnet game a few years ago but then it was only a tenner to get in.
Be interesting to see how the club market this one.

According to BBC Sport fixture list, we're playing Wednesday 5th February away and Monday 17th February at home...JPT official feed says both these dates are for TV but fixtures for tv dates are tbc. I thought they'd show 1 North/1 South final on tv? I'll wait for official confirmation!

We'll probably get 7 or 8K for the Posh game.. if that.

The game has already been summed up really. That shove on Ajose was such a bad decision it was laughable, I don't think I've been that genuinely gobsmacked at a decision before! But nonetheless, we did well most of the first half, second half we clearly thought the game was over. Belfords kicking was beyond awful but to his credit he was vocal and he made some decent stops.

Some mouthbreathers in the town end though who consistently and maliciously abused Belford throughout the second half. Also got a chant of 'You don't know what you're doing' at Cooper going. Luckily it was only a few. Fucking hell imagine how they'd react if we weren't chasing the playoffs!

Progress was key, and we did it. Although judging by these forums we will have no players left to play Peterborough!

Regardless of marketing, I would be amazed if we manage more than 8000 against Peterborough. Whether we like it or not, the Di Canio factor made a difference. If we get through to the final do you think a club shop will be opened up in the Brunel Centre again? I just can't imagine people queuing up the length of the parade for Mark Coopers autograph.

I think there is a case of been there, seen it, done it with regard to a JPT cup run.

If we hadnt of had that run in this competition a couple of years ago i think enthasium and crowds would be higher.  The appeal of going to new Wembley has disappeared for a lot of people as well, if we get to the final we wont get anywhere close to selling the amount we did for Chesterfield.

Rather  depends on the outcome of the first game, if we can keep it alive for the second leg it should help, but Peterboro, are the sort of side who can hand out a thrashing at London Road, and we're not exactly strong at the back.

They have been over the last few years, but less so this season. They actually have the joint worst attack in the division so far in the league at home, with just 10 goals in their 10 league games, only scoring more than one on 3 occasions.

Particularly If we end up playing chesterfield again..

How many did we flog last time?  Fell short of 30k didnt it?

Crowd was about 49k, of which 16k were chesterfield, think we sold 29k so not sure who the other 4k were.  :sherlock:

I wouldn't be so sure. I pondered this at half-time yesterday and came to the conclusion that the possibility of not going and potentially missing us win there after two miserable trips would piss me off too much. I'd be genuinely gutted to miss us winning the JPT at Wembley even though it's tinpot.

Totally agree for your regular run of the mill fan. I hate phrase but your “daytripper” type probably hasn’t got any enthusiasm for another trip there as they have got the whole Wembley visit thing out of their system

What has it come to when we're bored of going to Wembley? Take the point though, marketing is wringing much of the fun out of football.

Because going to Wembley is now like going to any other souless new stadium?

Twin Towers Wembley was a shithole as far as facilities went bu the place had atmosphere oozing out of the cracks in the pavement and walls.

The buzz for the Sundeland and Leicester play off finals at twin Towers was awesome.

The flat atmosphere for Chesterfield and Milwall was miserable, even before the results were obvious.

Dunno whether it has been said but the away tie has been confirmed for TV.

Great stuff.

I'm sure the £15 ticket last night was the reason for a poor crowd so drop it back to a tenner and get the CG rocking on the way to Wembley.

Was a tenner for an adult ticket last season against Barnet if memory serves.

I will be going to Wembley (again) if we get through, mostly because I've yet to see us score there and for fuck's sake we have to win eventually. Don't think I could bear it if we win and I'm not there to enjoy it.

£15 last night was a poor decision....

If we do get to Wembley again I think we'll take between 20-22k. 3 visits in 3 years and this would be the least important/interesting one of the lot.

We've scored in both our last visits....

I'll never turn down a trip to wembley if we get there. It's crap, but you don't know even the next one is coming. The gap between the prem playoff final and the league 1 final was too long...I missed the first..

Own goals don't count...

Disallowed own goals even less so.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how many we take (should we get there). I think in excess of 25k, but all swings and roundabouts as we've a bloody difficult 2 legged tie against Peterborough. Any guesses how many we'll take their in the 1st leg, now it's on tv? I'll say around 500 - odd kick off time at 7.15 :hmmm:

Is the KO 7.15 or the time the tv prog starts ?
Odd if KO

Jpt twitter claim that is the kick off time. How odd.

Will be to do with Sky Sports' schedule.

Just watched the highlights.  Glad I wasnt there.  I would have had an aneurysm.  Wards header was over the line and there is no physical way Ajose can jump up and then forward unless he can fly.

Oh well, got over the line in the end.

Where did you watch them or was it on player?

It was more a case that we were going on runs in the cups, were pretty much nailed on to go up automatically (and probably as champions) and the JPT final was a bonus on top of it. Everyone enjoyed winning and wanted as much of it as possible.
If it was the same circumstances we'd easily get 8,000 even with Iffy Onuora in charge. 

It was on player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=481p9PufwH4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=481p9PufwH4)

I still think our goal was a training ground move and not just a fluke.

Revisionism Lesson 1:

A manager's box office charisma cuts no ice whatsoever with attendance levels and if he has suspect politics thousands will boycott matches

Where do the highlights get shown...?

On the previous page, if you'd care to click...

Wards header definitely over the line.

Don't think so. Anyway, given they missed the massive shove, they were hardly going to give that. Only surprised they didn't flag Ajose offside (wrongly) for his goal.