Thetownend.com

The Opponent:  Shrewsbury Town

So today heralds the visit of the other STFC. A couple of years back this was a big game in the battle for League 2 promotion but today I doubt many folk outside of Swindon and Wales will really care all that much. One of the sideshows of facing the The Salopians was Graham Turner who finally realised he was managing an average League 2 club punching well above their weight. I find it strange that our very own bundle of bizarre, Dosser, has yet to offer his comments on today’s game. His loathing of all things Blue and Amber makes great reading and even to this day I still think the general gathering of contributory plebs over on The Blue and Amber board remains amongst some of the most dense in forum history. The supporters of the club were some of the most outspoken against us during the Di Canio era for whatever reason. Tinpot syndrome? Who knows, I would just be happy giving them a good stuffing.

An interesting week on the transfer front. On Monday morning its fair to say if you was asked who Michael Smith was you may have thought of anyone but our next signing. If asked at the same time if you thought DNG would be made available for loan by the end of the week I would guess 9/10 would have said no chance, especially with our current number 9 being made aware we need a number 9 at the club. All in a week’s work as a Swindon Town fan.  Perhaps the most notable Salopian would have to be Charles Darwin, although musically Shrewsbury has previously housed musical giants, T’Pau, Carol Decker herself having being born in the town. Radio 1 DJ, the late John Peel, was another resident and my favourite Salopian has to be Percy Thrower, king of gardens throughout my childhood.

Weather or Not? – After a cloudy start today the day it should remain fairly dry with occasional sunshine with a slight chance of showery activity around 16.00hrs. Winds gathering early to mid afternoon with gusts ranging between 25-30mph.

Where the opposition gather –  Seems the Taffs are more worried about Graham Turner at present. The fact the new manager is called Michael Jackson would worry me more.

http://blueandamber.proboards.com/board/31/shrewsbury-town-messageboard

Last 6 – LLWLLL  (Currently 21st on 26 points, although still above Shitty).

They have served us both –  James Collins, Chic Bates, David Geddis, Moses Ashikodi, Ian Woan, Ross Maclaren, Dave Hockaday, Rory Fallon, Graham Coughlan, Jimmy Quinn, Robin Hulbert

The Odds - Swindon 5/6  Draw 12/5  Shrewsbury 7/2   Oddly enough, the opposition’s away form has been slightly better than the home form.  No odds on offer for Michael Smith at Hills but if you fancy George Barker exposing the defence early on the 11/2 is on offer.

The Son Says – He seemed rather interested in The Pikies losing at Brentford when questioned but decided 3-0 was the likely outcome eventually
.
The Prediction – A new manager can always have a positive effect on a generally shit team, sometimes getting miracles out of them, so I have to take this in to account with this one. 4-0 victory, Pritchard, Barker (2), Smith, in front of 7’511, 188 travelling from North Wales.

And Finally – Amongst Shrewsbury Town’s long list of honours includes 3 times runners up and 6 times winners of the Welsh Cup.

COYR COYR COYR

Chico - the master of the front post flick. Got a bad feeling about this one.

Yet another good read. But your post was 23s late, so unfortunately am going to go "I gotta bad feelin' about dis"

(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100506134808/mightyboosh/images/7/79/Bollo.jpg)

Tense and nervy 1-1 in front of 6,784.

Secretly hoping for a win mind.

get back in your box you pessimistic twats. 0-0

yes I'm bladdered  :beers:

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

Does this ritual mean anything, cos I don't see us at the top of any league.

Nope.  I just like to remain positive and can't be arsed analysing the opposition every game to try and predict a score.

 I've never much liked Shrewsbury, after my first visit there in 67....for some obscure reason, entirely unconnected to TV, it was an evening KO on a Saturday. We got beat 3-1....their keeper Alan Boswell played out of his skin..we had Tony Hicks in goal...the Flying Pig. When Frank Clarke notched for them, little did I think he'd be the last man to score 4 goals in a game against us, doing so in 74...the last man to do so since Harry Oscroft in the match fixed 6-1 defeat to Port Vale in 1960.

We could see only the 2nd (or 3rd, Konjic might have played) Bosnian to ever grace the Country Ground in Shrewsbury's new Celtic loanee Bahrudin Atajic, he's very highly rated. The other player was Begovic for Bournemouth.

Nah Konjic was an unused sub, so this would be the 2nd time. Exciting times...

Since when has Shropshire been in Wales?

About the same time as Hereford.

The nearer the border it seems the more English they try to be.

But we know they're Welsh - and they know they are.

A healthy, morale-boosting thrashing. 5-0

Smith (2), Sue Barker, Kasim and Ward.

7289 with 178 Taffs and an assortment of farmyard animal 'companions'

Didn't you know?

Superb write up Shaw  :toocool:

I've been off the booze for a week but that ends today with a vengeance - watch out Tap and Barrel.

HATE THE POX HATE THE SLOPS ™

Lets raise the roof off the Town End today. 3-0 Reds, 7,387 (389 Slop Mongerers stinking out our Mecca).

C'MON SWINDON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In Berlin on a stag do, hopefully my prediction will be correct as it was last week, 4-0 win!

There seems to be a sense of humour failure going on in Shropshire  Mid-Wales today:

http://blueandamber.proboards.com/thread/86521/swindon-pre-match-write

The local wildlife mustn't have been putting out last night.

Glorious. Couple of quotes for flavour.

"Good heavens, I find these comments rather insulting" (old chap! pip pip, what what?)

"Oh, we are in Wales?

Love the intelligence levels from the flids!

They're(sic) slogan for their board says it all...

25%, 80% b******s (sic)"

Yes. Yes it does.

I did try, but getting worked up about Shrewsbury was too much of an uphill struggle.  I just couldn't see the point.

We should win this.

I'm going to go off at a tangent briefly, but some advice would be helpful.  I was thinking recently that I've never really learned - properly, that is - how to chill with a cider.  It's a distressing gap in my skill set that I need to fill, and no mistake.  Would anyone on here have an idea where I might travel to in order to acquire this knowledge?

Thanks.

Ha ha what a thick cunt.

I personally couldn't give a flying one, asides from wanting the points.

Almost makes Dosser look sane.

Makes no sense to me, I cant speak welsh. 3-1 to us.

New in stadium bookies apparently

Thebettingroom.co.uk

Anything better than that dodgy looking geezer with the long hair

Cant see the wanna be sheep worriers doing much today despite their dead kiddie fiddling manager,

4 nil thumping to make up for the 2 away non performances,
150 of them hitching down to sunny wiltshire.

Them taffs wont bring 150 it will be nearer 80 IMO. Come on "the real" STFC!

I'm not going. We'll win 3-1.

Just dropped my daughter of for work at the CG and bumped into Dermot Gallagher.  All I said to him was have we got a decent one today?  Spent the next 20 minutes talking about his days refereeing.  He was looking forward to coming back to the CG today as he made his pro debut back in the early 80's, Swindon vs Torquay.  Lou Macari had just taken over, we were 2nd bottom of Div 4 and went onto win the league with over 100 points.

Seemed like a top bloke, the sort of guy it would be great to go out for a couple of pints with, sounds like he has some great stories to tell.

I guess he is the accesor today. 

As for the match, 2-1 to us.  Luongo and Smith.

Totally made my day. Thank you.

Welsh Cunts.

 :shaun: :shaun: :shaun:

Welcome back Dosser  :)

Blimey, their message board doesn't take long to read. Not much sense of humour  :)

Ha.  It always amazes me that anyone doesn't quite get that the strapline 25% football 80% bollocks is not really serious.  I do believe we all realise that it adds up to more than 100% you fools.  Its a joke.

TOWN v Shrewsbury: Foderingham; N Thompson, Branco, Ward, McEveley; Luongo, Kasim, Mason; Pritchard, Smith, Byrne

Subs: Belford, Reckord, Barthram, L Thompson, Harley, Barker, Ranger

See mason starting today,he has been shocking latley should be on the bench IMO.

Agree. I would liked to have seen Harley play and push Luongo further forward.

Interesting interview with Lee Power.

Lee Cox probably off to a jockenese prem league team this week, DNG struggling with travelling from London to Swindon every day, lots of teams interested in Pritchard but we hope to keep him till the end of the season.

Reckord been on the radar for a while and can slot in at centre back as well and Smith was chased by 5 other clubs but chose Swindon.

Other players not currently playing may be off before Friday but no details of who, and 2 other players being lined up to come in.

Missing only my second home game of the season today for no other reason than I can't be bothered (and need to save the cash). We'll probably win 5-0 now.

Ha, gotta laugh at the Shrewsbury "forum". Not the brightest are they.

At least the old cunt Graham Turner can't blame the ref again today.  Given the comments on their site I can see why they loved him so much, sounds like they have a similar mentality

One of them took offense when I called them taffs a while ago...

Morgue like in here.

Jervis scores for Pompey

Shitty 1 nil down already

Is it just me or has this season already pretty much died on its arse?

We sound slightly on top so far.

A few people will be celebrating that injury to Mason, no doubt.

77% posession so far according to the BBC stats.

For what that's worth.

It feels a little like we're coasting to a mid-table finish - which I'd have taken at the start of the season, to be honest.  All that will change if we score, mind.

I am not sure about died on its arse but a lot of my mates who were/are big Town fans just can't be bothered this season for some reason, when I speak to them I ask them why and none of them know why they just aren't bothered so much.

I agree, mind you it never really got going for me.  Was never going to match the past few seasons but maybe that is a good thing.  A mid-table non season with the opportunity of a JPT final might not necessarily be a bad thing with the goings on of the past few seasons.

I'm far from disappointed with how the season is panning out, I've just found it difficult to get interested, let alone excited, about fixtures in the past month or so.

The more that I think about it I feel that I'm not really that big on football anymore.

For me a high mid table season (9th or 10th) and a JPT Final would be a good season, others (Chang) may well disagree.

Sounds like Shrewsbury have come to park the bus. Booooring.

God I despair at times.

Playing into a gale & some of our fans calling for us to hit it long into the wind.
Moaning & groaning because we are passing to a Red shirt

I agree with your mates and sonic. Don't really know why I can't be arsed this season, but I can't.  Am quite happy listening to games and monitoring the forums, whereas usually I go to as many games as I can.

I need something to get my interest back, but everything recently has all been a bit meh.

If we get to the JPT Final and lose it I'll be gutted... Gutted that I've wasted good money on yet another disappointing trip to Wembley.

Can't take the commuting - bless  :doh:
Those of us that did it for many years for a salary way below his + we had to work when we got work - not run around a field & play footy - I despair  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

It's been fine for me.  This season marks the point where my boys have been just about old enough to come along with me...so my personal attendance record has been at its best for years. 

Ah! I woke up late! Only just tuned in.

Doesn't sound like I missed much, anyone know how Michael Smith is getting on?

He just scored.

So not bad.

Get in Smith.

He's scored ;)

Wooo!

My own question has been answered  :clap:

I can see both sides to this.  I have recently switched to a new job outside of London after nearly 15 years of working in London.  Things like the length of your journey to work - even if you are well paid - really do make a difference.

But I draw the line at sympathy for Joey Beauchamp.

Yay!

Take that, mini-STFC!

Real STFC 1-0 Fake STFC :D

Sorry one last question...

I noticed Ranger is conspicuously on the bench today, is that because he was shite against Gillingham? Does anyone know what the official line is on that?

He has had man flu this week and not trained even though he has turned up for training for a change.

Dicky Davies and Jeff Stelling on Sky both said Smith was only on loan. Pretty sure that is bollocks yes?

On another note, Dave Hockaday sounds like he's about 75  ???

Despite this being the first home game I've missed since August I'm not bothered I didn't go. I don't think I felt this way after the Posh game so it must have been those two away defeats and slipping away from the PO spots that did it for me. Strange, because we're still excellent at home! I must be plastic  :D

He sounds like he should look like Walter Matthau

Fucking Swindon monsoon season.

Dicky Davies and Jeff Stelling on Sky both said Smith was only on loan. Pretty sure that is bollocks yes?

Yeh that's bollocks.

Ah the man flu.

Well fair play to Ranger for actually going to training, I guess he didn't have any other plans for the day.

1-1 Parry.

Boooo

Fuckity bollocks

Lucky save by Weale from Pritchard straight from the kick off.

The weather sounds awful, I certainly wouldn't have ventured out if I was home.

Looking at one of Jeds tweets, I think he might be in the town end.  Either that or he has stolen someone else's photo..

New guy on for Macca at left back

Not quite 45 for Reckord then.

Has McEveley had a bad game? Seems an odd change.

Roooaaarrr - I assume he is shaking a bucket to raise the money to buy the club back!

Not sure about this Reckord character, he's just a kid.

I thought we coulda done with someone who is more experienced and preferably big, mean and ugly.

Hahaaha!!

Ranger!

They intimated that Jaymac had an injury but who knows.

Roberts scores for Chesterfield

Is it just me but is STFC World been the best connection ever with no break ups at all?

Ajose scores for Posh

Rose scores for Rochdale.  It's one of those days again...

David Ball scores for Fleetwood

Shrews hit the bar....Ranger on for Byrne.

Sounds like a better team would be 3-1 up against us.

Need to get some composure at the back.

Come on Ranger, smash one in!!

Defensively we sound all over the place.

Great save by Fodders.

Fair few goals going in.  Walsall 5-1 up.  Oldham 3-4 Peterboro

Walsall 6-1 up AWAY at Notts county....bloody good performance by the sound of it.

Rooney scores on his debut for Aberdeen

Last goal disallowed apparently

We are extremely lucky not to be a couple of goals behind.  The woodwork and Foderingham have kept us in ir.

Utter shambles and clueless what to do with the ball.

ah 5-1 then, I would be happy with 5-1 today :D

2-1 will do :)

Defensively we sound very poor, yet again against one of the crappest (position wise) teams in the league.

Someone on Twitter saying we are playing 4-5-1, is that correct?

Today's attendance: 7,448 (227 away supporters)

Not bad given the weather and recent discontent.

Hocky said we are playing 442 with a diamond, with Kasim DMC, Pritchard AMC and Louongo & Harley wider central.

Fucking hell Fodders is earning his money today, mistake from Ward with a bad backpass great save by Fodders.

More comedy defending from Ward. I'm sure some cunt will be in later blaming Hall as usual. :(

Piss poor now

Branco and Ward sounding all over the place.

I'm sure somebody said Branco was the solution to our defensive problems...

Very worrying if we lose our home form. We still need a few more points to stay up.

Obika scores for Brighton

We've fallen apart defensively since McEveley went off.  The last 20 minutes are as poor as I've seen at the County Ground this season. Utter shite.

Doesn't sound good does it?

Something has gone wrong somewhere, its up to Cooper and Power to sort out what it is exactly and change it.

Not in this game now but over the next few days in training.

Change the fucking reckord?  :)

Rooney scores for Aberdeen.

It could be worse.  Game just abandoned at D&R with 70 mins gone at D&R 2-3 Scunthorpe

Ha, fat boy's been sent off for Peterborough again!

Get in! Ranger!

Get in there!

Haha, apparently Lee Tomlin has been sent off again.

Get in Ranger!

Get the fuck in.

Get in!

Might be undeserved if we can hang on and win but I don't fucking care a win is a win!

Good times. Really does seem like that goal is papering over a good few cracks though.

Ranger woodchip :D

Ha, Oldham have just gone 5-4 up over Posh.

3-1 Smithy!

Get in!

(We've bloody robbed them, but I don't care!)  :pint:

What's all the fuss about?  :D

I have a Super Sammy feeling about this Smith fella...   Could be a good one

Real STFC 3-1 Fake STFC

Super Mikey Smithy!

Game over....bad performance by the sound of it but a great 3 points.

I think you could say that we got away with that...

But who cares :)

Get in town  :pint:!!

I'll take 3 points and a shit performance over 0 points and a good performance at this point  :clap:

...as we have been at the County Ground for some time.  We've been doing just enough to beat what's put in front of us, time & again.  Coventry, Peterborough, Shrewsbury.  It's not world-beating, but we must be doing something right at home.

Spot fucking on!

3 points closer to safety, Reg ;)

I was just looking at the table thinking the same thing.  Daylight between us and the bottom 3.  I am a pessimist when it comes to town.

Fucking cracking debut for Smith.

I'm with Berniman on this, got a good feeling about him.

Get in there the real STFC

If I was a Shrewsbury supporter, I'd be pretty pissed off right now.  Oh well, who cares?

3 points that didn't look achievable with 5 minutes to go and certainly not by two clear goals!

Fods fully deserved MOM and Smith did well.  The defence, well that's another story......

5 points off the play-offs with a game in hand.
14 points above 21st, who have a game in hand over us.

What were we worried about? ;)

Ha ha.  Very good.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, as he's only just arrived, but looked decidely average today.

Exactly!

That was shit. 3-1 would have flattered us if it was the other way round.

Branco was shit

Left back was shit, but i'll let him off seeing as he only signed this morning

Weather was shit

Harley was Shit

The fans around me are a load of shit

Thank god for Foderingham, he kept us in it, big time.

Thompson played well.

Well the change in shape when Ranger came on led to them being on top for most of the 2nd but ultimately came good.
Thank fuck Wes on the ball today.
Hall Ward not a great performance today - again

Defence really does look all at sea at times but on the other hand Smith gives another dimension up front and helped paper over those cracks.  :hmmm:

Martin Ling on BBCWilts as a scout for Walsall felt Shrews unlucky and town mugged them.
Not looking forward to tuesday with warsaw scoring 5 away from home today  :eek:

We didn't deserve that. Lost impotus when Mason went off, lost some drive and urgency when Jay Mac went off, lost shape when Ranger came on.

Positives: Smith looks a good signing, Wes had a good game but needs to talk to his back 4 more. Ranger makes a huge difference when the shape is right.  

Negatives: no movement, no urgency. Harley slows everything down. Defence was awful. Luongo is not the same player as he was at the start of the season - don't think any of the young lads are not feeling the effects of a long season. Wind died down when it was with us.

3 points though against an efficient Shrewsbury side. Why that chap didn't square it when 1 on 1 with Wes I'll never now - effectively cost them the game.

I'd have to agree

We didn't lose shape when Ranger came on, we went to a 4-4-2 with Kasim holding and Pritch tucked in, Luongo was fucking anonymous most of the match anyway.  Ward was crap, almost gave them a goal on two occasions, thank god for Wes!!  One day our luck at home will run out and we will play well and get beat, cos today we played awful and won!!

Undeserved, but very welcome, 3 points.

We made a poor Shrewsbury side look good. Defending was awful and WTF was Ward doing dwelling on the ball in the second half - thank God for Wes.

The build up is so slow and ponderous and confidence looks shot to pieces. No wonder we are shit away if that is how we defend.

Thought Pritchard put in a shift - heard rumour he is off the Huddersfield on loan this week.

Smith looks a good addition.

Can't think of a good thing to say about the others.

Yeah massive relegation 6 pointer, which we've negotiated by hook or by crook....therefore slide halted  :)

That was a dreadful 80 minutes of football.
 One tempo, passionless and tricky players running into a cul de sac of opposition players and giving the ball away cheaply.
I was going to buy my Peterboro ticket after the game but fuck that. I wouldn't turn up for that if it was free.
I've got to go to Orient but just might stay in the pub.
I'm that pissed off.

That really was a fucking shocking performance. So many bad performances. Wes MOM by a country mile. The save he made when Ward fucked up was excellent.
The back 4 were a total fucking shambles with Ward the worst of the bunch. It was keystone kops.
The midfield was non existent. Byrne and Luongo being particularly shite. Pritchard did his usual trick of running down blind alleys. Mason is about as fit as I am.
Smith looked pretty good but given the total fucking shit behind him, didn't get into the game much.
The thing that really worries me and has for a while is the total lack of leadership out on the pitch.
Fuck knows how we won that but we were shite. That is the third home game on the bounce we did not deserve to win. We really need a leader out there. I think we can say the luck over the season has probably evened out after us ditching early points we should have got.
It could be a long end of the season. Surely we can't play that shit again.
On the positive side, its three more points but a half decent team would have ripped us a new one today.

Come on the mighty TEF. Last Town player to score a brace on his debut...

Navarro

SSP got a hat-trick on his.  I'm sure there must be a more recent example.

Got to say, 7500 turning up on a truly shite day weather wise wasn't bad at all.

We look a million miles away from the team that performed so well at the start of the season.


BTW, looked like Mason couldn't get off the pitch quick enough to me

In the league?

Could be Darius Henderson...

Oh and Rekord looks positionally inept so he'll fit right in to our defence.

BBC Wilts already did that one.

Anyway, third correct result prediction in a row for me. I ought to start betting.

You didnt say league

Yes, Reginald

Cracking debut that was :)

Oh Ashton Gate...

So who was it?

Navarro against Brighton in the LC.

You have to go quite a long way back to find a debut brace before Henderson it seems.

Chris Blackburn was after Henderson.

I thought it was league games only...

Peter Eastoe in 73...

Would we be going back as far as Frank Large....boom boom Frankie.

Eastoe then...good stuff.

Alan Mayes scored 3 on his debut away at Rovrum in the league in 78/79 he had to score 2 before he got his 3rd :D

Don't know if they specified league debut on the radio, only caught that the answer was Navarro.

It makes quite horrific reading the number of strikers who have scored on their debut for us only to turn out to be complete toss - Benyon, Brownlie, Proctor, Caton.

Ben Joyce.

My personal favourite, although not a striker was Mike Graham, a sort of Kenny Stroud look-a-like, who scored a Stroudy style screamer on his debut v Wimbledon in 81, and 160+ games later in all comps, not another.

It' s a shame Graham Turner didn't last till today because today's game and result would certainly have finished the old codger off!

RELEGATION ADMIN AAAAAH

My first game. Maybe I should do more debuts.

Seems a bit harsh to include Proctor in that list - he only played four games for us and he scored twice in the four.

On today, it was mainly a crap game between two fairly unconvincing sides. Bright notes were Smith looks quite good, Wes did well.

Far too early to judge Reckord especially as he apparently only met his team-mates in the dressing room before the game.

I was basing it more on their overall careers as none of them went on to do anything notable despite promising debuts.

Proctor was decent for us, I agree. Brownlie scored one of the best goals I've seen at the CG.

Sort of season, that if you can survive watching that you could survive anything. Well done :)

Oh fair enough then, sorry I read it as you meant it as for us.

Scored one of the best i have seen away as well...Wycombe i think?

Anyhow i went to Wolves earlier in the season where we hammered them in every department and got beat.
Things have a habit of leveling out during a season so today was our day.
Very welcome three points.

Very true that lee. Although I think we're owed a couple of snarky wins for that performance at Wolves!

Daylight robbery that result, but 3 very welcome points needed! That Smith looks half decent as well! Shit weather!

On that basis, you could arguably include Parkin. Not that I'd want his name mentioned in such company.

As soon as that final whistle went I thought, Wolves.

That result does paper over the cracks, we are a team in bits at the moment and Ward is crumbling before my eyes. I noticed him making errors at the Walsall game and these have just increased game by game.

Smith put in a real shift and for a big man has pretty quick feet.

How very dare you!

Parkin only ever played for Swindon.

Yes.

So he did nothing else of note. :)

Bit unfair to include Caton he was a top prospect and looking good until his car accident and injury

Andy Caton was fucking horseshit.

A debut goal as a young pup seemed to earn him a reputation as some sort of rising superstar. Baffling.

The same as Miles Storey. Scored a goal or two and people think he is the answer to all our problems.

Are the goals online anywhere yet?

Wonderful first game.  Only time I've ever watched a town debut where everyone there must have known he would be great for us.

Today's game already summed up by others.  Daylight robbery but who cares.

How the fuck did we win that ??

How the fuck did we win that ?

That IS all....

Heard your tweet/text on the radio flashster

3-1, to the Englishmen.

Blue and amber must have gone into meltdown with at least 10 posts!

Just wish I had it in me to join up but my limited Welsh may be seen as a stumbling block.

Rydych yn gymraeg

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll gogerychwyrndrobwll llantysilio gogogoch, init.

Tref fechan yn Wrecsam.... They will appreciate this  :)

2 very calm finishes from Smith...

Let's hope he isn't the next Elliot Benyon.

Thought Ranger excellent after he came on. Obviously up front scoring and setting up Smith 2nd goal but also some great defensive work from shrews corners. Wonder if he takes any notice of Coopers endless little digs at him in his post match intvs. How come there is never any comments about Ward's ever increasing selection of defensive balls ups from Cooper?

'cause Ward is a model pro, whereas Ranger....

Seems clear Coopers digs don't stem from anything happening on the pitch.

Before we scored the second i said that we'd be lucky to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat.

Our central defenders are a real concern.ward has imploded ,yesterday he was wandering around like he had never played a professional game before and Branco is not as good as everybody was suggesting.The most worrying aspect is that cooper suggests we are ok in this position and signs two strikers ,a left back and is looking at another striker! Football is a results business as we all know and if my job depended on results I would have signed two center backs as a priority and one striker.

I think half the reason Hall and Branco end up looking so shit is down to Ward.

Don't go to the final if we get there a s we will all be happy, you moaning old git

Ignoring the moment where he fell asleep and their bloke nicked the ball off him, I thought Ward looked quite solid defensively yesterday, but was let down by Branco and Reckords complete lack of positioning and awareness.

I could not believe the size of the DRS linos plates - they were like canoes!!!!!

Well time for a little reflection.  We won - as we had our previous two games - despite being outplayed by the opposition.  To me this is a real concern, we are bound to get games where we actually play well and get beat and it is whether the team have the resilience to bounce back from defeats like that - we are not doing it away from home, I fear we may implode.  We have too many players making the wrong decisions, too much giving balls away trying to play a wonder pass when a simple ball will do.  It is ok saying they are young and learning, I can accept that for the first three months of the season but it is getting a bit monotonous now.  Like other posters I am concerned that Ward is going through such a bad spell that it may be terminal, everybody blamed Hall but yesterday Ward was giving away balls on the edge of the area and the weak back pass that Wes got him out of such a deep hole was school boy defending.  And why, oh why, do we have to get everybody back when facing a corner or dangerous free kick, stick Pritch on the half way line and get support up quickly as the ball just keeps coming back.  Sadly we don't seem to have the pace - or zip - of the early season, do we have to wait until it gets drier and warmer to see it again?

Was it just me but did anyone else think that the free kick leading up to their first goal was the least likely free kick given in the history of free kicks?

Agree with all of the above.  Some people have commented that Ward's legs have gone, but yesterday his thinking was too slow hence getting caught on several occasions.  If Cooper is looking towards building for next season, we need at least one Centre Back.  There is no way that Ward has another season in him to play week in week out.  I know McEveley isn't everyone's favourite player, but I don't think anyone can argue that we are so much weaker defensively when he's not playing.

The passing yesterday for large parts of the game was woeful.  Players in space, yet the ball being passed to the one who had 2 or 3 opposition around them.  At one stage in the second half, the crowd were directing who to pass to!


It stemmed from Byrne giving the ball away in midfield for the umpteenth time.  He was exceptionally poor yesterday.

Before the first game of the season at Peterborough, I was really looking forward to seeing how the season would go with us assembling the most technically adept group of midfielders we have had in years. I was more than happy to be patient in the initial few weeks when the obvious attempt to change the style could at times be slow and ponderous. There were some promising early signs such as the second half at Peterborough and first half at QPR that showed when it clicked we could be on to something special. The performance at Wolves is right up with the best I have seen in my 20 years of watching. The second half against Notts County was also excellent.

However, as the season has progressed, we haven't. Our style of play is predictable and teams have found a way to defend against us. Stay deep and narrow. We won't cross it and, at the moment, we don't have the bravery to try something intricate and clever on the 18 yard line to break through the centre of a defence. All of this results in meandering around either our own half or the halfway line, playing safe passes that generally achieve nothing.

I would say, in any sport, the most skilled players have the advantage because they are the most adaptable. To see players of the ability of Mason, Pritchard and Luongo reduced to the predictable is becoming incredibly frustrating. These are some of the players with the widest range of passing in the division. Why don't we use it?

To have a 6 foot 4 striker but not cross the ball, seemingly out of a footballing principle that keeping the ball on the floor is the be all and end all, completely negates the over-riding principle of sport. Use whatever advantages you have to win.

We have spent a lot of time listening to McCrory, Power and Cooper tell us that they are implementing an attractive style of play. I would say that watching five yard passes all the time that achieve nothing is just as boring as watching every ball being smashed up to the head of a centre forward.

We have got the players to mix it up, be unpredictable and cause real problems for any defence but at the moment I just see the ability of our midfield being wasted.

We need a player the other players can gravitate to when its going Pete Tong. We haven't got it. They could be a midfielder or a defender. We haven't got one and nobody looks as though they can do it. Luongo would be the natural for me but he's been pretty shit since he signed full time.

I think it became clear yesterday that we should be prepared for a finish outside the play offs - shame as I had thought that despite the dreadful away form we might just about sneak in due to the competition being less skilful than our present batch. Well done Smith for his goals but his control was way off the beat, looks a handy League 2 striker - Byrne what was he doing.....? Cooper makes it so obvious that he doesn`t want Ranger in the team it`s becoming really annoying especially as he is the most talented player we have....any chance of swapping the Mason and Harley for another couple of Tottenham youths...? Is Barker injured - I presume so as he wasn`t around yesterday -

Yesterday was a bit of a depressing reality check for me -  found it all a bit depressing..... :pint:

Sums it up nicely
And probably the reason it has been a struggle as the season gone on to even turn up and watch

Yeah I find the sideways passing bloody boring as well. When PDC was here the football was exciting to watch even if it wasnt pretty. It was quick and direct and there were plenty of crosses into the box. We never do that now.

Hang on...we're in 8th place and 5 points off the play offs with less than 20 games to go.  Have to admit, I don't really understand the doom & gloom.  We're not world beaters, but we never have been.  We're Swindon.  And by Swindon standards, what we're doing this season is OK.

We also appear not to be in imminent danger of going out of business, which is another plus.  My glass is half full anyway.

So your assessment of Smith being a League 2 striker is based on his 2 goal debut (in League 1) and "off the beat" control (which I didn't see was any worse than anybody elses) in some of the worst conditions we've seen at the County Ground in years.

Glad you're not scouting for us!

I doubt it.

Agreed. We may have been poor yesterday, but isn't one of the signs of a good team managing to win when playing poorly?

The squad is small and a few players may need a break and a kick up the behind (Luongo, Kasim....)...but what are our expectations really? If it is to flirt with the play-offs, that is exactly what we're doing. Reading this thread you'd think we were in Shrewsbury's position.

The thing is we have seen how we can play and people are, quite righty, comparing that to what we have to put up with now.

It is obvious that the style Cooper wants to play - and what most of us want to watch - just isn't working at the moment and hasn't done so for a while now.

We've got ourselves a big lump up front who looks half decent who needs crosses into the box. Tapping it around between midfield and the 18 yard box isn't achieving anything - especially away.

Could do worse than a couple of games with 2 up front and going direct - starting at Walsall, hopefully.

We have some really exciting and talented individual midfielders but we generally play in a slow and ponderous manner. The worst part is it also appears to be the game plan. It's a waste. I simply don't understand why don't want to get the most out of the players but having a real go and trying to bombard teams by any means possible. Short passes, long passes, crosses, shots. Whatever. Let's play with a bit of excitement because the players we have are capable of doing something out of nothing. Right now, we are stifled.

Our form, in terms of results, has been pretty consistent really, so don't get how some are mentioning things that suggest we are going backwards.  We win at home and lose away.  The trick for us this season was whether or not we could pinch a few more results away, and it seems evident that won't happen.  The other trick was to try and hang on to most of our players in this window to ensure we didn't lose a few more at home, and it seems we are on course to achieve that right now, if not slightly adding.

Given we are on half the budget we were last season, to not be far off where we were that season is pretty good going and while in defence we look like schoolboys at times, when we have spells of possession in games it is far more enjoyable to watch than the past 18 years (all of them).

This should be Luongo, he is good enough but his effectiveness seems to be based on who else is in the team . when he gets forward he is a much better player, but when Mason plays, or Pritchard isn't out wide he doesn't seem so effective.

Fucking hell. What a depressing thread. If this is what's it's becoming after a win I dread to think what it would've looked liked had we lost.
How anyone can dismiss Smith's potential after seeing him once and in conditions that were fucking awful, is bizarre. Especially as he scored 2 goals, tracked back countless times and ran his nuts off. Nothing like giving a player a chance, is there? As for Reckord, he met his team mates yesterday just before the game! I would imagine it's a bit difficult to look like a unit at the back when one of you is a complete stranger.
Sure there are concerns, Ward looks ponderous both in mind and action and the constant ball back to him every fucking minute is frustrating. Branco is still learning and I believe he'll come good. More concern to me is our 'talented' midfield. how Pritchard escapes criticism baffles me. He's arguably the most skilled player on the ball but his decision making a lot of the time is shite; too many touches, too long holding the ball, too many dead end runs.
Not a great performance yesterday sure, but getting 3 points is name of the game and we did that.

If you could pick a midfield hub for this league, you might go Jon Douglas/Alan McCormack so it's not exactly surprising to see Brentford top.

These players cost though and we don't have the money, so have to develop our own...I think the strategy atm is right however, Ward is the man tasked to provide leadership on the pitch, and he's doing OK in a difficult role.

All our young players will be better next season for the experiences of this season, and if we can pick up the dozen points needed next season could be interesting.

Given our Brighton link, I wonder what Gordon Greer is up to next season? DV do you think he could do us a job?

OUR young players yes
Doubt we will see the 3 spurs players back here next season and barring anytime injured those 3 have featured heavily.


Pity we couldnt have kept one of them
One thing we are deffo missing is a midfielder with a bit of bite

IF Brentford go up this year not sure either of those will feature for them next season

2 mins of highlights are up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHdkZ3kzv9o

After Wes saves Wards bacon nobody says a thing to each other - would have expected Wes or someone to berate him at least

The fact that Ward appears to make no effort to apologise to or thank Wes for saving him from his balls up is a little odd.

That free kick must've been way over 90 mph with the wind behind it, totally smashed it.

So you have ignored completely the point early on where he tackled Luongo & then passed it neatly to a Shrewsbury player or In fact the several other occasions where everyone else appeared to see him giving the ball away.

There was also a point late on where Branco had closed down their centre forward wide on the right & Ward ambled back completely ignoring the other Shrewsbury player totally unmarked in the middle of our box. At times I wondered if he was concussed as he seemed to be wandering around aimlessly.

He had a very poor game & if his name was Hall you would have slaughtered him.

Sitting in the DRS there appeared to be a certain amount of dissent each time Ward touched the ball for a few minutes after the complete cock-up, were people actually booing?

The boos were very clearly from the Town End the first time he was on the ball after the fuck up. Surprised that you have only just mentioned it.

Completely out of order, Ward is not a ball playing centre half and never has been, he is being asked to play a role that does not suit him and is struggling big time. Not helped by having no cover in front of him and being paired with rubbish. Branco is a comedy defender.

We were shite yesterday but nice to get a battering and take 3 points.

I enjoyed Cooper's comment on the new left back, 'the fans asked for a defender and we have got one'. Yeah, a fucking central defender Cooper, not some kid at left back.

I thought the booing was more the fact that we seemed incapable of playing the ball forwards at times rather than specifically at Ward. It must be said Ward's form has degenerated as the season has gone on. Its a shame as we were looking to him to provide experience and leadership and he's provided neither recently.
Yesterday was the worst I've seen Town at home under Cooper. It was a Malpas type performance.
I must admit I'd have no problems if the Spurs loanees went back. Mason is the pick for me but as someone else said a while ago is made of Barry Corr. Pritchard has looked pretty shit recently and Hertha's comments previously in this thread sum it up well. Hall just ain't got it at the moment.
It wouldn't take much for this team to go on a pretty impressive losing streak. If we got our away form together then we could make the play offs.
Overall, we've exceeded where I thought we'd be but worryingly we haven't put in a decent performance for a while and some of the players have been very poor recently going through the motions.

 

It's the basic passing and finding a man that is infuriating fans about ward at the moment. We aren't asking for pirlo it's the constant giving the ball away.

Would agree with that, wanted us to be up there fighting for promotion - and yes I know that half a dozen good results would still see us up there - but deep down a decent solid season was the best we could hope for given the circumstances we found ourselves in.  What worries me is the lack of desire out on the pitch at times, this is something that the coaching team should be able to address, but they don't seem capable of doing so.

Player coach might be a winner.

Yes, Ward is a year older but was solid for us last season. No doubt training and the backroom staff are immensely different - lower standards.

People wrote off Ward when he originally signed for us so could it just be that he's reverted to type? I've felt throughout the season that Ward has been the weakest link in our back four and it's rare to see him providing guidance to the young players around him. Unfortunately, it's extremely difficult to find an experienced central defender who is a) still in his prime b) has the ability to focus on his game whilst guiding his inexperienced teammates c) can pass a ball well enough to not give away possession in crucial areas. If we could find a player like that, there's fuck all chance we can afford him.

In the absence of a player like that and the finances to go out and get one halfway through the season, we can only hope that we unearth a Douglas/McCormack/Bullock type to provide cover in front of the back four and stop us being bullied so easily.

....or we'd find them and sell them to Brighton ;)

Pritchard should play wide.Waste of time relying on Thompson to deliver quality balls into the box.he's a defender and nothing else should be banned from crossing the halfway line!Clueless in the opposition half.All this Pritchard "diamond thing" is pointless, he has pace, trickery and a superb delivery-winger!

Agreed with most this post but disagree with the Reckford point....that's Coopers fault for shoving him straight in....PDC fucked up in the JPT and Pox away doing this....rarely works for defenders and midfielders. Need a little bit of time to settle in.

Ward is struggling to find any form and mistakes just add to his lack of confidence.

I am a little concerned but have been shouted down on here for saying the play offs is fantasyland.....we deserved nothing but draws v Coventry and Peterborough and fuck all against Stevenage, Pikeys,Blades and Shrews. We can only get away with it for so long....I hope the form is reversed and we turn up on Tuesday or we could get dicked....I'm going, so hope not.

52 to 54 points and running round Wembley with the JPT would be a right result IMO.

It seems as if Ward is the main culprit for the slow and ponderous build up as all our pissing about at the back seems to go through him.

All Shrewsbury were doing was hitting long balls down the flanks and having players willing to chase after them.

Worked a treat for them with our useless defending. But it was done at speed which is something we never seem to do.

Whatever it is we are supposed to be doing sure as hell ain't working - so try something else

I share the same outlook.

As I see it we're getting through this year.  Play offs unlikley, going down more unlikely. 

At the end of the season we lose a bunch of the PDC big contract players going as well as loan players but more decent ones potentially coming in.  During the summer we will still have the core of a decent team (hopefully) which can be added to to have a real tilt at playoffs next year and a playing philosophy ingrained.  Hopefully a plan b can be sorted out for away games.

In the mean time, chill out.

12-14 points from the next 19 games? That's a bit conservative isn't it?

I was going to post something similar.  Given we have won more than we have lost this season so far, suggesting (at this point) that we would only 4 more and lose 15 seems a tad irrational.  More likely we will end up around the 65-68 points mark I think.

And DV, leave the past behind won't you, they have both gone.  To be fair to the current coaching team, we completely changed style of play in one pre season, that is in itself impressive.  The squad is full of inexperience, so we'll have shit and good games in equal measure, but whether it works or not, the one thing the coaches have done is impart the style on the team.  When it does work, we look pretty impressive for this level, when it doesn't we look limp.

I refer us all back to the budget.  Half of the previous season.  To be beyond complete obscurity right now, and with a chance of a trip to Wembley, is in my mind pretty good going.

I disagree with Pritchard being the answer to getting width. He goes missing there. His legs go faster than everyone else's because they are shorter, not because he has pace!

He put in a lot of hard work yesterday mind.

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/StatAttack/AveragePointsPerGame.asp?Season=2013-2014

That puts us on course for 68 points as you suggest which will leave us well clear of relegation and just short of the play-offs. In fact, only 6 points short of last years total

For me,he is the best we have for going past players

I think the booing was for the embarrassingly shit Ryan Harley!? or the fact that we went sideways, then backwards, then sideways, then backwards.

Echo what's been said before. The best team got beat yesterday.

Its good to have different opinions, maybe I just remember when it doesn't come off. I'll watch carefully next home game, but yesterday I remember a few occasions when he bet his man but couldn't get away from him, so had to check back and beat him again.

Luckily, we have Oldham next at home, which should garner another 3 points.

But we must be running out of the lower placed teams to play at home and as we seem unable to even grab a point from whatever shit team we play away the sooner we hit 52 points the better

Oldham/Colchester/Crawley/Sheff Utd and Bradford all below us as are Franchise at the moment, may not be there by the time we come to play them

Wolves/Preston/Brentford and Rovrum might prove a bit trickier getting anything from

Waste of time listing the away matches  :cry:

That will be the Oldham side which came from 4-0 down to beat Peterborough 5-4 yesterday?

Laugh all you want but I fancy us to be competitive on Tuesday. Whether that will gain us a point is another matter.

Yeah, but away from home they are almost as hopeless as ourselves.

Fuck, even Stevenage's away form is better than ours!

As I pointed out a while ago, these are the clutch games, assuming next to nothing on the road, and the possibility of nothing v the high fliers...Shrews was one of these now ticked off....Oldham aren't great away...but ColU ansd Bradford are those annoying sort of difficult to break down sides who draw a lot....Crawley have picked up recently and Sheff U are desperate, and I can't really see them going down...easy to see us getting say 7 points from that lot, but we'll pick up the odd point on the road, so 49/50 points should be doable even with our form tailing off.

So Reg, just to be clear, you expect us to win 3 and lose 16 of our remaining games? 

You say "with our form tailing off", as form is usually measured in points, I'd hazard a guess that it is fairly stable - points at home, very few away.  All that fluctuates is where the home and awat games fall.

I read that as "(even) with our form tailing off", as in worst case. If right, it was quite positive for Reg!

 A worst case scenario might be something like win 1 draw 7 lose 11....that would be losing 7 of 9 away games....4 home defeats to Brentford, Wolves, Preston and Rotherham...then disappointing draws against ColU, Bradford, Sheff U, Crawley, and MKD....would still give 50 points.

They were only 3-0 down but yeah I get your point.

Worse case scenario is to lose every game. The sooner we get to 50 odd points the better but I'm still confident that we'll easily exceed this points tally despite a few not so good performances recently. Football isn't played on paper so think we'll probably win a few we don't necessarily expect to and perhaps not gain the all the wins we expect to. Pretty much like the season so far then!

To get relegated from where we are now, we would need to average ½ point/game between now and the end of the season.  To put that in perspective, that's half the tally of Sheffield United who are in the drop zone having averaged 1 point/game so far.  And the only team to have shown that kind of form over a whole season at our level (since 3 points/win was introduced) was Cambridge United who managed just 21 points in 1984/85.

We will not even come close to going down.

I totally agree Ardiles but don't tell Reg, he's enjoying himself.

Dont get the negativity about playing the better sides at home.At Wolves,Brentford and Rotherham we outplayed them,Brentford at times and the other 2 throughout.I think its fair to say we play better against the so-called better sides generally speaking.

Pitches will hopefully start getting better again soon, don't think it's a coincidence our performances have dropped with the heavier pitches. They don't favour our game.

You mean like we did against Orient & Walsall at home ;)
Even Peterborough & Coventry where we won but didn't play that well.

Lets be honest, our league position reflects the fact that we have been able to beat all of the average/poor teams at home.

That said I do think we will have enough points to end up mid table by the end of the season, which considering the reduction in our playing budget would be a reasonable return

I'll reiterate my prediction from the Summer: mid-table & JPT winners (I'd settle for that and don't think I'll be far wrong).

Fucking rainpocalypse(tm) hasn't helped.

Someone else mentioned the free kick for their goal being soft, thought it was a crap decision and never a foul. Great strike from their bloke mind. Also sounded like a few in the Townend were booing Ward each time he got the ball after his cock up, didn't last long and don't expect anything less from some of the brain dead in there.

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Good post, agree with everything there.

I think someone's mentioned it, but what with the CG being a wind tunnel anyway, the gusts at the match must have been approaching 60/70mph+ (if the wind was anything like elsewhere- I wasn't there so can't say). The Shrewsbury free kick would have beaten any keeper in those conditions, not because it was necessarily a good free kick, but even if you just tickle it you've got a ball approaching 100+mph. Any keeper is going to struggle with that.

Someone like Roberto Carlos would probably break the fucking sound barrier in conditions like yesterday.