Thetownend.com

A tough and long away day on a Tuesday has defeat written all over it

Like Mansfield.

Actually I had a weird feeling about Mansfield and got that prediction right! I feel less confident in this.

Why is there no games?

town to win 4-2
austin with one off the bench

Working on warrington so will decide on the day whether to go to this. Weather is meant to be ok but cold so probably will.

Not one off the wrist?

So what does Flynn do tomorrow? Stick with Saturday’s formation/line up or revert to 2 up top with Charlie?

Start exactly the same as Saturday.
Look to bring Austin on in the second half. Maybe not as late at 88mina though.

So what does Flynn do tomorrow? Stick with Saturday’s formation/line up or revert to 2 up top with Charlie?

Swindon is a large town in Wiltshire; at the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located in South West England, it lies on the M4 corridor, 71 miles to the west of London, 36 miles to the east of Bristol, and about 195 miles south east of Accrington by the M6 and the M5 (or 154 miles as the crow flies, if you can catch a passing crow). The Cotswolds lie just to the town's north and the North Wessex Downs to its south.

The Anglo-Saxon settlement sat in a defensible position on top of a limestone hill. It’s referred to in the 1086 Domesday Book as “Suindune”, believed to be derived from the Old English words "swine" and "dun" meaning "pig hill",or possibly “Sweyn's hill”, Sweyn being a Scandinavian name akin to Sven, and the English word “swain”, meaning a young man.

The arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1843 transformed Swindon from a small market town of 2500 into a thriving railway hub that would become one of the largest railway engineering complexes in the world at its peak. This brought with it pioneering amenities such as the UK's first lending library and a 'cradle-to-grave' healthcare centre that was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. Swindon's railway heritage can be primarily seen today with the grade II listed Railway Village and Steam Museum. The McArthurGlen Designer Outlet is housed in the renovated former works, and the Brunel Shopping Centre is one of several places in Swindon that bears the name of the famous engineer generally acknowledged with bringing the railways to the town (hello, Isombard!)

Notable Swindonians past and presnt include footballer Dean Ashton, Julian Clary, Diana Dors, Mark Lamarr, Justin Hayward (lead singer of the Moody Blues), Gilbert O’Sullivan and Billie Piper; among the places that the town’s twinned with is Disney World in the good old US of A; and Oxford Brookes University has had a campus in Swindon since 1999. The campus offers degrees in Adult Nursing and Operating Department Practice …..

Second Starter for Ten; Celta Vigo, in their Centenary Year, decided that they needed an experienced, elite coach; they found and appointed their man ……. he had a task on his hands (they only avoided greasypoling last season by winning their final game away to Barcelona), and this season has been …….. erm ………… “disappointing”; they’re 18th (of 20) and their record to date is P14 W1 D5 L8 GF14 (third lowest) GA24 for 8 points; they sold their star player Gabri Veiga) to Al-Ahli in Saudi, lost to Osasuna, Real, Mallorca, Las Palmas and Barca (squandering a 2-0 lead to three goals in eight minutes) …… most recently they played Getafe at home; Getafe had a player sent off, but all Celta could manage was a Desmond …. at the final whistle the Celta Elite Manager blamed Getafe’s “cynical/clever game-management tactics”, ranting at Getafe’s defender Damian Suarez, “You’re going to destroy football like this”

Oh, and they're being picked on by Referees, VAR and God, but not necessarily in that order

Name the Elite Manager …………..

Swindon Town Football Club was founded by Reverend William Pitt of Liddington in 1879 as Swindon AFC: the club became ”Spartans” the next year, before finally settling on the name Swindon Town in 1883. They turned professional in 1894 as a founding member of the Southern League, later also entering the Western League between 1897 and 1902. The club was crowned Western League champion in 1898–99 and Southern League champion in 1910–11 and 1913–14, before being elected into the Football League in 1920. It remained in the third tier for 43 years, finally securing promotion into the Second Division in 1962–63, where it remained for just two seasons. The team lifted the League Cup after beating Arsenal in the 1969 final, and went on to secure promotion at the end of the 1968–69 season with the help of talismanic winger Don Rogers. Relegated again in 1973–74, the club dropped into the fourth tier for the first time at the end of the 1981–82 season.

Swindon won the Fourth Division title in 1985–86 and secured a second successive promotion the following season under the stewardship of Lou Macari. They went on to claim victory in the 1990 Second Division play-off final, but were denied promotion into the top-flight after admitting to breaching Football League regulations. Glenn Hoddle coached the team to victory in the 1993 play-off final (beating Tranmere 5-4 on aggregate, and Leicester 4-3 in the Final) to finally secure a place in the top-flight for the first time in the club's history. However they were relegated out of the Premier League at the end of the 1993–94 season (with 5 wins, a -53 GD, and ten points behind 23rd place Oldham and 13 points plus 31 goals off safety), and dropped into the third tier with a second consecutive relegation. Promoted again as champions to avoid an FA expulsion and a hat-trick of relegations in 1995–96, they remained in the second tier for four seasons, until relegation in 1999/2000

Final Starter for Ten; Kevin Keegan signed for Hamburg SV in 1977, ended the season with 12 goals, and won European Player of the Year - now the Ballon d’Or; the season after, they won their first Bundesliga title in 19 years, he got 11 goals in the last 12 games, and the fans christened him “Machtig Maus” (“Mighty Mouse”) ……… but what happened pre-season in 1977/78 that nearly kyboshed it all?

They won Covid-hit League Two in 2019/20 on PPG, but with all manner of issues going on they lasted just the one season before Greasypoling again; they changed managers and CEOs like most people change their undies, getting a suspended points deduction for late-payment of wages …. despite all that, they finished 6th in 2020/21 under Ben Garner as Manager, losing to Portly Virtue on pens in the play-offs. Garner left Swindon to join Charlton Athletic in June 2022, being replaced by his former assistant Scott Lindsey, who spent half a season in the role before moving to Crawley Town; on 31 January 2023, Jody Morris was appointed manager; he was sacked on 1 May 2023 after just four wins from 18 games. The side finished the season in 10th place, and on 8 May 2023, Michael Flynn was appointed team manager

12 left in the summer, and six came in - most notably, Tariq Uwakwe, who played for us on loan from Chelsea in 2020/21 (scoring a hat-trick in the Trophy against Leeds u21s) before moving to Crewe ……… they also signed Irish DMF Liam Kinsella from Walsall, Vegan Greenpeace’s CB Udoka Godwin-Malife, the Cherries’ RB Brooklyn Genesini and a couple of free agents ……… Low point of the season so far has to be their home defeat 7-4 by non-league Aldershot in the first Round of the FA Cup three weeks ago; they’re also out of the EFL Cup, 4-1 at Posh, and finished bottom of their Trophy group with nul points (allows them to concentrate on the League, though) …… in the League they’re 10th, with a record of P19 W7 D6 L6 GF39 GA33 for 27 points , three places and two points behind us ……… 39 scored (so have Crewe and Notts Co) is second best, just behind Stockport and Wrexham with 40 each, but only three sides have conceded more than 33 …………. they started well - of their first nine games they won five and drew four, but of the last ten they’ve won two, drawn two and lost six, most recently drawing at Harrogate and ending Mansfield’s unbeaten run on Saturday gone (Blackpool ended Pompey’s run at the same time) …. in the space of four games early doors they scored five goals twice and six goals once ……… head-to-head is 3 wins for us, four for them and one draw, although we’ve won three of the last four played, and apart from May 2018 we haven’t lost to them since 2012 …..

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7,45pm on Tuesday 28th November ……….. their away League form, by the way, is W1 (at Vegan Greenpeace on 15th August) D5 and L4 (16 scored, 21 conceded) ……….and I haven’t mentioned their Famous Trollope - but I will next time we meet them ………… and the kid who wanted to manage Raith Rovers was ex Prime Minister Gordon Brown ………. and the Elite Manager at Celta Vigo this season having a real ‘mare is the well-paid Rafa Benitez ……… and Kevin Keegan nearly blew it early doors at HSV (because, it’s said, he couldn’t settle) by punching an opponent in a pre-season friendly and getting an 8-week ban!

Jesus, even I couldn’t be arsed to read that.

There isnt a massive amount about the upcoming game TBH.

That reminds me. Has anyone heard from bamboo recently?

That reminds me. Has anyone heard from bamboo recently?

I was wondering the same also who’s Legends Lounge love child who’s suddenly appeared🤔

I'd assumed literally what the name is, as in son of.

Then he shouldn’t have signed a new contract. Presume he knows any constraints and he’s happy to work within them.

Should keep Wobbly Bob & Dukey happy :D

Could do with some mulled beer if that is the case.

Only 1 win in last 6. Get in.

Come on Harchester.

Keeper gets booked. deserved lead.

Not really sure what the booking is for, are you not allowed to bounce on the line now?

Not really sure what the booking is for, are you not allowed to bounce on the line now?

I am liking Kokolo I think he will be a great asset when hes fully fit.

I wonder where this leaves Uwakwe in January

On the showing in the last few games Uwakwe would only get on the bench TBH if both are fit, Uwakwe says his favoured position is attacking central midfield though and not wide left.

3 bookings so far in an very sedate match

I wish Hutton played crosses like that more often, low and hard, the defence cant deal with them.

Brilliant play. Shows the importance of Hutton with that cross, good finish. Fantastic from UGM too. Get in

Was screaming at my laptop for a cross like that against Gillingham

Some of the most obvious dissent imaginable from the Accrington LB there, daft as anything. Accrington's heads have gone a bit

Want to enjoy this, but the Swindon fan in me is fearing for a red card

As much as Kinsella freed Khan up on Saturday, McEachran looks a different player tonight, much further forward.

Kokolo and the left side of the town side look like they're allowed to attack this game. They looked very restrained vs mansfield

Decent game. We're the better side, maybe not two goals better but we've been clinical. Ref a funny sort, everything a yellow for 30 minutes and then seemingly decided he'd given enough and let a lot go all of a sudden. We look dynamite going forward but a little mistake prone at the back.

Minturn with his trademark bad touch but got away with it in the end, poor by Minturn who has been very good so far.

i think mintrun does too much with the ball he does well turning a player making space but then trues to turn another instead of going for the simple pas
it will come though but his touch inst the problem just too long on the ball

accies have created more chances but garbage final ball where town havw been more clincinal

I've shared the impression that we've looked a shade more incisive than Accrington and are worthy of a lead at least.

However its 15 shots to 4 and we've scored 2 from 2 on target of which one was Kemp's pen.

Leads are never nailed on but that kind of shot discrepancy ain't too reassuring.

Let's hope they don't suffer a sending off or that WILL be curtains.  For us.

They've been shooting from a long way out to be fair. There was one cracking save from Mahoney but not much else. I'd imagine we're ahead on xG, if anyone is counting.

Score draw tonight? Kemp due a goal! Hasn't scored for 2 games!

I like the way we are mixing up the booting out at times in recent games.

Is that the measured, middle class version of “get it forward”?

Is that the measured, middle class version of “get it forward”?

Accrington manager Coleman sent off at half time?

it's our night isn't it

Camera zoomed in on him at HT, he waited at the tunnel for the ref and can only assume he said something unfavourable to the ref!

So not just a chage from the FA as a failure to control his team but failure to control himself too!

it's our night isn't it

700k minimum please Wrexham

Playing some unbelievably good stuff here

In their half, definately, in our defence a bit less!

As I said in the transfer thread - Khan has the lot. A championship player in the making. Don't care about his age.

Handball against... Kinsella?

FBT I think.

Would certainly like to see another angle on that.

It is indeed our day.

Was hoping the third goal might kill the game but Accrington are absolutely still going for it.

Well no one can say this is not an entertaining game today.

It's pure League Two. Two flawed teams with a bit about them going forward and a random decision generator in black. Chaos all over the place.

Number 61, crikey. I thought 55 was taking the piss.

Their keeper is an emergency loan as well, so losing him to injury is shocking luck.

Presumably conceding the late goal means we're tired again :D

Bringing on the gangsters son might not have been the best move in hindsight.

i am not sure he can be blamed for Hutton ignoring every ounce of his defensive duties.  You get that type of shambles when you play a game with only one player who actually seems to like defending, in Minturn.  The rest are all ball players who happen to have the word Back in their position.

Still. Chaz comes on and scores the winner

Minturn seems to be turning into more of the same, did a lot of overplaying on the ball in that game. FBT did more of the punting it clear second half.

I am not suggesting that I think Minturn is a good defender, not yet, he is developing, but he does seem to like most of the things a defender has to do.

Punting it isn't really where I think the issue lies.  It's the grunt and grind stuff - watching runs, scanning, tugging at a players shirt to keep them close, blocking, organising each other into a good shape and so on.  Brewitt is a bit Minturn like - both like the one on one stuff of defending, but neither are much kop at the other stuff I mentioned.  They at least can handle the one one though I guess.  If we had won that 4-2, I bet you every single one of the back five/three would have thought they had a good game.  They should be angry that they conceded one, let alone three and nearly six of seven.

Hold on everyone, we've spoken before about giving the youngsters a chance, when 4-0 up on 90 minutes is the time to do it so don't blame Flynn, everyone switched off and thought they had it won.

Hahahaha fucking Swindon , couldn't make it up

Hold on everyone, we've spoken before about giving the youngsters a chance, when 4-0 up on 90 minutes is the time to do it so don't blame Flynn, everyone switched off and thought they had it won.

Hahahaha fucking Swindon , couldn't make it up

I think Hutton’s attacking output outweighs his defensive liabilities, but not clearing the ball at 4-2 was fucking criminal. How on earth is he so naive defensively?

Fuck it, bet no one predicted 6 points from Mansfield and Accrington this time last week. Enjoy it.

Fuck it, bet no one predicted 6 points from Mansfield and Accrington this time last week. Enjoy it.

Wonder if Flynn took another dig about us scoring in injury time so everything being fine!

Hold on everyone, we've spoken before about giving the youngsters a chance, when 4-0 up on 90 minutes is the time to do it so don't blame Flynn, everyone switched off and thought they had it won.

Hahahaha fucking Swindon , couldn't make it up

Still. Chaz comes on and scores the winner

Salford took 316 to Stockport  :eek:

Feels like a loss right now. I'm a bit gutted really. Hopefully tomorrow I'll see it as a good 3 points.

Salford took 316 to Stockport  :eek:

https://twitter.com/nocontextfm1/status/1729618582126866479

It turns out we didn't have the most embarrassing injury time in the football league tonight

I mean, they had taken well over 20 shots, our GK was going to be the man of the match and saved a penalty, but I guess that isn't seeing it coming.  Also, not letting something happen again when it has happened again and again.......

The only good thing about occasionally working in obscure northern outposts is you get to see a few bizarre Town games, tonight will certainly go down as one of the strangest.

The first 90 was typical of many games this season, a massive threat going forwards and a massive threat to ourselves defensively with the standard mix of incompetent match officials thrown in. Luckily our forward players were on form and there’s weren’t and that led to a relatively comfortable scoreline. In hindsight the penalty save was crucial, if we’d capitulated any earlier we’d have probably lost that.

Everything post 90 minutes though was beyond farcical. We know this lot are mentally weak and fragile, we saw it last season and same again this season. You literally can’t take any risks as they are capable of folding like a deck of cards. If the game had lasted another 5 minutes we’d have lost that, I’ve never been to a game where we’ve had such a big lead with such a short time left and felt we were lucky to hold on.

Ultimately this is why we won’t get any success with this group of players and come January if we lose Kemp, Young and anyone else it doesn’t bear thinking about.

I’m getting massive Taylor Curran vibes with Sonny Hart, he should be nowhere near getting on the pitch currently.

On a final note, again without wishing to go all boardroom, the 2 free drinks was a nice touch, makes a change to see somewhere that actually cares about supporters rather than just claiming they do.

Now to warm up…

Just on the Sonny Hart convo, isn't he highly rated? I had my first view of him in the league trophy came and was very impressed.

Need some context with this surely just incase people think we got battered. I remember seeing the shot count at half time and thinking to myself if you hadn't of watched the game you would think we were lucky to be ahead. Accrington were the definition of shoot on site and mostly 30+ yards.

We know we have weaknesses at the back and that more than once this season a flurry of goals have happened within minutes of each other. Notts county, Wrexham and aldershot. That is naivity that needs to be resolved.

A brilliant win all things considered and 90 minutes of a well deserved win. 👏

I will certainly take the win!

They had a one on one that Mahoney did well to save, they had a saved penalty and a shot cleared off the line, so a good case for six.  My point is that Accrington scoring was certainly not beyond any realm of possibility.  To claim it was out of the blue is just silly, Flynn is just trying to focus on the final 9 miinutes by saying so.  I'd hope that he thinks very differently in private.

Flynn can be as angry as he likes but a long look in the mirror is required after his decision to bring the kids on.

We don’t have a game for 10 days! Minturn could have pushed out an extra 10 minutes.

Brilliant work nearly undone. Perhaps he’s playing 4D chess and it was a message to Clem about what happens when we use our bench… or not!

I refuse to blame him for bringing on kids when 4-0 up in injury time. If not then, then when.

OK maybe they aren't ready, we got away with it. Now we know.

I refuse to blame him for bringing on kids when 4-0 up in injury time. If not then, then when.

OK maybe they aren't ready, we got away with it. Now we know.

But what was the upside of bringing them on. Minturn is 19, no game at the weekend, so why bring him off? Young, fine, replaced by the experienced Austin. Why replace McCreachan?

There was no point in it at all.

Everyone has seen this team's been missing a strong solid centre half.
A leader who would offer stability at the back. The guy who went off to Aberdeen could have be the piece of the puzzle we have missed all season.
Trouble is.. he is not here and this team will be broken up in a months time.
Such a shame.

Great game to watch but ultimately conformation, if needed, that we are not getting promoted this season.

If you can’t bring a couple youngsters on at 4-0 up in the 90th minute then when can you? Theyre not blameless in the near collapse but it’s harsh to blame it all on them, Accy were creating a decent amount of chances before they came on, they just happened to freakishly take 3 of them in injury time, horrendous game management though either way.

To be fair he probably thought we were home and dry, we were 4-0 up after 90 mins!

Don't think anyone's blaming the youngsters. For me it's the fact that he took the wrong players off

I think for the players coming on (Hart a CB and Brown a CM) then the right players on paper came off. FBT and UGM are the more experienced of the CB’s and should have been able to guide Hart through those final minutes, Kinsella and Khan are the more experienced and combative of the midfielders so should have been able to do the same with Brown. So I think Minturn and McEachran were the right subs on paper if you wanted to bring those two kids on, had more than enough experience on the pitch to not capitulate like we did.

Granted that CB and CM are key areas to change but at 4-0 up on 90 minutes, you’d like to have thought it wouldn’t have resulted in that collapse.

Something else about last night - how was their 3rd not offside??

Good point and also what was Andrew on about on our 4th. Was expecting it to be ruled out

Flynn can be as angry as he likes but a long look in the mirror is required after his decision to bring the kids on.

We don’t have a game for 10 days! Minturn could have pushed out an extra 10 minutes.

Brilliant work nearly undone. Perhaps he’s playing 4D chess and it was a message to Clem about what happens when we use our bench… or not!

Apparently the lino briefly put his flag up and put it down again...

These academy kids of ours not anywhere near ready for first team football and need National League experience first as Minturn needed.

They average under 2,000 attendance but can still afford 9 more professionals than us. Do they just manage wage budgets better than we do?

Minturn with someone next to him to develop him would be beneficial for us too in the long run. At 19 to cope with some of the attackers he’s had to face there’s something about him. A wise head to talk him through the first two full years of his career and we’ve got an asset there with a lot of resale value or talent for us to have for a long time. Would make an experienced head an investment that will make us money in the long run.

Something else about last night - how was their 3rd not offside??

Having done a quick freeze frame on Youtube, I think UGM JUST about plays him onside - it's pretty tight though. I also wondered if Austin was offside for our 4th, but again, think he's level. The linesman started to flag, but I think that was for Kemp being fouled and the ref played advantage when he saw Hutton could get to the ball.

This.

I cant help feeling that Flynn is bringing them on as a point to prove to Clem that our squad isnt strong enough, highlighting how we are featherlight in terms of numbers. Accrington have 32 members in their squad plus a 4 scholars/1st year pro.

We have a squad of 23 plus about 4 regular scholars that are used. That squad of 23 included Dworzak, Benn Ward and the perma-injured Devine.

They average under 2,000 attendance but can still afford 9 more professionals than us. Do they just manage wage budgets better than we do?

Its so out its comical and I'm sick of fans trying to gaslight people in to thinking its normal and that our gates don't matter.

Accrington owner said on twitter that they lost £600k last season so there's a few players wages in that.

Andrew Hawes said "Tis Only a Flesh Wound" at one point, probably referring to the Black Knight in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".  Therefore, I think we should blame Hawsey for the very silly ending.

Sorry Mr Hawes now is NOT the time to try out the young lads off the bench.

so about the same as it's claimed we'll lose.

here's a thing, power was in charge for about 8 years. The club amassed about 4m in external debts. 2.4m debenture a side issue.

so how are we still losing the same now? inflation, but that's offset by crowds being bigger. maintenance definitely - some relief in rent after ground purchase .

probably one for the offer thread tbf

And why didn't Genesini come on? Again. He's never gonna get a chance is he?