Thetownend.com

I see everyone is excited about Saturday  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

No idea, won't be there.

Swindon 1-1 Carlisle att: 6,301 (190 of them)

It's only Thursday to be fair... :hmmm:

2-0.....lad on load from Posh and the German Scouser with the goals...

2-1 defeat with Kilkenny scoring in front of 6,845 (441 Jocks).

We used to be discussing for up to a week before games in the past, to be fair.

This is indeed true, lately though it seems to be the day before games at the earliest.

I'll have hopefully arrived in time to stick ifollow on for saturday.

Feeling a renewed sense of optimism. 2-1 town 6,974 crowd.

Mike Williamson just been announced as their gaffer. The old favourite 'new manager bounce' may be on show on Saturday.

As predicted a couple of days ago.


MKD fans seem glad to be rid of him.

I will never forget Wellens being appointed the day before we played Carlisle a few years back, we all hoped for the new manager bounce.

It ended up with a 4-0 home defeat to Saturdays opponents. Sometimes its just too quick to make a difference.

Carlisle, like us, have only a single win this season but they sit 3rd bottom with the other 5 games ending as defeats. They have had 10 defeats in the last 11 (8 defeats in 9 in the league) games.

He's hardly had a surging start with MK this year.

Hope we go with an unchanged side, and that Cox is fit. I wonder how much Barden is breathing down Bycroft's neck. Bycroft hasn't made a mistake for a few games now, but it's still possible that Barden is impressing in training.

We seem to be the only club that never gets this so called 'new manager bounce'.

I'm dreading every upcoming game slightly less than I used to, so that is something.

Does anyone know if the Nationwide employee ticket discount is still a thing?

Yes it is. Max 2 adults and 2 kids. Just pop to the club shop with your nationwide pass and they’ll add the discount…can take a few hours to be added.

You used to be able to get as many as you want by just buying 2 at a time but they have identified that and clamped down

Cool, cheers.

Williamson likes to play some suicidal football out from the back.

His issue is, he has some of the best ball playing defenders at Franchise, and they are still vulnerable.

Will be interesting if he's as persistent at Carlisle. With how we pressed last week, let's hope they play that way.

Swindon 2 Carlisle 0 att: 6,780 (350 Cumbrians)

Swindon 2 Carlisle 1 att: 7,472 (295)

5-0 town att 7234

3 : 0 home win, attendance 7,348.

1-1

3-1 town, attendance 7,208, 248 from Carlisle.

Swindon 2-0 Carlisle, 7,068 (213 from Carlisle)

I’ve jinxed it because I’ve told my Carlisle supporter friend we’ll thrash them. Re new manager bounce - they beat us 3-0 in wellens first game, maybe we can do the same for Williams? * clutching at straws

4-0  ;)

Could the game be abandoned?  :hmmm:
Thundery showers forecast tomorrow afternoon.

*Pedantic bastard alert*Garner's first game was a 3-1 win at Scunthorpe. Carlisle was his first home game and it finished 2-1 to them... not 3-0

Assume he’s getting Garner mixed up with Wellens

Oops yeah - changed it!

Swindon 1 Carlisle 2 - Attendance 6,666 (495 away fans)

Carlisle beat us 4-0 in Wellens 1st game, I was there, first game back for quite a few years. Tempted to go tomorrow  :hmmm:

Given me flash backs to 2016 at home to Bristol Rovers.  :badmood:

It was an early kick off. If it had stayed as a 3pm kick off it probably wouldn't of been abandoned. :doh:

Swindon 2-1 Carlisle, 7001 (200 Cumbrians).

 I was in Cyprus that day. Week later and I will be again.

Carlisle win. Go for, say, 2-0. Both goals in the first half

2-0 win for the town.
The promotion push starts here.

2-0 win, 6752 in attendance with 242 from Carlisle

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYAAApvWkAAQDFv?format=jpg&name=large)

Unchanged.

Feel we are going to play well today. 3-1 town after going behind.

Fjortoft junior on co comms today, hes very good at his analysis.

Paul Glatzel still sporting the Terry Butcher/Steve Foster headband to protect his head injury again this week.

Swindon have only 1 win in the last 5 home games vs Carlisle, with 1 draw and 3 defeats.

They have become a bit of a bogey team of late.

Hopefully we can carry on from last weeks emphatic win vs Newport and get at them early on.

When I have seen their keeper Harry Lewis against us he has never impressed me in the games he played against us for Bradford, so hopefully we can get some shots in against him, he just never looked confident at crosses and shot stopping.

Carlisle have 2 huge strikers today so I think we can see how thats going to go....hooooooof.

Lots of sloppy control and passing in midfield from both teams so far, pretty even.

Decent move down the left between Freckles and Cox who puts a cross in thats just beyond Tshimanga.

Close to be a great diag pass by Butterworth. Town in a throw in from it.

Tshimanga with a great turn and shot thats blocked, it comes out and Kilkenny wins a corner from a long shot.

Ta for the commentary PV. No access for me today. That being said, you never told me If Eddie Tudor was any good!

Cox corner goes over everyones head for a goal kick.

Bit late to the party, but I'm here on the audio pass. £2.50 for Fjortoft Jr. and Hawes is probably fair enough after weeks of one commentator Sky nonsense.

Very welcome sir.

Town pressing really well, good running by Glatzel and Tshimanga winning a lot.

King cuts inside and shoots that seems to hit the defenders hand in the box but its no pen.

Some good midfield play by Kilkenny and Cotterill, Kilkenny nearly finds Tscimanga in the box, Town win a throw from it.

More good pressing by Town so far, the midfield 3 are winning a lot of the loose balls but our final ball a little off so far.

Handball(backpass rule) by the keeper from a back pass FK to Swindon 8 yards out.

Indirect free kick in the box, you do not see many of those any more!

Not seen one for years.

Cox fires it in but its blocked. Hits a defender in the face behind the keeper.

Linesman getting attention so theres a 2 min delay.

Looks like a back injury.

Hes going off now.

An indirect free kick and a linesman getting injured, this is all very Sunday league. Just need a player to be subbed instead of being shown a red...

To be fair he looks older than me, so not surprising he’s fucked

He does look in his 60s TBH.

Making a meal of this change!

This delay taking way too long to sort out.

They should be able to live without the tech until HT - just go back to old skool, it works better anyway

Thats 5 mins already.

That was a shocking thro in by King, straight into touch.

Carlisle hit us on the break but stray well offside with us struggling to get back.

Cox beats his man and wins a free kick near the corner flag.

Weak punch by the keeper and Town win the ball back. Cox gets in a cross but its way too hard.

Carlisle have set up shop to have 8 players back at almost all times leaving the 2 big lumps up front.

Swindon win a free kick 25 yards out slightly on the angle.

Wright free kick inches wide with the keeper well beaten.

Carlisle are struggling with balls over their head so far, we are pressing them very well.

Low hard cross by Cox but our shot gets blocked in the box, good chance.

Town are winning almost every loose ball in midfield, we are dominating the middle of the park so far.

Carlisle have a rare foray into our half but play the ball straight into touch.

Glatzel nearly wins the ball on the edge of their box pressing them, Galtz and Tshimanga are pressing so well so far.

Nice interception by Sobo in our box and wins us the throw in too.

Great cleaning up covering by Kilkenny in defence there with Wright beaten.

Carlisle having their best 5 mins of the game now.

Corner to them.

0-1

No marking from that corner.

OG by Sobo after an unmarked header was flicked towards goal.

Here we go again ::)

Sobo own goal, knew nothing about it

Dont let your heads drop, they dont deserve that lead at all.

Same old Swindon

Yes couldnt get out of the way and if he did it would have gone in anyway.

FK to town on the angle 22 yards out.

Cox free kick saved low down, a good height for a save though.

Cockles again shows that he has been a great addition

10 mins added time.

Ten additional minutes, I hope nobody has dinner plans.

Normal service has been resumed.

And going on Kennedys previous half time team talks will not improve!!

Carlisle have been no threat all game but same old Swindon concede from a set piece, their first of the game. For smash see grab.

Cox fouled but the ref gives them the free kick.

I hope Cox stays on at HT, he's lively

Swindon heritage. And to think I was complaining about not having any consistency at the club!

Kilkenny with a lovely thro pass to Glatzel but his cross is behind everyone, good chance.

Butterworth breaks with pace but hios pass to Glatzel is inches away from him in the box.

I love Glatzel and his running but today its just not happening for him so far in the box.

He's a bit Andy Cole isn't he, gets himself into positions where he gets more chances anyone else but isn't actually a deadly finisher.

And Carlisle win another corner hitting us on the counter.

Free header again from the corner luckily it goes well wide.

He has a great delivery but also is deceptively fast.

Cox shoots inches wide from 10 yards.

Cox is only on a one year deal right? If he stays fit, he doesn't seem like he's going to be in L2 for long.

For a comparitively small man Tshimanga is a really good target man, great hold up play and bringing others into play.

Gone in January.

HT 0-1

The underlying stats are probably pretty good.

Sadly went away from everything that worked against Newport. High pace, line breaking passes against Newport. Slow, sideways and backwards today. Carlisle absolutely there for the taking but will sit very deep now and make it difficult for us. Just can’t see us turning it around but I’ve been wrong before

I think we have played quite well so far, one moment of bad marking at the corner though has cost us. Carlisle offering very little in attack and have 8 men back a lot of the time.

We just arent creating any clear cut chances.

I would take Glatzel off at HT and try something different.

No changes at HT.

Jones doing some elbows on King.

Yellow for the little Jack Russell.

King using the dark arts there, like it :D

Got oddly nasty since half time.

Foul on King 25 yards out.

Another yellow for Carlisle.

King is living in their heads atm

Oh King knew what he was doing! and right in front of the ref too.

Cox shot just wide.

Glatz with a good chance to set up Tshimanga but the keeper gets to the cross from 6 yards out, a very good chance.

Great pressing by Tshimanga and he wins the ball in their box, finds Butterworth and his shot is saved at the near post.

Would give Mcgurk some minutes on for Butterworth.

Or even Glatzel. Not sure if Drinan would work against their packed defence, but someone with quick feet like McGurk could work.

Sobo wins a free kick near the touchline 18 yards out.

Cox shoots and the keeper fumbles the punch, corner to Town.

Keeper flicks the ball out for another corner to Town.

Good block by Wright, gives them a corner.

Freckles obviously getting bored at the back

Scramble on the edge of the box, chances for Tshimanga and Butterworth, but Town win the corner.

Weak corner by Town but we win another corner.

A 2nd poor near post corner.

Butterworth down injured after a heavy tackle. Hes got back up now.

I don’t see us scoring.

We need someone with a bit of creativity, rather than a workmanlike breaking down.

I think it's now time for Kennedy to gamble and stick another forward on, we are dominating midfield still but not working the GK enough..

I think our only truly creative player on the bench is McGurk.

Exactly. Get Mcgurk on. I can’t see how someone like Drinan would help.

This is painful viewing. Where’s that free flowing nature gone from last weekend? So, so timid

Love Glatz, if you can't head the ball, head the GK into the net..  Carlisle in full on timewaste mode now

Yes I think we need small crafty type players to break down their huge defence, who look pretty weak when players are running at them, instead of just hoofing crosses into the box as we are trying to do currently.

Carlisle are a very poor team IMO, but they are big and strong and make the most of set pieces. We have controlled most of the game, they are very happy to sit back and just park the bus.

We need to let down the tyres of that bus.

Christ fella can you not see how well organised Carlisle are compared to Newport who were hopeless

If Tshimanga scores the big chance he had in the first half we probably go on to win comfortably. We just lack a cutting edge

Sobo gives away a corner under not too much pressure.

Kennedy is not good enough!

Relegation battle is on the cards this season!!

Defensively Carlisle are a huge solid unit for sure, Newport were absolutely dire in defence.

Let’s wait until they score again before making any subs

0-2

Shit defending again.

Game over

2-0 as I foresaw

free header at the far post from a free kick.  No excuse.

Bycroft has to be better there, defenders need to be better..

Thought we were pretty solid at the back but we look all over the place. Frekleton just wandered away from his man. Awful.

Clueless today.  Both corners came from us needlessly giving them away.  Someone needs to remove that glue from Mycroft boots.  Better still give the other keeper a chance

Well done

Bycroft does concern me in goal at times.

Fucking crap this lot

 is 4D having a good time at the match today ?

FWIW I thought we played fairly well, but we struggle to make good scoring chances and we cant defend set pieces, that will always cost you.

I'm done!

Last visit to see this shower of shit, cannot see another win coming while Kennedy is in charge.

Terrible, terrible team.

As under Lyndsey, our attacking build up play is way too slow and laboured. We just dont look like creating good chances as it gives their defence such a long time to get players back to defend.

For me King just isnt good enough for this level.

We have had chances but not finished them, they have had 3 and got 2 goals. Carlisle aren't shit, they are well organised and dogged. We've been in control and definitely not as dramatically shite as some of you are saying

The same Carlisle who have conceded 14 goals in the league so far? Newport hopeless agreed but these aren’t exactly prime AC Milan at the back

 i tend to judge things on results . They speak for themselves

Cox and King are offering nothing

That’s a bit dramatic. We’ve been the better side and created plenty of chances. Two shot two goals. Disappointing i know but let’s not be too dramatic.

Att: 6,878 (483 Carlisle)

When are we at the san siro?

Disagree on Cox. I think hes handy.

carlisle are shit but they packed defence and played to their strengths, we gave the game to them rather than them winning it.

Stop it with your sensible summaries

Kilkenny hits the post.

Your having a laugh.....

One win this season 21st position in the bottom division

And your telling fans not to be too dramatic...

How could Kimg have been offside then?

A least we still have a renovated club shop, have a renovated Legends Lounge, have increased the budget have a club

One swallow does not a summer make. 😉

Cox crossing has been poor today. He’s not offered a lot in the second half

Kennedy is a shit manager.

We are playing worse than shit.

21st in the bottom league indicates that.

That was better by Cox and a thunderous strike by Butterwort

That would have been another goal of the season contender if that had gone in, a good cross from Cox and a volley just wide by Butterworth.

Anyone know if Drinan is actually on the pitch?!

Time will tell but I think this squad is fine (not excellent, but fine for L2) but the manager is the problem.

res ipsa loquitur, eh?

No, I think he is at Clementes' house

The difference today was set pieces, ours were shit, they scored from 2.

Sounds a bit like Carlisle until Thursday.

 how low can we go?

There are no excuses for being as poor at defending set pieces as we have been today. If we can’t defend set pieces with this team, fuck knows when we will

 i had to Google that .

Yes we lost , but I've seen a lot fucking worse than that
On another day we could have had 3 or 4

But the goals  column ?

Where were Kennedy's managerial credentials mentioned in the quoted summary?

That was beyond terrible

Kennedy has had the backing he just isn’t getting the best out of these players

3 more games- if we ain’t mid table then he has to go

I'm out of here. What a stupid thing to say. Do you think I'm a total cunt? We didn't score? Fuck thought we had.

Get ready for Kennedys interview.

A load of crap on how well we played

How unlucky we were.

He is a shit manager
His tactics are shit
He's turned good players into shit very quickly

Your deluded if you think he can turn this around

We didn’t even manage three shots on target let alone “could have had 3 or 4.” I seriously must watch different games to people because I saw absolutely nothing in that performance that suggests we could have come away with 4 goals. Maybe I’m in the minority so fair play but thought we were toothless

Is this Gav?

18 shots, two on target is an us problem. Sometimes you get games where the opposition goalkeeper plays a blinder. That wasn't today.

Someone tell him that hitting the post and bar are not counted as on target, also on another day the ones that went whizzing by the post go in or the ones blocked aren't.

Because he's the manager

He set the tactics,  he tells them how to play.

We ate shit and it's down to him

No real quality in the final third today.

Too many opportunities to attempt an incisive pass, or take an an early cross turned down.

We were too easy to keep at arms length.

Don’t think Carlisle played well, especially ropey in the first half, and yet, their win was totally plausible.

Some individuals had decent days, but 104 mins and no goals scored, at home, against one of the worst sides in the football league. Not great. Really frustrating viewing.

If that’s how you see it, fair enough. I salute your optimism. To me, we’ve failed to score against a Carlisle side that leak like a sieve and created so little, not that they created a great deal either. I don’t take solace from the shots on target (or hitting the bar and post).

Is that a serious answer to my question? Sheesh. He may well be a shit manager but Mex's summary of the game was accurate. Did you watch it?

A degree of straw clutching here

We were.... Okay? Fine at best? But we really need to find our shooting boots because 18 shots 2 on target with less than one xG is absolutely shocking...

There's a bit of quality in this squad, but something isn't right

I have been following the game as at Newbury on an annual race day. All I have to say that the squad on paper should be enough to compete in this Division but obviously the manager/coach is not good enough to get the best out of them. Time for an early change as Carlisle did.

 lurching from one lower league manager to another isnt the answer .

The most worrying thing is we are incapable of stringing any run of results or performance together. If you include cups then we are almost at the 10 game mark and the reality is we are shit, the occasional good result last week won’t change that. I’ve accepted this now and nothing is going to change until the ownership changes, this lot should be just about enough to avoid the drop but no more than that and as for the manager, I’d wager we’ll be his last football league managerial job.

I’ve lost pretty much all interest now and found cutting my lawn a far better use of my afternoon and can’t see that changing any time soon.

It will when it gets to winter and the grass won't grow.

Could have played all night and not scored, Carlisle were awful, 2 goals from 2 set pieces, the highlight was seeing the Townend getting mugged off by the halftime Apple roller :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

After a good win last week (albeit against a very weak opponent) you really want to build on these occasions and a home win against a struggling Carlisle side seemed to be ideal.

A home defeat is deflating. I didn't see the game so can't comment on the game itself, but the defensive set-piece frailty is concerning. Obviously scoring zero at home to a side who had previously been leaky isn't great either.

Vale away next weekend looks daunting, but we're unbeaten away this season at least.

Kennedy is a poor manager

Has far more backing than Flynn had without getting the results

14% win ratio in this league with this squad is beyond terrible

Time for excuses is now over. To go from last week to this week with the same players shows he ain’t cutting it as a manager

Its not just about quality it is also attitude and leadership. Seen the writing on the wall before and make no mistakes we are going down!

Like many of us on this site we all want the Town to be a winners and competitive. My worry is that is not in our current makeup. The position we find ourselves in the lower reaches of which is Division 4 in any other words is despicable, no other words to describe it!

Some fans in the DRS actually clapped them off at the end.

Unbelievable

With all due disrespect to Kennedy. If he gets the heave Ho, who do we get to replace him? Or more importantly how much money does the plumbing franchise have to appoint a new manager and spend in January to help the new incumbent avoid relegation?

gav is FOC

Will be Gav again rinse and repeat

Morfuni seriously needs to fuck off now when we still have a chance of survival- the club will be worth nowt in the NL

The team play looks like driving with the handbrake on, the team seems to be drilled on everything, except perhaps creating and taking chances and for defending corners.

My take:

Good points are - we pressed well. There was no lack of effort.

But obviously we didn't do much with the ball. The incisive passing and width of last week was gone. Too many backwards passes. Too many straight balls into the centre backs heads.

Fuck knows what we are trying to do on defending corners. Let's be honest Carlisle were well drilled, but they didn't offer much except height on dead balls.

Sigh.

Today wasn’t good, but it wasn’t as bad as the Chesterfield, Crawley or Walsall matches. We showed attacking intent (but could and should have shown more), but there were glimmers. The difficulty is that today was against a side who has no wins and one draw in 11 matches, and we have to dominate those.

The midfield just couldn’t find a way of dominating the game.

How do we improve? I’d like to find an alternative to King. He doesn’t have the energy to play wing back, nor the quality. I like Sobowale at centre back, but we might need to bring one of the other centre backs back, and push Sobowale out to the right. I’d prefer McGregor to King, on last season’s evidence. Kennedy also needs to find out why Butterworth (in the first half) and Cotterill (throughout) just couldn’t get involved today. That really hampered us.

Really disappointing. What did Kennedy have to say?

There are some rotten records now. 3 home league defeats by 21 September.

Bottled the interview i think?

   are we doing the man   of the match ?

Are we doing Stonehenge tonight?

Shit sorry, entirely forgot. Will sort that out after dinner...

I would give Kennedy the next 3 games to show Newport wasn’t a one off. Today was turgid and boring (apart from the first 15 before the Lino got injured)

Is the injured assistant ref an option?

Agree with this.

Thing is, it'd just be swapping out the deckchair attendant on the Titanic. Nothing will change.

I mostly agree with you. I think we should have scored in the first half (Tishimsnga) and we're unlucky to go behind when we did.

But I thought as attacking force we were poor.

Yes I've seen us play worse.

But I didn't come away feeling robbed as such. We didn't do enough to win. Neither did Carlisle. But we didn't defend corners, so can't complain about the result

The squad in its current shape overall is “fine”, it won’t go down and it won’t go up. “Fine” in big quotation marks as obviously that’s not fine for what we should be building but sadly that’s the state of us now.

I think today was a good example of where it’s limited in its approach. Carlisle came today with a game plan to be compact and hard to beat, nick a goal and then sit in and try and frustrate. Pretty much what you’d expect from a team in transition. The amount of shots we had is a somewhat misleading stat and if you looked at them without watching the match then they’d paint a different picture to the reality. The quality of those chances were poor, a handful of them probably qualify as proper chances, Tshimanga had the best one at 0-0 which he probably should have scored. Carlisle ceded the possession once their first goal went in and more so after they were gifted a 2nd. We huffed and puffed but I didn’t feel at any point that we built up enough confidence that we’d get a goal. Our crossing was poor, Butterworth was trying a bit too hard to impress against his former club and we struggled to get the forwards into goal scoring positions regularly enough.

There were some good points, Wright looks really good in the middle of the 3, especially in possession, Freckleton looks assured defensively and McGurk showed some good touches and guile when he came on. Sobowale deserves credit as well and looks to be a decent option at RCB but RWB will be an issue for us I think.

All in all, the last two games are about on par for what to expect of a fairly average middling league two team. Sometimes you’ll  be less shit, some times you’ll be more shit, the good thing is that in this division, your opposition will likely be just as shit. We’ll be in that 13th-18thish pack unless there’s some tactical tweaks that can get an extra 10% out of these.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM7uaxm5604

Well if MK is saying they are doing everything he wants… but they aren’t winning. Does this mean his tactics are shit? What’s the fucking point in crosses if knowone is on the end of them.

I wish i had that confidence. I am not sure we can ignore the previous results. We played a abdolutely injury ravaged Newport and today a team that has won 1 game all season, i think we are going to be around where we are now all season.

What worries me again is Kennedys words after the game about he knew we would be weak due to lack of height we are missing, that means he will be bringing Smith back in and back to the shite long ball we seen prior to his suspension

I don’t disagree with you, if I had to lean one way either side then we’re much more likely to go down than go up. Expanding on my last point, I think our trend still very much points towards dropping out of the football league, I just don’t think this year will be it.

You’re completely right to caveat the Newport match, I still think we win that match with both teams at full strength but not a 4-0 scoreline. In the object of fairness we need to see if the extent of that win was an anomaly or not but I think in our guts we all know the answer to that and have seen enough so far to make an informed opinion of this team.

Time for Kennedy to go.

He’s holding back this team.
It’s an awful team but still think it’s better than what Kennedy is getting out of it.

…as for who is up next, no idea….

Think we all know who’s likely up next

Yeah fair point.

What I should have typed was

‘…as for who the fans would want up next, no idea’

I don’t even know who’s available if Kennedy was sacked.

We don't want to be a team with 30% possession and win 1 nil every week, no one will be happy with that..

He's actually said that ffs

I understand having a focus on the process alongside the results, but he genuinely seems to value his fundamentals and process above results. Fans would not give a fuck how we play if we win. Why is that so hard for him to fathom?

I had a very quick look & the first name that drew my attention was Gus Poyet…

Wow that’s a blast from the past and would certainly generate interest from the fans.

Somebody tell me this is a wind up. Please.

DV, it's your moment!

Oh come on ffs.

Nobody is happy with where we are, but the solution isn't to sack a manager 7 games in.

Then what happens? Clem will fanny around for 6 weeks trying to appoint somebody on peanuts and Gunning will be interim. He may even get the gig full time. Is this what we want?

Can we just wait and see where we are after 12-13 games? if it's still grim and by then and no signs of improvement then this can become a topic of conversation. You may end up being completely right but can we at least give him a fair crack?

I was there!

Wasn't going to score if we played all night

Shit defending again

We were shit

Your deluded

Wins a win, init.

30% & a 1-0 score line gets you three points. Exactly the same as 73% possession and 6 goals


I think he’s had a fair enough crack to show something.

He’s shown nothing & no signs of improvement - but yeah give him 12-13 games and then the call will be give him 17-20 games then 25-28 games and then it’ll be too late…

1 win in 9 league and cup games is fantastic form.

Im with DV on this one

Afraid not

Kennedy is a clown, who doesn’t know how to set up teams to score goals. The squad is better than he has them playing.

I've heard it now.. FFS

We don't want to be a team who look clueless with only one win either, FFS.

Very disappointing that we couldn't build on the good win.

Did ok in the first half then not quite the same after the prolonged pissing about with the 4th official.
Why can't they be geared up & ready to come on as a matter of course.

Huffed & puffed to no great effect in the 2nd half.
Set piece delivery was poor & don't think that Drinan touched the ball after coming on did he?

By no means a poor performance it's just that the team has no spark or life to it.

Just play 44 fucking 2 easy

We'd still concede with 44

 :D

Lose the next 2 away games, which is likely and I could see our next home match against Harrogate being a 5k something crowd.

At least the club shop will be finished.

For me the game changed after the delay for the linesman. Carlisle used the time to reset their system, as they realised that would be the way to contain us. After that, the  game was like a replay of many over recent seasons - we dominated the ball, but were unable to break down a packed defence and create clear chances. Build up slow, too little movement from attackers to pull their defenders out of position, and hence attempts at through balls easily picked off. Reduced to speculative long range shots for the last 15 mins. I doubt we’d have scored if we had played until midnight.
The goals conceded were due to poor defending of set pieces - and their deliveries of those contrasted to the shambolic waste of corners etc from us - either failing to beat the first man or being woefully over hit. Cox, King and Kilkenny were all guilty of that.
 I also wonder about the impact of having narrowed the pitch - I assumed it was done to make the back 3 more solid by reducing the area of space behind the wing backs and the area the left and right centre backs have to cover. But its impact on the attack is to make it harder for us to get wide and around/behind a packed opposition defence like today’s.

I would have replaced one of the 3 midfielders with Ofoborh at half time, as I felt we were outmuscled in that area at various times and his extra physicality would have helped that.

Kennedy’s post match utterances are becoming Sheridanesque - I’d take a 1-0 win any time - successful teams will have a lot of those in a season, and if he believes Harry Smith is the answer to anything it means he is asking the wrong question!
Despite that, I’m not sure how sacking him helps - we will have to pay him off and either Gunning or Bignot will take over - hence I’d stick with him for now.
Re the triallists - my feeling on these is they are trying to have ready made replacements for recalled loanees or players who are sold in January.
I think we have a long season ahead - and will finish between 15th and 20th. New owners required.

Not read back.

I think even Adje would struggle to spin that one yesterday!

Oh well could be an away day at Weston or Hemel next season if they go up! Both grounds hold just over 3000 so should be ok. Clem and his cronies will have made us part time by then.

He still is defending that pile of shite!

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHGKlcvSswQ

Interesting highlights I presume by an independent editor. 8 chances to Swindon compared to 2 from Carlisle. "Utter shite" "worst I've ever seen" really? Short memories.

I'm not saying it was great and I'm not happy losing but people need to wind their necks in a bit on here. Win and we are champions, Lose we are playing Weston.
I hate what Clem is doing to this club but if I remember correctly the tef was set up to get away from this sort of shite.

TEF was set up to get away from Gary Stanley…

Kennedy needs to look at DV’s Matchday predictions before team selections, he’s flying at the moment :D

In isolation yesterday was fine, maybe a bit unlucky. But it's not in isolation is it? It's part of a pattern of continued decline.

 :doh: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Deluded

That result as a one off can be accepted

1 win this season , 21st position in the bottom league

I think every body has the right to be aggrieved

People who are concerned need to 'Wind their necks in'

With that comment you are the one who needs a long hard look at yourself!!

Nowhere near as bad as Walsall. That's surely not contended.

Carlisle were only a threat from set pieces. That's surely not contended either.

But we struggled to create anything much from open play too. As the highlights show. Those two late efforts at the end mask the swaithes of nothingness.

It's pretty hard to be objective as a fanbase with the start we've had to this season, on the back of the last 2 seasons.

I'll have to read back to find the "worst ever" comments as I can't agree with that

Sadly, Kennedy is a dead man walking. Even worse, the ownership are a living living corpse, just like vampires sucking the life out of the club.

I don't think that's true of Kennedy. A few wins, however unlikely it looks today, well see him ok.

We have a tough 7 games coming up.

Anyone watching man city v arsenal now, man city are fucking shit, arsenal have 10 men, pep should go.

Ridiculous example but a knee jerk reaction as seen here

The vampires have flown all the blood has been sucked out of the club.

I've no idea what you are on about now.

OK Mr Morfuni!!

Not helpful.

I know Mex is not that type.

We can disagree on footballing matters not an issue but you're a fucking prick mate. Now fuck off you bore. If someone disagreeds with you they are Clem? You sir at what drives people away from this forum

You realise Mex was literally the fella that started a thread for everyone to tell Clem to fuck off, don’t you?

Whilst I don’t agree with his view on yesterdays game, that’s such a fucking stupid comment.

Obviously someone doesn't have a sense of humour!!

But if you want to resort to personal obscenities when anyone questions your beliefs that shows what sort of person you are...

And by the way I don't always call people Morfuni when they don't agree with me.

Good debate and banter is what the forum is about..

S
But you keep using foul language if that's who you are!!

The humour also passed me by. Apologies if that's not how it was intended.

Mex Morfuni, I like that  ;D

Seven? Bloody hell. Usually it’s a cpl of tough games.

Will it's just my opinion. So others may disagree! In any case I missed a couple so it's 6 from 8.


Port Vale (away) ,
Tranmere (away, Tuesday),
Harrogate (home) <---- I missed this.
Cheltenham (away, graveyard),
Donny (home, currently 6th),
Salford (away, Tuesday),
Gills (home ),
Franchise (away)

We shouldn't fear the fixtures. But they mostly don't look easy to me.

Maybe we'll raise our game against better teams and get a bit more space. Who knows.

I mean when you’re a bottom 3rd team (at best) by default you’re looking up at the remaining 2/3rds of the league and thinking of them as tough fixtures.

Yep. Any fixture is a tough one for us right now. The days of 'gimme' home games are long gone... Aldershot at home in the Cup would have been a stroll in the park at one time...

So, 1 win in 14  :hmmm:

Statistically, yes, anyone above in our current comatose state legitimately can be considered a tough fixture. The context of my comment was that maybe top six or so would be considered a tough especially an away one.

Yeah I guess you are right.

Going to be a critical period of if I have over egged the 'difficult' card

Sam Morshead's Moonraker Monday Morning Mitherings (now that's alliteration for you) points out that Swindon have conceded 10 goals from 17 shots this season - and we're underperforming xG conceded by miles (i.e. we've conceded almost twice as many goals as we 'should have'.

That looks quite bad for Bycroft, doesn't it?

I might risk joining Mex in being a tad contrarian.

I only watched home alone on iplayer.  In glum resignation (by the second half) that our lack of creativity would never produce  a goal back.

However, comments ridiculing those who clapped the players at the end were uncalled for.  The switched-off attention at the 2 set piece goals conceded was disappointing.  But there were some positives and - crucially - no lack of effort.  Why sneer at or ignore the players rather than give them a degree of appreciation on the day?  

Kennedy of course does bear responsibility. He is one in a succession of coaches who have been willing or desperate enough to join a failing, flailing set up.  

Clem inherited a L2 club with near 10k attendances which will soon be down to 6k and fewer still which has become profoundly unattractive to coaches and players in comparison to most other L2 and indeed National League clubs.

It is unfair, imo, that every player (and arguably every manager), should have to bear the mounting, overbearing weight of STFC's terminal decline under Clem each matchday when they lose a game.

As far as this matchday thread is concerned, I would acknowledge the effort and some quality on Saturday and give the players my support to work hard at training, think a bit if the coach can't help them very well and go for it again next Saturday.

Don't go by stats entirely.  Or they could imply that the rest of the team have been substantially better than their results so far.

I think Bycroft has shown promise but my feeling is that he will cost us more than he gains over the season.  Tbf a number have been calling for him to be loaned out.  National League could suit him very well.  Only trouble is I'm uncertain that he would suit any clubs at that level.

I’ve no idea why Barden has come to a league 2 team to sit on the bench unless of course he’s nowhere near fit.

Not fully in with how xG translates but does that mean a lot of the goals we’ve let it have either been shots the keeper should have saved but also shots where the striker isn’t expected to hit the target but scores a cracker…

So, for example did both McGoldricks goals for Notts County have low xG because he was quite far out but went in through no fault of Bycroft.

tl:dr - does low xG & high conceded mean goal keeper errors or goal keeper errors & decent long range goals?

Me neither. Seems a pointless signing

If only that were true.

He hasn't told you to change your mindset.

 ;)

Am I? Where?. I just agreed with Mex's summary that's all. Trouble is with some, they are so engrossed in their own opinions they fail to see what other's opinions actually are.

I think he might get a run of games now, we shall see. Back to back away games before back home v Harrogate.

I've only seen the extended highlights on YT but based on that.

We definitely created more than we did against Walsall, which was the benchmark for abysmal performances. If one of Tshimanga or the indirect free kicks goes in we get off to a great start and maybe things are different. Their first goal has elements of bad luck going in off Sobowale. However Bycroft not dominating his 6 yard box can't help.

2 things I took from the second half highlights.

1. What on earth was Freckleton doing for their second goal. As the ball was played in to the back post, rather than challenging for the header he decided to run away and give their player a free header back across the box.

2. The Butterworth shot that hit the post and rebounded back to Kilkenny, who was then flagged for offside. I paused the footage when the shot was taken, and whilst Kilkenny wasn't in camera shot, the distance the ball rebounded meant that he couldn't possibly have been offside. (Nobody in camera shot was offside either)

2 confused us too, but as we were watching the shot we assumed it was one of those that was right but looked odd.

Had we scored at least Carlisle would have come out their defensive shells. That might have suited us.

It's often said that very few goalkeepers become top level managers, supposedly because they're just not that involved in the tactical side of the game as it's very much a specialist position. Nuno is the exception I think from memory.

Anyway on that line of thought and possibly wrongly, I was wondering about good managers who were wingers like Kennedy. My suspicion is that it might also be heavily unrepresented as it's a fairly individual position.

Anyone know of an Athletic (let's face it it'll be them) article on the topic or just want to speculate?

I assume that centre backs and midfielders will be hugely over represented.

(This all started from thinking that it was odd that we were so toothless with a winger as manager, but then not being sure how much wingers in the 2000s were really about patterns of play as much as just individual brilliance)

Interesting point.

First name that sprung to mind was Steve Coppell who had a solid managerial career spanning 4 decades.
He always struck me as intelligent & thoughtful but not the most demonstrative manager.

Meant to be working, so took a look at Current prem managers by position during playing career:

Central midfield: 8 (Pep, Frank, Arteta, McKenna, O'Neil, Slot, Maresca, Hurzeler)
Centre back: 6 (Howe, ten Hag, Dyche, Ange, Martin, Glasner, Cooper)
Right back: 2 (Marco Silva, Iraola)
Goalkeeper: 2 (Nuno, Lopetegui)
Winger: 1 (Emery)

And Emery is described as a "left sided midfielder" so no idea if that translates directly.

My own opinion but Jack Bycroft is a very poor man's Phil Smith
My own opinion but Miguel Freckleton is a poor man's Chris Robertson

I know we yearn for an Anthony Grant type CDM, or Oforborh played in his correct position but it's possible both of those things aren't going to happen. It's sad to say, I think James Dunne would walk into this squad and do a fairly decent job. I'm shocked I've even said that...to be crying out for one of Dave Flitcroft's synergy induced microwave meal strategies is mental

That probably tells us enough as to where the club are at if I'm going to be completely honest

Dino Zoff weren't bad🙂

Thanks, I couldn't see an offside, it was bugging me.