Thetownend.com

Two hard away games coming up and need to start picking up some points on our travels.

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

Still haunted by that disgraceful capitulation there last season - not helped by a bench full of kids. I bet Michael Flynn wonders why he couldn’t have had a similar squad to this season.

I’ve a feeling without checking that Wimbledon are strong at home - if Holloway doesn’t tinker too much I think we will draw 1-1.

A Bradford-esque line up and we lose.

Was a disgrace. But the line up was not much different in quality than this year's to be fair. It was the one dimensional Flynn who'd just completely run out of ideas. We still had Kemp and Young then as well

Would probably take a draw. Pity both Morecambe and Carlisle can't both lose as they're playing each other.

Last year was terrible. We can't play that badly there again.

Expecting a closer loss.

Is this sold out?

Pre match keep the ears warm, wear a hat in the Costa in Victoria Place.

It’s Christmas so drink as much as you can, but in this case that will have to wait until 10am.
Pretty much every away game seems to be a lot like Christmas.

Will ruminate over a pint or two before setting off for the muster point & an appointment with the dreaded Tooting beer monster.

Tooting eh, always reminds me of the TPF and "Power to the People!", for those of a certain age.

Used to really look forward to Boxing Day fixtures.
Not so much these days sadly.
A bit of a social beforehand & getting home ok would constitute a good day.

Had to go full bus wanker to get to London for a reasonable time this morning.
Thank you to National Express, at least one form of public transport is operating on Boxing Day.

The last away game was an offensive display but maybe not in the way that the away support were hoping for.
Hopefully the good things that only Holloway saw at Bradford are translated into shots on goal and some final third, let alone box entries today.

Suspect that it will be a far more critical audience today, if there is a repeat then Ian will have his work cut out at the end to work his way through the complainants.

In the main I do appreciate most of his comments that relate to the team & football matters.
Not so much the village of Box is missing its idiot type remarks.

He's got one job only, and to be fair is succeeding in keeping our heads above the water so far.
I do wonder if he might be suited, at some stage, to a DoF role a la Barry Fry at Peterborough?

So, would take a point today after zero shots on target & less than 5 touches in the opposition box.
Would object to a defeat after zero shots on target & less than 5 touches in the opposition box.

Fine line isn't it & illustrates that following this shit around is maybe not the ideal lifestyle choice.

Ian probably wouldn't approve.
I don't care what Ian thinks.

The good times will come again, one day. That’s what keeps me going.

Merry Christmas and enjoy the game folks.

Hope you have a great day WB.... I went to this one last year (as I'm sure you did) and it was an absolute shocker...

Yeah,thanks SE trains! Can't bloody go now

Yeah. Trains on boxing day. Red flag!

Hence giving this a miss

3-1 Wimbledon

Thats where I am at too tbh.

Happy to be proved wrong though.

I’d forgotten Josh Davison had left for Tranmere.

Shame!

No better or worse than players we’ve since signed.

That's a reflection on current aspirations, not that he's good

How standards have dropped over recent years.

Welcome to the Clem era.

Spot on🤣

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

The lord and saviour

Nice to see an unchanged team. They've earned it

In the words of Jah Wobble "no change is sexy"

Since when has Romaine Sawyers played for Wimbledon? He used to be quality

Nice to see Smith is fit as thought he’d picked up an injury.

This month and hasn’t played yet.

3 weeks ago, he ran us ragged for Cardiff in the friendly a couple of years ago, was real quality in the number 10/playmaker role.

The Sky Sports+ app is showing the Franchise game when you try to watch the Swindon game...

Anyone else getting the Donkeys v Notts County game on Sky Go when you tune into the Swindon game ??.

I'm getting our game on the app.

Yep same

Getting the line ups and stats but not the game.

Let us know what’s happening then mate !.

Condsidering its a Boxing Day, theres no trains running and where we are in the league its a decent turn out by Town.

Not much. I'm on Now (app) which I suspect is the difference.

Towns first touch looks awful so far.

2 chances by Town both shots blocked in the box, but its cleared.

Goal Swindon!

Another stinker defensively from the opposition but we'll take it.

1-0 Smith

What a pass to Smith from Cotterill.

1-0 Smith

Great defence splitting pass by Cotterill

Beautiful from Cotterill.

And a truly great finish too.

Smith nearly puts a defence splitting pass through to a Wimbledon player in our half!

Quality in construction and execution

The fucking camerawork is shit, who wants to see the bench when the game is being played?

Kilkenny wins the ball well and finds Tshimanga who passes to Smith but he tries a long shot and its well wide, good chance.

Wright lost the ball in the air there, ends up giving them a FK just outside the box.

Strikers wet dream that ball from Cotteril for the goal, but Smith still had a lot to do. Keeper did as well as can be expected in that situation. Stayed big, didn't move too early and made Smith make his move.

Good header by the Dons striker but Barden makes a solid save without too much issue.

I find ifollow randomly zooms in on random crap quite a lot in general.

Was straight at him luckily. Anywhere else and that's 1-1

And some overly long replays too.

Better than sky go - we’ve got MKD game of all games FFS.

You did miss a great goal TBH.

Refs quite fit.

Thanks mate !.

Town win a corner from a long throw.

What game is being shown on the MK channel?

That's definitely a yellow.

Not a great corner by Wright which is chest high to the near post and cleared.

MK.

We are winning a fairly good amount of first balls in midfield so far.

The game has the feel of a 1 leg cup game so far.

Great defending by Clarke running back there.

Tshimanga yet again falls to the deck FFS.

Tshimanga back to falling over, I regret to report.

Tshimanga is so weak on the ball, it’s unreal.

Clarke inches way from setting Smith free again near the edge of the box.

When he doesnt fucking fall over he looks way better, why try and con the ref FFS, they are wise to him.

Apparently Sky+ has the right game now

Town got away with that after Wright lost the ball in the middle.

Not on mine.

Barden makes a solid save at a good height, should have been a goal TBH.

Important recovery tackle by Cox there stops a promising Wimbledon attack.

Smith volleys a shot from 30 yards thats gone 30 yards over the bar.

Keep refreshing it but still showing the Donkeys.

Delaney taken a knock and is hobbling.

Couple of real big let offs so far today. Riding our luck.

Almost a foul on Cotterill in the box but not much contact. Clarke ends the move with a long shot over the bar.

TBH the chances are pretty even IMO, except we took our best chance.

Yeah there's a real battle in midfield going on too which I'd say we've slightly edged.

Agreed.

It's all pretty frantic too

Certainly feels like both teams will score here.

It has the feel of a 1st round FA cup game. Frantic at both ends but not much quality.

Bugiel off injured for them.

Dons Lebanon international striker coming off injured.

Ex Town target Piggott comes on.

And fucking useless

It's league two, that much is a given

Close up of the back of Holloways wooly hat. Riveting camera work.

Tshimanga collapses in the box under the weight of a gust of wind.

If tshimanga stays on his feet there he could have got to that ball in the box rather than conning the ref.

Shocked that Matty Stevens is on 26. Feels like he’s been around forever.

I think shes called a few 50-50s wrong but TBH shes par for the course for refs in L2.

Need to ride out till half time but expect there will be a fair amount added on.

3 it is

3 mins added.

HT 1-0

Satsfactory so far.

Kilkenny, Clarke and Cotterill linking up well and a great goal by Smith.

HT. Good half.

Half time. Pretty good, not a delight to look at but we're competitive and ahead.

That'll do.

Can't see this staying 0-1, but we look as likely as they do getting the next goal

Solid first half. Wimbledon, not really offering much but probably should’ve done better from a header but overall pretty decent.

Tshimanga is useless.

We’ve kept it simple. Reduced the scope for defensive balls ups. In return, we sacrifice precision and creativity going forward. Get it up the pitch, press, harry, pick up the loose balls. It’s not pretty but it’s simple football that has us one up.

Exactly this. Very much in the ballance.

I think Saturday proved that he isn’t. He’s inconsistent.

I think she's given at least 5 non existent fouls to Wimbledon so far. As you say, par for the course

Football that will keep our FL status hopefully.

Kilkenny with the upper hand in midfield. Cotterill pretty good, Tshimanga playing in his sliders again, Sobo outstanding at the back. I think we're worth the lead having defended pretty well

Done exactly what we’ve needed to do exactly when we’ve needed to do it.
Not going to win any beauty contests but might win us a few games of football.

He’s half a yard late to everything, constantly falls over and can’t hold it up.

Hopefully he shuts me up but he’s incredibly annoying to watch.

Think that's pretty good analysis. Before the last few games, we were playing like a bad version of a good team. Now we're playing like an average version of an average team. Won't take us up, but that's a distant dream this season. Will see us comfortably safe.

On the odd occasions when football broke out from the head tennis tournament, our midfield look far better. We now have to marry that to our forward play to our striker plus that bloke Tshiminga and we could be looking at a good result.

Easy save by Barden from a 20 yards shot.

Slow out of the blocks from Swindon.

Yeah very under the kosh early here.

Cotterill shot from 25 yards just goes wide.

Didnt see the set up as the fucking Dons cameraman spotted an old man in the crowd he knew.

Cox has a shot from 25 yards well wide.

Shite from Cox that. The more I see of him, the more I think we should start with Kirkman.

From 25 yards and about 25 yards wide.

Fair play to McGurk scoring for Yeovil

Tshimanga having a feel of the grass again.

Think he's been pretty good defensively today. Kirkman has impressed though, happy to see either day the moment.

Good player plays well, huge news. No idea what IH isn't seeing in him.

Agreed.

Sobo goes past his man and tries a shot from 35 yards well wide. Town pressing them really well.

Maybe swap managers😁

delaney putting a ball for Tshimanga that he would have to challenge in the air of, showing more confidence in him than anyone else in the stadium would have.

Our final decision making is very poor.

1-1

That's been coming.

Fuck sake. Unmarked.

Soft defending from a  good cross.

Fuck sake.

Just got it & turned the game on…

Gets worse when you see the replay. Jesus.

Fuck sake, why was he alone on the back post?

FK to Town just outside the box, no idea what happened though.

Finally get to see the incident for the free kick as the cameras catch up.

Sobowale has just stopped tracking his man there

Shot by Wright saved it comes out to Clarke who shoots and is blocked then Kilkenny misshits the shot well wide.

Tricky bounce but Kilkenny with the kind of shot I'd probably manage from the edge of the box there.

Sobo wins a corner.

Worst. Camerawork. Ever.

FK just outside the box for handball.

Cox direct shot just over the bar.

Tshimanga back to his worst today, get him off soon please.

Well, I guess a minor silver lining is; we haven’t completely collapsed after conceding.

We need some changes though, Wimbledon have stayed on top.

Cox should be taking his man on instead of just crossing, he looks knackered.

Good chance for a ball to come in there and Cox can't beat the 1st man which gives it away.

Wimbledon look more likely to score than us right now.

Another absolutely Hollywood through ball from Cotterill.

Cotterill great pass to Sobo but he chooses to shoot rather than pass to Tshimanga.

Morecambe 1-0 up vs Carlisle. If one of them have to win you'd prefer it to be them.

Drinan on for Tshimanga.

Drinan on.
Think Kirkman has just been given his shirt

Kirkman on for Cox.

Cox off for... Drinan?

Ah two subs, Kirman also on, Tshimanga also off. No shape change.

Kirkmans 1st touch wins a corner.

Not sure I anticipated seeing this but Cotterill clearly our best player today... Couple of unbelievable through balls and even putting himself about a bit

Cotterill showing far more in the last 2 games, hes been excellent today.

Cotterill on fire this hallf

Chance for Town but its cleared.

I *think* most of us thought a lot of his earlier struggles for Swindon were because of the position he was playing.

Town got away with that break there.

Got very lucky there.

Hes not a DMC or a wide left midfielder which Kennedy prefered playing him in, hes shown way more recently though in his correct attacking midfield position. Ironically the position he played his best game for us previously vs Newport in.

Exactly this.
I don’t think many of us are surprised by the improvement.

Drinan very wasteful there.

Cotterill off for a Butterworth. Hmm.

Butterworth on for the excellent Cotterill.

Corner to Town.

Butterworth flatters to decieve beating his man then falling over.

Kirkman with a lovely interception and finds Smith well and Smith wins a free kick, nice.

Brilliant from Kirkman there defensively and then the ball to Smith who wins a free kick getting dragged from pillar to post.

So many corners.

Butterworth puts in a better cross that goes out for a corner.

Poor corner again by Wright.

Our 6 corners have been very very poor today.

Longelo on for Sobowale.

Great pressing by Town yet again.

ref ignores a dive by the Dons player.

That’s looked like a penalty on first viewing

Was really worried about that pen shout with this ref there.

When was the last time we actually took a good corner.

Cotterill did all the showboating today but for me Smith has been absolutely brilliant today.

Never. Went down like a sack of shit, obvious dive

Not this season!

Butterworth tries what probably would have been a slightly too long pass anyway to Smith but in the 85th min with his legs where they are after the shift he's put in, it ends up looking comically over hit.

One of those you'd be annoyed about but have absolutely seen given.

Yellow for Wright, FK 40 yards out to them.

Free kick to Wimbledon. Pressure starting to mount here.

FFS somebody talk to Butterworth he had ages on the ball there but panicked.

Was actually a long injury break in the first half and they added 3 mins. Interested to see what they add on here.

2nd corner in a row for them.

Another Wimbledon corner. Massively under the kosh.

FFS 1-2

Absolutely nobody any idea what happened there amongst the officiating team.

Fuck me
What was that?!

Barden was fucking fouled.

Disallowed.

Clear obstruction

Definate foul on Barden that.

Very very very fortunate there, barden weak as fuck

Thank fuck for that. Looked like Barden just shit the bed to me.

Late Christmas present.

Good!

A bit lucky. Those do get given but not always. Think the ref gave it on reaction more than seeing anything.

4 mins added.

4 mins added on. Dinan wins a welcome free kick.

Barden has to be stronger there none-the-less. Personally think that’s a very soft foul and we’ve got very lucky there.

He was weak as fuck but also very very obstructed

Yellow for Delaney on the half way line.

Definitely both. He shit the bed a bit but was also impeded

This.

Town free kick with a minute of the minimum added time left.

Yellow for Smith.

FT 1-1

Very happy with that performance in the main, some very good individual performances.

Huge point towards safety.

Another point away from Carlisle, sadly morecambe move two closer to us

Solid, respectable performance. Good point. It'll do.

This doesn't happen very often, but that was a very good refereeing performance, first EFL game as well.  For the disallowed goal, looks like the assistant or the fourth official had a word in the microphone.  But, without a restart in play, there's always the chance to change the decision.

Hard earned point. Well done!

P.S. Not around so can’t transcribe Holloway’s ramblings

Happy with a point

Thought we were the better side there. Cotterill, Smith and Sob outstanding for me. And Drinan coming on was an improvement.

Agreed.

Looking like a team that can compete

Ian Holloways must be doing something right.

I think 4 points from Grimsby(8th) & Wimbledon(5th) is a decent enough haul.

Thought we were competitive & always in the game. Felt it was only the last 5 minutes of the game where we looked under the cosh. Probably marginally the better side until that point but only like 54 to 46.

Obviously Wimbledon will be annoyed about the penalty not given (right decision) and the disallowed goal (right decision) but think ultimately a draw was a fair result.

7 points from our last 4 games is a decent return, as is 4 points from the last 2 against teams in and around the play-offs. Two mid-table teams up next so a chance to keep the points ticking over. If we do that, there could be some good distance between us and the bottom two before long.

Also think we lost a bit of composure & control when Cotterill went off

Well deserved point today. They all worked so hard. Wimbledon were the better team second half but other than the goal I don't think they looked too dangerous.

Marked improvement from Bradford away.

Lots of teams around us with a game or two games in hand but 21st in the table. Might get a nose bleed if we go any higher.

Our decision making in the final third is really poor but would have happily taken a point before kick off so not bad overall. A bit of pace upfront wouldn't have gone a miss.

Pace up front has been as issue all season, Wimbledon by contrast had plenty of pace.

Funny how something all fans we screaming for in the summer window has become such a major issue

Yeah, but who knew? ;)

It's not like playing Football Manager guys.

But it is like buying a house.

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

Holloway said after the Grimsby game that he is starting to see the key players signed at the start of the season play and perform in their right positions in the formation they were signed for.

So Delaney, Hall and Wright as a back three Clark, Kilkenny and Cotterill as the midfield three and Smith plus Tshimanga or Drinan in the front two.

I guess he is getting a tune out of them. Would just like to see a couple of clean sheets as it feels we need to be 2 or 3 goals in front to win.

A very low quality, high commitment game. Disjointed football which suited us. More of the same is needed to get us out of this hole.

It sure ain’t going to be pretty.

Yep, there is a mini league forming from 19th to 24th. Newport 5 points clear of 19th on 26 points. Win today would have taken us top of that.

4 home games in January are going to be crucial to dragging ourselves clear.

https://x.com/shirleykennett1/status/1872331733192020146/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1872331733192020146&currentTweetUser=shirleykennett1

The disallowed goal at the end from the reverse angle is quite funny. I mean, there is contact but christ alive that's soft.

Havent read back...

IMO two very good performances back to back.

A little bit of quality in delivery to set pieces and we might of even nicked it. Smith won everything in the air all day, wayward balls and/or shots, were a total waste...

Disallowed goal was a foul in my view, obstructed the keeper by backing in....silly for him really(dons forward), if he had just stood still the ball would of gone in.

Deserved draw and important point. Lets see if we can keep this going!

Agreed - Cotterill looks decent when played further forward and central.   Never understood why Kennedy kept insisting that he was a number 6 when he clearly isn't.

That angle clearly shows Barden behind obstructed by the player firstly backing into him and secondly raising his arms across Barden to try & stop him lifting his arms up.

In London seeing family over Christmas, took the opportunity to make this the first game I've been to this season. Feared the worst today, so a pleasant surprise. First half very scrappy but thought we played ok 2nd half. Based on one data point, grounds for optimism.Onwards and upwards in 2025.

What was most pleasing was that we are suddenly able to mix it.  It’s been years of tippy tappy sideways and backwards football.  Post match managers filling the airwaves after defeats with crap about possession stats, box entries and alike.  Yesterday they looked the better team for large parts of the game and with a little more composure in the final third should have won.  Holloway seems to be getting through to them and they are looking more hungry. 

Hopefully we can strengthen during the window as the loanees have been the most disappointing aspect this season.  Freckles is pretty certain to go back so at least one berth available.

COYR

Scrappy game yesterday with few moments of quality. Cotterill's ability shone and he delivered 2 delicious through balls, one which led to our goal and one which put Sobowale very nearly through on goal. We defended pretty well, Sobowale switching off at the back stick for their goal but apart from that thought we looked quite solid. Nice to see Kilkenny and Cotterill trying to knit things together in midfield along with the option to go longer to Smith, who was excellent yesterday.

I'd like to see Barden be braver at times, yes he was backed into for the disallowed goal but for a big guy he doesn't command his box at all. I guess when you have Hall, Delaney and Wright you have 3 big guys who should take care of it.

Good point overall, with a bit more composure we might have had all 3, but we've laid a bit of a platform to build on. Credit where it's due, Holloway really looks to have instigated some organisation and confidence amongst the side.

A bit more confident now that we can finish above the bottom two.

An ill judged transfer window could yet scupper things & that will be the next hurdle.

The forward line remains an interesting conundrum. Harry Smith is first name on the team sheet but we have yet to find a partner for him in my opinion. Clearly Tshimanga is the current option after his 2 against Grimsby, but yesterday was another frustrating game for him. He's a willing worker, but struggles to stay on his feet and doesn't particularly look very strong. I think his only 'trick' is the backing into the defender and rolling him, but it's easy for defenders to counteract so he never gets a chance to do it.

What I did notice yesterday was when the ball was in the air and Smith was jumping to compete, either Clarke or Cotterill were gambling and sprinting forward. Clearly they've done work on that and it's a great weapon to have. Having a fit Clarke is like having a new signing, I really like him.

On paper you’d think Harry Smith & last seasons Paul Glatzel could be quite a potent strike force.

However, I’ve decided the best striker to play up front with Harry Smith would be Harry McKirdy.
Get it done Clem.

Absolutely scenes having a striker partnership of Harry & Harry in 2025!

Some decent comments on the Dons forum about us.

Don't get the Swin "Don" thing. I guess it's a wimbleDON reference but don't get the connection

I’ve assumed it’s an autocorrect features and always capitalises the D for Dons or Don!?

Would it capitalise the D in WimbleDon?!

It’s a very bizarre thing for multiple people to type…

What's with the 'SwinDon' thing? Just very overimpressed we share the last three letters of our names?

I think its one of the autocorrect things based upon one of the forum members who comes from Swindon AFAIK. I have checked their forum for about 6 years and its always been that way.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfHZN6x7H8A

But do they have one that converts their rivals name to franchise?

They should do.