Thetownend.com

Nobody seems to want to start a thread so here goes.

Big game for the Grims, they need to win to keep their play off push alive.

Going to be a near full house today.

We are hard to beat but have little left to play for, tell that to Bradford though ;)

Game on.

Can't see past a win!🙂

A non standard title but this is there, can you merge?

https://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=60174.0

Think we will probably lose by the odd goal, but wouldn’t be surprised if we turn them over either

Only the leaders Port Vale have a better run of results recently with 4 wins on the bounce.

We are currently on 3 consectutive wins with recent form being DDLWWW

Grimsby in their last 6 games have been LWWLWD

They absolutely hate Holloway he will thrive in that pressure today I am sure.

They have score 59 goals this term - we have scored 66
They have conceded 60 goals this season - we have conceded 61.

At home Grims have W10 D3 L8 F30 A30
Away Swindon have W5 D8 L8 F27 A29

Last 6 games form table we are 4th and Grimsby 9th.

Its a big ask, but not beyond us, that if we win today it will be the 2nd time this season we have strung together 4 conseccutive wins.

Thier leading scorers are Danny Rose 12, Kieran Green   and Justin Obikwu on 7.
Our leading scorers are Harry Smith 17, Kabongo Tshimanga on 12 with Will Wright on 6.

Interesting to see how George McEachran does against us, very talented but so lightweight in midfield when he was with us. Wouldnt have minded him staying TBH.

Non standard title unfortunately doesn't make it a matchday thread :) I might merge later if I can be bothered which currently I cant be.

Pre match fish on a Fryday in The Coliseum Picture Theatre.

Almost bright, but breezy here as always.
Still get the occasional shiver upon recalling the sub-zero wind chill from the Jan 1993 visit.

Gone with the let's get this over with across a very long day option today. With a bit of luck.

The TP Express does trundle the 50 odd miles from Doncaster, taking about 1hr 15mins in the process.
This is Blighty, we don’t do bullet trains.

Have done my time with staying over, both in Cleethorpes and Grimsby itself, on more than one occasion.
The former was ok, the latter was a bit sole destroying.

So no post match curry in downtown Cleethorpes this evening.

The game is of passing interest as is George McEachran.
I would view Kilkenny as an upgrade if comparing the two.

Not concerned about any gripes that the locals may or may not have with Holloway.
Both viewpoints will have an element of pollocks about them.
Nowt wrong with a hostile environment at the football.

Hopefully we can put a dent in their play-off ambitions and get another double in the bag, or the keepnet in this case.
Would much rather see the back of Colchester.

Expecting a much better effort than that served up by Gav Gunning productions this time last year.

Enjoy the game folks.
Tight lines!

😂

Win today then 6 points off play offs with 3 games left

8 if Colchester win.

It’s a bit mad.

A win today would will not see us move up the table at all.

Win the last 4 & see where we end up.

In the very fine Message in a Bottle bar & shop.
Would be sending out an sos if ever on an all dayer here.

It might sting later.

Call the Police.

                     Ripley     
Sobowale Wright Delaney Cox
 Clarke  Kilkenny Butterworth
  Ameen     Smith   Glatzel

...is what I'd like to see, personally

Cant see Ollie starting Sobowale and I would start Tshimanga ahead of Glatzel personally.

Probably right about Sobo but I'd like to see him start personally. You going Monday?

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

Well thats an interesting line up, again.

Squad as expected, Delaney aside.

Starting 11, a raffle but it seems to work

…and if it doesn’t work - Holloway won’t be afraid to take that in the chin & change it early

Assuming it’s a 3 at the back again, with Clarke in midfield, but who knows.

There are numerous possibilities with that 11.

Quite DV. No criticism of selection intended. I always think wtf, then at FT it's all worked out.

Midfielders are overrated anyway :soapy tit wank:

Most of Ollies formations are very flexible with people able to play in 2 or 3 different positions game dependant.

Its often impossible to tell exactly what formation we are playing or even changing into.

Holloway team selections seem to go against logic a lot of the time…but…the results are forthcoming - so crack on….

Is that not the same as last week?

Because whatever it ends up being they have worked on it in training and the players seem comfortable playing in those positions.
It’s amazing what proper coaching does

Let's hope they also get a man sent off after 15 then 😁

They have had 2 red cards this season so far, its not out of the question....

The Grim keeper looks a huge lump taller than Smith.

Looks like they should spend some money on their pitch.

Yet another pitch in an absolute state.

Great minds...

Makes the County Ground pitch look like a palace lawn.

Seen better pitches at Buckhurst in January. Fucking state of it.

How many have we had
 Smith

I think I remember Clarke being suspended, can't remember if that was yellow totting up, second yellow or a red?

Sunday league pitches better than that…

Well we havent set up to sit back and let Grim play today, we are pressing them like our play off hops depend on the result.

1-0 Nichols

Great finish. Will played Cotts.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh

E I E I E I O

Whack on that.

Hall and Smith.

We are definately having a say in the promotion race in League 2 lately.

We are much the better team and fully deserve the lead. Excellent goal.

Grims look very mid table whereas we look like promotion contenders so far.

Kirkman and Smith link up well but Smith cant get onto the cross.

I know its windy out there but grims passing has been attrocious so far.

I wonder how long we can keep this press up today.

Clarke got away with a mistake there at the back, but we still cleared it.

Nichols so close to putting Tshimanga through.

Playing with a confidence 4 successive wins brings

Swindon Town the Promotion Party Poopers.

Fingers crossed it becomes 4 today.

From the Grims forum.

Freckleton took the ball down so well, did a spin and puts it into touch under little pressure! that sums him up TBH.

Great break by Town and Smith finds Cotterill on the wing but his cross goes out for a corner.

Coterill and Nichols are on it so far

Glatzels header is weak and goes out for a goal kick.

Glatz is pressing really well too so far.

Grimsby players (and fans it seems) look like they thought it would be a walk over today before the game even kicked off.

Ripley makes a save, and easy save but still got to it quickly.

A mix of terrible and really good defending all in a 10 second period by Town.

FFS shoot

Great chance for Tshimanga then Glatzel but its saved with an open goal. Awful definding by Grims. Poor finishing by Town.

Should have been 2-0.

Glatzel was asleep as the ball came to him.

Everything about that was so league two :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

2-0 Clarke

Fully deserved.

Gooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaal!

That’ll do nicely…

Freckelton finds Kirkman down the wing, his cross finds Smith but his header goes over the bar from 6 yards.

Their keeper looks uselss so far.

Kilkenny is a massive upgrade on McEachran on this showing, I liked McEachran but hes been awful today.

In the last couple of games Nichols seems to have his perfect position too.

He was everything I disliked about a modern day lower league midfielder. Technically was sound, but absolutely gutless at times. Can count on one hand how many tackles I saw him make

Grims get a chance but cant connect to the cross.

Tackling was never a strong point of his game thats for sure! good on the ball but weak off it.

Like a lot of young players these days I’d describe McEachran as a systematic player.
In a deep QB like role in a decent possession based team as a sideways passing crab he’d do alright.

Anything outside of that & he’s weak.

Smith tries a long shot but its wild, great break by Cotterill leading to it.

2 mins added.

I have a feeling 2nd half will be a very different story with us playing against the wind 2nd half and them having the teacup treatment at HT I am sure.

HT 2-0

One way traffic.

Kirkman is going to be a right good player.

An excellent half. What little Grimsby have offered has been well dealt with. Our press is good and our attacking and passing has been incisive and dangerous on the whole and I’m sure it’s not easy in the strong wind. An early third goal in the second half should seal it.

Good half

I know it’s massively hindsighty

…but…if we’d got Holloway in 3-4 games earlier we’d be making the play offs.

I really want to see this team back for next season.

The home side's season is on the line, so the H.T. changes will be interesting, don't think it's going to be an easy second half.  

Taking corners, now.

Absolutely agree.

I mean theoretically it’s our season that’s on the line more than theirs

If results stay the same (obv they won’t) that leaves Grimsby out the play off on goal difference only.

If we lose even our slim outside chance of the play offs would be gone.

Port Vale 2-0 down at Carlisle. Honestly,you don't have to be great. This squad we currently have is as good as any and better than most.

Yep, minimal changes, 3 or 4 new faces

and to think people didn't like the Holloway appointment yet here we are after having the fear of being relegated to only being 6 points off playoffs

I get people’s trepidation about Holloway based on his last job + time out the game.

Like anything though - you get the results & you’ll win the fans over.

Agreed. Although hoping it will leave them open to the counter.

Yeah, 4 years out the game and shit at Grimsby - I think reservations were understandable.

Surely we can't actually squeak into the play offs can we?

It's frankly bizarre we can still mathematically make it in.

Tshimanga with a great chance in the box he shoots wide, lovely passing to set it up.

Its an amazing turn around for sure.

Not happening but IF it miraculously did, no one would fancy playing us....

Corner to Town.

I bet David McGoldrick would…

Grimsby have finally woken up.

3-0

….and been hit on the counter.

Great move well taken by Tshimanga.

Brilliant!

Great ball glatz

Great dummy from Smith

This is absolute quality for League 2

Att: 7,624 (366 Swindon)

The cross by Glatzel and the dummy by Smith, brilliant.

I wouldn’t be disappointed if Tshimanga was back here next season…

He’ll have to reduce his wages by a fair bit, for us to stand any chance of signing him.

Who’s the big, black fella on our bench?

Unless Holloway finds a bit extra in the budget, maybe the budget will be increased in the Summer....

We've been brilliant.

Which one? the fitness guy? Ofoborh? Sobowale?

Ofobohr?

Ian Holloway.

Most of this squad would currently walk into any other L2 side. Kilkenny,Glatzel and Smith un playable today and Cotterill,has he stumbled on his best position?

Carlisle 3-1 Port Vale
Walsall 1-2 Harrogate

This league really is wide open.

Nichols and Cotterill both playing their best game for me at the moment. Not sure if by luck or judgement.

Grims have a shot, well wide with Ripley covering his near post.

Booking for Clarke, that was a needless silly foul after the ball had gone.

Grims have a 20 yard show easily over the bar in the end.

Sobowale on for Cotterill
Westley on for Clarke.

Smith to CB

Sobo-who?

Definately one of Cotterills best games for Town today.

New signing apparently....

Should have been 4

Glatzel cross on a plate for Westley but his touch goes just inches wide touching the outside of the post.

Should have scored that! Im gonna give Westley the benefit of the doubt on the quality of that six yard box

Yellow for Freckleton for not even touching the player.

He needed to use his left foot, definite goal

Easy save by Ripley.

Plus the fact he’s only just come on & not even touched the ball yet

Sobiwale fouled on the touchline, ref doesnt give it.

Some little twat invades the pitch.

Love this ref

I don't like to take the piss out of the unfortunates but fucking hell Walsalls demise is worthy of a comedy Bafta award.

Glatzel cross to Westley and his shot is saved for a corner.

They’ll win the play offs.
They’ll go into them on the worst form & the least favoured.
Then win.

For a team in the play offs we have destroyed Grimsby today.

Ameen on for Tshimanga.

We're a shambles off the pitch so bit rich coming from us, but safe to say Grimsby won't win any awards for stewarding or pitch management based on today.

Nichols wins the ball and finds Ameen but his cross is too weak, Nichols has been brilliant today.

We look like we are playing with 11 vs 10 men today.

Town have genuinely been brilliant pretty much all game today.

5 mins added.

You’d assume we can’t afford Tshimanga and may have to trim down in some areas, but I think we can do that whilst upgrading in a couple of key areas. Here’s hoping anyway.

We could have easily scored 5 or 6 today.

4

There is the 4th

Icing on the cake. Ameen!

4-0 Ameen.

Boooooom!

Love it!!

Those 4 games that we drew on the trot have come back to bite us, turn one or two of those into wins and we would be in with a ridiculous chance of the play offs

FT 4-0

Could easily have been 6-0, everyone played their part against a piss weak Grimsby today.

Cotterill, Glatzel and Kilkenny really good today but Nichols played his best game for me.

4 wins in a row for the 2nd time under Ollie.

Well done to everyone, players/staff, cant fault the effort in an essentially meaningless.

2x 4-0 away wins in a row too.

The play offs are still technically on…

Technically I could still play for town

Technically I could win the lottery

Ian Holloway red and white army

Colchester have Donny and Grimsby have Vale in the next game……..technically

That was a flawless performance can't honestly recall a single error in 90 minutes. Quality from all 14 players. Glatzel,surely earned a contract now? Outstanding

You definitely could have today against that Grimsby team…

More goals. We must almost be top scorers in the div .

The tide is rising again.

Only Walsall have scored more.

Apart from the brilliance of the football we played today ,really impressed with the tenacity in winning the ball back today all over the pitch

My phone is very keen to autocorrect Botan to Brian which is going to lead to some nonsense at some point.

A brilliant all-round performance, can't fault anything.

Fantastic performance. If I was a Grimsby fan, I’d be fuming with their showing. Suddenly that, on the face of it, nothing game v Morecambe looks a pretty costly defeat now. Kilkenny my MOM today. He was everywhere

Are we officially Rampant Swindon?

Wasn't expecting that, albeit against a very unimpressive play-off contender.

This is massively irksome though,  big time, for obvious reasons, as there are no guarantees with regard to next season's clean slate.

Are you saying there's a chance?

They are!!!!

Watching McEachran today makes you realise what a waste of 2 season it was having him, Khan and Cain in midfield.

Monday:

Port Vale (yuck) beat Grimsby
Doncaster beat Colchester
Swindon beat Bromley...

It at least stays interesting...not saying we will make it, but we could, although we won't, but we could...

It’s not going to happen unless Colchester and Grimsby don’t win again this season. Some of our more negative fans have been saying it isn’t going to happen for months…

I mean on todays showing I can totally buy Grimsby not winning another game this season…

Just to confirm Bob you are moaning about fans having the same opinion as yours but just for a little bit longer

Holloway (Sorry, bit late today):
- Thought we got every aspect of our game right today
- Knew that we needed to
- They remembered everything we went through meticulously
- Totally delighted
- Worked out how to play out against them
- Delighted for Ameen to get his goal
- What pleased him most was defence talking to midfield
- We won everything from start to finish in the middle
- You dont realise how hard it is to stop a good team. They were 9 points above us
- Try to keep the momentum up on Monday
- Moving Smith back is a good option to have
- All of the lads played absolutely bang on today
- Surfaces used to be worse than this. There was grass out there, but some bald patches too
- We have walked through and talked through what we wanted them to do and they remembered and were in the right place
- On the day we were the better team
- They all are making a case to start. Great to see them grow
- Really excited about the group growing. Wants to add to it and not lose it
- Ameen: Never in control of the world like you want to be. These lads know that I have backed them all along and not criticised apart from Colchester and Morecombe
- Great to have others back and options. Then the trump card of moving Harry Smith back if we need it
- We were almost faultless today. Delighted for Ameen. Delighted for the club. Delighted for the group. Going to enjoy the trip back
- We still have a chance. Its a long shot
- One of their fans said 'well done, you played us off the park'
- Going to have some fish and chips on the way home!

That was the absolute key to stopping Grimsby and making them look shit

They can both win one as we’d top them on GD if we win all 3 games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbrTKw50X6U

Chesterfield have the easiest run in and the best goal difference. If someone's going to sneak in it might be them

Statistically there is less chance now than there was months ago when everyone was saying we had no chance.

Is that true? The likelihood of us winning has increased as the season has progressed. I.e. we've improved our short and medium term PPG considerably.

Shame townenders ELO prediction didn't have historicies

Edit:

You are correct, but it's hardly a dramatic drop

Currently giving us a 0.11% chance of playoffs

https://townenders.com/stat_elo_table_projection.php

On 10th November it was a 1.49% chance.

https://x.com/TownEndersSTFC/status/1855696945823863182?t=EgnHfiSVZd3CVcqnLBL0ig&s=19

Today shows how far we have come with Holloway in charge. Anyone else that was  at the 4-0 drubbing away at Colchester will understand that. Coming out the ground after an abysmal performance with certain relegation staring us in the face. Was that the game that put us rock bottom? Can’t remember. Don’t want to remember. Fast forward a few weeks and we’re celebrating a probable mid table finish with the threat of relegation banished. And yet here we are with a possibility of a playoff spot. Football is really a funny old game.

Yes, we were 92nd in the league for the first time ever after that game...

Yep, and seemingly nailed on for relegation having already lost at home to both Morecambe & Carlisle

https://townenders.com/match.php?match_id=20250118

Since then we’ve won 13 out of 25 (with 8 draws, & only 4 defeats).

Franchise in 3rd with 30 points when we were bottom with 13 points!

If Franchise don't pick up points soon and Carlisle continue their form, we could be in a chance of relegating Franchise.

i would love that!!

Here's hoping...

So incredibly unlikely. But that would make it all the sweeter if it were to happen...

Grant Hall v Gills at home

Others I can think of are Butterworth at Accrington and Longelo at wycombe in the cups.

Wonder what odds you would get for Swindon to get into playoffs and odds for going up!!!

Deffo don’t think its possible, but the way we are playing right now we can beat anyone and just got to hope the gods are looking down on us and others start to get stage fright……..

Here you go. If the massively unlikely happens and we make the playoffs, we fucking win them.

The difference between those two numbers is odd. If we make the playoffs I think we start favourites as we'd be on ridiculous form.

100/1 to make them and 150/1 to go up I could see!

Haven't bet for ages.

I know you can't but if you could go for a "double"  -£10 on Swindon to make play offs at 40 and accumulate a win into a 250-1 to win them, that would take you past £100k.  That would guarantee heart failure on 2 counts.

This in a nutshell.

In the Division we currently reside the requirement for a team that is hard working all over the pitch is a necessity. Having creative ball players and those with undoubted skill is always great to see and I would never want a team of big lumpers and hoofers which we have often witnessed from opposition sides at the CG over the years. What I do think is that IH has instilled a great work ethic into the squad which is proving successful and shows in the way the whole squad react to when scoring and winning games.

If we could get into the playoffs with our form even I'd be optimistic we could do it.

But the 0.11% chance ELO give us off that happening seems about right

Getting into the play offs would be a bigger challenge than actually winning the play offs (Wembley hoodoo excluded)

Indeed, as we all know that even if we do win our last 3 games theres no guarantee that the other teams lose their games.

Although its partly in our own hands its probably a far higher percentage that its totally out of our hands.

Whatever happens its been a good run in.

Worth sticking a bet on really. £250 for a quid. Too much reliance on others and need a wonder run, but not as if you would loose the Crown Jewels for a bit of fun.

Some very good comments in this thread by Grimsby fans about us and some very humble ones about us and Holloway.

https://forum.thefishy.co.uk/Blah.pl?m-1744992312/s-0/

Carlisle catching Accrington and Tranmere seems improbable at this point, never mind Franchise.

I would shed no tears if any of those were relegated ahead of Carlisle.

Carlisle is a horrible place to go to but they have a good fan base and very loyal.

Yeah got nothing against Carlisle to be honest. MK would be the obvious favourite to go but seems so unlikely.

We're going to miss Carlisle.  Only ground within 2 hrs of here.  Decent club, too.  The only negative I can think of is that pre-match pub options near the ground aren't great for away fans.

Accrington v Carlisle Monday. It would still be difficult 3 behind with 2 to go

Ah yes, forgot they had Accrington to play still.

Westley seems to have a bit about him for his age. Noticed a few things like the Cheltenham home game where the Cheltenham CB’s were man handling Smith all game, Westley came on and first thing he did when they tried to do the same to him was give them a bit back and shove them off him.

Seems to be that sort of striker that doesn’t get produced much anymore. The type you’d want up top next to a Paul Benson type.

Would be happy picking him up on a free transfer next season.

Old fashioned poacher. He’ll sniff out chances.
Clever movement.

Would gladly see him sign here.

442 with him & Smith up top could prove fruitful.

As Graham Westley's boy, you have to assume he's localish as well...which could work for us.

I think the other thing that needs consideration is that Holloway has said lots about continuity and building. Given this team has done really well in the back half of the season, I doubt whether he will want to change much in the off season.

He needs a goal keeper
He'll replace Tshimanga with Drinan
I think he'll try to keep Nichols.
Not sure whether other loanees will be released or allowed to come back. I suspect Cotterill will be replaced by Ameen/McGregor.
Hall will be off the wages and I wonder about Delaney.

Swindon to get promoted on BET365 on Friday night was 1000/1.

Now 250/1 with Bet365

Got me 81/1 for top 7.