Thetownend.com

Looking forward to attending. What will be the general reception for Harry McKirdy?  Cheer? Hiss? Don't give a toss?
I for one will applaud him.Nowt but admiration for the guy.
Wilts 3 Kent 0

It doesn't feel like a pantomime villain scenario with Mckirdy. Unless he does something stupid to wind up the crowd.

Doubt he starts anyway?

I've got a horrible 1-1 feeling about this

McKirdy will get a good reception.
He’ll also score & end our play off hopes.

Did McKirdy sign just till the end of the season? I see he hasn't started that many games.

Interesting Marcus Ifill has only played 3 games for Bromley (all sub appearances) and has only been involved in one matchday squad this month.

I dont think there's any reason for Harry to not get a good reception...

I read somewhere that since automatic promotion from the 5th tier in 1986, no team has gone straight back down and obviously that won't happen this season either, apparently that's 57 teams... I can't decide whether that's surprising or not...

Nothing negative about the fans in this interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcqOIEgsa20

Exactly...

In my opinion Ian Holloway is trying his very best in very a very difficult situation to pull the club together.

Good luck to him and only wish all stakeholders can find a way forward... yes even Morfuni

Ticket sales are looking pretty good today.

Even I’m going!

I’ve caved.

The boy is really getting into his football recently.

Couldn’t not take advantage of the kid for a quid offer.

Agreed

Its rude not to, I would take the grandaughter if I lived a fair bit closer than 120 miles from Swindon, thats a great deal, should get a decent crowd out of it too.

If it was in a better state it would have been a great chance to open the Bank and sell tickets for £10 a go too, just fill the ground for the last couple of games, show Ollie the potential we have as a club to get bums on seats.

Also it puts out a message to any potential owners out there that we could be a major force next season with the right backers.

Be great to break the 9k figure, no idea how many Bromley will bring though.

Piece of piss.   4-0.

I wonder when the last time (if ever) was that we won 4 games in a row scoring 4 goals or more in each game?

Also, if we win, it will be the first time since December 2019 under Wellens that we have won 5 on the bounce in the league.

It’s raining here now - so maybe not the day to fill the bank.

Folk who are at the game, Ivo Graham is distributing freebies from 2pm by the Don. Not exactly sure what, but I think more for the young 'uns.

They are kind of like STFC top trumps (without the ratings etc) so cards with players on past and present with a David thingy (the Guardian cartoonist) style picture and a description of said players.

Nice.

Not a cloud in the sky in Dorset/Somerset today.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpDza79boAA13wO?format=jpg&name=large)

Just the three strikers, must be going defensive.

Cox, Ofoborh and Delaney getting a rare start.

No sign of Sobowale though.

Ex Town players McKirdy and Ifill on the bench today.

Does feel like something's happened there, doesn't it.

Calling the McKirdy goal to finish our (slim) play off chances now…

Celebration too

Sobowale and Kirkman are not out of contract in the summer, maybe team selection at the moment is about the opportunity to earn a contract.

Kirkman I would love to get him on a longer contract, I like Sobowale but for whatever reason Ollie doesnt seem to rate him.

Sobowale splits opinion more diversely than I’ve ever seen in a town player (from memory). Ranges from some thinking he’s one of our best players to some thinking he’s amongst the worst.

I think he’s a fine league two squad member, one of those that you’d see make 20-25 appearances then see that most of them have come off the bench. I thought he showed more promise as a RCB in a back 3 but does seem to switch off sometimes.

26 now so really at that point where he’d likely want to be starting regularly to kick on but don’t think that happens here.

I’m not sure Sobowale has been doing what he’s been told to do, which is why he keeps getting dropped.

Based on nothing but a feeling

Not sure he's divisive as Remeao Hutton!

In recent years we have had a lot of players vastly dividing opinons of fans.

Hutton, Sobowale, Iandolo, Gladwin, Williams, Darcy, McKirdy, Austin, Aguiar, RHM, FBT, Khan, Minturn, Bycroft, McEachran, Glatzel, Kokolo, Brewitt, Drinan, Shade....I could go on but thats almost our entire squads from the last 2 or 3 season!

1 draw 7 defeats on every Easter Monday in the last 8 games played on this day for Town.

Bromley have only visited the County Ground once before and that was a 7-0 win for Town in 1976 in the FA cup.

Bromley win a corner.

Runaway January leaders Walsall extended their winless run to 12 games with a 0-0 at Newport earlier today.

Sowunmi in defence for them looks like a player you create on Fifa with the tallest height that you can give a player.

Smith wins Town a corner.

Cox corner finds Smith but his header goes high and wide.

Looking to be a decent attendance today with te Town End looking fuller than it has in many games.

My ifollow isn't working, so guess I won't be watching today.

Poor clearance by Ripley but they cant do anything with the ball.

Cotterill puts in a great cross but Smith cant beat the massive CB marking him.

Bromley are a fucking massive team.

Cotterill finds Kilkenny but his shot is low and weak and an easy save from 15 yards.

Ah there are also efc channels on top of ifollow. 33rd Channel lucky.

Nice break by Smith then Glatzel but he cant find a red shirt in the box.

At least you have it now!

I had to reload about 20 times before it connected

Good god that mic may need to be moved!

That looked like a penalty on Glatzel but he was offside.

Crikey! Glatzel didn’t look offside there.

Cheek has a shot but its low and weak and an easy save.

Ofoborh felled like a tree near the touchline 25 yards out. Yellow card for their defender.

Good dive by Ofoborh! Could have stayed on his feet and run through!

Decent delivery by Cox but its headed out for a throw in.

Cotterill nice cross to Smith but his header goes over the bar with the keeper well beaten.

Is it just me, or is the camera on iFollow at a wonky angle? Something seems off, but I’m not sure what.

Its definately slanted towards the Bank.

Bromley are pretty 1 dimensional and quite a dirty team.

Another yellow for them.

Yer that’s it! You certainly notice it when the camera pans to the townend!

Results not going well elsewhere

That’s quite kind. They don’t want the ball at all!

Very good cross again from Cotterill but its headed over for another corner, their keeper looks a bit of a flapper so far. He couldnt get through Tshimanga there!

Nor here!

Hot potato!

Irrelivant if we cant win today though.

Tshimanaga so close the keeper saves it but probably didnt know much about it.

Another corner for Town, a good spell by Town.

They break and get in a shot that Ripley saves at his near post for a corner.

Header over the bar but the ref gives them another corner.

Corner goes straight out for a goal kick.

Tshimanga surely foiled their giant defender in our box from that corner? Was sure the ref would give a penalty against us!

Watching Bromley today is a bit like watching a mid 80s Division 4 team, massive side, play the long ball and hoof it into the box every chance they get. Also trying to foul and bully us.

Its obviously worked well for them so far this season though, so fair play.

Smith links with Cox down the left but his early cross is easily taken by the keeper.

Bromley player dives in our box the ref waves play of.

Cox goes down in our box under no pressure nowhere near the ball at the time.

Cox back up he seems ok.

Bromley love a dive in the box.

I've watched 40 minutes of this game and already can't remember a thing about it.

Just thinking the same!

Cotterill deep cross too close to the keeper.

Hoof, dive, foul....rinse and repeat.

Penalty. Foul on Glatzel.

He saved it.

Not his best penalty but a decent save.

6 mins added.

Awful penalty.

Keeper is having a good game.

Defender lucky not to get a second yellow.

Completely on the piss. Roof of the town end is like a tilted room.

Game devoid of any quality.
A lot of hoof over the top that isn’t working.

Right in line with the first time Glatzel was given offside when he was pushed in the box. 98% sure he was onside then.

I think with Grant Smith being an ex teammate gave him an advantage in that, good save though TBH.

For me - it felt like Tshimanga was due a miss.
I’d have had something else take it just because of the vibes.

Corner to Town.

Really poor penalty basically just passed it to him. Not up to his usual standards but I guess he was due a miss

Poor corner by Cox way too deep.

HT 0-0

Missing Clarke

Bit naff so far. Terrible penalty. Oh well.

Been the better side but nowhere near enough quality so far to break them down. Poor pen from Tshimanga but he’s probably been due one as said by others.

There is some quality I think. Mainly when Kilkenny gets the ball. The Move resulting in the pen was lovely stuff

That was a neat move. As you say, most of our good stuff has been coming through Kilkenny like it has been a lot in recent weeks.

Well, in his first game DV Jr has done something I haven’t done in my 35 years of going to the CG.

A poo.

About as interesting stat as you’ll get out of that first half.

Brave lad in those toilets

Hepititis jabs up to date?

Butterworth on for Cox.

We’re in the Arkells & the toilets were not that bad in fairness.
I was pleasantly surprised.

Att: 8,865 (350 Broms) (I think was announced).

You mean there was running water and not just a hole in the ground?  Maybe things are looking up..

A bit of a comedy of errors so far this half.

Cleanish. Running water. Toilet paper. Well lit.

Unlike the dim, dark piss stinking holes in the DRS.

Bromley looking like they may have some players this half rather than hit and hope of the 1st half.

Diving fucks, Tshimanaga never even touched his ankle yet he went to floor gripping his ankle like he was snipered.

This has got 0-1 McKirdy written all over it.

We definitely needed to change something up - not sure Butterworth was that something.

tshimanga again wasnt anywhere near the keeper as he goes to the deck.

Footballers are pussies these days

I’d like to see Ameen on for Tshimanga

Good save by Ripley.

Butterworth is a disaster at LB and offering nothing going forward

All gone to shit since half time, hopfully Ollie makes some changes

Not sure Kilkenny off was the one…

Clarke on for Delaney
Nichols on for Kilkenny.

Hes done well today again IMO.

Great low save by Ripley from the dangerous winger.

Ripley is keeping us in this

Nichols shot saved by the keeper for a corner.

Their keeper likes the saves for the picture albums

Oh shit! McKirdy on

Early game he looked woeful too but is a different player this half.

He has.

I know we’ve done Fri - Mon & it’s not a game with a lot on it….so probably just giving him a rest.

Ameen on for Ofoborh
Westley on for Glatzel.

Glatzel is unlucky there

How the fuck did we miss that?

Bloody hell! How did that stay out?

Jesus christ, how did we not score there!!

Another good save from a Smith diving header

Well this is end to end!

I like Grant Smith. We were linked with him under Flynn.

When he was at Yeovil.

Yeah when they got relegated. In fairness, Mahoney wasn’t a bad keeper though.

Westley hits the post.

It’s not going to happen is it? 😢

That's that then

Daylight fucking robbery

0-1

Sucker punch that.
Great turn & cross but first bit of quality Bromley have shown (outside of their keeper) all game…

Not that we’ve been much better but definitely had more / better chances.

Fuck sake

Not there was ever really a chance of playoffs but port vale have equalised

4 mins added.

Too many good chances wasted by us in the 2nd half and the penalty first half, add to that a keeper playing the game of his life after he looked very poor early in the first half.

What a shame 😢

At least the hope won’t kill us anymore this year

FT 0-1

In a tight have you have to take your chances.

We didn't

Wasn't going to happen anyway realistically. The chances went a month ago.

Respect for the job Andy Woodman has done at Bromley.

Would have been nice for others to snatch it off us rather than us showing we weren’t good enough.

Having said that, at least it shows we aren’t good enough and changes will need to be made if we are ever going to get out of this league.

Flat compared to our recent blockbuster games.

One of those games where we needed a bit of pace & trickery to actually run at people.

Dogshit.
Bromley were fucking boring and we fell into the trap.

It was a decent performance, score the penalty and we pick them off.  They came for a point and nicked it as we chased the game. You have to take your chances...................

Under these owners we won’t. Best we can hope for is where we are now

Miss the Wimbledon and Bradford games. Seems fitting that I return for a 1-0 loss to Bromley.

We take one of the chances we had & it’s probably game over.

We just didn’t take advantage of so many chances that the sucker punch seemed inevitable. Just surprised McKirdy wasn’t involved (I think he touched the ball once)

I think the ball spent 75 minutes about 15ft off the ground.  Terrible game, especially after the last 2. I knew after 20 minutes we'd get fuck all from that.

That was shite. Just a whole load of nothing.

A timely reminder of what L2 football is all about.

Holloway will be well aware of what needs to be done.
Hopefully.

Pub of the match performance from the The Beehive with a timely supply of ale ahead of the salutary reminder of reality at the CG.

Ripley:
- Frustrating
- Should have come away with the win
- Had plenty of chances but didnt take them
- Keeper has had the game of his life
- Slip up at the back and we lose
- Cant be defeated on the pitch when its 0-0. Need to keep plugging away and create chances
- We did that, but our finishing wasnt up to the standards we have set in previous games
- We conceded, they didn't and they go away with 3 points
- When its mathematically possible, then you think about it. If we won today then we could have been 3 points away with 2 games left
- We went out with a fizzle not a bang
- Team is well capable of playoffs and promotion
- They are very organised and have some good players.
- We had about 20 chances to score and didnt do it
- I'm frustrated as are the rest of the team
- Third game hes lost since hes been here. That has been promotion form. But need to cancel out silly mistakes and losing to bottom half teams. Should be capitalising on that. Then 2 wins and a draw against top 3
- Manager sees that he has the players and needs to get the mentality right.
- Ripley has a lot to think about at the end of the season. His son loves Swindon.
- We need to have the mentality of we are going somewhere and noone is going to stand in our way
- Will always listen to offers. Enjoyed time here. Have already put something in place with his partner if the offer from Swindon is good. Thoroughly enjoying football at Swindon. Will have to wait and see. Not saying that he wont sign because his family is up north. He has something in place if he continues at Swindon

Difficult game against a well organised and physically capable team.

We had the chances Tshimanga X2 incl pen and 2x Smith headers you'd half expect to nestle in. I'd give their keeper their MoM.

But such is football. Can't complain.

Although the playoffs have never been on, to even mathematically be able to make them with 3 to go is insane given our December position. Great job Ollie.

With respect, that's bollocks

I'm inclined to agree...

Holloway:
- Obviously disappointing when you miss a penalty and dont take your chances
- Biggest disappointment is after they scuffed a goal then we didn't look as if we knew we could score and the ref didnt add on the right amount of time
- Then the ref didnt send a player off for the penalty.
- Had words with the ref
- We got mugged
- They didnt follow the process.
- We needed another comeback. We didnt look like getting a win
- Subs normally make a difference. They didnt today.
- Cox was injured. Butterworth didnt look ready to come on. Don't know Just told him that. But its not his fault
- Didnt think there was pressure. Moved it well but didnt score
- Glatzel would have scored but was hacked down
- We kept hitting corners in against a big side, when we worked on lots of short corners
- When your season is over, it hurts
- To lose our home record when we had everything to play for is disappointing
- Think that 70+ will be needed. We could only have got 69, but its still disappointing
- Will look at who is signed on and who has impressed. Will have to pick them
- Gave Kirkman a rest because of previous injury
- Thought Ofoborh was outstanding. Wanted to protect Clarke and Nichols who are carrying injuries
- Medical staff had raised a flag about them at the end of last game
- Thought we'd have been at least 1 up at half time
- Made a call, which didnt work as we lost. We stopped trying with a few mins left. Hadnt seen that for months.
- Old habits come back when it matters. Its not good enough is it?
- Ripley and Westley looked as if they were trying
- Ripley: Has lots to think about. Will try to seize through and get the right people signed on
- Please twist Holloway's words. He will be making the decisions he thinks are right for the club
- He his high hopes for next season. He's really excited to attract people to help this group grow even further.
- You dont win if there are mins and secs left and you drop your shoulders
- Has been pleased that he has made improvement with only adding 3 (while others added 13). Going to look how to integrate youths too
- Going to have a chance to look at how we improve things in the future. Can add his vast experience. It is the right fit for him and his family. Is honoured and finds it a thrill being here.

Can't be too down, decent performance, their goalie will never play another game like that.  Agree with Ollie, they should have been down to 10 for the foul for the penalty and four minuites of second half added time was laughable, with all the subs which are normally 30 secs each added.

Plus,don't understand the Kilkenny substitution

Right, passports ready, cases nearly packed, cricket season underway.

So close, or closer than we thought pre new year. We’d have taken where we will finish when we were bottom. That said it won’t stop us thinking about what might have been.

Onto next season, if he can keep the nucleus of the squad (however many that may be) and build upon it then with the way we have competed in 2025 we ought to be in with a good shout of success in 25/26 budget not withstanding. Or with out Standing 🤣

At the end of the day I agree with him, going to need 70+ points anyway.

What, that I would have preferred for us to have won the last 3 games? We would have ended on 69 points and I think that the last place will have between 70-72 points.

I think that we need to upgrade in several positions if we are to mount a promotion challenge next year. We need a goalkeeper (I hope Ripley stays), upgrades to Butterworth and Cotterill in midfield. Better strikers than Tshimanga (more involved, stay on feet), Glatzel (better first touch more clinical) and Westley (impact sub perhaps at best?).

If you think that's bollocks, then fine.

Yes, 72 points as a minimum normally.

I thought Cotterill was very good especially lately.  Glatzel has looked dangerous in recent weeks.  Tshimanga would cost too much for the budget, but I think he only got games because of Drinan's injury.  Westley is intriguing, won't be surprised if he gets signed.

I think it’s fair to say we can upgrade - I don’t think many will argue with that.

…but…it’s also a bit harsh to throw out that we ‘aren’t good enough’ because the current squad + Holloway has been on promotion form for at least 4 months.

Collectively over the whole entire season we haven’t been good enough but there is a very clear distinct obvious change in form between pre Holloway & post Holloway.

Whilst I get football doesn’t work exactly like this …but… 46 games under Holloway (based on his numbers) & we are top 3.

tldr: we were not good enough under Kennedy - we have been good enough under Holloway.

From Holloway's comments, he will be picking from players who are signed on for next season, or who have impressed recently and with an eye on integrating youths. So, that must be:

Signed on for next year:
Sobowale, Clarke (poss injured), Brown, Kilkenny, Butterworth, H Smith, Evans, Wright, Delaney, Kirkman, McGregor, Hart, Minturn (injured), Mitchell (?)

Impressed:
Ripley, McGregor (injured), Ameen, Glatzel (and poss Nichols - although he was scathing of subs today)

And youths:
Harry Chard & Antony McCormick

Agree with you there. He was a MotM contender before being taken off!

I think it’s very easy to get caught up in the current emotion of our run and rate players higher than actually are. There’s surgery to be done to this squad for sure next season but the extent of it is much smaller than we would have said in January.

There’s some good cogs here to keep and create a well oiled machine around. Luckily, most of the cogs you’d want to keep are already contracted for next season and most of the “dead weight”/happy to move on players seem to be running out of contract this season.

Good enough for play offs perhaps. Not necessarily promotion.

Reflections

Left ourselves no wiggle room in the league has caught up with us.
Referee should have booked the player for penalty but clearly exercised double jeopardy as opposed to serving the yellow which would have been a red card.  

The penalty itself well he has used the same technique to great effect but needed to mix it up.  Didn’t help himself by adding delay by trying to steal an inch on placement.  With the power he uses it makes no difference as keeper goes right way he was always gonna save it.

Good reminder for Holloway when is is forming next seasons squad that we will come up against physical teams like Bromley and need to be able to deal with that better.

Would release Delaney and try for sowumni if opportunity presented itself.

Just one of those days where we would of played all day and not scored as it wouldn’t sit.

Saves cost of trip to Gillingham

Seemed flat today compared to other weeks. Even the crowd was a bit quiet for long stretches. When we missed the penalty i turned to my son and said not sure it’s our day today and can’t for the life of me understand how we didn’t score at least one. Their keeper had a MoM performance.

Also, what cards did we all get?

Will Wright, Harry McKirdy, Simon Cox, Super Sammy Parkin & Paul Bodin for me…

See,this is what I don't get. No one's getting " caught up in the emotion" of our recent run . All the players that played today are good enough in my opinion but you're willing to say the squad's not good enough on the basis of one result, when we've clearly been the better team.

Our ‘recent’ run has been too long & sustained to be a fluke.
On the face of it that appears to be the levels the players are capable of playing at. It’s arguably enough to have us up there over a season.

Squad can be improved though. We need more variety for a plan B; as evidenced today.

That's a fair point Deev, but how many chances did we create in the last 15 minutes.. Enough to win the game I thought

Did I say the squad is not good enough in that post?

Likewise if I did say that, then I would have been consistent in my opinion of that (as I’ve mentioned multiple times before this season) as it’s not an opinion based off of todays result. Even during the good run, I’ve been consistent in my opinion that the overall squad likely needs surgery this summer to a degree but the size of that surgery in my opinion has lessened slightly.

But anyway, my message here is that just like it would have been easy to get caught up in the emotion of current day and underrate players of this squad pre Christmas during our horrendous run, it’s equally easy to do the same in reverse during this good run. There is 100% good players to build around in this squad and it doesn’t need a major overhaul, just a healthy dose of tweaks and to do that, especially within our budget, IH will have to be realistic on those that need to be moved on and some players who have played a part in this uptick in form will be part of that.

I’ve been consistent in my opinion most of this season that this is an overall midtable squad with a decent level nucleus set of players within it that can be built around.

Did anyone think that their keeper moved early for the pen save?

Looked a close one to me.

If VAR was mandatory at our level, how different would the league table look? Obvs can’t answer with certainty but bloody hell wouldn’t there have been games that had a different outcome, not just for us it has to be said.

Yeah,you did. "Surgery required". For me, the only thing we need to do is get a keeper. And that's only if Ripley doesn't sign. This squad,as proved, is far more than mid table

He moved early and was off his line when it was taken, should have been retaken.

Surgery required means surgery required.

None of that is an impulse reaction just to today’s result.

Either way, I disagree with your opinion there and that’s fine, we’re both entitled to that.

The most Swindon result ever!

Beat top of the League in a thriller, destroy a promotion chasing side away 4 zip and lose a dead rubber at home 1 zip to an OG and the player that hasnt missed a pen, misses one!

Could of won 50 nil and would of counted for shit!

rebuild starts now...

We dodged non league and that was nailed on for a while.

What a shit day. Up at 1.30am to take grandson to Gatwick. Car overheats on way back, oil in coolant - probable head gasket, but at least driveable.

Way back from match windscreen gets cracked.

Ultimately we’ve ended up where we deserved to be.

Underachieved under Kennedy and when you factor in the number of late comebacks, red cards and penalties that have gone for us I’d say we’ve overachieved under Holloway. We’ve got a mid table squad and that’s where we have finished.

Today summed that up, plenty of endeavour but a lack of genuine quality.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlbdiNyn2JI

 I’ve consistently said this squad is mid table at best.
We need to improve the defence - we’ve conceded 62 goals - almost 1.5 a game.
Apart from Grimsby (who like Crawley last year have very few draws but have lost almost as many as they have won) and Walsall who’ve been in free fall since January, the other teams are in the top 8 have conceded less than 50. 
Part of the problem has been the injuries - Delaney, Hall, Minturn, Cox and McGregor have all had long spells out - but we rarely look secure at the back. A lot of fans criticise  the attack and give defenders a free pass - one game earlier I recall we conceded 3 at home and man of the match nominees included Wright and Sobawale - unbelievable!
The discussion about Sobawale earlier in this thread highlights this - he has pace and energy, and looks reasonable going forward, but his positional sense and first touch are very poor.
As a minimum next year, in defence only (assuming we sign Ripley or another keeper) we need at least two centre backs  to replace Hall, probably Delaney (unless with a proper pre season we can get 90 mins from him regularly), and add a right back (unless McGregor stays of course).
Hopefully Minturn and Kirkman can kick on next season and become regulars.

So many people absolutely dying for us to lose so they can justify their opinion that this squad isn't good enough when we've proved over the last 3 months that we're among the best squads in this division

It's not the Prem, there really aren't stand out squads in this division. It's a whole lot of similar squads with a handful of standout individuals like Lowe in the first part of the season or McGoldrick when he's fit.

For the most part this league is confidence, luck and having a halfway achievable game plan.

Fitness too. But yeah, being a success in league two certainly doesn't involve reinventing the wheel.

Fitness a valid point. Can have all the right components but if they can’t stay fit for more than 4/5 games at a time, then do you really have the components?

3 months doesn’t make a season, we’ve just done a reverse of last year.

The league table doesn’t lie. Over 46 games, we are a mid-table league 2 team, no better and no worst.  At the key points where we had the chance to kick on and make a late charge we couldn’t as we were lacking in key areas.

Yeah, thanks for pointing out seasons don't last 3 months. Just as they didn't in October when you said this squad "had nothing about it" and were "definitely going non league"

Come on now, its unfair to bring up 'wild posts' from a posters history.

A season of two halves.
The amount of crosses we allowed them to get in unchallenged was criminal, ultimately led to their goal. Block, challenge, do something.

We were bottom of the league playing some of the worst football in our history back then so I think that was a fair assumption to make. Kudos to Holloway for getting a tune out of this squad I'll give him respect for that. The reality is this will still be our 3rd or 4th worst ever finish.

Of course we don’t know what a full season under Holloway would have looked like, we'll find that out next season but we are going to end up about 10 points off the top 7 come the end of the season which will be about the same size gap points wise as when Holloway was appointed. Donny showed last season if you are good enough then you will reach the playoffs, we've never looked like making it, every time we looked like having a sniff we slipped up like away at Harrogate, Morecambe and yesterday.

We just weren't good enough for anything other than mid table, whether it's the defence, midfield or the way we play we concede too many goals. We were a couple of players away from being true Playoff contenders.

The Easter Monday game showed where we are - especially not strong enough in defence, which has had too much chopping and changing due to injuries etc.  We can't expect to outscore the oposition almost every game, and play out so many draws, and expect to win promotion.  We can't afford lose points to the likes of Morecambe, Harrogate, Carlisle or Bromley, limited but effective in some or most games. 

Don’t deny that…but…I bet the likes of Doncaster, Port Vale, Bradford, Walsall, Notts County, Wimbledon etc have all had games like that.

Games where either their attackers haven’t had their shooting boots on or the defenders have made cock ups or they’ve been robbed by officials or just plain played badly in a game they were expected to win.

Those traits aren’t specific to us (I imagine - I haven’t checked)

After a quick 2 minute look only at Doncaster - they’ve lost to Bromley twice, Harrogate once & drawn with Carlisle.

Typical League 2, none of those teams have run away with promotion and all have lost at least 9 games so far.   If in League 2, referees are soft on physicality and shirt pulling etc. as Ollie points out, there are going to be ganes where superior skill is not enough.  Be interesting to see if Ollie signs an enforcer.

The first goal conceded stat is the most damning for us, we’ve conceded first 23 times, that’s more than half the matches we’ve played and only 4 teams have a worst record than that. You aren’t going to achieve anything if you keep leaving yourself a mountain to climb every match. That really needs to be addressed next season.

It's why I wouldn't be upset if someone does come in for Wright. As good as he is at so many other things, he's not been particularly good as an actual central defender.
I wonder if we'd be better of moving him permanently to midfield. It would allow him to get forward, as he constantly wants to do anyway. Then Holloway can focus on a new solid backline.

Possibly, he’s definitely a luxury centre back but chopping and changing his partner hasn’t helped.

Stats do absolutely highlight our issues though. We’ve spent 31% of the season being behind in games, only Carlisle, Morecambe and Accrington have been behind for a longer period than us this season. We’ve scored more goals in the last 10 minutes than anyone else with 19 in total but that isn’t the recipe for a successful team.

How does that stat split between Kennedy & Holloway?

Grimsby looked dog shit against us both games yet are much higher as well.

Walsall were pissing it and have fallen off.

Its a bad league. You don't need to be very good to get out of it at the right end. Basics.

Something like 60% conceded first under Kennedy reduced to about 35% under Holloway so a noticeable improvement but it’s clearly an issue. When you look at a half time league table we are 22nd, we’ve only been winning at half time 9 times all season versus losing 16 times. We’ve all seen it with our own eyes but the stats just show how much of an uphill battle we create for ourselves and fair play we have managed to turn around a lot of games but it’s not a sustainable record for success.

We are a really weird team, some of our stats are amongst the best in the league and some are amongst the worst. We aren’t really mid-table in anything but the 2 cancel each other out to create a mid-table team.