Thetownend.com

Released Thursday 26 June at 12 noon.

Appropriate thread

Some decent away days in that.
Also with the amount of people boycotting home games you'd like to think a few more will travel.

I think if we get off to a decent start to the season many of the "boycott fans" will return TBH.

I do think many wont boycott anyway despite what they say with over 3,800 season tickets already sold.

But I cant help but think if the club was actually sold by Clem and his gang during the Summer that the figure for season tickets would reach 6k+.

I was gonna say if we're doing well I'm going to have to clock some miles in to see us. At lease there are a few more southern ones now.

It actually works out to be 860 miles (round trip miles) less this coming season that it was last season.

Barnet (156), Bristol R (80), Cambridge (250), Crawley (214), Shrewsbury (206) and Oldham (344) = 1,250 miles in total.

replacing

Port Vale (208), Bradford (412), Doncaster (360), Wimbledon (164), Morecambe (424) and Carlisle (542) = 2,110 miles in total.

Hope they don't stitch us up with Barnet on a Tuesday night. I've not done their new place. Can imagine our allocation will be tiny though.

OK, quick question, who do you want (home or away)?

1. First game
2. Boxing Day
3. Last game

For me

1. Dongs (a)
2. Gash (h)
3. Gash (a)

Not what I want but I am guessing.

As for actual opponents I dont care as we have to beat them all at some point anyway :)

1st game Barnet away.

Boxing Day Bromley home.

Last game MKD away.

Unlikely to have The methane farts on Boxing or New Year’s Day. Not Good Friday or Easter Monday. Nor August BH week end.

My guess is one midweek, Sunday or Saturday lunch time kick off.

Shrewsbury away
Gas home or away
Wallsall or Dons away so we can take a few thousand to celebrate promotion!

1. Cambridge away
2. Anyone at home
3. Notts County away

Could be worse....

(https://scontent.fman4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/510976636_1130830099072238_2643194054510544189_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=lp3XEH5uelsQ7kNvwGQGixm&_nc_oc=Adn89SBlxo6g3fM0lxAmC7rVXVzsNeZnVBo3-KXmpBcU_9lSKX6LDQY0gpvZxOGBNAM&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fman4-1.fna&_nc_gid=I-51X0Y9wR20hLt4MuMcaA&oh=00_AfM-dIUx_8i_bmlgssh5mOvd2WMnX6dKiySo__BYVqg7TQ&oe=68617FCF)

Franchise and Reading in our Pizza Cup group.

Who gives a fuck ????  Hardly anyone has any interest.

Fucking hell. Makes a shit competition even worse.

Imagine the Reading game will be lively again.

What time today?  :sherlock:

12 noon  :rocket:

12 pm today mate.

Thanks both  :baby:

Walsall away 1st game then.

(https://i.postimg.cc/gkvX9Jrj/512576188-1176292457872508-6088810200771270421-n.jpg)

Walsall away first game of the season... tasty!

September looks exciting  ::)

Barnet away...a fookin Tuesday (17th Feb). Gits.

Pox away to Millwall last game of the season  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Carabao cup draw at 4.20. Port Vale or Shitty will do.

West Ham 21’s also in our Pizza Cup group.

Cardiff away in the carabao

We havent played Cardiff in a long time, decent draw for n away game, not too far away.

Decent draw and imagine we will take a fair few unlike the old days at Ninian Park

Another first round exit 🙄

Barnet Gills and Notts County away all on Tuesday nights? Fuck off.

Yeah,  I had all of those earmarked as potential away trips. Never mind, happens every season.....

Let’s hope it goes a bit better than the first game last season.

I didn't think a 1-1 draw away at Chesterfield was too bad.

Yeah, very encouraging result and goal.of the season contender from Will Wright... sadly went badly downhill thereafter...

Should have said home game.

Yes, that was pretty catastrophic...my one home game I actually attended live :no:

Three decent away games in December and pikeys at home on New Year’s Day.

My birthday is in between Cheltenham & Rovers, so will either be a great birthday of ruined by the Town

Think positive we will win them both😁 Also Cheltenham home and away in December.

https://x.com/theterras/status/1939629981832720621?s=46&t=JFJ6WuyoqR937j03pvTFhQ

Weymouth FC state they are playing a “Swindon X1” on the 26th July. Assume that will be so anyone not starting at Eastleigh can get 60-90 mins in the legs.

Cheers for that, I may take a little trip down there as its fairly local to me. We havent played them in a few years.

Colchester away moved to Friday night.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2025/july/04/town-s-trip-to-colchester-united-next-year-moved-to-friday-10-april/

The away games at Crewe and Oldham moved to 12:30 to be shown on Sky Sports+

Colchester away on a Friday evening is a horrible journey done that one. The other two aren’t ideal as it means an early start for fans.

Just noticed in my google calendar that the Newport away fixture on Saturday 4th of October has changed to a 12.30pm kick off!  :hmmm:
 

Newport away is always changed  ::)

Put money on Bristol Rovers away in December being a 12.30 kick off.

Proper old school ground and doubt it will look like that nice when we play them next season.

Blundell Park Cleethorpes I believe...

Correct😁 it looks quite nice with the sea in the distance.

I see Walsall are selling tickets at a reduced rate for Over 60's  :D

Yay! shame its not in 6 months when I turn the big 6 0 :)

I see we have sold out our initial 1,265 allocation for Walsall in just over a day on sale, another 500 tickets will be made available soon.

Cracking support from Town fans as always. Sure the extra 500 will be snapped up also, will make for a great atmosphere to start the season.

Imagine what it must be like for Tabor if he gets any game time, gone from playing in front of less that 100 people to potentially being backed by over 1600 away fans

Wasn't going to go but it's getting pretty tempting.

I reckon if the additional 500 get snapped up we could get an extra 235 to round up to 2000.
Cracking effort for the curtain raiser.

If only we could get close to that amazing 3,590 fans that went back in May 2022 again, maybe if there was a new owner in place by then.....

It is very tempting, and I would definately consider going if we didn't have a family wedding to go to, ironically in Swindon so I will be watching on mobile during the service, fucking inconsiderate wankers picking the 1st day of the season to get married on, and at 4pm.

Disgusting.

Well you know what to do, when the vicar asks the is there any reason why these can't be married you can remind them of the need for Saturday afternoons and clearly compromise isn't in the relationship.

Bit more of this
https://x.com/Reeeeves1969/status/1945213161814048959/video/1

goosebumps

the potential of this club is absolutely off the charts

please somebody buy us.

We’ll be 3-0 down by 4pm anyways - no bother.

In Cardiff today and having a pint at the Tiny Rebel bar. Very much looking forward to the away game now!

You got there early?

Yes. Important scouting mission…

That Tiny Rebel bar is right next to the Principality Stadium right? We went there with family who went to egg chasing, we 'watched' the game on TV there. The beer is awesome.

Yes that’s the one. Wobbly Bob and I will make sure to arrive early as I imagine it will be very popular.

Facebook page saying more Walsall tickets are on sale.

No availability for Walsall away so guess we sold the extra 500.  Great effort and looking forward to an amazing atmosphere.  Last year was a cracking day out so hope for a repeat performance.

I wonder what the cost is if we asked Wallsall to print another 500 tickets even if we didn’t sell them. Surely it can’t be that much if we didn’t sell them all and had to return them and not as if it stops Wallsall fans from watching the game.

Cardiff the same.

My understanding is that it's all done on commission with STFC taking a small cut on each ticket sold. The bigger question is whether Walsall condiser it worthwhile opening up another section to us with all the extra work that may entail, and of course the risk of upsetting the 10 home fans who usually sit in that area.

https://www.freebets.com/news/gab-suttons-efl-league-two-1-24-season-predictions-2025-26/

Gab Sutton 'EFL Expert' has predicted a 17th place finish. Bit harsh if you ask me


17. Swindon Town

Had Swindon’s season began when Ian Holloway was appointed, on 25th October, they would’ve finished two points off the Play-Offs.

The Wiltshire outfit scored a whopping 57 goals in that 33-game period, the most in the division, and optimists will argue that Holloway’s new three-year contract puts the club in a great position to challenge for promotion this season.

The more pessisistic view, however, recognises that the Bristolian boss has managed for less than a combined two years since leaving QPR in 2018, and one year has been spent at Grimsby, where most hold him responsible for their relegation in 2020-21.

And, without idly assuming too much based on stereotypes, ‘Ollie at 62 doesn’t carry the impression, at least, of a manager constantly absorbing super technical ideas.

He can do a bit of that, of course, but for him it may be more about galvanizing a group, getting into people, and motivating them to live each day like it’s their last.

That approach to management translates nicely to a strong in-season impact, especially off the back of somebody who didn’t do that side quite as well, but possibly less nicely to sustainable progress over the course of a full campaign.

The problem is that it can be quite repetitive for players, after a certain point. There have been examples, at this level, in recent seasons of experienced managers with similar skillsets to Holloway who lifted the players initially through sheer force of positivity, but then in their second year, they kept saying the same thing and the players stopped listening.

There may be an outside possibility of that happening at Swindon, if Holloway doesn’t have the level of technical detail to his work to back up his natural aura, passion and charisma.

Plus, while Clem Morfuni remains owner of Swindon, and Anthony Hall, chief executive, it feels as if the club could implode at any minute, for all sorts of reasons.

From those perspectives, it’s difficult to place too much faith in Town, but they do have a good squad, despite the loss of Tunmise Sobowale to St Mirren.

Progressive centre-back Will Wright, high-potential wing-back Joel McGregor, playmaker Gavin Kilkenny, creative forwards Paul Glatzel and Tom Nichols plus target man Harry Smith all have serious capabilities at this level, while seasoned forward Billy Bodin is set to sign.

Meanwhile, talented midfielder Joe Snowdon, from Leeds, and defender Finley Munroe, on loan from Aston Villa, both look exciting additions.

With that in mind, it might seem foolhardy to predict a season midway through the bottom half for Swindon, who you could also argue have a best XI not far off top seven standard.

So, there’s a high variance for Town, like Crewe mentioned above, yet even with a playing squad that looks compelling in certain areas, they remain a very difficult club to trust.

Interesting...the article has been well researched to be fair but....17th....bloody hell that would be disappointing / disastrous....and I think he's wrong. I think Holloway has far more strings to his managerial bow than he's giving him credit for but we shall see.

Is he an Oxford fan? I've a feeling he is...

Edit: no, that's someone else who does a lot of EFL coverage.

It has a touch of sour grapes about Ollie to me, maybe a Grimsby or Rovers fan.

Providing Holloway stays, and we won't have a random exodus of players, 17th is an absolutely outrageous prediction.

Funnily enough, he has Grimsby 2nd. We absolutely decimated them twice. They were horrific.

The off field concerns are valid, for sure, but SO far, Holloway has taken full control and it seems that what he says goes. For as long as that continues, I have us good for a top 7 finish minimum.

Agree.

Interesting he has Grimsby 2nd, I havent read the whole piece yet but that seems to tie in to my guess. They were utterly awful in both games we played against them.

I actually don't mind his reasoning and the above explains it perfectly
  - a lot of variance
  - risk of Ollie not able to sustain his input
  - club has ability to self destruct

I personally think 17th is a tad pessamistic, but had he said top half with a chance of playoffs I think I'd agree.

If Tabor fires in league 2 then playoffs minimum, but its such an unknown despite the excellent signs.

The stuff about Holloway not being technical is laughable. For all his waffle, his football knowledge is very impressive. Even if it wasn't. It's League Two. It's basically kick and rush people anyway,

I think that Holloway is very very technical in his approach and he always says what he thinks.

Some managers at this level over estimate the intelligence of some players at this level asking them things on the pitch that only top players can pull off.

Most do not have the football intelligence needed for complex tactics unless they are players are nearing the end of a decent career.

They are in L2 for a reason, they are not fully rounded footballers and all have a limitation of one sort or another be it youth/ability/commitment/fitness or attitude, otherwise they would be at least in the Championship by now.

So often no matter what tactics are employed some players will not be able to follow those orders....hence Sobowale leaving.

What I like about Holloway is that he's Old School but certainly not a dinosaur which the article seems to be suggesting...

The article seemed contradictory, reeling off a litany of talented players, then predicting a very disappointing finish, albeit with a finger pointed firmly at the manager. However, Ollie’s post-match comments at Chippenham are becoming clearer now, perhaps the second half on Saturday is a microcosm for the upcoming second season for Ollie. The intensity has to be maintained, with maybe Ollie having learnt a thing or two from mixed second-season success at previous clubs. Upcoming triumphs may be a matter of Ollie’s mentality and keeping Smudger content with his contract.

Also I will add....

Holloway (sems to) care/s about the club/players/fans. yes hes outspoken at times but wears his heart on his sleeve.

All too often we have managers who literally are going through the motions and have no personality and look like they are doing the job to just get the cheque at the end of the month.

How many times did Williams, Kennedy, Lindsey, Garner, Morris and Sheridan ever come out and say anything that would remotely sound like a rallying call to fans? or anything resembling anything close to a passion, how many every said they appreciated the fans? how many were honest with reporters? for me its none of those.

Holloway shows constantly all of those attributes, the players love him, the staff love him and most of the fanbase love him, yes hes raw round the edges and says things that can be taken the wrong way but I would take that form of communication from a manager over anything from the previous Town managers I mentioned every day of the week even though I know he grates with some fans I like it, its refeshing to have a manager with spirit.

I make no bones about it, I fucking love the man.

As you rightly say he's not perfect, of course he's not...he's human. That just adds to his appeal if anything. I may be wrong but I personally think he sees this as his last big job in football and is putting every ounce of passion, energy, knowledge and experience that he's built up over the last 50 years into it...you just can't fake that.

We're going to have our squad fully in place and settled in for the first game of the season for the first time in...I don't know how long. None of this 11.00pm on the 31st August or picking someone off the street on the 1st September. To a large degree , it was in place by the start of pre-season training which must be an absolute first. That's all down to Olly....he was putting contract offers to players before the end of the season and giving them hard and fast deadlines and if they they couldn't make up their minds...tough shit!!! I wonder if Bycroft and Ofoborh are having regrets now? He's on a mission and I'm loving it...

Totally agree about his current stint being his finale, he is not going to accept anything resembling mediocrity as evident on Saturday for his comments on the second half. He is on record on his aim to emulate Lou Macari.  I think players wiling to sign for the Town this pre-season indicates that they smell success - who doesn't want a promotion on their cv?

Agree.

So much of his fitness levels and approach to games/tactics reminds me of the great Lou Macari and our side in the mid 80s.

I hope we can emulate that team this season.

Also though, if we don't start well then lets not get on anyones backs and things will change I am sure.

In the 102 point season we only won 2 of our first 8 games in the league but there was always a feeling there that it was going to be a good season even then. (that pre season we could only draw 0-0 at Chippenham too ;) ).

Not that pre season result really mean anything but we have never beaten Eastleigh yet, 6 games played with 4 defeats and 2 draws previously.

Be nice to get a win there this weekend.

I do think Holloway is a lot more technically minded than people give him credit for, only have to listen to some of his interviews for that to come across.

Interestingly the betting site that he's writing for has us at 7th favorite for the title soapy tit wank

Walsall showing as sold out online now, that's some following fair play! Wonder if we will get anymore

So is that a 1,765 allocation sold out?

Yeah certainly looks like it!

Thats not bad at all.

For me the key sentence in the Gab Sutton article is the one which says “under Morfuni and Hall it fees that the club could implode at any time”.
This is precisely why I think we will be finishing mid table at best. The dynamic duo could undermine Holloway’s efforts in more than one way, eg
1. There are still almost 6 weeks to the end of the summer transfer window - plenty of time for the bid which is “too good to turn down” for a key player and the replacement being of a lower standard, and in most of the January transfer windows under Morfuni we have finished those with a weaker squad than we began.
2. Admin error (late payment of wages or HMRC) leading to a points deduction or transfer embargo.

In the positivity generated by IH transforming the team / league position last season, we should not ignore the issue with the owner remains.
I’m hoping for a good season, and pleased that we have had most of the squad here for pre season, and with the exception of Ofoborh, retained those I wanted us  to keep from last season. Those factors give me a level of optimism to offset teh ownership worries to a degree, but I won’t be blinded to them.

As an aside, Reg would also have told us we need an experienced right back to be serious contenders!

He's absolutely banking on the ownership fucking it to predict that, because on the pitch we look comfortably top 10 and probable play offs minimum.

But given we have the ownership we have, it might be fair.

I’m looking forward to this season and all things being equal I’m expecting, not hoping for the play offs as a minimum.

However, still not going to home games, sorry, that’s my choice and how I feel about the owners. There is this nagging feeling that IH is PDC waiting to happen. I gave him 18 months before it implodes but by fuck I do hope I’m wrong and he can not only get us up into L1 but get us over the line into the championship.

Welcome to BB, nice to see him back and I sincerely hope we get a couple of seasons out of him with the minimum of injuries. Goes to show how bat shit crazy PDC was to ostracise him when there was a decent player there for us to utilise foe a few seasons going forward.

Walsall sending another additional load of tickets for the season opener.
The belief is there this season, let's hope it's the same on the grass.

There will be more people in the away end alone than Tabor has ever played in front of. That should be enough to get him motivated. Should be a cracking atmosphere. I wonder how many more tickets we will get, maybe another 500 or so?

Don't know how many, I thought about 250 or so to get us up to about 2000.
I see Walsall have signed Aden Flint

You don't get to have a 30 year career in football management with 9/10 clubs if you're PDC level batshit.

Wallsall tickets back on sale.

Thanks!

It doesn’t say how many tho.

At least 2 :)

I assume the shop/ticket office are open as per the website?

A new one for me from the ticket office regarding Walsall. As a season ticket holder I always get my full price adult ticket when eligible. I have two over 60 occasional travelling companions who both live away from Swindon. This time around I got another over 60 ticket when general sale started. Then the third of our group said he wanted to go so ordered another over 60 ticket. This time I get a call from the box office asking why I am buying an over 60s ticket when shown as 57 on their database. I had to point out I had bought my full priced ticket earlier and these were for others before the ticket could be put in the post! I’ve been doing this for many years but the first time anything’s been checked!

Same happened to me.
My eldest son 17 can't go but my youngest son who is 14 l, his mate is coming who is 13 and they asked me why I was ordering an U14 ticket when my season tickets don't match the criteria. Explained everything they were kind of happy as this child isn't the season ticket holder so I said I'd pay the additional £5. Still haven't received any of my tickets as yet but know guys who have received them already.

Also when you spoke to them did they give you any indication as to how many we are taking ? I tried to ask but they cut the call as they said they had many more people to contact.

I got that for my u16 (at the time) son.

I'm fairness he had turned 16 during the season and I had bought the wrong ticket by accident (£2 more for u18).

Trying to catch the freeloaders !!.

I see the last train home from Cardiff is 9:30pm, bit annoying - assume they wont put on a later train.

After the second round of sales we had sold 1765. Not sure how big the final top up allocation is or how many have been sold but apparently the typical away allocation is around 2000 but I'm not sure if that includes the section of the side stand we've been given.

There’s still tickets behind the goal and also in the corner of the side stand which are £2 more.

I was told they'd sent another 500 in addition to the 1700 so we're looking good for 2000+

That would be a great turn out.
Would be good if the club showed how many on the ticket site
Reducing the figure after each sale so we could gauge it. I'm sure more people went to the mammoth away day because they heard the numbers going, the more noise generated about sales the more turn out.

I didn't pay much attention throughout the thread, how many of us (TEF members) specifically are going?  I'm going with the old man.  Maybe I should just start a poll to make it easier to guage?

My armchair awaits (how did I ever live without you Sky+)...but yeah, chuck a poll up Kinky...

Roger that OST 8)

That’s a great turn out considering it’s peak holiday season.

It is James.... never in all my years of following the Town have I thought "our away support is a bit shit  really"...on the contrary, I have been absolutely overwhelmed time again when we go away midweek to places like Grimsby (fucking Grimsby)....and I think two thirds of the teams in this division would kill for this support on a Saturday, let alone midweek...this Club has magnificent support...

Spot on Shaun, fantastic away support and the fans deserve so much more.

A “Swindon XI” face Weymouth FC away tomorrow, hasn’t been publicised much from our end.

Probably because we’ve also got Eastleigh away.

Not belittling the numbers in any way, but I'd suspect that an opening day away day (particularly a relatively close one) is popular amongst fans of most teams as we are all missing a football fix

You’d still like to think we’d communicate it. I can’t see any posts from club/academy accounts regarding it until today.

It has been mentioned on here

http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=60216.msg1843753#msg1843753

Sounds like there won’t be many of us there then,  much prefer a day in Weymouth compared with Eastleigh.

Shame really as Weymouth is a cracking day out along with Torquay.

This. 👍👍👍

Pity it’s so far out of town though.

No, was just happy they said they would put the ticket in the post. Makes sense to do it for this game as likely to be one of the biggest away followings.

Cannot see it posted anywhere but have the Pizza Cup dates been arranged yet?

A bit like the launch of the new away kit :D

It's a bit odd having no announced away kit less than a week before it's needed.

Are we going to run on the pitch and shout "surprise"

The way it’s going Wallsall will have to play in their away kit😁

Swindon played in Crystal Palace's away kit for the first half in a Div. 3 game At Selhurst Park in 1974.  This was due to a colour clash, apparently.  Although Swindon played in a contrasting away kit for the second half, they were on the end of a 6 : 2 thrashing.  The players looked comical, they played the first half with the correct numbering, but not neccesarily the correct fit.  So, come on Mr. Hall and release that away kit.

Remember someone forgetting their kit in the late 90s/early 2000s between Chelsea and Coventry and one having to play in the others kit.

No update from the club stirs the mind😁

I’m sure I can remember us having to play in a dirty kit at Palace after the referee said our away kit was too much of a clash with Palace’s Red & Blue kit. We ended up playing in a White kit that had been used by the reserves/Youth team that morning.

Moonraker confirmed it will be released early this week and features a special guest (assume Si Ferry). We will be wearing it at Walsall as expected.

Yep...87/88....lost 2-1

Cheers :clap:

I remember Barnsley having to wear our away kit at the CG. Might have dreamt it.

Town v Barnsley. 1991.

https://www.townenders.com/match.php?match_id=19910145

Lost 2-1. They forgot their kit (apart from the GK shirt...). As a child, Swindon v Swindon really didn't sit well with me when I found out. Thankfully, I wasn't there for this one.

Its a tragedy we had a full on oxford kit colours those years in the first place tbh. At least we didn't wear the yellow and blue. 

They did? I'm not seeing that...🤔

Meanwhile, Swindon are expected to unveil their new away kit next week.

The players are due to model the changed strip at Walsall on Saturday, August 2.

Promotional imagery and filming for the unveiling took place on Wednesday (July 23) in Swindon, and included a special guest.

I was there, in the Shrivvy

My favourite stand

Ah....it was buried in the season ticket sales article....thank God we won't be having to play in skins at Walsall😂

At the bottom of the season ticket article:

Thanks again 😉

Ah you got there just before me :D

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2025/july/29/sky-sports--to-broadcast-swindon-s-away-clashes-with-newport-and-bristol-rovers/

Football is fucked......get ready for the home games to be changed too!

The Bristol Rovers game would probably have been moved by ob anyway.

In general it's a bit shitb though

Oddly If it was against Bristol City away I doubt it would have been moved if it wasn’t on Sky.