Thetownend.com

Just in time ... midnight here.

1-3 to Town

Do well to gain a point, Crewe hit the woodwork three times at Gillingham last week and should have won easily.  But who knows?  Looking for an overwhelming attacking performance, with Palmer probably starting. Would feel better if Tafz were available.

Has Holloway been ranting on other outlets as all seems amicable here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCQrMiKTXSY&pp=0gcJCbIJAYcqIYzv

In case there are any other dozy c's like me (missed the Oldham game!), it's a 12.30 k.o.

I guess Wobbly will have opened his first tinnie by now.  :pint:

A disappointing 3-2 for Crewe.

Wobbly Bob rarely goes for tinnies, he’s more of a draught ale connoisseur. My intel leads me to believe his first beer will be at about 0930 today.

We are letting in far too many goals, but scoring a few too. 2-2 draw. Really hope we can nick a cheeky win today, will give team self belief they need to compete with best.

:D

apologies to the man himself.

[was picturing him on a train up there]

No reason why we can't win this

Our record at Crewe is generally poor (with the odd exception), and with them top of the league a point here would be a decent result.

Will be interesting to see if we revert to hoofing it if Palmer starts.

Draw would be decent yeah. Not sure them being top has too much bearing on the result to be honest.

I just saw Clem and Hall at Euston in suits with their Swindon ties.

I’d take a draw but im i think we’ll lose 2-1

The Cheshire Inn is a designated away pub but my mate who lives here says its a bit of a shit hole but it's a stones throw from the ground.
Our train from his gets in at 10.40

Not sure why but got a nasty feeling we're going to get dicked today. I'm thinking lose by 3 and wonder how we kept it that low.

Man I hope I'm wrong.

Warning: This content includes descriptions of mild threat & alcohol consumption.

Pre match avoiding eye contact with the locals in the Grand Junction.
Not been in here since getting the death stare from the crazed landlord a few years back.
Only need to survive until the very fine Crewe Dog in the indoor market opens up at 11.

So another early kick off & on the clock with the beers.
Find that tinnies on a train are a tad uncouth for persons of good breeding & culture, like what I am.

Lots of good watering holes here.
Wouldn't mind a proper crack at the delights of Crewe ahead of an evening game one day.
Maybe next season in L1.

Feeling the usual trepidation ahead of the arrival of the fearsome Tooting Beer Monster today.
An early start for the dreaded one, so I do fear for the longevity of the beer supply at half time.
Hopefully the distraction of a reunion with very able lieutenants Smiley Riley & Pukey Lukey means that I'll be able to slip away unnoticed at the end and avoid being force marched to the nearest bar.

Have to say that Holloways "off piste" excursions during interviews do not offend me.
Football fans in general do like to have their cake and eat it when it comes to criticism.

Everyone has the same right to express an opinion, but when in the public eye they should also expect to have it picked apart & debated.

The club interviews tend to be more demonstrative of somebody who knows what they are talking about. Some good insights to be had.

Given the choice of a Holloway or Jody Morris interview, who's it going to be?
Ultimately the answer is as long as it's a winning manager it doesn't really matter.

The Barnet game should have carried a trigger warning.
The performance on Saturday however was not far off of the type of football that I would love to watch every week.
Not easy to coach, but passing & movement with purpose through midfield should still be possible even with a big presence up front.
Maybe Hawkins will fit the bill.

So, we now have 3 Ollies in the house.
Hopefully not a case of that's another fine mess you've gotten us into come the end of the season.

Also quite a few grandads in the squad as well.
The right mixture of youth & experience In the team should be a very good thing.

Thinking through our recent back catalogue of 30 somethings, some proper slow coaches & some with a slower turning circle than a super tanker.
The spriteliest may have been Marc Richards?

It's been an ok start, a win today would make it a good solid one.
The season might trend towards one of fewer draws but would take a point today.

Anyway, will be hoping for a yummy treat in the Whitby Morrison Ice Cream Van Stand today.

See you soon Bob. Love from the Tooting Beer Mondter  :pint:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gzln4o3XQAAXIqW?format=jpg&name=medium)

Same line up as last week, Palmer on the bench.

Difficult to see anything but a home win here.

They have won 5 and lost just 1 game (away at Gills) but they are beatable for sure (all teams in this league are beatable), if we can keep them out till half time and maybe grab a goal on the break then maybe their fans will get on their backs, which they have done many times before.

Surely it's not difficult to see any of the three possibilities? It's Town!

See/hear Holloway had a dig at the fans again - ‘they go on about hoof ball, don’t they’.

Plus ‘they’re still staying away, don’t know what more I can do’

We can beat anyone in the league when it clicks.

I think head says narrow loss but we'll see. I don't think we are tight enough defensively as a unit once (hence signing Taf'), Crewe will score 2.

Would have liked to see Kirkman on the bench in place of one of the attackers.

Or on the pitch!

Poor clearance by Ripley straight into touch.

My IPTV has shit the bed at the best possible time. Ah well, I am supposed to be working from home.

Some lovely play passing out from the back but it ends with a really weak pass from Glatzel to Drinan that is nowhere near the target.

Oldaker tried a long shot from 25 yards, well over the bar, a good passing move set it up again.

I dont mind him wasting chances with a shot at least hes taking a chance.

Nice…but also heart attack inducing…

Stream come on just long enough to hear the Crewe commentary tell me that Drinan is on loan from Ipswich apparantly.


Then the stream dies.

It was right until it went over the half way line!

Ripley makes a save but he pushes it back to the striker.

The game is being played at a fair old pace so far. End to end.

Mabete just gets the ball back to Ripley in the tackle that he won.

Crewe going very direct.

Town really starting off playing a passing game.

1-0 Kilkenny.

Have it!

Little deflection.

All from a great press from Wright

Beautiful

Little!

Huge deflection

Going straight down the keepers throat otherwise.

Wright wins a tackle and the ball goes to Kilkenny who take sit forwards and has a 25 yard shot deflected into the corner.

Pressing very well so far

Snowdon and Drinan mix it up down the right and Drinans cross is headed well wide by Munroe at the far post.

Just caught the goal on twitter. Quality hit that.

Playing a very high press so far. Not sure how long that will last though as it takes a lot of fitness to do it all game.

Big deflection but he did hit it with some power so deserved it.

From a brilliant tackle by Wright

I see Nick Powell has not forgotten how to moan at the ref as he was taught so well at Man Utd.

Munroe has stood back up after taking a knock, not sure he can carry on.

Looked sharp so far. Playing some good stuff

Snowdon wins Town a corner.

It’s a different Powell i believe.

Nick Powell plays for Bradford.

Our corners so far this season have been absolutely tragic

Long corner by Munroe goes straight out for a GK.

Oh my mistake I thought he went back to Crewe :)

Drinan just offside as we break.

Mabete has all the makings of a cult hero. Proper beast at the back

Town still pressing really well as they try and pas it out from the back, Glatzel chasing everything but his final ball not quite there yet but it will come.

Crewe have a cross shot but Ripley tips it over the bar.

Lack of a tackle in midfield gives them a chance.

They broke through 3 times now down the centre of midfield, we need a tough tackler in there, or sit Nichols in a more defensive position.

And true to form the Crewe fans are moaning already.

Ripley takes a cross well.

Wright good pass to Glatzel but his cross cant find a Town player in the box.

Sometimes Glatzel just needs to back himself and shoot

Wright with a great black that saved a certain goal.

He does need to take the chances he gets himself into.

Another good move by Town, Oldaker to Munroe but hsi shot from an angle is blocked for a corner.

Terrible corner by Wright.

How many more overhit corners are we going to see ffs

Long shot by Crewe and Ripley makes a good low save for a corner to them.

Mabete wins another header but the ball comes back from 30 yards with a shot but its a bit wild and wide.

2-0 Glatzel

Great backpass

GLATZELLLLLLLLLLL!!!

What a gift. Feel like I’ve seen Swindon sides of the past give absolute gifts like that

I wasn’t convinced Glatzel would finish it! 😂

He deserved that. He's been outstanding

:)

Surprised he didn't try and pass but delighted for the kid

I thought he was going to look for the pass once he had won the ball then

Great cock up there by the keeper.👍👍👍

He needed a goal & they all count.

In fairness as soon as it goes back towards the keeper Glatzel is anticipating that - he starts behind the defender but ends up in front of him. Good reactions.

A goal of epic Swindon-esque cock-up proportions.

Snowdon tries a long shot but its high and wide.

Get this to 4-0 and we’ll go top!

3-0

3-0 Drinan

UNREAL!

That is a fucking masterpiece to be fair.

stream came back just before that and wow. that was sexy.

That is absolutely lovely. For a ‘hoofball’ side that is now three wonderfully worked goals this season

Well this has all been absolutely lovely.

A nice Town move with a superb finish from 18 yards into the top corner.

Not for the first time this season, a goal of premier quality

Is it too soon for an EIEIEIO

I think with your shop stock issues I can only offer you an IIIIO

2 great sliding tackles by Murnoe there, brilliant.

Love the moaning by Crewes fans (understandably too).

Bar the goalkeeping fuck up I've been reasonably impressed with them!

That's a great strike from Drinan.

Pretty good all round performance so far. A clean sheet would be lovely today.

I dont think Crewe know whats hit them, they expected us to play the longer ball game yet we have outplayed them with their own style passing game.

Glatzel so close to getting the 4th, inches wide and he chipped the keeper.

Glatzel's confidence isn't quite back yet

Could have been 4

Drinan hits the post from 20 yards.

Drinan off the post

5*

Could and should be 4-0 up. Crewe all over the shop, half time has come at the wrong time for us as we were absolutely all over them there

HT 3-0

Masterclass so far :)

We could be out of sight

Could have been 6!

Fucking hell that's the best half I've seen for ages.  3-0 could be 5.

Incredible

That was about as good a half as I've seen from us. Let's hope we can do what we need to finish the job.

We look like scoring every time we attack down both wings, great attacking movement.

This.

I’d like to see us score another 3.
Then I might be confident we can hang on…

The spine of this team has been superb so far. Ripley,Wright,Mabete,Oldaker,Kilkenny,Glatzel and Drinan all fantastic. Only downer is it should be 5. Oh,and Snowdon is becoming a great wide outlet.

That wasn’t too bad was it! :D

Would love a zero in the Crewe column at FT.

That fuck up for the second really changed the half. I thought they looked pretty good up until then. Apart from our corner taking that was as complete a half as you could hope for.

Oh, and the third was a real beauty.

I can't get over how different we look one game to the next at the moment.

Doubt there'll be a better 45 minutes played in L2 by any other side this season, superb.

Hope we don't go all Flynn and be happy to leave with a draw in the end.

Fantastic Swindon Town, let's keep a clean sheet now.

Crewe were definitely coming back into it at 1-0 but I don’t think at any point that half they looked good or threatening…

Just flicked over to the Crewe commentary, apparently we've just shaded it...  :hmmm:

Hope we don’t sit back second half, would be good to send out a real statement and come away having absolutely battered top of the league (yes only 6 games in)

Usual standard of comms from this division.

Drinan is on loan from Ipswich too.

Morons.

5 Star.

4 goal margin would take us top for a couple of hours. That would be nice.

Just like Kilkennys goal "The slightest touch".

Check out the #crewealex hashtag on twitter, they know the truth.

Ollie Clarke on for Wilson-Brown.

This is great!

Ripley with an early take crom a cross.

Clarke with a fuckup in their half, but he gets away with it.

Header by Crewe goes wide from a good position.

That looked like it went in.

If you come to crewe, we will bovver you and if you bring your brovver he will get it too,crewe alexandria,crewe alexandria football club.sung just before i got a trophy crewe scarf  ahh 70s memories.

McGregor on for Snowdon, Snowdon has done really well today.

Oldaker was very good in that 1st half

Oldaker goes to the deck in a tackle in the box but not a pen.

Munroe has put in 4 or 5 great tackles today.

That stonewall ain't it?!

On first look I was convinced that was a penalty. Hard to see if any real contact

This commentator on Sky is so crewe.

If he ain't gonna give the pen he's got to book him surely - i thought it looked a pen

Got his standing foot.  Thats a pen.

Yellow for Nichols.

That tackle from Munroe was fantastic. And not his first.

I am sure it was a pen too but the ref decided it wasnt, I think Oldaker went to floor a bit too easily.

Superb performance, can’t believe the score, looking good all round,  Mabete looks one hell of a signing.

Me too,  definitely made contact.

Drinan breaks and runs 50 yards but he cant find anyone in the box with his cross as we are too slow going forwards.

Looks like they found an E for Palmer's shirt, DV's lad will have to wait even longer now.

Palmer on for Glatzel.

Wow, what a first half display! Almost perfect.

Not sure that Palmer for Glatzel is the best move as Glatzel has been bloody good today in all departments.

Cool by Clarke to clear that cross, my heart stopped though.

Glatz pressing has been great today.

Kilkenny is a man possessed today.

Corner to them, they are exploiting us at RB since Snowdon has gone off.

but they still can’t hit the target.

Palmer wins a header and finds Oldaker but his shot is blocked.

Yet... :)

Palmer moves pretty well for a big lad. Quite zippy!

Too big a gap between McGregor and Wright on our right side at the moment.

Drinan chases the ball down and gets a cross in to Palmer but he cant get enough on the header at the near post.

Nichols down injured.

Another quality move

Think McGregor has struggled slightly with those lofted balls over him. Nowhere near as comfortable as Snowdon was

We have passed the ball with 1 touch passing almost as well as we used to under Ossie and Hoddle at times today, its refreshing to see it done with speed and quality.

Butters to come on and score to take us top? Fanciful🙂

Princewill coming on by the look of it.

Prince then

How the fuck do some of these people get jobs on local radio. The waffle.

Butterworth on for Drinan
Princewill on for Nichols.

Drinan has really put in a shift today again.

Christ at this rate there's going yo be about 20 mins added time...

Butterworth finds Prince in the box but hes offside, looked onside from this angle.

Kilkenny chasing that ball looked like hes knackered, hes covered every inch of the grass today.

Palmer sets up Kilkenny but his shot is at the keeper, another nice move by Town.

Prince takes that down well and chips the player but he cant shoot int he box, lovely skill by The Prince.

Great close up on Princewill there ifollow so you couldn't see what the fuck was actually happening.

Palmer comes back to win a defensive header.

Yellow for the Crewe player for a foul on Butterworth.

Butterworth long shot saved by the keeper for a corner to Town.

Prince finds Palmer and he takes it down and shoots at the keeper. Great chance.

Half these free kicks aren't fouls. Ref pretty rubbish

6 mins added time.

Palmer is very good with his chest.

Pretty much standard for this division.

Im starting to feel confident now.

Steady, steady.

Munroe with a low cross caught by the keeper.

Princewill breaks but his shot is too close to the keeper.

Kilkenny has been absolutely immense today all game.

FT 3-0

Great result and everyone played well.

Clean sheet against league leaders too, Kilkenny my MotM but it could easily have gone to any of our players.

Some cameo from Butters today

FT.  Must admit I never expected that !!.  Could have had a few more. Penalty turned down,  couple ruled out. Excellent.

What a perfect start to the weekend. The type that makes it all worth it.

10/10 all round.


YOUUUUU REDDDDDDDSSSS

Absolutely outstanding. Tough to pick a MOTM with so many good performances.

Drinan, Kilkenny, Mabete, Oldaker, Munroe all brilliant.

We now have the same amount of league wins in August 2025 as we did from August 2024 until Colchester on new year’s day.

Brilliant result.

Play like this for the rest of the season and we’ll be up by Christmas !!.
Second in the table, nosebleed time.

Perfect first half followed by a professional second.  3 years ago we were throwing away 2 and three goal half time and even late leads like confetti.  A great blend of youthful talent and pressing energy with experience.

Absolutely disappointed & dissatisfied with that.

Only 3-0? Should have 6 at least (maybe even 7)

Crewe were no threat over the 95 minutes & pretty direct for a team transitional known for their passing. Too many people pre match putting stock in them being top after a whole 5 games.

...and Wright and Glatzel and Snowdon!

Great performance. Didn’t really let them into it at all in the second half too which was pleasing. On another day, Princewill and Palmer score their chances near the end and we could’ve come away 5/6-0 win. As it is, 3-0 will absolutely do. Kilkenny completely ran the show

Can you do the same again next week? and the week after.

Please!

Did not expect that after Barnet.

It's Swindon ffs! Expect the unexpected

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/Tales_titles.jpg)

I posted after that game that the reaction was more important than the result.
Been a pretty good one!

Absolutely fantastic today. As others have said, the only negative is that we could've scored 3 or 4 more. That's really nit-picking though.

Lots of praise for Kilkenny and rightly so; but I want to shout out Mabete who has made me look like an absolute mug. I questioned 2 weeks ago if he was of the required level and he was outstanding again today. I still don't think we've conceded a league goal with him on the pitch? I had a gut feeling about him and I was wrong. So happy to be proven so.

Quicker than most defenders at this level too. A real solid bastard.

Would have liked more goals, but it sounds like we closed things out very professionally in the second half, which more than makes up for it.

Drinan has already equaled last seasons goal tally.

Also want to mention how nice it was to watch a full league 2 game and not even notice the referee. He let things flow and was very good.

Lovely that, didn’t expect that at all. Fairly even up until 2-0 as well.

From the highlights even their early stuff was limited to long range efforts at best.

If that was the first time watching this season you’d wonder how we were conceding so many. Better in every facet than Crewe.

I think the main tactic for us out of possession was to press with 5 men up high. They couldn’t play through that, and we won the ball high up over and over again. Fair play to whoever at the club spotted that from their previous games. They simply couldn’t get anything going.

That was as good as the Barnet game was bad!

COYR

So, have we passed our "first real test"?

BEAST! FIL MABETE!

I've not seen us play since Barnet, and there has been a fair bit of chat about what drivel comes out of the manager's mouth.

But since then, we've started to play some terrific football and he's putting points on the board. Fair play to him and the players.

Holloway:
- Biggest thing ws 3 points
- Level of performance was shocking, for how good we were with little preparation
- Ollie Palmer only got on the bus at Walsall on the way up yesterday
- A soul searching wonderful performance from a group of people he didn't know could do this with so little preparation
- Weaknesses look to be plugged and cured. But a long way to go
- Pressing and closing, understanding and passing and moving against a team that was top of the table
- Excellent, excellent performance, from the fans to everyone on the pitch
- We are trying to be a good team. We aren't there yet
- Crewe can cut you apart if you let them. We understood what they do, got the ball and passed and moved through them
- They are a good team and we look like one too
- Delighted for Gladzel. More than a number 9 for Holloway. He could have had another one. He's got everything that any young footballer needs, except being successful at the big club he used to be at. Hoping he can be successful here
- A joy to watch. Beautiful goal. Hope to be able to do that on a regular basis
- Nicholls, Westley and Ripley changed everything last year. That dressing room feels the same today
- At the end, Holloway wanted them to keep pressing and score more
- Some of those chest offs and flicks by Palmer were brillkiant. Many people try it but cant do it
- We need to do this on a regular basis
- Want Palmer's experience. We are so lucky to have him. He came because of our ambition
- Taf: He will be a couple of weeks. We are being careful with his tendonitis. No sign of it at the moment
- No immediate emergency to get him in if we play like that.
- Taf's communication during training is brilliant. That's what he wants.
- Holloway's lietenants have all retired now. But he is building a new set now
- For them to produce that today is outstanding. But, lets go again!

I think we’ve clicked.

What's with the lack of preparation talk? Had a week since Shrewsbury?  :hmmm:

No snide dig at the fans this week?

Early season putting down a marker win.

That was all about matching & surpassing the home team for energy in the first half & allowing moments of quality to tell. And this team does have some quality.

Not getting carried away.
Minimum requirement is another 61 points.
That hasn't changed.

Did get frog marched to the pub afterwards.
Good day, great socials as ever.
Meandering towards Stafford as I write.

That autos or play offs?

Maybe he’s read Sam’s column about the ground purchase :)

I presume he means with Palmer, but who knows

Still, he can keep spouting bollocks if we keep playing like that & winning

Play offs.
Minimum requirement.

Should we be aiming higher than that based on today?
Still too early to say.

Hard to tell yet if we’re an autos side, just remember the Flynn season. We were the best team in the league for the first seven or eight games. That being said, i cant see this team capitulating like that side did.

Agreed, he can read from the phone directory as long as he keeps on winning.

Staying fairly local to Crewe tonight. Been approached by a few Crewe fans saying how good we were. Humbly I said that is the best we've played and yet on that showing we're capable of scoring more. They were very complimentary to us and said that was the best display of proper football they've watched for a long time.
Fucking loving today

We seriously need to get Kilkenny & his agent in for contract extension talks first thing Monday morning. He’s a very decent player with room to improve - the type of player we need to build around (as best you can at our level)


What’s that coming over the hill?
It’s Fil Mabete, it’s Fil Mabete


He was excellent I thought. Proper defender who loves defending. Got his head on absolutely everything that came into the box (and Crewe went long / direct a lot) even his over enthusiastic little cheer when he won a free kick by the corner flag - cringy if it isn’t your team but proper cult hero stuff when it is.

We saw that too, was nice to see how important it was to him to win his personal battle

the tide is rising again. i might start thinking that we can challenge the heavyweights in this division and push for promotion .

Heavyweights? Who might they be?

Personally, I think every year we don't get autos in this poxy division is a disaster.....but that is before you consider our ownership issues.

Very good today. Kilkenny turning on the quality that you need for a promotion winning team.

Munroe good and Palmers flicks and link up play was better than I was expecting, exactly what you want from a centre forward, so important with what we’ve lost with Smith out, feel with him in the side we can still play good, flowing football.

Impressed with Mabete again. Looks good and a talent to develop. Will have a conundrum when Tafazolli is fit enough to start, who drops out?

TWB been steady and I assume because of the loan will continue at LCB
Mabete doing well, developing well and our own player, would be harsh to be dropped out but assume it will be him
Wright hasn’t impressed defensively but can you drop a player like that out with what else they offer?

Early days in regards to the table toppers tag for Crewe but it’s a good sign to be able to go away to a team who have started well and dominate like today. We’ve not really seen the potential to do that before today.

No one,if we keep winning. Hopefully

Agree ideally don’t change a winning backline as long as it continues.

However, I think realistically Tafazolli plays when fit. IH made note of the reasons he was brought in and how our CB’s lack that. Outside of his aerial ability, his organisational side will be needed too.

Whether he’s fit enough to do long stretches of games is to be seen but it’s handy to have options to rotate.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpulFVUzBVM
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd7l0EgJOJM&pp=ygUIY3Jld2UgZmM%3D

https://youtu.be/XoWKwKO0Jtk

Highlights

Extended Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ6JusASVaA

Did anyone catch the number of away fans?

So, no more booming diagonal balls, no more searching out Harry Smith and hoping for the best and who would have thought that some players that looked distinctly average have blossomed into very decent L2 performers. Of course, it remains to be seen whether we can keep up this level of performance but,by God, it’s a good watch atm.

Bodin last week and Kilkenny this week both saying in their BBC interviews after the game how this style of play suits them much more.

I'm sure I heard about 400 on the commentary.

Pure class x 2
https://x.com/fredcxv/status/1962110705676476731/video/1

Try not to jizz challenge. Level: Impossible

Gavin Kilkenny and Paul Glatzel in the League Two Team of the Week, along with someone called McKirdy.

Those 2 plus Drinan in the "Sky" version

This is exactly why I was so angry about the Barnet performance, the squad is very capable of being a really good L2 team, I don't give a shit if it was Barnet or Liverpool or a pub team that night, it was so obvious we were bypassing our biggest strength.

Two of our own players have said publicly that the way we've played the last two games have suited our squad better, what the fuck were we doing that night if the players themselves know it doesn't suit them?

On the very few minutes Tabor has got, I’d imagine our new ‘style’ would suit him much more as well.

Yeah a natural goal scorer playing as the wide man of a front 3 looked like such a weird decision from Holloway. Hopefully, if he plays tomorrow, it'll be as part of a front 2 like Saturday.

Have him up top with Palmer tomorrow.

Very much this