Thetownend.com

well done. good performance held on well under 2nd half pressure and should have come away with all the points having wasted two great chances. having said that they did hit the bar and had a lot of pressure in the second half. but to come away with a point is a good result and hopefully we can build on it

evans 9 - some great saves kept us in it espec. the one he tipped over the bard IMO, an improvement on heaton

smith 6 - average nothing really to report before he went off

nicholas 7 - did well, had a few decent runs forward and pressured his man well

ifil 6- good tackler but can someone please tell him how to pass??

o'hanlon 7 - solid led from the back

shakes 6- ok, his lack of close control really lets him down. good pace took in the defenders but serious lack of ball control

brown 6- ok again nothing great. seems to be lacking a bit of fitness and bite

migz 10- MOM our only real decent passer and holder of the ball. when he looks like he'll lose it he always recovers, great composure, vision and spreads the play well. we need him every game

gurney 7- typical gurney always diving in and conceding free kicks. but on the whole he did well and IMO is better than pook hope he stays

holgate 6- nothing special i think its too early for him to be playing

fallon 7- seems to have gone off the boil a bit recently excellent in the air but sometimes i feel thats not an asset, it encourages everyone else to just hoof and hope up to fallon

subs

jenkins 7- better than smith should be starting ahead of him really

bouazza 6- dont think we'll miss him much

CPlatt 6- didnt really have time to assert himself, but we know hes a good player so should be up for it at h'pool

Thought Migz did well but he did get badly robbed of the ball a couple of times ...

ifil 6??! generous. i'd say minus 5 for the first half and 5 for the second levelling out a zero

shakes and brown were both 7s for me

holgate was as good as fallon - i like the look of him

I dont think Migz was our best player, I also thought Ifil played better than SeanO

holgate did nothing! neither did brown or shakes

i guess i could take ifil down to a 5, he tackles well but his distribution is awful

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good one  :roll:

Were you watching the same Ifil as me, as in the one that didnt let the leagues top scorer get a single shot in, how fucking awful

holgate got absolutely no servive. he looked more committed than fallon to me. and what a fuckin hairstyle

A good point that was well battled for. I would have took that before the game. Swansea had more quality than us but the one thing Iffy has changed since AK left is that we are now hard to beat. I just wish we had a little more quality in the final third.

still, he didnt actually achieve anything! did he? what do we do now? keep holgate in, cause bouazzawazza is going back, roberts is crap. cureton cannot and wont suceed in our team cause of our bloody annoyin hoof ball shite. holgate it is then

They started singing gypo at him at one point.

Thought the Town End chant of "rain in a minute, it's going to rain in a minute" was inspired.

I couldn't hear the Townend today. Pretty shite to be honest.

who did achieve anything other than evans?

unfortunately there is no-one in this swindon team other than migs with any class. its about being organised and committed which holgate is - top attributes for an 18 year old, when his senior partner was lacking both until the last 10 minutes

anyone who went to chesterfield will tell you Holgate has alot to offer, I just think he isnt physically big enough for this division yet....some points the Swansea defenders were raping him!!

think you're absolutely bang on there.

we're very difficult to beat but lack a clinical finisher, we create chances - although not very many - but have nobody to put them away. parkin was the difference between midtable last season and relegation zone this season.

Agreed. Migs is the only player with real class. Without him we would be fucked. People bang on about fallon but for me Migs is the player who makes us tick. It's no coincidence that we have picked up results recently with Migs playing reguraly.

I also agree

Migz pulls the strings, we do better with him, results wise and performance wise thats a FACT! doesnt get any credit outside of our own fans, which is a good thing for us really

we got a good point at chesterfield without stef...

but we played awful football during the first half, we didnt start playing football till Holgate came on

Evans was MOTM by far you wrong.

Evans was MOTM for me, blinding saves to get us a draw. Migs played well. Ifil?? what was his clearing all about? Pretty much everyone was solid. I liked brown and shakes today.

Brown and Shakes did well today, Ifil was rubbish while Migs and Evans were immense.

Shakes is shite. I'm sorry to disagree but he is crap. He bottles out of tackles, can't cross and has no vision or reading of the game. He only has pace which is pretty fucking useless if you have no idea what to do with the ball.

He is getting better by each game though....

I'd give him a bit of a run in the team to see if he improves. He works bloody hard though....

I thought Brown was Shakes on more than one occasion.

Bloody Darkies :D

Ifil was decent today,hes bigger than the last time I was in the TE as well.

yea, ok evans did v well but without migz we'd be screwed. evans and migz joint MOM

Sounds like Evans was brilliant.

I agree that Migs is the centre point of our team and we do much better when he is there. I think its incredible how he can track back to defend, pick up the ball, hold it, pass it and also attack. What a star!

All I can say is we held the best attack in the league today, and could have come away with more than a point deservedly or not. That is a bug step that would not have happened 3 months ago.

Shakes is shite compared to who?!

He's improving, that touch he did to bring down the hoofball was world class.

I thought Ricky had just about his best game for us today....he's starting to improve, and that's as much as you can ask.

  Brown offers some defensive strength....we should sign him.

It was a great touch by Shakes.

That particular "hoofball" was described by Phil King on the radio as outstanding. Perhaps it takes an old pro to tell the difference between a "hoof" and an  inch perfect 40 yard cross field pass.

Fair enough, just looked like another ball lumped upfield to me.

We need to improve our strikeforce. With that defence, Rhys in goal and a decent strikeforce we'd be challenging for the playoffs

don't get carried away  :shock:

Why not? The top teams in the league are struggling to beat us and we are defending well at the moment. Good defence + good strikeforce = Great team!

We're gonna win the league at this rate  :wink:

For what its worth I thought Gurney was totally fucking anonymous today.I know folk wanted him to do well but 7/10?Be honest,you can see why Swansea dont rate him.How often do teams allow their own players to play against them these days?

Evans 10-faultless
Smith 5-woeful distribution,not a defender
Ifil 6-10 for his tackling,1 for distribution
O'Hanlon 7-starting to replicate his play-off season form
Nicholas 7-defends well and gives an extra attacking option
Shakes 7-best game for us,involved in most of our best moments,superb wing play to set up CCP
Migz 6-brilliant first half,faded second
Gurney 5-totally anonymous.I dont buy all this"new hero" shit
Brown 6-see Migz
Fallon 6-worryingly off the boil
Holgate 6-showed promise again
Jenks 7-got rid of Trundle,cant wait to see him start a game again
CCP 5-could have been a hero,incredible miss just in front of us
ref 0-absolutely diabolical.Wouldn't let Smith have treatment on the pitch but quite happy for "dying Swans"to take as long as they liked.Missed a blatant foul on Fallon(twice)but didnt book him for diving.Gave a drop ball with no Town player in sight.Booked Seano for the most innocuous foul of the whole game.Brought the play back 40 yards when CCP was about to play a dangerous ball into the box etc.etc.

Evans was incredible.

Ifil and Migs were good.

Nicholas and Shakes were satisfactory.

The rest were poor.

Very accurate summary, I must have watched the same game. Except, I thought Gurney was a presence they were wary of, he was harrying and not letting them settle in to a passing rhythm, and fouling cynically when appropriate, at the same time as being careful not to get booked. I doubt that Pook or Whalley or MvDermott could have done the same job, so not really anonymous, though not at his best.

I thought Sean's booking was pretty fair...

Fair point Normy,but I would say that if they were that"wary of him",they wouldn't have let him play

Aye, spot on... to an extent, when he's fit Whalley did a decent job of it too... not brilliant but certainly an under-used signing imo.

Aye, spot on... to an extent, when he's fit Whalley did a decent job of it too... not brilliant but certainly an under-used signing imo.

Fair point again adje, but they know his weaknesses and strengths, as do we, and they have better midfielders than him as they have proved this season. Gurney has definitely improved in midfield, I used to hate him there, but he is now the best we have (or had) to combine with Stef, IMHO. Swansea surprised me somewhat with their lack of creativity, there were some determined runs, but not many good passing movements.

I thought Gurney did alright, he did the ugly stuff he ran around and closed them down, he didnt let them play football.

He put in alot of effort but did go unnoticed, he never put that much effort in under King, he rans his bollocks off



If the ball gets controled its an inch perfect 40 yard cross field pass, if it doesnt its a hoofball!!!

Gurney controlled our whole team though.

I thought:

Evans - Played really well and although not troubled that much, he did really well when he was.
Smith - Was playin well before he went off injured
Nicho - Some great runs forward and defended well, especially as he was up against that short pacey kid on the right wing.
Ifil - Played well and kept Trundle quiet. Made a couple of errors but they didnt come to anythin. Well played Jerel.
O'Hanlon - Played very well and he was solid at the back all match.
Shakes - I thought he had a great game. Got up and down the wing and his crossin seems to be gettin better. And that touch he took in the 2nd half to get passed his man was awesome.
Brown - I thought he played very well too. Same as Shakes really, got up and down the wing and he looked calm on the ball.
Migz - MOTM for me. He once again was awesome. He really is one of the best midfield players in this league, on his game. One of the calmest, yet skillful centre mids you will find outside of the premiership.
Gurney - Coped with the pressure of the away fans really well and he got stuck in. Well played Gurns.
Holgate - Looked good on the ball and looked determined and that is somethin some of our players lack at times.
Fallon - Not at his best, but i guess he is aloud a break from time to time as he has been one of the best and most consistent players this season. Played well throughout and had some nice touches and flick ons.

The subs:
Jenks - Played really well and his experience helped a lot at the back.
Bouazza - Shame to see him goin. I thought he was a good player and he links up well with the likes of Fallon. Should have scored though on one oppotunity. Nevermind, all the best for him though.
Platt - Wasnt on the pitch long enough to say anythin, but he got stuck in straight away. Should have definetly scored though!!!!

gurns didn't play the sort of game he usually does, yesterday was more about putting pressure on opponents, closing down, making his presence felt. i certainly don't think he was anywhere near as poor as you say, adje. although he didn't have one of his better games yesterday.

Evans - superb, probably in the form of his life.
Jenkins - outpaced quite often but made up for it with some crunching tackles and maurading runs down the right-hand side.
Ifil - can't fault his defending apart from a few silly mistakes but his distribution makes baby jesus cry.
O'Hanlon - slowly regaining his form, was solid today and the tackle he made just in front of the nationwide was ace.
Nicholas - absolutely fantastic, iffy's really rejuvenated his career but all credit to nicho as he's worked hard and it's paid off.
Shakes - improving with every game, shame he can't cross. troubled defenders with his pace.
Migs - didn't get much space and was never given options when he had the ball but can't hold him responsible for that.
Gurney - i'd give him a 10 for having a go at bouazza when he didn't pass to shakes late on in the game.
Brown - he can cross a ball!!!!!!!! sign him up.
Fallon - you're still playing for stfc you lanky streak of piss.
Holgate - really worries defenders, uses the ball well, runs with it effectively but doesn't seem to get in goalscoring positions very often.

Totally agree with you. Gurns was really good yesterday and him and Migs in the centre works really well.

That's just the point though,he didn't stop Swansea playing.They out passed us in midfield today-Gurney was chasing shadows in my opinion.
Shakes'cross to CCP was pretty decent though Son

I think Gurney got the kind of job where you get no credit. He was there to run around and get in the way rather than to be a creative attacking force...that is where Migs comes in.

IMHO that is the problem Hewlett had. Okay he was crap but people never realised how much he ran around and stopped passes being played. There was one game where I just watched him and he never stopped running around. The only problem was that he wa no good on the ball so did not get any credit for his work

:D that's all i got too say about the match.

Gurney didnt do much with the ball although i thought he was ace on the battling side of things.

We'll agree to differ on Gurney then but I swear I never saw him win more than one tackle.

Im not saying he won tackles he just hussled and pressured the Swansea midfield.

I don't know why i have just thought of this now, but i thought it was great when Fallon was chasin after the ball along with that short Swansea right mid and Fallon just clatters into him and the Swansea player goes flyin  :D  twas very funny............ :--

Well,am I the only one who is incredulous of that astonishing miss by CCP at the end.I know he's a promising youngster but by any standards that was horrendous.I guess people are defensive of him cause of his age and obvious desire to do well but I still cant believe it.Is it me,or was it not that bad?No one else has mentioned it

It was bad, but you could see how pissed off he was with himself afterwards.

I would have taken a draw before the game tbh, so I wasn't THAT fussed. I did have my head in my hands for a few minutes though.

I actually thought he'd scored and that the ref had disallowed it for something. It just didn't seem possible he could have missed from there!

Tbh, i thought the 'keeper had got a touch on it, and it had just hit CCP. Don't think he had time to react to the deflection.

I thought MC Hammer's miss from the header was alot worse!

i'm trying to forget about it!