Thetownend.com

Here we go again, gonna give this a miss so we'll probably win.

Swindon 1-0 att: 7,439 (121 away)

Swindon to suffer a single goal defeat in front of 7,545 fans with 85 Creepy fans there.

5 home games in Feb. All very winnable. Saturday's final result was disappointing but we have to turn around the home form if we want to do anything this season, starting with Crawley 

This.  Almost a must win...

Still pissed at Saturday's ineptitude. Need a home win to draw a line under it

3-1 home win

Att:7,002

Most intriguingly awaited team selection of the season so far with two highly rated newcomers available and a disappointing finale to the previous game

Exeter have sold 1000 so far

That’s good going, considering we ain’t playing them tomorrow night 😉

Playing them Saturday

Reckon the new lad will start.

Barry or Cooper?

Cryer or Tommy? hate to tell you this, they are both now dead.

Cooper.
Can’t see us changing up top after Saturday and Davison should keep his place.
Need the physical presence.

I don't expect Barry to waltz straight into the team but fully expect him to replace Williams/McKirdy/Gladwin on the 60th minute.

I also expect Odimayo to be the one to make way for Cooper even though AK did ok on Saturday we needs a natural left footer there on the left side of the 3 CB's.

In agreement with you.
Barry on the bench but will feature second half.
Cooper in for AK however tad harsh because the defence played well Saturday except for that clanger.
Hunt equally doesn’t deserved to be taken out.

One big positive the bench is already starting to have options which have been missing this month.

Cooper is right footed though?

My mate who is a Swansea fan said hes a left footer, ah well scratch that then!

I believe there’s a game on today. Just can’t see us not winning this.

Piece of piss. 4-1

Win. 3-1

Does anyone know where I can find tonight's game in the Prediction league?

Have you looked in the Prediction league? if not then check the league, then its under predictions....

TBF I have no idea mate :)

Because Batch didn't change the date for the re-arranged fixture.

Should be sorted now :)

thanks

Thanks - small point, it has Crawley as the home team :) Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things but for accuracy sake. ;)

Fixed

Top man, Danke!

Also corrected Walsall (home) and Exeter (away) re-arranged dates

Surely you mean Danke Charge!

Do I? Lost me there matey! Am I being slow?

Ditto!

Anyway, bitte

Its German for Batch :)

Every day is a school day. Hurry up lunch bell

Or Donkey Shite?

Ah really! Nice work PV, something i'll almost certainly never need to use in my life! haha :)

Me neither but now I have said it you will always remember it! Charge........

I am sure the other Proclaimer would appreciate it....

Lots to look forward to tonight. In particular, it’ll be interesting to see how (or if?) he fits Barry into the XI, how Davison shapes up and if he’s going to fill Simpson’s boots, whether Tomlinson displaces either wing back, and which centre back drops out to make way for Cooper. Garner may of course bench the new boys and tell the others to go out there and fight for their places. Also hoping we see a bit of Jack Payne back. We’ve missed him.

I think that tonight he will go with

                Wollacott
        JOB       Conroy     Cooper
Hunt               Reed                Iandolo
        Lyden                 Williams
             McKirdy    Davison

Subs-
Ward
Gladwin
Odimayo
JML
East/Payne
Tomlinson
Barry

Not a bad looking squad when written down. Decent options on that bench.

Yesterday they signed Isaac Hutchinson midfielder from Derby on loan, Amrit Bansal-McNulty midfielder from QPR on loan and Taylor Seymour a keeper signed from Burgess Hill Town.

They have ex Town trialist Tom Nichols and 34 year old ex town winger Mark Marshall.

After a poor start this season their results have picked up recently (WDLDWWWDLLW) and have only suffered 3 defeats in the last 11 games, they won their last game on Saturday 2-1 at Bradford after being 1-0 down with 20 mins left and winning with a 95 minute goal.

They sit bang mid table in 13th place with 10 wins, 5 draws and 11 defeats so far scoring31 and conceding 35 goals on 35 points, 6 places and7 points worse off than Town.

Was Tomlinson signed in time do we know? Midday cut off, I know the announcement came late but that doesn't mean it was done earlier in the day...

Ah good point, no he had to be signed by 5pm yesterday to feature.

Midfield tonight will be interesting after the weekend.

Looking forward to seeing both Cooper and Davison after a solid debut.
Expecting Barry to come off the bench during second half.

At last a stronger looking bench again.
Looking forward to tonight.

Go to the game / watch on iPlayer - I can't decide. Fancy us to win 3-1 tonight.

Take a phone and you can do both

Hated watching the games on iPlayer.
Fantastic to be back going to live games.

It's more the dash from the Link Centre (Daughter's ice skating) to Highworth and back in again that's the issue. I'll probably go.

I finish work at 5:30- 6:00 up by junction 8/9 of the M4 and I'll be there.

G'wan G'wan G'wan- you know it makes sense.

I'll probably go, especially as I have work commitments on Saturday (Exeter H).

I also think 3-1 will be the scoreline. I'll be tuning in via the Iplayer/Ifollow. Whilst the Radio Essex commentary wasn't bad at the weekend, unbiased and generous to how we were playing, you can't beat a bit of Andrew Hawes to accompany the game!

For no reason whatsoever I have a feeling that Hunt will be left out tonight and Akin in at RWB, with Cooper taking the LCB position.  I also think that there is a chance that Barry will start in a attaking midfield role..  Just a hunch, no evidence, and not saying I agree with it.

Looks set to be our lowest league gate of the season (and by some margin on current sales) - not helped by our home form, the opposition and another home game on Saturday I guess.

It is certainly within the bounds of possibility that Williams is rested.  Neither him or Gladwin seem to be risked with great regularity.

Our lowest gate so far this season is 7,714 vs Hartlepool on a Tuesday night which is still pretty good for L2 TBF.

Under Wellens when we won the championship our lowest home league gate was 5,524 vs Stevenage I don't think we will be anywhere near that low tonight but expect around 7k.

Lets face it its unlikely Creepy will bring many more than 100 so it will be a crowd made up almost entirely of Town fans.

Indeed, around 6.8 - 7k on a Tuesday against Creepy is still very good compared to previous seasons.

Its brilliant this season TBF.

Our average home league attendance is 9,009 apparently with only Bradford who offer highly discounted season tickets ahead of us on 15,291, the next closest is Tranmere on 6,933 and Rovers on 6,810.

In League 1 only Rotherham, and Wigan (just) and Plymouth, Portsmouth, Bolton, Charlton, Ipswich, Sheff Weds and Sunderland have higher home averages.

We only averaged around 10k in the 92/93 season

I see Oxford are way down on 7,671. Not very good for a side hoping for promotion, in a higher league  :girlgiggle:

That was before the town became the largest housing estate in Europe  ;)

Probably housing new inhabitants who support London based sides

To start off with yes. But over time they bring their kids, or their kids attend games via ticket promotions to schools, and the attendances grow. Power was the turd blocking the toilet, but now he's been flushed there's a lot more interest in the club.

Blimey, the interest in this match on here is overwhelming

Garner subsequently announcing Payne will only be back in training on Thursday, so sub's bench at best for Sarurday I'd imagine.

Baudry is back in training though to be fair I'm not sure he'd warrant a place on the sub's bench at this point.

Certainly plenty of bench options now.

More interest at this stage in whether you actually make it to the CG tbf.

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

Yikes!

Think that team is wrong isn't it? Ryan East has Reeds squad number there surely?

Well i have been patiently waiting for the exciting team news and now im a bit more unexecited.

jojo

ellis   conroy   o'brien  cooper   hunt
gladwin  lyden  east
davison mckirdy

hmm.

 :D I'm here, or at least I will be

il save my line up criticisms for full time. williams probably needs a rest, reed might have picked up a knock/rested. im not sure what i was hoping for to be honest but il keep a keen eye on 70 minutes when we can bring on williams and barry to fight against those tired crawleys.

off to the cg in hope!

If I was Odimayo I’d be well pissed off, literally done nothing wrong yet is the one sacrificed!

Fuck me! That's weird

On this one i totally agree but he is genuinely carrying a knock. As of yesterday, i believe he wasn't even going to be on the bench today

Agree.

Wow, with all these new players I wasn't expecting Gladwin to sneak in to the side. Expect a slooooooow and steady game from the start then  :(

Have East,Lyden and Gladwin started as a unit before?

Odimayo has his best game for a while on Saturday. Two loanees in for the one player we could develop as our own at the back? Lack of runners in midfield. Maybe there are knocks there. You take KKH, Williams and Payne out of this side and you lose the runners.

Looking forward to being proved wrong. Come on you reds.

On the plus side, we have a few impact players to come off the bench. Send Creepy to sleep with some Gladwin - Conroy interplay, and then pick up the pace in the 2nd half.

I reckon the line up suggests Garner has half an eye on the Exeter game on Saturday. Don't forget we have loads of games this month so we have to manage the squad properly and effectively.

Don't like that team, lacking in creativity and running.  Hope I'm wrong.

Given the amount of games we have this month giving 1st choice players a rest is hardly a shock

Wouldn’t read too much into AK and Reed being on the bench

4-0 enough said

Well, we'll see how this goes. Quite liked East earlier in the season, although I'd rather see him with Reed than instead. Definitely need to manage the squad this month, and Williams off the bench at 60 minutes is how we were operating earlier in the season with quite a bit of success.

No they haven't.

Crowd looking sparse at the moment.

Thought not,will be interesting

It will be, it may not be interesting good though.

Gladwin soft shot blocked on the line.

McKirdy wins a corner after a long punted pass from Cooper.

Low corner routine that ends up with Iandolo getting the ball mixed up between his feet on the edge of the box and loses it.

McKirdy tries a shot from 25 yards but its high and wide.

Hunt presses the keeper into an error and he kicks into touch 30 yards out.

Iandolo low cross and the defender nearly puts it into his own net, corner to Town.

Swindon dominating at the moment.

JOB header in the 6 yards box easily saved, another good chance.

Town have started quite strongly.

East is picking up the loose balls in the middle quite well so far.

Crawley seem happy to let us have all of the ball without pressing us much.

Great move by Town with 4 passes and a lovely ball from East to Iandolo who shoots just wide from 20 yards.

Iandolo has picked up where he left off on Saturday. He’s one of our most dangerous players at the moment. Kudos.

Cooper has made a couple of excellent challenges so far.

Davison doing the things well that Simpson wasn't very good at so far, we just need him to start doing the things that Simpson was good at as well to give us the full package.

Liking the early look of Cooper so far - at least he doesn't seem to be having an early JOB debut

I think Cooper seems to be covering Iandolo far more than AK does allowing Iandolo a bit more attacking freedom.

JOB uses his strength to flatten Nichols fairly.

FK to Town 40 yards out centrally.

Not a great delivery from Gladwin though.

Cooper makes a 50 yards run and nearly puts in McKirdy.

Davison poor final touch again.

Davison missed a decent chance from 15 yards out.

Hes doing everything bar score so far for Town.

Evening chaps!

Liking Cooper!

Hoping Davison is rusty, as he's fluffed his lines a couple of times.

Iandolo looking good again

Davison misses another good chance.

This is pretty

Dare I say it....East is playing the Reed role better than Reed has in recent games.

McKirdy presses the keeper into a mistake.

Agreed - albeit against a much weaker CM opposition

That's a good thing!

Absolutely, him and Lyden are controlling midfield at the moment.

McKirdy and Davison linking up well, early days but some promise from the two gorgeous long-haired strikers

Crawley remind me of Town last season. Out of their depth and hoping for a 0-0 or knicking a 1-0 win.

I reckon some of us could get a game for Creepies on early viewing

Conroy joins the attack as an extra man!

This game is made for Williams to come and run at Crawley.

Not judging them so early but they do look weak and standing off us letting us play the ball wherever we want to and allowing our defender to dribble with the ball constantly.

And Creepy very nearly get a goal with a long chip.

Vegans losing at Port Fail, let’s close the gap lads!

He should have started in place of Gladwin IMO.

Creepy have very very little pace at the back today.

I can't imagine Williams would ever be dropped on ability, so have to assume it's fitness or at least managing workload, and that sort of stuff we can't really know about from afar.

Conroy gives the ball away very very cheaply but Jojo makes a save to save his blushes.

They haven't been in the game and were nearly 2-0 up!

Jojo has to make another save.

Conroy should know he doesn’t automatically keep his place any more.

Maybe dropping him or at least subbing him may make him buck his ideas up. His head has really dropped since the error that nearly cost us.

This was almost too easy and we’ve not capitalised and now captain fantastic gifted them a guilt edge chance they’ve suddenly gone up a gear and look interested now!

Iandolo does well under pressure at the back.

Hunt with a lovely low cross but McKirdy is inches away and Town get a coner.

Great defending by Craig

That looked a penalty on JOB.

Wild swipe by their defender on JOB - could quite easily have been a pen

Two pens!

East long free kick that JOB wins and heads back but he pushed his man.

Same every game!  :no:

Corner to them off Hunt.

Ah Christ

Pen to them.

Silly by Lyden

#peakswindon

0-1

Bugger

What an idiot. Such a stupid penalty to concede. Should be fined for that.

Pathetic from Lyden.Absolutely unforgivable

Silly trip by Lyden totally against run of play, typical Town.

I'd fucking sub him straight away for that

How ridiculous was that?

Bloody stupid!

Utter fucking sloppiness. How about someone on that pitch try and put a rocket up your team mates.

Stupid from Lyden. How can the ref give that one but not the one at the other end though?

Lyden dragged him back.  Imagine if that was Conroy, there would be pitch forks out..

Honestly,that's worse than anything that happened on Saturday.

Since when did away players start always celebrating in front of home fans? Some nob from Crawley blowing kisses tonight and loads of EPL examples this year. I don't condone bottles being thrown at opposition players but I understand it.

For Smash...see Grab.

First Conroy, then Lyden being very, very stupid.

Any team, however weak, always in with a big chance at the moment.

East is not Reed.

With the ref happy to discuss everything and Crawley time wasting, we’re not going to get the 10 mins ET we should have, are we.

Sloppy 15 mins, they break with pace when we give it up cheaply and we can't cover quick enough with Gladwin and East

All self inflicted unfortunately, need a much harder edge to our game!

Double save by Wollacott.

All of a sudden Creepy find their legs.

Gave them a sniff from our own sloppiness and now they are dominating…

Let’s see if he uses some subs second half or just stands there waving his hands around like the Wovers game!

I wonder whether their game plan was just to soak up 15-20 mins of pressure then come at us.

Now we don't seem to be able to play it out and through midfield.

Not sure they are dominating but they have got a better grip ont he game since the goal.

That looked more of a penalty to be fair

Gladwin with a  terrible pass puts us under pressure again.

Comparable.

That wasn’t far off a pen from Hunt there.

Christ! Thought that was another penalty!

McKirdy should have scored there twice.

We are far to wasteful in front of goal

HT 0-1

Time for plan B, oooops!

Defo should have been a 2nd pen for them

McKirdy and Davison both very wasteful so far.

really good 25 then slowly fell apart.

 penalty or not we've created enough chances not to be behind. not got them on target though

disappointing

Very frustrating. Bossed the game up to their penalty but in reality we haven’t created loads of chances. Need a quick goal early in the second half otherwise I think Crawley will score another on the break.

Pathetic. Shit reffing again and wasteful again. Getting fed up with this

Typical home performance. No matter the personnel the slow pace continues. We look toothless up front.

Hopefully we’ll see Williams for Gladwin and Barry for McKirdy who’s having a stinker.

Fucking hell Lyden,you absolute cretin. Dock his fucking wages for that. Bloody hell that's angered me the ball was nowhere near that Crawley player.

100% on all of that.

And both running away from goal too, no excuses.

When get long in the tooth you think you’ve seen it all. Well that was a masterclass in how to fuck yourself over. Crawley will think they’re Man Citeh now. We should have been at least two up before that Kate Christmas present.

I disagree about the chances, I think we have created a lot, we had about 3 chances in the first 5 mins.  The problem is we don't look like finishing them off. Hopefully Davison is similar to Simpson in that it took him a few games to score, but once he did, they came more regularly.  Hopefully he picks the 2nd half to break his duck

You can go through times when you miss chances.

However, after Saturday's fiasco against 9 men, I'm getting angry about the defensive sloppiness and lack of concentration.

I hope Garner is or I'll be demanding Baudry for Conroy, never mind Odi.

We created at least 5 good chances that on another day or another player having them would have scored, similar to Saturday.

Let's hope Barry is a goalscorer...

He has scored lots for the U23s, fuck all to lose in bringing him on.

Davison and Mckirdy both done nothing to warrant staying on. As Mckirdy has scored 13 this season I'd bring him on for Davison

I meant 4-1

Conroy has made one stupid mistake, however 90% of the play from the back comes through him, so errors are going to happen.  The other 2 back there are asked to defend, and pretty much defend only, Conroy is asked to kick off most of our forward momentum.  If you are going to replace Conroy for one mistake, then you need to replace Lyden, Gladwin and probably Davison and McKirdy as well.

Also get Williams on for Gladwin who was a passenger for much of that 1st half.

I wouldn't send Lyden back out after that. How else do you fucking learn?

Teams never seem to have to work for goals against us

We are masters of the free gift.

Davison off for Barry.

Well then lad, fill your fucking boots, show us what all the hype is about.

Barry wins a corner.

Squirrel radar all over the shop.

Mckirdy always looks like he is trying to rip the fucking net out when he shoots, sometimes you have just got to take a breath young Harry

I don't know if he panics or is always looking for a worldy?

Before tonight we had only won 2 in the last 8 league games. We are going nowhere fast. Can see us losing on Saturday too.

Oh dear. This ref is turning out like I feared.

Good cross from Iandolo but its defender for a corner.

McKirdy has a heavy hobble on.

Northampton losing as well as FGR - could really do with a win tonight

No Williams,no anything

Att: 7,306 with 131 from Crawley.

For me Williams is THE creator of chances.

someone explain to me when the ball is sent out near your goal side , why the first person (conroy) doesnt throw it in quickly before the other team can move forward and make it more difficult?

East started really well but has gone right off the boil since the goal.

So many poor touches this half. Need to get their minds back.

I am currently on Exeter City's mailing list. An email received today says, inter alia, "Saturday 5 Feb Away v Swindon (3pm – Sky Bet league 2) LAST TICKETS AVAILABLE". That would, of course, suggest they are almost sold out

Bloody hell! What the hell are we doing pissing around with it back there!

Because if the ball comes back he would have been exposed as the only player back.  Taking it quickly is fine as long as we keep the ball.  It's more a case of us regaining our defensive shape rather than allowing them to come forward.  The throw was right down by our corner flag

Lots of boos from Town fans aimed at our own players, that won't fucking help anyone will it.

Oh ffs  :crash: Get a grip Swindon.

We were really good to watch for the first 25. The game changed when Conroy decided to have a go at being Maradona on the half way line.

Barry misses a half chance.

I would bet you some money that very few teams even train restarting the game with a throw in, let alone situational tactics for such a thing.  The best you get are teams who focus on the long throw in near the opposition box.

We look like a pretty decent U23 Academy team, which is not to be unexpected given the recruitment and Coaching team in place.  Lots of nice football, look a bit better than the teams we play against in possession, but lacking that killer edge.  Also look like we do very little work on set pieces - I may be wrong, but it's just the way we look.

I think when things are going well, that type of team can get a lot of confidence flowing.  When it starts to get a bit more tricky you don't have a lot of experience to call upon to settle everyone down.

To be fair we can’t even take a goal kick currently…

Williams on for East.

Giving the new man a lot of leeway there. Free shot from 12 yards screwed wide

We are pretty shit but I am not an advocate of booing players that are at least trying, even if its not happening so far.

McKirdy is having a mare

Poor 20 yarder from Gladwin well over the bar.

Probably his worst game for Town so far.

When you’re 1-0 down and it keeps taking over a minute to take a goal kick that just results in us playing into trouble then peoples frustration is going to boil over.

Another yellow for creepys.

Barry looks rusty.

Conroy with the worst piece of defending all night!

Reed must be carrying a knock

Stupid question, but why have we got a referee from Sussex?

Barry strays offside in the box.

To balance out the one we had from Chippenham?

Its EFL cost cutting, he travelled down with the Crawley team to save on expenses. :)

McKirdy shot from 18 yards but its at the keeper, nothign working for him at the moment.

Overall movement off the ball from Town has not been good.  Many times a player looks up for help and nobody near them nor willing to run to them...just no energy.

This second half is as bad as it has been all season, Simpson is a massive loss.

At least my bet on Swindon over 5.5 corners has come in.

So fed up with sub standard home performances.  This game has turned into a real shit storm and Garner has no clue other than keep us playing the way we are.

Garner ain’t the one I’m afraid.

I would say Williams not being on the field until later 2nd half is a bigger lost

Can we please take Gladwin off and bring anyone who can move on please.

Bad night at the office tonight and the lads have been in poor form for a few weeks now..........however, still enjoying this season far more than last and although inconsistent, we have some good players who are trying hard for a new regime

Lyden trying to be Maradona in the middle of the field and losing it

Can’t blame Garner for players being off their game tonight. Loads of sloppy individual errors.

Agreed has done nothing for us this season.  Conroys gone off the boil lately too

Ten four.

Absolute dross. We can’t keep playing like this. All the goodwill is draining away with this powder puff stuff. No excitement.

Dull. Dull. Dull.

C'mon man we've seen far worse under Brown recently

All is not lost

Really? Consistent shite at home. Dull to watch. Players fannying about. Garner has no tactical nous at all.

Felt scared about relegation under Brown before he got sacked, we're not at that stage by a long way

You’re upset. This is on the players.

Some sort of penalty kerfuffle. Sigh.

Season seems to have ebbed away since Man City came to town :(

Nah, Harry was offside

McKirdy going to get booked soon

And FGR equalise

Dont disagree at all that players are not doing what professional players need to do. But i think the coach could help with putting a better 11 on the field to start the game.  Gladwin has no business starting over williams or some others.  Conroy is just behind him.

Conroy off for JML.

Why is Williams playing so deep?

Harry gets his yellow

I blame him for not subbing fucking Lyden

Conroy off

do you happen to know any lottery numbers by the way?

Yes, it’s that bad.

Told ya

Time for JML to impress me for the first time.

You're really settling well into this supporting swindon thing   :)

Garner really hasn’t got a clue.

O’Brien had a good game. Some good running with the ball out of defence.

I agree, but I do feel sorry for him, seems to get 10 mins if he's lucky to make an impact - not exactly giving him the chance is he

People have had enough of this at home now, there’s a lot of anger around the ground currently.

sure, i do think they have gotten a few new defenders that could really help out.  

This is absolute dog shite

I think JOB and Cooper have looked decent

No he rarely gets much time but he has yet to do anything that makes me think he is a good player...yet.

Best 2 players for me today.

‘We are the Diddy Men, Garner's Diddy Diddy Men’

Grimly predictable in classic Swindon fashion. Total domination for first half an hour making Crawley look very poor. The game turned on a sixpence and we then made things difficult for ourselves. Conroy in particular has looked off colour. Iandolo has been bright. Need to do better against teams like this to have any chance of playoffs.

Sounded like JOB got the sponsors MOTM

Jeez, this ref has given us absolutely nothing tonight

Not sure if I would pick him or Cooper TBH both hardly put a foot wrong all game for me.

If Sky’s stats are to be taken as accurate

We have 70% possession, 17 shots with 3 on target.
Crawley in comparison 30% 10 & 4

Cooper just for me

Our home form will be what stops us making the play offs this season.

Have it!

1-1

OG

Ha. The goal was as crap as the game. Three 1-1s in a row will take us nowhere.

Crawley have been mugged. soapy tit wank

I can't get excited about that. This has been shit

Given to JML - assisted by Peter Venkman, I think!

McKirdy shot deflected wide for a corner.

I will take that!

Papers over the cracks. Utter rubbish still.

Three draws is a win 😂

This.

Where was this intensity before the goal.

Garner needs to pick the strongest side, get some points on the board then piss about resting people!

Fucking clueless!

FT 1-1

Just had a look back at our league games this season. We have only come back to win 2 games where the opposition scored first. Gash and Sutton.

Poor. Very poor.

Bout time we had a fluke

Fuck off, Garner.

Too strong man

1-1 ft. Fair result. Swindon had more of the ball but didn’t create many clear cut chances. Crawley scored a pen and then had a good 5 minute spell but did fuck all the rest of the game.

Today was the kind of game you need to be winning if you want to get promoted out of this division

Well that is a couple of hours I won't get back..  Terrible game, horrible performance. We ain't going up this season I don't think..

Fucking Louis Reed just got a straight red - FFS

Louis Reed red carded. So he’s not back for a bit. Wanker.

The most disappointing thing for me was that Barry (who was massively hyped) was anonymous.

For Christ's sake!

A red card after the final whistle for the second time this season. Our approach to managing referees is an absolute disgrace and that does come from the manager, who pisses and wines about refereeing every single week without fail. Plenty of times we do get shit refs, but it's League fucking Two and we're hardly a bunch of professionals at the top of our game either. More to the point, it clearly doesn't help.

Okay it was shit but that would have been a travesty if we'd lost. But for one moment of sheer fuckwittery it would have been 3 points. And now,more lunacy with a red after the final whistle. Brainless fucking idiot

GARNER, SORT THIS OUT. UNFORGIVABLE THESE PERFORMANCES AND ATTITUDE FOR THE RED CARDS.

Nice!! new word!!

Total and utter gash, has to be up there as one of our worst performances of the season.  Really have my doubts about Garner, very much in the mould of Luke Williams for me.

Too many players off par today

Agreed. The ref was shit but what do you get out of abusing him after the game… fucking disgraceful. Fine him a weeks wages

CHILL OUT LADS... we will beat Exeter and Tranmeres aways

I can only hope you are a prophet!  if so, again, can I have lottery numbers?

Garner does bring most of these problems on himself, a defeat at home on Saturday could start to see things get a little uncomfortable for him, which is disappointing because we were flying at the start of the season and it all feels so self inflicted.

My roulette numbers are 3,4,5,17 and 23 and in the UK we don't have the 00 fucking you in the ass from casino bosses

Meh, suppose a draw was a fair enough result even if grabbed late.  However, another team there for the taking to an extent.

I just don't think we are a good enough "team".  We have the look of a good sort of Academy team.  We are good in possession, when we are given time we look nice and tidy and we probably have some of the more gifted players with ball at feet in the division.  That is not enough to make a team in professional sports though.  We come with all the same issues an Academy team has, which is why nobody watches them.

We look ambivalent to set pieces - our only trick seems to be our own free kicks around th box leaving it to Reed.  Other than that it looks like it probably bores us to focus too much on the rest of the set piece repertoire.

We look like a team without blame - Academies, quite rightly, focus on the development aspects.  So you'll get critical feedback no doubt, but the result is secondary to the performance.

We look like we can really beat down a team once we get on top of them - confidence flows, the other teams struggle with our technique.  We also look just as likely to become very ragged if things start to go against us - the petulance of youth, the lack of experience to know when to focus, when to grind, when become more pragmatic etc.

We look very passive without the ball, like we spend all our time preparing for what to do with it.

I don't see us changing under someone like Garner, I don't see us changing with our approach to recruitment.  It's all kind of safe harmless fun.

I think the Transfer window wasn't that kind to us, but it's also a side effect of this approach.  KKH may not be a favourite of many on here, but he scared the shit out of defenders.  It created space even if he didn't make the best use of it.  It opens up the field for others.  We look toothless on the right now.  Simpson looks a better player than Davison.  Granted that is not on much time yet, but he just looks a meh type of player to me.  Competent enough, works hard, but lacks a strikers instinct.  Simpson maybe didn't have the latter either, but he just seemed a bit more instinctive, if a little less rounded in other aspects.

I still think the Play Offs are possible, but we haven't come into February looking a better team than we left December.  More of the same probably.

If Garner comes out and says we played well tonight just didn't take our chances, I might drive down there myself

Better get the car warmed up then :-)

Garner:
- Take the positives from that
- We just didn't take our chances
- Great performance. Didn't deserve not to win
- At least 10 penalties not given for us. They got one.
- Not clinical enough. Made a million chances
- Gladwin was super speedy in midfield, but his speed of thought didn't match the rest of the team
- We go again
- Not going to criticise the players. It was all down to the referee.
- Take the positives and move on.
- Very positive. Got minutes into Barry's legs
- If we were more clinical we'd have been in hospital

Can't disagree with any of that

The worrying thing is I had to confirm to myself that the sarcasm was dropping!

Where's my keys...

Is this real?

Are you the same PV loyal on FF- WATP?

Not real, but probably quite close!

Wait and see?

  :girlgiggle:

Scary thing is that I believed that when I started reading it..  He could actually record that and play it out at the end of every game, save himself some time

Sorry  :(

Who's that numbskull who just gave Lyden Man of the Match?Cost us 2 points with his knobendery

He is literally saying this word for word

Same old Garner. Should have had a penalty blah blah blah

OMG - this is almost word for word so far...  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

3 home league wins from 12 is not good enough. Every team coming here know what they need to do, keep us quiet for 30 mins & they the end up with a result.

Can't believe he's questioning their Pen. I'm not a harsh critic of Garner but that's sheer delusion.

Don't really understand why we don't play a back 4 at home. 3-5-2 with Hunt as a wing back is too defensive. It's fine away when teams naturally attack more but not when teams come to the CG with a low block.

Garner (The real version this time):
- Point. Yep, thats the positive
- Started the game so well
- Should have scored 3 or 4
- Got a goal got a point. Thats the positive
- Just didnt take our chances. The rest was very good
- I sound like a broken record
- Dont like to criticise officials
- It was a stonewall penalty on Cooper
- Every week these things go against us
- A game we have completely dominated
- We needed to take our chances
- Hard because they were so deep. Had to try to go through or round which is tough to do
- Could have been quicker at times
- Davison changes the dynamic
- Louis grew into the game
- We'll get Davison scanned
- Hamstring tightened
- Spoken to the dressing room about sending off
- Swore at him after the game. There was swearing all through the game. The 4th official has sworn at the manager and they wont even own up to it
- Will discipline internally. Talked to the dressing room and that will remain private
- Both teams have complained about the 4th official swearing. He's denied it
- Cooper, with 1 day training and to play like that was great
- Odimayo had a knock from weekend
- Reed and East was rotation. Need to utilise the squad
- For first 30 mins. Great tempo, great opportunities. Missed target too much tonight
- Need to stay brave and the goals will eventually go in
- Tomlinson will give us great quality. Good crosser. Two footed
- Sam Baldock? Never rule anything out w/r/t free agents. Nothing imminent yet

Because three at the back gets you in possession more easily - either from our own players under pressure looking for an option backwards, from mopping up a through ball or from the keeper.  It's the way we play.  I think we did try four at the back in a game but forgot to pay anyone wide further up field, so it looked terrible.

Don't like to criticise officials   :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

I do try to back Garner as much as possible but if he keeps rolling out this type of stuff it does diminish his credibility with me.  Anyone watching that game and then listening to that interview would feel like Garner is treating them as idiots..

We might not be inside the football bubble, but we have eyes Ben..

Absolutely

It guess how you define dominated. We had lots of the ball and from memory Crawley were just sending it long. However after 25 mins did we create much? No, not really. We didn’t really look like scoring all of the second half

Mitchell sounds very similar to a TEF poster..

Well, the theory that all teams have to do is press us high and get in our faces went up in smoke this evening.

Crawley let us have the ball and stood off us. Still couldn’t win or even put in a decent performance.

Garner is sounding more delusional by the week. Just because fans haven’t played the game we still know when we’re having smoke blown up our arses. That was total shit. Just like nearly every other game at home.

Even if we had won that game it was still shit to watch.

I’m not all that bothered if we do or don’t make the POs and it has been a great resurrection of the club but I want to have some fun watching my team, something to get me off my seat, some intensity. This unending drivel is doing my head in.

Yes I think it was against Bradford, but the fullbacks we played that game (Odimayo and Hunt) offered little width. KKH is going to be a miss. If we're going to play 3-5-2 we need a wide player who can beat his man to open up space for others.

Garner doing a Williams and wobbling in about "dominating the game".

 First 30 absolutely, but just before penalty until they final whistle we could barely string a pass together. just one of those games  Then again  Crawley didn't do that much either

Garner's weekly official rant is boring now.

Reed had been a nob getting sent off.
McKirdy is lucky he didn't with a sustained gobbing off period, even after being yellow

Lyden was a twat. The ref already warned him before the corner for holding, so was bound to be watching.

we probably could have had a penalty, but I'm not convinced Hunt didn't get away with one too.

of the new boys, ignoring this was their first game - cooper looked ok. Barry didn't do much other than run into blind alleys. Early days

can't disagree with the O'Brien man of the match.

all in all one to forget. Next

We had this in the first 10 mins and then it dropped off... I've got no explanation as to why?

Garner has got a free pass this season and if he didn’t he would be under pressure by now. He may be a good coach but he’s a terrible manager. Can’t change a game, constant moaning at officials which then goes into the players, even the team selection today is baffling.

Michael Flynn was Clems first choice but given the time available and being contracted to Newport wasn’t feasible. I would do anything to get him in as manager right now. Possession of the ball is great but we don’t do anything with it. I can’t remember the last proper save a goalkeeper has had to make at the county ground.

Recruitment has been disappointing in my eyes. Defensive reinforcements look good but our attacking options are all the same type of player. A previous poster mentioned its like were an academy and it’s spot on. I worry the Barry signing was a waste given we could have got a different type of player to what we already have. Fully appreciate recruitment under the embargo must be difficult but then why are we still under the embargo. During the court case it was confirmed that Clems intention was to pay that loan back and remove the embargo straight away. Yet here we are still trying to live with it and I guess missing targets due to it.

This season just seems a waste, the league is so poor and yet we are slowly drifting to a mid table finish but its ok because possession wise we’ll be the best in the league.

It was only the ‘10’ penalties that gives you away.
If you’d have said 1 or 2 I’d have believed this 100%

Absolutely this.
Garner is an academy coach/youth development officer having a go as a manager without adjusting his approach. Has echos of Luke Williams.

East shouldn’t be anywhere near league 2…can’t believe he rested reed as we would have won that game at a canter with him starting….no wonder reed spat it at full time….hopefully this isn’t starting to go sour for garner but I personally feel he’s too safe and needs to put his bollocks on the line…3 games in a row now… just saying

I don't think East was that bad, at least I thought he looked good when the rest of the team did.

However he's no Louis Reed.

2 game ban for a red for dissent.

He hides which is the last thing you need a CM to be doing

Because he knows he should’ve been playing. Petulant but I’d feel the same if I was him irrespective of how childish it was.

1 minute into tonight's game?
-------
we started brilliant, just like against rovers. High intensity passing and we created some good chances. Davison going off did change the game. we lost a focal point with Barry and mckirdy both being the runners

we really have to drop the 5-3-2/ 3-5-2 at home. it's perfect away. not at home. the centre backs generally have fuck all to do and it's a waste of a body. we need that extra man in the middle of the pitch.

if you screen grabbed the pitch at numerous times of the pitch the centre of the park has a massive hole in it. the front line are always trying to run off the shoulder.

let conroy play the away games.I think go with a 4-2-3-1. lyden and Reed the back two and then a 3 of mckirdy Williams and payne/Barry with Davison up top.

obrien and Cooper looked really good tonight. there were positives. the goals we are conceding are just frustrating at the moment, cross that misses everyone at rovers, corner and penalty. luck or whatever we aren't getting much at the moment but we aren't giving the opposition many chances and it can't keep going against us.

 

Ultimately this team has no organisation, no leadership and no discipline. That’s shown by the stupid red cards, constant gobbing off and sloppiness on the pitch. This should all come from the manager but the players know they can pretty much do what they want without consequence. The biggest problem is if you have only seen us play at home all you have seen is relegation fodder so that does put Garner in an uncomfortable position. It’s still all very Luke Williams for me, style over substance and his favourites get looked after.

It won't be long before someone says wellens is without a job!

Thought he was being rested for Exeter, now rested for Scunthorpe United and The General.

I bet East looks really good in training.  He has that look of a very competent ball player - however, he cannot impose himself on a game, much like some of the others, he can very easily drift out of the game.  I wouldn't call it hiding as such, it's not having that mental, competitive toughness.  It may come in time.  Reed is a bit more "give it to me", or will go looking, which makes him a better player of the two.

It's one of the more frustrating things watching us right now - I don't think we have any obviously rank players.  There isn't a Jason Drysdale taking up a wage on the left, or a Taylor Curran embarrassing everyone around him.  With a fair wind behind our backs (no, not the anti-Exeter wind tunnel) we look very good.  Anything starts to go wrong and it all becomes a bit kids football.

to add, in the modern day of heavy analysis why can't we seem to take a throw in? something so simple that we struggle with. and freekicks- we have height at the back, anything in the oppositions half let's cross it in instead of a 2 foot pass, pressured and back to the defence. reminds me of playing 5 aside on a small pitch where a freekick has no benefit.

I was angry at stevenage nil nil and said I wasn't going Saturday. then we scored 5 past Northampton. iv similar feelings to going back on Saturday!

Garner needs to start taking some responsibility I’m afraid

3 home wins out of 13 games is dire and not play off form

We are now in February he has had 6 months to sort the home form out but we are no further forward

Why does he also persist in picking Gladwin? He just slows the game down all the time

Not sure Garner has much longer in a lot of fans opinions judging by what I heard in block 6 of the DRS tonight. Never seems to learn by his mistakes. The offering at home this season has been generally bloody awful

You make valid points Rob. I’ve been told that east has made 6 professional appearances and he’s 23? I still say you don’t ‘rest’ your best players at league 2 level unless you’re home and hosed like the vegans .

I would require video evidence before I will accept as the truth that we even spend more than a couple of sessions a week on set pieces.  Around the box Reed takes a punt - he has a good finish on him but we don't try any variety.  

Throw ins, aside from the outside central defender dropping deep, I see nothing that suggests a plan.  People do that aimless wandering - nearly all clubs are just as bad on this front.  Liverpool got laughed at for bringing in a throw-in coach.

There are a couple of corner routines we seem to have worked on, but no obvious plan for ho they are deployed.  Like today - we had one early where we got a man free at the near post to flick it back to the penalty spot.  It didn't work out in the end, but it looked like it could with better execution.  Never tried it again.

Defending - stand in a line as far from the box as possible, then all just run back with little idea on where to head.

Have you seen the Gladwin effort? It’s in the middle of the goal right at the keeper. I’d expect any keeper to stop that rather than be what I would call a proper save.

Agree with all your points though, the centre of the park has a huge hole in it currently. Are we now going to have to rely on Payne being that centre mid?

Overall it is disappointing to a manager not be willing to make changes and learn or at least it seems that way.  It is disappointing to see players not seemingly playing with enthusiasm from game to game.
But from what I have learned about the past this team really isn't doing horribly for their limitations with money and time to put a team together to start with.
As a supporter/fan, still going to bitch but in the end, being in the top half of the standings to this point is positive.  If nothing else, it is a great jump off point for next season as well.

well that was a bag of shit, wasn't it? Is one all against eleven men better than one all against nine? Roll on the summer.

only in real time and thought it looked a good reflex save. haven't watched the highlights back

Positive for me was that my son's gloves he dropped by his seat at the Rovers game were still there.

I thought Cooper and O' Brien were decent. Beyond that, I am struggling. That was more of the same shit and the Colchester catharsis didn't happen. 

On paper we have some good players, on pitch we are hit and mostly miss at the moment. I just don't hear our players, and I don't see a lot of animation from the bench. Play offs are unlikely now, mid table at best, because we aren't fixing the obvious problems. Unbelievable.

Who?  :hmmm:

30 good minutes albeit with minimal bite followed by an hour of absolute crap. Something's gotta give.

                JoJo

Iandolo Cooper JOB Odimayo

           Lyden Reed

McKirdy/Barry Williams Payne

             Davison

I would swap AK and Ellis and start with McKirdy instead of Barry.

Really really shit. Please fuck off shooting from outside the area constantly and shit corners

13 of our 20 shots were from inside the box  ;)

unfortunately 3 missing on Saturday

I was trying not to single McKirdy out  ;)

First 25 minutes up to the stupid penalty decent enough.
Possession counts for nothing when you can’t hit the target. Honestly our shooting was woeful, McKirdy the biggest culprit.
Defensively we look ok but midfield, honestly apart from Williams static and once Davison went off we looked clueless as what to do.
East is OK but will keep saying it we don’t have that effective box to box competitive midfielder.

No idea where to go next, is Garner bold enough to change the formation? Unlikely.
Reed now missing and the play offs in danger of slipping away.

Whilst we can blame the poor officials need to look in the mirror first. Another rebuild mid season and can only hope we get back to early season form.
Last night thought how much we missed Simpson.

Cooper looks great, good signing… alongside O’Brien, we should be more solid (with Odimayo as the third CB rather than the walking error that is Conroy at the mo)

Other than that, no positives. Hope Barry is better than his cameo suggests. And I wish McKirdy would take a proper first touch… it all seems so frantic, meaning he loses the ball or it gets stuck under his feet. Seems churlish to criticise our top scorer, but a lot of his other contributions (including the dives and the whinging) are dreadful.

Talking of whinging, our discipline needs to drastically improve - and that starts with Garner.

mcKirdy definitely had one of 'those' games

I hope last night fires them up for Saturday. I'll be there regardless, but I'm glad I chose not to go last night.

You picked a good one to miss from a football point of view.

I did enjoy the equaliser though, unexpected and scrappy and in some ways felt like we did a Colchester.

Not read back and just watched the 'highlights'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ca5KbVO3Sg

The pretty much sum up this team, the first 20 secs detail the shambles of playing out from the back and the rest is scrappy and in the main pretty pointless with little end product.

The constant overdramatic arm waving and Scream painting impressions from McKirdy are getting tiresome.
Does not take away from him being a good player but it is annoying

Yes yes yes

Another strange evening involving Swindon Town! First 30 minutes I thought we played some of the best football so far this season, that said, it seemed that Crawley were still on the team bus as they just watched us ping the ball about, let our centre backs saunter up the pitch, basically play our football without anyone really laying a finger on us. Of course as is the problem we didn't really create a lot, shots blocked blah blah. Cooper should have had a penalty for being held and then hacked down, but of course nothing given! Then after Conroy was dispossessed in midfield Crawley realised they were actually in a game and they looked quite dangerous on the break. From a corner Lydon was warned about holding in the box by the ref and then of course when the corner was swung in he fouled the same guy he was previously warned about not fouling. Soft, but I think it was a pen. My Ifollow froze just as the penalty take was stepping up, still no idea if he scored!!

Second half was just frustrating. Attack versus defence with Crawley offering nothing apart from launching the ball down the pitch as far as possible. We passed and probed and never really looking like scoring. With Davison off injured there was no point in putting balls into the box as Barry and McKirdy are too slight and similar, and that partnership never really worked. We got a fluky goal that we probably maybe just about deserved. I felt that had Crawley had a more tactically aware manager instead of a dinosaur egg they had the opportunities to break with humbers and put the game to bed 2 or 3 nil. Luckily they didn't and we managed to fluke a point.

Player wise I think Davison will split the camp. I thought he was a bit of a donkey based on what I have seen so far, but has good aeriel presence that will be useful. McKirdy for all his monumental effort last night was terrible, and has a habit of dribbling the ball off the pitch for a goal kick which annoys me! Iandolo the pick of the wing backs, I really think Hunt for KKH is a big miss as there is little to no danger caused by Hunt down that side. It's not his game and at home I think we need to give teams more to think about down both sides. O'Brien and Cooper were excellent and I also thought Conroy played well for the first 30 minutes but really just makes too many high profile mistakes that at a higher level would get punished more. The crowd seems very angsty at the moment, every mistake Gladwin or Conroy make is jeered and moaning at Jojo for following the manager's instructions just seems counter-intuitive.

Finally the bit that really irritated me. Garner running onto the pitch to berate the referee, just what is he expecting to get out of doing that? It shows a huge lack of discipline and had he not done that, I don't think Louis Reed gets a red card and a subsequent 3 game ban. The fact we have had 3 red cards this season, the latest on 97 minutes and 2 after the game has finished highlights Garner has to do more to keep his anti-referee tirades in check. Of course it's frustrating, but really what benefit comes out of it other than a touchline ban, or in the case of Conroy and Reed, a 3 game ban for basically doing nothing! Exeter are going to fancy their chances on Saturday! ugh. 

😱😱😱🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️😱😱

great report Bob.

Be interesting to see how we’d do with a flat back 4 now.

Said a lot earlier on in the season our squad seemed built for 4231. We have (had) so many who could play across that attacking midfield three. McKirdy, Barry(Gilbert), Payne, Williams, Gladwin even Iandolo and KKH could do a job further up the pitch.

Reed and Lyden (and Grant as was then) to hold.

Then you have Hunt, Tomlinson, Iandolo and Odimayo as full back options.
Odimayo, Conroy, JOB, Cooper and Baudry (!!!) as your CB options.

Obviously the issues with that is you need a central out and out striker, something that we are short on.

So because he had a strop on about not playing he gets himself a red card therefore ruling him out of the next 2 games? That's some weird logic you are implying there.

Cheers. Although is it a 2 game rather than 3 game ban for Reed?

Probably our best 11 players but Iandolo's strength is his attacking play.As a left back in a flat back four I'm not so sure. Maybe Tomlinson?

Forgot Tomlinson. He needs to be in there somewhere.

Edit. Who the fuck is Tomlinson

He's right back in that set up?

??

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2022/january/town-complete-their-work-with--tomlinson-signing/

Shakes head . . .

You're normally up to date😀

I've been wooshed somewhere haven't I

a page before yours. great minds hey. it would be my first choice but may not see it for a few weeks now

On a different note, the ref was absolutely lost. I had a friend go yesterday who went to Swindon for the first time. He couldn’t believe how bad the ref was, I said that was very normal/regular. I cant remember a league two game where I’ve walked away and haven’t said the ref was crap. I don’t even think I’m bias, the decisions he was making were awful for both sides and he just looked like he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. Reffing has to become more professional because we’re a professional team playing in a league with a semi-professional ref. It’s an absolute shit show and is really putting me off football I can’t lie

I assumed it was reading from left to right! Iandolo as right back is even more arguable

Havent read back.

That was shit.

Started so well early doors too.

Crap ref and pen shouts aside (the second challenge at the bank and the one on McKirdy on the edge of the area second looked good shouts to me), it was poor and home form is probably going to hamper us ref a top seven finish.

Couldnt pass ten yards for most of the match.

Probably play better on Saturday.

Crawley played very simple football, marked each man and once they got the pen, spoiled the game....fair play to them.

Worst performance of the season by a country mile.

Ref was very very poor, aided by two rabbit in the headlights Linos.

Louis Reed has come out on Twitter and apologised for his behaviour last night.

The result, and performance after about 30 mins - were both disappointing.
However, to suggest that Garner didn’t change things last night is just wrong.
The enforced change - replacing Davison with Barry - clearly disrupted things as we lost the focus / outlet which Davison provided in the first half.
But Garner did switched the system twice after that, first when Williams replaced East, and later  moved to a back 4 when Conroy was replaced by JML. Ultimately that brought the equaliser.
As has happened a number of times at home, we failed to score / take our chances when we were in top - we should have closed out the game in the first half hour - should have had a penalty when Cooper was fouled,  then had a shaky few minutes, culminating with Lyden making a poor decision which was ruled a penalty.
Where I do take issue with Garner is on discipline- why was Reed (or any unused sub) allowed to get close enough to the ref to get a red card. That’s poor and we have to do without him for two more games as a result.

Waiting for the Lyden apology. Idiotic pen

One of the most totally needless penalties I have ever seen Town give away.

Agreed. Just plain foolish, especially as the ref had just warned him and was clearly keeping an eye on him!

Good first 30 minutes apart from our finishing. Davison is a work in progress.

The penalty looked soft to me- both running for the ball and Lyden 'may' have clipped his heels. As much a penalty as what happened at the other end earlier.

Cooper looks to be a good signing- confident, not afraid to clear the ball with gusto when required and also not afraid to try and exploit space in front of him. Not at all surprised that neither the ref or his assistant saw the afters on him in the second half where the Creepy player shoved him back down when they were both trying to get back to their feet. I actually think he could be captain material as, I heard some very uncharacteristic for us defensive shouting and organising from him in the first half.

Too many individual errors and lack of discipline will continue to punish us.

As for the officials? Fucking useless but, we always get shit refs.

Lyden didn't just clip his heals, he pulled him back as well, that is why the penalty was awarded I think

It was defo a penalty earlier though when Cooper/Job got pushed over and then swiped with no contact on the ball

Yeah I thought the Cooper one was a definite penalty as well. He was manhandled/shirt pulled and then for good measure got taken out when the defender attempted to clear the ball and completely missed it.

Also thought Hunt could have given one away too.

He was shit all round (the ref)


Exactly that. As noted, just after the ref warned him...brain fart

Can’t argue against any of that.

We switched to 4 at the back on 84 minutes. it took 84 minutes plus every home game previous to commit to new a formation. with 3 cb's at home it simply isn't needed, it's a waste of a position and it sees the only role is to be a short option on goal kicks

Louis Reed

‘Can only apologise for last night. No matter how frustrated I was in the heat of the moment I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the better of me. I will learn from my mistake and will try to make up for it when I’m back out on the pitch. #STFC’

I’d drop him into the reserves and fine him. Oh wait… this isn’t FM?

Didn't we play 4 at the back when we lost to Bradford? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58936179

from memory there has definitely been a home game which we have.

when the away team comes and sits with a rigid and disciplined formation when we have 3 centre backs across the back marking 1 or 2 of their strikers we are playing 7 vs 9/10 and trying to find the spaces. its an extremely tough ask.

the first 25 minutes of crawley and 30 mins of rovers we did everything perfect and chances were created. its only an issue if we dont find the net and sustain the pressure. unfortunately that happens way more than the former

Completely agree btw. Crawley were just clearing it in the second half there was no need for 3 centre backs all half

I think the first 25/30 minutes where we almost had one of the centre backs actually being a midfielder showed how potent we could be with the extra body in midfield. It was only after Conroy was dispossessed on about half an hour that we seemed to lose confidence in doing that and Crawley had a decent spell. I do agree that the 3 at the back does mean that we are able to play out from the back more, but it was clear from Tuesday's second half that we really didn't need it. That said, had we changed it, Crawley probably would have brought Mark Marshall on and attempted to play a more counter-attacking style which I am not sure would have suited us either.

It's definitely a conundrum (sorry for another Countdown reference) that Garner has to solve. Sorry,
FuuuuuuuuuurKInnnnnnnnn sOrT It oUt gArNeR!!!!!!