Thetownend.com

I’m feeling unusually optimistic for this one, let’s hope we see McKirdy that played at Carlisle last season. Big pressure on if we don’t get a result given the squad selected on Tuesday.

2-0 Town with 312 travelling fans COYR

Key points from Scott Lindsey:
- The stats show that Swindon should have scored by now
- Injuries remain the same
- Frazer Blake-Tracy adds versatility on the left side
- Walsall line-up was because of fatigue from Salford, keeping Carlisle in mind
- Players are reacting well and are still positive, showing the right attitude to get a win
- Planning to discuss with McKirdy about keeping his cool against a former team
- A win against Carlisle will put them on the same points as this time last season
- Carlisle have had a good start and are strong at putting balls into the box
- Feels the back three gives the team the ability to control games and win matches but is not set on one system

McKirdy to pull it out of the hat. New boys to click, and an identity to be found, to prove me and others wrong. 3-1 win.

I'm sure they do, but I read this and thought "well, I'm going to read that as a tweet reply every time we fail to score this season". Not an especially wise thing to say.

I think we'll win this one. Certainly bloody hope so!

I’m not sure our combined XG across the full season even reaches one goal yet. Bizarre thing to say

What stats?
Fatigue?
Pretty much the opposite of what I saw in the Salford game.

Carlisle 3-0 Swindon  att: 4,322 (412 of us)

1-3 Town

Attendance 4,234 (432 Swindon)

After a shaky start we score from a defensive mistake, and suddenly start making chances.

One can dream!

Bizarre comments. 

 I sort of understand the fatigue but it's 5 subs so surely could have had a bigger sprinkling of first teamers at walsall and rotated a couple at half time.

The stats thing is ridiculous, we haven't had 15 clear cut chances.  I reckon 2, both to Gladwin, the penalty and the one the defender cleared from nowhere against Salford.
Nothing at Walsall.

Yes we should have scored a penalty, I'll give him that, but 15 chances? - on that basis the opposition must have had 50+ then.

If control means keeping the ball in our half for a few mins then we've achieved that.

They’ve got 10 senior players out injured.

Piece of piss. 1-4

Just need another 10 to get injured and we might score a goal.

Personally I’d started with the 10 who finished the Salford game. Only decent spell we’ve put together all season..

Would that give us the option of 6 subs?

 ;)

Only because of the penalty at Harrogate... probably.

Agreed - I could understand if he said "we put in 60 minutes against a good side with 10 men and I'd rather have rested the players to prevent risk of injury... but fatigue?? We're 3 games into the season ffs. Maybe they wouldn't be fatigued if they didn't make them play against Cardiff (the only league pre-season fixture) if they played without the heaviest session week in their pre-season schedule...

Literally no excuses tomorrow then, imagine if we lose and he spouts the ‘fatigue’ nonsense again…

Not sure about having 10 out, but we are certainly struggling numbers wise. We signed Paul Huntington this week who was at Pres**n, but he only played once last season so its doubtful he'll be fit.
Other injuries/absentees are Feeney, Dickenson (hasn't played this season), Senior (hasn't played this season), Edmondson 50/50 Chance of starting, Barclay 50/50 chance of starting, Harris (new signing hasn't started yet), Sho-Silva (ditto) and Charters and Dixon (both youngsters who would not have started anyway).
So counting them, yea there is 10 however most of the first team will be involved, providing nowt daft happens today.
One thing I will expect though is a 100% better performance than the one we saw last season, which in all Blue eyes was a complete shambles, and completely unacceptable.  

I can’t see things improving to be honest. Another 3-0 loss for the Town. I just can’t see us scoring the way we are playing at the moment. We need creativity which might come in time when we start to play as a team again. My glass is empty, I wish it wasn’t.

Still plague ridden so won't be travelling unfortunately.
Then again wasn't particularly looking forward to the drive anyway.
A disrupted start to the away day drinking campaign. Not good.

No idea how we'll get on tomorrow. The start to the season has me discombobulated.
McKirdy & Gladwin will need to be productive in order to get anything out of the game I suspect.

Likely to be a 2 - 0 win for the home side.

Going up with the old man, just has to be a 4, not against 3 at all in general but it doesn't look right for us.  McKirdy definitely looked best on the right of a 3 so we should really be aiming to have him in his best position, Shade or Wakeling to play on the left.

I must be mad going to this one, given the poor form we are in. :doh:
Need Mckirky to do what he did back in February and play a blinder.

Got my cousin (Rangers fan) coming down from Glasgow for the game.
Beer  :pint: and a curry  :I'm a complete mofleakin Deak in the evening whether we win, lose or draw.

Buzzing for tomorrow.  Don't care about the gloomy build up.  Oddly optimistic, actually.  Lovely two hr drive down in the sunshine for our closest game of the season.  Trust in Harry to turn it on again in style, as he did back in Feb.  Have faith, people.

Yeah fuck it. We're winning 3 zip. VAMOSSSSSSSS

Difficult to tell - I'd settle for a draw. From what I have seen thus far, I'll be heading into most away games thinking 2-0 defeat. Once we work out who are the best teams in the division this year, I'll be worried about a bigger defeat.

Needs a win today to settle everyone down. Would take one in any form quite happily.

Good luck Town, just win

Just about to set off, 2 hours sleep, Bastard sinus infection.
Ohh the joys of travelling.

Come on you mighty reds, we all need a lift today ⚽️

Safe journey and in Duke's Style "keep the faith"

Think we need a win today to make the natives slightly less restless.

2-1, COYR

Woah, I thought it was 4 or 5 going off the pre match interview.

Be very embarrassing if we can’t beat a second string Carlisle XI. No excuses today. Must win.

Up the cunting reds.

3-0 nil town

Fair play to all that are traveling today in this heat. Hope the air con is topped up. Could this be the kick start to our season that is sorely needed, I bloody hope so.

it's 5:47, I'm in an airport waiting for a smash burger breakfast.

therefore we will win 2-1

If the second half Harrogate or first half Salford team turn up, we’re going to lose comfortably.

However, if we get that second half Salford team performance then we can win it.

Would  be brave for Scott to play with 10 men from the start though  ;)

I just don't see where the goals are coming from, yes we played well 2nd half with 10 men and 4 at the back vs Salford but didnt have a huge amount of goal threat, we created very little. Hutton looked way happier on the right and Shade did ok on the left, I do also prefer 4 at the back but its obvious Lindsey prefers 3 so it seems a futile suggestion.

Is Adeloye any good? I think hes not had enough of the ball in his 3 games so far to suggest if he is a decent striker or not as hes had pretty much zero service.

McKirdy plays far better as a wide striker cutting inside rather than playing as a number 10, I would like to see Williams/Shade wide left, Tomi in the middle and Harry wide right, similar as we played under Garner at the end of the season.

Reed has been poor in both his games so far, Gladwin looks fitter but still runs through concrete at times, Darcy showed some glimpses of class, reminds me a little of a Martin Ling style, Khan runs around and has some great touches but also some poor too but I think he will come good.

Wakeling has impressed me with his eager running but playing 3 CB's limits our attacking options, yes 3 at the back works for some teams but it doesnt seem to suit us, Harries, Clayton and Brennan aren't quite up to speed defensively yet it seems.

I can't see us scoring.

Carlisle have 1 win at home to Crawley, 1 draw away at Colchester and a defeat in the LC at L1 Shrewsbury so far scoring 4 goals and conceding 4 goals.

We have 2 defeats and 1 draw scoring none and conceding 5 goals so far.

Something needs to kick start our season, lets hope its today.

Oldham 1-3 swindon job done.

That would mean we are non league :)

Wholesale changes needed here. If SL plays three at the back again today and doesn't change the formation then I really don't know what to say because he is bringing it on himself.

His comments on not being concerned because "the stats say we should have scored" are extremely worrying and in the same bracket of Luke Williams "three draws equals a win" and Paul Hart convincing everyone we played three up top.

Please show today there is more between the ears than you've been letting on Scott or we're in for a torrid season.

If he plays with 3 at the back today someone needs to strap a straight jacket on him and get him sectioned. Stevie Wonder can see that isn't working.

I wonder now if its bravado on his part and trying to prove a point?

I also agree BUT what if he plays 3 at the back and we play well and have a good win...!

I'm sure Wellens will expose three at the back next week.

anyone with sense can see we need to play 4 at the back, but do actually have a left back or right back that can do so? Sadly not. Major recruitment blunder.

The new signing is a left back and Hutton looked much better as a RB against Saflord than he has as a WB...

As they made recruitment for the left back based on Iandolo being out I would imagine he's considering 4. The options are there. It's just what he chooses, and as he said in the presser he's not wedded to 3.

I didn't realise Carlisle had so many players out, gives us a good chance to stick some points on the board. Good luck to all travelling today, fingers crossed the traffic behaves.

I'm sick of hearing the word fatigued they're fit athletes for fucks sake😀

I think all signs point to him playing 3 at the back, we went through a similar period with Garner last season where the fans were calling for 4 at the back but he stuck with the 3, until injuries I think forced him to go that way and the rest is history.

If he does go with 3 I hope Clayton is one of the 3, thought he looked decent out of position last week.  I hope he is brave and starts Darcy, he could be a wildcard for us this season and ideally manages to re-introduce the 3 attacking players that Harry seemed to like so much.

Having said that, based on the team selection on Tues, I expect:

                   Brynn
    MacD    Baudry    Clayton
Hutton        Reed               Shade
           Gladwin     Khan
          Mckirdy   Wakeling

If people stopped mentioning it, you wouldn't hear it

I tend not to jerk the knee, especially after the replacement but that's just nonsense.
Of course we should have scored. We missed a pen FFS.
"Fatigued".Thought we were well versed in playing "fatigued"
We have not controlled anything so far with 3. The only half in which we showed any measure of control was with a 4.
Surely signing a left back means we now go with a 4. If not,he's on a hiding to nothing from some fans

I couldn't agree more I blame adje for bringing it up again😀

The fatigue excuse is pathetic - hope results turn around quick or Lindsey won’t be here come October

Apologies🙂

Well that might cheer you up a bit I suppose.

I'm fatigued watching it, and that's after just one game  :)

I'm fatigued walking to the car

Be a really dumb way to keep hammering in nails in to the coffin if that is his attitude.

In his defence, it's literally the only thing i can defend him on, people are twisting what he said. He hasn't blamed losing on fatigue he said he didnt want to pick the players who played so long with 10 men on saturday as they were tired after putting a shift in

Same as the trust the data shouts people keep shouting. It's the fans not the club banging these drums tbf

Feels like about 80% of the fatigue/data moans have been Jinny Quimm

Hahaha yep. Only person i know to have predited a defeat and line up for a game a week away (orient) in todays match thread

3 days  :sherlock:

See all the conspiracy theories about McKirdy last weekend are starting again. Some ‘ITK’ Twitter account now claiming the club has a £250k fine and deleted the CCTV footage  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

That’s because they actually found Lord Lucan riding Shergar in the ref’s room.

Nicely twisted

Good morning fellas!!  
I am feeling a victory today!  
We have had a lose,draw, so victory only
Seems logical?? :hmmm:

Data & moans I would agree with you.

I'm with you  :thumb:

More than that I reckon…

Another one jumping on the bandwagon

What bandwagon?

What actually is a ‘bandwagon’

Not allowed an opinion on here which is different otherwise you get put down.

used in reference to an activity, cause, etc. that is currently fashionable or popular and attracting increasing support.
"the environmental bandwagon is feeling mighty crowded"

Didn’t say you weren’t allowed an opinion.
Just it’s one that you talk about a lot.


Just added Carlisle to my accumulator - so if that doesn’t guarantee we don’t lose, I don’t know what will…

Apparently someone is going to play music in a parade??  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Here we have bandwagon fans.   People that all of a sudden support a team that is winning but ignore them otherwise

What is a accumulator?

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FaCwW0oXEAA2P1f?format=jpg&name=large)

4 at the back it is.

Fair point.

 :clap: :clap:

One of the most popular football bets is an accumulator, also known as an 'acca', which combines bets from multiple games into one bet to create a bigger payout.

And looks like the diamond we had against Salford unless Williams is left of a 3.

Looks like it doesn’t it.

That looks like 4 at the back. Fingers crossed for an improved display.

Looks like it.

I’d have been tempted to go with Darcy rather than Williams, but the four at the back is the main thing

Miracles do happen, can only be 4 at the back!

                          Brynn

Hutton.  Macdonald.  Baudry.  Blake-Tracey

              Khan.  Reed.  Gladwin

             McKirdy.  Wakeling.  Williams

That’s how it looks to me…?

Unless we’re going with Gladwin or Williams as wing back!!

Dunno how that midfield lines up though

Is that like a parlay bet then or something different    Full disclosure I don’t gamble not because of morals but because I am the most unlucky person you will meet.  My friends call me the cooler when we play poker

My knowledge of Blake -Tracey is zero maybe he will kick start his career again with us.

The internet (I had to google parlay) suggests they are the same thing, yes

Game off snow melted and pitch now flooded.

Carlisle not been this warm.

More danger of your car over heating😀

Either that or Wakeling down the side and Harry in the middle.

Rob Hartley co-commentating today  :clap:

im pleased but not surprised. he needs the fans on board quickly. quite ridiculous how we never attempted 4 at the back in any pre season game

2/1 for the win. cmon Town.

Kind of like mckirdy out wide.  Seems to be able to get free easier.  

Like the look of that. Come on Town.

Confused a little bit as don't really see Williams as being a front 3 kind of guy or a wide player.

Either way, we should look a little more with it at the back.

Yep, part of me still think he might be playing wing back!

If we're looking at some variation of 4-3-3. Who is the other wide player out of Williams, Khan, Gladwin and Reed? Suppose it must be Williams? Its a bit odd, four CMs there.

As for McKirdy and Wakeling, I would probably have McKirdy wide and Wakeling in the middle.

Williams plays well wide left but for me he is best as a free role to go where he wants, like the role Payne played last season, I guess we could be playing with 2 strikers and Willo in a free role behind them?

Looking like 442 diamond to me. Either Gladders or Williams in the hole

That seems even worse, because then you have to play two of the other natural CMs in a middle four.

Unless its a diamond with two strikers, which means there is a need for wing back style full backs. Which is also not what he want because its what we're trying to avoid by going 4 at the back.

I think Williams wide left in a 4-3-3 is the best option with that personnel.

In Lindsay we trust...?

I’m hoping he’s just bit the bullet and is setting us up in a similar way to last season so back to a 433 will Williams in an advanced role and Wakeling doing the Simpson/Davison role for now. Still strikes me as dumb that he went away from a system that we got to work last season considering he was here as well.

When we went diamond against Salford it was Gladwin as the 10 behind Wakeling, I think that's how it will be to start with today unless it is Williams wide.

Looks more like a 4132 from names only.

Like that team, and Darcy in reserve.

Depending on the new lad being decent,probably our best 11.

Me too. Ideally we'll get a better striker and have Wakeling and McKirdy as the wide guys. 4-3-3. I actually see a pathway to positivity there for the season if we can go that route and get the man we need.

For today 4-3-3 and Williams a make shift wide man would do.

Yeah, would prefer this as well. We have looked limp in attack thus far. You can’t really fluke scoring the most goals in the division. Makes sense to try and build on the good bits from the last campaign.

iFollow has just popped up a team sheet / formation with Gladders at LWB in a 352 :D

Same with Sky.

It’s happening Gents.

The melt down is gonna be epic

That’s just the press association persons best guess - doesn’t mean anything. But he/she might be right!

Can’t imagine glade in playing wing back though

hehehehe

Fucking stupid.  Meaning formation

FBT has played a lot of games at LCB so maybe its right.

Why imagine it? He played LWB for us before in his first spell with us for a couple of games

Gladdens needs to be placed where he only has to run 20-30 yards at any time

Adjusted for accuracy

Fuck me! Their GK is monstrous!

He is also Czech, hopefully is the same mould as Kovar a.k.a an all around shit GK

Watching on my dodgy firestick bloody northern commentary. Come on town 🙏

6ft 8  :eek:

Same. I get a Carlisle channel and a Swindon channel and even if they're both away comms they usually both work but the Swindon channel is bust today.

Goal conceded after 2 mins (offside)

Yay for a back four

Mckirdy defo seems to be on the right initially

Surprised they even cheered. Looked like about four players were off.

What a tackle from Baudry. Get that even slightly wrong and thats a penalty.

2nd com on away keeps saying Swindon has to score the perfect goal.  What the hell is he talking about.  Just hit it low and corner and that giant GK will be fucked. 

Looks like

                 Brynn
Hutton  Baudry McDonald  FBT
      Gladwin  Reed  Khan
    Mckirdy  Wakeling  Williams

to me..

It's because we haven't got the typical big man striker up front, so to score it's going to have to be from buildup rather than a big ball into the box

I see.  Well if we are 4-3-3.  That I would think works out better.  Sending ball across mouth of the goal low and hard will make it hard for that GK to recover

Looking more like a last season performance. Wish Khan would push on instead of turning back.

The old Carlisle commentator don't half get excited when they have a shot..

Sometimes I have to close iFollow down and start up again. Why does the commentary flip flop from ours to theirs?

Still look disorganised and overstretched at the back.

Maybe we should get a man sent off to improve things.

We don’t even have shots!!

Reed already looking like last seasons Reed

Reed looks very poor again today.

Reed loses possession, Reed loses possession, Reed loses possession, Reed loses possession. I hope he finds his form soon.

Not sure if Williams was trying to chip over GK.  Anything over 3ft off the ground is waste of time.  But likes the movement

Reed can’t find Conroy. Reed can’t find anyone else.

The Carlisle comms are fucking ridiculous. I’ve never heard so much drivel

It’s a strange old game, people can have two absolutely contrasting opinions despite watching the same game. I thought he’s looked pretty shocking again.

Wakeling 1-0

EIEIEIO

1-0 Wakeling!

Ooh, we've put the ball in the net. I think it's called a goal. YES!

They are quite embarrassing, more so if you were  Carlisle fan

I have just lost my feed on IPTV for some reason 

Great run and finish.

The goal isn't on ifollow yet

Was the same last year too, home coms weren’t available and they were chatting absolute drivel

Me too

A goal, finally

1-0
Yay,back four😉

I haven't but I am a few minutes behind. Good finish from Wakeling

Happy days !!  😄😄.

So, on my feed we have done a goal. How far behind am I  :D

.
https://youtu.be/sUYa5FZTyBk

speak up 4D

I did also.  But back on.  I went to update on the app   Find I have to do that when things aren’t working

But I’m ok with US scoring while I’m gone

I am back - restarted my stick

Yeah Reed has looked completely shite. Giving it away constantly.

Great finish from Wakeling but shout out to Khan who was absolutely determined to win that.

My stream is on a solid minute delay.

Was the goal any good?

Carlisle comms saying they are well on top, I don't hi know theyre well on top

Reed is a liability at the moment.  i think that there will be plenty of goals to come

Wooooo.  What you do in private is your thing.  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Berni,kindly extinguish your stick

Khan looks up for this. Gets about.

Oooh,let off

We still look a bit of a mess but at least carry some kind of threat going forwards and a good finish for the goal.  Still not really sure what our ‘style’ of play is but really hope we don’t try and sit on the lead.

shocking miss

Who for I'm about 4 minutes behind

Them.Sitter

Has the game kicked off yet?

Ooh yes how has that not gone  in

Khan and Wakeling kind of sandwiched their defender to win it, Khan looked determined to get it. Then a really good slotted finish by Wakeling.

I don't want to keep banging on about Simpson but the idea of Wakeling, McKirdy and Simpson as a front three would cause serious problems.

Rotherham 3 up on Reading after 18 mins.  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

https://twitter.com/jiff1967/status/1558459471231426561
Goal

Should be 1-1. That really is a horrendous miss. Even in this league, that is a stinker.

Scratchy performance. Typical of an early season game, a lot of mistakes, but flashes of quality in there too. Can’t say I’m sold on these full backs at all

Thanks!

Just be thankful we have full backs!🙂

Good move by Town there but we couldnt get a boot on the ball in the box.

Very cool and calmly taken.
A hint of Sam Parkin in that finish

if carlisle had any finishing ability they would be well away by now

Reminds me a lot of Yates.

Another sitter missed from them. This is a let off.

Tons of positives going forward but we still look absolutely fucking pony at the back.

Think this can be said of a lot of our teams in recent years

That was coming

Aah well

Poor defending.

Back to normal

Probably should be 4-1 to Carlisle TBH.

that is really bad

FFS

You surprise me

This is shit. Carlisle should be at least 3-1 up here

It weren't that good.

Fucking about with it again

Brynn tipped over the bar from an unmarked header.

Couldn’t even hold on until half time, shambles!

What on earth is this defending? Genuinely think this is worse defending than what we saw at Harrogate. Can’t believe these same mistakes being made

We at least have some kind of threat going forward now but we are still miles off the pace, especially at the back.

We really are a bit shit this year aren't we?

Off the back of this, we're in serious trouble. Hopefully it will improve somewhat but all this crap about being proud of the club etc will mean absolute fuck all in the conference.
We need an experienced league 2 manager - as of now.

Get Clayton on

For me both McKirdy and Reed look possibly our poorest players today despite them probably being our best players.

HT 1-1

The only way to describe our defending is 'desperate'

We look ok going forward. But once the ball gets turned over, we are panic stations every time.

i guess that the new defensive coach has not yet had the chance to work their magic on the team

Agree Lindsey is totally out of his depth here

Positives: Wakeling - really good, looks a player. Composed finish.
We’re somehow not losing.

Negatives: Same old, same old at the back. Unsure how someone as experienced and sought after as MacDonald is can be so shaky.

Reed looks so far off it currently.

Hutton - yet to see what he offers?

11 shots against us in 45 minutes. Very fortunate to go in level.

Not sure about the "sought after bit"

We are an utter shambles when the other team have the ball.  Midfield plods and defenders all over the place.  Hutton cannot defend, not sure the new guy is up to speed, Baudry just wants to be Hoddle on the ball and wrestle when defending.  We do look a bit better going forward but we couldn't be much worse than the previous away game.

Overall we look poorly put together.

It’s a disaster

Supposed to have had a number of offers higher up the leagues

Wakeling looks busy, good runs, but not a long term solution to the central role in this formation.  He would have to play a McKirdy type role.  He is all flicks and turns, no interest or patience to hold the ball at all.  As a result we either look a threat or the ball bounces straight back towards us.

in this weather the bench is going to be very important.  darcy could play a key roll

Absolute toilet.

Still don't have a midfield player that can tackle & win the ball.

The idea that Reed is that player is frankly laughable.

This is the Carlisle with 10 first team players out. Ffs

Khan looks fantastic. Wakeling looks like a useful player for us as well.

Reed looks dog shit. Totally different player to last season.

We cannot defend for love nor money. Totally useless at the back and could be getting stuffed. Looking better up front is pretty futile because we'll need to score 4 or 5 a game against any half decent team who can finish, to make up for the lack of defending.

I wonder what the deciding factor was.

I suspect we got fatigued just before half time, but at least we had 26 opportunities to score.

I don’t care how good Reed and McKirdy were last season, so far they’ve looked disinterested and we’re carrying them.

Got to sell them before they’re worth jack shit

is anthony grant available?

Defence being badly caught out when we unnecessarily lose possession.  We are of course lucky not to be at least 2 or really 3-1 down.

I don't think that new "BLT" or whoever at left back has settled in.  Understandably.  Generally I'm thinking a number of the new signings may develop into good, typical L2 players.  They need to be drilled accordingly and the lacksedaisical pissing about in our own half is really inappropriate.  But Wakeling is an interesting player who may have fitted in better last season but give the team time.

A big half awaits.  Will it be Harrogate or Salford?

That's not quite true - 10 'squad' players out.

Reed & Gladwin.  FFS!

Nother let off. Can we call it a draw?

Fucking hell Reed! He’s gone to absolute shit

get reed off now

Pathetic performance again.

Come in Mr Darcy

Jesus Christ this is fucking awful.

Happy couple of days or a complete meltdown!  :hmmm:

Win, draw or lose today, it’s still so concerning how pathetic the defence looks.

Oooh,great chance for Harry Mac

He would have buried that last season

My god we're shit

Exactly this. The performance defensively is absolutely pathetic irrespective of the result. Carlisle should have had 5 or 6 by now.

Reed has been about as useful as a chocolate tea pot and the new left back looks lost. MacDonald doesn't look anything like the player he should be.

McKirdy should have scored

I'm liking Khan.

This is diabolical. I don't care who you are - Rob Angus et al, it's clear as day the team is either not buying into the setup or they're just shite, but cut your losses now and get an experienced head in.

Fuck me these Carlisle coms are absolute dribblers.

i think that the ref has done well so far

I said that last week. Nobody agreed

What a player Khan is.

Meanwhile Akin Odimayo rots in Northampton Reserves(presumably). He weren't great but he's better than anything we have now

Williams and Gladwin have gone missing this half

Noticeable how it’s last season’s players that have turned to shite.

Would be interesting to see Reed off for Darcy, with Gladwin sat in front of the back 4

Doesn't look like they want to be here

Great chance for Wakeling from a pass from Harry.

lovely ball McKirdy.  Wakeling could have finished better?

Well my IPTV has gone to shit so I am sacking this one off

Wakeling could have scored then

Not the only thing that needs sacking

I think Baudry has had a decent game with respect to 1 on 1s, although it might be the other 3 making him look better than average.

This is very hard watching. Wakeling just walked out of play with it

He has done that 4 times but still looks possibly our best attacking outlet.

This is such a weird game. Unsure what the fuck is happening when we’re on the ball. Was starting to think Carlisle were sitting off us just to take the piss.

The lack of subs in this heat is baffling

Tomi coming on.

Tomi on for Wakeling.

Keeping them fresh for the Orient game it's a long drive home!

Wakeling probably my MotM so far. He did well today.

We are going to get spanked by Orient aren't we..

Poor miss by Harry.

We could still win this and get hammered by Orient.

Oh McKirdy!

Another awful miss by Carlisle from 5 yards out.

More shocking defending. Fucking hell we are getting away with murder

I thought it was a foul, one of the Carlisle players had Hutton in a head lock

How did they miss that?

Anyone having issues with iFollow this afternoon? I've just got in and it's telling me I've not got permission to watch the video...

True.

God we are awful again today. :badmood:

Not here mate.

Lindsey Out! Should be 6 or 7 down. Fucking shite.

He did well, but I can't look past Khan.

That's so negative😀

Would love to hear what he has to say about this

Adeloye shoots but cant connect well, great chance and passes from Reed and Harry.

Absolutely.

2 missed chances apart McKirdy's done all right today

i almost nodded off. this has been pretty bad

Reed shoots from 20 yards straight at the keeper, loads of chances to shoot but we didnt take them.

McDonald can head a ball but struggles dribbing and passing.

Williams off which surprised me, didn’t even realise he was playing

Reed has grown into this half.

Unlucky thought we controlled the game, it was really hot out there, long coach journey yesterday, plenty to work on the training ground, some players still not match fit, still looking to get a forward in but it's not easy.......

I thought he did quite well today, not many off passes and always looking for the ball.

Fatigued

"We were outstanding"

I’ll be honest.

I listened to the radio first half but have been out and about and not listened to the second half.
I genuinely don’t remember him getting a single mention first half at all…

Yeah,I thought that

Reconnect your VPN

No need for that from Shade.

He did most of the dirty work in midfield in the opponents half but without excelling.

Also odd that with a few minutes to go we’ve seen neither Darcy or Clayton the two who made a massive positive difference last (league) game

He made one pass that reminded me of the player we used to know.

Poor management, which is to be expected with a Division 8 manager

Div 8 😀

Truly baffling. I'm hoping Clayton can either transform our defence or give us the ability to hold on to the ball in midfield.

And a shout for Brynn who has pretty much  proved in the last 8 days he's our best keeper

Great take by Brynn.

FT 1-1

Easily.

Is it odd though?

Nothing seems to change no matter what lyndsey says have lost faith after 3 league games. :suicide:

Ward is league 2 fodder at best, Brynn is miles better.

2 points from 9- pathetic.

Decent manager would get so much more out of these players

Nothing seems to change no matter what lyndsey says have lost faith after 3 league games. :suicide:

Good point. A goal. Progress.

Well it’s a point and we created some chances. Same concerns remain.

There's one in Town on Tuesday evening!

carlisle will be unhappy not to have won this

How long does Lynsey get. Could get nasty at home if we get smashed in the next two games.

My word that was a tough watch. Looked ok going forward but this defence is going to have us on the end of a proper spanking soon.

100-200% better than 5 teams in this league.

Every post you've ever made, pathetic. 

You are never around to celebrate or give any credit if it's due, you must absolutely hate it when we have good seasons.

I think there were some positives.  
Had many opportunities
GK is solid

Negatives.
Defense still needs some work. Poor clearing when in trouble. Give other team way too much space in our defensive third
Midfield really needs to be better
Ball needs to be targeted to mckirdy more.  He is a player that needs touches and is the best creator on the team.  

But focus on positives

Total shite.

Could have lost 7-1 if Carlisles finishing wasn't complete toilet. Completely at sixes and sevens at the back all game. Might have even been worse defensively than the other games this season, just the opposition could do fuck all about it.

Hi Shrivvy, moaning asked me to ask you how long we give Lindsey

From the bits that I saw, I thought that Khan was busy. McDonald won most things in the air, but was skinned a couple of times. Baudry appeared solid. Hyphen-Hyphen at LB looked OK.

Wakeling and McKirdy could have had 2 each.

I think that was two lower end L2 teams. Good to get a point.

Had our chances, weathered the storm (more by luck than design) should have scored more than one today. Need the confidence a win would bring.

Against Orient on Tuesday will do   ;)

Positives.

Brynn now looking capable after a shakey start. Khan was outstanding. Wakeling looks good.

I'm struggling outside of that.

Off the back of only three games, so could easily change, we are in for a struggle here.

Wakeling has something and Khan can be worked with, but that defence is shocking and zero midfield support, much as last season.

Upfront, Wakeling does not want to play back to goal and as much as he was good with runs and driving, that meant nothing would stick and Carlisle just drove straight back us.

McKridy is similar to the start of last season, before he got going.

Reed is playing like his first game last season, which puts us in trouble.

New signings are worse than last seasons team I am afraid.  Too many rough edges and not sure any are Diamonds.

Add in last seasons players being off their best and you get this shit.  Lucky not to have conceded three more easy chances.

This could potentially be resolved signing a striker and having Wakeling and McKirdy the wide guys.


I'm hoping Clayton may end up being the answer here.

Got to sell Reed - he’s been worse than hopeless every game. Perverse that Clayton and Darcy can’t get game time with that shower on the pitch. No way will Clem sack Lindsey until it’s too late. Who would take over anyway. Nobody wanted it before Lindsey got it by default.

It’s not the new players that are the problem - it’s the left overs from last season.

Baudry will get some positive comments because he made a few good clearances, BUT, he and MacDonald were fucking atrocious at marking runs and movement.

That looked like two poor Div 4 teams who are likely to be in the lower reaches of the division at the end of the season.  Unless STFC sort things out defensively,  this could go very badly.

Amazed at the Man Utd- entitlement negativity on here.  This is League 2 ffs.  

We're a long way off how we finished last season.  The likes of Simpson were getting pelters at this stage.  As did Garner for all but the run-in.  One minute the players are rubbish.  Next minute, it's the coach.  

Fact is Clem has been nutmegged by the walk outs and has shown some naivety in the lack of response.  

We won a point and came quite well back after a very ropey first half with a new defensive line up/formation.

I'm not blind to the faults and, like everyone am concerned about the limitations.  If anyone didn't notice Carlisle were donkeys  in their finishing and were being opened up second half.  This is L2.

True

But it didn't stop at the central defending.

The transition play was very poor, especially first half and the full backs either got "done" unnecessarily or, in Hutton's case, failed to keep tracking the spare man on the ball wide.

Do we have a defensive coach?  It is early days yet.

I'm confused by our manager's post match comments. He makes no sense half the time.

Lindsay:
- A good point on the road
- Tough place to come. They are a good side
- We wanted 3
- Dominated possession first half. Made it end to end 2nd
- Created chances, which we have been criticised for. Think it was double figures
- Problem would be if we weren't getting in position to score
- Today looked like being a threat
- Tough place to com
- Pleased with application
- Felt that we wanted to be more of an attacking threat so went 4 at the back. 433 made us more aggressive. More of an attacking threat
- Their goal: We have played it back to GK. He hoofed it and we didnt win it. We weren't locked in at the back.
- At times we were in control of possession, but didnt look ready if we lost possession
- Wanted the front 3 to press. Colchester scored against them doing the same
- Good to see Wakeling getting off the mark with a good finish
- Was heat a factor for subs? Wakeling looked to run out of legs. Williams looked to be tiring
- Hard slog for the players today. They put a lot into today
- Weather was the same for both teams, so not going to make an issue of it.

Tough place to come, hard slog blah blah cliche cliche. Fed up of him.

Sheridan V2.0

I maybe wrong but his reasons for going with a 4 are remarkably similar to those he gave for going with a 3

It sounds like Lindsey thinks we're going in the right direction :eek:

There is no entitlement. It just looks like shit and smells like shit and thus, is being called shit.

I understand this is League 2. Nobody is under any illusions of that. We can just see with our eyes that even grading on a curve for League 2, we are still.....shit!

Why all the negativity?  This season is going to be a slow burner with so many new faces brought in based on being on the way up rather than being the finished article. The dreadful home form of most of last season seems to have been forgotten about.

I don't think I'd be too worried about what he says in post matches. Only managers I can remember being even vaguely interesting in post match were Wellens (genuinely interesting tactically) and Di Canio (deranged, zero filter). Perfectly possible to be bland with the media and successful on the pitch. Let's hope the latter bit comes soon.

Hasn’t this been the same for the last decade though? “So many new faces brought in based on being on the way up” seems to sum up our windows for the last 7/8 years.

So as last seasons exceptional away form.

The most worrying part about everything.

"Good side" get te fook. They're bottom third of the 4th Division, at best. This cretin will take us down if we're not careful

Well, I suppose backwards is a direction.

Honestly, he’s not up to the job. Everyone can see it. Half the players aren’t interested. Dunno what it’s going to take for action to be taken.

Nothing against the guy but he should never have got the job.

Pot, kettle?

This.

Fucking hell. Missed that he called them a good side. I hope this is spin and he doesn't actually think that.

Fucking hell.

I’ve had this for the last couple of games. I don’t know how to get rid of it. 😡😡

Lindsey condemned after three league games?  The delay in appointing from within seems to have got peoples' backs up and against the appointment.  

Etiquette, please.

Because this is Swindon Town.

We lose a game & the sky is falling in and everyone/everything is shite.
We win a game & we’re the best team ever & we’re going to piss the league.

It Has been this way for quite some time now, I think we would lead the league in Teddy throwing.

Is Lindsey the man for the job, not convinced but he has to be given a fair crack at it.
If we have a competent exec team they should probably be looking at options if we have to change manager

And never underestimate people's desire to say I told you so, far outweighs actual support for the club in many, many cases.

It’s got a fairly well proven record of not working, especially here. There will be a reason why at 50 us and the vegans are the pinnacle of Lindsey’s career and on evidence thus far the concern is well founded.

Good point, also theres too much emphasis on systems & formations rather than players getting stuck in and playing for the shirt.

Carlisle were shite.

That's what makes it more worrying. A team like that is opening us up time and time again.

More worryingly Lindsey thought they were a good team.

Tbf, we look to have picked up a couple of potential gems in Khan and Wakeling. But unless we can sort out o functioning defence and not rely on the opposition being too poor to take advantage we’ll get nowhere.

All the backroom staff appointments seem a bit ‘off’ to me.

I'm starting to get fucked off with this - Probably because its hot.

If people are just going to be negative wankers, then I wont bother posting summaries anymore.

Get it into your thick skulls - We are going to struggle this year as we don't have the money to be competitive in the transfer or loan market.

This will be the season we expected last year. We will be battling at the bottom. Staying up will be a good result.

We ballsed up last season - I think that was a golden opportunity missed. Had we gone up, we might have been able to hang on to players. But we didn't. Also, we (obviously) couldn't get a manager to agree to join us, so had to take what was on offer.

In the bits I saw today, I could see Lindsay working hard to coach players to be in the right positions.

The positives for me today was that there was an improvement from some of the players and Wakeling got off the mark. We also came away from a potential relegation rival with an away point.  

Take it for what it is and stop fucking moaning about sacking someone who hasn't had a chance and who we probably couldn't replace!

That is the most depressing post I've ever read. Basically we're fucked no matter what, so don't expect anything that isn't a shambles and don't fucking moan.

Jesus wept.

Maybe Carlisle do deserve a bit of credit for ‘tearing us apart’ sure we probably contributed to that but let’s not forget 7 days ago we restricted Salford to absolutely fuck all with 10 men. Carlisle had plenty of chances and they couldn’t all be down to us fannying around. Maybe they are a good side? Maybe they are a decent striker away from being a top 5 team in this league?

As I said around the 90 minute mark - the most baffling thing for me was the exclusion of Clayton and Darcy who really made the difference against Salford and both were shouts for MotM despite only playing 45 minutes.

What message does that send? Well done guys you did well, changed the game, real positive performance. Reward for that, to sit on the bench at Carlisle all game and watch the people I’ve replaced you with (who you replaced last game) play worse than you did last game.

Like, sure they are young players. Sure if he’d started them and they’d played shite most of our moronic support would be ripping the fuck out of them but I just can’t see the logic in not using them after Salford…

Agree with all NMH has posted, recruitment has been encouraging, but remains unfinished.  Carlisle under Paul Simpson is a good side at this level, they like Salford will be up there.  

It got us to the play-offs last season, so there's that.

Fucking hell it’s not 1997 anymore.
Bigger gates doesn’t automatically mean a club has more money.

If you’re looking to offload Reed, it’s probably not a good idea to drop him because he’s playing shite. Ditto McKirdy. I’d have Clayton in for Reed and Darcy in for Williams.

I don't understand the fixation on attendances. It isn't a barometer of success or clout anymore.

Can you imagine the meltdown if we were 4-0 down in 35 mins like Man Utd are at Brentford

I think United fans might manage a bigger one than us tbf.

Are you having a laugh? moaning about people who expect us to be competing at the top end of this division yet ironically you come out with the most ludicrous and depressing post of the day. Saying we should be happy to stay in division 4. The absolute state of it.

Doesn’t matter.
If people were interested in those players we’d have sold them by now.
No one is paying decent money for a striker whose better known for shit fashion and being difficult (warranted or not) than he for scoring goals. He’s had one purple patch. If someone was gonna take a punt then would have by now

Reed is a stat padder and brings little more than ineffective sideways passes (but I am in the minority on that) again not sure anyone is genuinely interested in paying for that

No they will just switch clubs😀

A thousand times this. Darcy and Clayton look like they have the ability to have a massively positive influence on our team and the season, but not to play them today was a mistake and I don't see how you can keep them out ahead of others on merit.

You can Lindsey can both get to fuck on that. You're on another planet, they're atrocious.

Good players always find a way to perform which makes me wonder if there isn't something going on behind the scenes with Reed & Mckirdy.

Come off it, we are three league games into a season.
You have no clue how good Carlisle are in relation to the rest of the division.

Genuinely the worst post I can remember reading. Struggling to take in how bad it is.

Everyone seemed on the same page before the start of the season that anything other than top 7 is absolute failure. But no, lets move the goal posts and how dare you actually expect any form or reasonable season.

I agree with Nomoreheroes on this.

We have such a pathetically fickle fan base. I expected us to spend 2-3 years in league two when we got a new owner because the new leadership team would be spending 90% of their time putting out the fires of previous decade.

Moan away and share your opinions but remember that opinions are like arseholes and every one has them. And I also agree on the point that some want to say "I told you so" when it all goes tits up just to be proven right over looking at the bigger picture.

Its going to take a few years before we go up a league. But I do believe that we will ultimately end up in the championship and eventually be stable up there.

That isn't quite correct.

Ffs get Slipknot on in the dressing room. Motivation

Im struggling to share your vision that we will end up in the championship and be stable there just think the money involved will always be out of reach. I hope I'm wrong though.

Then neither can he.

What we can do is judge them on today and if anyone thinks Carlisle are a decent side based on that performance then they clearly haven't a clue. They were as bad going forward as we were at the back and that is saying something because we were a shambles at the back.

Seemed to be the overwhelming consensus from what I read on various platforms.

Today's attendance was 5,602 I don't know how many were from Wiltshire.

People keep saying the ran through us…so did they run through us or were they bad going forward? Which is it?

Their finishing was poor, yes…but you could argue that with a decent striker they’d be set & a good competitive team

Ok - but I don't think that was the case here.

The TEF pre-season average prediction was 9th

http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=59342.msg1693385#msg1693385

Not that people would be happy with 9th I'm sure, but I think a lot of people were a bit wary of this season.

So last year a large section of supporters were running with the idea that we just needed to survive, clear the debts, get out of the embargo and push on next season.

Now next season is here, and a poster is telling us we're now having the season we were supposed to have last year.

So which one is it? and at which point will you now be satisfied that we should be competing in the top 7?

Genuinely I am curious now. Is it when the debt is 0? Is it once we've purchased the ground? is it once we've sold a few players for profit?

At what point are we allowed to demand being competitive?

If we don't have much money to spend how an earth would we have competed in league one.

this year we should be competing for the top 7, anything else is a failure. End of.

311

I missed that, cheers

Agreed.

That is ignoring recruitment and staff, just based on the history of this club.  Whether current ownership like it or not, that is what the fan base as a whole will expect.

That expectation also rises when the club advertise a 40% budget increase, regardless of at what level that was.

To be fair it hasn't been mentioned that the playing budget has been increased by 40% its more likely to cover the overall cost of running the football club.

Never. "Get it through your thick skulls"

If we can't compete on or off the pitch with about 95% of this league then I despair.

Ok. Fair enough.

Bye

Just stating it raises expectations even if it all went on paper clips

Anybody gladly accepting league two mediocrity (or worse) after being a penalty shootout away from a play off final, coming out of a transfer embargo and with an increased budget needs to give their head a wobble

There's a difference between 'happy to accept' and 'think this current squad and manager should be expected to achieve' though right? I'm absolutely not delighted with another season in League Two, but don't think this looks like a promotion winning set up.

Pre-Harrogate Lindsay and MacDonald were both openly saying promotion is the goal, so it's clearly the club's goal. I'm not convinced they have the resources needed, but I'd hope to be wrong.

I think it’s fair to criticise the club and it’s personnel for not being good enough to step on from last year (if that is how it plays out, aware we are only three games in)

Who's to blame Clem for the lack of funds made available, Sandro for finding the players, Lindsey for not getting the best out of the squad to date or the players for not performing🤔

CM getting his money back from his experiences with Power
Honeymoon period over from last year
Don't have finances to invest in the playing staff
Get used to watching Barrow Hartlepool an Sutton Utd until a new owner comes along.

Look at Brentford tonight. Beat arguably one of the biggest clubs in world football 4-0. We played them in the playoffs less than 10 years ago.

Don't ever let anybody convince you we should be happy in division 4.

Last year was the only time that shit will ever fly. If Clem can't afford to get us up the league, maybe it's best he sells a bit earlier than he'd anticipated.

I can remember Brentford getting crowds of 6,000 in the old third division.

Flitcroft was able to compete in this division with a team consisting of Dunne & Linganzi in central midfield and pretty much nobody who could pass a ball on the floor.  A competitive budget is all that is needed with the right squad composition and management.  I am not so sure it is a Division to try and develop youth talent though, which I think could be our problem.  Young players at this level need to be head and shoulders above the others in terms of talent to make an impact - Alzate for example.

It's still early in the season and it could all turn out OK in the end - that Flitcroft team shows you can mold a team to compete.

I don't think I've ever disagreed with a post more strongly and utterly comprehensively...

If players need to be coached into what positions they should be in during the game then we're in trouble.

Three games in lads, chill the fuck out you all…,

A little bit from every column perhaps, but I don't really know. I think the main thing this season is making clear is how big the opportunity we missed last year was - the division looks stronger this year and we look weaker. Not by much on either count, but enough to make the difference.

Agree fine margins from going up to being stuck in league 2. I have no idea if division looks stronger this season just know if we don't improve soon momentum would have been lost and crowds will start to drop.

This club should be a league one club minimum and we’re in the shit. We probably won’t go down, but we definitely won’t go up…

Happens at every level, see Klopp and Guardiola doing it all the time.

sometimes tactics are over complicated and players aren't allowed to think for themselves plus lower league players wouldn't have the IQ or ability of a top premiership player.

So if a player is doing something the manager doesn't like he should just be left to it?  Kyle Walker is an excellent FB but had been coached through games earlier in his City career, why should it be any different in L2?

Absolutely not but if the manager Is having to bark orders out all game then there's something clearly wrong.

Guess Walker should give his medals back then as he obviously doesn't deserve them.

I get the, "It's early days, give it time" point of view but in my experience you get a pretty good feel quite early on in the season for how it's going to turn out. In 19/20 for example, I was extremely confident in early September that we were going up and of course we did and I've felt the same in other promotion seasons. This season is a million miles away from any of those. Sometimes you just know...there are always anomalies of course and  I'll be utterly delighted to be proved hopelessly wrong.

Whilst I 100% echo what you're saying, if you asked any Bristol Rovers fan after 15 games never mind 3 if they thought they'd go up, not a single one would've said yes.

I know the difference being, they had a big budget and a manager who'd managed higher. But point still stands. Just to play devils advocate.

Like I said, there are always anomalies, it's not an exact science but more often than not, you know when you're good, you know when you're shit. Right now...we're not good and I don't see it changing any time soon...

What a depressing post. What's even more depressing is that I agree 100%.

And me.

Rovers got players in prior to their improvement

Paul Simpson's record for Carlisle, starting last season with a team that was in relegation trouble:

18 Pl.   9W 2D 7L:   ppg: 1.61 (not including today's draw)


Would suggest 72 points over a season and just outside the playoffs based on last season.

Their starting 11 wasn't that hit by injuries, so it was a decent away point against a decent side.  

Fuck me what has happened when people are saying we should except mediocrity in league 2 and just accept and not moan or be negative about it! I don’t think it’s at all entitled to not only think we should we expect to be challenging at the top end of this league but actually demand it. If we are just going to accept life as a struggling league 2 club then what’s the point?

05/06, opening day of the season away at Barnsley. Pook started on the left wing. 11 minutes on the clock - I turned to my mate and said we’re going down this season. Got a resounding fuck off but hey ho…we were gonna be fine with Cureton & Thorpe up front…

I said to my mate after Harrogate we will finish bottom 6, and neither Lindsey or Sandro will be here at the beginning of next season.
I haven’t seen anything since that’s made me think any different.

Lindsay won’t see out the year…
October at best

Better than Harrogate but still not right.
Can only hope we can move up another gear very quickly.

Two average teams on the park today, both missing chances thus will take the point.
Wakeling and Khan look like they have something. Few flashes from McKirdy but not up to last season just yet and Reed missing the space that Conroy used to provide.

Better than losing and that felt a bloody long drive.

This is the one thing that should give us some hope.

At least it’s moving in the right direction, even if it’s still not good

I said in July that we'd appointed a tinpot DoF and a tinpot Manager.

Nothing has changed except the manager has surrounded himself with a tinpot coaching staff.

In comparison to previous games, yes it was nice to see a coherent football team. But it's one that finishes around 15th in L2 as neither the recruitment nor coaching/tactics are anywhere good enough.

There's a good interview with David Artell on The Athletic today. Would love us to show some ambition, admit mistake and hire a manager who has proven he can get promoted and develop players to make millions for a club.

After 3 league games you have written the whole team off, crazy.  Things need to improve but I will judge after the transfer window closes.

No, you misread.

I formed an opinion about the management before the season started.

What has happened since, unfortunately, has done nothing to dispell that opinion. Should reality change, so will my opinion.

You only have to listen to the head coach for 10 seconds of an interview to work out he is miles out of his depth. Tactically inept and man management skills don’t seem much better. He’ll be gone by November

And this ladies and gentleman is why sun, booze and the internet don’t mix.

Utter drivel, from a usually sane poster.

-

I’ll take a point at Carlisle early season, but agree with the overwhelming feeling that it looks like we will struggle to meet expectations. It doesn’t get any easier on Tuesday either!

Clem is on record quoting a 40% budget increase - the adver article gives the context that is the playing budget.

If that impression is false, then I’d have expected the club to have clarified that by now.

Is this the Ader article you mention 🤔

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/20185905.clem-morfuni-says-swindon-town-budget-increasing-40-per-cent-2022-23/

Stating the team will finish 15th and recruitment is crap, is writing off the team and judging recruitment before the windows closes.

I don't understand that mentality

We've recruited players for a pre-determined formation and/or style and after a formation change three games into the season we have had to sign a new leftback in order to play that formation. Given that track record I am sceptical that things will get turned around in the short term, especially as the budget that's available will be eroded by the players we've already signed.

Looking at the team yesterday we're overly reliant on Reed as the pivot as we don't have a "chuck it long from a goal kick" type striker to get the ball away from our panic ridden defence.

Everything that is wrong stems from that panicky defence. Individually they are no worse than every other back 4 in this league, so it’s easy to see where the blame lays.

I thought Lindsey said we’d be a high press team - not seen that at all so far. There’s still far too much taking liberties at the back and getting caught in possession. This season’s Reed is a shadow of last season and others should be given a chance. God knows what’s in his head these days but looks like he doesn’t give a shit.

Oh my god this is becoming ridiculous.

2 points from 3 games, including 2 away. That's not a brilliant start but it's not fucking world ending, especially bearing in mind the dicking aound with Garner fucking off but not but he is but he isn't but no he is and he's taking Payne. Left us in a limbo at important point of preseason.

You can tell Lindsay's getting fucked off with the fact he and the team are not being given a chance, was a bit snippy with Andrew Hawes when he brought up the lack of shots on target in the pre match presser. Made the point that if Gladwin had scored the pen we'd be in a different position. Reed needs to have a fucking moment of self reflection as so far he has massively underperformed and been a liability in basically every game so far.

Some people were moaning about Garner last season and saying he was the cheap option, the team is shit, we're not winning at home blah blah blah. Then first game of the season people were giving Soll Brynn shit before he'd even played a minute of bloody football!

I fully appreciate NMH's point, whilst I might not agree, for me it just feels like let's just not bother for the rest of the season eh, fanbase has written the team off already, and turning on each other too 4 games in.

I want us to get a win just so everyone calms the fuck down. I don't see it coming against Orient but that's because they're 3 in 3 as opposed to any other reason.

Or we have two players that can play left back but they got injured in pre season?

Yeah that's fair, although the need for a leftback vs a left wingback is based on the formation change

I agree with most of this but believe we can get something out of the Leyton game. In this shit division consistency is not widespread so the fact that they are 3 in 3 gives me hope they the law of averages will come in to play. We may not be performing well at present but let’s not kid ourselves that there are any truly unbeatable teams in league 2.

Agree with this. I usually read back the MDTs in full but gave up with this one, it was just too painful to read the usually suspects flying off the handle.

A friend I was talking too did say that the reactions seem to be getting more extreme, and he put some of it down to the issues we are all struggling with outside football.

The heat & the cost of living being the main two.

Or maybe it is just people have had enough of watching the club go progressively backwards? This was seen as being a new era, this season it was meant to be a big promotion push, instead it just looks like more of the sane old and now just looking towards mediocrity in league 2 at best.

If the club think that supporters are just going to accept a few years of mediocrity in league 2 to get their new ‘model’ working then they are in for a rude awakening.

100% this. Its possible to have both views though:
1 A sense of disappointment that we don't seem to have kicked on from last year and have had a poor start to the season
2 A sense of perspective.
Seeing both sides of the argument seems to be less and less common these days
We're all Swindon fans at the end of the day. #PacifistOldFart.
I blame the internet. Or Brexit. Or Vaccines.

This forum has gone peak Arsenal Fan TV this season, it's absolutely pathetic how a group of grown adults are behaving.

:nod:

Why are there so many police on here trying to tell people how they can / can't behave?

There's massive concerns at this club.

We have a CEO, Chairman, Sporting Director and Head Coach who have no prior experience of their current roles. Does that mean it can't work? no, but ideally you want at least 2 of those positions to know what they're doing. We basically have a team of rookies.

It all screams poverty to me. I don't buy it that Lindsay was the outstanding candidate. Not at all. Why did nobody else want to manage our football club? why did Garner and Chorley leave so quickly, why did none of our OOC players bar a retiring Baudry sign a new deal?

It's hard to remain positive when every single off the pitch factor points towards an average season, and then in practice nothing has yet happened to change anybody's minds. This was supposed to be the year we kicked on, no embargo, highest ST sales for years, reduced debt etc.

I am the first person who wants to be proved wrong but it's not looking good, and nobody should feel guilty for expressing their concerns.

Good post and nothing wrong In questioning how the club is being run and showing your concerns. Some will say it's only 3 games which is fair enough but looking at the bigger picture the outlook dosen't look so good with the current regime in place and funds seemingly tight.

Exactly this.

But no, its Arsenal TV and pathetic to not expect a constant linear decline.

But again, it goes back to the element of support that we have that completely shut down any form of negativity and mock people, no matter how justified the negativity might be. Some people just cannot hear negativity and would rather live in a make believe world where everything is fine.

Exactly this, speak your mind and you get put down if you're not in with the in crowd.

Look like the level headed TEF has turned in to the new Facebook group wow

What happened guys. Who bought all the tin foil?

There's people that defended Lee Power for years on years. This minority of the fan base will always be like this, doesn't shock me at all. Some really cannot see, or hear/read, anything with hint of negativity about this club. Same old shit.

FairPlay to anyone that went yesterday, we didn't due to train strikes, 311 with no trains is a very good number. What to say about the game? Wakeling took his goal very well, Khan was very good, defence and Louis reed a shower of shite once again.

Harsh on Clayton and Darcy not playing after the Salford performances..?

That was a Carlisle B team yesterday.

Gates of 13k against Barrow last season, 4.5k Season tickets sold on 3 weeks notice last season (5k this season? just the 500 more :-|). Its the things like this which make this season potentially even more frustrating, they could've built on it and gone from strength to strength. They haven't, simple as that. Early days yes, but I don't see us being a promotion chasing team come May - anything but promotion is a failure this season- simple as.

Most people are trying to give a bit of perspective, like you have stated we have zero experience in the top 4 roles.  

They might have less experience but at least we know Rob/Clem are doing what's best for the club, how many other clubs can say that?

While I know we haven't started the season well, it's too early to judge.

I am concerned without pressing panic buttons yet. Anything from Orient game would be a bonus. I expect them to pump us. I will be very concerned if we don’t win against Rochdale who have started even worse than we have.

Everyone should question things, our club is by no means being run as well as we hoped it seems, off the pitch its improving but we have declined on the pitch for sure this season.

Everyone can see that, yes we are shit but are we as shit as under Sheridan? probably not, is it all great? not by any means, and with many fans they only judge the club based upon whats happening on the pitch, which currently isnt very good.

I fully understand the unrest of fans, I am not a Lindsey or Clem apologist but I have seen improvements in the last couple of league games (we cant judge the Walsall game as we didnt want to win that) but togetherness takes time, many areas on the pitch bother me, not getting in decent fullbacks who can defend, getting in a couple of CB's with a little experience that so far havent clicked. We have only lost 1 of our first 3 league games after all with 2 draws.

In midfield we do miss Paynes running and Williams and Reed and to a certain extend Gladwin too havent hit it off yet and play like they havent played together before, I think Reed is waiting to see the outcome of any possible transfer dealing and if he knows he is staying then he will knuckle down, similar with Harry as at times their heads seem miles away.

Khan has promise but looks very raw, some things he does really well and somethings are very non league in standard, MacDonald looks good in the air but struggles bringing the ball out and passing, Baudry is still our best defender.

Is it awful? no its not awful, its at times not very good but not the worst we have seen even in the last 4 years, is it great? no its not great, far from it, but these players never all played together before yesterday so need to learn each others games before they can learn how the team play.

Theres loads of room for improvement, thats a no shit sherlock thing but its not time for knee jerk reactions....yet.....give it another 4 or 5 games and reassess things, if there are no signs of improvement after 10 games then maybe Lindsey really was the wrong man and that will need rectifying.

We are still a club in turmoil and we should be pushing for the play offs but we need to gel this team together, and get a good striker in to help Wakeling and Harry so they can be pushed wide as Adeloye so far doesnt show too much quality.

Football, and especially Swindon Town is not black and white, its a huge grey scale, which we are currently in, I think we just need to sit back and see how the next few games pan out before we fully judge.

I refer you back to Rovers last season who started very poorly and also when we won the league in 86 we only won 2 of our first 8 games losing 5 of them and still won the division with 102 points.

No panic button from me yet but of course we are frustraed as fans as the system thatw orked well last season has been changed so much by Lindsey who wants to assert his mark on the team, lets see.

Great detailed post. Let's all take stock and reconvene after 10 games and see where we're at unless of course things deteriorate!

I don't question that their hearts aren't in the right places. I do question however if they have the resources available for us to operate as a proper club.

Doing what's best for the club for example would be employing more staff. I'm holding this opinion back slightly as i've heard there's going to be a re-shuffle of roles but I was far from happy last season. Nobody was ever there to answer the phone. We must've been the most tin pot club in the EFL for customer service. There's rumours of further cuts and it's worrying

If we can't afford another couple of heads on circa minimum wage to answer phone calls then what's really going on here?

You are questioning the business credentials of some one who runs a successful business and for a very long time.

I do agree that we need more staff, however turnover/commercial activity is in a much stronger position, so they are doing a pretty good job on that front, which is what a good CEO/owner should do.

Yes I am. because running a plumbing firm and a football club are 2 very different things entirely.

There are loads of wealthy owners who can’t run a successful football club. Owners tend not to actually run clubs but employ people in strategic positions to do that for them.

The old adage of pay peanuts and get monkeys is very apt. Somehow - and I’m still not clear how - we’ve managed to get our debt down by c£3m+. Historical debt will always weigh heavily on a club trying to progress.

I’ve not really got a problem with player recruitment - the new lot plus the core from last season SHOULD do well.

My concern is the staff that have been employed to get these players into a cohesive, competitive team.

I think they deserve better.

For what’s it’s worth the club has not been run so well for the last 30 years

Clem wants the club self sustaining. We can’t have that model (this season) and compete with the top budgets because we still have £1.5 worth of debt to pay. Once that’s cleared our playing budget rockets. I can’t remember the last time the club has soooo many young assists contracted long term.

Future seasons we’ll own stadium and start development, a club rammed for off assets where we make good figures of which all monies from sales goes back in to club. We are in a good way. Each and every game we’ve shown improvement (league cup was a youth game). In 3 league games we’ve played 3 formations 352 441 (after mckirdy red) and 433

14 new players we are always going to be disjointed. We have a good team. Stop talking absolute shite and get behind them. We’ll finish in and around top 7 the team is good enough. Whoever is sold will he replaced

Ffs come on guys

Running a business, although in a different sector doesn't mean he can run a football club? How many owners actually run a football club as a business? So apart from employing a few more people to answer calls, what else are you complaining about?

This is the problem with the negative people on the forum, they have blinkers on, nothing postive at all. 

In my post I agree we need more staff, I've said we need to improve but we have played 3 league games, so we need to give the team more time but I'm not pressing the panic button and I don't get your negativety on how the club is being run, off the pitch.

Just read through this thread and the pre-season concerns regarding the playing/coach/DoF side that many had have certainly not abated, if not increased, and I am in the latter camp. The next two games are probably far more critical than I envisaged when the fixtures came out as bad results even at this early stage of the season will only add fuel to the feeling that there is something wrong with the whole set-up.

I want to be proved totally wrong as the new signings gel, the system we play works well and we go happily ever onwards through the Divisions, but currently that seems very much like pie in the sky outlook.

Perhaps there should be separate threads for each 'camp'. Those offended by posts expressing disquiet can stay away from that thread - and vice versa. 

Calm down. I didn't say he can't run a football club. I just said it's different. He will need to adapt.

You agree with me that we are under staffed (over a year since he took over btw) so how am I being negative when you agree?

Forgive me but, when I see Clem and Rob ringing up vulnerable fans begging them to waive ST refunds, and then see that we're cutting staffing costs when our customer service was abysmal last season, I'm not going to stay quiet. I will voice my concerns and don't care if people call me negative.

On the off field stuff, I have very little exposure.  My one visit last season suggested a mix - the matchday hospitality is head and shoulders above what it used to be and I'd even suggest under priced.  The polar opposite was experienced in the club shop which was nothing short of a jumble sale effort, despite good intentions from the staff.  They seemed all over the shop, literally.

My experiences of the MLS confirm a thought I have had for years (and I know not everyone will like this), but Swindon are shit at milking the fans.  As DV has expressed recently, English football fans are largely like drug addicts.  We simply go far more often than we should, tend to moan about price increases but eat them up and accept a shit product so long as we get the hit.  To that end, the club has a customer base that will spend money when it probably shouldn't.  Take the concourses for example - they are a barren land compared to the commercial free enterprise that could be occurring.

Anyway, on the pitch - I brought up Flitcrofts season for a reason.  No matter whether or not I think recruitment has been shit (it has) and we've gone backwards in terms of quality (we have), in this Division there is always a way.  Nobody has talent that far exceeds everyone else, well, not often.  The trick is to find something that extracts the most out of your attacking talent and restricts the exposure of your shit defenders.  Last season we took possession of the football to restrict other teams and allow slow build-up via Reed to get the attackers on the ball, eventually.  Designed to match the Academy loan players we had brought in.  This season I think we need to abandon this - get the ball away from our defenders much more quickly.  I'm not sure Reed fits the squad anymore (hope I am proved wrong).  I'd swap his position out for an enforcer style player and stop playing through it - instead start playing it quick and wide (where we have some speed) and try and get the attacking talent on the ball quicker and further forward.  Not hitting it long, just tell the defenders not to play it about and look wide first.  I'd try McKirdy and Wakeling either side of Adeloye (not that he has shown much yet).  Clayton behind two from Williams, Gladwin, Darcy and Khan with a back four.

A very good (and probably over looked) point in there Rob.

Not very often in this division you will find a team so far ahead on talent. Let alone 3 of them to take up all the automatic spots and even less likely 7 of them to take up the play off places as well.

Adapting to what we have is what is needed.
I know the window isn’t shut and we might still get loans in but for the most part we are picking up players other lower league teams want off their wage bill - rather than exciting youngsters you need some ‘education’

It’s a fine line naturally because having too many (good) loan players is what did us in last season but if players aren’t good enough to get game time (even more so now with 5 subs) with Sheffield Wednesday and Burton - are they really going to improve us?

Would we be better off with *insert the name of an Aston Villa under 21s centre back* than Brennan?

Pretty sure those of us suggesting we wait before passing judgement quite so soon are far from the in crowd at the moment.

It's not about not questioning when needs be, it's the absolute unrelenting certainty that the club is rotten from top to bottom from many at such an early stage.  We've all seen seasons start slow but I simply cannot remember so many writing one off in the way this one seams to be.

Loads of people telling us everything is on the cheap yet for the first time in ages we've paid money for 3 players and tied a lot down to contracts for longer than the usual 1 season.  For years people have moaned that we never do these things but now we do and it's completely overlooked.  Will the players signed be good or not?  Far too early to tell.

People are so desperate for SL to be a disaster, seemingly as they're ticked off with how he was appointed.  The protracted search for a new manager and subsequent appointment was a frustrating wait, I know that and we were right to wonder what was going on at the time but he's the man in charge now so he deserves to be given support and a bit of time before being written off like he has been.

It's not about not hearing negativity, again, it's the refusal to give any period of time before deciding the season is done for.

People can act how they want, those of us that can be a bit more patient will question why some people have given up so quickly and those of you who have will question us.  Personally I do think the way in which a lot of people are reacting is way too over the top and will call it as I see it, just as those people are calling things how they interpret it.

if I don't like a view I try and debate it or ignore it.

it's annoying when things get circular, but you can always butt out.

there is no wrong or right until the season ends. the winning side will then give full beans "told you so".

Are people desperate for Lindsey to fail, or are they concerned about his CV and ability and haven’t seen much in the first three games to ease those concerns?

The latter for me. The fact he was our defensive coach last season really rang alarm bells as our defence was all over the place at times last year. At least we have our first clean sheet! I seem to remember Di Canio didn’t start very well either so who knows, maybe we will go on to have a great season. Still a lot better than the guff Sheridan served up.

no fan would be desperate for him to fail. or shouldn't be.
the whole mood around the club is flat. a new manager would have created a spark and interest.
recruiting a number 2 after 6 weeks is rewarding a season of failure on top of numerous 1st team players leaving.

we are doing our bit and I don't feel the club did there's in the summer. I'd love nothing more than for this team to knit together and have a good season.
tyreese Simpson may change the mood and I still think the club has him as a priority signing

Reed to Derby = Simpson to STFC?

Be a great piece of work, that.

2 home games coming up. 2 wins and everybody chills the fuck out. Simples.

Is the above something you've seen?

Just one of those random things that popped up.

This.

His CV is such that he wouldn’t even have got an interview on merit. His playing career was non league and his coaching career has been entirely spent at a lower level than we currently reside, last season was the pinnacle of his career to date.

The primary reason given by the club for him getting the job seemed to be continuity yet he’s tried to change the way we play. It’s nothing to do with wanting him to fail it’s more he should never have got the job in the first place, it was an appointment based desperation with a sprinkling of sentiment

I honestly think that would be awful business.
I don’t see Simpson being the answer to all our problems, I also think an on form Reed is far more important to us than Simpson ever would be.

I think Reed was absolutely critical to the way we played last year. In as much as we've shown any sort of pattern of play so far, it doesn't look like it's going to suit him in the same way.

Reed only has 3 more games to find his form - then we’re stuck with him. I’m presuming any fee for him could finance our new striker. Whether that’s Simpson or someone else, I don’t know.

An underperforming Reed is no use to us.

No issues with binning off Reed but rather we bring in a top quality centre back than a striker.

…or even a midfielder enforcer

Di Canio didn’t start well, but he still had

- a 3-0 opening day win
- an away day cup upset against a local rival
- boundless charisma in a club that was on its belly
- a limitless chequebook and no loan window

It’s not a comparable situation to current day, and I’d be wary about drawing parallels too early

Reeds head isnt in the game for whatever reason, I would have no problem letting him go if we get a good player in to replace him in DMC.

I would also welcome back Jake O'Brien from Palace if we could get him on another loan, showed a lot of promise.

But for me we do badly need a striker who can play the lone role and win balls in the air that are often hoofed up to him but also who knows where the net is.

We still have space for 2 more loans to fill the 5 available matchday squad limits, and yes I would prefer if we could get in players on perm transfers sometimes we cannot bring in the quality we need like JOB, Barry, KKH, Simpson, Cooper and Tomlinson, all of which would walk into our side at the moment.

Reed clearly isn't the player of last season which could be down to him wanting a move to league one or maybe even personal problems away from football but whatever it is Lindsey needs to sort out quick as there's an argument that he shouldn't be in the starting eleven on current form.

If an agreement could be reached with Ipswich I would do everything possible to try and get Simpson here as there's no doubts he has potential and can be a real handful which is what we're missing. Jake O'Brien would also be a decent signing rather signing another young rookie with no league experience.

PS what's happened to the Twine money🤔

Totally this.
An uninspiring option that took far too long to appoint.

Of course I want him to succeed, but he was the defensive coach last year so my expectations were not high and I've seen nothing to give me confidence since. 

Not calling for his head but we need some performances and results very soon.   

Reed's applause to our crowd on Saturday was such that it entered my mind that it might be his last appearance - but maybe he has always been like that.

Yep this. Nothing I've heard him say fills me with confidence.

Is Simpson really the answer to all our woes? Decent but I doubt he's the final piece to this particular puzzle.

I can't think of anyone else who is availble.

There will be loads - how many of us had heard of Simpson, Mckirdy, Yates and many others before they rocked up here.

We certainly can't afford £500k on a striker, would be better off spending a fraction of it on a decent coaching setup.

There maybe loads but I can't think of any. Definitely wouldn't pay anymore than £100,000k on an unproven striker but maybe they would loan him to us again.

I do find it annoying that the transfer window stays open so long after the season has started.

when I said I still think we would sign Simpson I definitely don't mean for £500k. I think it would be significantly lower

Quite happy to literally 'wait and see' the club to an early grave both on and off the pitch.

You're right, it was the exact same with Lee Power. By the time enough people were anti-Power to actually apply some pressure and do something as a fan base, his 'five year plan' had expired years ago and we were already well and truly fucked in the ass by him.

It could have been much worse thanks to the section of support that look for some positivity in the most giant shit sandwich of a situation, simply because they cannot deal with negativity and would rather be delusional.

In which case, its too fucking late by then.

Despite the 'told you so' someone cleverly put under my username, that isn't what I thrive off. I'd much rather the delusional crowd that are happy to have their leg pissed down and accept that its raining wake up every now and then and see recognise that when it looks like shit and smells like shit, its usually shit.

I assumed if we signed Simpson it would be on another loan because no one else will take him or get anywhere near the price tag? Highly doubt we pay for him even at

Despite all the pissed off negativity and concerns I'm throwing around on here, its mainly in reaction to the happy clapping crowds usual condescending reaction to what is very warranted negativity.

I do see a way back this season and some glimmer of hope this can turn around. If we get a decent striker in, stop this three at the back nonsense that clearly isn't working  and start playing Clayton and Darcy who have shown snippets of ability to come in and be very big players for us this season..... it CAN still click for us at some point. It is slim though and needs major change and not just "its a few bad games at the start of the season, chill out!" like a lot are downplaying it as.

I just have some seriously major doubts about Scott Linseys ability to carry that through.

Whilst I don't have enough of an ego to presume any comments are directed at me that don't directly quote me on here, I would like to suggest that my opinion that we're only 3 games into the season and we shouldn't all jump to crucify the manager is a perfectly legitimate one and not one that belongs in the 'happy clapper' camp. I'm not sitting here assuming all will be well. Simply that it is too soon to really decide either way.

There are things that aren't 100% at the moment, there is stuff that isn't quite what it was last season, or whatever season we'd like to reference, but I don't expect everything to be perfect after less than 18 months of taking over from the sheisters that were running the place previously.

Anyone who thinks that Clem is going to essentially dump and run, pack it in and wants out, has obviously not been following the amount of money he's dumped into us to get rid of all the debts and legal hassle surrounding things going back past Power to the McCorory days.

"Calls 'em like I see's 'em" is a perfectly fine attitude (if it's tempered by some context) but three games does not a season make. What I really dislike is the stuff that comes from that kind of attitude, like Brynn getting shit before the first home game for no bloody reason, and people trying to find problems where there probably aren't any "Oh there's a split in the dressing room" etc. Etc.

As an example, people bring up the situation with kits like it's some huge problem with the back offices, without realising it was a problem for every club this year, there were news articles about it and everything. Whilst I completely understand the frustration having shelled out too much for a bloody Swindon shirt, probably compounded by the fact the shop's been redone and so its probably less organises than usual as the staff get used to the 'new', it's not a sign of some great purge or rift. It's just what it is, something out of the club's control.

Even if we end up fucking going down this season I wont feel embarassed for thinking its too early too call the manager useless and want him out.

I think after 10 games it will give us an indication on how the season is panning out. Let's not forget last season we hardly had a pre-season but the numerous new signings gelled really quick. This season we had a full pre-season which was shocking and an average start in our first three games. To be continued.........

Great post.

I see no evidence whatsoever that you're even entertaining the possibility that you're wrong about anything.  As Honkytonk says, being willing to give it more than three games is not being a happy clapper nor does it make me or anybody else delusional.  All any of us have said is THREE GAMES is too early to judge anything. 

I get it, football support is obviously a miserable experience for you and you won't rest until that is so for everybody else or will throw around name calling to make those who have any patience whatsoever to feel small, you definitely seem to have some bully traits and you probably wish football fans still kicked lumps out of each other.

I'll set up a go fund me page so you can have an open top bus parade when our clear and obvious slide into the National League is finally confirmed and you are proclaimed and worshiped as the oracle you are.

Classic textbook TEF behaviour. ChalkyWhiteIsGod's views differ to those of 'kinky tom', so tom decides to throw his toys out the pram and decides Chalky has got traits of a bully, advocates football violence, wants us to get relegated and is hell bent on making football miserable for all.

People are allowed to disagree and have different views on this forum, believe it or not. Not sure how many times this has to be said before people take issue all the time when they read something they don't like :zzz:

But it's ok for anyone who doesn't agree with him to be called a happy clapper and delusional?  

Double standards as always from someone who is on the same side of the fence as him.

There have been so many toys thrown out of so many prams from people on here for the last few weeks and I think that the majority of those toys have comfortably been thrown out doom merchants' prams.

It's not even about having a different opinion is it either, it's about not even entertaining the possibility of being wrong, that's what is doing my head in here recently.  Everything is being presented as fact rather than your fabled opinion.

Stop crying for fuck sake and man up. Jheeaaaze. Lets not talk about 'fabled opinions' :D

If according to you I'm on the same side of the fence as Chalky, then thank fuck for that, I much rather that than be part of the breed of cucks that wouldn't have a bad word said about Lee Power whilst he was owner for example, or anything that needs calling out, etc etc.

TEF's clearly been upsetting you recently... however, taking it out on others saying they have bully traits, want us to get relegated, and want to make the support experience miserable for all, is nothing short of childish and something id expect from a 7 year old. Like I said not long ago on here after Harrogate and Salford... It's early days, far too early to call for his head imo, 10 games be a very fair and good measuring stick and judgement point. Must win games now. Am I confident we win tomorrow? Not at all. If that makes me doomsday then fine, the vast majority of us are not confident going into tomorrow (I did think we'd batter Harrogate and beat Carlisle 3-0, look how that played out hahaha).

And if people are not taking Lindsey being the no 1 choice of appointment and the standout candidate as gospel, then they have every right too, vice versa....

There's a load of other things I can bring up, but for now will just use the two most topical ones atm.

When you pump hard earned money into following this team home and away every single/other week, anyone can say whatever they like (within reason obviously), regardless of who it upsets. Debate is healthy, find me a football club where everyone is on the same page. Everyone wants success end of the day, simple as that.

(https://media2.giphy.com/media/3ohs7KViF6rA4aan5u/giphy.webp?cid=6c09b9521760e0617f5137dd92a8d279e1b593ecb985a860&rid=giphy.webp&ct=g)

This is constantly going to go round in circles isn't it.  Saying "Stop crying for fuck sake and man up. Jheeaaaze" is pretty childish in itself.

There have been so may posts saying "it's clear" about all sorts of speculative thing that are most certainly not clear, yes that pisses me off, yet when things that are facts like me bringing up yesterday that we have paid for three players and have players on longer contracts than we have for ages is ignored completely, it's as if it doesn't suit what some people want to believe and has to be overlooked.  When anyone can actually demonstrate factually that things do actually stink I'll listen but as far as I've seen not one person has.

This has nothing to do with Power, this is to do with giving those at the club now a fair crack of the whip.  Am I underwhelmed at the moment?  Of course I am.  Was I underwhelmed with SL being announced after a long search?  Of course I was.  Have I been underwhelmed with appointments in the past that have gone on to be very good?  Absolutely I have.  Have I thought we have made good appointments on paper that turned out to be awful?  Again, absolutely.  Have all of those instances been true of payers we've signed?  Again, yes, of course.  All of these experiences have led me to decide that no matter what it will take a bit of time before it is evident whether things are good or bad  or somewhere in between.  I will not accept being told I'm a happy clapper or delusional by anybody who has made their mind up already, if anything it's those people who are unwilling to accept not everyone is going to think like them.

I haven't made my mind up either way as to whether things are good or not as, and this will always be the case, three games is simply way too early.  If that makes me delusional and a happy clapper in some peoples' eyes then so be it but I will argue the point. 

What I have seen is SL make marginal improvements since the very disappointing opening game, he made the right changes against Salford at HT and he not only went with a back 4 on Saturday but we noticeably played fewer balls backwards, this is obviously because we had more players ahead of the ball.  It was far from perfect but it was better. 

1st impressions count but some of my best friends are people that gave poor 1st impressions so I learned long ago that a lot of the time they're misleading.

I've never lived in Swindon so the TEF is really the only place for me talk STFC and, yes, seeing all this negativity bothers me as it seems to me to be unwarranted at such an early stage.  You're right, those words were wrong for me to say and I hold my hands up for that but there is always an undertone amongst football fans of wanting to be proved right, sometimes to the detriment of the club they support.  I was one of those that, ashamedly, secretively wanted to lose when Kingy lost his job (2nd time) so we could be rid of him.  If SL is indeed not good enough then we'll all be hoping he's removed and there will be, like it or not, several people who will delight in telling us they were right.

You didn't read the following then?


Wasn't looking very hard.

It isn't three games though is it? While there wasn't a meltdown, some have been showing concerns we weren't in the same universe as where we're supposed to be in pre-season as early as the Supermarine game (not me, I didn't attend.) Of course that was shut down.

Then we looked like total shite and couldn't pass the ball vs Cardiff and that was shut down as being pre season. People weren't even in meltdown mode at this stage, they just expressed concerns and were still met with the same condescending shite anyone who can't deal with negativity in our fan base dishes our right on cue every time.

Before Carlisle it was three games, now apparently its still three games because one of them was in the League Cup. Is there a reason other than mental gymnastics to do your very best to downplay the situation we're in, that the League Cup game doesn't count?

If truth be known, some people are building a picture based on a lot more than THREE GAMES and capitalising it doesn't downplay concerns in the way that you think it does.

This is the bit that pisses me off the most. No one wants this and I've even said myself I can see some positives and a way out, but the reason why this always blows up and we end up at each others throats in the first place is the over the top condescending reaction to extremely warranted negativity.

Some genuinely just wish the entire fan base would be happy to simply eat a shit sandwich and smile, no matter how dire a situation can look.

See you forgot/intentionally omitted the Woking game where we reportedly very good.  I'm never going to use pre season games as too much of a yardstick, even if we thrash 3 PL teams.  Man Utd had a really good pre-season and have been worse than we have in their opening games, it counts for nothing.

I was at the LC game and yes I think it's fair to ignore it really, had the officials got the pen decision right we may have won on pens (pretty sure we wouldn't have given the inexperience) but that wouldn't have made it note worthy in terms of this season's prospects either.  You'll twist that however you want and that's fine, you do you.  

I'm never going to agree with you so let's just forget it, you think I'm condescending, I think you are:


This is what pisses me off, you complain about stuff said on one side of things then basically just do the same thing.

We're obviously coming at football from completely different directions, if you think that makes you better than me, again you do you.

Being someone who is sad enough to see most games, the unforgivable thing for me was throwing the Walsall game.
Being shite is one thing, but not even trying is unforgivable.   (And I'm not blaming the payers who played - far from it)

How low have we gone that this is now ok?    
 
I'm generally a fairly happy clapper, or I just wouldn't do 40 games a year.   This year though my head is telling me we should be targeting top 3 but look miles away.   Don't care what names I'm called, that is what I see after watching most games at the start of the season for years.   We won't go down but look like a lower mid-table league 2 side and that just doesn't get me excited.

Doubt I'll do anywhere near 40 games this year so at least I'll get a few extra free weekends.

I'm literally not twisting anything and I'm not being condescending.

You're demanding me in all caps that I accept that its THREE GAMES so negativity is unwarranted and I'm telling you the negativity isn't based on three games at all. I'm providing more information to try to make you understand where the negativity is coming from and for some reason this invokes an emotional response of being pissed off and that it must mean that I think that I'm better than you.

What in the absolute blue fuck are you talking about? Better than you? Seriously? We're debating football for fuck sake. What is wrong with you? This is the throwing your toys out the pram TEF behaviour Mango Red was referencing.

How is this not condescending?  Smacks of thinking you're better than me, yes.




OK for it to piss you off but not me then?

You think I've thrown my toys out of the pram whereas I think your early season take on things is you throwing your toys out of the pram.  You seem to have had an emotional response to everything I've said too, saying it first doesn't make it not so.

You edited the post there and I didn't realise you were quoting the shit sandwich post.

To be fair, that wasn't even aimed at you. Its a general delusional happy clapper frustration. There was a post last night on the facebook group telling moaners to stay away because they're not supporters. I know its the facebook group, but its this type of idiocy that I see across all platforms.

The simple fact is that a portion of our fan base cannot hear negativity without completely losing their shit, shouting people down and pretending it isn't happening.

I genuinely do think that this is a delusional and mentally wrong. Burrying heads in the sand rather than facing reality. I'm not trying to be a condescending prick when I say this, I'm just frustrated as fuck that such a big chunk of our fan base is like this.

Its probably down to because we've suffered through so much shit as a fan base that people would rather be in denial when it looks like we're in for more tough times or a shit season, than actually face that reality square in the face when it looks pretty obvious to anyone with functioning eyes and ears.

I do get why certain people are that way, but most of the time its fucking make believe to make ourselves feel better.

I genuinely hope I'm wrong about this season or at least that the glimmers of hope I've pointed out in the likes of Clayton, Khan, Wakeling and Darcy are right and prove to be a good backbone for our season and we can turn this around, but the reality is this perceived meltdown to bad results would be like a fart in the wind if it wasn't for the toxic positivity shite and some of the absolute drivel that comes back in response to very warranted negativity. It winds people up and makes them more likely to counteract with more negativity.

Great post and yes I’m with you with your early analysis.

Just something appears to be “missing” likely a combination of many things but we are not looking a cohesive team. More than happy to give it more time but I am a little impatient as craving for something that resembled our positive (and way exceeded) expectations from the beginning of last season.

Tonight conditions are perfect for football therefore can we expect a better performance?
Can only hope so against the strongest team we have faced so far. It can change positively very quickly and if we were to pull off a win from an impressive performance then normal service would likely resume.

We are where we are but I am concerned. Not calling for the Managers head and will give it 10 to 12 games to assess the situation. Desperately want us to do well this adds to the pressure with me.

This debate could turn into a big problem for the club, and you two are not going to fix it on here.  It's not just here but echoed with a lot of the STFC fanbase at the moment.  It's no different to the left/right argument in politics and all you are doing in going back and forth with each other is winding yourselves up - it's a big reason as to why I am posting less recently, my head can do without more of the polarised views at the moment.  It's exactly the same with SM at the moment, a lot of vitriol and angst about, and our football team that everybody cares about so much is the perfect platform and subject for all of this stuff to come out about.  Both sides believe they are right, are not willing to entertain the other point of view and eventually it turns nasty.

I see both sides of your argument, but you are both arguing from the extreme and are not able to take a step into each others point of view for a second.  That is fine, but as I said, you two going around in circles is only winding yourselves up - might be better to agree to disagree on this one, i see the same "debate" happening all over.

And by the way, you are both being condescending to either group on both sides of the arguement and each other, whether consiously or subconsiously :D

Take a breath guys, watch the game tonight and either be more frustrated or (hopefully) elated that we see improvement.  There are another 40 odd matchday threads to come to get frustrated about, you don't have to win the debate in this one.

I think I have stepped in to how I could be wrong about this season though. I've even said how I can see a route back from the glimmers of positivity I do see.

And reading back I see how some posts can come across as condescending. But like I said, its not intentional, its a reaction people going mental over valid criticism.

God I hope we fucking win tonight and its not the shit show I fear is coming, because if it is what I think it is and I'm getting told ITS FOUR GAMES then you need a fucking shake.

I think we can all agree on a couple of things.

It is currently pretty shit.

Its not the worst its ever been by a hundred miles.

It could get better it could get worse.

Its early in the season and mistakes in signings and style have been made, lets hope in the next 5 or so games those mistakes are rectified.

Thats my take.

Some mistakes have been made in signing, but some actually look pretty spot on in the few minutes they've shown.

The key though Scott, is you have to play them for things to get better. Its not going to get any better keeping them on the bench for 80 minutes.

Both of these are spot on.

I do wonder with Darcy & Clayton in particular whether their fitness levels weren't quite right at the start of the season (didn't they both join part way through pre-season), but agree that we would be better placed starting them & taking them off when they show signs of fatigue.

Not aimed at either of you but the frustration is the reaction that this is the "Worst Ever" after a poor performance when that's clearly not the case.

This !!
Great post, sums up how I feel !  :clap:

Clayton he seems to think has to put some weight on to be a fully fledged senior League Two CB and has had him hitting the gym.

I understand why that might be and obviously haven't seen him in training, but at the end of the day we are fucking abysmal defensively at the moment and he is a highly rated player. At some point you have to make the required changes.

possibly the worst league position after 3 games I can remember. unless PDC did it even worse.

But it's where you finish that counts. obviously

......and Manchester United are bottom and Liverpool 14th in the Premier.  It won't end like that, and nor will League 2.  This to Kinky Tom's post.

Dicanio won his first game 3-0

Been a long time of course since we didn't win our opening game, but this is our worst start after 3 games points wise since 01/02 so 21 years.   We finished mid table in the old div2 - Ruddock's shorts and Willy Carson starred that season.

There were a couple of seasons in the naughties where we lost the first couple but won the third.

If we lose tonight then we looking at the Colin Todd season as the only comparison in "recent" memory

We were 19th in 1985 after 3 games, with one more point.  We were also on 3 points in 83 when we finished 17th - our worst ever season as a club in the Four Division era.

You should read the reaction of some ManU "fans" though  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: this is mild on here.

There might even be a few in attendance this evening😀

So what you could say is that we are the best Red Premier League side (WE WERE THERE ONCE OKAY) this season?

Excluding Arsenal.

Or any of the others.

We were 21st after five games, with just the three points from the first game.

The difference was PDC signed a new team after that 😂

We were 21st after 8 games in 85/86 and we won the league with 102 points.

Didn’t see this earlier, great post, 100% agree.

Not quite got the same buzz this season, hope that changes