Thetownend.com

Oh lord, we're up against Evans again, and his team are doing very well.
Please, please win.

Stevenage 1-1 Swindon att: 3,427 (1,289 away)

I think that away figure is generous, more than an our initial allocation and I think there may be a rail strike. I will sit this one out but will be listening on iFollow.

Piece of piss, 1-4

Stevenage 3 Swindon 2 Att: 2,950 (850 Town)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ED8I2MoZsfQ

If Khan starts, a win if not a draw

0-2 although Stevenage have won all 6 home games by a one goal margin they have been against struggling teams in the bottom half of the table with exception of Carlisle .

0-0 in front of 4,189 with 895 Swindonians there.

Khan MotM.

Can we pay in the gate?

Stevenage bought well in the Summer with some excellent signings such as Sweeney from FGR, Danny Rose from Northampton, Gilbey from Charlton, Amoo from Port Fail, Piergianni from Oldham, the massive keeper Chapman from Gillingham who is 6 foot 8. They still have the lump of a midfielder in Bostwick who has been a thug all his 700 league game career

They have ex Town players Luke Norris and Jake Reeves there still, Norris being their equal leading scorer on 4 goals along with Jamie Reid also on 4. Also on their management books is Alex Revell the scourge of the Town over the years after leaving us.

Stevenage are managed by the despised Steve Evans the man who exposed himself to a female Bradford City steward and also convicted for tax fraud where he was conspiring to cheat the public revenue, and was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

In the 15 games between Swindon and Stevenage Swindon have come out victors on 8 occassions with 3 being draws and 4 defeats scoring 23 times and conceding 17.

In the 6 away games we have won 2 and drawn 1 of the games scoring 8 and conceding 10 times.

So far this season Stevenage's run of results have been very, very impressive with 13 wins with just 2 defeats and a drawn game in the first 16 league and cup games having won all 8 home games played in all comps, they have only failed to score in 2 games and kept 6 clean sheets.

Stevenage have won more games this season than any other side in the top 5 divisions.

W A Tranmere 2-1
W H Stockport 2-1
W A Reading 2-1 (LC)
D A Walsall 1-1
W H Rochdale 1-0
W H Carlisle 2-1
W H peterborough 1-0 (LC)
L A Salford 0-1
W A Peterborough 2-1 (FLT)
W A Crewe 2-1
W H Newport 1-0
L A Bradford 0-3
W H Wycombe 3-0 (FLT)
W H Harrogate 1-0
W A Crawley 2-1
W H Sutton 3-0

oh man we gonna lose

According to the Swindon Ticket office Twitter page there will be no tickets available on the day

https://twitter.com/STFC_Ticket?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Mostly all the deadwood of the league. We’ll piss this, Mark my words!

Didn’t Morris get injured on Tuesday night?

Grant on co-comms could be fun.

He did co comms a couple of seasons back and he was very good, speaks a good game and isnt as dull as some we have had.

I wonder where his allegiances will lie having played almost the same amount of games for Stevenage as he did for us.

Found this quite interesting from Betfair

Does he have a club this year?

Sent from my XQ-AD51

Gonna win this 3-0!

I think this could be our "Forest Green last season" moment.

3-2 (Shade, Hutton)
Att: 2,999
MoM: Hutton

Having beaten ladbrookes 4 out of 5 bets, I really want to stick one on tomorrow. I cannot bet against town, just not in my nasty fascist Tory DNA. So, no ACCA’s no guess the score just a straight win or draw?

What have you got against faces?

I'm not sure we'll win tomorrow, but I think we've got a much better chance than the bookies are suggesting.

I hate faces, simple. 😁

100/30 for a Town win with Skybet. Fucking ridiculously high price.

Get some on!

Changed it for you.

You know what we will get.
Lard arse berating the officials, route one football and shit stewards.
Hate Stevenage, the place, the football club and the journey.

The sooner we get out of this shit division the better.

Rang Stevenage and they said there’s no away tickets on the gate on police advice…..so I’ll go in the home end…. great police advice!!!!

There will also be a lot of "you fat bastard "

Remember last year Dukey cutting through the trees to avoid the pikeys outside the ground😀

😂😂 The horse and trap race. To be fair it was all good natured. We just added extra obstacles to get past.

Plenty available in the home ends.

Last week I got my first prediction in ages right in going for a 2-1 loss. Today I’m going for a 2-1 win thanks to a Jephcott double

I hot the score correct against Newport and dropped down a couple of places in the league😀

Probably the first time we’ve played Stevenage and I don’t expect us to win.
They’ve been getting results and are sitting second in the league so expect this to be a tough game.
Hoping for a win, but expecting a draw.

1-1 a Jephcott goal for us.
Club tweeted that we’d sold 885 tickets so less than last season, presumably a train strike, cost of living & no pay on the day has had an impact

I think that Stevenage will bully us and win by a couple of goals

Pre match reasons to be cheerful in The Standing Order.
Sadly the visit to Knebworth House will have to wait.
Mentioned before that the Old Town here is worth a mooch around.
The concrete jungle on the other hand, less than 70yrs old & in need of a major refurb.

So, as I understand it Messrs Black & Arbib have got their dentures back & Town fans have every right to have the gleaming pearly whites on display.

Imagine what a momentous season it would be were we to end up both clutching our CG ownership shares & gain promotion. One is more likely than the other maybe but its good to follow the development of the raw recruits into a decent team.

Tough game against high flying opponents today.
Was surprised to read that Evans did have a playing career although cut short by injury.
Let himself go a bit since then or maybe has always been err big boned.

Good manager with a decent record, only been sacked twice & it wouldn't have been easy to get the mojo back after the spell at Gillingham.
Not sure his record against us is the best though.

No amount of beer will make a chorus of "Feeling Gladders all over" seem like a good idea.
Might create some additional personal space though.

Hoping to see the Lindsey fist pumping, snarling head thrust combo in front of the away end at the end.

Plenty to feel good about in STFC world at the moment.

Swindon have the most yellow cards in League 2 this season at 29 and 2 reds both for 2nd yellows.

Stevenage have the least amount of yellows at 18 and no red cards

Stevenage have only used 19 players in the league this season with only Barrow on 18 less, Swindon have used 22.

Stevenage have commited 131 fouls, been given 157 fouls, had 33 offsides against them, made 219 crosses and have won 155 tackles.

Swindon have commited 120 fouls, been given just 99 fouls(2nd lowest total), had 18 offsides against them, made 190 crosses and have won 105 tackles.

Stevenage have been given the 2nd most penalties in the league so far (2) and Norris has converted them both.

Remeao Hutton is 8th on the list for most crosses (54), no Stevenage player is in the top 20.

Sol Brynn is 3rd in the league for keeping clean sheets with 5 so far, Stevenages Ashby-Hammond is in 7th place with 4 clean sheets.

Sol Brynn is 2nd in the league for shots saves with 42 so far, Stevenage do not have a keeper with more than 18 saves.

Sol Brynn is 2nd in save % on 79.6% saves, no Setevenage keeper is higher than 15th (Ex Town keeper Vigs is top with 86.2%).

Swindon have a clean sheet percentage of 42% and Stevenage just 33%.

Stevenage have an xG of 2.02 and Swindon 1.6, Stevenage average goals per game is 2.25 and Swindon is 2.08.

Norris is rated as very doubtful for todays game after breaking his nose after being kicked in the face late on in Tuesdays game.

Steve Evans side currently have the longest league win streak in the top four English Divisions, winning their last nine league fixtures at The Lamex Stadium.

Scott Oldham has been appointed as Match Referee for tomorrow’s fixture with Stephen Brown and Samuel Ogles as Assistants alongside Greg Rollason as Fourth Official.

Mr Oldham has reffed 9 games this season dishing out 25 yellows and no red cards and has given 1 penalty so far, his games split evenly between L1 and L2.

In his 90 games as a ref he has dished out 245 yellows, 6 reds and 20 penalties.

Orient and Carlisle have both suffered just 1 defeat all season but Swindon and Stevenage are tied next with 2 defeats each.

Stevenage are 4th for least goals conceded with 10 and Swindon are 9th with 11 conceded.

Stevenage have had 4 susbstitutes come on this season and score, Swindon have had this just once, Wakeling.

Stevenage have 3 players who have played every minute of every game so far Vancooten, Ashby Hammond and Sweeney.

Swindon have Sol Brynn and Ben Gladwin.

Swindon have sold 885 tickets for todays game.

Great work on the stats. Are you Sandro in disguise?!  :sherlock:

PV is Statto!
PJ's & dressing gown in deepest darkest Somerset.

Great work.

Great work as always WB and PV aka Statto😉.... We're in the Chequers, just off the A602 going into Stevenage, lovely boozer/restaurant. Stroll down the road and under the East Coast train line and you're right in the middle of the countryside (that's how it feels at least)... Got a good feeling about today👍

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FejHQgIXwAAM-9m?format=jpg&name=4096x4096)

Great journey lovely day nice pint. Bring it on! And the team I hoped for

I think Lindsey must read the TEF :)

Unthinkable last season. Inevitable this.

Can’t put my finger on what’s happened to his game.

Hes very much a confidence player, his confidence seems pretty low so far, he lost his passing buddy Conroy in the Summer and also his best mates Payne and McKirdy.

He blatantly still has it but it could be best for all if he moved on if its just not working for him.

If hes happy then he would start every game but he just doesnt seem happy this season so far.

Norris not recovered enough from his broken nose to be in the squad today.

That is a bonus

Really?

Eeeeee awwwww

Big fan of Reed, but Khan adds that additional dynamism that the team needs.

Big call, but maybe the right one at this time.

Really good decision to leave out reed

May find it hard to get back in the team

Good call to drop Reed. Khan is a great option to have in his place

Khan has been impressive when he has played and has more bite and strength than Reed. Not opposed to that change as I think Reed hasn’t been up to last season’s standard.

Is it just audio today as I can’t get a picture on the lap toppy thing!!

I have the picture up on the tv showing a very empty stand opposite, only audio being "thanks for tuning in, your match commentary will start soon"

I love how Anglicised Baudry's cliches are. "Football is football, innit".

Its interesting how overseas players pick up the lingo and accents, the first time I remember hearing that sort of thing was in the 80s when Jan Molby had a stronger scouse accent than most scousers with a Danish twang! Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a real Salford drawl too.

They are a fucking huge side.

Foul on Khan 30 yards out.

Clayton with a poor clearance intercepted but Baudry tidies up.

Proper clash of styles today.

This has been an abysmal start, we've barely completed a pass. Room to grow into the game...

They are definately bullying us so far and we are letting them.

Williams cross but its easily claimed by the keeper.

I can only get audio on iFollow. Are you using iFollow?

Wakeling lay off to Darcy but his shot from 20 yards is weak and well wide.

Who’s summing up?

0-1

Anthony Grant.

Bad goal to concede

It's been coming.

Hutton should have done a bit better on the line TBH.

Brynn needed to have come for the ball the  first time before it was returned back across the goal

Worrying signs

shit defending. nobody on him ffs

They are battering us. Typical Evans team.

Cheers

Need to get a grip. Doing our best to make them look great. They are a big side, need to get them moving and worrying about our threat.

They want it more

Evans always gets his teams motivated.

This is exactly the kind of game where MacDonald would have been important.

They are first to every loose ball in midfield.

I thought that pre game.

That's normal for 3pm Saturday games unless you are "overseas"

Darcy has a go from 30 yards, soft and well wide.

This is an absolute binfire 1-11 at the moment.

Poor play

Brynn with a terrible fuck up but Baudry saves it on th eline, not good by Brynn.

Got away with that  :eek:

Gladwin falls over in a great position and we are on the defensive again, its end to end.

This game is frantic.

They're too strong physically. We haven't been too skillful. Final third poor and look vulnerable

We are pulling out of challenges.

Stevenage are like Lincoln of a couple of years ago, huge, strong and very fit team who bully teams into submission and good with dead balls.

Its a formula that is not pretty to watch but gets results, we are struggling to cope with it today.

Terrible long pass from Clayton straight into touch.

Grant with the best analysis I've heard all season with a muttered 'Jesus' as a long ball sails out of play.

They aren’t giving us a second on the ball, constant pressure, fair play to them.

Williams lets the ball run under his feet and into touch, that sums the day up for Town.

They have a game plan and are sticking to it and its working well so far.

That’s how I see it. They are bigger, stronger “athletes”. We will have to outplay them to get anything today. Not helped ourselves with some sloppiness so far.

They're so low-level dirty. There are little tugs, pushes, pulls every time one of their players goes near one of ours. Must be fucking infuriating to play against.

Did we expect anything else from a fatty Evans team

Wakeling beats his man and tries a shot but its sliced and he falls down injured.

Mm, sliced shit

Exactly as Lincoln used to do as well.

Yep, it works for them but fucking hell its ugly.

Freudian slip!

He was tackled to be fair.

Williams has slipped up 3 time snow, got the wrong studs on?

Sorry, Sweeney just changed direction and ran fully into Williams. It's exactly what FBT got booked before for the Nhampton goal last week, just much harder.

re: lie level dirty. wouldn't go that far. They are physical and it's a legitimate tactic. see also 'mad dog' Allen's teams.

it's our problem to work out how to change this

Darcy shooting from everywhere after last week and it's not going very well.

Khan with a good tackle and dribble and passes to Darcy but his 20 yard shot is well wide again.

The shooting has been very poor

All Stevenage the last 5 mins, loads of chances for them.

One nil at half time would be a good result

What a game Khan is having. Doesn't deserve to be on the losing side

On this first half showing those odds should be nearer 1000/1

Made one mistake where he fell over in a good position otherwise not put a foot wrong.

Only 1-0.

Second half we’ll do ‘em

FBT tries a shot from 20 yards but its closed down.

Wish I had your confidence mate.

Will they tire from all the pressing?

Baudry pulled back there very cleverly by them, could have been a penalty TBH.

Apparently they score 70% of all their goals in the last 15 mins of games. So I would guess no.

FBT wins a lot in the air, impressive.

He's that rarest of things, a left back target man.

1st yellow of the game for the Steveange defender for a cynical foul on Williams, at last.

And hes not that tall either, only 6 foot.

Town applying the pressure in the last 5 mins.

HT 0-1

 An interesting end to that half

Bit more territory at the end of the half. They do look vulnerable enough at the back. Just not really getting any good feelings about us so far. Hopefully different story after the break. COYR

meh. last 5 ok but have we really tested the keeper?

Anyone would think we're 4-0 down!

We've had loads of the ball and chances will come our way. Plenty of life in this one.

We've had loads of the ball but no threat up top.

Hmm. A good finish to it, but probably our worst half since Harrogate, although with the qualifier that it's against a much better side.

Stevenage look a nightmare side to play against and - especially - to referee. There's essentially at least a "you've seen them given" type niggly foul every time a Stevenage player goes within three feet of a Town player with or without the ball, and they're working on the grounds that the referee won't give them all - which of course he can't, although he's probably given more than the average L2 ref would. They also play at an incredibly high tempo which is giving us no time on the ball - Hutton and Gladwin in particular are really struggling with this.

Do think this game shows one of the differences between Williams and Gladwin who are in some ways similar in style - but Gladwin really benefits from time on the ball and Williams almost thrives on this sort of pressure because his close control is so good.

We could win this if they tire and we can impose our style a bit more. But I wouldn't bet on it. I'd be delighted with a point. At least Jephcott should have plenty of energy for the second half...

I will echo that Khan had a good half.

Like the general a lot, but wish he would drop ‘obviously’ from his vocab.

I think he would be a great coach, knows all the tricks and could teach the young lads a lot.

Easy save for Brynn as they hit us on the break.

It’s better then listening to Phil Smith who keeps on saying ‘you know’ every other sentence !

A couple of good crosses put in by Hutton but they are cleared.

Picked up where we left off in the final stages of the first half here.

Town turning the screw this half so far but not getting any shots in yet.

Good save by their keeper on Wakelings foot in the box.

Much better so far. really stretching them on the right

Baudry booked for a poor tackle on their player who drew the foul.

0-2

Noooo

Mistake at the back again hit on the break.

Fucksakes, we were absolutely in that.

Gladwin basically fell over the ball in our half.

Bullied and two down ...

Hutton's pass to him was poor. Shame as Hutton has been at the fore of our improvement so far.

game over

Against the run of play that, oh dear.

We are neat and tidy but offer next to nothing in the final 3rd.

The final ball, cross or shot always flatters to deceive.

It's disappointing.

FBT header and the defender handballs it to keep it out of the net, definate penalty.

Good low save by Brynn.

I like Grant's noises, they're very descriptive.

Not one of Darcys best games so far today.

Williams off for Shade.

He definately knows and understands the game very well.

Att: 4,087 (885 Swindon)

Another outing for Iandolo as an AML.

This sis horrendous no effort from anyone.
Don't bother with MOM thread it's shit

Aguiar for Darcy and Iandolo for Wakeling.

I disagree, I think Khan is head and shoulders our best player today.

This half has been alright apart from their goal. The first 40 was abject but been brighter since then. We've given one out for far worse.

weird subs for me

They make a lot of noise for a tinpot gate.

Their players want it more than ours

 :badmood:

Shade wins a corner.

Wakeling has stuttered since Jephcott took the central striker role

Good corner from Iandolo.

FBT with 2 really sloppy balls in the last minute.

Grant sounds like he's about to storm the pitch.

He truly has a passion, I miss him at the club.

Jesus thats sloppy as fuck by Baudry.

Could really do with the 19/20 version of Grant today...

Aguiar shot from 20 yards deflected wide for a corner.

Shade misses a great chance by kicking the ground.

Our delivery from crosses and set pieces has been really good today. It's all gone a bit wrong once it's reached the box though. Jephcot has barely had a kick.

shade sums up today's attack

Wakeling apparently hobbled down the tunnel just now. Hearing Stevenage sing “2 nil on your big day out” is particularly jarring.  :crash:

TBH we havent played awful, Stevenage have just coped with us really well and beat us with their own game, strength, speed and pressure and capitalising set pieces and pressing us into mistakes at the back.

We should have created more chances but Stevenage have won 14 times in the first 17 games, it was always going to be hard despite what some posters may have thought. Evans gets his teams playing in a certain way and thats often very successful too despite the lack of thrills and quality, its fucking effective.

Opinions, I don't think we have put a decent cross in all day. We haven't met a single cross yet and in the box I'm going home. This has been almost as bad as Harrogate.

Little quality or creativity and no threat up front.

TBF we have been like that most games even the ones we won we havent created too many chances.

We should be hitting the target far more than we have for certain.

That had Sol Brynn red card insult to injury written all over it.

Brynn saves our embarressment as they hit us on the break again.

FT 0-2

Khan easily our best player today by a country mile.

70% possession, zero shots on target. Crap.

Too much fanny. Not enough cock.

I'm not sure we disagree hugely - the net effect has been pretty useless, but we've put the ball in areas where I would expect a side to have plenty of chances. We're just not very good in the box.

338 mile round trip for such as shite performance isn't acceptable. If we had put some effort in and lost I could accept it but this is fucking terrible

Pretty much this.

Sorry guys I do disagree.
That was a pathetic performance. Made Stevenage look good and they're not that good a side

They were too strong and too well drilled for us today. Couldn't get anywhere closer than arms length.

Disappointed with Lindsey's subs today. Not the personnel but as far as I could see we we just carried on doing what we had been doing.  Surely we should be trying to change something different. Jephcott may as well have come round for a beer and watched it with me

Frustrating, and a slight reality check we've been well beaten by Northampton and Stevenage

They went top today.

Well that was crap-0 shots on target with 70% possession tells the story

When will we learn as a club that you can’t get out of this league without some physical presence- Khan aside we had none of this today. Filling the side with flair players on its own won’t get us out of league 2

I don't think its so much having big physical players but having someone who knows how to put the ball in the fucking net would be nice.

What the f**k do they work on the training ground as they knew that Stevenage would be strong, dirty and would bully us.

Don’t think we need to worry too much about this one. Avoidably conceded early, that set the tone.

Unfortunate that the referee missed the hand ball/penalty (red as well?) Second on the break, individual errors, Hutton has been decent of late, and Gladwin arguably player of the season so far. Meh.

One of those didn’t quite happen days. Didn’t weather the storm, didn’t score when we were on top, didn’t get the rub, couldn’t nullify their known threats. They were bigger, and stronger. I don’t buy the ‘wanted it more’ line, just had the physical merit to win the battles.

Thought Khan was pretty good. I think there are now about 15/16 players in the squad that I am happy to see starting. Much better outlook then a few weeks ago.

We should just move on.

They arent a good side you are right but they bully teams and have a gameplan that we struggled to cope with, they were bigger stronger and faster than us all over the pitch.

We have always struggled against sides like this in the past, Newport, Northampton, Lincoln, Salford and many others in recent years. They let us have the ball as we don't create enough good chances and hit us on the break or with set pieces which we have always struggled to defend.

Yeah I feel pretty much the same mate.

Many fans cant seem to see that Stevenage although not a good side are a fucking effective side and you don't win 14 games out of the first 17 without having something.

LINDSEY OUT!

We can’t sit here and claim Stevenage aren’t a good side.
They are top ffs. They are clearly a good side. A pretty side? A good footballing side? Very debatable but a good side? Absolutely because they are winning games.

This last week for me has summed up exactly where our team is. We aren’t as good as the top teams (Stevenage, Northampton) but probably better than a lot of the rest. Which isn’t too dissimilar to how we ended up last season…

We have one.

We can't create the chances for him

Indeed.

But we don't have the wildcard to win us games we would otherwise struggle to win.

Can we compensate for that? Maybe

There is certainly a concern that we're a team who get quite a lot of crosses in and our best header of the ball plays at left back.

WWAKD?

How was Darcy? Grant said he was the pick of our lot.

This is a good summing up. Expected it to be just like that but hoped we’d score first to change the dynamic. Stevenage are extremely good at what they do and yes, perhaps we should have prepared better but I’m ok with writing it off. We are well in touch, we have a decent squad that I think will be strengthened in January- long way to go.

I disagree, what move on and accept that no shots on target is acceptable. What happens when we play another team who are just as physical do we just accept defeat and move on again. Lindsey has all week preparing for the game but sometimes pretty possession football isn't appropriate in league 2 and you need to fight fire with fire. We need to adapt to the opposition otherwise the season has mid table written all over it.

I disagree, what move on and accept that no shots on target is acceptable. What happens when we play another team who are just as physical do we just accept defeat and move on again. Lindsey has all week preparing for the game but sometimes pretty possession football isn't appropriate in league 2 and you need to fight fire with fire. We need to adapt to the opposition otherwise the season has mid table written all over it.

Fully agree...same stubborness of garner that stopped us getting promoted last season.

Spot on :clap:

Just got home, we were terrible.

Only good thing is that I’m home early :)

What's frustrating it was expected considering we know how Evans teams play.

Stevenage appear to have an effective game plan for the basement division. 

he was just ok for me. But I wasn't there and I'm not an ex pro

Stevenage may have an effective game plan but I put that down to the manager rather than the quality of players they pocess.

Fair enough, stats wise it is shit but take Darcy for example, against Newport he couldn’t miss the target, today he alone could have made that stat look more favourable, one in the first half was a decent scoring opportunity. Yes we’ll see play other teams just as physical (and we already have), but they won’t be physical teams who are top of the league and have won 12 on the bounce at home. That’s why I’m ok to write this one off.

You can't win every game.

No problem losing a few games but no shots on target and not being able to compete physically is my concern.

Away and against the team top of the league. No need to be clutching your pearls

No clutching just giving my opinion

Don’t expect to win every game but we always have this Achilles heel of not being able to deal with physicality.

This is vital in this division - Khan aside we don’t seem to have any players who can stand up to being bullied- need to add this in January if we want promotion

Spot on.

MacDonald would have been a huge help today I think. There doesn't seem to have been much made of losing our captain and first choice centre-back for three months, but today showed it. I like Baudry, he's a better footballer than MacDonald, but MacDonald is more obviously a L2 commanding centre-back.

At 1-0 down whilst not effective we were very much still in the game.
The gift of the second goal simply knocked the stuffing out of us and we never really looked like scoring.

Just one of those that we need to forget about.

Not every team in the basement division has the particular physicality of Stevenage Borough.

Just got back. One of them days. When your best two players have poor games you're going to struggle. Williams and Gladwin just not on it today. Baudry decent,Hutton was just starting to look dangerous then gave the ball away for their second just as we looked to be getting it together. Khan an easy choice for MOM for me

Was Evans there? I didn't see him in their tech area and he's hard to miss!

Evans looks to have shed a few tonnes so is looking quite svelte (by his standards) these days.
Almost unrecognisable.

Sound quality not the best

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kCovuyY0mG8

The fat bastard was stuck in their dug out for most of the game and appeared every now and again to berate the 4th official. The fat mess.

Nicked this from the MoM thread to respond here after listening to the LSPod ep with Terry who was at the game. Definitely something in this - maybe all of us on here talking to each other during the game influence eachother, but there does seem to be a distinctly more negative view from those who were there as opposed to those who were watching from mainland Europe. I thought the first 40 minutes or so were abject but it improved from there, but feels like that turnaround wasn't really felt at the game.

Works the other way too I would suggest.

Think you’re going to scrutinise and be more negative about a performance you paid money and travelled (how ever many miles) to watch.

Like, I’d definitely get more annoyed at a result / performance if I’d dedicated most of (if not all depending on location) of my Saturday to it, as opposed to sitting in my house with my feet up with a cup of tea and a pack of biscuits - knowing full well once the final whistle is blown I can completely shut it off and move on (rather than having to get out the stadium, walk through the crowd to find the car/get to the train station and end up travelling back with others who were at the game)

Literally stuck?  ???

Isn't that the same thing?! You are both right.

Can also say I sometimes withhold negative comments in the matchday thread as I acknowledge I'm more pessimist than optimist and that pisses some people off.
-------------------------
From my "European viewing" we were well beaten - held very much at arms length and failed to create anything. I remember thinking if I was Jephcott I'd be looking for another club because in this system it is pointless him being there.

But as DV said, you walk away, get a cuppa, reflect that Stevenage are good at what they do and move on to Strictly with the Mrs because the bloody boxing got cancelled.

Can guarantee I'd be far more pissed off at actually taking a road trip and seeing no shots on target.

Thing is, I'm still not sure where we are. 1 point from the top 3 but generally a good run since the (arguably fortunate) win v Sutton. I don't know whether to be grumpy or otimistic!

Oh dear, it was hard listening on Saturday and even harder this morning watching it.

That was a Luke Williams game, all the ball and play and lose.

Don't disagree with that. Can't help thinking if you swapped Jephcott from this season with Davison from the second part of last season you'd probably improve both teams.

Ha, yeah, possibly!

I am not sure what the answer is. Try 2 up top or try pushing the other 2 attacking players higher?
But that changes the way we play.

I didn’t see the game, but listened to the LS pod.
I think the biggest concern for me is the fact we don’t often create many chances / make the opposition keeper work hard, and they made a good point on the pod about the lack of options up front.
We have nobody who can do what Davison or Simpson did last season, and with Adeloye and Hepburn-Murphy injured and Parsons out on loan, only midfielders or wide players on the bench.
We will need to strengthen that area in January.

Adeloye is well on the way back isn't he?

not seen anything from him to get excited yet, but hope springs eternal.

jephcott is very isolated up top on his own, and Wakeling looks less effective in his deeper role to my eyes.

But it seems that a change in formation change is unlikely. And to be fair it did work against lesser teams.

it's a dilemma isn't it