Thetownend.com

Not sure I have ever started one of these before and it will be my first game with my dad since the Exeter game in 2020. On and off the pitch a lot has changed and excited to be back 'at SN1' (as postcodes appear to be en vogue these days)


I'd fully expect us to win on Saturday and fairly handsomely given how bad Colchester look to be. I'll go for a 3-1 success.

Have a feeling we might hand out a bit of a battering in this one. Which I don't usually get, so lump on a Colchester win...

Bore draw 0-0. My last game for a month.
ColU will stop us shooting.
They have lost a few but most by a single goal.
 :pint:

Att: 8,663 (207 away)

They haven't been great in the league. But they aren't whipping boys either.

We have struggled to create anything in the box

An edgy 1-0 as they frustrate but we just find a little bit of quality and space late on

A promotion candidate should have the minerals to see this out but not expecting it to be easy. A comfortable win would be nice but will take the 3 points in whatever form we can get them. Would be disappointed if we can’t win this, although I know nothing about them this season other than what is immediately obvious from the league table.

0-0 in front of 7,789 with 215 Camulodunums there.

Khan MotM.

Since sacking Wayne Brown and replacing him with Matt Bloomfield they have a run of DWDLLLWWD in all games, they have only scored 10 goals in the league so far, the 4th lowest in the league.

Top scorer this season is Noah Chilvers on 3, Frank Nouble, John Akinde and Kwesi Appiah all on 2 goals.

They still have a very experienced side including the stalwarts Chambers, Smith, Skuse, Judge, Sears, Appiah, Eastman, Akinde, Nouble as well as Welsh international Huws, most of those players have played between 350 and 600 1st team games.

We havent managed to beat these since 2019 a run on 6 games and with town winning just 2 times in the last 15 meetings it can be said that they are very much a bogey side for Town.

In the 88 meetings Colchester have come out on top 35 to Swindons 32 wins, with goals scored almost level on 115 for Town and 114 for Colchester.

For games at the CG its edging Swindon with us winning 20 and Colchester 12 of the 43 games played, Town scoring 72 and conceding 47.

But, the poor run against this lot still goes back even at the CG with Town winning just 2 times in 12 games between the sides stretching back to 2005, Colchester having won 2 and drawn 1 in the last 3 meetings.

If we could get a decent home attendance of 8,803 or more then it will be the biggest home attendance against them since the New Years Day win under Macari in 86 when we went on and won the league, the next highest was the 8,436 we had last season, before then you have to go back to November 1974 when we just broke the 10k figure.

The only ex Town player at the club is Frank Nouble who has come back to haunt us a few times over the years since his short innefectice loan to Town from Wet Spam 12 seasons ago but although bullying us he has yet to score against us in his 12 appearances.

Colchester have a new keeper since giving Gherken a free at the end of the season and have Sam Hornby in goal who at 27 has only played 50 league games in his 8 seasons and has only kept 1 clean sheet so far in the league vs Bradford back in August.

But only Northampton and Orient have managed to score 3 goals against him which means they have only conceded 11 goals in the other 9 games in total.

They like to get the ball out wide and get lots of crosses into the box for the big men up front to attack.

They have been awarded 2 penalties so far and scored 1. (Swindon 1 pen 0 converted).
They have given away 3 penlties so far all converted. (Swindon 0).
They have had 22 yellow cards and 0 red cards so far.
Swindon are on 31 yellows and have the most bookings in L2.
They have had 48 shots on target against them
Swindon have had 58 shots on target against them.
They have made 34 saves.
Swindon have made 45 saves.
They have had 104 shots with 33 on target(3rd lowest behind Rochdale and Crawley).
Swindon have had 171 shots with 54 on target(2nd highest behind Stevenage).
They have given away 146 fouls and have been given 138 fouls.
Swindon have given away 128 fouls(2nd lowest) and have been given 113 fouls(3rd lowest).
They have had 171 crosses to Swindons 217.

Swindon 1 Colchester 1 Att:8,088 (162 away)

Last 6 in the league Colchester are w1, D2 l3, putting them 19th in the form guide. the win 2-1 last time out v Harrogate, who are bottom of the form table.

we are 8th (w4 l2)

I'm using that as my optimistic outlook

You've changes since you got older yesterday :) you used to be all about the defeat!

With great age come great wisdom. No wait.

Yeah, I am being a bit more optimistic than normal. No idea why. Give it a couple of defeats and I'll get the pitchfork out.

Think we will sneak it by the odd goal.

The concern would be how we deal with a big physical lump up front

That's super interesting, isn't it? Considering that most of us would say Jonny Williams is pretty adept at winning fouls, are the rest of the team just bobbins at it? Because we have plenty of possession, it's not just that we don't see the ball!

Got a feeling that is more that lots of our possession is low risk, side to side stuff, so no need for the opposition to commit fouls?

https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/159/Show/England-Swindon

Swindon players ranked by the number of times they're fouled per game on average: (this season)

McKirdy 2.2
Williams 2.0
Khan 1.7
Brennan, Lavinier 1.0 (small sample)
Everyone else 0.6 or below

Really notable drop off that. Tyrese Shade at 0.2 is one who feels like he should win a lot more with his style.

Parsons recalled from Banbury

I assume that means Wakeling is crocked (he went off last have, so it's a guess)

Not good news if true. I wonder how close Parsons is to being a meaningful contributor at first team level. Everything I have seen from him makes me think he isn’t anywhere near the finished article but always happy to be proved wrong about these things.

Apparently not. Wakeling and Williams OK for Saturday according to today’s presser

Adeloye set to be unleashed against Rovers next Tuesday!

‘Scott Lindsey on injuries:



Wakeling and Williams are good to go.

MacDonald met with a consultant so he will settle down for three weeks and then have an injection to enhance his rehab, wait to let that settle and then get on with rehab. Eight to twelve weeks is a rough timeline, but knowing our medical staff it could be sooner.

Adeloye is back in full training and back in contention. We have the Bristol game next week which he can be included in, but more likely he will a part of that, likely around 20 minutes.’

.

I assume he's been playing since he's got 2 from 6 games. So bit of an odd one unless there's an injury being kept quiet

He got a red card too, not sure if it was a straight red. Maybe he had some kind of fallout from that like a bollocking from the manager? I think one of his 2 goals was a penalty so just one from open play if that’s correct.

3-0. Wakeling to be back among the goals

That is interesting, I think being fouled twice/game must be fairly top tier, I checked and Grealish is also fouled 2.0/game.

We were fouled a lot more last season. Maybe that is something teams are trying to not do against us?

Just looking at PV's stats, would be interesting to know where the 58 shots on target against ranks in the league and compare that with the average possession.
I'm guessing a fairly high ranking for both possession & shots on target against, which would back up what we've seen so far in terms of allowing chances through the midfield areas in particular.

Highest SOT
Grimsby 66
Stevenage 65
Mansfield 60
Northampton 57
Orient 56
Swindon 54
Carlisle 53

The lowest SOT
Crewe 38
Newport 37
Harrogate 36
Colchester 33
Rochdale 33
Hartlepool 32
crawley 31
Gillingham 28

Highest Possession
Salford 64.3
Swindon 58.2
Bradford 58.0
Orient 57.0
Mansfield 56.0
Stockport 52.9
Crawley 51.7
Northampton 50.8

Lowest possession
Stevenage 45.9
Gillingham 45.6
Sutton 45.4
Barrow 45.2
Newport 45.1
Walsall 44.6
Carlisle 44.2

Be good to know how the SOTs turn into goals scored - bet we’re low.

We're sixth for xG as well (rating the quality of those chances), but 11th for actual goals scored. Which suggests we create chances and don't take them. Not sure that totally reflects my memory of this season so far!

For those who like the numbers, xG is 1.57 per game, reality is 1.08 per game.

It will be because we have taken a shit load of long shots that have ended on target, like Darcy the other match where he hit three in about as many minutes.  One did create a goal, although that would have counted separately as the original was saved.  That follow-up tap in would then have a really high xG.  We also missed a penalty in a game, that's nearly 1.0 on it's own.

A dull 0-0 is my guess..hopefully Reed comes straight back in.

Experimental 3-6-1 has us 2.3 goals fewer than we should've scored but also 5.7 goals fewer than we should've conceeded which means 8 fewer points in xG table.

(https://experimental361.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/2022-10-09-103.png)

Swindon 2 v 1 Col U, in front of 9257 with 265 away fans.

Lindsey saying we're 2nd n the league for shots and 1st in the league for shots outside the box but dosen't state if they were on target.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w8flbN1y-_c&t=216s

Piece of piss. 4-1

FA Cup draw Monday - we’re  ball 45

This will probably end up as a 2-0 defeat

sounds like Camberwick Greens miller might be at the country ground today.

let's hope that sods off

If you listen to Exeter City fans we do it on purpose.

"Every forecast wrong" Normy says 1-2 Colchester win. Hope my forecast is wrong again of course.

There are some right doomsayers on this thread. Playing a shit Colchester team and predicting a defeat.

I mean, ffs.

Maybe a 9 man ColU us still in collective minds?

You mean like last week at Stevenage where many of us predicted defeat and 1 or 2 thought it would be easy? ;)


Not a great track record there mate!

One game.

If I thought we’d lose every game I wouldn’t bother with it at all.

I think that recent seasons tell us that "shit" teams can also win matches

100% this.

League 2 is shit but everyone can on their day beat everyone else.

Newport beat Orient, Newport were probably THE worst side we have played this season.

Not going in thinking we will get beat but just not pressuming it will be an easy game either, certainly with Colchesters recent history vs Swindon with us winning only twice in 15 games between us.

For whatever reason I do believe in bogey teams like Cheltenham and Colchester, but runs are there to be broken and on our day we can beat any team in this league.

Of course they can. I’m on about those who predict doom every single game - no matter who we’re playing.

It’s tiresome.

Have you managed to sell your house yet🤔

No mate.

Very slow going. Any prospective UK buyer is now getting stuffed by the exchange rate.

With all the shit going on in the world people are, understandably, a bit more reticent about most things.

Might still move back in the spring and AirBnB the house for an income.

…that took a bit of Googling to decipher

Ok. i sometimes suggest that we may lose- that fact is that we will lose many games.  It doesn't mean that I don't want to win.

I can understand why Flashheart knocked it on the head!

we are going to piss this

Cheers, it's tough everywhere righ now and only going to get worse. Maybe the air b&b is the answer to enable you to move back here.

I hate Colchester with a passion. I think it stems from the 3-0 defeat away at theirs when we should have made the autos in league 1. I can’t remember what year. And obviously the 9 man debacle, that was an embarrassment beyond belief.

Still as I’m going today I’m predicting a 4-0 thumping Williams brace and whoever else fancies the other goals I don’t mind

I remember going to Colchester away on a Friday night around 1975 we got stuffed 4-0 and had our coach bricked after the match and at to drive all the way back to Heston services with a side window missing before the coach was swapped.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfHJAcQXkAIah7u?format=jpg&name=4096x4096)

Unchanged starting 11.

Some will probably say it is a brave move leaving Reed out of the 11

…others will say it’s an easy choice because he hasn’t been good this season.

I’d be in that camp

You are right . I am in that camp

3-1 defeat, by the way

I, on the other hand, look at least week and scratch my head as to what he's seen that makes him think 'that'll do'

But I do accept that this is a different opposition, and that it gives them a chance to prove that result wrong.

i also make the comment not on a Reed v khan basis, if be looking to change formation a bit and try and get jephcott into the game.

but hey, come 5pm. we'll know more.

As Khan was easily our best player it would be crazy to leave him out

I’m never a fan of seeing Williams and Gladwin in the same starting line-up, if just because it’s so useful to be able to swap one for the other as the game dictates

A random iFollow musing.

These games aren't available in the UK due to the 3pm blackout. The only people watching are those of us who live abroad  :hmmm: and the iFollow folks will know that.

And yet, all the adverts are for products available in the UK, often exclusively.

Bit of a weird farce that.

Not something I had ever noticed until you mentioned it, but yes, you are correct.

I’m in the UK and I’m watching

Cole Skuse must be ancient.

Oh no, Dave Wackaday

As I posted early in this thread, they have 9 players over 30 and a few of those over 35.

Also, the fact the club promote iFollow ‘if you can’t make the game today’ before every game.
Well, if you lived abroad you wouldn’t be making (m)any games and probably wouldn’t need a reminder before every game.

Was their best player in last season's away game. Easily

In the home game Judge, Chambers and Skuse showed us up and all are about 90.

Bad pass from Baudry straight to Nouble and then a really clumsy foul on him as he ran at Baudry, not great start by Baudry.

Brynn easily claims the free kick high in the box.

Hockaday is another Lawrenson. Only more miserable

Hutton wins a corner, some nice pressing by Wakeling at Town so far.

Dour I think the word is when you are a Northerner.

Serious wrestling going on from that corner.

I wonder if Hornby trains well.

Good cross by Hutton but the defender just gets to it in front of Wakeling, corner.

Oh fuck off

Positive signs though, FBT unmarked

Desperately soft decision.

Lovely header that goes in the top corner but the ref gives a foul by Baudry.

Jephcott lovely crossfield pass to Willians 40 yards and Williams shoots and wins another corner.

Poor corner by Gladwin easy claim at stomach height by the keeper.

Colchester have a shot but its well over the bar.

Hard to gauge

Surely that was a foul on Wakeling just outside the box.

Currently this looks like a cup tie against a lower division side. Colchester do not look very good.

Hes shed some pounds.

HO HO HO

Good cross by Williams but 3 Town players cant connect, good chance.

How the fuck is that a foul by Hutton?  He's just been blocked off

Colchester right back.

(https://comb.io/GB2xtJ.gif)

This ref’s a cunt

Hutton is almost playing as a right winger so far, and doing well too.

Colchester, so far, have been fucking shit

no idea why our goal was disallowed either

Would quite like to see him at RW with Lavinier at RB at some point away from home.

Epic save for them.

Huge chance. Jephcott thought he was offside I think. Great save to be fair.

Williams amazing pass to jephcott who shoots and the keeper just gets to it from 12 yards, great chance.

One of the best saves against us so far this season.

A Prem player would have dummied the keeper.

TBF thats why Jephcott is playing in L2 :)

Colchester have no press on the ball, and they don't seem great at keeping a straight back line. This seems very winnable!
We'll lose 0-1

Yep, that was what I meant. Pity Hornby proved to be a model professional.

He's not being helped by his linespeople or his lack of seeing eye dog

True that!

I've seen non league players sell dummies!

But probably not up against a fairly decent keeper as Colchester seem to have.

They certainly seem content to let football happen to them.

the crowd seems very quiet.
the game needs a crunching tackle or something to be outraged about

very passive style of play :D

Not sure I have seen any team sit back from us so much as Colchester have so far, they are happy to just sit back and watch us so far.

Another corner for Town won by Wakeling chasing the ball.

Another corner easily caught by the big keeper from Gladwins cross.

81% possession😀

There’s been a perfectly good goal, an obvious block on the edge of the area and a missed handball in the area to get pretty upset about tbf

I know it's becoming a cliche but Gladwin on corners??? He's not good at it

We had a run of about 8 or 9 games where the referees were pretty good but in the last 3 games they have gone back to being shit again.

Williams to Khan in the boix and Khans shot is blocked for another corner.

Oh agreed, and I'd be raging at each of the ref's errors.
I just meant the crowd could get behind the lads and inspire something

Short corner comes to Darcy but his shot nearly clears the Town End from 20 yards.

We did score from one 15 minutes ago...

TBF some of Gladwins corners have been really good especially when aimed at FBT but all too many are wayward.

I know what you mean, but the boys aren’t doing a lot wrong so far.

Hutton cross wins another corner.

Short corner and we win another corner.

Gladwin finds FBT but he heads it wide.

Certainly getting plenty of corner practice in.

9 corners for Town so far. 1 corner every 3.5 mins.

We tried to sign Sears when he was a youngster at West Ham.

I am enjoying it so far but I think if we can grab a goal this half we will go on and win by 3 or 4.

Corner 10 won.

Darcy's a bit quiet in transition, compared to his midfield pals. Maybe he can get through the Colchester bus  

Trouble is we should be 2 goals up, we aren't.

Colchester are, on evidence so far, not so much there for the taking as lying down in a gimp mask and hoping for a thrashing.

…this has got Colchester 1-0 win with their only shot in the entire game written all over it

Corner 11.

Worried we seem to have fizzled out a bit.

Oh it does but I have rarely seen such a 1 sided game so far.

I wonder what odds you could have had on 11 home corners in the first half alone

Unless we go ahead before ht, I’d be worried that the manager gets more out of them in the second half.

Good god Khan

1 good corner from Gladwin followed by a terrible one. Story of the day.

Is Rocking Robin allowed to hold the corner flag when Gladwin takes the corner?

Really nice move by Town but Williams strays offside, good chance.

3 mins added time.

Best thing this half is the pasty.

I have quite enjoyed it, we are totally dominating other than not actually having found the back of the net yet and had it allowed.

HT 0-0

Orient lost to Walsall 1-0 with bigger stats than us.

Frustrated not to be ahead but we're the better team here by miles and can't see us not scoring in the second half. Colchester are abject, nothing wrong with being a long ball side but they have absolutely no plan apart from badly hit through balls to Sears, who is chasing them manfully. They seem to have no interest in putting any pressure on us in possession in stark contrast to Stevenage last week - until corners anyway when they become quite keen to hold and pull.

Can't help but feel that as a team we would really benefit from a target man, we get so many crosses in but only really look like we have a chance at getting the header when FBT is forward for corners. Maybe DV's FBT van der Linden shout isn't totally rogue...

Lacking the quality in the final third, familiar story. I'd take Darcy off for Reed or Iandolo and go 4-4-2 with Williams as the 10.  

Don’t think it would hurt to get Jephcott off/out wide and get Wakeling back on the middle.
Despite many comparisons to McKirdy and to Yates. I still think he’s more of a SSP. Despite maybe having more of the Yates/McKirdy physical attributes if that makes sense.
Not a coincidence he’s stopped scoring since Jephcott came in.

An AVDLFBT & Wakeling front two could work…

Iandolo takes a mean corner

dominant. mostly getting ball forward quicker. Hutton in acres. great save from jephcott . good goal dissalowed.


and yet only 1 clear chance from open play. And 0-0.

frustrating

All powderpuff. Could end up losing. Not good enough.

75% possession with one shot on target is not good enough.

Hutton cross and Jephcott looked pulled back by the defender.

Col have just doubled their possession stats.

Att: 8,632 (257 collies)

I'd bring on Aguiar for Khan. We don't need a defensive midfielder in this game, they have no interest in attacking though the midfield whatsoever.

Jephcott absolutely left an elbow in on the keeper there, silly.

Shade on and Wakeling central too, please

Good shout. Or even Iandolo

Nothing like stopping play to not book someone for timewasting...

We’ll never get the time added from the ref’s saunter down the pitch.

Wakeling really looks off the pace today I would get Shade or Roberts on for him.

TBF Khan is playing far more in their half than as a DMC today, we could do with a change though.

Williams looks slightly more effective since moving to a more central role.

Soft af fk

Williams with a block near our goal.

Gladwin has been anonymous this half so far.

Wrong subs imo
We shall see I suppose

Shade and Aguiar on for Darcy and Wakeling.

Two like for like changes. Lindsay doesn't really do changing the shape since abandoning 3 at the back.

I disagree Darcy has been poor and Wakeling pretty awful today by his standards.

Still think Wakeling is more likely to get on the end of something in the box than Jephcott is
Proof of the pudding will be in the eating…

So far this is a team without a plan B vs a team without a plan A.

We are terrible. 1 shot on target.

Hutton great tracking back to win the ball there.

Khan’s been strong on the ball today

I guess I'm not sure what extra Aguilar offers.

Hutton nice cross but Jephcott is inches away from the header, corner to Town.

I agree.

An L apparently.

Nouble on the break misses a sitter.

Decent singer?

Let off. Baudry bought that dummy like it was a Black Friday sale.

Hutton deep cross to Shade but he cant connect with it strong enough.

Got a month off from this, thank fuck.

Brynn slips and drops the ball but we still clear it.

TF for that

1-0 Shade

What’s happened to you? Take your time.

Amazing ball from Jephcott, shocking finish from Shade but who gives a fuck! Sublime ball, ridiculous defending and finish.

Shader loves a scuff! Get in!

Possibly the shittest goal we have scored in years.

Now that is a competitive field.

That's more like it😀

A ball won’t go over the line slower than that all season.  :D

Smooth operator!

Goal made by Jephcott ;)

Aguiar felled just outside the box.

Fortunate.

Poor free kick from Aguiar.

Doesnt matter they all count ;) not like we havent deserved it.

Another Town corner. 13.

Aguiar blocks the cross to give away a corner, good break by COlchester.

Genuine question. Is it possible to score a non own goal without a shot on target involved? If so I think we have just seen it

Well there was the one Stuart Atwell gave years ago that went six yards wide?

Hutton clears up at the back to give away a corner again, Akinde causing us a few issues.

If it goes post/bar & in - is that considered off target even though it results in a goal

Baudry’s really not having a good game against limited opposition.

If a shot hits the post and then the back of the keeper and goes in then thats a goal without a shot actually on target.

Corner 14 won by Hutton.

He has been fairly poor TBH, especially this half.

I'd love to see Iandolo. If only to take the corners!

he's been fine for me

Happy to see Nouble depart.

Nouble again played ok against us but fails to score and break his Swindon duck.

…but…would be given as an own goal

Really? I’d say easily his worst game this season.

Not sure who I'd be looking at for MoM at this stage, most players on the pitch have done some good some bad. Maybe Hutton for overall threat, Jephcott for single most telling moment of quality.

An OG yes but not a shot on target.

Khan for me I think

Hutton for me or possibly Khan.

The Ellis AML experiment continues.

Iandolo on for Williams.

For me his best position is either AML or DMLC.

Colchester win a corner.

Hockaday...."Colchester win their first corner", no Dave it was their 3rd :)

Will probably be a day where the sponsors pick Williams  :girlgiggle:

Colchester look a very different proposition since Akinde, Newby and Judge have come on.

That was the question being asked.
Can you score a non own goal goal without a shot on target.

Iandolo low shot from 20 yards but it was too weak to beat the keeper.

Iandolo actually on the right wing?

Or Parkin.

Corner 4 for Colchester.

Are we about to make five subs for the first time this season? Roberts and Brennan.

Reed the lone outfield player not used is an eyebrow raiser.

Roberts and Brennan on for Hutton and Jephcott.

So who’s our out now?

Those subs suggest we are setting up shop for defending the last 5 to 10 mins.

Looks like Shade central, Iandolo and Roberts either side.

Roberts hits a shot that is hit wide for a corner to Town, 15.

This should have been dead and buried way before now.

Khan awarded MotM by the sponsors.

6 mins added time.

 :clap:

Aguiar has a volley from 20 yards just over the bar.

FT 1-0

Deserved win and nice to get back to winning ways again against a very poor side.

Worst oppo this season. A better attacking side would have destroyed them.

A win, won’t remember it for long I don’t think. They didn’t have a lot. Right back in the mix again table wise  :)

Well, Colchester didn't try to win that game and didn't deserve to. If we're not pressed like Stevenage did so successfully, we're the best side in the division in the middle third. Unfortunately, that's the least important one by some way...

Good win to silence the negativity on here

Certainly happy to get the win, but don't think you'd need to try that hard to have a few negatives from that performance. Colchester were absolutely awful.

Colchester fans seem furious that our winner was offside, anyone got a clip?

Great 3 points, but we have to find a way of converting possession into chances.

Off to a Jazz Night - probably Greek Jazz - but what the hell. Still shorts and flip flop weather.

A really decent crowd 8,632

For those that havent seen the goal or thought it was an OG here it is. Definate prod in the right direction by Shade and rightly given the goal.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1581304794026692608

And not offside, despite what I've seen a few U's fans say.

Wasn’t there but relieved we got the job done. You can only beat what’s in front of you. A few more goals would have been nice but it’s 3 points and another clean sheet and certainly seems like we were trying to be positive going forwards with plenty of shots, possession and corners.

I’m still expecting some January transfer movement from us. Stay in touch until then and I think we can consider the re-build to be fairly successful.

Not seen a performance yet that has made me think we could get promoted, like away at FGR last year for instance.

Hopefully there is lots still to come in attack, but we are not consistently causing other teams problems so far, and not sure I would be doing much different with the players we have got. 

Then again, 8th having played the top 3 already, don’t think there is too much to be worried about in this division.

Buses fucking terrible today too.

Get a electric bike😀

It's an odd thing to describe.

Totally dominant, about a million crosses and corners. Got the ball forward quicker. Ruled out of a perfectly good goal. And yet..

Only 2 real clear cut chances. One taken in a fortunate manner.

Jephcott a focal point but not really a goal threat in this system .

We seem reluctant to try anything else. Even subs are like for like.

Think I'm just going to be happy with what were a deserved three points and ignore the bigger picture for now.

Walk more environmentally friendly. Burn off some lard too.

…probably the worst goal I’ve seen Swindon score is 30 odd years.
Obviously Shade gets props for making the run and being in the right place…but…as an actual finish.

Maybe I was too harsh earlier, you could plausibly call that a shot of sorts.

Sums up the game. I didn't even cheer.

That post sums up our Supporters perfectly.

Neither did I, only a bit because it put me on course to hammer William hill to the tune of 9.50 profit 😁

What iExactly. Well,some

Clayton, Hutton, Gladwin, Khan, and (bar his near gift in the 2nd half) Baudry, all decent today. If Jephcott could have stuck away that chance in the first half, which was a good save, then ColU would have had to try to attack, and we’d have won comfortably.

A few experiments - some that worked (Khan gave us dynamism, Aguiar looked tidy when he came on, Shade looked up for it) and some that I’m not sure about (Ellis on the right doesn’t work if he shows the left winger the line - I think we need him on the left, whether it’s at the back or further up).

Happy with the 3 points though. Quietly progressing without firing on all cylinders. The low point was the Town End’s most inept performance for a while. 5 minutes in, a corner at the TE. Not a squeak out of them. Standard procedure to sing COYR for a corner isn’t it? Has been for decades. They were our poorest player today.

There’s no need for negativity after that though. After Gillingham, there really was! Today, ColU gave us another reminder about just how awful League Two is. They were so unambitious. Time wasting inside 15 minutes, and the players didn’t look bothered (much like the Town End). If you play to a 7/10 every week, you’re in the play offs in this league. 7.5 and you’re in the autos. We’re missing a bit of an X factor at the moment, and that’s where we have to hope that Hepburn-Murphy can get and stay fit, and that maybe we can get something out of Adeloye, or a January loan…. but I’ve changed my tune since Gillingham. We’re not a well-oiled machine yet, but we’re trending in the right direction and there’s a lot of bang average teams around.

Flat as pancake. On and off the pitch.
I guess if I was a superfan like you I might have seen it differently.

8th in the table. No reason for doom & gloom

No, but the game was still poor.

A happy manager

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9o0ZIcWT4s

A very controlled game. Colchester were only going to score from a lapse of concentration/error which we gave them a couple of Half chances.
Otherwise a very easy game for sol.

There was a lot of prematch focus on getting the ball wide and lyndsey said they had been working on it a lot.
This was our biggest issue today. Darcy if he plays needs to be in the number 10 role. Float in the centre of the pitch and sit behind the strikers.

Centre mid was completely empty today and was such a poor performance from darcy in terms of where he played and impact. Ricky came on and showed what we needed from that position.

I say it every week it seems but again our subs won the game. Aguair was very good and shade is a brilliant sub to cause havoc late on.

A draw would have been a travesty. More control and focus in the centre mid areas and we could have attacked better. Colchester were no 5 at the back team there were spaces down the middle to exploit.

I usually argue with people who say the [away team] were fucking shit but they truly were today. Devoid of ideas and ball retention it was our game to lose. Just like newport we saw the game out very comfortably.

League table looks better.

Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but I would expect Supporters to cheer a goal or be happy with a win.
Maybe I’m different.

No we all cheered, it's 4D that's different.

What was the Oxford attendance?

They were away 6,926

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/fixtures/_/date/2021001015

Game was poor but I put majority of the blame on Colchester who were woeful. Need to start being more clinical as had a lot of chances and should have been out of sight. Good to have more options off the bench than we did last season. Don’t think it takes much to be top 3 this league…

I don't think he cares Jimmy, just being himself. Shame.

While we did win, I'm still not convinced by the manager.  I think we have a good team and they are better than we are playing and why isn't Reed playing!

The atmosphere wasn't great but it's for a reason:
- The team aren't playing an exciting brand of football
- I'm not sure the fans are fully behind the manager, which I think is fair
- It's a new team that hasn't built up a relationship with the fans
- Fans have moved away from the townend, so are more spread out

Obviously just my opinion, would love the CG to be rocking but I think it will take a while, if at all.

I’ve watched the short highlights and it looks like we were indeed comfortable, albeit against a very poor side. FBT’s header was great and worthy of a goal, it’s a shame Baudry made a stupid and needless foul to cancel out the goal. I think Baudry is often a bit of a liability and for all his usual cultured play he does seem prone to terrible errors and doesn’t have much pace. Jephcott had a good chance too and someone mentioned some penalty shouts. We just won by the one goal in the end and such leads are inevitably precarious as we have found out this season. These games are harder than many on here think in my opinion. I believe the manager and players deserve some credit, particularly with regards to sensible use of substitutions which led to a winner and hopefully a good balance of squad rotation/protecting players from injuries/allowing others some minutes. A 1-0 is still a win and I am happy enough that we did the necessary on the day.

Molepar
The highlights looked to me that the two Colchester players were obstructing MB from getting to the ball.
In my eyes no way was that was illegal play. As said, if anything the two defenders were obstructing and interfering with the play. 
Goal everyday of the week.

I think the goal yesterday actually sums up what our problem is.

A great ball from Jephcott out wide to Williams from just inside their half but surely Jephcott should be the one in the area waiting for the cross not Shade. We never seem to have enough bodies in the area for the amount of crosses we get in. The slow, often laborious, build up play keeps our forward players from actually attacking the 6 yard 📦

A man and his lad sat behind me kept calling Aguiar “Ay-gar” mildly annoyed me

A win is a win.
Games where only one team is prepared to play are generally not great spectacles.
Didn't take long to take the view of don't do anything silly and the game is in the bag.
The disallowed goal would be much more of a talking point had they equalised, but what a great header to stick it in the far corner above the defender on the line.

Expected more from an experienced Colchester.
Packing a squad with journeymen is going out of fashion I suspect.
Sitting back with little or no press is not the way to go against us, maybe they don't have the legs to take that approach.
Teams that are brave & forward thinking away from home will get the rewards at this level.

Always good to see the change of approach from a previously glacial goalkeeper once their team goes behind.
Normally not a fan of the reluctance of our ball boys & girls to return the ball to the opposition, but fully on board with it for that last 30mins yesterday.

Agreed with this. Said at half time yesterday that we may as well go 4-4-2 as they offered absolutely nothing and I didn’t feel threatened. Insistence on 4-3-3 seem to be stuck in it.

We’ve moved Wakeling out wide to accommodate Jephcott in the middle.
To me, Wakeling is that player who will get in the box and get on the end of things. As he was before when we was playing central and McKirdy was here and playing out wide.

Maybe it is time to try Jephcott & Wakeling as a front two. Just not sure how we’d then line up in midfield.

Joe, don't take this the wrong way, but what were the good chances?

The jephcott chance was brilliant saved. The shade chance was scored. And we had a few long shots from Darcy and one from iandolo.

We did get into some very good positions throughout the match, just didn't capitalise. Maybe this is where you are coming from (I agree). But I also accept my view of the game can be quite different to others!

Amen! At least try it. Last week was the week, we literally had nothing to lose.

if have gone 2 up yesterday too in the second half. But if the 2 I'd have hauled Jephcott off and tried Wakeling running in behind.

If you aren't going to do that, at least push wakeling up from deep like we did with McKirdy and Barry last year

Killer pass aside I didn't see what Jephcott was offering yesterday, not like he was bringing others in running of him. But others have him as having a good game?!

All in all he's so far been a massive disappointment to me. But I don't blame him as such, he's working his arse off. It's being isolated that's the issue.

I'd be tempted to try a proper 4 4 2 away from home with Hutton on the right wing, Iandolo on the left wing, Lavinier at right back and Khan and Reed in the middle. Would mean leaving out both Williams and Gladwin but don't think I'd consider playing them in a two man midfield. Maybe something to try whilst Williams is at the world cup.

I said as much during the game that I would have taken Jephcott off and bought Shade on to move Wakeling central.

Then Jephcott did one good pass and people spunked over it.
So far - think we are worse off for having Wakeling wide rather than in the box.

44FUCKING2

                                Brynn

   Devinier      Baudry/McD      Clayton       FBT
    Hutton             Reed     Khan         Shade
                    Jephcott       Wakeling


Harsh on Gladwin but can't see where he fits in a 4 man midfield.


Edit: Guess you could play Gladders at right midfield with Hutton/Devinier bombing past him?

Spot on and this league is full of shite and why we need to get out of it.

Very similar to the Doncaster game, saying to my lad if we score we win the game.
I am still a little concerned with the defence pairing after losing MacDonald, particularly when teams actually run at us. Second half Baudry almost static as their player just dropped his shoulder. Against better sides we still look vulnerable.

From what I have seen the quality this season compared to last has dropped.

Both Jephcott and Wakeling would benefit in my opinion from a traditional two up top.
No way though can you replace Gladwin at present, that is a headache.

Or play Gladwin instead of Reed?

Maybe Iandolo in place of shade

I don't get the iandolo love in.

I wonder if having Hutton & Shade as wing backs would work then you could still have a three man midfield and two up front…wait…

His misses however, Jesus Christ   :jawdrop:

I think as an ML he'd make sense, he's one of our better crossers of the ball. Agree he's not shone yet this season as a substitute though.

I think Gladwin is too loose with the ball to play in a dm 2

I don't get the shade love either a fit attacking Iandolo every time for me😀

in fairness his season hasn't really started yet

I see him as a steady lower league something*. Nothing wrong with that. But the hype with some seems to be 'best left side midfielder in the league'

*still not sure what

Anyway, not even sure why I'm bringing it up

Another option for a Wakeling & Jephcott front two would be to revisit 3 at the back.
This time try Gladwin in the middle of the three or just in front.
Wing back options look better and perm 3 from 4 for the midfield.

Heresy I know but could work in some situations.

This is exactly the line up that myself and Batch have debated on recently, 2 defensive minded midfielders but with 2 up top and letting Williams and Shade/Hutton as out and out wingers in a 442 with Lavernier at RB.

I think also that Shade may make a good 2nd striker/number 10 as he looks better actually in the box rather than floating around outside of it. Get in the box and create havoc with his fast feet and shots which when they are outside the box seem to be far more wayward.

This, however Gladwin has been excellent recently but I thought he was very poor yesterday and 80% of his corners were absolutely wasted.

Iandolo is not the solution either.

As it goes with current squad the formation we had yesterday is about as good as you’ll get.  Cant realistically play two up top with neither having much height.  Khan adds more protection than Reid as holding midfielder.  It doesn’t totally feel right but without a big target man our options become quite limited.  One of the failings of buying players based upon fifa21 statistics I guess.

Need to develop a way of beating top 6 teams two of next three coming up will tell us if we are destined for mid table or play off contenders

4:4:2 could accommodate Reed and Khan in CM and Wakeling playing more centrally.  Would lose out on the press, but there are always trade-offs.

Bradford and Mansfield away will more likely show whether we have a realistic chance of top 3, or more likely play off contenders.

Short memories from a lot on here. Ellis was fantastic last season. I'm not seeing much in Blake Tracey that I don't thunk that ellis can do. Especially not in the crossing and through ball department.

it's just me to be fair. He was good in midfield last year.

I'll disagree at left back.

Defensively FBT is light years ahead of him . Agree about getting forward but that will be a conscious effort from the manager not being so open

I can't remember him too much in midfield. Unless your including lwb? He was first choice left back and had his best season to date with us.if you flick through mom votes last season he would have been the higher end of the team and without looking the best defender I'm sure

EDIT. Red Frog data below:

Yesterday we had 15 corners more than any other team in all four leagues but created next to nothing from them.

Havent read back.

FFS that was a tough watch.

A crap goal, settled a crap game with a crap ref....the three points the only positive and against them, a welcome one.

I sort of applauded with relief when it trickled in, rather than go ape as usual.

Turgid stuff....anyway im going next week and got a ticket for Bradford too. Must be fucking mad.

Everyone around me, including the steward was laughing at the goal.  Probably amongst the worst finishes Ive ever seen live.  It was very much league 2 football.  Colchester had no interest in winning, the ref seemed convinced he should assist them and we were approaching adequate at best. 

Had the ref allowed our perfectly good goal early on Colchester might have tried.  Instead we just tried and got there eventually.  Deserved it.

 

I didn't say I was right! Others seem to see something I don't at left back.

But his biggest issue in recent season has been injury . It's really knackered his prep for this season.

I wish him well

Don’t you think Ellis doesn’t seem that fit? I remember him holding his knees a lot last year gasping for air, but have noticed him doing that within 2/3 mins of coming on.

it's inevitable that he has catching up to do. I doubt he's unfit in general. Getting up to match speed is going to take a bit. Thought he looked better in that regard Saturday

Ugly game. 3 points all that matters. First quarter of season I’d say performances have been very average, yet in play off contention, so surely when performances are consistently good and we find a settled best XI, should go from strength to strength and add some firepower in Jan.

Hutton and FBT solid, defensively sound. Thought Baudry struggled. Darcy annoymous, runs around but offered absolutely nothing bar firing shots into the town end. Wakeling is wasted out wide. I’d pack our midfield out, get Reed back in and just use a diamond kinda set up, with two strikers?

Khan my MOM, pretty easy choice.

Very winnable 3 pts next Saturday, should be in play offs come 5 o’clock next week.

I still can't understand why the first 'goal' was disallowed?

100% FBT is a way better defender and a threat from corners.

Just watched the highlights and agree with you. Ref was consistent and poor throughout.

There is no chance Burton (2 wins in 14) have a better left back than FBT.
They’d be stupid not recall him if/when they can.
We’d be stupid to not try and get a deal done.

Absolutely, hes a solid L2 left back/centre back but maybe L2 is his level and L1 is beyond him which is why JFH got rid of him, but Dino Maamria has come in and may have a different view, I would see if we could buy him for certain, it would only be a nominal fee and FBT seems to be enjoying his game here too, no brainer.

Not read back :)

First league game at the CG for ages and nice to be back with a fairly healthy crowd in tow. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half; at times it was a bit of a training game as Colchester made absolutely no effort to make it a contest and everything they did was absolutely inept. We dominated the play winning corner after corner, and we actually scored from one of them! I was sat right behind the header from FBT and it beautifully arked into the goal off the head of the defender on the post. I was too far away to see any infringement, but it was a huge shame as it was no more than we deserved. The second shame was that Jephcott wasn't able to put away his golden chance, superb ball by Williams, perhaps he had too much time but credit the keeper for an excellent save. I was a bit disappointed to go in at half time goalless, as stated Colchester looked diabolical and so 3 points seemed a must.

To be fair to them, aside from the consistently timewasting goalkeeper, who had been at it since minute 3, they actually came out second half and looked a touch more competent. We were clearly the better team but they showed more intent and had the best chance of the game when Baudry seemed to just vanish into thin air and Nouble was clean through and had enough time to carve a halloween pumpkin before picking any spot past Brynn. Thankfully he was the pumpkin and tried to break the net, whacking high and wide into the town end. That was a huge let off and a few minutes later after some neat possession, Jephcott played a superb ball into space for Williams to put into the danger area and Shade ended up wrong footing the keeper and defenders with a 'neat' finish. The backflip was impressive but I felt a little bit over the top given how the goal went in, but at the end of the day a goal is a goal.

Full time and a relief to get the 3 points against the worst side i've seen in a while. On another day however the side in blue and white go back with the points, some slackness in the defence remains and we still appear to have a soft underbelly. Khan is clearly a talented boy, he has the ability to create space and use the ball intelligently. As I said in the MOM thread, at times he tried to do too much and, on another day, would have been punished. He also doesn't have the ability that Gladwin or Reed has of playing the longer ball out to the full backs which at times hindered progress. The wing backs now look settled, happy with Hutton and FBT as our first-choice outlets there. I'm still not convinced Jephcott completely suits how we play, but it's too early to write him off. He works bloody hard, makes a lot of runs but 'missed' his golden chance. (credit to the keeper mind you) Despite the positive way we play, we still don't look 'dangerous' and our golden chance creation in my eyes is quite low - I am sure SL will be able to disprove this with facts. Overall the main thing is the 3 points. Another 'easy' game next week before tough matches against Bradford and Mansfield. I do think we have decent options on the bench as well, Reed, Ellis, Shade, Aguiar etc can all make an impact. The signs are good-ish.

Oh I nearly forgot - I'm sure there is probably more than 1, but I think I was sat behind foghorn 'FORWAAAAAARD' man on Saturday. Sat resplendent in his Civic Type R cardigan (Reminded me of Alan Partridge in his Castrol GTX jacket at a wake) he was quiet for about 20 minutes but eventually belted out a war cry of FAAAAARWARD which brough out a ripple of a cheer from the people around me. (Suggesting he was a bit of a well-known character) As is often the case when this happens, immediately after his war cry, we belted it forward and straight away lost the ball. It was quite amusing at first but a bit irritating nearer the end as he only seemed to have 3 or 4 repetitive cries, like one of those cheap dolls where you pull the string to activate it. From memory his pre-programmed cries were.

'FARWAAAARD'
'YOU'RE LETTING THEM GET INTO THE GAME NOW TOWN'
'PLAY LIKE YOU DID FIRST HALF TOWN'

This guy had a super booming voice and whilst ok for a game I don't think I'll be getting seats anywhere near that block again! :)

TBF we had a perfectly good goal chalked off

I agree with almost all of that. I thought Baudry was quite poor on Saturday as well. I do like the 'busyness' of Darcy, but yeah, he doesn't seem to offer as much as Jack Payne did for instance.

It was interesting at half time Reed was the only sub to warm up without the green training bib. Not sure whether this is relevant or not. I guess SL prefers Khan over Reed so that's something to keep an eye on. He was imperious last season but I've been underwhelmed with him however I do think there must be a way to get him into the side somehow. That's some homework for Mr Lindsey.

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Reed go in January with an anticipated intake of new blood.

Especially if he’s not interested in signing an extended deal

No way Khan was man of the match. He got caught or gave the ball away in dangerous places multiple times. I think there is a decent player in there, but i don't quite see the love in a lot of people have for him. I think too many fans like something new. Same to be said of Darcy. He could not have wanted an easier team to play against than Colchester who gave lots of space and didn't press, yet he contributed next to nothing, outside 2 over the bar shots. In fact him being a bit poor on the left contributed significantly to the fact almost everything came down the right via Gladwin and Hutton.

Reed has not been at his best this year. Thats up to Reed and Lindsey to sort out, because on last seasons form he was a league one player in league two, perhaps one of only two or three we could say that about (permanent players). The fact he is not even being used from the bench when all other outfield players came on seems a tad bizarre to me. Why bring Aguiar on for example, bring Reed on and move Khan forward so when he gives the ball away its further from our own goal.

We laboured to that win at the weekend. Colchester were awful all over the pitch, and we won based on a scrappy goal, without really forcing to much from their keeper. A win is a win, but it wasn't good enough imo.

It was good enough, tbf i always think when it comes to players ability that if i am in the minority i am probably wrong. You'll be hard pushed to find anyone who agrees with you regarding Khan

can't say I noticed khan giving the ball away. Not saying you are wrong or right, just didn't notice

Thought he was busy and brought an energy into the midfield myself

But Reed hasn't become a bad player overnight. I hope there hasn't been a falling out - the default fan question when someone suddenly isn't even getting on as a sub.

I do get why Khan splits opinion. He's a very unorthodox player - you can tell he's been nowhere near a proper academy as it's hard to put him in a player archetype box. He puts in huge amounts of effort, which will always go down well with fans, and his turn on the ball is as unique a skill as I've seen from one of our players. I do think he isn't exactly the most structured tactical midfielder though - which can work, god knows Steven Gerrard essentially ignored formations his whole career.  

I'd be fascinated to see what his data profile looks like, it can't be very similar to any other player. Who would you compare him to at a higher level or from our past?

Edit:

Took a look at https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/159/Show/England-Swindon

They have him as one of our worst (!) players of the season with an average 6.29 rating with nobody who plays regularly below him. He has our most tackles per game (1.5) but very few interceptions (0.2), blocks (0.2) and dribbles (0.2). His passes per game is lowest for any of our midfielders (27.2, Reed is 65!) and lower accuracy than anyone else apart from Darcy. He gets disposessed 1.5 times a game, lower than Gladwin (3!) but higher than the other mids.

Not really sure that told me anything about whether he's any good or not to be honest.

You are correct with the effort aspect, that always buys credit with fans. Though for me you need to have some ability, the work hard players who are not very good, are worth very little to me, i would put Iandolo in that bracket.

His turn on the ball is 'his move', but he does it all the time. In the first half thats one of the occasions he got robbed on the edge of our box, when he did that and the Colchester player read it (easy to do as he does it every time) and he needed the team to win the ball back.

I certainly want midfield players to take the ball on the half turn, open up the space, take a player out of the game etc. But often this can result in him slowing the game down massively, when we want the ball switched sides more quickly with a first time pass. The turn can be great even in defensive thirds, see Kasim, but Khan is a long way off that in ability.

I don't mean to shit on Khan. He's done alright, and may have something about him over the coming years.

The bit that makes me laugh more, is how a lot of fans right off Reed, one of the best players in the division last season, based on not a lot from a new player.

Interesting. I would expect more advanced midfield players to get dispossed more, so no surprise on Gladwin there.

I think the exact opposite. Most people are morons.

The goal was disallowed due to a foul by Baudry, nothing to do with goal itself.  He'd bundled over their defender as the cross was coming in.

Iandolo vs Khan - interesting one.  Iandolo has looked dead in every sub appearance thus far and him doing well last season is his ceiling I think.  He can be a good player for this level, but we saw much better left back play from Tomlinson.   He also did alright in midfield last season, playing on the left of three at times.  Khan looks like a good player but those stats support the reason why some are not sold.  He has a much higher tendency to run with the ball and try to turn out of trouble rather than lay the ball off.  He is the opposite of everyone else in our team.  For that reason I like him.

Overall, I still think we look a notch down from last season, which is a huge disappointment.  We are doing OK, but the foundation we laid should have had us looking a lot better than we do.  We still look several pieces short of a good team.  I had no issue with the sale of McKirdy given he wanted to progress, but we dropped a bollock on the recruitment side as Jephcott alone was not enough.  We remain a forward short.

The way Multiple times was used suggested (to me at least) that he was forever giving the ball away but from memory it was probably about 4 or 5 times, certainly twice (one in each half) were nearly catastrophic and others were just misplaced/overhit passes. I guess for the amount of ball he had it was never going to be perfect but I think his ball retention overall was quite good in my eyes.

I think you are right, if anyhing it highlights to me what a great Job Lindsay is actually doing

Think we were expecting/hoping Hepburn-Murphy to be fit by now

And Adeloye not to be a turnip

 I hope not, he is a roll of the dice type signing at best.  Bags of potential but his career to date is not looking good.

But we knew he was before deadline day.

We have enough strikers, 2 just happen to be injured. He will be back fit this week 1 of them anyway

We had a good forward who had a record of scoring goals in support of a lone front man but we chose to cash in on him and replace him with an injured unproven player

No we didn't

Harry Mckirdy who scored 20 goals largely from out wide in support of a central striker and who, even now, has the best goals-to-game ratio for the club this season?

We were a striker short with him. We’re a striker short without him

That Harry McKirdy who made it clear he wanted to leave, that isn't my point anyway. You said we replaced him with a unproven unjured player, no we didn't. We replaced him with a player who has scored goals at a higher level than him.

I just don't get the negativity from you constantly tbh, we are on the exact same points wins and draws as last season. Our home record is better and our goal difference is actually better than at this stage last season scoring 4 more goals at home in the process

It really isn't as if we just sold Charlie Austin and replaced him with Benyon

Jephcott was the player we needed between two wider players, McKirdy being one and Wakeling hopefully being the other.  Bogus is referring to Hepburn-Murphy, who is as unproven as they come because he hasn't done it at any level yet other than youth and seems to be forever injured.  We needed Jephcott plus someone else who could play first team football right away.

DMC - we may be tracking last season, but last time I checked we didn't go up.  This season, after a play off run, in Div 4, it's all about promotion.  Anything else is a failure.  We are on OK side, we don't get overrun but we equally don't push teams aside.  We can stay in the hunt until Jan, but we have to get those missing pieces at that point.  I can't see us being top 3 with what we have.

Oh, and even signing Jephcott and keeping McKirdy probably had us a forward short because Adeloye is a bust.  You hope the young lad can fill that slot, but we look much weaker right now in the front three.  I like Wakeling and think Jephcott is a decent enough player, but they do not look comfortable in their current positions and we have nobody to push them.  Williams a forward is not, drifts wide and deep too often to offer direct support, tricky a player as he might be.

Sorry but if we are going to compare players from last year then it's only right we compare results as well. I know exactly who he meant but my point was we signed Jephcott to replace his goals . I just think we actually ironically need to stop banging on about McKirdy as he was never the same as last season and was never going to be. We are harder to beat now and a different squad.

I agree we are not top 3 looking at the moment but lets at least wait and see instead of constantly saying everything is shit

I typed out a long reply which timed out, but it was essentially what Rob said.

I don’t feel I’m deliberately negative, but it probably comes across that way as disappointed we haven’t looked like a team on the pitch capable of kicking on from last season (on the pitch, off field is a different matter)

Like the year on year thing  - I don’t think parity with last year should necessarily be applauded, given the respective summers. There’s also a strength of opposition thing too, given we’d beaten Mansfield, Bristol rovers and Forest Green a year ago but failed to win all 5 of our games versus top 7 opposition so far. Form and timing comes into play so not a perfect comparison, but I think a year ago we looked like a side capable of mixing with and beating the best in the division - this year we look like flat track bullies

But that is just your opinion Rob, the manager and club will not be thinking that at all. They probably feel like the lad is worth longer than the 204 minutes of football he has played before passing judgement

Constantly negative wasn't fair Dave it just seems as a fan base we have kind of bought into a really shit negative summer and not really got behind anyone at all this season.

We have fans slagging of Khan saturday for doing too many turns and moaning we are beating teams who are shit. I get your point about who we beat last year but we also got beat by some absolute horse shit as well. I would also point out we have in our defence only lost to 2 out the 9 teams we have played in the top half

I had to raise a wry smile reading the MTD that at least one fan (I forget who) stated he didn't even cheer when we scored on Saturday.

I think we were a bit feast or famine a year ago, and people are annoyed that we aren’t feasting this year and ignoring that we’re not famining either

Not sure if we are getting crossed wires on players here.  J Williams has many years of experience, and none of it suggests he is a front three type of player.  He is a very good wide player or sort of deeper 10 in a midfield, much better than this level.  He is not the answer to our goalscoring needs though.

I'm not negative either, I keep saying we have an OK team, we are doing OK.  If this was last season I'd be happy enough, but it isn't.  Like it or not, our performance in this Division is measured by our history, size, potential etc.  A season outside the play offs is miserable, a season not getting promoted is manageable so long as we look close.  A couple in a row starts to get the grumbles.  Personally, not competing for top three this season is an underperformance all things considered and I just don't see us there yet......yet.  January could change that.  That is very much just my opinion and would be glad to have it rammed down my throat, because to do so would mean we start winning a lot more games.

It's funny how the expectation changes our perspective on a season.

After the same number of games, only once in the last 15 seasons have we had more points than we have so far this season, and that was in 2014/15

But that expectation is relevant - Div 4 seasons are not comparable to Div3 when looking at how many points because we wouldn't always expect to be a top 3 team the next level up.

The Di Canio season we had just started to find form, so I imagine the mood was improving.  Wellens' season is a possible comparator.  Doyle was just about to click and we won 8 of 9 from this point.  I'll eat my words if we manage that.

Is it just perception?

A couple of promotions:
Di Canio won 11 out of 12 after Christmas
And Wellens won 8 and drew 1 out of 9 from October 22nd in the PPG season

We have just won 5 from 7

We've peaked too early :)

edit: damn you Rob for pointing this out already.
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I think the perception comment is valid. I wanted to kick on with the core squad from last year, but we usually have to start again. The perception is we should have had more disposable income to put together an even better squad. So far we haven't -  we aren't near the autos in points or the teams in them when we've met on the pitch.

Its early in the season. Form is good. We'll see.

I’m not sure it is perception. The Power years have sucked the expectation of something good ever happening at the club. The first sign of a levelling off from last season and it’s easy to see why some are overcome with doom and gloom again.

It’s the feeling of treading water.

I just took a look at the Wellens matchday threads.  The ones just before now were getting a bit twitchy but it looks like the good start retained some goodwill because of injuries.  We clicked into gear around now and the mood changed rapidly as it was clear we had a good squad in most peoples eyes.

I was overly positive and DMC was telling everyone the fans have every right to moan.  Nothing's changed, oh.

To be clear, I am "content" right now.  I think we are looking short of where I'd hoped we be, but I think some good work in January could change that.  If we don't kick on in Jan I may become a bit moany.

I am happy with things - in the playoff mix

its still early and a lot could happen . Finishing in the play offs would be a good season.

I think that an automatic spot is out of reach

Me, but there were plenty of others too. Probably didn't help that I forgot to put my glasses on and didn't see it go in.