Thetownend.com

We have a game in 48 (well, 49) hours time. It feels like ages since the last game, as there's been most of a World Cup since and it was bloody awful.

Hopefully plenty has been worked on in training and we'll see something entirely different to the Crewe game. I assume Jonny Williams will be back, and I'd assume not too tired to start.

Creepy Crypto Crawley have a new manager in CM01/02 legend Matthew Etherington, who will be assisted by Stefan Selakovic, Tonton Zola Moukoko and Maxim Tsigalko. Probably. They're 19th, after being hotly tipped pre-season.

Will Town be victims of the new manager bounce, or get straight back to winning ways at the pleasingly no longer named after a daft sponsor Broadfield Stadium?

Ironically his assistant is CM01/02 wonderkid Wales player Simon Davies.

Is there any official line when Williams will be back, I imagine the PL players will be in no great rush to get back as their games are suspended till its all over and the weather is much better out there, but I assume we will be in Williams ear to get his arse back?

Really hope Williams is back for this. At a gig in London so will be heading to this first.

Not sure we could have had a game much closer to the airport!!

Crawley 1 Swindon 3 Att: 2,850 (1090 Reds )

Κομμάτι πις, 4-1

How very Audrey :)

Nice!

Just back from a stonking 4 days in Athens. For a city break its right up there. Fantastic city!

I am just back from 3 days in Blackpool, whos the winner there then? huh? :D

I’d hazard a guess it was cheaper in Athens!

And Athens has a few less street crackheads than Blackpool!

And a little warmer in Athens😀

Well it was 25 degrees inside my car with the air con turned up :) admittedly only 12 degrees outside though!

Pissed down yesterday but overall it was still fine to sit outside and eat/drink. Great buzz about the city even this time of year, but also a very relaxed vibe.

I bet you didn't want to get out of the car😀

Last time I went to Blackpool was for the McMahon promotion party

Last time I went on a non work basis was 21 years ago when Danny Invincible missed a last minute penalty.
http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=20020117

Says it all really considering its about 20 miles as the crow flies from here, had to stand in with the home fans that day as well as it was advance tickets only (I assume as about 50% of the ground was shut) and they wouldn't sell me an away ticket to a Lancashire Postcode!

Edit - in finding that the website also tells me that coincidentally McMahon rolled up here from Man City 28 years ago today!

No Williams Saturday. Clayton, Macdonald and RHM all been training for a couple of weeks and are fine. Harries out until March.

Return of Clayton-MacDonald partnership would be welcome.

Can't help wonder whether the Williams line is a misdirection and we'll see him on the bench at least. He's not played a minute.

Lindsey sounds pretty emphatic

‘Williams is not available, he will be back late and not in training.’

What injury has Harries suffered🤔

Grade 4 hamstring tear

I dunno if I’m Lindsey I’m telling everyone Williams in unavailable regardless of whether he is or not….

I mean he’s only been gone a few weeks and he’ll have been training out there with Wales anyway.
Probably too gifted to not include him if we have the chance even if he hasn’t seen his team mates for 3 weeks and is jet lagged.

Cheers as I hadn't heard that.

Should win this one.  By 2 goals I reckon

I guess he's put no specific prep work in for this particular game

I'd have him on the bench if he's back today

The good outweighing the bad there.

Appreciate not liking a player, but describing a 4 month injury as good seems a little harsh.

He was actually starting to look competent before he got injured. (ignoring the debacle at Stockport, but the whole team sounded terrible there)

We really need to be forming solid, consistent centre back partnerships. All these injuries are not helping so it's good news that Clayton and MacDonald are on their way back.

Harries might struggle to get another contract here if he isn't playing until March. With Brennan potentially being recalled in January, looking a little light at CB

Sent from my XQ-AD51

Yeah thats fucked up to say his injury was a good thing. Hoping it was a typo.

It probably wasn’t. Most people wrote Harries off in pre season (some even before that)
He’d settled well and was playing alright pre injury…so him getting injured now at least stops him showing up some of our fans and their mindless knee jerk opinion…

I'll bite - he is still shit.

He is not good enough, wasn’t good enough at the Gas, isn’t good enough for us if we are to be considering promotion.
We will get some signings wrong, this was one of them.

I think the point being made wasn't about the injury, but more about the fact that he won't be in the team. The point being that he isn't of the standard that we would have hoped for.

Agreed. He's terrible. Don't understand what people are seeing in him saying he's been ok. He's been shit.

I certainly do not wish ill on the player, hope he recovers well form his injury.  He is not Curran levels of shitness, but he is one of the worst defenders we have had in my time supporting the club.  Probably drift further towards Conference level with each new contract and club.  A club hoping to compete for the top three wouldn't contain him though.  Baudry is better and we already know he was a liability a level above this and has added a couple more years to his legs.

I guess it's because he was less shit/not the utter disaster people thought it might be.

He was awful last season at rovers, and he played next to no part in the January - May unreal period of form they had.

Not a loss at all, think he’s been pretty poor, Brennan better option, but have to strengthen at centre half next month. Last season we saw Obrien and Cooper come in, would love to see something like this again.

Defeat. 2-0

Down to Earth again watching Town on IFollow, win 3-1 I'm always wrong.

Town running out 2 nil winners.
COYMRs

Really looking forward to this

In that case shouldn't you predict a defeat? ;)

We will win today 2-1 COYR

Harries is not good enough for league football IMO. Not making light of his injury at all as thats not fair but I am just saying that he wont be available to be picked is a good thing IMO.

Hes in the Olly Lancashire/Taylor Curran quality of player.

Pre match lack of non fungible beer tokens in The Jubilee Oak.
This is my eighth visit here which is 7 times too many.

Good to be back on the road after the mid season break.
The squad have had a couple of weeks to stew after the last performance.
Hopefully they are in good shape to tackle today's assignment.

We generally do well on 3rd December.
Past triumphs have included a 6-3 thrashing of Spurs away, just to illustrate to younger fans that we haven't always been shit.

This has been a happy hunting ground.
It's at the CG where Crawley have been a bit of a bogey side.
Possible new manager bounce to contend with.
We might need a block chain type defence today but the outlook is bullish.

Crawley to go one up after 17 seconds anyone?

Today's topical trivial factoid is that a young Gareth Southgate spent part of his schooldays in Crawley.
Hopefully it will be STFC providing the lessons today, so keep a firm grip of your private keys & wallets this afternoon.

We wont get to exploit Conroy's defensive weaknesses -  which is a shame

Will this be on bbc online radio today? I know they are not normally, but with the world cup being on etc

No idea mate, thats a good point, they cover the FA games still on a Saturday so it is possible.

Definitely on BBC Wilts Hawes talking on the radio now with Rob Hartley on co comms.

Locally yes but Tans means online as hes outside of the Swindon local radio area which usually turns off commentary at 3pm on a Saturday.

Apologies (Tans) I thought you were local

Yeah that's logical

No hes in the yellow enemy territory!

Oh!  A bit like Dukey🤣

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

Can’t really argue with Reed instead of Darcy. Good to see Clayton back.

Iandolo needs a good performance.

All of this.

I think we will sit Khan and Reed in front of the back 4 and play a little deeper and not so much press but look a little more for the counter.

               Brynn
Hutton   Brennan   Clayton    FBT
          Reed       Khan
Gladwin                      Iandolo
         Jephcott    Wakeling

Pleased to see Reed and Khan in the same team, think Khan is better suited to a more box-to-box role and haven't enjoyed the one or the other narrative. COYR.

I can't remember but have they played together yet this season?

EDIT: yes the 4-0 defeat at Stockport was the last time they both started.

I can't help but think Ellis is the obvious weak link to this side.

Go and prove me wrong. Would love that.

Fair few names I recognise in the Crawley line up, which is something of a rarity at L2 level. Teddy Jenks is highly rated at Brighton I believe, and Ludwig Francilette has to be the best name we've played against this season.

They have 7 loan players from mostly top teams so cant fit them all into the side.

Francombe has a good career, ex Spurs, Norwich and Wimbledon and their captain.
Nadesan often has a good game against us and is always a threat and has bagged 6 already.
Telford scored 26 goals last season but has not clicked there yet and only got 3 so far.
Ex Town trialist Nicholls is in the squad today but has 5 goals already.
Balagisi on loan from Liverpool is a real talent apparently in attacking midfield.
Hessenthaler is always trouble in midfield just like his dad was.

Not in the team is Mark Marshall and Dion Conroy ex of Swindon too.

The camera work is poor, far too zoomed in to keep up with the play.

FBT playing sort of a 3rd CB but drifting out wide, huge gaps between all 3 CB's.

Your mate agrees saying we're playing 3-5-2😀

I know Crawley are not well supported but their turnout looks absolutely shit today. Almost as many Town fans as home fans.

Well we won't be seeing much of Jenks today.

Hawes saying Crawley's ground has southern league roots😀

Great chance for Creepy there, that Baligizi the Liverpool player looks handy.

And Southern League stands.

 :clap: :clap:

Still not sure FBT knows if hes playing LCB or LB so far, hes flitting between both positions.

Corner to Town, mistake by the defender.

Great ball from Gladwin to Reed and nice cross, headed out for another corner.

FBT wins it but cant get a good connection on it.

Jephcott to Wakeling in the box but his shot is blocked.

Not much to this game right now.

Need a win today if we have aspirations for top three after Stevenage 5 Barrow 0 & Orient 3 Bradford 0

Balagizi is a real handful in midfield.

Hutton hasnt been in the game yet.

We lack width left and right so far.

Another corner to Town.

Francombe down injured for them now.

FBT great run thro their defence and then a terrible shot from Iandolo from about 7 yards out, he should have scored.

160 games 3 goals😀

Linesman misses a blatant ball out of play there by them.

Creepy score an offside goal.

FBT shoots but its blocked.

Crawley have a 'champions of Sussex' flag which seems to be stretching the definition even by the usual standards of football team claims.

Crawley "one person singing, you've only one person singing" :)

At least we can say we are "champions of Wiltshire"....well sorta! Brighton may have something to say about Sussex.

Crawley won the Sussex senior cup in 1990 & 1991😀

Decent delivery by Reed from the free kick but no Town player is attacking it in the box.

Sums up a lot of our games this season. Another snorefest today

Lovely dribble and run by Wakeling but his finish is awful at the end of it.

Corner to them after a long shot is defelcted wide after the 1st mistake by Clayton giving them the ball.

Long shot easily saved by Brynn.

Crawleys' CBs are stuggling with Jephcott and Wakeling so far, but we arent capitalising on it.

Constantly overplaying

Story of our season, and much of last season too. Too many sideways or backwards passes.

Why have a shot when you can keep possession.

Overplayed and slowed the attack to a halt

3 mins added.

Hawes yawning is a pretty solid summary. It's been fine, it's not been anything else. It feels a bit like that last preseason friendly before the season starts, some nice play but no real drive to make anything happen.

I have heard more of an atmosphere at a midweek reserve game vs Bournemouth in the 1980s.

Oh yeah the atmosphere absolutely is preseason level. Game needs something to happen really, bit of a flashpoint.

How about half time? :) best thing to happen in the first half!

Play on the pitch dictates atmosphere. It’s why our home games are as dull as dishwater.

For fuck’s sake, up the fucking tempo.

HT 0-0

Loud cries of Mehhhhhh from the crowd

(Not really)

wonder how many box entries we've had

Just got back from some Xmas shopping. Doesn’t sound like I’ve missed much!

Personally, two.

I heard it too :)

There are two mediocre teams prodding at each other with little control or skill.

Wakeling amd Jephcott are trying to play the same position.  They keep ending up in the same space.

Midfield has no legs.

No obvious plans, overloads, anything.  Just pass it about a bit, maybe see if Huttton can find space, that's it.

Crawley no better.

Iandolo is being outplayed in an attacking sense by Blake-Tracey, who is playing centre back.

You havent!

FBT is wasted as a leftsided centreback. If we're dead set on playing the back 5 as they are in this formation, I think there's a net positive if he was LWB and Iandolo played left CB.

Other than that - Bored

This is quite a shock to the system after watching the World Cup every day - less League 2, more like two pub sides slogging it out on a Sunday morning.

Reid needs to come off for Darcy

If ifollow don't speed up their fucking replays it's only a matter of time before they miss a goal  :badmood:

well, at least someone scored

No shots on target 😡

switch to a back 4 ffs. this back 3 system has been shite for many games

I thought a while back Lindsey accepted that it wasn't working so why revert back!

1 goal in last 3 and a half games.

If anyone wants to see some higher level STFC competition at half time, it's the final of the excellent Rich Banyard's STFC Movember vote - Will Dixon vs Don Rogers with some high quality lip foliage on show.

https://twitter.com/STFCcouk/status/1599030192793481216

Darcy on for Gladwin, thats interesting.

Darcy for Gladwin, who I would have seen as the best of our midfielders in the first half - admittedly a small prize.

Agree 1000%

Reed should have been replaced

Lindsey's tactics again.

Darcy intercepts a back pass, runs into the box but his shot/cross goes well wide.

Gladwin must be unwell or took a knock he was easily our best midfielder 1st half.

Or lack thereof

Gladwin injured?

I’m at the game, Gladwin looked to have taken a little knock towards end of second half.

How did Iandolo *win* a free kick there? He's just rugby tackled the guy.

FK to Town 10 yards in from the corner outside their box.

He was supposed to be our saviour wasn’t he?

Gladders injury I reckon.

Reed has been fine as a screen. not even our worst player

Sorry. I'm a bit behind everyone.

Reeds shot is somehow saved by the keeper who fumbles it ut.

We look like we have gone with 4 at the back this half.

Not sure there's a DM in the world who would provide this team a coherent attacking plan. FWIW I'd have taken off Khan, but it's all much of a muchness. I don't think the individual players are our problem, it's the tactics that just aren't creating enough opportunities.

Vieira maybe?

Tempo of the game looks to have doubled at half time.

Baligizi gone off, hes been their biggest threat so far.

This half has been 10 times more entertaining already than the 1st half was.

No, I concur and said as much (a lot) after the Crewe game - when people were questioning why Reed wasn’t playing.

As you said, sideways passing hasn’t been our issue the last two and a half games - it’s been driving forward.

Jephcott off now

Shade on for the injured Jephcott.

Shade for Jephcott (light looking knock, he's walked off). Not a great sign for Adeloye that he isn't the change, but I don't disagree.

Good shot by FBT thats well saved.

Gladwin plays some nice passes but he slows everything down. Darcy has injected a lot more urgency going forward.

I have suggested previously that Shade may make a centre forward, we could find out today if its a possibility.

He looked to be limping in first half

Absolutely true. Reed can be similar at times as well slowing things down.

Don't like to say, but thought Brennan has been good today.

We all see things differently - I don't get the love for darcy

He runs.

Reed has banana boots on.

And is more direct.

And shoots, making him the perfect footballer for many Arkells based fans!

Reed has done some good, some bad today but it's notable that he wants the ball and becomes central to most things we do when he's on the pitch. He's the player that the others are looking to pass to more often than not. Unfortunately taken out of the holding role, Khan looks a bit lost, I'd be surprised if he's had that many touches to be honest.

And that's the rub with the performances- Reed has done more wrong for sure, but he's also done more right. Would you rather have a player who is involved for good or ill, or one that's peripheral?

Not saying it's a Khan characteristic by the way - he's had games where he's very involved. We just seem tactically to want to play with one single pivot.

Our last 3 games, including this, have showed how important Williams is to us.

People have mentioned that Reed and Khan cannot play in the same team, today seems to have confirmed that a little, Khan is not his usual self today.

Reed hits a shot 40 yards over the bar from 20 yards out, very very poor by Reed.

As if to prove my point, Reed plays a beautiful ball out to Wakeling, Wakeling gives it back to him and Reed hits the ball more or less directly vertically. If you want to see Reed as having a stinker, there's plenty there to build your case around, but I think the reality is a fair bit more complicated.

This is a really poor game.

Agreed, Williams does make a lot of good things happen for us.

Either trying to hard or simply lost it. Reed needs taking off for his own sake

Khan isnt the longterm answer but would play him in the CDM role instead of reed

Blimey Khan got a nosebleed in the box there, great chance for him.

I'm a bit behind. because he's on a yellow?

Good tackle by Clayton.

reeds having a better game than khan

Adeloye for Wakeling and Baudry on for Clayton, who has been excellent today.

Would love to see adeloye show some basic passing and shooting skills today

1st half I would agree but 2nd half Khan has been better for me.

shame, but you can't risk Clayton

Would love to see him look vaguely like a footballer, yes.

Looking forward to seeing any sign that Adeloye is a footballer.

 :D

it would be nice

Reeds passing today has been both good and truly awful at times.

Agree. As I said, Reed vs Khan (in this game, not saying overall) is would you rather have someone do a lot of good and a lot of bad, or not a lot of anything.

Iandolo. Where attacks go to die.

Sorry, I’m grumpy.

he has had some rickets, no arguing

Oh I agree, at least Reed is chasing the ball and putting effort in.

Beginning to think Lyndsey is doing ip dip dog shit to decide on his substitutions.

haha.

Adeloye has more bookings in his Swindon career than shots :)

Oh he couldnt even complete a booking in the end!

Got the dog shit right, tbf

Or touches of the ball!

Hutton has a shot from 20 yards, well over the bar with his standing foot.

If Hutton is shooting left footed from 30 yards out, I think we may have run out of attacking ideas.

Typical

0-1

Oh for fuck's sake.

Massive defelection.

FFS. Game over?

He’s got to go

Who’s on for another season of this next year?  :crash:

Agreed, he's had long enough and is taking us backwards

Watched that back a few times and can't really work out who it hits. Messy.

At a pace

Can’t see much goal threat from the 11 we have on at the moment.

This is shite. Hopefully we work out how to create and/or take chances in the next ten minutes

Rapidly😡

Has Adeloye had a touch in an opposition penalty area this season?

Shade and Adeloye…

Poor performances and wins got us up the table. Poor performances and loses are getting us back down. It's really bad.

He needs sacking. Crawley are shite.

Garner will be available soon!

jammy cunts

Shit game between 2 shit sies tbh.

The subs have made us measurably worse. And that’s saying something.

finally iandolo comes off

Game over.

Well, you don't concede that goal if you're not chasing the game, but it's still fucking embarrassing.


You want your subs to come on and change the game. And to be fair, they have.

And now it’s just comical. Just fuck right off now.

Crazy stuff

2-0 ffs.

I hope we don't see Reid in a Town shirt again this season.

Pathetic. Lindsay out.

If you were in trouble in the league and needed any kind of result, you’d love play us at the moment. We are so toothless.

Also definitely not your day when Brynn of all people fucks it. Oh well...

83 mins gone and not a single shot on target.

I am out of here.

I don't know, I really don't think I'm the kind of person who calls for a manager's head, especially not this early. But all our problems are tactical, the players aren't spectacular but they're demonstrably better than this, and our tactical changes are making our more dangerous players (Hutton, Khan) less effective. We just don't have an attacking plan, and having Williams in the team masked that. We need him back asap.

Fucking hell what was Brynn doing hahahaha

Again

Really glad I bought a 3 ticket bundle  :suicide:

what the fuck was Brynn doing.

shit pass from Reed but it was covered. fucking hell

Lindsey needs to be sacked now in my opinion.

This result just sums us up at the moment- no chance of getting out of this league unless we get a proper manager .

Get rid now give a new man a chance to plan for the window

This is dismal. Not a single player on his game. What the fuck have we been doing for the last two weeks?

Agreed entirely

Absolutely useless, what the fuck how they been doing for two weeks?  :crash:

Again, no shots on target. You can't score if you don't bloody try, which is how Crawley got their first. :smack:

and to be fair their second

Shooting practice?

At this stage, it would be the kindest thing.

Had we have won today we would have been 4th in the table, why can’t we play like we want that?

Nobody likes losing but you can take it if you go out to win the game

Khan seems to have concussed himself, to add injury to insult.

Did anyone notice the golden opportunity for Adeloye? Ball ricocheted in front of him and he ran around it!

Keenly entering the box I heard.

This is unbelievable viewing tbf. Got Khan trying to rack up a record amount of fouls, Reed picking out Crawley players with every pass, Brynn racing out of goal for something under control, Adeloye looks lost. As toothless as Wakeling was, I am unsure how Lindsey looked at the bench at 0-0 and went ‘yep, Adeloye wins us this.’

I did, I'm not convinced he's a footballer

He didn't.

Understatement of the day.

60% possession though fellas, look on the bright side.

Khan’s in real trouble here. He hasn’t moved.

World Cup referring extra mins.  Come on boys protect our high possession statistics.  Goals and shots are for pussys.

Not had a single replay which isn't a great sign. I'm assuming he's headed the goalpost, but it's a total guess.

Looks like he might've hit the keepers elbow

I will repeat myself, our recruitment this season has been atrocious.  You couldn't look at out squad and determine what we would hope to achieve this season.   No shape that looks obvious, no players that balance others or offer something different.  It's an assembled gamble for future years payoff with no focus at all on getting out of this league.

I will balance that by saying the league is poor and it may indeed only take a few tweaks with a decent Manager to eek out enough results to get close to the play off lottery.

What gems are we expecting from Lindsey after this?

Oh.

So after all the success with 4 at the back, Lyndsey returned to a back 3 for the last three games and its yeilded 1 point. Genius! The guy is a bit clueless sadly.

This is worrying

Three injuries from this game really does make this a proper disaster.

Think I'm convinced that he isn't !

Khan not moved an inch after heading the post, this looks very bad.

Just when you thought the afternoon couldn’t get worse.

Well that wasn't much of a foul on Brennan.

Who has been captain since half time by the way?

Captain Underpants

That many substitutions tells a tale of he’s not sure what to do.  After best part of three weeks off cannot say they are tired.  Gladwin has been our most consistent midfielder so unless he was injured taking him off is very bizarre.  Reid has been appalling all season and is really waiting for Charlton so shouldn’t be playing.  New coach required.

Captain caveman

Would be our first consecutive losses of the season, I think. We also only have one occurrence of consecutive wins (Sutton and Doncaster). All very patchy.

The game feels a bit secondary now.

Hope Khan is okay.

Hope that’s the worst performance we see for the rest of this season.

Last season we looked like we had picked up some decent players for L2 but were coached like an Academy team, it almost worked.  This year we look like we have recruited am Academy team and are being coached like one.

The lack of urgency to get the ball into the box 2-0 down in injury time is pretty telling that we're clueless.

I will say that I think Reed has been rusty, but has actually run around and put tackles in and occasionally pinged the quality of pass we've seen him do.
he's miles off the player he can be but I don't think he's the reason we have lost this awful game

What a pile of steaming dung that was. We steadily got worse as the game went on, and each substitution weakened us further. If there isn’t a big improvement in the next couple of games, then he’s got to go. And I virtually never call for the manager’s head.

that was fucking shit.

Start of second half showed better pace but in all honesty it was just as ineffective as first half.

Clayton and FBT can hold their heads up. Brennan ok.  Everyone else can take a fucking look at themselves.

fuck

Well, that was poor.

Can't believe that we couldn't fashion a single chance in the game!

And to create nothing in the 9 mins of extra time was astonishing.

Haven't seen any of it, don't need to as it is all so predictable. Blueprint is the same each game, pass, pass, pass, fuck up, concede. Pass, pass, zero shots on target, game over. Rinse and repeat.

Really? Have you seen us much this season?  :)

Watch the attendances plummet.

No sane fucker will want to watch that shite time and time again.

It does seem that we're not so much a football team as a large scale ball retention drill

Watching the World Cup?

Sorry to say
Clem you need to do something here soon.
A football team it maybe but on todays performance value for money sadly not.

Very disappointing. Left before the end which is not usual for me. Brought some friends along and feel guilty for asking them for the ticket money. Going next week but am less enthused now. A team who want to challenge should do better. Not sure Lindsey is the man to lead us to success.

Bleak.

Three games in a row offering nothing playing 3-5-fucking-2

you're right, but I'd rather he try something than stick and do nothing.

I'm not sure the subs were right. But I don't know the injury situation

no update on khan. gone to hospital 'in bad way'. (SL)

My prediction for next week is 560 passes, 2 shots, 1 wide and the other blocked, 60% possession, 0-2 Josh Davison brace.

injuries

Clayton - feeling quad
khan - self explaining
Gladwin - felt hamstring
jephcott - kicked on shin

(SL)

I really felt that we had stumbled onto something away at Mansfield, but we haven’t played that way since, or seemingly tried to.

Since then it’s P4, GF 1, GA 8 and only managed 6 shots on target in that time. By any measure that’s a travesty.

What is the attacking plan? Because it clearly is not working.

Why drop the 4 diamond 2 immediately? The mood after Mansfield must have been buoyant, surely you go again with similar tactics.

Really deflating period for us. If we do miss out on promotion again, (and that looks a given at the moment) I think this is the period of the season we will end up reflecting on as the point it was lost.

I hope I’m made to look stupid, but that is 4 fairly shit performances in a row, it’s hard to get past the recency bias.

He thought we built well but didn't have the guile up front. We didn't build well. We kept losing the ball carelessly on virtually every build up.

@oxonrobin - in the last few games the plan was give it to Hutton, let him cross.

but funnily enough Crawley aren't idiots and  didn't give him the space

Need to start playing League 2 football not pretend we are fucking Spain!

Get it in the box and SHOOT!

This 

We've barely lost a game all season playing 4 at the back, looked poor with a 3.   Don't understand why the management can't or won't see it.

And we're not very good at that.

This probably bears a bit of thought - we have tried a few clear attacking plans this season:

Plan 1: "Give it to Remeao and get crosses in" - our dominant plan for the last month or so, getting dangerous balls in the box for our sub 6ft strikers to get nowhere near. Didn't work today as they didn't give Hutton any space and we gave up on it quite quickly

Plan 2: "Give it Gladders and get through balls for Wakeling" - early part of the season, we did a lot of this, but much less since Jephcott came in. I think Reed maybe tried this one once or twice today, without much luck, but it did look like Wakeling had the pace advantage over the big Crawley defenders. Gladwin coming off probably neutered this one.

Plan 3: "Give in Ronan and shoot from everywhere" - worked very well v Newport and their dodgy keeper. Has not worked so well against anyone else, didn't try it at all today unless you count Hutton shooting from miles out off his wrong foot.

Plan 4: "Give it Jonny and hope for the best" - Plan B for most of the season. Obviously Williams not around at the moment, replaced by Iandolo, who to be polite is not a like for like change here.

Not really sure we have much outside of that toolkit to be honest. Anything else?

The only reason I can see is what someone else said, they don't trust a central pairing from Baudry, harries and Brennan.

It's a big problem that beyond our obvious first 14 or so, there's very, very little depth. Especially if injuries keep mounting up.

Particularly a big problem when we have 29 footballers on professional contracts with the club (including loans).

I'm sure none of them are on big money but Brann, Minturn, Roberts, Parsons, Cowmeadow, Dabre, Harries, Aguiar, Massey, Adeloye and Hepburn-Murphy is a lot of players to have on the off chance they turn into something.

I mean I get the idea, but
  - you have to expect taking free castoffs that the hit rate will be more
  - you have to worry about how much wiggle room we'll have come January

That doesn't make sense to me as since we changed to a 3 we are conceding goals for fun and have totally lost the attacking threat that we had.  

Also Clayton and Brennan started against mansfield as a pair so why not start them today.  We conceded 2 that game aswell but played them off the park.

Why change a winning formula?   Personally I think he wants to play 3, it's how he set us up at the start of the season.   He needs to accept that either he can't coach it or this group of players can't play it.    Our wingbacks are all defenders and our centre halves can't drive forward into midfield, so we lack numbers and creativity in the final third.

Feels like we’ve changed formation to shoehorn Iandolo in the last few games for reasons I can’t possibly think of

Hepburn-Murphy is the only one of those that is a L2 player if fit. Cowmeadow and Massey might develop. Aguiar is better than them both at the moment, but last season might have been his pinnacle. I want Minturn and Roberts to be good, but I've not seen anything to suggest more than Southern League standard.

Probably because we don't really have the players, without Williams, to go with three up top either.  The idea seems to have been to use Hutton's pace, but nobody gets on the end of his crosses that often.

Shade isn't good enough to be relied on.

Darcy, reed, Khan and Gladwin all occupy the same space and none of them are direct and pacey (Williams isn't the latter but he can be direct and tricky).

Jephcott was also isolated as a one, so Wakeling was pushed in with him, but both now occupy the same space.  I guess Williams at least added some jeopardy for defenders that gave the other two some space.

In a nutshell, I struggle to put eleven players down on paper into a formation that looks like it would work well.  The diamond being the best of a bad bunch but just as toothless without a jack in the box type of player.  It's probably not a coincidence that Wakeling looked most promising when McKirdy was running around all over the shop pulling defenders.

Really not inspired by anything this season. Felt really positive at Mansfield but been dire since. I hate the boring slow possession football. Would rather crosses and shots, way more exciting

Many have said that we have a really strong squad compared to last season! If so then the mamager has to take the responsibility for not getting the best out of the players and for choosing the formation & tactics.

The squad this year is a long way below last year.

Payne was a big part of last years squad and is a big loss

Linsey has the job for the season.

Cheap option!

The board need to do one of two things here:

1) get rid of Lindsey and bring in a proper manager as he clearly can’t get the best out of this squad and won’t get us up

2) keep Lindsey but communicate to the fanbase that the aim this season is mid table because that’s all we are going to achieve with this man in charge

I prefer 1- bring a manager in time for the window to give us a chance. Season after season watching this dross is t good enough

A very eloquent summary, nicely done.

I’m not in the let’s go for the old school long ball tactics in league 2 camp necessarily. We kept possession last season season and scored the most goals in the league. You cannot fluke that over a season, it can be done.

When the ‘plans’ you mention work, obviously that’s great, but it’s really low percentage stuff. It’s easy to do your homework and get tight to Hutton/Gladwin. A calculated risk of ignoring Darcy’s threat will pay off most matches. Williams is another matter, but alone is not a force enough to get us promoted.

Our possession seems pointless most of the time. Passing sides that are any good are not passing for the sake of it, but are working on exploiting an identified weak link, or targeting an area of the pitch to overload, or aiming to manoeuvre the defence out of position, or changing tempo quickly and breaking through defensive lines with incisive runs/slick passing moves.

My main gripe, I think, is that everything we do is so slow that we cannot begin to do any of that. We can dress it up by talking about about box entries, touches in opponents third, xG etc, but the fact is we are just not very dangerous, and worse it’s dull as fuck to watch. Who, that wasn’t already a fan, would deliberately pay to watch training ground tempo.

So how do we move forward from here?

Nothing will change if changes aren't made!

When everyone is fit we have a stronger bench than last year. But, we have a weaker starting 11.

Why would the board tell the fans the aim is not to get promotion but obtain mid table? Nobody would turn up on that basis.

I’m not defending Lindsey but, without looking, I’d say these comments were aimed at Garner last season on more than one occasion.

Even if we count reaching the POs last season as some kind of success it was, in the main, a boring watch. The 9000 who have been reinvigorated by the demise of Power won’t hang around long if this is the tripe they are being served up.

It’s dogmatic and will achieve nothing. We won’t get promoted and the football won’t be good enough to showcase our young players with a view to making a profit on them.

It’s utterly pointless - literally - football.

I’m not convinced this squad is any worse than last seasons.

Last season we were extremely weak at the back (apart from the run in) but with Simpsons/Davison, Payne & McKirdy we had match winners and goal scorers. I mean those 3 (I’ll count Simpson/Davison as one because they weren’t here at the same time) must have contributed the large majority of our goals last season.

You also have to remember whilst we knew we’d lose Payne and Simpson/Davison I guess we maybe thought we’d still have McKirdy? I dunno how early the club knew he was going but we didn’t get much time to try and replace him. I mean id argue with McKirdy in our side we’d have won our last two home games.

I don’t think we are as far off as everyone else seems to think.
Get Williams back in and hopefully we look a different side.

We just need to create more. I’d say the rest is generally alright.

There's always plan b. Oh.

Trying to work out how Iandolo was in the team again..

Is Devine injured still?

Would prefer Lavinier on his wrong side to Ellis, who will surely slip down into non-league when he eventually leaves us

Having a stronger bench means nothing if we don't have a manager who can get the best out of the team and I would take quality over quantity.

Almost every time we have a bad result someone says attendances will plummet!

Shite it may be but remember it wasn't so long ago we thought we wouldn't even have that to watch!

…what I can’t fathom is why we’ve bought Iandolo into the team to play LWB.

We had good success with the diamond midfield. With Williams then out logically (to me anyways) you’d move Darcy to the advanced point of the diamond & put Iandolo on the left side…or…move Khan to the left side and put Reed in at the base point of the diamond.

That’s the kicker for me, sure Williams was going to be a loss but it would have been worth trying someone else in that position rather than completely changing formation.

…in the minority but think a CB pairing of Harries & Brennan would have been ok. Don’t think we needed to change everything to get another CB in there.

Honestly think SL thought the same as most fans that a pairing of Brennan & Harries was a potential disaster so played 3 at the back.

What I don’t understand is that it clearly wasn’t working so why continue with it 🤷🏼‍♂️

That was another woeful inept performance.
Stop Hutton, stop Swindon. Void of ideas all over the park.
Was heading for a dour 0-0 draw against another poor side but simple mistakes and lack of any cutting edge we look bang average.
Can’t see what Iandolo is bringing to us, Reed just doesn’t look comfortable, As soon as Gladwin went off we were looking vulnerable.
Jephcott no service, Wakeling still learning, Shade almost given up on him.
Kahn a poor game today and can only hope he is OK.

Once again backed by a decent away following, the natives are getting restless.

Losses against Crewe and Crawley - That is simply not good enough.
Cracking pre-match drinking in Victoria, then it all went so horribly wrong.

any khan news?

Didn’t look good.
Will be out for 3 to 4 weeks following the protocol set, a loss for sure.
Looked like he collided with the post at first but reading it was the keeper?
Legs just buckled, was out for some time.

Twitter says he’s just been discharged

We'd like to update you all on Saidou, who was taken to hospital after suffering a head injury at the end of today's game.

He's doing well and has just been discharged.

Huge shout out to the paramedics and club staff for their quick actions earlier.

#STFC 🔴⚪️ #Sadds❤️❤️

Great news.

Best news of the day.

The tide seems to turn quickly against Lindsey. More so than for other managers.. This is the 2nd turning of the year, the first being Gillingham. As a fan base, we seem to be fine with him when we’re doing well (no surprises there) but he doesn’t seem to have any credit in the bank for when results go against us, which indicates that, underneath it all, we don’t generally believe he’s cut out for it.

we are still in a reasonable position for the playoffs.

is that good enough? depends if we get there and win them.

but performances in last 4: have been shit.

definitely a crunch time for Lindsey. Wouldn't say I'm calling for his head, I really really want him to succeed and so I will give him more time

But no doubt about it, promotion is the aim.

SL seems to be a no BS type of guy. He tells it how he sees it. Which is similar to us followers see it.
There lies the problem... Why can't he put things right then.
Simple answer is that STFC has only got non league and Academy players who are simply not good enough at the moment.
With home gate receipts of 9k we should be able to get better players. Example is Orient.
CM is needing to show his real intentions in just with buying the County Ground but by cracking the whip with the playing staff as well.

My concern is the way we seem to mould to an ineffective way of playing. Nothing changes, there's no spark. We are now losing to sides in the bottom 10 without a shot on target.

Khan. Eye catching, yes. Dangerous, no.
He does have it in him though.
Same could be said of Darcy up to a point.
I suspect that we'll see the best of them next season.
It's a test of patience that will be difficult to endure for many.

I wouldn't call them highlights plus both managers post match comments.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IaY0zp4AFS4

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=obTIx8rODn4

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JhlDIz6am8E

There's no guarantees on them improving next season Bob just look at Reeds performances from last season.

For a start you go back to the formation that worked well.

In the league we've played 4 at the back 10 times and won 7 if them.   We've also played 3/5 at the back 10 times but only won a single game against a hapless Rochdale.

I haven't read back, but that game was crying out for 433. Wakeling and Shade wide with Jephcott in the middle. Run at them, getting it wide. Instead we stuck with what didn't work and changed occasional personnel.

This is true, and I have always been dismayed and expecting to lose when we don't play 4-3-3. Unfortunately, I fear we may have lost a lot of confidence in the process even if SL goes back to 4-3-3 we'll have to wait and see.

Had some reflections overnight. I go to watch Swindon to be entertained, I don’t think we will ever get to the Premier league in my lifetime so you kind of have to have a mentality of entertainment vs success, with both the optimal. I’d rather see games that are fast, high scoring and with good football. I don’t buy into the possession for the sake of possession philosophy. When it works it’s great but we have league 2 footballers who are going to get it wrong more than they are right. Not saying we should settle for L2 football but if it’s a case of getting lots of shots off, crosses into the box vs what we’ve got now I’d definitely select the former.

What we’re getting isn’t what Lindsey said he’d be giving - nowhere near.

It needs questioning. What is the priority? Promotion over style or style over promotion.

The argument that playing our, so-called, possession based game would attract a better class of loanee doesn’t wash as our reliance on loans has, happily, been diminished.

With the CG purchase imminent, followed by a stadium revamp, getting out of L2 by whatever means is a must.

The feelgood factor will decline if this boring shite is all that’s going to be on offer for the foreseeable future.

I worry when he says "we had no guile up front" and wonder what they've been working on the last two weeks. Either he dosen't get his points across on the training ground or the players aren't good enough.

I'm sorry Robinz, but what he says he sees (at least in public) often seems at odds with my eyes.

Example is the Crewe game. To my eyes we just didn't do enough. We certainly were worth a point but never 3. We had the odd half chance but with the amount of possession we had, we largely did naff all with it.

Yet he seemed quite sure we played well, and backed out up with box entry stats, etc.

Now I'm fully aware I could be picking out the bits I want to hear and ignoring the rest. I admit the stats could actually be right over the long term.

I just don't see it!
---
No panic yet, it's a long season and it's quite possible for it to go either way.

I think he's here for the season at least. There was so much optimism only a month ago, now so much pessimism. The truth probably lies somewhere in-between.

Based on the inconsistency you allude to Batch the best us fans can expect is to flirt around mid table towards the play off spots at best.

My thoughts entirely, Darcy on the bench with Iandolo starting is just ludicrous in my eyes

my biggest gripe with managers is playing the same formation and style the same every week when it doesn't work. 4-4-2 worked. if he changed it due to cb injuries why didn't he revert back to it yesterday with clayton back.

its quite obvious why ellis is playing because he offers width and a cross. would you really have darcy on the left? i certainly wouldn't. why not give a Roberts a start if we want to play with a natural winger?

reed showed why he has been on the bench yesterday. the start he was waiting for yet confidence and passing abilty completely gone.

against crewe the result was bad but we created chances. yesterday like recent away games we didnt. goalscoring is proving really hard and yet we have a proven goal scorer playing for us!

there's no balance to this team at the moment and we need a positive result to change it. christmas is the worst time to be on bad form with the amount of games to play

I suppose 1 out of 2 has been achieved.

At the moment mostly he gets the ball and gives it away, or fluffs the cross.

A left sided Hutton he isn't

If by width you means he’s stood close to the touch line then yeah - he’s given us width.

Why the need for it? We didn’t need width with the diamond midfield which is naturally very narrow.
Is it width Laviner, Shade or FBT couldn’t have provided?

Was it something that was worth trying, perhaps. Was it something worth sticking with after Tranmere and Crewe - absolutely not.

I've not studied the Orient & Steveage starting eleven / squads so anyone got any thoughts on if they have more quality than us or is it down to the managers getting more from his players.

be interesting to see if any are using a 3-5-2 successfully. lindsey could go scout them..

I can't believe they have much more quality just set up better and stick to what they are good at.
 

both teams have strong squads and have more quality than we do

Have to give Evans credit for recruiting so many decent players as Stevenage were poor last season.

They’ve got Luke Norris up front, imagine the stick SL would have got if we signed him

Good point but Evans is making them tick

What I find so alarming is that it looks like any kind of attacking instinct in and around the penalty area or final third seems to have been coached out of the players. There weren’t loads of instances that I saw yesterday but at least a few where you would expect a player to get the shot off with half a yard of space, but instead, they have to take an extra touch or pass before inevitably getting closed down and concede possession.

There were times under garner where we were moaning that they seemed to want to walk the ball in, but this is a different level. I watched the two min highlights package the club puts on YouTube to check I didn’t miss anything, but not one Swindon attack making our own highlights package tells you everything you need to know. Fucking criminal.

Lindsay pre match talking about having a high number of entries into the box has boiled my piss thinking about it retrospectively. Whether it’s him or Sandro masterminding this I’m not sure, but I’ve seen enough to run out of confidence in the system. Tactically we are completely inept. Something needs to change.

This will be an interesting read back!!

After watching almost all of the World Cup, going back to League 2 football was somewhat of a comedown, that's not to say I didn't look forward to it before the game! I suspect a lot of what my thoughts are, have already been said. First half I can't really remember a lot of note, a few teasing balls into the box by Gladwin was about it. Gladders looked a bit dawdly to me - he got dispossessed a few times taking too long on it.

Second half was a bit 'better' Darcy came on and we seemed to have a little bit more urgency, unfortunately what is appearing to be our Achilles Heel conspired as Darcy had a great opportunity to run into the box and square/cross to the waiting Jeff Cott, only to put the bloody ball out for a throw in. Later on, Shade was also in acres of space wide left which led to absolutely nothing. And then of course, when we were 'on top' (this was merely us being slightly better than an appalling Crawley side) we conceded a fluky goal. I guess the mantra is, if you don't buy a ticket, you won't win the lottery and a shot on target from a corner deflected in past a flat-footed Brynn. A woeful second (finished well to be fair) followed after terrible play by Reed and that was that. Sad to see Khan stretchered off, was a bit worried, but saw a tweet that he has been released from hospital so that's good news all around. I guess he will be out for a couple of weeks for concussion protocols etc?

And so we are 20 games into the season and sit in 9th. If we go on a good run we move into the play-offs, if we go on a poor run we slip down to mid-table and below. What looks most likely at the moment is the latter unfortunately. I would say I am one of the more patient members of the fanbase but I'm really starting to lose the goodwill for our management team. After fashioning a 4-diamond-2 away to Mansfield that worked a treat, SL has gone back to dour 3-5-2 which has seen us CRASH out of the cup and pick up 1 point in 3 games which on paper seemed very winnable. Yes, we missed Jonny Williams and having him back after the World Cup will be like having a new player but for me it's the same problems that we have had all season. And that is that we just don't look a dangerous team at all - when we get into the final third, we never seem to work the keeper, (unless it's to collect a loopy cross) we just seem to be going through the motions. Take our corner 'routines', this is basically to either play it short or lob it in the box and hope FBT get his head on it.

It just doesn't feel right at the moment under SL and I'm not sure it's going to change. He seems dead set in his ways to play 3-5-2 even though it has Garnered (yes, I went there!) not very many points. With our attacking players we really should be doing a lot better at the moment the happiest member of the visiting sides is whoever does their goalkeepers laundry, as they are the most unused thing on the pitch. Reed has gone backwards, (suspect there is mitigating circumstances) we are conceding stupid sloppy goals and present zero danger going forward. A side containing Wakeling, Jeff Cott, Jonny Williams, Ben Gladwin etc should be causing defences nightmares and it really isn't, it's just too easy to defend against us. SL has to turn this around. If nothing changes over Christmas, then I think Clem and Rob Angus really need to look at a change being made.

Over the past five season managers have tried a back 3 with wing backs and every single time it has failed. Then we switch to a back 4 and suddenly we start picking up points and put in some good performances. Then for some unknown reason we switch to a back 3 with wing backs and we turn to shit switching to a back 4 again to late to make a difference to our season.

I simply don't understand why this happens every season. We know its doesn't work and yet we continually try to play this piss poor formation.

4 at the back
1 holding midfielder
one attacking midfield
two wingers and two strikers.

4-1-3-2 is what's going to start delivering decent performances in my opinion. I'm using my armchair managing badges here though  :D

I can't remember which episode it was, but Joe thingmy on the Loathed Strangers podcast that does the presser episodes asked SL about the 4-Diamond-2-formation and he said he doesn't see it as a permanent formation, merely one that could be used for 45 minutes here and there.

I'm not totally sure he's right and his subsequent stubbornness not to use it is biting him in the arse and firing us down the table.

Seriously seriously dire. Not sure its even worth expanding on. Proper shite.

Spineless, weasel like and all round shit performance from start to end. Getting bored of it. Pointless talking about the game, same old shit, if anything, worse than usual. This team ain’t getting autos, and right now you can forget the play offs come May (anything less than top 3 is  a failure this season). Top 3 sides miles better sides than us, Orient got the best manager in league. We’ve got an average squad with a bang average manager. Been split all season but pretty convinced these players/management ain’t got it in them to go up.

It’s even worse when you lose away like that to gutter clubs like Crawley.
Need a miracle in January and for the others to fall off.

With all the media hype and what formation we should or shouldn't be doing. Diamond this and a flat back four that.
I really don't f*cking care. I just want to be entertained and surprised with some quality football possibly a few goals scored with some passion thrown in as well.
Is this to much to ask for?

If I want to watch a game of chess i could go to a local library. Even a darts tournament has far more attitude than watching Swindon currently.