Thetownend.com

Going more for the beer and protest than the game.

Swindon 0-3 Bradfud (Young x3) att: 7,364 (472 away)

We'll get smashed. A few of us will chant a bit. Some happy clappers will shout us down like the cunts they are and the usual Facebook apologists will still have clems arse on their tongue.

Another step closer to death.

1-3 Bradford.

Young won’t play. Bradford fans are as fed up with their ownership as we are - although them being temporarily shite isn’t quite the same as us staring down the barrel of non league.

I like Bradford as a club - God knows how they haven’t escaped the basement yet.

No idea on the result.

‘Get that Aussie out, say get that Aussie out’

I know it has been a bleak transfer window, but I think we’ll pick up a few wins under Gunning.

2-1 Swindon.

Austin will score and we'll probably win. I don't think Bradford fans are particularly enamoured with their manager currently.

I will watch, but can't muster the emotional energy to care that much tbh

We’ll lose, we’ve got a midfield made up of players who won’t make a tackle.

1-0 Austin pen

This for me too.
Almost out of duty.

I want to watch games and enjoy them again and not worry about all the shit off the pitch.

Bradford are on a shit run too with no wins in the last 6 games (same points total as us in the last 6 (of 4 points)) they are 2 points better off than us and 1 place higher in the table.

They are the 6th lowest scorers in the division but 7th best defence.

Bradford have only won at Swindon 4 times in 22 meetings, and only 1 win in the last 8 games at the CG (Swindon winning 5 of them).

Game has 1-1 written all over it for me in front of 8,011 (421 Bratfuts).

With about ~5k actually in attendance

Definately possible, I have a feeling a few more are going to come out of the woodwork for this game though to see Gunnings 1st game in charge this season.

Interesting to see that Bradford game on Tuesday vs Salford had an attendance of 16,549 but their forum recon there was no more than 6,200 in the ground at most.

Bradford hoping to make another signing before Saturdays game.

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportlatest/24071135.bantams-boss-graham-alexander-keen-make-next-signing/

Meh.

Swindon 1 Bradford 2 att: 7,967 (465 Bantams)

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/24075027.swindon-town-not-searching-assistant-gavin-gunning/

Not even bothering to ask for volunteers in key roles anymore.

This could either be a bizarre win or a torrid loss.  Can't decide.

Andrew Hawes points out that the number of Bradford players with 100+ EFL appearances is... 17.

Ours is three. Shade, Austin, UGM.

It's an amazing stat. You think at 28 FBT must have, but he's on only 85!

Interesting stat but does it in anyway, shape or form correlate to league position?

I imagine it's probably a bit of a bell curve - Colchester a few years ago where every player was ancient weren't very good either. Someone could work it out I'm sure!


Yeah, you have your FBT/Khan/Brewitt who have played quite a lot of games that don't count in different leagues/non-league, so it probably exaggerates how young we are a bit.

I imagine the sweet spot is having players who've made the right number of appearances (e.g. 200-400) within the right space of time (e.g. they're not all 34+ years old) at the right level (e.g. upper L2 or above). If anybody wants to gather the data and run the regressions then fair play, but the days when I had the time and understanding to do that kind of thing are long gone! Where's Sandro's spreadsheet when you need it?

Its tricky right, if you have someone with 200, then they have played 5 seasons lets say, if they are still in league 2 at that point, then its fair to say they are a league 2 standard player. A player with 50, may well still be learning and end up as a championship player, so you are better riding their development over the next 100. There is certainly something to be said for potential over lower league journeymen.

Sure the right mix is necessary etc etc. But i think of maybe the best team we had in recent years under Cooper and a decent number of them would have been sub 100 right? Stephens, Turnbull, Kasim, Luongo, Gladwin, Thompson, M.Smith, Foderingham.

Foderingham had 100+ going into that season. Thompson had 75, and although Smith only had 23 games for AFC Wimbledon the year before, he scored 9 so was clearly promising. The rest were all rookies, and you can add Branco, L Thompson and several loanees to that list.

The experience came from Andy Williams (200+ apps), Obika (around 100 apps), Foderingham and then Sam Ricketts at the business end of the season.

I think the fact a lot of those younger players have gone on to have careers in L1, the Championship and above shows just how good a group they were, despite their age.

Yeah i wasnt quite sure where Foderingham would have sat at that point, but it was only just over 100 if it was.

Your last point is really what i was driving at. Young players with no experience is fine, if they have great talent and potential and they can develop and get better as the club does.

In fact its better, because its far harder to do well with players that have spent 5+ season in league 2 as they are clearly not much better than league 2 players.

Youth is fine, if they are good enough.

Like anything in football - you need to right mix of everything & a little bit of luck

Agreed.

Its still very easy to cock up with a big budget and experience.

Even easier with no budget.

Way too much being made of this. You can have 300+ EFL appearances and still be crap.

You can also have 300+ games and still show no leadership qualities whatsoever. Or traits in which you'd want in a struggle towards the bottom.

I just want 2-3 characters in the dressing room to guide the younger players. They don't need a billion games, just enough to lift the heads of the younger ones when things go to shit.

Absolutely do not want a team of journeymen.

I think 12/13 players from the 20/21 season had over 100 EFL appearances yet we was absolutely shit.

Surely the point is we are restricted to recruiting embryos and crocks.

I'm optimistic that at least the starting 11 will be better than the last one

Bump.

The keeper at Crewe scared the hell out of me.
Hopefully just nerves and will settle down.

I’m looking forward to 90 minutes of high intensity shite.

I feel like there’s some luck in the air.

We’ll only lose by two.

Better not get asked to show my ticket before I get to the turnstiles. I shall not be happy.

Evans is starting in goal for the U18’s.

I’ll say the same thing I said before the game (that wasn’t) last week.

Just want to see a change in formation, a bit more pace & energy getting up the pitch with some more pragmatic defend first defending and I’ll take that…

we must tighten the defence. we can't score 3 a game to win

In theory we could field six centre backs for this game, that might tighten the defence up a bit...

Here's a side:

Bycroft
Kokolo FBT McCarthy Johnson Minturn Brewitt UGM
Khan
Glatzel RHM

It wouldn't be the worst side we've put out, although 7-1-2 is an admittedly innovative formation.

Goes without saying.

That said I do find it weird how quite a few seem to think we’re suddenly going to score plenty with Gunning in charge. How many goals have our entire remaining squad scored? It must be well below 20.

Empty in  The Merlin. Actually got a table

Yeah we mentioned it was awfully quiet in here

Yeah, last time Gav was in charge we had decent attacking players but were too busy passing sideways to make the most of it. He changed that.

This isn’t the case this time. Most of our attacking players are gone. What needs to change this time is the defensive play/pattern/formation/tactics/support from midfield.

Bradford tweeted a huge hint youngs playing.

Great.
He’ll either be a complete cart horse or score 5

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GE2b_BdWYAAzt3m?format=jpg&name=900x900)

Three strikers, classic Gunningball

Looks like 4 at the back to me

Young on the bench.

Looks like this to me

           Bycroft
Dokes McCarthy FBT Kokolo
    Cain  Khan  Devoy
RHM        Austin       Glatzel

Can’t really be anything else can it?

I assume Bradford have to actually bring him on for him to actually be ineligible to play for another team?

Yeah I think so, remember when Yates was on the bench for Rotherham and we all wanted him to come on so he could only come back to us

On paper it seems to be that but it could also be a 352 if he fancies trying someone else at RWB with Kokolo at LWB. For me though that would mean probably RHM and thats unlikely.

Gunnings last 3 games in charge have all been 433/451 transition so I see no difference with this line up.

Will be difficult stopping Kokolo and Dokes attacking down the wings, they will have to be more defnsive minded which means that Cain or Khan will have to sit back much more than is their normal game.

Walking around the ground and first thing I hear….

“Everyone’s blaming Clem, he’s the saviour as I see it”

Fuck me! This is what we are up against!

Saved our club, at least we have a club....blah blah blah.

After all the gloom of the last 2 weeks,seems a decent side and a not bad bench

Interesting that Flynn leaves and theres only 1 outfield youngster (Dworzak) on the bench today instead of the normal 3 or 4 that there has been.

Dworzak is a pro as well, albeit first year.  Lots of injuries have cleared up at once.

Impressive level of ambivalence being shown on here towards this game!

I used to feel ambivalent but now I just cant be bothered.

For all that the bench isn't bad, it's three CMs and two CBs - we have essentially no wide players left in the squad outside of Kokolo and Shade. And no spare forwards.

Critical game. Can't show ambivalence personally. Nervous as fuck,me

Which is why the protests really need to be educational.

Sure, there will be some Clem fanboys who won’t listen to a word but there are plenty of fans who really don’t pay much attention to anything other than the football.

They are not ignorant or stupid - just uninformed

Evans being on the bench after playing 90 minutes this morning is fucking ridiculous.

To say the crowd looks sparse would be understatement.

TBH we won 4-0 at Cheltenham and he didnt even break a sweat or forced into making a save so he will be fresh still!

That’s not the point though is it?
It’s poverty, he would have been on the bench regardless of how his game went unless he got injured, what happens if he needs to come on today?

Just sums up the club at the moment.

Oh no its not the point at all, I doubt that has ever happened at any other club ever.

Looks similar to the last game vs Colchester to me.

Feel for the lad if he had to come on, not right on him at all.

Isn’t there some sort of regulation on players not being able to play more than a certain amount of minutes within one day? Or does that not count if it’s youth team and seniors team mixed

I remember Peter Thorne playing in the afternoon for the rezzies then scoring for the first team the same evening. But of course that was Peter Thorne

 would not be surprised if it's a 6-3 loss today

Why do we insist on saying the ‘best in the west’ when the teams come out. We are 17th in L2 FFS!

There is at at kids level.
Going back a lot of years now but a mate of mine ran a very decent age group team. You know league wins, cup finals at the CG that sort of thing.
…because his team were decent he had a few players in whatever the STFC equivalent of age range teams is/was called.
So, to cut a long story short - one of their cup finals they were missing about 7/8 players because of the amount of football they had already / were going to play over x amount of days.

How that would ever get policed is anyone’s guess.

You're going home ...in ambivalence

Wasnt he taken off at HT in that game? he only played to prove his fitness and after he scored he was saved for the evening game.

Fucking apathy, orange hat on my own.

TBF I am already at home in abivalence!

Great pass from Devoy to Glatzel.

Glatzel wins a corner.

What time is the mass walkout😁

Cain short corner easily cleared.

RHM wins a free kick on the corner of the box. After a long pass from Cain to Kokolo.

FK headed out to Khan and his volley is high.

That was a far better chance for Khan than I think he realised, unmarked volley struck wildly.

Higher tempo than we have been, feels like a simple game plan but a lot to be said for that.

1st 5 mins and this is far more entertaining than the last 6 games under Flynn.

Town playing basic stuff, clearing their lines rather than playing out and some lovely long passes played early.

Austin tracks back to tackle and win the ball and he plays a great long ball down the line to RHM.

Bradford miss with a good chance but he was offside anyway.

Tell them to get their fucking eyes tested then.

Total cringe.

We are eager to get the ball forwards with pace, Glatzel seems really up for the challenge so far down the right.

Cain loses the ball but fights back and Devoy wins it and is so close to releasing Glaztel in the box.

FBT marking Cook in the air rather than McCarthy is interesting. Handling himself well so far though.

Marginally better so far.

Promising start

I would say we have been easily the better team so far, but its early, Bradford only had the ball in our box once and that was offside.

Glatzel wins a corner pressing the defender.

Penalty. Their defenders are absolute donkeys.

Poor delivery again by Cain from the corner.

Penalty on Glatzel.

1-0

Great touch and go by Town after a pass by RHM.

Bradford defence looks so clumsy against Glatzel and RHM, that's been coming.

No stopping that

1-0 Austin. Great pen.

FUCKIN GET IN!!!!!

...and a fiver on Austin 1st goal 6/1

Need to make the most of this as attacking options off the bench don’t exist.

E I E I E I O
Staying in the football league we go
When we avoid relegation, this is what we'll sing
We are swindon we are swindon Clem is still a cunt!

Glatzel has looked sharp so far.

We are playing proper back to basics stuff, and its working, clear your lines quicker and hit them with some long quick passing, no tippy tappy shit.

We're a limited team playing limited football which is sensible enough. Flynn wasn't pragmatic enough to not ask his players to do things they weren't good enough to do.

Exactly this.

RHM should stay on his feet never a penalty that one.

Thought that was just a good tackle really, not a dive as such because he is taken down, just the tackle got plenty of the ball first. Play on.

True...but causing consternation in the Bradford area

Yeah, they're swinging legs in the box right left and centre, it's going to cost them against quick attackers. And indeed already has.

Devoy and Glatzel looking afr more lively today with this formation.

So far Bradford are laughable, I’ve seen better more mobile Sunday league players than their centre backs.

They do look like they're playing on 0.75x speed...

Bradford do have the slowest CBs I have seen this season, RHM and Glatzel running them ragged so far, I hope we can keep it up.

Who's that on co comms?

Steve hale

Ah,he of Crawley?

Khan with a fuck up puts us under pressure at the back, we get it clear but that was poor by Khan.

Smallwood with a  dirty foot in on Khan.

Should have been at least a yellow.

Smallwood then goes in hard on Austin, hes going to lose the plot soon.

Austin to Kokolo but his pass back was poor.

Red in waiting!

Nice move between Cain and Glatzel but his cross is too high.

Hopefully.

Glatzel looks like he's never played football before.

Decent save by Bycroft but it was at him.

Cook free header in the six yard box between McCarthy and UGM there.

Did you not see him win the penalty? very fucking harsh on a player making just his 2nd appearance.

Good defensive tackle by Cain.

He didn't win a penalty. A player fouled him. He hasn't controlled a single ball properly yet.

He might be the next Pele. Just not yet.

RHM is so frustrating.

Glatzel with nearly a good thro pass to RHM.

Graham Alexander wearing purple chinos is an unusual managerial look

In an era where sports science is a big deal I can’t believe how some of the Bradford players have been allowed to get into the shape they are in. Our players look like finely tuned athletes in comparison.

The science in question at Bradford is seemingly geology

GOAL Airdrieonians 1-1 Partick Thistle
Tomi Adeloye

3 mins added.

2-0

2-0 Devoy.

Remember the former Mayor of Bristol George Ferguson only wore red trousers😁

Good run from the new Pele

What a well worked goal. HAVE IT!!!!

Great play by Glatzel there to set that up.

Funny old game :D

 :clap: almost bottled it though  :girlgiggle:

I thought Glatzel has had a decent game TBH and Devoy looks a far better player than he did last game at Crewe.

Great awareness from the Scouse German

Difficult to see how that's the worst tackle so far...

HT 2-0

Pretty solid so far against a poor Bradford team.

We look a bit better, much simpler game plan, but also very lucky to be playing against a side that look like they've all had an enormous pre match meal

No need for any protest now😁

2nd half is the big test now, 1st half’s aren’t usually the problem.

Gunning may be a one dimensional manager but it's a better dimension than Flynn

that was rather good

get the ball. smack it wide. watch their snail centre backs struggle with our pace.

marvellous.

Bradford were shit too

to be fair Flynn's first 9 were dynamic!

   More goals to come by the looks of it . Could the tide rise again ?

We have lost to shit teams to be fair. Not saying we're gonna win but the fact that Bradford are shite is neither here nor there

I think he's got into a lot of good positions but his touch has been very dodgy, including on the assist. Devoy has looked promising. Two poor sides, but Bradford comfortably the worst I've seen all season. Except we know Swindon don't do second halves.

Get runners beyond Austin and let them do his running. Who’d have thought. Not Flynn or Morris apparently.

If this is a specific plan aimed at exploiting Bradford being slower than Dumb and Dumber then great. If it's how we're going to play every week, I can't see it working quite so well every time. This is the ideal opposition for this style.

Some of their players can’t actually move though. How do ‘professional athletes’ get into the state some of their players are in.

So far so good.
Hasn’t been great or pretty but it’s been effective.

Be interesting to see if our second half drop off continues or whether it’s something Gav can stamp out instantly

Austin is playing far more like a target man bring the others into the game when attacking, it suits him far better.

True and something Flynn should have insisted on months ago

Doesn't feel as Bradford have even threatened, been comfortable. If anyone is capable of throwing it away it's town though

True that but with a back 4 could've been even more so maybe. Flynn was impervious to change

Nice to get a detailed ground redevelopment update at half time... from Corsham.

Jake young coming on.

As part of a triple change

Young coming on for Bradford.

From a Bradford perspective, not selling Young now is a fucking weird call.

Unless Clem has found £500,000 :D

Rolled up in Harts sock I expect.

RHM megs has man in the box but his cross cant find a red shirt.

I think they need him playing to be honest.

Haha, Jake Young starting the second half. That's some serious trolling from Bradford unless...nope never. We can't afford to buy him - probs can't afford to loan him back.

Two zip though, so far so good on purely football matters. Spotted a few orange hats/other attire too.

Weird that Alexander thinks it’s his forwards who needed replacing after that.

 :clap: :clap:

Stubbs goes in very hard on Austin.

Yes very disturbing if you are a Bradford fan.

His dad was a hard defender.

Stubbs is the spitting image of his old man.

Austin to Glatzel in the box but he misses the pass, good chance.

Austin having his best game in open play for a long time

I like Glatzels contribution today having a hand in both goals but I think he may be subbed for Shade soon.

Interesting sub.

Debut for Johnson who is on for Kokolo

Yes no mention on here that his legs have gone which has been a common theme this season.

So when they said Johnson was one for the future, they meant 50 minutes into the future.

Be fair - 55

Cain fouled in the face on the edge of the box. Yellow for the defender.

That looked like a penalty on Glatzel.

Turning into a kicking match now. Need to stay out of the silliness

A classic on the genre of you've had one pen so can't have another

Pen. Surely? 

Yellow for Khan for a high foot.

Happens so often in Sunday league!

Glatzel careless in defence gives away a foul near the corner.

I remember Trevor Anderson scoring a hattrick of penalties in 76 or 77 against Posh IIRC in a 5-2 win.

Going to be sick as a parrot when we fuck this up somehow

Walsall, I think.

Could be right, memory fails me on the opposition.

Long black hair, Northern Irish international!

Bradford defender snipered under challenge by Austin who barely touches him.

Dworzak ahead of McEachran. Blimey.

Shade and Dworzak on for Cain and RHM.

RHM had a decent game just his last touch been a bit off as per normal.

Throwing on Dworzak when we thought we were safe worked last time. (Nothing against the lad, just saying.)

Yes mate but against Walsall who also scored a pen! Was at that game

Apparently RHM ignored Gav to go straight down the tunnel according to Hale.

That’s a choice I suppose

I was at the game too but can't remember too much about it TBH, my 1st season of going to every home game as a 10 year old.

Odd subs

Not true.

He didn’t look happy but they interacted very briefly. I’m clearly about a minute behind.

Great defensive header by Johnson towering over their attackers.

There was a handshake and a chat, looked disappointed but didn’t ignore him.

I think he was quite a skinny leggy type who played up front on the left side but may be wrong.

Shade doing Shade things.

Ahem

I didnt see it TBH I was only going by what Hale said.

Att: 7,878 (461 Bratfuts) (I think he said)

The quality that comes with 100 EFL appearances there!

quote author=Jimmy HaveHave link=topic=59842.msg1786488#msg1786488 date=1706195259]
Swindon 1 Bradford 2 att: 7,967 (465 Bantams)

4 out on the Bantams😁

Labelled at one time as the umpteenth "new George Best" as he came from Man Utd

Good deep cross by Dokes and the defender just puts it wide of his own post, great pass by Glatzel to Dokes.

🙂

Good player, should have achieved more in his career.

Taking off RHM for Shade is like choosing who your favourite member of Jedward is.

Update: Glatzel’s gaining in confidence.

Dodgy challenge on Shade but he should have done better in the box. Probably fell over his own feet tho.

We're not exactly managing this game calmly.

Did he score our goal in the FA Cup replay when we lost 2-1 at Everton in 77

But we do have 2 big CB's now that can head away a late aerial challenge for once.

Dworzak is really not ready yet for the 1st team.

Dworzak cross to Glatzel and his header is near perfect but Austins shot is wayward.

Dworzak easily turned by Young but his cross is poor.

Good low save by Bycroft.

Dworzak gets away with falling over the ball on the edge of our box.

Bradford have got a little better and a lot nastier.

Yes,that's him

Aguiar and McEachran on for Devoy and Austin.

I agree about Dvorzak. Doesn't look at all like a first teamer yet

Charlie kept up his record of scoring in every game that Gunning has managed.

Still too raw for me, could come good but not there yet.

So I take it's 4-4-2 now

Easy save by Bycroft there.

541 it looks to me. Johnson, FBT and McCarthy sat in the middle and Glatzel up front on his own.

Glatzel taken quite the battering today.

Absolutely wasted free kick by Aguiar.

I think hes done really well today.

Not the finished article but he's caused them a lot of problems.

Got to be a candidate for MOM

Certainly improved after my coaching.

Absolutely hes not the finished article but hes fast and eager and not bad in the air too, his final ball isnt great at times but he had a hand in both goals and could have had a penalty himself.

Between him and FBT for me, Devoy did well and McCarthy went through without being noticed, which is always good for a defender. Austin had his best all round game for ages too.

There are plenty, for the first time in a fair while.

6 mins added.

Khan for me.

Yep,fair

Hes done ok in what will probably be his last game for Town.

 The many owners of the club will be happy with a win today

Khan has played with 5 different midfielders in the same game. Is this a record?🙂

I'd make a case for FBT I think, but Devoy, Glatzel, Khan, Kokolo, RHM all good and Austin's best game of the season.

FT 2-0

We only went and fucking won.

Decent all round performance, nobody let us down today they all played for each other with some very good individual performances, defended more as a unit against a poor Bradford side. Did the basics far better than under Flynn and no pussying around at the back.

1st win on a Saturday in 2024.

Now need another 17 wins like that and we can go up! :D

FT. Can only beat what is in front of you, but we won’t play a worst team this season.

 Wasnt a very good match from  2 poorly performing  clubs with 3 premier league seasons between them.  

We usually can't!

So didn’t the fans vent any anger towards Clem🤔

Only thing that needs to be said about that is job done.

We won. Kept a clean sheet. Didn’t have our second half collapse & didn’t concede a goal to a former player.

Were Bradford up to much? Absolutely not.
Did we show a bit more than we have in the last 15 or so games. Yes.

So them being shit today was nothing to do with us?

You can indeed only beat whats in front of you but fucking hell Bradford were awful, even with Young on they offered pretty much zero, excluding one great low save Bycroft wont have an easier afternoon.

We didnt need to step out of 1st gear to beat them, for me only FGR and Sutton were worse than them this season.

That number 4 was a whole different level of shitness, their own fans say the same.

They beat us not too long ago

We didn't let in 3 goals from 90 mins onward.

That's a fantastic sign for me!

There is that!

Bradford were shit, but when we played FGR, Sutton and even Colchester, we looked equally as shit as them.
Today we didn’t, we put on a solid display and got a good comfortable win.

That’s progress.

I know some are so anti the club right now, and won’t say anything positive about it, but you can split the 90 minutes on the pitch and the ownership.

Today was a good, solid, steady performance.

Pleased with that. Solid performance against a very poor Bradford side.

That’s the most solid I’ve seen us look for years!

Glatzel had a very good game.
Devoy a good first half.
Khan solid too.
Pharrell looked ‘happy’ defending
Good subs by Gunning. I questioned Dvorzak but he did ok. Only looked bad when McEachran and Aguilar came on as we had no physicality in midfield.

100% this.

There was definitely a version of STFC this season that would have gone to shit when Bradford started getting a bit fighty, so that's an improvement.

Absolutely. Some fans don't want to give the team any credit whatsoever. So the teams we beat are shite. Let's be honest every team in this league has the potential to be shit on any given day and I remember when fans were saying we are the shittest team in the league. Sheesh, have a tiny bit of joy with a win people. Not saying we've turned a corner or owt but it was a massive improvement

I think we put our foot through it when defending more times today than we have all season.

No reason why we can’t beat Newport away next week.

Damn right. See also Bradford away

And just as importantly with Sutton drawing and FGR losing yet again there is now a 16 point gap to the relegation zone. Little steps and all that.

I will be happy if we put that much effort in for every game from now on and with that style, we will win more than we lose, whereas under Flynn I genuinely couldnt see where the next win was coming from.

Averaging 2.5 ppg under Mad Gav.

115 over a season.

Have been waiting for this  :D

Really enjoyed watching the 2 new CB’s, players capable of winning a header, battling and doing their primary job of defending well.

If only we’d signed a few of those in the summer.

Really hope we can kick on and build defensively with this new look back 4 with actual CB’s. Even looked like the midfield was properly covering at times. I assume Johnson came on at LB to ease him in and eventually FBT will swap with him.

All basic things that we’ve not done for 6 months.

Did some fans start singing ‘Jake Young he’s one of our own’’ ?

He wasnt even ours when he was here!

 :nod:

I actually found myself looking at the fixtures thinking we could win the next couple, wouldn’t have thought that last week.

I agree Flynn was a disaster

115 points should be enough to keep us up right?

Just about.
Point deduction depending, obviously.

Thought all the January incomings did decent. Shade the worst in a Town shirt today.

If I’d been him I’d have refused to come on rather than be condemned to play for that lot all season.

Yes there is. 11 Newport players.

We can complain, but imagine being one of the 17k Bradford fans faced with that. Alexander could be a genius (he isn’t) but he won’t be able to do much with a squad that looks like it didn’t have a pre-season. How did they come to this?

Precisely.

Thought Glatzel looked quality and we played to Austin’s strengths. Solid defensively and used the subs well.

I thought it was 'Jake Young he wants to come home'

Just back. Well, that was . , . different! Energy all over the pitch which translated to more energy from the fans. Most impressed by the new guys - McCarthy didn’t put a foot wrong, Galtzel was all over the pitch - amazed to see him intercept one of their attacks in our area and put it out for a corner. Nicely worked goal for Devoy, too.

FBT was class today - what a difference he makes. The new lad at CB, Johnson is a unit and has great pace.

Can’t fault a single one of them. RHM scared the shit out of their defence for 60 minutes and that was Charlie’s best performance for a while. Not much to say about the keeper- 1 good save, 1 very good punch and a few ‘almost’ brilliant long kick outs to our front 3. Didn’t have much to do.

We did a ‘nil’!

Liked what Gunning said pre-match and again he delivered.

Rated his lineup and he didn't fail on that

Looked the best we have defensively. Every player looked up for it and were disciplined. Completely solid at the back. Turned the ball quicker than we had done all season and the times we did get in the final third we looked dangerous. Sod 8/10 today. Bradford are utter shite though, and much likely to be dragged into a relegation battle than we are. Onward and upwards at least for us this season. We could still pull off a shock.

Expected more from a mad gav enthusiast and head of Gav Gunning propaganda

can’t remember the last time I watched a Swindon game start to finish -being the caring free loader I am and stopping use of my ST.

Imo, thought we was really good. Players showed fight. Pressed hard. Strong in the tackle, winning 50/50s. Yes Bradford are shite. Wonder what lower league look have to say this evening. Clean sheet always welcome. McCarthy did well, midfield tidy. Glatzel and RHM good. Best Austin game in a very long time, that pass for the second goal was brilliant. Be ups and down I’m sure rest of season but that’s Swindon town ain’t it- small word for Gav gunning- took time to shake each of the groundsman/staff hands at full time - classy.

Really? I enjoyed it.

Not when the EFL hand Town an 80pt penalty - to be applied at the final whistle of the last game of the season {even if that last game is also a PO Final, that Town win}
 
 :D

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWS0yXZZmDo

He's from Huddersfield and played for us for six months ffs.

Better.

First game this season we actually looked up for it.

Is he out of contract in the summer

It won't happen though. Most likely a deal has already been done with a club a division or two up - who are happy for him to continue at Bradford the rest of the season. Probably part of the deal, like teams do, that have a proper development plan. Say Barnsley for example...they could be Champ next season but Young would be a viable squad option next season if they remain in League One.

If they go up, they could just loan him out to a League One club and ensure his development continues upwards.

I'm not saying it will be Barnsley. Could even be a Championship club that is preparing for a potential return to League One.

The only thing that might be a bit meh is that Young might not want to play the rest of the season with Bradford - but really they hold the cards. Bringing Young on today probably wasn't as mental as it first semt; unless their board is even worse than Towns - of course  :pint:

Because of his age Bradford can’t lose,even if they offered him a new contract and he turned it down they would get a fee as it would go to a tribunal.

At the end of the game would have been better but not in the middle of the game

3 unbeaten at home now!

No he still has 18 months according to Google.

Cheers STFC_Manc. On the Bradford forum it said he was out of contract this summer.

Amazed they've played him. Apparently only offered 250k by Pompey. I can't see him replicating his form any time soon and even the last 6 for us he was meh.

He'll be sold. Probably already a done deal somewhere - with the buying club loaning him back to Bradford. It's why they've had the luxury of bringing him on today.

You don't generally not play a very saleable asset through nearly all of the window and then suddenly bring him on for the last fixture in Jan {especially when your options are ''if we play him - he can only play for us or the team we loaned him to''} , unless you're confident that the team you have a deal with, has agreed terms to loan him back until EOS.

Unless Town have some unclean money to shift...and they are buying Young? Not happening not even in the reality or mind of Anthony Hall {tbf he's probably got too many ST holders living rent free in his head - the fucking double freeloaders. Free tickets and living in his head for free}.

If it were to happen {it won't} and if I have socks on, on deadline day, then they'll be well and truly blown of like an excited Andrew Fitton announcing Maurice Malpas  :soapy tit wank:

Pretty sure he’s been injured, hence why he hasn’t been played.
Picked up the injury whilst with us.

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/24075879.bantams-boss-says-speaking-truth-jake-young/

He was carrying an injury with us but still playing. I guess it was a convenient reason not to play him. I agree he’s probably been sold with a loan back. Anyhow don’t care he’s not ours anymore and out of form.

I love Gav Gunning. The guy appears to be unable to talk bullshit. Just what we need right now

Except for when he talks about Clem.

He talks quite a bit of bs tbh. Can't really align with you there. We're literally playing roulette at present and the only options are red or black. So we might do ok, but also if we don't it's going to be disastrous.

Gunning aint the messiah - folk are falling into Clem's bullshit trap again. Today was a good result against probably the second or third worse side in the division. We shouldn't be lauding this as Gunning being the solution. The issues run much deeper. Fuck, the bar is so low for what's ok. Clem's created this monster of mediocrity.

Talking about picking crumbs up off the floor.
Like many others it seems, I'm very grateful for the win yesterday and then thinking "what the hell " where are we now are we conditioned to being thankful for this level of football ?
Morfuni has really taken STFC for a ride and we are seemingly now thanking him.
Surely the support that is shown by the numbers turning up every game at the County ground shows the potential for the club. Frustration is putting it mildly.  Fucked off is more the true feelings 😪

Bit like the previous incumbent. And they're not the second or third worst team in the league really,are they? Don't think anyone's saying he's the Messiah to be honest but he did have the nous to play a back 4 which everyone's been crying out for

He certainly doesn’t take any bullshit about the actual football side of things.

he said the right things and set up the right way.

no idea if that'll get him through long term, but I enjoyed yesterday so that'll do for now

Good win and a welcome clean sheet.
It's baffling why Flynn couldn't adapt the team for a similar formation change, he had the personnel to do it.
Maybe he didn't think that his job might be on the line.

A more direct approach from the keeper and trying to play the football in the opposition half seems like a sensible approach for the rest of the season at least.

Sounded like the Bradford fans also have a level of disgruntlement with their ownership but were further down the line with the "<insert name> get out of our club".
Let's face it yesterday was a meeting of two big clubs in this league that are making a right hash of life in the 4th tier.

And for those not born or too young to remember the Beamish Line was established in 1983-84 with a 17th place finish on 58 points.
So still some work to be done, but a more ambitious target might be to try and equal last season's placing at least.

Any theories as to why Gav brought on Johnson ahead of Minturn?

Because he played left back with FBT remaining in the middle? Think it was just trying to add height to the defence really.

Dworzak ahead of McEachran and Aguiar was a head scratcher though, doesn't bode well for the latter two.

Because Minturn isn’t a left back.

Perhaps Gav just had a lot more confidence on us seeing the game out than we did!

Maybe Gav just thinks he better? Minturn has hardly impressed over the last couple months. I wouldn’t be surprised if we sold him.

Johnson looked quite solid when he came on, left footed so would be more use than Mino at LB.

We thought he was going to play CB moving FBT to LB to add a bit of size to the team.
It was noticeable at the start of the second half that Bradford were playing more high balls to that area and Kokolo was struggling in the air.

But I guess Gav didn’t want to change the CB pairing

Both McCarthy and Johnson we rarely noticed other than getting their heads to a few of the high balls put into the box later on in the game, we kept a clean sheet as well. Thats the best compliment you can pay them.

Both look a good aquisition by the club. If Johnson had come here on loan I would say that we had unearthed a decent talent but to have actually signed him on a perm deal already I have to admit the club seem to have located a good talent.

McCarthy seemed to bring the best out of FBT too, long may that continue.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWvQRaUFIEE

Looking back I’m surprised that Bradford only had two yellow cards, the same as us.

And another dead cert pen - would have been a red card, too.

Surely PV, after one game against poor opposition who {bar Young} offered nothing in attack it's too early to say?

If by the end of March, Town have let in less goals than they've scored then I'll definitely agree with you on the defensive note.

Also, Austin 3 goals in 3 now. Yes he retains his ''Gunning Goals'' record but it must be noted his return to goalscoring and ''uptick'' in form started whilst Flynn was still here  ;)

Havent read back.

Pre Booze in Gluepot and a couple of Bradford in there....moaning about the £30 (inc fees) for away tickets.....understandable that.
 
City were poor but we still tried to gift them a goal. Defenders happy to clear first and take a bollocking second, which is most welcome in my book.

I will take the win though, all day long.

Absolutely its too early to make a decision but many of our young lads who come in make zero impact and often cost us goals, at no point ever did I think Benn Ward was a good aquisition, similar with Menayese and others. Johnson at least looked like he could defend.

Not read this thread back yet, I have to say the thread specifically designed to talk about managers took an interesting lurch over the weekend I see.

That was probably the most enjoyable Swindon game in some time. Helped of course by an absolutely abject opposition and a set of players who looked very much up for it. Case in point was a very lively RHM who ran and played as if he had weight lifted off his shoulders. We weren't brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, but looked organised and played to our strengths, put the ball in behind Bradford's slow defence and go from there. RHM, Glatzel and Austin were ideal for this, RHM had the pace and Glatzel the intelligent running and good work with the ball. Good play for the penalty which was finished with aplomb by Charlie and apart from a free header from Cook straight at Byfield, Bradford offered next to nothing. More good forward play from Charlie and Glatzel just before the break saw a neat goal for Devoy. And that was basically that.

Second half we should have had a penalty and had the ghost of Ricky Shakes not been in Tyrese Shade's body along with a pair of roller blades, we would have added to the tally. I thought Jake Young looked quite handy for Bradford, good snap shot testing Bycroft's palms as well as his concentration. Both passed the test. it was nice to see Gunning make use of his bench, the options weren't amazing but you couldn't really say any of the subs were weird, or a mistake. Johnson looks ok on debut, Devoy I'm not sure about. For me he looks very lightweight, but he took his goal well. Glatzel the pick for me, great energy and clearly has a bit about his. Pleased for Austin to get on the scoresheet again.

Newport away is a bigger test. They will be more physical and it should be a relatively hostile atmosphere. Let's see how we handle that game, but pleased to be looking up rather than down after a turbulent few weeks.

Don't usually pick out comments from the MDT, but this is quite a spectacular take.

Just read on the Bradford forum that one of their coaches would not start after the game and were still stuck in Swindon at 7.30pm. Is that true? Poor sods. I like Bradford hope they get out of the rut.

I think they let them in the legends longue while they waited.

Haha! I very nearly commented on that myself. Probably best to give a player more than 5 minutes before writing him off completely  :)

Its the Town way!

TBH I had to comment at HT about Glatzel as even at that point Glatzel had won the penalty and set up Devoys goal.

Based on my first watch of the new faces, and taking a day or two to think about it, my views haven't changed much from full time (which I did not share, so you'll just have to accept it).

I thought that was an OK performance - the sort that you'd take in a promotion challenge and caveat with the fact the other team were awful for at least half the game and win is a win, plus we got the clean sheet.  Move on to the next, take the form.

First half was good, to an extent.  Second half was ropey, but we did keep them largely at arms length.

Given what we have seen recently it was a welcome improvement - exactly what I expected from Gunning given his past two periods in charge.  He just simplifies it all - which for players of dubious quality is probably a good thing.  The most noticeable thing was the defenders remained in defence - very few attacks began with a lollaping central defender, and even the couple that did saw the others sit in behind.  That made us much more difficult to break down.  We got the ball forward a lot quicker and Austin remained up top for the most part, other than the occasional push out left when Hepburn-Murphy cut inside.

For what he had to do, the keeper looked solid enough.
Devoy had a good goal, but he reminds me of the other midfielders other than that.  I can see him having moments but largely being absent from the mind.  What Bradford did manage to create was usually due to the midfield being in a mess.
Glatzel - looked good.  Not enough stickability at times, when taking control - tried a few too many flicks to try and beat the marker, but has an eye for forward play, that much was evident.  I'd be happy with his signing, if we had also added someone else - because we will need another forward.
Both new defenders looked like potential improvements, namely because they seemed to want to defend.  I'd still rather FBT moved out to the left, but the back four that finished the game looks OK.  Kokolo is not a left back.

Overall, good to see, but there are still so many issues to resolve as a squad.  I thought we looked much poorer once subs were made, other than Johnson.  The midfiield still looks paperweight and our options around the pitch are limited.  Better, but if this was the start of the season, I think my views wouldn't be a million miles off August 2023 - it won't get is up.

🗓️ 02/02/24
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In defence of Grenouille Rouge, the context of their comment was ''in-play'', so was commenting as such. Easy to criticise a live comment in hindsight of course. I'm sure having reflected post match, RF will probably reassess n ;)

Tyler Smith is 26 this year! 😮

Mad Gav’s style

“I just want to bring some heavy metal football at the minute and see where we go from there.”

Heavy metal?

Must be signing Victor Osmium from Napoli !!

Didn’t know, but it is an actual style as favoured by Liverpool.

What is heavy metal in football?
This phrase is often used to describe fast, exciting football. It describes a style of play that involves a lot of pressing, playing a high line, and trying to win the ball back as soon as you lose it; basically, as Goal.com says, 'intense, fast, and energetic'.

Heavy metal football is where it's essential to take the lead.

(Doesn't work so well out loud that one)

i'm a heavy metal farmer,
I've got lots of heavy metal animals.
When I go down to the farmyard,
What do I see first?
Heavy metal pig goes "Oink, oink",
Heavy metal horse goes "Neigh",
Heavy metal cow gives me heavy metal milk,
I see heavy metal animals all the day!

Heavy, heavy oink, heavy, heavy moo,
Heavy, heavy cluck and quack.
Heavy, heavy miaow, heavy, heavy woof,
But most of all, heavy.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!

You OK, Batch?

no, but that's normal for me.

talk of heavy metal football reminded me of heavy metal farmer by Bad News (comic strip presents, spoof metal band, came out before Spinal Tap)

I can't find a handy link. But on looking I found something even more distributing

https://youtu.be/Jag7oTemldY?si=cL1YyV1He5N5SmLK (https://youtu.be/Jag7oTemldY?si=cL1YyV1He5N5SmLK)

Tbh, he's nearly got a decent screamo vocal there. More death/thrash metal style but it's often underappreciated how difficult it is to do vocals like that.

I wonder if we're signing him - give The Wurzels a decent run for their money  :pint:

I thought I had seen all of the Bad News stuff but I had not heard of Heavy Metal Farmer before so I looked it up. It was actually originally called Drink 'Til I Die (I have the album  :) ), but was re-written as Heavy Metal Farmer on their Bootleg album. The original version can be seen and heard on this site:

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-10-best-and-worst-bad-news-songs-queen-brian-may-jimmy-page-iron-maiden

Bootleg is available on Youtube. Heavy Metal Farmer is about 26:40 in:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eXyobWhzx4A (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eXyobWhzx4A)

Here they are performing the original at Donington:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRy4iAgsNg&pp=ygUYZHJpbmsgdGlsIGkgZGllIGJhZCBuZXdz (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRy4iAgsNg&pp=ygUYZHJpbmsgdGlsIGkgZGllIGJhZCBuZXdz)

Very difficult skill to do in the first place and then maintain, especially live (obviously).

First time I heard it done was when I got into Opeth at about 16. Mikael Akerfeld is the vocalist and while I don’t think he can do it anymore, it was something to behold live. Not to everyone’s tastes of course, but I believe that’s the point!

https://youtu.be/jXXxMk720kg?si=gqTWe0xbWuTD04mF

interesting. I always thought they were separate songs.

"Give me another drink Mr Bartender
If you don't I'm going to stick your dick in a blender"

The comment was nearly 40 minutes into the game and he was playing pretty well, hence my "easy criticism".