Thetownend.com

A win would be nice for the fans.

So much rides on Ollies line up and tactics though. Please get back to 4 at the back, bring back Sobowale please.

A nice distraction from the league and ownership problems, and, on the day anything can happen.

Personally though I can't see us being in the 3rd round draw on Monday.

That conundrum again. We want a win. But that prolongs the agony of having the current dysfunctional ownership. A win and we could end up being dawn against a money spinning giant, god forbid. A loss would be all things normal at Swindon Town with a moral boosting, well we got to round two this year….

Rather get battered to bring bad press. We can afford to lose a non league game (no pun intended)

I was looking at recent form (general) and this tickled me

https://footystats.org/england/efl-league-two/form-table

Third round TV game would bring a lot of national publicity though. That's the best case I think.

There is that.

Holloway is way out of his depth. He’s a busted flush. Nonsensical line-ups, bizarre subs.

Revert to a 4231 please
Barden

Soborwale
Minturn
Wright
Delaney

Kilkenny
Ofoborh

Drinan
Butterworth
Cox

Smith

Olie has to:

Switch goalkeepers

Play four at the back

Start Sobowale, need his pace (Said post-match, he was "in" for Saturday, could be on the bench, only)

Bench Tshimanga, start Drinan or Glatzel.

Put some "bite" in midfield, need both Oforborh and Kilkenny; there's the problem with Clarke injured who is available to be an enforcer?  With a choice of the likes of Cain or Butterworth, maybe Wright could play defensive midfield pushing Kilkenny further forward. This assumes 4:4:3

Immediately sub anyone who isn't marking or tracking runners, and

Shut up about refs


I would play 4:4:2 with Cox and McGregor as wingers providing for two banks of four when out of possession.

 a defeat feels inevitable.

go with a bold formation - 3421. 

442 has been consigned to history.

4:3:2:1 would be better than 4:4:2, but the thought there was that 4:4:2 would be understood by every player.

McGregor in goal, I reckon. Harry Smith RB, Cain CF and McGurk to be subbed after 30 secs because there’s an R in the month.

Eileen Drewery told Holloway that that’s the way to go.

Swindon entirely sold out of newt eyes and bat’s tails.

A little matter of a Wilts Cup game v my old team Bemerton tonight🙂

Along with Holloway?

Don’t really care about the result.

Would just like to see a better, more suited formation & a bit of cohesive play to at least suggest Holloway is getting towards his best XI / tactics / formation & being less scattergun.

This really is the last game he can afford to dick about with it

Need to be in the third round draw to get some fans back, dicking around with a pedestrian back three is over with.

HT & I think it’s safe to say this one’s already in the bin…

I mean I’d sacrifice FA Cup 3rd if defeat at Accrington magically meant Holloway worked out his best XI - formation - tactics & our league form drastically improved thereafter

An absolute thumping!

9-2

Christ

7:1 at H.T.

Bemerton Heath Harlequins who are they? exactly....apt for an Accrington thread.

I think the club are banking on a cup run this year, so part of me kinda hopes we lose. Fuck the lot of em.

It wont happen, but imagine we get a plum home draw in the 3rd round

They rise the prices, because thats what they do

No-one goes out of principle

That would be the ultimate fuck you to the owner

As i said, it wont happen though

I'll wet myself if we manage to win and then get Morecambe away in the 3rd round.

In a league below Supermarine who are Level 7, so semi-pro at a low level.  The nature of a hiding for budding professionals is disturbing.  Apt for an Accrington Thread?  Yep, the club is not performing at any level, apparently even the scholars can't be arsed.

Going off todays presser I'm guessing we won't see McGregor or any of the youths on Saturday.

"Our environment could damage young kids at the minute as we are so wobbly and senior people need to step to the plate."

I can see what he means as we've seen examples in the past of youngsters coming into a struggling team & getting absolutely destroyed by the booing from the stands. Although I feel McGregor has shown a quite remarkable maturity for his age & I'm not sure he's ever wilted in games.

Wobbly? He'll be in the pub before ffs!

McGregor is a first teamer now. But this isn't and was never the environment to chuck other youths in - he properly fucked up with Brown.

Bringing back Brown from a really successful loan to give him 20 minutes out of position and then ditch him would be an absolute dereliction of duty.

Just seems these big decisions regarding the young players are made so carelessly.

Am I right in saying Brown cant be loaned out again now? You can only play for two clubs in one season, right?

Yup, well he could go back to Canvey I guess.

Fucking unbelievable. National League South move would’ve been the next logical step for his development.

Yeah, but he did the magical bleep test run gooder than anyone.  :doh:

Also means we can’t flog him in January*


*to anyone other than Canvey Island

Had to knock this one on the head due to technical difficulties.
Not a phone zombie but was surprised at how things grind to a halt when the bloody things go wrong, affecting travel, work, day to day comms etc.

Have realised that I would miss it if I stopped going. Interesting.

An important game today given where the season is taking us and with little or no sign of improvement.
If successful, could be our last visit to the 3rd round for a while before struggling to make the 1st round proper becomes the norm.
A potential day out at a 50k plus seater stadium would provide some respite and a chance for the Orange Revolution to get some positive national coverage.

So, another visit to Accrington.
All down to 4D of course, "We'll get Accrington away".
If you call it then own it, so hopefully the great man is heading up north as we speak to deliver aid & counselling to anyone with a 1000 yard stare in the away end, which will be pretty much all of them, apart from the coach lot.

We'll probably lose anyway but Tottenham away will be guaranteed if we win.
4D, don’t forget, "We'll get Morecambe Spurs away".

Safe & timely travels to those lucky enough to be going.

Am I right in thinking there's no way to stream this one? Is it on Sky?

Not on tv for this cup match. Different rights.

You can listen on BBC sounds though

Mystic 4D will call it now wobbles  We'll win today, just, then draw West Ham away.

Accrington have only won 2 out of 8 at home but only lost 1.
It'll go to pens.

 I wonder whether any one will be wearing some orangey apparel or accessories today

I am sure some of them will be in evidence today. Accrington is a cold wet place at the best of times so any extra clothing could help up there.

Harrogate in R3 here we come

After the mauling they gave us 1st half last week (yes I know we came back 2nd half) I cant see us getting a win there today.

Just cant see where the goals will come from TBH we are not creating enough chances in the box.

I also hope that Ollie goes back to 4 at the back and brings Sobo back and starts with both Kilkenny and Ofoborh.

I would play Delaney at LB and Sobo at RB with Wright and Hall in the middle, maybe push Cox into a wide left midfield/wing position so Delaney can focus on defending and Cox can get crosses in, which is his strong point.

I think Bycrofts confidence is shot at the moment so would prefer Barden back in goal.

Personally I see Butterworth as a number 10 sat behind Smith and drop Drinan (hes not a wide striker) and drop Tshimanga as hes not a footballer.

                      Barden
Sobowale    Wright    Hall     Delaney
             Kilkenny      Ofoborh
McGregor        Butterworth          Cox
                       Smith

Carlisle one up. In the bottom two we go!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GdoscXKW4AAsJZd?format=jpg&name=large)

More pace in a snail enclosure

TBH the only player with any pace at all is Sobowale in defence.

He obviously sees something in Tshimanga.

No pace and no midfield. Can't stand this 343 shit the way Holloway plays it.

Sobowale goes from not even on the bench to starting (thankfully), whereas Jaxon Brown not in the squad (is he cup tied?).

Not sure if it’s 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 with Delaney at LB

crewe penalty equaliser 1-1.

343 will both wide players in the 4 are actually full backs?

Meh, not what I’d have picked but we’ll see

Still bottom 2 tho😕

Finishes 1-1.

Exactly this. Happy if it does work but it wouldnt be my team or formation FWIW.

5-1-4

True, but better than 1-0

Few orange hats already on show here....

Aye😓

Sick of the waffle now. " If we'd have won last week you would have seen some progress"

I think the youth FA cup game is coming up shortly and is being saved for that

He's not eligible as a first year pro. Ameen would be and is on the bench here.

Suspect Brown will play v Wycombe in the EFL Atrophy though. Rogue autocorrect but I like that so it can stay...

He is indeed. Played in Canvey Island's 2nd & 3rd qualifying round games.

Sounds like we are under the cosh again so far.

Smith misses a good chance.

Cox with a shot that goes wide after a break by Sobowale.

1-0

It was coming.

So fucking shit.

Er, positives,there's time left I suppose

We can finally concentrate on the league?

The only positive (& I hate to say it) is that there may be no big 3rd round payday to get their mits on for admin expenses

True would rather go out than money go to that bunch of shysters

If Minturn can't get in this side he must be on the verge of giving up

Somebody should tell Hawes that's Notts County's FA Cup result has no bearing whatsoever on our 4th Jan meeting.

He's even tshit at diving!

Doesn't it?

Oh that's good

Edit: it's Crewe isn't it

3rd round is 11th Jan, home to Crewe.

Down to 10 now.
Butterworth straight red

Hmmm ah well.

Red card now

Sigh.

FFS

FFS.

On the positive - at least he suspended for a few games now…

 :D

Not going to score a late equaliser today then 😢

Another positive. Although not sure about the replacement!

I am not even bothered by all of this today, its all just "meh".

1-1

He’s probably thinking at least I don’t have to travel to Colchester on a Tuesday night😁

Somebody please shoot the fucking drummer.

1-1 meh

Grant Hall

Our defenders are better strikers than they are defenders.
Delaney last week. Hall this week.

HT 1-1

Still cant get enthusiastic about this.

With our first attempt on target

Says we’ve had 3 SOT

Wright has 3 or 4 doesn't he?

This has been a better performance than the game a few weeks ago here.....
Its been pretty even and we've had a fair few chances, nothing clear cut though.

Can't see us digging in for 45+ mins

Both Sky & the BBC say 1 on target, 3 off target

Well, that's something.

Starting Kilkenny helps

Twiney nets for Shitty

*cries inside*

If you weren't already crying inside, where the hell have you been? :D

Agreed the players are at least giving it their all. Shame about Butterworth but no arguments on the sending off.
Accrington defence are really shaky when we go long ball

PENNO!

Who to?

Ooooh. Us

Saved, ffs

Pen to Swindon, Cox fouled.

FFS

It never rains does it.

Smith😓

TBH thats the first time I have heard Drinans name mentioned all game.

If we fell in a barrel of tits we’d come out sucking our thumb. 

All drummers at football matches should be shot. Repeatedly.

AK 47 job.

Amen. This fucker has given me a headache all game.

Boom, goal! Cotteril

2-1 Cotterill.

just got to hang on now for twenty minutes.

GET IN!!!!!!

I can smell The Emirates!

Fleetwood ????

Who missed the pen?

Edit.. Smith. Just seen it...

Smith

7 mins left plus injury time.

Every minute will seem like an hour.

We are going to.get relegated and win the fa cup ain't we

I can smell the increasing admin fees

Cant afford to let this go to penalties based on our track record.

6 mins 55 secs plus injury time now.

We need a day out

Bycroft save with his feet.

5 mins added

5 minutes added time. 

Like Wigan!

2-2

2-2 FFS

FFS. 

Lordie.

Fuck my old boots. Bollocks

soapy tit wank 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ah well. That’s that then.

Looks like it.

FT 2-2

Extra Time

I may be on my own, but that 2nd 45mins is what we've been asking for all season.
Bit of fight, bit of grit and some quality bits of football at times.

Goal at the end was unfortunate but we've been the better team with 10 players.

Good effort.

But I don't know if it'll have any bearing on how we play Tuesday. Obviously not going to help with the legs

Minno,McGregor and Longelo on.

Hall, Delaney, Cox off

I'm sure I'll be proved wrong immediately but I have a theory that nothing has ever happened in a first half of extra time. Second half sure, but never the first half.

Smith off Glatzel on

So far your theory has been proven correct.

Att: 1,534 with 355 Town fans.

we need a orange hat attendance from now on I think

Decent game today definitely got our monies worth just hope we can nick something

Half Time - Still in it   :) :).   

HT ET 2-2

This game feels pretty unhelpful for our chances on Tuesday, but ignoring everything else around it it's been a good showing.

Extra time should definitely be cut down.

Like rather a short 10-15 minute frantic burst of football.

Penalties it is.

See Mr Hodgetts reminding us that Swindon were the first team to miss all of its penalties in a shootout!

Glatzel, Drinan,Cotterill, Kilkenny, Wright?

And that we have never won an FA cup penalty shoot out.

0-1

Time for Bycroft…

And there it goes.

Drinan pen saved.

0-1 Drinan saved

My Saturday side went out both cup competitions on penalties
My Vets team went out the cup competition on penalties
(all within a week)

So, I’m sure Swindon will follow the trend

0-2

Fucking penalties. Fuck off.

Gonna miss them all again?

Game over.

0-2 Cotterill saved

Usual bollocks

0-3

Wright

1-3

Sums up the teams mentality

What a waste of an afternoon.

1-4

No pay day for the crooks so not all bad.

Ah well. At least no more money for Clemente.

Not worth turning on the team tonight, they battled hard with 10 by the sounds of it.

Harsh today

100% praise for the players. Hopefully Holloway will get the starting 11right from now on

Bad luck Town.  75 mins with ten men.  Respect to the 350.

Just so Swindon wasn’t it…

Go a goal down, have a man sent off. Nick a goal.
Show decent mental resilience with 10 men.
Miss a penalty. Take the lead.
Be in front at 90 minutes.
Not win the game.
Hold on for another 30 minute being a man down.
Lose on penalties.

…it’s probably the most Swindon game we have ever Swindoned

No bottle when it comes to it, nervous taking pens at Accrington, laughable!

Anyone one think they were taking them in front of the Kop or something.

 :no:

History continues ….  

Showed some fight, grounds for hope.

Not really, can play well at times but always seem to lose.

You obviously didn’t go with a stupid comment like that.
Despite the result it was a decent game and a decent day out

WTF?? If you went then you’d have seen a decent game

No money run for those in charge is a bonus.

seems like now a bad performance but hate to say it i am glad we went out- could not bear these crooks cashing in on any big cup draw. sad times

Massive respect to the commentary team. We're so lucky to have Andrew Hawes when you hear some of the other local commentators

Absolutely.

People like you are why we we are sleepwalking to non-league.

To be fair I had the BBC Lancashire commentary on when we got the second and the guy was hilarious.

Why the hell are we still playing with 3 at the back? They've got one man up there!!

Four young players just stood around doing nothing but Coleman will probably still come out after & say we played really well.
We're 17 minutes from going out to 10 men!!


I have a feeling he may not have been a professional commentator.

What because I actually travel away to support the team?  You’re a cunt if you think getting behind team is pointless.  You only post to moan

Good performance, nightmare result/extra time combination.

Because you accept mediocre. You probably clapped them off against Morecambe. Weirdo.

Honestly not fussed going out but having to play extra time and then losing on penalties has to be mentally destroying. And now they'll have to travel to bloody Colchester on Tuesday.
Cannot see them having the legs, let alone the mentality, to get a win there now.

Says the keyboard warrior that spends most of his time posting angry insults. The club might be run by shit but it won’t stop me supporting the team.  Tbh glad people like you stay away

I think they’ll take some confidence from it. Down 1-0 with 10 men away and took it to pens. Not bothered we lost, need to focus on league survival. If it mentally destroys them they’re in the wrong job.

Holloway:
- Best performance since he's been here
- Only thing we got wrong is that they got 4 first contacts after saves were made. We were ball watching.
- They didnt deserve to go 1-0 up, but they followed up on things
- Everyone wanted the ball and moved the ball. We created chances
- Their manager is a very relieved man in there
- Their goalie made 4 penalty saves which is unbelieveable
- Then complained about length of extra time and should go to penalties earlier
- Out of the cup, but its a step forward
- We need to pass. We had 5 up front. So we still caused problems. On another day, flooding with confidence, we would have won in normal time
- You could argue that we shouldnt have conceded in the 91st min, but their manager did something to create an overload
- Course it will impact Tuesday! Smith wanted to stay on, but we need him for Tuesday
- Character seen today uplifted Holloway (and the fans that travelled)
- We look shadows of who we can be at home
- No tiredness in the penalties. Dont know if pens at their end affected us. Their goalie was outstanding. Penalties are a lottery

I bloody hate it when people say penalties are a lottery. It's a test of nerve and skill under pressure. It's lazy calling it a lottery,a lottery is something the outcome of which you have no control over

I wish someone would ask him what he sees in Tshimanga!

No lottery needs proper coaching, for both goalies and outfield players.

Funny you should say that, I don't see anything either.

John Smith is by far the best co commer we have.

Yeah, it's absolutely fair to say 'it's a different skill to actual games of football' but it's not random.

Jon Smith

It's a lottery for me coz we never fucking win  :D

Everything about the club stinks.

But they are a lottery *because* of pressure.

Scoring 100/100 in training doesn't equate to 101/101 come match day. What else can you do to control it?

Fair enough but I don't see that, in that case is all football a lottery? When they used to decide games on the toss of a coin that was a lottery!

 an inability to slot away a few penalties is embarrassing in my view.

Not surprised by the result but now we can focus all of our efforts on perhaps winning a league game at some point .

Completely agree :nod:

Fjortoft for me...

I remember a segment on football focus a few years back about the England youth team preparing for their Euros & the coach had them doing sessions with a psychologist, getting them to focus on positive thoughts when taking penalties.

At the tournament England beat Germany on penalties 🤷🏼‍♂️

There is still a lottery element to it.

You can strike a near perfect penalty but if the keeper goes the right way he can save it.
You can completely scuff one but if the keeper goes the wrong way it still goes it.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpkUDbS_7Yk

No more a lottery than normal time football then. The whole game is a lottery by that argument.

Swindon and Penalty shoot outs.
The script was written and history repeats itself.

I get more depressed blanking with my fishing.
Clem out.

The no IFollow option meant that I almost completely detached from the match yesterday which was nice, couple checks of the score in normal time and must admit I mostly forgot we were still playing during extra time.

I’m sure I’ll be back to normal on Tuesday but that was a relatively enjoyable Saturday without the football to ruin it.

Looking back in retrospect now, I see they went with the Drinan, Smith, Tshimanga front 3 again that’s been so successful. It’s good that we’re trying to persevere with a consistent back 3 to build relationships but that will mean little when Hall picks up a knock in a couple weeks and Delaney likely picks up something similar through over playing too early.

Not overly excited at the thought of IH being given the keys to the January transfer window at this point but he may pull some rabbits out of the hat. My worry is more long term and what signings we’re going to be baggaged with for longer than we want.

Has anyone got the highlights.. This is pathetic at the end, doesn't show all the penalties

https://youtu.be/kkb6tIBcRps?si=9-yrzPgpFB9HzQxF

It is. It's because we're not Wrexham or Salford or non league(yet!)

Just read back through, like UTR I was completely detached to it other than the odd check up. I actually forgot we were playing initially.

If you'd have told me we'd have an ok performance by our standards and go out before, I'd have taken it as we need as few games as possible and points for any wins we manage to muster between now and the end of the season.

Wouldn't have taken the extra time though.

Liverpool away for Accy

Can you imagine the battering we would get there, kind of glad we lost.

Would have been a great away day regardless

All the L2 bottom feeders getting plum draws. Still Crewe at home in the league will be nice.

This. Would have been a cracking day out.

That's their distraction. We can concentrate on the league.

The funding for the January window would have been handy. I guess we can flog McGregor and Ameen to pay for the police, schools etc and for McKirdy on loan etc.

Does the draw work like that...i thought the balls were alphabetical?

Anyway....we aint in it....full stop!

Schools? Whats this?

A typo?

https://x.com/TrevorSTFC/status/1863641603983790383

Allegedly St Joseph's haven't been paid for accommodating away coaches.

It should be stressed it's just some random person on twitter so may very well be nonsense.

Clem and his shyster mates must be really gutted! 😀😀

You reap what you sow and karma is a bitch. Run the club as a shit show and you deserve to miss out on money spinning ties and that’s what this lot have got!

Fucking hilarious as you say karma is a bitch

Serve the incompetent fuckers right

It is not going to be a surprise - the evidence, although lacking detail, would suggest we have become worse at paying debts.  The Accounts showed a clear increase in short term liabilities, which is essentially all the trade creditors.  That is a year behind when produced, nothing suggests we have done anything to improve the situation since they were last published and the issue with the JV and Emergency Services suggests we should trust that data at least.

Creditors piling up. Administration a possibility?

Would be a death sentence for our league status if it happened this season.

Tis a place for junior education M'Lud.

Its a big building with teachers and kids learning, but that's not important right now.

and don't call me shirley.

I have heard that same rumour from a reliable source.

I'm no hierarchy apologist but am I alone in thinking that it's a shame that St.Joseph' feel the need to charge the club at all?The club may be shite but I'm sure the STFC in the Community do a lot for local schools. Prepared to be shot down over this!

Paying for facilities used feels... normal?

Community Foundation isn't the club, I imagine things are given at preferential rates to the foundation but the club is a (nominally!) for profit entity.

Indeed, I think it hasn't been helped by the wording of the tweet which started this all off making much of the school 'doing the club a favour' then complaining that they hadn't been paid for it which seems rather contrary?

Why does the away coach have to be parked anyway away from the CG site, our club bus always seems to be on site whenever I visit whatever northern shite hole we happen to be playing?

I’m sure the away team coach does stay at the CG (Arkells/SB corner) during the game, but away fans coaches are at St Joes - not sure why the club would fund this though?

More the question why the club pay for parking when they own a car park. Obviously leased out too many spaces themselves (and a non car wash)