Thetownend.com

Well this is a novel feeling, STFC having a cup game after Christmas for the first time since the Manchester City game in January 2022. That was on the 7th, so this is the latest in the season we've still been in a cup since by my count 2014 (Peterborough in the JPT area final in Feb).

Anyone think we'll still be in the competition on Wednesday?

Selection could be interesting - no Barden, Minturn, McGregor, Cox through injury, Longelo suspended and Nichols cup tied. Imagine we'll rest Clarke and Smith.

Last chance saloon for Glatzel perhaps? The return of Grant Hall?

Can't say I care too much about this one but it's a good chance to get minutes into the reserves. Ideally we get knocked out and there's no injuries.

Defence will be the problem, unless we play the youth team.

I’d rest Wright, Clarke & Delaney, which means we don’t have a CB to play, unless we play Sobowale & Kirkman, which then means we don’t have any Full Backs.

The players that came on as subs and those unused should start (except the GK perhaps).
Getting g a result vs Barrow is much more important

Sonny Hart is back at the club I believe. Wouldn't be shocked.

Midfield also very difficult - want to rest Clarke and Ofoborh but that leaves you with Cain, Cotterill and Butterworth who collectively don't put in a tackle.

I'm assuming Butterworth came on in the last minute to be within the x many played last game rule.

So I expect him & Ameen will start as the forward line, Bycroft will probably start again as he did nothing wrong Saturday.

I don't know how many more from Saturday would need to be included to be within the rules but as McCormick is the only youth defender to have made an appearance so far & with the injuries we've had I'd also assume at least 3 of Saturday's backline will also have to start out of necessity.

Overall I think there's going to be a lot of guesswork for who is playing where when the team sheet is announced.

The most important thing is getting through without any more injuries. A win would be good though, just for maybe providing a bit of momentum.

They seem to be taking this seriously - well, at least their fans are. Don’t they realise nobody else gives a flying fuck about it?

No doubt we’ll put out a combo of fringe 1st teamers and youths. Hope Ameen gets a run out.

Just what’s up with MacGregor? Out of the firing line before a sale?

Rest as many as you can. This is of negative importance. Its an annoying distraction.

Two quotes from Holloway suggesting he will be at STFC next season.

Ian Holloway on Johnson:
I certainly will see him for Swindon Town with my determination of staying here. It was a horrific injury but he is doing very well. This season I am not sure but I will in my time at this football club.

Ian Holloway on Jaxon Brown:
I just wanted more experience. I love him and can't wait to see him in the summer.

This, though the money for getting through is handy.

I interpret this as Clem saying don't risk the first team team, but Ollie wanting to get through. Could be the other way, but I'm taking it as a positive.

I dont really care what happens as its "that" cup, but theres decent prize money if we win, there will be a boosted crowd bringintin more money and winning games breeds confidence.

With extra ticket revenue and prize money if we win this game then it will probably be a financial boost of £50k to £60k which in a transfer window is not to be sniffed at (assuming it can go to the budget) and if we did win then the prize money is almost doubled for the next game again IIRC.

Keep up!

Same groin injury as Minturn. Both out for 6-8 weeks

Erm you have harped on about how it is yiur transfer window, so who’s fucking department is it then?


He’s saying the owner doesnt have a clue again isnt he

There've been a few quotes recently from Holloway suggesting he feels he has the power to push Clem in the direction he wants. Probably says something about their relative popularity at the moment.

Should gift him an orange hat.

Same as it has been since 2022 - Chris Kielys.

Its like him saying we are going to have a look at other clubs to see how they are run. Its a joke, Morfuni should have done this when he arrived four bloody years ago!

oops fog due at 5pm tomorrow

Oh no...

Lukas Jutkiewicz captained Birmingham Saturday in the FA Cup so hopefully he'll get a runout.

Did well for STFC during that 2006/07 promotion season - remember him joining from Southampton with high hopes and he's certainly had a wonderful career.

Be nice to see Jutkiewicz back. Always kept a keen eye on his career ever since he left for Everton. Crazy to think he's 35 now. Really doesn't seem that long ago he left.

Harry Chard has had a call up I was told last night.

Good news!

There will be hot drinks available in the Arkell's and Legend's lounge tonight. (Sam Moreshead)

Massive step up for the lad to go from U18s to facing league 1 players, good luck to him.

I see the KO is 7.30 rather than the usual 7pm probably to allow the Brum fans to get to the game in time.

Brum fans very very confident (and rightly so) that even a full rotated team will beat us with ease.

I will post this to haunt all the Brum fans on their forum (all of who seem to suggest Hoddle brought himself off the bench at HT...he didnt he played all game) when Brum we 4-1 up after the hour and we famously beat them 6-4. Mitchell that 2nd half was unplayable with a great hattrick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoAS31NRa10&t=19s

One of those great Swindon Town games down the years.

Chard looked really decent in the fa youth cup games, left back though so perhaps Kirkman is needed in the middle.

Until 7.05 when they run out.

I expect to see Hart start at CB tonight too, probably alongside Longelo if hes fit again.

Longelo is suspended I think.

Red at Wycombe.

Ah cheers I forgot that.

  :hmmm: Is it televised ?

On Sky Sports + tonight.

It'll be on Sky+ I should think, all the other games in this competition have been.

Also on iFollow.

👍 cheers guys ! 😄

Birmingham reckon they are brigning 2.5k regardless

Hope they dont want a coffee soapy tit wank

TBF they’ll still be queuing at HT so won’t be able to get one anyway

Channel 411 on my IPTV

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhRZBg4XgAE2r4f?format=jpg&name=large)

Longelo and Delaney both banned for today so thats a fairly strong side otherwise considering.

Delaney picked up 2 bookings in the previous rounds so misses the game tonight.

(https://i.postimg.cc/HsMDZGXN/thumb-54e2ece0-aaa.jpg)

Brum line up, not sure how strong that team is though.

EDIT: 7 of those players started their FA cup match on Saturday so pretty strong.

Jukebox on the bench for them.

Lyndon Dykes (17) is a current Scottish international, scored a screamer on Saturday in the cup.  Yikes!

A few possible formations but TBH its hard to see exactly where Tshimanga fits in the line up unless we go 2 up front as he is poor as a wide striker and cant play the target man role.

                 Bycroft
Sobowale    Wright   McCormick  Kirkman
        Kilkenny   Cotterill   Cain
Butterworth     Drinan        Tshimanga

or

                 Bycroft
Sobowale    Wright   McCormick  Kirkman
               Kilkenny     Cain
Butterworth     Cotterill        Tshimanga
                     Drinan

Unless he prefers to go with

                             Bycroft
            Wright   McCormick  Kirkman
Sobowale        Kilkenny   Cotterill         Cain
                         Butterworth     
               Drinan        Tshimanga

Northern Ireland international keeper too with 48 caps.

Iceland international right back on 23 caps too.

I suspect we're getting a kicking here but I thought the same against Wycombe and we pulled out a good performance.

As strong as it can be without risking key assets, well the fragile ones.

Can't see the front line bothering them, but ya never know.

100% this. Keep the score down and dont get any new injuries.

Watch Drinan and Tshimanga get a brace each tonight!

Happily be wrong. But come on!

Absolutely! I dont really care about the result but I would fucking love to turn over this lot, one of my closest mates lives in Brum and their son is a Brum season ticket holder always gobbing off about "We are considerably richer than yows" is all I get all the time from him.

Used to live in Brum years ago, saw Denis Law score a header for Man City against Birmingham City.  Forgetting I was in the home end, I lept up yelling "King Dennis" to a heavy silence all around me.  I made no further comment.

I mean it's not a high bar.

Its also true, which is partly why I hate him!

Wow that showed how little pace we have at the back there all 3 attackers outpacing our defence.

Shit defending by Sobo there trying to clear his lines giving it away but we got away with that.

We seem to be playing a straight forward 433 today.

Thier little Japanese winger runs and crosses just like Macnamee.

Bycroft really should have passed that to McCormack there put him under heavy pressure, just clear it upfield.

McCormick has not got the memo about not fannying around with it at the back!

Decent save by Bycroft with the striker clean through.

neither has Bycroft!

Blimey I just realised Drinan was playing then as the ball flew over his head from Sobo.

Yellow for Tshimanga for a very late foul.

You might notice Cain and Butterworth at some point!

Butterworth has had a few touches (none very good), Cain I just saw running 40 yards to close the keeper down, his first impact of any kind on the game.

Great run and cross from Butterworth but no striker can get on the end of it.

‘Tshimanga was unable to keep himself upright’

Tshimanga is genuinely one of the funniest players I’ve seen for us

Thats not a sentence that you normally hear.
(https://media1.tenor.com/m/QVjSvkvd6VYAAAAd/pinocchio-nose.gif)

Kirkman hits the bar....our bar...and heads it out on the rebound for a corner.

Kirkman plays a lovely 1-2 off the bar and heads it out for a corner (which Bycroft flaps at)

TBH I thought Bycroft did ok from that corner, he was heavily held back and still got his hand to the corner despite being fouled.

I seem to remember Dave Bamber going over in the penalty area on numerous occasions as well. Most of them resulted in penalties though!

Do I see a return of the fog?

Because he never looked like he was going for the foul, its Tshimangas first thought when he gets the ball though.

Town giving away a lot of loose balls.

Someone said it Saturday but Sobowale does one thing really well and then completely ruins it mere seconds later

He does, all the time! 1 min he looks like a real player then falls over and loses the ball next time.

If we genuinely want to progress in this cup we need to get Smith on for Drinan 2nd half.

Our tactics are basically soak up as much pressure as we can and clear the ball high and long and dont try to outpass them but his them on the break.

Is it just me or is this an awful game to watch?

Mists of time maybe but he was vertical on the halfway line - the shouts of timber went up when he was ten yards away from the penalty area and then he was horizontal when arriving inside the box.

Bambs was deceptively quick for such a big man too, no balance but fairly quick.

1 min added.

HT 0-0

Not a classic but still in it, not great to watch but it is what it is.

Off topic, but was this round done as north and south as earlier rounds are?

If so, Birmingham seem to be in the southern side, but Aston Villa in the northern.

Makes zero sense.

Not a bad half really, they clearly are more talented but we look organised enough. They'll probably have a moment of quality in the second half, but it doesn't seem like we're just going to roll over and that's all I really care about.

On another plus point, McCormack doesnt look out of his depth so far at all.

Got caught on the ball once but I think you have to forgive a defender the odd wobble in a siege.

Villa Park is north of St. Andrews, geographically  - have to draw the line somewhere.

2nd half (if we do really want to win) get Glatz, Ofoborh and Smith on for Cotterill, Drinan and Butterworth/Tshimanga and go for it.

So what is it that we are doing that makes us look more solid at the back?

Slightly off topic, but McGurk has scored for Yeovil.

The opposition havent scored yet. HTH :)

A typical McGurk goal too.

Trying very little attacking wise, to be a bit reductive. Much easier to be solid if you just get rid of everything compared to trying to start counter attacks.

It's not quite that simple but it certainly helps.

Hope we can grind this out to pens. From what I’ve seen online, Birmingham fans seem to think their bench is pretty weak, so hopefully if it gets to the hour mark like this, they don’t have too much firepower to change the game

Other than big Lukas Jukebox.

Not impressed with Glatzel this season at all but at least he can create a bit more, other than a tap in i can’t see the current two up front troubling the GK.

Tyrese Shade scores for Eastleigh too.

Harry Chard on for Kirkman.

2x 17 year olds in defence now.

Chard a welcome addition to the all time STFC vegetable xi

Chards 1st real touch wins a FK to Town near the touchline outside their box.

Fucking attrocious free kick from Cotterill.

0-1

McCormack major fuck up.

Butterworth down holding his head.

Game over

Ffs!

Was likely at some point. Put it out of mind and keep the standard up.

Really annoying to concede such a soft goal especially given the golden opportunity at the other end to test them

Definately. Shite FK by Cotterill leading up to that, I hope McCormacks head doesnt drop.

Wright nearly hits it into our own goal from a cross, gives them a corner.

Our right back really shouldnt be our most creative option.

Traditionally this season it's our centre back so this is progress of a sort.

Wright goes to the deck holding his bollocks and is limping a bit now.

https://x.com/sbahb_ytfc/status/1879264197579854328?s=46&t=oVOVVFL5yn5o1EyxCE_sEA

That turn is absolutely filthy.

Yes its not great when you have so many "alleged" attacking options in a team.

I dont give a flying fuck if Ollie doesnt rate McGurk I think hes fucking quality and exactly what we need with his creativity, 10 times better than Cotterill IMO.

Good save by Bycroft there.

Sorry 😢

But I think the answer was ‘not fannying around at the back’, which is what McCormack has done twice. The second time we were punished

Smith and Glatzel coming on
Tshimanga and Drinan off.

Drinan again had a really poor game today.

Whose bollocks?

Getting a bit foggy again....

And Tshimanga?

His own on this occassion :)

I thought Tshimanga did Tshimanga things, Drinan usually puts in a better shift, I dont expect 1 from Tshimanga now.

Would like to get Ofoborh on for Cotterill or Butterworth now, we have been over run in midsfield today and its been bypassed by us all game.

Nearly a penalty to them.

Sort of interesting, we've been playing four central midfielders but not had much impact.

Jake Cain is heading for one of the longest Town careers without making the slightest difference at any point.

Easy save for Bycroft despite being acrobatic.

I think Bycroft would be more suited in a volleyball team

44 games and 1 goal and probably 1 or 2 at most decent performance in that time too IIRC.

Ameen on for Butterworth.

Ofoborh on for Kilkenny.

1-1 Smith

Great cross from Wright onto Smiths head.

Cat, meet pigeons


Have we started calling him the Bedford Beckenbauer yet?

What a simple game! Cross it onto Smith’s head and it’s game on!

Wright is so good and delivering the crosses!

if we havent then....

Wright is wasted at CB but he looks poor when he doesnt start in defence.

Jukebox seems to have bulked up a lot and he used to be big anyway.

I worry that we haven’t got a robust defender like Delaney to look after him

That was a shame from Ameen did great to get into that position then runs it into touch after a lovely header from Smith to him

As this season goes on I think Smith is probably the best target man we have had since the "Chief" Wayne Allison.

1-2
FFS

WTF was Bycroft doing there?

That is why we need a better keeper - piss weak

Bycroft looked at fault to me?

Shows we still need a keeper

Bycroft doing starjumps on the line.

Oh Jack. After Holloway decided to do the "turns out I know more than the fans" thing after he made one save last time out...

Both our keepers are non league standard

Looked as though he was doing a shooting star jump.

They’ve obviously done their homework on Bycroft, he’s so bad at collecting crosses, just flaps his hands

Ollie has a target keeper and knows what our weaknesses are. We just need to now sign him.

What the fuck is Bycroft doing. Starjumps  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

4 mins added.

Well, we wouldn’t have scored any penalties and Bycroft wouldn’t have saved any.

Galling though

Bycroft Ffs what on earth was he doing?!

2 individual errors have cost us, 1 from a 17 year old and 1 from our "alleged" number 1 keeper.

I can forgive McCormack as hes young and raw and very much learning, but this is by no means Bycrofts 1st fuck up of the season (or last) so less forgivable.

Bycroft simply punches everything.

Corner to Town last seconds.

FT 1-2

Did well to get back in the game, cant fault the effort.

Great effort, didn’t disgrace ourselves at all. However, it is so clear that we need a goalkeeper. In our position, we just need a steady, more experienced pro. Bycroft may make some impressive, extravagant saves, but that doesn’t keep you up when you’re also making the mistakes he and Barden make. A Lee Camp type as we had in 20/21 wouldn’t go amiss

Didn’t think we would win, but, so disappointing to have got back into the game with the only bit of quality in the game only to throw it away with less that 5 mins to go

No injuries, no cards (apart from Tschimanga), outplayed but not outscored apart from  2 bad mistakes, left to concentrate on L2 safety.

Back that up Saturday and I'll be v. happy.

Sorry for Jack but that really is him done now.

Amazing from McGurk!

I wonder what he did for the rest of the game?

P.S. Sorry. Just a bit annoyed still at the last 5 mins of this game.

Subbed by ex-Swindon loan player Nouble after 77 mins.

Holloway:
- Enjoyed the game
- Wouldn't know there was such a gulf in league position
- Young lads did us proud. They all did us proud
- The manner of both goals was disappointing
- Couldn't of asked for any more, but hated the goals
- Closing, pressing and organising. Everything looks as if we are moving the right way. But, we lost 2-1
- Wasn't McCormack's fault. Never let it bounce. Everyone ran forward. They weren't ready to do their job. There were 3-4 mistakes in the build up. After that, it didn't affect him at all. Well done son!
- Chard is a tenacious LB. Kirkman has a sore ankle, so had to bring Chard on. Thought he did brilliantly
- They were better than Notts Co. Think we have learned from their big raking diagonal balls
- Gutted. Hate losing. Can't let goals like that it. But crowd responded to the way we played
- Disappointed but not downhearted with the level of performance
- Cain was excellent. He did what Holloway wanted. He made a statement. He wants to play for this club. Took a hell of a knock on his shin.
- Holloway criticised the referee. He gave freekicks to them and not for us.
- That was as good as we have pressed in the time Holloway has been there
- Midfield line were ready for what Birmingham wanted to do.
- To let goals in like that, as a group, is not good enough, compared to everything else we did.
- Bitterly disappointed that the backline left McCormack to hang out to dry. Rolling it back to him when there were 4 on him was wrong. They should have made angles. They should have told him to clear. They didn't. They left him on his own.
- No player moves in the last couple of days. He feels as if he is chasing a rabbit down a hole in this window. If it happens it happens. What Holloway needs to do is to make these players play like this again and again and we'll get out of this.

Your summaries are always excellent and appreciated NMH :clap:

Yeah, thanks NMH

Not so much energy from Holloway in this interview. Says much of the same as above, but notable for the message at the end to Clarke, as his baby was taken to hospital yesterday morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCnIN-szh_E

I see a lot of Brum fans on X moaning about last nights setup. Tinpot used very often

Such a shame Bycroft chooses to do Bycroft things. Made a few handy saves and he definitely has shot stopping and good reactions in his locker. But that star jump/superman thing for their winning goal, absolutely abject. I noticed that every corner Birmingham had was swung in on top of him. He got a lot of soft free kicks from punching away and I think this seemed to be his one tactic. Didn't work.

Not a bad showing all told, especially with a couple of kids in the side, and then Ameen brought on. I thought Wright was tremendous last night and Sobowale continues to show flashes. It's a shame he seems to be the only creative outlet we have at the moment.

Cotterill and Butterworth, for me are just too inconsistent. Cotterill's free kick before the Birmingham goal summed him up and Butterworth looks to have moved in permanently down blind Alley. I don't get irritated much these days but Glatzel is seriously trying my patience. I think its because we saw how good he can be and this season he's been absolutely woeful. Desperately low on confidence clearly.

I haven't had a look at the replay yet. Did Bycroft fluff it, or did Smith's deflection force the fluff?

But we don’t have to live in Birmingham  :)

Anything in particular?

I think it's natural for anyone from that part of the world to moan about absolutely everything anyway.

https://x.com/NatJPeters/status/1879446671790391368?t=75kREUrqE_Jp7gSNCifdww&s=19

Bycroft just manages to find a way to do Bycroft things.  There is generally always one large balls up from him per game and has been/can be critical in games and can cost points.  We have to be looking at getting another GK in as I dont think he is up to the job.  Even the simple expected saves he makes are often exaggerated to the degree that it would make Frank Talia look quite reserved.  But then he makes a great save from their fellas header so it would show to me that there is a GK in there somewhere.  Oh I dunno....

Still, a good exercise last night, played well, didnt get dicked, didnt pick up any serious injuries, some players got minutes in their legs, some pushed their case to start on Saturday so onwards to Barrow.

Best of luck to Birmingham, they are certainly taking the LDV Paint Pot Pizza CheckaWindscreen Trophy seriously.

Knowing several Brummie quite well I can confirm this as true.

This lot would aspire to be a tin pot club.

Brummies are just Scottish stripped of their generosity !

Hard to disagree really. Under Clem we are tinpot. Every time i see the famous shop puddle, i think tinpot. Lat season it took a volunteer to clean to Rolex clock FFS. Doesn't get more tinpot than that.

They want to win the EFL Trophy so they can wear 3 tin pot stars on their shirts.

Fearless leader Hall says they will put roof in the toilets. This lot are so thick man, you would have thought they would have dealt with this the last time it came to national attention. Thick as mince.

Probably be begging Jez Webb for some free chipboard next so they dont have to pay for materials

Will probably be perspex sheeting  :D

Stuck up with bluetack, then it falls on someones head :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Cardboard and gaffer tape probably. I assume they haven’t considered lighting.

Good news: the camera can't see the toilet any more
Bad news: neither can you

Excuse my ignorance on the whole camera over the toilets thing

…but…

Why the fuck is it even there?
How fucking long has it been there?
Which is newer the toilets or the camera? Like did we build toilets in view of a camera or did we put a camera in viewing the toilets? Either way, why?
….and why the fuck has no one just removed the sodding thing?

The late, great jazz singer, author and art critic, George Melly in his very funny book, "Rum, Bum, and Concertina",  if I recall correctly, dedicates an entire chapter to the city of Birmingham.  He wasn't very complimentary.

Having lived there, Villa fans were normally optimistic, whereas Birmingham fans were quite the opposite.  St. Andrews used to be a slum within a slum, whereas Villa Park seemed bright and cheerful in comparison.  Sometimes, you have to just consider the source.

I don’t think tired cliches about a city are particularly relevant here. I doubt most inhabitants of Birmingham have spent the day telling colleagues about the futuristic and cultural delights of Swindon after last night’s visit either. What Birmingham fans are qualified to have an opinion on is the way that they were dealt with last night as a group of fans. The understaffing of turnstiles, bars, shops, stewarding etc, all reduces our income, even if there is an initial spend involved. It makes no commercial sense. It’s completely boneheaded. It makes the club weaker, because we are poorer for it. If they cannot get the simple things right, there is very little chance they will do anything remotely creative or innovative to jump start this club.

Is it the case that we go through agencies that will no longer provide staff because we haven’t been paying?

For anyone who defends the regime so vehemently on here, does this kind of thing not demonstrate to you that, after 3 years+ of running this club, this lot are going backwards and are incapable of getting better?

One of the complaints was the staff didn't know if they could sell alcohol and no senior staff member in sight. This was another complaint from our own fans during the fog issue.

Clear bare bones and minimum wage staff just left to it with no senior figure around. Not fair on them.

In the (almost) words of the noted philosopher and club administration expert Taylor Swift, "it's us, hi, we're the problem, it's us".

Sick to death of the club being took the piss out by the rest of the EFL (so they should) - we are such a shitshow it’s unbelievable, lost for words with these thick pricks in charge.

I received a comment today, on very good authority, that it is not just the fans of other EFL clubs that are aware of what a shit show we now are.  Owners of other clubs agree.

Which?

Would betray a confidence, but not in our league and we haven't played them this season.  Football is a small world, word gets around.