Thetownend.com

Is this one available on Sky+?

Yes, main game on

Just checked on Sky Sports and it is indeed on Sky Plus

Should be easy enough to find on in pubs then. Was thinking about driving but I'd rather have a pint.

Dry Jan is doing my head in.

Surely we are due an away win. Our last 6 record (3 pts) is only worsened by barrow (2 pts) and Tranmere (0 pts).

And we have Tranmere Tuesday which I'm confident about for a change.

Would also say we had hard away games over Christmas and bagged points.

Tiny Rebel in the City Centre always used to make the trip to Newport so much more bearable as usually the football was dross.  :pint:

We've seen a few wins there in the JPT days back around 10 years ago and the 2-1 win there in the 21/22 season was enjoyable with a late Jack Payne winner.

I think I would be happy with a point at Rodney Parade on Friday night.

My 5th time visiting Rodney Parade on Friday. The previous times we’ve lost 2-1, 2-0, 2-1 and 2-1 so lump your money on a 2-1 Newport win…

Newport sit 2 places below us in the table and 2 points worse off from 3 less games played, they have lost their last 4 league games in a row.

Home form for them is W5 D2 L3 F19 A16.
Swindon away form is W1 D7 L6 F13 A23.

They are 21st in the last 6 games form table with their only win in the last 6 league games being a 6-2 vs MK Dongs a form run of DWLLLL scoring 11 and conceding 15.

We are 9th in the form table with a run of DDWLDW scoring 7 and conceding 6.

Town have only won there once in the last 7 meetings with 2 draws.

 

I think ,lie the home game, they also have a defensive selection issue.
(good info from fat camp last night Mr Lurker).

Harrogate vs Colchester tonight. Better for us if Colchester win and then Harrogate would be level games and below on goal difference, a team we've legit caught up to.

Fingers crossed.

Despite the recent upturn in results, we are absolute dogshit away and Newport isn't a place we do well at. Take a point and move on to another big game on Tuesday

Big storm incoming Friday - might impact the game.

Tis only 90mph winds, will replicate our wind tunnel so we'll be fine.

Trying to work out travel arrangements. Looks like the last train back to Swindon is 21.33  :-[

It is, no other option than the bus or to drive. Unless you stay overnight in Newport.🤔🤔no ta

Proper shitter that. Looking forward to it though

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32Gn6-ZqDMA
. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErjabN-ge6g

So, a forward in for tomorrow then.

I think he said the chairman is over on Friday😁

"400% certain" :hmmm:

Looking for a pub to watch tomorrow in Swindon. My two locals have not upgraded their sky subscriptions to allow Sky+

Its on the sky sports main channel 412 isnt it? Not on red button. Sky sports + is automatically part of the sports subscription

It's on Skysport's plus - Pubs only have access to that channel if they have Sky Q (most do not). The Wyvern Tavern in the town centre does as that's where I will be heading (watched the Notts County game there the other week). I think that the Merlin may also have Sky Q but don't quote me on that.

Sheff U v Hull is the main channel.

I thought you could still watch channel 412 even without sky q - you can only watch the main game shown on at the time and not the streams?

I think you can on your personal sky subscription, however, pubs have to have Sky q & red buttin doesn't show up as a channel like you posted.

Got you. Bloody silly if you ask me

It's a way of getting more money from the pubs when they pay thousands a month anyway.

I'm going old town probably Castle. They're pretty reliable with that stuff.

Tried to watch something a while back in the globe and they still had Sky Digital interface from about 2003 with the blue and yellow, listed as sky sports 1, 2, 3 and Xtra. Not a chance. 

The Queenstown will definitely be showing it.

He means the main sky sports + channel without hitting the red button, rather than sky sports main event/sky sports football.

Hopefully easy enough for pubs.

Oh, apologies, I didn't even realise there was a real Sky Sports+ channel

Just got in from a jaunt around Dorzet me lovvers. The Wyvern Tavern, Queens Town Club (not a member), The Merlin possibly, any advance on that lot?

I'm from Dorzet, do I still sound like a yokel?  - yep.

Ah, might be okay tomorrow then as it’s not “behind the red button” which only works for pubs if they have Sky Q. I assume that they can access the Skysports plus channel.

You can get into the Queenstown by paying a quid, but most of the time they don’t bother.   Beer is a bit cheaper than pub prices.

Pre match what's occurin' in The John Wallace Linton.
Just took a quick spin around the Newport Rising Chartist Walk.
Reg would approve.

Can't beat an important 6 pinter ahead of an evening kick off & a big local derby to boot.

After not much thought decided that a pub crawl would be more rewarding than marvelling at the late Elizabethan architecture of Newport's council estates.

Today will put a dent in the slightly dry January drinking regime but a thirst has to be quenched.

A pity that the Tiny Rebel shut up shop in March last year, quoting a "slowly imploding" city centre.
There are parts that seem deserted but it's not as desolate & grim(sby) as some of the other ports of call on the circuit.

The Weird Dad Brewery Tap Room looks like an interesting option.
A nanobrewery, which is smaller than a microbrewery apparently, now there's lovely.

Have warmed a bit more to Holloway.
Seems to know what's required and has hinted at building for next season.
Wouldn't be averse to him sticking around and being given the chance to raise the on pitch standards beyond the decay & neglect surrounding the club.
<Yeah, pick a caveat, there are plenty to choose from>.

A not unrealistic opportunity for an elusive away win tonight.
Slight concern is the number of games in hand for our immediate rivals.
Slight concern eased by points in the bag & lack of competence of said rivals in winning matches so far.

Eyes have been on our special friends across the pond this week.
So, come 10pm will we be as miserable as a scion of undocumented Welsh migrants who works in DEI & is midway through gender reassignment.
Or will we be as happy & proudful as a pride of pardoned Proud Boys (Newport branch).

Bad metaphors aside, enjoy the game folks & enjoy the free Saturday even more.

“What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.”
W.H.Davies.

But dont park in the members car park you bastards!!

Anyone know if they are showing it at the Village Hotel, shaw ridge? Saw the Vale play off game in there.

So is my wife and yes she does too :) actually she talks more like the Cadbury Caramel Bunny!

What's the weather supposed to be in Wales tonight with these weather warnings around ?

They should make a website for that :)

Light showers, 7mph south-westerly,  20mph gusts (met office)
Chance of more persistent light rain, 7mph south-westerly(bbc)

He doesn’t subscribe to it.  ;)

Current weather in Newport is...

Sun is out, sky is blue.
Fuck you Clem, you don't ring true.

Weirdly, Bet365 have Ameen at a shorter price to score than Harry Smith.

Do they know summat we don’t ?

It’s been like that for a month or so, they pay little attention to L2.

I've made a small fortune from Harry Smith on bet 365. He's nearly 3-1 to score at any time tonight. Or was yesterday

Great Post.

Hadn't realised the game was "tonight" !

Obviously read your post,   Now only 6/4 with Skybet and Paddy Power,   Can’t believe we are odds on to win.

:D

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GiEwirOXAAADZY1?format=jpg&name=large)

Unchanged, Westley on the bench.

I am off to watch on TV for a change and have a few beers too so no updates tonight.

We’re about to trawl around Swindon to find a venue. Nothing over west swindon AFAICS

It's very odd that we've decided we need another forward rather than defensive cover in the circumstances.

Think it was in the Moonraker that a large reason why they didn’t go for Raymond was due to prioritising defensive additions before the window closes

Morfuni at the game

The Newport program has posts from this forum in the Swindon town preview pages.

God help them

Hahaha

Royalties :D

Perhaps it's one of Bamboos, would save them having to come up with any other content.

Sheehan and Cuthbert scoring for Luton in 2017 in the game before us - It’s a sign I tell thee!

And then I saw Paul Harte! 🤦‍♂️

(And Luton still lost on aggregate)

Wyvern Tavern has it on every screen, with sound on, happy days!! COYR

Flappy keeping again

6ft 9in striker who hasn’t scored before! Great!
0-1

Do everything in our power to get that experienced keeper in. Bycroft needs to be taken out the firing line

Bycroft had to do much better there!

Great strike

What an equaliser! Smith
1-1

What a bloody strike. Get in

Bosh have that!

Hurrah. A day for the very tall.

I’m no keeper but his position, the angle of the shot, where it hits him - looks so easy to just turn around the post for a corner.

I threw on a tenner after reading this, Thankyou Sir

There’s way too much intensity in this game. I will be shocked if we don’t see a red card!

Great tackle by sobo, poor dive by the winger

I forgot how niggly and shithousery Newport and their fans are..

The ‘handball’ count is already very high

I got 11/4 . Unbelievable odds!

Harry Smith booked in a game like this is not ideal

2nd half, we need to be niggling Hudlin and they Smith

Poor quality but quite lively.

Smith needs to be careful

Newport crowd must be the biggest load of whingers we’ve played against in ages. 

I was trying not to be too harsh when penning my views on the first half, lets just say it's like watching a game on x1.5 speed.  Zero quality (Smith finish aside, but even that came from pinball), but sort of OK to watch still.  Played like an Ice Hockey game.

Frenetic. We need to find a way to keep the ball into our attacking third, and chances will come. Our midfield is combative but we’ve no time on the ball. Nobody having a bad game or a blinder, apart from poor old Jack Bycroft, who had to either push that wide, or keep hold of it.

Disappointed with us in that half:
- Bycroft flap
- Cox is just not a good LB/WB
- Sobowale having a torrid time
- Midfield struggling to create anything. Kilkenny running into trouble. Ofoborh being moved round the pitch to provide cover. Clarke harrying but not much more
- Nichols has won a couple of free kicks
- Drinan has run and headed a lot. But his headers don’t seem to go to team mates
- Smith winning a lot, but no one partnering him

Think this might be a long second half.

Well, it's not a great spectacle but we're battling. A bit too many heavy touches in midfield from all 3 of our lads. Smith winning everything as usual. Poor goal to concede first Cox getting caught out of position then Bycroft not dealing with what looked a straightforward save. Great equaliser though. Defence coping pretty well. Come on yr!!!

To be fair to him, he wasn't the worst Swindon player in that goal, Delany dangled a foot while stood shoulders square in such a fashion some of the U16 boys I coach would have cringed.

Seems like they have a wind tunnel like the County Ground the amount of times we overhit the ball.

We look vulnerable down the wings, but another battling display so far.
Good finish by Smith, but we haven’t created much else.

My other half asked why they had a rockhopper penguin playing for them :D

Agree that Delaney should have been alive to the rebound, but 99 times out of 100, the keeper saves it and that doesn’t matter.

Usually when a keeper isn’t up to it, you’re taking about command of the area and positioning - but we seem to have such obvious errors quite frequently with Bycroft and Barden.

😂. I was thinking Wednesday Addams!

I actually meant on the run through before the initial shot

It should be said, cracking strike from Harry Smith. He really is a very good lower league striker.

I’m sure he’ll end up scoring, but struggling to see what Nichols brings us.

In real time from behind the goal to the left looked like a decent block by Bycroft with not much control over where it went.

Didn't have the benefit of replay.

Could go either way this.

Cant recall Nichols doing anything in the first half.

Must admit compared to our recent run of managers - I actually trust Holloway’s judgement more so…

…but…I’m equally amazed & disappointed that we’ve bought in two non goal scoring strikers (of which we have in abundance already) and not a goal keeper. That should have been top of the shopping list.

Here comes the new lad, on for Nicholas who has been, to put it politely, low key in this game.

Based on what it used to be like the pitch doesn’t look too bad

Ofoborh had been my MotM !

Hoorah!

New kid!

Debut goal!

2-1 Westley

Really smart finish. Ball was bobbling into him

That is a very nice finish young man

Lovely.

That didn’t take long!  :D

Fox in the box!

Hold on, i'm not happy, everyone said he was non scoring...  sick of all of these lies man :D

Fair enough.

Who was moaning about that signing on here…

Now use a bit of nouse for once!

He's worked hard since he came on. I've not seen electric pace exactly but he's certainly mobile.

He’s certainly full of beans…

1055 away fans on a Friday night, not bad at all.

All the negative comments about Westley before a ball was kicked….time to trust Holloway.

Talking of running - I wish I was as fit as Drinan. He seems to run faster and further as the game goes on!

Cain on at lwb and Tshimanga on too.

However this ends up, it has been a solid, combative, competent performance.

Such a good second half performance

Six minutes added. I'm not convinced we'll concede in them, which is novel.

Westley was a punt.

He's looked miles better than Nichols. All hail the punt

Att 5,244 great effort considering there are no trains after 09.30

That’s really fucked it

This should be a good win. Westley looks like he can compete at the top end of League Two, although this is against a team towards the bottom end.

As usual, Co-coms Dave is absolute garbage. ''Ooh it must've shaved the post there. Let off for Swindon that'' ....it went about 5yrds wide.

He also said that Sobowale scored. You could hear the tumbleweed as Hawes took a deep breath and then just said ''you're listening on BBC Wilts Sport...''

Big ones to the grand of fans travelling. Anyone can fuck off if they have a bad word to say about them. Tremendous, the owners don't deserve these loyal freeloaders.

Job done.

Bravo Mr Holloway - MotM ?

Very impressive. Winning is a nice habit to have!

Bakerlite tried to shithouse a penalty at the end there. Snekky git.

Disgusting away win should keep Ollie happy👏

Second away win of the season, baby :toocool:

Newport were there for the taking, but we took them. Lots of games we haven't managed that in.

gotta give credit to Holloway

I know we’ve played more games than anyone else but we are as close to the playoffs as we are the relegation places.

A win on Tuesday now to back this up would be huge

Vital win. Thought Holloway was a truly mental appointment and whilst I don’t like the way he’s gobbed off in interviews (Bradford and the orange hat comments come to mind) he has done a brilliant job. Look a different team to the Mark Kennedy side

Really enjoyed watching that, brilliant 3 points, new lad ran a lot and took his goal very well!

Well, great result. And we should've had a pen. Midfield was superb second half. Sobo MOM for me. Have we "sacked" another manager?🙂

I feel like that. I will never like the bloke but if we get results, that's irrelevant

Couldn't see him on the bench tbf. But I only saw the second half

Another vital win, real daylight between us and the dropzone now, long may it continue.

Big win against a fellow relegation contender. A few more of those in the coming weeks please.

Class second half from the lads. Really well done.

Westley looks an intelligent player and took his goal nicely.

As close to the top 7 as we are the bottom 2 now! Didn't realise we had played more games than anyone else but would rather have the points on the board - bound to be some unwelcome fixture congestion in there which we won't be part of.

That is a very nice win.

We are now the same amount of points off the play offs as we are off the drop. Wow

I wonder if this is the earliest we could ever call a season dead. Not going up, not going down.

Apparently Town are now as close to the POs as they are to relegation  :soapy tit wank:

What if we take 6 points from Tranmere and Carlisle over the next week? :beers:

Fantastic win, we might be staying up! Was clem given a warm round of applause like normal?

I’ll cream my jeans

I think today showed again just how desperate we are for an experienced goalkeeper.

Ian Holloways Red and white army.

I'd be delighted, but we'd still only be beating teams below us. Beat Port Vale as well and we'll talk...

Not trying to be a downer, we'd just need one of the greatest runs of fixtures of all time to make the playoffs from here - it's not just the points, it's the sheer number of teams we'd need to make them up on. I'll do the maths later but we'd basically need title winning form or better over the last 18 games.

Sarky fucker! Those messages were posted at exactly the same time!🙂

I thought the two defenders were culpable for allowing fucking Goldilocks to steer the ball in while they stood still admiring his two tone dreads.

Massive 3 points, delighted with that.  ;D

A debut goal for Joe Westley, great start.

We have done the double over Newport this season.  :eek:

For comparison ,last year we had 34 points after 28 games, this season 31 points after 28 games but a tonne of momentum going forward!  :)

I did the maths last week and discovered we’d likely need better PPG than any other team in the top 4 divisions is currently achieving.

This Westley lad might be half decent but can he do it on a cold Tuesday night in the Winter at Newpor...ohh  ;)

Alwaya on the leg pull. Did find it funny though :girlgiggle:

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/26947/13295899/newport-1-2-swindon-league-two-highlights

We just need to keep it going and take the form into next season.

Enjoyed that, happy to finally see an away win.
Felt like a proper away day.

For a league 2 promotion team, who would you keep from this team?

Very happy with that.
The better team on the night won.
It's been a good day.

Not a huge amount of quality.

Jar Jar Binks couldnt miss after Bycroft made the initial save from the first shot...but it stemmed from Cox fuck up.

Shit control gave Smith a sniff but fuck me, he walloped that!

Our second was a rare piece of football in the 90 plus 6.

Should of had a Penalty...fucked up the header and pushed it away with this arm..ref looked right at it!

glad they didnt have many corners as they targeted balls right at Bycroft. The header was well wide but if on target i think Bycroft was done for.

Massive result..

We now have some steel and fight in us....under Kennedy we would of lost that tonight!

Get in...

Taffs 1 Town 2

Most of them I think.
They’ve all looked the part under Holloway.
But more threat upfront wouldn’t go a miss. Smith will get goals. Drinan will give you hard work but little return - add another goal threat to those two (hopefully that can be Westley) and we are alright.

New keeper a must. A bit more depth at CB that isn’t Grant Hall.

Then you’re looking at other option players like wingers & creative players, mavericks.

At the moment we very much feel like a plan A team. At the moment plan A is working but not sure we have enough variety of players to have effective plans Bs & Cs

Yeah, I think that all of our 1st eleven are good enough to be involved in a promotion challenging squad, there are areas that need improving on for sure but if we had to play Delaney for a month I wouldn't be terrified, he's improved so much in the last 6 games or so.

More depth in midfield is a glaring area for me, aswell as different options upfront.  GK goes without saying.

I think this squad was very poorly coached and managed pre Holloway and we're now seeing that they're not actually that shit. 

As others say, he drives me up the wall, but he actually does seem to know what he's trying to accomplish on the pitch.  It's been so underrated actually having a football man in the building even if I turn his interviews off more than not.

Agreed,
Ian Holloway has turned this team into a mid table Division 4 outfit.
But to compare this to the team Wellens went up a few years back is a none starter.    

Looking forward to Tuesday

Thankfully Holloway has been around long enough & coached at every level to know how to tactically set up players & teams based on their strengths & weakness - rather than coming in with a ‘style’ & trying to get players who aren’t anywhere near talented enough to play that way to play that style.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSfoax05yjM
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBU10YE4VMw
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2L3Aw1FTIs

Yup.

Simplified it, played to strengths. That covers it. Not rocket science

I see the Australian was at last nights game

Crap football but we did what was needed against a typical Div 2 side, Holloway is also bringing youngsters on but its a reflection off this league that 3 of them out with long term injuries. What the hell was that up front for Newport!

Did he have a Bovril? ;)

I know we all have opinions and see things differently but for me Sobo was one of the worst on the pitch tonight. Apart from the run for the goal he did very little else and was always too far away from the little number 7.
But great run down the line be for Westley to squeeze home

I think the corner has been turned, but the fact we have to still look up from mid table shows just how far we had slipped.

Give Holloway time, some stability with the squad, and hopefully we can kick on. This lot, minus quite a bit of deadwood, with some width, pace and creativity - and next season could be interesting.

I think this squad is capable of promotion next season. Obviously need a keeper and send Tshimanga back, the only outfield player who's not good enough

Even more important is that Holloway needs to be signed up on a longer contract. He has got us where we are now and he will get us promoted!

Agreed, his appointment split the fanbase but credit where it’s due he’s slowly turning things around on the pitch and now the fans need to back him.

I totally agree he's improved us dramatically. I'm yet to be convinced he could build a promotion side - hard work and effort are certainly helpful but you usually need a bit of flair to go up. Maybe it's just adapting to where we are now, but he seems to be too wedded to hard working players above all else. Perhaps with a clean slate in summer that changes.

If we did have a real challenge under him, it feels like it would look more like Sturrock than Wellens.

He's earning a go though - just let's not overreact to some wins against bad teams. Harder challenges to come.

Of course, the real reason I doubt we could challenge isn't Holloway, it's the people above him.

Tldr: cautiously optimistic

It's not clear whether we are playing how he'd ultimately want us to play, or more how we need to play right now. So maybe he'll be more dynamic in the future.

But also not seen him build a side yet, which you think he'd be more than capable of, but there were some noises from the Grimsby fans to the contrary.

That's assuming we need to build a new side. Maybe we keep the nucleus of this one.

I like his positivity and the fact that he seems to know what he’s talking about and that he's getting through to the players.

Solid if uninspiring quality wise win, played as a team and a unit and cant fault them for that at all, a great and much needed 3 points that.

Congrats to Ollie as well as all 15 players that played.

Maybe Bycroft should have held on to the shot or pushed it wide rather than back at the striker (Hightower Jar Jar) but other than that we rarely looked in too much trouble defensively, extra plus point the goal by Westley, cool and calmly taken.

Blimey dont the Welsh like to moan.


Newport report.

https://markvickery007.medium.com/another-insipid-2nd-half-as-county-buckle-18a80040e6ed

It was poor handling by Bycroft, but the bloke ghosted past Cox like he wasn't even there and then rode a very poor / piss weak tackle attempt by Delaney so you could argue it shouldn't even have got to Bycroft in the first place. Still waiting for a better keeper though.

I don't disagree with that (The SWOT analysis)

Or that promotion is delusional.

But hey, it's nice to be able to delude ourselves, we've been miserable for fucking ages.

It’s nice just to see progression on the pitch.

I think that’s pragmatism to get us out of this spot. His teams of old always had creative and/or players in too. I took a look at some of his squads down the years - after a couple of years once he had shaped what he had to work with. At QPR, he had a midfield the centred around Martin Rowlands, and he had Gareth Ainsworth wide as well. At Blackpool in 2011 he had Matt Phillips and Tom Ince. So he isn’t against that type of player - maybe he just needs the summer. He’s always had steely midfielders too - and it’s a refreshing change. This time last year, we were crying out for one, and now our midfield 3 has two proper combative players, and one bitey one in Kilkenny.

I've been under the impression that his managerial "failure" at Grimsby may not have occurred had he avoided mixing it with an ownership role.  He may have been out of date arriving here but he undoubtedly knows professional football and seems to have been an effective coach and motivator.

Cox had a poor game for me, off the pace most of the game. As for Bycroft there is a bid in for a keeper in L1 thats been accepted apparently, just down to the player now if he wants to come or not I hear.

I don't disagree with any of that, including that the Welsh like to moan given the tantrums from their fans last night.

This squad is not capable of promotion, in terms of league position and quality.  Great to see Hollaway getting a necessary tune out of them though and long may it continue this season.  Get ourselves safe and then allow Holloway to build on the standouts, then we can start talking about having a team capable of promotion.

We're actually spending money! A transfer fee! God almighty!

I can't even remember the last time we owned a solid keeper.

I didnt say it was for a fee ;) TBH I dont know if its a perm or a loan.

Has to be a loan :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

results not going particularly well for us early on. Carlisle Accrington and Tranmere all winning. Morecambe and Harrogate both still 0-0.

Still plenty of time to go.

It's ok unless they all win all their games in hand, which they won't

TBH mate at this stage of the season I am not overly bothered by other results as long as we keep on winning, I will check the tables next time in March.

But, it would be good if the teams below and around us lost, of course!

True, teams down the bottom rarely win their games in hand. They rarely win any games!

Walsall getting smashed at Bradford. You honestly don't have to be THAT good to go up. I still thinks Notts Co will win this league

Best team we have seen for sure

Anyone who thinks this squad is good enough to mount a promotion challenge next season getting carried away by an upturn in form. I said early in the season (under Kennedy) that whilst he wasn't helping, the squad was good enough to finish 17th or thereabouts at best. I still think that is the case. With this style we'll be competitive against anyone mid table and below, but will have mixed results, because the style makes for tight games.
Holloway has stripped everything back to basics - no messing around at the back - just hoof it forward and fight for 2nd balls in the area between the centre circle and opposition penalty area. Smith is a key part of that obviously. This has reduced the goals against, but we look vulnerable on set pieces and continue to concede free kicks in dangerous areas (one in stoppage time last night as an example).
If we look at last night's game, it was good enough to get a 2-1 win against a poor Newport side (who are the worst I've seen this season) - but we didn't have many clear chances and when only a goal in front a mistake can cost us points.
In terms of the squad looking forward - we concede too many goals from set pieces and from rebounds when the keeper makes a save.
We have a number of players who are either always injured (Hall) or who can't last 90 mins or if they do find Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday a struggle - Cox, Ofoborh, Clarke (possibly) as examples.
Although we  have more goal threat than under Kennedy, we still don't create a lot of chances in open play - and Cox and Wright have improved the set piece deliveries since Holloway took charge.

We also need Morfuni to sell to owners who will rebuild from bottom up - including fixing the stadium issues and sorting permanent training facilities to enable the academy to continue to flourish.


 

I’ve not seen anybody posting on here suggesting the squad is good enough for promotion maybe it’s the Facebook lot. What I would say it’s a shit league proven again today where second placed Crewe losing at home to Accrington and if Holloway had been here from the start of the season we could have been looking at the play offs.

Holloway since the Colchester nadir (not including) is running at 1.8 PPG, equivalent to 51pts, which would put us second.

Which is great, but it does ignore the one point from four league games before that - which brings him down to 1.35, which puts us on 38 points and about 10th.

Good chance to continue the excellent form with two very poor teams in our next two. Then Vale, which will be harder!

Would settle for a draw away at Carlisle.

Carlisle and Accrington won in the end so as we were before Friday.

Tranmere drew, Morecambe and Harrogate lost.

We're actually now legitimately above Harrogate now as they're also on 28 games.

Surprisingly our goal difference is pretty good

The comparison I would make with this team is with Kingy's 2002/3 team.

We were in desperate trouble that autumn (Cheltenham away etc) and Coppell walked away. That side just rolled up their sleeves to grind out results and finished mid table.

The next season with a couple of additions like Tommy Mooney we made the play offs.

I'm on a high-ku
That Swindon have won away
Let's hope it maintains

To explain oneself in seventeen syllables if very diffic

ult-imately, that is very much a struggle for me, at times

I said it. But I said it before the "upturn in form". I stand by it. I'm amazed at how good some people seem to think you have to be to get out of this league. The players have just been badly managed before now. I think with a decent keeper and a good replacement for the not good enough Tshimanga,we could very well be contenders for promotion. And another thing, funny how every team we beat suddenly becomes the "worst team we've played"

This league is absolute shite. I was flicking back and forth between MK / Wimbledon and Walsall / Bradford. The standard is abysmal really. That Garner side would absolutely walk this division now.

I think being solid, well drilled and well organised with maybe 1 or 2 players who can produce something is enough to get you top 7. Holloway's certainly showed some signs that we're heading that way, but I'm not letting myself get carried away. The better players in this squad won't be here next season, and I'm never really confident in our recruitment.

That is generally the biggest problem. Anyone who does half decent goes somewhere that isn't a shit show and its then rinse and repeat with promised of learned lessons that some lap up every time.

Another problem is agents getting tapped up who then tell the players they can double their wages by moving up the leagues.

Less likely when Jatta leaves them in this window for pastures new and better. In talks with Plymouth currently for a fee of around £750k.

Well at least we have players that are half decent now. Few weeks ago several said they were all crap

And the manager😁

Jimmy
Some even wrote on here about how "we" thought Ian Holloway would be the right person to get this group of players going.
IH has a really good management record except Grimsby... STFC are lucky to have him here. Fact.

And several didn’t think he was the right manager and may have to change their opinion if results continue to improve.

umm. at least add correct balance to your argument

he was an absolute disaster at Millwall and Plymouth too.

Legitimate concerns. Nobody is going to complain about being wrong!

I hate to think where we'd be with Kennedy at the wheel. Though I'm sure he would argue he'd have turned it around too.

Bottom. Rock bottom and almost out of time to sort it out.

Don’t care what Holloway did elsewhere, I’m only interested in what he does in his tenure here, and so far it’s a vast improvement.

Bottom of the league and still playing five at the back with Freckleton rocking the armband and an imaginary wedding ring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PGWwa-3Xqc

Wright gets his shirt grabbed by a Newport fan: 6.02

Smith's nutcracker: 6.52

If Kennedy was allowed to continue we would have been fucked by now.
He should be selling clothes pegs at the village market.

He wanted us to play like Liverpool circa 1998 but when that didn’t work he had no plan B

Not sure we really had much of a plan A either…

Excellent footage.  The handball also.  Well done the young lad.  v. balanced comment too.  hope his team stay up (but not at our expense)