Swindon town V Bristol Rovers official matchday thread

[Ralphy]

I still don't understand why Wilson took Austin off when we're 3-0 nil down at home?? Can anyone tell me?? 

And when we went 4-0 down, why didn't we just put 4 up front and say fuck it?

[jonny72]

i've always liked kuffour and he took his goal superbly today.
cheeky bid in the summer?i dont reckon he'd be on top wedge

I don't tend to pay too much attention to other teams players but Kuffour is one I have noticed and wouldn't mind seeing us sign - we could really do with a striker with his pace. He's only got a year left on his contract so they might not want too much for him and he can't be on that much at Rovers.

[Arriba]

he was superb here for the gas last season too jonny,and he's a bit different to what we have.pericard is just a shitter version of paynter and then we have nothing else.

[Mexicano Rojo]

Danny ward is a striker.

[Arriba]

maybe he should get a go at some point then.

[DV]

See now when Wilson bought on Ritchie I though he was going to put him left and push Ward up top and go 4-3-3.

But we put him right and stayed with 4-4-2.

I though Ritchie was MOTM he controlled it twice and beat the first man with both his crosses!!

[jonny72]

What will end up bothering me most about today is Wilson starting with the same 11 players next week. No matter what the result or how bad a game someone has, at present the 11 he started with today will start every game. We do have some other options now but by not using them you risk players becoming complacent.

I'd drop Greer for Morrison, Sheehan for LJF, Ward for Ritchie and Paynter for Pericard. If only to send out a message to the players that their places are not guaranteed and that a shit result will have consequences.

At minimum Ritchie should be given a start as he actually looked pretty decent when he came on.

[Arriba]

no no no no no.ritchie did well but no way shoukld those players be dropped.
it's 1 game we've lost in 14

[DV]

Let's be fair those players have just gone 13 games unbeaten.

They deserve to be cut some slack and at a minimum the chance to put it right.

[jonny72]

The four changes I listed is overkill but I reckon some change would be good to stop players becoming complacent and to give some of the others a chance to see what they are capable of - Pericard and Ritchie in particular. Bar Ward I'd say the other 10 players are all untouchable at the moment and could take a shit on Wilson's desk and still not get dropped.

As I said before I don't think anyone was particularly bad today, but you need to change things once in a while.

[magicroundabout]

Let's be fair those players have just gone 13 games unbeaten.

They deserve to be cut some slack and at a minimum the chance to put it right.

totally agree.

Question. Against who did we last lose to in the league before our 13 game unbeaten run?

Question. How many games we got left?.

keep the faith

[magicroundabout]

I still don't understand why Wilson took Austin off when we're 3-0 nil down at home?? Can anyone tell me?? 

And when we went 4-0 down, why didn't we just put 4 up front and say fuck it?

basically Danny knew it was all over so took Austin off to rest for Tuesday night. Wise move

[Simon Pieman]

totally agree.

Question. Against who did we last lose to in the league before our 13 game unbeaten run?

Question. How many games we got left?.

keep the faith

I raised this point with my brother at half time.

[deltaincline]

Couple of quick obs on today:

Sheehan looked like was hung over. Fucking awful peformance.

Granted, Pericard hasn't had a decent run in the side yet, but he's been a perenially poor sub for Austin so far. He needs to start earning his wages, let alone repay the faith Wilson showed in him when he signed him.

Looks like Austin has hit a brick wall in terms of his confidence in front of goal. Dont see that being a big problem for him or us long term, just something that he'll have to learn to cope with and iron out.

Surprised that we didn't go three up front 2nd half. Maybe that's Wilsons experience kicking in at a crucial part of the season though, as someone else alluded to? If the game is out of sight, why chase it? Shit happens, as they say.

DW's post match comments were very good. He effectively protected the players for a crap result and then just moved on. The long term game plan will hopefully pay dividends at the end of the season

[juddie]

Had a bit of time to reflect on this game which is a good job, as I was feeling pretty livid/downbeat all avo. Fucking wierd match. If you had said after 20 minutes that we were gonna get dicked 4-0, I would have laughed in your face.

Still, my take:

Maybe they're just one of those teams we can't deal with? Remember playing John Beck's Cambridge? We don't have to play them again, and last time we got preoper tonked we had Franchise away... look what happene then.

Defensively we were poor today. Their front two, especially Kuffour, were lively as fock. A rare off day for all four at the back. Our distribution from the flanks was particularly abysmal, from sheehan and manky.

Douglas was poor today, and I didn't agree with Ferry coming off. Thought he was one of the few bright sparks.

Crosses: we have to lift the ball over the first man - fucking infuriating. Think only Ritchie managed this all game. He looked pretty tasty when he came on I thought.

Ward running into players has been covered, so I won't dwell! I thought he would have had enough to rinse their full-back if he's just gone around them?

Rare off day for the front two as well. Had Austin scored it's a different game but I'm not gonna criticise. However, from what I have seen I really do think Pericard is pap.

That said:
You have to treat this game with some perspective. It's gone now, so what matters is what happens Tuesday. Win and no-one will remember this. And seeing as though Hudds and Millwall both failed to win, we haven't actually lost out too much. As long as we better them between now and May we're in the play-offs. And it's good to see all the teams bar Nowrich looking as capable as throwing points away as each other. I would have had Leeds, Hudds and Millwall down for a win, so they're all gonna drop points too.

Thought Wilson spoke very well after the game.

Thing that fucked me off most today? at half-time I overheard someone say: "this is why I don't come very often". I was speechless.

In fact today has left me pretty speechless in general.

Roll on Tuesday.

I cannot bear away fans taking the piss like that. Reminds me of that season we kept getting dicked at home. Rovers, stoke colchester...00/01?

anyway, onwards and upwards. I'm still believing...