lovin it lovin it lovin it

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Interesting thread .....for once......(jk)

I agree with pretty much everything posted and I certainly agree with the title. I am absolutely loving it. Having fallen out of love for a couple of years it's all come flooding back again. The Carlisle home game was the first I had been to in eons (slight exageration) and the comparison to the previous game I had been to, almost a year previously, was night and day. We looked like a proper football team from front to back. A really, really good side.

The way I see it is that the last 17 years since we got promoted to the Prem have been unspeakably awful apart from 95/96 when we pissed the division (L1 as it now is) and before we realised what total cunts McMoan and Hunt were, the afore mentioned 03/04 which has to be the last time I was actually proud to be a Town fan (I'm thinking of the Leeds game in particular) and then the 06/07 div 4 promotion season. That was fine and loads of teams take years to bounce back and some never do. I'm never going to knock a promotion but my feeling was that it was a little bit, ever so slightly, 'meh' As some one said previously, "I don't want to sound like a Leeds fan but..."

Any way, I make that 3 decent seasons out of 17 (and as a side note a decent season for me does not have to involve a Championship, promotion or even play off appearance. It just so happens those seasons all involved one of those components)

What we have this season is very good team playing nice football, a very, very good manager (who I have always rated since he was at Barnsley and he was a pretty decent player as well as it happens) who has - and this really is the key - a sound base to work from provided by Fitton, Watkins & co. They have invested on the playing side and Danny is probably the first manager in the club's history to have not have the rug pulled from under him in being forced to sell his best players at key points in the season.

This has to be the first time in the club's history (and we are by no means unusual on this respect) when we have actually been properly run by individuals who have sound financial backing and sound business acumen and a real plan for the future.

It's for all these reasons that I am LOVING this season. It's not down to one factor or one individual. One last thing though. Above all else I feel incredibly, unbelieveably LUCKY!! We could so easily now be in a similar situation to when Luton had that horrendous, draconian 30 point deduction or worse still, Chester City. I really do believe we were not too far away from that kind of scenario..and then to be taken over not just by some dodgy 'Portugeezer' out for a quick Euro (remember them? The thought of them makes my blood run cold - talk about dodge a bullet) but by men of the calibre of Andrew Fitton, Nick Watkins, Jeremy Wray (sorry, can't remember all their names)  Men of intellect, money, vision and integrity

I must be fucking dreaming. This shit does not happen to STFC.

I'm going to have another Stella

[yeo]

Ive not really felt involved or that bothered by it all reallty.But I enjoyed the 4 games ive been to well enough.I do wonder if im a little bit addicted to misery and prefer rubbish season to sucessfull ones..

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

It's just been a breath of fresh ar really. I've really enjoyed it. When we lost at Norwich back in October i'd already written off the play-offs. Oh how I was in for a shock in the weeks and months that followed. What a turnaround. The debts have gone, the team is good which is nice and now we have a future vision of a redeveloped CG. It's full steam ahead whatever happens come May.

[Luci]

There are several things I still find hard to believe this season and they are as follows:

• We are currently level on points with Charlton and 5 points from automatic promotion in a league which has been the hardest for years
• We have brought in some fantastic high calibre players that appear to actually want to play for us
• We have signed possibly one of the most exciting young prospects outside the premier league
• The club is being run excellently by shrewd business men and for the first time in years, we look like we are actually going places (even if not this season possibly next)
• The stadium redevelopment is finally moving and heading in a positive direction

That is it but enough to assure a sense of positivity for the remaining games that play offs are now more than achieveable.

[BANGKOK RED]

The way I see it is that the last 17 years since we got promoted to the Prem

Reading that is like having an epiphany where your eyes open and you realise that you really are getting on a bit.

17 years, fook me.

[Barnard]

I'm more excited by this season than I was by 03/04 (which was still a damn good year).

I think from my perspective its down to the teams we're competing against.

in 2003/4 The bigger names were - QPR, Sheff Weds, and to a degree Bristol City.

2009/10 its - Leeds, Norwich, Southampton, Charlton

Then as others have mentioned its the Charlie factor - Proper Roy of the Rovers stuff.

Couple all of this with some great football and feeling that the club isn't about to dissapear into some unspeakable black hole at any moment and its been a cracking season so far.

I can honestly say I've enjoyed this year more than any season since 1986/7 (I was living abroad for most of 1992/3 and 1993/4).

[chalkies_shorts]

• We have brought in some fantastic high calibre players that appear to actually want to play for us
  

I think this is very relevant. We're no longer a dumping ground for old, shit has beens and never will be's. We have signed some real fucking dross over the last few years. We've not had many players who gave a fuck about us. I think the way JPM has changed his attitude is testament to Wilson. He's transformed players that were here and he's signed players who want to play for us. They're not a collection of indiviuals, they're a team, scrapping for each other.
I've enjoyed this season more than any since Hoddle's days. I'm not saying the team are better than any of the others mentioned just that I personally have enjoyed it more. My daughter has taken some real shit for being Town now she's got friends asking if they can go with her. She's loving it as well.

[leefer]

Its been brilliant....and the best is still to come.
For me at Wolves was the first time i thaught...hello we are playing to a plan,disciplined and the same at Fulham.
Getting Douglas was/is still hard to believe but for me i like the way Wilson makes a decision and sticks by it....we couldnt believe it when he put his faith in Amankwah,Lescinal and JPM.
The football has been good to watch and our discipline first class(Ferry aside last week)
Its been good to see Town fans with smiles on there faces...players want to come here and opposition fans respect our team.
The only downside to a good season has been the last gasp goals conceded,and dare i say it the Manks/Harris spat which didnt much good for both players and clubs.

[DV]

I dont think you can blame Ferrys discipline.

Did you see what he got booked for? the second one looked very harsh and a fair tackle from the away end. I saw the highlights and was as pissed off about it as Alan Sheehan was.

That ref clearly had 1-1 on his slip. the 8 minutes of added on time played was a joke.

[RobertT]

This season pisses on 2003/04 as far as being in love with it for me.  The team is better, plays better football and (leaving aside the usual fuckwits who attend football) the fans are as one and behind the club, Manager and the players.

95/96 was the last time it was like this, and even then it was a bit more expected given the nature of the club before that season.

The performance against Southampton really impressed me.  We came up against a team with big resources, who'd invested in a new players and were on a really impressive home run of results and performances.  It's been a long time since a Swindon team could go away to a place like that and control their performance to perfection, even if that meant accepting we'd need to set-up to negate them for long periods.

Also, Austin is the first player since that 92/93 end of an era season that we've had someone playing regularly who really galvanised fans in a positive way (don't throw names like Parkin in, he was quality but not the same as players like Hoddle, Foley, Shearer, White, Henry, Calderwood, Taylor, Digby etc)

[Nemo]

This season must be progressing a dream, I've just read through an entire adver comments section without wishing to shoot anyone, even a little bit.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Reading that is like having an epiphany where your eyes open and you realise that you really are getting on a bit.

17 years, fook me.

It creeps up on you like a thief in the night

[adje]

Ive not really felt involved or that bothered by it all reallty.But I enjoyed the 4 games ive been to well enough.I do wonder if im a little bit addicted to misery and prefer rubbish season to sucessfull ones..

Yeah its the optimism I cant stand

[Benzel]

Turned 24 last week and this is definitely the best season and best era there's been for me in my Town supporting life. I went during the early early 90s but have almost zero recollection of it.#

Since then it's been one good season punctuated with years of utter shit on and off the pitch. So now to have total security and a FUTURE as well as a TEAM of talented players it's like a fucking dream.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Turned 24 last week and this is definitely the best season and best era there's been for me in my Town supporting life. I went during the early early 90s but have almost zero recollection of it.#

Since then it's been one good season punctuated with years of utter shit on and off the pitch. So now to have total security and a FUTURE as well as a TEAM of talented players it's like a fucking dream.

As I've said for a long time, fair play to anyone of your age who's sticking with the Town. When I was that age we were in the Macari era which was mentally fantastic and ran into the Ardiles and Hoddle eras which were equally brilliant. Happy days indeed and it's those memories which have kept me going through the last I don't know how many years. Years which, by and large have been horrible. Some one of your age has not got that to look back on. Without those memories and experiences, I don't know if I could have stuck with it. But you have and fair play. The good times are finally on their way back though