Exeter City v Swindon Town pre match chat and matchday thread

[JBZ]

A disappointing evening

[molepar]

An extremely disappointing away day. A pseudo West Country derby where our fans and players lacked the passion to get anything from it. I can’t blame Garner for not starting Payne but I do wonder if he should have come on earlier. Payne, Williams and Iandolo came away from that match with credit but I think the rest were anonymous (at least to my eyes). We had a very good following in terms of numbers but the away crowd of about 250 at Tranmere made more noise. It almost felt as if both players and fans were resigned to defeat before a ball was kicked. At least there was no booing of our own players at full time. You do have to wonder if the long time travelling affected the players. Someone like McKirdy could have made the difference today. Often we probed without having that final spark of threat. Davison tries hard but the lone striker role is hard to fill, especially without someone to feed off his flick ons. I suppose there are positives to take from today: the pub crawl with Wobbly Bob, another away ground ticked off and the superb Kebab from “Best Kebabs” by the station. I can confirm it is the best kebab I have ever had in Exeter and I was reassured by the 5 star hygiene rating. I suppose the full impact of the kebab won’t be known for several hours at least for now it’s a 5 star review.

[Wobbly Bob]

Not read back, yet.
After a couple more beers and a kebab, a witness for the prosecution, not the defence.

The performance was nowhere near as bad as at Barrow or Tranmere, but did raise the horrifying prospect of not being able to deal with Oldham on Saturday.

The whole vibe throughout was of a team & a set of away fans that turned up expecting to get beat tonight.

Do the Exeter fans back their team like that every home game??
Banker, any thoughts?

The redevelopment of the Town End maybe wouldn't go far wrong with mirroring a safe standing version of the Exeter equivalent?

Still all to play for, but Garner needs to conjure something a lot better than that on Saturday.

[Crispy]

Got a bollocking waking the better half up when I staggered in. Took a colleague with us on the Minibus who hasn't made it into work this morning, god bless the band.   

[Banker]

.......

The whole vibe throughout was of a team & a set of away fans that turned up expecting to get beat tonight.

Do the Exeter fans back their team like that every home game??
Banker, any thoughts?

Agree, Bob, it did seem a bit flat all round beforehand. There's a feel good factor about the place currently, a growing belief that this squad can achieve an auto place, you'll recognise that feeling. Bad luck Town losing so many key players, the battle I was looking forward to didn't really get going, stand out Town player for me was Williams and his endeavour. Glad for those who remained to see the late goal, I was stood right behind it, a fine speculative strike !
 
Yes, agree our crowds aren't all that. Unfortunately it's rugby country, and the football club has always had to compete with that. We'd kill for the Chief's average attendance, it'd then dwarf yours !

[Legends-Lounge]

My fatalistic view before the game came to pass. We huffed and puffed again to fulfil a fixture that I expect even Garner knew was not going to end well. Yep appeared the ref gave us sod all but that is not the real issue.

Has been said before and however you dress this season up and no matter how it ends we are four or five quality players short within the squad as it stands. Had we had those bodies to fill the gaps when a perfect storm of suspensions and injuries collide with an important clash with a potential promotion rival the outcome is exactly what we got last night, not the first time this season.

Sad thing for me was that as a team we didn’t play badly. A combination of individual deficiencies during the game up against a team who had already beaten us at our place was always going to not end well with the aforementioned weakened starting 11.

Lick our wounds and start again against at team fighting for survival managed by an absolute dog shyte manager who we have a grudge against, what could possibly go wrong?

[RedRag]

We needed more backbone

Why oh why will Garner never pick Grant?

I should've added a  "" in echoing a popular recent refrain after a match where we were both naive and soft.

A major difference between the sides last night was in how they played out of possession.

Even allowing for the fact that Payne's worldie robbed Exeter of a 3 goal margin, is it the case we have endured more 3 goal surrenders this season than we did in LG 1?

[Nomoreheroes]

Extremely harsh on Payne - he was a breath of fresh air.

When he plays well he links and runs off those around him. He doesn't appear to have that zip about him at the moment, which is understandable. He couldn't get anything going and then went into his selfish spell when he tries to get the ball too deep back to goal with someone on his back and still tries to beat them. I think his goal came more out of frustration than anything else.

Where I said him or Williams, when we play well, the is decent link play involving Iandolo, Reed and Williams/Payne. Against Exeter it wasn't there.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Should partner Parsons with Davison on Saturday. Davison is lost as a lone striker.

Payne must start. Ditto Odimayo at RB with Hunt taking one of the CB slots.

[4D]

Should partner Parsons with Davison on Saturday. Davison is lost as a lone striker.

Payne must start. Ditto Odimayo at RB with Hunt taking one of the CB slots.

Agreed. Having 1 up front hasn't worked all season when we have tried it.

[Nomoreheroes]

I think trying Parsons was one of the things I would have done last night at half time.

[singingiiiffy]

went last night (didn't want to!) against a team with brilliant home form against a team struggling with injuries and suspension.

we looked very disjointed but just one to write off and move on. genuinely hate being stood next to our fans sometimes. truly embarrassing and conroy was getting jeered from minute 1. are people that thick as shit to see that he started due to injuries not picked over better players? with confidence he's a good league 2 player. not going to get that now for the rest of the season.

[4D]

1. Yes, yes they are.

[adje]

Fools on FB out in force again "garner out" "Williams is shit" "no plan B"(forgetting that it was "planB" that got us 4 wins out of the previous 5). Top scorer and half a decent back 4 missing and our most influential player edging back after injury. Don't know what they were expectin

[Ticker45]

Should partner Parsons with Davison on Saturday. Davison is lost as a lone striker.

Felt very sorry for Davison, outmuscled most of the time by Stubbs and helped by the ref who gave him very little. As co-commentator Chalky said Davison needs to be a bit more "horrible" in his attitude but that being said he would probably have got a red card based on the apparent "fouls" he gave to the Exeter players.