Swindon Town v Sutton United pre match chat and matchday thread

[Jimmy Quinn]

Special mention to Hawes who's enthusiasm whenever we sore is infectious

[Bob's Orange]

Said the exact same thing to a friend on the way home last night. Does the first bit really well, pins the centre half, but then frustratingly often turns back into trouble / takes extra touch, where he could release the ball and spin away.

He's extremely likeable though, incredible work-rate and does give us a bit of muscle through the middle. Very composed finish for the goal, where others would have snatched at it and missed. Fair play.

Davison's now got 4 goals in 12 starts, which is probably a fair reflection of the career he'll have in the bottom two tiers. Workhorse, benefitting others around him, and chipping in with 1 goal in 3 starts.

It's 'funny' that now I know how you sound I read your posts in 'your voice!'.

I wanted to talk about Davison as well as he looks like he could be a very good target man and I do wonder if he is carrying an injury that is hampering his play. First the positives, he works bloody hard, every game. Took his goal nicely last night to steer the ball past the defenders on the line. Could very easily have pulled the ball past the post or whacked it straight at the defender. His actual touch can be very good, but more often than not he is quite careless with the ball at feet and last night seemed to take too long on the ball and not make right decisions to bring others into play. Simpson was very good at this when he had the ball under control. Finally there is a bit of a pattern emerging of Davison not getting any decisions at all when he appears to be fouled. It wasn't just last night but that's now a handful of referees that don't give him free kicks. This of course could be down to the poor standard of refs, or that he plays in such a way that it looks like he is manipulating situations to try and win free kicks. To me, it certainly seems that he gets man-handled by the opposition bruisers, but it's strange he doesn't seem to get awarded the protection he looks like he should get.

[Bob's Orange]

Was very surprised Davison was giving the sponsors man of the match.
Took his goal extremely well and his work rate was very good.

Don’t think he offered much else but I swear to god Refs seem so reluctant to give the fouls on him and I have no idea why?

  Davison got sponsors man of the match? Classic. I swear these guys are always consistently drunk, on their phones for the duration of the match or just haven't got a clue. I suppose he scored and worked hard, but man of the match? Not for me Geoff. 

[DV]

It's 'funny' that now I know how you sound I read your posts in 'your voice!'.

I wanted to talk about Davison as well as he looks like he could be a very good target man and I do wonder if he is carrying an injury that is hampering his play. First the positives, he works bloody hard, every game. Took his goal nicely last night to steer the ball past the defenders on the line. Could very easily have pulled the ball past the post or whacked it straight at the defender. His actual touch can be very good, but more often than not he is quite careless with the ball at feet and last night seemed to take too long on the ball and not make right decisions to bring others into play. Simpson was very good at this when he had the ball under control. Finally there is a bit of a pattern emerging of Davison not getting any decisions at all when he appears to be fouled. It wasn't just last night but that's now a handful of referees that don't give him free kicks. This of course could be down to the poor standard of refs, or that he plays in such a way that it looks like he is manipulating situations to try and win free kicks. To me, it certainly seems that he gets man-handled by the opposition bruisers, but it's strange he doesn't seem to get awarded the protection he looks like he should get.

Obviously not going to happen but I’d be interested to see how a Simpson & Davison front two would work out.

Probably both seen as the ‘big man’ but two completely different styles of ‘big man’ with different attributes.

[THE FLASH]

Havent read back.

Officials awful...all of them.

Sutton down to bare bones, big, physical but not IMO dirty. Battled well.
They are like a giant squad Afinkenwa......unbeatable with a soft ref.

The result was important and we got it.

I thought Reed should of stayed on his feet and scored or got a corner. It was silly and played into the hands of the inept twat with the whistle.

Onwards.

[4D]

My view on Davison, he did very well last night. The things he didn't do so well, he should have laid the ball off quicker on a few occasions, got caught with it. Use his body more to shield the ball. I think this will all come with match experience.

[adje]

I'm pretty sure Davison is the best we could have got. Raw,honest trier with a big heart and the odd goal.

[Peter Venkman]

Sutton down to bare bones, big, physical but not IMO dirty. Battled well.
They are like a giant squad Afinkenwa......unbeatable with a soft ref.

Absolutely, Sutton werent a dirty side at all but they were big and brash and had a game plan similar to a Flitcroft or Big Sam Style team, play for set pieces and use them well while keepign it tight at the back and going route 1.

They are a typical non league side with player limitations as Harrogate were, but Harrogate are a far dirtier side and use time wasting tactics and sniper dives too which Sutton didn't.

Sutton in both games are not pretty to watch but know what they have to do and when we passed the ball around just stood off us and watched it rather than pressing us until they scored when they gained confidence and looked better but still a very agricultural team, very much like Newport under Flynn.

[Peter Venkman]

As usual a few comments from the Sutton forum about last night, some fair some way off the mark.

With the side we had out I think we can be proud of the effort. 2 utterly disastrous shambolic goals conceded aside.

Swindon fans may have been worried about their team, but we surely had greater cause for concern. By my reckoning we had ten players missing this evening including all of our central midfield.

this was a proper team effort, with every player working his socks off.

Overall though, Swindon looked a less impressive side than they had at our place. They clearly have some talented players, but in the second half we saw the uglier side of their game as they resorted to fouling and time-wasting. Louis Reed was sent off in stoppage time, I think as the ref adjudged his tumble in the area to be simulation and showed him a second yellow.

A very brave performance tonight, actually undone by 2 basic errors on our part, although I am sure their second was offside?

talk about the ref who was so weak.

Can't say a bad word about us tonight. A threadbare team with a central midfield containing a striker and a player making his league debut after spending the season playing 2 levels below. Huge credit to both of those. And to the rest of the side. I feared a drubbing based on the Swindon we saw earlier in the season.

That Swindon seemed to have disappeared and really they ended up limping to a win.

Im pretty sure the winner was offside, certainly seemed that way watching on the live stream....2 goals in 3 days that should not have stood but have ultimately cost us the points.

Just watched the highlights. Seems the Swindon fans are a touch biased. Kizzi ran from behind his man so was onside. Others were off but weren't interfering with play. McKirdy (who I thought was excellent) was offside but they shouldn't have had the free kick in the first place as Omar was blatantly fouled before he fouled their player. As for the pen that was rather blatant. Not sure how that could be missed.

Another hard game.
With all the injuries we have .To put out a team last night was great.And to show another good shift.

The game itself was Another 12 v 11 as again the ref was so biased to Swindon.
Definitely a penalty turned down.( were do they find these officials)

We were looking at the footage of the McKirdy goal in the press box last night and we thought that while he was ahead of the defenders it was questionable whether he was ahead of the ball when it was played. It was certainly very close one way or the other.

McKirdy MOM for me too. Serious threat and looked best player on view.

Isn't the point that McKirdy was offside when the free kick was taken and then again ahead of the ball when he put it in. Initially I thought Williams was off but he was played on by Ben I think.

Regarding the Swindon Pen the keeper makes the initial save brilliantly to rob McKirdy and is still lying on the ground when Reed goes to go around him.  The keeper seems to make no movement of his arm as far as I can see - Reed falls over it and tries to get the penalty - hence the simulation. 

I am very cross that Swindon "out Suttoned Sutton" with their two long ball derived goals.  McKirdy has so much pace.  It's a crying shame that we haven't had a fit Tanto as he would have terrorised defences.

This was a fractious match not helped by yet another member of Mike Riley's ever growing list of incompetence he calls a referees panel. McKirdy and Williams are both fine players, possibly too good for this level but with that comes an appalling attitude on the pitch where any challenge on them is (for them) a foul.

As for the goals. There first was a bit of a disaster as their no 9, laughingly given MotM (see McKirdy and Williams above as the real contenders) was gifted the opener. U's fought back well though and Joe K continued his remarkable scoring run of late with a fine header. There may have been other players offside but he wasn't and under the current laws that 's what counts. Perhaps Garner and half of The County Ground should take note.

As for the late non-pen and subsequent red card, if there was any contact it looked minimal and not enough for their fella to go down like he did and that may have influenced the ref. But as I stated above, he was so terrible, who knows?

Robbed of a point, the lads, missing ten from the squad, richly deserved for dogged defensive work and tremendous hard work off and on the ball.

Another poor performance from the ref and it would appear the senior line. People pay good money to watch these matches; players work hard to get to this level and they are rewarded week in week out with Mike Riley's panel. It's a panel that needs blowing down in the wind (wouldn't need to be a strong gust) and totally replaced. Utter garbage Well done to the lads and Matt G et al. No points but shed loads of kudos.

[Hyabb17]

This quote

''The game itself was Another 12 v 11 as again the ref was so biased to Swindon.
Definitely a penalty turned down.( were do they find these officials)''

I would argue they were the ones with the extra man, some baffling decisions by the ref against us!!!

[4D]

As usual a few comments from the Sutton forum about last night, some fair some way off the mark.

12v11? For us?   What game were they watching?
Their team were physical and got away with pretty much everything. We have players fouled and the ref awards their team a free kick. FFS.

[DV]

Obviously it’s all opinion but not sure you can class that game as 12 v 11 and the ref being on our side.
I mean he gave Sutton a free kick for Conroy being fouled, sent off Reed & didn’t give us a penalty. If that’s a ref favouring us - I’d hate to see one whose against us!!!

[Jimmy Quinn]

I've only seen the penalty now incident once and was wondering if the goalkeeper gets the ball a fraction before he makes contact with Reed which wouldn't warrant a penalty or yellow card.

[Peter Venkman]

I thought the ref was not the worst I have seen this season but up there, he gave us very very little all game and was like their 12th man keeping them in the game.

I do think it shows the shitty standard of refereeing this season when fans of the opposition who the blatantly biased ref was in favour of actually thought the ref was biased in favour of us!

[Exiled Bob]

As usual a few comments from the Sutton forum about last night, some fair some way off the mark.

I notice a few of them using the word "simulation". I hate that. Let's go back to calling it what it is, diving.

Incidentally, I've watched it a few times and I'm sure the goalie touched him. But you can also see why the ref saw it as a dive.