Salford City v Swindon Town Matchday Thread

[Audrey]

I’m not sure if there is a minimum game rule for concussion injuries. Handy he’s suspended anyway Tuesday. I’d imagine he’d be OK for Saturday. If not I’ve no worries about Minturn after yesterday’s display. If he can reproduce that on a regular basis he should be starting.

Thought Clayton would have had a few minutes yesterday. Sitting on the bench isn’t doing him much good.

[Batch]

I thought the concussion protocol was 7: days. I'll have to look look out up now

[Mooneyraker]

As others have noted, going to a back 4 might make sense when trying to close out a game. A bit baffled Clayton didn't get on yesterday.

[Bob's Orange]

Shambles first 10 minutes, clever equaliser came at a good time and thought we bossed the game after that, especially second half. RHM' pace seemed to unsettle Salford even though he was mainly a headless chicken. The penalty decision was very generous. Sadly a red card as well which ultimately our downfall as we couldn't see out the 90 to take all the points.

A bit concerned about the next couple of months with injuries and suspensions and the thin squad, but if we can get through to January in the top 6 we could be in for a good season. Interesting we now have RWB and LWB that are better attacking than defending, so at least there is balance.

Really pleased Charlie got his goal, his earlier chance he had was approached with such a low level of confidence so hopefully he'll go on a bit of a run now, especially as Young's goal scoring touch has begun to allude him.

[Audrey]

A few players who had been underperforming a bit lately seemed to get back to their best yesterday. UGM for one. Hutton had a good game, FBT - apart from that final header.

Now, it’s all well and good bemoaning the defensive attributes of Shade/Hutton but it’s their attacking attributes that makes us what we are and I’d say 2 defeats in 13 is a price worth paying for all the heart stopping defensive frailties.

[Mooneyraker]

It’s interesting how much Flynn needs Austin on the pitch as a leader. In what other world don’t you take off your 34 year old striker with a game on Tuesday?

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Shade has enough quality that a manager will always take a punt on him because they think they can coach his negatives out of it, but players like that managers rarely manage to. His frustrating traits are fucking infuriating because he has got skill.

Would like to see Clayton and Minturn in for Shade and inevitably now Brewitt and have FBT at LWB. FBT can attack well enough as we've seen although not sure how good his crossing is.

Surely Brewitt doesn't have to wait for concussion protocol to be done to serve a suspension, its just lucky (if you can use that word) that they run concurrently. 

[Sippo]

He is playing as a LWB, his primary responsibility is to defend well.  He does not.

Depends on what the manager wants. Does he want more attacking than defending? You cannot expect a player to keep running up and down all game. Another player, such as Khan, should move across to cover.

[Peter Venkman]

Its a tough one with Shade, he looks to me like there is definately a player in there, somewhere, even Flynn says the same, not sure its LWB though, far more like a LW/wide striker role, mind you the same could be said about Uwakwe, and probably Iandolo before him.

He was a threat going forward from about 15 mins in and gave their fullback a really tough game, but he is not a defender and thats not his strength, so maybe with 10 mins left Flynn should have sacrificed him and brought on Clayton to shore it up for the last 10 mins?

We always seem prone to leaking goals late on from winning positions this season and that needs addressing, but to put the blame on Shade specifically is unfair as there were blunders all over defence leading up to both goals, Brewitt was equally at fault for the first and FBT for the 2nd yet neither are mentioned.

We all know that LWB seems to be an Achilles Heel at Swindon and has been for many years, the last decent one we had really was FBT last season when he first arrived before reverting to CB and before him Dion Donohue, all the rest were just average players who could either defend or attack not both, I include Hunt in that too who was solid but not exciting.

Of course we need to strengthen that position but it seems that funding is not there to allow us to.

[Wobbly Bob]

I thought that it was a clear pen live and not changed mind after viewing highlights.
Defender is wrong side, isn't competing for the ball and shoves RHM in the back.
Would have been different if the defender was level with RHM and just easing him out of the way.
Looked as if RHM would have got to the ball before the keeper.
Red card is more arguable but thems the rules if there is no attempt to play the ball.
Not sure if the other defender possibly being in a position to cover should have been mitigation.

Ok, there are more glamorous football watching opportunities not far from Salford, but with a bigger population than Swindon the owners must be disappointed that a few more locals can't be enticed through the gates.
There could be more figures in a Lowry crowd scene painting than there were home fans yesterday.

[Mooneyraker]

Looking back, I think G McE could have done a lot more to get out and close down the initial cross for their second. Just wanders up and turns his back.

[Peter Venkman]

I thought that it was a clear pen live and not changed mind after viewing highlights.
Defender is wrong side, isn't competing for the ball and shoves RHM in the back.
Would have been different if the defender was level with RHM and just easing him out of the way.
Looked as if RHM would have got to the ball before the keeper.
Red card is more arguable but thems the rules if there is no attempt to play the ball.
Not sure if the other defender possibly being in a position to cover should have been mitigation.

Agree totally.

[adje]

Even if it was a dodgy pen RHM deserves one after all the ones he's not been given I reckon

[RobertT]

If the defender had gone shoulder to shoulder it wouldn't have been a penalty, but he put his shoulder into the back.  Penalty all day long, even if it wasn't a tough challenge.

I did mention that I think FBT isn't a good enough CB, especially when we only have three defenders on the pitch.  He has all the traits of someone who plays LB - he is thinking about what to do with the ball, how to start an attack, not get the fucking thing clear and then reset and worry about that.  Him at LWB would work I think - he is still pretty hood at getting forward.  Shade looks good with time and space, but his production in the final third is not even close to Hutton.  So even if you want your LWB to be an attacking source, he's just not good enough.  All that is with the expectation of us being a top 3 contender.

People really do take things a bit defensively on here (pun untended).  Just because I point out some areas of improvement does not mean that I thought we played badly.  I think Flynn has extracted maximum gain from the budget he seems to have been handed.  Our squad is not big enough and has nowhere near the level of talent in depth that it needs to be a top 3 contender, but he has us close.  Yesterday we were the better team, and a couple of those improvements would have seen us take all three points.

[tans]

So we are without Kemp next week, and probably Brewitt if it is a concussion.
Also got 3 players on 4 bookings going into Tuesday, so we could potentially have 3 or 4 missing next week if they get booked.

Good job its half term and we wont need to ask the headteacher if we can stick a 15 year old on the bench!