Swindon Town v Port Vale matchday thread

[Jimmy Quinn]

Fair comments below from the PV Forum

Disappointed that we fell into the trap of tit for tat niggly stuff and falling out with their players, who clearly set out to get under our skin.  Just play the game.  We were more than good enough to beat these today but the individual errors at both ends of the pitch cost us.


I agree GR, but as a spectacle on TV, watching Smith vs Smith was a heck of a bit of entertainment 🤣🤣🤣
I acknowledge he is a complete knob, but we have had some blimming good ding dongs with Harry Smith over the last couple of seasons - not sure id want him playing for us, but theres something "pantomime villain" about him that I quite like

Nice to see Ian Holloway kept to the agreement about Ripley - I know he gets a lot of stick, but iv always been quite fond of IH - he is a character fer sure, and lord knows in this modern day, they are in short supply

I cant remember watching a match as enjoyable as yesterday for a long long time - thought it was a magnificent advert for division 4 - sorry, league 2  😜 - can imagine any floating premier league fan watching on the off chance would have thought "what the fook is going on here"😍😍😍

EDIT - soz GR, iv tagged you in on this post, but re-reading, mines more of an observational post rather than a reply to your post which I liked 👍have a great Sunday 💜💜💜 (purple hearts for the purple prince 😍😍)

[UTR]

I’ve seen enough of Wright and Delaney now to think there’s a good enough CB partnership there for next season if they have a strong goalkeeper behind them, hopefully the trio of them and Ripley can build something between now and May to take into next season.

I’m undecided on the full backs. Sobowale floats between good and not good enough a bit too much in my opinion, I think with a properly creative right winger ahead of him or him in the right side of a back 3, I’d lean more towards wanting to keep him around. Too much change on the left hand side to nail one down, Kirkman shown promise, Cox a bit here and there but consistently dangerous crosses.

Easy to be a manager from the stands though 

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Any chance Kirkman and McGregor are both good enough to fill the full back/wing back roles as first choice in a successful side next season?

Both products of our youth system so might be biased but I think they could be.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Any chance Cox and McGregor are both good enough to fill the full back/wing back roles as first choice in a successful side next season?

Both products of our youth system so might be biased but I think they could be.

Did you mean to say Chard rather than Cox?

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Did you mean to say Chard rather than Cox?

Kirkman sorry, not Cox.

[fuzzy]

Fair comments below from the PV Forum

Disappointed that we fell into the trap of tit for tat niggly stuff and falling out with their players, who clearly set out to get under our skin.  Just play the game.  We were more than good enough to beat these today but the individual errors at both ends of the pitch cost us.

I agree GR, but as a spectacle on TV, watching Smith vs Smith was a heck of a bit of entertainment 🤣🤣🤣
I acknowledge he is a complete knob, but we have had some blimming good ding dongs with Harry Smith over the last couple of seasons - not sure id want him playing for us, but theres something "pantomime villain" about him that I quite like

My bold in the quote. What the actual fuck? Talk about wearing Pork Vile Goggles- the PV duo of Smith and Hall were all over St Harry of Smith in a failed bid to wind him up into a sending off.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Yeah some of those comments are actually mental.

[No Longer Posh Red]

I thought Port Vale were a typically good lower league team.
They were dirty, niggly & physical but could play a bit when they needed too.
It’s pretty much what we have become under Holloway and led to a pretty decent game.

Thought we were a bit fortunate to be level at HT, but that for most of the second half we were the better team.

Ref appeared a bit clueless, had no idea what to do about the tussles between Smith & their defence, so appeared to give them based on who’s turn it was (they got one then we got one) rather than actually work out who was at fault, but he did give us the penalty (which was pretty stonewall).

[Jimmy Quinn]

My bold in the quote. What the actual fuck? Talk about wearing Pork Vile Goggles- the PV duo of Smith and Hall were all over St Harry of Smith in a failed bid to wind him up into a sending off.

I thought the second comment was fair giving Holloway a little praise and saying that it was an entertaining game and it wasn’t too long ago Smith was getting stick from home fans.

[Nemo]

Looking back, I think the single most impressive and important thing about the Holloway period is how much our average-to-middling players have improved. Under Kennedy, Smith, Wright and Kilkenny (and McGregor) were all decent performers just regularly let down by those around them.

Now we're getting genuinely good performances reasonably consistently out of the likes of Drinan, Butterworth, Cotterill, Delaney (I'll allow that he may always have been good, just wasn't fit yet under Kennedy), Tshimanga and so on.

The good thing is that this feels much more sustainable as there's not one stand out star who can be sold easily.

I do have some lingering concerns about whether Holloway really "does" flair players or whether it's going to be graft and graft again, but he's certainly earned the opportunity to show us either way. Mea culpa, I got the mad old bastard wrong.

[Robinz]

Nemo
Your comments about Ian Holloway are right in my opinion.
He was always a player and then manager who stood out. Generally for the right reasons.
Could never understand why Swindon never appeared to be interested when he openedly requested an interview at the club many years back and reportedly the club were not interested.
Suppose a bit like the now manager of Grimsby who wanted to come here. Seems to be doing some really good things there  and was not appointed when Morris and Kennedy were employed. What balls up they were.
I am enjoying the improvements and the interviews from Ian Holloway. Makes I laff !!!
Long may it continue. COYRs

[THE FLASH]

I suppose if we had scored the worldy third in ET to draw , we would of been bouncing....as it was...

I was quite satisfied myself. They are a team in the mix  and we more than held our own against them. I just felt the equaliser was coming.

Ref was rabbit in the headlights but i thought equally bad for both sides.

The wonder strike was impressive and i will never forget the keeper almost horizontal as the net bulged from the TE. One of the best ive seen at the Town.

We now unbeaten in 6 and that is something that i just couldnt predict as i trudged out after losing to Morecambe and firmly believing we were doomed. Such a turnaround.

Lets see where we end up but the relief at seeing us avoid the abyss (less a disaster that even we couldnt deliver) is a great comfort to me.

NB - Another joke getting in, one turnstile open in the TE....queue to TE exit when i joined and it was back to the shop before they opened another.

[Batch]

NB - Another joke getting in, one turnstile open in the TE....queue to TE exit when i joined and it was back to the shop before they opened another.

Has this happened before? Specifically the TE.

I wondered if the PV coach parking where it did somehow had an effect. But if you can get to 1 turnstyle you can get to all of them so probably not.

[Saxondale]

PV's coaches moved into place after the match had started.  There was no reason to not open more than one turnstile.  Other than shit management.

[4D]

I was stood in a long queue at 12.32, the 2nd turnstile was opened after kick off as far as I could tell.