Swindon Town v Salford City Match Day Thread

[adje]

Someone smarter than me will have to explain that game I think, I have no idea what I think about it and I watched it all. Lots of mistakes and all four goals from deflections or odd breaks of the ball.

That's L2 for you!

[Nemo]

Odd results all over the division tonight. Top drew with bottom, Morecambe beat Wimbledon, Notts County lost, all strange.

MK and Gills both lost. The dream of relegating either or both in our last two fixtures lives on!

[DV]

Walsall dropping points is no surprise
Bottle job on Stevie Gs level

[Freeloader]

Strange game, looked a litle off it.  I think Saturday's game took a lot out of them.  Fair play to Longelo, playing where he wants to, was a major threat before he was subbed.  Missed McGregor when he went off after he recovered after looking a bit vunerable early on.  Glatzel looked hungry, worth a start on Saturday?

[adje]

Strange game, looked a litle off it.  I think Saturday's game took a lot out of them.  Fair play to Longelo, playing where he wants to, was a major threat before he was subbed.  Missed McGregor when he went off after he recovered after looking a bit vunerable early on.  Glatzel looked hungry, worth a start on Saturday?

Yeah, I thought McGregor improved massively second half

[Nomoreheroes]

Smith:
- Disappointment with how 2nd goal was conceeded
- One of the better teams we have played
- Their number 10 was good away and very good today
- So disappointing to conceed from the kick off after losing 3 x first contacts
- Could have been 2-3 up in first 5-10 mins
- As a player you think its going to be our night
- Gaffer said we sat off and weren't brave enough
- Started 2nd half brightly
- Should have seen the game out
- Tactical changes helped a lot. Thats what the gaffer does
- Could seee we were struggling with the press. Told us what to do to counteract, which helped
- Entertaining game. Not as effective as we have been in the last few weeks. Thats becasue they were one of the better teams we have faced
- We are professionals and prepare properly
- Build for travel to Donny on friday
- Expected standards have gone up. We have made home a fortress now
- Its a draw. If we win Saturday then everyone would have taken 7 from 3 games
- Everyone can beat everyone as results have shown tonight
- 15 goals: Happy. Have been playing well despite not scoring recently. Most consistent he has been. Played well for last couple of months

[Nomoreheroes]

Holloway:
- Fantastic game of football
- Best start we have made. Could have been 3-0 up after 15 mins. Then they changed shape
- We lose confidence as we couldnt get to the ball
- Explained why we had changed at half time. Needed to be more flexible
- We over celebrated the goal (including Holloway) which may have played a part in conceeding again
- Went for it with 4 changes and then Botan
- We have got 1 point closer to the play offs. We wanted a win
- Still unbeaten here for a while
- Finishers came on
- Delighted with the crowd
- Unfortunately we didnt get the win
- I know how to defend. I like to defend high up, attacking their back line. I'm an attacking coach
- The players don't moan about changes. They understand what we are trying to do
- Will take the point. They were very, very good.
- They have some really good players. But, so have we.
- It will feel like a win from the performance
- We are still not good enough. Holloway wants the players to be in their faces. We dont do it consistently enough. But we'll get there. But not as good as Holloway was as a player
- Gerry Francis said a good team is a team that is good at getting the ball back
- We aren't just smacking it to Harry. We are hurting their backline. Putting them under pressure. Taking less risks at the back ourselves. Our set pieces are getting better too
- We could have scored 6 against a team that is really good.
- Nichols has been invaluable. He does the horrible stuff and wins the ball back. Like him for a long time as he's a team player. Delighted for him.
- 21 points out of 30 points since Nichols has been here. Look at the difference he has made to everyone else.
- When Holloway arrived, we were wide open every time we lost the ball

[adje]

I thought our set pieces were particularly poor tonight. Especially the corners

[Nomoreheroes]

Official interviews (slightly different to above on the radio)

[Batch]

Lightning start, slowly faded and I though Salford edged control of the game even if they didn't produce that much.

We looked a bit leggy to me.

None the less we found a way to go 2-1 up yet uncharacteristically these days had a comedy of errors to let them score straight away.

I don't subscribe to it being 'on', but remarkably the playoffs are a point closer at 10 with 11 to go - had that been 8 I may have raised an eyebrow Roger Moore style.

I thought McGregor really struggled last night but it's a fair bit of football after a lengthy layoff for him. I didn't see wright have the terrible game everyone else did. Freckles did ok, Delaney pick of the bunch.

Midfield Offy put in some crunchers and was fairly good. Kilkenny gets through some work. Unfortunately coterill was fairly anonymous and Nichols only so so. Tshimanga was back to normal and Smith was good.

Ripley is a breath of fresh air.

All in all a mediocre night and a game we didn't deserve to win.

[Pericardinho]

Tshimanga and Cotterill trying to play as wide forwards is a very tough watch. We improved a lot after scrapping that.

If Holloway long term wants to play 2 forwards either side of Smith, that is the area we need the most focus on in the summer.

We need quick wingers who can take people on and stretch the game. More service into Smith.

That Longelo looked alright. Perhaps we should sign him?

[iParadise]

I thought our set pieces were particularly poor tonight. Especially the corners

I know we scored from a corner but i really wish Wright would stop taking them. With his height he should be in the box.

[4D]

Think we missed Clarke last night.
Wright defended well but also gave the ball away in some eye watering areas. To be fair a few players did. I don't buy all this tired/leggy talk, Salford played Saturday too but they were constantly snapping at our heals.

[Boydy]

Think we missed Clarke last night.
Wright defended well but also gave the ball away in some eye watering areas. To be fair a few players did. I don't buy all this tired/leggy talk, Salford played Saturday too but they were constantly snapping at our heals.

They did change 3 players though. Their most dangerous player was one of those and the guy who marked Nichols out of the game after 12 minutes was another.
I've obviously not seen their game but did they run as much as we did Saturday? Were they all out on their feet at the final whistle?

The number of individual unforced errors, misplaced passes, air kicks etc showed mentally they weren't quite right last night. Considering how well we've been playing the only reason I can see for that is they were making errors due to tiredness, a well documented phenomena.

For me Holloway got it wrong last night. A few fresh legs & minds and quicker in changing the formation as soon as they got on top of us.
It's rather nice though that we're now at the stage where disappointment is now felt only getting a draw against a team above us in the league.

[4D]

Yeah, they switched it. Thought we could have done with the subs in the 30th min rather than the 66th. Butterworth's first move led to our 2nd goal.