Swindon Town v Shrewsbury Town Matchday Thread

[theakston2k]

Unfortunately, that's where we now are as a club. My worst fear has always been becoming a run of the mill League 2 club. Whenever we ended up in this division before you always felt like we would bounce straight up, or I did, due to the relative size of the football club, having a larger fan base than most at this level, and having decent pull as relegation often followed a sustained period in League 1.

Our stature has massively gone downhill in the last 10 years, this is our 9th in that period playing League 2 football.

Whilst I don’t disagree with the factual element we still shouldn’t let them get away with it. If we go back to 17-18 all our seasons in L2 with the exception of Kennedy our first 5 games have yielded between 7 and 10 points, so we are firmly in what we should expect from a start to the season. Last year was the exception not the benchmark.

[Peter Venkman]

As a comparison -

Our other 3 previous championship winning seasons in Div 4/L2
Under Macari
84-85 after 5 games we were 10th on 7 points with 2W, 1D and 2L - F6 and A8

Under PdC
11-12 after 5 games we were 21st on 3 points with 1W, 0D and 4L  - F5 and A6

Under Wellens
19-20 after 5 games we were 10th on 8 points with 2W, 2D and 1L - F8 A6

Currently
25-26 after 5 games we are 9th on 9 points with 3W, 0D and 2L - F8 A8

So I would actually suggest that we are on target/above target and have started the season better with more wins than any other time we have won the championship in this division.

[Super Hans]

Whilst I don’t disagree with the factual element we still shouldn’t let them get away with it. If we go back to 17-18 all our seasons in L2 with the exception of Kennedy our first 5 games have yielded between 7 and 10 points, so we are firmly in what we should expect from a start to the season. Last year was the exception not the benchmark.

Yeah not disagreeing with what you say - was more just a thinking out loud post from me.

We have been shambolically ran for far too long.

Would we say it's worse now than how we were ran under Lee Power? Feels like a different life time ago now.

[theakston2k]

Yeah not disagreeing with what you say - was more just a thinking out loud post from me.

We have been shambolically ran for far too long.

Would we say it's worse now than how we were ran under Lee Power? Feels like a different life time ago now.

It’s tricky to say but expectations are certainly lower than under Power, and lowering the expectations of the fans has been a deliberate act by the current ownership and now it feels like Holloway is being used to do the same. Prior to the Morfuni era we would have seen anything other than a challenge for automatic promotion as a failure.

[Peter Venkman]

Would we say it's worse now than how we were ran under Lee Power? Feels like a different life time ago now.

Is it worse? it is difficult to say, but, we have cetainly not progressed even slightly and it is certainly a comparable level of ownership at least.

[DV]

As a comparison -

Our other 3 previous championship winning seasons in Div 4/L2
Under Macari
84-85 after 5 games we were 10th on 7 points with 2W, 1D and 2L - F6 and A8

Under PdC
11-12 after 5 games we were 21st on 3 points with 1W, 0D and 4L  - F5 and A6

Under Wellens
19-20 after 5 games we were 10th on 8 points with 2W, 2D and 1L - F8 A6

Currently
25-26 after 5 games we are 9th on 9 points with 3W, 0D and 2L - F8 A8

So I would actually suggest that we are on target/above target and have started the season better with more wins than any other time we have won the championship in this division.

Interesting stats but none of those teams were at their best in August. They all went up a level or 3 as the season progressed.

Obviously I can’t rule that out for this Holloway side.

I guess our start under Dennis Wise was probably our best start to a L2 season.

[Peter Venkman]

I guess our start under Dennis Wise was probably our best start to a L2 season.

Yes we had a very good start under Wise its just a shame that he chose to leave with us sat in 3rd place and looking good on 31 points from 15 games.

[theakston2k]

Interesting stats but none of those teams were at their best in August. They all went up a level or 3 as the season progressed.

Obviously I can’t rule that out for this Holloway side.

I guess our start under Dennis Wise was probably our best start to a L2 season.

The Garner season was the next best start after Wise with 10 points from the first 5. The main takeaway is our average start in this league is between 7 and 10 points. There’s a couple of exceptions either side but our current start should be what we expect from a Town team.

[Jimmy Quinn]

Trying to think post Macari, Ardilles & Hoddle has there been any manager the fans really took to as even Di Canio had his issues.

[Pookemon]

9 points from 5 games is a decent start.  Continue that all season and you get 82 points.

[Bob's Orange]

Trying to think post Macari, Ardilles & Hoddle has there been any manager the fans really took to as even Di Canio had his issues.

Luggy was pretty popular wasn't he?

[Jimmy Quinn]

Luggy was pretty popular wasn't he?

Good shout and yes Sturrock would be one who was a very likeable guy, no ranting or losing the plot and had his best win % here out of all the clubs he managed.

[Batch]

Yes we had a very good start under Wise its just a shame that he chose to leave with us sat in 3rd place and looking good on 31 points from 15 games.

Not that much of a shame, we still went up

[4D]

Trying to think post Macari, Ardilles & Hoddle has there been any manager the fans really took to as even Di Canio had his issues.

Andy King

[Jimmy Quinn]

Andy King

I really liked Andy King but at times he seemed to split the fanbase.