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Swindon Town (A) 31st January 2006 - League

Reports and reaction from the 2005-06 season as Walsall finished 24th (R) in League 1
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derbysaddler
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:44 pm

last one leaving bescot please turn out the light

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Saddler Jim
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:47 pm

hullsaddler wrote:We are still only 13 points from the play offs!



We might as well be 30 Hull,for all the chance we have

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sj
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:47 pm

"Good night Jim Bob"..........................

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Geordiesaddler
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:52 pm

All three of the teams below us that played on the night won, Gillingham didn't have a hard luck story at Swansea they just went there and won with 10 men last 20 minutes. There's no way Bristol City are going down, and with Swindon having Cureton, Peacock, and Benjamin to call on and a host of games against fellow strugglers coming up while we go to Brentford, Colchester and Southend the writing is now well and truely on the wall I'm afraid. We are all but in the relegation frame. Ourselves Scunny and Hartlepool are looking the most likely to join MK Dons on current form and with the transfer window closing in a minute there is nowhere else to go other than replace Merson and get someone in until the end of the season who can pick a proper team and get them playing.

The honeymoon period of a bunch of new players is now well and truely over we need a new manager and if we don't get one we will go down as we probably would have done last season without JJ and Surman - they ain't coming to bail us out this time around.

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Neil Ravenscroft
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:58 pm

Match report on line. The Fat Controller makes it sound even worse than WM did.

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Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:02 pm

For the first time this season i'm getting quite deflated to say the very least about this current Walsall teams performances this season in a very scrappy League 1 division. Mostly agreed with what Geordie Saddler and some of the others have been saying these past few weeks. It looks like an relegation battle to avoid the emabarrasing drop to the fourth tier of English football, who would have thought of that with the good start earlier in the season.

I can't see Swindon getting relegated after tonight's game and the new personnel that Andy King has bought i.e. Cureton and of course Lee Peacock to replace Rory Fallon. Not looking foward to those awy trips at Brentford and Colchester etc. Wasn't it Merse said that he wasn't interested in signing a proven goalscorer in Jamie Cureton? The mind boggles.... :roll:

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Mike T.
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:11 pm

The pedantic post is caused by being well and truly pissed off but Andy King was sacked yonks ago and replaced by Iffy. Maybe Jeff will be thinking long and hard on the coach coming home!!

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Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:13 pm

Eli_B wrote:Wasn't it Merse said that he wasn't interested in signing a proven goalscorer in Jamie Cureton? The mind boggles.... :roll:


Maybe Cureton should have said he was homesick , that would have got Merson's attention like a shot. :wink:

MOSOC

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Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:15 pm

Look on the bright side. Never been to Accrington Stanley's ground before.

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Shad
 
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:19 pm

I've heard Rochdale is nice on a Tuesday night

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coxy_saddler
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:42 pm

Shad wrote:I've heard Rochdale is nice on a Tuesday night

:shock:

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Pedro
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:57 pm

Never been to Rusheden , and we can back to Shrewbury to

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Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:59 pm

Just back from the game. Jesus, it was desperate. As bad as Bristol City? Yes, it probably was. Swindon were like a pub team. In fact, they would have struggled to beat a half-decent pub team. We were considerably worse.

Where do you start? Well, I suppose you could run through the whole team.

Oakes - flapped at everything, made a couple of fine saves, but also some shocking howlers. After one particularly dreadful flap at the ball which a quadroplegic grandmother would have comfortably caught, a fan shouted a comment at him and he made (for the second game running) the barclays sign back. Dick head. Should have come out for their goal, too, but he wasn't the main culprit.
Pead - all right. Did his job OK.
Fox - complete and utter nightmare. Just could not cope with Ricky Shakes, mostly through poor positional play (played far too narrow) and was very much at fault for the goal.
Westwood - awful. Won very little in the air, distribution was poor, lost the man he was supposed to be marking on several occasions.
Gerrard - probably the pick of the bunch, but that isn't saying much. He was still poor. Couldn't cope with Cureton.
Nicholls - started on the left, moved up front early in the first half, back to the left for the second half, before going back up front again. Did a few nice things shortly before being substituted.
Wright - poor game. Made one or two runs but did nothing with the ball.
Smith - dreadful. Gave the ball away virtually every single time he had it.
Leary - was he actually playing? Difficult to remember seeing him over the 90 minutes. (More on this later.)
Timm - a true shocker. After the first time I saw him I posted something saying how wonderful he is. Well, he wasn't tonight. Hardly the sort of player you want when you're in a relegation battle.
James - rubbish. Didn't beat his man once. Had one nice shot which was easily our best effort and was very unlucky that he didn't connect with a header late on which would have given us an undeserved point.

Subs-
Constable came on for Wright and did far more good things than any of our other players had done, but he had an absolutely golden chance and chose a diving header when he could have just tapped it in with his foot
Standing came on for Nicholls, played on the left wing (FOR GOD'S SAKE!) and was anonymous as ever

We were just hopeless. Our one and only tactic was to lump the ball forward to the mighty height of Kevin James. We showed earlier in the month that the new midfield can actually play a bit - but we made no attempt to use Leary or Smith. Every time any of our back four (or five, including Oakes) got the ball they just hoofed it as far as they could. It was truly, truly pitiful.

I can't sum it up any better than by talking about Paul Smith. When he played for us, as soon as the ball went anywhere near him you could guarantee one of the opposition players would race in there and get to it before he did, leaving him with no time at all. Today he had all the time in the world. Even with five minutes to go and us being a goal down, he was allowed to just stroll around the middle picking out his passing.

On the bright side, at least Lee Peacock was dire, probably rivalling any of our players to the accolade of being the worst player on the pitch. The best was, without question, Cureton, who scored one, missed two open goals, and saw two excellent shots saved by Oakes.

The second half saw a few pathetic "Merson, Merson sort it out" chants before a brief "We want Merson out" which was greeted with derision by many of our fans. I actually heard someone say on the way out "I don't know why Merson puts up with the abuse he gets". Deluded idiot.

I've rarely felt so depressed to be a Walsall fan. There were EIGHT changes since the game at Bristol City but the performance was the same. What's the common factor? Merson. There is literally nobody who I wouldn't take as manager over Merson. Give me Tony Pulis, Tony Blair, Tony Butler, ANYONE. Just get Merson out NOW before he gets us relegated. I just hope it isn't already too late.

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tinned
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Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:10 pm

Bristol Fan wrote:Our one and only tactic was to lump the ball forward to the mighty height of Kevin James.


Is this the tactic that Merson says we don't use ?


We showed earlier in the month that the new midfield can actually play a bit - but we made no attempt to use Leary or Smith. Every time any of our back four (or five, including Oakes) got the ball they just hoofed it as far as they could. It was truly, truly pitiful.


Unfortunately this is exactly the scenario I was dreading. These new players come in with all good intentions and then they see what Merson is like and go one of two ways. They either think "This is a totally unprofessional club" and basically lose interest, or they think "Hey, hey. I can have a bit of a lark here for a few months". Either is no good for the club and it appears to have happened time after time lately.

The second half saw a few pathetic "Merson, Merson sort it out" chants before a brief "We want Merson out" which was greeted with derision by many of our fans. I actually heard someone say on the way out "I don't know why Merson puts up with the abuse he gets". Deluded idiot.


When will people realise the root cause of our problems ? I just, well I just am lost for words sometimes :?

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Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:35 pm

Just got back in. I agree totally with Bristol Fan's sentiments. This was depressing stuff. A mediocre/poor first half [at best] was followed by a completely shambolic second. If we had played until midnight we would not have scored, we just got worse and worse as the game wore on.

What gets me more than anything is the reaction of supporters. A bit of "Merson Out" at the end but it is clear that he still retains a lot of goodwill, though what it is based upon beats me. I saw a couple of blokes shout abuse at one fan early in the second half. Not sure what about because it was towards the back. Can anyone enlighten me?

The team: No application. No organisation. Tactically niave. Players moving about all over the place to what purpose. The big boot. We struggled to string two passes together all night.

I exempt Nicholls and maybe Gerrard from criticism, but the rest were simply embarrasing. The loan players, one and all, were dreadful. We should have, and deserved to lose by far more but do not run away with the idea that Swindon were any good. However, they were far better organised than us and at least looked like they had some idea in the final third of the field. They did not have to play well anyway.

I do not know where we can go from here. Persistently changing formation and playing players out of position [I mean Standing on the left wing for god's sake!] has taken its toll.

It does not matter how many players we get in. If we have no method, organisation and tactical know how then things drift, as they clearly already have with the new blood.

The highlight of the evening for me was the journey home. that says it all.

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Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:59 pm

BathSaddler wrote:What gets me more than anything is the reaction of supporters. A bit of "Merson Out" at the end but it is clear that he still retains a lot of goodwill, though what it is based upon beats me. I saw a couple of blokes shout abuse at one fan early in the second half. Not sure what about because it was towards the back. Can anyone enlighten me?


That was MMF and his pals, telling some chap what for. I think I heard the chap say to MMF "Merson is the best thing to happen to this club." What a Clown.

For the record, I didn't see Oakes make any sorts of signs towards the fans.

Gutted, well and truely gutted. I didn't think it would happen but it has, we are in a relegation battle and it feels shite. :cry:

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Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:00 am

Totaly agree with the Bristol and bath above. Perhaps a bit harsh on Fox for the goal which was a wonder strike - reminded me of van Basten in Euro 88.

Thought we started purposefully and had a good first five minutes with a few shots from distance to test their keeper out. From then on it seemed that we got worse by the minute and the final 30 minutes were just a waste of time being on the pitch. Were we tired? The midfield just gave up. Smith seemed to get some abuse from the Swindon crowd and went into his shell. Leary had his worst game for us so far. Wrighty was wrighty. I'm not quite sure what Timms is - forward, midfielder, poser - or a bit of all three. He is fast becoming a one trick pony with his dragging studs over the ball trick.

Defence was awful - with the exception of Gerrard. Oakes is rapidly reminding me of Calamity David Jones with a wonder save one minute followed by a tame flap to gift a goalscoring chance.

After Chesterfield I shared everyone's concerns that we had a new team we probably would not be able to keep. However at least it looked good enough to keep us out of trouble. It is amazing how quickly this new side has become exactly the same as the old team. This was as bad as Bristol City with the exception that Swindon were not good enough to punish us further. We are in a relegation scrap for sure.

A sliver of hope - Roper and Devlin to add to this side plus any panic signings made in the final few minutes of the window. We might as well re-sign Larossa.

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Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:10 am

A laughing stock. Thats what we have become. Its weird but despite spending most of our lives in the lower leagues in front of small crowds, i have always felt proud to b a saddler and never hesitated to tell people i am a Walsall fan. But more and more during the super clowns reign, i have felt embarassed to b a Walsall fan

Believe me, Swindon r a super crap outfit. But we r increasingly looking like the worst team in the league. Relegation is not a possibility, it is a certainity. Swindon used to b even worse but they sacked their manager and r improving. Crap teams sack their managers u know! Gillingham were super crap but sacked their manager and now r improving. Crap teams sack their manager u know! They had an even worse away record than us(i know that is incredible to believe) but won at Swansea today (Swansea r in a bad run so puts our performance against them in the Donald Duck cup last week under perspective). Rotherham were spectacularly crap and sacked their manager and have improved. Crap teams sack managers u know! Have Hartlepool sacked their manager yet? If not when they do, they will improve. Cant see Megson surviving too much longer at Forest so they will pick up a few results when they get a new manager. The Franchise(who we have managed a grand total of 1 point against this season) bottom of the table, beat Forest today

Defensively we were super crap as usual. Only the sheer incompetence of the Swindon team stopped them scoring 5 or 6. Westwood is the worst central defender i have seen play for us since i remember a joke called Stephen O' Hara play for us in the Hibbit regimen. I wud rather have Dakinah back than Westwood!!! I am one of Gerrards biggest fans but he struggles away from home, usually as he is surrounded by garbage. Its not always easy to criticise Pead as he gives 100% but that does not hide the fact he is non league standard. Remember he was so good that he was given a grand total of 0 1st team appearances by Coventry City despite being there for a few years. I found Parkins post match comments after our recent defeat to Colchester interesting. He said we had a little man at full back(Pead) and they were looking to exploit that at set pieces with headers and flick ons (they did exactly that and scored). As for Fox he has a lot of supporters because he tries and has a hard tackle. That doesnt hide the fact that he is worse than Aranaldhe. He cant pass, crap at getting forward and useless at defensive play. He was ripped apart tonight

Midfield was a hilarious. I know it was difficult due to our defense deciding as usual to hump the ball forward but that doesnt excuse their complete ineptitude. My worst fears about the new loanees was founded. New loan players always give 110% to impress their new team and to put themselves in the shop window. After a few games they nearer to their true selves. I was very impressed with Leary initally but if u thought he was crap at Stoke, tonight he was the invisible man. He showed exactly why he has been considered good enough to play about only 5 games a season for Luton in the last 3-4 years. James was poor but what do u expect when he is playing left wing? He has done enough to earn a contract but we have proved this season that we cant compete with Swindon or Boston in the transfer market so what next? In fact i didnt know what positions half the team we were playing today. Madds Timm varied between Ronaldo and Willie Naughton in his first few games but now has shown how crap he is and he is exactly not the type of player who is going to get u out of a relegation scrap. The sooner he returns to Man U 3rd team the better. I have tried to defend Wright in the past but yet again tonight he was a disgrace

We missed a couple of sitters again today. But am not going to criticise forwards like Constable or Nicholls as they have potential and r not ready for regular 1st team appearances yet. If u thought Saturdays substitution of Standing for Wright was a joke, todays Standing for Nicholls defied belief. Standing is too useless to even play in his own central midfield role yet he is messed about on the wing or up front

Fryatt scored again for Leicester today. How many points wud we have had had we kept him? A new low has been reached in Walsall FC this season when we have started selling players for 30% of their true value. Every other club in the football league wud have got 750-1 million for him. We live in a different transfer world to everyone else. Brentford today sold that Campbell for 500000 rising to 1 million to Birmingham. This for a player who has only played 28 1st team games and scored 12 golas. Matty scored more this season, scored last few seasons including at Championship. Not forgetting Mattys age and his England apperances and goals. Am getting angrier and angrier now

But whay does it matter. As long we reduce our debt. As long as we have a super clown in charge who will lead us to 3000 gates entertaining Accrington Stanley and Rochdale. But it doesnt matter as the super clown is famous so gets us a bigger profile and more media coverage

Am going to the Brentford match witha few Brentford fans from work. Brentford r big, physical, concede very few goals, deadly at set pieces, have a brilliant young manager, r going to get promoted and last week dumped a premiership club out of the cup. My Brentford mates predict a 2-3 goal victory. I have called them insane. We will will lucky to avoid a 6 goal thrashing

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Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:23 am

London Saddler wrote:A laughing stock. Thats what we have become. Its weird but despite spending most of our lives in the lower leagues in front of small crowds, i have always felt proud to b a saddler and never hesitated to tell people i am a Walsall fan. But more and more during the super clowns reign, i have felt embarassed to b a Walsall fan


Despite only being 17 and therefore only being able vaguely to remeber a couple of seasons of division 3 football I don't thikn I could have put that above statement better for how I am feeling about the club now.

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YGA Saddler
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Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:28 am

Here goes my view on my wasted £23. I am fed up with Paul Merson, if the bloke was to be kidnapped tomorrow I wouldnt shed a tear, the man is the worst thing to have happened to Walsall FC. The few chants of Merson Out and Merson sort it out were pathetic, so bad that even Swindon fans joined in to help :shock:
If this is the best Merson can get out of the players in a crunch relegation match then we might aswell start planning trips to Accrington and Boston. There was no way we were going to win that game with the typical long ball hoof for Timm or James to lose out on the header.
The most disgusting aspect of the night must be ANDY OAKES! We pay our money and are entitled to our opinion so its disgusting when a player of your own team doesnt accept a little bit of stick and turns around and makes an hand gesture at you :shock: I shall be writing to the club about that. Oakes did make up for it with 3 good saves later on but it still doesnt justify what he did! Cracking goal by Cureton though, Oakes had no chance.
Pead and Gerrard had decent games. I thought Timm,Westwood and Wrighty were the worst on the pitch tonight.
The stewards were complete barstewards, we couldnt stand up to go to the toilet or else they'd send a stupid woman to sit you back in your seat :x
I would like to know WHY Paul Merson decides to turn around at his dug-out in disgust. He tells Ozzie and Whitney what the players should be doing rather than telling his own players!! He must have done this at least 20 times tonight.

There was a lot of arguing amongst fans tonight, started with a couple of guys that at one stage I thought were going to hit each other. One was calling for Bonser's head the other was calling for Merson's head. Then it started a free for all where everyone else were arguing between themselves.

I am worried about the rest of this season, deadline day is over we have two pityful players to show for it and a quick look at the table makes you want to bury yourself in an hole.

If we hadnt had such a laugh on the coach down there and Anthony Gerrard's dad (top bloke) hadnt brought me a pint Id probably be banned tonight for swearing too much.

If Merson stays another month Id be very surprised because by that time we'd be down!

MOSOC

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Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:56 am

Fans fighting amongst themselves? What have we become? You lot are lucky it's the middle of the night and you can go to sleep, I've got the rest of the day at work to absorb the impact of tonight, the most winnable away game we had between now and the end of the season.

I'm feeling sick. Sick of this club, and especially sick of Merson's continued abuse of the position of manager. He's no manager. We knew that when we appointed him, and we all hoped he'd prove us wrong. 21 months later and that hope has totally evaporated in all but a few foolhardy hearts.

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Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:30 am

this is totally unexceptable.......can't beleive how low WFC has got.......Relegation looms its ugly head for another time, how many get of

out of jail cards does Merson derserve, we haven't a JJ to get us out of the mire this time.........

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Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:01 am

Well I've had a night to think about things, see if I could rescue any positives from last night. See if I could find any justification for why I paid £23. Answer was no.

For the past 4/5 weeks under this new look team, I've expressed my concern that we've played well and not won. The sign of a good team is one that plays bad and wins, be concerned when you play well and don't win. Well we've now passed that, we played awful and were lucky to only lose 1-0.

Cureton could and should have had a hat-trick last night, Oakes made a fantastic save to deny Peacock and Cureton, they twice saw shots miss the far post by inches.

We on the other hand had 1 effort on target all night, that being Nicholls shot against the bar that James contrived to miss the rebound on. Constable's was not a miss in a month of Sundays, he just threw himself at a ball that was a shade too far in front of him to reach.

We got what we deserved and if Keates/Barrowman/Suffo is the answer then I'm the Virgin Mary. The answer is a new manager that actually instills some pride and discipline in these players.

I've always thought that the talk of relegation was scare-mongering, I even thought that at half time as I was convinced the 2nd half would get better. It got worse and talk of relegation is no longer scare-mongering, its bloody realistic.

Bonser must act now, get the fool out. If Merson had any self-respect and humility, he'd put his hands up and admit he isn't up to the job.

When we got rid of Onoura, we got rid of the wrong man based on last nights performance and recent form over the last 6/7 matches.

I've wanted Merson out for quite a while now, but I've never put the following 5 letters at the end of a post.

MOSOC.

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YGA Saddler
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Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:06 am

Stu wrote:Well I've had a night to think about things, see if I could rescue any positives from last night. See if I could find any justification for why I paid £23. Answer was no.

For the past 4/5 weeks under this new look team, I've expressed my concern that we've played well and not won. The sign of a good team is one that plays bad and wins, be concerned when you play well and don't win. Well we've now passed that, we played awful and were lucky to only lose 1-0.

Cureton could and should have had a hat-trick last night, Oakes made a fantastic save to deny Peacock and Cureton, they twice saw shots miss the far post by inches.

We on the other hand had 1 effort on target all night, that being Nicholls shot against the bar that James contrived to miss the rebound on. Constable's was not a miss in a month of Sundays, he just threw himself at a ball that was a shade too far in front of him to reach.

We got what we deserved and if Keates/Barrowman/Suffo is the answer then I'm the Virgin Mary. The answer is a new manager that actually instills some pride and discipline in these players.

I've always thought that the talk of relegation was scare-mongering, I even thought that at half time as I was convinced the 2nd half would get better. It got worse and talk of relegation is no longer scare-mongering, its bloody realistic.

Bonser must act now, get the fool out. If Merson had any self-respect and humility, he'd put his hands up and admit he isn't up to the job.

When we got rid of Onoura, we got rid of the wrong man based on last nights performance and recent form over the last 6/7 matches.

I've wanted Merson out for quite a while now, but I've never put the following 5 letters at the end of a post.

MOSOC.


Good to meet you last night Stu, even if it was just for two minutes!

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Stu
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Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:15 am

wfc_2uk wrote:Good to meet you last night Stu, even if it was just for two minutes!


Yeah, that was probably the only positive of last night actually, I put faces to names for both yourself and JolySaddler. Not worth £23 mind you, lol.

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Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:27 am

The biggest positive for me was the wonderful Rockin' Robin dance before the game, greeted with stoney silence from all around the ground. I bet Whalley was sitting there getting teary-eyed in admiration.

sore saddler
 

History lesson ?

Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:44 pm

Let me wind back to our earlier meeting with Swindon. GeoffWhitings post was correct.

"Sid, I think it's a bit premature calling for Merson out, personally I don't want the disruption of another management change so soon after CL, stability is what we need.

7 games played, 3 wins, 3 draws, one defeat, 12 points, 6th place - and we haven't played well yet. I don't think that's too bad, we're nicely placed and well in touch with the top, and my only real worry at the moment is Merson's messing about with the side.

If he'll just let the side settle now, with Pead, Westwood, Gerrard and Fox consistently at the back, Osborn, Standing, Kris Taylor and Wright featuring in midfield, Jorge and Matty working up front, and himself on the touch-line with Staunton, I think we could see a great improvement over the next few games.

If he carries on meddling, well I might be swapping to "The Sid Party", but for me I'm still quite a long way away from that, and my expectations are growing that the benefits of a settled side are beginning to dawn on him."

At the time all posts thought pretty much the same - stop meddling, let the team gel and sign another front man.

What has happened - team has changed every game. Have we ever played the same 11 two games in a row ?
Players have been played out position time after time (and played badly - no surprise there then !!).
PM has recruited more midfield players than any other team in the world. Problems remain the same - no one to hold the ball up front and lack of fitness.

Latest news - we have signed another midfield player !!!!

Things just get better and better.

Sorry for the rant but just had to get it off my chest.

saddler_mad
 

Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:46 pm

whilst we were poor last night i do think we were beaten by a well organised, physical swindon side who showed the bottle we clearly didn't have.

Madds Timm was very poor as was Grant Smith who constantly gave the ball away. we were hoofing the ball to strikers who did could do nothing with it and it was so frustrating to watch. wtf was gerrard doing trying to tackle the corner taker before it had even been taken?

I really think we missed out on Peacock. He didn't look match fit but he battled for everything and made some neat moves. Cureton was a different class :( his goal was sublime. Could have easily had a hat trick tbh, Oakes made some decent stops but was flapping around way too much.

Swindon were poor in the centre of midfield and we really should have capitalised. i was impressed with their 2 wingers.

i can only see a relegation fight for us, and with other sides picking up points it's gonna be difficult. I wouldn't be surprised if Swindon stayed up, they have some quality. Luckily for me I live in Cheltenham so it wasn't that far a trip back.

MERSON OUT! I'm tired of watching this rubbish.

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