Swindon Town (H) League One Fri 26 Dec, 3pm

[BarnsleySaddler]

Swindon have a goal disallowed, only bright spot is the snow is getting worse so can we hope for snow stops play. :idea:

[Welsh_Saddler]

Grimes on for Sawyers

[BarnsleySaddler]

Sawyers off Grimes on.

[philthesaddler]

Dean 'mediocre' Smith strikes again.

Organised, well drilled, and switched on?

No, take the day off training lads, it doesn't matter!

[Sadsfan]

Dean 'mediocre' Smith strikes again.

Organised, well drilled, and switched on?

No, take the day off training lads, it doesn't matter!

A bit harsh, I'm not sure that it was yesterdays day off that caused this.

[funk_hits_the_fan]

Hope there isn't too much overreaction on here tonight :roll:

WM said it was clearly down to failing to acclimatise to the conditions.

Disappointing result in bad conditions. End of.

Its about time someone told Philthesaddler that Walsall are a nothing more than a mediocre club! Love them to bits of course, but I understand reality.

[Sadsfan]

Hope there isn't too much overreaction on here tonight :roll:

WM said it was clearly down to failing to acclimatise to the conditions.

Disappointing result in bad conditions. End of.

So we weren't losing before the snow came down? There is a clear reason as to why we are losing, and it ain't the snow or yesterdays day off, we are just playing a team well above our level.

[BarnsleySaddler]

Grimes scores but goal is ruled offside. He just cannot get a goal.

[BarnsleySaddler]

WALSALL SUB: Bradshaw OFF Manset ON. Wonder if he can have any more luck than Grimes.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Manset on for Bradshaw - desperation stakes ?

[Wragbyred]

Dean 'mediocre' Smith strikes again.

Organised, well drilled, and switched on?

No, take the day off training lads, it doesn't matter!

Could it be that Swindon just may be better than us??
Dickhead

[IHTC.]

Half-time team talk

DS ' yes Uncle Jeff?'

JB ' those play offs are getting frightfully close, sort it out old boy'

DS 'Yes Sir, will do sir'

:lol:

Joking apart let's just hope it's one of those days.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Dean 'mediocre' Smith strikes again.

Organised, well drilled, and switched on?

No, take the day off training lads, it doesn't matter!

Could it be that Swindon just may be better than us??
Dickhead

Heartily agree.

[BathSaddler]

We've had a great run but today's capitulation is a reminder that we are a mid-table side at best. A lack of any strength in depth could also hold us back from achieving even that.

[philthesaddler]

Merely making the point that Dean Smith continues to achieve nothing. It may be flippant but cancelling a day of training is not something a succeful manager would do.

Dickheads.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Merely making the point that Dean Smith continues to achieve nothing. It may be flippant but cancelling a day of training is not something a succeful manager would do.

Dickheads.

Some people only sing when we're losing............ :roll:

[Sadsfan]

Let's hope that we don't have the January onwards that we had last year, or that we don't lose Bradshaw to injury or the January window!

[BarnsleySaddler]

1-4. A bad day at the office. We all have them. Hope for good days in 2015. UTS.

[sallian]

Swindon have the best or second best attack in the division....But I expected the 2nd best defence to do better...but now we are 3rd or 4th best.

Its no big deal to lose to Swindon (revenge for last season I guess) but it is a big deal when we can hardly beat anyone else.... only 6 wins out of 22 is pretty poor considering we have some good young players who are capable if organized properly. Maybe they were getting complacent after their run of good form.

I still have to put blame on Dean Smith's understanding of attacking formations.....still one man at a time broken methodology.... He really does need to look at the goal tally more and make the connection between shortage of good opportunity and execution....paired with one man attack.

Swindon's emphasis on attack defeated Walsall's wrong philosophy.....goals win games more than defence and possession....although all are important. You can prevent a loss with defence but you can't win with defence alone. Attack on the other hand can win you a game even if your defence was bad and leaked many goals.

[SaddlerSteve]

Hope there isn't too much overreaction on here tonight :roll:

WM said it was clearly down to failing to acclimatise to the conditions.

Disappointing result in bad conditions. End of.

Its about time someone told Philthesaddler that Walsall are a nothing more than a mediocre club! Love them to bits of course, but I understand reality.

If you were at the game you'd realise that WM were talking guano!

[otiswfc]

Very poor today we didn't cope with the conditions but what do people expect we all know the team are a bunch of pansies I wouldn't play sawyers if the temperature was below 10 degrees or a slight wind was blowing he is a right fairy the only player's who came out of that game with any credit would be o donnell, Bradshaw and Rico the rest just didn't seem to have any desire, Swindon don't look brilliant but what they are is a very big and powerful side similar to Brentford last season.

[sallian]

Very poor today we didn't cope with the conditions but what do people expect we all know the team are a bunch of pansies I wouldn't play sawyers if the temperature was below 10 degrees or a slight wind was blowing he is a right fairy the only player's who came out of that game with any credit would be o donnell, Bradshaw and Rico the rest just didn't seem to have any desire, Swindon don't look brilliant but what they are is a very big and powerful side similar to Brentford last season.

I never really thought about the impact of weather upon Walsall's game... I guess there is the possibility that Walsall's performances and results could totally collapse over the next couple of months due needing a more physical and direct approach which they don't possess.

[SoccerHQ]

Sounds like a bad second half, hopefully they'll be a response at Franchise but that's another very difficult game.

There's only what two places difference between Swindon and Sheffield but a clear gulf in quality, infact it's a lot like last season when there's a top 4 miles better than the rest.

Wouldn't lose too much heart, Notts, Oldham, Fletwood, Posh and Rochdale all lost aswell.


There's 4 good teams in this division and everyone else is mediocre.

[Sadders]

Strange game that was, well the hour I saw anyway.

First half we started slowly and should have been 2 down, after that we got in behind 7 or 8 times but the final ball was poor, we certainly matched them and the score could have been 3-3. Second half was totally weird, very harsh scoreline. We didn't deserve to be 4-1 down but to concede a goal straight from our corner 30 seconds into the second half is so amatuerish. Not something we normally associate with Smith - why was Henry left 1 vs 1? What was O'Donnell doing for most of the afternoon, 2nd goal looked poor at the near post, he punched when he could have caught and ran off his line at one point only to go back on 2 occasions?

Swindon were the most clinical team I've seen in a long time. Quick, direct, tricky but tall and strong from crosses too. We didn't deserve to lose 4-1 and 2 of the goals were mistakes/freak goals/poor keeping - but I'm glad it puts us in our place in a strange way. We are just a mid table side, we should have 'more' of 'those afternoons' than we do, that's why it feels so strange to lose 4-1.

Swindon will go up if they play like that....I thought today was the 1st day we've missed Butler smashing through someone like Smith who was just physically too tall and too much to handle for Chambers and Downing. Adam Chambers gave the ball away more than he kept it, Downing fell over the ball for the third and Bryne exploited Henry excellently - hopefully today will be a good learning curve for him in the future.

Let's get through the Dons and see where we are then - just hope it doesn't take the stuffing out of us.

Onwards.

[SoccerHQ]

Swindon have the best or second best attack in the division....But I expected the 2nd best defence to do better...but now we are 3rd or 4th best.

Its no big deal to lose to Swindon (revenge for last season I guess) but it is a big deal when we can hardly beat anyone else.... only 6 wins out of 22 is pretty poor considering we have some good young players who are capable if organized properly. Maybe they were getting complacent after their run of good form.

I still have to put blame on Dean Smith's understanding of attacking formations.....still one man at a time broken methodology.... He really does need to look at the goal tally more and make the connection between shortage of good opportunity and execution....paired with one man attack.

Swindon's emphasis on attack defeated Walsall's wrong philosophy.....goals win games more than defence and possession....although all are important. You can prevent a loss with defence but you can't win with defence alone. Attack on the other hand can win you a game even if your defence was bad and leaked many goals.

Barnsley, Fleetwood, Chesterfield and Notts County have been beaten since October 25th, all currently in the top half.

The league is very mediocre, there's some winnable fixtures in January so just accept it's a bad half of football.

[saddler_nic]

Really strange game that, hard to make a real judgement on it. I thought first half we more than matched them and probably should have gone in at half time in front, with Cook missing a glorious chance. The main talking point was the Luongo challenge on ROD. Most people were screaming for a red, for me it wasn't even a yellow. It was a 50-50 which they both went in to commited and fairly. If Luongo doesn't go for that ball he gets hammered by the fans, his team mates and his manager.

At half time I thought what a really enjoyable game it was. Sadly, the second half was over before we got started. Terrible corner was pounced on and we didn't have enough cover at the back. RICO held their number three up, who was excellent for them all game, but nobody tracked the runner to the left. A couple if mins later, Downing slips and the balls in the net.

Really disappointing that Swindon didnt have to work for any of their goals. I can take being beaten by the better side but we really were masters of our own downfall today.

[SaigonSaddler]

We were actually unlucky for large parts of that game. Slips and poor individual choices resulted in goals for a very clinical side. Couldn't have complained at 3-1 or even 3-2. They were certainly a better side in the final third with Spurs loanees etc.

The weather turned bad immediately following their 3rd goal, denting any meaningful response and improving their chances of a breakaway goal. And a certain goal for us was blocked and we also had one disallowed for offside.

Reminded me of Swansea when we played them at home and lost 5-2.

The Deano hate is misplaced here.

[Bristol Fan]

Merely making the point that Dean Smith continues to achieve nothing. It may be flippant but cancelling a day of training is not something a succeful manager would do.

Louis van Gaal gave Man Utd the day off yesterday. Will visit their forums to see if their fans share your view.

Dickheads.

Hmm.

Thought we competed reasonably well in the first half against a good side. Second was a story of mistakes, you could say Swindon's second was tactically very poor from us, the third and fourth were down to individual errors by Downing (the first one he slipped which is just one of those things I guess).

The highlight was not being able to see some of it because of the snow.

[Cully]

Disappointing result after a promising first half. Swindon clearly have some good players, but in the second half we forgot the basics, in particular Downing who lapsed into the most generous of moods by either giving the ball directly to one of their players or failed to clear the ball when in procession. His mistake for the third was particularly damaging to any chance of a recovery. Final score was perhaps a little misleading to those that weren't there and how Henry didn't get the man of the match was a mystery, he was excellent throughout the game up to the very last seconds, always making forward runs, his tackling and commitment could not be faulted. I just hope that we can hold onto him for at least a couple of seasons.

Milton Keynes away.....................no chance.

Oh and despite our latest run of reasonable results the pattern of the last three seasons under SMITHOUT doesn't change..............win none, lose and draw a few for a couple of months, get a couple of wins and a mini unbeaten run and some fans think that it will all be different from now on....................back to square one and so the cycle continues. I'm hoping for a miracle :shock:

[ShyTallKnight]

After the third goal Swindon went into cruise mode. Actually they were very kind to us as if they wanted they could have scored another two or three goals at will. Tippy tappy short passing(?) was not the tactic for the snowy conditions. Thoroughly outplayed by a much superior team, alas. Not seen us collapse like that for some considerable time.