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SwindonBladeJnr

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Fortunately for me, I didn't have too far to trudge home. I feel very sorry for any Blades there today who have a long journey back home ahead of them.

Today's game was the first one that I have attended, having previously only seen the game against Bristol City on the box.

I'm feeling pretty concerned to be honest. This from someone who has been quietly confident that we have a squad capable of challenging for a top two position. That may still materialise but I'm now hoping rather than expecting.

Thoughts on the game:

Swindon were impressive, they play a short passing game and keep possession well. They played from the back and were happy to keep the ball with sideways and backwards passes around halfway and just inside their own half. As soon as we lost shape or discipline with one or two players coming out to close the ball down, they were quick to exploit the gaps either with an incisive pass or with a burst of pace with players carrying the ball. We struggled to cope with a number of their players when they ran at us - several times a Swindon man was able to beat (or run through) 3 or 4 of our players. The penalty we gave away was a prime example.

The only player in our back four today that deserves any credit is McEveley. The others were poor and looked leaden footed, struggling to make meaningful challenges, or even get close to their counterparts. The only time we coped well with an attack was when it was an aerial one.

Scougall was too deep all game to do what he does best; take the ball at pace and beat people. Murphy was disappointing in the first half but as I commented on another thread, he was only ever receiving the ball very deep with 50 yards and two or three Swindon players in front of him. Good dribbler he is, Messi he is not. In the second half, when we briefly rallied to bring it back to 3-2, the whole team had been able to push up meaning that Murphy finally could receive the ball near the Swindon penalty area but even then, all too often he was snuffed out.

Christ Basham was woeful. Absolutely useless. I honestly don't take any pleasure in talking about a Blades player like this but I'm afraid there is no getting away from it. People have pointed out that he is carrying out the 'box to box' role for us. It is all well and good having the engine to get up and down but when you have no composure, awareness, vision or technical ability the most you can ever be is a nuisance to the opposition. He wasn't even that today. He lacks aggression and for a man of his height, doesn't ever seem to be near an aerial challenge in the middle of the park.

Doyle was not much better in the first half but in the second did improve. Younger, fitter and quicker players in the middle for Swindon by and large got the better of him though.

Davies was ineffective in the first half but instrumental in our good spell in the second half. His crossing from the right caused all sorts of issues for Swindon and of course he got his goal. As I mentioned with Murphy - the whole team had managed to press up the pitch 20 yards or so in the second half which allowed him to receive the ball in more dangerous positions where his crossing becomes a weapon.

Flynn and Reed both did well when they came on and made us look a much more capable footballing outfit than previously (not particularly difficult today though admittedly).

My favourite player for us today though was McNulty. I think he really did well today given a lack of service and the fact that he was often isolated (more so in the first half). He has a good touch, is confident in holding possession and turning his man to get them facing their own goal. Lacks real pace but he isn't slow. I think we've got a good player there. We just need to get the likes of Flynn, Baxter and Scougall close enough to him to play and get the best from him.

I'm an optimist usually and I consider myself very patient with managers and players in comparison to most fans I come across on forums such as this. Today has however really worried me; continue to play like that and we will not make the top six let alone the top two. Hopefully with the likes of JCR, Wallace and Baxter to come back into the team, and with a couple of good loan acquisitions, this performance turns out to be an exception rather than a rule.
 
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Fortunately for me, I didn't have too far to trudge home. I feel very sorry for any Blades there today who have a long journey back home ahead of them.

Today's game was the first one that I have attended, having previously only seen the game against Bristol City on the box.

I'm feeling pretty concerned to be honest. This from someone who has been quietly confident that we have a squad capable of challenging for a top two position. That may still materialise but I'm now hoping rather than expecting
Poor you living in Swindon this weekend! At least we are not likely to bump into many Swindon fans up here!
 
Poor you living in Swindon this weekend! At least we are not likely to bump into many Swindon fans up here!

You could have just said 'poor you living in Swindon' and left it there!

The thing is, I'll go back to work on Monday and people that usually don't give a flying one about Swindon will all of a sudden want to talk about the game with me. The ones that usually 'support' Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea etc.

There are a few lads I know who follow Swindon everywhere and I'll graciously accept some banter from them :)
 
I just got back too and the one thing that struck me was how well Swindon were prepared for this game, they had done their homework on us and it showed, credit to them. I really thought our performance today shows how far short we are to be true title contenders, not only sloppy in possession at times, we just didn't look like being a threat. Hope Nigel and Co can sort it soon - Please!!
 
Awful performance bar 10 mins at 3-0. Basham shouldn't wear shirt again. Pace at back needed. Play two up front.

Cannot stomach posting more after that s hit today !!

Really enjoyed the drive home !
 
Fortunately for me, I didn't have too far to trudge home. I feel very sorry for any Blades there today who have a long journey back home ahead of them.

Today's game was the first one that I have attended, having previously only seen the game against Bristol City on the box.

I'm feeling pretty concerned to be honest. This from someone who has been quietly confident that we have a squad capable of challenging for a top two position. That may still materialise but I'm now hoping rather than expecting.

Thoughts on the game:

Swindon were impressive, they play a short passing game and keep possession well. They played from the back and were happy to keep the ball with sideways and backwards passes around halfway and just inside their own half. As soon as we lost shape or discipline with one or two players coming out to close the ball down, they were quick to exploit the gaps either with an incisive pass or with a burst of pace with players carrying the ball. We struggled to cope with a number of their players when they ran at us - several times a Swindon man was able to beat (or run through) 3 or 4 of our players. The penalty we gave away was a prime example.

The only player in our back four today that deserves any credit is McEveley. The others were poor and looked leaden footed, struggling to make meaningful challenges, or even get close to their counterparts. The only time we coped well with an attack was when it was an aerial one.

Scougall was too deep all game to do what he does best; take the ball at pace and beat people. Murphy was disappointing in the first half but as I commented on another thread, he was only ever receiving the ball very deep with 50 yards and two or three Swindon players in front of him. Good dribbler he is, Messi he is not. In the second half, when we briefly rallied to bring it back to 3-2, the whole team had been able to push up meaning that Murphy finally could receive the ball near the Swindon penalty area but even then, all too often he was snuffed out.

Christ Basham was woeful. Absolutely useless. I honestly don't take any pleasure in talking about a Blades player like this but I'm afraid there is no getting away from it. People have pointed out that he is carrying out the 'box to box' role for us. It is all well and good having the engine to get up and down but when you have no composure, awareness, vision or technical ability the most you can ever be is a nuisance to the opposition. He wasn't even that today. He lacks aggression and for a man of his height, doesn't ever seem to be near an aerial challenge in the middle of the park.

Doyle was not much better in the first half but in the second did improve. Younger, fitter and quicker players in the middle for Swindon by and large got the better of him though.

Davies was ineffective in the first half but instrumental in our good spell in the second half. His crossing from the right caused all sorts of issues for Swindon and of course he got his goal. As I mentioned with Murphy - the whole team had managed to press up the pitch 20 yards or so in the second half which allowed him to receive the ball in more dangerous positions where his crossing becomes a weapon.

Flynn and Reed both did well when they came on and made us look a much more capable footballing outfit than previously (not particularly difficult today though admittedly).

My favourite player for us today though was McNulty. I think he really did well today given a lack of service and the fact that he was often isolated (more so in the first half). He has a good touch, is confident in holding possession and turning his man to get them facing their own goal. Lacks real pace but he isn't slow. I think we've got a good player there. We just need to get the likes of Flynn, Baxter and Scougall close enough to him to play and get the best from him.

I'm an optimist usually and I consider myself very patient with managers and players in comparison to most fans I come across on forums such as this. Today has however really worried me; continue to play like that and we will not make the top six let alone the top two. Hopefully with the likes of JCR, Wallace and Baxter to come back into the team, and with a couple of good loan acquisitions, this performance turns out to be an exception rather than a rule.
Great post Swindon blade jnr. Saw the game exactly the same way I did. I only had to travel home to Gloucester as well so it was a quiet but quick journey back. Young Louis reed showed more within 10 minutes of coming on than Basham did for 50 minutes. I too don't like picking out individuals for criticism but he was so far off the pace of the game that I almost felt sorry for him. I don't think Swindon would have carved us open as much had reed played from the start.

Murphy just looks as though something is wrong at the moment but I feel he will get back to the level he was at after the turn of the year. I still think we look a more balanced side with Flynny playing and he does track back and help his full back out.

I thought Higdon should have come on at half time for Basham as he could have held the ball up and perhaps brought Scougall into the game a bit more.
It would probably had benefitted McNulty as well to have someone closer to link up with.

Overall a disappointing game but I too think with Wallace, Baxter and JCR out we were devoid of any real attacking threat which made Swindon's task a bit easier. I would like to see McEveley partner McGahey in the middle of the back four and restore Harris to left back. This will benefit Murphy I feel.
 
McEveley looked to be at fault for the first goal from the footage. He left their striker in so much space by running towards the ball and then it's a goal. I dunno what he was like for the rest though.
 
McEveley looked to be at fault for the first goal from the footage. He left their striker in so much space by running towards the ball and then it's a goal. I dunno what he was like for the rest though.[
McEveley looked to be at fault for the first goal from the footage. He left their striker in so much space by running towards the ball and then it's a goal. I dunno what he was like for the rest though.
I seem to remember their player ghosting past about 3 or 4 of our players and McEveley having to leave his man to try and stop him. The Swindon lad just laid it off to Smith and bang 1 - 0 down. Having said that I think if McEveley had been one of the two centre backs I don't think he would have got bullied by Smith like Collins did. That's why I would have liked to have seen Higdon come on at half time as I think he could have done a similar job on their centre back pairing. I like McNulty and still think he gives us something different but without the physicality of Higdon. I think it has been said by someone else on the board but I too would like to see us go 4-4-2 at orient where there are no points at stake to at least try to start a game on the front foot.
 
Its a fair point re: McEveley, but I think he was in a situation where he couldnt win. Had he not moved across to close the ball down, we would have allowed a shot at our goal from 20 yards with no pressure, which could easily have resulted in a goal for Swindon anyway.

As it was, he made the decision to try and close the player in possession down, which made it easy for Swindon to work the ball to Smith for him to score.

Generally speaking I thought McEveley did OK; I would imagine he made more tackles than any of the other three at the back and in the second half he was able to support our attacking play down the left much more than Alcock did down the right hand side.
 
Hi Sheffield fans as a Swindon fan you are all taking about poorly you played but we made you play poorly through our slick passing and movement. In fact the only team who have done a good job on this season were Oldham last Tuesday who we drew 2-2 with and i was surprised Clough didnt use the same tactics as you must have had a scout at our last home game.
All that aside ok i may have my rose tinted glasses on but we absolutley destroyed you and someone mentioned that you dont know any of our players. Well they are all young with an average age of 19-20 nearly all our free signings and two loan players in fact Thompson who scored our fifth is a Swindon lad came up through the academy and has just been sold to Norwich for 600k but we have him back on loan for the season. Luongo in midfield we signed from Spurs for 400k and Smith up front we signed for 200k the rest are freebies.
The way we play is not a one off in fact nearly all our games we have dominated possession as we did saturday 69% and teams cant seem to handle our 3-5-2 formation and possession football.
I notice none of you mentioned our 25 pass move to score our third goal, if it was a premier league team it would have been headline news no doubt.
What wound me up after the game was when i heard a few of your fans talking saying you shouldnt be losing to teams like us because your a bigger club. Well we all know your bigger with bigger crowds but were both in L1 and thats for a reason.
To be honest your number 15 at centre back was the worst defender i have seen this season and if it wasnt for the ref bottling it should have been sent off for two yellow card. offences.
As a young team we have built on last season in fact it wasnt until December last year we got a striker in and we still managed to finish eigth in the table.
Anyway im sure Clough will sort you lot out as all our teams will have bad patches and id rather have it at the start of the season than towards the end. I think the league this year is up for grabs as for my team as they are young we are prone to giving poor goals away as we did on saturday and to be honest if you had got anything from the game when you got it back to 3-2 it would have been a total injustice as we were far superior in every department. I thought you two best players were you number 10 who i know has only just come back from being out a while and McCleverly who we were sorry to see go and he was well liked by the fans.
Anway theres a long way to go yet but although you got destroyed by us you must have enjoyed our style of play which to me is how football should be played.
No doubt you will want revenge in January when we play you next were expecting at least a top 6 finish this season as our players have had last seasons experience as most of them had their first year in league football last season. It also goes to show that if you have good people at the club that know the players they want as we target young players with good technical ability you dont have to spend thousands on players to be successful. All our players are very comfortable with the ball and maybe some of you saw especially when Kasim nutmegged two of your players in the corner in the second half to set up our fifth goal.
Anyway good luck for the rest of the season and i hope you liked our exhibition on saturday. :)
 
Hi Sheffield fans as a Swindon fan you are all taking about poorly you played but we made you play poorly through our slick passing and movement. In fact the only team who have done a good job on this season were Oldham last Tuesday who we drew 2-2 with and i was surprised Clough didnt use the same tactics as you must have had a scout at our last home game.
All that aside ok i may have my rose tinted glasses on but we absolutley destroyed you and someone mentioned that you dont know any of our players. Well they are all young with an average age of 19-20 nearly all our free signings and two loan players in fact Thompson who scored our fifth is a Swindon lad came up through the academy and has just been sold to Norwich for 600k but we have him back on loan for the season. Luongo in midfield we signed from Spurs for 400k and Smith up front we signed for 200k the rest are freebies.
The way we play is not a one off in fact nearly all our games we have dominated possession as we did saturday 69% and teams cant seem to handle our 3-5-2 formation and possession football.
I notice none of you mentioned our 25 pass move to score our third goal, if it was a premier league team it would have been headline news no doubt.
What wound me up after the game was when i heard a few of your fans talking saying you shouldnt be losing to teams like us because your a bigger club. Well we all know your bigger with bigger crowds but were both in L1 and thats for a reason.
To be honest your number 15 at centre back was the worst defender i have seen this season and if it wasnt for the ref bottling it should have been sent off for two yellow card. offences.
As a young team we have built on last season in fact it wasnt until December last year we got a striker in and we still managed to finish eigth in the table.
Anyway im sure Clough will sort you lot out as all our teams will have bad patches and id rather have it at the start of the season than towards the end. I think the league this year is up for grabs as for my team as they are young we are prone to giving poor goals away as we did on saturday and to be honest if you had got anything from the game when you got it back to 3-2 it would have been a total injustice as we were far superior in every department. I thought you two best players were you number 10 who i know has only just come back from being out a while and McCleverly who we were sorry to see go and he was well liked by the fans.
Anway theres a long way to go yet but although you got destroyed by us you must have enjoyed our style of play which to me is how football should be played.
No doubt you will want revenge in January when we play you next were expecting at least a top 6 finish this season as our players have had last seasons experience as most of them had their first year in league football last season. It also goes to show that if you have good people at the club that know the players they want as we target young players with good technical ability you dont have to spend thousands on players to be successful. All our players are very comfortable with the ball and maybe some of you saw especially when Kasim nutmegged two of your players in the corner in the second half to set up our fifth goal.
Anyway good luck for the rest of the season and i hope you liked our exhibition on saturday. :)

What did Oldham do well to get a result against you?
 

Oldham normally play with three in midfield and put an extra man in and stopped us playing the ball from the back as their front men ran their socks off to shut us down whereas your players sat as two banks of four and didnt press and when they lost shape we cut you open.
 
Good points, but could do without the gloating. We know we were bad
He has every right to gloat when his team have beaten a big club and played like they did against us,i'd be doing cartwheels if we played like that for once.I can't remember the last time we did tbh.They played with so much attacking intent that we can only dream of playing that way atm.
 
He has every right to gloat when his team have beaten a big club and played like they did against us,i'd be doing cartwheels if we played like that for once.I can't remember the last time we did tbh.They played with so much attacking intent that we can only dream of playing that way atm.
I hope I would be a little more magnanimous in victory. PS, we aren't a big club any more, just have larger attendance's.
 
I hope I would be a little more magnanimous in victory. PS, we aren't a big club any more, just have larger attendance's.
I meant a big club for this division mate.And the cartwheels i was referring too would have been more for us playing great for a change rather than us beating them,although i could have worded it better.I can't even do cartwheels anyway:)
 
Not gloating chaps theres a long way to go in the season yet and one game doesnt make the season our down fall could be the winter months away from home on bobbly pitches because of the way we play on the floor and there are some poor pitches in this league ie Crawley being one which is always bad although we have played them already.
As i said before Clough will get it right as hes a good manager all im saying with my team though if it was a premier league team playing the way we do it would be national medis news but lower leagues dont get a mention anywhere in the media.

Anyway good luck for the rest of the season apart from when you play us again.
 
Not gloating chaps theres a long way to go in the season yet and one game doesnt make the season our down fall could be the winter months away from home on bobbly pitches because of the way we play on the floor and there are some poor pitches in this league ie Crawley being one which is always bad although we have played them already.
As i said before Clough will get it right as hes a good manager all im saying with my team though if it was a premier league team playing the way we do it would be national medis news but lower leagues dont get a mention anywhere in the media.

Anyway good luck for the rest of the season apart from when you play us again.

pfft you could at least leave us to wallow in our own self loathing and pitiful whining!!

;)
 
Hi Sheffield fans as a Swindon fan you are all taking about poorly you played but we made you play poorly through our slick passing and movement. In fact the only team who have done a good job on this season were Oldham last Tuesday who we drew 2-2 with and i was surprised Clough didnt use the same tactics as you must have had a scout at our last home game.
All that aside ok i may have my rose tinted glasses on but we absolutley destroyed you and someone mentioned that you dont know any of our players. Well they are all young with an average age of 19-20 nearly all our free signings and two loan players in fact Thompson who scored our fifth is a Swindon lad came up through the academy and has just been sold to Norwich for 600k but we have him back on loan for the season. Luongo in midfield we signed from Spurs for 400k and Smith up front we signed for 200k the rest are freebies.
The way we play is not a one off in fact nearly all our games we have dominated possession as we did saturday 69% and teams cant seem to handle our 3-5-2 formation and possession football.
I notice none of you mentioned our 25 pass move to score our third goal, if it was a premier league team it would have been headline news no doubt.
What wound me up after the game was when i heard a few of your fans talking saying you shouldnt be losing to teams like us because your a bigger club. Well we all know your bigger with bigger crowds but were both in L1 and thats for a reason.
To be honest your number 15 at centre back was the worst defender i have seen this season and if it wasnt for the ref bottling it should have been sent off for two yellow card. offences.
As a young team we have built on last season in fact it wasnt until December last year we got a striker in and we still managed to finish eigth in the table.
Anyway im sure Clough will sort you lot out as all our teams will have bad patches and id rather have it at the start of the season than towards the end. I think the league this year is up for grabs as for my team as they are young we are prone to giving poor goals away as we did on saturday and to be honest if you had got anything from the game when you got it back to 3-2 it would have been a total injustice as we were far superior in every department. I thought you two best players were you number 10 who i know has only just come back from being out a while and McCleverly who we were sorry to see go and he was well liked by the fans.
Anway theres a long way to go yet but although you got destroyed by us you must have enjoyed our style of play which to me is how football should be played.
No doubt you will want revenge in January when we play you next were expecting at least a top 6 finish this season as our players have had last seasons experience as most of them had their first year in league football last season. It also goes to show that if you have good people at the club that know the players they want as we target young players with good technical ability you dont have to spend thousands on players to be successful. All our players are very comfortable with the ball and maybe some of you saw especially when Kasim nutmegged two of your players in the corner in the second half to set up our fifth goal.
Anyway good luck for the rest of the season and i hope you liked our exhibition on saturday. :)
Look forward to getting promoted with you next year then.
(I hope that came across as sarcastic as it sounded in my head)
Seriously though, don't get carried away- we're wank
 
Oldham normally play with three in midfield and put an extra man in and stopped us playing the ball from the back as their front men ran their socks off to shut us down whereas your players sat as two banks of four and didnt press and when they lost shape we cut you open.

Exactly what happened. You waited till one of ours came to a defender or your keeper and then played into the space they'd left and built fast from there. So obvious time after time but NC did nothing to change it. Felt sure at half time he'd address it but no. That's worrying!
 
Not gloating chaps theres a long way to go in the season yet and one game doesnt make the season our down fall could be the winter months away from home on bobbly pitches because of the way we play on the floor and there are some poor pitches in this league ie Crawley being one which is always bad although we have played them already.
As i said before Clough will get it right as hes a good manager all im saying with my team though if it was a premier league team playing the way we do it would be national medis news but lower leagues dont get a mention anywhere in the media.

Anyway good luck for the rest of the season apart from when you play us again.
Hi Sheffield fans as a Swindon fan you are all taking about poorly you played but we made you play poorly through our slick passing and movement. In fact the only team who have done a good job on this season were Oldham last Tuesday who we drew 2-2 with and i was surprised Clough didnt use the same tactics as you must have had a scout at our last home game.
All that aside ok i may have my rose tinted glasses on but we absolutley destroyed you and someone mentioned that you dont know any of our players. Well they are all young with an average age of 19-20 nearly all our free signings and two loan players in fact Thompson who scored our fifth is a Swindon lad came up through the academy and has just been sold to Norwich for 600k but we have him back on loan for the season. Luongo in midfield we signed from Spurs for 400k and Smith up front we signed for 200k the rest are freebies.
The way we play is not a one off in fact nearly all our games we have dominated possession as we did saturday 69% and teams cant seem to handle our 3-5-2 formation and possession football.
I notice none of you mentioned our 25 pass move to score our third goal, if it was a premier league team it would have been headline news no doubt.
What wound me up after the game was when i heard a few of your fans talking saying you shouldnt be losing to teams like us because your a bigger club. Well we all know your bigger with bigger crowds but were both in L1 and thats for a reason.
To be honest your number 15 at centre back was the worst defender i have seen this season and if it wasnt for the ref bottling it should have been sent off for two yellow card. offences.
As a young team we have built on last season in fact it wasnt until December last year we got a striker in and we still managed to finish eigth in the table.
Anyway im sure Clough will sort you lot out as all our teams will have bad patches and id rather have it at the start of the season than towards the end. I think the league this year is up for grabs as for my team as they are young we are prone to giving poor goals away as we did on saturday and to be honest if you had got anything from the game when you got it back to 3-2 it would have been a total injustice as we were far superior in every department. I thought you two best players were you number 10 who i know has only just come back from being out a while and McCleverly who we were sorry to see go and he was well liked by the fans.
Anway theres a long way to go yet but although you got destroyed by us you must have enjoyed our style of play which to me is how football should be played.
No doubt you will want revenge in January when we play you next were expecting at least a top 6 finish this season as our players have had last seasons experience as most of them had their first year in league football last season. It also goes to show that if you have good people at the club that know the players they want as we target young players with good technical ability you dont have to spend thousands on players to be successful. All our players are very comfortable with the ball and maybe some of you saw especially when Kasim nutmegged two of your players in the corner in the second half to set up our fifth goal.
Anyway good luck for the rest of the season and i hope you liked our exhibition on saturday. :)
I wouldnt get too excited mate we are shit but will probably still finish above you when we start spending
 
Oldham normally play with three in midfield and put an extra man in and stopped us playing the ball from the back as their front men ran their socks off to shut us down whereas your players sat as two banks of four and didnt press and when they lost shape we cut you open.
To be honest I couldn't understand why our front players didn't close you down a bit more. Even more so when it was obvious your goalkeeper was wasting time after 12 mins when you got your first goal. I'd like to think we were a bit more ambitious in front of our home fans but hey you got the result you wanted in the end.
 
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