Swindon Town (A) - FA Cup 2nd Round

[masi 51]

Waited a while before i put my ten penny worth in......I have watched football every week since the late 60s

Played the game since the late 60s until the late 90s never at a good level.

I have talked a lot of shit on here in the past on here but i am a bloody good judge....Midfield today was weak as piss and lets start at the back...Keeper awful not up to the job, Defence full backs shocking......Midfield weak as piss

Wingers like Evatt have been found out

Forwrd Dalby/Burstow may well improve but will never be strong enough to play up front on there own.

Tsl

Conway

Johnson

Christie

Erhahon

Simons

Forss

Dempsey

Burstow

All these will improve us at Mansfield....We need to  put these nine in against Mansfield and as much as i like Gale we need to  play with that extra midfielder and sorry i do want to see Cogley again this season....Port Vale aside

[masi 51]

2 hours ago, desperado said:

Theyve certainly benefited from side-stepping that shit today! 

I was questioning earlier this week whether Tuesday might be too soon for Erhahon to start a league away game, now I’m not so sure!

The one thing I will say after seeing the game live today, for me, it was more the combinations that stood out as being poor.

- Toal as LCB, next to Forino 

- That Midfield trio

- Taylor behind Gale

- Randall behind Dalby

Some of those individuals with different players around them/next to them will go on to have good games for us this season.

Schumacher needs to make sure we don’t see some of those combinations again this season! 

not some of them..............All of them

[Eddie]

5 minutes ago, masi 51 said:

Waited a while before i put my ten penny worth in......I have watched football every week since the late 60s

Played the game since the late 60s until the late 90s never at a good level.

I have talked a lot of shit on here in the past on here but i am a bloody good judge....Midfield today was weak as piss and lets start at the back...Keeper awful not up to the job, Defence full backs shocking......Midfield weak as piss

Wingers like Evatt have been found out

Forwrd Dalby/Burstow may well improve but will never be strong enough to play up front on there own.

Tsl

Conway

Johnson

Christie

Erhahon

Simons

Forss

Dempsey

Burstow

All these will improve us at Mansfield....We need to  put these nine in against Mansfield and as much as i like Gale we need to  play with that extra midfielder and sorry i do want to see Cogley again this season....Port Vale aside

Nobody will give a shit about the 2nd round of the fa cup at the end of the season.

Keep your accolades - the main thing thing is if we win on Tuesday.

If we do, then frankly today’s result means fucking nothing. No matter what your background in the 60s is.

If we lose on Tuesday it will be called into question.

lets see but I think there’s a massive overreaction.

[Mounts Kipper]

Worth having a look at the Drinan who’s scored the hatrick, got good goal Scoring record at his last 2 clubs looks like a late developer and a goalscorer. 

Edited December 6, 2025 by Mounts Kipper

[masi 51]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Nobody will give a shit about the 2nd round of the fa cup at the end of the season.

Keep your accolades - the main thing thing is if we win on Tuesday.

If we do, then frankly today’s result means fucking nothing. No matter what your background in the 60s is.

If we lose on Tuesday it will be called into question.

lets see but I think there’s a massive overreaction.

getting beat 4-0 is not a overreaction...The 11 players Swindon turned out will be on 50% of what our team was on.....This will go down  like the stoke and Scarborough games

[ph31]

That was a shocker. And for me its not the line up, that team on paper should be winning that.

When we go away we are constantly playing ourselves in to trouble by not playing forwards. Most guilty of this is Morley and JDC but theyre not the only ones. Every time they get the ball the move slows down and is returned back to the centre backs, the opposition get back into shape, ball goes to full back and we lose the ball trying to play to the winger under pressure. We must have had 30 turnovers in our own half today against a fairly well organised (but nothing special) press. We barely got out of our half in the second half! All teams now at this level are good enough to execute a basic press. 

There's no way the manager and coaches dont know this. They need to select the right players in that are good enough to pass forwards with some urgency. Or change to lumping it long and at least you're removing the risk of giving the opposition the ball in your own third.

 

 

[Tonge moor green jacket]

8 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Nobody will give a shit about the 2nd round of the fa cup at the end of the season.

Keep your accolades - the main thing thing is if we win on Tuesday.

If we do, then frankly today’s result means fucking nothing. No matter what your background in the 60s is.

If we lose on Tuesday it will be called into question.

lets see but I think there’s a massive overreaction.

I quite like the fa cup. 

All those "white hot" games weren't simply flashes in the pan, but part of building towards something even better.

We've done nowt in the competition for ages, and we'd all like a big scalp occasionally. 

Winning on Tuesday would be fantastic, but it wouldn't erase this.

Winning several away games soon might show that it wasn't something to get too concerned about, but it will make Tuesday's game that bit more difficult. 

Fans will be demanding better, and for the amount they're spending to attend away games, they ought to be getting better value.

[desperado]

22 minutes ago, masi 51 said:

not some of them..............All of them

That’s a positive prediction from you in the after gloom…

All of those players will go on to have good games this season…

You’ve outdone me there 😂👍

[Johnnyrotten]

4 minutes ago, ph31 said:

That was a shocker. And for me its not the line up, that team on paper should be winning that.

When we go away we are constantly playing ourselves in to trouble by not playing forwards. Most guilty of this is Morley and JDC but theyre not the only ones. Every time they get the ball the move slows down and is returned back to the centre backs, the opposition get back into shape, ball goes to full back and we lose the ball trying to play to the winger under pressure. We must have had 30 turnovers in our own half today against a fairly well organised (but nothing special) press. We barely got out of our half in the second half! All teams now at this level are good enough to execute a basic press. 

There's no way the manager and coaches dont know this. They need to select the right players in that are good enough to pass forwards with some urgency. Or change to lumping it long and at least you're removing the risk of giving the opposition the ball in your own third.

 

 

Rotation kind of gives managers something to hide behind.  Nothing to see here, we played a weakened team so losing is no big deal.  No ownership, no responsibility, the players can say its not my fault we didn't even have our first choice keeper in, how tired can he be.  This isn't our real team, move on.

Except there's a pattern of style and standard of performance away from home.  At some point we have to get to a point where we can say this is our team, this is our style and we need to improve at x, y or z, not "its a bad day at the office, it happens".   

Well there's 6 aways in the next 7 weeks, all league, its time for SS to show us what we're really about.  We've got 4 home games in that period and I bet we win them all, but that won't be enough and neither will 2 or 3 draws away unless they are backed up with 2 or 3 wins.

[Jol_BWFC]

1 hour ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Sympathy for you there today.  I'm assuming you live down south so can't do many home games, well watching us away this season is literally watching a different team to the one we see at home.  

Yeah, live in N London now. With weekend kids clubs, can only do local-ish games.

We were up for the Preston friendly in the summer, so he did at least see one victory!

[Stig]

2 hours ago, Jol_BWFC said:

They talk about games that will create Bolton fans for life. Some can have the opposite effect.

Took my son today. Been to 3 games previously (lost 2 and won 1) and been battling to keep him supporting us with all his mates Arsenal and Spurs fans. Hoping this would be a chance to keep his interest.

Instead, a disgusting performance. At 2-0 the fans turned and at 3-0 it was toxic. Had to get him out of there. He’s already said he wants to stay at home rather than go to Stevenage. 😔

This is a real issue. Luckily my lad is now fully bought in but I could even see on his face today as I was telling him the updates a sense of "why do i have to support these" while his mates "support" city, Liverpool and Arsenal 

These games don't mean much in the long run but they're the embarrassing ones when the rest of the footballing nation is watching and losing 4-0 to Swindon is as bad as I've ever known

Edited December 6, 2025 by Stig

[Marc505]

28 minutes ago, Stig said:

This is a real issue. Luckily my lad is now fully bought in but I could even see on his face today as I was telling him the updates a sense of "why do i have to support these" while his mates "support" city, Liverpool and Arsenal 

These games don't mean much in the long run but they're the embarrassing ones when the rest of the footballing nation is watching and losing 4-0 to Swindon is as bad as I've ever known

I get this, and also get what @Jol_BWFCwas saying, it flipped from decent support to "WE'RE FUCKIN SHIIIIT" pretty damn quickly today at the back of that stand.

But also a few weeks ago we were celebrating being the greatest maddest fans of all time after that Huddersfield winner, that modern day PL fans ruined by VAR could never understand. Seasons have peaks and troughs dont they, we'll be back to OINO after a couple of wins 😀

[athywhite1958]

A good day out ruined by 90 minutes of ineptitude, awful to a man, was looking forward to a good cup run, it is a good job that was in the  cup, massive improvement needed for Tuesday

[Wanderlust]

Regardless of who was selected to represent us today, they should have done a lot better - after all we have strength in depth don’t we?

I had to follow this game on the radio and social media so I would be interested to know from people who went how they rated our players on things like workrate, effort/commitment, passing to a teammate and tempo etc - because the impression I got was that they’d turned up expecting to win and with a piss poor unprofessional attitude.

 

[RONNIE PHILLIPS]

Holloway will have had them revved up anyway but he must have been rubbing his hands when he saw Sheehan, Morley and Randall all on the teamsheet......Morley is just about ok as a late sub these days but Randall is as ineffective a player as we have had in years, probably second on the list of Evatt shit signings behind Nlundulu.

[Johnnyrotten]

Sobering that in the last couple of years Weston Super Mare have a better FA Cup record than us 😀

We'll move on, not the end of the world, but also this shouldn't be played down and dismissed as not important, its the FA Cup not a pre-season friendly.

[mickbrown]

Just seen what I assume was their last goal. 
 

The very definition of blokes not giving a single fuck

Edited December 7, 2025 by mickbrown

[mickbrown]

Hang on. Just seen it ended 4-0. I thought we lost 2-0 which was bad enough. 
 

Fuckem all. Useless fucks 

[bolton va va]

Just back.......a horrible journey & a pretty horrible match, though to be fair, I thought we shaded the 1st half, Sheehan played well & Randall (Boooo) did alright, but the wingers were very wasteful & we're very dependent on them & though i'm not a "geddit forward " gobbin, we overdid the playing out from the back & it was obvious we were going to fuck it up.

The 2nd half was a shambles.

& I stick to my view that at least one of our more physical midfielders - Simons, Erhahon & Dempsey - should always play

 

 

 

[desperado]

6 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

Regardless of who was selected to represent us today, they should have done a lot better - after all we have strength in depth don’t we?

I had to follow this game on the radio and social media so I would be interested to know from people who went how they rated our players on things like workrate, effort/commitment, passing to a teammate and tempo etc - because the impression I got was that they’d turned up expecting to win and with a piss poor unprofessional attitude.

 

 

5 hours ago, bolton va va said:

Just back.......a horrible journey & a pretty horrible match, though to be fair, I thought we shaded the 1st half, Sheehan played well & Randall (Boooo) did alright, but the wingers were very wasteful & we're very dependent on them & though i'm not a "geddit forward " gobbin, we overdid the playing out from the back & it was obvious we were going to fuck it up.

The 2nd half was a shambles.

& I stick to my view that at least one of our more physical midfielders - Simons, Erhahon & Dempsey - should always play

 

 

 

@bolton va va  gives a good first hand view. I don’t disagree with anything he says above.

I’ll add to it.

It’s a hard one to quantify and explain, but the issue for me was more a collective one than individual one - so SS has to take a large proportion of the blame today.

But that said I don’t blame him making rotations and bringing in periphery players - I repeat it was the combinations and the collective output  that was the issue today.

I disagree with the easy individual criticisms - Randall (who had a decent first half) Cogley (who had the most ineffective ACD in front of him he’s had all season) and even Sheehan and Morley never stopped trying (I didn’t see anybody display a shocking attitude out there) they were just poor together and Sheehan often got caught in possession which hindered us. 

Again as Va va says, I agree, we always need at least one of Simons, Erhahon or Dempsey (probably two!)

That left side of defence was awful Toal and Taylor with a lightweight Gale in front should (I’ll vent my inner @masi 51 here) NEVER be seen again 😂

So while it went wrong on many levels yesterday if we learn from it and these mistakes aren’t repeated then I’ll be glad it was today that a 4/0 defeat happened and not a league game. 

[Wanderlust]

Thanks.
Radio had Keith Hill having a right go, but amidst his diatribe were some fair points about Toal playing on the left - even though he plays there successfully for N Ireland - Sheehan caught dithering on the ball etc but things like that can be explained by lack of options due to others not making runs into space to receive. 
Whatever the reasons, it was a clusterfuck. We knew before kick off that Swindon would be confident of a win and I just feel we needed to treat this game with the respect and preparation it deserved. We didn’t.

[W.cramp]

Lot of knickers in a twist about getting knocked out of a cup that no longer has any meaning or financial worth.   Very little interest shown in it which would of been shown if that fixture was at home and we would of got 4000 on at a tenner a pop.

We all know there is one priority and I,m more than happy to stick with that.

Chill out 

[L/H White]

39 minutes ago, W.cramp said:

Lot of knickers in a twist about getting knocked out of a cup that no longer has any meaning or financial worth.   Very little interest shown in it which would of been shown if that fixture was at home and we would of got 4000 on at a tenner a pop.

We all know there is one priority and I,m more than happy to stick with that.

Chill out 

Our away form isn't a concern to you? 

[waffer cup 07]

39 minutes ago, W.cramp said:

Lot of knickers in a twist about getting knocked out of a cup that no longer has any meaning or financial worth.   Very little interest shown in it which would of been shown if that fixture was at home and we would of got 4000 on at a tenner a pop.

We all know there is one priority and I,m more than happy to stick with that.

Chill out 

Its not that we lost, there's always upsets in the cup, its the manner in which we lost. Just not acceptable. But if we get to Wembley in an even lesser cup, i suppose everything will be forgiven.

[Whitesince63]

Just now, L/H White said:

Our away form isn't a concern to you? 

Obviously not and neither it seems is the abysmal performance and attitude of certain players. You can’t just write off performances like that as if they don’t matter. They do.