MATCHWATCH : Swindon Town (a)

[Hound]

Don’t care a lot about the result to be fair, but certainly some interesting selections

No osho or Rushesha (assume injured). Not sure the point of playing JOP as he is nowhere near.

That was prob the final nail for any more Stickland appearances in the near future

Ritchie and Lane must be first choice wingers now I’d have thought, so not sure how much we’ll see of Kyeweraa, Garcia, Kelvin or Camara which won’t please them

Called up for Zimbabwe as a replacement for an injury.

Fair enough. Mentioned I hadn’t been paying a lot of attention…

[Orion1871]

The mumbling commentator gives Doyle MoM He's been terrible

The main commentator just kept waffling (but he did mention some kind of audio was in place so perhaps could be forgiven) but his mate just kept mumbling throughout and going on about how Doyle is a great player.
In fact both of them managed to say that every player we have was brilliant and that we kept on being unlucky.

Bearing in mind that Abrefa, Stickland and Dorsett have played a lot of games together the goal from the through ball was terrible.

Am not sure that we or the manager learnt much tonight about the players.

Stephens is clearly not the steady and reliable 2nd choice keeper that people seemed to think when he was signed.
Abrefa is now firmly behind Ahmed and probably Yiadom if he is ever fit.
Dorsett looks generally more comfortable at centre-back but won't now get in ahead of Williams
Ryan is ok and might challenge Jacobs.
Stickland could be a decent 4th division player-he is not quite up to our first team level.
Marriott is very, very small but , as he has shown in his career, he can finish however will he get many chances in a team that creates so few?
Sackey could do with a loan
I don't see the point of JOP
Fraser reminds me a bit of George Evans and is probably just a back-up for Wing.
Doyle has a bit about him but is probably back-up for Elliot and Savage.
The other two little lads look what they are, youngsters a long way off first team football......yet.
Rhys Evans wasn't on long enough to make much of an impression but what he did was quite good.
Ritchie can obviously still pass a ball but might now be more suited to walking football-am not sure if he will be able to cope with the hurly burly of div 3 football.
From the brief bits of Spencer I like him but am not sure of his position-he does show good aggression.
Kelvin's brother looks a bit stronger and more determined than him.

Defensive Midfielder.

[Getthebeerens]

That was a disappointing night. Not because it's a loss to Swindon, might bother the wanna be hooligans in the away end but it's only the mickey mouse trophy.

The disappointment is the lack of anyone really looking like they wanted to give the manager the old cliche of "something to think about" for future league games.

Totally agree, my biggest frustration too. Abrefa just didn’t look on it all game for me. No sense of danger and half a sleep on a free kick as well.

Ultimately the only way the youngsters are going to improve is by playing games and that will be our biggest gain from this competition.

Positives: Lovely finish from Marriott and some good movement, certainly an improvement on what we have.
Ritchie also looked very good in his cameo, certainly not here to make up the numbers.

Don’t agree with playing first team players tonight, fringe players need minutes in the legs and if we did lose a Lewis Wing due to injury in the Vertu Trophy it’s just not worth the risk.

[Snowflake Royal]

Angry away end at full time as the players come over. Boos and chants of "you're not fit to wear the shirt"

Jesus wept. Imagine singing this in a glorified U21s game.

They're not fit to be fans

[Snowflake Royal]

What a hit. Should probably have had a wall though...

I felt it deflected off the one man wall.

You're correct, which wrong footed Stevens.

[Snowflake Royal]

That was a disappointing night. Not because it's a loss to Swindon, might bother the wanna be hooligans in the away end but it's only the mickey mouse trophy.

The disappointment is the lack of anyone really looking like they wanted to give the manager the old cliche of "something to think about" for future league games.

Totally agree, my biggest frustration too. Abrefa just didn’t look on it all game for me. No sense of danger and half a sleep on a free kick as well.

Ultimately the only way the youngsters are going to improve is by playing games and that will be our biggest gain from this competition.

Positives: Lovely finish from Marriott and some good movement, certainly an improvement on what we have.
Ritchie also looked very good in his cameo, certainly not here to make up the numbers.

Don’t agree with playing first team players tonight, fringe players need minutes in the legs and if we did lose a Lewis Wing due to injury in the Vertu Trophy it’s just not worth the risk.

Agree, I think Hunt got the balance a bit wrong... needed more forward than Barough, JOP and Sackey supporting Marriott.

The rest was as expected and right.

As for needing the first team to gel, that's what the solid couple of weeks of training is for, and it'll do more than playing a L2 2nd XI in a cup for U21s.