Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm Posts: 4891 Location: In the Armchair.
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THE MELTDOWN - SWINDON TOWNIf you watched or went to Bradford you would have a hard job to believe that today it was the same team, I don’t really know if that’s us, or about how we are equipped to play different teams or different styles.
Technically I think Swindon are better than Bradford, but in defence it’s a different story and you can see how Swindon score a few, but also concede far too many and that was highlighted in the opener with the defender calling the keeper to come and deal with it and then he took a stride backwards and gave Lofty the chance to get a toe in. I’m not 100% sure but it looked like all three players met the ball at the same time and was a case of “After you” and somehow it squirted out of the tangle and fell to Lofty, he squared to Wearne on his first start and despite the keeper trying to rescue the situation Wearne fired it home to create bedlam in the away end.
We had hardly gathered our breath or finished taunting the nearby Swindon fans than we struck again and then out of seemingly nothing as Kemp swung a teasing ball across the box that beat everyone except Wearne who scooped it into the net at the back post unchallenged, it all felt a bit easy.
The rest of the half I felt we had chances to extend the lead but we just couldn’t manufacture a decent angle to get a shot away, but it has prompted me to think I know why we don’t get penalties, our players are too honest, twice in the first half and at least once in the second half a defender made enough contact that if our player went down the ref would have little other choice than to point at the spot.
While we are talking about refs I thought he was awful. He should have booked Charlie Austin for elbowing Harvie in the head just a minute or two after coming on, meaning when he did get booked he would have walked. There was also another situation in the 2nd half where Khan who was already on a yellow rugby tackled Gilbey to the floor a few yards outside their box, in my book he bottled it.
Of course, we couldn’t see the game out without a scare as we failed too clear the ball any distance and it was fired back in for the thug Charlie Austin to nod home with just a minute of normal remaining, and although they had a fair bit of possession I cannot recall them getting close to breaching our defences.
For me Lewis Bate was absolutely superb as just about everything he did, turned to gold, it was a master class from the Leeds loanee, and let’s hope he can kick on now.
Whilst I have singled out Bate, I thought our midfield ran the show and controlled the game, and although not scoring them down I do get concerned about the number of times Lofty and Norman get caught on the wrong side of their man, the goal conceded being typical of that in Norman’s case.
My final gripe is Matt Dennis, I just don’t get what’s going on there, coming on with 20 minutes to go you would have thought he would give his all for the cause but everything about him is so slow motion and lethargic, I’m hoping he is not fully fit, because if that is maximum effort, it’s appalling.
Today one or two results fell in our favour, and finally we took full advantage and move up to 5th and put a 7 point gap between us and the first team outside the playoffs.
On Tuesday we have a big test as Hollywood FC come to town, I just hope we see the Swindon version, and not the Bradford version.
That’s it, don’t forget there will be no Meltdown on Tuesday night after the game, I am away and will be missing my first home game in 9 years.
Have a good weekend. WD
_________________ Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
Last edited by WellDon on Sat Feb 17, 2024 10:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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