Saturday 14th December

[Stocky]

Lee Bell doing a very good job at Crewe again. He lost 3 or 4 of his key men from last seasons near miss too.

Still can't make head nor tail of this league this season, which is surprising as I know everything. I thought MK Dons were going to ride off into the sunset but a poor home defeat today.

 

[valefan16]

It's match fixing. Let's just be honest it's not even debatable. Ref "misses" 2 blatant handballs, and the liner "misses" the ball crossing the line, and then landing over the line on it's way back out when he can't use the excuse the player got in his way. In that one incident, between them the ref and liner have "missed" 2 blatant penalties and a blatant goal.

Not having that they're all mistakes. Too much goes against us in that incident for it to be anything other than intentional cheating.

Can’t really assume that but it’s mad that with all the money and stakes involved we haven’t got goal line technology at this level, then the one last week is known for sure and the one today is given.

Surely we can stick a couple of sensors in the posts and in the ball and find an affordable way to have that in the EFL.

That two points could cost us promotion and big money, or it could keep Bromley up and relegate someone and cost them massively (although unlikely at Bromley seem to be a decent outfit but you get the point).

 

[Wootball]

16 points from safety

Lee Bell doing a very good job at Crewe again. He lost 3 or 4 of his key men from last seasons near miss too.

Still can't make head nor tail of this league this season, which is surprising as I know everything. I thought MK Dons were going to ride off into the sunset but a poor home defeat today.

Our recruitment this season was even better.

Knight-Lebel, Conway, Lankester are all excellent players at this level and possibly above. Sanders is a decent player - not outstanding but certainly does a good job and had a great hame today. Demetriou has put his poor spell late last season in behind him and is on top form week in week out. We've had Shilow Tracey on form and Bogle helping out as a forward when he's fit. Combine that with new young players - Thibaut, Lunt, Finney, all able to now come in and change games, and it's a good squad to have. Players coming back from injury can only bolster this.

We're still ludicrously light on forwards, but our defense is winning us points this season whereas last season we just couldn't keep clean sheets. We're not big scorers but we are not easy to beat, thanks to the recruitment.

I'm not getting ahead of myself, we did the same thing last season and barely won a game after February, but it's definitely a good start and hopefully we can keep up the chase and stay up there. Time will tell.

 

[Scum.]

Smash and grab from Gillingham. Stats don’t win games. Lindsey out and etc.

 

[hellogregory]

We’re an absolute shambles. Honestly. That today was as bad as I’ve seen for a long time. A horrendous gutless performance, put together by a tactically clueless manager.

The delusion across a large portion of our fanbase is frightening. They think January is going to miraculously save us, they think the players we have are better than our position suggests, they think the manager will definitely turn it around.

This team is getting into worst I’ve ever seen territory. 14 points at Christmas. Absolute shite. We are going down with a whimper.

 

[mozzavale]

To be fair Darren Moore is probably the most respectful manager you could imagine after a decision like that!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1867988041639539024

Wish he’d be a bit more angry!

If that was me I'd be serving a 5 match touch line ban afterwards. He's done the right thing. I'd be raging. People's livelihoods are at stake.

 

[mozzavale]

PGMOL is anti Port Vale.

Agree, been saying it for years

 

[Boz]

Rovers beat a depleted Harrogate side 2-1. Great pull down and set-up for Omari Patrick from Connor Jennings for our winner. On the balance of play it was a fair result.

While I agree from the footage that Port Vale looked to have scored and deliberate handball from the Bromley defender too, not having the all decisions go against Vale argument. Think back to your opening home game against Rovers and a generous interpretation of fair challenge when Sang as last man appeared to take out Patrick. Swings and roundabouts…

 

[valefan16]

Rovers beat a depleted Harrogate side 2-1. Great pull down and set-up for Omari Patrick from Connor Jennings for our winner. On the balance of play it was a fair result.

While I agree from the footage that Port Vale looked to have scored and deliberate handball from the Bromley defender too, not having the all decisions go against Vale argument. Think back to your opening home game against Rovers and a generous interpretation of fair challenge when Sang as last man appeared to take out Patrick. Swings and roundabouts…

Yeah to be fair although did look a touch on the ball Hall said Sang said he didn’t touch it at a supporters club meeting after.

Think it’s just that one is so blatant and the shocker of a decision at Gillingham where we had two stone wall penalties turned down in 5 seconds! One when we had an open goal if he hadn’t took him out.

They weren’t even debatable ones.

 

[クレイグ]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1867984433971892457

 

[loz]

We are on a run of one win on the trot.
Be afraid MK, be very afraid.

You sure know your footie

 

[Tallow]

Carlisle 0 - 2 Chesterfield.
Disappointing result and the game was in the balance for long periods.
At 1 down, Kelly had 3 opportunities to level it, then Hayden made a horrible defensive error and we're 2 down and game over.
Chesterfield are a decent team and probably deserved it today.
Bit gloomy tonight, I know we're bottom but all we can do is keep battling and keep believing.
Teams have survived from worse positions than us.

 

[mozzavale]

The behind the goal footage is even more damning. 2 blatant handballs, (ref is visibly in a great position for both) neither given. And whilst all that's being "missed" the liner "misses" the ball cross the line and then bounce a foot over the line on it's way out of the goal. Don't defend the indefensible. It's cheating. Proven beyond all doubt.

 

[Cloudy]

Great win away at Grimsby, keeping them below us, moving us up to third, and proving that our manager knows much more about tactics than we do.

I, and others, were very skeptical of the lineup, but it worked perfectly to the point of being an extremely comfortable 0-2 win. Two counter attacks but Grimsby offered nothing for 97 minutes.

A very relaxed game to watch and a good Saturday night now!

Crewe were efficient and effective and deserved the points. They did little in the first half and Grimsby had the one clear chance of the half but Tharme headed over.
The two breakaway goals were well finished (despite appeals I didn’t think the 1st was offside). Grimsby had plenty of the ball but couldn’t find a way through a very well drilled defence which often saw 9 or 10 players in a tight block

 

[lordofthepies]

It's match fixing.

It's probably not...

 

[dannyc5]

I think

Crewe were efficient and effective and deserved the points. They did little in the first half and Grimsby had the one clear chance of the half but Tharme headed over.
The two breakaway goals were well finished (despite appeals I didn’t think the 1st was offside). Grimsby had plenty of the ball but couldn’t find a way through a very well drilled defence which often saw 9 or 10 players in a tight block

We also had an excellent chance 1st half, with Lankester on the turn. Probably should have scored.

 

[Limerick Mariner]

Beaten by a better team today so it sounds so I’ve got no problem with that, it happens.
Sounds like we created fuck all thanks to Crewe’s impressive defensive play so can’t really grumble at that result.

I said at HT we need to treat this like an away game now. Crewe were saying - after you, you have the ball,, we should have been more polite, no after you. We could have had a second half like that infamous World Cup game Germany v Austria - the disgrace of Dijon, but at least we'd have got a point.
Crewe had clearly worked out that we were vulnerable with feck ups getting caught in possession and they just needed to exploit the space quickly when we did. They were targeting JSD and Hume all afternoon and JSD had a terrible game, after two great performances in the last two games.

 

[Luke Imp]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1867984433971892457

Bit of an Ian Holloway meltdown at 4 mins 40 secs!

 

[Coalite]

We’re an absolute shambles. Honestly. That today was as bad as I’ve seen for a long time. A horrendous gutless performance, put together by a tactically clueless manager.

The delusion across a large portion of our fanbase is frightening. They think January is going to miraculously save us, they think the players we have are better than our position suggests, they think the manager will definitely turn it around.

This team is getting into worst I’ve ever seen territory. 14 points at Christmas. Absolute shite. We are going down with a whimper.

Just got back. If it’s any consolation I didn’t think you guys were quite as bad as Tranmere last week, but on the flip side we didn’t have to get anywhere near top gear to win that. Carlisle definitely weren’t good in both boxes. When you got in good positions and created the odd chance you didn’t take them, and didn’t prevent us from taking ours.

First time I’ve ever seen us win at Brunton Park. Miracles do happen.

 

[クレイグ]

Bit of an Ian Holloway meltdown at 4 mins 40 secs!

Really cannot do with that bloke. Heck of a long trip to see your side not register a shot on target or do anything of note. I'd be rightly annoyed if I were a Swindon fan. They deserve better than the shit owners and Holloway.

 

[Optipez]

I worry for Swindon, moaning at fans after losing and being poor all season just screams lack of focus and professionalism.

 

[Meadow]

I wasn't looking forward to today and I expected Doncaster to win, especially with all our injuries. However, they were wasteful up front and Owen Goodman didn't have a save to make.

 

[dannyc5]

Staring into the camera like the nutcase that he is.

 

[Agombar stool]

Bit of an Ian Holloway meltdown at 4 mins 40 secs!

We had an XG of 0.03, touched the ball twice in the Opposition box and that's with 4 strikers on the pitch. If he's encouraged by that, well expectations are lower than a snakes belly.

 

[Grimsby Road]

Thought Crewe were good today similiar to Walsall - know how to win , really well drilled with some decent players . They are the 2 teams I have enjoyed the most objectively ; i like their style of play .

We really need a plan B at home as the decent teams with better or similiar level players have the quality and know how to hurt us - which is basically let us have the ball a lot , capitalise on the odd mess up with it or counter and exploit our lack of pace on the turnover .

We will beat the lower end teams , probably well a few times . But if we (Artell?) can't adapt we will just keep losing games like today and probably drop down a few places post xmas .

Although I'm not sure Artell is a 'plan B ' coach though and probably won't change much in terms of style of play so we will have to get better at it with a bit of added quality at some stage which will probably be next season when we have a real go of it without his caveat of us 'not being where he wants us to be ' surely the 2 year mark will be long enough to judge his 'artform'.

 

[Grimsby Road]

We had an XG of 0.03, touched the ball twice in the Opposition box and that's with 4 strikers on the pitch. If he's encouraged by that, well expectations are lower than a snakes belly.

He's unravelling quicker than I thought he would . I don't think he will last long - he's going to take some serious stick from our fans Saturday and seems like somebody on the edge of implosion most of the time .

 

[loz]

I worry for Swindon, moaning at fans after losing and being poor all season just screams lack of focus and professionalism.

I thought that was quite a good interview. He has to encourage his players after an awful game between 2 teams that showed a lot of huff and puff and very little skill. The whistle happy ref didn't help.

 

[loz]

It was over the line

We had a similar one a few weeks back. You really scratch your head when it is over by so much.

 

[loz]

I'd long left by the time I could have given Maynard and his seven dwarfs a generous round of applause

Don't worry, you'll make up for it next week though I expect both Platt and Baldwin to score from corners(if we get one that is).

 

[Optipez]

I thought that was quite a good interview. He has to encourage his players after an awful game between 2 teams that showed a lot of huff and puff and very little skill. The whistle happy ref didn't help.

He just strikes me as a man who's best managerial days are behind him.
As to next week it's a very big game for us. We've a pretty good record against you but we look entirely capable of never winning again the way we're playing, we've slipped into being that bad.
I've watched us scrape draws at Swindon and Morecambe by being gritty but unconvincing to now looking entirely toothless at Crewe and Salford and were now shipping goals. The players played with no belief today, they looked second best all over the pitch.