Swindon Town Match Thread
 

:) Cheek this out all the games v Stanley including 1958 away with line ups Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk - Head-To-Head vs. Accrington Stanley

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Pretty even eh mab? we will have to alter that on Sat.;)

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Just noticed 3pts against Swindon would be superb, Luton play Notts County.

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whats the chance of the game being off. snow laid even low down over my way and forecast for freezing tonight, know the weather is always different in accrington to keighley. all updates would be appreciated.

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I'm hoping its on, but wouldn't put money on it, its in the lap of the gods i reckon.

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Likewise. Please post if you hear anything.
Regards
Distance traveller.

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@ASFCofficial
UPDATE: As a precaution we have covered areas of the pitch that do not get sunlight.

There are currently no plans for a pitch inspection and we expect tomorrow's game with @Official_STFC to go ahead.

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Pitch inspection 10-30 am.

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Fit to play as it stands games on for now.

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heavy bout of snow at present, hope it stops soon

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Bury Match is OFF, hows ours looking?

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Off

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It is off.

How can the club say there are no plans for a pitch inspections when it is the refs job to inspect the pitch for every game?

Stupid beyond belief.

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Can't imagine Swindon fans'll be too impressed - having to trail up here on a Tuesday night

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It's not only the Swindon fans who aren't impressed I didn't know that it was off as I have been watching the official Stanley web site for news and there is no mention of the match being off. Good job I checked on the Accy Web

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Know what you mean, I was checking twitter as there was nothing on fishy site - gutted it's off but at least most of us haven't travelled a long way for nothing

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Best turn round .......... Denton island for a coffee.

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This late call makes me wonder, is it possibly anything to do with their manager refusing to play - just as he did when in charge at Bury & forced a late call, even later than today, of course his refusal had nothing to do with the fact that on that occasion he had a no.of his senior players missing through injury . . . . . . not pointing any fingers, just a thought :rolleyes:

P.s. - where's Somerset? surely this late call is a disgrace ;)

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Its more than frustrating, if the pitch was playable at 10-30 inspection, its been a bit milder since, so how unplayable now?:mad:

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If as Coley says parts of the pitch are quite hardnow, then the 10-30 inspection was sadly lacking in accuracy. imho.

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The ref's wording has changed from the first inspection, he then said the pitch was fine - now he's saying that at the first inspection he thought it was worth giving it time to see if it improved?? If that had been said at half 10 people would've been half expecting it to be called off - doesn't make sense!

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If it was for a frozen pitch then what changed between 10.30 and 1. If it was frozen at 1 then it must have been frozen earlier but supposed to have been OK? What happened?

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Cashy don't start calling Ref's God's , they are bad enough as it is.

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could not believe how mild it felt when i got down livingstone road at ten past one to find the game off. must have been a doubt at 10.30 if so tell us all which would have saved me a 50 mile round trip dog walk. pity the ref. isn,t on accy web then we might actually know what he did say at his earlier inspection. if it was a doubt and he was giving it time then we sjould have been told so.

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Someone dont know WHO is taking the pish outa fans imho.

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Colchester are doing us a favour at the minute - currently 3 nil up against Exeter :)

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Luton are also 1 up lets hope them scores stay as is.;)

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The only game in league 2 postponed today!
Not as if we didn't know this cold spell was due.
Feel sorry for any Swindon fans who'd already set off after the blasé 'Not expecting any inspection - the game is definitely on' bulletin issued by the club.
Perhaps we should have spent the money on undersoil heating instead of a fancy scoreboard.
More crucial revenue lost.

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The ref says parts of it were hard at 10-30 so sod people who travel is the modus operandi, lets see if it improves, if parts were hard at 10-30 then it shoulda been called off then, given todays forecast, seems the ref at Bury possessed common sense but we got a stupid one,:mad:

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Good results for us all round league 2 today.

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The club were disingenuous making out nothing was wrong on their twitter.

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That aint much of a shock.

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Yep, every cloud & all that :)

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Do people not think, the way stanley treat fans, they got a damn cheek constantly appealing for more to come? cos i do.

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I turned up today as I heard the inspection was ok at 10.30 it then got milder so I was annoyed the game was called off. They said it was called off at 12.30 although this was disputed by some Swindon fans I spoke to. They had come on the train and the whole roundtrip was cas costing them £140. They were not pleased and will not be coming again. But this is one of the clubs biggest let downs. Communication. Taking fans for granted is another. The game could have gone ahead today in all reality. I would be first to protect players from playing on frozen ground. Stanley do make it hard for the fans.

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I checked Stanley web site, nothing, so at 12.55 I left home to walk there ( 15mins-20 )I was part way there when a very good friend text me to say game was off, I couldn't believe it. However I walked a bit further and ask a group of footy supporters if they had come for the Swindon match , yes they had, I told them it was off, they were stunned as they had rung Accrington Stanley to ask about the game and conditions and were assured the game would go ahead, how they had traveled I do not know, but all the way from Swindon............not good. Embarassing.

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I left home at 5 past one after checking the fishy, sod all on yon, ive only a couple of miles to go, its annoying to me, so what it is to fans who have to come any distance is disgraceful imho, the way fans are treated is summat Andy Holt needs to investigate, cos its doubtful to me he will ever get new uns while its run like this.

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A great afternoon - all the way from South Manchester and back for a brew and a cheese toastie in Imposta. Even worse for my mate who travels from North Wales. I notice the next home match is the "bring a friend" initiative. Perhaps the club could explain how we're expected to persuade new fans to come when they treat their existing fans like this? :mad:

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Andy is livid on twitter that the ref called the game off after all was deemed OK at 10.30. He has spent all day apologising to Swindon fans who travelled. It's probably cost the club a lot more than any of us, and whilst we would all prefer more notice of the cancellation it appears we were all expecting to play until the ref called it off about 1230 so what more could have been done (before the game was cancelled)

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Really CANNOT blame the Club.................................... ;)

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I agree, its in the main down to another useless official, but someone actually knew at the club what was said about the pitch at 10-30, yet sod all AGAIN was said to the fans at that time, and that to me aint good enough.

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Andy is fuming and right to be so too, cost the club the travel and expensives of the away club. So we lose money! Why wasn’t off at 10.30 or earlier with the weather conditions.

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The whole country has suffered with Arctic weather for the last week, some places having suffered much worse than East Lancashire.
Yet from the 53 games in England today, including the National league, only 3 were postponed.
Even most Scottish league games were played, only 4 from 17 being postponed.
We can blame the ref all we want, but the real culprit is the club for making no effort to protect the pitch.
Do they never watch the weather forecast?

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So you KNOW that the ground staff did nothing to protect the pitch.

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To my mind it's not so much the actual postponement but the timing & the poor communication from the club that's got people's backs up - on the twitter feed this morning it stated that the pitch had been inspected & it was declared fit to play, after the second inspection at lunchtime we were then told the game was off as the pitch had deteriorated due to the snow that had come down during the morning, well I'm sorry but that just does not add up. It couldn't possibly have deteriorated that much in a couple of hours, either the first inspection was not thorough enough or we weren't told the true state of the pitch at 10.30 & I think everybody, Swindon fans included, deserve to know exactly what happened.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ferret man (Post 1205560) So you KNOW that the ground staff did nothing to protect the pitch.

I quote from Mabs earlier @ASFCofficial post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mab (Post 1205478) @ASFCofficial UPDATE: As a precaution we have covered areas of the pitch that do not get sunlight. There are currently no plans for a pitch inspection and we expect tomorrow's game with @Official_STFC to go ahead.

Bearing in mind the predicted sub zero temperatures, covering only a small part of the pitch seems illogical.
In any event, whatever effort was made proved completely inadequate.
But then again, you've convinced me - IT WAS ALL THE REF'S FAULT! :rolleyes:

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Buzzer:

Ref turns up at 10 am says can't envisage a problem ...you need to change who you get your Information from !!

Andy:
Wrong. Ref inspects at 10.30am says it on. At 1.30pm inspects and says it is frozen. https://t.co/bzKCh10wjS

Answering to someone who suggested similar to some on here.

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thats what its actually all about in a nutshell. if there was a doubt about some areas of the pitch at 10.30 with the forecast of temperatures and snow then the game should have been called off then. plus being told about 11 ish it was on was stretching the truth more than a little as it was not. the word fan at times means mug who seem to have to accept everything thrown at em.

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The fact is from 10-00 until after 2-00 the temperature was 2 to 3 degrees warmer, ok we had a light covering of snow in that period, so the bullshine spouted dont fool anyone with at least 1 braincell.:rolleyes:

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So what should THE CLUB have done differently after the 1030 inspection?

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Thats obvious, tell the fans what the ref had said, NOT just a bit of it.:rolleyes:many then would not have wasted hard earned money setting off.

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The big worry is it was,nt particulary that cold Friday night 0 to -1 at the most with a colder winter predicted this year how many more games could we lose and I have to agree why wasn't the whole pitch covered?

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Having read all this, my opinion:
1. It would have been far better to relay everything the ref said at 10:30am so people can make their own minds up about whether to risk travelling or not
2. What would be even better than that is to have called it off at 10:30 if there was any doubt at all because a lot of fans were travelling from so far away. It's by far the lesser of two evils.

Great results elsewhere though!

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Only trouble wi that LordD, its good old fashioned common sense, a thing thats always been sadly lacking by some of those who SHOULD know better.;)

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Eee by gum.....!:D
It's not like in t'owd days when we played in all sorts of conditions!:p
In Saturday's conditions we would have had lines painted blue and played with an orange ball and worn boots with moulded rubber studs! Which was a bit like playing on the early hard artificial pitches used in the late 20th century. We also used common sense as players and tried to stay on our feet and not slide into tackles but of course Pro's can't play like that as the pressure now is to win at all costs!:cool:

I live locally so I saw the news after 1pm but I do agree that it is the dedicated travelling supporters that suffered unnecessary expense and a waste of a day. Both those from Swindon and Stanley fans who travel from distance too.

It would seem to be the case that the Referee should have called it off at 10am :confused:and that the club should have used all possible methods of communicating that to the supporters as quickly as possible in order to save them wasting money and time travelling!:mad:

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Took a detour to Oldham - pitch bang on.
Decent game Richie Wellens got them going.
Matt Crooks a shadow of his former self.

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[QUOTE=choirboy;

I live locally so I saw the news after 1pm but I do agree that it is the dedicated travelling supporters that suffered unnecessary expense and a waste of a day. [COLOR="red"]Both those from Swindon and Stanley fans who travel from distance too.[/COLOR]

think the club had a hope of a miracle of biblical proportions to get the game on after the 10.30 inspection and we were not told the whole truth. do not mind wasting a gallon of diesel but i did mind wasting a day. probably frightened we might have gone elsewhere and enjoyed it.

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Andy Holt has spent the last 24 hours tweeting massively about the game being called off. Generally he talks very good sense (in my opinion) on how things should be addressed in the event of bad weather. He is doing a great job engaging with both sets of fans.

He seems the clearly believe that he knew nothing about the prospect of a second pitch inspection after the first one. If no one at the club (in a senior enough position) knew there was a possibility of a second inspection then the club is completely blameless for any lack of communication.

Finally, undersoil heating is out of the question (financially), and attempts to keep the pitch protected with sheets and other methods are always going to be hit and miss I'd have thought. So really the only solution is in a better system for deciding what happens when inspections are called for. That's the reality of division 2 budgets and uk weather.

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Please explain LordD, how no-one at the club knew there was a possibility of a second inspection? complete non-sense imho. the ref does not report to the sweeper up surely. Monkey Hanger should know as he is a match official. Also this kind of thing has been going on for many years and the club have done nothing at all to help rectify this.

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I find it very hard to believe that no-one at the club was aware that there'd be a further inspection after the first one, indeed the twitter feed said that the ref would be staying at the ground to keep an eye on the conditions so unless the ref kept his intentions to himself then is it a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?
There should be contingency plans in place for this kind of scenario, after all it's not exactly unusual for us to have this kind of weather at this time of year, so that everyone in the chain of command knows what to do & when to do it.
Yesterday was an embarrassment - let's hope lessons were learnt from it to stop something similar occurring again

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The only lesson that may be learnt Di, is if Andy Holt makes em learn it imho.

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Cashy, my post said "Andy Holt clearly believes he didn't know blah blah .....IF no one at the club knew etc etc then the club is blameless"

I didn't think I needed to say "but if Andy Holt has it wrong or someone at the club did know then they are not blameless".

It's entirely down to communication but more importantly, as far as I can tell, no rules or process as to how these things are handled. That should be something agreed at a higher level than the club. I.e., clear rules for when and how inspections take place, and clear rules for how communication to clubs and fans should be handled.

Without some sort of protocol in place I wouldn't be surprised one way or another how events yesterday unfolded.

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And a further example.... what communication medium should be used? A club website seems inadequate and outdated to me. Twitter is far more reliable, more instant and inclusive....but no doubt others would disagree.
The main thing is that there are clearly understood channels?

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I can easy believe Andy knew nothing about a second inspection, Those that did told no-one it seems,which seems par for the coarse I dont think for a min he has it wrong,yeh also said under soil heating is a non starter due to the expense, which i imagine everyone more or less is aware of that fact,this has never been about things like that, its about no communication to fans, as i said before, has been going on for donkeys years, long before Andy was involved, fans are treated like they dont exist.its the people responsible for this that need sorting out imho.

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[QUOTE=cashman;1205596, its about no communication to fans, as i said before, has been going on for donkeys years, long before Andy was involved, fans are treated like they dont exist.its the people responsible for this that need sorting out imho.[/QUOTE]

and quickly too. sometimes the club cannot do anything about it with a very late call off like the burton game a few years ago but last saturday was another matter. as for the refs 1030 inspection its not all about how the pitch actually looks then, you have to take future weather between then and 5 pm into consideration. a pitch that is bone hard at say 9am with a strong warmish sun on it will be fine a couple of hours later. the same with wet conditions. if the pitch is borderline at say 9am but the forecast is for more rain then you call it off. i,ve always gone by if in doubt call it off. save teams and fans travelling. done pitch inspections for north west counties and eastern counties leagues in the past.

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By the tone of Andy's tweets looks like he readily admits the club's part in the postponement fiasco.... So, Cashy looks like you have it right.

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Seems to me hes been on to the club LordD, and got summat done according to the fishy. if thats the case well done A.H., but he shouldn't have had to this, should have been sorted years ago.;)

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Hmmm, stable doors & bolting horses spring to mind but better late than never - let's just hope some good comes out of the embarrassment of Saturday & if it happens again the club will have got their act together in regard to communication with the fans

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The money Andy has spent over two seasons to improve pitch drainage has cured the old problems of waterlogging.
Unfortunately, the frozen pitch will always remain our Achilles heel until the whole pitch can be protected.
I'm not sure if our existing covers can achieve this at present?
If not, surely the revenue lost from any postponement would make them a priceless investment.

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If you cover the pitch overnight you never know what it is like until you take them off the next day, and you don't want to take them off too early if it is still freezing.

Portable heaters don't always work either, and you don't get much change from £1m for under soil heating at the lower end of the market.

If it get very cold there is little that can be done that is effective and affordable. Maybe a massive electric blanket could work :)

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Why cant the drains under the pitch be tapped in to at different points around the pitch and blow heaters used to circulate hot air through the system!! Would this work??

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True enough, but modern covers with any thermal quality will usually protect the pitch against frost down to -3 or -4 degrees C.
Do nothing, and you only need -1 degree below freezing to result in almost certain postponement.
It's a shame the club can't make use of the massive amounts of methane gas being generated, almost on our doorstep, at the Whinney Hill landfill site!

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[QUOTE=Lord Stiffupperlip;1205647]True enough, but modern covers with any thermal quality will usually protect the pitch against frost down to -3 or -4 degrees C.
Do nothing, and you only need -1 degree below freezing to result in almost certain postponement.

do nothing is not an option but its all about money being spent on only a handful of occasions during a season. must admit though the covers you mention would have made more sense to purchase than a scoreboard where you know the score and your watch tells you how long we have to hold onto our one goal lead. lost match day revenue will probably more than the club receives for scoreboard advertising.

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with todays cold snap, is there a chance this could be off again?

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If covers are on Dav, feel pretty sure we will get a game.;)

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What's the weather doing? Snow forecast for middle of the day, then clear but very cold.

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Been snowing all day exile not heavy,also not much sticking so far, am optimistic.

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Why are there no updates on fishy site? It's not rocket science.

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Dont need em if forecast is correct.;)

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non from somerset either.

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for up to date information try a swindon town site. 12.50 says game is on at the moment.

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What a joke! Who is responsible for keeping fans informed? Never mind watching forecasts, there should have been at least a comment on the fishy site to match the one at Swindon Town. What a shambles of a set up.

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disgraceful !... 😎

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just set off as usual. you will find out when you arrive if the games off or not.

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Stopped snowing now in ossy thank god .

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We have to wait for the referee decision and what time he arrives is questionable as the ref. was supposed to be Eddie Ilderton and for some reason he has cancelled but no replacement has been made

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thats good news ilderton will not be around tonight. i,m available if coley wants me to do the game.

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Strange thats theres been no updates from anyone on Twitter either tho

Having said that my connections been playing up all day so maybe theres is too.

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If you want a knowledgeable assistant to run the line !.

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Just seen on titter, covers are off and looks good.:)

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Titterr?? :rolleyes::D

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Thats what i call it,cos its full of em.:D

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Good news, Jordan Clark back fit & in the team tonight - Harvey's on the bench, otherwise same as Saturday

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Full time,

2-1 kee(penalty) and Jackson. Well deserved Jackson goal I plenty more to come. 10 men to Swindon, and mcconville went off injured.

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Great result, well done Stanley, players, staff and fans.

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we started badly and grew into the game, against a very dangerous also very dirty Swindon side, thought every man put a shift in and we deserved the 3 Pts.

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Don't know where to start, yes we were a bit shaky at first but once we got going - wow, just wow!!
Well deserved win, Swindon press said at start of the game that we had a 'brute of a centre half' - well, if we had one brute they had a lot more - disgusting dirty tactics from a team who shouldn't need to employ them as they looked a decent footballing side but then again with Flitcroft in charge . . . . . .
Hope Sean is ok, he looked dazed after that second assault (sorry, challenge :eek:)
Apparently Westley was at the game tonight, maybe he'd given Swindon some tips :rolleyes
Brilliant atmosphere tonight - glory days are back!

Roll on Saturday, can't wait to be sent to Coventry!