Swindon Town 1 Peterborough United 1

At least they were as bad as they were. Despite all the pre-match talk about the need for sharpness today, Town looked sluggish and uninspired against a Peterborough side that, on form, they really should have rolled over.

There were no surprises in the line-up. But in possession the team missed movement and energy and inspiration, up front or in midfield. The result was predictable: long balls, especially from Matty Heywood, lumped over the top to the forwards. The Peterborough back four, all big lads, had no problem mopping up. Sam Parkin barely won a header all afternoon.

In midfield, Stefani Miglioranzi was the only Town midfielder keen to get the ball down and try to control the game, but with his team-mates so static and the ball coming to him so rarely, he was unable to control the game in the way you suspect he could have.

Let's try to forget about the first 45 minutes - the best bit about that was my cup of Bovril, and even that ran out after 10 minutes. The first goal came in the 73rd minute, and it came for United after Town had been attacking. We had enjoyed some pressure, with a couple of corners in quick succession. But the second, taken on the right by Miglioranzi, didn’t beat the first man. Newton cleared, Jimmy Bullard gathered, and started running.

With the Swindon half almost to himself and only Andy Gurney within range, the County forward did well to advance on the box, step inside Gurney and strike part Gremink. The visitors were one up, and you could hardly gruge Bullard his goal - he was one of the few energetic-looking players on the park.

But the goal clearly roused Town a little, and it didn’t take too long to get back on equal terms. A little more than five minutes after Town had gone one down, Eric Sabin was released down the inside left channel.

It was a pretty typical Sabin approach to goal, I’m afraid: he raced into the box, but then gave a fair impression of a man who’d suddenly realised - with a fright - that he could end up scoring. The chance to score passed as he dithered and, with three defenders getting round him, it looked likely his next touch would see the ball roll out.

But then Boro’s Andy Edwards inexplicably tugged on Sabin’s shirt. The ref missed it, but the linesman started flagging for this piece of remarkable stupidity, and the penalty was awarded. Despite a long delay while the ref fussed around, Sam Parkin stroked the ball low and to his left to score.

Town pressed in the dying minutes to try for a winner, but it never looked too likely. Summing up the team’s ineptness today, five minutes from the end a lovely ball in from the right by Johnnie Jackson was missed by three Town players all rushing in, when it appeared that just one of them colliding with the ball would see it bounce into the back of the net. I swear Eric Sabin actually had to jump a foot in the air to let the ball spin underneath him.

On the radio later, Andy King praised the side for working hard to dig out the last seven or eight results, and said they’d been very professional in their efforts recently. But, referring to today’s game, he admitted Town "just didn’t perform" and that there "just wasn’t a spark" in the side.

He said the front three – Sabin, Invincibile and Parkin – all had bad games, and said David Duke admitted he made a mistake in letting their man through to score.

Still, it’s a point in the bag, even if Town drop a place in a tight table. Now the players can really focus on the match that was perhaps on their minds today: Oxford a week tomorrow (Sunday) at the Kassam. Oxford scraped a win against Lincoln today which maybe suggests they were a bit distracted too.

Our performances have been much better away from home recently. So let the countdown begin.

Clueless, clueless TeamTalk

I subcribe to TeamTalk's email updates on Swindon Town. Mostly, it's the story you saw yesterday in the Adver, or heard on the radio earlier. But sometimes they go off into their own little, largely wrong, world. Tonight, for instance, they're claiming by email that:

"Swindon have extended West Ham midfielder Grant McCann's stay at Whaddon Road to a third month. The 22-year-old Northern Ireland international has been with the Robins since October 4 and his latest loan agreement was due to expire following this weekend's game against Brentford. This latest extension will take the loan up to January 4 - the maximum 93 days allowed for short-term loans."

Er... except - as anyone who knows the first thing about Town would realise - it's the wrong Robins, folks. McCann's playing for Cheltenham. Good to see they take such care over what they put out... and to think they actually charge some people for this stuff (this "information" goes out via paid-for text alerts too)...

There's a game tomorrow too...

If you're reading this, and you don't already have a ticket for Oxford, chances are you'll be cracking open a beer a week on Sunday and watching it from the sofa. Only 200 tickets for the biggest game of the season so far were left this morning, and those were expected to be snapped up quickly after a day of brisk business at the County Ground ticket office yesterday.

But with all this talk of selling-out our allocation at the Kassam for the big cup clash with the Pox, it's easy to forget there's a league game to get through first. Peterborough visit the County Ground tomorrow in what could reasonably be called a crisis - yes, a situation even worse than our own. They're second bottom of the table, and some bad defeats in recent weeks have led to loud calls for Barry Fry's dismissal. For tomorrow, the loss of Bradley Allen to Bristol reduces options in an already stretched squad.

The good news for us is that Sam Parkin is fit again after getting over a knee injury that kept him on the bench last week - even if he came on to score the winner. There may be a lingering doubt about him, but don't expect Andy King to extend his "cotton wool" policy to match days as well as in training. He tells the Adver today that all the "big guns" will be out tomorrow to try and secure three points.

Any fears of a poor performance caused by the prospect of next week's Oxford clash should be dispelled by King's warning to Jon Ritson: "They won’t be looking beyond this game... Make no mistake, if I think any of them are, their mums and dads won’t be getting the chance to watch them on television next week."

Of course, that kind of sensible, determined comment is undermined a bit when you look at the reality of the situation: a tiny squad, and two senior members of it (Steve Robinson and Andy Gurney) out through suspension for next week's Cup clash. Who exactly is King going to replace any slackers with? As he points out himself, in the same interview: "Of course I want to try and make sure we get through the match without picking up any more injuries. Too many more and the squad for Oxford picks itself."

Scores goals - and he's modest too

Good to see that David Duke has taken a little confidence from his cracking goal on Saturday up at Huddersfield.

"The ball was pulled back to me," he told the Adver, "and I slotted a calm, right foot shot into the bottom corner.

"It was the best goal of the three by a mile. I was really delighted."

Huddersfield Town 2 Swindon Town 3

Super Sammy Parkin came off the bench to score his 12th of the season in the dying moments of this match, and make sure of a fine win for Town away to Huddersfield. The only downside for Town were bookings for Andy Gurney and Steve Robinson, which means both will be suspended for the big cup clash against Oxford in two weeks' time.

Today, Parkin's goal looked, for a few moments, like it might simply be the icing on the cake, the cap on a fine battling performance. But a late Huddersfield strike from Jonathan Stead only moments later meant the Parkin goal was the clincher.

The foundations of Town's victory were set in a 25-minute spell of pressure in the first half. The first goal came in only the first minute, when Eric Sabin made progress down the right flank. He crossed to the edge of the box, where David Duke was striding in and in the right place to send a low drive into the net. Our second came on the 25th minute, after Danny Invincible had his shirt tugged in the box by Hudderfield's Kevin Sharp. Andy Gurney powered the resultant penalty home.

Huddersfield pulled one back with a lovely lobbed goal from Martin Smith ten minutes later, but the home side didn't really come into the match until the second half. They kept Swindon under pressure for most of the second 45, with some good defending from Reeves, Heywood and Gremink – and some terrible shooting – keeping them at bay.

Having dealt with all Huddersfield could throw at them thus far, what was to prove Town's winner came with only seconds left of normal time. Danny Invincibile crossed from the left wing and Sam Parkin – only on as a sub for Sabin because of the Londoner's ongoing knee problem – shot a low effort past the Huddersfield keeper. As cries went round the MacAlpine stadium for the removal of manager Mick Wadsworth, his team managed to rally. Stead grabbed their second to create the now-traditional butterflies in Swindon stomachs, but Town clung on to take all three points.

After the match, talking to Radio Swindon, Andy King was quick to draw a comparison between his situation only three or four weeks ago, and Mick Wadsworth's today. Apart from the suspensions, he was upbeat: he praised Stefani Miglioranzi who came into the side, said Gareth Edds did well as a sub. He was honest enough, too, to give thanks for the luck you seem to get on a winning streak. As the noise from a protest outside the ground drifted across the pitch, he sympathised with his opposite number. "I know how he feels," he said. "He's got to go home and face his family, and face himself. That's the worst part."

On your marks...

Tickets for the Big Game go on sale at the County Ground tomorrow, for season-ticket holders. Everyone else will have to wait a week for whatever tickets are left, although there should be at least several hundred on public sale. Concerns remain over the security arrangements at the ground: when Oxford hosted Aston Villa earlier this season there was trouble in the North Stand, where we'll be sat, because of insufficient segregation. There had been speculation yesterday that Town would get the whole stand - 4,000 seats - which would not only have made things safer, but ensured a cracking away support for the lads. But, it seems, it's not to be - you can only hope they have things properly sorted out on the day.

On the telly

It's confirmed: The whole country is going to watch us stuff our local rivals, kicking off at 1pm on Sunday 8 December. I'm going to work out to set the video right now. Meanwhile, in unrelated news, there are unconfirmed sightings of Mark Devlin turning cartwheels down the County Road.

"'This will be a good opportunity to show what we're really about,' he told the club's website", according to the BBC, which is quite clever really because websites don't often have ears, so can't hear you tell them anything. "It also gives us a source of income that is not budgeted for," he panted.

And if you think I'm just being silly, just look at the BBC getting carried away: at the foot of their story they say we're playing Oxford at the County Ground. Now, we know a trip up the road to a half-finished diddly stadium next to a sewage farm isn't the most appealing of trips to make, especially on a Sunday lunchtime. But surely even the all-powerful BBC can't just change venues like that, can they? Oh, now, hang on - Devlin's passed out, just at the thought. Smelling salts, anyone?

Counting the days

So the countdown to the Big Match kicks off, even if we're unsure exactly how long that countdown will last. There are hopes (make that big, big big hopes if you're Mark Devlin) that those lovely telly people will want to show Town lock horns with Oxford live on the box, which means we could get switched to Sunday 8 December, rather than the Saturday. Nobody seems to know when the broadcasters (both Sky and BBC) make their minds up, but ears are being placed to the ground, have no fear.

Televising the game, as noted here yesterday, raises at least £100,000 for each club, and should help make sure our chief executive doesn't end up racing on the pitch towards the end in an attempt to force a money-spinning replay back at the County Ground. Then there is a hearty dollop of turnstyle money for each club to take into account.

But, as has been noted by a few fans this weekend, perhaps the biggest thing about the clash is the interest it's going to spark around the Town in the next few weeks, televised or not. Even the thousands who have apparently stopped caring about the club are going to be interested to hear Town are taking on the Pox again. There's been plenty of comment about the 4,200 crowd on Saturday that was, once again, well below the break-even figure, despite lower ticket prices.

Having scored the vital goal to get past Huddersfield (read the match report here) club captain Andy Gurney is looking forward to the big tie. He says the players will relish the atmosphere, although I'd imagine Andy King and co will feel a fair amount of pressure in the run-up. You never want to lose a local derby, but especially not when the club is fighting for survival and your local rivals are languishing a division below.

We've got Oxford!

Well... our prayers to the cup draw fairy went pretty much right - except we've been drawn away to Oxford. It's been picked out by John Motson as one of the top games of the round, and no bloody wonder - what a cracker. Big crowd, hope for live TV coverage worth £100k to each club, and a fair chance of going through - they only struggled past Dover yesterday, and are sitting 11th in the third division.
The FA Cup draw in full

Swindon Town 1 Huddersfield Town 0

Bring on the Oxford. After this dour scramble of a match, capped with a very happy five minutes at the end, what we need is a home draw and a big crowd, against a side we can roll over to get into the money-spinning third round. And our nearest neighbours should fit the bill nicely.

Truth is, we made hard work of Huddersfield. We can pretty safely dismiss the first half as a complete loss, but in the second term they had a few close things. On another day the visitors would have expected to go ahead with at least one of the efforts, especially a shot cleared off the line by Matty Hewlett. Had it been placed a yard either side through a ruck of players, it would have put them one up.

But Town kept going, and got their reward in the 85th minute, just as we were all contemplating a replay, and the fairly grim prospect of a third match against Huddersfield in ten days. Danny Invincibile swung the ball in deep from the right wing, and Sam Parkin got up high (again) at the back post to nod the ball down and across goal. Andy Gurney was racing in, and stuck a right boot on the ball from a yard out to score the winner.

You could say that all's well that ends well, and certainly there were a few bright spots. I thought Eric Sabin was superb today: he still lacks composure when he's shooting, but has now added a lot more to his game than the occasional attempt on goal. He worked his socks off for the team, used his pace to good effect down the channels, and made a few good passes and crosses. He's come on leaps and bounds, and if he could just learn to test the goalkeeper more often he'd be a very good player indeed.

Alongside him, Sam Parkin didn't score, but used the ball neatly as ever, and got that vital assist. And at the back Alan Reeves had another good game, despite the various grumblers around where I was sat, alongside Matty Heywood.

Huddersfield have got to fancy their chances in next Saturday's league game at the MacAlpine, and Andy King pointed out that he still wants the points in the league more than progress in the cup. But, for the moment, we can at least be thankful for being in the hat for the next round - and have our dreams about who we'd like to meet next along the road to Cardiff.

Ruddock: now it's getting messy

A statement on the club website from Mark Devlin makes it clear that the Neil Ruddock saga looks unlikely to be settled neatly.

Ruddock hasn't played in nearly a year and suffered another knee injury a few weeks back. But he has rejected a "substantial six-figure sum", according to Devlin, plus the offer of the tax-free proceeds from a testimonial game at the County Ground.

What next? It appears Ruddock is determined to continue at Town, have another knee operation which will keep him out for the rest of the season, and fulfill the last season of his contract. He will now take the club to a tribunal to claim against his contract.

Town have failed to pay Ruddock his full salary in the last two months, and it's worrying to consider what this might do to the club next.

I think we're all getting tired of constantly considering the club finances, but we have to consider three things. First, the Wills family appear unwilling to invest while the Ruddock saga drags on. Second, they are not, it seems, willing to pay Razor his full salary. Third, we're likely to need further investment in two weeks to pay the wage bill for November, as the crowd last week was still below 5,500, and Saturday's appears unlikely to be so huge it can bring enough money in to make everything OK.

It's not the cup we're gonna win

Kidderminster 3 Swindon Town 2

It doesn't get much tougher than it did last night for the travelling faithful. Terrible traffic problems on the way up meant fans rushed to the game... only to discover that an electrical fault at a nearby sub-station meant the Aggborough floodlights weren't doing the business. They didn't get the match kicked off until after 9pm, and they were then forced to watch Town throw away a 2-0 lead to take the match into - yawn - extra time. The lino ruled out a Sam Parkin goal because Danny Invincibile was thought to have been offside, and then the home side snatched a golden goal winner. Dave Hanley has the full story over on Rivals. As he says, there's only one route left to Cardiff now (other than the play-offs, I suppose) and that starts on Saturday. Yes, we'll just have to win the FA Cup now. Oh well.

It's the cup we're gonna win

In the LDV Vans Trophy, Town take on Kidderminster at Aggborough tonight. Andy King is likely to do as he did against Southend, and give a run-out to a few of the squad players. Gareth Edds, Adam Willis and Stefani Miglioranzi could all start for the first time since that 6-1 thumping, a win that signalled something of a turnaround in our fortunes. Daren Dykes and Alan Young could also feature, with Sabin and Parkin both likely to be rested.

It's good to see King praising Adam Willis as someone who persuaded him he was worth a new deal: the rumour mill has had Willis upset at King's treatment in recent weeks. The rest of the back page story is pretty vague, mind you: King hints that a few players will be told at Christmas they had better start looking around for new clubs. I can hazard a guess that forgotten man Juan Cobain might be in there... can anyone think of other likely names? I'd certainly say Keith O'Halloran might be worth another year, at least on reduced terms, as he tries to restart his career. He'd almost be like a new signing.

Of course, on Saturday we have what looks likely to be a more testing FA Cup first round match against Huddersfield at the County Ground. King says it's worth more to get to the third round of the Cup than the third round of the LDV. He used to be a commercial manager at Mansfield (update: no he wasn't. It was Luton - see comments, so presumably knows about these things, but we hope he doesn't let hard-headed commercial logic get in front of a blood 'n' guts drive towards the glory day in Cardiff. It's coming our way, you'd better believe it, and remember where you heard it first. Oh yes.

Farewell Jimmy

It might sound slightly strange to say so, given Jimmy Davis is now back at Old Trafford, but one of the best things about Saturday's game was the send-off the club gave him.

The Manchester United winger is, quite rightly, all over today's Adver, with Andy King paying tribute in a (unusually?) sensible, cogent and generous set of post-match interviews. And the player himself is saying he'll keep on looking out for Town's results in the paper, even after he's back with Mssrs Beckham, van Nistelrooy and Giggs, and admits he was close to tears at the ovation he got.

He might be gone now, but at least we'll be able to say we chanted his name long before most of the prawn sandwich-munchers even knew who he was. And Jon Ritson's match report gets it spot on: "The pain of seeing him recalled to Old Trafford will be doubled if he is left to rot in the reserves". As Jon says, he knows he'll get a warm reception down these parts should he decide to try somewhere else. But you've got to doubt he'll need the second chance.

Swindon Town 1 Tranmere Rovers 1

A share of the spoils was probably a fair result from an entertaining clash at the County Ground.

Goals at either end of the game settled a tough contest, marred only by an amazingly poor performance from the referee. A crowd of 5,077 – still well short of the vital break-even figure of 5,500 - saw decisions that were not only utterly wrong, but contrary to the rules of the game. What else do you call it when the goalkeeper is taking a goal kick, a Tranmere player is booked for dissent while the ball is dead, and the ref moves the ball 50 yards up the pitch for a free kick to Town?

Despite the element of unpredictability the crap ref created, the players still managed to give us plenty of rough ‘n’ ready entertainment, led by the brilliant Jimmy Davis.

Davis, playing his last game for the Robins before returning to Manchester United, can’t have done his chances of getting into the Old Trafford first-team squad any harm today. He stated his intentions in the opening seconds, skinning his marker only to see his cross somehow miss the heads of the in-rushing Town strikers.

But, only seconds later, Davis scampered down the right again, beat his man again and found Sam Parkin with a cross from the right flank. Parkin, rushing in to the near post, wasn’t going to miss his chance to score for the fifth game in a row.

One minute in, one goal up – so far, so good.

But Tranmere showed they hadn’t come just to defend, and quickly came into the match. They were kept out by their own poor finishing and, I’m happy to say, some excellent Town defending: Alan Reeves had his best game in a Town shirt for some time, while Heywood showed he’s continuing to regain the form that saw him named the player of last season. In a 4-4-2 formation – and how much more solid do we look in this formation? - Andy Gurney and David Duke also both had excellent games in the fullback positions.

You can read the rest of the details, blow by blow, here, but suffice to say we really should have been two or three up by half time – one net-bound effort was brilliantly cleared off the line by a Tranmere defender, and Danny Invincibile had a goal chalked off for an invisible foul on a bumbling defender.

Without that clinching goal, you always felt Rovers were capable of grabbing an equaliser in a very open, physically tough contest. And, sure enough, it came in 80 minutes. Rovers had been turning the screw when Gareth Roberts crossed in from the left wing, without even bothering to take on his man. Gary Jones, near the edge of the area, got a good head on it and sent it past Gremink’s outstretched hand.

It was a disappointing end to a match that Town could have managed full points from. But, you have to say, other things were maybe just as important today.

It was depressing the club didn’t make the 5,500 break-even figure, but at least every fan in the ground can feel proud of the atmosphere they created. Andy King credited the fans for keeping Town in the match during Rovers’ second half pressing, and it certainly felt a happier place to be. Maybe getting the fans back will be more of a slog than any of us predicted, but a team playing like this, in an atmosphere like that, is always going to be worth seeing.

Come on you reddds

Is it positive that the build up to tomorrow's home game with Tranmere has been centered on the crowd number, rather than the game itself? Maybe it is. The PR offensive in the Adver and on local radio should mean (shouldn't it? surely?) that the club gets more than its break-even 5,500. In fact, you'd hope we might get a fair number more than that, giving a huge financial boost to the club, and a huge mental lift to the players. I'm sure I won't be the only person dragging their better half along to boost the crow... er... no, sorry, give them a fantastic afternoon out, and... um... spend quality time together.

Team news for tomorrow revolves around our forwards: Jimmy Davis is likely to play his last game for Town before being recalled to Manchester United, which is terrible news. Meanwhile, our prolific striker (and how long is it since we've been able to say that?) Sam Parkin hurt his knee training earlier this week, and hasn't been training since. There's a chance he'll play tomorrow, but things thus far haven't looked too promising. With Eric Sabin suspended for the game, young Alan Young could get a start.

And the players should have a new lightweight strip sorted out for the game, which can only be good news for wee Youngie, who surely would have vanished under his waterlogged top last week had he played. The club have taken some stick for having chosen a strip that held so much water in the first place, but it's not the first time something like this has happened, and doubtless won't be the last.

The weather forecast for tomorrow isn't great, but at least only the Tranmere fans - to be seated on the Stratton Bank - will be the only ones worried about the heavens opening.

The glory days

An interesting thread has opened on MyOnlySwindon, that (happily) doesn't involve various sections of fans attacking each other. The question, simply, is did Town fans get too used to success?

As poster "STFC_top_lip_tobacco" points out: "Between 1987 and 1997 I think we had 3 playoff seasons, 2 Championship winning seasons, 2 Wembley appearances, a League Cup semi final appearance and a year in the Premiership.... I just wonder sometimes if the decline after the Gormless/McMug era left expectations too high".

It's a good point. But is the true status of the club really as a division two struggler, as one poster on the thread suggests? I suspect things should really be a fair bit better than that if old fans could be tempted back, and new fans made of the area's growing population. But, of course, all this could be academic pretty soon anyway. Can expectations be changed in time to save the club? We haven't got long. The turnaround needs to start happening this Saturday, against Tranmere, or the club is not likely to be around for much longer for us to find out.

A fine day

Savour it: the team did fantastically well on Saturday, battling right up until the final whistle to secure three points, despite having fallen behind. The fans, by all accounts, were superb too, helping motivate the side to victory despite the bad weather. Indeed, those of us who chickened out of going to Wycombe were left feeling pretty frustrated at having missed a fine day out in the rain.

Savour it, because there always seems to be a big dark cloud attached to any silver lining at the club. We might have soared up the table (with further gains possible if we get a win against Tranmere at home on Saturday), but the players haven't been paid in six weeks. Andy King paid tribute to his players' attitude, but Mark Devlin has got to find £100,000 by Thursday to keep them all in contract. Just to up the stakes, he's also hoping to settle the Razor Ruddock saga, which is said to be the major barrier to Sir Seton Wills investing (or pouring?) further cash in the club.

I bet Devlin went into work with a skip in his step this morning.

Swindonlog improvements...

As the team continues to get its act together, I thought I'd follow suit. Thanks to some aid from the very helpful Marcus Campbell, creator of the Blogback service, there's a new comment function for each post. It replaces the previous, very unreliable service, and allows you to leave your comments on my half-baked news and views, and engage in a little debate with other blog readers. Better still, this page will be a lot faster loading now the new service is installed. Enjoy!

Wycombe Wanderers 2 Swindon Town 3

Well... stone the crows - there's three points we didn't expect. Expectations on a sodden afternoon extended no further than a draw, at best, but a double from super Sammy Parkin saw Town home. For once, Town took their chances - and got some luck... more to follow, for sure...

A novel marketing idea

Amid the gloom, BigRed comes up with a marketing idea on the MoS noticeboard that made me laugh ... and got me thinking. What if the board were to promise action on the management front if the average crowd over the next three months was at least 6,000?

BigRed suggests this would transform the club: perhaps show the Wills family the club does have a future, provide money to solve the Ruddock saga, get the embargo lifted, maybe even get some new faces in (although I think for all this the average would have to be a bit higher). Best of all, it might even drive the players on as well... and this, maybe, is the flaw in BigRed's plan for a change of manager: what happens if we're moving up the table, and all appears rosy in the garden by the end of January? If Andy King can survive nine defeats in ten games, he's unlikely to be bumped upstairs if we keep on winning.