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Great Blog - would love to see Swindon get promoted again



Good blog on World Cup songs available

I fancy Millwall to take the final promotion place if I am honest but it's sure to be a good game whichever way it goes.

Come on the Town. We were great from the second half at The Valley on Monday night, it was an epic atmosphere and I was proud to be there. Lets step it up again and beat Millwall, we can do it. After all we are unbeaten at Wembley.

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I really want to see Swindon gain promotion because of Danny Wilson. He is a great manager who really hasn't had the credit he deserves throughout his career.

Also the character of the Swindon side to find a goal when down to ten man showed real determination.

- English Footballers Abroad

Average write up on what has been an interesting set of play off matches. As a Town fan I'm disappointed that Paul focussed so heavily on the second leg, as us Town fans were left wondering how we only ended one up after the first leg.

Having said that we were truly awful on Monday in the first half, however I think the second half grit and determination showed by the lads (especially when we went down to 10 men) meant we deserved to only lose by the odd goal. In fact Charlie and Danny W were desperately unlucky not to equalise late on. I appreciate Charlton fans will feel hard done by though, we know how bad it feels to lose a semi on penalties, 2004 is fresh in the mind of many a Swindon supporter.

Anyway enough of history, time to look to the future. I'm never the most confident of supporters but I have pretty much everything crossed for the final. Tickets have been ordered, transport arranged. Come on you reds, we've waited a long time for this, be great to get back into the second tier of the pyramid.

Good luck to Millwall too though, as I think they deserve to be in the final, they've had a cracking season.

A lot of Charlton fans are somewhat surprised that it's being reported that Nicky Bailey is a Charlton fan. Where has this come from? I think most of us are under the impression that he is a Fulham fan.

Bailey had a nightmare on Monday, and it's a shame that that's the last we'll see of him in a Charlton shirt.

Congrats to Swindon and Millwall for reaching the final.

As a Leeds United supporter I'm just pleased its not us involved but given a choice of who should go it its difficult. The one thing that stops me pitching for Millwall is the knowledge that a trip to the New Den will be the usual rights free zone of idiocy and OTT policing.

I was at school with Steve Morison - was always a very good schoolboy footballer, who has worked his way up through the leagues, scoring buckets of goals along the way. Pleased to see a London club doing well!

Paul, are you Chris Kamara in disguise?

Why is there this point of view in the media that somehow Swindon are lucky or fortunate? As post 7 says, we should have won the first leg 4 or 5 nil but due to poor finishing and a good keeper we didn't and Charlton were fortunate to score the goal they did. Long punt, keeper flouts and whilst Burton was brave it was more by luck than design that it went in.

Yes we rode our 'luck' in the second leg but in your article swap the words Swindon and Charlton around, along with 1st & 2nd leg and the blog still makes for an accurate description.

Let's hope that when we beat Milwall that we get the credit we deserve.

You just beat me to it there Paul!

If Carlton 'should' have gone on to win with us 2 down and ten men they would have done. Accept that we had the required grit, character and determination to get one back take it to penalties. As every Swindon fan knows, like England, we don't do shoot outs!

Charlton are a London team who were in the Premier League not so long ago so expect some bias towards them from Ö÷²¥´óÐã. Everyone including myself who was at the County Ground on Friday night knows we should of been out of sight by the time those 90 minutes were up. We had a poor first half at The Valley on Monday evening but thoroughly deserved to go through, no one including Ö÷²¥´óÐã journalists with pro-London agendas can take that away from us.

People will write us off for the final but I'm sure we have more of the neutral support than Millwall do. Come on the Town, we can do it.

Paul - no worries, you could be right. We've been speculating on the forums about whether he is a Charlton fan since it suddenly appeared in several newspaper reports in the aftermath of our playoff defeat.

@12 by magnum150

You are right in as much as the legs were reversals in terms of who dominated. But we were 3-2 up on aggregate with 15 minutes to go with a man advantage. Surely you can see how it can be interpreted that we threw it away.

I think us Town fans may be taking a couple of months frustration out on Paul here a little. As we have been on the whole ignored by the media. Sky seem to prefer to focus on Millwall, Charlton & Leeds in the race for second. This very site didn't even have a Swindon related play off story until last Thursday afternoon, and in a League One slot on Talksport Adrian whateverhisname stated on the last but on day of the season "Only Millwall can catch Leeds". So funny how the as it stands table has Town and Charlton in 2nd at some stage of the final afternoon of the season.

Still this media black out has served us well. I suppose as a "small club" we should expect to be in the shadows but Danny Wilson and the board have done an absolutely amazing job, we have travelled light years since our new owners came to the CG. How Wilson hasn't been given the recognition he deserves is beyond me, on the resources available to him he's the L1 manager of the year for me, win or lose next Saturday.

Paul

Wasn't pointing the finger at you, I'm speaking in general terms. The match report implied that we got away with a smash and grab penalty victory and while I think your article here does credit our victory, you have focused more on Charlton losing rather than Swindon winning. I read and enjoyed your article on Charlie Austin (you'll see comments from me on there) and also the article that appeared about our League Cup final victory over Arsenal all those years ago.

My point is that the general consensus says we were lucky but that won't affect how we go into the final.

The feeling at Millwall this season really has been that despite the superstition about the play-offs, the dreadful record, and the agony of last seasons defeat, that in this set of four Jackett has the most capable set of players, and probably the best team as well, and despite all the worries, realistically they had to be favourites. The head is still saying this, especially now there isn't a derby at Wembley against Charlton, but doesn't mean the heart is totally there yet!

Ignore the Swindon fans Paul, it is good see a well written blog on league one football. Even their manager (whom conducted himself very well on the night) said that lady luck was on their side.
How we lost the game is gutting from dominating for the majority of the match and as for the comment on could have been 5 nil at the county ground well could have been 12 nil at The Valley my friend.
Still think that it is Millwalls final to lose on May 29th. What with their skipper being banned for a kung fu style kick on Burton and an out of sorts striker. Although must say was very impressed with their player Danny Ward thought he looked a threat when attacking and took the goal well.
As for the future of Charlton will have to see will most likely be a firesale of players in the summer to help ease our well documented debt. So hoping that some of our youngsters can make the step up like Scott Wagstaff has and then keeping hold of experienced heads in Christian Dailly and Frazer Richardson.

As a Swindon fan, I'd definitely agree with the posts above regarding national media coverage, i.e. lack of focus on us and recognition of Town throughout this season. Straight after the Millwall and Huddersfield game last night, the Sky presenter couldn't wait to install Millwall as the clear favourites, before backtracking a bit, but by no means is this a done deal for Millwall.

It's a neutral ground and there will be 30 odd thousand fans each, so it will be much closer than many will like to believe. Of course we will go into the final with the under-dog tag, but I know that Danny and the squad don't really believe that. We have proven we can be a match for anyone this season.... well....apart from Bristol Rovers ;). So Come on You Reds!

Now I know how Scunthorpe fans might have felt when they beat Millwall in the Play-Offs last year. Oh dear, they shouldn't have won. Millwall beat Leeds in the semi-final and they're a bigger club from London and, and...

Swindon beating Charlton the other night just wasn't politically correct. The Addicks have so much more to lose. They we're a Premier League club only last week blah, blah, blah.

Well, we Swindon fans have been in the doldrums for quite a while now so it's our turn to go back on a march and this team is as good as any in League One this year. If we lose I'll be as disappointed as any Charlton fan was on Monday. There will be no 'oh well, we've had a good run' nonsense from me. I've had enough of the third division.

Whichever team goes up, is it fair to say that they will be pre-season favourites for relegation? The Championship is becoming a harder prospect each season, with a glut of former Premiership sides and the existing teams strengthening. Good luck to all, but after watching the play-offs, my money would be on a swift return for whichever side wins at Wembley.

As a despondent Charlton fan I congratulate Swindon on getting to Wembley and hope they stuff Millwall, for obvious reasons.

I would say there was very little to choose between Charlton and Swindon, not just over the two legs, where each team dominated the home leg, but also during the season - the two draws in the league prove this. Where Swindon had the edge over Charlton was in having two very decent goal scorers and being able to hold their nerve.

Where does this leave Charlton? I expect a mass exodus of players over the summer, meaning we have little hope of being anywhere near promotion next season, as they will be replaced by very eager, but not as talented, academy graduates. I do fear for this club's future - but then they said that in 1984, and look what has happened since then.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Surely any group of people that smashes Hull up is making improvements to the city?

I wonder if we will read more about this apparent media blackout of Swindon in the next feature on them in 4-4-2 magazine :)

Ive been following Swindon's results from afar from many years and am delighted to see them in the play-off final. As a few of their fans have already pointed out they might have been a little fortunate at the Valley but they were unlucky to have emerged from the first leg with just a one goal lead. Good luck to the Robins at Wembley.

As a HTFC fan i have good reason to be optomistic about next season, we have the makings of a good young squad and i think Lee Clarke is a good manager at this level. Peter Clarke was a great signing and Novak (Our carpets are dirty) is looking like he can be a 20 plus goals a season man.

On a more negative note i really hope we dont sign Trotman on a permanent basis, he reminds me of a poor Titus Bramble at times, a lumbering Oaf. Also i was a little bit dissapointed with the long ball tactics we adopted on Saturdays home leg against Milwall, when we have clearly shown in patches this season we can play good attacking football on the deck. that said they outclassed us last night and deserved their win.

UTT next season.

I agree with post 24. Spot on really, both teams able to use their "12th man" on the night.
Whilst people still argue that Swindon haven't been in the media spotlight much, we've had plenty of good press this year with the articles on Charlie Austin, '69 League Cup victory etc. A stark contrast to previous seasons where Swindon are barely noticed.
Swindon have proved a good example of a well run club, chairman making all the right decisions at the top, with all of the results now following.
Nothing wrong with being the underdogs for the next weekend... Just means you win more money if you bet on Swindon.

Millwall will be slight favourites for the final, after all we did finish above Swindon and have a better head to head record 3-2 at home, 1-1 away

The final will be a tight match and I feel/hope wall will win it 2-1

Last years loss was hard to take but not unexpected as Scunthorpe had the beating of us twice in the League.

With Swindon's captain banned and our players in familiar surroundings, fingers crossed we can finally break the curse of the playoffs ( currently 2 wins out of 13 ) and it will be 6th time lucky for Millwall and 3rd time lucky for Kenny Jackett in a playoff final.

Paul

I'm a Charlton fan who is still utterly crestfallen.

As far as I can see, an axe is going to be taken to our squad and we will be a team of young players and Liverpool rejects.

Our board tells us nothing, so I can only assume that we are in deepest financial doo doo.

Players going in my opinion -

Darren Randolph
Kelly Youga
Lloyd Sam
Nicky Bailey
Jose Semedo
Therry Racon
Deon Burton

plus all those who are out of contract.

To be honest, if offers are made for any of our players, i'm sure our board will consider them.

Next season we will be mid table at best.

When the play-off line up was confirmed, I reckoned that the winner of the Millwall/Huddersfield semi would go up.

I'm hardly neutral, (Lions fan here) but I'm thinking we'll edge it in the end. The only problem is that we bottled it last season, putting on our best performance at Elland Road, and not troubling S****horpe in the second half.

If we get an open expansive game, Millwall should win.

That said, anything could happen, and that's why we all love football so much.

Was annoyed that Charlton couldn't make it. Not only would it be a great day for this corner of SE London, but a much easier game for us...

Swindon' record in play-off finals, is like their Wembley record...Played 3, Won 3, whilst Millwall have never won one.

Swindon will be underdogs, which will suit us down to the ground. In the home game against Millwall we should've been at least a couple up, when Douglas was harshly sent off after half an hour and it took a late equaliser to get a point, and since then we have improved a lot.

Greer will be a loss but we have other players to come in, whilst the breaking news is that Lucas should be fit to play despite going off in the first minute at Charlton.

Hopefully we will continue our winning ways at Wembley, as it will be a reward for our owners who have changed the club for the better, and it will be a fairy tale ending for Charlie Austin.

By the way, I would like to commiserate to Charlton fans. We lost at Brighton on pens in 2004,despite dominating both legs, so we know what you're going through.

Good blog Paul.

Not sure how Swindon fans can criticise the lack of media exposure they are getting though - all we hear about on the Football League Show is what a great buy Charlie Austin was. Steve Morison hardly gets a look in.
I am looking forward to this game much more than last years. Scunny beat us twice in the league last season and were better than us if I am honest. This year we have improved a great deal, and the additions of Ward, schofield, Batt, Morison and Trotter have made us a much better team physically and experience wise. We are well equiped to cope with the Swindon long-ball game that Danny Wilson has had them playing this season. May the best team win as long as they habe blue shirts on!

To Lovely_Geezer,

Long Ball game? We like to get the ball down on the ground and play football we aren't a long ball team and if we played long ball at your place on the final day it was because Wilson wasn't giving anything away, We knew Leeds' would win their game so we never thought we would get automatic anyway.

Plus don't forget we scored a goal for you in that 3-2 defeat plus we gave away a stupid penalty and your other goal was deflected, It will be a totally different game at Wembley with you lot being away from The Den.

We are very dangerous going forward with Ward, McGovern, Austin & Paynter all being quality players and with Douglas in the middle i think we have a good chance if we play to our potential.

Please please please win Swindon.

I don't support Swindon, i just hate Millwall.

Sorry Lovely_Geezer, you obviously haven't watched Swindon at all this season. Long ball game? Idiot.

As a Millwall supporter living abroad in Italy I watched tantalizingly from afar last year as they narrowly missed out. I'm sure they won't do again and next time I back home in the UK I'll be watching the Lions roar in the Championship!

ForeverRed - funny how you try to justify how Millwall scored but don't justify a fluffed goalpost clearance by our player eh? As for the penalty what was stupid about it and after all we still had to score from the spot.

Selective memory but that doesn't matter as it's what is done at Wembley that counts and past performances are no indication of the future. Last year we sorely missed a player named Henry from Reading who was a big reason for us being at Wembley. This year our squad is stronger than last and not being beaten during the season by our opposition (unlike Scunthorpe) is a positive step. Just hope our players are all fit and in form!

COYL

I have to agree with the posts on an apparent media black out on Swindon, the Sun newspaper ran a play-off special this week and the only mention in the full page article of Swindon was "Milwall will play Swindon......." that was it, the rest was interviews with Milwall players, fans and the journalists opinion on their chances. Add that to a season of one paragraph match reports, even both the 3-0 lessons given to Leeds and you have to wonder what we've done wrong.

As for us being lucky, thats almost laughable, on that basis were Charlton not "lucky" to equalise with us in the 93rd & 94th minute of both our league encounters, four points that may have sent us up automaticly sparing Charlton the agony of penalties against us. Were they "unlucky" to have Llera sent off for rugby tackling Austin to the floor when he was clear on goal, a goal that could have won us the match in 90 minutes? Or are we just ignoring these facts for convenience?

Pulpgrape wrote

"Sorry Lovely_Geezer, you obviously haven't watched Swindon at all this season. Long ball game? Signed Pulpgrape the Idiot.

Actually seen them twice - first game I wondered why all the Swindon fans were using binoculars, then pre-game the tannoy blasted out "hoof, there it is" The game at the New Den would have been worse, but the ref warned Wilson before the match about the "Ash Cloud". Even still Swindon were leathering it all game!! Hopefully you will not adopt this tactic at Wembley!!

So you're basing this theory of yours on 2 games out of 55 for the season? When Swindon were home to Millwall we went down to 10 men after 27mins thanks to Abdou writhing in agony on the floor only to get up unhurt after the red card came out. So obviously losing an influential midfielder didn't help our cause. The New Den is an intimidating place to go, I'm guessing alot of teams find it hard to play their normal game there.
It has been widely noticed by pundits/fans that Swindon play a good style of football, and it should be a great game for the fans/neutrals this weekend.

"When Swindon were home to Millwall we went down to 10 men after 27mins thanks to Abdou writhing in agony on the floor only to get up unhurt after the red card came out. So obviously losing an influential midfielder didn't help our cause."

And your point is what? Frampton got sent off after 64 minutes and you still persisted with the hoof - you were very lucky to get a point that game!

You ought to think before you speak, my point wasn't that we were down to 10 men, it was that Douglas is an influential CM, he is a key part of the way we play football. We were half the team back then, no Paynter, Austin, Ward and Sheenan.
If you like to believe that Swindon play hoofball then be my guest, you're just making an idiot out of yourself because we have been widely acknowledged as a good footballing side.

Fair enough Simon - you have a very apt name by the way - did you meet the pieman?
So at The New Den a couple of weeks ago, when all the players that you mentioned DID play, why were you still playing hoofball? Maybe you only played it the 2 times you played us, but that's all I have to go on - but you keep the insults going!!

You're not very clever really, anyone who could read would already notice that I put the New Den is a tough place to go and I'm guessing that alot of teams find it hard to play their normal game.
Did you see Chelsea play away against Wigan? They performed really badly that game so that means they must be a terrible side who can't play well(!!!)
I've made my point, you've made yours. Enjoy your day out at Wembley.

"You're not very clever really"

There you go again with the insults - it really is a sign of weakness you know!

Enjoy your day at Wembely too - may the best team win!

...And calling me simple is not an insult?

May the best team win indeed.

If you two don't behave i'm turning this web site around and they'll be no ice cream!!
One more thing, Swindon Town 3 Leeds United 0, Leeds United 0 Swindon Town 3, we both took 6 points off the Northern monkeys this season, but i'm willing to bet we did it with more style!!

Good take on things here. Looking at Swindon I notice they have at least 2 loan players from Premiership clubs. This is very unusual at this level and suggests Swindon are probably one of the best funded clubs in this league. I think they overplay the underdog tag.

I can safely say that the best footballing side were the worthy winners!!