Bristol City 2 Nottingham Forest 3

This game was all about Forest, although the City players did need to raise their game after a shoddy shift at the weekend - and they responded well to manager Keith Millen's dressing room dressing down.

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun

Two Kris Boyd goals gave the visitors the lead at half time and the Scotland striker (on loan from Boro) has now scored four goals in six starts for the play-off chasers as he rediscovers the sort of form that saw him score 101 goal in just over 140 appearances for Rangers.

David James was culpable for the opener in the 4th minute when he spilled a powerful, low free kick from Lewis McGugan straight to Boyd six yards outand when City skipper Louis Carey tripped McGugan just before the break, the hitman drilled the penalty home.

James mistake was unforgivable really, but to be fair to Carey, it was his first game since fracturing his skull against Scunthorpe at the end of February. Should he have been playing? Some on the Press Box thought not as he was clearly off the pace, but as City have little to play for, perhaps it was a good game for him to have a run out and build up a little match fitness.

In the second half City bounced back.

Four minutes after the break winger Jamal Campbell-Ryce teed up Marvin Elliott at the back post to nod home and on the hour West Ham loanee Jordan Spence crossed the ball for Jon Stead to do the same and he said aftwards:

"We knew that, if we got at them in the second half and got the next goal, they would be under pressure because of the position they are in. I thought we went from strength to strength and, at 2-2 with half-an-hour to go, we were the side looking to go on and win the game. After being booed off at half-time, we needed to get the crowd behind us and we did that.

Our performance was much better than in the first half at Sheffield United, but then lose the game is just so frustrating."

But Forest grabbed the win in the 72nd minute when Luke Chambers jumped to nod home (off the back of Spence) and keep his side firmly in the play-off places.

The points did nothing for Forest manager Billy Davies's mood though and he admitted to "having a right go at them" for allowing City back into the game.

Millen though was merely relieved he wasn't called upon to give the same lecture as he did on Saturday. If he had, he joked: "I'd have lost my voice by now!" This time he was happy to pint to his teams "commitment and desire".

It will be interesting to see what Millen is able to do in the summer in terms of strengthening the squad. The word is that Nicky Maynard isn't looking for a move and is happy at Ashton Gate, although he is being linked with a host of Premier League clubs.

I suspect that David James will be shown the door and that should free up some money to spend elsewhere.

But whatever happens in the summer, Millen needs the financial support of the board and if he gets it the Robins could well be in Forest's position this time next season. The former coach has turned things around for the club this season and coped with enormous pressure in the early stages of his managerial career after Steve Coppell walked out. Those fans who remember the turmoil at Ashton Gate - and how close they came to facing a relegation scrap - will always be grateful to Millen for digging them out of a hole.

Bristol City v Nottingham Forest

My last visit of the season to Ashton Gate today and so I will have seen both Nottingham Clubs in the space of a few days.

Unlike County though, Forest are on the up.

Nicky Maynard’s horrendous season has come to an end. The striker was sent off in the 42nd minute of Saturday`s 3-2 defeat to Sheffield United and, thus, will be suspended for the rest of the season of which he missed the majority with a knee injury.

City hope that club captain Louis Carey may play some part in today’ game. It will be his first outing since he fractured his skull against Scunthorpe at the end of February.

Billy Davies has a good squad of players and they are in pole position to nick one of the play-off places.

American Robbie Findley finally took part in a game on Friday when Forest beat Leicester. The pacy striker came off the bench in his first appearance since he moved to the club in January … and then tore a thigh muscle in his first training session!

City boss Keith Millen was furious after Saturday’s defeat to strugglers Sheffield United and claimed he would have subbed all eleven players at half time if he could have done. Keith’s a nice guy, but has an edge to him that all good managers need and I suspect that the smarter players in the squad will realise that they need to put in much more of an effort if they wish to be City players in August.

Mr. Roger East from Wiltshire is the man in the middle and has shown an incredible 112 yellow cards and four reds this season so far – you’d better be on your best behaviour boys!

Swindon Town 1 Notts county 2

Skipper Jonathan Douglas said: “Players, managers, board – we all made mistakes this season and we’re paying for it now.”
Spot on Jonathan, but you missed out one other culpable group – the fans that come along to jeer rather than support the team.

I know it’s a bug bear of mine and every club has then, but players are only human and when their own supporters turn on them, I wonder how much that really motivates them to bust a gut?

Paul Hart called some of the behavior “disgraceful” after the game and frankly I think he was being kind. One guy sitting just in front of the Press Box was hurling abuse when Swindon were winning! Once Alan Judge equalized Matt Ritchie’s opener the vitriol got worse. When Lee Hughes grabbed the winner I thought the fella was going to spontaneously combust (okay, so I was hoping).

I’m sure that he felt chanting “Paul Hart’s a w*nker” over and over again would stimulate the team into rousing finish and put them on the road to League One safety, but I couldn’t see it myself. I wonder if the two young lads he was with (presumably his sons) were impressed with his antics? If so, Swindon’s moron element is good for another generation.

As Hart pointed out, he arrived when the club was already in the bottom four after thirty-three games. Hardly all his fault.

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun

At least Douglas shared the blame around and took some of the responsibility and I bumped into Jon-Paul McGovern after the game who looked totally crestfallen. I’ve been a critic of Douglas this season, but he gave his all for the cause on Saturday and Martin Allen admitted that if his rasping volley hadn’t hit the bar, the game would’ve gone the other way. Allen described it as the “best strike I have ever seen in football”. Scant consolation for Douglas.

McGovern again worked hard as he always does and he has the trickery to g with it. His overhead cross for Ritchie’s three yard tap in was sublime, but by the time I spoke to him it didn’t matter and so he just shrugged it off. The winger topped League One’s assist chart last season and so questions need to be asked as to why he was played out of position so often earlier this term.

We were told that the Chairman, Andrew Fitton, was meeting (by my watch) with Hart after the match (for about ninety minutes by my watch) to discuss the former Pompey manager’s long-term future. Paul is a decent football man and deserves better than to be abused the way he was and if he’s got any sense he’ll go off for his summer break and only ever return to Swindon when he’s visiting with another team.

Normally I’m done and dusted by about six o’clock on a Saturday, but this weekend – give Hart’s lengthy chat with Fitton – I didn’t get away until about seven. Strangely, despite being there that late, I didn’t see the Chairman either. I say “strange” because he used to be so visible when things were going well.

Swindon now need to re-group and get ready for life in the bottom division. With twelve players out of contract the team should get a complete overhaul, I suspect that a new manager will be appointed and the fans will need to get behind the team and ‘support’ it while drowning out the yobs who do it no favours at all. League Two contains many sides smaller than Swindon, but they are hardened to life in the division. The Robins shouldn’t expect the likes of Hereford, Macclesfield and Morecambe to roll over for them because they won’t. And the bigger clubs in the division like Bradford and – dare I say it – Oxford will be pushing for promotion themselves.

Douglas was right and next season players, managers and board can’t afford to make the same mistakes because if they do, the Blue Square awaits them. Impossible? Just ask Oxford.

The clipping from thwe News of the World

Swindon V Notts County - Mad Dod

A draw is no good to either team in this one - and a win still might be enough, but where there's a will ...

Martin 'Mad Dog' Allen brings the Magpies to the County Ground following his first win win (against Tranmere) since switching from League Two relegation strugglers Barnet. The first two games were defeats as County concluded a run of nine straight loses.

Swindon have now only won one in twenty games themselves and so confidence should be low in both camps, but - love him or hate him - Allen has man management skills that might just see County to safety.

Midfielder Ricky Ravenhill - who only recently returned from a two-match ban - was sent off again during the victory over Tranmere in midweek and has now been hit with a four-game suspension which will rule him out for the rest of the campaign. Alan Judge – who has just returned from a broken foot – could take Ravenhill’s place in tomorrow’s game. Defender Krystian Pearce is also expected to be included in the squad after recovering from a head injury he suffered last month.

Allen has also shown he is not taking any, er, messing about from anyone in County’s bid for survival and has terminated the contract of former Wolves winger Lewis Gobern. The County manager spoke to the local press and explained:

"I've spoken with Lewis Gobern and agreed to terminate his contract with immediate effect. I haven't yet met him or seen him as he hasn't had to come in to training. So I wish him the best of luck." Says it all really!

Swindon chief Paul Hart recently had a similar experience with Leeds loanee Mike Grella who was dispatched back to Yorkshire after throwing his toys out of the pram. At times like this everyone needs to pull in the same direction and put the team ahead of themselves. I've no doubt that the attitudes of Messers Grella and Gobern will have been noted by others in the game.

Allen has made 34 year old striker Lee Hughes (ten goals this term) his skipper and Hughes lines up alongside Craig Westcarr who is the club’s leading scorer with twelve.

Let’s not make any bones about it – it’s now going to be very tough for Swindon to stay in this division.

They have the players to get the four wins they will definitely need, but some of the football they played last weekend smacked of desperation. Too many long balls forward to Calvin Andrew from a side that can be quite dangerous when they keep the ball on the ground.

It's going to be a day for cool heads and in Paul Hart and Allen you have tow experienced men who will earn their corn if they can keep their players from panicking.

And all eyes (from everyone connected with both clubs) will be on the Dagenham v Plymouth game today. A win for Daggers would see them pull four points clear of the relegation zone and so I suspect that both Swindon and County would like to see Plymouth win. It'll leave Swindon bottom, but keeps seven teams in the mix.

I'm predicting a County win ... in the hope that I'm wrong as usual!

N.B. I last saw Martin Allen at an Oxford game earlier in the season when he was doing some radio work. We had a chat at half time and he mentioned that he'd been shooting at a Sporting Chance charity event organised by Joey Barton the day before. Now, if you're going to hand anyone in football a loaded shotgun, I ask you, would it be Joey Barton and Martin Allen?

The C word

No, there’s no need to avert your sensitive eyes or engage the Internet Explorer child protection filter – the word I’m referring to is ‘cheat’.

It’s one of those words that is rarely used by people in the beautiful game. It is football’s equivalent of burning the Koran – no-one (aside from the fans) calls anyone else a cheat. It’s an unwritten law.

But do players cheat?

The outraged reaction of Newcastle’s Danny Simpson to the dive of Javier Hernandez in the dying minutes of Tuesday night’s game would suggest that the brilliant little Mexican assassin had, in fact, stumbled over his own shadow and played for a penalty – in other words, cheated.

Not that the Toon’s full back would come out accuse him of such a heinous footballing crime publicly.

If Hernandez had given him a swift kick I the knackers, Simpson – as a professional footballer – would have found that more palatable. And I’m sure that in those circumstances he would have made a mental note to exact some form of physical revenge in a future game. That's the honorable way of doing things in football.

But footballing people don’t like to be called cheats – or be cheated against. And so it’s odd then that so many of them are at it.

I’m not talking so much about the lower leagues necessarily (of course it happens in those divisions too, but I;'ve found it's generally more honest). And I’m not for one minute calling all Premier League players cheats, because of course they’re not. But shirt pulling, feigning injury to get an opposition player sent off and diving to gain an unfair advantage are all basically forms of cheating.

As much as referees are criticized by managers (usually as a way of diverting attention away from their own team’s shortcomings), I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve heard them labeled cheats – in over forty years of watching football. Not even the man in the middle cheats in football ... even if no-one really likes him!

But, then again, how easy is it for a referee to judge when a player is fouled or diving to gain an advantage (cheating)?

How happy would Sir Alex have been if Nani had won an unfair penalty for his own dive in the area during the first half of the same fixture on Tuesday?

If Manchester United had won by that single converted penalty, would Sir Alex have come out and condemned Nani for cheating with the same ferocity that he verbally attacks officials for incompetence – and gets banned to the stands?

No, of course not. Which, presumably, would mean that Sir Alex (as well as many other managers) see cheating as acceptable while making an honest mistake, or merely thinking someone has made an mistake, is the worse crime.

Frankly, when I talk to friends about inconsistent refereeing and the conning of referees by players, they seem equally as annoyed by both.

Most fans are cheesed off when their team loses, no matter what. But to lose to a cheat is really hard to take (and you don’t get as much satisfaction from winning by cheating either) and, ultimately, it all makes you question; why is it exactly that we bother paying for the privilege of being deceived?

League One Round Up

Follwing yesterday’s League Two round up here is one for the teams I regularly cover in League One and the Championship. I will try to maintain this as we go through the summer so fans can kept abreast of major developments (transfers, etc) at the clubs on my patch.

Walsall’s hopes of staying in League One took a dent yesterday when it was announced that defender Clayton McDonald, 22, has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. The team slipped back into the bottom four following Notts County’s win over fellow strugglers Tranmere (Martin Allen’s first victory as the boss of the Magpies), but they still have it all to play for.

Swindon face County on Saturday and will have been dismayed to see some of ‘Mad Dog’ Allen’s magic starting to rub off. The Robins need to win all of their remaining games to have any realistic chance of staying up, but experienced midfield David Prutton has become the first player to openly question (if not criticise) the way the club has been run this season and told the Swindon Advertiser:

“I think in certain respects we could have benefited from keeping a few more players together, but it is the chairman and the board’s prerogative to run the club soundly and prudently.”

The interview with David can be seen here: http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/8983030.Club_failed_to_act_quickly_enough_to_glaring_problems___Prutton/

Bristol Rovers’s coach Craig Hinton has told the local press that he hopes leading scorer Will Hoskins will be available for the run-in. He said:

"We want to make sure we get him 100 per cent right first. There are still four games to go and we want him for those four games if we can. But if it means him missing Saturday or another game and we have him for the other three, that's the important thing.

He is a big player for us and a big personality on and off the pitch. We would obviously like to have him back, but we will have to see how it goes. He went out for a light bit of running while the rest of the players were doing some ball work and he wanted to join in. We had to tell him to calm down! Hopefully, he will be back on Saturday, but we will have to see how he progresses over the next couple of days."

See the online article here: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/sport/Craig-Hinton-knows-Bristol-Rovers-won-t-easy-ride-matches/article-3466580-detail/article.html

Meanwhile Bristol City are secure in the Championship, but Keith Millen will be wanting to finish on a high so that he can attract some quality players in the summer (and retain the likes of Nicky Maynard). In this respect the preparations have already started and Tunisian midfield Nabil Taider, 27, has been on trial with the Robins. Taider has got four caps, but also played for the French U-21s and was recently plying his trade out in Turkey.

Notes on the League Two clubs

I have been penciled in for three more games this season; Swindon on Saturday, Bristol City on Monday and Bristol Rovers the following weekend. I then miss the final weekend’s fixtures as I’m away in the USA and so I started to give some thought as to how I could fill the blog in the summer.

I’ve decided to try and put together a daily round up from the clubs on my patch and expect them to look a little like this ….

It would appear that Wycombe are desperate for promotion in more ways than one. The club apparently made a £1.17m loss last season and so will be hoping that promotion this season and an increase in revenues in League One next term will keep the bank manager and shareholders happy.

And skipper Gareth Ainsworth will be hoping to play his part in the run in having missed the last two outings with a hamstring problem. He told me after the draw at Oxford that he was on the mend and the backroom staff were trying to make sure he was fit and ready for the Easter fixtures. Boss Gary Waddock has now said the 37 year old has a realistic chance of being involved which will come as a relief to the Chairboys given Ainsworth’s influence on the team.

Oxford full back Damien Batt has joined Ainsworth in the PFA’s League Two team of the year, so congratulations to them both. Batt is an attacking defender and has done well to make the step up from Grays in 2009.

Meanwhile Oxford loanee Ryan Burge, 22, has been recalled by his parent club Doncaster.

Northampton striker Shaun Harrad has dismissed concerns over the side’s run of 16 games without a win that has left them three points from the relegation zone and he said:

"I honestly believe we can beat anybody in this league. We were 5 to 1 to get a win on Saturday but we were fired up and ready to go.

"There's a good togetherness in the squad, we're communicating with each other well, and I think that showed in our performance on Saturday."

Hereford have now not lost in four games, but boss Jamie Pitman isn’t getting carried away until the team are mathematically safe from relegation and said:

"I`m not going to let the players think that (they are out of the woods) and we`re not going to think that as a group of staff because if we do that then it could come and bite us on the backside."

Cheltenham are already looking forward to next season and have announced their season ticket packages for 2011/12. They are also hosting a family fun day at Whaddon Road this Saturday when they host Macclesfield and having seen something similar at the club earlier in the campaign, I can vouch for the atmosphere.

N.B. If you have any information about your club that you’d like to share, feel free to e-mail it to me.

Swindon Town 0 MK Dons 2 - Hopeful

Matt Ritchie is a positive and optimistic guy who has been giving his all to keep Swindon in League One, but I fear that he and his team mates won’t be rewarded for their efforts.

Swindon have now won only one game in twenty and need to win their four remaining fixtures to have any chance of staying up … an even then it may not be enough.

My piece in this morning's paper

Winger Ritchie and manager Paul Hart both indicated they were still hopeful after this defeat against play-off chasing MK Dons, but they became increasingly desperate as the game wore on and pumped numerous long balls forward to striker Calvin Andrew. The visiting defence – including former Town skipper Sean O’Hanlon who scored the 17th minute winner – just lapped it up and never really looked too worried.

Even if Andrew had converted a first time injury time effort from 4 yards instead of striking the woodwork, I felt the Dons could have moved up a gear and re-taken the lead if they had wanted.

As much as it pains me to write this, Swindon are down and have the rest of the season to try and salvage some pride.

Hart has got them putting in the effort, but once they cross the white line it’s down to them and I’m afraid there aren’t enough cool heads out there at the moment.

Worryingly for the Swindon faithful, life in League Two may not be any easier.

Thirteen players will be out of contract at the end of this season and you would think that many of them will be off rather than taking a cut in wages and while some Robins fans might be thinking “good riddance to them”, they also need to start wondering about the quality of their replacements and whether they’ll be good enough to go for promotion in what will be a very competitive division with the likes of Plymouth, Bradford and dare I say, Oxford, also going for promotion.

Key to success will of course be the appointment of the manager.

Paul Hart is currently in pole position, but may well be tainted by relegation – although arguably he had a thankless task on his hands.

Another name doing the rounds is that of Paul Trollope who was sacked by Bristol Rovers earlier in the season, but did guide the Gasheads to promotion from League Two and – along with his connections to the club. Trolls started out at Swindon, although never made the first team while his dad John made 770 appearances for the club over twenty year period and is still highly regarded there.

It’s going to be a summer of change at the County Ground, but who would have predicted it last summer when the side turned out at Wembley and were pipped to a Championship place by Millwall?

The clipping from yesterday's News of the World

Swindon v MK Dons - Tension

The County Ground will be full of tension and nerve-jangling expectation tomorrow afternoon when I turn up for Swindon’s game against MK Dons. Nothing to do with my presence you understand, but with Swindon needing a win to give themselves hope of surviving in League One and MK Dons trying to secure a play-off spot, it’s all to play for.

Swindon notched up their first win in nineteen games against Brentford last weekend and boss Paul Hart will hope that the victory gives his players the self-belief they have clearly been lacking for much of the season.

There’s no doubt in my mind that they have the players they need to get out of this jam, although they will very keen to hear the other results come the final whistle as they probably need a couple of snookers.

But if you take a look at my (very) contrived predictions yesterday, you’ll see it’s possible!

If MK Dons were in Swindon’s position I don’t think many football fans would really care. In fact if they went down and AFC Wimbledon went up, that would be the fixture a lot of neutrals would be looking when they are released this summer … with everyone outside of Milton Keynes willing the Wombles on.

But there is no chance of that fantasy coming true for at least another season.

The Dons under Karl Robinson have played well this season and, while you wouldn’t put money on them for automatic promotion with Southampton in pole position, would you bet against any team when the play-offs start?

The Dons squad is a good mixture of youth and experience and they’ve even got a player called Pele on the books – true he’s a 32 year old defender and he has only started one League Cup game for them (a win over Dagenham), but hey, he’s from Portugal and so speaks the lingo!

Sam Baldock leads the Dons goal scoring charts with eleven while midfielders Peter Leven and Daniel Powell have weighed in with eight and nine goals respectively and so the Swindon defence will need to be on their toes.

It’s going to be a very interesting afternoon and the Robins fans will need to get behind their team for the full ninety minutes rather than on their backs as some of them did in the last fixture I saw against Hartlepool.

League One – Endgame

I’m assuming that Yeovil are now safe from the drop in League One and can now concentrate on their holiday plans or scrumpy drinking exploits, but there are seven other teams at the bottom of the table who are all in danger of being relegated. I thought I’d take some time out to look at each of their run-ins and predict the final table.
This is just for fun … unless you are a fan of one of the sides I predict to stay up because, given my track record, that means you’re probably doomed! I’ve checked the maths, but …

The league table currently looks like this:

Tranmere kick off their six remaining fixtures with a home game against Dagenham and I’m going for a draw (1pt). Then it’s home Notts County and I can see the Martin Allen effect kicking in with an away win (0pts). Next up, they are away at Hartlepool where I expect them to draw (1pt). Back at home to face Exeter next and another draw (1pt). Down to east London to lose at Orient (0pt) and finally a home fixture against Swindon which, I predict, they will lose in a last day nail-biter(0pt). Currently on 46 points, final tally 49. Let’s face it, it’s been coming for a few seasons now.

Dagenham’s five games: Away at Tranmere (1pt); home against Plymouth (1pt); away to Huddersfield (0pt); home with Carlisle (1pt); away to Peterborough (0pt). Currently on 44 points, final tally 47. Been a breath of fresh air in this division. Fond farewells though.

Walsall’s five games: Away to Brighton (1pt); home to Sheffield Wednesday (3pts); away to Oldham (3pts); home to Charlton (1pt); away to Southampton (0pts). Currently on 43 points, final tally 51. Certs to go down under Chris Hutchings, but Dean Smith saves the Saddlers and James Walker signs a five year deal – and joins the coaching team.

Bristol Rovers five games: Away at Southampton (1pt); home to Charlton (3pts); away to Bournemouth (0pts); home to Sheffield Wednesday (1pt); Colchester (3pts). Currently on 43 points, final tally 51. Followed by Stuart Campbell being given the keys to half of the city.

Notts County’s six games: Home against Bournemouth (0pts); away at Tranmere (3pts); away at Swindon (0pts); home against Brentford (1pt); away against MK Dons (1pt); home against Brighton (0pts). Currently on 42 points, final tally 47. Mad dog couldn’t work his magic - Barnet stay up in League Two and send him their heart-felt commiserations.

Swindon’s five games: Home against MK Dons (3pts); home against Notts County (3pts); away at Sheff Wednesday (1pt); home against Oldham (3pts); away at Tranmere (3pts). Currently on 38 points, final tally 51. Four wins in five games – an amazing escape act!

Plymouth’s six games: Away at Peterborough (0pts); away to Dagenham (1pt); home against MK Dons (3pts); away at Exeter (1pt); home against Southampton (0pt); home against Orient 3pts). Currently on 36 points, final tally 44. Without the FA’s ten point deduction they would have been safe.

So my prediction for the final table is:

Of course I’m not risking any of my ‘hard earned’ on the above predictions and suggest that you don’t either :-)