Creepies tomorrow...

Hi Don, looks like it will be 4-6-0 again like an old engine out of Swindon works, lol.

With all the talk being about Fodders being sold on then I think there is an element of resignation about the place and that will effect morale. I feel sorry for Cooper who seems a decent oak, but with the low gates and the cripples siding being so full there is no cash left for further signings. I took one look at Ward going into a couple of the first games and could see the writing was on the wall. While he is experienced and now so slow, Hall is in experienced and is slow to read danger and when he does, it has gone past him and the ball is in the net. Rory Bremner is holding the purse strings along with Jed and thereis no money. When we sell Fodders there will still be no money as a lot of the early season ticket money went into funding the end of last season. Cox, Rooney, Benson and Williams are still our players as is Navarro and Troy, thats half a starting line up and we are still paying bits towards and in some cases all their wages. All of this contributes to Cooper being in between a rock and a hard place and today in The Adver he has said the supporters will have to become accustomed to highs and lows in the season, in other words this is what we have and it will be what we have until end of season. Just watch next seasons season ticket sales plummet, and shortly afterwards Jed will go if he hasn't already, as he has admitted he hasn't got the capital to put in.
Coopers next line up array in the New Year could be very interesting, 5-5-0, lol as our injury list continues to grow. BTW, Troy was signed on a three year contract.

Very good post SF, totally realistic. We're certainly suffering from the Canioman legacy with his profligate spending leaving us with a financial millstone around our necks. I too feel sorry for Cooper who I think is doing his best. He's a total contrast to Canioman which is what we need. I see us finishing about two thirds of the way down the League but I've been a supporter long enough to know you have to take the rough with the smooth.

On another note as someone with railways in the blood I love your railway analogy. My Mum and Dad both worked in Swindon Works. My Grandad drove Kings and Castles for the GWR and I have a photo of him, taken in the 1950s in the cab of a Castle, appropriately named 'Swindon', the last Castle to be built and the only one without 'Castle' in the name to my knowledge. One day when I was a lad he drove my Mum and I to Paddington, although we didn't know that until we were walking up the platform.

I don't live in Swindon now but these things are in the blood!

3 points now whilst we still have team are as valuable as any we get after January. The defence is suspect, midfield OK, strikers, I don't know.
We are vulnerable if any of the loan players are to be sold by their clubs. That could happen in January we would have to react quickly. We could plan for selling Fodders. But we have a lot of dead weight to pay for.
Having said that, I have an engine plate 1302, from the E African railways. 4-8-2. Don't think it was built in Swindon tho' If the ref would allow it, we could do with that formation tonight!