Swindon Town match report - part one

SWINDON TOWN MATCH REPORT
I suppose that you could pretty much call this the perfect away-day: basking in the late-winter Wiltshire sunshine at the County Ground; watching a team of well-tutored and skilful players make the ball talk; a late and deserved winning goal for three points; a sixth successive league win – what’s not to like? I suppose that, in amongst the infinitely forgettable, days like this become treasured memories which will always bring back a smile to aging faces.
There was a good turn-out of Reds’ fans high up in the away section and the team got great vocal support for their efforts throughout most of the ninety minutes – they deserved it.
The following team took the pitch:
Davies
Bree Long Mawson G Williams
Watkins Brownhill Hourihane Isgrove
Fletcher Winnall

So it was good to see that Alfie Mawson had recovered from Tuesday night’s injury and was fit to face to pacy Swindon duo of Obika and Ajose, both of whom have been scoring for fun over recent weeks – a very different prospect to Bradford City and Hanson/Clarke. Swindon’s caretaker manager had said in his programme notes that he thought our two full-backs lacked experience and that that was an area which he hoped the team would be able to exploit during the ninety minutes. As Swindon themselves are in a great vein of form, it promised to be an interesting joust of different formations by two form teams. Swindon’s way of trying to exploit the ‘weakness’ was to set up 3-5-2, with two wingers in the five-man midfield hugging the touch-line.
First half:
It seemed a good move that we were playing with the wind in the first half and with the strong, low sun at our backs. I could see the sun possibly being a problem for the side defending the goal to our left and that was Swindon in the first half. However, their ploy to stretch us wide down the flanks started comically as ball after ball kept disappearing into the stands by various distances, much to the sarcastic jeers of the Reds’ fans. We, on the other hand, were finding that there were gaps to exploit down the flanks of the Swindon back three of Rossi-Branco, Turnbull and Nathan Thompson. Thompson played a sort of old-fashioned sweeper role between the two man-mountains alongside him, but neither of them had any great pace and Isgrove in particular was starting to exploit this weakness in the Robins’ system to good effect. As the half wore on, I was starting to question whether Swindon had played this system before, because they looked ragged at the back, confused in midfield and lacking any sort of service to the front two. By contrast, after a slow start, we started to put together good combinations of moves. The back-four looked like a proper unit – reading the game securely when not in possession and winning the ball back at the first sight of any Swindon attack. Our midfield started to tick, with good one-touch play by all four players, charcaterised by the excellent control and passing of Brownhill and Hourihane, the combative harrying and running of Watkins and the exciting bursts of pace into space beyond the back three by Isgrove, who was looking the star-man at this stage. Chances did come our way and, maybe, could have been taken. There was a lovely piece of skill by Mawson, who sometimes looks like a frustrated striker, which nearly brought an opening goal. A couple of free-kicks in promising places were just misplaced by Hourihane and Brownhill. The best chance of the half for us right at the end fell to Hourihane in a one-on-one with the keeper Vigouroux, who made an excellent save with one extended foot. There was little wrong with Conor’s shot in honesty and it was a very good block by the keeper to prevent what I would have thought of as a deserved first half lead for us.
SECOND HALF
There was a bizarre start to second half in which the Swindon players seemed to ignore the referee’s insistence that they should stay outside the centre-circle before the ball was kicked off. The reason for the ploy became obvious when the substitute board was raised by the fourth official and an embarrassed-looking Jeremy Balmy came rushing on. If the kick-off had taken place, Swindon would only have had ten men. There was little sign of any Swindon resurgence, other than their only instance of real threat when Obika got a well-timed through ball on the following wind and drew a good diving save from Davies. We got out passing game going again and the pattern resumed as in the first half. With about twenty minutes to go, we made our one change, with Scowen coming on to replace Fletcher – a good move as it proved. I thought this might mean a reversion to the dreaded 4-5-1, but we are more ambitious these days, Josh going right wing and Marley Watkins going forward to partner Sam Winnall up front. This was a good move in two ways – Josh could funnel back to negate the limited, but real threat from left winger Ormonde-Ottewill, but he could also get forwards to provide support for the front two. As the clock ticked down, I couldn’t see Swindon scoring, but by an accident. I wasn’t sure that we could find the key, but we had worked the better chances throughout the game, so maybe there was a chance. I was just beginning to think that an away point is good value when Scowen got forwards down our right and put over a centre, which bobbled through to Super Sam Winnall, who did what he does best with a crisp, sharp finish to send the travelling fans into delirium. The Sam Winnall song had been rolling up and down the away stand for a good few minutes before he got the goal the song said he would and it kept on going even after the game. I heard its last echo as I was driving back towards the A419 to head home.
I told you it was pretty much the perfect away-day!

 

Thanks for that. I'll read part 2 shortly.

When we were making the substitution yesterday, I also feared that we'd go to a 451. However Scowen is one of those players who can make any position look his own. I suppose it's not ideal playing him out wide, but he can be that good sometimes, that it's better to have him on the field out of position, rather than not in the side at all.

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