Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:11 am
'Bristol's' point about us being defensively dire is spot on. Swindon were able to play themselves into the game, facing little or no resistance, and their confidence grew, almost visibly, during the first half. Their strikers and wingers had the frredom to do what they liked, with our defenders chasing shadows. We could easily have been four or five down by half time.
Their first goal was a shot from just outside the area which, I think, was hit into the ground and past Ince's left hand. He seemed flat-footed, especially judged against his high standards of the last few months. Their second was an excellent volley over Ince from about 25 yards out - bad marking by our defence as their player was able to shoot unchallenged. I thought he was offside when the ball was played through to him but maybe it was just our rank bad marking. The third one was a cross shot beating Ince to his left which, again, I'm suprised he didn't get down to (he obviously used all his 'world class reflexes' up when keeping us in the match last saturday).
I do worry about Bradley - what has happened to him? The comment by the radio commentators about lack of presence was spot on.
Things started to be better for us when Jamie Vincent went off - not a managerial masterstroke by Wilson - and we began to play with some aggression. Jabo and Deeney's goals quite similar - strong finishes when they'd got a run on a defender and we could have ended up getting a point if Mattis had arrived in the box quicker to meet Nicholls cross. We played some good stuff for about 10 minutes and had successive corners just before the end of the 4 minutes of additional time.
I was the 125th Saddler in the ground, just as we kicked off, and I only saw a couple of people come in after me. I don't recall the away attendance being announced, just the overall figure of 6,100.
As others have said, though it's good to have Hutchings and O'Connor in charge instead of Jimmy Mullen, there are other things which need to change within the club if we are to be anything other than relegation candidates, if not this season then certainly next. If we can't make an offer to satisfy Chris Palmer (unless he has highly unrealistic ideas as to his value) then we are in trouble.