Swindon Town: January 2011

Hello readers and welcome to the next installment of my Swindon Town story.

The New Year arrived quickly and our first game of 2011 was a home tie against Exeter in the FA Cup Third Round. Although I’m trying to manage a striker crisis I was lifted by the arrival of winger Rodney Sneijder who I picked up from Ajax for 70,000 UKP and placed straight into the starting line up. On the right wing I rested Romain Gasmi and started Anthony Sichi who scored the only goal of the game after 53 minutes from a deflected shot by Mellis which fell right in front of him and was totally unmarked. Sneijder managed to get himself injured as well but thankfully not too bad. I also had to promote youth striker Seb Broomfield from the youth team so I would have a spare front man.

Following the win over Exeter I received my first job offer from Dutch side Twente which I politely turned down.

Next up for us was a trip to Peterborough and I was sure we could get three points here as they were struggling at the foot of the table. Rhys Murphy had joined us on loan from Arsenal and would start up front alone and a returning Febian Brandy would be on the bench. What transpired was absolutely nothing and so we have gone two league games in a row without scoring and essentially given up four points. If this type of performance continues we could be on the slide and lose any possible chance of promotion. We need a win.

The second league game of the year then was against Southend who were also languishing in the relegation zone and so this I felt would be a chance to get back to winning ways. As seems to be common in a lot of our games we went behind early on from a 25 yard long shot. Determined not to discouraged by this I shouted for the guys to press more and get stuck in and control the game. Eventually our persistence paid off with Febian Brandy returning his name to the score-sheet. With time running out Mellis and Brandy pilled on the pressure and the winner came from an unlikely source in left back Geoffrey Adjet who kept his head and slotted home for his first ever goal after Brandy’s shot had been cleared. Geoffrey had been immense all through the game and the goal was the icing on the cake for a fine performance.

We stayed at home for the visit of Leeds United who were having a torrid time in the Championship and found themselves at the foot of the table. From the opening kick off we played an attacking style and were rewarded with a goal by Iriekpen after 11 minutes following a corner kick. Both Murphy and Brandy hit the wood work during the next ten minutes but it was skipper Jonathan Douglas who put us two up latching onto a cross ball from Adjet. Then as half time was approaching Iriekpen scored another by heading in from a corner. The second half we allowed Leeds to come forward more but Heaton only had to make one real save for us and we easily controlled the game, collecting all three points. Two wins on the trot and now we are in 5^th place but only 6 points behind second place Newcastle.

Team morale was high after a fine win over Leeds and with trip to Ipswich up next who we beat handsomely 4-1 earlier in the season another victory was possible. Once again though the front pair failed to impress with only the midfield four coming anywhere near scoring and if it wasn’t for the post which Ipswich hit twice then the result would have been a lot different. Jacob Mellis managed to get injured again.

The following game was a trip to Bloomfiled Road and a Fourth Round FA Cup tie against Blackpool and we fancied our chances. On a cold and wet afternoon we found it difficult to move the ball around on a very muddy surface and only Michael Mifsud came close to breaking the deadlock, hitting the outside of the post in the second half . The game ended in a stalemate and now we have to face Blackpool in back to back league and cup games next month. On the ride home to Wiltshire we learnt that if we beat Blackpool we’d get a plum home tie against Chelsea in the next round. We must get through!

Our mid-week game against Swansea and we hoped to get back to winning ways. Febian Brandy sweetly headed the ball home after 9 minutes but was ruled offside in what was a very dubious decision. Rhys Murphy then came close 10 minutes later but managed to blast the ball directly at the Swansea keeper. We failed to create anything else after that and neither did Swansea. The centre midfield pair of Osbourne and Douglas both had to be replaced due to exhaustion and just when another stalemate was on the cards up stepped Michael Timlin, Douglas’s replacement, to fire home the winner with a well timed run into the box 3 minutes from the end. Timlin has hardly had a sniff at the field all season. Our strikers though have only scored 1 goal in the last eleven games.

The final game of a very long month was a trip to Filbert Street to face Leicester City. We started off brightly for a change creating several chances for ourselves in the opening 22 minutes but were unable to capitalize on the majority of possession. The second half played out in similar fashion with Leicester rarely threatening our goal and when they did Tom Heaton between the sticks was up to the job. New signing Sissoko came on for Ryhs Murphy 15 minutes from time and immediately set up Brandy who was denied by the inside of the post and watched the ball scoot along the goal line before being cleared.

January Results

Current Top Ten: Coca Cola Championship

So, we ended the month still in 5th place though things could have been a lot different if we had taken our chances in front of goal.