Swindon Town: January 2012

Hello my friends and welcome back to the next installment of  «Survivor», Swindon style.

The first game of the New Year was against Burnley who had started the season brightly but had dropped down the table over the last little while. Burnley got off to the better start and were rewarded after 20 minutes with a dubious goal from Chris Eagles who looked more than suspiciously offside. The lads though fought back with Gibson commanding the midfield and Fleck who was looking comfortable down the left flank. Indeed it was Fleck who threaded a ball through to Brandy to bring us back on level terms at half time. We came out even stronger in the second half and from a cleared corner Geoffry Adjet rushed onto the ball and fired it into the top right hand corner for his first goal of the season. We battled bravely for the remainder of the game bringing Mellis on for Viguera to bolster the midfield and shut down any attacks. Three points in the bag and just the tonic we needed.

Next up was a trip to bottom club Portsmouth and so we fancied our chances at Fratton Park. We got off to a flyer with Gasmi setting up Brandy to slot the ball home after only 3 minutes. Brandy’s partner up front Viguera then hit the bar 2 minutes later and then was denied a goal 5 minutes after that when his cool finish was ruled as offside. We held the lead until half time but after the interval things started to fall apart as Zimling hit two 30 yards efforts to put the home side into the lead. Heads started to drop and we began to lose our shape allowing Portsmouth to score a third close to the end. Following the game, Fleck who put in another dismal performance was transfer listed.

Our next encounter was the FA Cup Replay against Oldham. I changed out most of the team figuring that we should beat Oldham with just the rotation players and indeed Sissoko put us ahead after 17 minutes with a blistering free kick effort. From that point on I sat and watched us lay siege to the Oldham goal for the next 72 minutes but frustratingly nothing would go in. Of course that paved the way for Oldham to equalize by exploiting an ever increasing whole between the two central defenders. So into extra time and it was all Oldham as they knew they had us on the rack but just as it looked like going to penalty kicks Sichi at last put a decent cross in from the right that young Latvian Kurjanis Vallers (AML)  headed home for his first ever goal. The whistle went and we were through to face Wolves in the next round.

Aston Villa who humiliated us last time out was our next match at the County Ground. As expected they came right at us from the opening kick off and hit the woodwork twice within the first twenty minutes. We then started to control the game more and Brandy playing as the lone advanced forward gave the Villa defenders a torrid time creating chances for himself and his team mates but Jaasskelainen in the Villa goal played an absolute blinder and stopped nine shots on target. Naturally all our efforts were in vain and as stamina began to drop Gignac scored the only goal of the game 7 minutes from time to give the visitors all three points. We sure don’t get any luck whatsoever.

Following the game the news came through that the transfer of John Fleck  to Dijon had been complete to the delight of the Swindon fans!

We stayed at home for the visit of Wolves in the fourth round of the FA Cup and played what looked to be one of our best games of the season except that we couldn’t score? Brandy as against Villa was the main threat whilst Ridgewell in defense was magnificent and along with Solokowski prevented Wolves from any shots on target. However another frustrating afternoon for the Swindon faithful and so we will have to travel to Molineaux for the replay.

Back to the Premier League and a trip to the north east to take on Hull City. you’ve seen it before, you’ve read it before…enough said.

The last game of the month was against Middlesboro’ at home and now we were back to playing well although we had to rely on Jason Beardsley to get the only goal of the game from a strike just outside the penalty area from a cleared corner. I actually missed much of this game as I was interrupted and forgot o press pause though it was nice to come back to see that we had won!

Here’s two of my signings during the Janaury window that my scouts reccomended following the departure of Fleck

January Results at a glance

Current League Table

Well we still have that eleven point cushion over the relegation zone but given our schedule for next month I’m wondering if that will still be the case at the end of February?

Why not throw Man City in there as well just to make it more of a challenge!

Thanks for reading everyone.