Swindon Town: «Now is the winter of our discontent»

Hello Friends and welcome back to my Swindon Town story that continues into February 2012

The first game of the month was the 4^th round FA Cup replay against Wolves. We couldn’t have gotten of to a better start with new signing Todor Naydenov scoring on his debut after being left unmarked for an easy tap in from a Gasmi cross ball. Borja Viguera made it 2-0 five minutes later running onto a through ball from Gibson to tuck sweetly into the back of the net. Wolves then woke up from their slumber and we found ourselves under constant pressure with shots flying in from all over the place. Somehow we held onto our lead at half time but Wolves continued the assault on our goal and tied the game up within in space of four minutes once they had their first goal after 69 minutes. I switched to “counter” and suddenly we looked a lot livelier and we took the lead again when Liam Ridgewell headed in from a corner kick. Six minutes from time Sichi, who came on for Gasmi broke down the left flank twisted inside to lay the ball on to Viguera who fired home a second to seal the game for us and a home tie against Crystal Palace in the Fifth round.

A trip to the Emirates Stadium was next and a difficult game against Arsenal. The home side dominated right from the opening kick off but for the first 30 minute we held our own and even could have taken the lead when Gibson made a dashing run through midfield but was unable to round the Arsenal keeper to score. Eduardo put the Gunners ahead exploiting a huge hole between Ridgewell and Morrison in the central defense after Cuthburt moved out to the left to replace an injured Geoffry Adjet. The score remained the same until half time but Arsenal doubled their lead again through Eduardo who unleashed a 35 yard effort. Not to be outdone Fabregas and Walcott both scored from long range to send us packing back to Wiltshire and a sorry looking bunch we were as well.

We were back at home for the next game and this time against Chelsea in a game that the opposition totally outplayed us and never looked to be threatened at all. We somehow restricted Chelsea to a single goal in the first half by Lampard and we never got forward much ourselves at all, spending the majority of the game in our own half.

It was the FA Cup next and a good chance to progress to the quarter-finals as we’d been blessed with a home tie with Crystal Palace. For the first 40 minutes we dominated the play but as usual we failed to convert chances into goals. Following a corner kick Palace caught us on the break and went ahead after 42 minutes and quickly doubled their lead before half time. A rallying cry in the dressing room apparently had little effect on the team as Palace knew we were already demoralized and laid siege to our goal and ended up as deserved winners in another humiliating defeat.

A trip to bottom of the table Wigan was next and perhaps an opportunity to get three points? Unfortunately once things start to go bad there seems to be very little hope in coming back. Although we played well in the first half with Darron Gibson rattling one off the bar after 18 minutes it was Wigan who took the lead after a slip by Jason Beardsley allowing Mullens to open the scoring for the home side. More defensive errors after the interval allowed Wigan to double their lead but we were finally thrown a life line after a Febian Brandy effort was deflected into the path of Viguera to slot home. That lifted our spirits but an equalizer, for all our efforts, never came and a return to the Championship is looking more and more like a possibility.

Our final game of the month was at home to Liverpool as the Man Utd game had been re-arranged due to the FA Cup. It didn’t take long for the visitors to go ahead with Ryan Babel easily sprinting past Beardsley on the counter attack to set himself up for the opening goal. Liverpool’s second came through Gerard as we failed to close him down allowing him to score through one of his trademark long shots. We were three down after 26 minutes when Aquilani scored from all of forty yards! We looked like a despondent group of people following that and we never able to lift our game with Liverpool being content to sit back and play the ball around until the final whistle.

February Results at a glance

Current League Table

March Fixtures

Well that’s a month I’d rather forget about though things seem to be going downhill quicker than an Olympic skier. We have a crucial game coming up aaginst Blackburn and a win is absolutely vital. With just nine games to go every one is going to be like a cup tie as we battle to stay up in the Premier League. I hope we can.