Swindon Town: The Fight for Survival

Hello Friends and welcome back to the final installment of Swindon’s first season in the Premier League. The big question is will we stay up?

Six games to play in the Premier League and the first of which is a visit to Britannia Stadium. We knew that Blackburn had lost the day before so if we can avoid losing ourselves that will add to the points cushion. Stoke though took the lead early into the game with a fluke goal from Caicedo which Tom Heaton could do nothing about. Febian Brandy had some good chances for us with his speed causing the Stoke defenders some trouble which after the interval produced a penalty when he was dragged down running into the box. Romain Gasmi stepped up to take the penalty and….missed! That was such a huge blow but we never gave up and finally got an equalizer through Sokolowski who drove the ball magnificently into the net from 25 yards out. We have another point in our fight to stay up.

We were at home next for a difficult game versus Sunderland and as usual we were on the back foot immediately with all the action being in our own half. For a change though we defended very well and what shots Sunderland did have Heaton managed to deal with easily enough. At the other end it was Brandy and Naydenov going close for us but by the interval it was 0-0. Sunderland took the lead in the 61^st minute scoring from a corner which is something we have to work on in training. With time running out I threw caution to the wind and told everyone to push forward and Brandy got the equalizer after Naydenov supplied the through ball once he had breezed past the Sunderland left back. With two minutes of injury time to play Sunderland pushed forward but Gibson broke down the attack and his clearance bounced nicely into Brandy’s path and he neatly lobbed the ball into the back of the net. We had finally won!!!! We now only need two points from four games to stay up. Portsmouth and Wigan are already down.

Off to White Hart Lane next and to get the two points we needed to stay up from this game was going to be a tough order. We got of to a promising start when Gasmi created an early chance for Brandy whose effort was tipped onto the post and rolled harmlessly away. Moments later Naydenov’s darting run down the right flank set up Gibson who hit the bar. We could have been two up after 5 minutes! Spurs, after enduring our early pressure took the lead on 9 minutes with of course a long shot and then doubled their score when Heaton spilled another long shot into the path of David Bentley. After the interval Spurs went three up through King who was clearly offside from a set piece and then Modric set up Crouch for a fourth. We kept fighting though and scored two in the last ten minutes; a brilliant individual effort from Naydenov who then supplied Giudetti for our second.

We still needed those 2 points and our next game was at Old Trafford who were struggling to get a place into Europe for next season. Blackburn had to go to Bolton on the Monday night and if they lost we would stay up. Blackburn were leading Bolton 2-1 at the interval and were controlling the game but in a tense finish Bolton scored two late goals to win 3-2 and Blackburn were relegated. We were staying up for another season in the Premier League!!!

So off we went to Old Trafford, happy in the knowledge that we survived our first season in the Premier League but perhaps not good enough to survive a second? A picture tells a thousand words.

Fulham were the visitors for our final game of the season at the County Ground. We got off to a fantastic start with Brandy scoring a typical goal from a through ball by Gibson after just seven minutes. Three minutes later Scott Cuthbert put us two up when we scored a rare goal from a corner kick. We controlled much of the game up until the 40th minute when Fulham started to pile on the pressure and got their equalizer two minutes from half time. They came out after the interval even more energetic and pressed for the equalizer which they got just after the hour. In the last 20 minutes the long shots started to come but Tom Heaton in goal kept them all out and we hung on for a point. We were totally outplayed again.

The final game of a very long season was upon us and we headed north to play Bolton. As the game was meaningless I decided to field some of my youngsters for the game. Bolton however fielded a full strength team and had very little defending to do and we managed only 1 shot on goal the entire game whilst they had 23 and easily cruised to a 3-0 victory.

The Final Table

Well that’s it my friends and thank you for following along in my first season in the Premier League. Up next then will be a hard and long look at the current squad and I feel that their will be many casualties as most of these players are not up to top flight standard.

Any major changes will depend on of course transfer budget and what the board will allow for salaries. I have a couple of players in mind and also I’m developing a strategy to work within the boards «salary cap».

Thanks again and see you in Pre-Season!