Swindon Town: The Premier League begins..

Hello Readers and welcome to the latest chapter in my Swindon Town story which sees us begin life in the Premier League.

Our first game of the season was a trip to Goodison Park to face Coca Cola Champions Everton who we knew from last season to be a very strong team. We got off to an encouraging start with Fleck picking up a loose ball in midfield and launching a thunderous shot that hit the bar after only 40 seconds. That got our tails up and some nice interchanges between Sokolowski and Mellis eventually found Brandy who put us ahead after 5 minutes. Everton came right back launching a barrage of long shots that one eventually found the back of the net 3 minutes later. Both Gasmi and Fleck had decent opportunities to restore the lead but another Everton long shot put us behind at half time. During the interval I told the lads we were the better team and they could win this and two minutes after the restart Brandy leveled the score from a well timed pass by Sichi out on the right flank. Twenty minutes later Brandy completed his hat-trick after Sokolowski broke down an Everton attack and played a through ball to Brandy whose speed left their defense for dead and it was 3-2. We held on to the final whistle and celebrated our first Premier League victory.

Our home debut against Man Utd was rearranged due to their European commitments so we found ourselves playing away to Burnley for our next game. The home side took an early lead after just 10 minutes as our statue like defense created gaping holes for Burnley to exploit. They doubled their lead some 20 minutes later following some poor link up play between our midfield players. Trailing by two at half time I asked the lads to pressure more and eventually we pulled one back albeit through an own goal from a set piece. Brandy was having a terrible game and was substituted by Pekhart whilst his partner Fleck was unlucky with his two shots on goal. As we pushed for an equalizer Burnley caught us onthe counter attack with the speed of Steven Fletcher setting up their third goal.We’ve definitely been brought back down to Earth  following last week’s celebrations.

We were away again for our next match this time a trip to Devon to play my dad’s favourite team Plymouth Argyle (ex Royal Navy) in the League Cup which as you know I always get knocked out of in the first game. I made some major changes to the line up with Fleck replacing Brandy as the right sided striker with new additions Hallfreossen on the left flank and Spanish striker Viguera partnering Fleck.

Darron Gibson made his long awaited debut, pleasing the fans and was an instant hit setting up Fleck after only 10 minutes. Spanish (DMC) Munoz also started for the first time this season and dominated his area of patrol breaking up the Plymouth attacks and he put himself on the score sheet following a tormenting run by Hallfreossen who dragged back for Munoz to fire home. We were never really under any pressure in the second half and young Swede John Guidetti finished the game off in injury time with a well place shot.

Finally our first home game of the season and we are up against Portsmouth at a packed County Ground. The home fans didn’t have long to wait for something to cheer about as Romain Gasmi made a darting run down the left flank finding Brandy in space who pulled back to Mellis and he slammed it home after only 4 minutes. The fans went wild!

Brandy could have made it 2-0 fifteen minutes later but his effort from just outside the box rattled the post and bounced harmlessly away. We dominated the remainder of the first half easily breaking down any Portsmouth attacks. The second half was a bit more of a midfield battle but finally Portsmouth got their equalizer after a poor pass from Sokolowski that Michael Owen intercepted and didn’t need to be told twice what to do with it. Fleck who was having a poor game was substituted by Guidetti who is now causing me some selection problems after creating some space for himself and hitting the winning goal from 25 yards out to give us all three points.

August Results: At a glance

Current Standings: Barclays Premier League

September Fixtures

Here are my final two signings for this window which I both got on free transfers and just about kept in my salary budget.

So we ended the month in sixth place which is a lot better than I expected to be honest and hopefully we string together a sequence of good results before meeting the big boys.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.