Swindon Town:September 2011

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

The first game of September was a trip to the Midlands to face Aston Villa which is probably our biggest opponent since facing Chelsea in the cup last season. Although the stats say one thing about this game the score line reflects the true story with Villa running us ragged for most of the game We fell behind in the first 15 minutes after allowing Gignac too much time and space to put the home side ahead. Although we kept Villa out for the rest of the half conceding a penalty just after the interval opened the flood gates and from then on it was all downhill Febian Brandy had the only real clear cut chance for us a few minutes after their second goal but the Villa keeper pulled off a dramatic save to keep a clean sheet.

Our next game was at home to Hull City and it started off badly with skipper Liam Ridgewell tearing his hamstring after 15 minutes and will be out for two months. As in the previous game against Villa we never really pressurized Hull to any extent and they easily broke down our passing game. There’s not much to tell about this game other than our defense seems to leave more holes than Swiss cheese which Lewandowski took advantage of scoring the winner for Hull two minutes from time.

Back to the Midlands for our following game this time against Birmingham who we knew all to well from last seasons enthralling play off encounter. This game would be no different. Birmingham took the lead early on as again a gaping hole appeared between the two central defenders for the home side to exploit. It wasn’t until 9 minutes before half time that the Swindon fans finally had something to cheer about with Guidetti slotting in the equalizer being set up by Kuijanis Vallers on the right wing. Birmingham went took the lead again just after the hour in similar fashion to their first goal and things were starting to look bad. With injury time already upon us Hallfreossen set up Guidetti  whose shot was cleared straight into the path of Victor Palsson and he rocketed the ball into the net from 25 yards, 2-2. That was just the tonic we needed and with Fleck coming on up front for Sissoko that gave us the advantage over a tiring Birmingham defense who gave away a penalty that Guidetti coolly placed in the corner and then Fleck  set up Mellis to put the result beyond any doubt.

A long trip to the North East was up next to face Middlesbrough and incredibly this is our 6^th away game of the season out of eight games. Thanks  to a much larger squad I was able to field for the most part a fresh starting eleven after the epic League Cup encounter with Birmingham and we learnt  that we would be at home to their rivals Wolves in the next round. After a very much even start to the game we took the lead just before the half hour through right back Jason Beardsley who crept forward on an attack and unleashed a scorcher from distance for his first ever goal for Swindon. Brandy made it 2-0 in typical style taking off like a greyhound from a Darron Gibson through ball and placing the ball in the old onion bag. Middlesbrough replied instantly from a set piece as poor marking allowed Digard to easily head home. From the kick off Fleck who was now playing in the AMC role (Brandy as a lone striker) intercepted a wayward pass and fired home a third before the interval. The second half I asked the lads to control the game more but this only put us under intense pressure so we switched back to attacking and super sub Guidetti made it 4-1 with an injury time goal. I was absolutely delighted with the teams performance and the result was far more than I expected.

September Results at a glance

Current Standings

Next month I face my biggest challenge since taking over the club facing three of the big four one after the other. I fear that October will be the defining month of  the season and so early on too.

Thanks for taking the time to read this episode.