Swindown Town: October 2010

Hello everyone and welcome to my Swindon Town update.

Our opening game of the month was against Sheffield Wednesday who I was leery of due to them having Luke Boden on the left flank and was someone we had tried to sign in pre-season. My fears were justified as he gave my reliable right back Jason Beardsley a torrid time and Jason, not surprisingly, gave away a penalty and so I substituted him at half time as his rating was a meager 4.2 We fought back bravely after half time in the pouring rain an managed to score two from set pieces, Iriekpen headed in a corner and Krychowisk from a free kick in the 86^th minute to give us the winner. I loaned Krychowisk from Bordeaux as his attributes are amazing and just what we needed.

The following game took us to relegated Birmingham who had been tipped as one of the favourites to go back up. Our line up remained unchanged which seems to be the best approach for us as consistency is producing results. Once again Febian Brandy hit a first half brace taking his tally to eight in eleven games with Henry Lansbury being the main supplier of the ball. Birmingham did hit back in the second half and were denied any further joy by strong defending by Beardsley and Adjet as well as Tom Heaton between the posts.

An away game to Swansea was up next and I knew this was going to be a tough match. We fell behind within two minutes of the start after goalkeeper Tom Heaton fumbled a cross ball into the path of the Swansea striker. We replied 7 minutes later when our “short option” corner routine finally paid off with Iriekpen heading in the equalizer. Febian Brandy was taken off after 30 minutes as a precaution to a suspected injury but seems to be okay. Krychowisk put us ahead after half time with a 25 yard effort but Swansea’s pressure paid off late in the game to end the game in a draw.

Three days later league leaders Newcastle arrived at the County Ground. This was undoubtedly our  biggest test so far (no disrespect to Everton) as Newcastle were top of the table and unbeaten. The difference between the two teams was obvious from the opening kick off with our opponents moving the ball freely around the park and they eventually went ahead after 22 minutes. When Colocinni was sent off at half time we poured on the pressure once the interval was over but conceded another goal from a counter attack. Jonathan Kodja did pull one back for us and again from our short option corner routine but even with ten men Newcastle were never really under threat.

The visit of Crystal Palace ended the month for us and yet another 2-2 draw. We conceded very early on, in fact inside the first minute as the back four seemed to lose total concentration allowing the Palace front pair to breeze on by. It took us almost to half time for us to pull one back through Jacob Mellis at which point we seemed to control the game. An injury to our young Polish DMC Krychowisk set us back a bit and Palace took the advantage and went ahead again. With just three minutes of normal time remaining Emmanuel Frimpong blasted home the equalizer from just outside the box.

It wasn’t by any means a terrible month for us as we only lost one game but the two draws did mean dropping valuable points and slipping out of our play off position. I did have to send Krychowisk back to his regular club Bordeaux as he will be injured at least 4 months.

October Results

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