5 things we learnt: Swindon Town v Bury FC

SWINDON TOWN suffered their first league defeat since the start of August after losing at home to Bury yesterday. TotalSport Swindon's Ryan Walker gives his analysis on 'five things we learnt' following the disappointing result.

Doughty is a necessity for Swindon’s success

A match day squad consists of eighteen players when you include the starting XI and substitutes, but for Swindon, Michael Doughty is the most important player in the team. And Saturday was concrete evidence of this. 

Doughty’s absence left Town lacking quality in the final with players taking too many touches and struggling to produce effective link-up play. 

A team shouldn’t rely on just one player but Swindon looked lost in attack without the 25-year-old playmaker. His absence was confirmed to be because of hip bruising, and hopefully, he will be back sooner rather than later.

James Dunne is not a right-back

Making his first appearance back following suspension, James Dunne endured a performance to forget deputising at right-back. His positional awareness was poor as were most factors of his game against Bury. 

Too often gave the ball away when making simple passes to fellow players and struggled to deliver quality balls into the box when under minimal pressure. Bury identified Dunne as a weakness and targeted his flank when attacking, and frequently beating the defender to create dangerous openings for their attackers. 

A wasted opportunity to make his stake for a regular starting spot and will surely not feature in the starting line-up for a while now.

Adebayo is more effective through the middle

Having scored two goals in Town’s last two League matches prior to Saturday, it was a surprise to see Adebayo shifted to the wing as Marc Richards started through the middle. And on reflection, it’s evident that Adebayo wasn’t effective on the wing. 

Frequent poor balls into him left Adebayo too often relying on his own ability to create an opening out of nothing as Bury bullied the attacker. A potent shooter with the ball at his feet, the 20-year-old was stifled of shooting opportunities having to cut in from the wing to find an opening. 

Has been a big player for Swindon this season but needs to be utilised correctly playing in a central striker position.

Brown is still the right manager for Swindon

Twelve points from seven games is understandably less than what Swindon fans were hoping for at the start of the season with the club chasing promotion. However, despite yesterday’s result, Phil Brown is the right manager to take Swindon into the higher divisions of English football.

Forget about his past experiences and being a Premier League manager, this Swindon side trusts the manager and believe in his tactics. Brown has been able to add creativity, flair, and goals to this Swindon team, whilst making defensive progression as well.

More points are definitely needed if Town are to return to League One football but Brown understands more than anyone what is needed to gain promotion this season.

Nelson and Woolfenden are our best centre-back pairing

Yesterday’s performance was the first time this centre-back partnership has conceded in three matches. A statistic that tells you everything about why the young defensive duo should remain as Swindon’s first choice defenders. 

At times caught out of position against Bury, but also produced some stunning last-ditch tackles to keep Swindon in with a chance of avoiding defeat. 

People will call for more experience in defence, but experience doesn’t guarantee quality and these two appear to be on the same wavelength as one another which is a rarity between some of Swindon’s central defenders. Every team will concede goals, but Nelson and Woolfenden are Town’s best hope of conceding fewer than any other partnership.