ANALYSIS: WHAT'S GONE WRONG FOR THE SWINDON ROBINS?

SWINDON ROBINS saw their playoff hopes all but ended as the Wiltshire club lost 36-54 to away rival the Poole Pirates on Wednesday night. But as the club now comes to terms with the reality that they won’t be retaining their Premiership title, TotalSport Swindon’s Ryan Walker analyses where it all went wrong for the Robins.

A disappointing run of recent results, epitomised by Wednesday night’s away defeat, has pushed the Robins out of the playoff positions and into fifth place of the Premiership table. 

And with teams surrounding Swindon all having matches in hand over them, fans are suddenly of the realisation that Swindon will no longer be making the playoffs.

But what exactly has gone wrong for the reigning SGB champions?

Rewind to the start of August and Swindon’s victory over Leicester sent the Robins top of the table, and on track for yet another league playoffs. 

However, three straight defeats have quickly unravelled all Swindon’s hard work as team manager Alun Rossiter was left speechless after his side’s latest defeat.

But when analysing Swindon’s recent downfall it’s clear that multiple factors are to blame. This stage last season saw the Robins flying high at the top of the table and set for what would be another title-winning season. But in contrast to this season, Swindon had a leader in Jason Doyle captaining the side and spearheading their title charge.

When looking at any professional sport whether it is football, rugby, speedway or anything else, the presence of a leader is often the most crucial factor to a team’s success.

In the pits World Champion Jason Doyle was an ever-present personality, helping his teammates prepare for each heat and being the main connection between management and riders. Whilst on-track his high point scoring ability regularly took pressure off the rest of the team. 

His absence this season is evident, and you only have to look at his current team the Somerset Rebels positioned at the top of the SGB Premiership table to understand how important Doyle’s leadership is to a side’s success.

Nick Morris was tasked with replacing Doyle as Swindon’s Captain at the start of the season and although a very talented racer, the general consensus is that the 24-year-old has struggled to focus on his own racing whilst also trying to fulfil his responsibility as skipper.

Five of Swindon’s current squad were part of the clubs title heroics last season. But the mental pressure of being the reigning champions and retaining the league title has played a factor this campaign. 

When speaking to riders you understand that whilst speedway is a physical sport, the ability to become a winner usually comes down to your mental strength. 

Unfortunately for the Robins, it appears that the team has struggled with living up to the demanding expectations, and as confidence dwindles within the side, so do performances.

Last seasons away record saw Swindon win ten away meetings as they stormed to title glory. This season they have won only two away league meetings.

If a team is going win the league then last seasons form is what is needed. Admittedly ten away wins is an incredible achievement, but if you want to win the league then you need to have won more than two away meetings.

Some weeks a side will have purely away meetings and if you aren’t getting wins then confidence in the team drops and it’s hard to get things running smoothly again. 

It’s hard to understand why Swindon are struggling so much when racing away from the Abbey Stadium, but Rossiter admits that for some reason things don’t click for every rider in the side and that is a problem.

Fans of the club will be quick to use some riders as a scapegoat for the clubs failure, but if you win as a team then you should lose as a team also. 

Despite the negatives of this year, it is also important to realise the positives that Rossiter and his squad have produced this year.

Troy Batchelor has once again found the form that made him a Grand Prix star, whilst reserve Zach Wajtknecht has endured the best season of his career so far by consistently being a big point scorer and often doing the job of two reserves every meeting. 

The aim was to get to the playoffs and attempt to become league champions once again. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. But this talented pack of Swindon riders will learn more from failure than they will from success, and be ready to go once again for next year.