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Five Things We Learned: Swindon Town 1-1 Shrewsbury Town
After another disappointing draw for Swindon Town, Ryan Walker is back with the five things he took away from the 1-1 with Shrewsbury.
1) Clarity is needed over roles
The announcement that Tim Sherwood would be taking over all footballing matters when he was appointed Swindon’s director of football back in November came as a well-received appointment to Town fans as they hoped that Sherwood’s Premier League experience would turn the club's fortunes around. However with Swindon failing to improve and results getting even worse, pressure is mounting on the Wiltshire club.
The main problem is that clarity is needed over roles. Sherwood is in charge of training regimes, transfers, and is regularly on the touchline giving players commands, which is a manager’s role, and yet Luke Williams is the manager. In this difficult period the players should solely be focused on their performances, not on who is in charge and who they should be listening to.
2) Sloppy with possession
Many saw the weekend’s match against Shrewsbury as a ‘six-pointer’ as Swindon looked to increase the gap between themselves and the regulation zone, and Shrewsbury looked to escape it. And with that Swindon needed to play a tight compact style of football where they kept possession and avoided making stupid mistakes. But the performances of Swindon’s midfield would tell you otherwise.
Anton Rodgers and Sean Murray formed the base of the midfield and it was into double digits the amount of times they gave the ball away through sloppy play and poor decision-making. A better side would have punished Town for these mistakes and they were lucky to not leave the match with another loss.
3) A lack of passion
When your team is in the position of Swindon Town, the one crucial necessity is that the leaders on the pitch make themselves recognised and that the side play with passion and fight for the badge on their shirt. But when it was needed most the players of SN1 didn’t show up.
A leader on the pitch controls the side, gets his team-mates riled up to win the match, and yet there was no evidence that Swindon had a leader on the County Ground pitch at the weekend.
In this difficult time players need to stand up, show some passion and fight to keep Swindon in League One, otherwise they need to be shown the exit door in this transfer window.
4) Not clinical enough
A 1-0 lead over a side with ten men and just 35 minutes left on the referees watch gave Swindon Town the perfect opportunity to end their poor run of form and earn their first win in six matches. But with the likes of Johnny Goddard, Jon Obika, and others failing to take their chances, Shrewsbury were given the opportunity to get back into the game and punished Swindon.
Shrewsbury were there for the taking and yet the Swindon players buckled under the pressure. If Swindon are to avoid the drop this year then they need to start taking their chances and learn to kill games off.
5) Discontent amongst fans
As the final whistle blew and boos echoed around the stadium as the Swindon players left the field of play on Saturday afternoon, it was clear that the void between the players and the fans is the biggest it has been at in recent times.
The fans of Swindon Town deserve better because without fans there is no club and whilst it might be hard for the players to take the criticism they need to start re-paying the faith shown in them and start getting results on the pitch once again.
All views expressed are those of Ryan's and do not necessarily represent those of Total Sport
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