IS PRESSURE STARTING TO MOUNT ON PHIL BROWN?

Saturday’s one-nil defeat away to Colchester United heaped further misery on Swindon Town this season. But as the fixture list starts to heat up, TotalSport Swindon’s Ryan Walker analyses whether the pressure is starting to grow on Phil Brown.

Since his arrival at SN1, Phil Brown has carried the aura of invincibility through a mixture of being a crowd-pleaser, friendly communication with the press, and demonstrating a passion for the club. 

But a poor run of results this season has seen the pressure starting to grow on Brown and with teams now entering the festive period, attention is starting to focus on the manager’s longevity at the club.

With Swindon Town currently positioned in the 16th spot of the League Two table having secured just 21 points all season, 15 points off of table toppers Lincoln City, it’s safe to say that this season isn’t going as expected for Phil Brown.

After taking over the reins of the club from the departed David Flitcroft in March, Brown has only managed a win percentage of just 25.8%, a career low second to that from his time at Derby County. 

However, just two wins from Swindon’s last eight makes for glum reading and having been in charge for 240 days, the clock looks to be ticking towards its closing chimes of the Phil Brown era. 

Boasting an impressive management CV, Brown has held the helm at six clubs throughout his career with his promotion to the Premiership with Hull City by far the 59-year-olds greatest achievement to date. 

But in football past successes count for nothing and in the fourth division of English football, it’s results that matter most.

Navigating a successful start to the current season saw Swindon unbeaten at The County Ground until mid-September. 

But as the season has progressed the football has become slow, dull, and unentertaining to watch with home attendances dropping at a considerable rate. 

On a match-day, Brown’s passion remains evident as he prowls the touchline within his dugout booming out commands to his players caught up in the midst of the action. 

And this is the exact behaviour that fans want to see from their leader, but League points must follow in suit and this just hasn’t been happening enough for STFC this season.

A busy winter fixture period sees Swindon play five matches throughout December against similarly placed opponents and these games will be crucial to Brown’s remaining time at the club.

As the current manager, he must still be respected and given full support that is possible, but this support must be repaid with an upturn in results from a team who were tipped as promotion contenders. 

An FA Cup first-round victory over York City at the weekend would be a good way to kick-start this.

He still has over a year to run on his current contract, but with five managers having had the axe fall on them this season in League Two already, it’s now up to the powers above to decide if Brown will be the next to go.