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Vic Morgan: The Madness Of The Window Over, Focus Now Port Vale
Lifelong Swindon Town fan Vic Morgan gives his authoritative say on the club, every week on Total Sport. This week Morgan reflects on a quiet transfer deadline day for the Robins, and looks ahead to sizeable challenges on the horizon.
Thank goodness for that. We can all return to normal lives after the madness of Transfer Deadline Day.
I'm not a fan of this month of mayhem which boils down to a last frantic media driven twenty four hours. The problem is though, while trying to remain aloof from the thoughts of faxes, yes faxes, travelling down some line from the County Ground to Football League HQ, it's difficult not to spend the day checking all available outlets for news.
As I write this half an hour after the eleven o'clock deadline, it seemed a relatively quiet day as far as our favourite team is concerned. Louis Thompson will be warmly welcomed back for the rest of the season on loan from Norwich and Michael Smith gets a chance to resurrect his career at Portsmouth.
It appears that there was no deal on the much vaunted move of Yaser Kasim to Swansea and no return for Jack Stephens who preferred the sky blue thinking and joined Coventry.
In spite of all the hype then, it all turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Of course that doesn't mean we won't see any new faces between now and the end of the season. In a weeks time the loan window will open again and fresh opportunities will arise. There's also the possibility of any player who becomes a free agent joining the Town. So all in all, no need to panic MR. Mainwaring!
Of a more immediate priority is the game at Port Vale. It's a match which has twice been a victim of the interminable stormy and wet winter.
Hopefully the latest efforts to play the fixture will prove positive and we'll be able to watch some action at the cavernous Vale Park. It's a game which Swindon badly need to take something from. After the tedious and disappointing Saturday outing against Barnsley, the Town once again find themselves in the uncomfortable area just above the bottom four.
With a trip to high flying Gillingham on the horizon, tonight's game is one in which defeat would set some alarm bells ringing. The team's recent improved form took a nose dive against the Tykes. There's no way of disguising the fact that Saturday's game was truly awful. In fact it was so bad that at one point discussion in the group that I sit with in the Arkell's stand turned to the grooming of a pet dog and an operation on a pet goldfish.
To be honest those conversations were more entertaining than the match. One positive though was the form of Michael Doughty. The QPR midfielder who'll now spend the rest of the season with us, looks a fine player. He made a very useful debut at Sheffield United and was rightly named man of the match on Saturday. With the return of the second Thompson, the Swindon midfield looks strong.
With February upon us we enter the final phase of the season. It seems amazing that here we are with the nights drawing out and the business end of the campaign rapidly approaching. I still firmly believe a top ten finish isn't beyond this team. Let's hope that's more of a possibility after our trip to Burslem on Tuesday night.
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