WHAT WE LEARNED: Swindon Town (3) Plymouth Argyle (1)

Dan Kemp’s wondergoal helped Swindon Town pull off a promising 3-1 win over Plymouth Argyle in their final friendly. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam reports on the final pre-season match at the County Ground.

The first half was a close encounter, with both teams largely cancelling each other out, with the best chance falling to Bali Bumba when he hit the side netting from a tight angle after getting beyond Harrison Minturn.

Kemp opened the scoring with a stunning volley from a corner before Rushian Hepburn-Murphy cooly slotted away the second two minutes later, Morgan Whittaker pulled a goal back with a fine finish into the top corner after 69 minutes.

With five minutes to play Jacob Wakeling raced clear of the Argyle defence and tucked the ball beyond Conor Hazard to rubber stamp the win.

Swindon’s pre-season has now come to a close, so what did we learn about Michael Flynn’s team in their final outing of the summer?

1.Swindon are looking to mark man-to-man all over the pitch.

Plymouth looked like a very strong team right from the off, giving Town the chance to practice their defending for long periods. Flynn appears to be favouring a very aggressive man marking approach, which notably saw Genesini and Hutton pushing up against Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Mumba, even when they inverted into midfield. It looks like a high-risk approach, particularly as it spreads the back three very wide, but Swindon have athletic players across the squad who seem capable of carrying it out. The discipline will have to be spot on every week if it is to work, however, with players communicating effectively when they are moved out of their normal positions. The system did seem to cause Plymouth some bother, creating indecision from their defenders and they had to work hard for the few chances they did create.

2. Kemp adds the ability to produce something from nothing.

With lots of defending to do, this might not have been the ideal game to review a player like Kemp. His goal was a special strike on the full volley arrowing into the bottom corner and that seems to be a taste of the ball striking ability he possesses. He was dutifully tracking Lewis Warrington to stop him getting on the ball throughout the match, so he is certainly not going to be a passenger out of possession. He was part of some more creative set piece routines and looked lively after his goal when Swindon were in the ascendancy.

3. Liam Kinsella showed signs of his rugged style.

Kinsella came off the bench for the final twenty minutes and very quickly won the ball back with a lovely sliding tackle, which was a nice sign of what he is supposed to add to the Swindon midfield. He was not hugely involved in his time on the field but did show why he ranked in the top 12 for both tackles and interceptions in League Two last season.

4. The trialists looked tidy but didn’t stand out.

The quartet of trialists were rumoured to be Lewis Ward, Rashawn Rivaldo Scott, Lucias Vine, and Brooklyn Genesini, with the latter starting at left wing-back. Genesini stuck to his task well out of possession, shadowing Kesler-Hayden wherever he went, but he did struggle at times when he had to quickly pick up a different player. When Swindon did have the ball, they looked to go through Remeao Hutton far more often, so he was not as involved but was generally tidy if unambitious with the ball at his feet. Vine and Scott both played around 20 minutes, but neither made much of an impression in their time on the field.

5. The plan still heavily revolves around Hutton.

Flynn does not seem like he wants to get away from the general formula from last season of feeding Hutton as often as possible in attack. When Swindon were able to get on the ball and force an attack themselves, they had two main options. The first was looking to get Rushian Hepburn-Murphy on the run as soon as possible and the other was to get Hutton in space on the right. Hutton lived on the right touchline, and we saw the ball switched across the pitch to him many times and his delivery forced some good work from Hazard and the Plymouth defence to preserve their clean sheet. If he was to leave before the window closes, then a replacement with a similar skillset would certainly be required if this is the game plan.