Chairboys' late equaliser instigates 2008 throwback

Danny Wilson built up Saturday's encounter at the County Ground by demanding a win from his players who were currently on a 7 game unbeaten run in League 1 following the opening day atrocity at Gillingham. Likewise, the Swindon faithful were also looking for an improved performance following a host of missed chances a week previous against Walsall, and a first half shambles leading to Wilson stating "It could well have been Gillingham all over again".

Fortunately, my head was too hazed with the fumes of beer for me to be worried about the performance against Walsall, I just had to put up with the Soccer:AM ridicule of Sean Morrison's ballet-like defending and Billy Paynter's unbelievable miss leading to screams of "Just fall on it and it will go in!!" from the Soccer:AM studio. I'm sure I could dig out the videos on youtube but I really don't want to show you. All in good humour though chaps!

So once again I found myself asking the lads in red for some bounce-back-ability as our start to the season, where we find ourselves in 7th position, builds more and more expectation of a result on matchday. And coming up against a Wycombe side who have struggled to make it out of the starting blocks this term, surely 3 points would be ours?

So after having a week off the Saturday buzz was back. The sun was shining, the shorts were on and Captain Greer was back in the heart of defence. Wycombe started bright and came at Swindon on the offensive. Just 2 minutes in the Swindon back 4 were left ball watching as a failure to clear a cross allowed Marlon Pack to thread an easy ball to an on-side Jon-Paul Pittman in acres of space. The Oklahoma-born striker fired aimlessly wide of target when he should have given Wycombe an early lead.

Wilson said that Tope Obadeyi's performance today "was his best in a Swindon shirt" and that "the lad just gets better and better". And it was his cross that led to the breaking of the deadlock on 16 minutes. After some neat interchanging football between Tope, Kevin Amankwaah and Jon-Paul McGovern on the right wing, Obadeyi played in a neat low ball towards frontman Alex Revell. The Southend loanee, who is still yet to score his first goal in a Swindon shirt, had no room to manoeuvre with his back to the goal, but somehow managed to squeeze a neat through-ball into the path of wing-back Kevin Amankwaah. Amankwaah slotted home first time with a calm and collected finish, that of the kind you would expect to see from a striker, to cap a spell of good Swindon pressure and neat football.

4 minutes later and The Robins were again pressurising the Wycombe back-four. Jean-Francois Lescinel played a weak cross from the left side into the area. The cross was only half-cleared back towards Lescinel on the edge of the box, who sent a tantalising header back into the 6-yard box, which somehow managed to avoid the efforts of both Alex Revell and Celtic loanee Simon Ferry, before being cleared behind for a corner. Jon-Paul McGovern's resulting set-piece was headed into the path of Ferry again. Under a lot of pressure, Ferry managed to find skipper Gordon Greer on the right side who executed a sublime cross towards Billy Paynter, whose outstretched leg was just inches to short and the attacking spell ended with a goal-kick.

Again, Swindon took the game to Wycombe as Tope Obadeyi skipped past 3 Wycombe challenges with ease and eventually laid the ball off to Jon-Paul McGovern. McGovern hit a superb 25-yard placed shot, and with the keeper beaten it was only the upright that could deny the ex-MK Don his 3rd goal of the season for Town.

Believe it or not - this is an unbiased blog and a completely objective match report, there just were no Wycombe chances to write about so far! Once again, we found Jon-Paul McGovern at the heart of another Swindon attack. His out-swinging corner met the head of un-marked centre-back Scott Cuthbert who will feel he should have done better. His free header went flying over the cross-bar from around 12 yards out when it really should have nestled in the back of Scott Shearer's goal.

As half-time came, Danny Wilson would have been wondering how his team hadn't already put this game to bed, and personally I couldn't help but wonder; "would the host after host of missed chances come back to haunt us?". It would take another 45 minutes to find out the answer to that one.

Swindon Town continued from where they left off - piling heavy pressure onto the Wycombe backline and still somehow not adding to their lead. Just after the break Jon-Paul McGovern picked up the ball in his own half and played a neat lofted pass for Billy Paynter to run onto. Paynter took the ball on his stride superbly, catapulting himself into the box but his resultant shot flew across goal when he really should have tested keeper Scott Shearer.

Kevin Amankwaah then found himself in possession on the halfway line. His pass then found Tope Obadeyi free on the right-wing. Obadeyi cut inside, easily moving past two defenders to play a cross towards lofty Alex Revell. The 6ft3in striker could do little more than put his header high and wide, frustrating the home fans at not making the goalkeeper work.

Wycombe's chances in the 2nd half, as they had been throughout the game, were few and far between as Swindon stopper David Lucas looked at the top of his game, with a solid performance in between the sticks and really commanding his area. Wycombe seldom looked like scoring at all during the game.

However, as Swindon continued to fail to convert chances to goals, an air of unease shook through the County Ground. And the inability continued, as Tope Obadeyi on the right-wing, cut the ball back for substitute Michael Timlin on 85 minutes. Timlin curled in a superb ball to find Alex Revell. The striker could have been accused of expecting far too much time on the ball as he was quickly closed down, and though managed to get a shot away it was easily blocked by Chairboys defender Luke Oliver.

And then the inevitable happened. Chance after chance that had been wasted by Swindon's attacking force was combined into one sucker punch from Wycombe substitute Ashley Chambers, who is on-loan from Championship new boys Leicester. The Swindon defence were caught napping in the 89th minute as the referee played advantage on the right-wing following a foul from Lescinel on Wycombe teenage winger Matt Phillips. The 18-year old kept his balance as Lescinel went to ground, and whipped in a cross finding Chambers completely unmarked at the far post. 19 year old Chambers had time to bring the ball down and pick his spot and the ball eventually found its way into the Swindon goal after hitting both Keeper David Lucas and Kevin Amankwaah. The lapse in defence, goal and feeling was reminiscent of Swindon's relegation battling last season where we saw shared points relinquished at the death on far too many occasions, eventually leading to us battling to remain in League 1.

Swindon then had a golden opportunity to hit an even later blow in injury time. Timlin whipped a pinpoint cross into the box from the right side, which was met by the head of Billy Paynter. Every Swindon fan was on their feet, but the net never rippled as Scott Shearer made a superb relfex save to deny Swindon all 3 points.

As the final whistle blew, boos rang out from the home stands as what should have been 3 points turned into a mere 1 thanks to a late goal. There were a lot of plus points to take from the game, the match stats show we had 9 shots, and I believe I have included ALL 9 in this report, meaning we are creating some extremely good chances. There is a real need now for that missing ingredient to allow us to finish teams off. That ingredient being clinical finishing and a sprinkle of luck.

We go into our next league game Tuesday 29th September as we make a personally familiar trip west to Exeter to face League 1 new boys the Grecians, in the first of 3 games in 7 days, with a handsome trip to Laaaandon on Saturday to face another new face to League 1, Brentford. Then on the following Tuesday we make our way back to Exeter for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy 2nd Round tie.

I think we are destined to see changes made during this period, and it may be the introduction of fresh faces given a chance to proof themselves that Swindon need. We have the likes of Lee Peacock returning from injury who may be given a look in, Ben Hutchinson on loan from Celtic who will be looking for more first team action. And there are a few youngsters who have featured through substitute appearances who could be in with a shout - Callum Kennedy fighting for Lescinel's left back berth, who I believe has looked somewhat out of sorts recently, and Lloyd Macklin who has made a good account of himself when being brought into the fray a few times late on. And if its goals we're looking for how about Charlie Austin who is rumoured to sign sometime today? Now there's some food for thought ;-)