The Race for 2nd Place!

Wow its been a month since my last blog post! Football and work have been keeping me busy over the last few weeks, but with things looking so good for Town at the moment, I felt I had to get typing again! Since our 4-1 victory over Stockport, results have been up and down for Town. Directly following that home victory we slipped to a 3 game streak without winning. Firstly, being involved in a drab 0-0 draw at Brisbane Road with Leyton Orient, where the highlight of the game was a rogue flare. Then we stumbled to a hammering from local rivals Bristol Rovers in a 4-0 reverse and a 2-1 defeat at Stadium:MK.

But just as things started to slip away, the boys dug in and ground out a well battled 1-0 victory away at the beautiful Withdean Stadium, courtesy of Charlie Austin as he slipped the ball past ex Town stopper Peter Brezovan. The Robins built on this with a stunning second half performance at St. Mary's to over-turn in-form Southampton with a brilliant 1-0 result. And finally, the jubilation continued as lady luck donned her Swindon shirt and Town salvaged a point with an injury time Gordon Greer header during the visit of top of the table Norwich.

The past few weeks haven't been without their tribulations however. Amongst the celebrations, Swindon's boys having been falling left, right and centre to injury woes. Stopper David Lucas fell victim at the Brighton game after a hamstring injury forced him off with just 12 minutes on the clock. Hats off to Phil Smith, though not everybody's favourite shot stopper, Town's current longest serving player has come in and held his own in a tough run of games, playing an absolute blinder at St. Marys in particular.

Billy Paynter was left out of the squad for the clash at the Withdean Stadium due to a hamstring injury he picked up in training (what is happening to our hamstrings??!!), causing Mr. Wilson to call upon the emergency loan window. Danny called upon the services of 18 year old Frank Nouble of West Ham. The striker is highly thought of at Upton Park but is currently not in the first team plans. Nouble played his first game in a Town shirt alongside Charlie Austin at home to Norwich. His strength looked good and he really wanted to take players on, but he will have to start scoring goals to win over the Swindon crowd, who have recently been giving Vincent Pericard a torrid time thanks to the goalscoring antics of Charlie Austin. Town fans are not easily pleased!

It became apparent that Kevin Amankwaah had been playing through the pain barrier for some time as he fell victim in Milton Keynes after receiving a kick in the glutes. Wilson again dipped into the emergency loan window and bagged the services of young Stephen Darby from Liverpool. He had an onerous debut at the Withdean trying to contain Kazenga LuaLua (younger brother of Lomana), but managed to come through unscathed and has so far held his own in place of big Kev.

And finally, Scott Cuthbert was withdrawn during the 1-0 win over Saints after taking a blow to his medial ligament, stretching the Town side to its very limits. But with Alan Sheehan having returned from his injury and resuming his role in the left-back berth, the man he replaced Mr. Lescinel "nobody knows which is my surname" Jean-Francois filled Scotty's role at centre back, and has performed admirably!

I think that's the lot of our recent injuries. To add to this Simon Ferry was dismissed at St. Mary's (yes we beat Southampton with only 10 men) after receiving his second yellow card, and therefore missed the Norwich match (yes we drew with leaders Norwich with a side weakened through injury and suspension). And to look at our league position now, I have to take my hat off to Wilson and his men. With the help of a few results going our way, such as Colchester's draw with Brentford the other night (and Leeds slip slide gets an honourable mention), what was once a distant dream, is now within touching distance, and Swindon certainly shouldn't be counted out of the race for 2nd place!