SWINDON TOWN moved three points closer to League One safety when Brad Barry’s first goal for the club gave them a 1-0 win over Port Vale at the County Ground on Saturday.

Town Flier, watching his first game of the season, cast his eye over the new-look Swindon team.

Have we seen the last of the tippy-tappy football from the back?

I do hope so. Perhaps it was because we played two 6ft plus target men in Luke Norris and Nathan Delfouneso but ‘keeper Lawrence Vigouroux ‘went long’ at almost every opportunity. And it didn’t seem to diminish our superior possession.

Jamie Sendles-White was caught in possession when dribbling out of the box and captain Nathan Thompson was robbed on one of his forays forward which resulted in two serious Port Vale chances but we got away with both.

If Liverpool can’t play the ball out from the back with defenders on £100k a week (see one of their gifted goals to Burnley on Saturday) then why should Swindon be able to.

Norris and Delfouneso as a strike partnership

After playing without a recognised striker on the pitch in the draw with Gillingham we went back to our preferred 3-5-2, with two men up top.

In truth neither was any sort of threat on goal – apart from Norris’ second half shot (saved when going wide) – which you might have predicted given their poor goals-to-games ratio for previous clubs.

Delfouneso showed a couple of nice touches and won some headers. We have to reserve judgment as the former Villa man is not match fit having done no pre-season with any club.

Similarly, Norris was coming back from injury and as such was under orders not to put himself about like he had done at QPR.

Reading between the lines the striker Power and Williams are hoping to bring in on loan sounds like he would be our first choice attacker if the deal can be done.

The importance of Yaser Kasim and Michael Doughty

Yaser Kasim showed again why he is Town’s best player and the side’s beating heart. He also had one goal-bound shot charged down in our excellent opening 20-minute spell when Anton Rodgers (wide of the target) and Brad Barry (fortuitously denied by the keeper) could have given Town an early lead.

Doughty was uncharacteristically quiet in the opening 45 but he picked out Barry’s intelligent run and played the clever ball which led to what proved the winning goal straight after the break.

Neither Kasim nor Doughty is blessed with electric pace but they both have excellent close control and are hard to shake off the ball.

It was their charging runs from defence which led to repeated fouls from the Vale players which broke up play so often in the second half. That made for a dire spectacle but played into Town’s hands as it prevented the Valiants from building up a head of steam.

Do we have a gem in Lloyd Jones?

The Liverpool loanee rightly won the man of the match award. We now have a defender who recognises the need to come and head corners clear, looks comfortable on the ball and was alert enough to make at least two goal-saving blocks.

There’s still a lack of discipline

For a ‘footballing’ side, we had more than our fair share of red cards last season and Ormonde-Ottewill has already picked up an early-season suspension.

Kasim, Norris and Jordan Stewart all picked up totally needless bookings towards the end of the game.