IF THAT was Plan B then Swindon Town manager Luke Williams had better find a Plan C pretty quick.

Even under Mark Cooper, Swindon were often accused of not having a fallback position when their ‘beautiful game’ was not working.

But nothing changed when the baton was handed to Williams and only Nicky Ajose’s goals papered over the cracks last season and prevented Town from going down.

This campaign, with the club sitting in the relegation zone, Williams at last admitted it was time for a change, and the new look was credited with the point at Wimbledon and the 3-0 home victory over Rochdale, a team who had won seven in a row.

In a nutshell, the change is to set up more defensively in a 4-2-3-1 formation with two holding midfielders protecting the back four. The idea is no longer to play possession-for-its-own-sake football, but let the opposition have more of the ball, prove difficult to break down and counter attack fast.

Williams claims this will result in no more Swindon displays in which 20 chances are created with eight on target – I don't remember too many of them. And apparently corners are off the agenda because we are not very good at them.

I was tempted back on Saturday to see the new look and for the second game in a row Town did not win one corner. Neither did they seriously test the visiting goalkeeper once and fell to a humbling 2-0 defeat. It should have been 5-0.

Okay, Swindon were undone by the sort of world class display by one Walsall player, Erhun Oztumer, which you rarely see in League One.

The tiny Turk scored two of the most sublime goals you will see this season – a thumping 40-yard driven lob and an exquisite guided volley off a long hanging ball – as well as creating two spurned sitters for his team-mates. The Saddlers also hit the bar when it was easier to score.

We think we have ball players in Yaser Kasim and Anton Rodgers but on occasion Oztumer embarrassed them with his skill.

Our new system seems set up to suit one Swindon player in particular, Rodgers, who can play his pretty triangles at the back, hit some 40-yard diagonal balls, and this deeper role keeps him out of the midfield battleground.

He was the official Swindon man of the match on Saturday and I have to admit there were few obvious challengers – but building your strategy around Rodgers is I suggest not the way forward.

In the first half on Saturday, Swindon looked composed on the ball, but ineffective, promising positions coming to nothing as Murray, Iandolo and Goddard were dispossessed.

Nathan Delfouneso looked a handful and had the clearest half chances; one off a great ball from Rodgers he hit wide, while off an even better ball from Kasim his first touch was heavy and the chance was gone.

In the second half, from the moment the Saddlers hit the bar in the opening seconds, Swindon lost the one thing in their favour – composure on the ball. To a man they crumbled as the Oztumer-led Walsall dismantled them. And apart from a brief five-minute period they never looked like getting back into the game.

They slunk off without acknowledging the admittedly baying crowd. Only Delfouneso, who had tirelessly if somewhat aimlessly, chased down defenders for 90 minutes, stayed to milk the appreciative applause that came his way.

Of course, we are currently missing six players but only one (Doughty) is a game changer. Williams increasingly looks like a rabbit in the headlights and, brilliant training ground coach though he may be, it can’t be long before he is taken out of the managerial firing line.

The crowd booed the side off at half-time and at the finish and the last 20 minutes were peppered with anti-Lee Power songs. The chairman needs to come out of denial and admit many of the players he has brought in would not stand out in the Conference.

Tim Sherwood provided us with half the Spurs Reserves side, including two subsequent internationals, which got us through Power’s first two promising seasons at the helm.

With Sherwood in TV punditry rather than management, Mr Power needs to deveop a new set of mates.