SWINDON TOWN put in another toothless display in their 2-1 home defeat to Scunthorpe, which sent them to the same Football League basement from where Paulo Di Canio resurrected them five years ago, writes Peter Mitchell.

There is often humour in the worst of situations and the Town End provided it with a chorus of "Are you watching Accrington Stanley – we're coming for you!"

The huge disconnect between manager Luke Williams and the fans was evident even in his match programme notes before the game.

The boss felt his side had played well at Walsall – wrong! – and to back that up he named an unchanged team for Saturday's game against the promotion-chasing visitors.

It was easy to see why Scunny have been contenders all season. They started with purpose and attacking intent and after only five minutes had the ball in the Swindon net.

A great cross from the left deep into the Town six-yard box was forced over the line by Wallace; whether it was wholly legitimate was open to question. Claims that the ball had been punched on its way were made post-match, but I didn't see an undue amount of protest at the time.

United were cutting through the Town defence with ease and for the first 20 minutes the home side hardly entered the opposition's half.

Swindon's first attempt came after 21 minutes when a long ball from Charlie Colkett found Ben Gladwin in the box, but his header was high and wide.

Town were typically pedestrian in their build-up, giving Scunthorpe all the time in the world to get men back and reorganise.

A bunch of mannequins would have shown more movement than the Swindon team in the first half.

Just before half-time several fans tried to approach the Town dugout to vent their displeasure at the coaching team. Unfortunately this was dealt with by the stewards in a heavy-handed manner that provoked even more ill feeling.

Scunthorpe took their foot off the gas in the second half but gave the impression that, unlike the hosts, they could step up a gear at any time.

Swindon needed to get players running at the visiting defence but once again it wasn't until late in the game that James Brophy and John Goddard replaced Brad Barry and Colkett.

Jon Obika and Raphael Branco were putting in a shift with the former creating a few chances entirely of his own making, but on 71 minutes United again strolled past the Swindon defence with substitute Sam Manton grabbing their second.

We had to wait until five minutes from the end for the one bright spot of the afternoon. This came when loanee Rohan Ince – who picked up yet another Man of the Match award – seemed to swing his boot lazily at the ball which rocketed into the net from 25 yards with Scunthorpe goalie Joe Anyon clutching at thin air.

One of the few positives of a miserable season, Ince is a player who is surely destined to play at a much higher level.

In the closing stages tempers became frayed and fisticuffs even broke out among Town supporters in the Family Enclosure.

A young family sitting near to me, who had probably been tempted by reduced prices to try the experience, decided with 15 minutes left that they had had more than enough of the madness going on around them. Sadly, I fear it will be some time before they are tempted back.

To his credit Williams never shirks a question and is always honest and this was proved again in his post-match interview. Nevertheless the reasoning behind his playing strategies and tactical assessments are what has riled the Town fans all season.

Apart from a couple of isolated instances in the run-in, Swindon Town have under-performed massively in a league where, with the exception of half a dozen teams, the quality exhibited has been overwhelmingly poor.

There will now be lots of recriminations but the truth is that the grand strategy adopted by Lee Power and Tim Sherwood, coupled with the ineffective playing tactics pursued, have been abject failures.

The club had opportunities to change the style and bring in some experience mid-season but stuck their heads in the sand and hoped for the best.

On walking past the County Ground cricket pitch on the way out, where a game was in full swing in the spring sunshine, I couldn't help but feel that the close-season couldn't come quickly enough.

Maybe we will all feel a bit more positive and have regained our football appetite in three months' time.