Austin and Paynter look secure up front (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Austin and Paynter look secure up front

6:14pm Tuesday 8th December 2009

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DANNY WARD could just be the right player at the wrong time for Swindon Town.

The teenage striker has arrived from Bolton to gain some first team experience – just when Billy Paynter has discovered a new prolific strike partner in Charlie Austin.

No one thought Austin would be able to maintain his goal-a-game Non League scoring record at Town but, in reserve and league outings, he has done just that. The more I see of Austin the more improbable it seems that he was not discovered at Poole Town earlier.

Two poacher’s goals to see off Leyton Orient on Saturday wasn’t the half of it. He showed a great first touch, good hold-up play and a great awareness with his flicked-on headers.

Being picky, he lacks a yard of pace, having comfortably lost out in a sprint with the admittedly pacy Mkandawire in the first half. But he makes up for that deficiency with bags of determination.

When Mkandawire was rightly sent off in the closing minutes, Austin had come from a yard behind him, outmuscled the centre back to get in front, and was just about to pull the trigger for his hat-trick when he was felled.

The frightening thing is that Austin can score brilliant goals too, as anyone who saw his bullet header in the reserves at Reading will testify.

After the Stockport abandonment debacle in the week, the main talking point in the build-up to the Orient game was Jonathan Douglas and his fitness. Luckily, he came through his pre-game test because what a difference he makes protecting the back four and always offering them an outlet But for David Lucas’s two uncharacteristic pieces of misjudgment off a couple of Sean Thornton strikes, it would have been a fourth clean sheet in five games since Douglas came back from suspension.

Had Phil Smith made those two mistakes everyone would have been calling for his head. Lucas has made such a strong impression since his arrival from Leeds in the summer that he will rightly be offered some slack.

Fair play to boss Danny Wilson – Greer, Lucas, Cuthbert and Douglas have been spectacular signings. But does the fact that there were no defenders in his seven-man bench against Orient suggest he thinks his now well-established back four are indestructible.

The Orient game was a fine advert for the division with both sides keen to play football and display some very accurate passing. Okay, the decision to award a penalty for the tug back on Alan Sheehan which set the game alight was a tad harsh, but the encouraging thing about Town on Saturday was that they never once tried to protect what they had.

Orient were no mugs but apart from one fine Lucas save from Thornton, who then put the follow-up within range of the Swindon keeper sitting on the deck, Orient created little near goal.

Meanwhile, when Town turned it on in a blistering ten-minute spell in the second half, they could have had six, but for heroics of Orient keeper Jamie Jones and some brave blocks from his defenders.

Poor Danny Ward, the only match-time exercise he may get in the run up to Christmas is on the new warm-up static bike that appeared on the touchline last Saturday. Finally, good news of two old boys. Coxy’s goal spree continued at West Brom, though it looked suspiciously like the one he scored for us against Doncaster Rovers one day – with his hand. Meanwhile, Peter Brezovan reunited with his former Swindon cohort Gus Poyet at Brighton and saved a pen on his debut – just like he did for us.

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