Fourteen Town corners shows Rovers result was a travesty (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Fourteen Town corners shows Rovers result was a travesty

11:44am Wednesday 10th March 2010

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I MUST admit I did not see that coming. Not before the game, nor 25 minutes in.

Swindon Town have now lost 7-0 on aggregate to Bristol Rovers this season, but in a strange way the 4-0 drubbing at the County Ground on Saturday was much easier to take than expected.

It was just one of those days when everything went right for the opposition – while nothing did for us.

With hindsight, the brilliant block by Steve Elliott in the 13th minute, which denied Charlie Austin from six yards out, was a harbinger of what was to come.

Credit to Elliott, yes, but Charlie should have buried it – and a couple of weeks ago when he was on fire he probably would have.

What with Alan Sheehan’s early free kick against the inside of the post, no one could have argued that we should have been one or two up after another scintillating opening.

Then, completely out of the blue, Kuffour is clear in the left channel – albeit with plenty left to do – and curls a beauty over David Lucas.

Three opportunities to clear a corner in the 25th minute were wasted before Heffernan found himself surrounded by four Swindon defenders with his back to goal and still he scored.

And, as for the Chris Lines free kick just before the interval, you have to hold your hand up and say it was sublime.

Three nil down after playing well – no wonder Swindon looked shell-shocked going in at the break, which was compounded by a fourth goal in Rovers’ first meaningful attack of the second half on the hour.

Rovers centre backs Elliott and Danny Coles are chunky lads but they grew visibly in stature with every extraordinary block they made. Fair play, they kept the famed Paynter/Austin strike partnership very, very quiet.

Throw in a couple of fine Mikkel Anderson saves, too, and it was a day when the Rovers squad should have been buying lottery tickets.

If 0-4 looks like a pasting, the corners’ statistics paints a different and more realistic picture of the game – 14-1 to Town.

One stat that won’t please manager Wilson was the three needless bookings for his side late in the game.

After the opening-day walloping at Gillingham, redemption came three days later at MK Dons, so it was ironic that stadium:mk was the venue to again monitor Town’s ‘bouncebackability’ on Tuesday night. Austin and Greer carried the can for the Rovers debacle, being dropped in favour of Pericard and Morrison respectively. You could hardly say either grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

The fact that both changes were reversed inside an hour says it all.

Morrison helped gift the Dons a goal after 65 seconds and Pericard was no threat at all.

Swindon did not play badly by any means, hitting the woodwork no fewer than three times in the first half alone.

But, worryingly, Town don’t come from behind – in all 19 league and cup wins this season they have scored first.

The March fixtures, which looked tough on paper, are already living up to their billing.

One final thought, albeit a bit of a knee jerk reaction.

The admittedly early signs are that Pericard is not going to be putting too much pressure on strikers Paynter and Austin. So why isn’t Danny Ward (four goals in seven games from a wide position) given a chance up front, the role he came here to play from Bolton. Then Pompey wingman Matt Ritchie would not have to be warming the bench.

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