TOWN FLIER: If you can't be good, be lucky. And we were (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

TOWN FLIER is the weekly fans’ blog about all matters relating to Swindon Town FC

9:45am Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in Sport By Town Flier

I SAW it with my own eyes and I still don’t believe it. Swindon went to the top of the League 2 table – for the first time since the opening day of the season – when coming from behind to beat fellow championship rivals Shrewsbury 2-1 on Tuesday night.

After an hour, that was a result no one in the ground would have predicted.

Swindon were due a stinker and this was it. They simply failed to turn up. Shrewsbury were good but Swindon fell well short of their normal lofty levels of excellence.

Was it Wembley-itis – the thought of an imminent appearance in the JPT Final – cramping their style?

Matt Ritchie and Paul Caddis were shackled and even Wes Foderingham and Alan McCormack looked vulnerable.

With five minutes of the first half remaining, Mark Richards, who had run the Shrews’ show in midfield, went forward for a cormer and scored with a back header. Ten minutes into the second half, it could have be so much worse but for the intervention of Lady Luck.

McCormack appeared to clip the heels of Terry Gornell, who was clear into the area. It looked a stonewall penalty and a red card. Soon after, Foderingham saved with his legs from Mark Wright when a goal looked a certainty.

Then Simon Ferry came off the bench and the always excellent but injury-prone Joe Jacobson, who had Ritchie in his pocket, went off injured.

Suddenly Luke Rooney, a player without Wembley to look forward to, came alive, and for a brilliant 15-minute spell so did Swindon.

Ritchie teed up a shot from almost 35 yards, an attempt borne of his frustration, I think. It should have been a routine take for Chris Neal but he spilled it and substitute Alan Connell, not for the first time this season scored a crucial goal.

Twelve minutes later, Rooney cut inside again and only a combination of the bar and post kept out his screamer. But Connell was on hand to finish – making it two goals off the bench as he had done against Rotherham earlier in the season.

Lessons learned? I suspect Arsenal loanee Daniel Boateng may not start another game. Shrews striker James Collins is one of the best in the division and gave him a tough time. But I got the distinct impression none of his fellow defenders had any confidence in him.

I shall also be surprised if, even with Lukas Magera leaving the club this week, Billy Bodin does not revert to being a squad player rather than a regular starter. And Paolo might be advised to rein in his enthusiasm just a little.

He’s already walking a disciplinary tightrope with the FA, so ostentatiously waving goodbye to the jeering Shrewsbury fans post-game might not have looked good to any assessor watching.

But I totally agree with his calm, measured knuckles-wrap for the home supporters who booed his side off at half-time. For some mindless fans, success on tap seems a given.

We’re top of the table with two games in hand of our two closest rivals and have just started a run of five home games in six.

If this is not the time to take the league by the scruff of the neck I don’t know when is.

If you can’t always be good, be lucky. And against Shrewsbury, we were.