SWINDON TOWN 3

ACCRINGTON STANLEY 0

By Peter Mitchell

Swindon wound up their campaign by hosting League 2 champions Accrington Stanley, complete with trophy, who were applauded onto the pitch by the Town squad.

Caretaker manager Phil Brown, looking very smart, but a little out of place on such a hot day in his blue interview suit, was out to pay full respect to the visitors.

He made three changes from the Colchester game with the big surprise being a debut for 18-year-old midfielder Jordan Edwards, who had been nowhere near the first team squad all season but had impressed as a substitute in a development game last Monday.

Just how much importance the champions were placing on this game is difficult to say because they looked less than impressive for most of the game. It was certainly an interesting open match, far removed from the drab end of season affair it could have been.

In fairness to Swindon, they gave 100% and for the most part played very well, creating a good deal more than we have seen in recent games. With several of the starters out of contract there were definitely some out to impress.

An excellent move involving Kyle Knoyle after 14 minutes led to Marc Richards blasting home the opener. Two minutes before the break a neat flick from James Dunne left Keshi Anderson with a chance that he made no mistake with. Town could have made it three before the break when Richards, put through by Amine Linganzi, tried to take it around the goalie but failed.

Stuart Moore did himself no harm when he was called on to make a couple of excellent first half saves and looked competent throughout.

In the second half the visitors showed more offensive flair with wide-man Jordan Clark constantly probing the home defence. However, the game was put well out of their reach when Paul Mullin somehow drilled home an explosive shot from a tight angle.

Dunne had a very good game throughout and seemed to be playing further forward than usual – he could even have scored a couple himself but seemed to lose focus at the vital moment - probably due to the unfamiliarity of his surroundings, being so far up the pitch.

He then spoiled it all by yet another example of his unacceptable indiscipline when only a few minutes from the end he was involved in a mild skirmish with Accrington’s Jimmy Dunne. The punch he threw was more than enough to see him red carded and, importantly, he will now miss the first three matches of next season. The other protagonist suffered a similar fate and so presumably Stanley manager John Coleman will be equally unhappy.

Jordan Edwards had a promising debut, not being taken off until near the end and so joins other recent debutants Scott Twine and Joe Romanski as potential squad members for next season – depending of course on who the manager is at that time.

Pre-match, Matt Taylor had been awarded Player of the Season (I think the bookies had stopped taking bets some months ago) and, with wing back Knoyle having another excellent game, it is hard to understand why the Chairman has not already tried to tie these two down for another season.

Swindon left the field to rousing applause. Without doubt this was deserved on the day, but I’m not sure it was warranted when you look back on the season as a whole. Remember this was Town’s first win at home since 17th February!

Tuesday is the day when chairman Lee Power gives Phil Brown his performance review, so by the end of next week we should have a clearer idea as to who may hold the reins come August.

Just to quash a rumour going around – when brilliant Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta recently announced he was leaving Barcelona he said he would never play for another team who might come up against his beloved Barca. As a result Swindon seemed to fit the bill perfectly, but it now appears that he won’t be signing any time soon!