LAST week I said that it was difficult to see where Swindon could go now, and this opinion was borne out by this tame affair against Mansfield, writes Peter Mitchell.

Two very ordinary looking sides were on show and, on this form, neither look as though they will be threatening the top six any time soon. Middle of the table beckons for both.

Phil Brown gave his pack of cards a good shuffle, making five changes in the process, but I think getting a couple of Aces up front is likely to be his only salvation. This was another very mundane attacking display, with Town only really threatening in the last 20 minutes when the manager brought on Kaiyne Woolery and Jermaine McGlashan.

Once again there was little creativity in the final third and everything seemed so predictable and slow paced. Assuming Woolery is now fully fit, he must start the next match and not be left kicking his heels for the first hour.

As promised David Flitcroft and Co were given a warm reception of the somewhat hostile kind, and the former manager had to put up with plenty of uncomplimentary chants from the Town End!

I was surprised it wasn’t worse, particularly after an incident on the half hour mark. Mansfield’s Will Atkinson performed a crunching tackle on Matt Taylor, for which he was rightly booked, but Flitcroft then called his player over to the touchline and proceeded to shake his hand! Perhaps justice was done just before the interval when Atkinson was dismissed following a second, rather tame, booking.

Swindon didn’t up the momentum until the last 20 minutes, so they can’t feel too hard done by for failing to score against a team reduced to ten men for more than half the game. They can criticise another very poor refereeing performance though – three times in the second half Antony Coggins blew up and denied the Town a distinct advantage of playing on.

The Chairman’s influence seemed to be in evidence when Lawrence Vigouroux was recalled in goal only two days after returning from Mexico. However he gave a thoroughly competent display, making a couple of timely saves to save Swindon’s blushes.

In his latest interview Phil Brown seems to be resorting to business-speak, in his attempt to explain the poor performances, by referring to KPI’s of all things !

On Tuesday, 12th placed Town host Cambridge United who sit eleven places below them. Failure to win will really test the patience of the fairly tolerant Swindon crowd.