OPINION

Swindon’s lacklustre performance against Cheltenham on Saturday was awful, as was the game itself.

Probably even a boring Christmas shopping trip would have been more enjoyable.

Town fielded the same line up that had started in the 2-1 defeat at Grimsby last week.

From Manager Richie Wellens’ after match comments I began to wonder if I had been in a different stadium.

He said the team “just lacked that final piece of quality” - I would say the other pieces were not exactly eye-catching – and that Swindon “were really good in parts”.

In truth they had little cohesion and hardly strung a good move together. With two shots on target, and with Cheltenham having none, you will begin to get my drift. Against a pretty ordinary side, but one that was always easily the more dangerous from set pieces and long throws, Town played far too deep and were poor at creating space for themselves. True substitute Jermaine McGlashan added some much needed width, but the standard of deliveries from everyone was poor.

In the latter stages it almost turned into a pantomime performance when Sid Nelson miscued from a long throw in, and Lawrence Vigouroux had to make a superb save to prevent an own goal.

I’m still wondering why Sol Pryce hasn’t been given another league start after his impressive display, and two goals, against Stevenage. Sure, he didn’t fare too well against Woking in the next game – but did anyone ? Elijah Adebayo was once again largely ineffective and yet stayed for the duration. The manager really has to sort out his striking situation urgently with Marc Richards’s fitness seemingly so unreliable. I think supporters are getting fed up with Town being a testing ground for those players from other clubs who don’t seem any better than ones we already have.

I’m taking the easy option on Boxing Day and watching the game from the comfort of home. Let’s hope the Northampton team will prove to be suffering from the festive celebrations more than our own, otherwise, judging by this latest display, Swindon will be returning empty handed.

This is a disappointing start to a tough run of four matches in 10 days.

Following the game against the fast improving Cobblers, Town visit 6th place Mansfield and then host 7th place Exeter on New Year’s Day.