SWINDON TOWN 0

PORT VALE 0

On a day when we were remembering and celebrating Swindon Town’s greatest victory, exactly 50 years ago, this was a poor feast of football to serve up as a tribute.

The whole atmosphere carried an end of the season feel to it, even though there are still ten games left.

True the conditions were awful, with a gale force wind blowing throughout, making good football impossible.

However, not for the first time in recent weeks, Swindon seemed to have little idea as to how to play the conditions.

Instead of keeping the ball down and using short ten yard passes to find their men, they continued to play high balls and, with the wind behind, twenty yard passes that always ended up being forty yard passes.

In the first half, with the wind directly behind them, Town didn’t manage a single shot on goal.

The Port Vale keeper, Scott Brown, was otherwise usefully occupied just trying to reach the half way line with his clearances and he spent his afternoon wasting as much time as possible with his kicks.

The remaining members of the Wembley 69 squad, who were Guests of Honour today, must have been totally bemused by the standard of play they witnessed – a far cry from the consistently attractive and positive displays they graced the County Ground with.

Against the wind after the break Swindon fared a bit better and managed to string together a few constructive attacks, but still nothing that offered a serious threat to the visitors’ goal.

Near the end Vale almost pinched all three points when, from a corner, only a desperate save from Lawrence Vigouroux kept a strong Leon Legge header out of the net.

Ultimately a goalless draw said it all, and it was a result neither side could complain about.

There were good solid performances from defender Luke Woolfenden and Danny Rose in midfield.

After the Stevenage defeat, Swindon’s manager had said: “I can’t wait until the summer to get some players in and have a proper team.”

Great motivation for his existing squad for the remainder of the season.

In the January transfer-window he acquired nine new players of his own choosing, so I wonder how many more he wants?

Next Saturday Swindon are at home to Morecambe in another game that isn’t likely to get the juices flowing.