Swindon Town 0 Colchester United 3

This really was a case of no rhythm and plenty of midweek blues as Swindon were easily beaten at home to Colchester United, writes Peter Mitchell.

Town have now lost all three of their home Tuesday night games this season, so maybe changing to a different night of the week might be on the cards. The manager’s pre-match warnings against possible complacency came home to roost with a vengeance, as Swindon’s bubble was well and truly burst.

For the first half-hour there was no hint of the disastrous period that was to follow. Although their build-ups were a tad on the slow side, they nevertheless were passing well, getting into the visitors’ area and creating chances.

From early on you could see that the Us’ had a lot more about them than Macclesfield last Saturday. With their big pacey forwards, they were always going to offer a more serious threat.

The game changer arrived on 35 minutes when central defender Mathieu Baudry was injured and replaced by Tom Broadbent. From that moment Swindon seemed to lose their sparkle and their rhythm completely. How simply changing a central defender could have such an impact throughout the side is more than surprising?

On the stroke of half time Town fell behind when Colchester defender Tom Eastman was left alone to head home.

Former Town striker Theo Robinson enjoyed a successful spell at the County Ground last season, so it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise to see him strike twice against an uncertain home defence in the second half to seal a comfortable win.

Anthony Grant was easily the Man of the Match for Swindon – a point emphasised by Richie Wellens afterwards. He won just about every tackle, sprayed around some excellent passes and was probably the only Town player who could leave the pitch with any personal satisfaction. For a change, Keshi Anderson was almost invisible, Lloyd Isgrove largely ineffective and our two strikers nullified by an efficient Colchester defence.,

Hopefully Baudry’s injury won’t prove serious because, unfortunately, replacement Broadbent looked uncomfortable throughout his hour on the field. It would be no surprise to me to see on-the-bench full back Zeki Fryers moved into a central role for Saturday.

One telling statistic was that Town had just one shot on target against five for the visitors.

At the weekend Town travel to Cambridge United who will be buoyed by their emphatic win at Mansfield in midweek. It will be a good test of the manager’s motivational skills to see how well they pick themselves after this set back.