Swindon Town 1 Oxford United 2

Paolo di Canio felt his team were unlucky not to win this encounter and thought they controlled the game for 85 minutes. Really?
I thought Oxford controlled the game for at least sixty minutes and ‘allowed’ Swindon back into the game before waking themselves up again.

Di Canio's press conference went on and on and eventually I quietly slipped out so that I could file copy for today's paper - if I hadn't, you'd have been reading the report on Tuesday.

The gist of what he was saying was that they had been done by two set pieces and that was something they had to work on, but that Oxford didn’t pose any more of a threat. Maybe, but then again they didn’t need to. They came to get a result and set themselves up accordingly.

Chris Wilder will have known that this game wasn’t one in which he could expect his team to play the ‘pretty’ football they had the previous Tuesday against Shrewsbury. A derby game is unlike any other and the form book is often torn up. You know that – as the away team – you’re not going to get a lot of chances and so you have to take advantage of things like - set pieces … or guard against them.

It was my first trip to the County Ground this season and I have to say I am now really worried for the club. Forget the local ‘derby defeat’ bull. This is a club that has signed fourteen players (possibly fifteen by the time you read this) since the end of last season and frankly I'm not sure that more than even four are up to the job.

The fans are riding on the excitement of having a big name in charge, but that is now three defeats on the trot and, with a League Cup game coming up at Ashton Gate on Wednesday, it could well be four by next weekend when they visit Shrewsbury.

I wonder how many Swindon supporters will still be singing the Italian's name by the time they next pay at home against Rotherham on September 3rd. Being a talented player with an offbeat character doesn't necessarily make you a good manger.

And what legacy will he be leaving the club when he does go? Do Swindon fans really think that this squad is strong enough to stay in the division – let alone get promoted?

Long before di Canio’s appointment in the summer, I warned against believing automatic promotion was easy and even suggested that relegation to the Conference was even a possibility if the board didn’t put the right man in place. I felt that this was still unlikely, but after yesterday’s game, I now fear for them.

As I have admitted above, I have only seen them in action once and so can only go on this experience and a look at previous results, but defeats against Cheltenham and Dagenham, and a win against a very young side Dario Gradi is re-building at Crewe. Hardly the stuff of the Champions elect or promotion candidates. I hope that I am wrong and maybe some Robins fans will put me right.

Oxford weren't exceptional by any means, but they came to do a job in what they knew would be a hostile environment - and do a job they did.

After di Canio's mind games during the build up to the match in which he claimed James Constable was a closet Robins' fan, the former Oxford skipper grabbed a brace to show where his true colours lay and then told the media that they could forget any rumours of a move to Luton or anywhere else and he pledged his future to the OUs.

Meanwhile the excitable di Canio watched the last 35 minutes or so from the stands after confronting a linesman laver a dodgy offside decision and being given his marching orders by referee Mark Haywood.

The fans sang out his name loyally as he made his way to a seat in the directors box - forgetting maybe that he should have been sitting in the dug out where he was needed and that his side were about to be beaten by their local rivals for the first time in 38 years on home turf.

I suspect that the directors won’t fancy sitting too close to the Italian in future if they continue to put in performances like this.
 

My clipping from this morning's paper