Swindon Town 1 Bournemouth 2 - Catch Up

Charlie Austin cut quite a forlorn figure in the tunnel after the game and he was obviously as frustrated at the way things are going at the County Ground.

My clipping from the paper

Equally, Danny Wilson alluded to the fact that maybe the pressure would ease away from home as the Robins fans become increasingly annoyed. He looked to be proved right by yesterday’s amazing 4-1 win at Charlton and watching Austin score two goals against the Addicks, you could tell that he hadn’t let the Bournemouth defeat eat away at him for too long.

To Bournemouth’s credit though they are a decent side and might well surprise a few people this season and take one of the promotion spots. If that happens, they will find it difficult to hold on to 33 year old manager Eddie Howe in the summer … assuming he doesn’t leave in the next couple of weeks for Burnley, Bristol Rovers or one of the many other vacancies available.

Both of the Cherries goalscorers – skipper Jason Pearce and winger Marc Pugh – told me after the game that they were desperate for Howe to stay and you could feel the camaraderie in the squad – a major asset for a club of this size and with so few resources.

I would bet that Howe will see the campaign through to the end of the season on the south coast and then make his next career move.

Then again, after this performance I would have put money on Swindon slipping towards the trap door at a rate of knots and – as the win against Charlton showed – they have no intention of letting that happen.

Mind you, to ensure League One football next season they are going to have to hold on to Austin as without him it is difficult to see who can weigh in with twenty-plus goals.

Matt Ritchie pulled one back for Swindon before Pearce’s 80th minute overhead winner and even though he also found the net against Charlton – he’s no Charlie Austin.

Austin suffered a very bad injury before his career had even started belatedly fifteen months ago and so knows how fickle this game can be. Would he turn down a move this month to a Championship club? I doubt it and wouldn’t blame him. Could the club turn down an offer of £1 million plus having invested peanuts in acquiring him last year? I doubt that either.

I also doubt that Danny Wilson would be happy with the decision or that he’d survive until the end of the season if the board sold his star striker.

And the News of the World clipping

Swindon Town 2 Leyton Orient 2 – Copper Kettle

After a first half performance that was void of any entertainment, this game came alive with the somewhat dubious sending off of defender Alan Sheehan in the 53rd minute when he slid into tackle Orient striker Scott McGleish.

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun

The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football

McGleish got straight up and walked away without a complaint (read his views in tomorrow’s blog), but referee Trevor Kettle reached for the red card - to Sheehan’s obvious horror.

Before that incident no-one in the ground would have put money on a 2-2 draw and I suspect there were a few betting slips with that result written on them being shredded at half time.

Both sides had played with five man midfields and effectively left their respective strikers – McGleish and Charlie Austin – chasing shadows.

Seven minutes after Sheehan had gone for his shower Orient midfielder Matt Spring – the pick of the bunch for me in the first half – picked up a pass from full back Elliott Omozusi on the right and drilled an 18 yard shot into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

Danny Wilson had sacrificed midfielder David Ball – on loan from Manchester City – in the 58th minute for full back Michael Rose. Presumably this was merely an effort to shore up the defence given Sheehan’s absence, but Rose effectively gave Swindon an attacking edge they had lacked for most of the afternoon.

In the 62nd minute Rose picked out striker Austin who glanced home a leveler from 8 yards for his sixth goal in ten games.

Fourteen minutes later Alex Revell – who spent ten games on loan at Swindon last season – nodded in a cross from left back Charlie Daniels, although the angle was so acute, central defender Scott Cuthbert must still be wondering today how the former Southend man had managed to squeeze the ball past him on the near post.

Six minutes before time a free kick was awarded 20 yards out and after a short debate with team mate Jon-Paul McGovern, Rose got his way and stepped up to blast home from 20 yards for his second of the season.

In the press conference after the game Rose, 28, had seemed strangely downbeat iven the fact that he had made one goal and scored another. He said:

“I was really disappointed to be on the bench as you want to play in every game, but it’s something you have to take in football these days and hope the lads get the win while you can’t help them out.

With the free kick (for Austin’s goal) I was just trying to put the ball in a good area. We’ve got players who will attack the ball like Charlie, Sean (Morrison) and Scotty (Cuthbert) so I just try to get the ball in a good area for them really.

Charlie’s like that in training every day. He’s a great goal scorer and I was glad to put the ball where he wanted it.

For the second one J-P asked me whether I wanted it and I said “yeah”. Matty (Ritchie) was sniffing around it as well and so I told him to go away. Other than that it was me and J-P and I fancied it and luckily it went in.

Whoever fancies it on the day will take it. It depends on where the wall is, where the keeper is and whether you’ve spotted something. Having been on for only 30 minutes I wanted the chance to score and did.

Every free kick is different, but then you just have to make your mind up and decide where you want to put it. It probably went in a little bit better than where I wanted it to go and I don’t think I could have got it closer to the top corner.

It’s one of the hardest things to describe when you’ve scored a goal for your club. You’ve pleased all of the fans got a draw for the club, but unfortunately we didn’t go on to win. If things had been different and we’d carried on with eleven men we might have sneaked it and I wouldn’t have come on.

It was a slow game (in the first half) and wasn’t one of the best for the fans, but you get them and now we’ve got to look forward to next week.

When we went down to ten men we just had to stay solid with two banks of four. Charlie was working his socks off up front which he does every week and we just had to work that extra bit harder just to cover the extra space that the other team have got.

I feel I’ve settled in at the club. I really get on with all of the lads.

Obviously we’d prefer to be up there (in the league), but we’re not too far off at the minute. We just need to get back to winning ways. We’ve been a bit stop-start in the league and hopefully we can string a few wins together.”

Regarding the sending off the former Stockport man said:

“I’m going to have to sit on the fence and say I don’t know. Obviously the referee was closer than I was. He thought Shee’s was late. I didn’t think it was a sending off, possibly a booking at most.”

Yesterday's match report from the News of the World