Match report posted by Richard  (view the full thread on the forum )

It's a common thought that when a new manager comes in, good results tend to happen during his honeymoon period - in truth, the stats don't quite back that thought up. Swindon gave another nervous performance yesterday - undoing the good work at Orient, and making it three defeats out of the last four, all of the losses coming against sides in the relegation zone.

Wilson played it safe for his first match in charge - or so he thought - picking exactly the same starting eleven that had won two days previously. Instead, what followed was an awful scrappy encounter, in which every single Town player seemed incapable of the very basics - ball control and the short passing game in particular was absolutely woeful. Throughout the entire ninety minutes, as far as I'm aware, we could not muster a single shot on target - the closest we came to scoring was from a carbon copy of Timlin's free-kick against Yeovil, which this time clipped the post, and a long range effort from Cox after beating two defenders that whistled over. Even that was fortunate, as Cox seemed to play the ball too far ahead of himself twice, but was able to recover before getting the shot in. Cox now hasn't scored in six games - over a month - and his confidence seems to have completely deserted him - his first touch in the last few games I've seen has been diabolical. Hopefully, any scouts tracking him recently have seen exactly the same.

Nicky Forster scored both of Brighton's goals - the first came just before half-time, when both Fleetwood and Forster found space from a through ball, and with just Pat Kanyuka between them and the goal, they fashioned a chance for Forster, who blasted past Brezovan. The second, seven minutes into the second half, came from the penalty spot after some awful defending. A punt upfield was raced onto by a Brighton forward, Brezovan managed to push it away, but not clear from danger. With the Brighton player now being ushered away from goal, Timlin rushed back and clattered him to the floor. It was a daft challenge, an obvious spot kick, and Forster confidently slotted it away.

Wilson made the obvious substitutions - Sturrock replaced by Corr, Nalis replaced by McNamee, who went onto the left, McGovern switching to the right, and Easton into the centre. Personally, I would have taken Easton off - playing him on the right side may work away from home, but at the CG, he needed to be fifteen yards further forward. His distribution was also not good, I thought Nalis had had a better game.

I don't know what it is about where I sit, but it now appeared to be the referee's fault that we were so appalling - I thought he'd had a good game myself. I thought we had one good shout for a penalty, when Kanyuka was wrestled to the floor, but some of the other things that the home crowd were claiming were ridiculous. Straight after the second goal, Cox went down in the area under a light shoulder charge, then Easton gave away a free-kick - two perfectly good decisions, but the Town support were up in arms. Sometimes, I really don't know what game these people are watching.

So.... both teams went through the motions, the Town trying to break down the Brighton defence unsuccessfully, and the Seagulls may even have scored a couple more on the break. In truth, it was a downright poor performance from Swindon - Danny, I'm afraid there is some serious work to do. The good news is that we don't have another game for almost two weeks - hopefully plenty of time to work on those defensive frailties (especially corners!), and maybe even get in a player or two to spruce things up a bit.