No.9 – Paolo’s first away League victory at Crawley

At the fourth attempt in League Two, Paolo Di Canio guided Swindon to a magnificent 3-0 demolition of pundit’s pre-season favourites and everyone’s most hated team Crawley Town.

In the process, Steve Evans was served humble pie with a waft of parmesan and extra black pepper. Paolo well and truly hit back at Evans’ pre-match comments criticising how he dealt with Leon Clarke, his view on the Rotherham game and antics from Medhi Kerouche, leading the Crawley boss to sneer at the prospect of ‘Di Canio circus’ turning up.

To get one over the vulgar Evans was particularly sweet, especially after the debacle of our FA Cup defeat last season and his own antics on the dugout; giving a pantomime performance and orchestrating Douglas’ sending off and constantly berating the officials.

In the match in September, Town continued their neat passing rhythm on a slightly bumpy Broadfield pitch and it was this play that resulted in Swindon’s opening goal. Alan Connell’s cross was only half cleared to Raffaele De Vita, whose overhead kick back across the goal was latched onto by Connell whose slenderest of touches diverted the ball pass Kuipers to open the scoring for Town.

Kerrouche’s first goal came after Matt Richie’s speculative effort cannoned off the post to the Algerian who headed home to send the travelling support in raptures. Three minutes later and Kerrouche wrapped up the win for Town, breaking clear before powering a shot past Kuipers to hand Swindon a truly brilliant win.

More importantly this result also indicated of what was to come for Swindon under Di Canio. With the winless away form off our backs we soon started to see a more fluid and confident Swindon turning up the heat on our opponents. It did take a few weeks as defeats at Burton Albion and Macclesfield showed, however Crawley was the start and proved we’ve got what it takes to secure the necessary points to mount a serious push for promotion