Former BBC Wiltshire match commentator Vic Morgan writes his weekly blog…

Just when you think you’ve turned a corner, a sharp u-turn shows up.

Saturday’s win against Charlton was arguably Swindon’s best performance of the season. The first half was okay, the second was excellent. In a campaign which has largely been disappointing, the quality of play allowed that wicked mistress, Hope, to use her seductive powers and make us think of brighter times ahead.

It was certainly a great start for new Director of Football Tim Sherwood who must have been impressed by what he was seeing. No need for a trip to the dug out on Saturday then.

The performance of Johnny Goddard also showed just how much he’s improved since joining from non league in the summer. Bags of potential and a likely starter in midfield for a few seasons to come.

So all good. No need to be overly concerned about the FA Cup replay to come then. Surely a similar performance to the one against Charlton would see us through to the second round for the first time in five years. Confidence wouldn’t be a problem would it? After all Eastleigh are two leagues below Swindon and we’d done okay in the first game.

Well anyone who’s seen the Town in the FA Cup in recent times will know you can’t take anything for granted. What we weren’t ready for, though maybe we should have been, was a performance so inept it crept into the worst display of the season position by a country mile. Even worse than Scunthorpe away, Walsall at home or any other. It’s a long list.

Let’s be honest Eastleigh deserved the win. They came, they played with skill and desire and they left the Town a distant second best. This time we saw several visits to the touch line by Tim Sherwood. He surely must have been concerned by what he was witnessing. Three days after playing Charlton off the park, his new team was left chasing non league shadows.

There’s been much talk about just who is managing the team. Well it’s been made clear that Sherwood is. If he feels the need to come down to the bench he will. The fact he did that a lot on Tuesday showed his concern.

There was one positive note, our first goal in open play in the competition since Paul Benson’s winner against Wigan. My how long ago that seems.

It’s also a long time till January and the transfer window. Not that I’m expecting huge changes, but there’ll be an opportunity for Sherwood to do some dealing. Lots of games to come before that though starting with two tough away matches in the next few days.

A lot of miles to travel for us fans and we’ll be demanding more than we got on Tuesday. Whether we get that is up to the team who now bear the embarrassment of our latest cup exit. Showing some of that Eastleigh desire for starters would be good.

And now just for Wild Al :-

As always keep it loud keep it proud keep it SWINDON!