With Town on a roll, teams are increasingly coming to the County Ground aiming for a draw. But how can you beat an ultra-defensive side? Alex Cooke looks at Di Canio’s options. Part of the fascination, and some of the frustration, of football lies in that one team can always beat the other regardless of the gap, or gulf, in
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Swindon recorded their fourth win in five games with a 2-0 success at Port Vale thanks to a debut goal from Lukas Magera and a penalty from Mehdi Kerrouche. The Town were in control from start to finish and managed to frustrate and restrict their hosts in an impressive and textbook away display, writes Tom Otrebski. Paolo Di Canio made two changes to the starting line-up
Read moreHaving reviewed the effectiveness of Di Canio’s substitutions and defence, Adam Johnson now takes a detailed look at how the goal have flown in at the other end of the pitch causing mad bursts of passion from a certain Italian in the dugout. When your manager is Paolo Di Canio, you expect the goals to flow and finally against Barnet
Read morePaolo Di Canio has now been in charge of Swindon Town for ten League Two games and throughout this week we’ll be reviewing his successes in three key areas. Today Andrew Steele Davis looks back on an area that has played a major part in Di Canio’s time in charge so far; substitutes. Has Paolo’s subs been inspired? How much of an impact, positive
Read moreAfter much fanfare when Lukas Magera joined in late August, the Czech striker remains an unfamiliar and as yet unproven player at Swindon. To give you an idea of what to expect, Matt Davies analyses Lukas’ performances against Rotherham and Barnet. Shooting Tall strikers are not normally known for their shooting prowess and this proved to be the case when Lukas Magera didn’t
Read moreIs Swindon’s 442 too open? Alex Cooke looks at the blueprints for Paolo’s master plan. No one could doubt that Paolo Di Canio is demanding: his pre-season training, half-time tantrums and full-time ABH prove at that. But tactically Paolo also asks a lot of his players because he has created a system that demands discipline and athleticism, and can yield great results, but also leaves little margin
Read moreAlex Cooke reports on a second win of the League Two campaign for Swindon Town. Two red cards, five yellows, two missed open goals, one clear penalty, a rumpus in the dugout, an ex notching twice and redemption via the first touch of a substitute. As a game, Swindon 2 Rotherham 3 had everything. And if Sky were looking for
Read moreAt the other ‘STFC’, Town approached the game knowing the midweek League Cup victory at Bristol City must be used as the impetus to re-start a misfiring League Two campaign. Against confident predictions, including my own wild partisan cries of absolute confidence, Town had so far failed to set the league alight with three successive hard fought games post Crewe.
Read moreAdam Johnson reports on Swindon’s excellent 1-0 victory at Bristol City in the Carling Cup 1st Round. Passion, skill and energy, they’re the three main characteristics we were told Di Canio would bring to Swindon and last night we finally saw it in full flow. A 71st minute winner from summer signing Raffaele De Vita sealed a great night at Ashton
Read moreAfter Alex tweeted the Andy ‘The Top Brass’ Brassell seeking his view on our new Czech Republic signing Lukas Magera we got all excited given the response. So delving a little deeper to get the inside line on Magera, we speak to Mark Smith of top Czech Republic site Play Waved On and Radu Baicu of Scouting Romania, who provide the expert views on the newest member
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