Picking out some of the bits you might have missed from Swindon’s vital 1-0 win over Bradford City. Words by Alex Cooke. Now Swindon’s inky-fingered hacks and CMS-jockeys have been (largely) welcomed back by chairman Lee Power, you’ll have already read plenty on Tom Smith’s fine performance as faux full-back and Jon Obika’s powerful display ‘up top’, but I’ve decide
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Alex Cooke looks at how Jordan Turnbull and Fabien Robert shared the flank against Rochdale One of the criticisms throughout this season has been of players being used out of their natural positions: Henrik Ojamaa as a wingback, Nicky Ajose as a lone forward and, most frequently, Jordan Turnbull as a left back. But on Saturday one of the more
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Alex Cooke looks at how Swindon’s 3-5-2 is shaping up. Suddenly 3-5-2 is fashionable. With Manchester United struggling, everyone is suddenly keen to talk about three at the back, and closer to home, to compare Mark Cooper’s use of it with Louis Van Gaal’s. But Cooper’s 3-5-2 is slightly different to the one used at Old Trafford, and for Holland – despite
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Swindon’s manager Mark Cooper switched to a 3412/352 for Town’s first away-win of the season but will he stick with the system? By Alex Cooke.. Why is it only at Rotherham? Before Saturday, Swindon hadn’t started a league game with a back three since 2005. That game was also in South Yorkshire but in very different circumstances… Eight years ago
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Alex Cooke takes a look back at the pattern of play in one of the most fascinating games played at the old Wembley – Swindon Town v Leicester City. One theme written throughout this bout nostalgia has been the comment that ‘it doesn’t feel like 20 years’ since Swindon won at Wembley. Not to me it doesn’t. Watching Swindon 4,
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Alex Cooke looks at how the two sides might shape up for the home leg of Saturday’s play-off match. Under manager Uwe Rosler, Brentford have become a compact team who play controlled, calm, progressive football. They like to squeeze play into a narrow band in which their impressively defined shape makes them stifling to play against and efficient, if a
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Alex Cooke gives us a quick run-down of Kevin MacDonald’s adjustments to Swindon’s set up. Swindon 3 v Stevenage 0 wasn’t a game which swung on a tactical innovation or an adjustment in formation, Town were mostly the superior team, individually and numerically. And although Stevenage manager Graham Westley switched systems time and again, adjusting his increasingly brutal and isolated
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Swindon couldn’t make it into the top two as they went down to a 1-0 defeat against top of the table Doncaster. Adam Johnson watched the game from his recliner… Thank you Sky for showing our game on TV, but sorry to anyone who watched it and wasn’t a fan of Swindon or Doncaster. In a game billed as ‘must win’ Swindon were outplayed and
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Paolo Di Canio kept to a 442, but Swindon’s new boss likes an extra man in the middle, Alex Cooke looks at the reasons for the shift. Kevin MacDonald has made the move to 4141 for one simple reason: possession. He wants to play passing football, he wants to play winning football, and he needs to get the best out
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Alex Cooke looks at the tactics used against Walsall and how far Kevin MacDonald has to go to change how Town play. “I didn’t play well, I don’t know why – I just didn’t.” At first Simon Ferry’s post-Walsall protestations sound odd. After all, it was obvious to most people in the County Ground that his new right wing position,
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The Washbag 