Wigan 2 Swindon Town 0

Oh well. The first of the two tough New Year games passed with the defeat we all kind of expected, and at least it wasn't by a huge margin. After the game Alan Reeves even thought we deserved a point from the game. Had his blistering volley gone in on the 90th minute, rather than being headed off the line, we might just have snatched that.

But the reports this morning tell a different story. The BBC counted 20 attempts on the Swindon goal, with Nathan Ellington passing up the chance of a hat-trick. Andy King was frustrated with the side's display, according to TeamTalk (never the most reliable of sources, mind you), and although Wigan boss Paul Jewell (and today's News of the World) suggested Town worked hard it was, by all accounts, not a great display.

Over on Rivals, BigStan emerges from hibernation to give his hard-hitting view of the match, and there are the usual calls for King's head restarting. But really, to compete with Wigan, it's not just a new manager we need: it's a couple of million quid (at least) as well.

Parkin better than Shearer

Sky Sports' Soccer AM show had an interesting table today - one showing the strikers with the best goals to games ratio. Our own Super Sammy Parkin, fifth top scorer in the second division, came in at number eight on the table.The only Premiership name on the "Golden Shoe" table was Newcastle's Alan Shearer, who was tenth. Here's hoping Sammy can widen the gap this afternoon...

Swindon Town 2 Brentford 1

Town's third largest crowd of the season saw us take a well-deserved three points from Brentford, and offer the home fans a little hope for the New Year.

Things got off to the perfect start when, in only the second minute, Town won a corner at the Stratton Bank end. Miglioranzi crossed and Sam Parkin got a flick towards goal at the front post. It looked net-bound anyway, but captain Andy Gurney made sure to put Town one up.

On-loan Luke Nightingale took the place of Eric Sabin up front, who was relegated to the bench, and the Portsmouth striker showed some nice touches despite having been out the game for months with a knee injury. Playing in a 4-4-2 formation, Town looked solid and were creating plenty of chances, with Danny Invincibile enjoying a real return to form.

But, ironically, one of the best chances in the first half came (it seemed) by accident when Steve Robinson whipped in a cross from the right and it crashed off the Brentford crossbar. Their goalie was as much a spectator as the rest of us.

At the other end, Heywood and Reeves had to be at their best to keep them out: Heywood, in particular, made two saving tackles, one after a bit of a classic Gurney cock-up (one per game, guaranteed), to keep them out.

Into the second half, Town continued to look good. And fifteen minutes in we thought the game was sewn up when Jamie Fullarton was shown a straight red card for a terrible two-footed lunge at Luke Nightingale. Eric Sabin came on a few minutes later for Nightingale (although the loan striker wasn't injured, according to King) and it seemed the Frenchman's pace, and our one-man advantage, could only mean a comfortable victory.

The second goal eventually came, when another Miglioranzi corner caused chaos in the Brentford penalty area, right in front of the busy Town End. There could have been a touch from any one of three or four players - I thought it was Eric Sabin's goal, to be honest - but Sam Parkin claimed it, and Town finally had the two-goal cushion their play deserved.

Turned out we needed it, however. We were enjoying more pressure when Steve Robinson dithered with the ball on the right flank, and was easily robbed. Brentford raced upfield and when the ball came to Mark McCammon on the edge of the box, he curled a lovely strike into the postage stamp corner, beyond Gremink's reach.

That brought us the usual desperate County Ground finish, but I'm pleased to say the players appear to have learned from recent experience, and successfully killed the game by getting the ball down their flanks and into the corners. If Parkin had managed to convert after some fantastic work down the right flank by Danny Invincibile, we might even have had another.

We've got two tough away games to Wigan and Cardiff coming up; at least this victory gives us a little hope we might come away with something from those. And even if we don't, yesterday's three points could be vital come the end of the season.

-- Jon Ritson's match report is now up at the Adver site.

King tries to pull a Christmas cracker

His intentions were great, but instead of a Jimmy Davis and a ray of hope for Christmas Day, Andy King's last minute Christmas shopping trip proved a bit of a flop.

As the Adver reports, the manager tried what every fan hoped he might, and bring the Man U wizard back to the County Ground. Seems he came close, but just as he was smuggling wee Jimmy out the Old Trafford back door, he bumped into Sir Alex Ferguson's enormous red nose, and that was that. The youngster, who's on the brink of first team action, might just be needed over the busy New Year period, Sir Fergie reminded King, as he snatched the youngster from our leader's grasp, and let him out that sack and those chains.

King knew he couldn't come back empty handed, so nipped down the pound store to see what he could turn up. At least Portsmouth striker Luke Nightingale and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dean Marney said they'd come quietly - only for a month, mind - but at least it gives the kids something to look at on Boxing Day.

Nightingale is just recovering from a knee injury, but did well when he got a chance in Pompey's first team and adds competition for spaces up front. Meanwhile Dean Marney is described as "a clone of Stephen Carr", which would certainly cheer things up round the Christmas tree.

But in the absence of Jimmy Davis, Swindonlog advises all its readers to adopt the traditional Scottish remedy when faced with a failing football team and a series of tough fixtures: get absolutely, rabidly drunk, scream your heads off for the lads with every game, and keep your fingers crossed. With any luck you'll have forgotten the next two weeks of football when you finally come round, and just have mysteriously sore fingers.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Not a chance, says Wills family

This just in... there will be no fans' rep on the board, either now or - it seems - any time soon. The club has today issued this statement, which does nothing to dampen the suspicion that the feud between Trust and Wills family - already bubbling away after some kind of bizarre breakdown in communication - has yet to die down.

Here's the statement - I've not edited it.

"In reply to the statement issued by Swindon Town Supporters Trust on Tuesday the 18th December and the subsequent article published in the Swindon Advertiser on Thursday 19th December, the Board of STFC would like to clarify their position.

Bob Holt informed the Chairman of the Trust Tony Norris that, with the AGM only seven days away, it would be impossible to convene with his fellow Directors a meeting to discuss the issue, let alone meet with Mr Tomlinson.

The Clubs articles of Association require a minimum of 14 days notice prior to an AGM to circulate to the shareholders any nominees to be considered for Board appointments.

It is unlikely however that, even if the nomination had been received within the prescribed period, the Wills family would have supported the proposal. Holt says the Wills family has made it clear to the Board at this stage that they do not wish to add any further nominees for consideration at the AGM.

James Wills, on behalf of his family, told Holt that, because they still remain confused and annoyed by the unfounded accusations of the past. The Trust will have to demonstrate, in no uncertain terms, a positive contribution to the successful recovery of the Club. Additionally until such time that the Trust confirm they represent a substantial proportion of the Clubs fan base Holt also claims the Wills family will not contemplate supporting any nomination.

The Trust appears to have gone about this in a most unfortunate way. It would have been prudent and sensible to let the club know whom they were proposing well in advance. Then, perhaps the Board could have, with the Wills family, met with the nominee to see if they work together and discuss what his or her contribution to the club could be.

You just cant expect the Wills family, the controlling shareholders, to appoint someone they have not even met to the board of a Company in which they have invested considerable sums of money, concluded Holt"

More on possible new "fans' representative"

We're getting more information about TrustSTFC’s attempt to get local councillor Justin Tomlinson on the board of directors this Boxing Day, as Town’s first “fans’ representative”. I've just had a long and interesting chat with Justin where I put the questions various log readers, and I, have been throwing up over the last few days. I'll post the interview later on today.

First, however... On Friday I wrote about some of the concerns that I, and a few other fans, had about the move (see below). I sent an email to the Trust top brass to try and get some answers to six key questions. Over the weekend, Trust chairman Tony Norris got back to me with some answers. These are reproduced below, unedited.

Q: Is Tomlinson a season ticket holder, or regular, at the County Ground?
A: You will have to ask Justin. The fact is Justin is a valued member of the Trust board, we have worked with him, and know what he is about. The role he takes on (if the club are willing) is a very difficult one and Justin will be working under the guidelines from Supporters Direct. These will be published on the newly revamped trust web site (www.truststfc.co.uk) in the very near future.

Q: Will he resign from his committee post at Bracknell Town if he joins Swindon's board?
A: Short answer to this one, Yes.

Q: Will he be making any kind of written statement directed at fans - for instance, one on the Trust website, or in a leaflet or matchday programme - stating his ambitions for his role on the board, and his specific aims for the club?
A: Yes. In fact this is the practice run!

Q: Will there be any mechanism for him to report back to, or be held accountable by, TrustSTFC and its membership?
A: If elected to the board Justin will be accountable to the Trust Board

Q: Are there any plans to poll the Trust membership on future candidates?
A: Yes - as I have already stated. It has always been the intention that the board member would be elected by the members. Most of the other Trusts who have got this far will put up candidates who have worked on their Trust Board first. The primary reason for this is two fold. The first is it shows the commitment of the individual and secondly it stops the position being hijacked. Which ever way it is decided, that will be put to the members.

Q: Are there any concerns among other Trust office-bearers about potential conflicts of interest [as outlined on this site, below] between Tomlinson's council, board and (fan) representative duties?
A: Justin being a board member of the Trust has already declared his interest and therefore does not get involved or votes on issues concerning the club in council.

Tony also made some other points in his email. First, he maintains things were done in a rush; the club called the AGM with the very minimum of notice, and so they had to find someone quick. The club had already laid down the criteria for the kind of person they wanted to become a fans' representative: had to have knowledge of dealing with a board, know the legal responsibilities of being on the board, bring skills to the board. The Trust felt Justin Tomlinson met all these points, and approached him to stand.

More to follow...

Swindon Town 1 Crewe 3

The scoreline tells one story, those at the County Ground yesterday would tell another. Town played pretty well, looked the match of their visitors for much of the game, but Crewe still won by a comfortable margin.

Sam Parkin converted a late penalty after a handball in the Crewe box to offer a glimmer of hope, but a lousy ref failed to spot another handball only minutes later, and by that point most of us felt Town weren't going to find another two goals without Crewe - almost literally - picking up the ball and throwing it in the net.

Parkin, in particular, had some terrible luck in front of goal. He could - should? - have scored three or four times, and on another day would have converted enough of the chances he had to stretch our unbeaten league run to eight games. He had two fine chances to score with his head in the second half, but one went straight into the arms of the visiting keeper. The other was a textbook powerful header down but, amazingly given the damp conditions, the ball bounced off the turf and flew up over the bar.

And then there were the chances that fell to his hapless striking colleague Eric Sabin. He was put through on goal in the first half after the Crewe defence stepped up as a ball through was played, but you could see the characteristic hesitation and wobble as the Frenchman realised what had happened. He tried, half-heartedly, to take the ball round the keeper, but ended up kicking it straight at him. Chance lost.

Later, he had another fine chance from a similar situation which he hit straight at the keeper, although some of his blushes were spared by an (incorrect) offside decision from the Nationwide stand-side linesman. Gurney, Invincibile and Hewlett also all came close, without winning any cigars.

It was all very frustrating, as Town had been playing well in the middle third of the pitch. They kept the ball on the deck, aided by the wet conditions which allowed the ball to zip around the turf. Miglioranzi, Hewlett and Robinson looked OK, although I still think we miss the kind of midfielder who makes himself available to the wide players, while in space in the middle of the park, to allow Town to better switch play from one side to another. Too often play gets stuck on the wing, with no sign of it coming into a more dangerous area.

That said, I thought David Duke had a particularly good game, looking threatening and pacy going forward, and doing his defensive duties without any drama. On the opposite side, Andy Gurney could not say the same: I felt he'd lost concentration for the first Crewe goal, which left their man Ashton in acres of space to shoot across Gremink in the 18th minute, and he had a couple of other howlers which could have been costly.

Reeves and Hewlett didn't have their best games - we lost by three goals, after all - but both did good things through the game. You would have to say, however, they will feel they might have done better with the second goal when they were beaten to a rebound off the bar by Crewe defender Steve Foster, in the 40th minute. And while most of the people around me in the Nationwide felt Ashton was clearly offside when he set up Crewe's third goal, squaring to Rodney Jack in the 59th minute, I suspected our defence had actually tried to step up as the ball was played through, and then didn't make enough of an effort to get back.

New signing John Sutton came on for Sabin midway through the second half, but wasn't able to do much to get into the match, and I'd wonder how suited he'd be to King's three up front system anyway. He too often found himself going down the right-hand channel, when I suspect he'd do better in the box alongside Parkin, with two wide players flinging in the crosses. It will be interesting to see if, in light of another poor (if hard-working) performance from Eric Sabin, King decides to change things for our next match.

You can hear Andy King's comments here, courtesy of the BBC website (RealAudio required), but to summarise he said he felt the team played well, and didn't enjoy much luck. He made the fair point (IMHO) that if we play like that against Brentford on Boxing Day we might enjoy more luck, although Brentford should be a more physical match than yesterday. He also hinted that there may be another signing made in time for that game - I suspect something might be announced on Monday.

All I want for Christmas is a midfielder - please?

Signing news

No sooner has the embargo been lifted than we've gone and signed someone: John Sutton, younger brother of Celtic's Chris, has arrived from Spurs on a month-to-month deal. It was initially thought he'd come on loan, but the London side have released the young striker. He's ours to keep, if we want to.

What do we know about him? Well, he's a big lad (runs in the family, you'd be guessing) and has been out on loan to Carlisle. He came through the youth ranks at Norwich, just like his brother, before moving to London. There's an interesting profile on the Ex-canaries website which says that John is/was considered to be potentially a better player than his brother, although you'd have to imagine that if Spurs have let him go the coaching staff there disagree.

He hasn't enjoyed great success at Carlisle, but then the whole team there is struggling, and Sam Parkin never had a great time on loan from Chelsea in the third division. One stat to take interest in: in 2000/01 he bagged 25 goals in 26 matches for Spurs' Under17, side including 4 against Reading in one match. I think I'd speak for us all in saying: we'll 'av a bit of that.

John goes straight into the squad for today's game against Crewe, although we should expect to see him on the bench.

Fan on the board: a response

I'm pleased to say that Justin Tomlinson, proposed new "fans' rep" on the STFC board, has been in touch after yesterday's post (he's left a comment on below, too). Hopefully we'll be able to fix up a time to have a chat in the next day or two where I'll be able to get his side of the story, and answers to a few of the questions fans are posing. Obviously, I'll be posting the results back here when we have. If there are any issues you think I've not raised in yesterday's post, feel free to leave them in a comment on this post, or mail me here.

Getting a fan on the board

Has the Supporters' Trust misjudged the mood of its members this week? I'm a member of the Trust, and a huge fan of its work and the whole Trust movement, but I fear TrustSTFC has made some mistakes this week in the way it has nominated its candidate for the club's board.

Earlier this month, the club finally called an AGM - a chance for shareholders to formally get together and elect their representatives on the board, something that hasn't happened at Swindon Town in years.

This AGM has also been seen as a chance to get a "fans' rep" on the board, ever since Town's chief executive Mark Devlin and director Bob Holt promised as much at a fans' forum in October.

The AGM was set for Boxing Day - a deadline too tight for the long-awaited club accounts and, it seems, a date that caught TrustSTFC on the hop as well.

After some initial confusion, when it was realised the club had done nothing to get the fans' representative nominated, an announcement was made yesterday by the Trust.

The Trust told the world it had, apparently at short notice, picked the proposed fans representative: a chap called Justin Tomlinson. With the backing of shareholder Wendy Godwin, he'll be put forward at the Boxing Day meeting.

We could have a "fans' rep" on the board before the end of the year. For those of us in the Trust since early days, it could be the (early) fulfilment of a dream - so, we're all happy? Right?

Hmm - not quite, as a long debate on Rivals shows.

Now, I think I (like most Trust members) raised an eyebrow at the name: it wasn't one that rang any immediate bells like, say, the more high-profile treasurer Leigh Collett or vice chairman Andy Ratcliffe, both of whom have appeared before us at meetings and in the media (chairman Tony Norris made it clear he wasn't interested in the board job).

But Tomlinson has, in fact, been on the Trust board for the last year. Maybe he's just been a bit quiet - and the Trust say he's been of great help to them, so fair enough. It's hard to believe things were that rushed, mind you - we have all known since October that the chance to get a fan on the board was on the cards sooner or later.

But, despite being only 25, Tomlinson has what looks like a decent CV for the job. He's a marketing man, lives and runs his own business in Swindon, and is a Tory councillor for Abbey Meads.

On that last point, a few people are likely to be unhappy with his political choices, but that's likely to be irrelevant in this circumstance - it's a football club, not a county (or country) he's being asked to run. They may be more upset about his involvement with a council that's come across as deeply unsympathetic to Town's plight in recent years, which is a fairer point.

But one source I've spoken to, who I trust to be a fine judge of character and who has met Tomlinson through Swindon's political circles, describes him as being "intelligent, innovative, entrepreneurial and quite forward thinking". He sums up: "He was one of the more impressive councillors that I met."

That chimes with comments from fans this week who heard him speak on the radio, and described him as sounding like "a breath of fresh air".

But my contact also warned that he knew nothing about his views on Swindon Town. Which brings us to one important question: Tomlinson's CV, at least as included in the press release, does not tell us if is he a Town fan, and if so for how long. We know he's been on the Trust board for the last year, but he's also on the committee of Bracknell Town FC - that's Bracknell as in Berkshire, far side of.

That's useful experience, but where does he watch his football of a Saturday? How many Town games does he see in a season, and is he aware of the long history of suffering - going back far longer than I've been a Town fan - which is a large part of the reason we need a fans' rep? Living in the town, you'd hope so, but it would be nice to see some kind of personal statement before the meeting.

And I could imagine other problems with his dual role: a serious conflict of interests if there are negotiations between council and club about - say - moving to a new stadium, or renegotiating the County Ground lease. In that little power struggle, exactly where do the fans' opinions fit in? Does he act as a custodian of the club, acting in its best interests, or as a councillor acting in the best interests of the borough, or as a fans' representative?

And that brings me on to a final point: accountability. The press release states, in only the fourth paragraph, that he will not "become a spy for the fans."

"Any director of a business has to respect the need for commercial confidence in the board room and we'd expect that to be the case here too", Trust vice-chairman Andy Ratcliffe said.

Anyone in business appreciates the need for some of that. But it should be the policy of any fans' representative that they start from the basis of openness, and move only to secrecy where it's absolutely required. Better communication is desperately needed from the boardroom, has been for years, and is not promised in yesterday's press release.

With little public profile, no direct mandate from the Trust membership, no mandate at all from the broader fanbase, an unknown attendance record at the County Ground and no public commitment to tell fans what is going on at the club, how exactly is Tomlinson going to represent fans on Swindon Town's board? He may make a great director, but as a fans' rep? Perhaps he'll do a great job - we all hope so - but there's been little communication about how he intends to do so if elected.

He's still got time to tell us. I'll be emailing Tony Norris, the chairman, Andy Ratcliffe, his number two, and Leigh Collett, treasurer, to see if they can shed some light. I'll post any answers back here.

Loan star surprise

I never thought we'd see players from Town's threadbare squad going out on loan, but it's reported today that two have been farmed out to other clubs. This comes despite Andy King's complaint, last week, that he only had 14 senior players fit.

Forward Daren Dykes, who signed from Buckingham Town in the summer but has shown no signs of breaking through to the first team, goes off to Lincoln for a month to gain experience. The player that Swindon forgot, Juan Cobain, lines up for Boston United reserves (!) today with a view to a loan move, and finding a new club. Is that really the level Cobain - famously, ex of Aberdeen and former team-mate of Maradona - is really at? I've seen him play once, and he didn't seem that bad. Anyone shed any light?

The transfer embargo on Town should be lifted tomorrow, with the first payment of what is said to be a £200,000 settlement with Neil Ruddock (yes - that's 200k, not the 56k reported in some quarters). So we should see some players come in pretty soon, although King points out it's hard to get players at this time of the season. Most clubs are wary of letting players go out when they have so many big games, on heavy pitches, in such a short space of time.

Which begs the question even more, in my mind at least: why are we letting Dykes and Cobain leave?

Plymouth 1 Swindon Town 1

By all accounts we were cheated again yesterday, although at least this time it was the referee and linesman who snatched the game from Town, rather than our own players.

Andy Gurney had scored a spectacular opener in the 77th minute, a 25-yard screamer that reminded us just what we had been missing against Oxford a week ago. The skipper's goal should have been enough to secure all three points in a scrappy match which had been played, for the large part, in a downpour.

But then the ref and linesman conspired to hand the home side a point, when they adjudged Matty Heywood to have handled in the box. Plymouth's Micky Evans told Alan Reeves that he had handled the ball, but he obviously didn't 'fess up to the blundering ref. Lee Hodges did the necessary, in what was the last meaningful kick of the game.

Andy King went off on one after the match or - as today's News of the World puts it - "King kicks up a right pen 'n ink". "It was never a penalty," he said afterwards. "This is now the fastest and quickest game in the world and the three people officiating it are not fit enough to keep up with play".

He actually also said much, much more - preceded by the classic line: "I can't say too much because I'm in quite enough trouble, but...".

Everyone listening on Radio Swindon last night will know exactly what I'm talking about - he suggested a few things about the ref which I'm sure are quite untrue and that , if repeated here, would land me in court if the ref was the suing kind. Let's just say that I hope Kingy was more civil when he went to talk to the ref afterwards - he was even fizzing about being kept waiting 20 minutes by the blower - and didn't repeat the allegations. And that the man in black doesn't tune in to Radio Swindon.

Ruddock's deal

Mystery surrounds the exact amount of money being handed over to Neil Ruddock in order to leave the club at the end of this month. Today's Adver say it's a "hefty six-figure sum" - £57,000 plus a further settlement - but other reports including this one in the Guardian says it's £57,000 in total.

I suspect it's the higher figure. But either way there seems to be some relief at the club that he's gone - and not just because he appeared unlikely to play for Town again. The transfer embargo caused by the failure to pay Ruddock his wages is lifted, and King says he wants to bring someone in as early as next week, on loan.

Frankly, after the limp cup performance last weekend changes can't come quickly enough. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to nominate more than three (or four?) players from last week who aren't ripe for replacement. At least Gurney and Robinson return for the visit to Portsmouth (update - er - clearly not. Plymouth, I'd say. Close, no cigar), which should add a little competition for places. Who to drop? Apart from Reeves (!), Parkin and Hewlett - maybe Gremink - anyone is fair game, IMHO. It just depends who's available, and willing to come to the County Ground.

Has Ruddock finally gone?

This time last year he was being considered as a potential Town manager. Today, Swindon might finally have got rid of Neil Ruddock, as Radio Swindon is reporting a deal was agreed between lawyers acting for the player and the club. There are no details on exactly what was in that deal, although both sides were still calling for agreement to be reached before today's employment tribunal in Bristol kicked off.

Ruddock hasn't played for Town since getting sent off away to Notts County last December. He injured his knee shortly afterwards in training, and has been rehabilitating since. Town failed to pay his wages in September and October, as well as a loyalty bonus due in August.

If agreement has been reached, it should also remove the need for a High Court hearing on Friday to determine if Ruddock should be considered a preferential creditor, and so get a big chunk of the TV money from last weekend's televised debacle in Oxford.

It also means - according to previous statements from the club - that majority shareholder Sir Seton Wills should be more willing to pump further funds into the club to keep it afloat.

More salt for that wound, anyone?

Evening Advertiser, the Razor Ruddock column, last week: "It will hurt like mad that I won’t be involved on the field on Sunday because derby games are the ones you relish as a professional."

Evening Advertiser, today: "Swindon Town face a High Court fight to keep their FA Cup windfall after Neil Ruddock effectively blocked the cheque being cashed."

The post-mortem begins

I'm sure few of us are really wanting to dwell on yesterday's events at the Kassam, but Jon Ritson's match report hits the nail on the head: it was bad enough to lose to Oxford. But to hear that they'd got a tie away to Arsenal was taking the piss.

Opinions vary as to what went wrong: some are blaming Gremink, others the central defence for not winning the header that led to their goal. Certainly, the back four looked nervy yesterday (with the possible exception of Alan Reeves), but really the whole team failed us over the 90 minutes.

Oxford man-marked Parkin, and the players around him were unable to take advantage of the space they got as a result. Our full-backs had the freedom of the Kassam, especially in the first half, but failed too often to get the ball into dangerous areas. Similarly wasteful were Sabin and Invincibile - both could have created great chances had they simply squared the ball. Invincibile is ruing the ones that got away today, as well he might.

Pox 1 Swindon Town 0

The one consolation we can take from this televised disaster was that at least our best players won't be snapped up in the forthcoming mid-season transfer bonanza. Any of the Town squad hoping to catch the eye of another club on the BBC this afternoon should now know their chances of making the Premiership are about as good as mine.

From the first whistle, Town flattered to deceive against a very ordinary Oxford side, who win a dream away tie to Arsenal as reward. They will be taken apart at Highbury, make no mistake, because even a Swindon Town side that showed a fraction of the cutting edge it has shown at times this season would have made light work of the Oxford back line.

But our players, looking nervous in front of a noisy crowd (although the Town fans were making all the noise until the 65th minute), were too often second to the ball, and fluffed too many good chances. Danny Invincibile, in particular, had two good opportunities in the first half to put Town in front, but couldn't make either count. In the second half, Invincibile ran through on goal only to selfishly scuff a shot over the bar rather than pass to the unmarked Sam Parkin to his right.

As it was, while Swindon had the possession our rivals' speedy counter attacks always looked more threatening, even if they have been struggling to score of late. In the opening 45, one sweeping move saw Bart Gremink make a good save from Scott McNiven, and David Savage headed over the bar later on as well.

The defining moment came in the 65th minute. The ball was swung in from Town's left, and United's Jefferson Louis got a flick that left Gremink flapping at the air. It looped over his head and into the net. Although you might argue he should have come for the first ball, maybe punching away from Louis' head rather than waiting to see where it ended up after the flick, you couldn't really blame Gremink. And those of us who have seen this before feared there would be no way back.

There was no obvious match-turning substitution on the bench; King tried by sticking on Willis for Edds (to go to 3-5-2), and Bampton and Young for Jackson and Sabin, but it was all to no effect. We needed a player with a little guile, or skill, to break down the home side, but there wasn't one on the Town books today.

Instead, the match petered out with Oxford doing a professional job of killing the game, and their delight at the end was clear for all to see. The Town players at least looked as embarrassed as they should have as they trudged off, although Stefan Miglioranzi hung around for some time after getting involved in some bizarre long-distance altercation with an element of the Town support which was abusing him. It was a fittingly crappy end to a day which had started with so much promise.

Just in case y'all get lost...

Sorry to all you loggers looking for some contribution to the hype surrounding today's match at the Kassam. But I'm just back from a belated summer holiday, squeezed in between the Peterborough match and the Big Cup Tie. And, glancing at the Adver's web archives for the last few days (some 32 stories in the last few days on the cup clash, by my counting, starting with team news here), it looks like things have been winding themselves up just fine without my help. I also see that, over at My Only Swindon, debate appears to have sunk to something of an all-time low, although some late pleas for sanity are good to see.

So, in an attempt to add something constructive to your pre-match experience, with no desire to sink to the level of our rivals, I provide the following map - provided by the excellent Multimap after I entered the club's postcode. The map pinpoints the location of the fine Kassam Stadium, home of today's hosts. I'd suggest there's no further comment required, other than to urge you take a big pair of waders in case you get lost outside the ground.