Swindon Town have shown a fair amount of inconsistency in their attack this season, what is the key to them offering more output?

1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 4, 0, 1, 1, 0, 3. Other than looking like some kind of code, that is the number of goals Swindon have scored in each of their league games this season.

Twice across all competitions Town have blitzed through teams and scored four times in the first half, it only took them until two minutes into the second half at Cheltenham Town to score three. But then, in games like Harrogate Town and Barrow AFC, they looked like it could have been days before they even created a chance.

(Image: Newsquest)

Looking at Swindon’s attacking numbers, one thing seems to stand out as the key differentiator between Town being lethal and being lame. Mark Kennedy is big on setting Swindon up to create crossing opportunities, as we have discussed before, but it is more about their efficiency than their volume which has correlated to success.

Against Cheltenham and Bristol Rovers last week, in both games Town completed five crosses at 45 per cent accuracy, whereas against Barrow they completed nine but only with 25 per cent accuracy and against Carlisle United it was six but with only 16 per cent accuracy. Whilst they completed a whopping 12 crosses against Newport, that was 48 per cent, so it is only when they are doing this effectively that they are having success in front of goal.

There is the caveat here that Newport and Cheltenham are particularly poor at defending crosses, The Robins have conceded ten goals from such situations already, but this was not the only difference in just one week with the way Swindon attacked.

To take the Harrogate game as an extreme example, their build-up play was very ponderous and contributed to The Sulphurites having a set defence throughout. When Town did find space, crosses were consistently sent in far too early. Here are just a few examples of strange crossing decisions.

Swindon crossing from odd areasSwindon crossing from odd areas (Image: IFollow)

All of Swindon’s best moments in that game, few as they were, came when they delayed and worked the ball into a better area, yet in all of these examples they decided to hoy it in from deep when nobody in the middle was in a position to reasonably win a header.

If you compare that to Cheltenham when it was not just the goals but multiple moments when they carved out good openings. This opportunity comes at 3-0 after a passage of play when four or five times Swindon have recycled the ball and sustained the pressure rather than rushed a ball into the middle.

 

 

Whilst the improved movement all over the pitch, especially after taking the lead, was notable, much like against Tranmere Rovers, Swindon created their own space by quickly working the ball from one side to the other, where Danny Butterworth and George Cox, in particular, took advantage.

Butterworth feeds Cox on the overlapButterworth feeds Cox on the overlap (Image: Andy Crook)

All three goals came as a result of play starting on one side to open up space on the other. 

The first goal started in the left-back area before being worked out to the right before an overload enabled the cross; the second came as Paul Glatzel worked out to the right and Joel McGregor ran across the field to win the free kick Will Wright scored from; the third arrived as the ball was quickly worked out to the left and delivered into the middle with Butterworth creating space for Cox to attack.

Thus, Swindon have proved when they become more deliberate with their actions then they can be an effective attacking force, pulling teams apart with clever movement and stretching them on both flanks and they must lean into that to prevent the droughts they have experienced early in the campaign.