PLAYER RATINGS: Swindon (0) Crewe Alexandra (1)

Swindon Town were punished for not being clinical enough as they lost their first game in six 1-0 at home against Crewe Alexandra. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam reviews the players performances.

Ratings scale: 10- won the game on their own, 9- unplayable, 8- outstanding, 7- very good, 6- good, 5- solid, 4- disappointing, 3- awful, 2- woeful, 1- frequent major errors

GK: Sol Brynn – 5

Crewe had just the two shots on target in the game, one of which was the penalty, and rarely entered Swindon’s half period, so there was not a huge platform for Brynn’s performance to rise above reasonable.

RCB: Ciaran Brennan – 4

Basalla Sambou was by far and away Crewe’s most effective player and large parts of that was him winning his duel with Brennan, he struggled to cope with him physically and it was usually by exploiting this that Crewe managed to ease the pressure they were under.

CB: Cian Harries – 5

In Harries’ 29 minutes on the field he was solid enough and moved the ball well,  but it was also not a major hit to Swindon’s chances that he went off.

LCB: Frazer Blake-Tracy - 5

I quite like Blake-Tracy as part of the back three, his driving runs forward are a good way of getting Swindon into the final third, especially as Crewe did very little to try and stop it. But when he got there, he lacked ideas to make it truly count.

RWB: Remeao Hutton – 6

Hutton was probably Swindon’s most dangerous player, but I think we did see a few bad habits return as the game went along. He started crossing before he got into positions which would really hurt Crewe.

CM: Ben Gladwin – 6

After a performance last week where he was not involved as much as normal, he was central once again. He dictated play and threatened, but his final ball was just a bit off. And the less said about that shot in the second half, the better.

CM: Saidou Khan – 7

I have been critical of Khan at times in holding midfield as he has a tendency to hold onto the ball for too long, but that was not the case against Crewe. He was almost metronomic and did really well at switching the play quickly.

CM: Ronan Darcy – 4

We are just not seeing enough out of Darcy at the moment. He doesn’t seem to have the same energy he had earlier in the season and is just not making things happen in attack.

LWB: Ellis Iandolo – 4

Yes, a surprise ratings boost for Iandolo this week. He still was not great and I am not quite sure how to explain those chances he missed. However, last week I felt he kept breaking down Swindon’s attacks and I wouldn’t say that was the case this time around.

ST: Jacob Wakeling – 6

Endeavour. That’s how I would best describe Wakeling’s performance as he seemed the one most desperate to try and get Swindon the goal. He had five shots, but it just did not quite happen for him.

ST: Luke Jephcott – 4

When Town needed Jephcott to show his ability to open up space in a congested middle of the Crewe defence, he went back to being a penalty box poacher. Like Hutton, we saw the less effective version of him.

Subs:

Mathieu Baudry – 5

I think the best way to put this is that Baudry is better than this. A player with his quality on the ball needed to be riskier with his choice of passing.

Tomi Adeloye – N/A

Marcelo Lavinier – N/A

Louis Reed – N/A