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PLAYER RATINGS: Swindon (2) Mansfield Town (4)

Swindon Town were totally outclassed at home as they suffered a damaging 4-2 defeat against Mansfield Town. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam reviews the players’ individual 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 – 4

Four goals from six shots on target is not a great afternoon for Brynn, but I think it would be harsh to place him at fault for any of the goals. He could do better with the third goal, but it takes a deflection in front of him so it is not as bad as I initially thought.

RCB: Joe Tomlinson – 3

I don’t understand the initial set-up whatsoever and trying to play Tomlinson as a centre-back is one of the decisions that is utterly baffling. He looked lost in the box for all three goals in the first half. Tomlinson’s biggest asset is that he is unpredictable in attack as he can do so much and he couldn’t do that from centre-back, but then when he moved to full-back he did not offer a great deal either.

CB: Tom Brewitt – 4

I felt that Brewitt put in an ok shift and looked reasonable at times, but realistically he got bullied by Lucas Akins when it mattered (as did the other defenders) and was also culpable for the shambolic marking in the box.

LCB: Frazer Blake-Tracy – 3

As for a few of these players, this was probably Blake-Tracy’s worst performance in a Town shirt. Swindon’s most physical and aggressive player didn’t look like someone who was up for the fight and also had some very questionable positioning for the three first half goals.

RWB: Remeao Hutton – 5

Jody Morris said that only Rushian Hepburn-Murphy came out with any credit, but I think that is a bit harsh on Hutton. He now has nine assists this season, putting him fifth in the league for that stat and the most for any defender. He constantly had the beating of Jordan Bowery and carried a threat. His defending is a bit suspect, but when someone offers you that much going forwards then you have to find a way to cover them.

CM: Ronan Darcy – 2

The fact he got 82 minutes is truly insane. He was totally anonymous when Swindon had the ball aside from blazing one shot over the Stratton Bank and was helpless as Town were dominated in the midfield. This performance was capped off by being beaten far too easily by Hiram Boateng in the build-up to the fourth goal.

CM: Saidou Khan – 4

Swindon’s midfield in general went missing as they were thoroughly dominated by Mansfield’s midfield diamond. He probably held up the best in that battle and he kept the ball when he had it, but no one comes out with much credit from that performance.

CM: George McEachran – 4

This was probably a three until he played a pass that only he has the quality to play to set-up Jonny Williams. The problem is that, as Morris said, he needs to do that sort of thing more often. He did not stand up well to the physical threat posed by Mansfield and went missing for large periods.

LWB: Jacob Wakeling – 3

I don’t put this on Wakeling so much, more the completely non-sensical decision to play him as a wing-back ahead of Tomlinson, Blake-Tracy, or Marcel Lavinier. His positioning was not ideal, but why would it be? He then failed to impact the game after moving further forwards, although the game was over when that switch came anyway.

ST: Charlie Austin – 3

Almost every time Austin gets a poor rating, it is because the team failed him. He is simply not going to impact games unless the ball goes into the box (imagine him in Scott Lindsey’s Box Entry FC) and when that doesn’t happen, he just has no impact.

ST: Rushian Hepburn-Murphy – 6

The second home game in a row where his teammates have thoroughly let him down. Hepburn-Murphy is becoming Swindon’s best player (although that is like being called the prettiest pig in the abattoir), but he needs to stop scoring so early as it never goes well.

Subs:

Dylan Kadji – 4

He came on in a game that was already lost and then failed to really impact it.

Marcel Lavininer – 5

He looked a bit more up for the fight than everyone else in the second half and battled well. If we are going to play in a back five, then I feel he should be starting.

Tyrese Shade – 4

He had one really nice run to beat Jordan Bowery, before blasting a cross over everyone. Other than that I do not really remember what he did.

Jonny Williams – 5

This is a tough rating to give as Swindon were dead and buried and there was no chance of him changing that. He did his bit by scoring a nice goal to reclaim the lead as Town’s top scorer. I give him a five as Hepburn-Murphy deserves to be clear of everyone else.

Jake Cain – n/a

Manager: Jody Morris – 1

I have no issues with him deciding to play a 352 if he thought that matched up better with Mansfield, but he picked the personnel for a 433 and just crammed them into that system. It blatantly didn’t work from the outset with Swindon leaving huge spaces out wide and being bulldozed in the middle. The bigger crime then comes in waiting until the game was over at 3-1 to switch formations when the problems had been screaming out for half an hour. That error was then compounded that by waiting 15 minutes after half time to make a substitution. The performance was dire, but by once again saying “they” and not “we” in the press conference, I fear he doesn’t know where he went wrong.

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Swindon Town FC

Swindon Town Football Club

STFC are Swindon's top football team, based at The County Ground Stadium.

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