PLAYER RATINGS: Swindon Town (3) Sutton United (2)

Jacob Wakeling’s late header meant that Swindon secured their second win of the season against Sutton. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam gives his thoughts on how the players performed in the win.

GK- Sol Brynn – 6

You would be a harsh critic to blame Brynn for either of the Sutton goals, they can be chalked up to the fine work of the Swindon academy staff in making players proficient at scoring from range – Scott Twine, Jordan Young, Tom Smith, the list goes on. The 21-year-old made several brilliant saves, but had one iffy dropped catch in the first half and his longer goal kicks struggled with accuracy.

RB- Marcel Lavinier – 5

I would like his product at the top end of the pitch to become more precise, but it has been a strong start to his Swindon career. He is very strong on the ball and the shape had to change completely when he came on because of that. His performance just lacked the stand out moments to be rated higher.He

CB- Tom Clayton – 5

This was a generally very solid performance where he did little wrong, other than being bullied by Bugiel for the first goal so I struggled to rate him higher.

CB- Angus MacDonald – 4

MacDonald is a really difficult player to work out as he will misplace a simple pass and then recover and stop that error turning into a goal. He needs to be better on the ball in this side as it is a big part of playing in this team, even if he is adding the steel defensively.

LB- Frazer Blake-Tracy – 6

There was a moment early in the second half where he got burned down the side and Swindon got lucky with Craig Eastmond missing an easy chance. Aside from that it was a solid performance which ended with him assisting the winner, so that has to be worth at least a six.

CDM- Louis Reed – 6

Louis Reed doing Louis Reed things, he gets rated on a different scale to everyone else. There was a moment where I looked up from my laptop and saw the most sumptuous switched ball from Reed, this is what he does every week. Swindon controlled the game, but only in stretches and so he wasn’t consistently getting on the ball as much as you would like.

CM- Ronan Darcy – 7

I think this was a big call from Scott Lindsey as Saidou Khan is a fan favourite and has played well this season, but Darcy came in and justified it. His movement is constant and he is key for Swindon moving the ball crisply as he thinks quickly and doesn’t hold the ball longer than he needs to. He has to start at Doncaster.

CM- Ben Gladwin – 8

I joked on the live blog at half-time about Jonny Williams and Gladwin playing like Xavi and Iniesta, but the link-up between those two in particular was near telepathic. When Swindon did counter Sutton it was swift and decisive with Gladwin being the driving force.

RW- Jonny Williams – 8

The other half of the aforementioned Xavi-Iniesta duo, he took his goal very well when the chance came and he gave Jephcott plenty of presentable chances. Even playing out wide, he is the heart of what Swindon do.

ST- Luke Jephcott – 6

There was booing when he was replaced, but Lindsey said that he was brought off because he is not up to full fitness and you can see that in his play. When Jephcott is at full speed he is clinical and he just isn’t there yet, but his link-up play is still valuable and his assist for the second was a good moment.

LW- Tyrese Shade – 6

I will not rest until the O Fenomeno nickname catches on and he is now off the mark for Swindon, despite the help of the Sutton ‘keeper, that flip shows me he knew it would happen. Aside from his goal he was not involved a huge amount, with the bulk of the play coming down the right, but he came up big when it mattered and had a hand in the second goal as well.

Subs:

Saidou Khan – 5

He came on at the hour mark and after that point Swindon took great control over proceedings, but I wouldn’t necessarily put that down to Khan’s contributions, in truth he did not have the biggest impact.

Jacob Wakeling – 8

He came on with one instruction and he fulfilled it. This was pleasing for Wakeling as he had two tough assignments against Stockport and Gillingham and struggled to impact those games, but he came on and used his movement to be there when it mattered.

Remeao Hutton – 6

The shape changed when Hutton replaced Lavinier and he was pushed further forward and he used his energy well to create in-roads down the side. It also allowed Gladwin to drop a bit deeper and spray the ball around, helping Swindon to switch play faster. He did what would be expected of him as a sub.

Mathieu Baudry – N/A