CONTROL is everything in football. It isn’t solely the ability to tame a bouncing ball or to stay calm when your calf is pin-cushioned by six studs, but also to control the match. That is to dictate what happens, where and when. It has been something that Town have been desperately lacking of late.

Tuesday night’s match was more like a fight in a pub car park than football: a windmill of punches but no plan, thought or style. And while it that sounds entertaining, the scoreline makes it look a lot more interesting than it actually was. It was a sort of bad chaos, like close-up Brownian motion, or basketball.

Saturday was the polar opposite, the control was total. But unlike most of the home games this season, it wasn’t through Swindon’s dominating of possession. Instead of Town dictating the rhythm, Yeovil controlled the space. Through giving up the ball, Paul Sturrock’s team were able to block any central gaps with a forest of trunk-like bodies and decide how Town attacked them. The whole grim affair was summed up when Byron Webster of Yeovil took the ball directly from the kick off and punted a hopeless shot from inside the centre circle. It was pretty dire, dogmatic stuff to seemingly aim for zero percent possession.

But Town’s lack of control goes beyond just this week. Too many recent matches have been open, despite attempts to close them down with stiffened midfields or by adding seasoned sinews in defence. There is still a Louis Thompson-sized hole somewhere between the back three and the front pair. Without Thompson junior’s intelligence, grit and flexibility, Town haven’t closed quickly enough, countered rapidly enough or pressed hard enough. And, as a replacement, Anton Rodgers has looked very much the model of a modern footballer: neat, tidy and tactically aware, but built with balsa bones.

These next few ‘phoney’ matches might have to be all about getting players back to their best, both mentally and physically, but really Swindon need to also be thinking about bringing back that all important element of control.