Dan the Fan: Our Reality Check (From Swindon Advertiser)

Dan the Fan: Our Reality Check

7:00am Friday 9th September 2011

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After a week of disappointment on and off the pitch Saturday’s win at home over the league leaders was the perfect way to get Town’s season back on track.

If I’m honest I didn’t think after six games we’d be in 18th position, like a lot of fans I expected us to be in the playoffs or top three and after the Crewe game we had no reason not to think that.

But a run of four defeats has been the perfect wake up call to everyone at the club and a brilliant learning curve to our new boss Paolo Di Canio, and that experience I think will be key to our promotion and his growth as a manager this season.

When Alan Connell joined Paolo’s Swindon revolution in the summer he probably expected to be starting every game but after being mainly a sub or being subbed off early in games he’s shown great character to come back and why he should be starting this Saturday alongside Mehdi Kerrouche.

Another player that impressed on the day was Alan McCormack, who was starting his first league game since the defeat at Dag & Red.

Saturday’s performance was the best we’ve seen from him and from his collogue in central midfield.

After watching most of the games from the bench last season Simon Ferry has been given a fresh start and on Saturday he was starting to look like the player from two seasons ago.

Having a player like McCormack next to him is key and that midfielder pairing shouldn’t be messed around with and given the chance to grow in the coming weeks.

Again the downside to the game was the defending from set piece’s, Aden Flint so far this season has been a man mountain and one of the clubs best players but having a regular central defensive partner needs to be sorted soon.

I think Paolo will have Flint and Comazzi as his first choice but Devera will have his chance again this weekend to show his worth to the team.

This Saturday Paul Sturrock and his Southend team visit the County Ground.

Our club should always been grateful to Paul Sturrock for the great job he did when Dennis Wise left us in the lurch back in 2006, and after some poor health its great to see him back and still managing in the football league.

Southend have had a good start to the season and have some good League Two players in Ryan Hall, Kane Ferdinand and Liam Dickinson.

But if we take the same football from the last 20 minutes into Saturday’s game we will walk away from the County Ground win another home win.

Don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter @danjohnson6.

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