AFTER a flurry of late goals in previous home games, Swindon Town’s luck finally ran out as Phil Brown’s side were outplayed from start to finish by Bury on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the visitors were made to look much better on the day by an odd team selection from the manager, followed up by some bizarre tactical changes throughout the 90 minutes.

Not starting Toumani Diagouraga after an impressive showing against Newport County was clearly the wrong choice, as he was introduced half an hour into the game.

Also, Marc Richards and Elijah Adebayo in the same starting XI didn’t work.

Both offer a lot to the side but as players, they are cut from the same cloth. Richards needs to sit out for a few games and let Adebayo lead the line, with Jermaine McGlashan and Keshi Anderson either side.

It will be interesting, when Kaiyne Woolery returns from his injury, how he adapts to this system.

He’ll be a huge asset with his strength on the ball and his speed and the manager should get him involved at the first opportunity.

One of the forced changes Brown had to make was playing James Dunne at right-back with Kyle Knoyle serving his suspension.

It was an odd decision during the summer not to invest in a new full-backs on either side because, I hate to say this as he’s one of the most hard-working professionals we have at the club, but Matt Taylor shouldn’t be an automatic pick either.

His passing ability is still just as sharp, but it was evident last Saturday that against younger, quicker opponents he will struggle, which isn’t surprising as he approaches his 37th birthday.

As a back-up, he’s ideal, as he can concentrate on the next chapter in his career.

Hopefully the manager is now looking at free agents for both positions.

Lastly, I want to send my thoughts and prayers out to former Town loanee Stephen Darby who announced his retirement this week at the age of 29 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

Stephen enjoyed a brief but impactful spell at Town, scoring the winning penalty to send Swindon to the League One play-off final in 2010 and I wish him and his family all the best for the road ahead.