SWINDON Town’s performance analyst John Shannon received a special mention from manager Richie Wellens this week, saying the backroom staff member does a ‘tremendous job’.

Wellens praised Shannon following a week where last minute tweaks were made to team shape and tactics against Crewe – a game that Town ultimately won 3-1.

Though Shannon may not have been the one to decide on which tweaks to make, meetings with the first-team analyst in the days before hand prompted Wellens to alter his game plan at the 11th hour.

The 39-year-old manager reasoned that his staff member deserved great credit for bringing details to his attention that others may have missed.

Wellens said: “We know every statistic about the team we’re coming up against, so we know exactly what teams do, where they like to play, where they score and concede goals from etcetera.

“We’re aware of everything to a point. We’re not a Premier League club where we have 10 or 15 analysts to choose from, but our analyst John Shannon does a tremendous job.

“He gets all the information that we need, and we watch videos together. Then we form our opinions and game plans from there.”

With Town nine points clear of the play-off places, Wellens and his staff have evidently found a process that works for them.

The manager said he would normally formulate a plot that centres around Town’s strengths, however a plethora of injuries and the Crewe’s quality made Wellens alter his ways for one week only.

He said: “In general, we will just concentrate on ourselves.

“We concentrated on Crewe a little bit more because of what we had available on the pitch.

“Therefore we’d be stupid not to look at their threats and how we could stop them.

“We realised that if we stopped their threats and played two up front, they’ve got Nicky Hunt – an experienced defender – and Ryan Wintle – a centre midfielder – playing up front.

“So we had to change for that game because of what we had available.

“Was it pretty? Absolutely not. But that’s what the conditions, injuries and suspensions threw at us.

“That’s why we adapted our game accordingly.”