FIVE STAR SWINDON CAN BEAT THE ODDS
SCINTILLATING Swindon lit up the County Ground in a seven-goal thriller to demolish Sheffield United and send their biggest hint that yet they could be genuine promotion candidates this season.
At odds of 38-1 for promotion at the start of the campaign, Town now look a shrewd bet to challenge the top six. Boss Mark Cooper isn’t getting carried away though and is worried about his side’s soft centre.
“As well as we’ve played we’ve not defended properly again and could have drawn this,” he said.“It needs to be addressed but it was a fantastic spectacle and we played some fantastic football.
“We totally controlled the first half and the only downside was it was just 1-0.
“At 3-0 up the game should have been over but we let them back in.
“It was too easy for them to get crosses in the box and we didn’t mark properly.
“Fortunately, we changed the momentum of the game. They were all tremendous and we could have had more.”
Smith was at his rampaging best up front and gave the United back four problems right from the off.
His cool right-footed strike past Howard on 14 minutes opened the scoring. But it was the impressive Aussie Massimo Luongo who won the second after jinking into the box before he was hacked down by Neil Collins.
Luongo was left with a nasty gash on his knee, but Smith stepped up to stroke his penalty past Howard with ease. Two goals from Michael Smith sent Town on their way before three goals in an action packed ten minutes set up a frantic finale.
Deadline day signing Jon Obika smashed his shot past Mark Howard to give the Robins a three-goal lead. But dozy defending from the home side gave United a foothold when Marc McNulty pounced on a loose ball and blasted high into the roof of the net from close range.
And it was 3-2 just minutes later when substitute Ryan Flynn floated a ball into the back post leaving Ben Davies with a simple right footed finish.
Town retrieved their two goal cushion when Andy Williams was played through after an inch perfect pass by Louis Thompson. His leftfooted strike past Howard wasn’t perfect, but enough to fire Swindon into a 4-2 lead.
Louis Thompson rounded off the goal fest with a thunderbolt strike into the top corner.
Blades boss Nigel Clough said: “We’ve let in seven goals now in two games, that is the biggest worry.
“We need to get new players in and we will have to work on being better organised.
“If people don’t do their basic jobs then it all goes out the window.
“Scoring two goals away from home should be enough to get at least a point.
“There was a spell where we could have gone on to get a third.
“Swindon are a good footballing side and confident at home. But we have to combat that and be better on the ball.
“We gave it away too cheaply.”