ALZATE HITS BACK AFTER BROWN AXE
SWINDON boss Phil Brown was full of praise for Steven Alzate as he climbed off the bench to score as the Robins came from behind to beat Notts County.
Alzate was dropped from the starting XI following the 2-1 defeat at MK Dons in midweek but managed to rescue his side and help them grab all three points.
Brown said: “You want your subs to make an impact and they did that. Steven Alzate was involved in a team that lost on Tuesday night although it wasn’t for the want of trying.
“But what you want from players who have been dropped or rested, is that they impact the game. Steven did just that. He is learning his trade, but he certainly needed to be out there because it was a good surface.
“I thought they had a bit of weakness down their right-hand side which we tried to exploit, while Jermaine McGlashan and Kyle Knoyle snuffed out their threat on the left.”
The home side had roared out of the blocks with Kane Hemmings forcing a save from Lawrence Vigouroux after 30 seconds.
That set the tone for an impressive first-half display from Harry Kewell’s side, who created numerous chances, with Enzio Boldewijn, Matt Tootle and Lewis Alessandra all going close.
They almost paid a heavy price for those misses as Elliott Ward was required to make a block to deny Marc Richards a goal. But the Magpies’ breakthrough eventually arrived five minutes before half-time when Cedric Evina’s brilliant cross into the box was guided in by Hemmings via the woodwork.
But second-half substitue Alzate equalised for the Robins in the 65th minute when he teased his way to the edge of the box before firing low past Ross Fitzsimons.
And then Matt Taylor’s cross was diverted into his own net by Turley with just 10 minutes of normal time remaining, as the Robins sealed an important victory.
County boss Kewell said: “I said to the players in the dressing room after the game ‘tell me when is a game ever easy at 1-0?’
“Tell me the one game that you’ve played in when it’s 1-0 and you knew you were going to win?
“It just doesn’t happen. We knew Swindon were poor and we knew exactly what they were going to do. “We just needed to take our chances, but again it’s the same old story at the moment. “What we did well in the first half, we stopped doing in the second. But we’ve got to be more ruthless in front of goal and we have to be tougher. “We need to have grit and have the ability to dig people out on the pitch. “We don’t want to be soft and go ‘ooh that’s acceptable’ because it isn’t. We need to work even harder now.”